The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Hotels defy parking norms in Patiala
Attar Singh
Tribune News Service

Patiala, October 12
The hotels in the town have been defying the parking norms here as many of them are using municipal land for parking vehicles of their visitors.

It is a common knowledge that most of the hotels located in the vicinity of the Leela Bhawan, the upmarket shopping area of the city, have converted the basements of the hotels into eateries.

Most of these hotels have the basements shown as parking lots in the building plans approved by the municipal corporation for these hotels.

While the hotels were built, the building plans were shown little respect and the hotel owners conveniently converted these basements into eateries.

The hotels have thus saved land by changing the land use from parking lots to
dinning halls. They have thus got additional seating capacity without having to
pay for this.

The haphazard parking outside these hotels causes untold inconvenience to the general public.

There are frequent traffic blockades outside these hotels because of the parking of scores of vehicles outside each hotel.

The problem gets aggravated during evenings when the volume of traffic on roads increases and the number of vehicles parked outside these hotels is also at its peak.

Sources in the municipal corporation confided that notices were issued periodically to these hotels a couple of years back, but the owners used their political connections and there was no follow-up action. The situation has remained the same ever since.

Commissioner of Patiala division S.K. Ahluwalia, who also holds the charge of commissioner of the municipal corporation, told The Tribune that the owners of some of the hotels in the Leela Bhawan and its vicinity had asked for the corporation’s permission for acquiring the land along the road outside their hotels on lease basis. He said he had yet to study the file that had reached him recently.

Ahluwalia said he was aware of the inconvenience that the unauthorised parking of vehicles outside these hotels was causing to members of the general public.

However, he said he was not aware that the building plan approved for most of these hotels had shown the basements as parking places.

He affirmed that he would have the matter looked into and necessary action be taken if there had been any violation.

Modi College win in boys’ section
Tribune News Service

Patiala, October 12
M.M. Modi College, Patiala, has won the Punjabi University Inter-College Wrestling Championship (boys) and Government College of Physical Education, Patiala, won the girls’ championship.

The championship was held at Modi College from October 10 to 12. The results:

In 84 kg weight category (boys), Surajvir Singh of Government College of Physical Education, Patiala, stood first and Mohd. Mustafa of Government College, Malerkotla, got the second place.

In 96 kg weight category (boys), Paramvir Salh of Modi College, Patiala, stood first and Vikramjit Singh of Government College, Faridkot, got the second place.

In 48 kg weight category (girls), Kamaljit Kaur of Government College of Physical Education, Patiala, stood first, Harpreet Kaur of Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib, got the second place.

In 51 kg weight category (girls), Ramandeep Kaur of Government College, Patran, stood first, Anju Rani of Government College, Bathinda, got the second place.

In 55 kg weight category (girls), Rekha Rani of Public College, Samana, stood
first, Manpreet Kaur of Government College of Physical Education, Patiala, got
the second place.

In 59 kg weight category (girls), Nirmala Devi of G.T.B. College, Bhawanigarh,
stood first, Mandeep Kaur of Government College of Physical Education got the
second place.

In 48 kg weight category (girls), Kamaljit Kaur of Government College of Physical Education, Patiala, stood first, Kulwinder Kaur of Physical College, Bhagomajra, got the second place.

In 67 kg weight category (girls), Daljit Kaur of Government College of Physical Education, Patiala, stood first, Kulwinder Kaur of Khalsa College, Morinda, got the second place.

In 72 kg weight category (girls), Supinder Kaur of Government College of Physical Education, Patiala, stood first, Bhagwant Kaur of Government College, Malerkotla, got the second place.

Anil Bajaj, senior deputy mayor, was chief guest on the concluding day of the championship. He exhorted youth to be physically sound by participating in sports as they were to shoulder the responsibility of nation building. He gave away the trophies to the winning teams and memento to organising officials.

Dr Satish Bhardwaj, principal of the college, congratulated the winning teams
and presented a memento to the chief guest. Dr Rashpaul Singh, chairman of
the sports committee, thanked the officials, sports persons and members of
staff for their cooperation.

Railcars missing from railways website
Hemant Kumar

Kalka, October 12
Despite the Kalka-Shimla rail section making its mark on the world heritage map, the railcars plying on the rail track since 1927 do not figure in the website of the railways, thus depriving the tourists to get information about it.

Official sources revealed that the four exclusive railcars had been running on Kalka-Shimla rail section since 1927 which were the main attraction for the tourists and were also the first choice of Bollywood producers to shoot films.

However, for the past five years, these railcars are running only during the summers and on demand.

The reason, the sources said, is decrease in the number of passengers and the lackadaisical attitude of the railways to promote it, which is evident from the fact that it has not included the information about railcars in its website, though it has information of all the five trains plying on the section. This is also causing revenue loss to the railways.

When contacted, the officials at the divisional rail manager office at Ambala said that steps were on to include railcars in the railways website.

Sammelan on Netaji from Nov 21
Tribune News Service

Ropar, October 12
The Netaji Subhash Kranti Manch will hold the Netaji Subhas Kranti Maha Sammelan from November 21 to November 23 at the new complex of Netaji Model School here.

Convener of the manch V.P. Saini, while addressing a press conference, said more than 300 delegates from all over the country, including relatives of Netaji, some veterans of the INA and freedom fighters, scholars from prestigious universities, senior leaders of the All-India Forward Block and some other political leaders, representatives of various social organisations and many MPs and MLAs from various states, will take part in the event.

Saini said the sammelan would emphasise on methods to rebuild an India of Netaji’s dreams and to reveal mystery regarding disappearance of Netaji.

