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| Wednesday,
February 19, 2003, Chandigarh, India
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2 held in Chopra murder case SAS Nagar, February 18 The accused are Ravinder Sharma, a junior engineer with the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, and Parampal Singh Matharoo, a contractor and general secretary of the Chandigarh unit of the Congress. Among those still at large are Brij Bhushan, alias Bhupa, a history-sheeter and a drug addict who shuttles between his homes in Sector 23 and Sector 42. The other two persons, one unidentified and the other being referred to as Anil, who is believed to be a friend of Bhupa and had come from Shimla are also missing. Mr Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, SSP, Ropar, said at a press conference that although three out of the five involved in the murder had a personal motive to kill Chopra, the possibility of money having been promised to the killers also could not be ruled out. Ravinder Sharma had professional rivalry with
Chopra. ‘‘Sharma resented the overbearing and pushy attitude of Chopra. Matharoo on the other hand had a grudge against Chopra for not helping him get contracts from the administration. Bhupa wanted to set
Chopra right for having sided with one Titu of Sector 18 whom he had a fight with some years ago resulting in Bhupa being arrested. The motive of the two others who helped execute the crime last night is still not known,” he said. Common
enmity brought the three together. Bhupa brought Anil, who in turn brought another person and the three decided to kill Chopra. They were made to stay at a guest house in Sector 15 allegedly owned by Sharma, the police said. According to preliminary information, Sharma informed everyone about the wedding reception of a colleague’s son and the five met in the evening at Matharoo’s plot in Phase II, and were drinking until the wedding. The police said while two persons went on a scooter with weapons, most likely a .32 revolver and a countrymade gun, the third person followed them in a car.’’ Chopra was shot at twice from. Both shots were fired from behind. Sharma was informed telephonically by Bhupa after the work was done. Meanwhile Chopra was cremated here this afternoon. The Adviser to the UT Administrator, Mr Virendra Singh, the Secretary Finance, Mr Kiran Avtar Singh, and the Chief Engineer, Mr Puranjit Singh, visited the bereaved family. Sharma was at one time working under Chopra in the administration. Later, Sharma was transferred to the MC and Chopra remained in the administration. The continuation of Sharma in the MC will be decided after the police officially informs the MC about his arrest. Once this is done, sources said, he would be suspended. The UT Engineers Association held a meeting of its executive body and offered condolences on behalf of the entire engineering department. |
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M.K. Jain gets bail Panchkula, February 18 He had filed an application for bail yesterday, after the girl had added the charge of rape against him, Manoj Pal, relative of a former Haryana Minister, and two others. The court directed him to furnish a surety bond of Rs 1 lakh and deposit his passport in the court. |
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Forcing
fee on kids for farewell party Chandigarh, February 18 Talking to Chandigarh Tribune, some of the students of class X said their class teachers were ‘compelling’ them to pay the said amount. Maintaining that some of them were unable to afford the amount, they added that they were being “threatened” that their roll numbers for the final examination would not be issued to them, if they did not pay the amount. Schoolteachers said the farewell party was scheduled to be held today evening, but had been postponed because of the inclement weather. There are 94 students in class X. Pointing out that the entire arrangements for the party, including catering, lights and music system, were being made by students of class IX, students said there was no reason for them to pay. According to them the teachers’ explanation for collecting the amount was to present a music system to the Principal. The school Principal, Ms Madhu Bahl, when contacted, said making arrangements for the farewell party was entirely a students’ affair and that the school management was not involved in the matter. Maintaining that there was no compulsion on the students to pay, Ms Bahl added that teachers were only cooperating with the students in making arrangements for the party. She claimed that she had not received any such complaint from parents during the parent-teacher meet held yesterday. |
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Five hurt in bus mishap SAS Nagar, February 18 According to eyewitnesses, the bus was hit on one side by a truck coming from the opposite direction on the Sohana road. The driver of the truck fled from the spot leaving the truck behind. The injured identified as Karamjit Singh, Baljit Singh, Chamkaur Singh, Mohinder Singh and Harjinder Singh were taken to the Civil Hospital where they were discharged after first aid. |
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Bharatpur
BJP leader held Panchkula, February 18 The accused was arrested by a team of the CIA staff of Panchkula from Bharatpur late yesterday and brought here today.
