NEIGHBOURHOOD

Black Elephant lads claim title
Tribune News Service

Kharar, January 28
16-year-old Tunnu, a resident of Sector 70, Mohali, has been missing since January 10.In his complaint to the police, Tunnu’s relative Bhupinder Tewari said Tunnu had come to him a few days ago looking for some job.

Bhupinder had got Tunnu the work of a temporary waiter in marriage parties. On January 10, Tunnu had gone to serve in a wedding at a marriage palace on the Landran road and did not return home.

Rajpura, January 28
A large number of residents today blocked the Rajpura-Chandigarh road to protest against a local gas agency for not supplying gas cylinders on time.Consumers alleged that they had been waiting for the gas supply since morning. They raised slogans against the agency’s owner and blocked the road for one hour. The police, local political leaders and others reached the spot and tried to pacify the agitators.

They asked the agency officials to supply cylinders at the earliest.

Sukhwant Singh, a resident of a nearby village, said he, along with more than a dozen others, had to wait for hours outside the agency. Their repeated pleas were turned down and they had to return empty handed after a long wait. Demanding immediate solution to the problem, consumers said they would bring the problem to the notice of senior officials. 

Hargana (Fatehgarh Sahib), January 28
After decade-long protests and demonstrations, 52 villages of Fatehgarh Sahib will finally get uninterrupted electricity after a 66-KV grid starts functioning in a few days.

Nearly 50,000 residents of the Fatehgarh Sahib district had been protesting against erratic power supply for the past many years and had been casting votes to those political parties who assured them of regular power supply.

“We had supported the Akalis, the Congress and even decided not to vote till the grid was made operational,” said Kuldeep Singh, a village.

The existing grid at Bhari village is catering to the affected villages since 1970. “The population, villages and electricity consumption increased manifolds during these years, but the supply remained the same,” said another villager Kulwant Singh.

Irate over the erratic power supply, some of the villagers even resorted to stone pelting and entered into heated arguments with the electricity officials a number of times.

Besides farms, children and elderly are the worst affected, especially during the paddy season. Children fail to study in dim light and electric appliances get damaged or fail to function at all, they said.

PSEB officials said the 66-KV grid was in final stages and it might start functioning by the first week of February. Officials said the electricity consumption had increased five times during the past years and the power cables were spread over 35 km in the villages. 

Bassi Pathana, January 28
“If the Union government did not take immediate decision on PAU 201 variety of paddy, rice mills across the state will be forced to stop the custom milling of 40 lakh metric tonne (mt) of paddy lying in their mills, which will cause heavy loss to the state exchequer as well as to the millers,” said Tarsem Singh Saini, national president of the Rice Millers’ Association.

He said the state government had purchased paddy by taking loan worth crores from the Reserve Bank of India. Millers were suffering, as rice prepared from this variety of paddy did not meet the specification of FCI, he added.

Resenting the callous attitude of the Union government, he said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal took up the matter with Union Food Supply Minister Shard Pawar and sent teams to take samples of paddy and rice from various rice mills across the state, but so far no reply had been given neither to the state government and nor to the millers.

He said millers had issued 15-day notice to the state government to lift the paddy stored in their mills, as the FCI was not accepting it.

Meanwhile, Nakesh Jindal, press secretary of the Punjab Rice Millers’ Association said there was space problem in godowns. He said against the desired 65 lakh mt of rice needed to be stored in the state godowns by March 31, the availability of storage capacity was 25 lakh mt. He urged the CM and Food and Supply Minister to take up the matter with the Union government.

Patiala, January 28
The municipal corporation has sanctioned Rs 30 lakh for improving the city’s sewerage and drinking water supply system, which would be a major relief for residents of certain densely populated older localities as also the posh New Lal Bagh Colony.

Sources close to the civic body said today the MC had also approved recarpeting of streets that were in a bad shape. These included the road in the Ghas Mandi area (for which Rs 3 lakh has been sanctioned), road from Pili Sarak to Samania Gate (Rs 4 lakh), New Lal Bagh Colony in ward no 38 (Rs 18 lakh), Jacob drain road in ward no 34 (Rs 5 lakh) and the Jacob drain in ward no 29 (Rs 6 lakh).

