In Brief

FOSWAC starts safety drive
CHANDIGARH: Federation of Sectors Welfare Association Chandigarh (FOSWAC) in a meeting with the Inspector General Police,P K Srivastava discussed problems pertaining to law and order in the city. The members suggested that tough action should be taken against the habitual offenders as the cases of theft of auto vehicles,chain/purse snachings,robbing of the walkers and incidents of group clashes etc are on the rise. The stress was laid on the a need to keep a close watch on the youngsters residing in the paying guest houses. Police verification should be done for all such paying guests. The IGP suggested that the Resident Welfare Associations should come forward to help the police to start a drive to create awareness among the residents to provide additional mechanical locks in their vehicles to safeguard against thefts. In order to achieve the desired results,the Divisional Police Officers and Beat officials would regularly hold the monthly meetings with the concerned RWAs and also distribute leaflets containing do’s and dont’s among the residents.

Punjabi varsity declares results
PATIALA: Punjabi University,Patiala,declared results of B.Pharmacy 8th Semester examination held in April,2010. The detailed mark cards have been sent to the respective departments,said a varsity press release.

IIT Guwahati to hold school championship
CHANDIGARH: IIT Guwahati,during its annual techno-management festival Techniche ‘10 will hold an international school championship as part of Technothlon. In the preliminary round,a national-level aptitude test will be conducted for classes IX and XII on July 18. Top 50 teams would get a chance to participate in the final round at IIT Guwahati. The next 200 teams would be awarded certificates. The test will be conducted in 65 cities,including Chandigarh. As many as 300 students from the city have already registered for the test. Online registration for the test can be done at http://www.techniche.org/technothlon.

Water level in rivers recedes in Himachal
SHIMLA: No rain for a day has brought down the water-level in rivers in Himachal. For the last two days,the rivers have been flowing above the danger mark. No loss of life or property has,however,been reported from any part of the state on Thursday. The water level in Beas,which had touched the national highway and had blocked the Manali-Chandigarh road at Hanogi in Mandi district,also remained normal. On Wednesday,a bridge was washed away at Manikaran in Kullu valley due to flashfloods in the nullah triggered by heavy rainfall.
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Thusday said administrations of all districts have been asked to remain alert and respond immediately to calls. The Met department has forecast heavy rainfall in isolated places for rest of the days of this week.

Hooda reviews flood situation
CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda reviewed the flood situation and rescue and relief operations being undertaken in the flood-affected districts of Ambala,Kurukshetra and Kaithal on Thursday. He will visit the areas again tomorrow.
Earlier,in the day,Governor Jagannath Pahadia was apprised of the flood situation and the relief operations by Chief Secretary Urvashi Gulati and Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary,Irrigation,S S

Boys drown in Mansa
Mansa: Tow minor boys — Arshdeep (10) and Sandeep (7) — drowned in Sirhind choe near Hodlan village on Thursday. The brothers had come with their parents to pluck green chillies in a nearby field. DSP,Bhikhi,Rajvir Singh said Arshdeep had drowned and Sandeep jumped to save him but was carried away by the current. While body of Arshdeep’s has been recovered,efforts are on to trace Sandeep’s body.

Baby born in flight toilet shifted to ICU
AMRITSAR: The condition of the baby boy,delivered in the toilet of a Turkmenistan Airlines flight on Wednesday by a medical student,turned serious on Thursday. The boy was shifted to the intensive care unit of a private hospital here. Doctors said he had developed complications in breathing. The woman who abandoned the child in the toilet was also shifted to the local civil hospital late in the evening. She had initially denied that it was her baby but later admitted to delivering the boy. She is now ready to take him home,said sources.

Not paid since Sept,forest staff protest
AMRITSAR: A number of workers with the forest department held a protest on Thursday,demanding immediate release of their salaries since September 2009. Workers’ leader Germanjit Singh Bath said many of the workers had been forced to quit their jobs without having been paid the dues. “There were over 300 workers who had been deputed by the department for various work but they had not been paid. We met Divisional Forest Officer Satnam Singh today who assured action and early payment of the dues. We will protest again if our demand was not met,” he added.

Two ‘travel agents’ arrested
JALANDHAR: The Mehatpur police arrested two New Delhi-based travel agents on Thursday who had allegedly duped a woman of Rs 23.78 lakh. The two are Jagpreet Singh alias Jaspreet Singh alias Jimmi and Amanpreet Singh,both sons of Kartar Singh Arora,a resident of Hari Nagar in New Delhi. Both allegedly cheated one Kuldeep Kaur of Sohal Jagir village on the pretext of sending her two sons abroad on student visa. The woman had lodged a complaint with the police that none of her sons were sent abroad,nor was her money returned.

Blood donation camps today
AMRITSAR: The Shiromani Youth Akali Dal and the Students Organization of India will organise blood donation camps throughout the state on July 9 to mark the birthday of Deputy Chief Minister and SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. In a statement,former minister and Youth Akali Dal patron Bikram Singh Majithia said they wanted to involve the youth of the state in the cause and were expecting over 25,000 people to donate blood on Friday.

GNDU relents,new fee structure for research scholars not for new students
AMRITSAR: Following protests by research scholars,Guru Nanak Dev University on Thursday declared that the decision regarding the fee structure of Pre-PhD course did not apply to those scholars who have enrolled themselves before the current session 2010-11. Vice-Chancellor Prof A S Brar said the new rules would apply to those who had enrolled for PhD after August 2009. The decision followed a meeting with the delegation of research scholars in the office of the V-C regarding the fee structure of Pre-PhD course work,Brar said those scholars who were desirous to do the course could apply by July 14 through their supervisor and the head of the department. He said the fee would be Rs 20,000 for research scholars of sciences,Rs 15,000 for social sciences and Rs 5000 for the research scholars of Guru Nanak Studies and Department of Punjabi.