C H A N D I G A R H

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TOP STORIES

Prince would have gone Khushpreet way: Police
Chandigarh, February 9
Prince would have met Khushpreet’s fate. Investigations into the kidnapping of the 19-month-old child of Bapu Dham Colony and the subsequent arrest of four kidnappers yesterday have revealed that the accused had planned to eliminate the child after receiving the ransom amount of Rs 5 lakh. The kidnappers were not professionals and planned to kill the child for fear of getting identified, the police said.

“If only cops had acted this swift in my son’s case”
Chandigarh, February 9
“If only the Chandigarh police was as quick in recovering Khushpreet as Prince, my son would have been alive and cheerful sitting on my lap…” an angry and grieving Lakhbir Singh, Khushpreet’s father lamented today.

HC stays draw for admission to private schools
Chandigarh, February 9
Ordering a stay on the draw of lots for admission to Sacred Heart, Carmel Convent, St John’s High, St Anne’s and Strawberry Fields schools in the city, the Punjab & Haryana High Court today reserved its verdict on the issue of eligibility of children aged three years and above. The case, which came before justice Mahesh Grover, also saw the UT administration virtually change its stance on the issue.

House Proceedings
Humiliated, MC officials join battle with councillors
Chandigarh, February 9
Next time there are noisy scenes at the municipal corporation’s general house meetings the elected representatives may not be alone in staging a walkout. Senior officials of the civic body will join them, if a resolution passed by the Joint Forum of Officers today is any indication - a development which bodes ill for the city’s development in the run-up to the MC polls later this year.

‘0009’ upstages ‘0001’
Fetches Rs 1.6 lakh
Chandigarh, February 9
The delay in notifying the enhanced road tax structure appears to have worked wonders for the city’s registering & licensing authority at Tuesday’s auction of “special” vehicle numbers in the new series CH01 AG, held at the RLA office in Sector 17. The authority decided to go in for an early auction as the earlier series (CH01 AF) were exhausted within two months.

COMMUNITY

Social activists, economists for fair MSP to farmers
Say monopoly of seed companies must end
Chandigarh, February 9
Social activists and economists today called for ensuring a fair minimum support price (MSP) to farmers, the need to involve farmers in the planning process besides encouraging farmer cooperatives and ending the monopoly of seed companies while calling for a new policy framework in this sector.

(From left) Director-General, CRRID, SS Gill and Lok Dal leader Ajay Chautala at the CRRID in Chandigarh on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Manoj Mahajan

Disposal of Complaints
City consumer courts among country’s top players
Chandigarh, February 9
While most Indian businessmen rarely follow the principle of Grahak devo bhava and end up treating customers shabbily, the city’s District Consumer Forum, with an enviable case disposal rate of 97.47 per cent, is surely helping customers get their dues from errant companies and business houses.

Slum-dwellers protest anti-encroachment drive
Block road separating Sectors 3, 21 for 3 hours
Panchkula, February 9
An anti-encroachment drive by the enforcement wing of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) here today triggered a protest from residents of the Azad Colony, a slum, in Sector 3.

Festive spirit: Students perform during a Tibet festival at Panjab University in Chandigarh on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Manoj Mahajan

Shopkeepers protest against encroachment
Zirakpur, February 9
Shopkeepers of Junction Plaza today protested against the officials of the Zirakpur Municipal Council for not taking action against those who had allegedly encroached upon 20-ft road in front of Junction Plaza, opposite Paras Down Town Square, in Zirakpur. They alleged that they had informed the council officials when the construction work of an illegal building started, but no action was taken by the MC officials.

‘Jahan se chale thhe’ staged to perfection
Chandigarh, February 9
The second day of the ongoing TFT Basant Theatre Festival organised by the Punjab Arts Council in collaboration with the National School of Drama, New Delhi, commenced with staging of a story “Jahan se chale thhe” at the Randhawa auditorium here today.

Drive by excise dept to check tax evasion
Chandigarh, February 9
The UT excise and taxation department, in continuation of its drive to check the evasion of revenue under VAT and CST Acts, conducted a special check for 24 hours in the city. The drive, which continued overnight, started around 9 am yesterday and continued till 9 am today.

39 structures razed at Hallo Majra
Chandigarh, February 9
At least 39 illegal structures were torn down during a demolition drive carried out by the municipal corporation in the “phirni” of Hallo Majra village. The drive was conducted on the directions of MC Commissioner Roshan Sunkaria. The drive was conducted jointly by the engineering and enforcement wings of the corporation with the assistance of the police.

A JCB removes an illegal structure during a demolition drive at Hallo Majra in Chandigarh on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Parvesh Chauhan

MC Commissioner inspects dispensaries
Chandigarh, February 9
MC Commissioner Roshan Sunkaria today directed the administrative heads of seven civil dispensaries to get the necessary renovation of the existing infrastructure done at the earliest. He inspected the dispensaries at Sectors 8, 19, 20, 35, 38, 40 and 42 and interacted with patients there.

61 publishers take part in book fair
Panchkula, February 9 A two-day district-level book fair was inaugurated by Deputy Commissioner Ashima Brar at Sanskriti Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 20, here today.

• PGI’s free shuttle service

EDUCATION

Dental College
Now, affiliation issue makes students anxious
Chandigarh, February 9
Panjab University dental students, who were earlier demanding the ouster of Dr HSJ Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital director-principal, Dr Krishan Gauba, are now anxious about the affiliation status of their institute.

