Chandigarh, March 18
The UT administration can now go ahead with its plans on expanding the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park. The Punjab & Haryana High Court on Friday dismissed a bunch of 61 petitions by farmers, landowners and others residing in the city’s vicinity filed against acquisition of land by the administration for the park’s third phase.

The order dismissing the petitions was pronounced in the open court this morning by a division bench of justices Jasbir Singh and RK Garg. However, a copy of the detailed judgment is not yet available.

The development is significant as residents of the area have been agitating for a long time against acquisition of land. Local member of Parliament Pawan Kumar Bansal had already extended full support on the issue to the residents. He had even asked the administration to put on hold the process to acquire land for the IT park in Shastri Nagar in Manimajra.

Arguing instead of acquiring agricultural land the administration should utilize the land it already had, Bansal, in a letter to former UT administrator SF Rodrigues had said the land acquisition in the Shastri Nagar area had left 5,000 residents in distress.

"Acquiring land whereby hundreds of people are uprooted can’t serve any public purpose. Allotment of land to private builders for deriving commercial benefit can in no way be deemed in the public interest," the minister had added.

The case saw the UT administration and the home affairs ministry talking different stands on the issue. The former has been defending the acquisition of 272 acres of land for the IT park’s third phase, while the ministry, in its special audit report, called it completely unjustified. It insisted since a huge chunk of plots in the first and second phases of the project were lying vacant, further land acquisition was uncalled for.

“Acquisition of land should reflect the actual need for taking up the process and not just acquiring land for the sake of acquiring it. The audit has noticed the UT administration had begun the procedure for allotting land to certain companies even before receiving a request for it,” stated the ministry’s audit report prepared by the chief controller of accounts.

The report had even stated the administration officials’ keenness to acquire land from farmers and allot it to businesses without going through the prescribed procedure had put a question mark on their intentions.

“In the Chandigarh Technology Park there is no uniformity of rates, procedures or policy in allotting land to various beneficiaries. The UT administration, while handling government assets, needs to exercise some care in disposing it. The safeguard of assets was one of the administration’s responsibilities and it has failed miserably in this,” the reported had stated.

Chandigarh, March 18
The police today solved the murder of 23-year-old Akashdeep Malhotra, who was found bludgeoned to death near the Sukhna Lake, on Wednesday. The police has arrested Jatinder Pal Sharma, Akash’s friend, in the case. The accused is a resident of Phase 3B1, Mohali, and is a clerk with the Punjab education department. The two were known to be good friends and Akash was allegedly deceived by Jatinder who killed him owing to prior rivalry.

The police has also recovered a white Ford Fiesta car, which was used in the crime, from the possession of the accused. Jatinder will be produced in court tomorrow. Two auto theft cases had been registered against Akash. He was working with a call centre and stayed in Phase VII of Mohali.

The police said Jatinder had stood as surety for Akash in court when he had furnished bail bonds in a case of auto theft registered against him in 2009.

ASP (Central) Desh Raj Singh said they would interrogate the accused to ascertain the exact motive behind the crime. “Both came in a car and Jatinder killed Akash after making him consume some drinks. The rest we will know after we interrogate him,” he said.

The police said the murder was pre-planned. Jatinder and Akash had consumed liquor at a vend in Kaimbwala. Later, the accused murdered Akash and dumped the body near the lake. Since Akash was heavily drunk, he could not resist the attack, the police said.

Jatinder was arrested following the scrutiny of the cell phone numbers of Akash Malhotra, which were missing after he was found murdered.

Chandigarh, March 18
The UT police today arrested a close associate of the Mayor as an accused in the assault on a former Ranji player in Sector 35 last year. The police arrested property consultant Subhash Sharma for allegedly conspiring to attack Ranji player Rajeev Nayyar and executing the crime by hiring goons.

Although the incident was reported eight months ago, Sharma was arrested only today in the attempt to murder case under Section 307 of the IPC. This was despite Nayyar consistently informing the police that he had been beaten on the behest of Sharma owing to a dispute over property. Doctors had barely managed to save Rajeev who had been admitted to the PGI with grievous injuries. Sources said Sharma was a close associate of Mayor Ravinder Singh Pali.

He is also the chairman of the employees’ cell of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee.

