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Doctor convicted of driving wife to suicide
Chandigarh, July 8 Soon after the orders were pronounced Kaura was arrested by the police and sent to Burail jail. The quantum of the sentence will be pronounced on July 12. Babita, who was working as an assistant professor in PGI’s immunopathology department, allegedly had strained relations with her husband and died in mysterious circumstances on January 18 night in 2005 following severe head and chest injuries. The deceased’s sister-in-law, Deepali Kohli, was at home at that time. Kaura was later granted bail by the Punjab & Haryana High Court. During the investigations into the abetment to suicide case in 2005 the police had come up with different theories.
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Brothers stage suicide drama at police HQ
Chandigarh, July 8 The men, identified as Sunil Kumar, who claimed he was suffering from a disc problem after he was tortured by assistant subinspector Amarjit Singh, and Anil Kumar alleged the ground floor occupant of their house, Khush Nihal Singh, as well as their next door neighbour, Neelam Sharma, were harassing them. They accused SHO Anokh of threatening to kill them instead of addressing their complaint. Even as the brothers later pleaded the substance they had consumed was in fact medicine, the police arrested them on charges of attempting to commit suicide after registering a case under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. The cops said both men were “chronic complainants” and had filed four complaints against their neighbours as well as a police officer. The police also suspect the brothers had filed several anonymous complaints in the past. Sunil and Anil had earlier called up mediapersons to say they intended to kill themselves “live” before cameras. The incident also exposed the police’s inefficiency. Sources said though the cops had received information about the incident a couple of hours before they failed to trace the two men. Both were constantly in touch with reporters on their mobile phones before arriving at the police headquarters. Only a few cops from among a large number of policemen present at the scene caught hold of the brothers and prevented them from consuming the “poison”. The incident occurred at about 11.45 am at the porch of the police headquarters building, where both men jostled with the cops before being taken inside for questioning. Some policemen offered water and tea to the brothers before questioning them. When reporters asked the duo what the bottles they were clutching contained, the two smiled and said “it was a medicine”. “We did it only to get the attention of
the media, which also has not been listening to our problem,” they added. Later in the day Nihal and Sharma along with the owner of the house where the brothers are residing as tenants arrived at the police headquarters. They alleged both men accompanied by “mischief mongers” had attacked Nihal’s wife and a construction labourer working at their house but the matter was later resolved amicably.
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3 held for duping bank of Rs 1.31 cr
Chandigarh, July 8 In a release issued here today, a CBI spokesperson said the accused, identified as Mukesh Kumar, a clerk in Canara Bank, Neeraj Kumar Chauhan, a resident of Najafgarh, New Delhi, and Sanjeev Kumar Verma, Chatterpur Enclave, New Delhi, had duped the bank by presenting forged cheques favouring two Gurgaon-based fictitious firms. They duped the bank, which was maintaining a cash credit account of M/s Swaraj Mazda Limited, Mohali, of Rs 1.31 crore. The CBI had registered a case of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery attempt under Sections 120-B, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 511 of the IPC on a complaint lodged by the general manager of Canara Bank, Sector 35-B. The spokesperson said it was alleged in the complaint that from October 15 to 27, 2009, 15 cheques favouring two fictitious firms in Gurgaon were passed/debited in the account of M/s Swaraj Mazda Limited, Mohali, which the firm later claimed it had not issued. Acting on the information, the bank conducted an internal inquiry and found that one of Gurgaon-based fictitious firm M/s Gracewell Trading Company,
was having two accounts in ICICI Bank, Lajpat Nagar, IInd branch, New Delhi, and Lajpat Nagar, IVth branch, New Delhi, and another account in Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Okhla branch in Delhi. Similarly, another Gurgaon-based firm, M/s ABS Enterprises, was also having an account in Kotak Mahindra Bank, Okhla. All these accounts were later found to be opened by Neeraj Kumar Chauhan mentioning himself as the proprietor. ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank collected the payment of 15 cheques. ICICI Bank had also presented two cheques for Rs 7,90,660 and Rs 8,16,035 for collection of payment on October 30 on behalf of M/s Gracewell Trading Company. The CBI arrested Chauhan and his interrogation led to the arrest of his two accomplices, Sanjeev Kumar Verma and Mukesh Kumar. During interrogation, they disclosed that they had counterfeit cheques. Chauhan told investigators that he opened fictitious accounts of two firms and Verma got printed counterfeit cheques of the bank and forged the signatures of authorised signatory of the M/s Swaraj Mazada, Mohali. Mukesh confessed that he provided the details of the account of M/s Swaraj Mazda, Mohali, by accessing the system of the bank.
