 |
|
| Tuesday,
September 3, 2002, Chandigarh, India
|
|
||||
|
TRIBUNE VIGIL FOR CITIZENS Chandigarh, September 2 May 24, 2002: A 78-year-old woman, Parkash Kaur, who was living alone in her Sector 15 house, was brutally murdered. April 10, 2002: A 60-year-old woman, Vanisha Dass, was found dead in her Sector 39 house. While the first two cases remain unsolved, the third case was tracked down to the victim’s servant. In all cases, the targets were senior citizens who proved to be soft targets. Records of the police reveal similar cases in the past. A scheme called Help the Aged Persons Scheme (HAPS), launched by the Chandigarh Police with much fan fare in 2000, has remained on paper. The scheme entailed cops visiting houses of senior citizens at regular intervals to instil a sense of security and assist them in outdoor jobs. However, the scheme was given a silent burial by officials. Sunday’s murder of 60-year-old Sheila Khanna once again exposes the danger to senior citizens from anti-social elements. A senior official said the HAPS, as it had been designed by the officials then, had certain de-merits. “A cop was asked to do outdoor jobs of senior citizens like depositing electricity bills and fetching grocery items. It is very difficult for a cop to cater to the demands of senior citizens”, said the official, adding that way out to help the senior citizens was to allocate additional force and train it specifically for the job. The Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr Parag Jain, however, said the police was performing its duty of providing security and companionship to senior citizens through beat constables. Citing yesterday’s murder, he said beat constable, Jagtar Singh, used to visit the woman’s house. A particular habit of the woman not to open the door to strangers, noticed by the beat constable, had helped in giving a clue to the murder. Another official said the “Neighbour Watch Scheme”, launched by the Chandigarh Police to prevent incidents of crime and for effective communication between the residents and the cops, had been a success. The scheme had been launched in Sectors 8, 15,19, 42, 46, 55, 61 and 38 West. The scheme was being introduced in Sector 39 and in commercial areas of the city. However, residents lament that the scheme had failed to pick up. Reason — the residents welfare associations which were in the fore front while communicating with the police did not largely represent the residents. Despite the scheme, residents were still reluctant to get the verification of their servants, vehicle-owners were not installing safety devices in their vehicles, and attending to senior citizens or women living alone.
|
|
WIDOW’S MURDER Chandigarh, September 2 Enquires reveal that there were at least four properties, including the flat in which she was living. Though the police did not rule out the property angle behind the murder, they said investigation were being done on different theories. Not ignoring the aspect of robbery, finger-prints of the labourers working in the complex and other suspect had been taken and sent for matching to Phillaur. Questioning of suspects was being done by CIA staff after investigations had been handed over to them. Sources in the police said looking into the property angle, fingerprints of the kith and kin of the victim had been taken by forensic experts for matching with the fingerprints found on the items, flower vase and scissors. Weak traces of fingerprints had been found on glasses of water. A team of the CFSL visited the site and had sealed various items which would provide circumstantial evidence in proving the intention behind the murder. The sources said after daughters of the victim and a nephew left the house, person(s) known to the victim entered the house and had tea and sweets with her. It is suspected that in the ensuing moments the visitor (s) were provoked over some issue. From the scene of the crime it looked that it was not a planned murder and attacking with the flower vase and then with the scissors was spontaneous. The SSP, Mr Parag Jain, said nothing could be said as yet as the investigating team were working on different theories. Meanwhile, the post-mortem of the victim was conducted at the Sector 16 General Hospital and report will be given tomorrow. |
|
E-governance
to be a reality soon
