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Admn clears projects worth Rs 7.8 crore
Chandigarh, January 28 Works of widening and strengthening of the link road from the roundabout at Sectors 25, 24 and 38 up to UT boundary and construction of four-lane dual carriageway from the Railway light point to IT Park Junction costing Rs 2.11 crore have been approved. It is proposed to construct a four-lane dual carriageway up to Dhanas village. The widening of the road has become essential due to the proposed institutional area in Sarangpur, adjoining Dhanas. This will help in decongesting the traffic flow on this widened road and the flow of heavy vehicles will also be eased. The work will be taken in hand in March 2005 and will be completed by December 2005, the Secretary, Finance, Mr S.K. Sandhu said. The work to link the IT park has been taken up and will be completed by June 2005. This road will facilitate smooth flow of traffic for the residents of this area and will cater to the needs of vehicular traffic to the IT park, which is coming up in a big way. Also approved are civil works of renovation of kitchen, toilets and bathrooms of 86 houses of types-9 FC and FB in Sector 22-A costing Rs 65 lakh have also been approved. Keeping in view the increasing demand of government employees for government accommodation, 114 Type I houses for Group D government employees would be constructed in Sector 46-D costing Rs 2.65 crore. The work will begin in the month of March 2005 and will be completed by September 2006. The Chandigarh Administration has also sanctioned boring of three deep tubewells in Raipur Khurd and Darua villages and Sector 10 Leisure Valley costing Rs 51.80 lakh. At present, only one tubewell each is supplying drinking water to Raipur Khurd and Darua villages and these have been abandoned due to reduction in discharge. The work on new tubewells will start in March 2005 and will be completed in five months. An estimate amounting to Rs 11 lakh has been approved for carrying out greening along the road side in Sector 49 here. The work will start in February 2005 and will be completed within three months. On the power front, a sum of Rs 71 lakh has been sanctioned which includes installation of 500 KV transformers in Sector 11-C, replacement and augmentation of 11KV defective cable in Sectors 15 and 16, 66 KV grid station in Sector 12, provision of General Service connections in Industrial Area.
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Cyber security cell sans equipment, manpower
Chandigarh, January 28 The Chandigarh Police had set up a Cyber Security Cell in the Crime Branch in the last week of December last year. The cell has been opened in the branch that is headed by an Inspector despite the fact that investigation into a cyber crime is undertaken by a DSP under the Information Technology Act, 2000. The sources in the police, however, said the wing would soon have the facilities as the cell had been opened just in the last week of December and the process was on to equip it with the necessary infrastructure. Almost a month has passed but the cell has not been provided with the facilities to start its work. Interestingly, the branch has already been dealing with the high profile case of pawanbansal.com that had been found to be featuring
porn material. The local MP had already said the site was not registered in his name at the moment as he had not paid the annual fee. The team investigating the case has either been using private facilities or those in the police headquarters on the day to day basis to find out who could have misused the MP’s name. The renewed police effort comes in the backdrop of three cyber crime related cases not even reaching the stage of the filing of charge sheet. The city got the first cyber crime case when a Mani Majra resident cloned a company’s mobile phone by breaking its security. One could use the cloned mobile phone and the bill would have been in the name of the original user getting the bill for the calls made. But the police later cancelled the case as the person who had allegedly cloned the mobile phone had not misused the phone but had demonstrated the lack of security in the phone. Then came a case in which an unknown person created a porn website of two college girls and even gave their university hostel number and their e-mail addresses. The site also mentioned the fee the girls charged for commercial sex. The address of the site was traced to a cyber café of Ludhiana. The cyber cafe owner, said however, maintained he had no knowledge about the case. The case was sent as untraced. In another case, a local company had taken an outsourcing contract from a US-based company but the same software was supplied by a British company. The person from Chandigarh complained to the police suspecting that one of his engineers had leaked the secrets. However, the forensic examination confirmed that the information was not given through the computer being used by them. This case also fell. Experts suggested a few steps like entrusting the task of cyber crime to an Inspector instead of a DSP if the cyber crime cases were to be handled by the Crime Branch. This could be done on the pattern of Haryana and Punjab where the cases of Immoral Trafficking Act are handled by Inspectors despite the law entrusting this task to a DSP. According to sources apart from the presence of a computer-trained police officer, the entire staff dealing with cyber crime should be given special training to make them computer literate. The branch should be provided a separate accommodation apart from high end computers and internet facility at a high speed.
