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Electrician held for Sector 18 murder
Chandigarh, May 3 The unusual fact that two or three switchboards were open in the old woman’s house had made the investigators suspicious on Sunday night. Since there was no sign of a forced entry into the house, the police suspected what is called a “friendly entry” in police parlance. This means the old woman had opened the door and let in the accused. Police sources said open switchboards strengthened the suspicion that an acquaintance may have committed the crime. The police found three switchboards open. The switchboard supplying power to the refrigerator kept in the kitchen was also open. The body of Brij Rani was also found lying in a small lobby outside the kitchen. The police questioned Jyoti, daughter of Brij Rani, whether she knew about any electrician visiting the house. Jyoti reportedly told the police about some person named Bawa or Bobby. She also said that the late Brij Rani had told her about the electrician and had said that he had not done the job properly and that she was angry about it. The electrician reportedly came to the house about 15-20 days ago. After arresting Punit Mittal for the murder of Brij Rani, the DSP of the area, Mr Vijay Pal Singh, said Mittal probably committed the crime for want of money. A resident of Sector 18 here, Mittal was arrested around 12 noon today. He was produced before a local court later, which remanded him in police custody till May 6. The DSP (East), Mr Vijay Pal Singh, told mediapersons that it was circumstantial evidence as well as the clue of the open switchboards at the scene of the crime that led the investigation to zero in on the accused. Working on this information, the police prepared a list of electricians working in that area and screened the list by checking out those who were missing from their jobs on that day. The police then came to know about Mittal, who was found to be missing. The DSP said the accused had confessed to the crime and revealed during preliminary interrogation that on Sunday evening he had a drink at the Sector 19 tavern (ahata). Mittal wanted to have more drinks but had no money on him. He then decided to go to the victim’s house to make some money by doing some repair work,
While opening the refrigerator switchboard, Mittal may have probably realised that Brij Rani was alone at home and the idea of looting the old woman could have crossed his mind, said the DSP. During investigation Mittal admitted that he had banged the head of Brij Rani. The old woman cried for help but her cries were drowned under the volume of the television set in her house. The gold earrings, a gold chain and other ornaments of the victim were removed after she was dead. The police said Mittal did not try to lay hands on other things fearing that somebody might come to the house. He had reportedly gone to the victim’s house without any tools.
The police said there were abrasion marks on the upper body parts and a wound on the elbow of Mittal indicating that Brij Rani had struggled a lot to free herself from his grip.
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Girls outshine boys in Plus Two exams
Chandigarh, May 3 Toppers Amandeep Kaur and Ruchi Garg said they did not take tuitions to prepare for the board examinations. Instead, they kept the tempo of studies going by being regular in class and revising at home whatever was taught in school. In the arts stream,
Rubina of Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 15, bagged second position with 76 per cent while Sangeeta of New India School scored
74.6 per cent came third. The second position was shared by Ashmin Bansal and Rajkumar
of Hindu Girls Senior Secondary School, Kalka in the commerce stream. Both scored 75 per cent. Hema Rani of Jainedra Gurukul in Old Panchkula and Neha Sharma of Sarthak Model School, scored 74.2 per cent to share the third position. In the science stream, the second and third positions went to Pritee Rajput and Abhishek of the government-run Sarthak School. They scored 74.2 and 73.2
per cent respectively. The overall pass percentage in the three streams of science, arts and
commerce was 62.85 per cent, 55.81 per cent and 67.62 per cent, respectively, while Panchkula was placed seventh among the
districts with an overall pass percentage of 56.10 per cent. The Principal of Sarthak School, Ms Usha Saini, said out of 30 students who appeared from the school, 20 passed in first division of which 14 were from the science stream while six were from the Arts stream.