Chandigarh, September 2 Besides this the Deputy Commissioner’s office, the Estate Office and the Municipal Corporation are being linked with the UT Secretariat as part of the Chandigarh Administration’s over- all E-governance project. This is aimed at enabling faster data flow. Already the building branch work is under computerisation. All drawings of buildings will be scanned and fed into computers for easy and ready access. Once a link is established between these crucial offices of the DC and the MC, senior officers in the Secretariat will have access to the Deputy Commissioner and the Municipal Commissioner through computers besides providing for faster flow of data. On the banking front. Four banks have showed keenness in accepting money on behalf of the Estate Office. It is good news for people who own properties in Chandigarh. Depositing money for annual ground rents, lease money, installments and all other fines will soon be out of the hands of clerks at the Estate Office and will be handed over to a bank. A final decision to select a bank which will collect all these fees, fines and rents on behalf of the Chandigarh Administration, will be taken shortly. The selected bank will deal with the property owners directly and will even provide net banking and phone banking services for its clients if desired. Thousands of commercial, residential and industrial property owners have to battle it out at the Estate Office as their properties are on lease. Even in freehold properties installments have to be paid and owners have to come to the Estate Office. At present the system is cumbersome as the property owner has to first get a draft or bankers cheque made in the name of the Estate Office, get it noted in the treasury branch and then proceed further. Then comes the process of getting a receipt. Even after that there is no guarantee that the payment will be noted against the owner correctly. Various teams of bankers visited the Estate Office and have conducted their own survey to decide how to carry out things. A long discussion between top officials of the Chandigarh Administration and the bankers was also organised where ideas were exchanged. Once the scheme is in place the banks will issue receipts of payments to customers. These receipts will be valid for all purposes as it will be deemed that money has been received at the bank. For accounting purposes, the bank at the end of the day will transfer all money received to the accounts of the Estate Office.The no dues certificate, a major hurdle for any property owner will also be issued by the bank. The bank will also deal with the processing of files for mortgage of property. The bank will be asked to provide net banking facilities. Thus the property owner can see what balance is outstanding by just logging on . All these schemes will start very quickly, said a top source. The second stage will be the involvement of the bank in back up operations. The idea is to streamline and bring out professionalism in working of the Estate Office. The new system of accepting payment through a bank means the government will need no staff to issue receipts and maintain registers of payments and updating the registers and each account. This will be the duty of the bank. The bank to be selected by the Estate Office will naturally be computerised which will enable the latest facilities for its clients.  |
|
Income Tax Dept set to cross Rs 427 crore target
Chandigarh, September 2 Talking to the Chandigarh Tribune, he disclosed that improvement in industrial scenario and increase in the level of awareness had improved the tax collections. The department had made gross collections of Rs 367 crore during the previous year. Out of that Rs 72 crore had to be refunded by the commissionaire I alone as excess taxes had been deposited by the assesses. He said the efforts of the department employees and simplification of procedures to file IT returns had paid rich dividends. It had encouraged the potential assessees to file returns in a big way with the results that number of total assessees, especially self-employed employees had substantially increased over the previous year. The department received more than 30,000 IT returns on two days July 30 and 31. Mr Luthra asserted,‘‘With such a positive response from the assessees, we are sure to cross the annual target of Rs 427 crore as net collections, even after issuing refunds. The increase in tax collections would be much higher in comparison to increase in per capita income of the city. It implies better compliance on the part of assessees and improvement in our performance.’’ The department had decided, he said, to send a strong message to the public that taxmen would provide every facility to submit IT returns and timely refund of excess taxes, however, at the same time they would a keep a vigil on them. It had encouraged the teachers running tuition centres, traders and self-employed youth to file returns, which would be subsequently reflected in total tax collections. Mr Luthra admitted that the Central Government’s scheme to allow employers to file returns in bulk had failed to take off. Not a single employer had come forward in Chandigarh circle, he said, to file returns under that scheme. The scheme closed on August 31. Perhaps employees were not ready to depend on their employers. The Chandigarh circle comprises of Chandigarh, Mohali, Ropar and Nangal. He pointed that the last date for filing IT returns for business groups is October 31 and September 15 for self-employed people.The department was expecting 30-40 per cent increase in IT returns from these groups. Regarding the refund of excess tax collections, Mr Luthra said,‘‘All IT returns would be processed through computer network by the end of this month and the refunds would be issued within next three months. The department has already issued refunds to more than 2,000 assessees during the past few days.’’ He admitted that despite substantial increase in tax collections, a section of assessees was still involved in tax evasion. The department had found that even out of those persons, who had filed income tax returns during 2001-02, about 15 per cent of assessees had not filed returns next year. Though five to seven per cent fall in returns from the previous year was considered natural due to transfers and deaths of old assessees, but the remaining persons were trying to evade taxes. The department had already issued notices to these defaulters. Mr Luthra urged the assessees to deposit full income tax and file returns on time, otherwise they will have to pay heavy penalty. |
|
Self-immolation bid or bride burning? Panchkula, September 2 According to information available, the woman was married only seven months ago. Following differences with her in-laws’ family, she had been staying with her parents in Panchkula for the past three months and had returned only a few days ago. The incident took place at about 8 am when she was found engulfed in flames at her husband, Jarnail Singh’s , Bitna Road residence. She was rushed immediately to the PGI, Chandigarh, and is stated to be in a serious condition. The Superintendent of Police, Ms Charu Bali, informed that the woman had given a statement to a magistrate in front of a doctor that she had attempted to commit suicide. According to her statement she had poured kerosene on herself and then set herself ablaze. She absolved her in-laws of all responsibility and said it was they who had come to her rescue and had rushed her to a hospital. The relatives of the woman have also denied that she had any differences with her in-laws. They have also told the police that it was a case of attempt to suicide. However, residents of Bitna Road alleged that when the victim was being taken to the hospital, her hands were tied — a fact denied by the police. Meanwhile, police say that they have not registered any case in this regard . The police has not ruled out the possibility of this being a case of bride burning and said an FIR would be registered only after investigations. |
FAUJI BEAT THE
government has decided to implement the K.P.S. Deo Committee’s report that all new entrants to the Central Government posts will undergo a compulsory military training with the Territorial Army (TA) for two months every year for a period of five years. History tells us that for fighting a long war, strength of the regular Army needs to be augmented by part-time appointments. For this, the youth needs to be trained to take up arms when called upon to do so. According to the TA concept, every territorial soldier should have a civil vocation. The government decision fits in well with this concept. The only deviation is that the TA is an army of volunteers and not of conscripts. But then, there is no other way of training our youth because the regular Army is too committed to take on this responsibility. In any case, the compulsory military training for new entrants is only for 10 months. Incidentally, only provincial infantry battalions (TA), numbering around 20, hold annual training camps for 60 days in a year. Since they cannot shed the manpower that is already on their strength, these battalions may not be able to train the entire lot of new entrants to government service at present. However, the situation will improve when the present TA strength of 40,000 is enhanced to 1,00,000 by 2007 and more provincial TA battalions are raised. Besides training the civil servants to take up arms in an emergency, this step will make a beginning towards disciplining the indisciplined nation. AWWA anniversary The Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA), Western Command, having completed 36 years of its existence, has really come of age. Raised in 1966, It celebrated its 37th anniversary at Chandi Mandir in the third week of August. Addressing the AWWA members at the concluding function of the three-day celebrations on August 23 its president Ms Madhu Mehta, who took over the organisation in April this year, spelled out the areas, such as care for widows and children, especially physically and mentally retarded children, looking after separated families, promoting activities matching new welfare concepts, etc, which are of special concern to her. Asha School, Chandi Mandir, and all such schools at various corps headquarters are doing useful job for physically challenged children by restoring their disturbed physiological, psychological and physical functions through basic education, social rehabilitation and by training them for independent vocations. Other new ventures for which the AWWA, Western Command, deserves credit are a service station, an STD booth, a beauty parlour and homoeopathic