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NEIGHBOURHOOD

Govt schools reel under teaching staff crunch
Attar Singh
Tribune News Service

Ambala, April 28
Government schools here are reeling under an acute shortage of teachers. The shortage has not only overburdened teachers, but also affected students, whose future hangs fire. Tall claims of the state government to improve education system fell flat on its face.

Around 285 primary, 135 middle, 79 high and 75 senior secondary schools in the district are providing education to about 1.36 lakh students.

The district administration has taken up the issue with the higher authorities a number of times, but the latter has paid no heed to it.

According to sources, out of the 1,486 posts of JBT teachers, around 409 posts, including 396 guest teachers, are lying vacant in the district.

Out of the total 576 vacant posts of junior teachers, 346 posts of guest teachers are lying vacant, whereas of the 217 vacancies, 132 posts, including 52 of senior teachers, 89 of headmaster and 24 posts of principals are yet to be filled in the government schools.

According to a study, around 52,000 students are studying in primary classes, 54,000 students in middle classes, 17,000 students in high classes and 12,000 students in senior secondary classes at government schools in the district.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has declared free education for children between the age of 6 and 14. But until and unless vacant posts are filled in government schools, these children cannot be imparted quality education. Most of the government school teachers can be seen working as clerks or doing administrative jobs.

Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukal said the Haryana government would soon be filling around 35,000 vacant posts in government schools in the district.

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New Commissioner takes charge
Tribune News Service

Anil Kumar
Anil Kumar

Ambala, April 28
Anil Kumar assumed the charge of Commissioner in place of Mohinder Kumar at Circuit House here today.

Anil Kumar, an IAS officer of 1988 batch, has served the administration on different administrative positions, including Commissioner (Higher Education), Deputy Commissioner of Rohtak and Sonepat.

On his arrival at the office, the new Commissioner was welcomed by officers of the local administration, including Deputy Commissioner Sameer Pal Srow, Additional Deputy Commissioner Renu Phulia and SDM Mukesh Kumar Ahuja. He later met officers of the administration.

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Punjabi given the miss at forest dept
Tribune News Service

Members of the district language committee check records of the forest department in Ropar on Wednesday.
Members of the district language committee check records of the forest department in Ropar on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph

Ropar, April 28
The district-level language committee today conducted a surprise check at the office of forest department and found that the officials were making entries in revenue records in English.

Chairman of the committee, MLA Chamkaur Sahib Charanjit Singh Channi said as per rules, Punjabi should be used for carrying out all official work. Channi had got a complaint that forest department officials were using English.

Forest department officials were issued notices for not complying with government orders and have been asked to give an explanation within next one week. Even the nameplates, stamps, boards and other materials were found in English.

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Centre releases first instalment for polytechnic

Kalka, April 28
The Centre has released the first instalment of Rs 2 crore for the construction of a polytechnic at Nanakpur village, Pinjore block.

Vijay Bansal, a senior politician of the area, said the Centre was mulling over setting up seven polytechnics in Haryana. The polytechnic at Nanakpur village would be constructed on 10 acres of land. The rough estimate for the institute is pegged at Rs 12.30 crore.

In January, 2010, Vijay Bansal had submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister of Haryana, Technical Minister, and Kumari Selja in this regard. — OC

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COURTS

Dhawan loses legal battle over Shahenshah
Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28
Former Union Minister Harmohan Dhawan, whose entry into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently created ripples in political circles, has lost his legal battle over the possession of his restaurant-cum-lounge bar Shahenshah in Sector 17 here.

With the Supreme Court recently dismissing the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Mehfil Hospitality, headed by Dhawan, the former minister’s latest hospitality venture is set to shut down from its present location. “We have already filed an undertaking in the Supreme Court for vacating the premises and will be relocating it next month,” Dhawan told The Tribune.

On February 23, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, while ordering in favour of the landlords- Gurmail Singh and Rana Singh- had ordered the evacuation of the premises. Dhawan then filed an SLP in the apex court hoping for an interim relief.

“We find no merit in the SLP. The SLP is dismissed accordingly. However, the petitioners are granted time until June 30, 2010, to vacate the premises in question on furnishing usual undertaking in the court,” the order said.

About a decade ago, Mehfil Hospitality had taken the premises on lease to start its venture “Mr Burger”.

However, in subsequent years, the landlords and Dhawan’s firm were embroiled in legal battle allegedly over the non-payment of the rents.