The decision to sanction funds for repairing roads was taken at a meeting of the MC’s finance & contract committee chaired by mayor Ajitpal Singh Kohli. Though of the five committee members were absent Kohli and senior deputy mayor Anil Bajaj took the important decisions in view of the urgency of the situation.

The sources disclosed that tenders for chlorination of potable water in the city were also finalized at the meeting. The contract would ensure residents received properly chlorinated water.

The meeting also decided not to cancel the contract for the parking lot at the AC market. Councillors had maintained since the contractor had already deposited the full amount with the civic body it would not be proper to terminate the contract midway.

The finance & contract committee also decided that contracts for the city’s tubewells would be given to those who would be responsible for their upkeep as also for deploying staff there. It was felt this would save the corporation a lot of money, the sources added.

It was also decided to auction certain MC properties that were not being used, which is expected to net about Rs 3 to Rs 4 crore for the corporation, which is in dire financial straits.

Patiala, January 28
On the second day of the 26th International Punjabi Development Conference, a galaxy of eminent scholars, linguists and critics presented papers on a variety of issues pertaining to Punjabi culture and society.

The conference that began yesterday expressed deep concern about the preservation and promotion of Punjabi language.

Baljit Singh Lalli, CEO of Prasar Bharati, expressed concern over the ominous trend that had developed among youngsters of educated and elite Punjabi families who were gradually shunning learning and use of Punjabi language in their day-to-day life and preferred to converse in Hindi and English.

This would not only adversely affect the development of Punjabi language and culture but would also hamper the progress of the region, he added.

In today’s session, two academic sessions and a panel discussion were held. The first session was chaired by Dr Surjeet Lee, former professor of linguistics, Punjabi University, Patiala.

Prof Paramjeet Singh Ramana read a paper on cultural identity and its representations in literature.

Dr Jagbir Singh, former professor, Delhi University, Delhi, chaired the second academic session.

The panelists included Dr SP Singh, Dr Surjit Singh Dhillon, Dr Surjeet Lee, Dr Kapil Kapoor, Dr Manjit Singh, Dr Sutinder Singh Noor, Dr Deepak Manmohan Singh and Baljit Balli.

Patiala, January 28
The old students meet of the YPS, Patiala, will be held on February 2 on the YPS premises.Besides a cricket match, the YPS will host a dinner for the old students. This was stated by the Atchisonian Yadavandrian Old Students’ Association (AYOSA) treasurer Gurvir Singh Jaijee.

Kharar, January 28
Forty students were selected during a joint campus placement drive held at Doaba Group of Colleges here.A large number of MCA and BTech students from different colleges of north India participated in the placement drive. Sap Labs, a reputed multinational company, held this drive.

The process started with pre-placement talk by HR manager recruitments, followed by a written test, GD and interviews. The company selected the students for the post of trainee software engineer and the selected ones will join the company by the first week of February 2010.

They will undergo a six-month training during which they will be paid stipend. After the training, they will be given an annual package up to Rs 4 lakh, which will be increased further according to the company rules and regulations.

Banur, January 28
Aryans Group of Colleges is celebrating this week as the placement week as six companies are holding placement drive in the college campus.

Aryans Group of Colleges chairman Anshu Kataria said six companies would offer a package between Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh for MBA students of Aryans Business School and Aryans School of Management.

Bassi Pathana, January 28
The management and staff of Lala Lajpat Rai Senior Secondary School today celebrated the birth anniversary of Lala Lajpat Rai with great enthusiasm.A large number of students and representatives of political and social organisations attended the function.

Ashok Dhiman, manager of the school, paid tributes to the great martyr.

Nakesh Jindal, president of the managing committee, said they had named the educational institution after the great martyr’s name.

He said by providing quality education, the managing committee had paid rich tributes to him.

Gurnam Singh, principal of the school, read out the annual report and enlisted the achievements of the school.

Lalta Rani Banga, Sham Sunder Shashtri and Anil Kaushik also spoke on the occasion.

