Chandigarh, November 26
The Chandigarh Administration is all set to revive the practice of dealers issuing registration numbers of vehicles. A recommendation to this regard has been made by the sub-group of the Administrator’s Advisory Council for Review of Existing Law\Rules and Simplification of Procedures.

The Administration had introduced the practice during the 1990s and at least a couple of dealers in the city were authorised to issue registration numbers. Following certain problems, the practice was discontinued.

Under the recommended change for registration Under Section 41 of the Motor Registration Act, a dealer will issue certificate of registration in a form as prescribed by the Central Government. The certificate will also specify the type of motor vehicle, its design, construction and use.

The dealer has been specifically asked to assign a distinguishing mark to the vehicle as allotted by the state or the Central Government as notified in the official gazette. The registration will be valid for a period of 15 years following which it will need renewal.

The administration will authorise testing stations for grant or renewal of certificate of fitness to vehicles. Currently, the board of fitness of the state Transport Authority constituted as per Rule 38 of the Chandigarh Motor Vehicle Rules is discharging the function for grant of certificate of fitness or renewal.

It has been pointed out that the state Transport Authority does not have basic infrastructure to inspect vehicles as per the procedure specified in the rules.

It was pointed out in the meeting that a majority of service stations were equipped with infrastructure required for the inspection of vehicles. Therefore, authorising these stations will be a healthy step for appropriate inspection. All service stations which fulfil the requirements under section 63 of the rules will be authorised to issue the certificate of fitness to vehicles.

The record of selling vehicles will be maintained separately by the RLA and dealers. The dealer will submit a report to the RLA by the 15th of every month, failing which he will be charged a fine of 18 per cent of the interest amount and Rs 500.

Chandigarh, November 26
Guess who ‘stole’ the show at this marriage! No not the dazzling bride and the groom, but pickpockets, who managed to decamp with jewellery and cash worth Rs three lakh from the unsuspecting guests at Hotel Mountview, here this afternoon.

And to add to the woes of this marriage party was the alleged misbehaviour of the hotel staff, who refused to take any responsibility for the incident or entertain their complaint. It was also alleged that on the contrary, the staff were making fun of them and cracking jokes. The wedding party arrived from Tarn Taran in Punjab.

According to Ms Paramjit Kaur, an NRI and a cousin of bride, the incident took place during the ribbon cutting ceremony as in that commotion, some pickpockets managed to search their purses and took away their cash and other valuables. She in her complaint to the police alleged that Rs 50,000 and ornaments were stolen from her purse. A case of theft was registered on her complaint in the Sector 3, police station.

Mr Harpreet Ghuman, who lost her expensive goggles, said the matter came to light when they sat in the hall after the ceremony and searched their purses only to find their valuables missing. When other women search their purses, they also raised the alarm and it was found that some gang had targeted them.

She further alleged that when the matter was reported to the hotel staff, they just steered clear of the matter, saying they had nothing to do with it. Some of them even told the complainants that even the Pakistani cricket team had fallen victims to pickpockets here. When they tried to contact the manager of the hotel, he said he was busy at his home and could do nothing at that time.

Later the family contacted the general manager of CITCO, Mr Jasbir Singh Bir, who reportedly in his reply expressed that he was sorry for the incident. It was only after the family called the mediapersons that a senior officer of CITCO arrived and tried to pacify the guests.

Chandigarh, November 26
A 36-year-old watchman of the Sector 20 market was found hanging under mysterious circumstances from a peepal tree in the locality early this morning, here. Though the victim’s relatives were expressing suspicion over the incident and were alleging it to be a case of murder, the police said it was a case of suicide.

A father of four children, the victim, Tilak Basant, was found hanging from the tree with a nylon rope and his feet were hanging about four feet from the ground. No stool or any other object, on which the victim might have mounted to hang himself was found. He was wearing blue uniform provided by the market association to watchmen. The left arm and leg bore rub marks on them, which the police said, were caused while climbing over the tree.

The matter came to light at around 6 am. Soon after the word about a body hanging from tree spread in the locality, a large number of people gathered there. They were also casting doubts on the police theory.

Mr Janak Basant, a colleague of Tilak Basant, who is also the victim’s brother-in-law, told Chandigarh Tribune that Tilak was with him on duty last night. He added that he was making a round near gurdwara in the locality at around 3 am while Tilak was on duty near the liquor vend there. He noticed five or seven unidentified men, who were under the influence of liquor, near the gurdwara, who without any provocation, threatened to eliminate him.

