NEIGHBOURHOOD

Ropar Heritage Fest starts with a bang
Tribune News Service

Kalka, October 21
To increase the export, the Haryana government is going to set up 94 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) throughout the state related to 2 lakh crores of capital investment .

A proposal in this context has already been prepared. Out of 94, the formal permission has already been granted to 61 special economic zones. This was disclosed by Dalip Chawla, media coordinator of Chief Minister, Haryana, while speaking to media persons in press conference in the civil rest house, Kalka.

He said 21 lakh people would get employment in the state. He said during the past three-and-a-half-year tenure of the Congress government in Haryana, the direct foreign capital investment of 10,000 crores has already taken place.

He further said, to cope with the scarcity problem of electricity, the state government had already set up three thermal plants of 1500, 600 and 1200 mw in the state, one in Jhajjar and other two in Yamunanagar and in Hisar ,respectively.

The Yamunanagar thermal plant would become functional within next two months and the Hisar thermal plant was expected to become functional in next 10 months.

The state government has already exempted the farmers of cooperative and land reformer banks of Haryana from the loan interest of 830 crores. Chawla said under the media policy, the government was intended to provide more facilities to the journalists.

Rajpura, October 21
The Rajpura flyover, built at a cost of Rs 8 crore in 2001, has become a bane for commuters. Reduction in width of the flyover from proposed 24 foot to actual 16 foot is reported to be the cause of frequent accidents on this stretch.

There is a sharp turn in the middle of the flyover due to which a number of vehicles have overturned during night hours. So far, the death toll in such accidents has touched 12 during the past few years. Many prominent persons of the area such as BJP general secretary Rattan Nirankari and BJP leader Master Laxmi Narayan also lost their lives on this flyover. Residents of the area have started calling it ‘Khooni Flyover’.

During its construction, local politicians had claimed that it would ease traffic as buses and other big vehicles would also ply on the bridge. But now, the entry of buses and heavy vehicles has been barred by putting up barricades.

"The barricades installed on both sides of the overpass are dangerous. Many a time outsiders bang their vehicles into these barricades at night," said Mohanpreet, a resident.

In a recent incident Shamsher Singh (40) and Shubh Kumar (38), both residents of old Rajpura, were riding a rickshaw pulled by Manoj Lal (25). A speeding car hit the rickshaw from the rear and Shamsher Singh fell from the flyover. He received serious injuries. The other two people also received injuries and managed to hang on to the flyover. Onlookers said the accident took place due to the sharp turn in the middle of the flyover.

Traffic in charge of the city Satish Kumar admitted that the traffic problems were being witnessed on the flyover for a long time. A large number of accidents had been reported on the bridge during the past sometime, he added. "We have informed our seniors about the problem and have written to the concerned departments as well," he said.

Lalru, October 21
In an accident, one person died and another was injured after their car hit a stationery truck from rear near Jharmari barrier at Lalru late Sunday night.

According to the police, Prabhat Tyagi, a resident of Muzzafar Nagar, died after the Tavera he was travelling in with his companion hit a truck parked on the road. Meanwhile, driver of the car Kuldeep Singh, a resident of Muzzafar Nagar, sustained minor injuries. He was discharged from hospital after treatment.

The deceased was on his way from Chandigarh to Delhi. The police added that Tyagi was rushed to the PGI where he succumbed to injuries. The truck driver managed to flee from the scene with the truck and a case was registered against him.

Ambala, October 21
Intensifying its campaign to check the menace of power theft, unauthorised use of electricity and extension of load, the vigilance and enforcement wing of the Haryana Power Utilities has detected 214 cases of pilferage of electricity and imposed a penalty of Rs 2.16 crore on the erring consumers in September 2008.

Giving details, a spokesman of the power utilities said here today that a penalty of Rs 4 lakh to 15 lakh had been levied in 10 of these cases, which included industrial and non-domestic connections. In all, the amount of penalty exceeded Rs 50,000 in 97 cases of power theft and unauthorised extension of load. The power supply of the erring consumers had been disconnected immediately as per the existing instructions, said the spokesman.

