The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Computer college in a shambles
Punjab govt wastes Rs 30 lakh
Gurdeep Singh Mann
Tribune News Service

The dilapidated building of Shaheed Udham Singh Computer College at Banur village. A Tribune photograph

Kot Ise Khan (Banur), August 8
A testimony of sheer wastage of scarce government funds lies in this village. The proposed site for a computer college, envisioned by former Punjab Cooperatives Minister Captain Kanwaljit Singh, now lies in doldrums.

“Rs 30 lakh were spent on erecting present building and boundary wall structure. Now, most of the material has either been stolen away or is rotting in the open,” said Kuldip Singh, a local resident.

The residents revealed that during earlier tenure of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), foundation stone for the project was laid and construction started. The construction, however, remains incomplete till date. Costly material such as iron, cement, bricks and even the main iron gate of the college has been stolen away.

“Now, villagers bring their cattle here for grazing and bathing purposes. Grass is uprooted all around and the building is used by drug addicts to consume drugs,” said another resident of the village.

People associated with the SAD who helped in motivating senior leadership of the party for setting up college now allege that the Congress government had stopped the construction. “The Congress government returned next lot of funds with which the college was to be completed,” said an Akali leader. He said the exact amount of money spent upon college building was not known, as the cashier concerned died some time ago.

District president of the Youth Akali Dal from Patiala, Jaswinder Singh Jassi, demanding immediate resumption of the construction work said money between Rs 60 and 70 lakh was spent upon the building few years ago.

Village panchayat had given the land for the computer college. Now, the land was under municipal limits, he said. The college was named as Shaheed Udham Singh Computer College and it was decided that Rs 1 crore would be spent on project, he added.

However, with lack of funds and political will the fate of the college now lies in doldrums.

Power cuts
Residents gherao PSEB complaint centre
Our Correspondent

Bassi Pathana, August 8
Irked over failure of the PSEB to restore power supply in most parts of the town, residents who are reeling under power cuts from the past 38 hours, gheraoed the PSEB complaint centre last night and raised slogans against the PSEB officials.

The employees present downed the shutter and fled. Several representatives of Hindu organisation made futile attempts to contact the local JE but local SDO responded to their calls and he made efforts to restore supply for a few hours but of no use, as voltage was so low for fans and lights to work.

Till the filling of the report most parts of the town were without power. While talking to The Tribune Manoj Banda, secretary of the Hindu organisation said most parts of the town were without power from the past 36 hours. He alleged that they contacted a local JE, who refused to come to Bassi Pathana to restore the power. Banda also alleged he used foul language. He said people were already facing power cuts but non-availability of power due to the fault on the part of local officials had deteriorated the situation. He said without power there was no water, old people and children were the worst sufferers.

He urged the higher officials to intervene to control the situation.

Local SDO said due to over load, transformer had gone out of order. The staff is repairing it since morning and hoped that the power would be restored soon.

Day after strike
Rs 150 crore transaction in banks
Tribune News Service

Ropar, August 8
Transaction worth Rs 150 crore was registered across 112 branches of different banks in the district today, a day after the strike.

As many as 23 branches of banks in Ropar city alone marked transaction of Rs 81 crore. While HDFC and ICICI banks remained open, all other nationalized banks and private banks adhered to the call of nation wide stir against government and remained closed for two days.

Heavy rush was witnessed at the banks as customers made a beeline for transaction. Being the last working day of the week, the banks remained open only till 12.30 noon. “There were many more people in queue even after 12.30 noon. Instead of sending them back, we decided to close the new entry and cleared all pending transactions,” said an official of State Bank of Patiala.

Even most of the ATM machines had run dry in the city in the past two days. Officials of various government establishments, like post offices, had a tough time taking care of the cash.

“Being the initial days of the month, there is usually heavy rush of people queuing up for paying electricity, phone bills, insurance instalments etc. A lot of cash had got collected in the past two days. It was a tedious task keeping guard over the entire cash,” revealed post office authorities.

5 of family booked for abetting suicide bid
Tribune News Service

Kharar, August 8
Five members of a family were booked today for forcing their daughter-in-law Suman, a resident of Dasmesh Nagar, Kharar, to commit suicide.

In her complaint to police, Suresh Rani, Suman’s mother, a resident of Preet Colony, Ropar, said Suman was married to Manoj Kumar since three years. The couple has a two-year-old son.

She said on Friday evening, Manoj called her up and abused her. He said Suman was dying and asked her to come. When Suresh reached Kharar, she was told that her daughter Suman was at a private hospital in Kharar. From there she was rushed to Ivy Hospital and was admitted to ICU unit where her condition was said to be serious.

Acting on Suresh Rani’s complaint, the police have booked Suman’s father-in-law Surinder Kumar, husband Manoj, mother-in-law Santosh, brother-in-law Suresh and sister-in-law Anita.

Chaman Vatika girls bag five golds
Our Correspondent

Ambala, August 8
The girls of Chaman Vatika participated in the district-level championship of tae kwon do and bagged the second overall championship trophy.

In different categories of taekwondo, the girls of this school had left everybody spell bound by bagging five gold, four silver and one bronze medals. Medha Banta, Mamta Kundu, Anmol Sharma, Cornia and Anisha won the gold medal. Devika, Archi, Ankita and Rupal Rana won the silver medal. Allina took away the bronze.

In skating also this school bagged two silver and one bronze medals. The competition was held at district level. Japnoor Walia and Kamya Kansra won the silver medals and Simona bagged away the bronze medal.

The chairman of the school, Rajender Nath, congratulated the teams and department of sports.

Blossoms school first in song contest
Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 8
Blossoms Senior Secondary School, Patiala, organised an inter-school “Patriotic song competition” under the Patiala Sahodaya School Complex here yesterday on the school premises.