The police said Sharma had attacked Nayyar after the player had refused to vacate a house that Sharma had acquired in Sector 35. Nayyar was staying on rent in that house since 1994 and the disputed property was acquired by Subhash in 2007.

Nayyar was then assaulted with baseball bats and iron rods outside his Sector 35 residence in the wee hours of June 27 last year while he was headed for the gym in his car.

Four youths armed with batons attacked him after pulling him out of the car.

Nayyar had sustained serious injuries on the head, chest and legs.

Panchkula, March 18
Following in the footsteps of Chandigarh, Panchkula too is joining the league of big cities, as the Haryana Excise and Taxation Department has decided to issue licences for pubs in the town under the new Excise Policy 2011-12.

Beverages having low alcohol content, including beer and wines, would be allowed at these pubs, which would start functioning from April 1. The pub owners would have to deposit Rs 4 lakh licence fee. Earlier, liquor or beverages with light alcohol content were served in hotels only that procured the composite licences for serving the same to their customers.

The Excise and Taxation department has also decided to allow drinking place “Permit Kaksh” in areas bordering Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Punjab. This was being done to avoid smuggling into the state from Chandigarh where the liquor is much cheaper as compared to Haryana.

The department has also allowed the sale of beer at country liquor vends where no Indian-made foreign liquor vend has been allotted.

Announcing the new Excise Policy 2011-12 here today, Deputy Commissioner Ashima Brar said the number of liquor vends has not been increased in the district. She said this year, six liquor vends had been reserved for the Scheduled Castes and three for the backward classes.

The liquor vend near the Sector 5 Inter-State Bus Terminal got the highest bid of Rs 1.22 crore, while the liquor vend at the Gandhi Chowk in Kalka received the bid of Rs 89 lakh. The department had received 50 bids for 57 liquor vends in the district whereas 44 bids were received for 60 country-made liquor vends in the district. The department would invite fresh tenders for the remaining liquor vends. 

Mohali, March 18
The number of liquor vends in Mohali have been decreased to 99 from 102 in the new Excise Policy 2011-2012. The number of groups have also been fixed at 24 compared to 34 last year, meaning that small players would have a tough time in participating in the draw of lots.

Though the UT is yet to come up with its new excise policy, Punjab’s excise policy has been announced last month. To curb the menace of smuggling of liquor into the state, Punjab has decided to introduce security labels and all liquor bottles sold in the state would have intaglio printed security labels with holograms.

In the Excise Policy 2010-2011, the difference in the liquor prices varied from Rs 10 to Rs 50 per bottle, depending upon the brand. Around 5,000 bottles are daily smuggled from Chandigarh to Mohali. 

Panchkula, March 18
High drama was witnessed at Sector 26 as a family alleged that a man tried to kidnap their six-year-old daughter from outside their residence.However, the police refuted the claim, stating that the man was under the influence of liquor and was not involved in kidnapping.

Mehak’s father mediapersons that the incident occurred around 3.30 pm, when the accused arrived near the house.

Identified as Gurmukh Singh Saini (35), a resident of Madanpura village, he was wearing a red T-shirt.

He asked the girl to sit on the motorcycle and show him her house. As soon as she sat on the rear seat, five-year-old Karthik, who was present on the spot, raised his voice.

Surprised by the sudden shrieks of the boy, Gurmukh threw the girl on the ground and escaped towards Ramgarh village.

Hearing the shrieks, the girl’s parents came out of the house and informed the police control room. The police laid a naka near Ramgarh village and nabbed the accused.

Chandimandir police station SHO Jangsher said Gurmukh, running an electronics shop at Madanpura village, was heavily drunk.

He was booked for eve-teasing and causing nuisance. The SHO said there was no complaint of kidnapping.

Chandigarh, March 18
Panjab University campus was draped in the colours of Holi today as students from different departments splashed colours on each other to celebrate the festival. This year’s Holi celebrations on the campus were the liveliest, said certain faculty members.

The pool of Gandhi Bhawan brimmed with colours as students from various departments played Holi along with their classmates there. Hostels were also soaked in a similar spirit.

Certain students were spotted driving across the campus throwing colours on other students walking down the road.

“Although there was no official function for Holi in the wake of the victims who lost their lives in Japan, students organised and celebrated the event at their individual level,” said a PU faculty member.