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Income Tax officials raid five coaching centres
Chandigarh, May 3 The five coaching centres searched today were AK. Vidyamandir Excellent Coaching Centre, Akash Coaching Centre, Competition Zone and Dr Khera Coaching Centre. These institutes train students for various competitive examinations and also services examinations across the country. Hundreds of students are enrolled in these institutes and students come to Chandigarh from surrounding towns also to study. The investigation wing headed by Director General Mrs Sudha Sharma carried out the survey, sources in the Income Tax Department said tonight. Sources in the Income Tax Department said the survey was carried out after a back up in which preliminary investigation had been done on all the five and some discrepancies had been found before the survey was carried out today. Income Tax officials were also armed with information on service tax deposited by these people. In several cases the service tax and income tax did not match. The Panchkula office of the Director Investigation, Mr Rajeev Sahay, which looks into specific cases of evasion, formed a team which reached the coaching centres in the evening and the operation were carried out. It was to match the receipt of money at these institutes with the actual files of income tax returns. Fee by students is paid through drafts, cheques or cash. The entries for fee will be tallied with the income tax return filed by these institutes. Also to be checked will be the expenses shown by these institutes. The rationality of the expenses is also being screened.
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Seven elected unopposed in HC Bar elections
Chandigarh, May 3
Mr Atul Lakhanpal and Mr Puran Singh Hundal will slug it out for the prestigious post of President, while the post of Vice President will be a choice between Mr Sanjiv Gupta and Mr Surjit Singh
Swaich. Three candidates are in fray for the post of Secretary. They are Mr Lokesh Sinhal, Mr Praduman Yadav and Ms Sushma Chopra.
Ms Anju Sharma, Ms Aman Sibia and Ms Urmil Gupta are vying for the post of Joint Secretary while three lawyers — Mr O.P. Dabla, Mr Suveer Sheokhand and Mr Vikas Bali will fight for the post of Treasurer.
Four Senior Advocates will try their luck for two posts of executive members. They are Mr Manjit Singh Khaira, Mr Suraj Prakash Gupta, Mr Manmohan Singh and Mr Roshan Lal Batta. Mr Gupta, it may be recalled, was the amicus curiae in the recent contempt case involving former Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana Chairman C.M. Munjal. A total of 17 persons have filed nominations for the 10 posts of executive members (below 10 years). They are Mr Aman Singla, Mr Amrik Singh, Mr Anant Kataria, Mr Atul Gaur, Ms Balwinder Kaur, Mr D.S. Virk, Mr Gurmail Singh Duhan, Mr Harmanpreet Singh Prince, Mr J.S. Lalli, Mr Kamal Grover, Mr Mohd. Slaim, Mr Puneet Leekha, Mr J.S. Sharma, Mr R.P. Singh, Mr Satbir Singh Gill, Mr Saurav Khurana and Mr Vivek Singla. Two lady advocates will contest for one post of executive member (female). They are Ms Avtar Kaur and Ms Priya Gupta. Voting will take place on May 6, and the results will be declared the same day.
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HUDA removes 190 jhuggis
Panchkula, May 3 The fourth day of the anti-encroachment drive launched by HUDA was peaceful. The drive was carried out under the supervision of five Junior Engineers of HUDA, Mr M.P. Sharma, Mr J.S. Beniwal, Mr Ram Phal, Mr Jasbir Singh and Mr Ajay Bansal, along with 15 men of the Anti-Encroachment wing of Estate Office. Since the drive was launched on a massive scale, an earth mower and three trucks and a tractor were used to demolish the temporary structures. However, no police force was employed and after the encroachers had moved out, the jhuggis were razed to the ground. The encroachments were removed from HUDA land near Majri chowk upto Devinagar area in Sector 3. About 60 jhuggis were removed in Sector 21 and 30 jhuggis in Sector 15 About three dhabas that had come up on HUDA land in Sectors 9, and one in Sector 15 were also razed by the demolition squad. The service lane in Sector 11 market was also cleared of encroachments — four days after it was cleared first. The drive lasted for almost six hours and encroachments along the road sides by building material contractors (on road dividing Sector 10 and 15) and from verandahs of Sector 15 were also removed.
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Act will not increase load on infrastructure
I
feel that apartments should be allowed on the houses measuring 1,400 square yards and above as per the UT Apartment Act, 2002. This is so in view of the following reasons.