The First Information Report (FIR) had been lodged against 10 consumers found involved in stealing power. It was observed during the surprise checking that the consumers had been stealing power directly by taping the supply lines, using magnate for stopping the energy meters, tampering of meter seals and other unauthorised means.

Special checking of 18 consumer premises being fed from 11 KV feeder and Top Khana under operation sub-division Babyal (Ambala) was also carried where the line losses were 41 per cent. During the checking, as many as nine consumers were found stealing power.

The spokesman said that no compounding would be made in the cases where detection of theft would be noticed for a second time. The power utilities will lodge a FIR in such cases, he added.

Patiala, October 21
Hosts Punjabi University and the Delhi University trounced their respective rivals with ease to storm into the semi-final league of the North Zone Inter-University football tournament played at the Punjabi University campus here today.

In today’s match, the Punjabi University, who were seeded straight into the quarter-finals and have now made it to the semi-final league after playing just one match, had an easy outing against the Allahabad Agricultural Institute whom they beat 7-0. The hosts never had to strain a sinew against their rivals and with this win they have warmed-up for the tough times ahead in the last four leagues.

The highlight of the day’s play was a superb hat-trick by Punjabi University half-back Harpreet Singh. Malwa College, Bathinda, student played his heart out and each of his goals was a notch better than the previous efforts. His first goal was scored off an acute angle while the second one, much better than the first, came when he grounded a high ball with his chest and half volleyed it into the far side of the netting, much to the bewilderment of the defence. Harpreet completed his hat-trick with a breathtaking solo effort.

He collected the ball near the centre line and dodged his was past a horde of defenders before he tripped just when he was about to take the strike. However, he recovered and before the onrushing goal keeper could check his shot, Harpreet caressed the ball past the goal tender.

Minutes after Harpreet scored his third goal, forward Pawandeep Singh sank in the hosts’ fourth goal which meant that Allahabad were out of the match. For the last 20 minutes of the match, a fired up Punjabi University, despite having a four goal cushions pushed in three more goals through Gurpreet Singh, Manpreet Singh and Gurmail Singh.

In another last match, Kumaon University finally met their nemesis in Delhi University, who were directly seeded into the quarter-finals. Delhi ended the killing run of Kumaon by pounding in five goals. The other team to make it to the semi-final league was the Lucknow University who overpowered the Kurukshetra University 5-4 in a tie breaker.

Patiala, October 21
The Param cricket club downed the Saurav club by 23 runs in a league match of the inaugural Billu memorial cricket tournament, played at the Black elephant cricket club here today.

Scores: Param club, Chandigarh: 100 for 9 (Vikram 17, Ashutosh Sharma 16, Param Preet Singh 21 n.o, Vaibhav 3 for 15, Varun Singla 2 for 23, Saurav Chopra 2 for 19, Amar Preet 2 for 7)

Saurav club: 77 all out ( Vidhur Sharma 11, Karan Singla 12, Abhinandan 10, Param Preet Singh 7 for 7, Ashutosh Sharma 3 for 17)

Chandigarh, October 21
The Union of India and an IAS officer are battling it in the high court out on the issue of cadre change.

In a petition filed before a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Union of India has sought directions for setting aside an order dated September 13, last year, by the Central Administrative Tribunal’s Jammu and Kashmir circuit.

The Tribunal, vide the order, had allowed an application filed by IAS officer Dheeraj Gupta for the change of cadre from Jammu and Kashmir to his home cadre of Haryana.

Taking up the petition against the officer, the government of Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and other respondents, the Division Bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Nawab Singh, today directed the issuance of a fresh notice to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The case will now come up for further hearing before the Bench on December 9.

Going into the background of the matter, the Union of Indian contended Dheeraj Gupta was appointed IAS officer on the basis of civil services examination held in 1992.

