The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

New sales tax rates on 200 items in UT
Notification to revise ST on petrol to 12 pc * Automobiles still cheaper than in Punjab
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — The Chandigarh Administration today amended the rate of sales tax on nearly 200 items to introduce the Uniform Sales Tax on a par with other states and union territories. The new rates of uniform sales tax have become effective from today.

The Administration has also notified under Section 5 of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948, its intention to revise the sales tax on petrol and diesel to 12 per cent. Objections have been invited to this proposal within the next 20 days before the new rate becomes effective.

In the neighbouring Punjab, the rate of taxation on petrol is 20 per cent.

According to a number of notifications issued today, more than 60 items have been brought under the newly introduced slab of 12 per cent sales tax.

The Administration has included all those items, including petrol, narcotics, and aerated waters, where in neighbouring Punjab, the sales tax introduced is 20 per cent, in the 12 per cent category.

The Administration has also kept in the 4 per cent slab all automobiles, including scooters, three-wheelers, except motor vehicles of 3200cc to 3500cc, while in Punjab, these are in the 5 per cent slab. For light commercial vehicles of engine capacity of 3200cc to 3500cc and certified to be fuel efficient, the Administration has decided to levy 1 per cent sales tax.

Though the policy was to introduce a uniform sales tax, there are a number of items on which the new rates of taxation in Punjab and Chandigarh would be different.

For example, take the case of bullion and species. It is 1 per cent in Punjab and 2 per cent in Chandigarh. Similarly on sports goods, it is 3 per cent in Punjab and 4 per cent in Chandigarh.

Similarly, while edible oils and cycles will attract a sales tax of 6 per cent, it will be 4 per cent in Chandigarh.

These items include refrigeration and airconditioning plants, electrical and electronic goods, television, radio, gramophone and spare parts of these wireless sets; electric valves, accumulators, amplifiers and loudspeakers and their spare parts; cinematographic equipment, including cameras, projectors and sound recording and reproducing equipment, lenses, films; photographic equipment, including lenses, plates, papers and cloth; all clocks, time pieces and watches; furniture of iron, steel, including safes and almirahs; arms, including rifles, revolvers, pistols, and ammunition; cigarette cases and lighters; dictaphone and other similar apparatuses; sound transmitting equipment, including telephones; typewriters, tabulating machines, calculating machines and duplicating machines; binoculars, telescopes and opera glasses; gramophones and components; cosmetics and toilet goods; perfumery; cutlery; vacuum flasks, sanitary goods and fittings; leather goods excluding footwear; foreign liquor , foam rubber products; furs and articles of personal and domestic use;articles and wares made wholly or partially of stainless steel except surgical instruments; all tiles, including mosaic tiles, laminated sheets and sunmica sheets; perambulators; plastic goods; aerated water, tyres and tubes, narcotics, molasses, rectified spirit, weather proofing compound, fireworks, lifts and elevators, marble and marble tiles, granite tiles; sandalwood and oil; preserved food articles; silk and silk fabrics; vacuum cleaners, VCRs; teleprinters; transformers; transmission wires and towers; carpets; cushions and mattresses; electronic toys; musical instruments; hair oils; synthetic gems; naphtha; spark plugs; rubber goods; adhesives; PVC articles; asphaltic roofings; laminated sheets, oxygen and gas except LPG, aeronautics and ACSR conductors.

The Administration, has in its 8 per cent slab included items like castings, diesel locomotives, paper, naphtha slabs, milk food and milk products, butter and all kinds of ghee, ferro alloys and super alloys, tea, biscuits and confectionery, cakes and pastries, computers (excluding software), all types of cables, ivory products, dhoop and agarbati, sulphur and saree falls. The notification further says that goods not specified elsewhere shall be liable to tax at the rate of 8 per cent.