The construction of apartments does not increase the covered area on a dwelling unit. Not an inch of covered area or extra height is permissible. The units are designed in such a fashion that six dwelling units are created. This does not hurt the skyline of the union territory by any stretch of imagination. Why should an upper middle income person be deprived of living in northern sectors when he cannot afford to buy a four kanal house for Rs 5 crores? But he can definitely buy an apartment for Rs 1.5 crore. Friends, colleagues and seniors have been critising the UT apartment policy on the ground of increasing pollution and lack of infrastructure on the existing units. It appears that they are not aware of the fact that in all not more than 100 houses will be converted into apartments. This will not increase the load on the existing infrastructure. A builder definitely deserves the right to earn some profit if he is making huge investment by constructing apartments. It is not understandable why people are creating such a hue and cry for apartments to come up in Chandigarh specially when the city is growing in population. Why should such persons living in the periphery be denied to live in the luxury of posh locality. Nobody created a hue and cry when the Chandigarh Technology Park came up in the farm/agricultural area of Kishangarh next to the Sukhana Lake. If the government has created the CTP which is going to attract employment for one lakh people then definitely they deserve the right to live in apartments in posh localities. Anyway, six flats are going to be allowed on property measuring three kanals and above and not like Delhi and other places where there is no limit on the number of apartments to be constructed. This policy of the UT is going to benefit the old couples whose children are living abroad.The construction of apartments will also bridge the gap between the have and have nots. This will also give an opportunity to good people working in good companies to invest in the good localities of Chandigarh. There is nothing wrong with the floorwise sale of plots below 1,400 sq yards, if one owner, can construct and rent out to different tenants. The load on the infrastructure will remain the same. There is unplanned colonisation in periphery of Chandigarh. In the case of Apartment Act every plan is approved.
(Kapil Khanna is a lawyer)
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Rejoinder
Ranjit Malhotra was the first to contribute to this series, joins issue with
R.P. Malhotra, who argued in these columns on Monday that there was nothing wrong with the ‘UT Apartment Act, 2002’.
A
LITTLE knowledge is a dangerous thing; publicising it is motivated. Social activism by an alleged Property Owners Welfare Association without verification of facts is misleading, misconceived and harmful. There exists no UT Apartment Act, 2002, in Chandigarh. Therefore, it is wholly misleading to announce that its alleged draft copy was
publicised. It may be made known that the Haryana Housing Board Act, 1971, (as extended to Chandigarh), was initially enacted by legislature of the state of Haryana as an Act to provide for measures to be taken to deal with and satisfy the need of housing accommodation. The application of this Act was extended to Chandigarh and under this Act, the Chandigarh Housing Board with the previous sanction of the UT Administrator made the “Chandigarh Housing Board (Allotment, Management and Sale of Tenements) Regulation, 1979”, for permitting construction of flats in Chandigarh in respect of plots so earmarked by the Chandigarh Administration. These regulations apply only to schemes in which built-up properties are to be disposed of by way of sale or hire-purchase lease or as prescribed by the Chandigarh Housing Board. A large number of such flats and schemes are in place. These regulations do not apply to other properties in UT, Chandigarh. Since under the 1960 rules for free hold sites and 1973 rules for lease hold sites, fragmentation or subdivision of sites and buildings is explicitly prohibited. The UT Administrator has made only the Chandigarh Apartment Rules, 2001, to permit horizontal sub-division of all residential buildings in UT, Chandigarh, by permitting one apartment on each floor in a residential building less than 1,400 sq yards in size and two apartments in plots of bigger size. These 2001 rules made under the 1952 Act, violated and contradicted the 1960 and 1973 building rules which prohibited fragmentation of any site or building. Were the 2001 rules needed in UT when the Chandigarh Housing Board Regulations for flats existed?
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Lawyer alleges threat to life
Chandigarh, May 3 In a representation to the Chief Director of the Bureau, FOLAC alleged that the callers had been threatening him of dire consequences since the bureau asked him to join investigations against the officials into a case
relating to the amassing of assets disproportionate to their known sources
of income. “We have been receiving threatening calls either to withdraw the complaint
or face dire consequences,” said the representation adding that it was difficult to join the investigation under such circumstances. Recently, the Bureau, in a communication to FOLAC, had asked to join the investigation against the officials. Meanwhile, Mr Thakur demanded the removal of the SSP from the post of the SP (Vigilance) for a fair probe into the
complaint filed by them till the “pendency of the case.” It may be recalled that FOLAC had alleged that the SSP and his brother, who is an Inspector with the Chandigarh Police, owned properties disproportionate to their known sources of income. These allegedly included a 3-star hotel on the Chandigarh-Ambala road, near Zirakpur, plant
nurseries in Naya Gaon, a house in Sector 23 and other benami properties. They had also complained against the Kurali SHO.
