Panchkula, September 27
Kushaal, alias Monu, a 20-year-old student of Government College, Sector 1, Panchkula, was killed while two others were inured when a group of boys from the same college attacked them near the college at Majri Chowk here today.

There were multiple wounds on Monu’s body and it was presumed that a deep wound on his chest proved fatal.

The injured Munish and Arun, alias Ankur, both residents of Raipur Rani, were rushed to the Sector 6 general hospital.

Kushaal’s father Surinder Sharma, a resident of Dharwar village in Morni Raipur Rani, is a former sarpanch.

Incidentally, there was no policeman present on the spot. However, it is seldom that no police personnel is posted at busy Majri Chowk.

The police has registered a case under Sections 148,149, 302, 323 and 307 of the IPC against Muneesh, Tinku, Pawan, Rinku of Raipur Rani and Mukesh of Dhadalru village. Mukesh is the president of the college student union.

While no specific reason is being cited behind the attack, the two groups had fights in the past also.

Yesterday, they exchanged heated arguments in the bus over sharing of seats and later, they had a fight at the Mauli police post, said Arun, undergoing treatment.

“We, along with other boys, were standing near Majri Chowk after the college hours when a group of more than 24 boys, including Mukesh, Rinku, Maneesh and Pawan, armed with rods and stones attacked us. While the others ran away from the spot, they caught hold of me and Monu and thrashed us badly,” alleged Arun. Later, Monu was found lying on the ground when we took him to the hospital, he said.

Panchkula/Panipat, September 27
The harassment of women at the hands of the state police came into light once again even before the dust could settle over the suicide of Sarita, a rape victim from Rohtak, another woman alleging inaction in the murder case of her brother against the district police tried to end her life at the office of Haryana director general of police here today.

The woman identified as Suman, a resident of Pashina Khurd village near Samalkha, reached the police headquarters in the afternoon to meet DGP Ranjiv Dalal.

Being Saturday, it was holiday in the office and the staff present there asked her to come on Monday. She then told them that she had consumed poison and collapsed.

She was taken to General Hospital, Sector 6, where she was treated and declared out of danger.

Suman got down from a bus at Zirakpur and tried to purchase poison from
a chemist shop.

On the refusal of the shopkeeper she picked a bottle of medicine forcibly lying in the shop and gulped it down, said the spokesman of police headquarters.

Later, she reached here and when her condition started deteriorating she informed the police personnel present there about consuming of poison, said the spokesman.

Suman, while undergoing treatment, kept on shouting over the police personnel alleging that the Panipat police was responsible for the murder of her brother.

Suman’s brother Nitish Kumar had recently been found murdered in one of the drains in Noorpur village at Panipat.

According to Suman’s family members, some time ago Nitish, his brother Parvesh
and their mother Sulekha had been booked by the police on the charges of
abducting a minor girl.

Though they were acquitted of all charges by court on September 8 this year, the relatives of the girl continued to nurse a grudge against Nitish and finally took revenge by killing him.

On September 23 Nitish’s body was recovered from a drain and a case against seven persons, including Krishan, Rajpal, Sanjay, Nawab, Sunil and Ahal Singh, all resident of Pashina Khurd village, along with Ompal, a resident of Pashi village in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, was registered.

The family members said that even as they recognised the body of Nitish after it was recovered from the drain, the police tried to run down their claims.

They alleged that an ASI even misbehaved with Suman and used foul language to snub her claims that it was her brother whose body had been recovered.

They said this ill-treatment by the police became one of the reasons why Suman tried to commit suicide. They alleged that the police was not doing enough to bring the guilty to justice.

However, SP M.S. Sheoran denied the allegations saying that the police had already arrested four of the accused including Nawab, Sanjay, Sunil and Ahal Singh.

Efforts were being made to nab the other three who had been absconding after the incident, he said.

Mohali, September 27
Twenty-year-old Davinder was stabbed to death in Phase V here late this evening. The victim, a resident of Phase V, who was declared brought dead at the Phase VI civil hospital was working as an executive in the customer care unit of Intelnet, a software company in Phase VIII.

The victim, who hails from Una, was returning along with his friend Sandeep to office after having dinner when three motor cycle-borne unidentified youths stopped the duo near a bus stop in Phase V.

One of the assailants asked for the mobile of the victim, stating that he had to make some urgent calls.