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Man killed as cantilever collapses
Chandigarh, July 8 The police said the cantilever was in a dilapidated condition and the rods had rusted. The injured are Satwinder Kaur and her 30-year-old daughter-in-law, Ritu. They were taken to the Sector 16 Government Multi Speciality Hospital, where Darshan Singh was declared brought dead while the condition of Satwinder Kaur is critical as she has sustained severe head injuries. Ritu’s condition is stated to be stable, the
police said. The in charge of the Malaya police post, SI Baldev Kumar, said the incident occurred around 8 pm when Ritu was picking up clothes from the cantilever and it collapsed. The elderly couple was sitting on a cot on the ground floor under the cantilever.
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3 boys drown in rivulet
Rani Majra (Mohali), July 8 The bed of the rivulet has several such craters created due to indiscriminate mining. After rain, the craters become death traps for unsuspecting victims.
The SHO, Mullanpur, Vijay, said the mining department had been asked to ascertain if the trenches were because of illegal mining.
The bodies had been handed over to the families of the boys after inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC. The police had to call divers from Ropar to retrieve the bodies. “The bodies could not be found despite a search till late in the evening. This morning, the bodies were retrieved after the search was resumed,” the SHO said. While Sanjay and Deepak, children of migrant labourers, were staying at the farmhouse of an official, Navneet was visiting his relatives at Rani Majra village. The victims had come to the rivulet to take bath after the rainwater had receded.
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First e-classroom in govt schools this month
Chandigarh, July 8 Aimed at doing away with the ‘chalk and talk’ style of teaching the e-classroom will have a projector and LCD screen besides computer terminals. Teachers will be trained to use the facilities for their respective subjects. “It’ll prove to be a milestone in the current school education scenario. In today’s tech savvy world students cannot thrive on blackboard instruction only. We’ll get the teachers to teach them through projector slides, etc. For subjects like science the LCD screen will prove handy to explain 3D dimensions. Computers with Internet access will widen the topic information,” said director of public instruction (schools) Sunil Bhatia. After analyzing the response to the project the department will consider setting up three such e-classrooms in the maximum number of schools. Out of these two would be meant for senior secondary classes with one for the elementary ones. While the project appears to be quite promising Bhatia feels it will face some hindrances. “Many schools are short of classrooms and it might be difficult for them to spare three at one go. So we may end up having just one e-classroom in one school and some schools may have to wait for some more time to get such classrooms,” he added.
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Scattered rain in city
Chandigarh, July 8 Surender Paul, director of the department, said the advance of the southwest monsoon into various parts of the region was not a regular feature. It was usually accompanied by a surge in the strength of the southwesterly winds over the north Indian Ocean due to which rain got revived. This year, too, the monsoon seemed to be a little weak in the beginning, but arrived at its normal time as the first showers hit the city on July 5, covering Punjab and Haryana. The rainfall had already exceeded its normal levels, he added. The rainfall deficit for the country had narrowed down to 11 per cent for June 1-July 6 from a much higher figure of 16 per cent. There were also some indications that the monsoon could weaken in the northwest soon due to atmospheric pressure, he said. The maximum temperature recorded in the city was 34 degrees Celsius compared to 33.2 degrees yesterday. The minimum temperature also rose by 2.6 degrees to touch 26.8 degrees. However, today’s rain brought in high humidity at 97 per cent. According to the weather office, the city recorded 16.4 mm of rainfall till 5.30 pm today. The Met office has forecast fairly widespread rain/thundershowers over Punjab and Haryana and scattered over Jammu & Kashmir during the next 24 hours. Isolated to heavy rainfall would occur over Punjab and
Haryana.
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Zirakpur-Parwanoo four-laning
Chandigarh, July 8 The NHAI also cited reasons for delay of the project in a status report submitted before the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ajay Tewari. The report was submitted by NHAI project director Anil Kumar Dahiya in response to the high court orders passed on February 17 seeking status report on four-laning of the Zirakpur-Parwanoo section of National Highway-22. Citing reasons for the delay, the NHAI said it received permission from the Railways for the construction of railway overbridge near Zirakpur on March 3 only and the work was going on. The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), too, was developing new sectors near the HMT at Pinjore and Surajpur as part of the Kalka-Pinjore urban complex. For providing smooth access to the sectors, HUDA had requested the NHAI to construct two new additional flyovers at the cost of Rs 81.23 crore. The proposal was submitted to HUDA and approval was awaited. On the Pinjore-Parwanoo stretch of around 9 km, the NHAI said it was targeted to complete 95 per cent work, but could complete just 74 per cent work. The report said on the Pinjore bypass, the delay occurred due to land acquisition process. About the 4 km stretch in Parwanoo, the NHAI said they got the permission from the Ministry of Forest in January 2010 for cutting trees and it was carried out under the supervision of the forest department till March 2010. The case will now come up for hearing on November 15.
