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Industrialist gets 7-yr RI for rape
Chandigarh, February 6 The court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge, GC Garg, today held Narinder Singh, director of Frontier Cycles, guilty and sentenced him to seven-year rigorous imprisonment, besides a fine of Rs 5,000. The court observed that the charges of rape had been proved against the accused who raped a woman on the pretext of giving her a job. His counsel had pleaded that the accused was being falsely implicated due to business rivalry and the accused was a father of two children and was middle aged, hence, a lenient view should be taken. The defence also stated that the accused was suffering from cancer, but in the absence of any documentary proof, it could not be proved. The court, however, observed that: “In the context of Indian culture, a woman victim of sexual aggression would rather suffer silently than falsely implicate someone and that until a woman is a victim of sex, she would not blame anyone but the real culprit. It has been proved that on May 28, 2007, the accused committed rape on her,” the orders stated. On May 28, 2007, the police had arrested 58-year-old Narinder Singh for raping a 24-year-old resident of Ropar on the pretext of giving her a job. The woman had alleged that the accused called her to his Sector 34 (first floor) house and raped her. He also threatened her with dire consequences if she informed anyone about the incident. A case of rape and criminal intimidation under Sections 376 and 506 of
the IPC was registered against him. She said one of her friends had given her the contact number of Narinder Singh, saying that he was a “helpful man”. She had called Narinder Singh on his phone nearly two weeks before the incident, requesting him to get her a job. She met him in Ludhiana. She was told to meet him again at his Chandigarh office. She came to the city and stayed with a friend at Sector 23. On May 28, she rang up Narinder and he asked her to meet him near the Sector 23 gurdwara. Later he called her up and told her to come to his house, where he raped her. The victim said Narinder had promised to get her a job with Spice and had given her recommendation letters. He also promised to get her a government job.
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Spurt in conjunctivitis cases
Chandigarh, February 6 Usually, conjunctivitis occurs in April and May, but this year, it has surfaced early. Ophthalmologists fear that the cases may go up further as the weather changes, but they maintain that there is no cause of alarm.
What doctors say Doctors say that conjunctivitis can be caused due to allergy or bacteria/virus. The symptoms include intense itching of eye, copious tears, swelling, sneezing and runny nose. While redness of the eye is common in both types of conjunctivitis, the one caused by bacteria/virus is painful. In such cases, there’s a green or watery discharge from the eyes, which crusts overnight. Dr Amit Gupta, associate professor, department of ophthalmology at the PGI, said: “Due to dust and cold, one or two cases of conjunctivitis are reported in the hospital every day. People tend to ignore early signs of the infection and seek help only when complications develop.” Maintaining that it was difficult to predict the duration of the complications to develop, he said the only way it could be avoided was by maintaining hygiene and isolating patients during the first three days of the infection. “An infected person can infect 10 others at public places,” Prof Sudesh Kumar Arya from the GMCH, said, adding that they too were getting regular cases of conjunctivitis. He advised against self-medication or experimenting with home remedies. “Self-medication is a definite no as it can do more harm than good. Using excessive eye medicines can result in dry eyes and irritation. Wash infected eyes with warm water.”
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Ring road to ease UT-Kharar stretch
Mohali, February 6 The proposed road would take off from near Sector 39 and join the highway ahead of Kharar near Radiala village. The 8-km proposed road would provide an alternative connectivity to Ropar, Ludhiana and other parts of Punjab. It would also save time for the Himachal-bound traffic. During Capt Amarinder Singh’s government, the proposal had been approved during a meeting of the Punjab Regional Town Planning and Development Board, btu was shelved. Now, with the approval of the master plans of Mohali and Kharar, the need to have an alternative bypass has risen. “Though the Kharar section of the national highway is being widened, urbanisation of the area would require better connectivity,” said an official of GMADA, which has also proposed a low-density green city along
the bypass. Since a section of the new road has to pass through the Chandigarh boundary, the issue would also be taken up with the Chandigarh administration. The Mohali district administration has taken up the matter with GMADA and the PIDB in this connection. To further improve connectivity between the Ambala-Kalka highway and the Chandigarh-Ropar highway, work on an alternative road between the two highways is in progress. The construction of a 200-metre-wide road between Mohali and Chatt village and mix-land use along both sides of the road is part of the plan.
