Chandigarh, February 7
A team of the CBI today sealed all bank accounts of income tax officer Rakesh Jain, who was arrested while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a real estate agent on Tuesday.

CBI sleuths had found 16 bank accounts and two lockers being operated by the accused, which have now been sealed. Sources said some of these bank accounts were in his family members’ name.

The investigating agency is also scrutinising the list of 50 persons who allegedly paid bribe to the accused and they would be summoned to the CBI office.

The CBI also searched the third floor of the income tax office in Sector 17 where the accused used to work and seized all his work records, documents and files.

Some officials of the Income Tax Department would also be questioned as part of the investigations, a CBI official said.

The scrutiny of Jain’s service record from the department revealed that he was appointed head of Ward III around a year ago and four sectors fell under his jurisdiction.

Establishments pertaining to his jurisdiction included real estate offices, leading sweets shops and garment showrooms.

Jain was arrested while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 50,000 from Ashok Arora, a real estate businessman, inside his house in Sector 22 on February 6. Two gold bricks and Rs 24 lakh was also recovered.

Arora had been summoned to the income tax office in Sector 17 three times. He had received a notice under the Income Tax Act and the bribe was being demanded to settle the issue pertaining to the notices.

Chandigarh, February 7
A UT police constable was allegedly assaulted while his constable wife was eve-teased and molested by three occupants of a Swift car in the wee hours today. The incident occurred near the grain market roundabout in Sector 26 when the constable couple, who were in civvies, became a victim of the youths' rowdiness.

The incident occurred at 5 am when the police constable and his wife, residents of the Police Colony in Sector 26, were going towards the Inter-State Bus Terminus in Sector 17 on a bike. The woman constable had to catch a bus to go to her village in Haryana.

The police said as the couple overtook a white Swift car (CH 44T 4663) near the roundabout on Madhya Marg, the car driver got enraged and passed lewd comments at the woman constable, who was riding pillion. All three youths seated in the car then continued to pass comments at the woman.

Her husband objected, but the youths continued to pass comments. The constable then stopped his bike and confronted the occupants of the Swift car. A heated scuffle began and the argument soon turned violent. The youths then beat up the male constable and allegedly molested the woman constable. They then fled after hurling abuses.

The constable called the police control room. The police reached the spot and investigations are on to trace the occupants of the car.

Acting on his complaint, a case of outraging the modesty of the complainant's wife and causing hurt, criminal intimidation under Sections 323, 354, 506 and 34 of the IPC has been registered at the Sector 26 police station.

DSP (East) Vijay Kumar said the occupants would soon be traced and such incidents would be dealt with strictly.

Ambala, February 7
Twenty five persons sustained injuries when the bus in which they were travelling in fell into a canal near Malikpur village on Saha-Sahazadpur road today.

The driver of the bus lost control over the vehicle and it plunged into the canal. Three ambulances were pressed into service to take the injured to the hospitals.

Soon after the incident, the police teams from Saha and Sahazadpur reached the spot and initiated the rescue operation. The injured persons were taken to the Ambala Cantt Civil Hospital and MM Hospital and Medical College, Mullana, for the treatment. The doctors said most of the injured persons had sustained minor injuries.

The injured persons were identified as Ravi Kumar, Ram Kumar, Rahul, Roshan Lal, Sandeep Kumar, Kehar Singh, Sanjay Singh, Rampal (bus driver), Yogesh Kumar, Bhupinder Singh, Shaym Lal, Rajeshwer Singh, Naveen Singh, Lavkesh, Parveen Singh and Parkash Kumar.

Chandigarh, February 7
The Haryana Government has sent a panel of three IAS officers for the secretary-level posts in the Chandigarh Administration.

The panel includes the names of Surjeet Singh, a 1998 batch IAS officer at present working as HUDA Administrator (Headquarters) in Panchkula, RC Verma, a 2001 batch IAS officer posted as Director Industrial Training, and A Srinivas, a 2004 batch IAS officer. Srinivas' name was also on the panel, which was sent for the post of Deputy Commissioner.

A senior official of the Haryana Government said they had received a letter from UT Adviser KK Sharma, in which the Chandigarh Administration had sought a panel of IAS officers for the secretary-level posts.

The MHA had sanctioned two posts of secretary, one post of additional secretary and one post of the additional deputy commissioner recently after analysing the requirement of the UT Administration. Even the third Finance Commission in its report had stressed the need for more secretary-level posts.

