Panchkula, October 22
Despite being labelled as an “outsider” by his own party leaders, Devender Kumar Bansal, Congress candidate, won from the newly carved Assembly constituency of Panchkula by a margin of 12,260 votes.

Bansal defeated his nearest rival, Yograj Singh (INLD candidate), who got only 16,932 votes.

The BJP, which fielded former Chandigarh Mayor Gian Chand, got the third position. Gupta got 15,717 votes out of a total of 82,551 polled votes while Shashi Sharma, a former Congress leader who defected to the HJC, could manage only 12,922 votes.

Bansal maintained the lead in all 11 rounds of counting. His counterpart at Kalka, Satwindner Singh Rana, however, was not so lucky. Rana, who was asked to contest from Kalka by the Congress high command after his constituency of Rajaund was scrapped in the delimitation exercise, lost to INLD candidate Pradeep Chaudhary.

Chaudhary got 41,625 votes out of a total of 94,642 votes polled. He defeated Rana with a margin of 21,187 votes.

Bhagat Singh, an Independent and son of former minister Lachhman Singh, got 16,771 votes while Vijay Bansal, a former Congress leader who contested on the BSP ticket, could manage only 4,975 votes.

Counting began at 8 am and by afternoon, the results were out. There was celebration in the Bansal and Chaudhry camps. Supporters of both winners could be seen distributing sweets and dancing even before the counting was completed. Bansal took a round of the town and thanked residents for his victory.

Chandigarh, October 22
Congress councillors are preparing a draft for bringing amendments to the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act to enhance the powers of the Mayor and councillors following the directions of union minister of parliamentary affairs and water resources Pawan Kumar Bansal.

Insiders in the Congress revealed that the councillors had been asked to submit their suggestions to the Mayor, which would be incorporated in the draft to be sent to the minister for inclusion in the Act.

The Acts of other states are also being studied to include the best features in the draft. The need for making these amendments was felt as several times, the top brass of the corporation refused to follow the instructions of the Mayor or councillors on the plea that they had no powers to do so.

At house meetings, councillors had raised the issue that the administration should implement the 74 Amendment Act in letter and spirit and more revenue earning departments should be allocated to the corporation. Legal experts say that for making any amendment to the Act, Congress councillors would first have to table the draft in the MC general house, which after approval would be sent to the administration for preparing a draft Bill, which would then be presented in Parliament for green light. Party sources, however, say that they are not going to table the draft in the house, but send it directly to the minister who would then use his office to get it approved in Parliament.

Sources in the Congress revealed that four years ago also a draft of recommendations was sent to the Chandigarh administration, which had forwarded it to Parliament for approval. The draft included recommendations of increasing the tenure of the Mayor from one year to two-and-a-half-years by referring to the Himachal Pradesh MC Act.

It also recommended increasing the encroachment fine from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000, but till date no communique had been received from Parliament regarding the draft. Councillors alleged that since the administration and the elected representatives were not having cordial relations, the authorities were not taking much interest in the amendment to the Act seriously.

Chandigarh, October 22
Goddess Lakshmi smiled on Gurjinder Singh, a Sector 28 resident, this Diwali. While millions prayed for prosperity, sheer luck turned a small-time private sector employee into a crorepati following a Rs 1 crore jackpot through the Punjab State Diwali bumper.

Perseverance seems to have paid rich dividends in the case of 29-year-old Gurjinder who has been buying lottery tickets for the past over six years. “I have regularly been winning small prizes amounting to a few hundred rupees but never expected that one day I would become a crorepati,” Gurjinder a beaming marketing executive, who earns about Rs 5,000 a month, told The Tribune.

Son of a CTU driver, he said he had a gut feeling that lottery would change his life for better. “I could not believe my eyes when I saw that my number had won the first prize,” he said.

Sitting in his modest Sector 28 government accommodation, he said the first priority was to purchase a flat in Chandigarh. “Buying a house in Chandigarh has been a dream for the family and the prize money should fulfil that dream,” Gurjinder, who stays in a joint family with his parents and a married brother. “I would also secure the future of my wife and four-year-old son,” he added.

