NEIGHBOURHOOD

Administration gears up for Jor Mela
Tribune News Service

Bus hits girl, students block GT Road
Tribune News Service

Ambala, December 20
The Ambala Bar Association boycotted the mega lok adalat, organised at the judicial complex here today. The lawyers also took out a protest march in the court complex to press upon their demand to transfer a civil judge, against whom they have been protesting for last two months.

Earlier, Justice Hemant Gupta, Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge, inaugurated the two-day lok adalat here today. District and Sessions Judge B. M. Bedi welcomed Justice Hemant Gupta.

Despite the boycott of the lawyers, a large number of clients were present at the court complex. Around two dozen of benches were set up to dispose of the cases of various natures. According to the information, around 3500 cases were disposed of today. Earlier, in the pre-mega lok adalats, around 11,000 cases have already been disposed of.

While addressing the clients, Justice Hemant Gupta said the lok adalat was the easiest and economical way to settle the cases. He said it also reduced the load of the courts and settled the disputes with mutual understanding. He said 134 lok adalats had been organised in the state so far, in which 34,000 cases had been settled. He asked the people to settle their disputes through the lok adalats.

Deputy commissioner Samir Pal Saro, Additional Sessions Judges A. K. Verma, A. S. Narang, R. N. Bharti, Aradhana Sawhny, Vikram Aggarwal, Neerja Kulwant Kalson and Chief Judicial Magistrate Parveen Gupta were present on the occasion.

Ropar, December 20
A total of 18,710 cases were settled in Ropar and Mohali sessions-division’s lok adalat held today as a part of special campaign launched by Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Claims and transactions worth Rs 41.33 crore were settled during 10 lok adalats held at Ropar and seven lok adalats held at Mohali.

Justice Surya Kant, Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge, inaugurated the lok adalat of Ropar, Mohali, Anandpur Sahib, Kharar and Dera Bassi.

District and Sessions Judge and chairman of district legal services’ authority U. S. Gera was also present.

Justice Surya Kant appealed to the people to settle their cases through lok adalats in order to save money and time.

Chandigarh, December 20
Some unidentified persons set an Alto car (CH-04-B-0038) on fire in the wee hours at Sector 15 here today.

The car owner has been identified as Aman Bhasin, a businessman, who when contacted said the car was parked outside his house when some unknown persons came on white Safari and set his car on fire at 3 am today.

After a few minutes of the incident, the police was informed about the incident and a fire brigade was also called. “I saw a white Safari running from the spot and even tried to chase the car, but was helpless. A bottle of petrol used for putting the car on fire was recovered,” said Aman Bhasin.

Residents of the locality said it was a great escape, the fire flames were very high and any major mishap could happen.

The police said we were investigating the case. A bottle of petrol has also been recovered from the spot.

Sukhbir Rana, SHO, the Sector 11 police station said, “A DDR has been registered in this regard and we are investigating the matter.”

Zirakpur, December 20
Two labourers and a six-year-old girl were injured when a scaffolding, supporting the front structure of a house, collapsed at Anand Vihar in Baltana near here this evening. The injured were identified as Parmod, Dheeraj and Reena.

Around 3 pm, Dheeraj Kumar and Parmod Kumar, both labourers, were standing on the support that fell on ground and a concrete beam came down crashing. The beam fell on the scaffolding. Reena, who was playing near the construction site, also got injured.

Sources said the injured were rushed to Civil Hospital, Panchkula. Parmod and Dheeraj were said to be out of danger and discharged after treatment, while Reena was referred to the GMCH-32, Chandigarh. The doctors said the condition of the girl was critical.

Meanwhile, the police registered a case against the construction contractor for negligence.

Chandigarh, December 20
Manimajra resident Gurpreet Kaur has filed a complaint with the police alleging that her bag containing Rs 1,000, mobile phone and some important documents was stolen from Sector 7, yesterday. A case under Section 379 of the IPC has been registered at Sector 26 police station.

Chandigarh, December 20
Harmeet Kahlon of Chandigarh fired a flawless five under par 67 to finish tied fifth and pocketed a cash prize of Rs 66,300 in the ONGC Masters 2008 that concluded on the par 72 greens of the Noida Golf Course in Noida today.

Shamim Khan (65, 66, 75, 70) clinched the title, his second successive on the Professional Golf Tour of India. Shamim shot two under 70 in the final round to end the tournament with a total of 12 under 276. Amardip Sinh Malik (71, 66, 73, 69) finished three strokes behind to occupy the second slot.

The win has propelled the Delhi golfer from fourth to second place on the 2007-08 PGTI Order of Merit.

