R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Malerkotla
Urdu teachers body elects office-bearers: Abbas Dhaliwal has been chosen as the president of the Urdu Teachers Union of Punjab. The other office-bearers include Mohd Sajjad Ali (vice-president), Mohd Yaqoob (secretary), Shahana Ansari (joint secretary), Master Noor (cashier) and Mohd Umar Farooq (press secretary).

Nakodar
Property damaged: The police has booked a resident of Udhowal village for damaging public property here on Tuesday. The village sarpanch, in his complaint, said Balbir damaged the platform constructed for the inauguration ceremony of the link road from Udhowal to Bir Udhowal and also used abusive language. The police said a case under Section 294 of the IPC and Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act has been registered against Balbir.

‘Fill post of EO’: The residents of Shahkot have demanded that post of Executive Officer (EO) of municipal committee of Shahkot, which has been lying vacant for the last two years, be filled. Aman Malhotra, Satish Rehan, Bobby Grover, Lakhbir Cheeta and Jagdish Wadehra alleged that though the additional charge has been given to EO of Municipal Council of Phillaur, Jagtaran Singh, he comes only two days a week, which often results in delay in their official work. They said sometimes they have to visit Phillaur to get their official work done. They demanded from Local Bodies Minister Tikshan Sood that if government could not permanently fill the post of EO, additional charge should be given to EO of nearby municipal council of Nakodar to prevent long hours of travelling.

Workshop on AIDS: With the cooperation of the Youth Services Department and AIDS Control Society of Punjab, the Youth Welfare Club, Shahkot, organised an AIDS awareness workshop at Sukhdev Memorial Library in Shahkot here. Kartar Singh Sachdeva, member, Punjab School Education Board, was the chief guest. Assistant Director of the State Youth Services Department Captain Inderjit Singh Dhami appealed to the youth to remain aware of the deadly disease and spread awareness among others. President of the club Davinder Singh Ahluwalia stressed upon the importance of the AIDS awareness campaign in rural areas. Meanwhile, the representatives of the Pingalwara Society distributed AIDS awareness booklets among the youth.

SBI’s high hopes: The State Bank of India expects to multiply its customer base with the help of mobile banking, said chief general manager, Chandigarh, SK Sehgal on Wednesday during his visit to Shahkot branch. He said under Changirarh circle, there were more than 1000 branches at Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pardesh. He also talked to the customers and sought their suggetions. He also donated a tricycle to one Kulwinder Singh on this occasion.

YC membership drive: To woo youths of the state in the coming assembly elections, Punjab Youth Congress’ membership drive would be officially launched on May 28 at Chandigarh. Disclosing this here at Shahkot in Nakodar during the booth-level meeting of youths, Abhishek Shukla, District Youth Congress election coordinator, said the party had fixed a enrolment target of minimum 10 lakh youth members from the state.

Phagwara
Seminar on RTI: A seminar on the Rights to Information Act (RTI) was conducted by the Mahatama Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration, Kapurthala, on the Nagar Council premises here on Monday. SDM Amarjit Pal inaugurated the seminar.

Man killed in accident: One Vikki of Saharanpur was killed in an accident after the Tata-407 he was driving overturned near Hadiabad on Tuesday morning. Interestingly, the vehicle was being used to transport three stolen buffaloes by three cattle thieves, identified as Islamia, Abdulla and Akbar. After the accident, thieves fled leaving the buffaloes behind. Farmer Karnail Singh, who owned the buffaloes, has lodged a complaint against the thieves in this regard.

Water supply project: Phagwara Nagar Council president Balbhadhar Sein Duggal inaugurated a water supply project in Hadiabad on Thursday. Duggal said Rs 5.34 lakhs would be spent on the project

HARYANA

CHANDIGARH
Sex determination: A reward of Rs 1 lakh will be given to a person who will inform the Haryana Government about ultrasound clinics indulging in determination of the sex of a foetus. Rohtak DC Vikas Gupta, who is also the chairman of the PNDT Act Committee, said on Wednesday that a meeting to this effect was held under the chairmanship of the Civil Surgeon, Rohtak, Dr VK Govilla. The committee would conduct raids on ultrasound clinics engaged in determination of the sex of the foetus and cases would be registered against such clinics.

Medical bills: In view of a large number of requests made by various departments for diversion or re-appropriation of funds in March, the Haryana Government has decided that no bills pertaining to medical, travelling allowance, leave travel concession, general provident fund, arrears, wages and salary will be accepted after March 20 or the next working day if March 20 is a holiday by the treasury officers.