He reportedly fled the spot to save his life. After mustering courage, he went to report the matter to the cops posted at the beat box, but he found no one there. After that, he went to the liquor vend and to his utter shock, he found Tilak hanging.

On seeing this, Janak raised the alarm and ran for help. When no one came for his help, he went to the Sector 31 market and informed the victim’s brother-in-law, Yudh Bhadur, about the incident. They reached the spot and in the meantime, the police also arrived.

Janak was trying his best to convince the cops in front of the people about the hand of the unidentified men behind the incident, but the cops did not believe in what he was saying. Instead of paying attention to his allegations, the cops asked him to climb the tree.

When he climbed, down the police officials showed him the rub marks on his body in order to drive home the point that that the victim had received the similar marks by climbing over the tree. The police officers maintained that Janak was under a state of shock and thus, did not know what he was saying.

The police then took him along with them to the police station. The police also rounded up several people living in the market area for their suspicious behaviour.

Talking to this correspondent, Yudh Bhadur asserted that Tilak could not commit suicide as he was planning to go to Dubai and have applied for a passport of late. He also added that Tilak had purchased land in his native village in Nepal.

Mr Anil Gupta, president of the Sector 20 market association, said Tilak was a sincere man and was working as watchman in the market for the past over six years. He stated that Tilak could not commit suicide.

DSP (East) Prem Kumar Malik, and Sector 19 SHO Sukhdev Singh Bhullar maintained that it was a case of suicide. The symptoms found on the body indicated that the death was caused due to hanging, they said.

The SHO added that the victim, a father of four children, was depressed as he had taken a loan which he was finding unable to pay back. Meanwhile, the police initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code in this connection.

Chandigarh, November 26
Faced with an acute shortage of examiners, Panjab University has brought about major changes in the appointment of examiners and sub-examiners to handle its annual examinations. In the new system, retired teachers, serving teachers of other universities and members of the board of studies will examine papers of PU students.

The controller of examinations has had to dilute earlier norms. For the current academic year, he has specifically asked department heads to take note of the shortage of examiners, asking them to be prepared to appoint the same examiner for four papers.

Sources add that in a healthy system, one person should be examiner only for one paper, in which he or she is an expert. He has also asked departments to consider retired teachers and teachers from other universities for appointment as examiners.

According to the instructions given out, even ad hoc faculty and guest faculty can be appointed to examine answer books in the forthcoming examinations.

Typically, following the norms of the university, the university needs between 400 and 500 examiners for spot evaluation in popular subjects like Punjabi, Hindi, English and history. Less than 200 teachers from the university and its colleges are available as examiners in any particular subject.

The shortage is made worse by the fact that the faculty of the university and its colleges do not consider it a big deal being appointed an examiner and hence, a large number of them either refuse to work as examiners or simply do not turn up for spot evaluation. This is the situation even when the university has increased the payment to be made for the evaluation of each script.

In addition, every paper also has a ‘head examiner’ whose task is to cross-check 15 per cent of the answer books for consistency of evaluation and fairness. During last year, there were numerous complaints from various examination centres that junior teachers had been appointed head examiners.

This year, therefore, departments have been asked to take care to appoint head examiners on the basis of seniority. Only teachers with a minimum of 10 years’ teaching experience can be appointed head examiners while retired teachers and those from outside of the jurisdiction of the PU are not to be appointed.

Interestingly, even members of the various boards of studies can be appointed examiners and head examiners. These members are also charged with the task of appointing examiners for the examination in the first place.

In other words, as of now they can appoint themselves as examiners. Many of them have not completed 10 years of service. Then will they still be appointed head examiners, even in case of an emergency, as stated in the communication.

Vijayant Malik, a trainee of the Sector 10 Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Academy, will appear for the ITF Junior Grade 4 Tournament at Mumbai from Monday.

Spotted under the Chandigarh Academy for Rural Tennis, a specially designed programme, to uplift the upcoming tennis talent, Vijyant was picked up by CLTA from a village in Haryana at the age of 11 years.

As a member of Indian junior Davis Cup team, Vijayant Malik has played in the international tennis circuit in the Middle East Damascus (Syria) and Brunei (Malaysia).

Malaysia-based Bharatnatyam danseuse Shangita Namasivayam along with her troupe “Kalpana Dance Theatre group” is in city on the invitation of the Pracheen Kala Kendra to present a classical dance show at Tagore Theatre on November 28 from 6.30 pm. The event is part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Kendra.

