The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

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PUNJAB

Amritsar
Simranjit Mann booked for ‘pro-Khalistan’ slogans: The police on Saturday registered a case against Simranjit Singh Mann, President of the SAD (A), for raising ‘pro-Khalistan’ slogans at Akal Takht on Friday. Confirming this, SHO Gurjit Singh said a case had been registered under Section 124 A (Sedition) of the IPC. Simranjit Singh was participating in the bhog of akhand path at Akal Takht organised by the SGPC in the memory of victims of Sikh massacre in Hondh-Chillar in Haryana in 1984.

Now, Left eyes Bhagat Singh’s legacy: After the Congress, the SAD and the BJP, Left parties have also jumped into fray to cash in on the legacy of Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Heavyweights of two communist parties, including CPI general secretary AB Bardhan and CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, will participate in the rally to be held at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral town of Bhagat Singh, on his martyrdom day on March 23. Dr Joginder Dyal, a member of the National Executive Committee, CPI, said the Congress, the SAD and the BJP were trying to cash in on Bhagat Singh’s legacy while both the parties had failed to clear their stand on his ideology whether they accepted it or not.

CHANDIGARH
Arjun Singh’s death mourned: The PPCC on Friday mourned the death of senior party leader and former Punjab Governor Arjun Singh. In a statement issued here, PPCC President Amarinder Singh said Arjun Singh had a special association with Punjab. It was not only a loss to the party, but to the state also, he added.

Cong step criticised: The SAD on Friday took serious notice of Congress President Sonia Gandhi honouring Congress leader and accused in the 1984 riots Jagdish Tytler as the party in charge of Orissa and said it had exposed an “anti-Sikh hidden agenda” of the party. Party secretary and spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said it was shocking that the Congress was hell-bent on honouring the 1984 riots accused. He said the appointment of Tytler had come at a time when the country was already in shock over the exposure of the Hondh Chhillar carnage. Cheema said the SAD would raise the issue in the public.

Hoshiarpur
Family counselling centre: To resolve disputes between husbands and wives, the local District Red Cross Society, under the patronage of the Association for Social Health in India, has set up a family counselling centre at its office here a family counsellor said that drug addiction, demand for dowry, domestic violence and ego issues were the main reasons for the matrimonial disputes. She said that as many as 116 cases of disputes between husbands and wives during 2010 as compared to 62 in 2009 had been reported. During 2010, 18 cases had been referred to the police and efforts were being made to resolve the remaining. SSP, Hoshiarpur, Rakesh Aggarwal, expressed concern over the increasing menace of matrimonial disputes. He said that a women’s cell had been set up to check atrocities on women and solve their family disputes.

FAZILKA
2 killed as roof collapses: Two members of a family of Sabuana village died on the spot and two other members suffered injuries when the roof of their house collapsed on Friday. The deceased have been identified as Mangal Singh and his four-year-old daughter Gagandeep Kaur. Mangal Singh’s wife, Gurmeet Kaur, and his son Gurpreet Singh are in a critical condition. The house was in a bad shape as rains which lashed the region in the past few days had caused cracks in its walls.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Srinagar
Snow skiing course conclude at Gulmarg: The Department of Youth Services and Sports completed the third and the last snow skiing course for the year 2010-11, at Gulmarg on Friday. In all, 200 boys and girls were imparted training in snow skiing. The course commenced on February 19 with 75 students from various districts of Kashmir taking part, an official spokesman said. The students were trained in basic, intermediate and advanced-level skiing and they were provided boarding and lodging by the department. Trained instructors headed by the international skiing coach, Shabir Ahmad Wani, looked after the training part of the course.

‘Wanted’ stone thrower arrested:The police arrested a ‘wanted’ stone-thrower, Nissar Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Singhpora near Pattan, on Saturday, a police spokesman said. He added that Nissar was involved in several incidents of stone throwing and had been evading arrest for quite some time. Bhat’s arrest was part of a crackdown on those involved in stone-throwing on the police and the security forces last year. Over the last one year the police has arrested 4,064 persons in the Kashmir valley.

