Thief caught red-handed

Tribune News ServiceCHANDIGARHNov 5 — A resident of Kajheri village has been arrested by the local police for stealing a rickshaw-rehri along with two LPG cylinders last evening.According to the police, Arun Kumar was caught red-handed while stealing the rehri and cylinders, belonging to Mr Gyaneshwar of Sector 45-D, from the main road near Kajheri yesterday. Stolen property was recovered from Arun Kumar's possession. A case has been registered.

Hospitalised: Mr Gian Chand of Sector 40-D was injured when he was hit by a car near the Attawa Chowk. He was admitted to the PGI. The driver of the car fled from scene, leaving his vehicle behind. A case has been registered.

Theft: Mr Hoshiar Singh of Sector 45 reported that one gas cylinder was stolen from his house after breaking open the lock last night.

Abducted: Mr Joga Ram of Mauli Jagran alleged that his minor daughter was abducted by Subhash of the same colony.

Stolen: Mr Mohan Sharma of Sector 22 reported that his Maruti car had been stolen from a parking lot in the same sector.

PANCHKULA

Truck catches fire: Vehicular traffic on National Highway 22 near Chandi Mandir was disrupted for over two hours last night when a speeding truck (HP-14-2388) got out of control and caught fire. The truck was coming from Kalka to Panchkula when one of its rear tyre got separated from the wheel.

Following this, the diesel tank of the truck skidded on the road, causing friction which led to the fire. The fire spread and set the truck ablaze. The driver and the cleaner escaped unhurt but fled from the scene.

Firemen reached the site within a few minutes and brought the fire under control in about an hour. There was a traffic jam on the highway. Over 300 vehicles remained stranded due to the accident.

Mr Ravi Kaushal, who was present at the site, highlighted the vulnerability of the area in the absence of adequate lighting, speed checks and road berm demarcation.

Collision: Two persons — Tarun Kumar and Prem Chand — were hurt in a scooter-canter collision near Garhi Kotha village yesterday. The canter (HR-37-4136) was on the wrong side when it hit the scooter (HR-03-A-8303). The driver of the canter fled from the site.

Woman hurt: A pedestrian Jagir Kaur was injured in an accident near Billa village when a speeding truck (HIA-6360) hit her. A case under Sections 279 and 337 of the IPC has been registered at Chandi Mandir police station.

Injured: A truck (HRT-9925) injured two persons when it collided with a motorcycle (HR-03-B-4102) and a car (HR-03-C-1676) near Ramgarh. The police has registered a case under Sections 277, 336 and 427 of the IPC.

An evening of fun and music
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 5 — It was an evening of fun, music and Punjabi folk at the Sector 23 Bal Bhavan. Organised by the Lishkara Sabhyacharak Manch, the programme not only featured some of the promising and upcoming Punjabi folk singers but also provided an opportunity for some young dancers to exhibit their skills.

The folk singers who had the audience swaying to their numbers, included Ominder "Oma", Ranjit Rana, Varinder Preet, Mukhtiar Gill, Biba Ranjit Sohi, Rajinder Gill and Aman Sagar. Gulzar Sandhu, who compered the programme, had the audience in splits with his jokes.

The programme started with a dance by Master Honey.

Mr Karamjit Singh Dhaliwal, President of the manch, said that an attempt was being made by organising such shows to attract youngsters to their folklore and rich cultural heritage.

A new album of Aman Sagar was also released at the mela which continued until late at night.

Billa takes charge as MC chief again
From Our Correspondent

SAS NAGAR, Nov 5 — Mr Harinder Pal Singh Billa took charge again as President of the local Municipal Council today after the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted a stay on his removal by the Department of Local Government. The High Court adjourned the case to November 30 for final arguments.

The orders for the removal of Mr Billa had been passed on October 26 by the Secretary, Local Government. He had been removed for allegedly failing to hold council meetings in accordance with the provisions of the Municipal Act. Mr Amrik Singh Mohali, senior vice-president of the Municipal Council, had been given the charge of the civic body.

Welcoming today’s court decision, Mr B.S. Baidwan, Vice-President of the Mohali Industries Association, said it was unfortunate that the Department of Local Government had taken a hasty decision regarding the removal of Mr Billa. Mr Harjinder Singh, Vice-President of the local Block Congress Committee, also welcomed the decision.

Mr Billa had taken charge of the Municipal Council on January 21, 1995, and less than two months had been left for the tenure of the elected body to expire. During his tenure as President, a number of attempts had been made by opposition councillors to remove him but every time he had survived. After his removal, he had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court on October 27.

The case came up for hearing on October 28. That day a Division Bench comprising Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi and Mr Justice N.S. Gill issued notice of motion to the state of Punjab and Director of Local Self Government for November 4.

On November 4 the arguments were heard in considerable length on the issue of stay. Thereafter, the case was adjourned in order to enable the Deputy Advocate General and the counsel representing the Municipal Council to verify the fact as to whether the meetings of the Municipal Council had in fact been held as alleged in the reply filed by the petitioner to the show cause notice issued by the government.

