CHANDIGARH

Chandigarh
150 donate blood: The Uttarakhand Yuva Manch organised a blood donation-cum-medical camp here on Sunday. Around 150 persons donated blood. Manoj Alhawat, manager, Fortis Hospital, inaugurated the camp. AS Mehra, chief manager, SBI, and Gajendra Rana, singer, launched the website of the manch.

Elected: Dr RS Bedi, a consulting pediatrician, has been elected president of the IMA, Chandigarh state branch, for 2011-12. Dr Rajesh Dhir has been elected general secretary, while Dr SK Garg, Dr Virendra Singh and Dr Sandeep Dhawan have been elected vice-presidents. Dr V Kappal and Dr Gurjeet Singh have been elected joint secretaries, while Dr Rameshwar Gupta has been elected treasurer. Dr AP Sanwaria has been elected central working committee member.

1,500 examined at health mela: Over 1,500 patients visited a health mela organised by the Employees State Insurance at its hospital in the Industrial Area, Ram Darbar, Phase II, here today. The mela was inaugurated by Ram Pal Sharma, a member of the regional board of ESIC. Preventive, primitive and curative services offered by doctors of ESIC is a statutory body under the administrative control of the Labour Ministry.

Seminar on online business: The Aryans Group of Colleges (AGC) today organised a seminar on “Online business in India: Chandigarh and opportunities” on Aryans campus near Chandigarh. Apurva Pandit, Editor-in-Chief, Pagalguy.com, an informative website on higher education, was the chief guest on the occasion. “In the last few decades, electronics and information technology has really changed our lives and the way of thinking.,” said Pandit.

Mohali
Awarded: The Simmi Marwaha Memorial Charitable Trust organised its eighth “Journalist honour day” at the Chandigarh Press Club here today. The trust honoured five journalists. Special correspondent in Bhopal Peoples Samachar, Bhumika Kalam, Alok Singh from The Pioneer, The Indian Express, Chandigarh, principal photographer Vikram Joy, and Dilip Kumar Jha for e-journalism were honoured.

HARYANA

BHIWANI
Evening courts in Bhiwani: For expedite settlement of cases, Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge AN Jindal inaugurated an evening court setup by the Haryana Legal Services Authority at local judicial complex here on Saturday. The chairperson and Sessions Judge, Anita Chaudhary, was also present on the occasion. Secretary of the Authority and Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajesh Kumar Bhankar said cases pertaining to the Motor Vehicle Act, petty offences and challans would be decided in the evening court. He said two evening courts would be held between 5 pm and 7 pm.

KARNAL
Gang of thieves busted: The police claimed to have busted a gang of thieves allegedly involved in several cases of theft and recovered stolen property worth over Rs 8 lakh from them. Four members of the gang were also arrested. Following a tip off that some miscreants were planning to loot passers by near Avardhan Canal, a police team rushed to the spot and arrested two persons. They have been identified as Lovely of Subash Gate and Kamaluddin of Ram Nagar and recovered a country-made pistol, two live cartages, battery and a rod from their possession. DSP Surinder Bhoria said two more members of the gang were also arrested on the basis of the information given by Lovely and Kamaluddin.

ROHTAK
CPM flays govt on declining sex ratio: Citing provisionally released figures by the Census Commissioner recently, the CPM has alleged that the state government had failed to do any concrete to check population growth and declining sex ratio in the state. The party has expressed concern over the issue and called upon the state government to take tough measures to improve the performance in this sector. CPM state secretary Inderjit claimed that the figures paints a dismal picture of Haryana on this front, despite the fact that huge funds were being spent on the schemes.

SONEPAT
Opening of liquor vend opposed: In a protest against opening of a liquor vend in their area, women of Rajpur village along with activists of the Pantjali Yog Samiti locked the vend on Friday and started a hunger strike demanding shifting of the liquor vend from the village boundary. A number of other social organisations have also extended their support to this demand. According to the residents, the liquor vend has vitiated the atmosphere in the village. A team of excise officials on Saturday met the protesters, but failed to convince them lift their dharna.

Office-bearers elected: Mastan Sharma has been elected president of the Sonepat Bar Association for the second time defeating Rajesh Chhikara by a margin of 75 votes. Mastan polled 388 against Rajesh’s vote tally of 313. Ashish Chahal was elected secretary of the association by defeating Ajai Dahiya and Manoj Dahiya. Ajai Rathi was nominated vice-president, Deepanshu joint secretary and Randeep treasurer. They were unanimously nominated by the members of the association.

Industrialists’ action plan: The Kundli Industrial Manufacturing Association has taken a decision to chalk out an action plan to overcome the problems being faced by the owners of the industries in the state. According to vice-president of the association Subhash Gupta, the association has convened a meeting of the representatives of all other associations of the state on April 15 at Kundli in the district to deliberate on the matter and adopt a common action plan.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Jammu
Three stationed bogies catch fire: An accidental fire broke out in three empty bogies stationed near the Jammu railway station here on Sunday evening. The police said that fire broke out in S10 bogie of the Jehlum Express on central line near the railway station in which seats of the bogie were completely damaged. While the railway staff at the station were busy extinguishing the flames along with the fire fighters from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, the fire broke out in S7 and S8 bogies of the Himgiri Express.

Governor greets people on Navratras: Governor NN Vohra has greeted the people of the state on Navratras and Navreh and prayed for their well-being and prosperity. In a message, the Governor observed that the Navratras had a special significance for the devotees who visit the shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi in larger numbers during this period. The Governor also extended greetings to Kashmiri Pandits who celebrate the occasion as Navreh -- the beginning of New Year and the onset of spring.

