Abohar
Road safety week: District Collector Dr Ravi Kumar flagged off a rally as part of the road safety week celebrations at Hanumangarh on Monday. Interestingly, the rally would not only try to bring awareness among the people on traffic rules but illegal vehicles would also be seized on its route. Those present included ADC JR Godara, Zila Parishad CEO SL Paliwal, ASP Yaad Ram Phansal, DTO Jagdish Bairwa, CMO Dr Subhash Rajput and Meena Sharma principal of the Saraswati Girls College. Students and teachers of different institutions would join the awareness campaign in a big way, she informed. 

Tarun declared man of match: The Punjab Cricket Association, Mohali outplayed Dabwali XI and achieved an easy win during the evening session of the IFFCO Cup Twennty-20 National Cricket tournament at the Nehru Stadium here on Monday. PCA Captain, Tarun, made brilliant 40 runs and remained not out. He was declared man of the match. Batting first Dabwali XI could make 67 as Pardeep took three wickets. In the morning session, Barnala XI scored 148 runs in the allotted overs with man of the match Sachin scoring 67 runs. In reply, Bala Ji XI was bundled out at 117 even Kunal was not out at 54. Last year’s winners Sandhu XI would clash with Shah Satnam Ji Academy team on Tuesday while the opening match of the day would be played between CCA Abohar and Ginny Cricket Club Fazilka, organising secretary, Dr Rajinder Girdhar informed. 

Agricultural land inundated: About 100 acres of agricultural land was inundated as breach developed in a sub-canal near village Qabarwala on Monday. As per the information, the breach in the canal that was recently repaired has widened up to 40 ft by the evening. Sources in the irrigation department said that request for suspension of water supply from the head works has been flashed. Efforts to plug the breach are likely to be started by Tuesday. 

Play on Bhagat Singh staged: The play ‘Main Bhagat Singh’ sculpted by acclaimed playwright thespian Prof Pali Bhupinder and directed by Vikas Batra won befitting applause during the last two nights as artists of the Natrang group staged it braving inclement weather at the DAV College auditorium. The distinguished guests included film star Sukhbir Razia, former SDM B.L. Sikka, Prof B.S. Chaudhary, founder president of the Social welfare Society and Dr Subhash Nagpal, former state president of the National Integrated Medical Practioners Association. Production manager Bhupinder Utreja said efforts have been made to revisit the ideology of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh while debating globalisation, privatisation and child labour.

Bathinda
Indian Dental Association: Dr Meena Gupta, Dr BD Puri and Dr Jatinder Singh have been elected as the president, the honorary general secretary and the treasurer, respectively of the local unit of the Indian Dental Association. 

Protest against demolition: Led by General Samaj Party, the residents along the Kot Shamir-Mansa road held a protest in the city on Monday. They were protesting against the proposed demolition of their houses. On the occasion, founder of the party Suresh Goyal flayed the administration for making proposal to demolish the houses. He asked Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to intervene and provide justice to the people. 

Seven donate blood to cancer patient: Seven members of the Youth Congress Committee (Bathinda Urban) donated blood to a cancer patient, Satpal Sharma, at a local private hospital. The donors were Sukhdev Arora, Vikas Garg, Ashwani Bansal, Mandip Singh Brar, Bittu Massi, Jaskaran Singh Baba and Vijay Kumar. — TNS 

Batala
Nagar kirtan: A nagar kirtan was taken out on the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh here today. The whole of the route was decorated with buntings and ‘Panj Piaras’ led the kirtan. Langars were held at many places. 

Hoshiarpur
5 held with two guns: During a naka near Jaijon village, the police intercepted a tractor and on the search of its five occupants recovered two .12-bore single-barrel guns along with nine live cartridges from them. According to police sources, the tractor occupants, who were identified as Kuldip Singh of Padrana, Gian Singh of Dansiwal, Subhash Chander and Harwinder Singh, both of Khanni, and Harwinder Singh, alias Kala, of Fatehpur, have been arrested under sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act by the Mahilpur police. 

Forged certificates seller held: Acting on a tip-off, the Mukerian police raided the local bus stand and arrested Ram Kumar of Deep Nagar, Jalandhar, for preparing and selling forged certificates and ration cards last evening. According to police sources, Ram Kumar has been booked under sections 420, 465, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC. 

Jalandhar
Pulse Polio on Jan 10: Polio drops will be administered to 2,93,000 children on January 10 and February 2 here. The information was provided by Deputy Commissioner Ajit Singh Pannu at a meeting with the Medical Officers and non-governmental organisations at the administrative block here. He said around 5,500 employees would be deployed to carry out the drive. Polio camps would be held at various places in the city and villages falling under the district. Teams would go door-to-door on the subsequent two days to ensure that no child was bereft of the dose.

Raw sanitary brass goods stolen: Thieves broke into an industrial unit in the Sainpur area here and took away semi-finished goods and raw material worth lakhs of rupees late last night. According to the police, the thieves broke into a sanitary goods manufacturing unit, P.K Sanitation, and took away raw and semi-finished good of brass. The theft came to light after a watchman of the adjoining industrial unit found the locks of the unit broken open. The police has registered a case on the complaint of Pradeep Kumar, owner of the unit.

PATIALA
Professor passes away: Dr RG Verma, father of Dr SM Verma, head of the distance education department, Punjabi University, Patiala, passed away on Monday. He was 94. A professor of economics, Dr Verma retired as the principal of Government Bikram College of Commerce, Patiala. He also served Punjabi University in the capacity of a syndic and director (planning and monitoring) of the university.