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PU’s blow to BC candidates
Chandigarh, June 20 The university is conducting the test on behalf of the Punjab Government for admission to over 114 BEd colleges in the state. These colleges are affiliated to Panjab University, Punjabi University and Guru Nanak Dev University. However, instead of following the Punjab Government notification regarding the eligibility conditions for the test, the university chose to follow its own calendar. The flaw was brought to the notice of the university authorities some days ago and the university issued a fresh advertisement today, announcing these changes and offering to refund the application fee to the students who had been rendered ineligible for the test. The first advertisement announcing the test appeared in newspapers on May 11, following which applications were received by June 1. Sources said over 42,000 applications were received for over 10,000 seats. The original announcement by the university had stated that the test was open to graduates of any recognised university who had secured 50 per cent marks in graduation. The limit was set at 45 per cent for SCs and STs. These candidates were to score at least 30 per cent marks in the test to make them eligible for the admission. In the prospectus for the test, a concession of five per cent marks in the qualifying examination (graduation) was also given to the candidates of Backward Classes (BCs). However, since the Punjab Government notification did not allow any such concession, the condition was revised to 50 per cent for all BC candidates today. The BC candidates thus rendered ineligible have now been asked to take refund of their application fee from the university. Regarding SC
candidates, the Punjab Government notification had stated that instead of giving five per cent relaxation in the qualifying examination (graduation), the relaxation be given in the entrance test marking. That is, these candidates should be considered eligible for admission even if they score 25 per cent marks in the entrance test instead of 30 per cent marks. However, the university stuck to its stand in violation of the Punjab Government notification stating while it would allow SC/ST candidates with 45 per cent marks in graduation to appear for the test, they would have to secure 30 per cent marks in the entrance test for being eligible for admission. According to sources, with 45 per cent marks as the condition for eligibility (and not 50 per cent), the number of candidates in this category goes up substantially as also the competition. The process to weed out BC candidates rendered ineligible for the test had started.
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Chopra awaits UT’s nod on proposed film city
Chandigarh, June 20 This was said by Yash Chopra, an acclaimed Bollywood filmmaker, while talking to The Tribune here today. Mr Chopra was in the city to receive the Punjab Rattan
award. It was given to him by Capt Amrinder Singh, the Chief Minister of Punjab, at Hotel Taj. He was accompanied by famed lyricist Javed Akhtar, actors Anupam Kher and Mandira Bedi. Chopra belongs to Jalandhar and openly expresses his love for the state through his cinema. The state has
been the background of many of his films, including Dilwale dulhania le jayeenge
and Veer zara, among others. Punjabi culture is visible in a number of other super-hits made by him. He thinks the city was ideally located to emerge as an alternate venue for film production. The locales in the region are very frequently visited by the cinemakers. There is plenty of talent in the region. He felt that presence of complete film production-related infrastructure was ideally suited for the region. On his earlier visit, he had shown interest in the constitution of a board comprising the administrator, certain UT officials and film makers to work out the details on the project. The Chandigarh Administration meanwhile, has begun work on the proposed site. The Department of Urban Planning has marked the site and the work on ground is expected to begin shortly. A senior official said the UT Administration had selected six companies for the technical and commercial development of the Multimedia-cum-film city. Multimedia-cum-film city will also be one of its kind in the country with a multimedia and animation study-cum-training centre and digital studios for doing high-end work in film production. As many as 14 companies had applied for developing the film city. The eligibility criterion was strict and it required the companies to have capacity to invest Rs 50-crore in the first year and Rs 100-crore within 3 years. The six companies selected are KRBL Limited in joint Venture with Greenfield Ventures Limited; DLF Universal Ltd in Tie ups with Graffitti Multimedia and Team Work Films; Parsvnath Developers Limited in tie up with Mr Satish Kaushik promoted company Real Good Films; Fun Multiplex Pvt Ltd, A Zee Group Company in tie up with Mr Subhash Ghai promoted company Mukta Arts; Unitech Limited, in tie ups with Ashok P. Singh, Aamir Raze Hussain and world renowned international film company Turner International; and EMMAR MGF, in tie ups with Village Road Show of the USA (one of the biggest entertainment company in the world which is in strategic tie up with Warner Brothers) and BRF.
