Chandigarh, February 25
A 22-year-old non-resident Indian (NRI), residing in Sydney (Australia), died after his speeding Hyundai Verna car rammed into the Sector 39/40/55/56 roundabout late last night.

The victim, Satinder Singh, died on the spot. He was returning to his residence in Palsora village after meeting his relatives at Chambpur village when the mishap occurred.

The police said Satinder, a resident of Palsora village, was driving the vehicle at a

breakneck speed and failed to notice the roundabout in the darkness. His car was completely crushed in the mishap in which he suffered severe head injuries. The speedometer of the damaged vehicle showed the speed to be 113 km per hour. The police rushed the victim to the PGI, where he was declared brought dead.

His postmortem was conducted at the Government Multi Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, which revealed brain hemorrhage as the cause of the death.

Satinder was scheduled to fly back on March 5 to Sydney where he has been studying for the last six years. He is survived by his parents and a younger brother.

Fatehgarh Sahib, February 25
A retired teacher and his wife were killed in an accident near Sampli village today.

The couple was travelling on a bike when a speeding car hit them from the opposite direction. The retired teacher was identified as Gurdev Singh of Sampla village and his wife Surinder Kaur. A Tata Indigo car in which another couple from Mandi Gobindgarh was travelling collided with the bike.

The occupants of the car too received serious injuries and have been identified as Narinderpal Singh and Tirlochan Kaur, residents of Mandi Gobindgarh. While the

retired teacher and his wife were going to their village from Chunni, the injured couple was on their way to Mandi Gobindgarh.

The injured couple is under treatment at Fatehgarh Sahib Civil Hospital. The police has recorded statements of the eyewitnesses and family members of the deceased.

The police said a case would be registered after recording statements.

“The Railway Budget has certainly ignored the city. There was greater requirement for a direct train to Patna and Jammu instead,” said Joginder Singh Bhogal, a member of the Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee, Northern Railway.

Even as the Railway Budget has been hailed by many, especially for leaving freight rates untouched, it has left the city disappointed by not considering some of the long-pending demands.

It may be noted that many proposals of the last year’s Railway Budget are yet to materialise.

Converting the Chandigarh railway station into a world-class station was one of the most welcomed proposals of the last year’s budget.

Others included baggage scanners, vehicle monitoring through CCTV cameras, ceiling of stations and exclusive detection through dog squads and machines under integrated security system.

“It should be a priority for the Railways to complete all pending proposals. There was announcement of Duronto from Chandigarh to Amritsar in the last year’s Railway Budget which would have catered to specific traffic, while there is a considerable amount of traffic for Ludhiana and Jalandhar. But the decision is yet to be implemented,” said Pritam Singh, an industrialist from Amritsar.

The two pairs of Shatabdi trains from Kalka to Delhi cater to huge traffic from Chandigarh. Passengers have time and again even questioned the quality of food served in these trains after taking over the catering services from Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

The residents were eagerly waiting progress on converting Chandigarh into a world-class station. But to their disappointment, nothing concrete took shape in the last two years.

This is despite the fact that a big chunk of population from other parts of the country works in large number of Central institutions located in the city and greatly depends on railways for movement.

“Despite repeated requests to the Centre from city residents, except for Mumbai-Chandigarh train, no new trains have been announced for the city,” he said, adding that the Union government has once again meted out step-motherly treatment to Chandigarh, said Kirti Bhalla, an executive working with an MNC here.

He said the Budget has made it amply clear that the Union government has no concern for Chandigarh.

Meanwhile, Congress workers welcomed the Railway Budget presented by the UPA government and announcing concessions to physically handicapped, accredited mediapersons and senior citizens.

Chandigarh, February 25
The “unpublicised” decision of Panjab University to first hike the re-evaluation fee by 40 per cent for postgraduate examination and 33 per cent for undergraduate examination and later announcing a roll back due to students’ agitation will affect thousands of students, who apply for re-evaluation in PU.

In a fresh circular issued by PU examination branch to all the affiliated colleges, chairpersons of all teaching departments and directors of university regional centres on February 24, all institutes have been asked to “advice” students to apply for fee refund of the excess amount.

Earlier, a notice was put up in all PU teaching departments asking the interested students to “apply for the refund individually”. After being criticised by students’ organisations on, PU then issued a fresh circular, this time urging the departments and colleges to “advice”

students to apply for getting excess money back.

Despite resentment among students, university officials continue to announce “No fee hike”, which actually implies “No tuition fee hike”. “I am generating funds from other sources so that students don’t have to bear the burden of fee hike. I don’t have the exact details of hike in re-evaluation fee, but I will investigate the case. University will make efforts to ensure that there is no hike in other charges also besides tuition fee,” said PU Vice-Chancellor RC Sobti.