Students in various departments, including physics, law, chemistry, mathematics and Gandhian studies, were spotted playing with colours and splashing coloured water on each other.

There were certain others who preferred playing with safe organic colours.

Chandigarh, March 18
Though city residents are all set to let their hair down on Holi, there is a word of caution from experts. The bright colours that come in vibrant shades and are available in markets in urban as well as rural areas, besides slums, can be a mix of harmful industrial dyes, chemicals or engine oil.

Every year, a large number of patients visit hospitals with complaints of irritation in eyes and skin allergies due to the use of such colours, says Dr GP Thami, head, dermatology department, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32. The sparkle in colour is created by using mica dust, which is abrasive to the skin. The green colour used in large quantities during the festival contains copper sulphate, a poisonous substance, he adds. The use of wet colours with adulteration of chemicals and heavy metals can play havoc with the health of revellers. “Last year, more than 50 patients approached me with adverse effects of colours used in Holi,” says Dr Vikas Sharma, a Panchkula-based dermatologist.

Most complained of hair discoloration, nail and teeth discoloration and even skin pigmentation, adds Dr Sharma.

Conservator of Forests Santosh Kumar says people should make use of colours made from plants, as they are safe.

Chandigarh, March 18
Notwithstanding the apex court’s order debarring consumer courts from entertaining disputes related to telephone connections and billing, the UT district consumer forum has been passing orders in such cases, only to be turned down by the commission.

If sources at the commission are to be believed, fresh verbal instructions have now been issued to the forum to refrain from taking up such case. The immediate provocation for this has been the setting aside of two orders of the forum in quick successions.

According to officials, the apex court order that remedy under the CPA, 1986, for telecom services in view of Section 7-B of the Telegraph Act, 1885, is barred coupled with the ruling of the National Consumer Commission that consumer fora have no jurisdiction to entertain disputes in view of S-7B of the Indian Telegraph Act makes it abundantly clear that such cases cannot be heard by the consumer court. All disputes of disconnection of telephone or amount mentioned in telephone bills would thus have to be resolved through arbitration under the Telegraph Act.

However, the UT district forum recently passed two orders, against Reliance Communication and Idea, for deficiency of services. The commission set both the orders aside on February 8, 2011, and March 14, 2011, and.

In the case relating to Reliance Communication, the district consumer forum had ordered restoration of a telephone connection and a payment Rs 5,000 as compensation to a complainant. In the other case, Idea Cellular was directed to pay Rs 20,000 as compensation to a subscriber for causing mental harassment to a Panchkula resident.

Rejecting the order, the commission, while quoting the apex court judgement, noted: “The district forum has erred in allowing the complaint as it has no jurisdiction to entertain the disputes related to telecom services.” 

Chandigarh, March 18
The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation will not have to hike water tariff if it takes stringent action against defaulters and impose heavy fine on residents wasting precious water, suggested the Federation of Sector Welfare Associations, Chandigarh, in a communiqué to the MC.

The association suggested that residents who waste drinking water indiscriminately in washing cars, rooftops and courtyards, should be fined heavily. Even the water overflowing in residential or commercial premises should be treated as intentional waste of water.

The association recommended that a detailed survey be conducted of all the residential premises to know which are being used for commercial purposes that are offices, paying guest accommodations and clinics and commercial water tariff be levied on them.

Suggestion has also made that no un-metered water connections should be given at public places, including markets, slums, colonies, greenbelts, public toilets, unless the responsibility of maintenance and upkeep of the connection, meter and payment of the water tariff is taken by a registered society to avoid free flowing and wastage of water. Metering of all the water connections in slums, colonies, villages should be done to avoid wastage of water.

In the proposal, the association has suggested that all big institutions, including Panjab University, PGI, CSIO, and Punjab Engineering College should be directed to install their own small treatment plants to re-use the treated water for different purposes in order to save water. The MC should install rainwater-harvesting system at public places, including community centres, e-Sampark Centres and schools to stop further depletion of water table.

Suggestions have been made that automatic centralised sensor system should be installed by the authorities to detect the leakage of water. The authorities should also speed up the project of installing tertiary water for irrigating parks, greenbelts, big lawns of institutions and residential buildings which are going on for the last several years, but still the tertiary water lines have not been laid in the major parts of the city. The association suggested that rather than increasing rates of domestic water tariff, the authorities should increase rates of commercial water tariff. 

