The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

NEIGHBOURHOOD

25 bridges needed over seasonal rivulets in Majri, Kharar villages
Megha Mann
Tribune News Service

Kharar, August 1
Twentyfive bridges are needed over seasonal rivulets in 100 villages of Majri and Kharar. The bridges will not only provide the much-needed transportation but also speed up the slow pace of development in the villages.

MLA, Morinda, Ujjagar Singh Badali, forwarded the proposal in this regard at a state- level Kandi Board meeting chaired by chief minister Prakash Singh Badal.

Badali has also submitted a list of 75 tubebwell connections needed to provide water for irrigation in this belt along with 12 recently passed tubewell connections for drinking water.

A large tract of agricultural land on the banks of Siswan and Budki Ki Rao water bodies gets submerged during heavy rain leading to losses to farmers. To deal with this problem, Badali has proposed that the banks be repaired and altered permanently.

The areas have a poor network of roads, especially those leading to the villages. A Rs 20-crore tender for a 21- km stretch from Kurali to Baddi road has been floated and work is to begin soon. This road will have three bridges on it to be built in a span of 14 months and its agency has been finalised. Clearance from the ministry of environment and forests has been received.Badali also took up the issue of setting up electricity feeders in the Kandi areas.

Besides,many villages, especially those situated at higher altitudes like Tarapur Majri, do not have any access to public transport. It has been proposed to give permits to vehicles like vans and allow them to carry passengers from the village to the nearest bus terminus.

Govt criticised for denying NPA to senior docs
Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 1
The Senior PCMS Association has strongly condemned the department of personnel of the Punjab Government for rejecting the proposal of granting non-practicing allowance to higher rank officers such as deputy directors, civil surgeons, joint directors, additional directors and director of health services.

The proposal was cleared by the health as well as finance department of the Punjab Government but even then the personnel department rejected it, claimed the doctors.

Dr D.C. Sharma, state general secretary of the association, expressing the association’s gratitude to Laxmi Kanta Chawla, who had pushed through the proposal, appealed to her to take up the issue again with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Now, the association has decided to call a meeting of the executive committee to chalk out its next line of action. The association will soon call on the Chief Minister in the sangat darshan to present a memorandum regarding discrimination against the Punjab Government doctors.

He further said the PCMS doctors were getting non-practicing allowance on the Central Government pattern where it was admissible to the Central Government health services doctors at all levels. The association claimed that the Punjab Government had drafted revised PCMS service rules in 2003 in pursuance of the recommendations of 1986 Punjab Pay Commission.

The association members added that while framing these revised service rules for the doctors, the officers concerned had silently omitted the NPA of the deputy director and higher rank officers which was later implemented in 2006 with retrospective effect from 2003, although no pay commission had so far recommended the abolition of NPA for doctors at any level.

He said it was for the first time that several government doctors in PCMS cadre had refused to accept promotions to the coveted posts of deputy directors and civil surgeons of the district as the NPA was admissible to the medical officers and senior medical officers and was withdrawn after the promotion which resulted in a loss of Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 of salary per month and a resultant loss of retirement benefits, including loss of pension to the extent of Rs 5,000 per month.

Blaming former finance minister Surinder Singla, the association general secretary alleged that the Punjab Government was selectively discriminating against government doctors. The government, in principle, agrees to follow the Central Government pattern in case of NPA and the dearness pay to all its employees. However, government doctors alone have been discriminated against in the matter of granting of dearness pay on the Central Government pattern.

Agricultural land encroachment case
Family accuses police of inaction, demand arrest of accused
Gurdeep Singh Mann
Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, August 1
Alleging local police of being hand in glove with three accused in agriculture land encroachment case, the complainant has demanded immediate arrest of the accused.

Family members of the complainant Kuldeep Kaur have written to the DGP, demanding arrest of the three accused, including a patwari.

Kuldeep Kaur, a widow from Jalvera village who owns two acres of land in the village, had got a case registered against patwari Jaswinder Singh and two brothers Gurmeet and Balwinder of Dalomajra village.

In her complaint to the police, Kuldeep Kaur had alleged that the two brothers, in connivance with the patwari, had sold off two acres of prime land to some residents of Khanna.

The police booked the accused on June 20 after investigation conducted by the economic offences wing (EOW) of the Fatehgarh Sahib police. The police found that the accused had sold off property worth Rs 1 crore to residents of Khanna by forging some documents pertaining to the ownership of the land.

"The accused have the support of an influential political leader of Sirhind. The police is not arresting them despite a case registered against them. We have brought the matter to the notice of the DGP," said Jarnail Singh, a close relative of Kuldeep Kaur.

"Taking advantage of the old age of my aunt, the accused have managed to show her portion of land as theirs. They have land adjoining my aunt's land and showed it to be their own property," he said.