In the 4 per cent slab, the Administration has notified all declared goods, edible oils, hosiery goods, all automobiles, including three-wheelers except vehicles of 3200 cc to 35cc, cycle and rickshaws and spare parts; cycle tyres and tubes, bicycles and tricycles, cereals, wheat and rice; seeds, readymade garments, chemicals, fertilisers, pesticides, weedicides and insecticides; all types of yarn, sewing thread; dry fruit; IT products (software); ships, including ship building; bone meals; cattle feed and prawn feed; condensed milk, dry milk and pasteurised milk; bidi leaves; oil cakes; poultry feed; new and renewable sources of energy systems and devices; agriculture implements and parts; garlic and ginger and all types of goods sold to the state or central government departments against declaration form "D".

Awarded by Administration, harassed by cops
By Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — Mr Vineet Khanna, an eminent social worker, though honoured by the Chandigarh Administration at the Republic Day Parade here yesterday , is deeply hurt and disappointed.

The reason : he was humiliated, harassed and made to shuttle between one entry gate or the other for three quarters of an hour before he could finally enter the Parade Ground, where he, along with 10 others, were to be felicitated by the Adviser to the Administrator, Ms Vineeta Rai.

“I feel all the more hurt as I expected this treatment at the hands of Chandigarh Police personnel who were manning the entry gates,” he says. Soon after he was informed that he had been chosen for the award by the Administration in recognition of his work in educating children in slum areas, he made every possible effort to contact the Deputy Commissioner, and the Senior Superintendent of Police, to ensure that he did not feel any problem in reaching the venue of the function in his special vehicle.

Mr Khanna, who had a massive stroke in 1995 and was paralysed, moves in a specially designed vehicle — a Tata Sumo — which is fitted with all his requirements. It is in this vehicle that he moves in slum areas everyday, in a lying position.

The letter issued by the Home Secretary, containing names of all 11 awardees, mentions all about Mr Vineet Khanna, besides directing the Deputy Commissioner that “suitable seats to the awardees at the State function on January 26, 2000, may please be arranged and invitation cards issued to them.”

“All my efforts to contact the Deputy Commissioner and the Senior Superintendent of Police proved futile. I left my telephone number at their offices and residences but without being called back. On January 25, I sent one of my colleagues to the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police, who was not available in his office. A message was left with the Reader as he was not able to suggest name of any other officer who could be of any help in this regard”, he says.

“After getting no response from any quarter, I decided not to take any chance. So I left my home at about 8.15 a.m. Accompanied by my mother and my driver, I reached Gate No 3 as per the invitation card. My ordeal began immediately after I reached there. The policemen and officials manning the gate refused me entry from the gate, saying that I must go to a gate on the other side of the Parade Ground, adjoining the Inter-State Bus Terminus. When we went there, we were tossed back.

“This shuttling between one gate and the other continued for about 45 minutes. Finally, someone relented and allowed me in, realising that I needed assistance to get down in my special stretcher from the vehicle. By then it was 9.15 a.m.

“After my special stretcher was taken out from the car, the vehicle was parked at the appropriate parking area. But this 45-minute ordeal for a disabled person, who had been invited to be honoured, was unbearable. I was deeply hurt and very upset. Keeping in view the sanctity of the occasion, I did not think proper to turn back and refuse the award,” says Mr Khanna.

“When this incident was brought to the notice of the Deputy Commissioner”, regrets Mr Khanna, “he expressed his ignorance about my physical condition.” Instead of regretting the incident, he wanted me to bring this ordeal to his notice at the gate. He was too busy to respond to my telephone calls. This treatment made me much more upset. I could not sleep the whole night”, says Mr Khanna.

The Chandigarh Police, he maintains, is the most inhuman and has no training in dealing with special people, or people with disabilities. “They treat them very shabbily,” laments Mr Khanna, who is perhaps the only one from North India to be made a Fellow of the US-based Ashoka Foundation Stone. Recently, when he got Red and White Bravery award, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms Shiela Dixit, came down from dais, to make presentation to him.

Songs, dances mark R-Day functions
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, Jan 27 — An entertaining cultural programme, tableaux of various departments and awards for bravery, excellence in education and sports marked the Republic Day celebrations in the township.

