Briefly Region

Hit by ‘mentally unstable’ son,63-yr-old disabled man dies

Bathinda: A “mentally unstable” man hit his disabled father with a brick on Wednesday after being slapped by the latter. Ramesh Kumar,63,succumbed to injuries at a Bathinda hospital on Thursday. The police said his son Ravi,25,was mentally unstable according to the deceased’s wife and another son. “Ramesh’s family said they did not want any action against Ravi. They claimed to be trying to get Ravi admitted in a hospital for mental patients at Amritsar,” said an officer.

‘No place for extreme ideologies in modern policy making’

Amritsar: Bhartendra Singh Baswan,Director,Indian Institute of Public Administration,New Delhi,and Vijendra Singh Jafa,former chief secretary of Assam,delivered a talk on ‘Public Policy in India’ at the Khalsa College on Thursday. They emphasised that extreme ideologies had no place in modern policy making for the people. Among the audience were a number of civil servants,teachers,research scholars and faculty members. The speakers said the socialist model adopted by India was actually an apparatus in which the state assisted the private sector by providing basic services and infrastructure to it. They were of the view that this corrupted the governmental machinery. “Market-oriented economic reforms initiated in the nineties made the system more open and accountable,” stated Baswan.

b>Best agriculture performance award to HP

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh has been adjudged country’s “best performing state in agriculture”. The Agriculture Leadership Award will be conferred on the state in recognition of policy initiatives and performance in agriculture development,during the Agriculture Leadership Summit in New Delhi on September 29,said a government spokesperson. The awards have been finalised by the National Awards Committee of the Agriculture Leadership Awards 2010 headed by Dr A R Kidwai,former governor of Haryana,with Prof M S Swaminathan,eminent agriculture scientist.

PSPCL to instal 30 more bill payment machines

Patiala: To help its consumers submit bills in time and at their convenience,the Punjab State Power Corporation has installed 35 automatic bill payment machines across the state and is in the process of installing 30 more such machines soon. PSPCL Chairman and Managing Director K D Chaudhri said apart from paying electricity bills at collection centres,customers could now pay their bills through these machines,or pay online while sitting at homes. Chaudhri said the 30 machines would be installed in Patiala,Nabha,Rajpura,Sangrur,Dhuri,Malerkotla,Barnala,Nangal,Zirakpur,Ludhiana,Jagraon,Ahmedgarh,Jalandhar,Hoshiarpur,Nakodar,Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar,Banga,Amritsar,Gurdaspur,Batala,Dinanagar,Tarntaran,Faridkot,Moga,Ferozepur,Abohar and Fazilka.

GNDU youth fest valedictory function today

Amritsar: The prize distribution function of the four-day Zonal Youth Festival (D-Zone) of Guru Nanak Dev University will be held on September 24 at the Dashmesh Auditorium here. According to Dr Jagjit Kaur,Director,Youth Welfare,GNDU,Registrar Dr Inderjit Singh would be the chief guest and award trophies to winners of different competitions held during the festival.