Chandigarh, March 25
Close on the heels of the special housing scheme for UT employees in Sectors 52 and 56 and the general housing scheme in Sector 63, the Chandigarh Housing Board(CHB) is set to float several schemes in different parts of the city catering to the needs of different strata of society.

In fact, the blueprint for the launch of the schemes, to be floated in Sectors 53, 54, 55 and Hallomajra and comprising over 6,000 flats, is in the final stages of approval and the projects should see the light soon, sources said here today.

The CHB is planning 4,500 to 5,000 dwelling units on 90 acres in Sectors 53, 54 and 55 and about 1,000 flats in Hallomajra on an area of about 20 acres. While one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments are being planned in Sectors 53, 54 and 55, only one-bedroom and two-bedroom dwellings would be on offer in Hallomajra, in the vicinity of the Chandigarh airport.

“The pricing will be affordable keeping in view the land and construction costs in Chandigarh,” CHB chairman Mohanjeet Singh told The Tribune.

In the Sector 63 housing scheme, the board had proposed a price of Rs 39.69 lakh for a three-bedroom flat. While Rs 29.14 lakh and Rs 17.29 lakh have been proposed for two-bedroom and one-bedroom apartments, respectively. However, the prices are much lower for the apartments offered under the special housing scheme for the UT employees.

Given the strategic location of the area comprising Sectors 53, 54 and 55 between Chandigarh and Mohali, there seems to be a good demand for the dwelling units here. With the apartment culture taking roots in the city in the wake of the habitation in the cooperative group housing societies from Sectors 48 to 51, the CHB schemes might evoke a good response from general public.

With thousands of professionals thronging the city and the adjoining areas in the wake of the entry of the MNCs and the setting up of the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park here, the demand for apartments was likely to shoot up in the months to come.

And for the prospective end users and speculative buyers, Chandigarh still continues to be the first choice with its promise of world-class standard of living.

Observers feel this will be a bad news for the real estate developers as two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments does not cost as much in the periphery as in Chandigarh. As thousands of flats of various dimensions will be available in Chandigarh, the prospective buyers will have a variety of options for buying property, the observers add.

Chandigarh, March 25
Internal roads of the city, which earlier meant for slow moving light traffic, are now heading towards traffic chaos. The roads in some of the sectors are witnessing congestion due to high volume of vehicular traffic leading to traffic jams lasting for hours.

Adding to this, the recarpeting work on the road dividing sectors 34 and 35 further aggravated the problems as long queues of vehicle were witnessed on the internal roads of Sectors 44, 34 and 33 bringing the traffic to a standstill in the evening hours. People were struck in jams and had to waits for more than an hour to cross the congested internal road of Sector 34. The problem began at the time when heavy vehicles started entering the internal roads of the sector.

The two-wheeler riders were seen driving on the footpaths putting the lives of pedestrian in danger with no one to check them. The men-in-white were conspicuously absent on the road leading to chaos. There was utter confusion on the stretch as the road users were trying to meander through the congestion creating troubles for others. Some cyclists entered into the nearby garden to take a detour to bypass the traffic jams. The traffic police was totally seen out of action, which added to the chaos.

According to the sources in the police, the traffic police received a call at 7 pm. Reacting to the call, at least five police personal had been deployed to control and divert the traffic.

“With the rotary of Sector 35 being closed, this is a problem that is being faced every second day, but today the jam is massive”, said a resident of Sector 35, who often use the internal road of Sector 34.

Chandigarh, March 25
Shortage of steel with the engineering department of the Chandigarh Administration is taking its toll on the major projects in the city. Several projects worth crore of rupee are at various stages of completion.

For the past one month, there has been no procurement of steel from the approved sources. The earlier stock procured from different agencies, SAIL, TISCO, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, etc, has been released to the respective department, confirmed sources.

The increasing steel price has further added to the problem. In the last one month, the steel prices have jumped from around Rs 26,000 per tonne to around Rs 48,000 per tonne. “Had the requisite amount of steel been procured in advance, the UT engineering would not have to pay higher rates to procure the metal. This will automatically add to the cost of the projects, apart from delaying the projects”, said an official.

