The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

NEIGHBOURHOOD

HMT officials demand revised pay scales
Our Correspondent

Kalka, September 2
A delegation of HMT Officers’ Associations, Pinjore, comprising of RK Malik, OP Miglani, president and general secretary, respectively of the association, Vinay Khanna, Satya Bhushan, JB Sharma and Rotinder Kuntal, headed by Vijay Bansal, former state secretary of the Congress, recently met Pawan Kumar Bansal, minister for water resources and Parliamentary affairs, and submitted a memorandum in connection with hardships faced by the officers fraternity of the HMT and the consequences affecting the operations of the company.

The memorandum said the world had changed over the last few years, but times had stood still for the officers of the HMT, Pinjore, since 1997. The unit had been deliberately made to suffer. The talent had been throttled into oblivion. The economic discrimination had resulted in to social discrimination.

No organisation could prosper if its employees did not remain motivated with fair wages as the major driving force.

It was interpreted in the memorandum, though the HMT started with manufacturing machine tools over the years, it had diversified into manufacturing of watches, tractors, printing machinery, metal farming presses, die casting and plastic machinery, CNC systems and bearings.

The HMT Ltd comprises six subsidiaries under the ambit of a holding company, which also manages the tractors’ business directly.

The memorandum sought immediate implementation of Pay revision, as due to non-implementation of 1997 pay scales. It was urged in the memorandum to issue instructions to all the concerned in the ministry of heavy industries to approve demand for pay revision. It was suggested that merge of HMT with the Defence PSUs, BHEL and HAL was the only solution to save the organisation.

Residents block highway
Gurdeep Singh Mann
Tribune News Service

Jansla (Rajpura), September 2
A sizeable number of residents from nearby villages today blocked the Chandigarh-Patiala highway for nearly two hours. Death of Kala Ram (46), who was resident of the same village, in a road accident in front of a liquor vend led residents to take out to streets and block the highway. Residents alleged that the reason for such accidents was the nuisance created by the liquor vend and its adjoining shops. “Such an environment is affecting our younger generation, who is getting inclined to liquor and gambling,” said Bhola Ram, former sarpanch of Jansali village.

He said the accident victim was hit by a speeding vehicle in front of the liquor vend last night and villagers launched agitation after he was declared dead in the PGI today morning.

Furious residents also burnt rubber wheels on the highway and blocked it with tractor and other vehicles. Commuters were abused by some youngsters who were blocking the highway. The entire traffic was diverted through different villages.

Commuters rued that every third day such an incident took place on the road. “Overloaded trucks on its way to Banur and Dera Bassi have been disturbing the traffic for the past few days and now villagers have blocked the highway,” said Sewa Ram, a bus driver.

Sadar SHO Bikramjeet Singh Brar said residents lifted blockade after two hours with intervention of the senior police officials. He said residents were assured by the police to look into their demands with help of the administration.

V-C for promotion of Punjabi
Tribune News Service

Girls perform dance at Punjabi University, Patiala, on the occasion of All-India Punjabi Conference held on university campus on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph

Patiala, September 2
Jaspal Singh, Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, today said he would extend every kind of academic support to those who want to learn or teach Punjabi anywhere in the world under the already running scheme of the university called, “Punjabis away from home.”

“My efforts of establishing a Punjabi academy in Madhya Pradesh and establishing Punjabi department in Kashmir University have already started showing positive results. Listening to the obstacles and difficulties of Punjabis settled outside Punjab during the delegates’ session of the conference has helped us a lot to find solution to their problems,” Vice-Chancellor said.

“Punjabi University will organise free teachers’ training camp for Punjabis settled outside Punjab for learning or teaching Punjabi. While the duration and other modalities will be designed at a later stage, the university will bear all kinds of their expenses for the camp to be held on the university campus. This is being done to expand the frontiers and contours of the Punjabi at all levels,” Dr Jaspal Singh said this, while presiding over the valedictory function of the two-day second All-India Punjabi Conference that concluded at Kala Bhawan here today.

Elaborating on the issue of enhancing the vistas of Punjabi language, art and culture, the Vice-Chancellor said his decision of not granting any kind of relaxation in terms of qualifying basic examination in Punjabi to the candidates seeking jobs in the university had resulted in to causing more than 10,000 of them learn Punjabi.

Participating in the deliberations, Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra, a former MP and member of the Punjabi University syndicate, suggested holding of such conferences in other states also. He assured every kind of help from the state government in this regard.

Satnam Manak, Executive Editor of “Ajit”, Varinder Walia, Editor, Punjabi Tribune, reputed litterateurs, Dr Rattan Singh Jaggi, Dr Mahip Singh, Prof Prithipal Singh Kapoor, former Pro Vice-Chancellor of GNDU, Prof Deepak Manmohan Singh, director, World Punjabi Centre, SB Singh, Editor of Punjabi Digest, chaired various literary sessions.

