R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Wine shop looted: More than six masked motorcyclists looted a wine shop at Mauli village late last night and wounded an employee of the shop. Anil Shah, who was admitted to the Civil Hospital, told the police that the robbers wounded him and decamped with two boxes of beers and a cash Rs 2,500. A case has been registered.

CHANDIGARH

ZIRAKPUR
Theft: Thieves decamped with ready-made clothes and other goods from a garment shop at Dashmesh Enclave on Wednesday. Owner of Anmol Collection, Hardayal Singh, alleged that when he came to his shop in the morning he found the locks of the shutter broken and clothes, including leather belts, caps and other items worth Rs 2 lakh were missing. The police has recorded his statement and investigations are on.

HARYANA

CHANDIGARH
IPS officers promoted: The Haryana government has promoted eight IPS officers to the rank of DIG with immediate effect. The officers who have been promoted are Navdeep Singh Virk, Shrikant Jadhav, Kala Ramachandran, Anil Kumar, Kuldip Singh Siag, Suman Manjri, Sat Parkash and Paramjit Singh Ahlawat.

Designated: The state government has designated PK Das as special secretary Health Department, Mission Director National Rural Health Mission and Commissioner Food & Drugs Authority, Haryana, with immediate effect.

Bishnoi mahasabha: The All-India Bishnoi Mahasabha will celebrate World Environment Day at Sri Guru Jambheshwar Sansthan Bhawan, New Delhi, on June 5. Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, who is also the chief patron of the sabha, will preside over the function.According to Arun Johar, media advisor of the All-India Bishnoi Samaj, a havan will be performed in the memory of those 363 environment lovers, who sacrificed their lives for protecting trees in 1730 at Khejarli village, near Jodhpur, in Rajasthan.

FATEHABAD
Poll observer appointed: PR Bishnoi, special secretary, Health Department, Haryana, has been appointed as observer for the panchayati raj elections in Fatehabad district. CG Rajinikanthan, district electoral officer and DC, Fatehabad, said Bishnoi would stay at PWD Rest House, Fatehabad, from June 3 and he could be contacted on phone No 01667-220543 and mobile No 09254084301. He said the Gurdwara Election Commission, Haryana, would start preparing voter lists from June 1. Registration of voters would be made from June 1 to July 15 and voter lists would be published on August 6. Final voter lists would be published on November 9.

KAITHAL
2 thieves held: The Sadar police here has arrested two thieves, Rakha Nath and Charna Nath, who had stolen electric cables from 10 tube wells of farmers in the district. The police has recovered the stolen material and produced the accused in a local court on Monday, which sent them to judicial custody. SSP Sandeep Khirwar told mediapersons that on May 26 some unknown persons stole cables from 10 tube wells and electric wires worth Rs 20,000 in the vicinity of Manas village.

KARNAL
Setia is rice assn chief: Vijay Setia was unanimously elected president of the All-India Rice Exporters Association at the elections held at PHDCCI in New Delhi on Wednesday. Over 80 delegates from all over the country attended the meeting and Setia was elected unopposed. Setia had earlier served as president of the association in 2007 and 2008 and vigorously campaigned for getting “Basmati rice” status to Pusa 1121 and raised the issues and problems of the rice export industry.

Vijay Setia

‘Make VAT rates uniform’: Haryana Beopar Mandal president Bajrang Dass Garg has urged the government to make Value Added Tax (VAT) rates uniform in the region to avoid unhealthy competition among the states. Talking to mediapersons here, he said different rates of VAT on different goods in each state were creating a difficult situation, affecting business. Immediate steps were needed to bring uniformity in VAT rates.

Panchkula
Memo over pay scales: Piqued over disparity in the pay scales of officers of the prosecution department, members of the Haryana Attorneys Association (HAA) submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his residence in Chandigarh on Wednesday. Surinder Bairagi, president of the HAA, said the pay revision committee had indulged in discrimination among professional classes. Doctors, engineers and architects had been given much higher pay packages than government advocates.

SIRSA
Birth anniversary: Veteran Congress leader and former Haryana Minister Lachhman Dass Arora on Monday urged members of his Arorwansh community to unite if they want to regain political power. Arora, who lost last year assembly election to Independent Gopal Kanda, now a minister, was the chief guest at a function to mark the birth anniversary of Arootji Maharaj, the founder of the Arorwansh community. Sanjay Arora, a former media coordinator to the CM; Virender Bahiya, president of the Arorwansh Sabha, Sirsa; and other prominent members of the community were present.

SONEPAT
2 killed in accident: Two women - Priyanka of Gannaur and her mother Chameli - of Puthi village died on the spot and nine others, including two children of Priyanka, were seriously injured when an auto-rickshaw they were travelling in was hit by a truck on the Rohtak-Gohana national highway here on Wednesday. The seriously injured were referred to the PGIMS, Rohtak. The victims were coming to Gohana from Puthi and the truck was on the way to Panipat from Rohtak. The police has registered a case against the truck driver, who abandoned the truck and escaped from the spot.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Shimla
Two die in mishaps: Krishan Bahadur, a 37-year-old stone crusher worker, died after he was allegedly hit by a fluxing boulder while working at the site. The incident took place during a blast near Rampur. In another similar incident, Gopal, a worker of the Srikhand Construction Company, died on spot near Ghanvi after being hit by a boulder.