Chandigarh, July 10
The Chandigarh Police today arrested Kashif Ali, a Pakistani national, for spying from Sector 44. The police recovered confidential documents related to the Army, a digital camera, a driving license issued by the Transport Authority, New Delhi, with Ali’s (Pawan Kumar-fake name) photograph, a receipt of the Regional Passport Office, Chandigarh, and a Maruti 800 car (CH01-H-0010) from his possession.

Kashif was keeping an eye on the defence sectors, including Chandi Mandir-based Western Command, Air Force Station, Chandigarh, besides on the movement and the deployment of the Army here.

“He was passing on the confidential information to Pakistan,” said UT IG Pradeep Kumar here today. The IG added that 24-year-old Kashif originally hails from Faislabad (Punjab) in Pakistan and was planted by the Pakistan’s ISI through Bangladesh.

During interrogation, Kashif confessed that he has been staying in the country for over four years. “He has been staying in Sector 44 for the past two-and-a-half year under the fake name of Pawan Kumar, son of Dharampal, a resident of Pitampura, New Delhi. Before coming here, he was active somewhere in Rajasthan,” Srivastava added.

The spy was arrested on a tip off. Following which the sleuths of the Crime Branch laid a trap near Lakshmi Narayan temple in Sector 44. At around 3.45 pm Kashif was seen coming in his blue-coloured Maruti car. On being asked, he told the police that his name is Pawan Kumar and is a resident of New Delhi. Later he confessed that he was Pakistani spy and has been sent by the ISI here. Here, he used to show himself as a property dealer, said the police.

Srivastava said the police would probe how he was able to get the driving license under the fake identity and also a receipt of the passport. “The investigations are on. All places, where he used to stay, would be searched,” he added.

Though it is yet to be ascertained whether he had some other acquaintances here in the country, the police is not ruling out his involvement with women here. “Normally the spies use women for collecting information. So we are also looking into this aspect whether he has any links with women here”, he said.

A case has been registered under Sections 3,4 and 6 of the Official Secrets Act, 14 of the Foreigners’ Act and 419, 467, 468, 471 and 120B of the IPC against the accused in Sector 34 police station.

Chandigarh, July 10
Shravan Kumar Puri, a court’s reader, had to pay for misplacing the record. Nearly 11 years after the police had registered the case; court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Ranjeev Kumar has sentenced him to three years imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on him.

Another accused in the case, Radhe Krishan Sharma, file pertaining to whose case went missing, was, however, acquitted by the court.

According to the prosecution, Puri, who was presently working as a reader at the district courts, had misplaced the file pertaining to a forgery case against Radhe Krishan Sharma in which orders were pronounced in 2007. Radhe was working in the Punjab Tourism Department as a manager. Puri, who was booked under Section 409 of the IPC (Criminal Breach of Trust by a Public Servant) for misplacing the file and Section 109 of the IPC (Abetment of Offence), was working in the court of Jatinder Walia in 1999. He had allegedly misplaced the filed to ensure that the prosecution in the forgery case against Radhe Krishan Sharma does not file an appeal. This matter came to light after colleagues of Radhe Krishan Sharma complained to the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the file of the forgery case had been misplaced. Following which the High Court marked the matter to Sessions judge, who asked the judge concerned to look into the matter. The court of Jatinder Walia got an FIR registered against Puri and Radhe Krishan Sharma.

The employees of the Punjab Tourism Department who had complained about the missing file didn’t depose in the present case. A departmental inquiry was also marked in the case that was not placed on record in the court.

Chandigarh, July 10
Panjab University is planning to hold student elections early this year. In the wake of protests by different student organisations every day, which has now become a routine, the authorities are working on this idea.

A recently reported case of misconduct by a few student leaders with the teachers, in which the former locked up the staff in a department in the arts block, has hastened the plan of campus student elections. The Panjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) has also come out strongly in protest against the incident and has cautioned the authorities to restrict the entry of these student leaders in all departments, other than those in which they are enrolled.

“The over activism of students before elections generally causes trouble. For the sake limelight, these student organisations protest and stage dharnas over petty issues. If such a situation continues, we could consider holding elections before September this year,” said a senior university official.

The Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) today raised objection on a recent incident of student leaders locking staff in a department. Its members said during the peak admission season in Panjab University, the attitude of “self-styled student leaders” creates problem. The press note stated that the student leaders’ “have misbehaved with the faculty on issues beyond their purview.” Besides this, PUTA added that the response of the PU authorities was “rather ambiguous and evasive.” The members said the authorities must ensure that only candidates invited for counselling were allowed to enter the departments and outsiders’ entry be banned in halls and rooms where the admission process is on.

Chandigarh, July 10
More than 5 crore beneficiaries of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), including 3 lakh from Chandigarh, will now be able to avail the health facilities provided by the corporation at any of its 2,210 health centres across the country.

The new facility would be available from August onwards at 146 full-fledged hospitals, 42 hospital annexes, 1,388 dispensaries and 1,678 panel clinics run by the corporation.

Named ‘Panchdeep’ one of the largest e-governance projects in healthcare involves issuing smart cards to all insured employees and their families, putting history of the patients online, and registration of companies and employers under the ESIC Act.

ESIC director BB Puri said all employees covered by ESIC would be issued a biometric identity card with a separate card for his or her family enabling them to avail treatment. As a large number of families of insured persons living in Chandigarh and other cities were staying at their native place, following the commissioning of the project such people would be able to get the heathcare at the place of their choice, he added. Moreover, the cardholder can continue his treatment at the ESI facilities even after shifting his base as the medical history of the patient would be available online with using a unique number provided to him, said Puri.

ESIC plans to open three new dispensaries in the city to ease out the rush at its existing dispensaries at Sector 29 and 23. The new dispensaries would come up at Hallo Majra, Mani Majra and Sector 38 West. The proposal for this has been lying with the Chandigarh Administration, said the director. There were more than 68,000 employees covered under the ESI scheme in Chandigarh. If their family members are included than the total number of beneficiaries touch to nearly 3 lakhs, he said.

In addition to it the corporation has also decided to set up a hospital at Lalru in Punjab so that people from that area don’t come to Chandigarh for treatment, he said. Along with this the project would make the things hassle free for employers covered under the ESIC Act. The registration of company as well as employees under the ESI scheme and even the payment of contribution, submission of all returns and information like accident report would be done online.

Chandigarh, July 10
Even as the football frenzy has reached its crescendo with the FIFA World Cup final scheduled to be played tomorrow, the members of the top-notched Holland and Spain teams appeared to have no fan following among the local residents.

Even though the local football lovers have chalked out elaborate plans to watch the title clash but a tête-à-tête with enthusiasts revealed that only a few managed to recognise and pronounce the ‘tongue-twisting’ names of the world’s top footballers.

Not only this, a majority of the so-called soccer lovers are not even aware of the names of the teams’ skippers. Football, it seems appears to be just a pretext for going out on a binge.

“We will assemble in a discotheque to witness the World’s biggest sporting soccer tournament tomorrow,” claimed Akshit, Mohit, Roshit and Ajay, the so-called die hard soccer fans. But when they were asked to tell the name of skipper of Holland or Spain team, no one can answer.

Except Spain’s star David Villa, the friends were failed to tell the name of any player of both finalists.

Similarly, Romi, Sukshi and Khushi plans to watch the title clash together amidst party but none of them could tell the name of any player of both teams.

“I know Maradona, David Beckhem and Ronaldo only. I don’t know the name of any player from the top two teams this year,” confessed Sukshi while adding that the names of the players of the teams too difficult to remember.

On the other hand, Khushi was of the view that most of the soccer fans watch these players in action only during the World Cup. “No football matches take place among the countries except during the World Cup tournaments. This is also the main reason that the people here not familiar with the names of football players,” she added.

Chandigarh, July 10
The region’s lone swine flu testing lab, started in the PGI’s Virology Department last year to lessen the burden of tests being conducted at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), New Delhi, and to reduce the delay in the receipt of the reports, has been lying non-functional for the past few months. As a result, the throat swabs for confirmation of the swine flu are once again being sent to New Delhi.

Luckily, the city hasn’t reported any positive swine flu case for the past five months. However, a suspected case was reported at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, today. According to doctors, the throat swab of the suspected patient has been sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases and the report is expected by Monday.

The PGI’s lab was among the 16 new centres opened by the Union health ministry to tackle the outbreak of the disease in the country. However, it seems that with the reduction in the swine flu cases, little attention is now being paid on the infrastructure that was built then.