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Chauhan elected Bar Association chief
Chandigarh, January 28 Mr Jaskaran Singh, who polled 384 votes, was chosen secretary. He defeated Mr K.S. Lamba by seven votes. Mr Baljit Singh polled 539 votes, was elected Vice-President. For the post of Joint Secretary reserved for women, Ms Amandeep Marwaha was elected with 446 votes. Her rival Ms Ramanjit Kaur polled 396 votes. Mr Ajay Pasricha was elected treasurer. The counting of votes for seven executive members will be done tomorrow.
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Poor response to auction of booths
Chandigarh, January 28 The site of a high school in Manimajra fetched the highest bid of the day — Rs 4.75 crore against the fixed price of Rs 2.01 crore. This site fetched a price of Rs 4,460 per square yard. The site of another primary school in Manimajra fetched Rs 1.80 crore against the fixed price of 1 crore. The auction fetched a total revenue of Rs 9.13 crore against the fixed price of Rs 3.87 crore. This means an increase of 74 per cent. The general response to the auction was not very encouraging right from the start at about 11 am. One of the reasons could be that the property was being given on leasehold. In addition to the price of the property, the owners are also supposed to pay heavy rents for the shops. They pay at the rate of 2.5 per cent for the first 33 years, at 3.75 per cent for the next 33 years and at 5 per cent during the last 33 years. Mr Ashok Bansal, an expert on financial matters, said auctions were based on viability of the purchase and expected returns. In this case, the ground rents and the market rents did not match in several cases, so there will naturally be lesser buyers. He said another reason for the poor response was that the allottees were expected to make 100 per cent payment which was a little too hard on the buyers. The city was having property transactions on freehold basis till some time ago. The Administration has once again reverted to the leasehold system. Why will someone pay a heavy price, pay rent, pay property tax, he said, and then be prepared to lose the property after 99 years? Mr Bansal said this was the third auction of the municipal corporation which had met with a poor response. Mr Om Parkash Vinayak, a resident of Sector 32 here, said the auction was not properly planned. Besides the leasehold system, there was the additional burden of annual rent. Poor response had become common in most municipal auctions. The auction managed to dispose of three booths in Sector 39 and five booths in the Manimajra market. An SCF in Manimajra fetched Rs 56 lakh. Among the smaller booths in Sector 39, a barber shop fetched Rs 7.50 lakh and an ironing shop fetched Rs 5.50 lakh. A cobbler’s shop did not draw any response at Rs 8.14 lakh. Mr Varinder Miglani, property dealer, said the administration needed to reconsider its entire plan of property auctions keeping in mind the poor response to the last few auctions.
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Rail claims pile up in claims tribunal
Chandigarh, January 28 On December 14, 2004, when the head-on collision between the 9112 Jammu-Ahmedabad Express and Jalandhar-Pathankot DMU passenger train near Mukerian left over 38 dead and many more injured, the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, announced the statutory compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased apart from the
ex gratia. There is little chance of the compensation and exgratia reaching the persons concerned. The reason: Every compensation claim over Rs 1 lakh has to be cleared by the Division Bench (two-Member) of the Railway Claims Tribunal
(RCT). Since September 2003 — when the then Member (Judicial), Mr V.K. Jain, completed his tenure, the
RCT, Chandigarh has been functioning with only one Member (Technical), Mr PC Joshi. Sources say that hundreds of claims for over Rs 1 lakh are still pending with the Tribunal, situated in Chandigarh. Among the claims still pending are those relating to the May 15, 2003 fire in three coaches of the Frontier Mail near Ludhiana. As many as 38 persons lost their lives and over 13 were injured in the fire. “Sometimes, a Member from some other Tribunal is deputed for a couple of days, but that is not enough. So the complete Tribunal actually functions for four to five days a month,” rues a claimant. The
RCT, has jurisdiction over the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh as also the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Ironically, such Tribunals were set up following the passage of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987, for providing speedy justice or relief to the poor victims/litigants who lost their bread-earners in rail accidents, terrorist acts, armed robbery or dacoity, etc. But, failure of the Railway Board to fill the vacancies in time has resulted in these RCTs becoming non-functional. Incidentally, due to lack of quorum, the
RCT, Chandigarh, is also known to adjourn claim cases a number of times. This is against the provisio to Rule 28 of Railway Claims Tribunal Procedure (Rules), 1989, which says that no adjournment shall be granted after three adjournments. After three adjournments, the cases have to be disposed of on merits through summary trials.
