HARYANA

CHANDIGARH
2 IAS, 33 HCS officers shifted: The Haryana Government has issued posting and transfer orders of two IAS officers and 33 HCS officers with immediate effect. NK Solanki, awaiting posting orders, has been posted as Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC)-cum-Chief Executive Officer (CEO), District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Palwal, in place of DK Behera, who goes as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Sirsa. Pankaj Chaudhry will be the new Additional Director (Admn), Secondary Education, Haryana. He has gone against a vacant post.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
Thief caught: The manager of a private institute, Jham Jham ITI, and a few passers-by caught a thief here on Friday, and handed him to the police, after he had removed some costly items from the institute building, and had entered another storey of the institute to remove more articles. The thief was identified as Upender Sahu from Jharkhand. The police recovered all the stolen items hidden in the nearby bushes.

KANGRA
Havan held: Local residents on the call of Trigarth Press Club organised a havan here on Saturday in support of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement and its victory. The havan was held at the Nehru Chowk. The club described the current developments as a victory of democracy in the country. No politician was invited to attend the havan.

KULLU
Camp on narcotics awareness: A one-day narcotics awareness campaign was organised in Lagoti Gram Panchayat in the Aani subdivision of this district, on Friday. The purpose of the campaign was to make villagers aware of the ND&PS Act, and about unlawful cultivation of cannabis and poppy. As many as 300 people from gram panchayats Lagoti, Fanauti, Karshaigad and Takrasi took part in the camp.

Body found: A body was found near Budi Mata temple, Loran, near here, on Saturday. The police sent the body to the Regional Hospital for postmortem. The deceased was identified as Vinod Kumar (35), a resident of Baltanyankad village in Hamirpur district. The cause of the death was yet to be ascertained.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Jammu
Gold chain snatched: Two motorcycle-borne miscreants snatched the gold chain of Simran Jeet Kaur in the Greater Kailash area when she was attending to his father’s shop in his absence yesterday. The incident was reported around 9 am. “The victim said the miscreants visited the shop and asked for a soap bar. The snatched her gold chain and fled within no time,” said the police. A case has been registered in this regard.

Srinagar
Overloading of passenger vehicles: The Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon, has instructed all Deputy Commissioners to follow instructions of the Chief Secretary, whereby all Executive Magistrates are authorised to conduct the checking of passenger vehicles for overloading and overspeeding within their jurisdiction. This step has been taken to avoid road accidents, which results in the loss of precious human lives.

Nine injured in sectarian clashes: At least nine persons sustained minor injuries in sectarian clashes and subsequent police action in Bandipora district on Saturday, officials said. Clashes broke out between two sects of the majority community over a piece of land in the Dangerpora area of Bandipora. The two sides started pelting stones at each other as a meeting between their representatives to sort out the proprietary issue of the land failed.

DEHRADUN

DEHRADUN
U’khand Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd is UJVN Ltd: The name of Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited, a state government enterprise, has been changed to UJVN Limited. A press statement issued to the media by the UJVN stated this here on Saturday.

2 booked for not repaying debt: Two men were booked for allegedly taking Rs 2.04 lakh from a resident of Navada and not returning it. According to the police, HC Devrani, native of Navada, lodged this compliant against Birender Singh, a resident of Uttarakashi, and Pradeep, a resident of Pauri Garhwal, with the police. A case under Section 406, IPC, has been registered at the Nehru Colony police station.

Case filed against in-laws: A family has been booked for allegedly sending their daughter-in-law to her parents’ house in Saha Nagar, Friends Enclave, in the city. According to a police complaint, the victim lodged a complaint against Pramghuman Singh Bisht and his family based in Mohanpur, Premnagar. A case under the Dowry Act has been registered at the Nehru Colony police station.

DMC takes three samples: A team of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) took three samples of items here on Friday. Dr Kailash Joshi, Senior Health Officer, DMC, said they took a sample of turmeric from Vishal Mega Mart on the Rajpur Road and samples of kuttu flour from Kaveri Departmental shop on the Subash Road and Shop & Shop store at Patel Nagar.

Kumaon
Raids in shops to check adulterated kuttu flour: Reacting to the growing instances of people falling ill on account of adulterated kuttu flour, officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Department carried out surprise checks in various shops in Nainital. According to sources, checks were carried out at at least 30 shops. These included the shops selling grocery items as well as shops selling cooked eatables. Such checks are also being carried out in other parts of the Kumaon region, particularly at the shops located in towns and villages located on the border with the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh.

CM’s visit to Nainital causes traffic snarl: People in Nainital had to face a lot of inconvenience during Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank’s visit to the town. With the town brimming with tourists and the time being evening, the town witnessed a massive traffic snarl on Friday. The reason being that the stretch from the Jama Masjid to the High Court had been closed for at least half an hour for the plying of vehicles. This was done to facilitate a traffic-free movement for Nishank’s cavalcade as he went to visit a senior High Court functionary. People, including tourists, were left stranded and the queue of the vehicles extended from right up to the Fire Station near the Masjid to well beyond the gate of the Nagar Palika.

SC, ST members stage demonstration: A large number of people belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) staged a massive demonstration in Rudrapur on Friday against discrimination being faced by them. The protest was held under the banner of the All-India Federation of SC/ST Organisations. The protestors alleged that they were being harassed by the government in the name of seeking domicile documents from even those who have been residing in their respective areas for more than 50 years. They also aired their grievance in the contractual mode of employment for sanitation workers. They demanded social security benefits and called for filling up posts lying vacant that are meant to be filled by members of the SC and ST communities. They also called for a mechanism facilitating easy registration of reports against those exploiting them.

Private, state transport bus staff cross swords: Haldwani and Rudrapur saw standoffs between private bus operators and the staff of the state transport buses on the issue of ferrying passengers. According to information, the staff of a private bus allegedly threatened the staff of a state transport bus with a gun when the latter asked them not to gather passengers from the premises of the government bus stand. This led to chaos and the matter was resolved only when the police intervened. There was a similar chaos in Haldwani when the Transport Department authorities seized six private inter- city buses for picking up passengers from inside the government bus stand. The matter was resolved only when a dialogue was promised to sort out the issue during the weekend.

Basic needs discussed at Zila Panchayat meeting: The issues pertaining to the basic requirements of power, water and road dominated the proceedings at a meeting of the Zila Panchayat in Bageshwar on Friday. The members demanded an equitable distribution of the budget allocated for the district so that equal development can take place in all the areas. The members were united in criticising the slow pace of works being done under the disaster relief operations. They asked the officials present to give a true picture with regards to the works being done. The demand for a probe into the collapsing of a pedestrian bridge build in the name of disaster relief in Kapkot was also aired at the meeting.