NEIGHBOURHOOD

Punjab to have 33 excise checkpoints
Gurdeep Singh Mann
Tribune News Service

Suralkalan (Rajpura), July 30
Hundreds of villagers from seven Rajpura villages are up in arms against acquisition of 1078.16 acres of fertile land for the proposed supercritical thermal  power plant.

The government has proposed to build 1320 MV supercritical thermal power plant on the land. Villagers rued that there was panic as many farmers would lose fertile land.

"Many of my relatives have lost their entire land in a similar manner in Bathinda, Barnala and other parts of Punjab. We too are on the verge of losing our land. No farmer would be able to sustain agriculture if the trend continues," said Gurdial Singh, former sarpanch of Sadhror village.

Villagers said the government was not acquiring entire land holdings, instead, had decided to take just few portions.

"Once the farmers are dislocated, they will never be able to settle down again. I will not be able to buy consolidated land at any other place, while the leftover small portions of land will be of no use," said Balwant Singh, village lambardar.

Balwant's family owns 20 acres of land and some portion of their land has not been included in the acquisitioned area.

"The tubewell fields will be included in acquisitioned land and I will not be able to water the rest of my fields. We have requested the government to solve this problem by including the entire land of such farmers," he said.

The farmers said the land was so fertile that they had got eight quintals of wheat per acre from it.

A seasonal rivulet coming from Chandigarh has proved very fruitful in making the land fertile. The rivulet will also be closed with the construction of the boundary wall of the power plant.

This village has 174 acres of land wherein four tubewells are installed for irrigation purposes. "Only we know about the hassles of getting a tubewell connection. Who will ensure installation of tubewell connections at some other place," said farmers.

The villagers from seven villages - Suralkalah (with 330.12 acres), Suralkhurd (262.98 acres), Nalaskhurd (221.58 acres), Nalaskalan (37.60 acres), Raimajra (27.26 acres), Sadhror (174.84 acres), Rangian (23.78 acres) - staged a dharna outside the office of Rajpura SDM demanding Rs 1 crore per acre.

The villagers rued that 5 million ton coal would reportedly be burnt in the thermal plant increasing pollution level in the area.

Senior officials, on condition of anonymity, said the government would give Rs 34 lakh per acre and many farmers want their land be included in the thermal plant.

SDM Gurmeet Singh, when contacted, said the farmers would be satisfied before fixing the value of their land.

Bassi Pathana, July 30
Tension gripped the town as the ongoing tussle between the two warring factions of the SAD — Lalli group and the Cheema group — took a fresh turn.

The local police today registered an FIR against 13 persons, including Babla, newly elected council president, Rajesh Pal Singh Lalli, a SAD leader, seven members of the Balmiki community, Tarlok Bajwa, Amarjit Kohli and Ashok Dhiman, former council president, for allegedly ransacking the house, looting money and firing at one of the councillors, belonging to the Cheema group.

Earlier the police had registered an FIR on the complaint of Babla and Rinku, who were allegedly beaten up by the Cheema group during their victory procession.

Another FIR was registered against five persons on the complaint of Vivek Kumar, who was allegedly beaten up by the supporters of Babla.

Defying diktats of the party high command, councillors elected Kulbhushan Malhotra, alias Babla, SAD councillor, as their president and Ravinder Rinku as vice-president.

Since then, a series of complaints, counter- complaints, cases and registration of cross cases began.

Yesterday, the residents observed a complete bandh and blocked the traffic in protest against the attack on council office-bearers by the Cheema group supporters. Today the police registered a case against Lalli and his supporters.

The election of the office-bearers of the local municipal council has become a bone of contention not only for administration but for the Akalis also.

The Balmiki community reacted sharply to the registration of a “false” case. They held a meeting and informed their state-level leaders about the development.

They decided to oppose the move of the government tooth and nail. The leaders of other political parties also started contacting the councillors and assured them of full protection against the high-handedness of the government.

Higher police officials neither confirmed nor denied the registration of an FIR and refused to give details.

According to a copy of the FIR No.135, available with The Tribune, the incident happened on July 28 and a case was registered on July 30 under various sections of the Arms Act.