dispensary. It should also keep on monitoring the number of widows/dependants for pursuing the cases of those who have not been given their due by the Centre or the state governments. New-look Command Hospital In the last column on August 27, new work culture of the Command Hospital, Chandi Mandir, was discussed. How has this been brought about? The man behind this is Major-Gen B. Sadananda, who took over this hospital on May 1. He gives full credit to his team. General Sadananda comes to the hospital at 7.15 am. By the time the hospital starts work (i.e. at 8 am), he has gone around the officers’ ward, ICU and OPDs. From 8.15 am to 9 am, he conducts staff officers’ conference or any other important commitment. From 9 am to 1.45 pm, he is on round in the hospital. “Problems will not come to you, you have to go to them to sort them out on the spot”, is his belief. He goes from place to place several times, talks to patients to know their problem which are promptly sorted out. Entire staff remains present during working hours. Even tea and snacks to the medical staff are provided at their work places. He gets back to his office at 1.45 pm and leaves at 3 pm. Has he always followed this work culture? His answer is yes. He followed the same routine even in the Military Hospital, Kirkee, which he commanded before coming here. Over to patients to comment on this now. Pritam Bhullar |
|
Meat
suppliers observe strike Chandigarh, September 2 The Chandigarh Meat Suppliers Welfare Association president, Mr Balak Ram, threatened to continue the strike if the slaughter house did not revert to the old system of removing the skin without any cut. The strikers staged a dharna in front of the slaughter house. Mr Ram said the cut reduced the price of the skin to a mere Rs 30 from an earlier rate of Rs 90 per piece. He said earlier animals used to be de-skinned in a bag’s shape keeping the skin intact for a better market price. He said the new way of fleecing also resulted in the wastage of 300 gm to 500 gm of meat. The association also said the old rate of Rs 2.5 per animal for slaughtering must be maintained and any increase in the de-skinning rate would not be accepted. Mr Ram claimed that the earlier pattern of removing the skin was continuing in the country. He said the slaughter house superintendent, Mr M. S.
Kamboj, had earlier agreed to revert to the old way of peeling off the skin. But after two days, he reverted the old system. He alleged that with the suppliers going to strike the House has started cracking a whip with the seizure of 44 animals and slapping a penalty of Rs 13,200 on them. |
|
Buffalo electrocuted Panchkula, September 2 According to information available, the cable was old and slightly damaged. Villagers allege that there was sparking a few days ago, which had been reported to an Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam
(UHBVN) office in Ramgarh, but to no avail. Mr Vasudev, a resident of
Naddha, said even today someone had noticed sparking on the cable around 1. 30 pm. Soon the cable got snapped and the power connection to some nearby areas was disrupted. The power supply was restored only after about two hours. One of the three buffaloes of Ganga Devi got entangled and was electrocuted. Some villagers noticed the loose wire and themselves disconnected it from the main pole. |
|
Chetna Yatra to reach city today Chandigarh, September 2 The marchers will perform a drama ‘’Dharam di Chadar’’ in the evening tomorrow at the Sector 53 Gurdwara, Guru Sis Marg. The Punjab Health Minister, Mr Ramesh Dutt, will be present during the staging of the drama. The Punjab Animal Husbandry Minister, Mr Jagmohan Kang, will next day flag off the march to Delhi. The march will pass through sectors 42, 43, 35, 36, 22, 23, 21, 20, 30 and 29 of the city on way to Delhi. |
|
BJP leaders get support Chandigarh, September 2 An Ad-Hoc committee member looking after organisational matters, Mr Purushottam
Mahajan, in a statement said the committee, presidents and general secretaries of district units, morchas and cells of the party stood behind the leaders who were fighting the Congress. Mr Mahajan said the decisions were unanimously taken in the absence of certain members from the meeting. The committee also decided to hold a meeting in each mandal this month to intensify the agitation on the issue of land allotment and imposition of taxes by the Municipal Corporation. These meetings will be held on September 8, 15, 22 and 29. Mr Mahajan said the BJP raised moral and ethical issues but the Congress retaliated with character assassination. The Ad-Hoc committee also refuted allegations against the committee chairman, Mr Yashpal
Mahajan, saying it was a simple case of land purchase. The committee also assured its continued support to Mr Mahajan in the wake of allegations levelled by the Congress. |
|
Bahl’s charge
against Jain Chandigarh, September 2 The allegation was, however, denied by both Mr Jain and the Shivalik Public School Principal, Mr D. S.
