Chandigarh, December 3
Six months after UT police Inspector Sucha Singh was murdered in Sector 17, the court of District and Sessions Judge SK Aggarwal today convicted the accused couple, dismissed UT constable Basant Kumar and his girlfriend Sarita, of the crime. The court held the two guilty of murder under Section 302 of the IPC. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced tomorrow. The case has been decided through a speedy trial.

While convicting the two accused, the court relied on direct evidence based on a CFSL report in the case and also on the statements of Home Guards volunteer Jatinder, who was injured in the attack. The statements of another UT constable Anil Kumar, who was also a witness to the attack, were also instrumental in the conviction, court sources said.

Chandigarh, December 3
Amid a heavy presence of the police, city residents, including a large number of villagers from Palsora, gathered at the cremation ground in Sector 25 to bid a teary adieu to 11-year-old Pinki, whose body was found in a sack in a jungle in Sector 52 on December 1. With the UT police still clueless about the accused, the area residents served a two-day ultimatum on the police to solve the case.

The police are working on the theory that a person known to the child killed her after sexually assaulting the victim for fear of being identified.

The police have shot off a questionnaire to the doctors who conducted the postmortem to explain whether the girl had been raped even though the postmortem states she was sexually assaulted. Police sources said there was some confusion in the postmortem report and they would add the section of rape in the FIR once the picture was clear.

The girl’s body, which was kept at the Guru Asra Trust in Palsora village yesterday, was taken to the cremation ground in Sector 25 at 10 am with residents walking all the way and raising anti-police slogans.

Heart-rending scenes were witnessed with the child’s mother and relatives wailing and crying over her death.

“No other parent should ever see this day. The loss is irreparable. I just want the accused behind the bars,” said the girl’s father, Ram Kirpal. The girl’s mother was inconsolable as the last rites were being performed.

More than 100 policemen were deployed along with a quick reaction team to check any untoward incident.

Local political leaders and senior officials of the UT Administration and the police also attended the cremation. Among them were Additional Deputy Commissioner Tanvi Garg, senior BJP leaders Satya Pal Jain and Harmohan Dhawan and local BJP chief Sanjay Tandon.

City Mayor Subhash Chawla, Former Congress councilor Devinder Singh Babla and other Congress leaders also reached the cremation ground. UT SSP Naunihal Singh assured the residents that they would crack the case soon.

Pinki was found strangled and her body dumped in a sack in the jungle area. She was missing since November 27.

Police theory

Police investigations have revealed that the girl was killed by a person known to her. “There is a possibility that she was raped and the accused killed her for fear of being identified,,” said one of the investigating officers. The police are questioning those known to the girl.

Mother seeks justice for Pinki

Even as the police and political leaders gathered at the cremation ground to express solidarity with the family, Gudda Rani, the victim’s mother, said they did not need any political support and all they wanted was justice so that the child’s soul rested in peace. The villagers gave an ultimatum of two days to the police to crack the case failing which, they said, they would take to the streets.

Scene reconstructed

The police collected CCTV footage from the market in Palsora to get any clues to the case. The SIT also reconstructed the scene in Palsora when the girl went missing and also went to the spot for investigation.

Hymen not found, reveals postmortem

Leaving the UT police confused, the postmortem report of the victim has stated that the hymen was not found. The police have written to the doctors to explain what it exactly means. While the postmortem report stated that Pinki had been sexually assaulted as there were injuries on her private parts, the SIT has asked the doctors whether the girl was raped or not.

Chandigarh, December 3
The UT Administration has told the municipal corporation to table the proposed house tax rates before the house tax committee.

The MC was allegedly sitting over a draft report, prepared by a special committee of MC officials to increase the existing rates of house tax by 20 times for the next financial year (2014-15). At present, the tax on residential property is Re 1 per sq yard annually.

The MC committee had recently proposed that the house tax rates be hiked by 20 times. However, sensing opposition from political parties and councillors, the MC had not tabled the report before the house tax committee and the MC general house.