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Anti-encroachment drive
Chandigarh, July 8 Objecting to the action, owners of two juice shops refused to surrender their counters placed in front of their shops. After two hours of argument with the enforcement staff, the police was called. Even MC Additional Commissioner PK Sharma visited the spot to resolve the matter. One of the owners of the juice shop said the enforcement staff was following a pick-and-choose policy for removing encroachments in the market. He said when most of the shopkeepers had encroached upon the corridors, why only five juice shops had been challaned. A senior official said they had a video recording of the encroachment in Sector 22 on the basis of which the drive had been initiated. He said even a few of the adjoining shop owners objected to the encroachment
by these juice shops. However, the articles seized during the drive were released in the evening after the shop owners paid the
challan fee.
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Raise status of Mohali MC: Consumers’ body
Mohali, July 8 PS Virdi, president of the federation, said giving the civic body the status of a corporation would be a historical decision as the town had made a place for itself on the international map with the help of the SAD-BJP government in the state. It was possible that Mohali might be made the capital of Punjab in the times to come. The control of water and power supply would then be in the hands of the corporation and residents were bound to get better services that way. Moreover, the civic body would also be able to save 14 per cent departmental charges, which were at present being paid to the department of water supply and sanitation for running the water supply and sewer systems. Keeping Phases V and VI of the Kajauli waterworks exclusively for Mohali would be a major decision as 40 mgd (million gallons a day) of water through these two pipelines would put an end to the water shortage which the town faced at present. Mohali was expanding but the authorities concerned had failed to provide adequate water to residents living on upper floors. Water pressure remained low at times even on the ground floor.
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Garbage dumping in residential areas
Panchkula, July 8 Today the residents of Sector 23 detained a driver of a tractor trailer, along with his vehicle, when he tried to unload garbage near the locality. Pritpal Singh, a resident of Sector 23, said he, along with other residents, had requested the authorities time and again to take remedial measures in this regard but to no avail. “Even last week we met the Deputy Commissioner in this regard who assured us of solving the problem,” he said. Even last month residents of Sectors 25 and 26, protesting against the district administration, deflated tyres of three garbage-carrying vans of the municipal corporation and HUDA for dumping garbage in their area. “While the garbage of the city is being dumped in the area, the stench emanating from it after mixing with rainwater is making it impossible for us to live here,” said Ratan Singh, another local. Executive officer KK Jain, when contacted, said he had already directed municipal personnel not to dump the garbage near the locality. However, efforts were on to start work on the solid waste management project to be set up at Jhuriwala village, he said.
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City has enough banks, says Patil
Chandigarh, July 8 Patil said the city attracted people from all the northern states and many of them had even made it their home. Patil said the future growth of the city would depend on how financial institutions, especially public sector banks, through their different credit linked schemes, were able to support different beneficiaries. He further stated that the Union Territory was widely covered with bank branches. There were 25 nationalised banks (200 branches), 15 private sector banks (42 branches), three foreign banks (three branches) and four co-operative banks (43 branches) in the city. However, in the rural areas, only nine branches by nationalised banks and three branches of co-operative banks were operational. Advances to the Scheduled Castes in the city were meager and only to the tune of Rs 30.29 crore. “What worries me is that there is no substantial growth in advances to them as compared to last year. Similarly, we have around 280 self-help groups in Chandigarh.”
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Aerocity
Mohali, July 8 Sources in GMADA said it might take few more days to calculate the exact money received. The State Bank of India (SBI), which has financed the maximum number of applications, is yet to transfer the entire amount to GMADA. Some of the banks have, however, transferred the entire amount earned by financing the applications. Officials expect the figure to cross Rs 6,500 crore. This brings the total number of applications to around 2.5 lakh. The maximum numbers of applications were for the five marla (125 sq yard) category, followed by six marla (150 sq yard) and eight marla (200 sq yard) categories. By rough estimates, there would be 70 applicants for every one plot for the small sizes of plots and 40 applicants for the larger size of plots.
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Bank employee ends life
Mohali, July 8 However, the police said no suicide note was found from the spot. The investigating officer stated that the incident came to light when the victim’s roommate, Sandeep, who had come to return a laptop, found the room locked from inside. He informed the landlord, who called the police. A police team found the youth lying on the bed with some medicines around him. The body has been kept at the Civil Hospital for postmortem and his family members have been informed.