A fee hike from Rs 300 to Rs 500 for undergraduate re-evaluation examination and Rs 500 to Rs 750 for postgraduate re-evaluation examination had sparked off a protest by certain students’ organisations outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office two weeks ago.

In a bid to put an end to the students’ agitation, PU Dean Student Welfare (DSW), Naval Kishore assured the students that their demands would be met. “Last year, PU announced a refund of fee in case marks increase by 15 per cent during re-evaluation. Do such announcements make any sense when the fee is hiked quietly? Inviting individual applications from students for a refund is unfair and gives an impression that university does not want to withdraw the fee hike,” said Sunny Mehta, an NSUI activist, who has been protesting on the issue since two months. “It’s only when students reach the fee counter that they get to know that the re-evaluation or examination fee has already been raised. Secretly hiking the re-evaluation fee is unfair,” said Vikramjit Singh, party president, SOPU.

Chandigarh, February 25
Despite tall claims of having empowered Municipal Corporation (MC) councillors, both elected and nominated councillors continue to be treated non seriously by the Chandigarh Administration.

Panchkula, February 25
Two girls, aged six and seven, employed as domestic help in a house here, were brutally assaulted by their employers. The incident came to light when one of the girls, after allegedly being hit by an iron rod, managed to escape to a neighbour’s house and narrated her plight and that of a co-worker.

The girls, Meenu (8) and Tina (6) (names changed), were employed at the Sector 7 house of a top executive in a private insurance company, for the past few years. It was late tonight that Meenu was assaulted by her employers for not cleaning up the kitchen. Only when the child was allegedly threatened with an iron rod did she manage to escape to the neighbour’s house.

The neighbour, Dr Y P Arora, then called the police, and some other neighbours. Led by the incharge of the Sector 7 police post here, Kashmir Singh, the police managed to rescue the other girl as well. Once out in the safety of the police jeep, the children began narrating how they were being tortured. Talking to The Tribune, the girls alleged that they were not only repeatedly assaulted, but were often deprived of food and not allowed to move out of the house. Often the two girls were allegedly locked up inside the house for a few days, while the employers family went out. “They would not even leave enough food for us when they went out. Many times, we would call out the neighbours from the bathroom window, who would then take pity on us and give us something to eat,” said a visibly scared Meenu.

Interestingly, while Meenu escaped from her employers house, it took the police a lot of effort to get the other child out of the house. When the police decided to take the children and present them before the member of the Juvenile Justice Board, Manjit Kaur, the employers tried to take away the children in their own car. It was only after the neighbours protested that the children were shifted to the police vehicle.

Manjit Kaur questioned the children briefly and asked the police to get their medical examination. She said she would call the parents of the two girls and hand over the children to them. The police, too, did not initiate any proceedings, saying the same would be done only after the parents of the girls reached here tomorrow.

Chandigarh, February 25
Nearly three years after former Director-cum-Principal of Sector 32 Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Dr Hari Mohan Swami and his wife Dr Madhu Swami were summoned by a city court in a Scheduled Caste atrocities case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has quashed the complaint against them. All subsequent proceedings against the two also stand quashed.

A UT Judicial Magistrate summoned them on April 12, 2008, and the case was committed to the Special Court under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The proceedings were initiated on the complaint dated July 20, 2006, forwarded by Vinod Kumar, a gardener in GMCH-32. He had, among other things, alleged use of derogatory language.

As the case came up, counsel for the petitioners Harmanjit Singh Sethi told the court that Vinod Kumar was only a tool in the hands of Madhu Puri and her husband, Surinder Gandhi, who is practicing lawyer.

Justice Nirmaljit Kaur heard “Madhu Puri was the nurse in her parent department and was repatriated against her desire to her parent department in July 2005.

“Since the same was on the directions of Director Principal-petitioner, she was inimical towards him. Madhu Puri had also filed an application against Dr Hari Mohan Swami and impleaded him as respondent in an application filed by her in the Central Administrative Tribunal, wherein serious allegations were levelled against the petitioner demanding initiation of disciplinary proceedings against him.”

“In fact, a complaint was also filed against her in Police Station, Sector 34, Chandigarh, and a complaint was filed against Surinder Gandhi before the Bar Council. Therefore, both of them bore grudge against the petitioner and his family and therefore they have been entangled in the present litigation at the behest of both of them. Surinder Gandhi is the lawyer of Vinod Kumar.”

Justice Nirmaljit Kaur asserted: “The incident is stated to have taken place in house, which in the present case was admittedly not a public place. It is also not in public view as the only person who was present, is the father of Vinod Kumar.

“The father, under no circumstances, can be said to be a public person and not a spectator as would be the interpretation of the word public. Thus, the allegation does not make out an offence under Section 3 of the Act.

“Moreover, a bare reading of the complaint shows that improbable story has been propounded causing uncharitable aspersions.”