Also, a strategy would be chalked out to force the Central government to accept findings of Mukherjee Commission of inquiry on Netaji.

He added that rare pictorial exhibition on the life of Netaji would also be displayed and literature written on him would be made available. An exhibition on the life of Shaheed Bhagat Singh would also be displayed.

Millers hail increase in paddy quota
Our Correspondent

Bassi Pathana, October 12
The Rice Millers Association today held a meeting under the presidentship of Lakhbir Singh Thablan and appreciated the government’s decision of increasing the quantity of paddy to be allotted to the rice millers.

Nakesh Jindal, state press secretary, of the association in a press release issued here today, said the rice millers of the state were thankful of Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, minister for food and civil supply as well as Tarsem Saini, president of Rice Millers Association.

He said Kairon had given a big relief to the millers by increasing the quantity of paddy from 1800 MT to 2500 MT to the rice mill having milling capacity of one tonne and from 3600 MT to 4000 MT of the mill having capacity of two tonne.

CRIME

Woman held for suicide bid
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, October 12
Shamsheeda Begum, who was protesting against the inaction of the police sat on dharna in front of the police quarters, was arrested by the local police for attempt of committing suicide here today.

Shamsheeda, a resident of Yamunanagar, threatened to commit suicide in front of the Haryana police headquarters on September 8. After that incident the police suspended a few accused in the case.

Shamsheeda alleged that the police was not taking action against her tormentors. She stated in her complaint that she bought a washing machine in 2004 from a shop in Mustafabad village, which did not work properly.

Later, her husband served a legal notice upon the shopkeepers Sonu and Monu. The shopkeepers, along with some others, including the sarpanch of the village and a few police personnel, allegedly thrashed her as well as her husband Salim Saifi on April 13 last year.

Though the DGP ordered for inquiry and the accused cops were suspended, Shamsheeda, demanding the arrest of the accused, sat on dharna in front of the police headquarters along with her five children on Tuesday.

Later she stopped taking meal due to which her condition started deteriorating.The police had to shift her at General Hosptial, Sector 6, last night.

She was arrested this evening when she recovered and produced before the judicial magistrate from where she was sent to judicial custody.

25-yr-old woman alleges rape
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, October 12
A 25-year-old woman of Barwala village alleged that her husband’s employer raped her at her residence last night.

According to the police, the victim alleged that Narad, the accused, came to their residence last night. Her husband was also home but was heavily drunk.

Narad allegedly overpowered her and raped her. The accused fled the scene after committing the crime.

She reported the matter to her husband in the morning, who informed the police. A case has been registered in this regard.

2 houses burgled in Naya Gaon
Tribune News Service

Mohali, October 12
Burglars broke in two houses in Shivalik Vihar, Nayagaon, and decamped with cash, jewellery and other valuables.

The occupants of both houses were away when the burglars broke into the houses.

Manjot Singh, occupant of house No. 117, Shivalik Vihar, told The Tribune that he, along with his family, had gone to Nangal and when they returned home yesterday they found that locks were broken and the house had been ransacked.

On a preliminary inspection, gold jewellery worth Rs 1,30,000 cash was found missing. The thieves while escaping with the booty took away Manjot’s motorcycle.

In a similar incident, thieves broke into the house of a retired Xen, Parkash Chand, and decamped with his LCD TV and other valuables. The XEN was also away when the theft took place.

The residents of the area lament that such thefts have been regularly taking place in the area. The police has registered an FIR and is probing the matter.

SPORTS

NPS-18 seal berth in final
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 12
Host New Public School, Sector-18, of Chandigarh enter finals of the challenge of Jammu schools in CBSE Basketball Championship being played at the NPS Courts in Sector 18.

In the boys’ semi-final, NPS defeated Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36 by
49-23. Balraj and Sartaj were the main scorers with 9 ad 12 points, respectively.
Satwant and Govindraj reduced the margin for the losers by scoring 7 and 4
points, respectively.

In the second semi-final, SP Public School, Sector 32 defeated MHAC of Jammu by 57-12 points. Amayjot (26) and Deepak (14) were the main scorers.

In the girls’ semi-final, NPS-18 defeated Sacred Heart of Sector 26 by 37-9, while IS Dev Samaj School, Sector 21, ousted Carmel Convent, Sector 9 by 25-12.

Earlier, challenge of Jammu schools had ended as semi-finalists were spotted in the girls’ section in the morning session.

Boys: New Public School, Sec-18, Chandigarh ( Sumit 12, Parveen 12, Satish 8) bt D.A.V Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, Chd (Hardil16) by 66-46.

MHAC, Jammu ((Prashant 21, Anubhav 7) bt K.C Public School, Jammu (Mohit
36) by 50-49.

S.D Public School, Sec-32, Chd (Kanwar 16, Sanjeev 13) bt G.H.K.M.P.S, Sec-38, Chd (Mohinder 11) 55-33.

Girls: Sacred Heart, Sec-26, Chd ((Sukhmani 18, Jyoti 5) bt J.K Public School, Jammu (Ayushi 6) by 38-24.

New Public School, Sec-18, Chd (Smiti 6, Megha 5) bt Bhawan Vidalaya, Sec-27, Chd (Aman 3) 20-5.

IS Dev Samaj, Sec-21, Chd (Sushma 20, Navdeep 6) bt K.C Public School, Jammu (Monica 2) by 44-4.

Carmel Convent, Sec-9, Chd (Shabnam 5, Aunchal 4) bt Guru Nanak Public School, Sec-36, Chd (Sonal Kiran 4) by 15-6.