Regional Beat

In his statement, Manish told the police that the van was following them from Fazilka. The looters demanded that the couple hand over all the gold ornaments. When they refused, they were hit by a branch of tree and their belongings snatched.The culprits fled while the injured couple was admitted in the hospital were Asha Rani succumbed to her injuries.

SANGRUR:DSP Dhuri Rajbachan Singh Sandhu claimed here today that the Amargarh police, under his supervision has achieved a major breakthrough in the gruesome blind murder of Charanjit Kaur and her brother Charan Singh on May 1, in their house in Narike village.The prime suspect, their brother Pritam Singh, was nabbed. During interrogation he confessed that he had killed the two with a spade kahi over a property dispute.

DHARAMSALA: A Kangra based journalist of Ajit Samachar, Avinash Walia, was assaulted with hockey sticks by two local persons over some issue today, in Kangra town. He was badly injured and immediatly rushed to the hospital. The police are yet to arrest the culprits. Meanwhile, the Chief Minsiter who was also in the town, has assured quick action against the accused.

Resentment
NAWANSHAHR :About 300 milk vendors from all over the the state participated in the meeting convened here today by the Trade Dhodhi Union Punjab to discuss the fall out of the reported move of the state government to set up a Dairy Board in Punjab. At the meeting it was held that while the move would render 2.50 lakh milk vendors jobless, people would also not be able to get fresh milk. Gurdev Singh Fauzi, president of the union, accused CM P.S. Badal of playing into the hands of some vested interests.

NAWANSHAHR : The District Congress Committee staged a dharna in front of the DC8217;s office here yesterday. Addressing the dharna, Chaudhary Santokh Singh, general secretary PPCC criticised the Badal government for its failure on all fronts. Contrary to the pre-poll promise, it had failed to ensure remunerative prices for produce of farmers. He revealed that the PPCC, in a memorandum to the state governor and Central government has demanded atta at the rate of Rs 4 per kg besides subsidies on cloth and cereals.

ROOPNAGAR: The local branch of the Punjab National Bank has still not paid the enhanced medical allowance to its staff despite notification by the state government, according to the Citizen Welfare Council. In a press release issued here, the council has demanded that fresh directions he issued to all the banks in the state for early payment of the medical allowance.

AMRITSAR: A fairly large number of persons, both men and women, have been denied their legitimate right to old age pension following the rejection of their claims on the basis of the age mentioned on the voters lists.According to information gathered by the Punjab Istri Sabha patron Vimla Dang the pension applications were rejected despite the age having been certified by a government hospital or dispensary doctor. While rejecting the applications the district-level authorities throughout the state, did not state the bases on which particular year voters8217; list the pension cases were rejected.

Conference
PATIALA: Various units of the Food Corporation of India8217;s staff union which are functioning at Rajpura, Sirhind, Nabha, Amloh, Samana, Patiala and Patran will be participating in the organisational conference of the Union to be held on May 22 to air resentment against the actions of the management of the FCI. According to the district secretary of the Union Gurdeep Singh Virk, the unions are agitated over issuing of 56,000 thousand chargesheets to 5,000 employees in Punjab on various pretexts. There is resentment against the transfer of 40 employees to Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir, Virk said.

Training
BILASPUR: The three week long course for home guards of the 5th batallion in weaponry and civil defence involving 75 jawans concluded here yesterday. According to commandant of home guards B.L. Gautam, mock display of civil defence operations was given on the occasion.