R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Chandigarh
Students protest fee hike: Students in government colleges across Punjab on Wednesday observed strike against their demands. Having gathered under the banner of Punjab Students Union, the protesters demanded refund of fee deposited by Dalit students in colleges, withdrawal of fee hike by universities, free education to girls at all levels, scrapping of semester system introduced in colleges at the BA level and release of scholarships to the minority community students.

Muktsar
Muktsar student leader held for snatching: The police on Wednesday arrested Amarjit Singh Sandhu, who had recently declared himself the president of the Government College Students’ Union, Muktsar, for allegedly snatching Rs 21,500 from a trader in Sriganganagar in Rajasthan. A case was registered against him and another person on the complaint of Narain Gupta.

Patiala
Students donate grocery items: Students of Government Bikram College of Commerce, Patiala, under the banner of "Aid for Suffering Humanity," have donated grocery items worth Rs 5,400 for a school for deaf and blind students in Saifdipur. College principal Satinder Kaur, Prof PS Rekhi, Dr Reetu Kapoor and Avinash Kant Sharma handed over the items to the school principal on Wednesday.

HARYANA

Ambala
Man gets 7-yr jail for rape: Additional Sessions Judge Vimlesh Tanwar has sentenced an autorickshaw driver to seven years in jail and a fine of Rs 3,000 for raping a woman at her residence. According to the prosecution, Kala entered the victim's house through an adjoining house on October 28 last year. She was taking a bath at the time. Kala barged into the bathroom and dragged her to the bedroom and raped her. Hearing the woman's cries, the neighbours reached the spot, but Kala managed to escape.

KAITHAL
Surjewala opens 2 blocks  of polytechnic college: Haryana Public Works and Industries Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala today inaugurated two blocks of Bhagwan Parshuram government polytechnic institute at Shergarh village near Kaithal. He said Rs 15 crore would be spent on the construction of four blocks of polytechnic institute, out of which two had been completed and the construction of other two blocks would be completed by November.

Students felicitated: Three students of OSDAV School, Kaithal — Akshit Bansal (X), Ananya Gulati (X), Shivam Garg (XI) — won prizes in a national-level essay writing competition conducted by the CBSE recently. The topic was ‘Sri Pingali Venkayya’.

DEHRADUN

Dehradun
Dance idol championship: India Care is organising a dance idol championship in the senior and junior categories. Sandeep Arora, event organiser, said the competition would be theme based. It would have two categories, junior (5-13 years) and senior (14 years and above), in which the participants could present solo, duet and group dances.