Last year, Mehfil Hospitality reportedly paid rent arrears amounting to over Rs 3 crore to start Shahenshah. However, that amount fell a few lakh rupees short of the total rent arrears resulting in adverse judgement against Dhawan’s firm from the high court.

Dhawan, who contested for the May 13, 2009, Lok Sabha elections on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket, had launched Shahenshah with fanfare ahead of the parliamentary elections.

In fact, the veteran politician has liking for starting hospitality ventures having earlier launched Mehfil and the Gourmet Mall in “Mr Burger”.

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SHO summoned for contempt of court
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28
A local court today served a contempt notice on station house officer (SHO) Janak Raj Rana along with Hari Singh Nijjar for disrespecting the orders of the court. They have been summoned for May 17.

Avtar Kaur (65) had today filed a suit in the court of Civil Judge SK Sharma seeking permanent injunction to restrain the defendants from harassing, torturing and threatening her.

The counsel for Avtar Kaur submitted to the court that an interim injunction had been granted by the court on November 15, 2008 against Avtar’s husband Hari Singh and Janak Raj Rana, SHO, Sector 39 police station.

Both had been restrained from harassing, torturing and dispossessing the plaintiff and taking action against her.

The court had also passed an order on November 10, 2009 directing the parties to maintain status quo regarding the possession.

It was stated that Avtar had been residing on the ground floor of a house in Sector 37 for the past 40 years.

Her husband Hari Singh along with one of her sons, Surinder Singh, had been torturing for the past 20 years, it was contended.

On April 21, when she had gone to her house, she found the gate locked preventing her from entering the premises.

Thereafter, she called the police control room and around five police officials came there. They asked her to file an application before the SHO concerned.

She submitted an application with the SHO and told him about the court orders.

However, the SHO responded in an offensive language and said these were routine orders. He also threatened her against entering the house.

It was further alleged that Hari as well as Surinder had been threatening Avtar continuously in connivance with the SHO to get the premises vacated from her despite the stay orders of the court.

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‘Disability benefit rules can be relaxed’
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that rules pertaining to grant of disability benefits can be dispensed with or relaxed in cases of extraordinary hardship.

Terming the stance of the Pay and Accounts Office that the government rules mandate a time period and hence cannot be relaxed as “totally misplaced”, the court, while directing the government to reconsider the claim of a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) trooper, observed that the rule itself provided that conditions could be relaxed depending upon the case in hand.

Jaswant Singh sustained head injury in 1994 after militants lobbed a grenade at his vehicle during anti-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir. After initial treatment at the Base Hospital, Srinagar, he was shifted to New Delhi, where he was operated upon. A court of inquiry attributed his injuries to bona fide government duty and entitled him to medical treatment and consequential benefits in case he was incapacitated later on.

He was retained in service and he kept performing his duties as per exigencies of service and the medical restrictions imposed upon him. In 2001, seven years later, a medical board opined that he was unfit for combat and his condition was not likely to improve. He was invalided out in 2002 and entitled invalidity pension and other benefits admissible to Central Government employees.

The Pay and Accounts Office, however, rejected his benefits on the grounds that rules limited the period of award of benefits to five years from the date of sustaining injuries. The government representatives also claimed that the rules could not be relaxed.

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Mansa Devi Shrine Board Case
Haryana fined for failure to reply
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on the state of Haryana for failure to furnish reply on the issue of nominating members to Panchkula-based Mata Mansa Devi Shrine Board and “irregularities” in the sale of “gold coins” by the board.

The High Court also directed the Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Local Government, Haryana, to show cause why Rs 5,000 out of the total be personally borne by him.

The directions were issued as the matter came for resumed hearing today before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Jasbir Singh.

Counsel for the petitioner pointed out that in spite of four opportunities to the respondent-state and the shrine board, they had not bothered to file a reply in the case.

In the petition filed in public interest, petitioner RK Garg said the “Haryana Shri Mata Mansa Devi Shrine Act, 1991” was enacted around 18 years ago. The Act envisaged appointment of nine members from amongst public or devotees, in addition to four official members — Chief Minister as chairman, local government minister as vice-chairman, financial commissioner and Panchkula deputy commissioner. However, the information obtained by the petitioner under the RTI Act revealed that the state government had failed to appoint nine nominated members so far from amongst devotees, including two women, with the result that all activities/meetings of the shrine board held so far were illegal and void ab initio.