After the calls were over, when the victim asked for his mobile, he was reportedly attacked by the assailants with a knife.

When the assailants tried to flee, the seriously injured Davinder tried to get hold of one of them but failed.

According to police sources, the boys were known to each other. They were having dinner at a dhaba in Phase V and also had a tiff over some issue.

To settle a grouse, the assailants chased the victim and on finding a suitable place attacked him on the pretext of making calls from the mobile of the victim.

Even an hour after the incident, the police had no clue about the incident. An
official at Phase I police station said the possibility of an old rivalry could not
be ruled out.

The police is also attempting to trace the calls made by the assailants from the
victim’s mobile. Till the filing of the report, the police had not been able to identify
the assailants.

Chandigarh, September 27
Prideasia, the much-touted luxury mega housing project of real estate major Parsvnath Developers Limited at the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park, is proving to be a hot potato for UT officials in the backdrop of "keen" interest shown by the UT top brass.

With no official reportedly ready to be the chief administrator (capital projects IT park) for the project, the clearance of the design of the ambitious project, already running behind schedule, may run into rough weather.

The delay in the execution of the project would naturally delay the total earnings estimated at Rs 1,600 crore to the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB).

In fact, officials seems to be reluctant to take the responsibility of the project as top UT functionaries were taking "keen" interest in the execution of the project, the first major project being executed in the public-private partnership between Parsvnath and the CHB.

In fact, the reported refusal by chief architect Sunita Monga to be the chief administrator seems to have plunged the project into crisis.

The powers of chief administrator were transferred to Monga from CHB chairman
Mohanjeet Singh.

The chairman had, in turn, got powers following the repatriation of former finance secretary S.K. Sandhu to Punjab last year.

Since Parsvnath was executing the project in collaboration with the CHB, the chief administrator's powers to the board chairman had raised many an eyebrow.

The administration had sought to end the controversy by vesting the powers in the chief architect, but that was not to be.

Now, sources in the administration are taking a plea that the notification had certain "technical flaws" and these would be rectified soon.

High-profile realtor Parsvnath had bagged the 123-acre project to provide high-end
accommodation to the elite, including IT professionals, in 2006 for a whopping Rs
821.21 crore.

In fact, 30 per cent of the gross revenue from the sale of high-cost residential units (1314), costing between Rs 52 lakh to Rs 6 crore, was to be paid to the CHB besides the bid amount taking board's earnings from the project to Rs 1,600 crore.

Sources said the Rs 1,600 crore would only come to the CHB when the project
was completed.

While Parsvnath had blamed the authorities concerned for delay in approving the layout plan, board had alleged that realtor was delaying payment of installments.

Chandigarh, September 27
It’s official. P. Venugopal, former AIIMS director and the country’s best known cardiac surgeon, has joined Panckula-based Alchemist hospital as the chairman of the group’s medical division.

And like a true professional, he conducted a triple vessel bypass surgery on the first day of his joining. The surgery was conducted at Alchemist hospital in Panchkula.

Earlier, presenting his ‘prized catch’ to the huge media contingent, a beaming chairman of Alchemist group K D Singh said it’s a great moment as Venugopal’s advent in the region would give a touch of class to cardiac surgery.

While Singh announced that the group planned to invest Rs 1,000 crore in healthcare in the region, speculations are rife that Alchemist is in the process of acquiring a hospital in Delhi to provide a bigger platform to Venugopal.

With a track record of 60,000 open heart surgeries and 12,000 closed, Venugopal was at his modest best. “I am happy to be associated with Alchemist,” he said.

When coaxed as to why he had chosen a relatively new group when he must have had many other offers, Venugopal said, “We perhaps share the same vision”. He said Alchemist would offer angiography, angioplasty and heart bypass to the needy patients at affordable rates of Rs 5, 000, Rs 50, 000 and Rs 70, 000. "The rates are comparable to AIIMS,” he said.

He said, “We will set up a world-class hospital with the state-of-the-art facilities like tele-medicine, tele-education and research, especially in areas like stem cell technology." He said their aim was to bring world-class facilities at the doorstep of the patients and promote medical tourism.

Singh said they were planning to open at least 20 hospitals with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore over the next three years. "We will set up 100-150 bed hospitals all over the country,” said Singh.