Chandigarh, March 18
Keeping a tenant and then reporting his illegal activities of allegedly stealing Municipal Corporation supplied water for commercial purposes has cost a Phase II Industrial Area resident dear.

Narinder Singla will have to shell out Rs 1.51 lakh from his pocket to pay the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh for the water theft allegedly done by his tenant, Ravi Palta.

The UT Consumer Dispute Redressal forum today ordered Singla to pay the outstanding water dues to the MC on grounds that he cannot absolve himself of his tenant’s deeds and he was equally responsible for this conduct.

Singla, who owns plot number 402 in the industrial area, had lodged a complaint with the MC in February 2009, accusing his tenant, Ravi Palta, of illegally using the water connection from the public health line for filling dispensers and campers for commercial sale.

The MC subsequently conducted inquiries and found that Palta was using the water connection for his business of supplying water dispensers and campers. The MC disconnected the supply and raised a bill of Rs 1.38 lakh, which was served to Singla since the connection was in his name.

Singla moved the consumer forum and objected to the MC charging him for the deeds of his tenant. He also accused the MC of deficiency in services and its failure to take any action against Palta. He claimed that instead of taking action against Palta, the MC stopped water supply to the entire premises.

Denying the allegations, the MC submitted that the illegal water connection was on Singla's premises, therefore, he could not deny the payment. The MC averred that it had the right to recover the outstanding dues as per the provisions of the law.

The forum comprising member Madanjit Kaur Sahota and presiding member Rajinder Singh Gill stated that the complainant was taking rent from tenant, so he was equally responsible for the act and conduct of the latter. Thus, the complainant was liable to pay the bill.

Chandigarh, March 18
The UT Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum has directed United India Insurance Company to pay Rs 10,000 in compensation along with the litigation cost of Rs 7,000, besides settling an accident claim of Rs 75,619 of a city resident, Naushad Khan.

A resident of Sector 41, Khan had purchased a Toyota Innova car for commercial purposes. He had insured the vehicle at a premium of Rs 21,522 from March, 2010 to March, 2011 for Rs 9,48 lakh. The vehicle met with an accident on April 13, 2010.

Naushad lodged a DDR in the police station concerned and informed the insurance company about the mishap. He submitted all requisite documents for settlement of claim. Meanwhile, he got the vehicle repaired from an authorised service centre by paying Rs 1,38 lakh.

“Instead of releasing the claim, the company took it as “no claim” on the grounds that I had failed to produce the route permit as per the provisions of Section 66(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act,” stated Naushad in his complaint.

He said the vehicle was duly registered with the Registering Authority, Chandigarh.

In its reply, the company admitted that the vehicle was insured for the aforesaid period under insurance policy. Soon after the receipt of the claim, a surveyor was appointed and he assessed the loss to the tune of Rs 1,00,825. But the complainant failed to produce the “route permit” on the date of the accident and thus the claim was not payable under Section 66(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act.

The Forum comprising president Lakshman Sharma and member Ashok Raj Bhandari observed that the cause of accident had nothing to do with the absence of the route permit.

Hence, the insurance company could not escape from its liability to indemnify the insured.

Mohali, March 18
Even as the day temperature has started to rise, residents face inconvenience due to power cuts imposed in Mohali.Though officials of the Punjab State Power Corporation claimed that power cuts were being imposed only for an hour or so daily, residents witnessed power disruptions, in addition to the scheduled timings, over the past three days.

Sushil Kumar, a resident of Phase II, said power was shut down for long periods over the past two days, leaving residents high and dry in the middle of various activities. He feared that the situation might get worse with a rise in the temperature, though leaders kept making tall claims.

Another resident said water was received at low pressure over the past three days, because of which overhead tanks had got empty.

Though he had an underground tank for the storage of water, he could not lift that to the overhead tank because of power failure.

Small-time workers like welders and electricians, who depended on power to earn their livelihood, were the worst affected. Those running photostat machines were charging double in the absence of power supply as they used generator sets.

There was chaos at chowks on main roads as traffic lights stopped functioning during power cuts and traffic cops were rarely seen regulating traffic during that period.

An official of the power corporation said power was shut down at Phases I and II for long periods because cables were being shifted as the main road near Franco hotel was being widened, but a public notice had been issued.

