NEIGHBOURHOOD

Placement drive from today
Our Correspondent

Bassi Pathana, April 1
Cordia Group of Institutions will organise a mega job fair on the college campus at Sanghol.

Dr RK Sharma, director, said companies, including Kotak Mahindra, Genpact India, HDFC, Tata Sky, IBM/ Daksh, Levis Store, Ebony Retail Store, etc would be visiting Cordia Group of Institutions, Sanghol, on April 2.

He said students from MBA, MSc and BCA streams, who would be passing out this July were also eligible. He said the placement drive would begin with the pre-placement talk by company executives followed by different rounds like written test, group discussion and personal interviews.

Rajpura, April 1
Parents of a 17-year-old boy, who died under mysterious circumstances late last night in a shop, allege foul play in the death of their son.

The deceased, Sunil Kumar, was working as a helping hand at a shop in Jawahar Nagar for the past few months and was found hanging in the store of the shop situated on the first floor.

Mother of the boy, Sunita Rani, today alleged that her son died as the shop owner pressurised him and passed strict instructions.

She alleged that the shop owner did not give him salary in time.

A large number of people, including migrant labourers, gathered around Jawahar Nagar market and demanded action against the shop owner.

The migrants alleged that neither the police had recorded statements of family members of the deceased nor had it got the postmortem conducted. Police officials said they were looking into the matter and a case would be registered only after completing an inquiry.

Banur, April 1
Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, chairman of Mandi Board, today said 115 lakh metric tonne wheat was expected to arrive this season in Punjab mandis. Lakhowal today inaugurated a shed in Banur Grain Market besides a cemented floor in the market. About Rs 2 crore have been spent for the construction of sheds and cementing the floor. He said 108 lakh metric tonne wheat arrived in Punjab mandis last year.

He said the government was contemplating to construct modern grain and vegetable markets in various districts of Punjab. He added that procuring centres had been set up in the state so that farmers should not face any problems while selling off their produce in grain markets.

The chairman also inspected the heaps of wheat grains lying in the market and enquired about the problems of local farmers. Some farmers brought into his notice the problems of lack of basic amenities in the market. Lakhowal assured to look into the problems of farmers.

Patiala, April 1
Gurdarshan Singh (67), a retired DSP hailing from Sangrur, who was beaten by a rival group at Fatehgarh Channa village on the Samana-Bhawanigarh road, died yesterday.

According to Samana police officials, pertaining to some property dispute, a group of six persons attacked Gurdarshan and another person, Chhaju, with sharp edge weapons on March 30, following which both sustained serious injuries.

They were admitted to a hospital in Sangrur, but were later referred to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala. After battling for life for one day, Gurdarshan breathed his last yesterday.

The Samana police has registered a case against Baljinder Singh and Harjinder Singh of Chana village, Jagruk Singh and Kuldeep Singh and a few unidentified accused.

Chandigarh, April 1
Convict Kuldeep Singh was released on parole for four weeks in January 2003. But, he never returned to the jurisdiction of law.

Going by official figures, he is not the only absconding convict-on-parole in the state. More than 460 convicts in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh have, over the years, jumped parole.

But all this may soon be a thing of past.

In an obvious attempt to bring them back into the folds of law, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the initiation of coercive measures to arrest the absconders.

Taking up absconding convict Kuldeep Singh’s appeal, Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia ruled: “During the course of hearing in the present appeal, it has come to the notice of this court that during the pendency of their appeals, many convicts after obtaining parole have never surrendered before the jail authorities on the due dates and are absconding. The present appeal is one of such cases….

“The financial commissioner and principal secretary to the Government of Haryana, jails department, have furnished information on persons released on parole, but were absconding. A perusal of the information furnished reveals a very disturbing situation. As many as 245 persons, released on parole/furlough have not surrendered in the state of Haryana….

“The secretary to the Government of Punjab, department of home affairs and justice, Chandigarh, has filed an affidavit dated March 25, according to which 202 persons who obtained parole are absconding. As per the affidavit filed by the inspector-general of prisons, Union Territory, Chandigarh, 14 persons are absconding after obtaining parole.

“In these circumstances, this court is of the opinion that a writ in the nature of mandamus ought to be issued to the state authorities to initiate coercive measures to arrest the absconders, whose appeals are pending in this court. Since a large number of persons are absconding, it is in the public interest that this litigation is monitored by this court and appropriate directions are issued to the functionaries of the state to take active steps to enforce the rule of law.

“Therefore, this order be treated as a writ in the nature of public interest and be placed before an appropriate Bench for motion hearing on April 8 for further directions and orders”.

