 |
|
|
|
|
||||
|
Man’s body found, kin smell foul play Panchkula, December 18 The body was noticed by a tea vendor. It was lying under a tree opposite plot No 86 in the Industrial Area, Phase I. A muffler was tied around the victim’s neck. The other end of the muffler was tied to a broken stem of a tree. The police was informed, which took away the body to the General Hospital. Mr Hargobind, brother of Hari Ram, alleged the police theory of his brother having committed suicide by hanging was baseless as the stem found tied to the muffler was too weak to hold a man’s weight. “Moreover, he had undergone a surgery on his right hand and could not have tied the muffler to the tree. Hari Ram was involved in a dispute with a former colleague, Poonam, and her two sons over a financial transaction. In fact, Poonam had instigated her sons to attack Hari Ram in September this year. Her sons had attacked him with swords and he had received serious injuries on the hand and the temple. He had undergone a major surgery on the hand at the PGI, Chandigarh. Poonam and her sons were booked by the police,” he said. Mr Dalip, a cousin of deceased’s wife, Neelam, said Hari Ram had gone to meet the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, two days ago with a complaint that the police was not taking any action against Poonam and her sons. “He had requested that his case be taken up in the CM’s Khula Darbar. Apparently, Hari Ram was murdered due to this reason,” he alleged. It is learnt that Hari Ram and Poonam were employees at the International Testing
Centre,
Sources said the body bore no signs of injury and there were no strangulation marks on the neck. “The viscera has been sent for chemical examination to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Madhuban, to ascertain the cause of death,” they said. Hari Ram is survived by his wife, Neelam, and two sons, seven-year-old Deepak and five-year-old
Chhotu. |
|
Municipal councillor ‘beaten up’ Mohali, December 18 In a statement given to the police, the councillor alleged that he was bashed up on the instigation of the President of the illegal Amb Sahib Colony in Phase X, Ms Shanti, who had long-standing differences with him. Interestingly, Ms Shanti was also admitted to the same hospital today after she complained of being bashed up allegedly by Mr Tirlochan Singh and his men. The police informed that according to Mr Tirlochan Singh's version he has gone for a walk after his dinner when he was stopped by three men who forcibly took him to Amb Sahib Colony where he was bashed by a group of more than 10 men in the presence of Ms Shanti. His brother, Manjit, who managed to reach the spot, saved him and brought him to the hospital. Ms Shanti, on the other hand
‘beaten up’ narrated a different story. She told the police that she along with her son Pramod, was returning after closing her dhaba outside the Punjab School Education Board last night when she was stopped by Tirlochan Singh and his men who beat her up. She also levelled allegations against the municipal council chief, Mr Kulwant Singh. According to sources, Ms Shanti and Mr Tirlochan Singh have long-standing differences over the headship of the Amb Sahib Colony. While Mr Tirlochan Singh had been voted as a municipal councillor, Ms Shanti had remained the head of the colony. The police informed that some other cases too have been registered against Ms Shanti earlier. The police has recorded a cross FIR against both in this matter. |
|
CHB notifies service rules for staff Chandigarh, December 18 The new rules will be called the “The Chandigarh Housing Board (Officers and Servants) Service Regulations, 2003”. Till now the rules of the Chandigarh Administration were being followed. Under the rules, there is a provision for the formation of a departmental promotion committee (DPC) for each cadre and type of posts. In a bid to keep the number of its staff members under control, the board has kept an option of taking people on deputation from other departments on posts like Executive Engineer (XEN) and Sub Divisional Engineer (SDE). This has been done keeping in view that the board may not have enough work to keep the entire staff occupied, thus a post can be filled as and when required by calling in officials on deputation from the Chandigarh Administration and other state governments. The board has also made it clear that the employees will be governed by the Government Employees (Conduct) Rules, 1966, which are applicable to employees of the Chandigarh Administration. For the purposes of leave, provident fund, gratuity and other matters, the CHB employees will be governed by rules and regulations as applicable to the employees of the Chandigarh Administration. The first promotion under the new policy was made without much fanfare when the Chief Engineer, Mr S.K. Jain, was regularised. The DPC was headed by the then Adviser, Mr Raminder Singh Gujral, who had also finalised the new policy during his The Chairman of the CHB, Mr G.K. Marwah, says “We are in the process of fixing dates for forming DPC’s for other posts also.” |