While PGI officials were not willing to comment on this issue, sources said the lab had been lying non-functional for almost three months due to malfunctioning of a machine. Efforts to contact Dr RK Ratho, head, Virology Department, failed despite repeated attempts.

However, UT’s Nodal Officer for Swine Flu Dr GC Bansal confirmed that samples were being sent to New Delhi for testing as there was some problem with the machine in the PGI. He said a sample of a 35-year-old woman from Kurukshetra was received from the GMCH, Sector 32, and the same had been sent to New Delhi for the test. H1N1had hit the city in May last year when an NRI tested positive for the virus. The city subsequently recorded 55 swine flu deaths and had 350 H1N1 positive patients since then.

Though the lone swine flu testing lab in the city is non-functional, UT health officials claim that they are ready to meet any threat. “We have isolations wards ready and stocks of the Tamiflu tablets and syrups for both adults and children are available,” said an official adding that preventive vaccines had been administered to front line workers.

Chandigarh, July 10
Former MP Suresh Chandel, who is the convener of the BJP’s committee to assess damage due to the floods, today stated that Punjab and Haryana should focus on providing relief to the people affected by floods and not indulge in blame games.

Addressing a press conference here, the three-time MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, Chandel stated that thousands of farmers had been rendered homeless in the two states due to the floods and the immediate priority of the states should be to ensure that more lives were not lost due to the floods and those who had suffered a damage to their crops and houses should be suitably compensated.

Chandel, who was accompanied by Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal, member of the seven-member committee of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha, added that the committee had visited Kurukshetra, Ambala and Patiala. He pointed out that the area affected in Punjab was more than Haryana.

“We were told in Ambala that the area gets flooded almost every year due to a faulty drainage system which needed to be replaced. However, the residents said despite consistent reminders to the state authorities, the problem had not been sorted out. We have recommended that the state government should set up a system of siphoning off rainwater. Other than this, there is a set of villages, which drown in rainwater even after a single bout of heavy rain. The state should look at these chronic issues seriously,” said Chandel, adding that a bandh on the Ghaggar’s catchment area was also required.

Grewal added that it was a shame that not a single agency of the Central Government had bothered to visit the states to assess the damage. “No member of the National Disaster Management Authority nor the Central Water Commission had bothered to step in and sort out the problems between the states,” said Grewal. Chandel said central agencies should be pro-active in their functioning rather than wait for orders to come in and then react.

Chandigarh, July 10
Far from the concept of ragging the new entrants in engineering colleges, the fourth-year students of PEC University of Technology today were spotted guiding the new aspirants on the first day of the joint counselling for six engineering colleges in the city.

Right from sharing their experiences about hostel life to explaining course modules in various streams, these students were spotted voluntarily interacting with parents on one-to-one basis.

In what came across as an added attraction at the PEC campus today, the PECobians had installed a separate counter to guide the parents and students to choose the stream of their choice. These students had been answering a range of queries like choice between metallurgy in PEC or grabbing a seat in electronics stream at the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET).

Eleven students among others were selected to assist the PEC authorities during the counselling dates. “The number of students who had offered to assist the teachers and staff was so large that we had a tough time in shortlisting the students,” said Puneet Arora, public relations officer, PEC University of Technology.

The six colleges for which the counselling is being held are PEC University of Technology, University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), University Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology (UICET), Chandigarh College of Engineering and Technology (CCET), Swami Sarvanand Giri Panjab University Regional Centre and Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA).

Chandigarh, July 10
The Thalassaemic Children Welfare Association (TCWA), Chandigarh, organised a blood donation camp at Zakir Hall, Block A, PGI, here.

State Bank of India Chief General Manager SK Sehgal, Chandigarh, inaugurated the camp. He congratulated and praised the efforts of TCWA in saving the lives of serious patients, especially during summers when there is an acute shortage of blood.

He congratulated the donors from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh for this noble cause.

More than 216 donors donated blood in the camp.

The camp was conducted by a team of doctors/technicians headed by Dr Neelam Marwaha, head of blood transfusion department and also a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the association. 

Chandigarh, July 10
An epitome of humility and simplicity, and an apostle of love, literature and visual arts, Imroze is a phenomenon adored by amateurs, connoisseurs, critics and the elite.