The patwari was hand in glove with the accused who faked the documents and then sold off the land to someone in Khanna, he alleged. Earlier, the accused forcefully took away the entire harvested crop from the land after threatening Kuldeep Kaur of dire consequences.

"We will meet the Chief Minister and apprise him of the matter if the police does not take action. We will be able to get our land back only after the accused are arrested as they are roaming freely and threatening us through local politicians," Jarnail said.

Police officials investigating the matter refused to comment on the issue. However, on condition of anonymity, they said they were awaiting the nod of their seniors to arrest the accused.

Post office land turns into dumping ground
Surinder Bhardwaj

Bassi Pathana, August 1
The local post office has become a headache for the residents as lacks basic facilities for the customers as well as for staff. It was set up in 1936 by the then British rulers and is still running from small rented rooms having same old furniture.

Though the department had purchased the land for construction of new building, it is lying unutilised and has become a dumping ground. The condition of the building is pitiable. There is not even enough space for the customers to stand. The department has installed computers for day-to-day work, but has not provided any back up system, such as inverter or generator. The power cuts hinders transactions, making the situation miserable for the staff and customers.

The local head had written to head office for providing back up system, but in vain. There is acute shortage of staff. The local residents had taken up the matter with higher officials and even met the chief postmaster general in this regard. XEN (construction), Shimla, inspected the post office land and directed the AEN, Jallandhar, to prepare the architecture map for starting construction, but the work never started.

Woman commits suicide, husband arrested
Tribune News Service

Kharar, August 1
Sukhwinder Kaur (35), a resident of Peer Sohana village, committed suicide today. Her alcoholic husband Darshan Singh was arrested later in the evening for abetment to suicide.

In their statement to police, the couple's sons Gurjant Singh (12) and Lakhbir Singh (13) told the police that Darshan Singh was an alcoholic and used to beat their mother. Both the boys are students of Government School at Bhago Majra village.

Last night, Darshan beat up Sukhwinder as usual. When his father, who lives in the neighborhood, tried to intervene, Darshan attacked him also. Later, he ran away from home at around 1:30 am.

In the morning today, at 11 am, Sukhwinder sent both her sons to her sister-in-law's place in Gharuan. Thereafter, she locked herself up in the house. At around 3 pm, when her mother-in-law knocked at the door, she got no reply. However, she managed to force open the door and saw Sukhwinder lying on the bed breathing her last. She died within a few minutes.

The police was informed and Sadar SHO Dalbir Singh reached the spot with his team. The police saw blood oozing out of Sukhwinder's mouth but could not find any poison.

Darshan Singh was arrested in the evening on the complaint of the deceased's brother Dalbar Singh of Lakhanpur village, district Nalagarh.

MC meeting put off
Tribune News Service

Ambala, August 1
The meeting of the Municipal Corporation (Sadar) scheduled to be held today was postponed till Wednesday after noisy scenes were witnessed on the issue of unauthorised cutting of trees in Ambala Cantonment.

Six months ago, the issue of unauthorised cutting of trees had come to light. It was alleged that lakhs of rupees had been bungled. Councillor Gagan Dang of the BJP has been facing an FIR in this case after it was alleged by the contractor Baljit Kumar that he had manhandled him. The matter was then taken to court where a stay on the issue had been ordered.

Today, many councillors alleged that despite the stay, trees were being cut and demanded an enquiry into the matter. The councillors even alleged that the MC president was involved. Questions raised by the councilors were left unanswered and the meeting was finally adjourned and postponed till Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the proceedings were also stalled when agitated residents of Ambala Cantonment, near the Lal Kurti area, demanded that the roads there be immediately repaired as during the heavy rain they faced difficulties in walking.

Chemist booked
Tribune News Service

Ropar, August 1
A large quantity of drugs were seized from a chemist here today.

A team led by drug inspector, Neha Shourie from Ropar, drug inspector Amit Duggal from Patiala and SI Barinder Singh Gill from the Ropar Drug Enforcement Wing raided the Guru Nanal Medical Store here.

The team found two godowns of the owner of medical store, Pawan Kumar, at some distance from the shop. It recovered 31300 capsules of proxyfin, 75200 diazapam, lomofin and diphenoxylate, 9615 cough syrups, 3900 injections, 2000 bottles of glucose and 6000 injections of toxitetanus toxide,13, 600 tablets of indox clophenic and paracetamol.

He has been booked under the Drug and Cosmetics Act (Section 18 A and Section 18 C) for not having licence of the drugs he had stored and for not showing bills of the medicines purchased, said civil surgeon Arjun Singh Gill.

PSEB lineman booked
Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, August 1
A PSEB lineman was booked by the police on a complaint of Harchand Singh, a resident of Sainti village.