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Rain round the corner
Chandigarh, February 6 Though the minimum temperature rose by 3.4 °C from 8.8 °C yesterday, there is a reason to cheer with the weatherman predicting rain within the next 48 hours. “We are expecting a better shower in a day or two,” Chattar Singh Malik, director of the meteorological centre, said. While train operations were normal in the absence of fog in the region, Kingfisher Airlines’ Chandigarh-Srinagar flight landed at Jammu instead of Srinagar in the afternoon because of bad weather there. February has had a fair share of rain in the past five years and residents can hope for rainy days in the coming weeks, the met office informed. Drizzle in the city and its surrounding areas led to a pleasant evening today. Several residents went shopping or thronged Sukhna Lake for a walk. The cloud cover and drizzle was a result of western disturbances over Jammu and Kashmir and higher reaches of Himachal. Despite the drizzle, the maximum day temperature rose further at 25.8 °C against yesterday’s 23.8 degrees. The met office has forecast cloudy sky with possibility of rain or thundershowers in the next 24 hours in the city. Rain or thundershowers are also likely at a few places in Haryana and Punjab and at isolated places in north Rajasthan.
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Review taxes, industrialists urge CM
Mohali, February 6 BS Anand, president, MIA, said the Punjab Government, in a bid to earn revenue for the state, had levied a number of taxes on the industry beginning with increase in VAT from 4 per cent to 5 per cent from January 29 and entry tax levied on some goods coming to the state varied from 4 per cent to 12 per cent with effect from February 5. The third consecutive tax by the excise and taxation department, Punjab, in the form of additional surcharge at the rate of 10 per cent on all goods, applicable from February 5, was the final nail in the coffin of the industry in Punjab. Anand said the industry was already passing through a difficult phase. The neighbouring states were reaping benefits because of extended industrial incentives from the Centre whereas the industry in Punjab seemed to have no well wisher. Was the government reviving the industry or trying to perish it altogether, he questioned. He further said the government was already holding crores of rupees against VAT refunds of the industry on one pretext or the other. Despite facing all odds of power shortage, manpower shortage, shortage of incentive packages from the government, the industry was trying its best to survive, but it appeared that the load of taxes on the entrepreneurs would have a far reaching effect on the industry in Punjab. KS Mahal, general secretary, said the state government should take steps to ensure good infrastructure and good governance and help the micro, small and medium entrepreneurs to survive as they were the backbone of the economy of the state. Already, people with loaded vehicles had to wait for hours to submit information at the barriers and now the entry tax payment would add to their woes. The micro units were already working on a shoestring budget. If the taxes continued in this manner the micro units would be forced to shut down. Senior vice-president of the association Anurag Aggarwal protested that increase in taxes would make the local industry uncompetitive as Rail Coach Factory and other such big industrial houses would prefer to buy goods from outside the state as purchases from within the state would cost much higher.
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BJP protests price hike, 551 held
Chandigarh, February 6 Party activists organised a demonstration, carrying placards, at the roundabout between Sectors 18, 19, 7 and 8 under the leadership of Sanjay Tandon. Party activists earlier staged a protest march and demonstrations at various places in villages, colonies and sectors of the city at the mandal and district levels. Addressing party activists, Tandon said the Centre, led by the Congress, had failed to control the price hike and curb the black marketing and illegal hoarding of essential commodities. He said ministers, instead of taking effective steps to curb skyrocketing prices, had been making irresponsible statements. Tandon said essential commodities were out of the reach of the common man and the worst affected were economically weaker sections and families of workers in the unorganised sector. He alleged that the mismanagement of food prices was apparent from the fact that the prices had risen despite bumper stocks of various agricultural commodities. The increase in prices of food articles would eventually have an impact on the prices of manufactured goods, he added. He said the essential coordination required between different departments of the government appeared to be lacking. The BJP would not remain a silent spectator to this and had decided to raise its voice through demonstrations and protest rallies, he said. He stated that party activists would gherao the Parliament in March if the government did not take effective measures in this regard. Satyal Pal Jain, Jai Ram Joshi, Dharam Pal Gupta and Yashpal Mahajan also spoke on the occasion. They said the insensitive approach of the government was disheartening. The public had to face long traffic jams during the demonstration. A party spokesman said all activists were released by the evening.
