NEIGHBOURHOOD

Freak accident claims 3 lives
18-month-old girl among casualties
Tribune News Service

The mangled remains of a scooter that was hit by a minibus near the old bus stand in Ropar on Monday. A Tribune photograph

Rajpura, April 19
The police today arrested six persons for committing nearly 100 robberies in Rajpura and adjoining areas.

The accused, all residents of various districts of Uttar Pradesh, had been looting people by throwing nails on secluded stretches on highways at night and as soon as the tyres of a vehicle got punctured they looted the occupants of vehicles.

“The accused had designed special wooden frames with nails on it and put it on the highways near Rajpura and Patiala areas. They went up on trees to watch vehicles and as soon as a vehicle stopped they looted them,” said police officials. The cops said the gang of looters was active for the past around three years. Two pistols, six live cartridges, 12 mobile phones, eight purses, two watches and Rs 5,000 cash had been recovered from their possession.

The accused have been identified as Mangal Das, Ram Kishore, Ashok Kumar, Suresh Kumar, Nanku Prasad and Inder Kumar. They had been temporarily putting up in Patiala where they sold vegetables at roadsides.

During investigation it was revealed that they have so far injured many people on the Banur-Tepla road, Samana road and the Sangrur road. Most of the robberies committed by them were on the Sangrur-Pasiana road and the Samana road. Further investigations were on.

Ambala, April 19
Interminably long power cuts and an acute shortage of water have made the lives of city residents more miserable even as the mercury crossed the 40 degrees C mark a few days ago. People across Haryana are being forced to brave lengthy and unscheduled power outages lasting for six to ten hours.

The soaring temperatures have led to a huge increase in the power demand. As a result power cuts - both scheduled and unannounced - have become regular in several areas of Ambala Cantt.

The residents’ summer woes have worsened with inadequate water supply in many parts of the city. Due to reduced water pressure overhead water tanks on rooftops are not filled. Commercial and industrial areas in the city have been hit hard as well.

“It’s become very difficult to manage with such short supply of water. Everyday life is becoming unbearable”, said an exasperated Sunita Aggarwal, a housewife in Gobind Nagar colony.

Routine work at government and private institutions has also been affected due to unscheduled power cuts. “The actual work in offices begins only when power is restored after 3 pm. Work in most offices and banks is done on computers but these cannot be run without power”, said Virender Kumar, a government employee.

Baldev Raj of Mahesh Nagar, a welder, said his livelihood had been adversely affected by long power cuts. “For most part of the day there is no electricity and I’m unable to complete my work despite working late in the evening”, he added.

Residents say politicians have been making loud claims time and again on “transforming Ambala into Singapore”, but such claims fall flat when people do not get even the basic facilities.

In several areas of the city supply also gets disrupted due to breakdowns. One of the causes for this is the excessive use of airconditioners, according to an electricity department official. “Illegal connections in slums and colonies also add to the load. We’re also holding regular drives in colonies to keep a check on illegal power connections”, he added.

Karnail Singh, a resident of Dyal Bagh colony, said the administration had failed to keep its promises of providing 24-hour power supply. “The authorities are still using low-capacity motors to draw water from pumps, leaving taps dry in almost all houses”, he added.

Some residents of Gobind Nagar colony are in the process of upgrading their old power invertors and buying extra backup batteries. “Our inverter conked out and we decided to shell out more money to buy an additional battery”, a colony resident said.

Chandigarh, April 19
The process of promoting inspectors to deputy superintendents of police in Chandigarh is expected to come to a standstill, with the Punjab and Haryana High Court today ordering the maintenance of status quo in the matter.

The directions by the Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice Jitendra Chauhan followed an application filed by inspector Yash Pal and 13 other police personnel.

They were seeking directions to the Chandigarh administration and other respondents against promoting inspector Ram Gopal to DSP.

A petition in the promotion matter was already pending in the high court and the application was moved in the same case. The high court had already issued a notice of motion in the matter, along with a notice regarding stay.

As the plea came up for hearing, the petitioners contended that they came to know that an order dated April 13 was issued by the Inspector-General of Police to the effect that the proposal for further promotion of eligible officers to the rank of DSP be submitted.

“It is clear that the official respondents have not been dissuaded by the issuance of a notice regarding stay and are undertaking the process of promoting Ram Gopal, shown to be number one in the seniority list of inspectors. It is in the interest of justice the official respondents are restrained from promoting private respondents as DSP till July 7, the date for which a notice of motion and a notice regarding stay has been issued.”

Taking note of the submissions, the Bench verbally observed that the administration should have held itself back as a notice regarding stay had been issued, but since the process had been initiated, the necessity to move court had arisen.