Hailing from to Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh, Venugopal joined AIIMS at the age of 18 for his MBBS degree and won the gold medal for being the best undergraduate student from Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

After another gold medal at the end of his postgraduate degree, Venugopal had travelled to Texas Heart Institute where he worked under the renowned heart surgeon Denton Cooley. On his return in 1974, he set up the open-heart surgery programme at AIIMS.

Decorated with Padma Bhushan in 1998 for having carried out over 26 successful open-heart operations, Venugopal pioneered the use of stem cells taken from patient's body for repairing damaged heart muscles.

Venugopal used the stem cells as an additional therapy when AIIMS started to hunt for options in cardiac treatment.

Chandigarh, September 27
The blue-eyed bureaucrats of the Chandigarh Administration continue to enjoy the privilege of holding on to the key departments, indicating the ‘power politics’ in the gallery of administration.

In the latest reshuffle of UT departments, after the appointment of Ram Niwas as home secretary, prominent excise and taxation department has not been allocated back to UT finance secretary Sanjay Kumar, literally leaving him ‘powerless’.

Sanjay Kumar has been entrusted with inconsequential departments like agriculture and animal husbandry, environment and forests.

Indicating power play, the charge of chief vigilance officer (CVO), which was being looked after by Sanjay for quite sometime, has been restored to home secretary.

Deputy commissioner R.K. Rao continues to be the secretary (excise and taxation), besides looking after the charge of director (food & supplies and consumer affairs) and director (agriculture) in addition to his own duties.

The chief departments of home secretary, which were earlier used to be looked after by the various bureaucrats in absentia, have now been restored to the newly appointed home secretary.

The UT Administration has given additional charges of various departments to UT home secretary Ram Niwas, which includes police, prisons and secretariat establishment, secretary (transport), secretary (food & supplies and consumer affairs), hospitality, technical education, education, public relations and cultural affairs, law and justice, tourism, employment, personnel, social welfare, industries, labour, local self-government, cooperation, health, medical education & research, house allotment committee, commissioner (revenue), chairman (child and women development corporation), chairman (Chandigarh industrial & tourism development corporation limited), chairman (Chandigarh scheduled caste, backward classes and minorities financial and development corporation), and CVO.

Prerna Puri, SDM (S) has been given the charge of agriculture census officer, district agriculture officer and nodal officer (state agricultural marketing board & modern terminal market) in addition to her own duties.

Meanwhile, the chairman (Chandigarh housing board) has been asked to make internal arrangements for the work pertaining to the post of the additional chief executive officer (projects), Chandigarh housing board.

Consequent upon the relieving of S.K. Setia, director public instructions (S), the administration has transferred Samwartak Singh Khangwal, from the post of secretary, municipal corporation, Chandigarh to the post of DPI (S), UT, Chandigarh.

Chandigarh, September 27
While expressing the hope that good times will return to the financial markets, analysts at an investor camp held here today said the bearish trend would continue for another year.

Hosted by Udayan Mukherjee, managing editor, CNBC-TV18, the investor camp
saw eminent industry experts and leading practitioners from the field of retail
investment as they discussed the host of new tools and strategies available
for managing their investments.

Investment experts such as PN Vijay, portfolio manager, Sudarshan Sukhani,
technical analyst, Ashwini Gujral, market strategist, and Rajen Shah, CIO,
Angel Broking, shared intricacies of investing and capitalising on current
market opportunities.

The speakers gave professional insights on investments and perspectives on
moving average trading system for short-term traders and how to use the
actionable ideas from market sayings.

They also discussed the excesses of bull market and how to undertake smart investments. Giving an optimistic view, Vijay said situation was likely to improve in next six to eight months.

He said, “Even in these turbulent times 32 per cent credit growth in corporate sector does not indicate depression.”

It was good time to build long-term portfolios, he said while cautioning the investors to trade only if they had technical skills.

Sukhani apprised the participants of the reasons behind the breakdown of US financial system. He stated that the regulatory failure was the major cause.

Shah, however, stressed that agriculture would be the next emerging sector. He advised the investors to buy stocks of companies related to farm sector.

“There is an overemphasis on equity in India. People should also explore trading opportunities in commodities and currency, which, unlike equities, are driven by a limited number of factors,” Gujral said.

Udayan said, “While investing in share market one has to be very cautious. The investor camp is aimed at educating the investors about various investment strategies available to them.”