Bijwari, who is alleged to have masterminded the robbery in the Sector 9 jewellery shop in May 1999 along with his friend, Kiran
Sethi, is also believed to be close to a senior Samajwadi Party leader,
D.P. Yadav. Anil is presently, an office-bearer of the BJP Kisan Morcha and the national general secretary of the Yuva Jat
Mahasabha. Kiran Sethi used to run a guest house in Sector 7 here and Anil was a regular visitor to the town. The police says that Anil Bijwari was a close friend of Kiran Sethi and, he had planned the robbery with her. On May 5, 1999, Anil and Kiran kept a watch on the shop from inside Anil’s Esteem car with red light on top) parked near the Sector 9 market, while their six henchmen had entered the shop pretending to be customers. The henchmen, had threatened the owners of the shop, brothers Harish and
Harwinder, and taken away gold and silver jewellery worth Rs 6 lakh, beside Rs 40,000 cash. An FIR had been registered against the accused. Anil is the sixth person to have been arrested by the police in this case, though his “co-conspirator”, Kiran Sethi is still at large. The police says that the arrest of Anil will also help it, solve the case firing in front of Mittu Jewellers in Sector 4 here. |
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District
Attorney found dead Chandigarh, February 18 Though the police did not rule out the possibility of the victim himself having ended his life, it was also being suspected that he might have died of a heart attack. A senior police official said the exact cause of his death would be known only after the autopsy report was received. A servant living with him, had gone to his native village. A team of the CFSL was called by the police to forensically examine the site where the body of S.S. Chadha was found lying. |
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Bowled over by Punjabi hospitality Chandigarh, February 18 The team members feel that the differences between India and Sri Lanka are not as striking as the similarities are. “There is a lot of kinship between the two countries, not just culturally but even from the law point of view. We derived our legal system from the British, as did India, and therefore the penal code is more or less the same,’’says Mr Harin Gomes, a lawyer and member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He, however, hastens to add ‘’though there is a scope for improvement in our judicial system, as far as the disposal of cases is concerned, we are somewhat ahead of India, perhaps because we are not a big country geographically.’’ The brew of hospitality and attention has started making them feel like celebrities.”I developed this paunch as soon as I landed in India! The food is good and the women here gorgeous,”says Mr Rushdi Khan. the only sore
point, he says, is the absence of night life. ‘’The clubs here close early. Back home we can party till late in the morning. We decide when the party ends.’’ Though Sri Lanka is polio-free, the pulse polio programme continues since India has still to achieve the target. The literacy rate is high at 92 % and the caste system is fading. “Though there is a preference for sons there is no discrimination and such sentiments are not expressed openly. Also though dowry is a custom, there are no incidents of bride-burning or torture,’’ says Ms Charnika
Munasinghe, media manager of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka. Cricket is a passion with her and she was with the team in South Africa when she decided to take a month off for a ‘’once in a lifetime GSE programme.” And yes, Hindi and Tamil films are popular in Sri Lanka and Ravana is definitely not worshipped. “It is a myth. The history of our civilisation is traced to Prince Vijaya who belonged to the Lion’s tribe and was banished from India. He fell in love with a demon princess and they had two children who came to be called
‘’Sinhalese’’ or “from the lion’s blood’’ and hence we people are called the lions,’’says Ms Arunika
Wickramsinghe, a marketeer. A Rotary GSE team from India, headed by Dr
R.S.Bedi, will be visiting Sri Lanka next month for a similar cultural exchange. |
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Panchkula assured of regular power supply Panchkula, February 18 Highly placed sources in the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) informed TNS that the ring main circuit would connect all existing power sub-stations and proposed sub stations in the district . This would ensure an alternate transmission system for supplying power in the district in case one of the High Tension (HT) transmission lines develop a snag. The project is being executed by the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam at an estimated Rs 5 crore. Ms Meenakshi Anand Chaudhary, Financial Commissioner, Power, when contacted, confirmed that a ring main circuit , joining the 220 kv Ramgarh-Madanpur sub station to the 132 kv Pinjore substation and the 66 kv line from Dhulkot, forming a ring, would be made functional in the summers . It may be noted that the 100 MVA transformer at Ramgarh-Madanpur substation had been destroyed completely in a major fire on December 24, thus bringing down the possibility hopes for making this circuit possible. “However,” says Director (Technical), HVPN, Mr R.K. Jain,” this would not have much effect as this transformer was earlier feeding power to Yamunanagar area. With two 100 MVA transformers now installed in Yamunanagar, no power is being supplied through the Ramgarh- Madanpur substation. Thus, Panchkula will now have an additional supply of 30- 40 MVA available from this transformer.” It may be noted that additional 32 MVA of power supply is also assured with the commissioning of Mansa Devi complex and Kalka before the onset of summers. Another 16 MVA of power supply will be available from the proposed substation at Sector 3 here, which is expected to be energised by end of this year. Officials say that this would help meet the demand of the district for the next three years. It is learnt that this new circuit will be erected at a circular distance of about 25 kilometers. A number of towers are also being erected enroute Madanpur from Pinjore. Sources inform that because these HT transmission lines will pass through army cantonment area in Chandimandir, they will also require permission from the Ministry of Defence . Since the transmission line from Ramgarh-Madanpur substation is the main source of power supply to the township ( 36. 