|
Victims of NRI marriages to attend workshop at PU Chandigarh, December 18 The long wait for her migration abroad was just a fraction of her unending ordeal. She discovered recently that her husband had married thrice before marrying her. He even married once again their marriage. Now the boy’s family was trying to strike a “deal”. Smriti’s case is not an isolated one as there are reports of at least 12,000 such cases from Punjab alone facing tough times at the cost of negligence by their NRI spouses. At least 150 cases were registered last year alone, director of the Centre for Women Studies at Panjab University, Dr Pam Rajput, said. Girls, who are victims of NRI spouses will come to PU tomorrow to attend a workshop being organised by the Centre for Women Studies. Giving details of one of the cases, Dr Rajput said Parul (not her real name) did manage to go to Canada after her marriage. There she was kept in the basement of a house and treated like a “prisoner”. She managed to escape and inform her parents. Her father reached her in Canada. He, however, asked her to stay back in Canada because “the society would not welcome her return to India. I saw standing her in queue appearing for a test to attempt being recruited as a cop there. The girl lost even her parental support after marriage”, she said. The initial deliberations for organising the workshop dwelt on the alarming rise in the number of cases called “holiday marriages”. Boys from foreign lands come here, marry, ‘have a good time’ and sail off to foreign lands never to get back to the girl. On the other side of the story, there are reports of girls being married abroad as the means of getting remaining family members abroad in the long run. Dr Rajput said divorce laws were comparatively easy abroad so Indian girls merely “served as tools of pleasure only to be disposed off later at convenience”. Sadhna (not her real name) was asked to come to the US a few months after marriage. No one came to receive her at the airport and she had to return back empty handed. Mr B.S. Ramoowalia, a former Union Minister, will deliver the key-note address at the workshop. Mr Justice N.C.Jain will inaugurate the session which will be presided over by Prof Aruna Goel, chairperson of the University Grants Commission committee on Women’s Studies. Dr Rajput said the subject was an important issue for discussion and even evoked pathos. However, the purpose of the workshop was to involve law enforcing agencies, NGOs and academia to draft out a plan which could be worked upon and sent to the government for considering passing a legislation to nail the problem. |
|
Apathy in tackling AIDS pains
Australian judge Chandigarh, December 18 Justice Kirby, the seniormost judge at the apex court in Australia, today spoke on “HIV/AIDS: legal and ethical issues” at a seminar organised by an NGO, the Lawyers Collective for Health Care Workers at the PGI, today. Being associated with the issue of AIDS at the international level, he is a member of the Global Commission on AIDS and the UN AIDS Panel on human rights. “Based on the experience of other nations like Australia, where we made legislations to protect the rights of vulnerable groups like commercial sex workers and injecting drug users, there is need for such laws in India to protect and promote the rights of people who have unfortunately contracted the infection,” he opined. He said in the absence of anti-discrimination laws for AIDS in India, we only have the tools of persuasion, education and above all shunning hypocrisy. “Seeing the increasing number of women AIDS patients, I personally feel it is a disease which severely affects the unempowered women, who continue getting infected, as discussing sex-related issues is still considered a taboo in ‘the great land of Kamasutra’,” he remarked. Adopting strategies like condom distribution, sex education in schools and providing free syringes has made the HIV infection graph in Australia come down drastically, he stated. Justice Kirby, said it was painful to see how some of the AIDS patients were being denied treatment at hospitals, which should be the basic right of any individual. “There is need to educate people that had the AIDS virus been so deadly, hundreds of health care workers would have contracted it by now,” he explained. “What surprises me most about India is the lack of urgency in tackling AIDS/HIV, even though it has 4.58 million infected persons, second only to South Africa. Lamenting the red tapism and procedural wrangles, he cited examples where a grant of $ 100 million given to India for combating AIDS was lying unspent. “There is an urgent need to make officials more accountable as this is the last thing that should be acceptable in a democratic India, with the AIDS threat looms large,” he said. |