Shangita is a highly talented, gifted, polished and accomplished dancer who has toured extensively all over the world with renowned dance choreographer Chandralekha. Regarded as an ambassador of Indian classical dancing arts, she mastered the art in her formative years in Sri Lanka.

Shangita then proceeded to one of the foremost centres of Bharatnatyam - Kalakshetra College of Fine arts, Madras.

What brings you to the city?

Panchkula, November 26
Last night, life dangled between pain and death on the Ramgarh-Barwala highway as frantic screams filled the air. Three victims of a head-on collision between two trucks on the highway sat in the mangled remains of the truck, trapped inside and desperate to get out.

Hearing their shouts for help, people from adjoining villages along the highway began gathering around the crushed fronts of the two trucks, HR 46 4771 (coming towards Panchkula) and WB 23A 4005 (going from Chandigarh to Kolkata). It was 9:30 pm. The air was chilly and all the hope for the victims came from the increasing numbers before them. Help was at hand, but they hoped that it would come before it was too late.

“We had just got into bed when a loud thud prompted us to investigate. Since it was dark outside, all we heard were shrill shouts as other villagers also gathered in the village. We rushed to the spot to find that two trucks had driven right into each other and the victims inside were still alive,” says Mr Ram Singh, a resident of Ramgarh.

In excruciating pain, the victims were faces of desperation. “Get us out, get us out” was all they kept repeating between bouts of crying. It was their scariest and most agony filled night on the highway, which they usually drove through without the slightest anxiety. Yesterday, as they sat in the truck, hoping to break free of the mangled iron that forced them to remain glued to their seats, Ram Kumar, C.B. Yadav and Asheesh Kumar, prayed to come out alive of an accident, which could well have cost them their lives.

With no streetlights lighting the highway, the villagers brought in torches to light up the trucks. The villagers managed to pull out the cleaner of the truck while the two truck drivers awaited their turns.

Outside, the accident led to a complete hold-up of traffic on the highway as vehicles came to a grinding halt. Hundreds of people were stranded in the jam, that stretched on till as far as the Ghaggar bridge towards Panchkula and well beyond Ramgarh towards Barwala. And while all this went on, the police was conspicuous by its absence.

The first PCR arrived only after 10:30 pm, one painful hour later after the public had extracted two of the three men out of the crushed trucks. After they arrived, they began streamlining the traffic to restore its flow on the highway while the public continued to hammer away at the doors of the truck to help in the safe exit of the third victim.

The ASI in charge of the police post, Mr Satveer Singh, said, "Nobody told us about the accident on the highway. We came to know of the accident when long queues of traffic crossed our police post. We had a tough time driving through the heavy traffic rush, but we were on our toes as soon as we got wind of it,” he justified.

Adding that the public was working on opening the trucks to pull out the victims, he maintained that restoring traffic flow was their other priority after the victims and the staff of three at the post got busy with that.

The third victim was also pulled out by the public and the three were sent to General Hospital, Sector 6, past 11 pm where they received treatment. A crane, however, only arrived after 11:45 pm.

The trucks were pushed to the roadside to make way for traffic. Admitted to hospital, the three accident victims could not thank their stars enough for living through a night which could well have put them to sleep forever.

Chandigarh, November 26
The Chandigarh territorial Youth Congress and the Chandigarh pradesh sewa dal today took out a Padyatra in Ward No 15 (comprising of Sectors 34, 35 and 44). The activists carrying banners, placards and flags raised slogans in favour of the Congress and its leaders.

The activists covered all three sectors, starting from Congress Bhawan, Sector 35, reached the Sector 34 gurdwara, where the Congress leaders including mayor Surinder Singh, deputy mayor H.S. Lucky, vice-president CTCC Mr Pawan Sharma, Mr A.S. Gujral organising secretary, Chandigarh pradesh sewa dal, paid obeisance at the gurdwara and went on to Sector 44.

The Congress leaders appealed to the residents to vote for the Congress in the municipal corporation elections as the Congress party alone could ensure all-round development of the city.

“With the Congress government at the Centre and in neighbouring states, a vote in favour of the Congress will certainly be beneficial,” they said. Later on the Vikas yatra was also taken out in Burail, where local Congress leaders participated.

