R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Abohar
JS Sandhu is PSCB director: Jaisarat Singh Sandhu has been elected as director of the Punjab State Cooperative Bank. His name was proposed by Gurpal Singh Grewal, managing director, at a meeting of the Fazilka Central Cooperative Bank here on Tuesday. As no other name was proposed, Sandhu was declared elected unanimously.

BSP office-bearers elected
Narinder Kashyap and Sukhdev Singh Sheera have been appointed as state general secretaries of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), district secretary Kashmir Singh Gobindgarh informed. They were asked to strengthen organisational set-up in the Ferozepur and Fazilka districts, respectively.

100 per cent result
All the students of Gopi Chand Arya Mahila College, who appeared in the MA (II) English and MA (II) Economics exams, conducted by the Panjab University, have got through it, principal Dr Neelam Arun Mittu informed. About 80 per cent students have got first division marks in MA Economics. 

Amritsar
B’deshi national nabbed at border: Border Security Force jawans nabbed a Bangladeshi national who tried to cross over to Pakistan late on Friday night. According to information, Abdul Hameed (23) tried to dodge the BSF jawans patrolling the border fence. He was caught near border post Rorawala Khurd. The jawans recovered a mobile phone and two sims from him. 

Jewellery worth `45 lakh looted: An unidentified youth snatched a bag containing jewellery and cash worth Rs 45 lakh from Naresh Mehta while he was returning home on Saturday evening. Naresh owns a jewellery shop on the Lawrence Road in Dayanand Nagar. 

Faridkot
Taekwondo meet: Delhi International School for Girls brought laurels to the Faridkot district by bagging the first position in the under-14 category of the 57th Punjab School Games State Level Taekwondo Championship held at Faridkot. A total of 14 students from DIS, Faridkot, participated in the championship and won 12 medals including two gold, five silver and five bronze. Tanveer Kaur and Jasmeet Kaur won gold and got their names enlisted for the national taekwondo championship going to be held in Madhya Pradesh. Principal Navneet Thakur lauded the efforts of the coach Ashwini Kumar and congratulated the students.

LPG cylinders seized
Twenty four LPG domestic cylinders being used for commercial purposes were confiscated from the markets here. A team of Food and Supplies Department under DFSC Kulwant Kaur, DFSO Jagir Singh, AFSO Teja Singh and assistant manager-cum-district level coordinator of the Indian Oil Suresh Kumar conducted raids on various commercial establishments, including hotels, dhabas and restaurants. The offenders have been warned against using domestic LPG for commercial purposes. Similar raids would continue and strict action would be initiated against defaulters as per the rules of law, officers said. 

HARYANA

CHANDIGARH
Sewer fee: In a major relief to residents of the urban areas, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday has decided to reduce the domestic sewer connection fee in the municipal areas from Rs 500 to Rs 100. The fee has been reduced to encourage the general public to get the sewer connection, which will also help in maintaining cleanliness in the towns.

JIND
Panchayati Raj sammelan: Around one lakh elected representatives of the Panchayati Raj bodies are expected to take part in the state-level Panchayati Raj sammelan to be held here on August 21. It will be addressed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Stating this the DC said the district administration had started the preparation to ensure the success of the programme, which would see congregation of a large number of people.

KARNAL
Sarpanch held: A vigilance team on Wednesday caught a sarpanch of Janeso village while he was accepting a bribe for issuing permission to cut a tree. Gulbahar Ali had complained to the Vigilance Department that sarpanch Sunil Kumar had demanded a bribe of Rs 50,000 for permission to cut a tree outside his house and after negotiations finally the sarpanch agreed Rs 10,000. 

REWARI
Protest held: Representatives of the district units of the All-India UTUC, CITU, AITUC, INTUC and HMS, staged a demonstration at the district secretariat here on Wednesday in support of their pending demands. While addressing protesters, Rajender Singh, advocate, Rajbir Chahal, Comrade Bal Ram, Chander Bhan, Raj Singh and others demanded a provision of a minimum monthly remuneration of Rs 15,000 for the workers, stringent measures to curb spiralling prices, introduction of the effectual public distribution system and cessation of proceedings to privatise the government departments. 

4 deaths reported: As many as four cases of unnatural demise, including two of suicidal death, have been reported from various parts of the district in the past 24 hours. Sarita Devi (25) and Ganesh (20) committed suicide by hanging themselves. Hoshiar Singh (43), a constable, died in the police lines. The police said his death was caused by his protracted illness. In another case, Sat Narain (28), a farmer, was electrocuted in his field at Toomna village on Wednesday.

