Regional Beat

Dead
Solan: The former president of Himachal Mahila Congress Champa Rani passed away after prolonged illness here today. She was 80 years old. She is survived by her only son. Champa Rani was an eminent social workers and was associated with number of organisations. She was also a member of the State Women Welfare Board.

Salary
Amritsar: BJP MLA Lakshmi Kanta Chawla expressed concern over irregular salary payments to the teachers of recognised private schools for last five months. She said even special police officers SPO and home guards jawans were not getting their increased salary dues as declared in the budget.

Suicide
Moga: Ganpat Rai, senior advocate and specialist in labour laws, allegedly committed suicide in Chail Shimla hills in Himachal Pradesh hotel last night.According to Himachal Pradesh police information received here today, the advocate8217;s body was found in the hotel room.Meanwhile, advocates here held a condolence meeting in the memory of Ganpat Rai. A two-minutes silence was also observed. The advocate8217;s body will be cremated tomorrow.

Games
Ferozepur: Ram Murti Kalia, a 87-year old veteran fast walker athlete who is a local resident of Basti Tankanwali in Ferozepur city, has been selected by the National Amateur Federation of India to represent India by participating in the 10th Asian Veteran Athletic Championship to be held at Okinawa in Japan from October 15 to October 18, 1998. Although Uma Bharati, BJP MP, has promised to extend some financial help to veteran athlete Kalia but that help would not enable him to purchase Japan Air ticket to visit Okinawa.

Chain snatcher
Ludiana: Police have arrested one Janki Das alias Lucky, a resident of Chhawn I Mohalla here who was involved in various cases of chain-natching. According to SSP Dinkar Gupta, the accused along with another accomplice had snatched a gold chain from a girl Manju Sharma near Deepak Cinema road late last night when she was going on a rickshaw along wih her mother. As the accused was trying to escape, the girl and her mother raised an alarm. A police party led by SHO Kotwali Balbir Singh, on patrol duty in the area arrived at the spot and Janki Das was nabbed after a little chase. The gold chain was also recovered from his possession.

I-cards
Dharamsala: The Himachal Pradesh Vikas Congress HVC has decided to issue identity cards to its youth wing workers to prevent exploitation by those who get their works done by posing as party youth workers. This was disclosed at a press conference at Kangra yesterday by state party youth wing general secretary Anil Dogra, said HVC president Sukh Ram had asked that identity cards should be issued to the youth workers to avoid further exploitation by such people. Dogra was here to reorganise the youth wing in Kangra district in view of the forth comming by-election in Baijnath Assembly constituency.

Threat
Nahan: Ved Parkash Sharma, president district unit of HP NGO Federation, in a statement issued here yesterday said that general house of the district unit had decided to expel those employees from the Federation who joined the HP State Employees Confederation if they failed to come back within 15 days. He said that a 25-member committee from various departments had been constituted to chalk out the dates of election of all district units within a fortnight so that the election could be done fair and democratic way well in time.

Hanging power wires pose danger
Nahan: President of Joint Central Jail Employees Association, in a statement issued here yesterday, alleged that the electricity wing of the HPPWD at Nahan had even ignored the directions of the engineer-in-chief who directed it about a fortnight ago to arrange for refitting of electricity in the residential quarters on top priority as it had been badly damaged and could be dangerous to life but the SDO had not taken any care of it sofar. He said that the wires in some houses were not only hanging but were also naked. He appealed to the engineer-in chief to direct the SDO to take immediate steps for rewiring.

Tree plantation camp held
Nahan: A tree plantation camp was organised at Jamta, about 13 km from here yesterday under the national environmental awareness campaign organised under the guidance of Satish Sehgal, programme officer of Jamta school in which 150 students, teachers, mahila mandal, Nav Yuvak Mandal, Gram Panchayat and forest officials participated.

Rs 1 crore spent for backward panchayats
Nahan: Deputy Colmmissioner of Sirmaur Rakesh Kaushal disclosed here yesterday that Rs 1 crore had been spent for the overall developments of 26 backward panchayats in Sirmaur district during the last four months. He said that special attention was being paid for the development of backward panchayats so that they could be brought at par with other developed panchayats. He said that last year, Rs 85 crore were spent under the backward sub plan for execution of various development schemes.

Inadequate water supply
Kullu: The residents of local Shastri Nagar have complained of erratic supply of drinking water for the last couple of days. The residents, in an informal meeting with the Indian Express, urged the departments of Irrigation and Public Health to ensure regular and sufficient supply of drinking water in that area.