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CAT Bar members extend strike till May 13
Chandigarh, May 3 The Bar associations have been on strike since April 21. A communique in this regard was sent to the Chandigarh Chapter of the association here this evening. Talking to the Tribune, Mr A.K.Behra, President of the All-India Bar Association, said the government had not given any clarification regarding the enabling clause which would empower the government to abolish the tribunals. “Neither the government has given reply to a query raised by a member of Parliament. We are mobilizing the public opinion on the issue”, he added. Members of the local bar association said recently the Vice-Chairman of the Tribunals at Delhi had stated that 25 per cent more work could be given to the tribunals by extending its jurisdiction. The tribunals are under the DOPT. “On one hand the government was contemplating tribunals for paramilitary and armed forces personnel, and on the other hand it was moving ahead with abolishing the existing tribunals”, added the members. Keeping aside the issue of CAT employees and the practising advocates, thousands of employees are being harassed as the functioning has been hampered due to the ongoing strike. The UPA government is circumventing the issue: Bar President Reacting to a letter written by the DOPT to the Principal Registrar, CAT, in which the former has stated that at present there was no such proposal was under the consideration of the government, Mr AK Behra, President of the All India CAT Bar Association, questioned the move of the government to introduce the enabling provisions. The copy of the DOPT letter has been sent to all tribunal benches.
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Hike in tax exemption limit fails to enthuse city residents Chandigarh, May 3 A cross-section of people from among those likely to benefit from the exemption interviewed, said that the benefits in case of women would accrue to primarily women in the upper income bracket. The senior citizens, too, had their reservations about the announcement and added that it would not provide the relief it is meant to. A retired police officer, Mr H.S. Virk, outrightly rejects the idea of any benefits from the new limit. “There has been no gain for us as compared to the past. Last year, we got a tax exemption of Rs 15,000. This new limit works out to be either the same or slightly less than the limit we had in the previous Budget. The exemption limit should have at least been raised to Rs 2 lakh if the government was really wanting to benefit us,” he says. Ms Mohinder Kaur and Ms Kailash Devi, too, said that the government had only played with numbers. “Earlier, we would get a deduction on the total taxable income. Now, Mr Chidambaram has just fixed the exemption limits. Both give just about the same benefits to senior citizens. There is nothing to rave about in these new limits announced by the Finance Minister.” Working women, however, are slightly more happy and see the brighter side of the raising of the exemption limit. Dr Usha Gupta maintains, “The Finance Minister has already raised the basic exemption limit to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 60,000 of the last Budget. Whatever little we get over and above that is not a bad deal at all. It is a welcome move and the Finance Minister deserves appreciation for paying heed to our needs.” An entrepreneur, Ms Indu Laroiya, states, “Women were getting an exemption of Rs 5,000 straightaway in the previous Budget. Under the new scheme of things, while the Rs 1 lakh exemption is applicable for one and all, women in the higher bracket are the ones who will actually benefit from this proposal. It doesn’t mean too much of a change for those earning up to Rs 1.50 lakh.”
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100 youths from slums to be trained as drivers Chandigarh, May 3 To begin with, the targeted group will belong to the city’s Scheduled Caste (SC) population, for which the Department of Social Welfare is obliged to run empowerment programmes. The said scheme is being carried out under the aegis of Chandigarh Scheduled Caste Corporation, which has a full fledged mandate to help the poor. Giving away information about the project, Ms Madhavi Kataria, Director, SC Corporation and also Director, Social Welfare, UT, said the idea behind the move was to equip SC youths in the art of driving and help them improve their lives. Under the joint project of Maruti and Joshi Autozone, the training will be offered at a special state of the art driving school, especially created by the collaborators for this purpose. The trainees are required to be 18 years of age or above. With the modalities having been completed, the department will tap young potential through various centres, operating under schemes like the Integrated Child Development Scheme and others. The cost of the special training programme will be borne by the Social Welfare Department.