Bedi. Mr Bahl said Mr Jain was raising the issue because he had allegedly promised to get the same land for the school. He said Mr Bansal had been taking up with the Chandigarh Administration the issue of 50 small plots for sector-level schools. Mr Jain termed the allegation as “baseless, irresponsible and liable to draw punishment as per the law.” |
|
Rotary head visits CARES centre Chandigarh, September 2 He met executive members and discussed the work being done by CARES for uplifting the poorest of the poor. He also met participants, who attended the awareness generation camp here. Assuring the maximum cooperation from the Rotary Club, Mr Arora, making an on-the-spot assessment of the schemes, found the implementation to be satisfactory. He offered help in providing vocational training from the club and appreciated the work being done by CARES. |
|
Tribune employee’s wife hurt in mishap SAS Nagar, September 2 He said that his wife, Mrs Meenu
Raikhy, who was riding pillion with him, was injured and had to be admitted to a local hospital where she was kept in the ICU. She had suffered four fractures and had to be operated upon. Mr Raikhy said six units of blood had to be given to his wife. Tomorrow she would have to undergo another operation. He said though the police had registered an FIR in this connection it had failed to nab the culprits so far. It is reported that the two youths involved in the accident had fled the scene but later came and took away their motor cycle. |
|
More rain in city Chandigarh, September 2 The rain which started at 2 p.m. continued till the evening. The showers caught children returning from schools unawares. The Met office said the city received a total of 11 mm of rain. The Director of the local office, Mr S.C. Bhan said the rain was part of the monsoon which under normal conditions pervail till the middle of September. Today’s rain was caused by upper air cyclonic circulation over Jammu and Kashmir adjoining Pakistan. This was aided by another system over West Rajasthan, causing rain. The city recorded a day time high of 33. 2°C which is the normal for this time of the year. |
|
Vigilance for suspension of 3 MC employees SAS Nagar, September 2 A Vigilance team had raided the office of the Municipal Council here and arrested
S.K. Gulati, accountant, Rajinder Singh, sanitary inspector, and Padam Kumar, clerk. A sum of Rs 20,000, claimed to be a bribe, was allegedly recovered from Rajinder Singh by the team. Under government rules, an employee who remains in police custody for more than 24 hours is to be placed under suspension. |
|
Camp for CRPF Asstt Commandants Chandigarh, September 2 The IGP Internal Security Academy
CRPF, Mount Abu, Mr S.C. Kukreja, while inaugurating the camp said there was need for balanced training to make the assistant commandants efficient. A total of 19 officers, who have been selected through the limited departmental competitive examination as assistant commandants are undergoing training in the camp. On the occasion, senior officers from Chandigarh and the Group Centre, CRPF, Pinjore were present. Mr D.N.S. Bisht, Deputy IGP, CRPF, Internal Security Academy in his address of welcome gave brief details of the course and participants. |
|
Tibetans celebrate Democracy Day Chandigarh, September 2 About 50 students from various educational institutions participated. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Karma Yeshi, former Vice-President of the Tibetan Youth Congress (Centrex), expressed concern over the prevailing conditions in Tibet. Tibetan settlements around the world celebrated September 2 as Democracy Day, stated Mr Sudeep Rawat, Press Secretary, RTYC, in a note issued here today. |
|
HelpAge India’s
gesture Chandigarh,
September 2 According to a note issued by Mr
Bhavneshwar Sharma, Senior Executive Officer, the home would
accommodate 70 mentally-retarded elderly. |