The 30-year-old went past Rahul Ganapathy in total earnings for the season when he picked up the winner’s cheque of Rs 3,23,300.

Delhi’s Vinod Kumar (67, 74, 72, 69) finished third with a total of six under 282.

Toran Bikram Shahi of Nepal was one stroke behind Vinod in the fourth place. Toran and Mukesh Kumar shot matching 65s to record the best scores of round four. Toran’s 65 included two eagles.

Mukesh Kumar, Harmeet Kahlon, Rahil Gangjee and C Muniyappa shared fifth place at four under 284.

Harmeet Kahlon sank birdies on the second, fourth, seventh and ninth to be four under par 32 at the turn. Another birdie on the 13th saw him playing a one under 35 back nine for a bogey-free five under 67 card on the final day and a four-day tally of four under 284 (74-72-71-67).

Suijjan Singh, also of Chandigarh, finished tied 18th at three over par 291 (71-73-73-74) and pocketed Rs 27,300.

Other city golfers Harendra P. Gupta and Amandeep Johl tied for the 20th spot at four over par 292, each winning Rs 25,300. Also in the fray, were Uttam Singh Munday (tied 29th at seven over 295), Randhir Singh Ghotra (tied 34th at 10 over 298) and Gurbaaz Mann (tied 41st at 12 over 300).

Chandigarh, December 20
Harjinder Singh Kang, the seasoned Chandigarh amateur, who won the LG RCGC Cup barely a few days back, failed to make the cut finishing outside the top 32, in the LG Goodricke Eastern India Amateur Golf Championship on the par 72 greens of Royal Calcutta Golf Club in Kolkata today.

However, 15-year-old Ashbeer Saini from Kapurthala and Ambala's Manav Das, who finished third and fourth, respectively, made it to the second stage which will see one-to-one matches over the next five days. Akshay Butta emerged as the leader after two days of stroke play. Akshay, who shot an even par 72 today, emerged as the top seeded player as he prevailed over Gagan Verma in a playoff. Gagan, the leader on the LG Order of Merit list, shot a one under par 71 to tie with Akshay and head into the playoff.

Ashbeer Saini finished two strokes behind the leaders with a one over par 73 today. Manav Das, who was leading after the first round, could not find form and shot a four over 76 to finish in the fourth place.

Keshav Kapoor, Abhinav Lohan and Raja Sardar followed with a two-day total of 147. Amanjyot Singh, Abhishek Jha and Sanjeev Mehra rounded up the top 10 seeds. Surprisingly, H.S. Kang, who won the LG RCGC Cup earlier in the week, failed to proceed and finished outside the top 32. Kang, who looked likely to make it through, shot an 84 today, which saw him miss out on a spot.

Akshay Butta will be pitted against 32nd seed S.K. Pappu but the seedings have thrown up some other very interesting match-ups. Vikram Rana will face off against Moin Malak, both of whom have had good runs this season on the LG Amateur Tour. Vikram is coming off the back of an impressive showing at the LG Samarvir Sahi Amateur and could be considered the favourite in this match. Another interesting match-up would be between Angad Cheema and Ashbeer Saini, both young guns on the tour. Only the top 32 players get to continue in the tournament, which will now be played in the match play format. The LG Goodricke Eastern India Amateur has been played since 1958 and this is the 50th year of the tournament. We will have to wait and see who emerges as the top name in this format at the end on 25th when the winner will be crowned after a marathon 36-hole playoff in the finals.

Scores-: 143 Akshay Butta (71,72), Gagan Verma (72,71); 145 Ashbeer Saini (72,73); 146 Manav Das (70,76); 147 Keshav Kapoor (73,74), Abhinav Lohan (71,76), Raja Sardar (73,74); 148 Amanjyot Singh (75,73), Sanjeev Mehra (74,74); 149 Abhishek Jha (73,76), Rahul Bajaj (73,76); 150 Vikram Rana (73,77).

Chandigarh, December 20
A chaos prevailed during the ongoing Inter-College Weightlifting Tournament, as PU sports directorate officials and participating teams were not sure of the game’s rules, here today.

During the tournament, Government College for Women, Ludhiana, protested against the GGS College for Women, Sector 26, after they found the latter has won the tournament by including nine players rather than seven.

Following this, the Ludhiana college, which played with seven players, complained to the sports department of Panjab University. “The officials seemed oblivious to the rules of the game and asked us to get the rules list, which was their work,” alleged Aman, lecturer, GCW College, Ludhiana.

According to the rules list that was later brought by the college, it was found that there should be seven players in the women’s category. However, after a lot of arguments among the officials, director sports CS Grewal decided that the best seven players’ points would be counted.