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Focus on safeguarding intellectual property
Chandigarh, February 6 Over 100 managers, heads and scientists from top industries and research institutes participated in the conference organised jointly by Chandigarh-based IP Consultancy Talwar and Talwar Consultants in association with a US-based law firm, Sughrue Mion
PLLC, and TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs, Punjab and Chandigarh). Talking about the benefits of getting a patent registered, Aaron D
Hurvitz, foreign counsel, Kangxin Partners, said: “Regardless of what product an enterprise makes or what service it provides, it is absolutely necessary for a business to systematically identify, protect and effectively utilise its intellectual property (IP). When the IP is legally protected, it becomes a valuable business asset. The SME must also consider getting a patent not only in India but also world-wide, so that he is able to expand globally in the future. This will also help stop competition from producing a me-too product or
service.” Miku Mehta, partner, Sughrue Mion PLLC, US, said: “By filing a patent, an SME ensures that it is able to retain its market position, increase market share, recover R&D investments and safeguard the results, launch new products and processes and locate new business partners. Almost every SME has a trade name or trademarks and should consider protecting them regardless of the current size of the business.” Among others who spoke were Dinesh
Jotwani, director, legal, Symantec Corp, and Pinaki Ghosh, head-IPR Cell,
Infosys, Salman Waris, head-TMT Practice, FoxMandalLittle, Dr AK
Chaturvedi, senior manager, Dr Reddy’s, Rajiv Shah, assistant general manager-patent cell, Torrent
Pharma, and Dr Parikshit Bansal, head-IPR cell, NIPER. The conference concluded with an open house session where queries pertaining to identification, use and commercialisation of IP were discussed.
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Bedi denies receiving apology from Bajaj
Panchkula, February 6 “I have not received any such mail,” said
Bedi. “I am not ready to forgive him for what he had done to tarnish my image by levelling false allegations against me in a complaint lodged with the police and releasing it to media,” he said. There was no question of coming on negotiating table with Ranjit till he and his two accomplices were not arrested and their weapons confiscated,” he added. “Though apologies were coming from his side, there is no logic in backtracking from the police compliant on my part till the truth is presented before the public about his false allegations,” said
Bedi. Meanwhile, Panchkula Police teams are still in Delhi and Mumbai to arrest
Bajaj. A senior official of the Panchkula Police said they had got some clues from the list of Bajaj’s two mobile phones. “We are continuously searching possible hideouts of Ranjit Bajaj and soon he will be behind bars,” the official added. It was on the night of January 29 when the Panchkula Police, on the complaint of Gurmohan Singh
Bedi, son of Justice MMS Bedi of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, booked Bajaj for attempt to murder. BR
Bajaj, father of Ranjit, on the other hand still claimed that the issues between Ranjit and Bedi have been sorted out. “Everything has been sorted out and it was only a communication gap between both the boys because of which the things had turned from bad to worse,” said Bajaj adding that “otherwise both the families are good friends”.
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Brahma Kumaris hold peace march
Mohali, February 6 The march was flagged off by GS Bhullar, SSP, from Prachin Shiv Mandir in Phase I. It was organised to strengthen the power of world peace, love, universal brotherhood and harmony. In his address, Bhullar said despite economic progress, the world was facing problems like violence, terrorism and a decline in human values. He urged the society to imbibe values of love, cooperation, harmony and positivity. As many as five chetan devis wearing kalash on their heads were leading the peace march followed by a band, students and a number of brahma kumaris from Mohali, Chandigarh, Ropar, Kharar, Morinda, Kurali and nearby villages. Chetan jhankis of Shri Lakshmi Naraiyan and God Shiva were the main attractions in the peace march. The march, which passed through Phases I, II, IV, V, III-B2, VII, VIII, IX and X culminated at Sanatan Dharam mandir in Phase XI. The main function will be held tomorrow at Sukh Shanti Bhawan in Phase VII where Pawan Kumar Bansal, union minister of state for parliamentary affairs and water resources, will be the chief guest.
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New DRM assumes charge
Chandigarh, February 6 After having degree in BTech
(Hons) in civil engineering, ME in civil engineering and MSc in infrastructure planning, Singh joined the Indian Railway Service of Engineers as assistant engineer in 1981. He was posted as the DRM at the Palghat division of Southern Railway before joining at
Ambala. Singh worked in various capacities like chief bridge engineer, Northern Railway, chief engineer (const), Northern Railway, chief project manager,
Jaipur, and additional DRM, Vadodara and Jaipur. He also worked in Algeria in IRCON project. Earlier, additional DRM RK Saxena and other senior officers of the Northern Railway, Ambala division, received him at the Ambala railway station. HK
Jaggi, who was DRM of Northern Railway, Ambala division, has been posted as the chief engineer (coordination), North-western Railway at
Jaipur.