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CRIME
 

One booked for manhandling
Tribune News Service

Zirakpur, April 28
The police today booked one person for manhandling an employee of the Punjab Water Supply Sewerage Board, Zirakpur, late last evening.

The case has been registered on the complaint of Kuldeep Singh, a resident of New Defence Colony, against Narwana, a property dealer, Baltana.

In his complaint to the police, the complainant said he was working with the Punjab Water Supply Sewerage Board as a contractor. He said, he got a call from a tubewell operator that the accused was breaking the pipes near Dushara ground. On his way to the spot, the complainant found that the labourers were digging the road and joining illegal water connection. He alleged that when he objected, the accused started manhandling him.

The investigating officer said the case had been registered.

Liquor seized

The excise department seized seven cartons of liquor and booked Ram Kumar, a resident of Lohgarh village, Zirakpur, under the provision of the Excise Act for allegedly smuggling liquor from Chandigarh and selling it in Punjab.

Officials got information that the accused was selling liquor illegally from near Lohgarh chowk. An excise team raided the place and seized seven cartons from his possession and cases of English liquor.

Excise official Upkar Singh said, during interrogation, the accused confessed that he was working under Gurmeet Singh, a resident of Sigma city.

Kidnapping

Mohali: The police today booked two persons for abducting a minor girl from Mohali. The accused has been identified, as Arvind Kumar and his wife, residents of Sector 71, Mohali. The complainant Raj Pal, a resident of Nehru Colony told to the police that his daughter was working and staying with the accused persons.

On April 18, he went to take her daughter, but they told him to take her tomorrow, as some guests were there in the house. Next day when he went again to take his daughter he was told that she has already gone. Raj alleged that his daughter had been sent with someone else.

The police said a case of kidnapping had been registered against the accused on the complaint of Raj Pal, a resident of Chandigarh.

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Woman duped of ornaments
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28
Swindlers again duped a housewife of her ornaments on the pretext of polishing them at Maloya village here today.

The police said the modus operandi and description of the two miscreants matched with those who had duped a woman in Sector 47 last week.

Sources said Anju Negi, a resident of Maloya, reported to the police that two persons in their early 20s, posing as marketing executives of a company, came to her house around 10.30 am. They told her that they wanted to demonstrate a powder that could polish her utensils.

Anju told the police that she gave a bowl to the two, who put some power in it and started cleaning it. They then told her to bring some gold ornaments, she wished to polish.

She handed over her gold chain and earrings. They then asked her to bring some water.

When she returned, they told her that they had put the ornaments in the bowl filled with water instructing her to keep these in water for 10 minutes and went away.

After 10 minutes, she checked the bowl and found nothing in it.

The police said Anju reported the matter an hour and half after the incident as she herself tried to look for the miscreants.

Maloya police post in-charge Baldev Kumar said he took Anju along in a private vehicle to look for the miscreants.

He alerted the police at the bus stand and the railway station but to no avail. As per the description, the two were of wheatish complexion and one of them appeared to be from South India. A case has been registered.

Gambling

The police arrested Krishan Kumar, a resident of Phase II, BDC, in Sector 26, near the market in the locality yesterday while allegedly indulging in gambling and seized Rs 5,500 from him. A case under the Gambling Act has been registered.

Injured

A pedestrian, Bittu, was seriously injured after being hit by an unidentified car near the main gate of the PGI today. The victim was admitted to the hospital. A case has been registered against an unidentified car driver.

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Youth ends life

Mohali, April 28
A 21-year-old student committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in Phase IX here.

The police said Anurag Gupta took the extreme step when there was nobody at home. No suicide note was recovered by the police. He was a student of B tech at Gobindgarh. The police was informed by the mother of the deceased Kiran Bala when she came home from office and found her son hanging from the ceiling fan. She works in an insurance company while his father works in Faridabad. She asked the police to take her son to Fortis Hospital. The hospital declared him brought dead. An inquest proceedings have been initiated. — OC

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SPORTS

AITA Talent Series
Param upsets top seed
Tribune News Service

Mohali, April 28
In a major upset, top seed Jotpal from Punjab was shown the door by the eighth seed Param Pun of Chandigarh in a close contest 6-3, 6-7 (7-0), 6-1 in the quarterfinals (boys U-14) of ongoing Manav Mangal Total Tennis AITA Talent Series Tournament at Total Tennis Academy, Manav Mangal Smart School, Phase X, here today.