|
Nurses relate practical
problems Chandigarh, December 18 ‘‘Talking about the legal-ethical issues concerning AIDS is all right but when I am faced with the practical problem of treating infected people daily without even the basic protective gear as per the universal precautions, it is but natural for me to feel scared,’’ quipped a nurse, while interacting with Justice Michael Kirby, who delivered a lecture at PGI, today. While agreeing that it was their duty to treat patients who had contracted AIDS, they said the government must set aside funds to ensure that all the safety gear and equipment should be there in the critical care areas in hospitals. One of the doctors also raised the issue of health care workers being given a pittance as compensation, in case of occupational infections like AIDS. |
|
|
Admn’s list of holidays for 2004 Chandigarh, December 18 The list of public holidays in Chandigarh during the calendar year 2004 will be: Birthday of Sri Guru Gobind Singh (January 5, Monday), Republic Day (January 26, Monday), Id-ul-Zuha ( February 2, Monday), Guru Ravi Dass Jayanti (February 6, Friday), Mahashivratri (February 18, Wednesday), Ram Navami (March 30, Tuesday), Good Friday (April 9, Friday), Baisaikhi ( April 13, Tuesday), Ambedkar Jayanti ( April 14, Wednesday), Independence Day (August 15, Sunday), Janmashtami (September 7, Tuesday), Mahatma Gandhi birthday (October 2, Saturday), Dussehra (October 22, Friday), Maharishi Balmiki birthday (October 28, Thursday), Divali (November 12, Friday), Id-ul-Fitar (November 15, Monday), birthday of Guru Nanak Dev (November 26, Friday) and Christmas (December 25, Saturday). Two more holidays Holi (March 7, Sunday) and Mahavir Jayanti (April 3, Saturday) have not been included in the list of holidays as they fall on closed days in any case. Also the Administrtaion notified the list of holidays under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. This will mean a closed day for financial institution like banks. Three holidays from the list of Public holidays mentioned above have been deleted. These are Id-ul-Zuha, Baisaikhi and Ambedkar Jayanti. A closed day will, however, be observed on the annual closing of bank accounts (bank holiday, April 1, Thursday) and also on the half yearly closing of bank acconts (Bank Holiday , September 30, Thursday). Besides this, employees of the Administration will be allowed to take two holidays from the list of 17 restricted holidays. The restricted holidays are : New Year’s Day (January 1, Thursday), Makar Sankaranti (January 15, Thursday), Basant Panchami (January 26, Monday), Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati jayanti (February 15, Sunday), Muharram (March 2, Tuesday), Holi (March 6, Saturday), Martyrdom Day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh (March 23, Tuesday), Sri Parshuram Jayanti (April 22, Thursday), Milad-ul-Nabi (Birthday of Prophet Mohdammed, May 2, Sunday), Buddh Purnima (May 4, Tuesday), martyrdom day of Sri Guru Arjun Dev (May 23, Sunday), Shaheed Udham Singh’s martyrdom day (July 31, Saturday), Raksha Bandhan (August 30, Monday), Karvachauth (October 31, Sunday), Bhai Duj\Vishvakarma Day/ Goverdhan Pooja (November 13, Saturday), Martyrdom Day of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur (November 24, Wednesday) and Jor Mela Fatehgarh Sahib (December 26, 27 and 28, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday). |
|
CPI seeks district
status for Mohali Mohali, December 18 Secretary of the committee B.S. Jhajj said it was a long-pending demand of the residents of the town and should be fulfilled immediately. Panchkula had been made a district even when Mohali had more population than that town and people had to go to Ropar to get certain types of work down. Mr Jhajj regretted that his organisation had given memorandums regarding various problems being faced by residents to the SDM, the Municipal Council and PUDA but the authorities failed to remove the grievances. He said certain footpaths, roads, parks were in a state of neglect. The menace of stray cattle and stray dogs also needed to be checked. He said the new building policy of PUDA had caused resentment among residents as certain clauses were very harsh and the fee very high which should be reduced. He demanded that PUDA should reduce the rate of interest on instalments of plots as was being done by public sector banks. |