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Can you tell us about one of the noticeable development in the field of science?
Bio-technology
is one of the most interesting areas in science these days, yet, a lot needs to be done for its popularity in the field of application.
There is a very fast growing relevance of quantitative science in addressing life science questions. There is, however, profound communication barrier between the researchers with biology and non-biology background.
Can you elaborate? We have substantial number of research institutions in both the fields but there is poor networking. Unless there is certain podium created specially for the interaction between different fields of science there will be poor results. A researcher in any apart of India can now be connected anywhere in India, at least on the net. A programme needs to be charted out for dialogue between different branches of science. The availability of risk capital, due to near absence of link between the research institutes and industry, for work is unavailable. What can be most effective for popularisation of science? Commerce has to be closely related to science for its popularisation. More should be spent on expanding application of research in items of daily use. — Sanjeev Singh Bariana
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3 Estate Office officials
suspended
Mohali, January 28 According to sources, the action follows in the wake of an irregularity found in the allotment of plot in Sector 68 here. Sources added that a plot falling in an area under litigation was allotted by the Estate Office here to an applicant.
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More areas included in silence zones
Chandigarh, January 28 Under the commercial zone, the areas already covered were city centre, Sector 17, Sub City Centre, Sector 34-A and B, proposed sub city centre Sector 43-C and D, motor market of Manimajra and shopping complex around Bus Stand. The new areas added in commercial zone are commercial strips alongwith V-2 roads (Madhya Marg, Dakshin Marg and Vikas Marg) and V-3 road (Himalya Marg), Motor Market, Sector 43, 48 and 52. The standard ambient air quality in respect of commercial zone is 65 decibel during day time and 55 decibel in night time. Residential zone covered in earlier notification included Sectors 2 to 5, 6 (excluding Golf Course), 7 to 11, 15, 16, 18 to 33, 34-C and D, 35 to 42, 43-A and B, 44 to 47 and portions of Sectors 48 to 56 falling within the boundary of the Union Territory, Chandigarh, Manimajra Town (excluding motor market and shopping complex around bus stand) and all villages in the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The new addition under residential zone includes golf course, sub sector shopping areas alongwith V-4 roads in various sectors and village abadi (Lal Dora) only. In residential area the standard ambient air quality in respect of noise is 55 decibel during the day time and 45 decibel during the night time. The new addition under this zone includes Rajendra Park, Chandigarh Club, the entire area around the lake club up to 100 metres from the high water mark, and the entire area North East of Uttar Marg, including Rock Garden and Lake Club educational institutions and religious places may be allowed sound amplifier systems audible within their premises. The ambient air quality standard in respect of noise in silence zone is 50 decibel during day time and 40 decibel during night time. There is no change in areas under industrial zone. In the Industrial Area zone Phase - I and Phase - II were included in the earlier notification. Under the new rules the following restrictions are prescribed on the use of loud speaker/pubic address system: “A loud speaker or a public address system shall not be used except after obtaining written permission from the authority. A loud speaker or a public address system shall not be used at night (between 10.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m.) except in closed premises for communication within auditorium, conference rooms, community halls and banquet halls.” Violators in the silence zone areas will be liable for penalty under the provision of the Environment Protection Act, 1986.
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AC taxis to connect city, Panchkula, Mohali
Chandigarh, January 28 A decision in this regard was taken at a joint meeting held between Transport Secretaries of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. The idea is to have air-conditioned as well as non-AC petrol-driven taxis equipped with radio communication within the three townships. The modalities for this are being worked out. Also it has been decided in principle that the existing taxis and auto-rickshaws which are not equipped with diesel engines should be allowed free movement between three townships subject to certain stringent standards, which would ensure that these are pollution free and environment friendly. The Chandigarh Administration has decided to take a number of steps to tackle the issue of congestion. As an immediate measure, it has been decided to install Automatic Traffic Control (ATC) signals on a number of junctions to control the movement of traffic on road intersections. Obsolete ATC signals will be replaced with modern Liquid Electronic Display (LED) signals in a time-bound manner and digital reverse timers will be installed on critical junctions within three months. Road dividers, rumble strips and blinkers will also be provided in areas with high density traffic. The Administration is also going to install new road signs as per the International Road Congress standards on important junctions and other places within a period of three months. Road widening is also being planned at a number of places. A road safety planning committee, comprising the Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh; the SP (Traffic); the Chief Engineer, UT; the Chief Engineer, Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh; and the Senior Town Planner, has been constituted.