The event was organised by CNBC-TV18 in association with Angel Broking while The Tribune was the print partner.

Chandigarh, September 27
The Chandigarh police has locked horns with the House Allotment Committee over the issue of vacating the Sector 22 government accommodation where they have set up a police post for over 20 years.

According to sources, last month, the committee sent a letter, seeking the
force to vacate the place as it falls in the residential area and the police has
possessed it illegally.

In its reply, the police department categorically held that they are not going to vacate it until the authorities give it a suitable place for setting up the post.

Chandigarh inspector general S.K. Jain said, “The post is being set up for the convenience of the people of the area. The sector, which houses the main market of the city, is one of the most happening places here thus calls for a separate ‘chowki’. Its removal would not be in the people’s interest as well.”

The reply was sent by the department yesterday. The removal of the police post from sector is not possible as most of the crime cases occurring in the jurisdiction of Sector 17 police station are registered here, said SSP Sudhanshu Srivastava.

Chandigarh, September 27
As part of the World Tourism Day celebrations, the Punjab Governor and Administrator, UT, Gen S.F. Rodrigues (retd), today launched the Chandigarh City Card for tourists and visitors entitling them to have free access to various tourist places in Chandigarh and also a discount at CITCO restaurants.

An innovative venture, first of its kind in the country in the tourism sector, this card, costing Rs 100, is made available from today at Tourist Information Centres at the airport, the railway station, ISBT-17, Hotel Beckons and Sukhna Lake.

Addressing the gathering, General Rodrigues said the city has the rich traditions
of the past and vision for a bright future, with modern architecture and the legacy
of Le Corbusier.

Appreciating the theme of World Tourism Day this year, "Responding to challenge of climate change", General Rodrigues said it would contribute in generating awareness among the people, about the role of the climate in maintaining ecological balance on earth and pursuing the goal of sustainable development and economic growth.

However, passengers at the airport and railway station were given a special welcome which was accompanied by a musical programme by NZCC artistes. Rose buds were also given as a token of affection and care by the Chandigarh Tourism.

The celebrations started with the morning raga by eminent classical singer Subhash Ghosh at Sukhna Lake and flute by Ustaad Muztaba Hussain Khan.

A run for tourism was also organised with the support of CITCO from Sukhna Lake to Rock Garden which terminated at Sukhna Lake. MC mayor Pardeep Mehra flagged off the run in which hundreds of students participated.

Fortis also distributed 25 coupons titled Fortis Express to international tourists for a complete cardiac check-up. CITCO also organised a picnic at Kansal forest for senior citizens of the old-age home.

Meanwhile, International Food Festival also kicked off by CITCO at Hotel Mountview. The festival will offer Mexican, Lebenian, Italian and continental cuisine. The cuisines will be available on Sunday too. Free rides on hop-on-hop-off bus for underprivileged and slum children were also arranged.

Ram Niwas, home secretary, UT, gave a blueprint of the efforts being made by the administration for promotion of tourism.

Among those present on the occasion include Sanjay Kumar, finance secretary, RK Rao, DC, Nek Chand, creator of Rock Garden and foreign tourists.

Renowned Punjabi singer Satwinder Bugga performed in a musical nite organised at City Plaza, Sector 17, and a girl from the Netherlands also played saxophone.

The Vintage and Classic Car Club also organised a static display of Vintage and Classical Cars at Lake Club.

A photography exhibition was also organised by the Progressive Photographers Group in collaboration with the Chandigarh Tourism with City Beautiful as its theme at Punjab Kala Bhawan, Sector 16.

Chandigarh, September 27
Aiming at the security and safety of the tourists and the residents, the Chandigarh tourism and the Chandigarh police formed tourism police on the occasion of the World Tourism Day.

The police squad was launched by Chandigarh police IG S.K. Jain at Sukhna Lake today. The IG gave arm bands to sub-inspector Lakhwir Singh, ASI Nirmal Singh, head constable Asha Singh, constable Malkit Singh, lady constable Gaganpreet and home guard volunteer Yashpreet Singh at the function.

He also distributed certificates to five police personnel, including SI Sanjeev Kumar, SI Uday Pal, SI Jaspal Singh, SI Chiranji Lal and SI Ram Ratan Singh, for successfully completing the training.

Speaking on the occasion, director tourism Vivek Atray said the major objective of launching of the tourism police was to promote safe tourism in the city.