|
Move on power tariff decried Mohali, December 18 Mr P.S. Virdi, president of the forum, said the power board had been asked to remove kundi connections to check the pilferage of power in jhuggi colonies which was proving to be an unnecessary burden on domestic consumers. He said the compounding fee, as stipulated in the new building policy of PUDA, needed to be withdrawn as it was anti-people. The forum also decided to hold phase-wise camps to create awareness among consumers about their rights. One such camp would be organised in the first week of January. |
|
Panchkula Diary Panchkula, December 18 This amount is Rs 20 crore more as compared to the loan money of Rs 97 crore, granted in the last financial year. Stating this, Ms Neelam P. Kasani, Additional Deputy Commissioner, said a loan of Rs 60 crore had already been granted. She added that out of total loan amount, a sum of Rs 78,000 would be provided as crop loan and Rs 39 crore as medium and short-term loans to rural artisans and shopkeepers. She said eight branches of the bank at Panchkula, Pinjore, Kalka, Morni, Barwala, Raipur Rani, Mauli and Ramgarh and two extension counters at Kakkar Majra village and Sector 12 in Panchkula were already providing loans and fertiliser facilities to farmers.
Solar water pumping systems The Haryana State Energy Development Agency (HSEDA) will provide 14 solar water pumping systems to farmers for irrigation purpose in the district. The government has decided to provided these on a subsidised rate of about Rs 40,000 to farmers residing in areas where water table is less than 8 m. A pump has the capacity to irrigate 3 to 4 acres of land and is completely pollution free. Farmers of Raipur Rani and Barwala block can also contact the office of the Assistant Project Officer, IREP, situated in the office complex of the Block Development and Panchayat Officer, Raipur Rani. These pumps are suitable for the areas along the Tangri river. |
|
Registration of births and deaths stressed Panchkula, December 18 The registration level in the northern region, though better than in other regions of the country, is quite far from the target, he said. While Jammu and Kashmir had a registration rate of 49.3 per cent, Himachal Pradesh had 98.7 per cent, Punjab had 92.2 per cent, Haryana 73.5 per cent and Chandigarh had 85 per cent. Mr Gulati said in the last decade, approximately 49.5 lakh children were born in Haryana, and out of which 36.7 lakh births were registered, but only in 5.1 lakh cases, the parents collected the certificates. In order to generate public awareness, he said a national campaign on birth certificates is being undertaken from November to March next year. The campaign envisages providing one copy of the birth certificate free of cost to each child under 10 years of age, who is residing at the place of birth. For this purpose, the state government machinery, Health Department, anganwari workers, schools, panchayats, zila sainik board/scouts and guides, economic and statistical organisation and NGOs are being utilised. With the help of UNICEF, special child registration observers will also be appointed for the next three months to oversee the impact of the campaign. In order to make this campaign successful, a comprehensive strategy has been devised. Mr Gulati said for this purpose, in urban areas specific application forms are available in municipal offices whereas in rural areas, certificates have been filled and supplied to the field agencies to distribute then. The role of anganwadi
workers/ANMs/MPHW(M)/health authorities, as also that the NGOs would be vital in this task of distribution of certificates. Mr Gulati informed that a film called “Jago” has been produced for promoting this campaign which is to be releases shortly at Delhi. The first has been shot at Kami village in Panchkula district, Sukhna Lake, Rock Garden, Yamuna Nagar, Wagha Border and Jallianwala Bagh. |
|
Minister’s call to eradicate female foeticide Panchkula, December 18 While inaugurating the conclave on the theme “female foeticide and right of girl child to be born,” the minister said there was an urgent need to change the mindset of the people, who still thought that girl child was a burden on the family. He said that the main cause of this was the prevalence of the dowry system, which led people to go for female foeticide. The minister said that this evil was prevailing both in educated and uneducated people, and if this was not checked properly, then it might prove fatal for the society. Referring to the old scriptures, he said that girl child was considered Devi and our society gave the highest respect to women. The Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary, Mr