He had initially opted for his home cadre, but he was not allotted the same in “view of the vacancies in the state” and was allocated the Jammu and Kashmir cadre.

Following this, the petitioner filed an application before the Tribunal at Delhi for quashing the allocation of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre. The application was, however, transferred to the Tribunal’s Jammu circuit.

Challenging the Tribunal’s order in the officer’s favour, the Union of India asserted that the judicial and the administrative members had given different findings in the matter. As such, the issue was placed before the Tribunal’s chairman. Subsequently, on September 13, last year, the impugned order was passed by the vice-chairman.

In the written statement filed in the matter, the officer, on the other hand, is insisting that the petition is not maintainable before the high court here, as it does not have territorial jurisdiction to entertain the appeal.

The cause of action arose in Jammu and Kashmir for all intents and purposes, and was within the jurisdiction of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

Chandigarh, October 21
Additional district and sessions judge, Ravi Kumar Sondhi convicted Paramjit Singh alias Sukha and Kamaljit Singh alias Manna for possessing RDX at district courts today.

The accused, Kamaljit Singh was convicted under Sections 4(b)(2) & (5) (b) of the Explosive Substance Act and Paramjit Singh was convicted under Section 25 of the Arms Act and under Section 4 (b) (2) & 5 (b) of Explosive Substances Act. The quantum on the sentence would be pronounced on October 23.

The two accused were arrested in 2005 and were suspected to be trained by Babbar Khalsa International head, Jagtar Singh Hawara, who was alleged to be preparing them to be 'human bombs'. However, the prosecution was not able to establish their links with Hawara.

Thus the two were acquitted under offences wherein they were accused of allegedly waging war against Government of India, collecting arms with intention of waging war against the government and abetment of assault by soldier on his superior officer when in execution of his office.

According to the prosecution, the police officials were patrolling in Sector 22 on July 15, 2005 when they received secret information that three persons who had been trained by Jagtar Singh Hawara were assembling near Kisan Bhavan in Sector 35 with arms and ammunition. The police had apprehended that the accused were trained to revive terrorism in India.

The police conducted raids late at night and arrested the two accused. The police had recovered .25 bore pistol, five live cartilages, two detonators and 450 gm RDX. The accused had no permit or license for possessing arms and ammunitions.

An FIR was registered against the accused under Section 121, 121-A, 122, 133, 120-B of IPC, under Sections 4,5 of Explosive Substance Act and under Section 25 of the Arms Act.

Chandigarh, October 21
After a trail of three years, district and sessions judge, K.K Garg, today convicted drug peddler, Lior Avi Ben Moyal (40), in a run away case at the district courts. The court stated that Lior has already undergone a sentence. An Isreali national, Lior, has been in the custody for three years and eight months.

Lior had escaped from the custody of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on the intervening night of February 19/20, 2005. He was arrested for smuggling charas in February 2005 along with two other persons. The NCB had recovered 155 kg of charas.

According to the prosecution, Lior gave a slip to NCB guards around 10 pm. Three constables were guarding him at that time.

A case was registered against Lior under Sections 332, 353 (causing hurt to prevent a government servant from discharging his duty), 451 and 224 (obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension) of the IPC in the Sector 3 police station. Lior was, however, arrested on the morning of February 21, 2005 at gate No 3 of Panjab University.

The contraband was estimated at Rs 15 to 20 crore in the international market.

Chandigarh, October 21
The local police today arrested a manager with a private insurance company for allegedly defaming his 35-year-old female subordinate by putting information about her on a foreign sex website.

The 43-year-old Sulesh Kapoor was arrested by the police for putting information about the woman, including her photograph, on an Argentina-based sex website. The “details” about the woman had been put on the net since June this year.

A complaint in this regard was lodged by woman’s husband at the Mani Majra police station. Following verification, the police arrested the accused. Professional jealousy is stated to the cause behind the alleged crime.

A case under Section 67 of the IT act has been registered.

Even ten days back a woman Pushpa Negi was arrested by the local police on the charges of extortion through internet.