In another match of the same section, Tegbir Singh Hara of Ludhiana upset fourth seed Dalwinder Singh of Punjab in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.

In boys’ under-12 category, all top four seeded players moved to the semifinals. The winners included top seed Karandeep Singh, fourth seed Paramveer Bajwa, third seed Nihit Rawal and second seed Param Pun.

Similarly, all top four seeded girls made it to the semifinals in the girls’ u-12 category. Top seed Soumya Sexena outplayed Amishi Aggarwal of Chandigarh 6-0, 6-1, whereas fourth seed Neelanchal Gupta of Uttarakhand drubbed Khushi Malhotra of Chandigarh 6-1, 6-0.

Chandigarh players Seerat Sidhu and Nimrat Walia also beat their respective rivals to move ahead.

The results: Boys’ under-12: Karandeep Singh (PB) b Karan Garg (CHD) 6-0, 6-1; Paramveer Bajwa (CHD) b Sabrang Sandal (CHD) 6-1, 6-2; Nihit Rawal (CHD) b Parmeet Deol (CHD) 6-3, 6-0; Param Pun (CHD) b Gurjot Singh (PB) 6-2, 6-1.

Under-14: Param Pun (CHD) b Jotpal Singh (PB) 6-3, 6-7(7-0), 6-1; Tegbir Hara (PB) b Dalwinder Singh (PB) 6-3, 6-2; Raghav Talwar (CHD) b Shrey Gupta (HR) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; DheerAnush Bhati (CHD) b Karandeep Singh (PB) 6-2, 6-3.

Girls’ under-12: Saumya Saxena (CHD) b Amishi Aggarwal (CHD) 6-0, 6-1; Neelanchal Gupta (UK) Khushi Malhotra (CHD) 6-1, 6-0; Seerat Sidhu (CHD) b Criti Sony (HR) 6-1, 6-0; Nimrat Walia (CHD) b Hiya Chowdhary(CHD) 6-3, 6-0.

Under 14: Pooja Morya (PB) b Niyati Kohli(CHD) 6-2, 6-3; Ayna Arora (CHD) b Nimrat Walia(CHD) 6-4, 6-3; Gayatri Kumriya (RAJ) b Ashana Agarwal (CHD) 5-7, 6-4, 6-1; Karishma Mehta (CHD) b Neamat Aulakh (CHD) 6-3, 6-2.

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ML Markan Trophy
Patiala emerge champions
Tribune News Service

Mohali, April 28
The Patiala district team lifted the ML Markan Trophy and pocketed a cheque for Rs 60,000 beating the Chandigarh district team on the basis of the first innings lead of 215 runs in the final of Punjab State (under 16) Inter-District Tournament at PCA Stadium here today.

Patiala’s Sagar Kumar played the vital role in the win with his 134-run knock, which enabled the team to post a total of 484 runs, thus facilitating the team to get a lead of 215 runs in the first innings.

Earlier, resuming from the overnight total of 211 for 5, Sagar and Viren Rehal hammered 182 runs for the sixth wicket before Sagar was trapped in front of the wicket by Aditya Sinha. Sagar hit 25 boundaries in the course.

Viren Rehal was at 87 when he was caught by Arjit off the bowling of Aditya Sinha.

The other notable contributions came from Bhupinder Singh (43) and Vikrant Sarohi (52 not out).

For Chandigarh, Saurabh Vaswani and Aditya Sinha claimed four wickets each.

GS Walia, joint secretary of Punjab Cricket Association, gave away the trophy to the winners, while the runners-up team received a cheque for Rs 30,000.

Brief score: Chandigarh (first innings): 269 for all out in 129.4 overs (Simranpreet Singh 89, Shivam Bhambri 54, Saurabh Vaswani 47; Karan Kaila 4 for 58, Sukhwinder Singh 3 for 67, Siddharth Sharma 3 for 76).

Patiala (first innings): 484 for all out in 182 overs (Sagar Kumar 134, Viren Rehal 87, Prabhjot 44, Bhupinder Singh 43, Harkirat Dhillon 35, Vikrant Sarohi 52 n.o; Saurabh Vaswani 4 for 141, Aditya Sinha 4 for 168).