At present, Home Secretary and Deputy Commissioner’s posts are with the Haryana cadre IAS officers whereas the posts of Finance Secretary, MD of CITCO, Special Secretary (Finance) and Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation are with the Punjab cadre IAS officers.

The UT cadre officers are holding the posts of Adviser, Chairman, Chandigarh Housing Board, and Additional Secretary (Home).

Chandigarh, February 7
The Chandigarh Administration has decided not to extend the 'lal dora' (abadi deh), the boundary line beyond which any construction is declared as illegal. The administration has also decided not to withdraw the Periphery Act.

The UT officials would soon submit their reply to the Punjab and Haryana High Court where a public interest litigation (PIL) in this regard is pending.

A UT official said in 2007, the UT Administration had decided to provide the basic amenities and facilities to the settlers, who had raised unauthorised structures beyond the 'lal dora'. But later in 2009, it was realised that the earlier decision was encouraging unauthorised construction in the peripheral area and a notification was issued in supersession of the earlier notifications.

The official said the withdrawal of the Periphery Act was causing a lot of haphazard growth in the area and in most cases it was not an extension of village 'abadi' but illegal constructions raised by migrant settlers or development of agricultural land by villagers not for their own families but for the purpose of property dealing to make money, which is against the spirit of the extension of the 'lal dora' and the objectives and reasons of the Periphery Act.

The UT Administration has now decided that it has no immediate plans to withdraw the application of the Periphery Act as made applicable again by the notification of 2009 and the Periphery Act shall continue to be applicable in the areas beyond the 'lal dora' as earlier.

In his public interest litigation (PIL), advocate Vijay Bansal had contended that the 'lal dora' was determined around a century ago when land settlement took place. With an increase in the population in villages, thousands of "need-based" constructions by the owners on their land have taken place over the years. In this case, earlier, only Haryana was respondent but later the High Court made also Chandigarh and Punjab respondents.

Mohali, February 7
Rahul Kumar, who was arrested by the Mohali vigilance sleuths yesterday for duping a Fatehgarh Sahib-based BDPO of Rs 10,000 by posing as superintendent of police (vigilance) at Patiala, is the son of a former MLA of the BJP from the Narot Mehra constituency in Gurdaspur.

Rahul is the son of Roop Rani, who had been elected the Narot Mehra MLA (1997 to 2002). He had also worked as private assistant of his MLA mother, who died in 2005.

Sources said having worked with his mother, Rahul knew very well how to talk to senior officers.

“Yesterday, he told Block Development Panchayat Officer Jatinder Singh that he was the SP (Vigilance), Patiala, and had a complaint against the officer. Rahul had threatened the official that if he did not deposit Rs 10,000 in his account, he would register a case against him,” said the sources, adding that the Rahul had duped around 50 persons so far.

“We are checking his account transactions and other crimes perpetrated by him, if any,” said the sources.

Today, Rahul was produced before a local court by vigilance DSP Prithipal Singh and Station House Officer of Vigilance Police Station at Phase 8 Sanjiv Bhatt. The court sent him to one-day police remand.

Chandigarh, February 7
After the online registration of traders, the Department of Excise and Taxation will soon start the process of accepting value added tax (VAT) and other taxes online.

Officers in the Excise Department said the new facility would help the department to have a faster and smoother collection of taxes and eliminate the chances of revenue frauds.

An officer of the department said after getting the response from banks, the department would authorise them to collect VAT and other taxes online and through cash or demand draft. Under the facility, citizens will be able to make payments through Internet banking accounts against monthly VAT and central sales tax, state excise and other taxes of the department.

Further, the department is also considering allowing banks to handle e-refunds to dealers through the electronic payment system.

At present, dealers have to deposit the tax in cash at the treasury branches of the State Bank of India. Cheques or demand drafts are deposited at the Sampark centres.

Recently, the department started the facility of accepting statutory forms online. Earlier, the statutory forms such as C, F and H were physically issued to dealers.

Chandigarh, February 7
A water supply pipeline on the road separating Sector 46 and 49 got damaged last night. The employees of the Municipal Corporation have started work to replace the damaged pipeline.

According to information, there was a leakage in the pipe, which led to a cave in of earth and a huge portion of the pipeline was damaged.

