Chandigarh, May 1
The bodies of two private security guards were recovered from under a bridge in Dariya village located near the railway station here this morning, just a few days after the police arrested three thieves on a tip-off given by the duo.

The murder of 45-year-old Sucha Singh and 65-year-old Gurdial Singh came to light when the latter’s son, Jagtar Singh, who was searching for his father when he did not return home this morning after his duty, was informed by a watchman about a body lying under a bridge on the newly constructed road connecting Hallo Majra and the Panchkula industrial area.

Jagtar reached the spot around 8.30 am and identified Sucha Singh and informed the police. The body of Gurdial Singh was found lying a few feet away in a pool of dirty water. The bloodstains, found at different places on the bridge, indicated that the deserted place was used to dispose of the bodies and the murder took place at a nearby place in the forest area.

The heads of both the victims were virtually ripped apart, showing that they were hit by some heavy object like a rod or heavy stone. There were several injury marks on the bodies. Gurdial Singh was a guard at a Pepsi godown while Sucha Singh was a guard in a groundnut factory. Both were said to be good friends. While Sucha Singh lived at Mauli village, Gurdial was a resident of Vikas Nagar, Mauli Jagran.

Jagtar Singh said this was the handiwork of the acquaintances of thieves that the police had arrested two days after his father and Sucha Singh had complained. He said his father had received threats last evening that he and Sucha Singh would pay a price for complaining to the police.

The SSP, Sudhanshu Srivstava, confirmed that both victims were instrumental in nabbing the thieves. “The murder could be an act of revenge by acquaintances of the arrested criminals,” he said.

The mobile of Sucha Singh and his cycle were also found missing. The victims were on duty when the incident took place.

Jagtar Singh said the duty timings of the victims were for 12 hours from 6 pm to 6 am, “but nobody saw them after 3 am. This was told to us by a chowkidar there. This shows that the murder took place after 3 am,” he said.

The police said the thieves were most likely drug addicts who used to sell sewers and electrical wires to meet their expenses.

Chandigarh, May 1
“Hai oye koi tan chak lo mere gharwale nu” (somebody please lift the body of my husband) were the cries of Sucha Singh’s widow, Savita Rani, that melted the hearts of many at the spot where the bodies of two slain guards were found this morning.

For almost four hours, from 8.30 am to 12.15 pm, the body of Gurdial Singh was left lying in turpid waters under a bridge at Dariya village. The reason: The IG, Pradeep Srivastava, wanted to visit the crime scene before the body was removed.

Gurdial’s sons, Jagtar Singh and Avtar Singh, were left with no option, but to wait while their father lay dead with his face in the water. Even Sucha Singh’s body, which had been lifted from the spot before the IG flashed his message to wait, was kept in a truck for hours while both his wife and his octogenarian father, Karam Singh, waited for the IG’s visit.

The almost four-hour wait turned out to be a 10-minute affair. The IG disembarked from his car, walked down to the body, glanced at it for a minute or two, then briefly met the grieving family and left in his car immediately. It was only after he left that the body was finally removed.

Jagtar, who was wearing surgery gloves, pulled out the body of his father with the help of others, including some policemen.

But the wait was far too much for the already traumatised families that had lost their breadwinners. Many who had gathered at the spot watched in disbelief as the police declined to shift the bodies until 12.15 pm even though these had been found around 8.30 am.

Even Sucha Singh’s grief-stricken wife was seen requesting the police to remove the body from the dirty water, but her pleas fell on deaf ears.

Even the aged father of Sucha Singh, the second victim whose body had been kept in a truck, was seen asking onlookers to request the police to pull out Gurdial’s body. “So what if the IG is coming. At least they (the cops) should pull out the body from the water,” said Karam Singh with tears in his eyes.

“I left my house around 7 am today for duty and at that time I did not know what had happened. I got the news of my husband’s death at my work place,” said Savita, who has an eight-year-old son.

Panchkula, May 1
Burglars were on a looting spree in the wee hours of this morning when they broke into three shops in Sector 7 and stole Rs 77,000 and five mobiles here.

The shutters had been pulled up with locks still fixed, indicating that the thieves had possibly used a car jack to minimise the sound. The shutter of the shops -- Shivam Mishthan Bhandar, Reliance mobile store and Singh Sons -- were found open this morning.

The thieves were, however, unsuccessful in breaking open the locks of the adjacent office of ICICI Securities Ltd and another showroom, Sachdeva garments, located in the same row.

Hundreds of shopkeepers gathered at the site and raised slogans against the police for failing to provide security. They registered their protest by keeping the shops closed.