Morinda, July 30
The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), Kharar division, has detected a special instrument attached with electricity meter for power theft from Chitamla village.

The instrument was recovered from the house of Sher Singh, who had used the device to stop electricity meter from working.

The device consists of a scooter coil and a condenser. The consumer, Sher Singh, has been slapped fine of Rs 36,000.

XEN, Kharar division, P. S Bains, said that a formal complaint had been lodged with the police against Sher Singh.

Meanwhile, SE Sohinerjit Singh from the Ropar circle said that in the month of July, 190 power theft cases by tubewell owners and 265 cases of domestic power theft had been detected.

The tubewell owners had been slapped with a total fine of Rs 32.5 lakh and domestic consumers had been charged a fine of Rs 17.5 lakh.

The cases had been detected in Kharar division, Samrala division, Ropar division and Anandpur Sahib division.

Kharar, July 30
The body of Soma Begum, wife of Bashir Ahmed belonging to Rani Majra in Kurali, was exhumed today in the presence of duty magistrate,Malkit Singh.

It was exhumed after Soma's brother, Salim, a resident of Kalka in Panchkula, blamed her in-laws for torturing her. Soma Begum died on July 19 after consuming some poisonous substance.

However, the Kurali police registered a case against the accused on July 22 after Salim alleged that Bashir Ahmed, his sister, Anwari, and niece Bawri had driven Soma to commit suicide.

Soma's post mortem was conducted at Government Multi- Specialty Hospital in Sector 16, Chandigarh. A board of doctors conducted the post mortem and sent the viscera for chemical examination.

However, Salim moved an application with the SDM, Kharar, demanding the body of his sister be exhumed.He had stated in the application that Soma's body bore injury marks, which doctors did not mention in the post mortem report.

Kharar, July 30
A seminar on the Indo-US nuclear deal was held at the Chandigarh Business School, Landran. The seminar ended with a panel discussion which saw students posing questions to the experts.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof U.C. Singh, ex-dean academics, Punjabi University, said India did not need nuclear energy as it had a number of other options available through which it could meet its requirements.

He further added that nuclear energy would be much costlier than the energy to be produced by other conventional sources.

Prof Singh said out of world's total power production, nuclear energy had only 9.6 per cent share, which would further decrease to 7.5 per cent by the year 2030.

He questioned that if nuclear energy was so cheap then why would its production decrease?

Why a country like Australia, which had the highest amount of nuclear fuel reserves, was not producing even 1 MW of electricity from it?

What would happen to investment in terms of nuclear reactors if US scrapped the deal and stopped the supply of nuclear fuel in the future?

Kanwar Sandhu, editor, Hindustan Times; Prof H.S. Mehta, ex-head of department of English, PU; Prof M.M. Puri, ex-VC, Panjab University, Chandigarh; Dr Parmod, director, Institute for Development and Communication, Chandigarh, also spoke on the occasion.

Satnam Singh Sandhu, chairman, and Rashpal Singh Dhaliwal, president, Chandigarh Group of Colleges, said the seminar provided a platform to students where they understood implications of the nuclear deal.

They added that the common man of the country should understand that whether the much talked about deal which had divided the country into two was beneficial for him or not.

Patiala, July 30
Punjabi University, Patiala, has chalked out a plan for projects to be undertaken during the 11th plan with grants received from the University Grants Commission (UGC), other funding agencies or from the money raised from its own resources.

Following vice-chancellor Dr Jaspal Singh’s directive, director, planning and monitoring,Dr Devinder Singh, has prepared a detailed report of the university during the 10th plan and proposals for the 11th plan.

This report will be handed over to a 12-member UGC team led by J.B. Joshi.The team will visit the university from July 28 to 30.

While presenting the report,Dr Jaspal Singh disclosed that the university had raised new structures to accommodate new students every year.

In addition to this, the university has added new teaching departments with SAP, ASSIST, ASIHSS and FIST attached to it and has also started professional and job-oriented courses.

The university has also excelled in sports by winning medals in a few inter-university competitions from 45 in 2002 to 186 in 2007.

The report stated that while the number of students had increased from 3,151 to 8,903, the number of affiliated colleges had also increased from 71 to 138.

