Chandigarh, December 11
The police today arrested Davinder Singh, alias Whiskey, the prime accused in the murder of Sector 20 financier, Harjinder Singh Dhillon, on November 25.Confirming the development, DSP (CID) Satbir Singh said Whiskey was nabbed from Khanna. He refused to divulge the details about his arrest. 

The police has already arrested six accomplices of Whiskey and had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 on him.

Dhillon had a Ford Fiesta which was reportedly in the name of Whiskey and he wanted it back. Whiskey has been allegedly involved in several heinous crimes for the past 17 years. He had links with terrorists in the past and had also been booked for possessing explosives. So far, the police has learnt that eight cases had been registered against him in Punjab alone.

The DSP said Whiskey, who was reported to be living under various identities, had been dodging the police. “It cannot be said for sure how many crimes he has committed. His sustained interrogation would lead to unearthing of several incidents of crime,” he stated.

The police has already recorded the statement of the lone eyewitness in the case, Simmi Sharma, following which a case of murder had been registered before a magistrate. The Chandigarh police had registered a case of cheating and forgery against Whiskey on April 20 this year and he had been declared a history-sheeter by the Malerkotla police station.

The police had arrested the other accomplices — Ravinder of Khanna, Manish and Manpreet Singh of Fatehgarh Sahib, and Surinder Singh, Amrik Singh and Kuldeep Singh of Ludhiana — from the city.

Chandigarh, December 11
In a significant development, after clearing various hurdles in developing new housing in Sector 63, the Chandigarh Housing Board has finalised details of new projects in Sectors 52, 53 and 54. A total of 90 acres have been identified for different housing schemes, mostly apartments, in these three sectors.

Talking to The Tribune, CHB chairman Mohanjeet Singh said the housing projects would be distinctly segregated for different income groups and will consist largely of two and three bedroom flats. At least two-third of the houses will be designed specially for middle class residents and those belonging to economically weaker sections (EWS), he added.

Mohanjeet said the department has initiated the process for getting environment clearance before announcing the new scheme.

The CHB went through “long drawn out procedural wrangling” in obtaining formal approval for the Sector 63 housing scheme. The board faced objections on certain environment related issues, besides objections on housing area boundaries and reservations by a ‘dera’.

The board will first complete all the procedural formalities for Sector 52 before initiating development in next sectors.

Of the total 45,000 apartments in the city, 150,000 belong to economically weaker sections and 10,000 are occupied by the middle class families. Though no decision has been taken on the pricing of the flats, iit is expected the applicants will be able to avail of the assured allocation, as done earlier. It has been argued that EWS and middle.

In another important decision, the Chandigarh Housing Board has decided to stagger the payment schedule of an allottee till the time he finally gets possession of the flat. Currently, an allottee makes payments according to a schedule handed over at the time of allotment, without taking into account the actual work being carried out on ground.

Mohanjeet said as a large number of applicants had gone in for bank loans, it was prudent to allow them the payment schedule according to the completion of their building plans. The new schedule has already been implemented in case of the housing scheme in Sector 26. The board has only collected the earnest money and the payment schedule will correspond with the pace of construction and the final allotment.

Sources said extra care would be taken in case of preparing the housing map in the new areas. This follows certain controversies in the flats on Sector 63.

The UT urban planning department had objected to certain serious technical flaws in the scheme and asked the Chandigarh Housing Board to submit a fresh layout plan. These included more coverage of the floor area ratio (FAR) to construct more than the required flats, leaving less space between different blocks and absence of the greenbelt. Besides, several openings on the ‘V-3’ road were another irritant, as only one opening was allowed under the rules’.

Lalru, December 11
Two women were killed and three others injured in a road accident near Handesra village on the Chandigarh-Ambala highway here this afternoon.

One of the deceased has been identified as Suresh Kumari (33), a resident of Sapera village at Ambala Cantonment. The other victim is still to be identified.

The incident took place when a tractor trailer, carrying about 15 persons, was hit by a tipper loaded with sand from the rear. The police said due to the impact of the collision, six persons fell on the road.

