NEIGHBOURHOOD

24 cops surrender in CBI court
Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 15
As many as 24 police personnel, who were allegedly involved in a fake encounter, surrendered in a special CBI court here today.

Earlier, all of them were declared proclaimed offenders by the court.

On December 8, DSP Ram Singh, posted at PAP, Jalandhar, had already surrendered in the court of additional session judge Sukhwinder Kaur. He was accompanied by doctors when he had surrendered as he was suffering from heart ailment.

The CBI had filed a case in 1997 against 25 cops allegedly involved in a fake encounter and Ram Singh was one of them. The case was registered by the CBI under Sections 302, 364 and 120B against all 25 accused.

A bomb blast had occurred in Jalandhar a few years ago and one of the accused Vijay Pal Singh, a terrorist, who was in the custody of the Delhi police, had named three cops Baljit Singh, Rajwinder Singh and Mukhtiar Singh in the incident. The next day, one of the cops Baljit Singh was allegedly killed while the whereabouts of the other two are not known till yet.

DSP Ram Singh was posted in the Lambra police station when the police tried to recover the arms used in the incident.

Joga Singh, father of the slain cop Baljit Singh, later filed a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court following which the court directed the CBI to enquire into the entire incident.

According to Satnam Singh Kler, counsel for all 25 accused, said that all cops had been sent to judicial custody till December 24.

Patiala, December 15
Dr Balbir Singh, the elected honorary secretary of the Rajindra gymkhana and Mohindra club, here today said he would strive to have affiliation of the gymkhana with some international clubs like the Chenab club in Pakistan.

Spelling out his priorities on the sidelines of the installation ceremony of the new team of office-bearers of the club, Dr Balbir said he would strive to have the best of sporting facilities in the gymkhana and club.

Dr Balbir said his plan was to make the club a popular eating joint and wanted that it should become a known place for its delicacies. He said the ambience of the club would be improved and its old pristine glory restored. He appreciated the development works undertaken during the term of the outgoing team and said he would not allow the pace of development to slacken.

He would in fact like to give an impetus to the development works to ensure that the club became known across the country.

He said more suites needed to be added to the club, as presently it had only three to four suites for visiting members from other clubs. He also had a plan to make on-line payment of club dues functional as soon as possible since it was a long pending need.

Banur, December 15
A mega job fair was held on Monday at Swami Vivekanand Institute of Engineering and Technology (SVIET), in association with Freshers Park, on its central campus village Ramnagar here.

Around 55 technical and professional colleges participated for the joint campus placement and over 2412 job aspirants of 2008 and 2009 from the north region comprising Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pardesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh involved themselves to grab opportunities.

Renowned companies like Hero Cycles, Bajaj Capital, Vardhman Group, ABC consultant, Job Seekers.Com, Khanna papers, visited the campus to recruit candidates for around 460 vacancies.

The company representatives and HR members named Sudhir, Hero Cycles, Gaurav Singh, Bajaj Capital, Ashwani Sharma, IMI Soft, Aman Sharma, Bhagat Group, Sukhwinder, ACL Group, Sunil, Job Khazana.com, Satpal Ganpact and others were also there.

The placement process comprised of a company presentation, written test, group discussion and personal interview. 2412 students appeared to avail the opportunity and sit for a written test. Out of 2412, 840 students were selected in the written test and group discussion.

Kalka, December 15
The department of water supply and sanitation, Kalka, after the gap of two years has restarted the old source of water form Kaushlya to upper zone area of Kalka.

B.R. Verma, SDO of the department, said it took 4 lakh for the renovation of the Kaushlya water source, which was lying futile for more than one and half year.

Earlier, the water supply to the upper zone was being carried out from Khera Sita Ram tube well near Parwanoo barrier. He said with the restarting of Kaushlya source the water supply in the Kalka city would definitely be improved. Now the timing of water supply in Kalka would be extended from 30 minutes to one hour. Verma further told that to improve the water supply in Kalka and its adjoining villages the work on the installation of five tube wells was in full swing.

