Chandigarh Beat

Prohibition
NAWANSHAHR: In view of the panchayat elections slated for June 21, District Magistrate B. R. Bangar has imposed Section 144 in the district and banned carrying of firearms in the district till June 23. However, this order will not be applicable to the members of the security forces, an official spokesman said here today.

Results
AMRITSAR: The result of Bachelor of Business Administration BBA and Bachelor of Computer Application BCA part-II of the Guru Nanak Dev University GNDU, held in April 1998, will be declared tomorrow, university officials said. Similarly, the result of Bachelor of Business Administration BBA part-I will be declared on June 11.

Elections
GURDASPUR: Deputy Commissioner, Gurdaspur, S. K. Sandhu said here today that all arrangements had been made to conduct free and fair elections to the 1,590 panchayts in Gurdaspur district. He said that 1910 polling stations would be set up, where 10,56057 voters would exercise their franchise on June 21. He said the last day for withdrawal would be June 10.

Crime
SUNDERNAGAR: The police today recovered a dead body from the BBMB reservoir here. The body was in a highly decomposed state. The body has been sent for postmortem at the local sub-divisional hospital, police said.

Fine
DHARAMSALA: A Gaggal petrol pump owner has reportedly been asked to pay a penalty of Rs 10,000 for selling adulterated petrol. The filling station was closed down about a month ago, after the company high-ups had detected that the owner had been adulterating petrol with kerosene oil, which if used continuously, can seize the engines of vehicles.

Symposium
SHIMLA: A three-day annual conference and national symposium on quot;Tackling child labour: Universal adult employment and primary education,quot; organised by the Indian University Association started at the Himachal Pradesh University here today. State governor V. S. Rama Devi, who is also chancellor of the university, inaugurated the symposium. She said that child labour arose from the ignorance of working class people who did not know the importance of education for their children. About 50 delegates from the country are attending the symposium.

Protests
LUDHIANA: Municipal Corporation employees, in batches of five, continued to sit in dharna today in response to a call given by the joint action committee. They are protesting against direct recruitment and conversion of technical posts into non-technical ones. Addressing the protestors at the main gate of MC, Devi Sahai Tandon, Vinod Sharma, Tarlochan Singh Lochi, Padam Kumar Sharma, Rakesh Adya and Hans Raj Gagat urged the government to concede the genuine demands of MC employees. In a bid to intensify the agitation, the civic employees would resort to a pen-down strike on June 12 if their demands were not accepted till then, speakers announced.

SUNDERNAGAR: Students studying in the BDS course at the Himachal Dental College here have gone on an indefinite strike to protest against the order of the Government of India demanding closure of the institution on the recommendation of the Dental Council of India DCI. The students met MP Maheshwar Singh and the Himachal Forest Minister and voiced their concern over the order.

BILASPUR: President of Bilaspur unit of Himachal Pradesh Government teachers Union Roshan Lal Sharma, and President of district unit of Himachal Pradesh Primary Teachers Federation Kishori Lal Sharma sat on an indefinite fast in front of District Collectorate in the second phase of their joint agitation here today. Their main demands include cancellation or modification of their quot;unjustifiedquot; and quot;political motivatedquot; transfers done recently, release of allowances on Punjab pattern and settlement of pending service matters among others.

Vasu Dev Basu, joint convener of the agitation said today that the district-level joint rally of teachers would be held on June 12 in front of the District Collectorate.