As many as 13 CBSE schools participated. H Oberoi, principal of the school, welcomed the teams and wished them luck.

Students presented the best of songs with classical tunes, which enthralled the audience and impressed the judges, Dr Manmohan Sharma from Punjab University and Prof Nirmal Singh from the same department.

Results:

1st prize: Blossoms Senior Secondary School, Patiala

2nd prize: Shri Guru Teg Bahadur School, Patiala shared by Sri Aurobindo School, Patiala

3rd prize: DAV Public School, Patiala

Consolation prize: Guru Nanak Foundation School, Patiala and Army Public School, Patiala.

Rly employee held for rape bid
Our Correspondent

Kalka, August 8
The police has arrested Rajinder, a railway employee, who allegedly tried to outrage the modesty of a woman last night.

The woman, who hails from Mumbai, had lodged a complaint with the police that Rajinder tried to rape her. When she was sitting alone at the railway station here, the accused, on the pretext of helping her, took her to his house at the railway colony nearby and tried to rape her. He also beat her up and she sustained injuries.

The police has arrested the accused under Sections 323, 376 and 511, IPC. After the medical examination of the victim, the accused was produced in a Panchkula court.

Miscreants decamp with Rs 5000
Our Correspondent

Kalka, August 8
Two miscreants allegedly entered the shop of a woman, a resident of Tipra Railway Colony near Kalka, and stole Rs 5,000 from her residence.

According to the Kalka SHO, Mitu, wife of Rakesh of Tipra village, had in a complaint lodged with the police alleged that the two youths entered her shop and when she opposed they broke a showcase glass and threatened her of dire consequences.

She sustained injuries in her hand while trying to free herself from their clutches. One of the miscreants entered her house from a backdoor and stole Rs 5,000.

Mitu was admitted to the local civil hospital. A case under Sections 382 and 34 of the IPC has been registered against the accused.

CRIME

Liquor contractor dies as car hits truck
Tribune News Service

Zirakpur, August 8
An Ambala-based liquor contractor was killed while his accountant sustained serious injuries when the car in which they were travelling rammed into a truck near the ST barrier on the Zirakpur-Ambala highway late last night. The deceased has been identified as Virender Kumar Garg (40) and the injured as Naresh Kapoor.

The incident took place around 12.30 am, when the car rammed into the rear of the truck. The driver of the car was crushed under the truck. The highway patrol team faced difficulties in extracting the victims from the car.

Virender died on the spot while Naresh was taken to the GMCH-32 in a critical condition.

The truck driver fled the spot. A case has been registered against him.

According to sources, the victims were coming from Chandigarh after attending a party. Virender is survived by his wife and two sons.

The barrier has become a nightmare for commuters. Loaded trucks are parked on both sides of the road. Employee at the barrier said around 300 to 400 trucks passed by every day and the number increased to 700 to 1,000 during the peak season.

Commuters said the barrier should be shifted from the highway. In February, Mayank Bhauguna, a resident of Dera Bassi, lost his life near the barrier when his car rammed into a truck coming from the opposite side.

Man assaulted
Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 8
The police has registered a case of assault against unidentified persons on the complaint of Rajinder Kumar of Sector 40-C, Chandigarh.

The complainant said he had taken an SCO at Phase-10 from Amarjit Singh Sidhu on rent.

A case with regard to vacating the SCO was proceeding in court, but on August 5, four persons arrived at the shop with sharp-edged weapons and started assaulting him.

The police said the property was owned by the wife of a DIG (CRPF) posted at Jammu.

SPORTS

Cricket Meet
St Xavier’s, Ryan in semis
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, August 8
St Xavier’s School “B” Team, Panchkula, Ryan International “A”, Chandigarh and Delhi Public School “A” Team, Pinjore, qualified for the Under-16 semifinals of the 1st Clive Shear Six -A- Side Cricket Tournament being organised by the St Xavier’s School, Panchkula, at the JR Institute of Cricket Technology at Barwala today.

St Xavier’s School “B” Team defeated Little Flower Convent School, Panchkula, by eight runs in the first quarterfinal encounter. Xavier’s School batted first after winning the toss. They piled up 72 for 2. Vaibhav was the top scorer with 27 runs. Mridul was the highest wicket taker as he bagged 3 for 39. In reply, LFC School went down fighting as they scored 64 for 4. Pranav contributed 30 runs.

In the second quarterfinal match, Ryan International “A” outplayed St Xavier’s School, Chandigarh, by seven wickets. Xavier’s won the toss and elected to bat. However, their batsmen could muster only 57 for 5. Navdeep scored 15 runs. Deepak bagged 2 for 27. Ryan International “A” achieved the target by scoring 89 for 3. Shubham played a stroke full knock of 30 runs. Randeep captured two wickets for 30 runs.

In a closely fought third quarterfinal fixture, Delhi Public School “A” team of Pinjore thrashed Sector 3 Sports Complex of Panchkula by 10 wickets runs. DPS Pinjore won the toss but elected to field. They restricted Sports Complex to 62 for one with Shivansh scoring 19 runs. DPS “A” overtook their rivals’ total by scoring 63 without losing any wicket.

Brief scores: St Xavier’s School “B” Team, Panchkula: 72 for 2 (Vaibhav 27, Mridul 3 for 39). LFCS, Panchkula: 64 for 4 (Pranav 30, Pranav 1 for 15). St Xavier’s, Chandigarh: 57 for 5 (Navdeep 15, Deepak 2 for 27). Rayan International A, Chandigarh: 89 for 3 (Shubham 30, Randeep 2 for 30). Sports Complex-3, Panchkula: 62 for 1 (Shivansh 19). DPS- “A”, Pinjore: 63 for 0 (Anuraj 26, Vansh 1 for 13).