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Masterminds of illegal immigration firm identified
Chandigarh, June 20 Giving details, the SHO of the Sector 17 police station, Inspector Jagbir Singh, said the accused had been identified as 27-year-old Rohit Verma of Sansarpur village in Jalandhar district and 22-year-old Kuldeep Singh Shergil of Dhaulpur village in Gurdaspur district in Punjab. He added that so far the investigation revealed that both the accused were operating their illegal immigration racket under fictitious names and were duping unemployed youths aspiring to go abroad in search of greener pastures. He further added that Rohit Verma and Kuldeep Singh Shergil had been carrying out their activities under their fictitious names, Bikram Singh and Gaurav Shergil, after setting up their offices in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Jammu and Dehra Dun. The local police has sounded an alert at the international airports in the country. The police also carried out raids at the residences of the accused, but failed to lay their hands on them. Sources in the Sector 17 police station said the accused had opened their offices under Kenya Export Company in AC Plaza in Ludhiana and Model Town Jalandhar. They were taking Rs 1 lakh for a Kenya and Rs 1550 for Qatar and Doha. In the Jalandhar office, Inderjit Singh Luthra was operating as manager of the company. They were charging Rs 15,000 as medical fee from the applicants and promised them to send a visa within 15 days through post. The sources said the matter came to light, when Mr Minder Singh Bhogal of Bhogpur village lodged a complaint with the police in Jalandhar on April 3 this year. Mr Bhogal told the police that he had given money to Luthra, who promised him to send abroad for on a work permit. When he did not get any reply for some time, he went to the company’s office on April 3 and to his shock found the office locked. A lot of people, who were allegedly duped by the company, had gathered outside the office and were narrating similar tales. Some of them told the police that they got their passports back through post and when they came to inquire about their visas they found the office locked. The Jalandhar police has registered a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy in this regard. Similarly, the Ludhiana police has registered a case against the company on the same day after the local when the receiving complaints from a lot number of people there. Interestingly, Rohit’s father told the raiding police officers of the Chandigarh police that he had disowned his son on Monday. Inspector Jagbir Singh said Kuldeep Singh Shergil had signed an agreement with Mr Bikramjit Singh of Sector 15 on May 1 and taken a cabin on monthly rent of Rs 8000. He had identified himself as Gaurav Shergil of Green Avenue, Amritsar. They had their bank accounts in UTI banks in Jalandhar and Ludhiana. Besides, it was also being investigated whether they had opened their accounts in their real names as almost all the withdrawals were made through the ATM services.
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Cops attached with bureaucrat manhandle liquor vend employee
Mohali, June 20 While one police personnel was caught by the employees present there and handed over to the police, the two managed to escape. The local police has suspended night munshi, Sham Singh, and Havildar, Surinder Singh, on a charge of not handling the complaint properly and also not informing senior officials about the incident immediately . According to reports, three persons in a pilot jeep reached the liquor vend in Sector 70 here and demanded beer at around 11.30 p.m. When the employee refused to provide liquor at that hour as he had closed the vend they allegedly created a scene . Initially, they allegedly threatened saying that they would get the liquor vend sealed if they were not provided beer as they were working with a very senior official of the state. When the employee of the liquor vend refused to oblige they allegedly started abusing him . It is alleged that they even tried to manhandle the employee. In the meanwhile, employees working in the adjacent “ahata” also came forward and called the owner. On seeing that people had started gathering, Gurinder Singh, constable and his brother-in-law, fled from the area, but Suresh Kumar was caught by the people and handed over to the police. The police also took the pilot vehicle in its possession . However, it is learnt that Suresh Kumar told the local police that the vend employee was selling liquor to other people at that time but refused to provide beer to them. The DSP, Traffic, Mr Arun Saini, took Suresh Kumar to the Phase VIII police station. Mr Varinder Pal Singh, SP, also reached the police station. Mr Varinder Pal Singh, said the entry about the incident was made in the DDR. He said the matter was brought to the notice of the parent department of the police personnel and it was also demanded that action be taken against them. He said the parent department would be conducting an inquiry and would inform the local police about the action taken against the erring policemen.
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Treaties sought to handle offences in NRI marriages
Chandigarh, June 20
But such success stories are far and few. The Ministry of Overseas India Affairs (MOIA) and the National Commission for Women (NCW) have of late been witnessing a rise in the cases of abandonment and brutalisation of spouses trapped in NRI marriages. In most cases, women are at the receiving end though men are also being victimised. At the two-day workshop on the issue, being organised by the MIOA and NCW, all sorts of case histories surfaced — of women disowned by NRI husbands despite their pregnancy, of those who went abroad only to be battered, and of others who landed at the airport, with no one turning up to take them home. “The root of the problem lies in the inadequacy of existing arrangements,” Mr Satish Loomba, Joint Secretary, NCW, told The Tribune today. “We still do not have a comprehensive legislation to deal with this area. We must have more bilateral treaties with countries where a sizeable Indian population resides,” he said. Ms Rajinder Kaur, general secretary, Janwadi Istri Sabha, Punjab, could not agree more. She is presently handling a tough case involving a Punjabi woman — the third wife of an NRI settled in Germany. “The man first married a German to get citizenship. He then married an Indian who bore a child. He married a third time and was about to divorce the woman when we got the case. We have written to the German Embassy and the man is in an Indian jail for assaulting his third wife.” Had there been a working arrangement between India and Germany, the issue would have been sorted out. No one is more aware of this urgency than Ms Swarn Arora from Panchkula whose USA-based son is suffering due to lax laws. “He got his marriage registered with a Panchkula girl. Just 20 days after the registration we discovered that the girl is already married to someone from Panchkula. Seven years have passed since my son filed a case for cancellation of the marriage certificate. The verdict hasn’t come but my son has turned 33. He’s still single,” rues the mother. Shruti Pandey, a leading lawyer, told The Tribune, “India should sign the Hagues Convention whereby signatories agree to honour one another’s laws. Also we should have reciprocal bilateral treaties with more countries under the Extradition Act.”