Suresh Kumari was crushed to death under the wheels of the tipper. The police said passersby rushed her to the Civil Hospital at Dera Bassi, where doctors declared her brought dead while the injured were taken to a hospital in Ambala, where another woman succumbed to her injuries.

The body of Suresh Kumari was handed over to her family after a postmortem. She had come to Handesra village to attend a marriage.

The investigating officer stated that a case had been registered against the driver of the tipper and further investigations were on.

Chandigarh, December 11
As many as 25 artists from Europe and the US will donated their artworks to Nek Chand’s Rock Garden.

Tony Rajer, trustee of the Nek Chand Foundation and American coordinator, today said: “Art has no frontiers or boundaries. It’s a universal symbol of communal harmony like Rock Garden. The foundation is pleased to support this international gesture by so many renowned artists who love Rock Garden and is message of art, peace and ecology.”

Chandigarh, December 11
Jagdip Singh, who was one of the pioneers of reforms in examination system and hostel rules of Panjab University in late 70s and early 80s, is back here with yet another social cause.

“A social worker is always looking for new areas of social reform,” avers Jagdip Singh, alias Gudoo, to his friends and admirers.

“The Indian society in general and the Punjabi society in particular is deep in malaise over growing immoral practices in the matrimonial affairs,” he says.

Gudoo, whose rise to fame followed his election as the first popularly elected general-secretary of the Panjab University Students’ Council, is now settled in Manitoba in Canada where he has a real estate business.

“It was during my active role in student politics that certain reforms, including revaluation of answer sheets, reduced room rents in hostels and reappearance system in postgraduate courses, were introduced,” he says.

“Now I am here to fight another serious social menace. I am telling you from my personal experience how ‘valaiti bridegrooms’ are exploiting their foreign citizen status for illegal and unethical financial gains,” he says, adding that he was pained to see the plight of innocent girls in Canada who get divorced by men who get ready for yet another matrimonial venture to collect easy money in exchange for an immigrant visa.

He says he can quote numerous instances where the well-heeled families have been broken by sudden lust for money. “Men leave their wives and children in the lurch to get hefty dowry from their second and even third marriage. It is creating a social sub-system leaving behind broken families and abused children,” he points out.

“In a particular case, Surinder Pal of Calgary, who has a 12-year-old son, dumped his wife on frivolous grounds and got divorce from her in February this year. In April, he got married to another woman of Kaunke village in Ludhiana and allegedly got hefty dowry. Surinder Pal, who could not afford to visit India for many years because of financial crunch, has now been to India twice in six months,” reveals Jagdip.

“I have taken up the matter with Lok Bhalai Party chief Balwant Singh Ramoowalia. Such cases are painting our community in a bad light and immigration authorities of various countries have now started doubting even genuine marriages,” he says.

“Many Canadians, especially those in the immigration business, have evidence that our community had exploited the ‘spouse’ clause to the maximum as many in the business of quick money had been marrying their own sisters, nieces or daughters of their friends to get them immigration. Now, they have taken to the divorce business by dumping their wives,” he adds. He says he is here to create awareness and seek media’s help in warning people against the nefarious designs of such people who bring bad name to the NRI community.

He also wants Canadian PM Stephen Harper to order thorough inquiries into such cases and withhold immigration process till the probe is completed. 

Chandigarh, December 11
He had to virtually stretch his arm and fingers to touch the upper notes of sitar, but enthused with the considerable confidence, child prodigy Rishab Seen, created a spell at the Pracheen Kala Kendra here today.

The little master remained in perfect control of sur, lya and tal on sitar to bring out a melodic flow of musical notes much to the delight of music lovers. His brilliant performance stamped a testimony of Rishab as a legend in the making and emulated his illustrious grandfather guru Pandit Lachhman Singh Seen and his father Manu Kumar Seen.

His playing style was marked by both gayaki and tantrakari ang, as he established the form of raga Desh through a short alaap and jod, which melted into a Madhyalaya Gat.