Mohali, March 18
The Mohali police have sought the production warrants of the Tanishq dacoity suspects to probe their role in the robbery at a Nokia godown at Badh Majra village in Kharar in 2009.The main suspect in the Tanishq dacoity is Paras Soni, alias Pritpal Singh. In December 2009, mobile handsets worth lakhs were stolen after drugging three security guards.

The suspects, who had arrived after midnight, drugged the guards at gunpoint, rendering all three semi-conscious.

Mohali SSP GPS Bhullar said they had sought the production warrants of the nine suspects to probe their role in the dacoity at the godown.

DSP (Detective) Satnam Singh said they had no intimation from the Chandigarh Police regarding the role of the Tanishq dacoity suspects.

He said the police had put the IMEI numbers of the stolen mobile phones on a watch at the national level.

Chandigarh, March 18
An unpublicised campaign by Panjab University to provide scholarships to the underprivileged students has boomeranged this year with very few interested applicants who turned up to avail it.

Of ` 12 lakh that was earmarked as scholarship fund to provide financial assistance to the needy students, about ` 3.5 lakh was disbursed. These include ` 4,000 annual scholarships for students whose family income is below ` 1 lakh and ` 3,500 yearly scholarships for those with family income of ` 1.5 lakh. To avail these scholarships, students are required to produce certificate testifying the annual income of their family.

The Dean Student Welfare (DSW) office, PU, which has been managing this fund over the years, is now looking for newer ways to publicise the scholarships being offered to students.

At a meeting held this week with the Panjab University Campus Student Council (PUCSC) representatives, along with hostel wardens and the Dean Student Welfare (women), the details of these scholarships awarded were discussed.

Certain members of the students’ council are now gearing up to put up posters in all teaching departments of PU to make people aware about these scholarships.

“The best contribution that the student council and other student organisations on campus can make is to publicise these scholarships. From the next academic session, we will ensure that information regarding these scholarships is put up on the notice boards,” said PUCSC secretary Akhil Bansal.

The Dean Student Welfare, Naval Kishore, could not be contacted for his comments on the issue.

Certain other student council representatives added that the number of applicants applying for scholarships were less this year due to inadequate publicity by the university.

“Had we publicised the scholarships, than merely highlighting it in our presentations, the number of applicants would have been more. An amount of ` 12 lakh is sufficient to be distributed among all those who are genuinely in need of it,” said a student leader on the condition of anonymity.

Chandigarh, March 18
Gurukul Vidyapeeth in association with Panache Global Consultant held a mega job fair here today. Over 1,200 students from 26 technical and management colleges from various parts of north region participated. According to a press not issued here, HR heads of 20 companies, including 11 MNCs, were present at the fair. The fair was organised to provide a genuine platform to managment and engineering graduates in the corporate sector.— TNS

Chandigarh, March 18
Postgraduate Government College for Girls, Sector 42, organised its 25th annual convocation function on the college premises today conferring around 518 degrees on this occasion.

As many as 16 students received their degrees in MS.c (zoology), 9 in M.A English , 39 in BCA, 94 in BA III (Hons.), 105 in BA III, 32 in B.Com III (Hons.), 72 in B.Com III, 29 in B.Sc bio -tech (Hons),93 in B.Sc III (medical and non-medical), 8 in mass communication and 21 in B.P.Ed .

The Special Medal was awarded to Ruchika Mandla, Seema, Devika Rangnikar and Pratibha for standing first in the university.

Seventeen students were awarded with Roll of Honour for holding positions at the university level. Thirteen Merit Prizes were awarded to outstanding students from different streams for holding positions at the college level in the annual university examination.

Lt. Gen (Dr.) DDS Sandhu , PVSM, ADC (retired), Vice-Chancellor, Kurukshetra University, was the chief guest on the occasion who appreciated the efforts made by the faculty and the college administration in imparting quality education for holistic development of the students. While addressing the students Lt.General Sandhu said that students should fight back social evils prevailing in the society.

Principal Mani Bedi highlighted the achievements of the college for the current session. From the coming academic session, new academic programmes viz ; post graduate diploma in guidance and counselling, post graduate programmes in Botany, BCA (second unit),BA (police administration),career-oriented courses in disaster management and yoga and physical fitness. Shubpreet Kaur coordinated the convocation function.