The university also organised a cultural programme portraying different forms of Punjabi music, poetry and dances under the supervision of director, youth welfare, Dr Satish Kumar Verma. Chief coordinator of the conference, Dr Jodh Singh, said more than 1,000 delegates from 22 states and union territories of India participated in the conference.

97 primary schools to be upgraded
Tribune News Service

Ropar, September 2
Ninety-seven primary schools in the district will be upgraded as upper primary schools and three new primary schools are being started in Ropar district.

Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti said this while addressing a meeting of education development committee today. An annual budget of Rs 23.47 crore was sanctioned for schools running under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA).

He urged the officials and members of the parent-teacher association of schools under SSA to be transparent while buying furniture and other material for the schools.

Rs 8.73 crore will be spent on 97 schools that are to be upgraded. New primary schools would be introduced at Dhanera (Anandpur Sahib), Fatehpur and Tanda (Ropar) villages at the cost of Rs 18 lakh.

Beside this, 22 alternate innovative education centres have been opened in the district, where volunteers are imparting education to 490 students. Rs 12 lakh will be spent for these centres.

Government has also launched a project to train children with special needs for pre-nursery classes. For this, 490 such children have been identified in areas of Nangal, Anandpur Sahib, Nurpur Bedi, Ropar 1 and Ropar 2 blocks.

Also, centres of bridge-learning with residential facilities are being opened for these children. There would be two schools at Ropar and one at Anandpur Sahib.

The Red Cross Society is also identifying one more site for such centre of learning. As many as 50 students will be enrolled in these centres.

500-quintal sugar seized
Tribune News Service

Ambala, September 2
The police has recovered around 500 quintals of sugar illegally stacked in two shops at a village near Mullana.

The incident came to light when the police received a tip off by an anonymous caller last night that some people were unloading bags of sugar and storing them.

Acting on information, the police raided the said place this morning along with officials of the food and supply department in Plakhni village. The police has reportedly found two bill receipts of 225 quintal each of sugar.

The police has arrested two persons in this case for illegally hoarding sugar.

Keeping in mind the recent price hike of sugar and the upcoming festive season, the police is taking a serious note of the hoarding of sugar.

Earrings snatched
Our Correspondent

Bassi Pathana, September 2
Two motorcycle-borne youths today struck in the busy area of the town and snatched the ear-rings of Shakuntla Devi, who was sitting on her shop at Namdev Mandir Road.

According to Shakuntla Devi, she was sitting on her grocery shop, when a young boy came to her shop and demanded toffees. As she turned her back to take toffees, he snatched her ear-rings and fled away. She raised the alarm; her son Kuldeep Kumar chased him.

She said on a little distance, another youth on motorcycle had been waiting for him. The snatcher rode on the motorcycle without number plate and both fled away. She said the matter had been reported to the police.

The police has started the search and intensified the patrolling. It is worth mentioning that the incidents of thefts, snatching and other crime in the town have increased manifold.

Home guard found dead
Tribune News Service

Banur, September 2
A home guard was found dead in the wee hours of the day today. The deceased has been identified as Gurvinder Singh (38), deployed at the Banur police station for the past around three months. He was earlier posted at Zirakpur police station.

As per the police officials, Gurvinder was told to look after a luxury vehicle that met with an accident near Jangpura village. He talked to the munshi at Banur police station till late evening. Gurvinder told the munshi that he was deployed on duty and had been looking after the vehicle that met with the accident.

Police officials are working on all the theories, including murder as an unidentified revolver was also found from near the dead body of the home guard jawan. The body was lying in pool of rain water in the fields. The police has initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC.

Woman robbed of jewellery

Kalka, September 2
A woman of Chikken village of Pinjore Block was robbed of with her jewellery yesterday.

In her complaint to the Pinjore police, Nachhattar Kaur alleged that she had been waiting for bus at bus stop of Bhogpur village, when she was offered lift by a Maruti Car (CH-01-Q-0884). On the way between Bhogpur and Chikken villages, two youths, already in the car, deliberately took away her golden necklace and bangle and threatened her.

She was also thrown out of the car near Chikken village by the two youths. The police has registered a case and revealed that the car was also of theft, in which the miscreants were riding. — OC

COURTS

Ranjit Bajaj gets interim bail
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 2
Lending a breather to Ranjit Bajaj, a local court granted an interim bail to him today till September 14 when the case will come up next for hearing. His arrest has been stayed till then. The defence counsel today stated in the court that it was a case of mistaken identity and Ranjit was falsely implicated in the case.

Meanwhile, Ranjit’s father, BR Bajaj has written a letter to the SSP, asking for a reinvestigation in the case. Police sources stated that it would take a week to probe all angles in the matter.