SONEPAT
Protest continues: Despite the arrest of a teacher, Satyanarayan Sharma, of a government school near Gohana, the agitated villagers continued to lock the school gate for the second day day in support of their demand for the transfer of the entire staff of the school. The schoolteachers were forced to sit outside the school whole day on Wednesday. The villagers had lodged a complaint that Sharma had attempted to molest some girls when they went to his office to get their homework checked. The police arrested Sharma and produced him in a court on Tuesday. However, he was granted bail by the court.

CHANDIGARH

CHANDIGARH
Held for eve-teasing: A girl alleged that Ajay of Sector 25 teased her near the government school in the sector. A case was registered under Sections 354 and 506 of the IPC and the accused arrested. 

DEHRADUN

DEHRADUN
Manch stages dharna: The Uttarakhand Rajya Nirman Senani Manch on Wednesday staged a dharna at Hathibarkala, Dehradun, demanding better treatment for statehood agitators. Manch members also held a protest rally to the Chief Minister’s residence. However, they were stopped at Hathibarkala, where they staged a dharna. The protesters submitted a memorandum demanding reservation for the dependents of the statehood agitators. 

39 donate blood: The IMA Blood Bank, Uttarakhand, organised a voluntary blood donation camp at Prayas IAS Academy, Dehradun on Wednesday. The camp saw a total of 39 donations. The purpose of the blood donation camp was to encourage students to come forward to donate blood and contribute in saving the lives of many people who need blood transfusion and to support patients being treated for serious ailments, including cancer, burns, traumatic injuries, and for those undergoing surgeries.

Certificate issue: The UKD (Diwakar) has also joined the issue of domicile certificate. Opting for the same path as chosen by the Panwar faction, party spokesperson Satish Semwal advocated the compulsion of the domicile certificate criterion in the state. He said: “Our party is committed to providing employment to the people of the state on a priority basis.” He said if the government prohibited the use of domicile certificate, they would take to the streets. 

Kumaon Briefs

Lok adalats in Udham Singh Nagar on August 29:A series of mega lok adalats will be held across Udham Singh Nagar district on August 29. According to a statement issued on behalf of Secretary, District Legal Aid Authority, and Civil Judge (Senior Division) Bharat Bhushan Pande, the adalats are being held as per the High Court’s directions view to provide easy, quick and low-cost justice to the people in the matters pertaining to revenue, civil matters, the consolidation of holdings, labour, prohibition, motor accidents etc. All those matters will be heard in which there is a possibility of disposal with mutual consent.

‘Work on projects to begin from next month’: District Magistrate of Udham Singh Nagar BVRC Purshottam has ordered that the process of floating tenders for the execution of various development projects be completed by the end of this month. He has underlined that the execution of works must start from the beginning of the next month. He has ordered District Development Officer (DDO) RC Tewari that the funds be released immediately for the works to be executed by using the local development funds of MPs and MLAs. At the same time he has asked project officer for the Indira Awas Yojana Balakrishna to come forward with a plan so that it could be completed in a phased manner. Addressing a meeting at Vikas Bhawan in Rudrapur on Wednesday morning, Purshottam has asked to make the optimum use of the funds available for the execution of various development projects across the district.

No compromise on quality of new school buildings : DM: District Magistrate Pankaj Kumar Pande, also the chairman of the Implementation Committee of Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan in Champawat district, has said that laxity on any account will not be tolerated with regard to the programme. At a meeting held at Champawat on Tuesday afternoon, he said there would be no compromise with regard to the construction of new school buildings under the programme and the quality tests of the buildings would be got done from independent agencies. The officials found responsible for substandard construction would be asked to pay a penalty and criminal action would be initiated against them, he added. He pulled up officials for failing to get power connections in all newly constructed school buildings in the district.

Mystery shrouds death of Kathgodam resident: Mystery shrouds the death of a resident of the Jawahar Jyoti area of Kathgodam who was found hanging from a fan in his room on Tuesday afternoon. The deceased has been identified as 24-year-old Jogendra Arya. When his peeped into the room after a while, she was shocked to see him hanging from the fan. The cause behind his step is yet to be ascertained.

Train passengers stage protest:Rail passengers in the region are agitated over frequent delay in the plying of the passenger train between Kashipur and Kathgodam. Daily passengers of the trains, 55303 and 55304, staged a protest at Lal Kuan station on Tuesday. They registered their complaint in the complaint book available with the station authorities stating that they are being put to extreme hardships on account of the delayed plying of the trains. They have sought an early solution to their problem. (Compiled by Rajeev Khanna)