Chandigarh Beat

Power failuresAMRITSAR: District Congress Committee president Jugal Kishore Sharma warned the municipal authorities of gherao if they failed...

Power failures
AMRITSAR:
District Congress Committee president Jugal Kishore Sharma warned the municipal authorities of gherao if they failed to ensure regular water supply in the city. In a press release here today, he said people of the city were facing acute shortage of water and electricity and the Akali-BJP leaders were silent over the issue. He also censured the ruling party for not fulfilling the promises made in their manifestoes.

MALERKOTLA:
The Small-Scale Cycle Parts Manufacturing Association has condemned the Punjab State Electricity Board for the 4-6 hours unannounced power cuts in the city. President of association Abdul Rashid Farooqi said the SSI units were suffering a loss of crores in terms of shortfall of production due to power cuts every day. The work in hospitals, banks, government office was also virtually paralysed here. PSEB XEN Surjit Singh Grewal said the cut was ordered from Patiala PSEB power controller and not from the city.

Mishap
BATHINDA:
Two women were burnt to death when a fire broke out in the house at Kotkapura, near here yesterday. They were making crackers at the time of the accident. The women, Paramjit Kaur and Charanjit Kaur, were making crackers in the house of one Tara Singh, when there was a sudden explosion and a fire broke out. The two sustained severe burn injuries and were rushed to the civil hospital in Faridkot, where they were declared dead.

WELCOMED
LUDHIANA:
Sikh Students Federation Mehta has hailed the government decision to order a probe into the mysterious disappearance of former head priest of Akal Takht Gurdev Singh Kaonke. SSF chief Rajinder Singh Mehta and secretary general Amarjit Singh Chawla alleged in a joint statement here today that numerous Sikh youth were eliminated in false police encounters and interrogation centres during the previous Congress regime.

ELECTIONS
LUDHIANA:
District Magistrate Arun Goyal has ordered the closure of liquor vends and liquor ahatas in the district from June 20-22 in view of the ensuing panchayat elections. The step has been taken to maintain peace and ensure free and fair elections, the order said.

CRIME
HOSHIARPUR:
The police have busted a gang of dacoits by nabbing one of its members Jaswant Singh alias Banta, resident of Shekhupur, Phagwara. A .315 bore pistol with three live cartridges was recovered from his possession. Senior Superintendent of Police Rohit Chowdhary disclosed that the gang was active in Punjab, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. After looting Rs 3 lakh from a bank in Una in March and innumerable other looting activities, the gang comprising Jaswant Singh, his uncle Karnail Singh and Krishna, Avtar Singh, Mehnga Singh, Amrik Singh and Kuldip Singh, all residents of Phagwara, had shifted to Madhya Pradesh.

SOLAN:
The police during a nakabandi8217; arrested one person and seized 1,128 bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor and country liquor at Dharampur on the Kalka-Shimla national highway in this district last night.

Story continues below this ad

District police chief M.L. Negi said here today that a police party led by station house officer K.D. Khan intercepted a mini truck No. HP-15-1629 outside the Dharampur police station after chasing it. The police party found 648 bottles of IMFL and 480 bottles of country liquor in the truck. The liquor was packed in Tata tea bags and was being taken from Chandigarh to Shimla without any valid documents. The police have arrested Kuldeep Chand, driver of the truck. A case has been registered under the Excise Act.

Plea
SUNDERNAGAR:
Pandit Baldev Chand, former MLA and veteran freedom fighter, has urged Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal that the state government take over the Himachal Dental College, whose closure the Government of India had ordered on the recommendation of the Dental Council of India.

Baldev Chand said that the Virbhadra Singh government had failed to honour the higher education policy mooted by the Shanta Kumar regime by which the government was to provide land for the campus. The delay of four years ultimately led to the order on the closure of the college. The future of the 240 students could be saved if the college was taken over from the management, he added. Meanwhile, students held a demonstration to register their protest.