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Spreading AIDS awareness among health workers
Chandigarh, July 8 Dr Kavita Chwan, DD (STI), State AIDS Control Society, Chandigarh, said myths were still prevailing among the rural folk and the aim was to spread awareness. She said in these villages CSACS had started a comprehensive HIV/AIDS awareness programme to sensitise the rural folk. She urged the religious leaders, youth and women to come forward and be the flag-bearer in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Stressing upon the role of health-care providers, she said health-care providers should know how to identify people with signs, symptoms or risk of STI/RTI. Dr Jatinder Dahiya, consultant (mainstreaming), CSACS, gave the basic information on HIV/AIDS and motivated religious leaders to come forward and join hands with SACS in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He said to know the status of HIV/AIDS one should go to ICTC Centre to get oneself tested free of cost. Sunil Kumar, consultant (YA), Chandigarh State AIDS Control Society, said school students were vulnerable and were at high risk of getting HIV/AIDS infection.
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Police Excess: Industrialists seek probe
Chandigarh, July 8 The committee demanded a magisterial inquiry and sough immediate registration of a case against police officers responsible for the lathicharge. All associations strongly condemned the “brutal” action against the peaceful protesters. Meanwhile, the BJP has condemned the police action. Party president Sanjay Tandon and former Central minister Harmohan Dhawan said, the administration was trying to crush their agitation.
— TNS
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Saang fest ends at Tagore Theatre
Chandigarh, July 8 Folk theatre lovers thronged the theatre on all the eight days occupying every inch of available space to enjoy their traditional folklore. The saang festival organised by the department of Information, cultural affairs and public relation, twice in a year, is the highest crowd puller in the history of the Tagore
Theatre. IAS Shiv Raman Gaud DPR Haryana, chief guest on the concluding day, observed that Haryanvis were more rooted with tradition. He admired the large participation of the audience from the City
Beautiful.
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Firms get notice for pollution
Chandigarh, July 8 Sources claim that such notices had been issued to other firms as well on account of air and water pollution, besides hardware pollution in the form of e-waste.
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Class XI Admissions
Chandigarh, July 8 Though the counselling modalities are yet to be finalised, the department will re-advertise for it and the students will have to file in their applications from July 15 to 17. “The first round of the counselling and admissions has gone smooth. There were a few discrepancies, but all of them have been resolved. We have many seats lying vacant in many schools, so we will be going in for the second round of counselling, which will happen after July 17,” said Sunil Bhatia DPI (S). District education officer Chanchal Singh refused to divulge any details on the pretext of still being in the process of getting seat details from the schools. According to sources, it’s humanities and vocational courses, which have registered the lowest number of admissions with only 20 per cent seats being filled so far. In the first round, most of the applicants took admission in the science and commerce stream. “The commerce seats have registered the highest number of admissions to be followed by the science stream. The admissions will speed up in the second round. Most of the students are not happy with their current allocations and will retry in the second counselling,” said a senior official of the UT education department. Except for a few renowned model schools, most of the other schools, especially the rural ones, have failed to attract many, as 2,000 seats in various rural schools have been reported vacant.
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Post of contractual lecturers
Chandigarh, July 8 The interviews, which were supposed to commence from tomorrow, have now been shifted to July 13. With these fresh applications, the number of applicants for around 280 posts has now reached up to 2,000. According to Ajoy Sharma, director higher education, the department needs some time to screen them and that is why the interviews have been postponed. “We had so far sorted out around 800 eligible candidates, but on the last day, we got a large number of applications. We require some time to screen them and then only we will be able to take the interviews,” said Sharma. Meanwhile, clarifying further on the reports of increasing the weightage of the interviews, Ajoy Sharma claimed that it had been decreased in comparison to the last year. According to him, while it stood at around 30 per cent, it has now been reduced to 20 per cent. “This time the interview carries 20 marks, out of 100. Some people have miscalculated things and raised hue and cry. The weightage has been reduced to 20 per cent,” he said.
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PU Sports Quota
Chandigarh, July 8 “All applications were up to the mark, but a few of them are not eligible for the admission, as they failed to come under the criteria made by the panel for taking admission in Panjab University,” said an official. On the other hand, the trials also witnessed heavy turnout of sportspersons interested in taking admission in Panjab University. “I have applied for the sports quota seat in the School of Communication Studies department and it would be a tough competition even in the reserved category,” said a netball player on the trials.
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Research grant to PGI lab technologist
Chandigarh, July 8 He is the first Indian biomedical laboratory scientist to bag this grant and have the status of being the chartered scientist and fellow of IBMS, London, UK. It is one of the highest professional achievements available to a biomedical laboratory scientist within the National Health Services of UK.
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Gurukulites’ date with Rob
Panchkula, July 8 Rob’s visit was the perfect icing on the cake for the participants of the POGO- Gurukul summer camp - that concluded yesterday. The students got to showcase their newly acquired creative skills to the master of creative arts. The Gurukul principal Harsimran Kaur said, “There are moments and events that are potent enough to transform lives. This was the perfect one for all kids who want to fly high on their creative skills.”
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