He presented a Mishra Pahari composition which culminated in a super fast Jhala.

Rishabh Seen’s urge for forceful playing, however, was best displayed in the concluding dhun “Payio ji maine Ram rattan dhan”.

Avirbhav provided matching accompaniment to the little master with a bright future.

Blessed with a rare combination of musical sensibility and spirituality, Sant Satnam Singh took over the audience only to cast a magical spell with a vocal recital. His exquisite understanding of raga Tradition and gurbani was apparent in his recital.

Satnam Singh began his recital with raga Puriya Kalyan. His vilambit khayal bandish “Aaj so banna bann aayo” in ek taal followed by Drut composition “Unn bin kal na pare tadpatt biti mori ratiya” in teen taal.

His voice was characterised by an unusual richness especially in lower octave.

Satnam Singh concluded his recital with a thumri in raga Mishra Pilu “Morre sayian nahi aaye”.

He was accompanied by Padmashri Mehmood Dhaulpuri on harmonium and Avirbhav Verma on tabla. Kathak guru Shobha Koser honoured the artistes.

Chandigarh, December 11
To discuss delay in the release of revised pay scales by the Chandigarh administration, a meeting of Non-Teaching Employees’ Federation-aided Colleges, Chandigarh, was held here today.

The federation included the non-teaching employees of the aided colleges of Chandigarh and teaching and non-teaching employees of the aided schools of Chandigarh.

It was intimated to the members that despite representation to the director, higher education, finance secretary and home and education secretary, the revision of pay scales had not been released till date.

The members said the representation was supported by documents that the non-teaching employees of the aided colleges were enjoying pay parity with their counterparts in the government colleges and schools of Chandigarh. The revision of pay scales has been delayed and caused resentment amongst the employees of the aided colleges and schools.

The members decided that the federation would again submit a representation to the education secretary for getting the scale implemented at the earliest.

It was also decided that if the decision was delayed till the end of this month, an agitation would be launched.

Chandigarh, December 11
Roll numbers of all candidates appearing in the UGC-NET examination to be held on December 27 have already been dispatched, according to information provided by the Panjab University authorities.

The authorities said in case any candidate did not receive the roll number till December 23, he/she might contact the office at Arts Block I, 1st Floor, Punjabi department, with two attested photographs from 9 am to 7 pm on any day even on Saturdays/Sundays/holidays for duplicate roll number.

If there is any discrepancy, he/she can contact at 0172-2534653 and 0172-2534655 or 9417213390 in the office of the coordinator, UGC-NET.

This time the number of appearing candidates has risen by 35 per cent. Last year, a total of 9,200 candidates had appeared and this year a total of 12,600 candidates are appearing at 30 centres in the city for the examination, according to Prof Nahar Singh, coordinator (UGC-NET).

Chandigarh, December 11
The fifth book of Dr Ranjay Vardhan titled “European Union manifesto and other essays: A model to overcome recession and making a new world power” was released by Prof Sherry Sabbarwal, chairperson, department of sociology, Panjab University, at the Seminar Hall here yesterday.

Dr Jitendra Mohan, professor Emeritus of the psychology department, presided over the function. Earlier, the book was released internationally at City Hall, Stockholm, Sweden.

Dr Ranjay Vardhan, author of the book, said the book was a dream project.

“People in Europe are working like robots. Let us wake them and make them think and work like humans and they will shake the world. European Union will become a world power,” he added. The author said the NRI’s brides were not only the victims, but there were NRI’s bridegrooms, who also fell prey to NRIs.

He clarified that the term single women included spinsters, widows, divorcees, separated and deserted women. “The declaration of a year for single women will apprise society of their problems. Such a request should be forwarded to the UN to declare the year 2010 as the year for single women,” he said. 

Chandigarh, December 11
The municipal corporation will develop a martyrs’ gallery at Sector 33 park soon.

According to a proposal, the names of the martyrs from 1943 onwards would be displayed on a plaque, which would be erected in the park for public viewing.