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Meeting discusses solid waste management
Chandigarh, January 28 The meeting was attended by Mr P.S.
Aujla, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Mr T. Venugopal, Director,
CPCB, Dr A.B. Akolkar, Additional Director, CPCB, Mr Ishwar Singh, Director Environment, Mrs Renu
Saigal, Chief Architect, UT Administration and Dr G.C. Bansal, Medical Officer of Health-cum-Convener of the Monitoring Committee. Highlighting the background of the project, Dr Akolkar explained that with a view to provide an example, the CPCB sponsored a demonstration project for the management of Municipal solid waste in the city in two phases. The first phase covering the collection, segregation, storage, transportation and disposal of Municipal solid waste was sanctioned at the total cost of Rs 3.15 crore. Fifty per cent of the cost of the project is to be contributed by the CPCB as grant-in-aid and the remaining 50 per cent by the Municipal Corporation and the UT Administration. He further elaborated that the second phase constitutes the remediation of existing dumping ground covering capping, closing and covering of about 20 acres of re-claimed area.
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Groz Beckert donates 4 lakh for tsunami-hit
Chandigarh, January 28 Employees of the company had collectively donated one day’s salary amounting to Rs 1,93 lakh and the remaining contribution of Rs 2.07 lakh was made by the management of the Groz Beckert.
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DC’s order to landlords on tenants
Chandigarh, January 28 This order will remain in force till March 28, 2005. Violation of the order will invite action under Section 188 of the IPC.
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Man found dead
Chandigarh, January 28 The police received a call at 8.50 am and found the man lying dead on a bench. The body bore no injury marks and the family members of the deceased told the police that the deceased left home day before yesterday after having a quarrel at home. He was unmarried. The police recovered the body and sent it to the mortuary in the General Hospital.
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Harassment for dowry: 5 booked
Chandigarh, January 28 Sarabjit Kaur, daughter of a local jeweller and a resident of Sector 38, was turned out of her husband’s house by her in-laws when her parents failed to meet their demand for more dowry. She was married in August 1997 and was allegedly turned out of her husband’s house in April 2002. The industrialist has a house in a prime location in Hyderabad. He lives at the Bajara Hills where the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and VIPs are residing. Sarabjit Kaur said her in-laws and husband had beaten her up and wanted to throw her out of the house after she gave birth to two daughters Ishita and Naz. They allegedly also threatened to get her husband remarried as she had not given birth to a son. She alleged that her in-laws had not returned her two diamond rings, one gold ring, two necklaces and two gold chains, 20 bangles 4 four pairs of karas, one bracelet and five sets. The industrialist Gurpreet Singh, his father Harminder Singh Bagga, his mother Inderpreet Kaur, his brother Balwinder Singh and his sister-in-law Parneet Kaur, have been booked under Sections 406, 498 of the IPC and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. She alleged that her jewellery which is part of her “stridhan” was taken from her on the sly as her in-laws told her that they were taking it to deposit in a bank locker. She alleged her in-laws had not come even to see her when her second daughter Naaz was born in 2003. Sarabjit Kaur said her in-laws had promised to mend their ways and had even reached a written agreement when the meeting was held at Basant Continental Hotel in Delhi. She claimed her father had paid Rs 50,000 to her in-laws at that time. Sarabjeet Kaur alleged that when her father could not meet the dowry demands of her in-laws, her husband filed a case divorce and custody of children in Hyderabad. The family members of the industrialist, in their statement to the police, however, denied that they had demanded dowry and had ill-treated Sarabjit Kaur. They had gone for counselling before the case was registered. The entire family used to fly down from Hyderabad during two months of counseling, the sources in the police said.