Chandigarh, November 26
To make people aware or leprosy, the District Leprosy Society, Chandigarh, will launch a door-to-door campaign from tomorrow.

The society in collaboration with the German Leprosy and TB Relief Association, today organised a one-day reorientation-training programme for paramedical workers, functioning as district nucleus staff in the city, at Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16, here.

At least 36 participants — community health workers, lab technicians, pharmacists, nursing staff and paramedical workers of urban slums of the city — benefited from the programme.

Teams would be constituted to visit Ram Darbar, Bapu Dham Colony, Colony No.4, besides other slums of the city. Almost 80 workers would make people aware on how to suspect the leprosy. Free treatment would be given to the confirmed cases.

Dr Vanita Gupta, district leprosy officer, Chandigarh, informed that new case detection ratio in the city had come down from 5.0 per 10,000 in 1996 to 2.4 per 10,000 in 2006. The target was to eliminate the leprosy from the city.

Earlier, director, health service, UT, Dr M.S. Bains, in his inaugural address, motivated the workers to ensure that each suspect case of leprosy be treated thoroughly at any of the leprosy clinics in the city.

Chandigarh, November 26
A woman has accused her brother-in-law and his son of defrauding her of Rs 54.50 lakh by fraudulently withdrawing money from her account. She has also accused a senior official of a bank of being hand-in-glove with the accused.

Ms Anita Rani of Kurukshetra has alleged that her brother-in-law, Mr Ashok Kumar Goel, and his son, Arun, withdrew money from her account in the bank, located in Sector 9, by submitting two cheques worth Rs 9.50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh respectively. She has alleged that the signatures on these cheques were forged and the bank had issued a cheque book to the accused without approval.

The accused had also transferred Rs 20 lakh from her account to their account in the same bank through a written application. Ms Anita Rani said though they had detected the fraud in March and brought this to the notice of the police, but no action had been taken against the accused.

Panchkula, November 26
After Ajay Sangroha, an accused in the property grab case, Manoj Kumar, also named in the FIR, has said the transaction in the property was absolutely legal and the whole exercise had been carried out in accordance with the law.

In a letter to the Superintendent of Police, he has urged him to verify the claims of the NRI, Ramesh Chander, to get to the facts. Claiming that he does not know the other accused named in the FIR, Manoj Kumar said he bought the house for Rs 20 lakh from the NRI after selling his plot on VIP road, Zirakpur, and pooling money from friends.

“He signed a receipt that he had received the amount in full for sale of his house on August 30, 2005. All the original documents pertaining to the property were handed over to me except the original re-allotment letter which they said had been misplaced,” he said.

Mr Manoj Kumar maintains that the dispute arose after a notification of the Government of Haryana banning transfer of property on GPA basis. “I asked him to personally make an appearance for which I offered all expenses. However, he demanded more money which I turned down after which he began creating problems for us,” he maintains.

Stating that a false case was being made up against him, he has demanded to know why the police registered a case in a hurry without verifying the facts. Meanwhile, Mr Ramesh Chander said the accused had fabricated documents and dismissed allegations that any of his relatives was in the police and harassing the accused.

Chandigarh, November 26
Sunday rush added to reigning festivity at the Leisure Valley today.

No wonder, day two of the Chandigarh Carnival was all about confusion on the roads and inside the venue. But part of the celebrations as it was, no one seemed to mind the inconvenience. Children seemed to enjoy the most, thanks to novel floats designed by students of the Arts College.

After parading the city, the floats entered the Valley this morning, only to hijack the show. And once they were in, it was time for everyone to get into the joyride mode. Rickshaw pullers naturally made hay while the winter sun shined.

At another corner, folk dancers regaled visitors. Star attractions were the rustics from Punjab and Haryana. With their contribution, rural tourism— this year's theme for the carnival— came alive. So much so that the sound of music emerged a clear winner over the noise of celebrations which lagged behind. The credit for folk performances went to the North Zone Cultural Centre and Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi, which successfully showcased the rural culture through 'bhands', 'naqqals', 'been' players and other musicians who handled folk instruments with admirable passion.

Chandigarh, November 26
Chandigarh Carnival ended on a zesty note this evening with the spirited performance by Javed Ali and Santokh Singh.

After Shibani Kashyap's dull presentation yesterday, the audience were high in spirits today.

Though the show started a little late, the audience didn't seem hassled. They enjoyed the melodic offerings that came from the little known but very promising duo. Interspersing the concert were some dance performances and fire juggling acts by the troupes accompanying the lead artistes.

