NEIGHBOURHOOD

Classes resume at IET
Bhaddal, principal changed
Tribune News Service

Ropar, May 5
Classes were resumed at IET, Bhaddal, after 10 days of closure following students' strike and rampage on the campus. The day passed on peacefully and students attended the classes.

The college management has also appointed H.L. Verma as the new principal in place of officiating principal Dr V.P. Singh.

A student of IET Bhaddal, Gaurav Wahi, had committed suicide on April 23 and his body was found on April 29.

He was allegedly humiliated by college teachers and had taken the drastic step due to the insult.

His father Ashok Wahi had lodged a complaint against the institute's principal and a lecturer. Acting on his complaint, the police lodged a case of abetment to suicide against officiating principal Dr V.P. Singh, lecturer Nitin Shyam and others.

Meanwhile, the college students protested in every manner. They held a dharna, raised slogans against the college management and even went on rampage.

They damaged the college's property worth lakhs. Following the incident, the college was closed for more than 10 days.

Students even fought amongst themselves and two of them were arrested.

Rajpura, May 5
Junior engineer with the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) Ashwini Kumar was today caught by the Vigilance Bureau while accepting Rs 2,000 from a farmer. 

Ropar/Kharar, May 5
Rift in the SAD-BJP coalition has come to fore with both parties fielding their own candidates for the elections to the Panchayati Raj institutions in areas of Kharar 
and Ropar.

For the zila parishad elections in Kiratpur Sahib, Joginder Chauhan of the BJP and Shamsher Singh of the SAD are contesting against each other. Similarly, from Chamkaur Sahib, Parveen Goyal of the BJP and Major Singh Mangat of the SAD are in the fray.

For elections to the Samlah block samiti in Anandpur Sahib, Karam Chand of the BJP is contesting elections against Sukhdev Singh of the SAD while for the Bharatgarh block samiti, former SAD activist Rani Palwinder Kaur has stood as an independent candidate after the party refused her ticket from the area. She is a strong contender against SAD candidate Manjeet Singh.

Also in Kharar, SAD candidate Bhinderjit Kaur is contesting against Sukhdrashan Singh for elections to the block samiti of Balongi while in Gharuan, Maninderjit Kaur of the SAD is pitted against Kanta Singh of the BJP.

Similar is the situation in Morinda, where out of 32 block samiti seats, three to four seats have SAD-BJP candidates contesting against each other.

Commenting on the scenario, SAD MLA Ujagar Singh Badali from Morinda said, "This is happened in those cases where covering candidates have refused to withdraw their papers." He refused to accept that the phenomena had brought to the fore the rift that existed between both parties.

However, SAD youth leaders said the rift would affect the Parliament elections as it was the local leaders who mobilised party workers at the ground level.

Bassi Pathana, May 5
As many as 37 candidates out of 60 are left in the fray for the elections to 15 seats of the Bassi Pathana block samiti. District electoral officer-cum-deputy commissioner Ashok Kumar Singla said 18

candidates had withdrawn while the nominations of five had been rejected. Meanwhile, for 10 zila parishad seats, out of 58 nominations, 26 have been withdrawn.

To conduct elections in 431 villages, the district has been divided into 10 zones. As many as 471 polling booths have been set up and more than 2,500 employees have been put on duty. Singla urged the leaders and workers of all parties to strictly follow the model code of conduct for free and fair elections.

Iqbal Singh Sidhu, election observer designated for the district, today took stock of the arrangements and held a meeting with the district electoral officer-cum-DC, ROs and AROs. He directed the officers to ensure that the election staff did not indulge in party politics and worked in a transparent manner.

Mohali: Sixty one candidates remained in the fray for the zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections on the last day of withdrawal of candidature on Monday.

Twenty nine candidates, including 10 each of the Congress and SAD, five of the BJP and four Independents, will now be contesting the zila parishad poll. Meanwhile, in the panchayat samiti elections of the Majri block, 32 candidates are left in the fray out of which the Congress and SAD have 14 candidates each. One candidate is from the BJP and three are Independent. — OC

Fatehgarh Sahib: As many as 26 candidates have withdrawn their papers for the elections to the zila parishad at Fatehgarh Sahib. For the elections to the Sirhind block samiti, 21 candidates have taken their papers back. In Khera, 23 candidates have retreated out of 63 while at Khamano, 29 candidates have withdrawn their papers out of 66. At Bassi Pathana, 18 candidates have taken their papers back. Papers of five candidates were rejected. At Amloh, 22 candidates have taken their papers back out of 77 and papers of one candidate was rejected.