Students of various schools presented songs and dances to mark the occasion. A Haryanavi dance presentation by Haryana Model School, Sector 10, the Gypsy dance by students of Hansraj Public School, Sector 6, and I Love My India, an action song by students of Satluj Public School, Sector 4, won the applause of the audience. A Rajasthani dance, Holian mein udde re gulal, by students of Jaynendra Public School, Sector 1, was a lively presentation and won Vaishali, a class II student of the school, a special prize.

The flower-bedecked tableau of the Haryana Urban Development Authority showing the City of Gardens was declared first, that of the Health Department won the second place, while the tableau of the District Industries Centre came third. The other tableaux were of the Electricity Department, HMT, Pinjore, Punjab National Bank, the Forest Department depicting the hazards of pollution and the Agriculture Department.

Twentyeight students were awarded prizes for excelling in studies while participants of the Asian roller hockey team, which came third in the games held in China, were awarded. A student of St Stephen's School, Amrita Singh, was honoured for coming first in the national roller hockey championship, besides awarding judo player, Lalit Kumar.

Prizes for outstanding work in other fields went to Mr Sant Ram, in charge, Fire Station, Mr Jagdeep Kapoor, Mr Harsh Vardhan and Mr S.P. Goyal of the District Industries Centre, Mrs M.C. Mamgain, Mrs Reeta Devi, Ms Anjana, Ms Pratibha Chauhan, Hav Kundan Lal Sharma (retd), Mrs Phool Khattri, District Education Officer, Mr Anand Singh Bisth, a freedom fighter, Sachin and Sunil Kumar and Chaudhary Hari Singh, District Primary Education Officer.

Also, in the march past, platoon No 1 led by ASI Pradeep Kumar was declared first. The NCC junior group led by Pankaj Sharma came second and the Home Guards band led by Constable Roolda Singh came third. Scouts of Haryana Model School came first and the girl guides of Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 7, were placed second, while the team from Jaynendra School came third.

Speaking at the function, the Deputy Director of the Planning Board, Mr R.S. Chaudhary, urged the youth to follow the ideals of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose.

He appealed to the residents to make Haryana a model state and contribute their mite towards making India a stronger nation.

The Astha Welfare Society celebrated Republic Day here with children of Maheshpur village. A cultural programme of patriotic songs and dances by children highlighted the show.

In another event 386 students participated in a painting competition organised by the Build India Group in Sector 16. The topics for the contest, divided in various groups, were Glory of India, Festivals of India and My dream of India. In group A, Akshata Bhardwaj of Little Flower School stood first followed by Himanshu of Blue Bird High School. In group B, Kanav Goyal came first followed by Himanshu, both from Manav Mangal School. In group C, Tripathi Sharma stood first followed by Mamata. Rajni of Blue Bird School stood first in the group D contest followed by Shavni Kochar of the same school.

Over 300 students of New India Public School, Sector 15, took part in various competitions, including painting, poster making, essay writing, etc on the occasion. A cultural programme, which included folk dances, patriotic songs, etc was presented. Over 70 students were honoured on the occasion for meritorious achievements in various fields.

Suicide in custody to be probed
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Jan 27 — A 25-year-old Sohana resident belonging to a minority community died after allegedly consuming some poisonous substance while in police custody on Tuesday last — a fact denied by the police. The deceased, Jasbir Khan, alias Kaka, a daily-wage earner, had been taken to Sohana police station in connection with a case of theft registered against him.

After the news of the death of the youth spread agitated residents of Sohana yesterday blocked the busy SAS Nagar-Landran road leading to Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib for over five hours. Squatting on the road the men and women of the village raised slogans against the police demanding a thorough enquiry into the matter.

After the Senior Superintendent of Police, Ropar, Mr G.P.S. Bhullar, ordered registration of a case of negligence against two policemen — Head Constable Sarabjit Singh and Home Guards jawan Sarwan Singh — for not frisking the deceased before taking him in custody, the villagers lifted the blockade.

The Subdivisional Magistrate (SDM), Mr O.P. Popli, reached the spot and started an inquiry into the matter.