FARIDABAD
4 held for robbery: The police on Wednesday nabbed four persons for looting of Rs 2 lakh from an employee of a private firm here on Tuesday. Two country-made pistols along with live cartridges were recovered from their possession along with a sum of Rs 1,50,000. The employee was robbed while he was on his way to the office after withdrawing the money from HDFC bank. The arrested have been identified as Sunil, Hemant and Anil.

Fatehabad
Pledge against foeticide: Students of Government Senior Secondary School, Dariyapur, took a pledge against female foeticide at a function on Wednesday. Ashok Tanwar, MP from Sirsa, administered the oath to the students, who pledged that they would not allow the pre-natal sex determination test or killing of unborn girls in their families. The function was organised by the Information and Public Relation Department as a part of its ongoing programme against foeticide.

Kaithal
Excise staff continue dharna: Employees of the Excise and Taxation Department continued their dharna for the second consecutive day here on Thursday . They were protesting against the alleged forcible registration of a case by the vigilance against an employee of their department in Hisar a few days ago. Roshan Lal Atela, president of the district unit of their association, said the dharna would continue till the matter was settled amicably.

KURUKSHETRA
New NIT Director: Anand Mohan, Professor of electronics, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Banaras, is all set to join as new Director of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra, by the end of May. Stating this to mediapersons at a press conference held here on Tuesday, Prof JK Palit, Chairman, Board of Governors, NIT, Kurukshetra, said Prof Anand was offered the post on May 19 by the order of the President, who is also the visitor of all NITs. Prof Anand, a renowned academician, has sent his acceptance to the offer.

Sonepat
Man shot dead: Rajinder Singh of Bhatgaon village was shot dead by two armed miscreants while he was sleeping in the courtyard of his house on Wednesday night. The assailant fired two rounds at him--one on the head and the other on the chest-- killing him on the spot. On the complaint of the victim’s wife, Kavita, a case of murder has been registered against the miscreants whoescaped after committing the crime.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
Eight-day camp for lifers: The district unit of the Art of Living here has organised an eight-day camp for lifers of the state Open-Air Jail at Jabbali which will conclude on May 31. Camp organiser and district convener Arun Dogra said here on Thursday that Special Chief Instructor Apoorva was teaching the inmates yoga and pranayama, being propagated by renowned Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

KANGRA
Man killed in train accident: A 45-year-old man was killed when he fell off from a running train near the Bathu bridge on Thursday and succumbed to his injuries in the evening at Tanda Medical College. According to the Railway Police, Joginder Singh had boarded the Pathankot-Baijnath train from Pathankot.

Hair dye claims woman’s life: Kiran (19) of Champa Chhattisgarh died at the Tanda Medical College on Thursday evening after she allegedly consumed hair dye inadvertently. The police said Deepak, the victim’s husband, who is working at Banoie Gaggal, told the police that his wife was feeling feverish and consumed the hair dye inadvertently. The police is investigating the case under Section 174, CRPC.

Shopkeepers resent Army ban: Resentment prevails among the 44 shopkeepers of the Brigade Bazar in the Yol Cantonment area for being harassed at the hands of the Army authorities who have deployed soldiers to stop customers from entering their shops. They have sought intervention of Chief Minister PK Dhumal and Defence Minister AK Antony in this connection. In a letter to the CM, the shopkeepers have stated that they were in possession of the shops since 1955.

KULLU
One gets 10-yr RI for smuggling: Rakesh Chaudhary, Additional District and Session Judge-cum-Fast Track Court Judge, here sentenced Sunil Kumar of Angu Dobhi village, near here, to 10-year rigorous imprisonment in a case of charas smuggling under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic substances Act on Thursday. This was stated by District Public Prosecutor Mahesh Sen here.

MANDI
Patwari held for taking bribe: The State Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau on Thursday caught Ramesh Chand, a patwari posted at Jadhaunta in Bilaspur, taking a bribe of Rs 2,000 from a villager Sukh Ram who had sought some documents related to his case from him. The Vigilance has booked Chand for the second time under the Prevention of Corruption Act. This was stated by SP, Vigilance, Virender Sharma.

NURPUR
Release arrears: NGO employees: After the constitution of a working committee of the local unit of the Non-Gazetted Officer (NGO) Employees Federation, its newly elected president Onkar Dhiman in a statement here on Thursday urged the Dhumal government to fulfill their demands. The demands include the release of arrears and pay increment on the basis of 4-9-14, revision of pay scales of class IV employees etc.