It was alleged that on August 28, Ranjit had allegedly attacked a police team outside a discotheque in Sector 26 in the wee hours along with his three friends. The police had arrested Ranjit’s accomplices in the case, while he was still at large.

The police had registered a case of assaulting public servant on duty, causing obstruction and intervention in government duty against Ranjit Bajaj, Mohinder Singh, Pardeep Kumar and Narinder Malik.

Warrants against MC commissioner

Chandigarh, September 2
Following failure to respond to a contempt of court petition filed against commissioner DP Kharbanda, Justice Rakesh Kumar Garg has directed the issuance of bailable warrants to secure his presence. As the petition dated July 21, 2008, came up, Punjab Additional Advocate-General MC Berry asserted despite communication dated May 20, no one had approached him on Kharbanda’s behalf. — TNS

CRIME

2 booked in forgery case
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, September 2
Two Delhi-based businessmen have been booked for allegedly duping a local resident Manu Goyal by pledging her land to the bank without taking her consent here today. The accused identified as Rajiv Jain and Tarsem Chand Jain have been booked under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120B.

Manu Goyal, a resident of Sector 9, in her complaint alleged that she, along with her two partners, had sold her furnace running in the name of RJ Steel in Baddi to the accused about few years ago, where she also owned a piece of land measuring nine bigha and 18 biswa. Later Goyal, along with her two partners, made a deal to sell the land to Jains. Jains had issued two cheques worth Rs 1.26 crore to her. Goyal alleged that both the cheques were dishonoured and she had moved the court in Chandigarh after the accused had failed to make the said payment and return documents pertaining to the said property.

After some time it was revealed that the accused had managed to get a loan of Rs 12 crore pledging her property to the UCO Bank of Sector 17, Chandigarh, by forging documents.

SPORTS

Challenge Cup
St Stephen’s academy steal march on Haryana assn
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 2
On the second day of the ongoing 7th Administrator’s Challenge Cup All-India Football Tournament U-17 (boys), being organised at the Football Stadium, Sector 17, and Sports Complex, Sector 42, St Stephen’s Football Academy, Chandigarh, defeated Haryana Football Assocaition and won the first match.

Spirited St Stephen’s Football Academy, Chandigarh trounced Haryana Football Association by a huge margin of 7-1. Harpreet Bedi opened the account for St Stephen’s in the third minute. It was again Harpreet Bedi who scored second goal for his team in the 16th minute. The third goal was scored by Sandesh in 21st minute of the match. It was again Sandesh who scored fourth goal for his team in the 32nd minute and fifth goal for St Stephen’s was scored by Uma Kanta in 51st minute of the play.

It was Hemant of Haryana, who scored first goal for his team in the 66th minute.

The penultimate sixth goal for St Stephen’s was scored by Wangoing Meitei in 67th minute of the play. The ultimate seventh goal of St Stephen’s was scored by Sonu Majhi in the 71st minute.

However, Ramesh of Haryana was shown yellow card by the referee for indulging in rough play.

In the second match of the day played at Sector 42, Rohit Football Academy, Orissa, hammered Indian Tigers, Mumbai, by a big margin of 6-0.

First goal was scored by Asif Ali in 18th minute. While second goal was scored by Abdul Kadim in 20th minute and 3rd goal was scored by Y Srinu in the 22nd minute.

The fourth goal was scored by Asif Ali in 30th minute. Arjun Nayyar scored fifth goal in 66th minute and sixth goal was scored by Chander Shekher in 67th minute. Nikhil Madhavi of Indian Tigers and Y Srinu of Rohit Academy, Orissa, was cautioned by the referee for indulging in rough play.

The third match of the day was played at Football Stadium, Sector 17, Chandigarh. IFA, Kolkata, drubbed Rajasthan Football Association (10-0). Mithun Oraon scored in the ninth, 28th and 80th minute. Deepankar Sarkar scored in the 34th, 40th and 58th minute. Amit Roy scored in the 30th minute, Javed Ansari scored in the 62nd minute and Subnay KR Malik scored in 87th minute. Lob Mandal scored in the 55th minute. Arun Gautam of Rajasthan was cautioned by referee for indulging in rough play.

The last match of the day was played between Mizoram and Football Academy, Rurka Kalan. Both the teams were equally balanced and exhibited brilliant peace of score. Both the teams framed a couple of good moves. However, Rurka Kalan players were proved better in first half.

The first goal was scored by Asip Gupta of Rurka Kalan in 39th minute off a powerful left footer frame 35 yards. The second goal for Rurka Kalan was scored by Amit Pal in the 55th minute of play off a free kick from 20 Yards just outside the penalty area. While the third goal for Rurka Kalan was scored by Jasjit Singh in the 85th minute of play. Amrit Pal of Rurka Kalan was sent off by the referee, as he was cautioned twice during the match.