Finally, it was Javed Ali of 'kajrare kajrare' fame who stole the show. He went on the stage singing his first number of the evening 'bin tere sanam'.

No sooner did the singer started churning out his other numbers like 'bheege honth tere', "you are my sonia", than the audience put on their dancing shoes.

He handed over the stage to Rohit of the Laughter Challenge fame. Rohit brought the splits back into the show. After the two of them, it was the turn of Santokh Singh, the music director of 'channa wey' fame.

The show left the audience thrilled.

Chandigarh, November 26
Chandigarh-bred Navneet Choujar, who is now settled in Australia, has achieved what can be an unusual dream for a first-generation settler in a foreign land. He has written, edited and directed an English film, Snakes and Ladders. It is slated for release on December 17 in Australia.

The movie has been completely shot in Sydney and employs an all-Australian cast and crew. For Choujar, who has worked with major producers and directors during the 1990s in India, film-making has come by accident and not design.

He belongs to a well-established business family of Chandigarh, but prefers to work in corporate sector since he has a degree in business management. He has started his own manpower agency that has coordinated work to provide the support staffing films.

Choujar says, “At one of the several meetings with the director of a serial, I remarked that I could write a better scene than what their writers had done. The director asked me to prove my statement. I came up with a scene that he liked, and I joined the team as a writer”.

That has opened the doors and he claims to have worked in various capacities with Raman Kumar (Tara), Vivek Agnihotri (Ye kahaan aa gaye hum), Raahein, Aarohan, Gubbare, Zee Live etc, Ravi Behl (Boogie Woogie), Suneil Darshan, Anupam Kher, Dimple Kapadia, Sunny Deol, J.P. Dutta, Rajeev Kapoor and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

In 1999, he started his own production company, ‘Fountainhead’ with the first Punjabi serial on Indian TV, ‘Kacchi Kandh’. It was a success and was followed by six more Punjabi serials, written and directed for many producers, including Ramesh Sippy.

In 2002, Choujar moved to Australia with the intention of making a mainstream ‘Hollywood’ film catering to the masses. Despite delays, Snakes and Ladders got completed. It tells the story of a fugitive John Barrot, who is being chased by two detectives. He breaks into a film director’s house.

There he finds the director’s alone in the house and forces her to provide him with a hiding place for the night. It is the story of one fateful night when all the characters learn that life is a game in which winning or losing can make the difference between life and death.

Choujar says he is working on two more projects ‘The Enemy’ and ‘Black’. Both films are planned to start in 2008.

Zirakpur, November 26
Years after the Highland Cooperative Housing Society on the Zirakpur-Kalka road came into existence, a proper approach road still eludes the colony.

The matter had been brought to the notice of the Zirakpur nagar panchayat several times. In the absence of the approach road, residents are at the receiving end of a host of problems, Mr Rajiv Bhatia, a resident, alleged.

In fact, the bad condition of the approach road had made it a motorists’ nightmare. At night it was difficult to pass through the road and it become accident-prone area, with the functioning of streetlights remaining much to be desired.

However, the electricity supply had only improved with the onset of winter. During summer the regular unscheduled cuts had made residents lives miserable. And on the water supply front, the civic body cannot claim much credit as tubewell had been installed by the society itself.

Meanwhile, official sources informed that the civic body was in the process of initiating major development works, including the recarpeting of roads in the township.

The recarpeting of this particular road would be done soon if a proper representation was received from the residents and the area councillor, sources added.

Zirakpur, November 26
The three-day yoga camp organised by the Women Welfare Society concluded here today. Addressing the participants, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Banur MLA, stressed the need for making yoga a way of life for leading a health lifestyle.

The yoga was an ancient science and various organisations, including NGOs, should come forward to poularise it.

An exhibition was also organised during the course of the camp, held under the supervision of Shashi Shah and Sohan Lal.

The society president, Ms Alka Saini, highlighted the activities of the society.

Chandigarh, November 26
A scooterist suffered injuries after being hit by a motorcycle near the Sectors 31 and 47 crossing here.

According to the police, Rajinder Singh of Phase III, Bapu Dham Colony, Sector 26, sustained injuries after a motorcycle (CH-03-U-3856) hit his scooter near the Sectors 31 and 47 crossing on Saturday.

His pillion rider Subhash Kumar was also hurt in the mishap. They were admitted in the PGI.