Ropar, January 28
Ragging is a social evil, which affected the student community the most. Additional Civil Judge Gopal Arora said this while speaking at a seminar on anti ragging and educational rights held at IET Bhaddal campus.

He said the Supreme Court had charted out directions strictly banning ragging in all educational institutions.

“It is mandatory for the educational institutes to implement recommendations of the Supreme Court in this context. It is also necessary for the educational institutions to maintain a healthy atmosphere, which does not conceive menace like ragging,” he added.

Ambala, January 28
Three persons were killed and two were injured when the car they were travelling in rammed into a tanker on the Ambala-Jagadhri highway today morning.Deepak, alias Tony, Madan and Prakash, alias Kala from Manglai village, Fateh Singh from Kesopur village and Ramesh from Bihar were travelling in the car when the accident occurred near the Dukheri level crossing. 

Chandigarh, January 28
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that in cases of special enactments, like the Army Act, the sentence awarded to the guilty cannot be set aside on the ground that the order does not disclose any reasons.

Refusing to set aside the conviction of a Border Security Force (BSF) official held guilty of accepting a bribe of Rs 78, 000 from three candidates for their enrolment as constables, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted it “emerges that in cases of special enactments, like the Army Act, all principles of natural justice cannot be imported. Accordingly, the order of findings returned by the SSFC and the sentence awarded to the petitioner cannot be set aside on the ground that the order does not disclose any reasons.”

Thawar Singh, working as a head constable in the BSF was tried by a summary security force court; and was sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment in civil jail, besides being dismissed from the service. He was earlier placed under arrest on April 15, 1997.

Taking up the petition, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “The challenge to the SSFC proceedings has been made on grounds which are short and blissfully vague…. The submission is that the petitioner has been sentenced through an order, which is a non-speaking one and carries no reason in support. It is further pleaded that the impugned order is passed in violation of the rules of natural justice and in violation of the provisions of the Constitution.

“Except for baldly stating so, no averment is made how and which principle of natural justice was violated while passing the impugned order. It is also not elaborated in any manner as to how the order would suffer on the ground that it is a non-speaking order and whether there is any such requirement of passing a speaking order under the provisions of the BSF Act.”

Dismissing the petition, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “It cannot be said that any of the provisions of the BSF Act or principle of natural justice were violated to call for any interference in the security force court proceedings or the findings and sentence awarded by it. There is, thus, no merit in the petition. The same is accordingly dismissed.”

Chandigarh, January 28
Chandigarh still has not framed guidelines for auctions of properties - at least this is what a bidder is alleging.In a petition filed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Nirankar Singh of Mohali has asserted that till date there “are no proper guidelines for conducting auctions”. As such, “guidelines are required to be framed so that the public at large is not harassed.

Nirankar Singh said there should be a committee to decide whether any plot was to be withheld from auction by assigning reasons. The power to withhold should not vest with one person as it might lead to arbitrariness, the petitioner said.

Taking up the petition, Justice AK Mittal today issued notice of motion to the UT administration through the Advisor, the Finance Secretary, the Deputy Commissioner-cum-Estate Officer and Assistant Estate Officer Hargunjit Kaur.

The petition, bringing under the judicial scanner Hargunjit Kaur’s functioning, has also sought the quashing of her action, refusing the highest bid without recording any reason and abruptly withdrawing 14 marla residential site number 719, Sector 40-A, Chandigarh, from auction held on December 16, 2009.

Chandigarh, January 28
The track record of the UT Police in making recoveries in theft cases may be dismal, but when it comes to high-profile victims, it shows extra promptness.

The police has recovered the stolen bag belonging to a former mayor’s son in less than two days.

Talking to TNS, the SHO of the Sector 17 police station said the bag was recovered after Rahul, one of the accused, identified the spot and led the police there. He was under the influence of intoxicants and took time to recall what he did and where he threw the bag, said the SHO.

He said Rahul had forgotten the place, a trench near a garbage bin in the same area. He was giving several names of persons as his accomplices, but failed to establish any link while narrating the sequence of events. “It was only when he came back to his senses that he narrated the sequence of events, which led to the recovery of the bag. The articles were found to be intact,” said the SHO.

