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NEIGHBOURHOOD

Partying row: No case registered
Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 26
The incident of slapping a girl by a police office at a hotel here last evening ended in a whimper today as the police failed to register a case even after getting the medical examination of eight boys and girls done at Government Rajindra Hospital.

Last night, the police had swooped on a private party at Jiwan Plaza where some boys and girls were reportedly consuming liquor even though the hotel did not have a bar licence. There was an altercation when the police faced resistance from the partying youths. In the melee that ensued, the police chased two of the girls and bundled them into a vehicle and even took them for a medical examination.

The police then let off the youths with a warning and no case was registered against anyone. The sources in the police department said no case had been registered because there was no complaint with the police. The parents of the boys and girls were summoned last night and following assurance from them about good behaviour of their wards, they were allowed to go, they added.

Meanwhile, the excise and taxation authorities, too, did not take any action against the erring hotel. According to sources in the excise department, the excise authorities did not register any case as there was no liquor in the hotel when a team from the excise department raided the hotel last evening.

Frenzied fans ground Deol brothers
Mediapersons protest Sunny’s ‘rude push’
Amrita Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Ambala, August 26
The visit of cine stars, Sunny and Booby Deol, at the local mall, Galaxy, here this afternoon turned out to be a nightmare not only for the actors but also for the general public and the media . The actors were pushed around by a frenzied mob of fans and bite-hungry mediapersons to such an extent that they were apparently forced to flex their muscles to make way for themselves.

As the Deol brothers drove into the Mall, it was virtually a free for all. While starry-eyed fans pushed their way to get close to the actors, mediapersons, too, followed suit.

In a bid to save the actors from being mauled by the crowd, the organisers brought them to a room and after almost two hours, they were taken out of the back door and driven away in a decoy car instead of their Mercedes. However, before they left, Sunny Deol apparently pushed a local journalist, leading to a protest by the media.

The journalists later staged a protest outside the mall and demanded action against the actor. However, eyewitnesses claimed that the journalists were “over reacting” as Sunny Deol had just pushed the “person” to the side to make way for himself.

According SP Sibasha Kabiraj, the complaint of the journalists would be looked into and action would be taken only after the investigation.

Meanwhile, earlier talking to TNS, Bobby Deol stated that this was their first visit to the city to promote a movie and they had never seen such frenzy at any of their promotional events. This is the first time that such a promotional event was being organised in the mall, which has opened only six months ago. It is also the first time that the residents of Ambala could be so up close and personal with Bollywood stars.

50 teams participate in sports fest
Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 26
Punjab government will promote sports at rural level in order to bring out hidden talent and to take the nation further on the international sports arena. This was said by chief guest Harmail Singh Tohra, ex-minister, Punjab, during a sports festival organised by Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth Services Club, Nain Kalan, Patiala.

According to the patron of the club Darshan Singh, as many as 50 teams participated in the tournament.

He said it was important to promote sports as it saved the youth from drug addiction. He assured the club that he would provide Rs 50,000 for promoting games.

Results of sports events held during fest:

Kabaddi (finals):

Open village category: Dirva defeated Mavi Kalan.

62kg: Kakrala defeated Bhutal.

57kg: Chattan Gobindpur defeated Phagal.

52kg: Chattan Gobindpur defeated Challalan.

47kg: Challalan beat Birdhanon.

42kg: Birdhanon beat Mardhan Kheri.

Kharar MC poll on Sept 20
Tribune News Service

Kharar, August 26
The elections to the Kharar municipal council will be held on September 20.

Acting on the directions of the Supreme Court, the Punjab State Election Commission (PSEC) today issued a notification. Elections will be held in 15 wards notified in 2003. The MC was elected in 2003 and its term expired in March, 2008.

The Punjab government did not notify elections of Kharar, Sujanpur, Muktsar and Moga. These MCs were asked to send proposals for increasing their municipal limits through delimitation and invited objections.

While some municipal councillors from Moga filed their objections, the government announced MC elections in the state barring the four MCs.

Following this, the Moga councillors approached the Supreme Court that directed the PSEC to conduct elections without waiting for delimitation of constituencies.

MC officials are yet to get the notification and even political parties are caught unaware. Within 24 days, the parties have to finalise and announce their candidates as well as start campaigning.

Similarly, the administration will take up old voters list of 2003 and prepare records accordingly leaving behind population that has settled in tthe area in the past five years.

Pinjore-Baddi road in poor condition
Industrialists to hold protest march
Our Correspondent

Pinjore, August 26
In order to protest over the delay in repair of the Pinjore-Baddi road, industrialists of the area have decided to stage a protest march at Panchkula and Chandigarh tomorrow morning.

President of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industry Association, Rajinder Guleria, said after all pleadings failed to move the authorities concerned in this regard, the industrialists decided to stage a protest march towards the offices of superintending engineer, department of road transport and highways, Government of India at Sector 9, Chandigarh, and chief engineer, Haryana PWD (National Highways), at Sector 19, Chandigarh, to hand over a memorandum.

The road, a stretch of around 30km from Pinjore to Baddi is used by as many as 10,000 people from Chandigarh and Panchkula and it takes more than two hours to cover the distance due to bad condition of the road, said Guleria.

The National Highway-21-A (Pinjore-Nalagarh Highway), which passes through Baddi, the industrial town of Himachal Pradesh, is full of potholes.