MC Commissioner Vivek Partap Singh said they had prepared the draft report on the basis of "rateable value" of residential properties -- the reasonable annual rent at which a building or land can be rented out, even if it is not actually rented out at present. 

Panchkula, December 3
A three-year-old boy was allegedly sodomised by a 13-year-old boy in the Gandhi Colony in the Mansa Devi Complex here this evening.

The victim’s parents today submitted a complaint to the police following which a case was registered under Section 377 (sodomy) at the Mansa Devi police station. The police have arrested the accused, who will be sent to a juvenile home. According to the police, a neighbour heard the cries of the child following which he raised the alarm. The police was called and the the victim’s parents informed about the incident.

“The child was playing with his friends, when the accused, who stays nearby, took the child on the pretext of giving him a toffee,” said a police official. He said, “After taking the child to his hutment, the accused committed the crime.”

The police suspect that the accused may have been under the influence of drugs.

Mohali, December 3
The Punjab Government's state-level function to mark World Disability Day turned out to be nothing less than a farce when the special guests, the invited disabled persons, were treated as an "ignored lot" by the organisers at the venue, Shivalik Public School, Phase VI, here today.

A differently abled guest, Shingara Singh, an employee, alleged that a policeman, deputed at the main gate of the school, didn't allow his vehicle to enter the premises. "I told him that I am a disabled person and one of the special guests for whom the function was being organised but he did not budge. He also turned down my request that the vehicle would come back after dropping me near the hall. I have to walk and climb the steps to the hall. Nobody came to help me," he said.

Another disabled person, on crutches, was seen climbing the steps of the auditorium. The ramp, meant for the disabled persons, was there but was blocked with the welcome board.

While the organisers were busy serving eatables and tea to the senior government functionaries, local leaders and the chief guest, Surjit Kumar Jyani, Social Security, Women and Child Development Minister, Punjab, nobody served even plain water to the disabled persons, about 17 in number, who came from far-off places.

"I came here at 10.30 am and since then nobody has offered me any refreshment," said Ramandeep Kaur, a differently abled national-level sports person. Ramandeep had come from Ludhiana to receive an award. Similar sentiments were expressed by the other invitees, including Jagdeep Kumar, Jatinder Singh, Manjit Singh and Rajeshwar, all national-level sports persons.

Adding insult to injury, no separate arrangements were made for these special guests for lunch. "Undoubtedly, lunch was served but seeing a lot of rush and jostling among the people there, we decided to leave the venue without having lunch. How could we manage to be part of the mad rush," said these differently abled guests.

Chandigarh, December 3
The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation is not even aware of the guidelines and space standards for creating a barrier-free environment for the disabled (Disability Act 1966) if the response of the civic body on a RTI query is an indication.

On a query seeking the status of the implementation of these guidelines and space standards for a barrier-free built environment for disabled and elderly persons, the civic body replied that no such guidelines were available with it.

"No such guidelines have been found in the copy of the Act "persons with disabilities (equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation) of 1996 to create a barrier-free environment for them. Therefore you are requested to provide the copy of the relevant portion from the Act," stated the reply of the MC, of which a copy is with the Chandigarh Tribune.

The guidelines define the responsibilities of academic institutions, state government, central bodies and Municipal Corporation in creating barrier-free environment for the disabled and elderly.

The MC officials, including MC Commissioner VP Singh and Superintending Engineer Mukesh Anand, could not be reached despite several attempts.

City not disabled friendly

While the MC boasts about its 1,600 neighbourhood parks and greenbelts across the city, but it has failed to consider the plight of the disabled, as a majority are not disabled friendly. Even a number of markets in the city and other public places do not have the provision of ramps.

Most of the parks in the city have entrances guarded by revolving or narrow iron gates that keep stray animals at bay, as also the wheelchair users.

Even the country’s first Sensory Park, located in Sector 26 here and designed for the visually challenged, is no different from any other green belt in the city.