UT chief engineer SK Jaitley, however, denied that there was any shortage of steel. All projects were going on as per the schedule. Due to the end of the financial year, the funds were sometime exhausted. As a standard practice, steel was procured in advance for important projects.

On the contrary, the sources said among the projects which were being affected due to the shortage were works under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan , vocational training centre in Sector 46, officer houses being constructed in Sector 19, Tagore Theatre, bridges to be constructed on route no.2 from Panchkula to Chandigarh, OPD block of Sector 16 government hospitals and government schools coming up in different areas.

The shortage of steel would automatically delay the projects.

A visit to the central store of the UT engineering department in Industrial Area, Phase I here revealed that there was only 12 tonne of steel left. Officials at the store confirmed that there had been no steel for the last one month. However, a tender to procure around 1200 MT was being applied soon.

Mohali, March 25
Long queues of consumers wanting to pay their power bills were witnessed at the main office of the Punjab State Electricity Board in the industrial area, here today. Reason: The computerised bill collection machine at the premises of the board office was out or order.

Some residents complained that they had to take out time from their busy schedules to pay their bills but due to the fault they had to suffer. Jaspal Singh, son of a former municipal councillor, said he had gone to pay his bill at the PSEB office but returned after seeing the long queues. He then went to the Phase I post office to make the payment, but the position there was worse as one employee was dealing with various others works apart from collecting power bill payments.

He said the authorities concerned should set up e-sampark centres in every phase of Mohali on the pattern of Chandigarh.

However, H.S.Boparai, PSEB senior executive engineer, said the board had opened collection counters in certain banks and post offices apart from PSEB counters in Phase IX, VII and I. He said most of the customers from rural areas preferred to make bill payments at the board office and that too when the last date approached. Bills are distributed well yet people do not use the time properly, he alleged.

Boparai said the bill collection machine was out of order for the past few days because of a software problem. Technical hands from Bangalore had repaired the machine many times but the problem could not be solved permanently. He alleged that wrong handling of the machine by customers created problems.

Mohali, March 25
Members of the Muslim Welfare Committee blocked traffic on the road opposite the cremation grounds, here today. The members were protesting against the move of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) to take over the land opposite the cremation ground. President of the committee Ghulam Ali said Muslims were using the land as a burial ground and the court had upheld them as its owner.

However, the protesters alleged that GMADA was trying to take over the land. Meanwhile, the police was called and protestors were asked to clear the road.

Chandigarh, March 25
The students of UIET (University Institute of Engineering and Technology), Panjab University, held a protest on Sector 25 campus today in support of their demands. The students were demanding that the construction of UIET Sector 25 second block hasn’t been completed despite promises made by the director for its completion by March 2008.

The students were also protesting against the miserable conditions of the road leading to their campus. Students were of the view that in the absence of a proper parking place, they face lot of problems every day.

Even the canteen at the UIET is not up to the mark, said an agitating student. “Construction of a cafeteria is still pending despite surpassing its proposed completion date in 2007,” stated another student.

Besides these, the students were also demanding to hold their annual fest ‘Goonj’ which was cancelled for some reasons, immediate repair of furniture in the department, adequate lecture halls and proper seating arrangement for students, provision of a system for evaluation of teachers by the students as in PEC after every semester and ATM facility on the campus.

Meanwhile, the vice-chancellor went to the protesting students and assured them that all their demands would be met at the earliest.

Chandigarh, March 25
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has called upon investigating and prosecuting agencies to work in tandem for coming out with ways of gathering and projecting “effective evidence” to prevent committers of heinous crimes from going scot-free.

The significant ruling, likely to go a long way in improving the conviction rate, comes in a rape and murder case in which the accused was sentenced to be “hanged by neck till death”.

Setting aside the trial court’s order of convicting and sentencing accused Rajesh to death penalty, a Division Bench of the High Court held: “We are of the view that the prosecuting agency and the investigating agency should put their heads together to device ways and means whereby effective evidence is collected and projected so that persons committing heinous crimes cannot go scot-free.”