In his complaint to the police, Harchand said that the accused assured to upgrade his tubewell by taking Rs 1.5 lakh.Neither he returned the money nor did he upgrade the tubewell, he said.

A case in this connection has been registered at Amloh police station. Police officials said that the lineman had already been suspended by the department. The police is investigating the matter.

Manch holds awareness camp
Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, August 1
The Dalit Chetna Manch organised an awareness camp for Dalits at village Mehtabgarh today, wherein a large number of villagers participated. Additional deputy commissioner (general), S.R. Aggarwal, speaking on the occasion, said the government was trying to uplift the Dalits through various schemes. People should be made aware these schemes, he said.

District welfare officer, Jaswinder Singh, said the government had released Rs 1.45 crore for 21,527 families of the district during the year 2007-08. As many as 32,430 children of these families were given books worth Rs 23 lakh. Shamsher Singh Purkhavli, state president of the Manch, said the government should initiate steps to uplift the downtrodden people of the society.

Child’s Death
Murder case registered
Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, August 1
The Dera Bassi police today registered a case of murder in connection with the death of an eight-year-old boy whose body was found in a tubewell room on July 24. The post mortem report mentioned that the boy was strangulated.

A police officer stated that the child’s viscera had been sent to laboratory at Kharar.

CRIME

3 held on charges of raping minor
Our Correspondent

Zirakpur, August 1
A 17-year-old girl of a village near Zirakpur has alleged that she was gangraped by three youths on July 28. A case of rape has been registered against three youths after three days of the incident.

According to the police, the victim is a student of a private institute at Zirakpur. She alleged that on July 28, when she was going for her computer classes, accused Gurpreet Singh, alias Raju, a resident of Mohali, followed her in his car and allegedly took her to a hotel in Kalka, where he raped her.

After sometime, the accused called his other two friends, Jagtar Singh and Jaswinder Singh, both residents of Pabhat village, Zirakpur, who also raped her. After that, she was dropped at Sector-43 bus stand, Chandigarh, from where she took a bus to Amritsar where she stayed for two days, added the police.

According to the police, the victim called her father on July 30 and lodged a complaint against the accused at Zirakpur police station on Thursday. The medical examination of the girl was carried out at Civil Hospital, Dera Bassi, on Friday and the three accused were arrested.

A case under Sections 361-A and 376 of the IPC has been registered.

Biker killed in accident
Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 1
A youth of Phase XI, here, was killed when a truck hit a motorcycle he was driving at the light point. The accident took place late last night when the victim Manjeet Singh was driving the bike and his friend Mahekpreet Singh was riding pillion.

Manjeet’s brother Amritpal Singh told the police that he was on his motorcycle behind them and when they were crossing the phase XI light point, a truck was coming at high speed from the opposite direction. The truck hit Manjeet’s bike. Both Manjeet and Mehakpreet were injured. Amritpal rushed them to Fortis from where Manjeet was referred to PGI, Chandigarh.

Manjeet breathed his last at PGI today. Amritpal was discharged from the hospital. A case has been registered by the police.

23-yr-old killed in accident
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, August 1
A 23-year-old youth was killed in a hit and run case here yesterday night. The deceased has been identified as Sukhwinder, a resident of Gazipur village in Zirakpur.

According to the police, Sukhwinder, who was a driver in a factory at Baddi, was going towards Kalka on his motorbike when an unidentified vehicle hit him. He was taken to the hospital where he was declared brought dead. The police has registered a case and sent the body for postmortem.

Two booked for fraud
Our Correspondent

Zirakpur, August 1
The local police registered a case against Zirakpur-based property dealer and another person for reselling a plot of a Sonepat resident.

According to the police, Usha Narang had alleged that she bought a plot in Bishangarh village from Surinder Singh, a property dealer. She alleged that she had given Rs 5 lakh for the plot, which was registered in her name. However, the dealer sold the plot to another person without her consent.

She complained to the SSP, SAS Nagar, who marked an inquiry to the SP. A case was registered against the property dealer and the second buyer. However, no arrest has been made in this regard.

Contractor booked for illegal detention
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 1
The UT police today registered a case against a contractor on the charge of illegal detention.

According to sources, the case was registered after the recommendation of the municipal corporation for registration of a criminal case against Tarlochan Singh, a contractor, after he locked Xen Surinder Singh Kandhola.

Tarlochan Singh was found guilty of detaining a Class I officer in his office, thus preventing the officer from discharging his official duties.

Arrested

The local police has arrested Prince, a resident of Sector 52 here, on the charges of causing injuries and criminal intimidation.

According to sources, the police party had gone to arrest a drug peddler, following which the family members of the accused started pelting the police with stones.

During the incident, two constables were injured. The accused’s sister Rekha, too, received minor injuries.