It was proposed that several aromatic plants would be grown in the park, the details of which will be provided in the Braille to benefit the visually impaired in gaining knowledge about the flora and fauna through sense of touch, taste and sound. No sensors have been installed to guide the blind to the path in the park, even three years after the park was launched.

Guidelines

* The government departments should follow recommended standards of provisions for disabled along with the general guidelines.

Municipal bodies, corporations

* The building codes should specify basic architectural provisions that need to be incorporated in new buildings to make them convenient for disabled.

* The authorities should ensure, before giving permissions, there are provisions of step-less system, lifts, adequate doors width for wheel chair entry and accessible toilets in a building plan. 

Mohali, December 3
Nearly 400 BSNL telephones are lying dead in the Phase IX industrial area and parts of Sector 81 here allegedly due to damage caused to cables during the digging work undertaken by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA).

The telephones have been lying dead over the past about five days and the BSNL office has received many complaints in this regard.

While most of the phones that are lying dead have been installed in the Phase IX industrial area, some of these are also in Sector 81 and at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), which is also located in that sector.

BSNL officials said the phones went dead when the GMADA authorities resorted to digging work for providing streetlights on the centre verge of the recently widened road leading from the industrial area to IISER. Underground telephones cables had allegedly got damaged in the process of the electrification work.

The area is being developed as the important Progressive Punjab Investors’ Summit has been scheduled to be held at the Indian School of Business in Sector 81 on December 9 and 10.

Officials said some of the phones at IISER had been repaired. Efforts were also being made to repair the others, but work was going on a slow pace as the GMADA authorities were not giving them permission to repair the damaged cables because digging would have to be undertaken as the cables were underground.

They were told that permission for digging would only be given after the investors’ summit concluded.

GMADA executive engineer (electrical) RS Cheema denied that any damage had been done to the cables. The BSNL authorities had not put up any markers in the area where the cables had been laid. Had such markers been put up, the digging work could have been shifted accordingly.

Mohali, December 3
Cyber crime has become one of the major threats to a country’s national security and integrity. As per a recent report, India has suffered a loss of $8 billion due to cyber security issues while the global loss is estimated at $110 billion.

The importance of the issue and the techniques to contain the problem were discussed during the first national conference on Information Technology and Cyber Security held at Chandigarh University.

Leading academicians and research scholars deliberated on the topic. Over 300 research papers from various institutes were submitted during the conference. Dr Sanjeev Sofat, professor, PEC University of Technology, during his keynote address said there were over 3,000 websites on the Internet that were teaching the hacking process to a common IT user.

During the technical session, Dr Savita Gupta, professor, UIET, PU, Chandigarh, said research was a teamwork and should be shared among students and scholars so that a better platform could be prepared for future technology that could be used for the betterment of society. Dr Kamaljeet Singh, Director, Computer Centre, Punjabi University, Patiala, said hacking could be used for stealing secret information from a network while the same technology used by ethical hackers was being used by intelligence agencies worldwide to tackle issues like terrorism.

Satnam Singh Sandhu, Chancellor, Chandigarh University, said most of the research currently undertaken by Indian universities was limited to paper and only a negligible amount of research was converted into practical solutions. Owing to this, India lagged behind in terms of patents being registered by Indian research scholars.

Mohali, December 3
After booking three doctors and one administrative official of Surya Kidney Care Centre at Sector 69, the Mohali police is going to check the role of certain government functionaries, who have attested affidavits and other important documents in the infamous kidney scam.

DSP (City II) Ajinder Singh said the police had found certain affidavits, which were submitted by certain receivers and donors, stating fake blood relationship between them.

“One of these affidavits submitted by Mukesh Kumar alias Ikramudin (the donor) and Panipat-based Archana Goyal (the receiver) was found being attested by Mohali duty magistrate, notary and tehsildar," he said.

In the affidavit, they had shown their fake blood relation of brother-sister.

Later, Ikramudin became complainant in the case and the Mohali police had registered a case under various sections against Sachin Kumar, a technician at the kidney centre, Shakeel, Vikas Pandey, Amitabh Pandey and Manju Pandey on his complaint.