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Animal rights body objects to ‘misuse’ of langurs
Chandigarh, June 20 Led by Mr Naresh Kumar Kadyan, chairman of the Haryana chapter of PFA, the activists, in their complaint to the police, alleged that by using the langurs to drive away the monkeys, the owner of the langurs was violating the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, as well as the Protection of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. The other members of the team included Mr Ravinder Tyagi, Mr Anup Goyal and advocate Madan Pal. Sometime back, the authorities had engaged the services of a Delhi-based person, who had two langurs, for a monthly payment of Rs 10,000 per langur, to drive away the monkeys from the PGI and Panjab University, Chandigarh. Later, the services of the langurs were also used to oust monkeys from Sector 7. The langurs had been pressed into service following wide-spread complaints from patients, doctors and other staff of the PGI, referring to the terror tactics adopted by the monkeys. In fact, the experiment had proved to be such a success that the authorities had extended the contract of the owner of the langurs. Kept at strategic locations where the monkeys used to camp in groups, the langurs successfully drove out the monkeys from these places. Mr Kadyan, when contacted, told The Tribune that they had found that the owner of the langurs had not taken any permission from the Animal Welfare Board of India, Chennai, to use the langurs for this purpose. He also claimed that the owner of the langur had not declared about them as was warranted under Section 63 of the Wildlife Protection Act. Till late evening today, the police had not registered a case in the matter. However, it was learnt that the police has sought the opinion of the Wildlife authorities in this regard.
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Passing Thru
How rich is China in biodiversity?
It is aptly called a storehouse of biodiversity. The forest cover is increasing due to various measures taken by the government in the past around one decade. At present, the forest area is 19 per cent. How serious is the government in conserving flora and fauna species? The government is conscious about their preservation, especially after the devastating flood in North-East China and Central China in 1997. The government has taken various mechanical and vegetative measures to restore areas affected by mass erosion. How do you compare your city with Chandigarh? As this city is called City Beautiful, my city (Kunming) is called City of Springs. What is the aim of your visit to India? We are here to study the potential and viability of bio-diesel, with special reference to jatropha. Since China has large uncultivable land, the plantation of jatropha can be a success there. In the past two days, we visited a farm in Jalandhar district and Punjab Agricultural University to study jatropha. — Vishal Gulati
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Don’t politicise investment: Singla
Mohali, June 20 Built on a 10-acre piece of land owned by Fujitsu, the company bought the plant last year. As per the business plans approved by the Punjab Government, the company is investing over Rs 45 crore in the next four years to start a hi-tech computer-aided garment manufacturing plant and BPO facility. The first phase of the plant was inaugurated today. Stating that the plant would provide direct employment to 2,500 persons, the Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Sudhir Dhingra, added that his company was a leading garment manufacturer and exporter, catering to a wide range of international buyers such as Ralph Lauren, Banana Republic, Gap, Liz Claiborne, Ann Taylor, DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger etc. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Singla said states were competing with each other to rope in big companies to invest in their states. “There have been occasions when in order to create a momentum, extra incentives are granted. But these should not be converted into political feuds. “It is for the progress of the state and the aim is to create jobs for the unemployed youth of the state,” he said. Mr Singla added that capacity building and scaling of production was also the need of the day. “If we have to complete with China where millions of spindles produce garments under one roof, we would have to scale up operations in India also,” he said. On the occasion, the Finance Minister also handed over appointment letters to the first batch that successfully completed their training at the Orient Craft Factory. Most of those trained belonged to the surrounding rural area. “What sets us apart from other players in the market is our excellent blend of traditional hand skills and modern technology. “We have found that Punjab has a work force that, when trained, can be a vast source of creative talent that can provide the much-needed boost to the garment industry in Punjab and take it to far higher levels in the international market. “With this new facility at Mohali, we will play the role of a catalyst in making Punjab a major manufacturing hub for garments. “With the Orient Craft setting up manufacturing facility here, we hope that other leading garment manufacturers and exporters will be inspired to set up base here in Punjab,” said Mr Dhingra. The company along with the Punjab Infotech, which is their joint venture partner, plans to set up a BPO centre, textile design and training centre and customer support services for fashion industry at this plant.