The department is going to install several tube wells in Kalka and Pinjore to cope with the water scarcity problem in the area. The work on this project has already been started. The tube wells would be set up in Navan Nagar, Vasudev Pura, Sukho Majri, Dhamala, Majra Mehtab etc. He said each tube well would cost Rs 10, 00,000 up to the digging work and Rs 25,00,000 on the completion of each tube well. The work on the Navan Nagar tube well is in full swing, which has completed boring of more than 200 feet. This tube well would cater several villages of Navan Nagar along side the National Highway-21-A.

The work on the tube well behind Kalka police station is also on the verge of completion and after getting the electricity connection, it would cater Bitna, Kanguwal and Tipra villages adjacent to Kalka. This tube well is expected to be functional in the first week of December. A tube well is also being installed near Tipra village with the help of World Bank, added Verma.

Ambala, December 15
A surprise visit by S.P. Saro, deputy commissioner Ambala, brought forward many shortcomings in the Civil Hospital, Ambala, today.

The DC who was accompanied by the civil surgeon and other senior officials checked the medicine stock registers, OPD registers, disposal of bio medical waste, laboratories, x-ray department, blood bank, gynaecology department, private medical store, vita booth centre, male and female wards, etc.

During his visit it was found that the stock register of medicines was not up to date and bio medical waste was found lying in the doctors room.

There was a general lack of cleanliness all across the hospital.

The vita milk centre too was found lacking and no stock register was found there.

The civil surgeon who was accompanying him has been asked to prepare a report and to remove all the shortcomings.

Talking to the The Tribune he informed that the district had received a grant of Rs 50 lakh under the National Rural Health Mission, which would be utilised in giving free medicines to the OPD, delivery and emergency ward patients.

Chandigarh, December 15
A brilliant brace by speedy forward, Anirudh Thapa, paved the way for St Stephen's School to win St Kabir Trophy for the third successive time by beating hosts St Kabir School of Sector 26 by 3-0 in the final of the Chandigarh Inter-School under-13 Football Tournament on the school's premises here today.

The hosts put up their best performance and contained St Stephen's goalless till the 20th minute. After conceding a goal, St Kabir team came under pressure and caved in.

A goal in the 20th minute infused more vigour into the St Stephen's attack. St Stephen's livewire Anirudh unleashed a powerful angular shot from the left flank. St Kabir School goalkeeper Gautam made a good save. However, off the rebound, Pankaj scored with a perfect grounder.

Maintaining their pressure, St Stephen's School, which runs a football academy, doubled the margin in the 25th minute. Anirudh headed a corner kick. St Kabir goalkeeper Gautam parried it. Anirudh pounced on the rebound and caught the St Kabir School defence napping.

Anirudh was always looking for a goal and he grabbed another opportunity in the 34th minute. St Stephen's was awarded a free kick from the centre line. Sajjad took a powerful shot and Anirudh trapped it and guided the ball into the far corner with an intelligent placement. 

Chandigarh, December 15
St Kabir School, Sector 26, found an easy rival in New Public School, Sector 18, in the final round of the Inter-School Basketball Tournament organised by St Kabir School, here today.

Bolstered by brilliant display of Rupandeep Kaur, St Kabir recorded a thumping win by 46-26 points.

Results (finals): St Kabir School, Sector 26, (Rupandeep Kaur 20, Prakriti Malhotra 6, Pavani Sethi 7, Tanvi 6, Naina Nijhar 4, Kriti Tujeta 2) beat New Public School, Sector 18 (Neha 19, Simiti Kaura 3, Karanjit4) by 46-26 (quarter-wise scores 9-13, 13-3, 12-3, 12-7).

Chandigarh, December 15
Ashbeer Saini (15) from Kapurthala fired a three-under par 69 to be two strokes behind the leader, L. Selvadurai, in the LG RCGC Cup of the LG Amateur Tour on the par-72 greens of the Royal Calcutta Golf Club in Kolkata today.