Former mayor Subash Chawla’s son Sumit had reported to the police that he nabbed a man after a bag was stolen from his residence on Januray 26. The bag reportedly contained Rs 10,000, a digital camera and gold and diamond jewellery.

The police arrested the accused Rahul of Sector 19, Panchkula, and produced him before a court yesterday, which remanded him to two-day police custody. 

Panchkula, January 28
The District and Sessions Court awarded life imprisonment to Neeraj Bhatnagar, a resident of Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh), for dacoity last year at a milk booth here today.

Two other accused in the case -- Asha, a resident of Mauli Complex, Chandigarh, and Ranjeet Kumar, from Bihar -- were acquitted as the victim who was injured in the incident failed to identify them.

The incident related to March 28, when these youths reached the shop of Vinod Jain, a distributor of Vita milk products based in the Sector 18 market, around 1 pm. While two of them entered the shop, their third accomplice shut the door of the shop.

Jain was counting his money received from his dealers at that time. While one of the accused pushed his chair back and tried to snatch the money, the other one hit Jain with the butt of the revolver, injuring him seriously.

Other shopkeepers reached the scene after hearing the screams of Jain. Finding themselves cornered, two of the accused managed to escape.

As per the owner, a sum of Rs 50,000 was confiscated from the booth. 

Mohali, January 28
The Sohana police claimed to have solved a late night kidnapping case within two hours. Sohana SHO Mohinder Singh said Manvinder Kaur, a resident of Kambali village, called up at the police control room around 2.30 am. She alleged that four persons had kidnapped Sunny Dogra, her husband Naveen’s nephew.

She informed the police that one of the suspects resided in Sector 56, Chandigarh. Details of the car in which the boy was kidnapped were also given to the police. The police launched a manhunt and the vehicle was intercepted near Jagatpura village. The accused have been identified as Manohar Kumar, Taran and Jagpal. The search to nab the other suspects is on.

Chandigarh, January 28
A local court today convicted two UT Police personnel on charges of corruption.

The CBI special court of Darshan Singh today convicted SI Sukhdeep Singh and Head Constable Iqbal Singh on charges of accepting bribe way back in 2007.

The quantum of sentence will be pronounced tomorrow.The CBI had registered a case against the two Chandigarh Police personnel on the charges of accepting a bribe of Rs 12,000 from a Sector 34-based travel agency on May 18, 2007.

The CBI team had arrested Iqbal Singh while Sukhdeep Singh has absconded. Both were posted at the Sector 34 police station. He was later arrested.

A case was registered under Section 120 B of the IPC along with other sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The officials were conducting an inquiry into the validity of the travel agency belonging to Rajiv Puri. To give report in favour of the agency, the officials demanded Rs 12,000 from Puri. The CBI team laid a trap on the complaint of Puri to catch the officials.

On May 18, 2007, Iqbal Singh along with Bhupinder Singh, a home guard, went to collect money in the car of Sukhdeep. After collecting the money, they went to Sector 48 to get the car seat covers replaced. CBI sleuths, who were trailing them from Sector 34, caught the two and brought them to the Sector 34 police station. As the SI was not there at the time of incident, the CBI team sent a party to conduct a search at Sukhdeep’s home. At the police station, Bhupinder Singh said he had got a call from the SI, who directed him to replace the seat covers of his car, parked at the police station at that time.

According to the special public prosecutor, Pawan Dogra, “ The accused had initially demanded Rs 15,000. The deal was finally struck at Rs 12,000.The accused had demanded the money for verification of the firm and the accused had warned that he would file an adverse report if the money was not given”.

The inquiry against the travel agency was actually given to SI Sarabjit Kaur. However, she could not receive the file.

Chandigarh, January 28
The Chandigarh Police yesterday arrested three persons, including a juvenile, in connection with the murder of Pardeep Kumar, who was stabbed to death in Mauli Jagran, last week. A minor was earlier arrested in the case.

DSP (East) Jasbir Singh Cheema said the accused had snatched a wallet containing Rs 100 from the victim, Pardeep Kumar, on January 17. They entered into a brawl when Pardeep had gone to take back his money, which took a violent turn. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died a few hours later.