The Mohali police had booked three more doctors - Dr RS Rai, a resident of Sector 68, Mohali, Dr Satya Shree from Mansa Devi Complex, Mani Majra, and Dr Munish Chabra, a Chandigarh-resident and Jashanjit Singh, an administrative official of Surya hospital, yesterday after interrogation of Dr Arjinder Singh Bains during his police remand here.

Inspector Kulbir Singh, SHO, Phase 8 police station, said all foursome were absconding Raids were on to nab them.

Today, Dr Bains was produced before the Mohali court again after his police remand came to an end. It sent him to judicial custody.

Dr Bains is the owner of Surya Kidney Care Centre at Sector 69. The name of two local hospitals, including Surya Kidney Care Centre, was surfaced in the kidney scam, which was unearthed by the Lucknow police in December 2011. 

Chandigarh, December 3
The Union Government has turned down the demand of the UT Administration wherein it had sought 10 per cent additional budget under the non-plan head for the current financial year. The Centre has also directed the Administration to manage its projects with the available resources.

The UT Administration Finance Secretary, VK Singh, said as per the directions, all the departments were asked to spend funds on non-plan budget after taking prior permission from the Finance Department. The non-plan allocation is usually for expenditure on salaries and other recurring expenses borne by the Administration. He said in the non-plan category, the authorities were making efforts to cut down the expenditure.

In fact, no department has mooted any proposal to enhance its budget for the last quarter of the current financial year. Recently, the administration wrote to all the departments asking them to send their proposals for any enhancement in their ongoing or proposed projects for which they require funds.

As per the budget report this year, a hike of 19 per cent in the planned budget and 20 per cent in the non-plan budget was made by the Union Finance Ministry to the UT for year 2013-14.

Under the plan head, against the allocation of Rs 737.23 crore for the last fiscal, the Union Government has allotted Rs 876.5 crore for the current year, registering an increase of Rs 139.27 crore compared to the last fiscal year.

Under the non-plan budget, against the allocation of Rs 2178.78 crore for the last financial year, the Union Government had allocated a budget to Rs 2615.56 crore, this year showing an increase of Rs 436.78 crore. The major share of the UT budget was for education (19.83%), health (12.21%), urban development (29.72%), transport (15%), housing (5.54%) and social security and social welfare (2.18%).

Chandigarh, December 3
To ease out traffic on the national highway, which causes traffic jams during the peak hours on the internal roads of the city, the UT Administration is working on the possibility of constructing bypasses at various junctions. Revealing the plan of the administration, UT Finance Secretary VK Singh said today that the project to construct a road from Panchkula to Chandigarh with an overbridge near the railway station was in the pipeline. He said another western bypass has been planned near Patiala-ki-Rao where land is available with the administration.

He said a survey would be conducted from the Tribune Light Point to the Airport to study the flow of traffic in order to chalk out a plan for tackling frequent traffic jams.

He said the under bridge No.125 at Mauli Jagran will be ready for the public in the next four months. Stating that the under bridge project at Mani Majra was delayed as the issue of shifting of sewer lines was yet to be finalised with the MC.

Chandigarh, December 3
A variety of beautiful flowers with equally interesting names like "Birbal Sahni", "Changez Khan", "Mahatma Gandhi", "Kasturba Gandhi", "Taj Mahal", etc, will bloom at the coming Chrysanthemum Show to be organised by the Municipal Corporation (MC) at the Terraced Garden in Sector 33.

Around 250 varieties of flowers will be displayed during the show from December 6 to 8. On December 5, the show will only be for the contestants participating in various competition and the rest of the three days will be for the general public.

"The entries will be judged on the basis of the number of varieties displayed, health and colour of blooms and the artistic manner in which these are put on display," officials stated. — TNS

Chandigarh, December 3
Ustad Gazi Khan enchanted the city residents with his recital of centuries old folklore tradition of Rajasthan during the ongoing 5th Chandigarh National Crafts Mela at Kala Gram.