Rajpura, October 22
As many as 23 women received injuries and 10 of them got seriously hurt when the bus they were travelling in collided with a speeding truck.

The victims — all workers of Nahar Spinning Mills — were on their way towards the mill when the bus collided with the truck. Nearly 40 women were travelling in the bus during the accident around 7 am.

The bus driver jumped off the vehicle and saved his life. However, Surinder — a resident of Nararu village — showed courage and occupied the driver seat and immediately applied brakes.

“The bus was stopped from overturning as Surinder applied brakes and the vehicle came to a sudden halt,” said other passengers travelling in the bus.

The injured women are residents of nearby Nararu, Kauli and other adjoining villages of Rajpura. Police officials said action would be initiated against the drivers of both vehicles if they were found guilty.

Ten of the injured are undergoing treatment at the Civil Hospital, Rajpura, and the others have been discharged.

Chandigarh, October 22
The much-touted Rs 4.5-crore project of installing CCTV cameras at 20 major intersections in the city is yet to take off. The coverage of the traffic intersection will be based on an Internet protocol (IP) network.

Insiders say that the project may take some more weeks to start as a lot of work, including laying of cables linking the cameras with the control room at the Sector 29 Traffic Police Lines, is yet to begin.

Sources said basic work, which should have been started first, was being undertaken now. Technicians of the company had installed cameras on intersections, but the control room, which would cost around Rs 25 lakh, is yet to take shape. It is proposed that in all, five screens would be installed at the initial stage in the control room.

A traffic police official said they were planning to get some staff from the police control room to start the project when it was completed. It would be a cumbersome task to monitor the video footage of over 100 cameras installed at the 20 intersections. The staff would be imparted training to use the computers, he said.

However, it has been noticed that though not functional, the cameras have started playing a “role” in curbing violations. Unaware that the cameras are not working, motorists are seen following rules, apprehending they would be captured on camera for violating rules, a police official said.

Chandigarh, October 22
A day after the traffic police took steps to ensure smooth flow of traffic in Sector 17, the police today booked 67 motorists for wrong parking.

DSP (Traffic) Vijay Kumar supervised the enforcement drive in and around Sector 17 after the police and the District Bar Association and the Sector Market Association had decided to earmark special places for parking of vehicles in the area.

The traffic police today issued 44 challan to vehicles from neighbouring states, while pasted stickers for wrong parking on local vehicles.

Besides, the police had also towed away four vehicles.

Though police personnel were seen biased taking action against violators, certain areas infamous for wrong parking remained away from their prying eyes.

The police had in the past failed miserably to clear the lanes in front of Mehfil and other restaurants in Sector 17, where traffic jams have been a routine affair for years.

Though the Municipal Corporation has allowed parking for two-wheelers there, attendants are seen charging money from cars and other four-wheeler owners for using the space.

The DSP said they would continue to lift the vehicles and book the violators until the roads are cleared of wrongly parked vehicles.

Chandigarh, October 22
Finance Secretary Sanjay Kumar today visited various sector markets to assess the feasibility of allowing the box-type structures for SCOs/SCFs in the Phase I sectors (Sectors 1 to 30) in the city.

According to a press note, the Chandigarh Beopar Mandal(CBM) has been demanding box-type construction of SCOs/SCFs for a long time. In order to involve the stakeholders, the Chandigarh Administration had organised a visit to the markets of Phase 1 sectors of Chandigarh so as to analyze the parking problems before allowing box-type structures.

Besides the Finance Secretary, the assistant estate officer, additional commissioner, MCC, the chief engineer and the chief architect, accompanied by Charanjiv Singh, president of the CBM, and Vinod Joshi, chairman of the Building Bylaws Co-ordination Sub-Committee of the CBM were also present. They visited Sector 9, 8, 7, 19 and 21 markets.