Earlier the police had registered a case of attempt to suicide against the deceased on a statement given by some persons of Sohana, who said the police was taking the suspect to the police station for being questioned in connection with a case of theft. The youth, according to the police records, consumed the poison while on the way to the police station. He died at the PGI, Chandigarh, after he was referred from the Phase 6 Civil Hospital.

The wife of the victim, Babli, alleged that two policemen came to her house on the morning of January 25 and said that they had come to take her husband to the police station as a case under Sections 380 and 457 of the IPC had been registered against him on a complaint lodged by a shopkeeper of Sohana.

But she insisted that the policemen should bring some members of the panchayat with them before her husband was taken in custody. The policemen then brought a panchayat member, Mr Pawan Kumar, to the house of the victim. The family members alleged that the mother of the victim, Sheela, who works in the Public Health wing of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, was called to Sohana police station where she was asked to sign some papers before releasing her son. Then late in the night the family was informed that the youth had died after consuming poison.

What attracted protests from the villagers was that though the youth died after allegedly consuming an insecticide before noon, the family members of the deceased were informed late in the evening. The family members alleged that the insecticide consumed by the victim had not been taken from his house — a fact denied by the police.

The SSP said an inquiry into the case had already been ordered by the District Magistrate and it would be conducted by the SDM, SAS Nagar. Besides, the Superintendent of Police (Detective), Ropar, would also probe into the matter. The autopsy of the victim, which was to be done today at the PGI, Chandigarh by a panel of doctors, could not conducted and the case has been referred to the Sector 16 General Hospital at Chandigarh.

Security of some VIPs cut, others up
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — The recommendations of the Protection Review Group (PRG) have been formally approved by the Chandigarh Administration after some minor changes.

While the security provided by the local police to a close aide of a former UT Administrator will be withdrawn completely, it has been reduced in the case of others.

The PRG, which meets quarterly, reviews the degrees of threat perception and recommends the number of personnel to be provided to protect an individual. The meetings are attended by representatives of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and the CID and security wings of the local police.

According to sources, the administration has accepted the recommendation of the PRG regarding the complete withdrawal of security to Parminder Singh, alias Pinky, a close aide of Lieut-Gen B. K. N. Chhibber (retd), a former Punjab Governor and UT Administrator. He has a full detail of guards to protect him.

Others whose security has been scaled down include Mr Satya Pal Jain, former MP, Mr Venod Sharma, former union minister and a former chief of the local unit of the Congress, and Mr Dharam Pal Gupta, local BJP chief. The security of Mr Dhanik Lal Mandal, a former Haryana Governor, and the station director of the All India Radio station, has also been reduced, the sources added.

The security of the Director, Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL) and Mr Jai Singh Jagat, son of Mr Gurbachan Jagat, DG, Jammu and Kashmir Police, who resides in the city has reportedly been increased.

The local police provides security cover to more than 100 individuals. As many as 47 persons are covered under X security, 37 under Y and more than 10 under Z.

The Punjab Governor, Punjab and Haryana Chief Ministers, Mr Maninderjit Singh Bitta, a former national Youth Congress chief and Mr Sumedh Singh Saini, a former city SSP, are provided security under the Z plus category.

The Haryana Governor, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, UT HS, IGP, DC, SSP, Chairman, BBMB, and Mr Sukhbir Badal, son of Punjab Chief Minister, are protected under Z category security.

Dogs were poisoned, say forensic experts
By Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — Will the game of passing the buck among officials of various wings of the UT Administration stop after four months of the death by poisoning of six dogs in Sector 16 now that the forensic experts have confirmed that the luckless animals were indeed poisoned?

The Government Laboratory at Patiala, where the viscera of the dogs was sent for chemical examination, has confirmed that the dogs killed on October 9, 1999, just two days after Animal Day was observed in the city with much fanfare, were poisoned by strychnine-laced burfi. Strychnine is a deadly poison derived from the seeds of nux vomica, an east Indian plant, and is a restricted poison unlike celphos tablets for insecticide which are available over the counter.

