NEIGHBOURHOOD

Gangs of thieves busted
Our Correspondent

Bassi Pathana, July 14
Hundreds of residents here today lodged a protest against the non-availability of drinking water and power in the town for the past many days. They raised slogans against the government.

The town is facing acute shortage of drinking water. Discontinuance of streetlight connection due to non-payment of previous bills by the council has added to the woes of the residents. There is total blackout in the town during nights.

The residents had been making repeated requests since long, but no one paid a heed to them. It was irony of fate that even heads of the administration had expressed their helplessness to improve the situation on the pretext of non-availability of funds, said Kirpal Singh Sethi, O.P. Tangri and Pritpal Singh Dharni, Manoj Banda while talking to The Tribune.

They said the town had become forlorn and neglected as there was nobody to solve the problems being faced by the people. Now, people remembered the rule of Captain Amarinder Singh, they added.

The undeclared power cuts have further made life of the residents miserable. Power is switched off as early as the day breaks and continues throughout the day throwing normal life out of gear. Ladies, children can be seen standing before hand pumps just to get a bucket of water for drinking what to talk of other necessities.

The council has miserably failed to cater to the need of the residents. A water tank in the town is lying unused for the past two years as the council does not have money to repair it. Another tube-well installed at a cost of Rs 25 lakh is lying unused for the past one year as council does not have funds to get the power connection and the PSEB is not granting connection without clearance of pending bills.

Majority of the residents depend upon the water supply by the council. There is only one tube-well to cater to the needs of the residents but the power cuts have made running of the tube-well difficult.

Kulbhushan Malhotra, Surinder Kumar Babba, Ashok Tulani, Rajesh Singla, Rajiv Singla, B.B. Verma, all leading social and political leaders, have urged the deputy commissioner to intervene and ensure uninterrupted supply of drinking water.

Patiala, July 14
Punjabi University’s vice-chancellor Dr Jaspal Singh launched a “pro-environment, anti-pollution” drive on the university campus here today. As a first step in the direction of making the campus a pollution-free zone, the VC led a 17-member team of the newly-created Punjabi University Environment Society and planted 35 gulmohar plants.

Later, the VC urged the society members to make efforts in order to make the campus “polythene and smoke-free” before Teacher’s Day that falls on September 5.

He asked the convener of the society, Dr Jagbir Singh, dean, students’ welfare, Dr Kulbir Singh Dhillon, and coordinator, Dr Paramvir Singh, to ensure that no corner of the campus remained unattended lest it would become a breeding ground for weeds and poisonous animals.

The members were also asked to motivate the shopkeepers to stop selling cigarettes.

The residents, he said, would also be encouraged through advisories, circulars, leaflets and personal contact programmes to avoid using polythene carry bags in order to make the whole exercise a success.

The second part of the drive, he said, would involve planting of medicinal plants land for which has already been earmarked. This would be followed by waste management and beautification drives in shape of holding flower shows and exhibition of seasonal plants to ward off the growing menace of global warming and green effect, he added.

Ambala, July 14
To prevent hoarding of five essential commodities, the state government has promulgated a control order regarding declaration of stocks under Clause 10 of the Haryana Prevention of Hoarding and Maintenance of Quality Order 1977.

Ambala deputy commissioner Mohammad Shayin stated this here yesterday.

He said the implementation of this order would ensure better availability of wheat, rice, pulses, edible oils and oil seeds. He said this order enjoined upon the wholesalers and retailers of these commodities to declare any stock of food items that were in excess of the minimum prescribed limits.

He further stated dealers, including wholesalers, retailers, distributing agents or selling agents could stock 1,000 quintal of wheat and roller flour mills can stock according to a month’s grinding capacity of their mills.

In case of rice stocks, dealers i.e. wholesaler, distributing and selling agent can stock 250 quintal rice and retailers can stock only 25 quintal.

The deputy commissioner said manufacturer of all types of pulse can stock 100 quintal pulses and dealers can stock 50 quintal and retailers can stock 25 quintal pulses. He further stated that dealers can stock 100 quintal edible oils/edible seeds. The retailers can stock only 25 quintal edible oils/edible oil seeds.

He further said no licence of any kind would be needed by any trader nor there would be any upper limit for the stock held by them.

There would be no restriction on inter-state movement of food grains etc.

The traders will only have to make a simple declaration in the prescribed performa to the concerned AFSO, DFSO or DFSE for any stock held above the giving minimum limits.

This order will ensure that no hoarding of these items takes place and consumers get adequate supply in the open market. At the same time, trader/stockiest can also carry on their present operations unhindered and without any licence or limits.