Chandigarh, October 22
After dilly-dallying the submission of its report on the cash-for-job scam for almost two months now, the city police is finally going to table the report tomorrow.

According to sources, though a major part of it is already finalised after the evaluation of DPI (S) Samwartak Singh’s responses to the written questionnaire, the department wanted to play it safe and therefore, went in for CFSL investigations.

The scam unearthed this September has so far proved to be a major source of embarrassment for the administration with the role of DPI (S) Samwartak Singh coming under scanner for allegedly being in touch with the prime accused Jolly.

Jolly, along with Hardev Singh, was arrested for negotiating a deal with a woman to get her job in the education department. The matter took a crucial turn with the police tracing a large number of calls to Jolly’s phone from the official telephone of Samwartak, who claimed to be "in touch" with him for the tourism department’s work.

Following this, while the administration eventually took away all decision-making powers from him and even withdrew him from all official meetings and committee, the police served him with a questionnaire.

While both police officials and the UT admnistration have refused to divulge anything before tomorrow, a local court today sent Hardev and Jolly to 14-day judicial custody.

Chandigarh, October 22
Swine flu deaths might have shocked the country, but for Chandigarh there is some good news. Two swine flu patients have been recovered fully from severe swine flu pneumonia with respiratory failure at the PGI.

A 24-year-old youth of Panchkula and 47-year-old woman from Patiala were admitted to the PGI after being tested positive for swine flu. "Both patients had remained on mechanical ventilation for severe infection with respiratory failure for over two weeks,” Dr SK Jindal, head of pulmonary department of the PGI, said.

He said there were very less chances of recovery when they rushed to the PGI. But with the grace of god and care, they had recovered fully and were perfectly fine. “The patients recovery proves that there is no need to worry. Swine flu is totally curable," Dr SK Jindal said.

"People should take precautions and immediately contact doctor if they develop any flu-like symptoms,” said doctors at the PGI. Both patients would be discharged from the hospital in a day or two, said Dr Jindal.

The doctors at the PGI said it was possibly the first report from this region of a successful outcome from H1N1-induced respiratory failure on mechanical respiratory support.

The swab test reports of the two patients, who were displaying suspected swine flu symptoms yesterday, have come negative today. Meanwhile, the UT health department quarantined five family members of Sector 35-D resident as they came in contact with a positive H1N1 patient in Delhi.

Chandigarh, October 22
To counter the spread of swine flu during the winter, the UT health department has constituted an advisory committee to examine the gravity of the situation and formulate policies accordingly.

UT nodal officer for swine flu HC Gera said the committee would study the pattern and mutation of virus as swine flu could mutate with severe winter flu strain. “The committee will make recommendations for future planning and preparedness accordingly,” he added.

He said there were eight members in the committee, led by home-cum-health secretary Ram Niwas. Other members included the Director, Health Service (DHS), medical superintendents of government hospitals, heads of community medicine and virology departments of the PGI, medical director of INSCOL and nodal officer for swine flu.

Even, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that all African and Asian countries should be prepared for more widespread and devastating flu epidemics in the coming months as the swine flu virus can combine with local and seasonal strains during the winter months and can mutate in “unpredictable ways”.

So far, 336 suspected patients have been tested for the H1N1 virus and of them, 50 tested positive. Of all positive patients, 28 were from Chandigarh and 11 each from Haryana and Punjab. Incidentally, of 28 Chandigarh cases, 13 were doctors.

Panchkula, October 22
The exit of former Deputy CM Chander Mohan from the political scene proved a boon for Pradeep Chaudhary, INLD candidate, who won from Kalka.

Chander Mohan had defeated Chaudhary thrice since 1993 when he joined active politics. Chaudhary contested from Kalka in 1993, 1996 and 2005. In the 2000 elections, he had to sit back when the party (in pact with the BJP) agreed to field Sham Lal Bansal as the joint candidate.

He lost the last election with a margin of 61,476 votes, but was able to clinch the seat this time with 41,625 votes, improving his score of 37,289 votes last time after the urban area of Panchkula was converted into a new constituency during delimitation.