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Man dies after falling from tree
Panchkula, June 20 According to the police, Kishan, a resident of MES Colony in Chandimandir, succumbed to injuries in the PGI, Chandigarh, this afternoon. Kishan died after falling from a tree in his courtyard. A two-year-old boy Mohinder, a resident of Manakya village, and an unidentified motorcyclist were injured in two separate accidents on the Panchkula-Naraingarh highway. Mohinder was injured seriously when an Indica car (HR-03F-5848) heading towards Panchkula knocked him down near Ramgarh. The boy was flung in the air and then fell 15 feet away from the site of the accident. The car occupants themselves picked up the boy and rushed him to the General Hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula in the same car. The injured was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh after his condition deteriorated. An unidentified motorcyclist was injured on the same highway when a Mahindra jeep rammed into his bike. The injured was taken to the General Hospital, Sector 6. The police has initiated investigations.
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Occupation certificates
Chandigarh, June 20 In cases where documents about the release of sewer connections are not available, the office will rely on other official documents indicating the completion and occupation of the building like date of regular electricity connection, bills relating to water supply, documents about assessment of rent by the PWD. The extension fee, if any, in such cases shall be chargeable for the period intervening the last date granted for competition of building and the date of proof of completion of building. The charges of extension fee, if any, will be as per the rates prevalent vide the notification dated July 7, 2005. The Chandigarh Administration gave this relief to the allottees/lessees when a number of cases came to the notice of the Estate Office, where the buildings had been completed long back before March 31 but the owners could not get the occupation certificates.
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CPM concern over price rise
Chandigarh, June 20 In a press conference addressed by Mr Kuldeep Singh, Mr Prem Singh Bhangu and Mr Chander Shekhar, it was pointed out that the so-called Left parties led by the CPM had betrayed the working class of the country by supporting the anti-people government. A meeting of the All-India Preparatory Committee is scheduled for July 9 and 10 at Ludhiana where the future plan of action will be drafted. Leaders from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal will attend the meeting, a press release said.
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Underground tanks pose grave threat
Chandigarh, June 20 In one specific case, an asbestos sheet covering the water tank has broken. “Children playing in the area can fall into open tanks,” said Mr Harbans Lal, a resident of 5-marla houses in the area. It is not only the problem of open water tanks, business establishments functioning at the rear of the shops in Sector 22-C, adjoining Aroma Hotel, are a source of nuisance for the residents of the area. The shop housing a welder creates noise till late in the evening. Complaints to the concerned authorities have fallen on deaf ears.
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Unemployment allowance
Chandigarh, June 20 The Regional Director of the ESIC, Mr G.C. Jena, said two more workers, Mr Jiwan Kumar and Mr Krishan Kumar, were also paid Rs 7,176 and Rs 9,016, respectively. In addition, the corporation has sanctioned unemployment allowance to Mr Tarsem Lal.
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Summer camp ends at Press Club
Chandigarh, June 20 The highlight of the evening will be a performance by Hindi film singer Javed Ali, Santokh Singh, music director, and Teji Sandhu, Punjabi pop singer.
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32-year-old man commits suicide
Chandigarh, June 20 Sources at the Sukhna Lake police post said a few days ago the deceased had informed his family at his native village in Kangra district that he was going to commit suicide. The family had sent his brother to counsel him. The police said the deceased had been identified as Prem Lal, a resident of Phase VI, Mohali. He was working as a technician in Ranbaxy factory there. The body was noticed by villagers who informed the police. The victim’s motor cycle (CH-3-2800) and his mobile phone were found near the tree. The police informed his family following which the victim’s brother, Mr Prabhat Singh, reached here and identified him. Prabhat said, “Prem Lal was married and had a son. He had called us informing that he wanted to commit suicide. Our parents sent me to counsel him. Finding him alright, I left him home to meet a friend on Monday. Prem also went out saying he was going to his job. He lied; and ruined us.” Meanwhile, the police has sent the body to the Sector 16 General Hospital and initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC.
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Proclaimed offender nabbed
Chandigarh, June 20 Sources in the Sector 17 police station said 25-year-old Inderjit Singh Sabhi of Rajpur Bahyian village in Hoshiarpur district was arrested following secret information. He was declared a proclaimed offender in a case of attempt to murder lodged at Sadar police station in Hoshiarpur and in another case of theft registered at Mahilpur police station in Hoshiarpur. On June 17, the Hoshiarpur police has booked him for his involvement in another case of attempt to murder. He was wanted by the police in this case.
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