Sources in the corporation confirmed that the corporation would construct the gallery bearing names of 43 martyrs from the city.

The sources said the corporation had consulted other states for references before undertaking the project.

The proposal for the construction of a gallery was tabled by nominated councillor Brig Kuldeep Singh Chandpuri at a general house meeting last year.

Earlier, it was proposed that the gallery would be constructed at Shanti Kunj but the proposal was rejected by the administration.

Even MC Mayor Kamlesh had proposed to place the photographs of martyrs at libraries of the community centres of the corporation but the families of martyrs objected to the idea, pleading that most of the libraries were in bad condition and as such it would amount to dishonouring the martyrs.

Also, a proposed was made to name the parks of the city after the martyrs but it was rejected by the councillors.

Mohali, December 12
With residents expressing unhappiness for a long time over the poor state of parking lots in front of markets here, the municipal council has decided to swing into action at last and has prepared estimates of over Rs 2 crore for the work.

However, as the wheels of government machinery grind slowly and various formalities will have to be completed, the residents will have to put up with the bad parking lots for at least three or four months before the improvement is implemented.

Sources in the council said estimates were to be put up for clearance at the meeting of the general house on November 30, but the meeting was postponed.

These estimates would now be presented for clearance at the meeting to be held this month, after which these would be sent to the office of the director, local government, Punjab, for administrative approval.

Tenders would be floated only after administrative approval was acquired. The civic body had decided to spend Rs 69 lakh on developing the parking area in Sector 70, Rs 30.82 lakh in Phase IIIB2, Rs 26 lakh in Phase X, Rs 5.40 lakh in Phase I and Rs 10 lakh in Phase VI. Estimates of parking areas of other sectors had also been prepared.

Parking lots in shopping areas in different parts of the town were in a state of neglect and had not been repaired for years.

Most of these areas had potholes or other damaged portions and required recarpeting. The lighting arrangements in parking areas, too, were in a state of neglect.

Civic body officials blamed the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) for handing over the areas to the council without carrying out the necessary repairs. The council could not set these right over the years due to shortage of funds.

Two municipal councillors had apprised the Mohali Deputy Commissioner of the poor condition of parking areas, urging him to direct the authorities concerned to carry out repair work before Divali, but unfortunately, no work was undertaken by either GMADA or the council.

A hotel owner in Phase X had approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court in connection with the poor state of the parking area.

He had stated that he spent crores on purchasing the site and constructing the hotel, but the parking area was in a state of neglect, which was adversely affecting business.

The council had cleared a proposal more than a year ago of handing over the parking areas to private parties for maintenance, which would be allowed to display their advertisements in lieu of the work they did for the civic body.

The proposal had not been implemented so far and the condition of parking lots had worsened with the passage of time.

Mohali, December 11
The family of 25- year-old Parvesh Wadhwa, a resident of Sector 66 who reportedly committed suicide yesterday, alleged today that he had been murdered and that he could not have committed suicide. The victim, who worked at an insurance company, was found hanging in his house after reportedly being beaten up when he visited the house of a woman at Phase X. He was said to be in an inebriated state when he allegedly ended his life.

Waiting for the autopsy at the Phase 6 Civil Hospital, Prem Nath and Naveen, father and brother of the victim, respectively, said he had been badly beaten up by the landlord of the house where the woman was living as a PG. They claimed that Parvesh was going to marry her and they had even met her family.

They also claimed that his motorcycle was missing.

In a suicide note, the victim had named the landlord, his son and daughter for forcing him to commit suicide. The police has registered a case under Section 306 of the IPC against Ramandeep Kaur, Deep and Poonam in this regard.

Chandigarh, December 11
Dr Roshan Sunkaria, Municipal Commissioner, dedicated a community centre to public at Sector 35.The centre is developed on 0.9 acre with the cost of Rs 42.63 lakh.The ground floor of community centre consists entrance foyer, office, bridal room, hall, gym, lobby, card room, meeting room, snack bar, kitchen, library and a staircase to the first floor.