Official sources in the state government lab at Patiala told The Tribune, which has been following the case of blatant cruelty since the day the dogs were done to death allegedly by health officials led by the Corporation Medical Officer of Health (MoH), Dr S.S. Cheema, that it was an established case of poisoning by strychnine.

Dr Cheema has since neither denied nor admitted his complicity in the act of cruelty towards animals.

The Chandigarh police, who had been reluctant all these four months to register a case because of the alleged involvement of health officials, has still not registered a case under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1962, in spite of the despatch of the forensic report to the UT Animal Husbandry Department whose two doctors had conducted the post-mortem. Interestingly, Mr S.K. Singh, the Inspector General of Police, had repeatedly promised that a case would be registered once the report from the Patiala lab was available. Mr Singh, however, was not available for comment.

The Animal Husbandry Department's veterinary officer, Dr J.C. Kochhar, denied having received the report of the chemical examination of the viscera of the killed dogs; but sources in the government lab maintained that the report had been sent to the authorities concerned at Chandigarh a fortnight ago. UT veterinary officials, after conducting the post-mortem of dogs, had suspected that death had been caused by poisoning.

Of the six dogs killed, four were duly registered with the corporation and were wearing tokens issued by the civic body authorities at the time death struck them. Ms Nandini Kakar, owner of the four dogs, had made numerous complaints to various authorities, including the Adviser to the UT Administrator, demanding action against those involved in the ghastly act, but to no avail. The police, in view of the pressure mounted by her family and animal lovers, washed their hands off by merely making the Daily Diary Report (DDR) entry. But the police in their persistent bid to hush up the case and save the skin of those who perpetrated the brutality on innocent animals in full public view, has not supplied a copy of the DDR, the basic legal document to the complainant. Appeals to the police authorities to register an FIR in the case as per the standing order of the Superme Court of India, have failed to move them.

Mr Bhupinder Kumar Kakar, a leading lawyer of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, one of the several material witnesses to the crime, said he had seen a group of people in an officious looking Maruti Gypsy (CH-01-G-1424) chasing and feeding what later turned out to be strychnine-laced burfi to the dogs. He said his wife and daughter took one female dog to the Sector 22 dog clinic in view of its serious condition but it died of what the vet suspected as poisoning.

Several rickshaw-pullers, who had also seen the Gypsy people chasing and feeding the dogs, were benumbed when a few of the animals died before their eyes, in front of the cycle rickshaw stand outside the Sector 16 General Hospital. The rickshaw-pullers who had reared two dogs with love and compassion and named them "Rampiari" and "Chowkidar" were particularly upset by the crime and had even organised a formal "burial" of the dogs in the Sector 25 cremation ground

COMMUNITY

Water leaks, MCC sleeps
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — The massive hike in the price of water notwithstanding, the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) seems to care two hoots for the wastage of water if the leakage of water from a supply line outside The Tribune office for the past three days is any indication.

A leaking water pressure gauge outside the office has flooded a portion of the Dakshin Marg, making driving a risky affair, particularly at night. Thousands of litres of water has literally gone down the drain, with the Public Health Wing of the MCC looking the other way, despite repeated complaints.

Repeated attempts by The Tribune staff to bring the matter to the notice of the Sector 32 Water Works autthorities has fallen on deaf ears. The staff was, in turn, directed to complain to the Sector 29 authorities as the area fell under their jurisdiction. The Sector 32 water works staff have failed to intimate the telephone number of the Sector 29 staff, leave alone inform the authorities under whose jurisdiction the affected area falls.

This is not for the first time that Sector 32 staff has passed the buck. Last year, the staff ignored the representations of residents for several days regarding the leakage from a major water supply line near Sector 31, saying the area fell under the jurisdiction of the Industrial Area authorities.

Club to focus on pending projects
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — "With the coming of the new millennium, focus of the Rotary has changed from just being a club to being a way of life, a philosophy of life," according to Mr Arun Sharma, District Governor of Rotary International, District 3080, who was in the city to review the projects and activities of the Rotary Club of Chandigarh and to discuss future projects.

According to Mr Sharma, this year the focus of the club would be on completing the pending projects. These include child opportunity grants, health awareness projects and rural development programmes.