Chandigarh, January 28
In yet another display of the increasing indiscipline and violence in schools, a class XII student of GSSS, Sector 45, was badly injured when one of the boys hit him with a rod during the class.

Harsh Kumar, who was reportedly having oranges in his electrical appliances class, entered into a scuffle with Gurmail Singh when he hit him with a peel twice and before the teacher could reach them and intervene Gurmail hit Harsh with a rod lying in the class.

“The teacher was writing on the blackboard and I was having an orange. I tried to throw the peels in the dustbin lying next to Gurmail but it accidentally hit him. Enraged by this, he got up and took the iron rod of a broken bench lying there and hit me in my stomach and head,” said Harsh.

Seeing Harsh bleeding profusely, the school authorities immediately rushed him to the nearby dispensary from where he was referred to the GMCH Sector 32.

Panchkula, January 28
Excellent batting performance by Jagpreet Singh in the last over of the match helped St Stephen’s School, Sector 45, beat Dhruv Cricket Academy, Patiala, by two wickets in the Satluj T-20 Champions Trophy being held at Satluj Public School, Sector 4, here today.

In the last over, St Stephen’s needed 15 runs to win the match and had only two wickets in hand. However, Jagpreet’s quick fire 18 runs of just four balls, which included three fours and a six, helped his side to win the match.

Earlier batting first, Dhruv Cricket Academy, Patiala, put up a total of 119 runs and lost all wickets with five balls to spare in their stipulated 20 overs. Laxmi 29, Prabhjot Singh 17 and Paramveer 14 were the main architects of the Dhruv innings.

For St Stephen’s School, Talwinder Singh was the pick of the bowlers, as he scalped three wickets giving away only 16 runs.

In reply, St Stephen’s achieved the target by scoring 122 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 19.4 overs. Udit Hari Mehta 37, Jagpreet Singh 18 (not out) and Karan Aggarwal 17 were the main scorers. For Dhruv Cricket Academy, Inderveer and Laxmi were the pick of the bowlers, as they toiled hard in vain to restrict St Stephen’s batsmen from achieving the target.

Inderveer took three wickets giving away 29 runs, while Laxmi took two wickets giving away 14 runs.

Brief scores:

Dhruv Cricket Academy: 119 all out in 19.1 overs (Laxmi 29, Prabhjot Singh 17, Paramveer 14, Rishu Chopra 3/24, Talwinder Singh 3/16).

St Stephen’s School-45: 122 for 8 in 19.4 overs (Udit Hari Mehta 37, Jagpreet Singh 18 not out, Karan Aggarwal 17, Inderveer 3/29, Laxmi 2/14).

Chandigarh, January 28
Following probables have been selected by the Chandigarh Roller Skating Association for the 47th National Speed Roller Skating Championships (sub-junior, junior and senior) to be held in Nagpur from February 3 to 6.

Players selected for the boys team: Vikram, Balkirat, Mohit, Akash Rana, Anubhav, Ketan, Lakshit, Assem, Jaskaran, Harsh, Anmol, Karanveer, Rahul Mittal, Simrat Lamba, Ankit Kumar, Harmanbir, Parag Jain and Bhavdeep.

Girls team: Runjun, Vanshika, Priyanshi, Hasmeet, Tammana, Jyoti Rana, Hasrat Sandhu and Ustat Sandhu.

Chandigarh, January 28
Karandeep Kochar and Aadil Bedi of the CGA Golf Range clinched the under-11 (D category) team title in the All-India Junior Inter-Club Golf Championship, which concluded on the Noida Golf Course in Delhi on Saturday.

The local little champs carded a joint score of 343 to clinch the inaugural Toyota Trophy 2010, defeating their nearest rivals Noida Golf Course by a big margin of 124 strokes.

Ten-year-old Karandeep of St John’s School also clinched the individual all-India title in the under-11 category, recording a score of 168.

His winning team partner, eight-year-old Aadil Bedi of Vivek High School, finished second in the D category with a tally of 175. The eight-year-old also carded the best 14 over par card on the second day.