A daily commuter said dilapidated condition of the road had claimed many lives in last couple of months.

“The repair work, carried out on the road around one year ago, has already been washed away during recent rains and nothing has been done to bail out more than 15,000 vehicles which pass through the road everyday from the nightmare of going through the dilapidated road,” said Vikas Raina, a marketing manager at Baddi.

Due to the overload of traffic, railway line on the Pinjore-Nalagarh railway crossing was badly damaged on Monday, which created a traffic hazard for more than 24 hours.

Though the tenders for work had already been accepted, but the contractor reportedly backed out on the agreement.

Rajinder Guleria said he had come to know that the tender for amount of Rs 6 crore had already been accepted by the department, but now after the road was damaged badly, the contractor told the authorities that he could not carry out the work on the road at the agreed price.

Building of casualty dept awaited
Hemant Kumar

Kalka, August 26
Despite the fact that the local Civil Hospital has received the best hospital award in Panchkula district recently, the hospital is yet to have a separate building for the casualty department. The project of construction of the building is still hanging fire due to the apathy of health department .

Hospital sources disclosed that the hospital administration had sent many proposals in the last couple of years to the higher authorities for the construction of a separate building. In 2002, the then SMO of Civil Hospital had disclosed that a proposal was sent to the finance department, Haryana, seeking a separate casualty department at Kalka hospital. The proposal also sought the services of four doctors at the casualty department. Subsequently, the health department had sanctioned the casualty department in the hospital but has not constructed the building for the purpose till date.

The sources further said a proposal regarding this with the required plan of the building was sent by the hospital administration last year to the Director, Health Services, but it was rejected . Recently, the hospital administration through the department of the PWD again sent a proposal in this context to the higher authorities.

Dr S.K. Gupta, SMO, Civil Hospital, Kalka, when contacted said the health department had already sanctioned the casualty department in the hospital and four doctors, four staff nurses and four Class IV employees have been deputed in the hospital. The construction of the building, however, is still awaited.

Mohindra flays govt for delay in panchayat polls
Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 26
Congress MLA from Samana Brahm Mohindra today lashed out at the state government for not completing the panchayat elections in the state.

Talking to The Tribune, Mohindra said the government, it seems, was not interested in completing the process in the left out panchayats, virtually putting to halt the development works in these villages.

Mohindra alleged that in the first phase, the government resorted to rigging and booth capturing to win elections. He said that discontentment was brewing among the people over the government's failure to hold elections.

He said the government had failed to implement the Centrally-sponsored National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme in the state, thereby depriving lakhs of youth of employment opportunities.

Teachers to observe black day on Sept 5
Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, August 26
The teachers of the government-aided schools yesterday decided to observe Teachers Day (September 5) as a black day to register their protest for non-payment of their salaries for the past five months.

Principal of Ashoka Senior Secondary School, Sirhind, Ravinder Joshi said, “The teachers have taken loans from banks due to non-payment of their salaries. Even as these teachers are giving good results, the government is not releasing their salaries.”

Despite several representations, the government has failed to release the salaries, rued some teachers. Besides, the government is yet to release the interim relief and the hiked medical benefit to the teachers, they added.

However, the department officials claim that the matter was pending with the Punjab Finance Minister.

Mid-day meal scheme
DC asks gas agencies to release connections
Tribune News Service

Ropar, August 26
Deputy Commissioner B. Purushartha has directed the local gas agencies to release LPG connections to schools for the mid-day meal scheme at the earliest.

In a review meeting held here yesterday, the DC directed six gas agency owners of Ropar to release connections against the funds allotted earlier. Out of eight agencies, only two have released the connections. “The government would later release funds for more payments,” the DC said.

The gas agencies had refused to release connections on old rates as due to inflation, the they had hiked the security charges from Rs 850 to Rs 1,250 and the price of a cylinder from Rs 296 to Rs 350.

Jasmeet on target
Our Correspondent

Patiala, August 26
Jasmeet Singh triumphed in the .177 air-pistol event for senior men in the 16th Patiala District Shooting Championship which concluded at the Army ranges here today. Jasmeet Singh was followed by Sukhmanwinder Singh and Amarinder Sngh Bhullar in that order.

Results: .177 air pistol (junior men): Sukhmanwinder Singh-1, Amarinder Singh Bhullar-2, Karanveer Singh Mokha-3. .177 air pistol (Peepsight, men): Komal Singh-1, Vivekanand-2, Ranjeet Mishra-3.

.177 air pistol (Peepsight, women): Navita Kashyap-1, Gurpreet Kaur Cheema-2.

.177 air pistol (Peepsight, junior men): Vivekanand-1, Ranjeet Mishra-2, Arjun Singh Yadav-3.

Dhruv Pandove Trophy
Ankit guides Patiala to 260
Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 26
Under-19 final match took place between Mohali and Patiala for Dhruv Pandove Trophy at DP Stadium here today.

After winning the toss, Mohali chose to bat first and got all out at the score of 260 in 93.4 overs. Ankit Pursharthi (76) and Yuvraj Singh (65) were the top scorers for Mohali team and were well supported by Gunjot (48), who stood not out till end.

From Patiala team, it was Amaninder who dismantled the Mohali batsmen by bagging four wickets. Also, Himanshu Chawla and Bhavish Goel clinched two wickets each.

At the close of day, Patiala were at 6 without any loss in 3 overs.