“The tourism police personnel will have special arm bands and will be deputed at places of tourist interest in the city. The police personnel under this squad will help and facilitate tourists and visitors in the city,” he added.

The training programme for this tourism squad was conducted at Chandigarh Institute of Hotel Management recently.

The training programme was sponsored by the department of tourism, Chandigarh Administration. A total of 100 police personnel were trained during the programme in four batches of 25 each.

The tourism police will help tourists in getting transport and lodging at appropriate
rate and without much hassle at railway station, airports bus terminals, important
tourist places, malls etc and provide safety against cheats and bag lifters etc at
these places.

They would also help tourists in procuring tickets for museums, resorts, transports, movies etc and will ensure that no peddlers, jewellers, shopkeepers, touts, cheats and beggars harass them.

The tourism police would guide tourists on local conditions of law and order, security and hazards, places of medical help and will guide them on matters relating to passport, visas, residential permits exchange of currency and on immigration issues.

DIG (operation and training) Mahavir Singh, SSP S.S. Srivastava, MD, CITCO Niharika Rai and other senior officials of the Chandigarh police were present on the occasion.

Chandigarh, September 27
The arrival of the three-Judge committee tomorrow afternoon is expected to clear all misgivings about the cash-at-judge’s doorstep case.

It is already clear that the committee is seeking the assistance of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur to further unravel the scam that came to surface because of her stand to expose the matter.

The scam rocked judiciary and smacks of a nexus between judges and businessmen.

It was on her complaint that the case was registered by Chandigarh police against former law officer Sanjeev Bansal, Delhi-based hotelier Ravinder Singh and others.

The CBI, now looking into the case, has already taken her help. A team from Delhi got in touch with her on the morning of September 18, and not the evening of September 19 as reported in a section of media.

The committee, constituted by the Chief Justice of India for looking into the case, is all set to assemble on Monday and talk to her sometime during the day.

The panel, comprising Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Hemant Laxman Gokhale, Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Madan B. Lokur of the Delhi High Court, is scheduled to arrive in the city tomorrow.

With its arrival in the city, co-accused in the case Ravinder Singh’s family is also working out the modalities to approach the committee to press the demand for the transfer of the case to Delhi.

A formal representation in this regard is expected to be submitted through
the Registrar-General.

It seems that the family is of the opinion that Ravinder Singh will not get justice here due to alleged interference of Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association.

His wife has already raised the issue before Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, but he had reportedly expressed his inability to do anything in the matter as it was not within his jurisdiction.

Family sources said the probe was being carried out in an atmosphere of speculation that was not congenial for a fair trial.

Even a section of media was confused and indulging in conjectures.

Justice Nirmal Yadav, whose name had surfaced in the statements of accused, has already been examined by the CBI on September 24.

The demand for the presence of a “third person” was never made, as reported.

The assertion also comes at a time when a section of media has been contradicting itself on the issue of presence of judges around the time of occurrence.

A news report had initially stated the judges were present at the time of the incident, but the media organisation now has come out with a different story stating that they came after the incident.

Under these circumstances, fair trial will be difficult, the family believes.

Chandigarh, September 27
In the wake of today’s blast in the Capital, the police today conducted searches and flag march as part of confidence-building measures here today.

Special search drives were held at the ISBT, Sector 43 and Sector 17 and the busy markets of the city.

All outgoing and incoming buses and commuters were checked at the bus terminals.

Apart from that, the police also held a flag march in busy markets of various sectors, including, Sector 35, 36, 42 and 43.

Devinder Sharma, SHO police station Sector-36, said, “We conducted special search operations to show the presence as well as the strength of the police. The step was taken with a view to instilling the confidence in the public and demoralise the unlawful elements”.

The police also appealed to public to remain vigilant. “The public should call at 100, 2741900, 2749194 and 2544444 if anything suspicious noticed by them”, said police.

Chandigarh, September 27
Researchers in Panjab University now need not worry about their research work or information of patents getting leaked in the public domain.

For, the university is all set to have an “Intellectual Property Rights Centre” on the campus. The centre will be set up in collaboration with the CIIP (Centre for Industry Institute Partnership) programme soon.

A communication has been sent to all departments of science in Panjab University to seek the response and suggestions in this regard by the CIIP’s newly appointed director (honorary) Sanjeev Bansal.