Patiala, July 14
“Registration of criminal cases against doctors, under Section 304-A of the IPC for alleged criminal negligence during treatment or under Section 302 for murder, under public pressure is a mockery of law and it amounts to the contempt of the ruling of the Supreme Court of India which has clearly ordered that the police can register criminal cases for negligence against doctors only after completing inquiry and seeking opinion of medical experts,” said Indian medical association (IMA) doctors at an emergency meeting held here today.

The meeting was called to decide their plan of action of the association to protest against recent incidents of assault on doctors in Samana and Snickerer and also ransacking of their hospitals. The doctors expressed their deep concern over such incidents and decided to wear black badges for a week besides demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.

According to the IMA leaders, the incidents of assault on doctors and their staff and ransacking of medical institutions by anti-social elements are rising day by day and the state government can stop it only by enacting a law on the pattern of Andhra Pradesh. They also decided to form a core group of IMA members at the local level to counter such incidents in future and appealed their members to get united against the anti-social elements.

The association will submit a memorandum to the state government demanding immediate arrest of the accused of Samana and Sangrur incidents. It will also seek issuance of an ordinance by the Punjab Government on the Andhra Pradesh pattern.

Chandigarh, July 14
Today was a day marked with major upsets in the ongoing AITA Talent Series Tennis Tournament at the CLTA courts, Sector 10, here, as many seeded players saw defeat at the hands of unseeded ones.

CLTA Rural Academy trainee Ajay Yadav toppled top seed Ankit Chopra 7-6 (5), 6-1 in first round of boys’ under-18 singles match.

The other major upset was caused by Nameer from Pakistan, currently training at the CLTA under high performance programme. He stunned the second seed Ranjeet Singh in straight sets 6-0, 6-3 in the boys’ under-14 singles first round encounter.

In girls’ section, Prabhamrit Kaur Sandhu of CLTA pulled off the biggest upset in the under-18 singles first-round match as the local girl recorded a stunning 6-1, 6-4 victory over top seed Bhoomi Parmar of Gujarat.

Parbhamrit Kaur proved to be too steady for the top seed and used the court well to set up openings to finish the point right throughout.

In yet another upset, Atul Patel, currently training under the CLTA high performance programme, beat teammate and eighth seed Ashwini Kumar in a hard fought three-set match 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Results:

Boys’ Under-14 (first round): Jatinder Singh b Srijan Uppal 6-2, 6-3, Shashank Sharma b Nishat Eqbal 6-1, 6-0, Rahul B. S. b Harsha De Silva 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, Fatehdeep Singh b Chinmay Handa 6-1, 6-2, Ranjodh Singh b Kunwar Singh 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4), Utkarsh Khosla b Harsh Arora 7-5, 6-1, Vishu b Santbir Singh 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, Mandeep Kumar b Rakshit Rishi 6-4, 7-5, 9, Bhavtaran Preet Singh b Ajay Thakur 1-6, 6-1, 6-1, Dheer Anush Bhatti b Aditya Vikram 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, Nikilesh Kanojia b Pallav Jindal 6-1, 6-2, Trivesh Singh w/o Shashank Sharma, Juvaid b Ishaque Eqbal 6-4, 6-4, Kunal Roy b Nihit 6-4, 6-3, Nameer b Raneet Singh 6-0, 6-3.

Boys’ Under-18 singles (first round): Ajay Yadav b Ankit Chopra 7-6 (5), 6-1, Tushal Thawani b Rahul Pandey 6-2, 6-2, Manpreet Chawla b Niklesh Kanojia 7-5, 6-0, Bramjot Singh b Amardeep Singh 6-3, 6-2, Rushi Amin b Chinmay Handa 6-2, 6-1, 6, Atul Patel Ashwini Kumar 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, Akshat Joshi b Resham Singh 7-5, 7-5, Sikhar Nehru b Suni Kaushik 6-1, 6-1, Armaan Chaudhry b Dinesh Goel 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, Suraj Beniwal b Pradeep 6-0, 6-3.

Girls’ Under-14 (first round): Nikita Bishnoi b Priyanka Duhan 6-1, 7-5, Nikita b Protiksha 6-1, 6-0, Disha Dang w/o Silky Sachdeva, Nandini Sharma b Shivangi 6-2, 6-2, Vanshika Sahney b Sabrina Gill 6-2, 6-4.