Dr Sunkaria requested the residents to take care of the community centre as their own property. He said it was meant to cater to the needs of residents and to keep the centre neat and clean was their prime responsibility.

He said every sector would get a community centre soon. He appreciated the engineering wing of the corporation for developing better community centres. He also assured the residents to develop two other parks in the sector by one year.

Harjinder Kaur, lauded the works done by the corporation in the area of community services, saying that MC had changed the city by providing world-class facilities like community centres, public toilets, developing green belts and parks and by making people-friendly policies.

Chandigarh, December 11
Ahead of the visit of the University Grants Commission (UGC) committee in Panjab University, the process of calculating the actual deficit of the annual budget has already begun.

After the removal of Rs 32 crore capping by the Government of India, an official communication has now been sent to the Central government to inspect the budgetary needs of the university and look at the report being prepared by PU concerning its requirements.

For one, the removal of the capping has ensured that the Central government will fully pay 60 per cent deficit of the university’s budget, which was not the case in the past.

The activity hub these days, therefore, is Vice-Chancellor, Prof RC Sobti’s office, where chairpersons and faculty of all departments are being summoned to provide an insight to the special needs of the departments for developmental purposes.

In this comprehensive report, which is to be presented to the UGC, statistics such as the student-teacher ratio, teacher non-teacher staff proportion, specialisation tasks and even special needs of the department are being noted to prepare a comprehensive report for the presentation.

“Since the committee has been formulated and we need to present the authentic information in a planned manner, I am personally preparing the case. All departments are providing the details related to their department. Since we cannot afford to present a blur picture and ask for an exorbitant amount, we are preparing the case based on the ground reality and genuine requirements of the departments have been asked,” said Prof Sobti.

The VC is expected to visit the regional centres on Wednesday to update the information about their requirements and budgetary allocation. Important functionaries of the university are also involved in the entire process, which aims to furnish fresh information about the budgetary deficit of the university.

Since the process of release of arrears, to be paid to teachers, is in the pipeline and the salaries are to be paid according to the new pay scale from January 1, the university is making an effort to secure the promised inflow of funds.

The tentative figures to be quoted to the Central government for the budgetary deficit are likely to be prepared by Monday by the university functionaries.

Chandigarh, November 11
After a series of taxing incidents in Government College of Arts, Sector 10, reports of the resignation of college principal Manohar Lal have surfaced today.

Though college faculty is tight-lipped on the issue, sources revealed that the resignation had already been sent to the UT education secretary’s office.

While the UT administration stated that it would follow its procedure if any resignation letter had been sent, the principal, however, was not reachable for comments on the matter.

“I have not received the letter yet, but if any such thing comes up, we will accept the letter and subsequently the next procedure would follow,” said UT education secretary Ram Niwas.

Earlier Niwas had inspected the college on November 9 after receiving complaints by students on the lack of infrastructure and other administrative issues. His entire team of officials, including architects, engineers and representatives of the education department, had accompanied him during the visit.

The students of the college had objected to the lack of interest shown by the officiating principal, who was given the charge of the college seven months back.

In its version, the administration had said despite being informed about the education secretary’s inspection, the principal had proceeded on leave.

Chandigarh, December 11
Students of Panjab University can now access their result via SMS. Not just this, they can also view their competitors’ result through the new method devised by the students and faculty of the university.

In a bid to make the system transparent, PU Vice-Chancellor, Prof RC Sobti, today inaugurated the SMS-based result and attendance verification for UIET at PU here.

The results and attendance can be obtained by sending an SMS, ATT <rollno> for attendance and RES <rollno> for results to 9417589392.

The students and even parents can now check the status of their attendance and result, irrespective of their location, just by sending an SMS.

The VC congratulated UIET director, Prof Renu Vig, for motivating their faculty and students for the implementation of the system.

He also announced a cash award of Rs 10,000 each to faculty members, Naveen Aggarwal and Amandeep Singh, who coordinated the project and cash prize of Rs 5,000 each to students, Amit Papneja, Ankush Garg, Nipun Bhambri of CSE department, associated with the project.