5 MVA of the total demand and supply of 70 MVA for the township) , the dual carriage way is first being made here, informed sources. It may be noted that the power to the township is through two main sources — a 132 kv substation at Pinjore , which gets power supply through the Central Pool from the Ropar thermal power plant; and the 220 kv substation at Ramgarh-Madanpur, which gets its supply from the 400 kv sub station of National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) at Abdullapur in Jagadhari through Shahabad. The other transmission line, from the 132 kv Pinjore substation to the substation at Sector 1 here, will be converted into a double circuit by the end of the year .This line supplies 28 MVA of power to the township through the Sector 1 substation here. |
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Markfed
staff hold rally Chandigarh, February 18 Addressing the employees, Mr Bhupinder Singh, convener of the
committee, said they had been holding chain hunger strike for the past over two months. He said: ‘‘Markfed is suffering losses due to interference of the state government in the day to day functioning. The Punjab government should repay the loans worth crores of rupees, taken from Markfed. The government should take back its employees, working on deputation in Markfed.’’ He appealed to the management to pay the incentive allowance as per the agreement between the union and management on December 4, 2002. It should also accept other demands, including sanctioning of entry scale of Rs 2820 to class IV employees, salesman scale to matriculate class IV employees, implementation of pension scheme, and to withdraw false cases registered against the union leaders. |
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LIC Class I officers on strike today Chandigarh, February 18 In a press note issued here, he said the officers had been agitating for the past over two years on the issues of codified and transparent promotion, placement transfer and job rotation policy and the restructuring of the LIC branches. They were demanding a rationalisation of these policies for improvement in productivity to meet the challenges of competitive environment in the insurance sector. He said the federation had submitted a memorandum to the Chairman of the organisation on September 2, 2000, in this regard. An approach paper on transfer, promotion and job rotation policy had also been submitted by the federation to the Chairman on October 23, 2002. The association said though the management had a codified policy for promoting Class IV, Class III and Class II employees, so far, no codified promotion policy had been framed for them. Mr Chaudhary said, in the absence of any positive response from the LIC management on these issues, the leadership of the federation had urged the affiliated associations in 100 divisional offices, covering 2,048 branches throughout the country, to launch an agitation from December 21, 2002. Since the Finance Ministry and the LIC management has persistently ignored the grievances of the officers, they had been forced to go on a strike on February 19. He said, if the Central Government and the LIC management failed to settle the issues, the federation would organise a three-day strike by March-end. |
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Panchayat
Secys call off stir Chandigarh, February 18 This is for the second time that he has promised to take them back. On September 23, 2002, they had called off the agitation following Mr Hanspal's assurance but when nothing came of it, they again resumed the agitation. The SAD-BJP government had dismissed 465 panchayat secretaries on December 12, 2001. In their over year-long agitation, the panchayat secretaries had to face the wrath of the UT police on several occasions. A spokesman for the Punjab Government said the state government had called a meeting with them on March 6, to discuss the issue. |
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Protest
by BSNL staff Chandigarh, February 18 A deputation of the union submitted a charter of demands to the Chief GMT. Earlier, addressing union members, Mr R.L Moudgil, circle president, warned officials that the union would oppose any move to privatise the BSNL. Mr Balbir Singh, circle secretary condemned the management for its alleged indifferent attitude. Mr H S Dhillon, district secretary,
sought proportional representation to all unions during negotiations. |
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200 men stage dharna Panchkula, February 18 |
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fined for littering Chandigarh, February 18 |
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50-yr-old commits
suicide Chandigarh, February 18 The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination to the General Hospital, Sector 16. The cause of the suicide is being ascertained. |
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Cartpuller
injured in mishap Chandigarh, February 18 According to police sources, the driver, Rakesh Chaudhary, has been booked under the Indian Penal Code. A senior police official, on being contacted, said further investigations in the matter were on. |
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