The objective of this centre will be to facilitate the whole process of getting
a patent registered.

This will include providing guidance and assistance from the time of preparing a
case for registration to how to plead for the registration of patent, contents of
the application, etc.

As such registering a patent is a long and tedious process and sometimes it may take years for any researcher to get his/her patent registered.

At the same time, confidentiality will be maintained till the time any patent gets registered. Utmost care will be taken to maintain secrecy at every step of registration so that the research is not commercially exploited.

However, since the project is in its initial stages, so it is yet be decided that whether some fee will be kept for the guidance of the CIIP.

It will be decided after response is received from all teachers belonging to sciences.

Since it is a policy matter, it cannot be decided at such an initial stage without everyone’s consent”, said Sanjeev Bansal.

Prof Daljit Singh, former dean, engineering and technology and former chairman of department of chemical engineering and technology (DCET) said, “Intellectual property rights (IPR) are protected only through patents.

If one publishes a research before patenting it, then the information is in the public domain and it becomes non-patented. It’s very important to get it patented before publishing it.”

The centre would be a boon for researchers to obtain and sustain their patents. Similar centres exist already in almost all IITs and PAU, Ludhiana.

Talking about merits of the initiative, Sanjeev Bansal said, “We are also planning to start a CIIP website and we have asked all those who have patents in their name to give us the details so that we can put all that on the website. This will not help in value addition of the patents but will also increase the goodwill of the university”.

Chandigarh, September 27
If Ram Gopal Verma is on the lookout for the script of his new “horror” film, Savitri Bai Phule Hostel at Panjab University could be his next stop.

Ghosts, and that too without heads, visible from windows of some hostel rooms, could perhaps change Ramu’s fortunes by finally giving him a script that could send shivers down the spines of his audience.

Believe it or not, but some petrified residents of the hostel have approached the authorities concerned that they have seen ghosts in the hostel.

The authorities are taking them “seriously” and leaving nothing to chance. They are contemplating organising a ‘havan’ during the Navaratras to ward off the “spirits”.

According to the students, they approached their warden after the ‘ghost’ was spotted on more than two or three occasions.

So much so that on the night of September 25, after the girls spotted the ‘ghost’, DSW Naval Kishore and warden of the hostel Gurmeet Kaur along with security staff had to go the hostel to actually calm the petrified and shaken girls.

The security guards checked everything thoroughly and even searched the premises for more than 45 minutes but the ‘ghost’ apparently gave them the slip.

According to sources, around four girls of the hostel have complained to the warden that they saw a headless figure wearing white clothes around half past one.

The same figure was spotted for two days in a row till the warden approached the dean, students’ welfare, for intervention in the matter.

However, some students rubbished the claim and said it might be the aftereffects of watching some horror flicks.

“The girls who spotted the ‘ghost’ must have seen 1920, a new horror movie,”
said one student.

Hostel warden Gurmeet Kaur said, “This hostel is seven years old and such problems have never occurred earlier.”

Admitting that the complaint has been brought to her notice, she said if the girls have felt anything, “we” will definitely do everything to make them feel comfortable and secure.

A similar incident was reported in a girls’ hostel of a college in Ludhiana except that it was later revealed that some residents had played a prank.

Well, it is yet to be seen if that is the case here, but as for now most of the girls have gone back home due to holidays in the university.

Commencing with an invocatory recital of divine utterances of spiritual seers and Sufi mystics, Satwinder doled out ‘Ni tu bichhran bichhran kardi’, ‘Rab de samaan sanu kehan wali ye’, ‘Gall banne tan’ and many more.

The young and old were tempted to dance along as the singer displayed his versatility and energy level.

Chandigarh, September 27
The ‘Run for India’, a marathon sponsored by HDFC bank was held today in the city with around 2,500 persons participating in it.

The event represented a carnival-like atmosphere as the participants wore HDFC-bank T-shirts and started their run from Chandigarh club.

Sudhanshu Shekhar Srivastava, SSP, Chandigarh, was chief guest. Regional head of the HDFC bank, Govind Pandey, gave prizes to the winners.

“Association of the bank with marathon is an appreciable step. The city converging on road to run is a celebration of human spirit to overcome barriers,” said Pandey.

“The marathon will celebrate this philosophy and create resonance with people of Chandigarh, one of the markets that are closest to our hearts,” he added.