Today it was stated by Mrs Charu Tuli, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab, and Mr H.S. Sethi, advocate, that the meetings on two specific dates had been held and “the statement contained in paragraph 3 of the impugned notification that the meetings were not held in those months was factually incorrect.”

The court order further states “that the statement of fact contained in the impugned notification about the non-holding of the meetings in July and September, 1998, was factually incorrect. This prima facie demonstrates the non-application of mind by the concerned officer. We are rather pained to observe that in a matter involving the ouster of a duly elected president of the Municipal Council, an officer of the rank of Principal Secretary to the government has not even bothered to go through the record in the context of the allegations levelled in the show cause notice. We are further prima facie of the opinion that the reasons assigned in the impugned notification do not constitute a valid ground for the removal of the petitioner from the office of president, Municipal Council.”

Overage players irk Education Department
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Nov 5 — The practice of fielding overage players in a particular team in order to strengthen it has become a serious problem for the Education Department of the Chandigarh Administration. In this year’s inter-school tournaments, many objections in this regard were raised. These irregularities have become a headache for parents, physical education teachers, and coaches. Sometimes, without even the knowledge of the respective head of the institution concerned, players practice such indiscipline.

Taking a serious view of these malpractices, the UT Education Department swung into action in the last week of October, when it issued a strongly worded letter to all school principals. The letter said any school team fielding overage players in its team could invite even a police action as a first information report would be lodged.

It has also asked schools to check such manipulations, particularly in the under-14 age group besides adhering to the middle examinations date of birth certificates. In case of students passing out from non-recognised schools, birth certificates would be attested by recognised schools or the Health Department.

Mr Brahmjit Kalia, the District Education Officer, said practice had given bad name to sport but hoped that with strict compliance by various institutional heads, it could be controlled.

Recently, in various sport disciplines, it was found that mostly non-government schools resorted to such tactics and parents were active in most of these cases. Recently, such objections in under-19 and under-14 age groups in hockey and the under-19 age group in kabaddi were raised and the schools against whom the complaints were lodged were SGGS School, Sector 35 (two) and GTB School, Sector 15 (one).

Mr Kalia said they could not fully curb this practice as parents sometimes produced false affidavits or certificates. Overage players also make it to the national school games, resulting in the teams getting scratched. All over India, this problem has eaten into the proper hosting of the tournaments and every year more such objections are heard.

One of the parents said if the department became more vigilant and took serious action like scratching the team for three or more years, then schools would have to check the genuineness of the age quoted by players.

The best remedy would be to go for medical examinations by qualified sport medicine doctor because normal doctor had a different system of conducting such tests.

The Education Department is the ultimate authority which decides on age verification, so, the system should not be allowed to collapse at this level.

Lions Trophy: St Stephen’s High School, Sector 45, and Government Model High School, Sector 44, entered the semi-finals of the first Lions Trophy Cricket Tournament for under-16 boys being played here at Government Model School, Sector 32.

In today’s matches, St Stephen’s High School defeated Manav Mangal School, Panchkula, by six wickets (brief scores: MM Panchkula — 91 all out, Vivek 27, Sunny Behl 2 for 12, Amarbir 2 for 18, St Stephen’s — 93 runs for four wickets, Amarbir 24, Sachin 16).

In the second match, GMS-44 beat Manav Mangal School, Sector 21, Chandigarh, by seven wickets (brief scores: MM-21 — 97 all out, Sandeep 22, Rishiraj 13, Barinder 3 for 27, Sharik 2 for 11; GMS-44 — 101 for three, Gurpinder 39, Charankamal 18, Naved 3 for 21).

Cricket tourney: Burke House won the Blessed Edmund Rice Inter-House Cricket Tournament for under-10 boys at St John’s High School here today. They defeated Maher House by 12 runs.

Brief scores: BH — 92 for seven in 20 overs (Shiven Tandon 16 n.o., Devjot Singh 15, Abhijit Chadha 10, Saranjeet Singh 2 for 9, Chetanya Verma 2 for 14; MH — 80 for 9 in 20 overs (Ganeev Malhotra 17, Himanshu Bawa 10, Abhijit Chadha 2 for 10).

Based on the performance in the inter-house matches, the following boys have been selected for the forthcoming Blessed Edmund Rice Cricket Tournament being held on school premises on November 14, 20, 21 and 23: — Under-10 St John’s school team Karan Dhanoa, Devjot Singh, Ayush Raj Soni, Vikram Talwar, Abihjit Chadha, Rahul Bakshi, Saranjeet Singh, Ganeev Malhotra, Shantnu Gaagat, Chetanya Verma, Ish Dhand, Shiven Tandon, Kanav Chawla and Vishal Jhatta.

Edmund Rice team: Under-10 — Amitabh Tiwari, Mrinal Sharma, Sushant Kaw, Sadeev Singh, Parveer Singh, Dhruvavtar Ghai, Navneet Raina, Aman Goel, Himanshu Bawa, Keshav Khanna, Abhinav Sood, Archit Gupta, Avinav Malhotra and Manraj Singh.