S.P. Sharma impressed upon giving education to all girls by disseminating the message of menace of female foeticide through schoolchildren. The Director-General, Health Services, Dr B.S. Dahiya, stressed the need for strict implementation of laws passed to check female foeticide. He said the Health Department had detected 22 cases of female foeticide and strict action was being taken against those involved. |
|
Judah Assembly holds Yuletide Panchkula, December 18 Mr Krit
Serai, Principal of the school, welcomed the participants and encouraged the Judah Assembly to conduct similar events. The chanting of Christmas carols - “Joy To the World,” “Sing a song of Christmas”, “Silent Night Holy Night” rent the air. St
Xaviers’ Chandigarh, bagged the first prize, while Satluj Public School and Yadvindra Public School bagged the second and third prizes respectively. |
|
Body identified Chandigarh, December 18 Amandeep, who was getting treatment for depression at the PGI, had been missing for a weak. The police yesterday found his cloths at a secluded area near the lake. It is being considered a case of suicide as the body bore no injury marks. |
|
Workers to get short leave to cast votes
Chandigarh, December 18 |
|
Exhibition on adult education Chandigarh, December 18 Beautiful sceneries, soft toys, mats, sofa covers, and bedsheets made by beds, knitted sweaters, shawls, TV covers were displayed in the exhibition. All these things were prepared by the learners of the Adult Education Department and efforts of preraks and nodal
prerak. These articles are priced at low-profit margin. The SDM(S), Mrs Madhavi
Kataria, appreciated the things and laid stress on education. Members of the village education committee, panch, sarpanch, and teachers of the school were present there. |
Six booked in escape case Kharar, December 18 The case was registered on the statement of Nathu Ram, Inspector, who had brought the undertrials in a bus for hearing at the Kharar court. The Inspector told the police that 28 persons were brought from the Patiala and Nabha jails. While six were left at the local court complex along with two policemen, 22 were taken to Ropar and Anandpur Sahib courts. He said he came back to pick up the six undertrials at about 4.30 pm. They were being escorted from the court lock-up room by two policemen towards the Punjab Police bus when four of them escaped. Though police was able to nab three undertrials, the fourth one, Jatinder Kumar is still absconding. It is learnt that Jatinder Kumar is involved in the case of kidnapping of 11-year-old Gagandeep from Phase IV, Mohali, when he was returning home from Shivalik Public School some months ago. While Mandeep Singh and Jatinder Kumar are residents of Janata Colony, Nayagaon, Naseem belongs to Guru Nanak Colony, Phase X, Mohali. The police has registered a case against Mr Gurcharan Singh and Mr Harmel Singh, both havildars, and four undertrials — Mandeep Singh, Ajay Kumar, Naseem and Jatinder Kumar — under Sections 223 and 224 of the IPC. |
|
Rs 2,000, mobile snatched in Sec 17
Chandigarh, December 18 In another incident, another person was robbed of three demand drafts of a local Hindi daily from the ISBT. The employee of the newspaper was going to Meerut to hand over those demand drafts. The lawyer, Mr Chaman Lal Kalia, a resident of House Number 898, Sector A, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, said three unknown boys snatched his mobile phone and Rs 2,000 when he was taking a stroll in front of the Shivalik View hotel around 12.30 am last night. Theft: One Dalip Kumar of the Sector 23 market was arrested on Thursday on a complaint of Vicky of Colony 5 for allegedly stealing Rs 175 from the Shiv Mandir in front of the ISBT in Sector 17. He allegedly broke grilles and locks. Arrested: A Sector 24 resident Tejinder Singh was arrested on a complaint of Mr Balbir Singh of Sector 22 for allegedly picking the pocket of the latter. The complainant alleged the purse picked contained Rs 150.
TNS |
|
Thieves identified Mohali, December 18 A resident of Kumhar Colony, Sector 25, Chandigarh was arrested on the charge of stealing a scooter. The police also seized the scooter from Manu Prashar. |
|
2 booked for selling
pirated cassettes Chandigarh, December 18 |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