Several factors, however, went in his favour. The Congress was a divided house in the constituency with three of its rebels, Bhagat Singh, Vijay Bansal and Varinder Bhau, in the fray. The large number of Gujjar voters and poor development by the Congress during the past five years provided a cushion to Chaudhary to tread towards victory.

Bhagat Singh and Bhau got 19,533 votes and almost threw Congress candidate Rana out of the race. Chaudhary, who belongs to the Gujjar community, managed to cement his claim as the community holds a major chunk of the total 1,22,433 votes in the constituency. He got more votes than Ratan Lal Kataria, the BJP-INLD candidate, during the parliamentary elections in May from the Kalka segment. Kataria had polled 33,361 votes.

The voters of Kalka once again shunned the Congress. Political equations apart, the constituency, consisting of semi-urban and rural area, is deprived of any major project. While many villages in the area are yet to get drinking water supply, the condition of roads and the health facilities are a distant dream for residents of far-flung areas of Morni and Doon Ratan.

In May, Congress MP Selja (26,057 votes) was trailing by more than 7,000 votes from her nearest rival Kataria from here.

Chandigarh, October 22
The local chapter of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) celebrated “Disappearance Day” of its founder spiritual master Srimad AC Bhakti Vedant Swami Prabhupada at Hare Krishna Dham, Sector 36, today.

A large number of devotees paid floral tributes to Prabhupada. The programme was started with Mangla aarti followed by kirtan, discourse, abhisheka, puspanjali and glorification of Prabhupada. As many as 108 bhogs (delicious items) were offered to Prabhupada and distributed as Krishna prasadam among those present on the occasion.

The day was celebrated in all centres of ISKCON across the world in order to pay the floral tributes to Prabhupada, who was a Sanskrit scholar and brand ambassador of Indian ancient culture. He guided society and saw it grow to a world-wide confederation of more than 100 ashrams, schools and temples. He passed away in 1977.

Panchkula, October 22
The abductors of Jiya, a two-year-old girl, who was released a day after being kidnapped, are believed to be located somewhere near Mohali. Investigations by the police have revealed that the ransom call to the girl’s family was made from a marriage party in Mohali.

The mobile, which was used to make the call, was owned by an employee of Chandigarh-based Harish band in Sector 23. During questioning by the police, he disclosed that his phone was borrowed by someone to make an emergency call.

The kidnappers had called the girl’s grandfather near the Verka Milk Plant. It is believed that a ransom of Rs 25 lakh had been paid to the kidnappers, who managed to give a slip to the police after a brief scuffle.

The child was brought home by her grandfather around 1 pm. Her face had several mosquito bites, indicating that she was kept at a place with no electricity or fan.

Chandigarh, October 22
Revelling in the glory of God, Kashmiri Sufi saint-poet Lal Ded was an enigma for blissfully ignorant people during the 14th century.

One has to transcend the intellectual concept to grasp and imbibe her mystic utterances. But Bollywood thespian Meeta Vashisht seems to have experienced the spiritual bliss of saint Lal Ded, which accounted for her wonderful attempt to portray the life of a Sufi saint and her philosophical ideals through her trilingual solo-act play at the Tagore Theatre here today.

Staged under the aegis of Mandla Mumbai, the play “Lal Ded” presented partly in Hindi and English besides the collage of poems in Kashmiri, was evolved by Meeta, Rajesh Jha and Vishnu Mathur.

Supported with compatible chiaroscuro effects, Meeta enacted the sequence of events ranging from Lal Ded’s childhood behaviour, her premonitions and predictions about life or death, her marriage, renunciation and choosing to wander about naked. She denounced the orthodox dogmas, caste and creed and exhorted people to have faith in God, mutual harmony and brotherhood. A serene background Kashmiri music and elaboration to relate the lesser known Lal Ded could enhance the performance. However, while the complex theme eluded a few, audience gave a standing ovation to artists.

A play “Hawalaath” by Backstage Allahabad will be presented tomorrow.