The painting icon-turned-poet, and celebrated life and art partner of legendary poet Amrita Pritam, interacted with the city literati at an interaction programme organised by the Punjab Sahit Akademi at the Randhawa auditorium here today.

After felicitations by akademi president Rajpal Singh and others, Col Jasbir Bhullar exhorted Imroze to respond to his stylish interrogative questions.

These ranged from his modest living as an unknown artist to his working association with film legends like AR Kardar, Guru Dutt, Dilip Kumar and Sahir Ludhianvi, and above all, the inspired recapitulation of the past with Amrita Pritam.

Utmost sincerity and innocence marked the otherwise frank, forthright and philosophical replies by Imroze, which kept the audience engaged in rapt attention.

The ‘nazms’ which he sculpted after the demise of Amrita exuded the memory of love, with Amrita still alive in his verses. Living life on his own terms, Imroze and Amrita had immortalised the definition of the human relationship.

A series of his immaculate painting works were screened for the receptive audience, which included writers Gulzar Sandhu, Mohan Bhandari, Bittu Sandhu, Dr Pannu Prawaz, Dr Nahar Singh and Surinder Sharma.

Originally named Inderjit Singh, Imroze was born on January 26, 1926, at Chakk-36, near Lyallpur, Pakistan, and studied at the Mayo Arts School, Lahore.

Chandigarh, July 10
Ignoring the completion of approved projects of road recarpeting in various sectors, the municipal corporation is busy getting new projects approved.Interestingly, a majority of road recarpeting projects which are in process these days are those sanctioned by the MC general house last year.

Not even a single road project approved by the house in the current financial year has been allotted to any contractor as last year’s projects are still to be completed.

Sources in the corporation revealed that it had prepared a study report on the widening of V5 and V6 roads on the directions of the Administration.

In the report, the corporation had identified various sectors, including 7, 8, 10, 11, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 34, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48 and 51, for widening of V6 roads to ease traffic congestion. Similarly, for V5 roads, the corporation had identified sectors, including 23, 24, 42, 43, 48, 49, 50 and 51.

For both these projects, the Administration had already given its approval. Sources stated that for both these projects, a budget of Rs 5 crore each had been approved by the house.

Records of the corporation showed that around 50 per cent of the road recarpeting work which was completed in the last six months had been sanctioned last year by the house.

In the recent Finance and Contract Committee meeting, members raised objections to why the road recarpeting work was pending for a long time.

On this, MC Chief Engineer SS Bidda clarified that as rates of work were low, no contractor had applied for the allotment of work. He said they had revised rates and soon, fresh tenders would be called for all roads.

Last year, in the general house meeting in December, a majority of councillors had raised objections that most of the road recarpeting work was not sanctioned by the authorities.

They had also complained that there were only seven months, March to June and September to November, in which construction of roads could be done and still, the authorities were not bothered to speed up the work.

Chandigarh, July 10
The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed the manager of Citigroup Services Limited, New Delhi, to issue a no-objection certificate (NOC) to the complainant on the car loan amount that he had paid. The forum also told the group to pay Rs 5,000 as costs of litigation to the complainant.

Daljit had applied for a car loan and secured an amount of Rs 5,09,094 from the opposite party, which was repayable in 59 equated monthly instalments of Rs 11,483.

After getting the loan amount, the complainant had purchased a Opel Astra car, which was a 2003 model. The complainant had paid all instalments on time without delay.

On depositing the last instalment, when the complainant demanded an NOC, as he wanted to sell the car, the company informed him that an amount of Rs 32,130 was still payable.

The complainant sent a reply to the notice and sought a clarification about the amount, but received no response. Alleging deficiency in service, the complainant filed a complaint before the district forum.

On the other hand, the opposite party claimed that the complainant was sanctioned a loan of Rs 5,09,054, which was to be repaid through cheques for Rs 11,483 per month.

It was stated that Daljit was never regular in repayment of instalments and his cheques were dishonoured time and again since June, 2003.

Chandigarh, July 10
Residents of southern sectors of the city were again at the mercy of the electricity department, with no power supply last night.The residents had another round of struggle, with innumerable phone calls to to the complaint number, followed by another round of phone calls to the electricity subdivision concerned.

What made the problem worse was the lackadaisical attitude of some subdivision officers (SDOs), who hardly showed any concern to problems of residents in the sweltering heat.