Anil Bansal, XEN, Public Health Division, said they had put barricades around the caved-in portion and the damaged pipeline would be replaced with a new one in a day or two.

He added water supply to the nearby sectors had not been affected.

Panchkula, February 7
The Panchkula MMS case where some girls forcibly stripped another girl and made her MMS has again heated up in the wake of the National Commission for Women (NCW) calling for a report from the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Panchkula, as to what action has been taken in the case. The case had hit the headlines in September 2011 after four girls made an MMS of another girl in Sector 5, Panchkula, and allegedly circulated it.

Pankaj Chandgothia, a Panchkula-based advocate, had filed a complaint with the NCW in October 2011 regarding inaction on part of the police in the case.

Raj Singh, Deputy Secretary of the NCW, New Delhi, had sent the complaint to the DCP, Panchkula, with a letter dated November 29, 2012, calling for a report on the action taken in the case terming the incident as a cyber crime and indecent representation of woman.

The DCP's office has registered the complaint. It has now been forwarded to the in charge, Police Post, Sector 7, Panchkula.

Chandgothia had filed the complaint on the basis of the media reports.

Chandgothia today gave his statement in the case. He has said after the media reports, the matter was registered in the daily diary register by the then Sector 5 SHO on October 5, 2011, and he does not know what action has been taken in the case.

In September 26, 2011, when the victim, a resident of Sector 15, Panchkula, in her complaint made to the police, alleged that four girls, all above 20 years of age, put her in a Maruti car and thrashed her badly before trying to remove her clothes in order to make her MMS in an isolated area in Sector 5, Panchkula. The girls circulated the MMS among their friends. However, the victim later withdrew her complaint.

Chandigarh, February 7
A group of advocates protested against the police for registering a wrong case of rash and negligent driving against an advocate yesterday.

The police had acted on a complaint filed by Pardeep Kumar, a resident of Dhanas, who alleged that driver of the car (CH 01 AN 0242) had hit his car near the dumping ground at Dadu Majra.

The police had booked advocate Amit Kumar Saini, a resident of Sector 16, for rash and negligent driving under Sections 279 and 337 of the IPC.

Amit said there was no accident and he was beaten up by Pradeep and his accomplices last night.

He said he was stopped on the way and was then attacked by the group with rods and sharp weapons as they intended to rob him.

Amit said he went to the police station that time only but was asked to come today. He was shocked to find today that the police had booked him only in the case.

Acting on the cross complaint given by advocate Amit, the police today registered a case of attempt to murder, assault and criminal intimidation against Pardeep Kumar.

“We have registered an accident case as the advocate was found drunk and his vehicle was in the opposite direction. We registered a case on his complaint too but are verifying the details,” said Inspector Charanjeet Singh, SHO, Sec 39 police station.

Chandigarh, February 7
The mental agony of a 17-year-old girl impregnated by a man hailing from Uttar Pradesh came to light today when she delivered a baby boy at the PGIMER today.

The brother-in-law of the girl, Onkar, took her to the hospital today morning. He said she had got married last year and her husband left her few months ago where as the girl told the police that she had an affair with the man who impregnated her.

A team led by DSP (Central), Ashish Kapoor, visited the gyane ward of the PGIMER late in the evening, where she is currently admitted, and recorded her statement. The police then lodged a Daily Diary Report (DDR).

"Her parents live in Bareilly. I left her at the Mother Teresa Home after her husband abandoned her. I was informed about her condition today and I took her to PGI early in the morning," he said.

The baby is confirmed to be healthy.

The official spokesperson of the PGI, Manju Wadwalkar, said that she has no information about the matter.

Mohali, February 7
The District Transport Authority, Mohali, has been directed by the government to keep computerised records of the documents related to driving licences and motor vehicle registrations and return the original documents to applicants.

The secretary of the transport department, Punjab, Mandeep Singh, has ordered all DTO’s in the state to implement the orders with immediate effect.

A copy of the orders has also been sent to the State Transport Commissioner.

In the orders, Mandeep Singh has pointed out that it was observed that applicants submitted a number of documents along with prescribed application forms for getting driving licences, vehicles registered or other kinds of work related to the office of the DTO. It became difficult for the employees to find adequate space to stock all the documents related to the records.—OC

Mohali, February 7
DEO (secondary) Dr Vinod Kumar, who also has the additional charge of DEO (elementary), today said that Rs 42 crore would be spent to improve the infrastructure of the government schools in Mohali district.