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Solar equipment displayed
Chandigarh, May 3 Solar equipment on display included heating system for domestic and industrial use, solar photovoltaic home lighting system, fan and radio, solar dryer, domestics and community solar cooker. It included solar concentrator also on which we can make chappatis. An evacuated solar water heater for high altitude was also on display. Mr S.K. Sharma, Director of the centre, explained the functioning of these equipment. He emphasised on the need to use alternate resources of energy as the life of the conventional energy sources is limited and extensive use of the resources has resulted in the degradation of the environment. He said the people were aware about various advantages of these products. There were still a lot myths regarding the usage of these products which needs to be cleared. Food was also prepared in one of the solar products.
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Bylanes in UT villages to be concretised
Chandigarh, May 3
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MC to instal 20 water clusters
Chandigarh, May 3
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Shopkeeper alleges harassment
Chandigarh, May 3
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Residents go without water
Panchkula, May 3
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Night nakas net 150
Chandigarh, May 3
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Nurse booked for cheating youths
Chandigarh, May 3 Gurdarshan Kaur had allegedly collected Rs 3.8 lakh from 14 youths for getting them jobs of security guard and ward servants in the PGI. She was today produced before a local court and remanded to a day of police custody. Gurdarshan Kaur had earlier been booked by the Sector 11 police station. The present case against her was registered by the economic offence wing when the matter was brought to the notice of IG Satish Chandra. She had been collecting between Rs 25,000 and Rs 40,000 from the youths for getting them jobs.
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3 held under Arms Act
Chandigarh, May 3 The police said a .315 bore rifle, .32 revolver and a double barrel gun were seized from their possession. The police also seized 17 live cartridges of .315 bore gun, 22 live cartridges of .32 bore revolver from the accused.
Partap Singh, son of Tarloch Singh, had come to the high court today to for registration of his marriage and also to seek police protection. The police said Partap had a love marriage with Gurpreet Kaur of
Moga. The father of Gurpreet had died earlier and her mother is settles in US. The maternal uncles of the girl were reportedly against the marriage and the couple had come top the court to seek protection against
them. Tarloch Singh possessed the gun without a valid license.
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14 remanded in judicial custody
Panchkula, May 3 The accused- Jagdeep, Hardeep, Yadavinder, Baldev, Parveen Kumar, Satwinder Singh, Kishan Pal, Ram Kumar, Darshan Lal, Malkit Singh, Parveen, Bhag Singh, Lakhwinder and Budh Ram - were produced in a court which remanded in judicial custody. On April 9, election results were declared in favour Gurmeet Kaur with a margin of 15 votes over her rival Ranjit Kaur after a recount. Earlier, Ranjit Kaur was declared as winner with a margin of three votes. This provoked the villagers who roughed up the staff on election duty. The above mentioned snatched a ballot box from election staff and set it on fire. Acquitted:
Additional District and Sessions Judge, Ms Snehj Prashar has acquitted HUDA official, Rajnish Trikha in a case of corruption. Mr Trikha, along with two other officials in the accounts branch of HUDA were accused of accepting bribe for an ownership transfer case.
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Man commits suicide
Chandigarh, May 3 According to the information, the victim hanged himself from a ceiling fan hook late last night. The door was locked from inside. Mr Inder Singh, the father of the victim, told the police that his younger son had left home two days ago without informing anybody. Pardeep, who loved his younger brother, was going through depression. The police sources said the victim was a drunkard and was emotionally imbalanced. His family members have recorded their statements with the police and ruled out any foul play. The body is lying at the General Hospital, Sector 16, and the post-mortem examination will be performed tomorrow.
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Two cars stolen Chandigarh, May 3 Mr Ashish Anand of Sector 38-West filed a complaint to the police that his Scorpio Jeep (CH-03-Q-0336) was stolen from his residence during the night of May 1. In similar incident, Mr Harjit Singh of the same sector lodged a complaint that Accent Car (PB-08-A-5945) was stolen from his residence during the night of May 1. In another incident, Mr Niranjan Singh of Sector 47 reported that his Hero Honda Motorcycle was stolen from the same sector, yesterday. Three separate cases of thefts have been registered. Killed Pedestrian, Shiv Narian of Sector 31 was killed after he was hit by a truck (HR-37-3025) near Iron Chowk, yesterday. He suffered serious injuries in the accident and was taken to GMCH-32 where he expired later. The police has booked the truck driver, Karnail Singh of Raipur village in Chandigarh for rash and negligent driving. He was later released on bail.
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Two phone snatchers held
Chandigarh, May 3
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