“The story becomes more difficult to believe as the incident occurred on October 26/27, 2005, whereas, the complaint was filed on July 20, 2006, after nine months of the alleged occurrence.”

Allowing the petition, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur concluded: “In the present case, the delay is almost of nine months. Thus, the fact that the said complaint is a result of planning, consultation, leading to obnoxiously exaggerated unbelievable and improbable allegations and made with some ulterior motive is writ large on the face of it.”

Mohali, February 25
Closed circuit TV (CCTV) cameras will now replace the controversial security gates in Mohali at a cost of Rs 1.60 crore.

The cameras will be put up at 60 to 70 strategic points and all movements in the town will be captured by these gadgets.

NK Sharma, Chairman of the Mohali District Planning Board, who was at the meeting held by the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation, Saravjit Singh, with former municipal councillors here today, said the proposal regarding the installation of the CCTV cameras would be finalised next week. A control room would be set up to monitor the movements recorded by the highly sensitive cameras.

Putting up security gates was an old concept, which would not have helped much in reducing the crime rate in the town. These cameras would act as a check on criminal elements, added Sharma.

According to an earlier proposal of the civic body, 69 security gates were to be put up in different parts of the town. In fact, the design of a modified security gate erected in Sector 70 was approved by the former Commissioner of the corporation, Parveen Kumar, last week and the contractor was asked to put up all gates by March 31. The issue of security gates was hotly debated at almost every meeting of the Municipal Council (now corporation) after 39 gates were put up in various parts of the town in October, 2009. Though councillors had suggested that 30 more such gates should be put up in areas which remained uncovered earlier, they criticised the contractor for putting up poor-quality gates and allegedly violating the terms of the agreement.

The contractor had also failed to provide security personnel to man these gates at night, defeating the very purpose for which these were put up. He was finally asked to remove advertisements from these gates as the councillors had alleged that the contractor was only interested in minting money through displaying advertisements of various products. However, the general house had later decided that better-quality gates be put up and a sample of a modified gate was erected in Sector 70. The plan to put up security gates was drawn up by the then SSP of Mohali Jatinder Singh Aulakh and discussed at a meeting which was attended among others by former SP (City) Varinder Pal Singh, and the then council president Rajinder Singh Rana.

As per the plan, these gates were to be closed at night, leaving one gate open which was to be manned by a security guard who would be maintaining a register to enter the names of persons entering that particular area once the gates were closed. The security guards were to be deployed after carrying out police verification.

Chandigarh, February 25
In a bid to facilitate taxpayers, the Income Tax Department started the “Aaykar Sewa Kendra” (Sevottam) scheme in Mohali today.

BS Dhillon, Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Northwest region, inaugurated the scheme. According to a senior official of the department, ‘Sevottam’ is an initiative of the department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, which is aimed at excellence in service delivery in the department.

“Aaykar Seva Kendra (ASK) is a one-stop computerised shop for taxpayers to obtain services promised by the department in its citizens’ charter in a time-bound manner. In order to achieve these objectives, Sevottam provides for a front office to be backed by re-engineered processes and a new outlook of the personnel so that grievances of taxpayers are not only redressed quickly, but also eventually prevented,” said an official.

The result is available on the official website of the Chandigarh administration www.chandigarh.gov.in. — TNS

Chandigarh, February 25
“Despite mushrooming of TV channels especially radio, the All-India Radio (AIR) still remains the most powerful medium of news communication, music entertainment, reaching out to listeners in the remote habitations devoid of electricity supply. The AIR, being equipped with latest technologies is still going strong in serving the country,” claimed Ambika Soni, Minister for Information and Broadcasting while speaking at the annual Akashvani award presentation ceremony at the Tagore Theatre here today.

Established in 1936, the AIR has a network of six stations and 18 transmitters in 1947, which today has a giant network in the world comprising 238 broadcasting centres, with 139 medium, 54 high frequency and 178 FM transmitters serving 99.18 per cent of population, she added. “We are still not complacent and plan to instal one FM

Kendra for every inhabitation, said Ambika Soni.

Instituted in 1974, the Annual Akashvani Awards were presented in the city for the first time. Awards were given for best radio play, documentary, musical production, best news correspondent, best staff trainer, special audience programmes for the youth, farmers, women, and for technical excellence.

A composite cultural programme brought alive the diverse folk culture of various regions much to the delight of awardees. A choral song by junior winning artists from Chennai, action song by Cuttak artists, Punjabi folk Chhalla by Nirmal Sidhu, Sirmori Naati by Joginder Habbi and party, Haryanvi folk dance “Faag” by Rakesh Ganguli, giddha and bhangra by Jaswinder Singh troupe kept the audience enraptured.