He said, “A new look will be given to the government schools along with the improvement in infrastructure.”

He said, “There are 34 senior secondary schools and 64 high schools in the district apart from 464 primary schools, 225 upper primary schools and 11 aided schools.”

Chandigarh, February 7
The three-day annual fest “Cyanide-13” organised at the University Institute of Chemical Engineering (UICET), Panjab University, kicked-off today with various events including Turban tying competition, pirates of PU, rangoli making etc. The UICET students stated that the Cyanide in all these years have become the major spot of attraction on the campus, attracting participants from all departments of university as well as the other regional colleges like PEC University, CCET, Thapar University and Punjabi University etc.

The main highlights of day-I were turban-tying competition, esoterica, pirates of the PU and around the world (quiz). The art events included rangoli making, sketching, dainty nails to name a few. Pulse, DJ night, added colours to the evening.

Chandigarh, February 7
Brushing aside controversies over the interviews for selections and promotions scheduled at the PEC University of Technology later this month, Board of Management (BOM) that has VK Singh Secretary, Technical Education as the Co-Chairman, has decided to go ahead with the selections.

The forthcoming interviews to be held in less than two months before the tenure of the PEC director ends was being opposed by a section of employees stating that the college was ignoring the MHRD directions of 2004 that states no selections can be made three months before the end of his tenure.

In a special meeting of the Board of Management (BOM), held at the UT Administration today, which was chaired by VK Singh, Finance Secretary, who is also the Secretary to Technical Education the BOM, decided to go ahead with the interviews.

The interviews for around 56 posts are supposed to be held which were advertised by the college in September last year.

The SC/ST/OBC officers’ welfare association at the PEC University had represented against this move of the Director to the MHRD, UGC and the UT Administrator to stall the interviews. The association had alleged that Manoj Datta, Director, was conducting the interviews to favour a few of his near and dear ones, as his term is to end by March 2013.

Even the Joint Action Committee of the employees has also made a complaint to the UT Administration, UGC and the MHRD stating that Manoj Datta during his five-year tenure didn’t make even a single selection or promotions, however, when less then two-months are left of his tenure, Datta wants to conduct the interviews.

VK Singh, confirming the development, said the interviews would be held soon and posts would be filled.

Justifying the decision to go ahead with the interviews despite the MHRD 2004 directions, Singh said that the selection process was started last year when the advertisements were made and its just the selection process is to be completed.

“Moreover, we can’t put the future of the students on the stake just because of the politics within in the teachers at the institute,” he said.

Chandigarh, February 7
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, GGDSD College, Sector 32, organised a two-day workshop on video-editing and role of a video-editor in the electronic programme production.

Mandeep Sodhi director, Sodhi Creative Films Winnipeg, Canada, was the resource person on this occasion.

On the first day, Sodhi explained the role of an editor in the production of a television programme or a feature film. He explained that even a bad shooting could be corrected by with the help of editing process. “The job of a video-editor is not only technical but also creative in nature,” he said. — TNS

Chandigarh, February 7
The Central Administrative Tribunal has admitted a petition filed by UT teachers against long stay of deputationists in the UT Education Department. The case has been fixed for a hearing on March 27. As many as 39 government teachers have alleged in their petition that the department has became the dumping ground for the relatives of high-ups who were being accommodated without proper rules and regulation for the purpose. On the other hand, these high-ups are denying the promotion to the UT cadre an employee, which has made their life suffocating and humiliating.

Various judgments of the Central Administrative Tribunal/ Punjab and Haryana High Court and even the Supreme Court of India were ignored to accommodate the deputationists, the petitioners stated.

They also said that the teachers of Chandigarh are compelled to work under the principals/heads of other states who were much junior to UT teachers/lecturers. They got promotion from their parents’ states and managed to come to Chandigarh and posted in senior positions with in days of their promotion. This is a gross violation of the terms and condition of the policy framed for the purpose by the UT administration, said the petitioners.

It was also stated that the provision for deputation was made in Chandigarh for smooth running of the department, as there was dearth of eligible qualified staff. But that was not required now, they said.

Despite being a specific cap of 20 per cent of the total strength of the department, the percentage of outstation deputation employees are beyond the cap fixed for the purpose. There are several deputationists working in the department for over 20 years. — TNS