Departments of chemistry, computer science and zoology were added to the departments of botany, economics, punjabi and physics for the award of UGC’s SAP status during five years, with departments of botany, punjabi and economics were awarded ASSIST and ASIHSS departments and those of biotechnology, zoology and computer science as FIST departments.

Six new neighbourhood campuses were also created to take the education at the doorsteps of the poor.

The other sundry expenditure resulted in the increase of annual budget from Rs 56.54 to Rs 101.45 crore.

The university generated Rs 3 crore for awarding scholarships to the engineering students of the Yadavindra College of Engineering, Talwandi Sabo.

In the 10th A plan, the university received Rs 33 crore from the UGC while Rs 36 expenditure was incurred resulting in an over-expenditure of Rs 3 crore.

Chandigarh, July 30
Sourav Sengupta of Accountant General West Bengal stole the limelight by winning two gold medals - one in the men’s individual competitions and one in the team championship - during the IA and AD All-India Inter-Zonal Table Tennis Tournament at Table Tennis Hall, Sector 23, here, today.

Riding high on Sourav’s wins in two singles matches in team competition, AG West Bengal routed North Zone Audit champions Accountant General Uttar Pradesh by 3-1 to lift the title.

On the other hand, in men’s singles, Sourav defeated Samit Biswas by 7-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-6 to emerge champion.

Maintaining her dominance, top seed and North Zone Audit champion Gurvinder Kaur of AG Punjab defeated Barnali Roy of West Bengal in a tough women's final by 11-7, 11-13, 4-11, 19-17, 11-9, 4-11, 17-15 in women’s singles final.

K. Jairam of AG Andhra Pradesh claimed the veteran singles title beating Patanjali Kumar of AG Haryana by 7-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-6.

Results (all finals):

Team Championship: AG West Bengal b AG Uttar Pradesh by 3-1 (Samit Biswas lost to Amit Srivastav 7-11, 12-10, 5-11, 9-11, Sourav Sengupta b S.P. Singh 11-8, 11-9, 11-6, Santanu Banerjee b S.K. Tiwari 11-0, 11-2, 11-3, Sourav Sengupta b Amit Srivastav 8-11, 11-6, 4-11, 11-8, 11-6).

Men's singles: Sourav Sengupta (AG West Bengal) b Samit Biswas (AG West Bengal) 11-5, 13-11, 3-11, 11-6, 5-11, 8-11, 11-3.

Men's veteran's singles: K. Jairam (AG Andhra Pradesh) b Patanjali Kumar (AG Haryana) 7-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-6.

Women's singles: Gurvinder Kaur (AG Punjab) b Barnali Roy (AG West Bengal 11-7, 11-13, 4-11, 19-17, 4-11, 17-15.

Chandigarh, July 30
The ongoing swimming meet for Administrator Cup at all-weather swimming pool is nothing more than a formality.

Though organisers term it as “platform” for some major coming swimming events, the chaos as well as mismanagement prevailing at the venue, is virtually eyesore.

“Instead of Chandigarh Sports Department officials, parents of the budding swimmers were handling the meet. With this arrangement, one can guess how impartial the meet can be when the parents of the participants are judges themselves”, alleged a parent of a participant.

During the visit, this correspondent found that two coaches were supervising the meet. The district sports officer visited only to distribute the prizes to the winners.

Otherwise, all jobs, including time-keeping, results handling and scheduling of events were looked after by the parents.

“I have participated in 400-metre competition and now they are calling me for 100-metre lap. Is it possible to participate in two competitions without taking any rest”, said a swimmer.

“The order of the events set by the parents was biased. Even the grouping was messed up and several events were cancelled on the grounds that minimum of four swimmers weren’t available whereas the truth was that lesser known swimmers were not prepared to compete with national level or top class swimmers”, lamented an agitated national-level participant.

The parents of such swimmers were seen pleading the other participants to meet the minimum requirement so that the event could be held. Today, out of 33 events, a total of 13 events got cancelled.

“This is the only swimming competition, the sports department holds. Professional approach should be adopted so that the budding sportspersons get maximum benefits from such events”, said a parent.

On the issue, joint director JPS Sidhu said, “Roping in parents as officials is the department’s arrangement. But surely, the department officials are in total technical control of the ongoing meet. There are three time watches to check the participants timings. So all is being well-managed there”.