SHIMLA
Burglars break into tourist’s room: A tourist from Chennai was looted when burglars broke into his hotel room and took away valuables worth Rs 2.50 lakh. The incident took place at about 3 am on Wednesday night at a hotel in Dhalli where SP Subramaniam was staying with his family.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Leh
Exhibition of solar products in Leh: A 15-day exhibition being organised by the Ladakh Renewal Energy Development Agency, Leh, started here on Thursday. The products displayed in the exhibition included solar cookers, solar water heaters and solar green houses. The Executive Councillor, Agriculture, Sonam Dorje, inaugurated the exhibition. Addressing the inaugural function, Sonam said the potential of solar products in Ladakh was huge as clear sunlight was received almost throughout the year.

DEHRADUN

Dehradun
Sambar killed: A sambar that strayed into human habitation died a painful death after being caught by the residents at Vikasnagar in Dehradun district. The villagers caught the animal and put a rope around its neck. In a bid to free itself, the wild animal was asphyxiated.

Meat shop shut: Senior health officer Dr Kailash Joshi, Dehradun Municipal Corporation, today cancelled a licence of a meat shop located at Rajpur Road that was being run on the land of the corporation. He said that the shop that was running illegally on the nigam’s land has been closed.

Suicide: Narender Kumar, student of 12th class and a resident of Premanagar, committed suicide after the declaration of his board results. According to police, the deceased was depressed due to his academic performance.

Theft: A theft of Rs8 lakh was reported from the house of retired navy officer Suresh Devli in Jagriti Vihar area at Harrawala in Doiwala police station area on Wednesday. The owner of the house had gone out of the city when the thieves struck taking away cash and jewellery. A case has been registered and investigations are on.

Rajaji Park: A red alert has been sounded in Rajaji National Park after the park authorities received information that certain miscreants were inside the park and could resort to some misadventure. Rajaji National Park Director SS Raisaily said the authorities had received information that four suspicious characters entered the park and planned poaching.

Kumaon
Elephant tramples woman to death: A woman was trampled to death by an elephant in the Khatima area of Udham Singh Nagar. The victim is learnt to have gone to the Jolasal Range of forests from her adjoining village of Dogari Goth to fetch fuel wood. She has been identified as 35-year-old Vimla Devi. She was repeatedly thrown down by the elephant before it trampled her to death. It is learnt that the women who had gone to the forest along with the victim to fetch fuel wood raised an alarm which brought more people to the spot. The Forest Department personnel had to fire in the air to make the elephant leave the spot.

Destruction follows squall, hailstorm: Squall and hailstorm in various parts of Kumaon region on Wednesday have left behind a trail of destruction in the area. A large number of power supply lines have been damaged while widespread damage has been caused to the fruit crops of mango and litchi. According to reports, a small bridge on Shambhu river was washed away near Pindar in Bageshwar district. Roads were blocked at several places in the region following the uprooting of trees on account of high-velocity winds. Two transformers were burnt down after being struck by lightening in the Nachni area. The entire region was in throes of darkness following widespread damage to the power supply infrastructure on late Wednesday night.

Dispute creates chaos at bus station: Chaos prevailed at the Ramnagar bus station on Wednesday following a dispute over allowing a person to board a Delhi-bound bus who wanted to get down at Kashipur. It is learnt that a heated exchange of words led to the bus staff manhandling the passenger which was followed by the latter’s supporters resorting to stone pelting and violence in which one passenger and a bus driver were injured. Police investigations are on in the matter.

Girl suffers burn injuries: A girl has sustained major burn injuries following electrocution at her house in Haldwani. It is learnt that 14-year-old Khushbu, who is a resident of the Hydel gate area of the township, has been admitted to a hospital with severe burn injuries. She was electrocuted when she was trying to switch on the television at her home. Agitated at the failure of the local administration to check mismanagement in the supply of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders, the residents of Lal Kuan resorted to locking up of a gas agency in the Lal Kuan area of Nainital district. The gas consumers were agitated over the failure of the administration to check unfair profiteering of the LPG in the area. They pointed out that despite being charged for delivering gas cylinders at home, they were not getting the supply on time, while the gas was easily available in the black market at a premium. They also pointed out that a large number of commercial establishments were utilising gas cylinders meant for domestic consumption.The authorities at the gas agency have promised to put the supply mechanism on track within a fortnight.

(Compiled by Rajeev Khanna)