The cyber crime investigation cell was launched by the Chandigarh police this year only.

Chandigarh, October 21
Chandigarh Hockey Academy (CHA) brushed aside a spirited challenge by Lucknow Hockey Academy by 2-1 in a hotly contested semi-final match of the first Administrator's Challenge Cup Hockey Tournament for Under-17 being organised by the Chandigarh sports department at the floodlit Sector 42 Hockey Stadium here on Tuesday night.

In the first half Lucknow Hockey Academy initiated more goal bearing moves but could not capitalised on these opportunities. Both the goals, which CHA scored in the first half came from the stick of Damandeep Singh.

CHA drag flicker Gurjinder Singh sent a powerful drag flick into the striking circle. The ball touched the stick of a Lucknow defender and well-positioned Damandeep pounce on the rebound and guided the ball into the goal in the seventh minute.

After conceding the goal, Lucknow Hockey Academy boys swarmed the CHA goal, which somehow survived despite the Lucknow outfit forcing penalty corners in the 10th, 22nd and 25th minutes.

CHA got their second goal against the run of play in the 31st minute.

In the second half, Lucknow Hockey Academy was able to reduce the margin in the 58th minute when Deepak Yadav scored a field goal.

Punjab and Sind Bank Academy stroked out Surjit Hockey Academy by an aggregate 5-4 margin in an all-Jalandhar semi-final contest.

Surjit Hockey Academy was responsible for their exit as they could convert only one penalty corner out of nine awarded to them.

Chandigarh, October 21
DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, qualified for the final by topping their three-team group A with two successive victories in the Chandigarh Senior Women Football Championship for Deepak Kapania Memorial Trophy being organised by the Chandigarh Football Association at the Sector 17 Football Stadium here today.

In their last league fixture, bolstered by a fine brace from Neha Pandey, DAV Senior Secondary School defeated Saupin School of Sector 32 by 2-0. Both goals came in the first half.

St Stephen's Football Club just managed to eke out a narrow 1-0 win against equally balanced Chandigarh Football Academy Coaching Centre, Sector 45. It was St Stephen's second successive win and has brightened their chances to qualify for final as they were leading with six points.

Tomorrow St Stephen's Football Academy will meet Sri Guru Gobind Singh College for Women, Sector 26.

SGGS College for Women got their first point from two matches as they played a 1-all draw against Sacred Heart, Sector 26, in a group B match. SGGS College for Women forged ahead in the 45th minute through Santosh Rawat, who converted a pass from right out Navdeep Kaur after Manisha had taken a free throw.

Chandigarh, October 21
In the cricket euphoria, nobody except those, who are in the game, knows that our National Women Kabaddi team has won the coveted Asian Women Kabaddi Championship for the third time in a row.

And this championship that concluded last month in Madurai, had something special for the region as Veerpal Kaur, a student (BA-III) of Dev Samaj College for Women (Ferozepur) affiliated to Panjab University, was the only girl from Punjab to represent India.

In this tournament, Indian team had brushed aside a spirited challenge by Iran to lift the winners’ trophy.

“With this win, I want to break the perception of those who deem Firozepur as a backward area,” says the Asian gold medalist, who has already won many accolades at the national level.

“During practice, I spend most of my time bagging bonus points, which help me gaining an edge over others during the game,” quips Veerpal. Though her coach, Palvinder, is happy over her success as it has given recognition to their hometown, but is little disappointed as he thinks the victory has gone unnoticed. Even after becoming the Asian gold medalist, no one in the state had bothered to support her or her family, he said.

It was a mere incident for Veerpal to fall for kabaddi. She joined handball in 6th class and later in 8th class switched over to kabaddi, as her handball coach was not serious for the game and seldom came for practice.

Veerpal comes from a sports family background, while her father was a basketball player, she and her other two sisters are kabaddi players.

She says, “though kabaddi is not in Olympics, the inter-college games are like Olympics for us.”