Girls’ Under-18 singles (first round): Prabhamrit Sandhu b Bhoomi Parmar 6-1, 6-4, Amreen Chaudhury b Madhusani 6-1, 4-1 (conceeded), Rimpledeep Kaur b Harkirat Kaur 6-1, 6-0, Gundeep Kaur b Vasundhara Raju 6-1, 6-1, Prarthana Trivedi b Disha Aggarwal 6-0, 6-0, Indu Punia b Iftenan 6-1, 6-1, Mehak b Sandeep Saran 6-1, 6-1, Ravnoor Kaur b Jaya Lakhwani 6-0, 2-0 (conceeded), Nehal Sahni b Nisha Singh 6-4, 6-0, Harnoor Kaur b Nikita 6-3, 6-2.

Chandigarh, July 14
A magnificent unbeaten century by Sunny Sharma (140 of just 104 balls with 14 fours and 8 sixes) enabled Panchkula to defeat Ambala by 89 runs in Haryana State Inter-District Cricket Championship played for Pataudi Trophy being conducted by Haryana Cricket Association at JR Institute of Cricket Technology (Barwala), Panchkula, today.

Electing to bat first, Panchkula got to a sound start.

After the lost of first wicket, the team faced crises and lost three wickets in quick succession. Panchkula needed a good partnership and Sunny took this responsibility upon himself playing well with Ashish Kukreti who competed his half-century but soon threw his wicket by playing a rash shot. Himmat Singh and Sunny Sharma were involved in 133-run unbeaten partnership for the fifth wicket. Panchkula scored 297 runs in 50 overs after loosing 4 wickets. Rishab claimed 3 wickets for 43 runs and Gaurav Sareen chipped in with 1 for 37 in his four overs.

Chasing a huge total, Ambala got to a flurry start as their openers Varun and Bhanu Mor scored 39 runs in just 3 overs. But some tricky bowling by Jitender Billa (3 for 45) brought Panchkula back as he took two quick wickets.

But introduction of spin duo in the form of Ajay Bhardwaj (3 for 11) and Suraj Bhan (4 for 31) did not allow Ambala batsmen to score freely and they bowled to good line and length. Ambala could reach 208 in 39 overs.

Panchkula will now play a match on July 16 at the same venue with the winner of the match between Kaithal and Yamunanagar.

Brief scores:

Panchkula: 297 for 4 in 50 overs. Sunny Sharma 140 n.o., Ashish Kukreti 52, Himmat Singh 35, Suraj Bhan 20, Rishab 3 for 43

Ambala: 208 all out in 39 overs. Akshat Kaushik 63, Rishab 47, Bhannu Mor 18, Jitender Billa 3 for 45, Ajay Bhardwaj 3 for 11, Suraj Bhan 4 for 31.

Mohali, July 14
The District Athletics Association, SAS Nagar, has selected the following athletes to represent Mohali district in the 84th Punjab Athletics Championship to be held at Punjabi University, Patiala, from July 19 to 21.

Those sleceted are:

Men: Baljinder Singh

Boys U-20: Harvider Singh, Jagdeep Singh, Varinder Singh and Manav Suri

Boys U-18: Gurjiwan Singh, Shekhar Sharma, Supreet Singh, Harkirat Singh, Pardeep Singh, Jaspreet Singh

Boy U-16: Raminder Singh, 
Karanbir Singh, Arvinder Singh, Gaganpreet Singh, Salaudin, Deepinder Singh

Women: Lovleen Kaur

Girls U-18: Heena, Maninder Kaur, Indu Bala, Nisha Rani

Girls U-16: Neha Rani, Prabhjot Kaur, Mona

Coaches: Rama Shankar and 
Jalinder Singh

Chief-de-Mission: G.S. Sarao.

Chandigarh, July 14
Mohit Gautam, a resident of Sector 29, and Sanjay and Ravi, both of Ram Darbar, were arrested today on charges of misleading the police by faking a snatching.

According to the police, Mohit a sales executive with ‘Three Vee Enterprises’ in Sector 35, was the brain behind the planned snatching. At 11 am, he informed the PCR that two unidentified youths had snatched his bag containing Rs 1,08,000 in cash as well as cheques from outside his residence.

He told the police that two youths on a scooter had fled after snatching his bag kept on the seat of his motorcycle (CH-03-W-8845) while he was with his sister on their first-floor residence.

He said he even ran after the snatchers but failed to catch up with them. During investigation, one of the residents in Mohit’s locality told the police he had seen Mohit standing with two youths near the Sector 29 market minutes before his bag was allegedly snatched.

The police rounded up Mohit, who confessed the complaint was fake and gave the whereabouts of his friends who had helped him in the fakery.

Mohit said he had recently lost Rs 50,000, following which he planned to fake the snatching. “ I was tense and had no option”, he explained.