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3 arrested for snatching purses, mobiles
Chandigarh, January 28 They were arrested within hours of the incidents taking place in Sectors 16, 23 and 37. Their kingpin Vinay is still at large, the police said. The police arrested Vishal Sharma (22), Sunil alias Kaka (19) and a 16-year-old boy-all residents of
Dhanas, from the same locality this morning. Kaka and the 16-year-old suspect were studying in Class VIII. The police recovered three mobile phones, a purse and a Hero Honda Passion motorcycle without a number plate from their possession. The police said they are yet to establish the ownership of the motorcycle. The police disclosed that the trio, during interrogation, admitted to have committed a number of snatchings in the city.
Vishal and Sunil were involved in two incidents of snatchings in Sector 16 and on the Sector 16-23 dividing road, yesterday afternoon. Later, in the evening
Vishal, Sunil and their minor accomplice snatched a mobile phone from a woman in Sector 37. Meanwhile, the police took into custody three accused, who werearrested by the Farukabad police earlier this month. The police said that Randhir Singh of
Hissar, Rajiv Kumar of Aliganj in District Etah and Surinder Kumar of Ferozabad had stolen a Bolero jeep (HR-13-B-0050) from Sector 10 on January 2. They were later caught by the Farukabad police on January 8. The police produced the accused in a local court which remanded them to one day police custody.
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Three injured in mishaps
Chandigarh, January 28 Ms Janak Kumari of Sector 29-B here suffered injuries when a motor cycle driven by Sohan Singh of Sector 20-A here hit her scooter near the Sectors 20-21 light point on January 25. She was admitted to the General Hospital, Sector 16, and a case under Sections 279 and 337 of the IPC has been registered against Sohan Singh at the Sector 19 police station. In another accident involving a tractor-trolley and a scooter, a sccoterist, Ravi Sharma of Phase II, Ram Darbar, was injured. The driver of the tractor sped away after hitting the scooterist. The victim was admitted to the PGI. The police has impounded the tractor and registered a case of negligent driving at the Sector 31 police station. A scooterist, Gurinder Pal Singh of Sector 35, suffered injuries when a car driven by Nitin Sood of Sector 11 hit his scooter near Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36, here on January 25. He was admitted to the General Hospital here. The police arrested Mr Sood and has registered a case under Sections 279 and 337 of the IPC at the Sector 36 police station.
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8 kg poppy husk seized
Zirakpur, January 28 The police laid a naka at the intersection, after getting a tip off, to nab the drug peddlar. The police party signalled a scooterist, who was on way to Chandigarh from Ambala, to stop. The scooterist, who had wrapped himself in a blanket and wearing a full-face helmet, tried to flee from the spot but his scooter skidded on the highway. Leaving his scooter behind he disappeared in streets adjacent to the main market.
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Seven shops burgled
Lalru, January 28 Thieves broke into the office of Mr Sheesh Pal, an arhtiya, in a densely populated area and decamped with a cashbox containing Rs 65, 000 in cash. Thieves scaled boundary wall of the building from the backyard and reached the second floor. The shutter of his office was found broken when he reached the office this morning. The thieves also broke into a tailor’s shop and took away Rs 22,000. A sum of Rs 10,000 was also stolen from a grocery shop owned by Mr Vishan Das.
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Attractive jewellery on display at CII exhibition
Chandigarh, January 28 Participants from different cities are in Chandigarh displaying their designs and offering something exclusive to city residents. Young designers like Nidhi Chawala and Deepa Mehra have lent an artistic touch to their jewellery collection. One can choose from a huge variety of pendants, necklaces, rings, earrings many other ornaments. Deepa Mehra, from Delhi has given a different look to earrings and has given a different style. Her range starts from Rs 5,000 and goes up to 25 lakh. Traditional designs, diamond jewellery and jewellery studded with gems ranging from corals, pearls, emerald, aquamarine, topaz, garnet and ruby are on display. Even men can check out some good stuff in chains, rings, kurta-buttons kadas and earrings.
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Infosys seeks additional land in IT park
Chandigarh, January 28 The company already has a 20-acre main campus in the IT park and it is slated to be the second biggest office of the company after Bangalore and will have about 5,000 employees. The campus is under construction and Infosys is expected to move in its first batch of 600 employees after two months. The Secretary, IT, Mr S.K. Sandhu, confirmed that the company had sought an additional 15 acres to supplement its ongoing project. The rate of land had not been finalised. Earlier, the Chandigarh Administration and Infosys had signed a memorandum of understanding to set up the main campus of the IT park in 20 acres. This site was given at an invitation price.
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