He said a district conference would be held from February 18 to 20. Mr Arun Jaitley, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, would be the chief guest. Mr I.K. Gujral, Shabana Azmi and Kapil Dev would also be present.

The conference would include two group study exchange teams from the USA and Canada, besides guests from the UK and Italy. Awards for excellence in various fields would be presented on the occasion.

On the issue of programmes for the rural section, he said, "We are also forming a Rotary community corps which will not only serve as service partners for Rotarians but also help strengthening grassroot level." Programmes in this sector included focus on rural sanitation, education for women, mass community marriages and micro loans.

Another project, called the early act, launched in August 1999, would be started in the city in April, he said. It would focus on children between 5 to 13 years and would target this group to inculcate civic sense and right values of life. This project would be undertaken in collaboration with the various schools of the city, he added.

Talking about forthcoming projects, Mr Sharma said this would include planned projects worth Rs 8 crore, of which three would be large projects. These included an eye hospital near Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh and a Rs 2-crore project near Nahan in Himachal Pradesh that would have a rehabilitation centre for the handicapped, corrective surgery centre and old-age home.

Other projects in this category included a blood resource centre in Chandigarh and school laboratories and vocational education centres. "The endeavour is to do whatever little service we can in areas where much work needs to be done," said Mr Sharma.

Danger from electric wires
From a Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — Overhead power lines have become a threat to the lives of the residents of Ram Darbar, Phase 11. These wires run so close to the houses that in some areas a man standing on the roof is in danger of coming in contact with them. At some places the cables have touched the house-tops. The telephone and Cable TV wires, which run parallel, can also lead to an accident.

According to the sources in the Electricity Department, this situation has arisen because of illegal extensions made in the houses. The department could not take action against the constructions. The cables have been tightened but this does not solve the problem.

The Councillor of the area, Mrs Kamlesh, confirmed that people had done encroachments at some places but added that the encroachments took place years ago and now the Administration was unable to take any action against the encroachers. Power lines could not be shifted, she added.

She held house owners responsible for the situation. The only solution to the problem, she said, was for the house owners to remove encroachments. Residents of the colony refuse to say anything in this regard.

Admn blamed for encroachments
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — The BJP has blamed the Chandigarh Administration for encroachments in Pocket Nos 2 and 11 in Mani Majra.

In a press note issued here today, the party demanded action against the officials, during whose tenures the encroachments took place. When the land had been transferred to the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC), it was the prerogative of the civic body to decide how to deal with the land.

It may be recalled that last year, the corporation had decided to regularise illegal constructions on the land subject to paying of the development charges. This decision was later shot down by the administration.

The press note claimed that the water and power connections had been released and numbering of the houses done by the erstwhile Notified Area Committee. It was not a mere encroachment but a full-fledged sector which had come up while the land was with the administration, it argued.

CRIME

Book cop for assault: dargah caretaker
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — Accusing a Chandigarh Police Sub-Inspector of "criminally assaulting" him, care-taker of Lalalanwala Pir Durgah at Daria village — Abdul Razaq Khan — today sought directions to the UT Administration and the Station House Officer of the Industrial Area police station from a city court to register a case against the cop.

In a petition filed before a city court today, Khan alleged that the Sub-Inspector also forcibly took away three gold rings and the donations after entering the dargah with a dog squad on January 17.

Taking up the petition, the UT Judicial Magistrate (First Class), Ms Paramvir Nijjar, directed the petitioner to appear before the Chandigarh Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sant Parkash, on February 1.

Meanwhile, further accusing the cop of using "filthy language", the petitioner also alleged that the cop "threatened him to vacate the premises within 10 days" or else face the danger of being implicated in a criminal case.

Claiming to be scared, the petitioner also expressed his inability to "do the worship peacefully". The matter, he added, had been brought to the notice of the UT Inspector-General but the FIR had not been registered.

Seeking protection for himself and his family, the petitioner also asked for directions to the Central Bureau of Investigation, "or like independent authority" to register the FIR and investigate the matter, "if it deems fit".