Thus, it was a clean sweep by the Chandigarh boys in the D category.

Last year, Karan topped the IGU merit list whereas Aadil finished sixth in national ranking.

Twenty-four clubs from all over India took part in the IGU-sanctioned inter-club tournament for juniors. The field consisted of 40 teams of two members each.

The tournament was played on gross stroke play and the format was two rounds of golf with the total score over 36 holes determining the winner.

A delighted CSR Reddy, president of the Chandigarh Golf Association, was all praise for the little champs for bringing home the national trophy.

He said the CGA was going all-out to promote junior golf. Spelling out the 2010 junior golf tour, Reddy said three tournaments would be played in Chandigarh, starting with the inaugural event on February 11 and 12.

This would be followed by two other tournaments in July and August. More competition would come in the form of inter-school championship and the Chandigarh State Championship in April, he added.

National Golf Academy of India director and class A coach Jessie Grewal was happy at the performance of Karan and Aadil.

He said both had been regulars at the CGA Golf Range and were promising players who were prepared to put in a lot of hard work.

The final results: D category (under-11): Team winners: CGA Golf Range, Chandigarh, 343; Individual winner: Karandeep Kochar 168; C category (under 13): team winners: DLF Golf Club, Gurgaon, 326; individual winner: Piyush Sangwan 162; B category (under-15): team winners: DLF Golf Club, Gurgaon, 314; individual winner: Harman Virk 151; open category: team winners: KLF Golf Club, Bangalore, 299; individual winner: Ankur Chadha 143.

Chandigarh, January 28
Excellent performance by Shubham helped Ryan International School, Sector 49, beat Gem Public School, 3B2, Mohali, by 63 runs in the Times-Cremica Inter-school Cricket Tournament.

Electing to bat first, Ryan International School put up a modest 153 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their stipulated 20 overs. Shubham was the main architect of the Ryan’s innings, as he hit quick fire 49 runs in 31 balls, which included nine fours and one six.

Abhishek Kamal was the other scorer, who hit 25 runs, which included one four.

In reply, Gem Public School batsmen failed to face the tight bowling of Ryan bowlers and were bundled out for 90 runs in 16 overs. Shubham was declared the man of the match.

In the second match of the day, Government Model Sanskrit Senior Secondary School, Sector 20, Panchkula, beat Shri Sukhmani International School, Dera Bassi, by 43 runs.

In reply, Shri Sukhmani International School failed to face the tight and accurate bowling of Government School bowlers and scored only 96 runs for the loss of eight wickets in their stipulated 20 overs. Ashish was the only batsman who faced the tight bowling with some courage and scored 30 runs of 31 balls, which included four four.

Tomorrow’s fixture:

The Gurukul School, Sector 20, Panchkula, v/s Stepping Stones Senior Secondary School, Sector 37, Chandigarh, at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 26, Chandigarh, at 11 am.

Chandigarh, January 28
Vidya Watti Sachdeva (68), former BSNL employee, brought laurels to the city by winning two gold medals and three silver medals in the recently concluded Veteran Athletics Championship India 2010 in Pune.

After her retirement, Vidya started taking parts in various sports events in order to remain fit and healthy.

Another player, who hogged the limelight in the event, is Amarjit Kaur (40). She is presently working with the UT police.

She has won two silver medals and a bronze medal.

She has given the credit of her success to her husband, who inspired her to take part in the championship.

“My husband asked me to step out of the four walls and encouraged me to achieve something. I had to strike a balance between so many things but it has finally paid off, as I have done my city proud,” she said.

Raghbir Singh Bhullar, an employee of the Punjab Mandi Board, also bagged a silver medal in the 55 plus category. The tournament had entries from Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Iran.

Chandigarh, January 28
The 17th annual athletics meet was organised at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, here today.

Director-principal Prof Raj Bahadur inaugurated the event, which began with a table tennis match between him and hospital medical superintendent.

He said the students and faculty would participate in various indoor games like carom, badminton and chess accompanied by inter-class events of football, basketball, volleyball and cricket. This event would be followed by the annual athletics meet to be held in March, he added.