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Billiards and Snooker Meet
Rishabh steals the show, enters final
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28
A good show was put up by Rishabh Dhamija, who made it to the final of snooker in the sub-junior and junior groups in the 26th Chandigarh (UT) Billiards and Snooker Championship at Sector 22 here today.

In the sub-junior snooker semifinal, Rishab, a student of Ajit Karam Singh International Public School, Sector 41, beat Aseem in straight sets 2-0 (50-45, 61-32). He won the first frame by making breaks of 16 and 15. In the second frame, Aseem made a break of 16 points to take a lead and win the frame.

This youngster in the junior snooker showed good touch and class to beat Nartej in straight sets 2-0 (48-46, 63-43).

In the senior snooker match, Rahul Garg easily won over Vikram Narula 3-0 (54-48, 59-26, 60-44).

The potter cueist Rahul was in control of the balls from the first frame and played well. He came up with small breaks of 18, 21 and 19 in the frames and won easily against Narula.

In another encounter, Ajay Kumar easily won over Ankit Sharma 3-0 (69-39, 58-52, 59-47). In the Senior Billiards, Subodh Lehri registered win against Manav Dhawan by 2-0 (100-63, 100-83), while Mandeep Makkar moved into the next round, trailing Satnam by 2-0 (100-54, 100-66).

Makkar will take on Arif Akhtar of Indian Oil in the next round.

In the junior billiards, Rishab beat Ish Kaushil 2-0 (75-69, 75-31).

In the Junior Snooker Ish Kaushik managed to win over Lakshya Dhamija 2-1(61-47, 24-46, 64-49).

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Golf clinic for kids from May 4
Our Golf Correspondent

Chandigarh, April 28
The Chandigarh Golf Club Academy will hold a four-day beginners' golf clinic for school children in the age group of 10-16 from May 4 to 7.

To be conducted by the academy joint director Ajay Gujral this EGTF clinic is designed for juniors, who have never played before and are eager to learn the basics of the game.

This will include the fundamentals of the golf swing as well as the etiquette, terminology and rules of the game in a friendly atmosphere.

The grip, aim, alignment, stance, posture and putting will be the specific areas of teaching. Practice balls, instructional materials, golf clubs and golf magazines will be provided free of cost to the student trainees.

Gujral said not more than six students will be enrolled in the first clinic. Students enrolled in excess will be allowed to join the next clinic.

On the last day of the clinic, fun competition will be held in which the winner will get golf prizes worth Rs 1,500.

More details can be had from Ajay Gujral at the Chandigarh Golf Club.

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Intellectual Marathon
Millennium School student claims top spot
Tribune News Service

Mohali, April 28
Millennium School, Sector 69, remained on the top, while Shivalik Public School, Mohali, stood second on the second day of the Inter-School Intellectual Marathon for students of classes VI to IX on the school premises, Sector 69, here today.

Around 21 schools of the area participated yesterday, while 15 schools took part on the second day of the three-day event today.

Principal Komal Singh said, “The marathon aims at exposing students to intellectual and physical abilities on a single platform. In an intellectual marathon, each participating school sends a student to participate.”

It is important to maintain the self-esteem of every child,” added Komal Singh.

The final round will be held tomorrow.

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Fort Ramgarh ties-up with US institute

Panchkula, April 28
The Fort Ramgarh Institute of Hotel Management has joined hands with the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute.

Stating this in a press release here today, Adarsh Suri, director of Ramgarh institute, said students would now be provided with a better hospitality, online learning, distance-learning courses, videos, seminars, textbooks, and study guides. American Hotel would update hotel management courses, he added.

“It is our consistent endeavour to offer best possible education with the help of professionally trained faculty and offer the hotel industry the kind of staff it needs,” said Amitabh Chandel, managing director, Fort Ramgarh. — TNS

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32 kids pitch & putt

Chandigarh, April 28
Thirty-two children in the 3-13 age-group took part in a pitch and putt competition organised by the Chandigarh Golf Association at the Chandigarh Golf Range on Sunday. The youngest participant was three-year-old Keshav Bagrodia. Prizes were given away by CGA president JS Cheema.

The results: Under-8 years: Gourav Kumar 4 points, Vasundhra Thiara 3 points; 8-10 years: Simarjeet Singh 11 points, Lokinder Singh 7 points; 10-13 years: Arjun Singh 13 points, Ashi Jain 10 points; putting competition: Anmol Singh 8 points, Rehan Passi 5 points. — OC

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