He began his performance with “Kesariya Balam”. Then, he started a series of folk songs, which mesmerised the audience.

The highlight of his performance was his khartal performance. The audience enjoyed the Rajasthani version of ‘Bulle Shah’ presented beautifully by the artiste. — TNS

Chandigarh, December 3
Ignoring their own calendar, the Panjab University authorities prefer to draft their budget for the next financial year at their own whims and fancies.

Figure this out: As per the Panjab University Calendar Regulation 3.1 (a) Page 28, an ordinary meeting of the Senate is convened in December for the consideration of ordinary business and the accounts of the year as approved by the Board of Finance (BoF) and Syndicate and tabled in the Senate meeting for discussion.

But the fact is that neither in the Syndicate meeting, which is scheduled for December 5, nor in the Senate meeting, which will be held on December 8, the budget proposals of the year of the university is going to be tabled.

The former finance development officer, PU, AR Bhandari, said in December, accounts of the year were tabled in the Senate meeting with a revised estimate of the current year budget required under various projects. Besides, the authorities also used the document to draft next year's budget considering all pros and corns, which they might face while utilising the funds or any deficit in the account.

PU registrar AK Bhandari accepted that the agenda of accounts of the year was not in any of the meetings scheduled in the coming week. He said the authorities were not going to have any special meeting to discuss accounts of the year in December.

Finance development officer Vikram Nayyar said the practice had not been discontinued but accounts of the year were tabled in March during a budget meeting for the consideration of the members of both the Senate and the Syndicate.

Contrary to it as per the PU Calendar Regulation 3.1 (b), in March consideration of budget for ensuing year as recommended by the BoF and the Syndicate and to transact other business is tabled in the ordinary Senate meeting.

The records of the university revealed that for the past seven years, the practice of tabling accounts of the year of the BoF, Syndicate and Senate in the December meeting had been discontinued by the authorities.

Chandigarh, December 3
A four-day 39th State Science, Mathematics and Environment Exhibition began here today at the State Institute of Education (SIE), Sector 32. As many as 155 models are being displayed by the students of Chandigarh schools at the exhibition. Organised by the SIE in collaboration with the NCERT, the exhibition aimed at popularising science among children, teachers and general public.

Dr Arun Kumar Grover, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, inaugurated the exhibition and had an interaction with the participating students and lauded their efforts. He was highly impressed by their presentation. Sandeep Hans, Director, Higher Education, Chandigarh, was also present, along with principals of various schools of Chandigarh.

The main theme of the exhibition was “Scientific and Mathematical Innovation” with sub-themes, including agriculture, energy, health, environment and resources.

The exhibition had 11 models under the Population Education Project highlighting various issues related to society.

The participants of the Inspire Award Exhibition held at the national-level in New Delhi also exhibited their models. The evaluation of the exhibits will be done by experts in the field of science and mathematics. The prize distribution function will be held on the last day of the exhibition on December 6.

A teaching aid competition for the teachers of Chandigarh schools is also being held in which 33 teachers of various government and private schools are taking part. The exhibition is open till December 6 from 9 am to 3:30 pm every day.

Chandigarh, December 3
Panjab University today constituted a committee to take stock of actual facts concerning the suicide case of a student of the Dr Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Science.

The committee has been requested to look into the matter and give its report immediately. The Dean, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Professor Bhupinder Singh Bhoop, would head the committee, while the Dean, UIET, Professor Renu Vig; the principal of the Dr Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Dr Ashish Jain; and Professor Shally Gupta would be its members. The Deputy Registrar (Dental) would be the convener of the committee.

The committee will take stock of the actual facts by going through the results of various final examinations, re-appear examination and internal assessments of all theory and practical examinations of the students of the 2011-12 batch.

Meanwhile, disheartened with the delay in action by the authorities after the incident took place, students of the college today organised a peace march on the university campus. The students demanded strict action against the teacher, whose name was mentioned in the suicide note of the student.