Chandigarh, July 30
Kunal Bhardwaj stole the show by securing top positions in three different events- 100 m, 200 m and 400 m (free style) in under-17 group during the ongoing swimming meet for the Administrator's Cup at All-Weather Swimming Pool, Sector 23 (Yoga), here today.

Kunal beat Parminder Singh and Rishabh Sharma to second and third positions, respectively, in 400-m event to emerge winner.

The other results:

100 m (free style u-17): 1 Kunal Bhardwaj, 2 Vivek Yadav, 3 Abhey Kanwar.

50m brest stroke boys u-10: 1 Kunwar Saini, 2 Aditya V. Kaul, 3 Ankrish Khanna.

50m brest stroke girls u-10: 1 Khushnoor Kaur Walia, 2 Saaz Sahdra, 3 Samriti Jain.

50m brest stroke boys u-12: 1 Amandeep Singh, 2 Ravinder Arya, 3 Maninder Singh.

50m brest stroke girls u-12: 1 Chahat Arora, 2 Aakriti, 3 Manika.

100m brest stroke boys u-14: 1 Sahib Rana, 2 Subham Vig, 3 Elham Anwar.

100m brest stroke girls u-14: 1 Mihika Singh, 2 Anmol Kaur, 3 Nutan.

100m brest stroke girls u-17: 1 Nikit Pannu, 2 Harsimran Kaur, 3 Kriti Malhotra.

100m brest stroke boys open: 1 Yadvinder Rawat, 2 Varun Sharma, 3 Utej Sohal.

50m free style boys u-17: 1 Vivek Yadav, 2 Sahib Partap, 3 Abhey Kanwar.

50m free style girls u-17: 1 Harsimran Kaur, 2 Nikhat Pannu, 3 Himanshi Bakshi.

50m free style boys open: 1 Abhimanyu Tiwari, 2 Rahul Ratnam, 3 Varun Sharma.

Chandigarh, July 30
DAV College student Ravinder, a silver medallist of junior nationals, will lead Chandigarh Junior Boys’ team in the 20th North Zone Junior Athletics Championship to be held at Lucknow from August 2 to 3.

The girls’ team will be led by Jaspreet Kaur, a silver medallist of National Inter-Zonal Championship and a student of GMSS School, Sector-21.

The other players of the team are: Satnam Singh, Jagsir Singh, Manpreet Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Prashant Malik, Navjot Singh, Narpinder Singh, Avinash, Manpreet Singh, Aman Handa, Harjot Singh, Inderjit Singh, Ravinder Singh, Gurwinder Singh, Lakhwinder Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Jaspreet Kaur, Talwinder Kaur, Lovneet Saini, Amandeep Kaur and Sukhdeep Kaur; S.K. Joshi (coach) and Iqbal
Singh (manager).

Chandigarh, July 30
Amay Soman will lead the Chandigarh district team in the Haryana Inter-District Cricket Tournament.

The names of other team members are as under: Rohit Singh (vice captain), Tanveer Manak, Amit, Vikrant Bansal, Gagan, Rakesh, Amolveer Singh (wk), Munish Nain, Gitanshu, Harsh, Simranjeet, Gurjout Singh, Arvind and Parmod.

Standbys: Rohan, Rozal Batra. The under-19 cricket tournament for boys will be
held at Rohtak.

Chandigarh, July 30
The CBI has booked a Panchkula-based mother-son duo and a manager of Punjab National Bank (PNB) on the charges of duping the bank to the tune of Rs 2 crore.

The CBI registered a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy against the accused on Tuesday.

The CBI sleuths today carried out searches at Panchkula residences of the accused and seized certain incriminating documents.

According to CBI sources, it was alleged that Asish Kapoor and his mother, Seema Kapoor, directors of AB King Oak Hotel and Resort Limited had taken a loan from Sector 16 PNB branch on the pretext that they were going to open a hotel management institute at Zirakpur. Bank manager S.P. Gupta was also allegedly involved in the conspiracy.

The CBI said as no institute was constructed by the accused, the bank later declared it as a non- performing asset and reported the matter to the CBI.