Homicide case registered Panchkula, September 2 The post-mortem report has made it clear that the victim had received injuries caused by a blunt weapon on her head. The age of the victim is also reported to be between 20 to 25. The police has not ruled out that the victim could have been sexually molested before her murder. It has now sent the viscera for a chemical examination at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Madhuban. It may be recalled that the maggot -infested body of the girl was found in the fields of Jaipal Singh Rajput of Khedi village. The victim’ s feet had been tied with a piece of cloth. It was suspected that the victim was murdered elsewhere and her body thrown in the fields only on the day her body was found. The victim was wearing a green salwar and a black and white printed shirt. The police says that the victim appeared to be an urbanite. The body was rushed to the General Hospital, in Sector 6 here for post-mortem examination. However, since the body was highly decomposed and the skin had almost peeled off, the case was referred to the PGIMER , Rohtak. Senior police officials here said that they had informed police stations all over the state and in the nearby states , giving the description of the victim. |
|
Youth surrenders after encounter with police Sohana, September 2 In a press note issued here today, the police stated that after the encounter, Gurvinder Singh alias Goldy, a resident of Barnala, surrendered before the police, while his two accomplices fled under the cover of darkness. The police seized a .30 bore pistol from Goldy on the spot, while it recovered two empty cartridges each of a .12 bore gun. The press note stated that on the instructions of Mr Surjit Singh Grewal, SP (D), Ropar, a joint team of the CIA staff, Ropar, and police station of Sohana village had laid a at the Cho Majra Chowk when the police pulled over a Maruti car coming from the Daherri village side at around 12.15 a.m. Three youths alighted from the car and started firing at the police. On this, the police returned the fire, which continued for about 10 minutes. Later, Gurvinder Singh surrendered before the police. During investigation, he told the police that he along with the members of his gang had committed frauds with banks and sold stolen cars by preparing fake registration papers, the police added. The police has registered a case under Sections 307 and 34 of the IPC and 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act. |
|
Two bodies found in city Chandigarh, September 2 According to information available, Ram Saroop (50), a resident of Ram
Darbar, was found dead near plot no 734 in the Industrial Area, Phase 1, here. A bicycle of the victim was found near the body. No injury mark was found on the body. In another case, Ranbir Singh (50) a resident of
Moga, was found dead near the Sunbean hotel in Sector 22 here today. Some documents of service in the PRTC from 1967 to 1977 and some legal documents were found near the body. Both bodies were sent for postmortem to the Sector 16 General Hospital. The police does not suspect any foul play in the cases. |
|
4 thefts reported in city Chandigarh, September 2 Mr Aleem
Mohd., a resident of Mani Majra reported, with the police that his Indica car (CH 03J 3176) was stolen from his residence on the night of August 31. Mr Pushpinder Singh, a resident of Hoshiarpur district, reported with the police that his Maruti Gypsy
(PB 12C 2929) was stolen from Sector 33 on the night of August 30. Maruti car (CH 01 7246) of Mr Sarabjit Singh, a resident of Sector 46, was allegedly stolen from his residence on the night of August 25. Meanwhile, Mr
Mohd. Vakiludin, a resident of Kajheri village reported that his house was burgled and the thieves took away an STD machine. Four cases of theft have been registered. Abduction alleged Two held Boxes stolen A nightwatchman told the police that he had seen persons escaping in a Contessa car when they were challenged by him. The police has registered a case. |
|
St Peter’s teacher arrested Chandigarh, September 2 He was later produced before a local court and remanded in judicial custody. A case against the teacher had been registered under Section 506 and 509 of the IPC. |
MARKET
PULSE Chandigarh, September 2 ICICI Bank with 73 ATMs and 18 banking offices in the Chandigarh region has set a blistering pace for expanding its reach in the region. The Bank plans to open 11 more branches in this fiscal in the region. OBC starts 2 ATMs Oriental Bank of Commerce today started two ATMs at the sectors 19-D and sector 26 branches. Mr
V.K. Kashyap, Deputy General Manager, informed that the bank had plans to open 200 ATMs throughout the country. The new ATMs would be interconnected and customers shall have access to their accounts from any ATM situated anywhere in the country. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