The chief guest Shivraj V Patil, Punjab Governor, while lauding the efforts of the Prasar Bharti for the broadcasting revolution emphasised on the necessity of devising and relaying programmes aimed at providing guidance and help to farmers, youth and every segment of society besides preserving and propagating the rich cultural nuances and ethics of our heritage.

Mrinal Pande, chairperson Prasar Bharti, Nooreen Naqvi, director general ,V Shiva Kumar, R Vidya Sagar and other senior AIR officers spoke on the occasion.

Chandigarh, February 25
Schools will now have to submit “Evidence of Assessments” to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to prove reliability, validity and fairness of the evaluation system adopted by them for Class X students.

The Board has devised special software and constituted a team of experts to assess “Practices of School Based Assessment” to ensure that all Class X students are evaluated and graded on same parameters irrespective of their board or school.

“The Board has decided to issue uniform certificates to all Class X students irrespective of the fact that whether they are assessed by the Board or by the school in summative assessment. Thus, it becomes essential that all students be graded on same parameters. Some parents had expressed apprehensions about students appearing for school examinations having an edge of “lenient” marking. We want to ensure that the evaluation is up to the mark and schools don’t end up being “lenient” to maintain results,” said a CBSE official from Delhi.

As per the directive, the regional office of the Board will shortlist the schools that will then be required to send the “Evidence of Assessments” for summative assessments (written examination) and two formative assessments (co-scholastic activities) conducted during 2010- 2011. The evidence will include the tasks, projects, question papers and answersheets of 15 students, five each from three categories of achievement, including top, middle and bottom.

Subject experts will verify “Evidence of Assessments” and the final examination marks awarded to each student. The subsequent report shall not only form basis of Class X results, but also be a reflection of implementation of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) Scheme in schools.

“The aim is to make education co-scholastic. We want to verify that formative assessment is being carried out properly in schools,” added a CBSE official.

Mohali, February 25
It was a day of hectic sporting activity at Ashmah International School, Mohali, as tiny tots displayed their skills during the annual sports day on the school premises here today. Kids participated in 50-metre race, frog race, catwalk, get your partner and reverse gear, cap race, toffee race, pair race, banana race, hoopla race and book balancing events. Activities like marble race and pack your bags were delight to watch as anxious parents and faculty looked on the tremendous fun all around.

Results

Wear your T-Shirt (Class 1, boys): Ravjot first, Hiten second and Harshdeep & Manish third.

Pack your bag (Class 1, girls): Priya first, Sukham second and Khushpreet third.

Grapes eating (Class 1, boys): Manoj first, Rajveer second and Ayush third.

Shopping for your mom (Class 1, girls): Yashmine first, Tanya & Aditi second and Gurleen third.

Spoon & lemon race (Class II, boys): Ramanpreet first, Devarsh second and Jujhar & Arshdeep third.

Thread the needle race (Class II, girls): Harnoor first, Kajal second and Danveer third.

Three-legged race (Class III, boys): Pravdeep & Dalbir first, Brahmjot & Dilbag second and Kunwar & Abhivan third.

Potato race (Class III, girls): Maya first, Gursimran second and Shivangi third.

Wear your shoes (Class IV, boys): Shivam first, Sahil second and Kanwaljeet third.

Skipping race (Class IV, girls): Komal first, Maneet second and Damini third.

Back race (Nursery, boys): Tejveer first, Mannan second and Sahibjot third.

Back Race (Nursery, girls): Rameen first, Hamanjot second and Vaishanvi third.

Crawling race (Nursery, boys): Jasma first, Manya second and Ishpreet third.

Crawling race (Nursery, girls): Gurmannat first, Palak second and Harsirat third.

Cap race (LKG, boys): Ramandeep first, Abeer second and Yash Mittal third.

Cap race (LKG, girls): Kashish first, Mishty second and Gunkirat third.

T-tulip (LKG, boys): Rishab first, Shivam second and Harshpreet third. (LKG, girls): Satuti Bhatia first, Pahulpreet second and Kiranjot Third. (UKG-A, boys): Gaurav first, Rytham second and Karandep third. (UKG-A, girls): Pranit first, Ishaan second and Ravtej third. (UKG-B, boys): Yuvraj first, Hareshdeep second and Sahejpreet third. (UKG-B, girls): Mannat first, Gursimrat second and Anmolpreet third. (Playway, boys): Vanashdeep first and Siddant second. (Playway, girls: Sanovar first and Anshika second.

Zirakpur, February 25
To spread awareness about the rise in pollution more than 200 students of St Joan’s Public School today held a rally here today.

School principal Meenkashi Mathur said the rally was started from the school and later spread awareness among residents of the areas. They carried banners and placards bearing massages- “No pollution is the solution of enriching our future generation” to save environment and stop pollution.

Mathur emphasised on the importance of trees and encouraged students to grow more trees around their surroundings.