The sectors which reeled under unscheduled power cuts last night for between two and four hours included Sectors 39, 56, 51, 55, 41, 32 and 61.

Parts of villages in the UT, including Mauli Jagran, Mani Majra, Raipur Khurd and Ram Darbar, besides Sectors 22 and 27m also faced unscheduled power cuts.

Subhash Verma of Sector 61 had a harrowing time last night. “I kept calling the complaint number. All I was told was that there were many complaints and I was in queue. When I asked the reason, they said it was extra load. Why can the department not keep a check on the extra load and penalise those responsible for it rather than harassing all residents,” he said.

Jyoti of CHB flats at Sector 51 said, “There was so much humidity last night and then there was an unscheduled power cut. After waiting for one hour, when we called up the complaint number, we were told that there were many pending complaints and it would take time to redress ours. It is high time there is more manpower in night shifts to take care of complaints.”

Om Parkash of Sector 41 was also among those who had to spend a sleepless night. “The power supply suddenly went off and we kept calling officials concerned, but to no avail.”

Chandigarh, July 10
An overcast sky and drizzle greeted the city and its surrounding areas early morning today, but soon the Sun shone bright. Most parts of the city and some parts of adjoining Punjab and Haryana also received drizzle during the early hours today.

“We witnessed drizzle in most parts of the city in the wee hours today. Then the pleasant weather in the Tricity subsided due to the bright sunshine,” said a metrological department official. “We expect the weather to remain stable without any significant rise or plunge in the mercury in the coming days, he added. However, both Punjab and Haryana can receive isolated spells of rain over the next two days due to the presence of westerly disturbances over the region.”

Chandigarh today recorded a maximum temperature of 36.1, higher by about a degree compared to yesterday’s 35.0 degrees Celsius. But the minimum temperature dipped about a degree at 26.1 from Friday’s 27.2 degrees Celsius.

Surender Paul, director, India Meteorological Department, said though there has been just a degree centigrade departure from the normal in maximum temperature and one degree centigrade dip from the minimum temperature in the city today. But the city today experienced sweltering heat. — TNS

Chandigarh, July 10
A postgraduate degree course in microbial biotechnology (PG microbial biotechnology), which started this year in Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26, has proved to be a hit with admission seekers.

Within a week of its announcement, all 50 seats have been filled and the college is trying to get some more seats sanctioned.

“We had launched this course with 50 seats on trial basis. We were expecting it to get noticed, but such an encouraging response surely comes as a surprise. We got over 100 applications for 50 seats, which were filled within a week of the announcement of this course. Seeing the popularity, we are trying to get some more seats now,” claimed HS Sohi, principal Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26.

The cut-off for the course, which is spread across four semesters, is minimum of 75 per cent aggregate in graduation.

“Job opportunities in the field of microbial technology are vast. The students now prefer specialisation in a subject and that is the reason why any such course is popular. The course shall enable the students to get hired in any MNC with a handsome salary. The course has been designed to provide optimum practical and industrial training to the students,” added Sohi.

The total fee for the entire course stands at around Rs 50,000.

Chandigarh, July 10
The girls’ hostels, which started in DAV College, Sector 10, seemed to have failed to catch the fancy of the fairer sex admission seekers.While the college courses have educed a huge response amongst girls, not many seem to be interested in taking up the hostel accommodation.

For around 200 hostel seats for the girls, the college has so far received only around 70 applications.

Though the figures seem quite dismal, dean academics, BK Vermani, claims that things will look up.

“The counselling for admission to BCom has just got over and we will be getting more students, who will opt for the hostels. The applications are surely quite low at this moment, but I think the situation stands the same for most of the private colleges where the students opt for PG accommodations or rented apartments to escape restrictions,” he said.

The applicants and parents, however, consider regular reports of violence and exorbitant fee structure as the key reason for it.

“We hail from Ferozpur. Our daughter has got admission here, but we have opted out of the hostel because of the notorious image of the college. We have read about grave incidents of violence in the college and that makes us a little scared. The college though has assured us of utmost discipline and security, we cannot take risk in case of a girl,” claimed Jasbir Singh, a parent of an applicant.

“If we opt for the PG accommodation, the total cost of living and food will be almost 30 per cent less than what the hostel is charging. The college authorities have no justification for the fee viz-a-viz the facilities being provided. For me it is the main reason to opt out of the hostel,” added another parent.