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Seminar on climate change
Chandigarh, February 6 Environmentalists and scholars gathered to discuss issues related to global warming and climate change. The highlight of the event was screening of the movie, “A green agony”, by Geeta Singh and co-directed by Avinash Kumar. The movie, which illustrated the destruction of Sundarbans and is now under the threat of global warming, also depicted how the islands close by are getting submerged with each passing year. The movie captured the plight of localites, who said if the Sundarbans were destroyed by the fury of nature due to global warming, West Bengal would come under threat. “The English and Hindi versions of the movie have been utilised by environmentalists to raise a concern at a large number of conferences in India and abroad,” said AD Ahluwalia, environmentalist, who introduced the theme. The seminar also included lively discussion on the statements made by political leaders about climate change.
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Officer-level problems to be kept out
Smriti Sharma Vasudeva Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 6 According to administrative sources, the Administrator has given directions to officers that only those complaints which have to be sorted out at the higher level should be brought to the public darbar. All complaints will first be scrutinised at the officer level and only those that require the Administrator’s attention will be brought to the public darbar. He has also reportedly instructed officers that there should be a time limit within which people’s problems should be sorted out and officers should have fixed responsibility and accountability for the same.
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Police on Sattu’s lookout for threatening Mayor
Chandigarh, February 6 According to police sources, Sattu of Ram
Darbar, who claimed to be Om Parkash Saini, was involved in several criminal cases and was a member of the Saini gang. The sources further said
Sattu, involved in various crime cases, reportedly threatened the Mayor and two former Mayors, asking them to do some work of shooter Ram Parkash
Pathan, whose wife lived at Sector 32. The sources said a police team had visited the Ambala jail, where Saini was presently lodged, as the police learnt soon after receiving information about the threat calls that those had been made from the city.
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Talk on yoga for health
Chandigarh, February 6 Interestingly, he pointed out that although today was the time of IT, yoga had also come along to take care of health problems, which this high-tech revolution had created. Forum founder Dr SS Bhatti stressed on the need for a holistic adoption of yoga for best results in gaining perfect psychosomatic health. Exclusive emphasis on asanas reduces yoga to mere acrobatic skills with little benefit to the practitioner, he added.
— TNS
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Meeting with slum dwellers
Chandigarh, February 6 The trust has been allotted 106 families in Sector 52 by the UT Administration for their rehabilitation and it has initiated a community rehabilitation and development programme for slum dwellers. The residents discussed issues like safety of women and children, sanitary and cleanliness, unemployment, illiteracy, drugs, taverns in the slum etc., with volunteers of Salaam Zindagi. Trust chairman Amrinder Pal Singh formed a five-member committee among the residents who can look after the daily problems and act as their representatives.
— TNS
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Carve flexible exam duration, CBSE to schools
Chandigarh, February 6 The move is being initiated under the aegis of the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) and takes a serious cognizance of the different response timings and writing speeds of the students and thus asks the schools to give flexible timing to the students for attempting the question papers. This may vary from three to three-and-a-half hour. It may be noted that prior to this, the Board, in order to ensure standardisation and uniformity, has decided to send CDs of the question papers in different subjects to the schools
this month. As per the directions, the school will have to use these allotted question papers to prepare the question papers after it receives the password to operate the CD. Schoolteachers based on the marking scheme provided by the Board would handle the evaluation process. “Earlier we all heard that some schools set tough papers in Class IX coupled with strict marking scheme to enhance their Board results, but now we are not only designing the question papers but also asking the teachers to follow our evaluation scheme. This will help to bring the uniformity and ease in our education system,” added another official. It may be noted that CCE was implemented in all schools after October 2009. Under this, two formative assessments (internal evaluation based on projects, group discussions, etc) and one summative assessment (written examination) is to be done. Based on the two assessments, the child will be granted grades.