The Bench, comprising Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice Sham Sunder, also ruled: “Before parting with the judgement, we are compelled to record that the investigating agency has miserably failed to investigate the case effectively, and that the offender of a heinous crime has been allowed to escape merely on account of utter negligence at the hands of the investigating agency.”

The Bench added: “It pains us to record that for a crime as heinous as the one in hand, wherein the trial court had recommended death sentence against the real culprit, the latter has gone scot-free on account of lack of evidence.”

The Haryana Police had registered the case in July 2004 under Sections 376, 302 and 452 of the Indian Penal Code on the complaint of the nine-year-old victim’s father after the girl was raped and axed to death. During the course of hearing, the accused had claimed implication in the matter. The trial court had, however, held him guilty of rape and murder.

Taking up the appeal challenging the trial court’s orders, the Bench held: “We are persuaded to entertain the impression that the investigating agency had manoeuvred the evidence in this case… The absence of the name of the accused in the complaint recorded by the victim’s father to the police on July 13, 2007, also established that accused Rajesh was not even a suspect - let alone being identified as the person responsible for the crime for more than 27 hours after its occurrence.”

“Even the report of the Forensic Science Laboratory does not reveal anything so as to connect the accused with the commission of crime under reference. The allegation of rape having been committed by the accused is not supported by any evidence whatsoever.”

In their detailed order, the Judges added: “The appeal is allowed and the impugned judgement of conviction dated November 26, 2007, and the order of sentence dated November 29, 2007, by Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court), Hisar, are set aside and accused Rajesh is acquitted of the charges framed against him.”

Chandigarh, March 25
Landlords’ oral permission for additions and alterations in the original structure of a commercial property is no ground for violating the building bylaws.

Taking note of violations made by Kundan Lal in a an SCF in Sector 7 for the purpose of running a printing press business, a local court directed him to remove the illegal partitions and construction.

Judicial magistrate first class observed: “The activities of the printing press were being carried out with the consent of the petitioner. But the court is of the view that no such consent can justify the terms and conditions of the allotment and rules framed by the administration.”

The court also restrained Kundan Lal from using the premises of the printing press.

Disposing of the case, judicial magistrate first class, Atul Marya observed: “Pasrkashwati has been writing letters to the administration time and again regarding removal of illegal activities and unauthorised construction raised by the defendants; it clearly reflects her bona fide. She was very much aware that building is likely to be resumed and was moving from pillar to post. But of no use and finally resumption order was passed by the Estate Officer.”

The defendants argued that Parkashwati used to herself make alterations in the land and then wrote about it to the administration. The defence stated that she was not the owner of the SCF. Furthermore Kundan Lal alleged that the will that claimed Parkashwati as the owner was forged and fabricated.

Chandigarh, March 25
Confusion continues to be the hallmark of the Chandigarh administration. In fact, lack of coordination between the finance department and the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) over the finalisation of the conversion rates for the conversion of industrial plots to commercial establishments have sent the industrialists into a tizzy.

Even as the single-window committee of the Chandigarh administration meets here on March 27 to consider the conversion applications, the applicants would be in the dark about the rate at which their plots had been converted.

In fact, the statements of top administrative functionaries have further added to the confusion. While the administration says that since the last auction of commercial property, held on December 17, 2007, the conversion fee had automatically gone up from Rs 20,000 per square yard to Rs 35,000 per square yard on the basis of formulae incorporated in the conversion policy.

The officials said the average price of auction(s) of commercial property held in the last three years decided the rates for conversion.The increase is 50 per cent of the average auction price achieved in the last three years and the new rate comes out to be Rs 35,000 per square yard.

However, with the CHB still accepting conversion applications at Rs 20,000 per yard, the applicants continue to be at their wits' end. "A number of industrialists had applied for conversion, thinking that the conversions will be allowed at the old rates. The administration must clarify its stand as a number of industrialists were already having second thoughts on conversion at the new rates," an industrialist said.

Sources said the board had been accepting applications at old rates as the finance department had failed to "intimate" the new rates to the CHB, the nodal agency for accepting applications.

Recently, the administration decided to extend the policy for another six months till September 18.