Before parting with the orders, Justice Ahluwalia added: “A reference is also posed before the larger Bench hearing public interest litigation to formulate a policy on the disposal of appeals in which the convicts have gone away from the arms of the law…. Direction is issued to the registrar (judicial) to also trace those appeals, in which the convicts have become outlaws”. The Bench headed by Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal is expected to take up the matter now.

Chandigarh, April 1
Implemented in 2006 for the protection of the fairer sex, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act has apparently turned unfair for women.

In a clear-cut departure from the intended purpose of safeguarding the interest of women in general and housewives in particular, the provisions of the Act are being - on the face of it - misused to proceed against women. In one such case, a woman lodged a complaint against four of her women relatives, even though the law reportedly prohibits initiation of proceedings against the same gender.

Bringing the alleged violation of the norms to the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s notice, Manjit Kaur of Sangrur and three others urged the Bench to quash the complaint dated January 20, 2009. The complaint, under Section 12 of the Act, is currently pending before Patiala judicial magistrate first class.

One of the petitioners is complainant Pooja Rani’s mother-in-law, while the other petitioners are her sister-in-laws.

As the matter came up for hearing, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur in her order observed the petitioners were women; and had been summoned under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. As per Section 2 (q), complaint for offence under the Act can be filed only against “adult male persons”, and not against women.

Justice Nirmaljit Kaur also took note of the fact that the petitioners were placing reliance on the judgment of Madhya Pradesh High Court in the case of Ajay Kant versus Alka Sharma. Issuing notice of motion on the petition, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur also directed stay on further proceedings as far as the “present petitioners” were concerned. Before parting with the order, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur also fixed May 27 as the next date of hearing in the case.

Chandigarh, April 1
International shooter Sorab Singh Gill’s aim is still not clearly within his sight.

Even after the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed India and other respondents to accord Gill - overseas citizen of India — “same status as an NRI” for representing the country in international sports events, the judgment has still not been implemented. So far, he has just been given a conditional go-ahead to participate in an international event. Currently in Bangkok, Gill has again moved the high court.

As his petition filed through senior advocate Hardev Singh Mattewal and counsel Pavit Mattewal came up for hearing this morning, Justice Rajive Bhalla observed: “Counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner has been selected by the National Rifle Association of India and has, therefore, left for Bangkok for participation in the 2010 Asian Clay Shooting Championship.

“Counsel for the respondents (the Union of India and others) states that in case the Shooting Federation of India allows the petitioner to be a part of the Indian national team and to participate in the ongoing tournament at Bangkok, the Ministry of Sports, Government of India, would have no objection”.

Fixing April 4 as the next date of hearing, Justice Bhalla added: Liberty is granted to the petitioner to approach the Shooting Federation of India for passing appropriate orders in view of a judgment of this court, and in view of the statement made by the counsel for the respondents, who represents the Ministry of Sports, Government of India”. Taking up Gill’s earlier petition, the Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Jasbir Singh had observed: Since an NRI is permitted to participate for India in sports events and facilities analogous to the NRIs, have been granted to the OCIs by a notification dated April 11, 2005, we are satisfied that the petitioner could not be denied such participation”. The Bench had added they need not go into the question “whether the petitioner was a citizen of India”, as the “rights asserted by the petitioner merely claim parity with an NRI who is admittedly competent to represent India in a sports event”.

Chandigarh, April 1
The police today arrested Sanjay Kumar, a resident of Sector 24, on charges of illegally selling Schedule-H drugs without a valid licence from a shop in Sector 23 here. The police said the accused was working as a salesman in the shop, which had no licence to store the drugs.

Mohali, April 1
Anish Goel and Nimrit Walia won double titles on the final day of the British School Total Tennis Championship being played at the school complex in Sector 70 here today.

In the boys’ under-16 category, Anish Goel beat Aankush Nagpal by 6-2, 6-3 in just 55 minutes by playing great tennis from the baseline.

Anish Goel also defeated Paras Mittal to clinch the boys’ under-14 title yesterday. In the final of the girls’ under-14 category, it was a well-fought battle between top seed Nimrit Walia and second seed Prinkle Singh. The match lasted for over two hours. The first set went to top seed Nimrit by 6-4, but Prinkle Singh came back strongly to level the match at one set all by winning the second set by 6-4. Prinkle took early lead of 4-1 by playing controlled tennis in the third and final set, but Nimrit came back strongly by winning the next games.

The third set went in a tiebreaker. The final score was read in the favour of Nimrit Walia 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5).

Rajan Sethi gave away prizes to the winners and appreciated the efforts made by the Total Tennis for promoting tennis in the region.