Kharar: 68 candidates are left in the fray for the block samiti elections. Fifty candidates have withdrawn their papers from 25 block samitis falling under Kharar. Similarly, in Ropar, 27 candidates are left in the fray and 25 have withdrawn their nominations. From Kotla Nihang zone, two candidates will contest, four from Kiratpur Sahib will contest, two from Kalma will contest, four from Chamkaur Shaib will contest, three from Takhtgarh will contest, two from Dadholi will contest, three from Bhagaur Shaib will contest, five from Bharatgarh will contest, two each will contest from Mundiyan and Morinda.

Kharar, May 5
The mega job recruitment drive organised at Rayat and Bahra Institute of Engineering and Bio Technology, Sahauran, concluded here today. The drive has literally rewritten the destiny of many students, who have been offered promising jobs with hefty pay packages as high as Rs 4 lakh per annum. At least 30,000 participated in the placement extravaganza.

Most of the 147 companies that came for recruitment returned with desired human resources, said senior HR manager of Wipro.

Gurvinder Singh Bahra, vice-chairman, Rayat and Bahra Group, claimed that the drive was a trend setter that sought to change the outlook of various companies, who have simply shied away from north India due to certain reservations and doubts vis a vis students here.

Rajpura, May 5
The Rajpura police has claimed to have arrested four persons, including a juvenile, with 1 kg opium from Rajpura.

The police intercepted the accused on bikes near the railway bridge of the city and seized the drug. At least 250 grams of opium was seized from each of the motorcyclists, who were on their way to Yamunanagar. The accused have been identified as Paramjit, Rajesh, Sonu.

A case has been registered against them. 

Chandigarh, May 5
Gurpreet Singh Batra, Manu Singh, Gagan Vasu and Sandeep Chadha cleared the second round in the snooker best of 3 frames matches during the VII Saurabh Khattar Memorial Billiards and Snooker Championship at Chandigarh Club here today.

Gurpreet beat A. Chaudhary 2-0 (54-19, 63-33) whereas Manu Singh and Gagan Vasu emerged winners against Chetania 2-0 (85-34, 53-32) and Manjul Sood 2-0 (83-38, 53-43), respectively.

In the fourth match, Sandeep got victory over D.S. Chawla 2-0 (72-36, 71-42).

Whereas in the billiards’ first round game of 150 points, Ajay Singla registered victory over Rajesh Jain by a margin of 21 points. The final score was 151-130. In other matches, Sanjay Kaushal and Pankaj Gulati won their respective matches. Sanjay beat Nirmal Sharma 151-120 while Pankaj outclassed Anad Chhiber 151-122.

Other results:

Snooker (Ist round): Jaspal Singh b Rishi Vahi 2-0 (73-31, 59-40); Anand Chhiber b Nitish Peshawaria 2-0 (65-16, 60-22); Ashish Seth b Umesh Bhandari 2-0 (80-19, 99-16).

Chandigarh, May 5
The Chandigarh Basketball Association would conduct selection trials to select the probables for the coaching camp for boys and girls (U-18) on May 6 at New Public School, Sector-18, at 6.30 pm.

The camp will be conducted from May 8 to 22. A total of 12 players in each group will be picked up to represent the city in the 59th Junior National Basketball Championship to be held at Bhilwara (Rajasthan) from May 25 to June 1.

The players born on or after January 1, 1990, are eligible to take part in the trials. Players should come with date of birth certificates duly attested by the head of the institution along with the trial fee of Rs 20 per player.

Wrestling

Trials to select the local team for the Junior National Wrestling Championship will be held by Chandigarh Wrestling Association (CWA) at 10 am on May 10 at the Wrestling Coaching Centre, Sector 30, here.

The CWA will field four teams comprising 30 wrestlers and eight officials. Chandigarh has qualified to field two teams in Greco-Roman style (boys) and one team each in free style for boys and girls.

The junior nationals will be held in Jagan Nath Puri from May 22 to 25.