Labourer crushed to death
FOC and TNS

LALRU, Jan 27 — A labourer, Uttra, hailing form Madhya Pradesh, was crushed to death on the Chandigarh-Ambala highway by a tractor-trailer (PGV-6062) here last night.

His body was handed over to his colleagues after a post-mortem examination in Civil Hospital, Rajpura.

Held with whisky: The police has arrested Nain Singh and Rakesh Kumar and seized 90 pouches of whisky. While the former was arrested from Sector 17, the latter was nabbed from Sector 24. Cases under Sections 61, 1 and 14 of the Excise Act have been registered.

Thieves held: The police has arrested two thieves and recovered iron shuttering plates and a bicycle from them.

While Karta Ram was arrested and five iron shuttering plates were recovered from him, Prem Chand was arrestd for possessing a stolen bicycle.

Cases under Sections 379 and 411, IPC, have been registered against them.

Theft reported: Mr R.S. Goyal, a resident of Sector 37, reported that someone has stolen gold and silver ornaments, a VCR, a camera and Rs 8,000. A case under Sections 454 and 380, IPC, has been registered.

Student succumbs to injuries
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — Sadhna, a resident of Mani Majra, who had set herself ablaze yesterday, succumbed to her injuries at the PGI here this afternoon. She lived at an ashram in the city.

The 15-year-old class X student, in her statement to a magistrate, is reported to have been targeted by persons for not studying hard and the prospect of failing in the recently held examinations. She reportedly took the extreme step by pouring kerosene and setting herself afire.

A case under Section 309, IPC, has been registered.

Convicted of rash driving
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — A schoolteacher accused of injuring a person after ramming into a tea stall has been convicted and released on probation by UT Judicial Magistrate (First Class) A. K. Bishnoi.

Archana Sharma was earlier booked by the Chandigarh Police for endangering human life by driving rashly on a public way and causing hurt by an act endangering human life under Sections 279 and 337 of the Indian Penal Code, besides Section 3 and 181 of the Motor Vehicle Act.

According to the prosecution, Sharma, driving a car rashly and negligently, had banged into a tea shop, injuring a person on the road dividing Sectors 43 and 44.

The accused, when confronted with the incriminating evidence against her, had however, denied the allegations. Claiming to be innocent, she had stated that a false case had been registered against her.

Rs 150.64 crore spent on basic pay
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27—The Chandigarh Administration has estimated to have incurred an expenditure to the tune of Rs 150.64 crore as basic pay and Rs 48.88 crore on DA for its employees during 1998-99.

This was stated in a press note of the Chandigarh Administration issued in connection with the publication of four publications—"Statistical Abstract", "Chandigarh in Figures", "Employees Census-99" and 16th "Quinquennial Livestock Census-1997"—by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics.

Mr KAP Sinha, Joint Secretary Finance, said the "Statistical Abstract-1999" contained area and population, climate and rainfall, agriculture, forest and marketing, medical and health, livestock, industries, electricity, roads, water supply, trade and finance, education, labour and employment, joint stock companies, transport and communications, housing, policeand crime, cooperation, food and civil supplies, social welfare and scheduled caste welfare, plan, economic census, electoral statistic, index number, employees, local bodies, tourism and state domestic product.

He said the "Chandigarh in figures-99" had also been brought out by the department on an annual basis. This publication contained, among other things, population data, village and industries, annual surveys of the industries, government employees, Budget, actual expenditure, receipts, education data for the year 1996-97,1997-98 and 1998-99.

The "Employees Census-99" presented information with regard to the composition of the staff and also representation being given to the SCs, STs, OBCs, ex-servicemen and women in the government sector.

The press note added that the total number of employees as on March 31,1999, were reported to be 22,715 excluding those on contract, out of which 3,911 belonged to the SCs. The total deputationists from Punjab and Haryana and Himachal and other states were 2,178. Out of the total employees, the males constituted 16,805 and females 5,911. The main employer was the police with 4,164 followed by DEO (schools and colleges)3,711 and transport 2,389.