Another two strokes behind Ashbeer was the seasoned Chandigarh amateur, Harjinder Singh Kang, who played a one-under par 71 to be third after the first round.

Starting from the tenth tee, Selvadurai fired 4 birdies and an eagle with just one bogey on his card. Talking about his round, excited Selva said “I really like this course and I generally play well here.”

Considering that he has previously reached the finals and semi-finals at the LG All-India Amateur, one understands why he enjoys playing on the course.

Grade A coach Jessie Grewal said Ashbeer Saini was a regular at the CGA Golf Range, where he came quite often to hone his skills.

Gagan Verma and Abhinav Lohan, both of whom carded an identical 72, were tied for fourth but close enough to the leader to make a charge towards the top in the next few rounds.

Manav Das from Ambala was tied 11th at two over par 74.

With Rashid Khan missing in action, the LG tour will finally see a new name on top of the leader board at the end of four rounds. It remains to be seen, if Selvadurai can continue his fine run or if some of the experienced names on the leader board will overtake him. With 54 holes still left to be played, it would be too early to make a prediction and the race for the LG RCGC Cup is still wide open.

Scores: 1. L Selvadurai(67); 2. Ashbeer Saini (69); 3. HS Kang (71); 4. Gagan Verma, Abhinav Lohan (72); 6. Sanjeev Mehra, Vikram Rana, Md. Sanjib, Raja Sardar, Sheikh Halim (73); 11. Samir Mondal, Keshav Kapoor, Jasjeet Singh, Darshan Veeraraghavan, Manav Das, Samir Bedi,Rajesh Halder (74).

Chandigarh, December 15
India’s 1st Test match triumph at Chennai has certainly raised the expectations of Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) officials to draw large crowds in the 2nd Test match to be held at the PCA stadium, here, from December 19 to 23.

The sale of tickets, which started from Saturday in various branches of the Central Bank of India, has received a lukewarm response so far.

The bank manager of Sector 37 branch, NK Sharma, said, “There has been no progress of sales in the branch. There was no sale on Saturday, whereas, today we have sold about 10-12 tickets.”

The same is the case with other branches of the bank. In the Sector 32 branch, only 43 tickets were sold on Saturday, and that too, declined to 24 today.

The bank manager of Sector 15 branch, BK Bansal, said, “Due to examinations the sales have gone down. We had sold 17 tickets only on the first day while today we had sold around 50 tickets.”

The PCA ticket counter and Sector 70 branch of Mohali had sold 760 tickets till Monay, manager of the branches, Meelu, said.

Though the response is less, however, PCA officials are hopeful of good sales in the wake of India’s win in the 1st Test match.

Meanwhile, India and England teams are scheduled to arrive tomorrow by a chartered Jetairways flight from Chennai, which will reach Chandigarh by 2:30 pm.

According to M.P. Pandove, honorary secretary, PCA top brass of BCCI, including Sharad Pawar, Shashank Manohar, N. Sri Nivasan and ICC chairman, David Morgan, will be among the various dignitaries who will be present to watch the test match at Mohali.

The two teams and the officials are staying at Hotel Taj. Both the teams will have their practice sessions on December 17 and 18.

Chandigarh, December 15
Encouraged with the recent performance of the Chandigarh Women Hockey Academy, a venture of the Chandigarh administration, Chandigarh sports director Inderjit Singh Sandhu today announced that the administration would introduce the All-India Women Hockey Tournament (under-17) for the administrator’s cup from 18 January, 2009.

Praising the hockey academy team, which won the All-India Mohinder Pratap Singh Grewal Women Hockey Tournament in Ludhiana last month, Sandhu said the UT administrator, Gen (Retd) RF Rodrigues, was pleased with their tremendous achievement.

The sports department would soon fill up nine vacant seats, bringing the total number of trainees to 24 in the academy.