DEHRADUN

DEHRADUN
PF official held taking bribe: The CBI on Saturday arrested a Social Security Assistant (SSA) of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) while he was allegedly accepting a bribe at his Premnagar-situated residence. As per information, the CBI had laid the trap to nab SSA Sunil Babbar. He was caught red-handed by the CBI in the day with a cash of Rs 6,000. Uday Singh Jaiswal had to open a computer institute in Dehradun. For getting a licence form for the same, he went to the EPFO’s office on the GMS Road and approached Babbar. The SSA asked him to give Rs 6,000 as bribe to get work done. The SSA asked him to come to his house today to pay the money. Jaiswal approached the CBI with a complaint. The CBI laid a trap and nabbed the SSA at his residence while taking the bribe from Jaiswal.

Tiger cub found dead in Corbett: A 15-day-old carcass of a tiger cub was found at the Kaladhungi range of the Jim Corbett Park near the Nihal river on Saturday evening. Earlier in the day, the mutilated body of a sambhar was also found on the periphery of the park. Some body parts of the animal were missing making forest officials suspect that the animal was killed by poachers.

Blood donation camp held: In collaboration with the IMA Blood Bank, Pestle Weed College conducted a blood donation camp on its premises here on Saturday. Prem Kashyap, Principal of the school and also national president of the Principal Progressive School Association, urged prospective donors to donate blood to meet its alarming deficit in the country.

Kumaon
Meeting on implementation of MNREGA held: District Magistrate (DM) at Udham Singh Nagar BVRC Purshottam has asked officials of the Development Department to ensure optimum utilisation of funds before the close of the current financial year. He has directed Block Development Officers (BDOs) to execute works pertaining to rural development on priority and warned that any laxity on this front will not be tolerated. Speaking at a review meeting on implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) held at Rudrapur on Saturday, Dr Purshottam said the BDOs must speed up feeding the MNREGA to the computerised data base. He also called for an early construction of service centres in every panchayat and said these centres must have a park for children with various entertainment tools.

9-year-old girl’s half-eaten body recovered: A nine-year-old girl was killed by a leopard at Gwar village of Almora. The girl’s half-eaten body was recovered at a distance of 1.5 km from the village on Friday morning. Divya had gone out of her house on Thursday night to answer the call of nature when she was taken away by the leopard. The villagers kept on searching for her late in the night. The girl was a student of class IV and one of the four children on Gopal Singh who resides in the Talla Gwar area of the village.

Cong workers taken into preventive custody: A large number of Congress workers were taken into preventive custody on Friday when they were trying to go to Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank’s programmes in the region to greet him with black flags. The police took into custody Congress workers at Kapkot, Haldwani and Sitarganj as they were about to proceed to the venues where Nishank was to appear in public. The Congress has announced that its workers will greet the CM with black flags wherever he goes in public to express people’s disenchantment with the Nishank-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in the state that has failed to deliver even the basic amenities to the masses. Meanwhile, the Congress workers have announced that they will again greet Nishank with black flags when he comes on a scheduled visit to Sitarganj on March 7.

Plan to connect Chorgaliya, Tanakpur by road shelved: Residents of the Chorgaliya-Tanakpur stretch have expressed their resentment over the shelving of the plan to connect the two destinations by a road. According to reports, the plan has been shelved by the government on account of objections from the Forest Department. People are agitated over the fact that despite the project being cleared and a sum of Rs 28 crore being sanctioned for it, the project has failed to take off on account of the objections from the Forest Department that does not want a new road in the elephant corridor. They say that the construction of the road will not only have reduced the travel to Dehradun by 20 to 25 km, but will also have ushered in development in the region. Public representatives of the area have appealed to CM Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank to intervene in the matter and ensure the execution of the project.

Residents of Almora villages threaten to boycott Assembly polls: Residents of a large number of villages in the Dwarahat area of Almora have threatened to boycott the forthcoming Assembly polls if the government fails to link them by roads. Residents of Bela, Ambedkar Gram Bagjiwala, Falwadi, Nadh, Musnaula, Kharketi, Walna, Rana etc have sent a memorandum to Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank expressing their resolve. They have pointed out that till now these villages have not been linked by roads and they do not have even basic amenities like a Post Office, Primary Health Centre and intermediate-level school etc. They have underlined that the youth from these villages is being compelled to migrate elsewhere in the absence of any employment avenues.