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PUNJAB

Dera Bassi
Girl awarded: Pamalpreet Kaur (22), a resident of Dera Bassi, has earned worldwide acclaim for making artifacts with paper. To acknowledge her talent, the District Administration awarded her during a district-level function on Republic Day. Many of her craft items have been sold in Germany and Australia. She holds a BCA degree from Guru Gobind Singh College for Women, Sector 26, Chandigarh. Kaur has organised 11 exhibitions in and around Chandigarh till now.

Fatehgarh Sahib
Teachers protest: The teaching staff of 480 government aided schools in the state have not received their salaries from the past five months. Ravinder Joshi, president, Government Aided School Teachers' Union and Upjit Brar, president, Government Aided Schools' Progressive Front said the state government had not even allocated budget for these schools since September 2013. 

Sangrur
BSP leader joins AAP: A former secretary of the state BSP, Mohammad Jamil-Ur-Rehman, on Wednesday joined the Aam Aadmi Party along with his supporters at Malerkotla. Rehman said he had contested the Lok Sabha election in 2009 from Sangrur on the BSP ticket and had secured 69,943 votes.

HIMACHAL

BILASPUR
Thieves decamp with jewellery, cash: Thieves stole jewellery, cash and other valuables by breaking the locks of several houses at Bakroa village under the Ghumarwin police station near here on Sunday. Reports said the thieves looted jewellery worth Rs 2 lakh and Rs 20,000 from Chaman Lal’s house. They also removed jewellery worth Rs 1.50 lakh from another villager Kamlender Parashar’s house. The police, headed by DSP Anjani Jaswal, rushed to the spot. Cases had been registered.

CHAMBA
Foundation extends patronage to Pahari art: The Harmony Art Foundation, under the aegis of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani's Reliance, has extended its patronage to Pahari art. Recently, the Harmony Art Foundation organised a residency programme of Indian traditional and contemporary artists at Navi Mumbai. President of the foundation Tina Ambani has expressed her desire to visit Chamba this summer to enjoy Pahari miniature paintings housed at Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba, one of the oldest museums of India. Vijay Sharma, with his student Mukesh Dhiman of Kangra, was invited to paint specimens of the Pahari art for the foundation.

GOC, Western Command, Lt Gen Philip Campose, with Governor Urmila Singh in Shimla on Monday.

CHANDIGARH
GOC-in-Chief calls on Governor: The General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, Lt Gen Philip Campose, called on Governor Urmila Singh in Shimla on Monday. Issues of mutual interest to the Army and the state government were discussed during the meeting. These included the allotment of land at concessional rates for the Jai Jawan Awas Yojana and setting up a CSD canteen in Una for serving and retired personnel. The Governor assured the Army of a favourable response in the matters of the welfare of serving and retired personnel.

KANGRA
DAV Dehra shines in Science Olympiad: Sixtysix students of DAV Public School, Dehra, Gopipur, have been selected for the level-II examination in Science Olympiad-2013 organised by ANTRIX. The school principal on Wednesday said Sharadha Sharma, Satvik Sharma and Jagriti Sharma had secured first, second and third positions, respectively, in this competition.

PALAMPUR
Experts caution on yellow rust in state: Scientists of CSK HP Agriculture University have advised the farming community to be cautious about the appearance of yellow rust in wheat crop. According to them, yellow rust has started appearing on susceptible varieties of wheat at a few locations in Kangra and Hamirpur districts. The scientists have advised farmers to inspect their wheat fields on a daily basis.

Train farmers to grow off-season vegetables: CM: Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh inaugurated the new building of Parwati Girls Hostel at the CSK HP Agriculture University here recently. The new complex has been constructed at a cost of Rs 2 crore to accommodate 56 girls in cubical rooms. The CM urged university scientists and agriculture experts to launch training programmes for farmers. He said the state government had already directed each farm official to adopt at least 100 farmers and train them to grow off-season vegetables.