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Principles of non-linear editing elaborated
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 6 Placement drive
Chitkara Institute of Engineering and Technology (CIET) today conducted a joint placement drive here. Hundreds of students from various universities and engineering colleges across Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and NCR participated in the special drive for employment with Open Access Technology India, a subsidiary of OATI Inc., which is a top American software firm. Sixty students from computer science engineering (CSE), electronics and communication engineering (ECE), information technology (IT) and masters in computer applications (MCA) streams achieved the placement with OAT India as software developer. MoU signed
A MoU has been signed between an institute of Lala Lajpat Rai Institutes and Stow College, Glasgow, Scotland. The two institutes consented to execute their agreement for the establishment of international institutional partnership so as to exchange knowledge, skills and techniques between India
and UK. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Rohin Sachdeva said, “It will help us in achieving our objective of creating world-class facilities and ambience for advance level of teaching and practical training.” The MOU provides for the students mobility trans-nationally and for faculty and other staff exchange for professional development, exchange of methodology and pedagogical technology and sharing experience in the use of ICT for blended learning. Declamation contest
An inter-tutorial declamation contest was organised at GGDSD College, Sector 32, in the college seminar hall here
yesterday. Students expressed their views on social, political, cultural and moral issues, including female foeticide, drug addiction, science and religion, etc. While Rajat Jain of BCom I won the contest, Akanksha of BA II and Harsimran of BCom III were adjudged the first and second runner-up, respectively. Senior faculty members of the college, Dr Balraj Thapar, Ashima Dhir and Kusum Sharma, judged the contest. Dr VP Malhotra, coordinator Manav Dharam Kendra and HOD department of mathematics, coordinated the event. This activity is an annual feature of the college and it culminates general tutorial programme and offers all-round development of the students’ personality.
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Symposium on biotechnology
Chandigarh, February 6 Eminent personalities from various institutes and organisations discussed relevant issues related to involvement of technology in biological sciences. NIPER director Prof KK Bhutani, Mohali, inaugurated the symposium. He emphasised on the future research prospects in the field of science and technology. He called upon the students to come up with innovative ideas in the field of biotechnology. Prof GS Randhawa from the department of biotechnology, IIT, Roorkee, highlighted on the theme of the symposium in his keynote address. Suneel Khanna, head of biotechnology and bioinformatics, NIIT University, Rajasthan, delivered a lecture on the in-situ bioremediation of toxic compounds. Dr MB Bera, head, department of food engineering and technology, SLIET, Longowal, highlighted on the cause of feeding hunger population by his apt presentation on food and biotechnology interventions. Dr Ashish Ganguly, scientist E-I, IMTECH, took the lead to explain the role of human CD4 in HIV-I entry: opportunities and challenges it offers in AIDS therapy. Dr Rakesh Sharma, scientist E-II, IGIB, New Delhi, carried on the programme to “Metagenomics: Unravelling the mysteries of microbial world”. Dr N Das, head, department of biotechnology, Thapar University, Patiala, gave a presentation on “Potato biotechnology: Its prospects and challenges”. The symposium was organised under the scheme of “Star College in life sciences” of DBT, Government of India.
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500 students confirm participation
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 6 More than 500 students from 61 schools of the city have already confirmed their participation in the event, which begins on February 9. The theme of the congress would be “Science for the society” and the event would provide a platform to the students to interact with scientists who would answer their queries. Each school in the city has been asked to send a team of five students and one faculty to the congress. The unique children science congress would also witness participation from three blind schools in the city, which is the first of its kind initiative. “Our entire team had been working hard for the event. Though the programme was hosted last year as well, this time the participation is expected to be huge and at another level altogether,” said Indu Dhawan, a member of the organising team. “The event would include interaction of the students with the scientists. They would be questioning them about the things related to daily life. Last time also there was an engaging discussion on satellite communications between the students and scientists,” said Preet Mahajan, a librarian.
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Officials inspect Shivalik school
Chandigarh, February 6 The team, that also included estate office and fire department officials, inspected the school to verify various objections based on which the CBSE had disaffiliated the school in January. The CBSE had taken cognisance of the recommendations of former DPI(S) SK Setia, wherein it had been asserted that neither was the managing committee of the school approved by the UT education department, nor did it submit any completion certificate to the UT administration. The school had also been found lacking on fire safety norms and maintenance of records of teachers and salaries. Setia had withdrawn the school’s provisional recognition in 2007 and urged the CBSE to disaffiliate it. The school authorities were confident of getting recognition as all suggestions made during the last inspection had been carried out. The CBSE had allowed students of the current session to appear in examinations from the school.
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SMS service for students
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 6 In addition to this, a redressal box will now be placed outside the VC office, so that the students feel free to give a feedback. The announcements were made after Chandigarh Tribune highlighted the case of MSc students who could not get a hostel accommodation for six months despite figuring at the top of the list due to loopholes in the system. An official on special duty of the VC would manage the new number, which would shortly be announced, on which the students can SMS their specific problem along with their details for the administration to reciprocate.
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