Dental teachers among better paid
Chandigarh, February 9
Figure this: monthly salary of a professor - Rs 1.15 lakh; reader - Rs 90,000; senior lecturer- Rs 60,000 and that of newly recruited lecturer with BDS qualification is Rs 40,000.

CBSE includes books by Indian authors
Chandigarh, February 9
After being ignored for long, several Indian authors are all set to get their due recognition amongst Indian school students, all thanks to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The board in collaboration with the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children (AWIC) has recommended new reading list for students of Classes V to XII, which for the first time includes works of several Indian authors. The list has not been prepared to just inculcate reading habits among students but will also form a part of the evaluation system.

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Prisoner on parole commits suicide
Lalru, February 9
Ram Singh (27), a prisoner, who was on parole, allegedly committed suicide in his house by hanging himself at Bhukri village last night. A case was registered on the basis of the suicide note. The police said he was on 30 days’ parole from January 11 to February 8 in the case of murder of his wife. He was serving life imprisonment in the case.

PO arrested
Fatehgarh Sahib, February 9
A proclaimed offender (PO), identified as Baldev Singh of Nandpur village, was arrested today.

COURTS

Parsvnath, CHB told to refund down payment with interest
Chandigarh, February 9
In two separate orders, the UT Consumer Forum has asked Parsvnath Developers and the Chandigarh Housing Board to immediately refund the down payment along with SBI’s current interest rate for term deposits to buyers who were allotted flats in the controversial housing project slated to come up at IT Park.

Rs 20,000 fine slapped on gas agency, HPCL
Chandigarh, February 9
A gas agency’s bid to make a fast buck by forcing a family to buy a new stove and a regulator in lieu of their registration for LPG supply has boomeranged with the consumer forum asking the agency, Parnam Gas Agency, Sector 37 D, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) to pay Rs 20,000 as compensation for harassing the customer.

Cases under IT Act
Give figure of tech-savvy officials, HC tells DGP
Chandigarh, February 9
The Punjab Director-General of Police was today asked by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to inform the Bench as to how many police officers in the state were competent to investigate cases under the Information Technology Act, including cyber crimes.

CRIME

Jalandhar resident held for fraud
Chandigarh, February 9
The UT police has arrested a Jalandhar resident, Gagandeep Singh, for allegedly duping a Sector-49 resident of Rs 12.21 lakh. The accused had taken the money on the pretext of getting the victim’s son admitted to an engineering college.

Illegal access to business establishments
Twelve booked for disobeying orders
Zirakpur, February 9
The police today registered a case under Section 188 of the IPC (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) against 12 violators for disobeying the prohibitory orders issued under Section 174 of the CrPC issued by the Deputy Commissioner for compliance of the Punjab and Haryana High Court direction regarding streamlining of traffic on the national highway. The case has been registered on the complaint of the Project Director of the National Highway Authority of India.

Two killed in accidents
Panchkula, February 9
The Barwala-Panchkula National Highway-73 and Panchkula-Pinjore National Highway 22 continue to snuff out lives as two persons lost their lives in two different accidents late last night. In the first incident, Sanjeev Gupta, a native of Safidon in Jind district, was crushed by an unidentified truck coming from the opposite direction near Fort Ramgarh at Ramgarh village on the NH-73.

Three injured in group clashes
Chandigarh, February 9
Three persons were injured in two separate group clashes in the past 24 hours. While one person was stabbed following a group clash in Mauli Jagran here this evening, two others were seriously injured following a group clash at Furniture Market in Sector 53 last night.

Man abducted, robbed
Zirakpur, February 9
Anil Kumar, a resident of Muzzafar Nagar, alleged that he was abducted by five unidentified persons outside Punjab National Bank on the Zirakpur-Patiala highway and dumped near Banur after being robbed of thousands of rupees here today.

Two hit by train, die
Chandigarh, February 9
Two youngsters were killed after a passenger train coming from Ambala hit them at Hallo Majra this afternoon. The two were walking along the track. They have been identified as Shanbabu (19) and Aijaj Alam (20), both residents of Hallo Majra.

SPORTS

PCA ‘largesse’ for residents
To give 7,000 free tickets
Reason: Both matches don’t feature the Indian team and coincide with exams
dates of schools
Mohali, February 9
Call it a bonanza for cricket lovers of the tricity or a bid by the cricket authorities to fill the stands (with a seating capacity of 27,500) during the first two ICC World Cup matches, scheduled to be held at Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) stadium here next month.

Cricket: Kapil fashions GNPS win
Chandigarh, February 9
Host GNPS-36 defeated Ropar Cricket Academy (Ropar CA) in the ongoing Chandigarh Cricket Association (CCA) U-16 Cup being held at GNPS, Sector 36, here today. A brilliant ton by Kapil Poonia (102 runs studded with 11 fours and two sixes) played the vital role in the win by a huge margin of 115 runs.

A cricket match in progress between DAV-8 and APJ School in Chandigarh on Wednesday. Tribune photo: S Chandan

World Cup
Replicas catch fancy of sports organisers
Chandigarh, February 9
Cashing on the forthcoming ICC World Cup euphoria, miniature World Cup trophy replicas have caught the fancy of city’s sports organisers, who are giving these as winning trophies in local tournaments. Many organisers have been awarding these replicas, which are available at certain shops in various sizes, as winning prizes during the local tournaments.

Vijay Hazare tourney to begin today
Chandigarh, February 9
The Punjab cricket team led by Uday Kaul will lock horns with Haryana in the opening match of the North Zone Vijay Hazare Tournament, beginning tomorrow at the PCA Stadium, Mohali.