Chandigarh, April 18
Absence of proper fire-fighting equipment at the District Courts Complex in Sector 17 poses a threat to the lives of hundreds of litigants, advocates and judges.

There is a “redundant” fire fighting system in the court.

There are only two fire extinguishers on the old campus, which have not been refilled since long.

The two buildings house 20 courts, along with chambers of the judicial officials and lawyers.

Sources said fire fighting gadgets were installed outside the courtrooms in corridors about four to five years ago, but only trained staff could operate them.

“There is not a single fire extinguisher near the advocate chambers,” advocate Mohinder Singh added.

President of the District Bar Association Mukesh Mittal said, “Fire-fighting system is not up to the mark.

The authorities concerned should upgrade the facilities. The fire extinguishers, which have not been updated since long, are of no use,” said advocate Gaurav Kathuria.

Chandigarh, April 19
Excellent half centuries by Arjit Singh (96) and Kuljinder Kumar (94) helped the city team to pile up a huge total of 318 runs in their first innings against Ludhiana in the Punjab State Inter-District U-16 Tournament for ML Markan Trophy at the Sector-16 Stadium here today.

After winning the toss, the Ludhiana team elected to field first. The Chandigarh team was all out for 318 runs in 78.1 overs. Arjit Singh 96, Kuljinder 94, Saurav Vaswan 40 and Arpit Singh 27 were the main scorers. For Ludhiana, Lovejot Singh two, Mankaran Hara two, Sandeep two and Vishvnath three were the main wicket takers.

In the second match played at Muktsar, the host team was able to pile up 366 runs in the first innings against Bathinda.

After winning the toss, Muktsar elected to bat first and were all out for 366 runs in 95 overs. Sherwaz Singh 122 with 20x4s and 1x6, Mousam Kumar 76 with 8x4as and 1x6, Roop Karan 38 with 6x4s, Mahavir Singh 34 with 5x4s, and Harjot Singh 39 with 4x4s were the main scorers. For Bathinda, Abhishek was the pick of the bowlers, as he scalped five wickets for 88 runs in 29 overs. Sangram with two wickets and Navdeep and Lovepreet with one wicket each were the other bowlers for the Bathinda team.

In the third match between Amritsar and Ropar, being played at Amritsar, the host team won the toss and elected to bat first. Amritsar were all out for 259 runs in 91.1 overs. Karan Sharma 26, Harkamal Singh 32, Abhinav Sharma 38, Sahil Kumar 56 and Akashdeep 75 were the top scorers. For Ropar team, Karan Bhargav was the pick of the bowlers, as he scalped six wickets giving away 64 runs. Jaideep with one for 54 was the other wicket taker.

In reply, Ropar started their 1st innings and were at 50 for one in 15 overs. Jaideep Singh 21, Harmanjit Singh 23 not out and Sahil six not out.

In the fourth match, being played at Patiala between Patiala and Mohali, after winning the toss, Mohali elected to bat first and were all out for 277 runs in 92 overs. Karandev 75, Shine Sharma 91, Anmoljeet 24 and Pankaj Singh 24 were the main scorers.

For Patiala Bhupinder was the pick of the bowlers, as he took four wickets for 58 runs. Karan Kaila two for 89, Shkhwinder one for 94, and Siddharth one for 22 were the other wicket takers.

Chandigarh, April 19
Parwan Sohi from the city has won gold medal in the professional category during the fourth National Open Draughts Championship that concluded at NIS, Patiala, yesterday.

Suhani from Panchkula and Elizabeth from Mizoram grabbed second and third positions respectively, in the two-day championship organised by Yadavindra Sports club, Patiala.

In the Amateur category, Amandeep from Punjab won the first position, while Aastha of Chandigarh and Shabnam from Punjab won the second and third positions, respectively.

LS Ranawat, executive director (academics), SAI NS NIS, Patiala, gave away prizes to the winners.

Bhupinder Singh, secretary general, DFI, announced that the winner of the championship would participate in the forthcoming youth Olympiad to be held in Ukraine in July next.

Chandigarh, April 19
Divya and Parvesh, in the women and men categories, respectively, were declared best players in the 31st Rajeev Gandhi Memorial North Zone Ball Badminton Championship, which concluded at the Kali Kamli Trust ground, Kurukshetra, yesterday.

Stating this in a press release here today, JS Lamba, general secretary of the Ball Badminton Sports Promotion Association, said the women and men teams from the city won the gold and silver medal, respectively, in the championship in which eight teams from various states participated.

Results

Women’s Final: Chandigarh beat Punjab by 29-12 and 29-16, Haryana beat Uttrakhand by 29 -17 and 29-14

Men’s Final: Punjab beat Chandigarh by 29-27 and 29-28, and Haryana beat UP by 29-25 and 29-24.