Mohali, September 27
Anandgarh city, a dream project of Parkash Singh Badal that was shelved in 2001 by the then Akali government, has its traces in the master plan of the local planning area of Mullanpur.

The master plan, released by GMADA, would be displayed at public places on Monday. Planned between seasonal rivulets Jayanti Devi ki Rao and Siswan Nadi, the shelved Anandgarh project has its stamp on the Mullanpur master plan as far as the villages in the Majri block are concerned.

Against 29 villages in the abandoned project, 6109 hectares falling in 33 villages has been included. There could be minor changes in the planning area included in the master plan.

A senior official said the master plan would ensure that the Mullanpur area does not go the Nayagaon way, where haphazard constructions have mushroomed all over.

The area locked under the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900, has been kept green and no activity would be allowed in the land. A gross residential density of 100 persons per acre has been projected.

“No parlance can be drawn between Anangarh city and the Mullanpur master plan. In Anandgarh land was to be acquired. But here no land would be acquired. The owners would be free to make use of their land as per the earmarked land use after paying the necessary charges and clearances. The master plan has been chalked out by Singapore-based GMADA consultants Jurong Ltd, keeping in mind the forest cover, low density habitation and low-storeyed structures to promote the area as Punjab’s first eco-town,” said an official in favour of the master plan.

Special view concepts of the master plan are eco- tourism, health village, knowledge village, eco-park, high technology park/IT park, and transport hub.

Special controls have been prescribed along the Siswan river and to protect the scenic beauty of the Shivalik hills, different height controls have been suggested which vary from 20m to 40m.

The plan has been proposed as low-density country living, resort centre and northern gateway to GMADA. Mullanpur as an "eco-town" is envisioned to rise as a distinctive and sustainable playground of the greater Mohali region.

The existing rivers and their surrounding waterfronts would be enhanced to become prime physical assets of Mullanpur.

It has been planned with new ideas to protect unique environmental, historical and cultural resources, capitalise on the regional assets and resources to promote dynamic and sustainable economic development.

Zirakpur, September 27
In a bizarre incident, Ved Parkash, a resident of Baltana, was shocked when Rs 15,000 was debited from his account due to technical snag in an ATM today.

Ved Parkash reportedly went to the IDBI Bank ATM counter located at Kalgidhar Enclave. He punched in his card to get Rs 15,000 but the money did not come out of the machine but got deducted from his account.

Leaving nothing to chance, he immediately brought the matter to the notice of bank officials, who, after detecting the technical fault in the machine, promised to credit the amount in his account in three days.

Healthy refreshments for all participants will be provided. Faculty members of the PGIMER and senior health officials of UT administration will participate in the event.

Chandigarh, September 27
During the 10-day NSS camp being organised from September 25 to October 10, the NSS unit of Government College, Sector 46, formed the Rotract Club with 40 members. Nitya was elected president of the club.

Baldev Aggarwal and Lalita from the club, Chandigarh, interacted with the volunteers and spoke about the aims and objectives of the club.

More than 115 students from over 10 colleges of education from Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Punjabi University, Patiala, participated in the science quiz contest, slogan writing, essay writing, power-point presentation and T- shirt painting.

Pramod Sharma, coordinator Yuvsatta, was the chief guest. Principal Dr Jyoti Khanna said it was high time to realise the looming danger of global warming and gird up our loins to preserve the environment.

Chandigarh, September 27
Students of nursery gave a fascinating display as they confidently sang one rhyme after the other to the accompaniment of the rhythmic notes of the piano, taking one through vivid scenes of the animal kingdom and other day-to-day facets of their life as the week-long musical extravaganza came to an end at Strawberry Fields Kindergarten in Sector 24 on Thursday.

The virtues of good behaviour were brought forth in ‘Manners’ and mother’s lament was expressed through ‘Sabzi Khao’, a sweet song that exhorts children to have a balanced meal.

According to director of the school, Atul Khanna, “Our music mornings are very special. We try to gently weave in musical concepts, the beauty of balancing lyrics and rhythm, and set these to tune on carefully chosen songs.

The selection is a serious process, where the attempt is to make it relevant and meaningful. Children should be able to relate to the song, and if need be, modify it to suit their understanding and setting.”

Jean Rodrigues and her family were special guests on the occasion. She complimented the school on making the formative years of children such a joyous and meaningful experience.