Class VIII results declared: The result of the class VIII was declared by the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (Jammu) on Sunday. Kartik Dass of Saint Peters High School BC Road and Sudeepti Kadotra of Carmel Convent School Kunjwani secured the first position jointly in the result. Three students jointly clinched the second position and one student secured the third position. About 72 students made it to the merit list.

Medical camp held: The Speak India Environment Foundation, an NGO, organised a free medical camp at Rehathe Chak villagein Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district.

Udhampur
Huge cache of arms found in Reasi: Security forces recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the Mahore area of Reasi district on Saturday. The cache of the arms, which was hidden by terrorists, was very potent, lethal and capable of causing lot of damage to life and property, the officials added. The recoveries included seven UBGL rounds, two hand grenades (Pakistan-made), five LMG magazines, five rifle magazines, six radio set antennas and one detonator, they said.

Arrangements for Baisakhi discussed: The arrangements of the 3-day Baisakhi Mela at Devika site, Udhampur from April 14, were discussed at a meeting chaired by the Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur, Baseer Ahmed Khan, here on Saturday. It was decided in the meeting that Executive Engineer PHE would ensure barricading and drinking water arrangements while Executive Officer would ensure proper cleaning of the site.

DEHRADUN

DEHRADUN
Chaitra Navratras greetings from Governor, CM: Governor Margaret Alva has greeted denizens of Uttarakhand and the country on the auspicious occasion of Chaitra Shukla Pratipada/Nav Samvatsar. In a message on the eve of the festival, which is known by different names like Ugadi, Gudi Padwa and Cheti Chand in different parts of the country, the Governor has said, “May this festival, which is a symbol of ‘unity in diversity’ so inherent to our composite culture, spread the message of social harmony and strengthen the path to peace, joy and prosperity in everybody's life”. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has also greeted the people of the state on the occasion.

Leopard’s body found from Nainital district: The body of a leopard was recovered from the Manera area of Nainital district of Uttarakhand. Forest guards came across the body that was emanating foul smell evidently suggesting that the feline had died some time back. The Nainital Forest authorities held that the exact reason behind the leopard’s death would be known after the postmortem report. Only a day back a leopard had died at Clement Town on the outskirts of Dehradun.

Case of theft reported: A case of theft was reported on Saturday in the city under Kotwali police station. The police said the amount of the cash and other articles couldn’t be calculated by the victim family as yet. The police has registered a case of theft and started investigation. The police said the family had gone out when the incident happened.

Kumaon Briefs
Action to be taken against sellers of oxytoxin: The administration in Udham Singh Nagar has warned that stringent action will be taken against those found selling the banned drug oxytoxin. This was announced by District Magistrate BVRC Purshottam during a meeting of the district-level Committee on Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He has asked Chief Veterinary Officer KK Joshi to increase vigilance against the sale of the prohibited drug. It has been seen that dairy owners often use oxytoxin injection twice a day to extract milk from buffaloes. Notably, oxytoxin is a schedule-H drug which means that it cannot be bought or sold without prescription. This makes its use by dairies illegal. It is specifically banned under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, and Section 12 of and the Foods and Drug Adulteration Prevention Act, 1960. Oxytoxin is learnt to lead to abandonment of calves and for selling them to abattoir for minting money. Dr Purshottam has also asked the Executive Officer of the Rudrapur Municipality to ensure that meat shops being run without licence are shut within the next fortnight.

By-election schedule announced: The by-election schedule for filling up the vacant seats to the posts of gram pradhan and members of gram panchayats in Udham Singh Nagar has been announced. The nominations against the vacant posts are to be filed by April 8 and these will be scrutinised on April 11. The last date of withdrawal is April 13 and the poll sysmbols will be allocated on the same day. According to the District Magistrate, Dr BVRC Purshottam, the polling to these vacant seats will be held on April 24 and the counting on April 27.

Tenting material worth lakhs gutted in fire: Tenting material worth lakhs of rupees was gutted in a fire that broke out in a tent house godown in Kashipur during the early hours of Saturday. Passersby on the Bazpur road found smoke coming out from the godown and informed the owner of the premises Anil Singhwani who informed the Fire Brigade and rushed to the spot to find that most of the material kept in the godown had been gutted. The fire was brought under control by personnel of the Fire Brigade. A short circuit is being assumed to be the cause of the outbreak of the fire.

BSP seeks creation of Madarsa Board: Members of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) staged a demonstration at the tehsil headquarters in Sitarganj demanding the creation of a Madarsa Board in the state. The agitators accused the government of not providing any assistance to the various madarsas and ignoring their plight. They demanded that the government should provide economic assistance to these madarsas so that they did not face closure and also help them in their modernisation so that quality education could be imparted through them. They sent a memorandum airing their demands to the Governor through the local administration.

Shops ordered to display proper rate list: Following detection of large-scale irregularities in shops selling edible items under the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Bageshwar administration has ordered that shops distributing foodgrains under the PDS and also those selling edible items otherwise will have to display a proper rate list. It has been pointed out that the reluctance of the shopkeepers to do so is leading to spiralling of prices of essential commodities and the fleecing of consumers. The administration has said the shopkeepers must comply with the orders within a fortnight failing which stringent action would be taken against them.

(Compiled by Rajeev Khanna)