Deepak, a worker at Shivam Mishtan Bhandar, said he came to know of the incident after his colleague came to the shop at about 6.30 am and asked him why he had kept the shutters of the shop open. Shocked, he immediately informed the owner, Ghanshyam Joshi, who informed the police. He said he, along with other workers, was sleeping in the basement of the shop after locking the shutters around 11 pm.

Joshi said he also saw the shutters of other adjacent shops open and informed their owners and president of the Sector 7 market welfare association, BB Kochhar. “A sum of Rs 22,000 was stolen from the cash box,” he said.

Rakesh Bansal of Reliance store said he came to know of the incident after the owner of Singh Sons informed him. He said the thieves had decamped with Rs 25,000 and five mobile sets worth Rs 30,000. Harpal Singh of Singh Sons said the thieves had decamped with Rs 30,000 from his shop.

The SP, Manish Chaudhary, said: “It is our bad luck that such an incident has occurred in the city. Investigations are on and we are expecting to nab the culprits soon. We have been trying to check the crime during the past four months, but we are facing a shortage of manpower because one battalion of the Indian Reserve Police has been shifted to Jammu and Kashmir. We were expecting to receive another battalion within two weeks.”

Former MC vice-president BB Singal said the market in the area remained open until midnight and milk was supplied around 3 am. This raised a question on the functioning of the police. 

COMMUNITY

UT wakes up to water scarcity
To seek more water from Bhakra Canal
Arun Sharma
Tribune news Service

Chandigarh, May 1
Drop in water pressure has set the alarm bells ringing for the Chandigarh administration. Sensing the gravity of situation, the UT Advisor has convened a meeting of Punjab and Haryana chief secretaries to get 40 mgd (million gallons per day) more water from Bhakra canal.

Besides, 14 teams of the municipal corporation officials have also been constituted to keep a check on the misuse of water in the city, said SS Bidda, MC chief 
engineer.

The situation has gone bad to worse with the rise in mercury as residents of Sectors 29, 21, 47, 48, 49, 50, 38, 37 and 15, where the city Mayor lives, have been complaining of no water on the upper floors since yesterday evening. The city is getting only 80 mgd from Bhakra through Kajouli water works against its requirement of more than 105 mgd. Another 20 mgd of water is pumped out of 200 tubewells set up in different parts of city. Out of this, the city is left only with 87 mgd of water as 10 mgd and three mgd of water is being supplied to Mohali and Chandimandir, respectively. Hence the city is left with a shortfall of around 20 mgd against its requirement. The water being supplied to the city consists of share of Punjab and Haryana in ratio of 60:40.

As no more tubewells could be set up following depletion of water table, the only option left with the administration is to draw more water from Bhakra canal.

Ram Lal, a resident of Sector 47-D, rued that there was no water on the upper two stories of his house since last week and the overhead tank also remained empty.

Sanjay Gautam of Sector 50 staying on the ground floor had also complaints of not getting water in his overhead tank, forcing him to buy buckets to store water in bathrooms.

Residents in a major part of Sector 38 have also complained of low pressure. While people living in marla houses manage to tackle the problem by installing electric motors, people living in colonies could be seen lifting water from ground floors in buckets.

Chandigarh, May 1
“Yar ko ham ne ja-ba-ja dekha.. kahin zahir kahin chupa dekha..” (Wherever I see, I find my friends everywhere. Visibly or indirectly, I see them all around me).

Once used by NASA scientists to wake up astronaut Kalpana Chawla from sleep during her space visit, this song today gripped audience at PEC University of Technology during screening of a short film based on Kalpana Chawla.

At the “Open House”, an annual event to display best-innovated projects by engineers to school students, Kalpana, an illustrious alumnus, was fondly remembered.

Kaplana, who died during spacecraft Columbus crash on earth surface in February 2003, had graduated from PEC in 1982.

“To inspire hundreds of school students we prepared this short film, in which we showcased clippings of her training at NASA, along with her interview,” said Prof KK Garg, convenor of the Open House.

“Several extracts of the film have been taken from Kalpana’s sister,” he added. The film was complied by Sumit Pratap, a final year student of PEC.

The university is now developing a library in memory of Kalpana where all books that she read and talked about to her friends would be kept. “Some of them have been given to us by her sister, others we would purchase,” said Prof Garg.

Chandigarh, May 1
Panjab University’s two-member committee, which visited Sri Dhanwantri Ayurvedic College, Sector 46, for a surprise inspection three days back, today submitted a report to the university authorities.

After receiving a memorandum from the college students, the PU authorities asked college principal SK Thakur to file a reply to the Dean University Instructions (DUI) and subsequently a committee was sent for a surprise visit to the college.

The committee consisting Dr Ravi Gupta of Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, and Chaman Lal Sharma, university Senate member, inspected the college during which several loopholes were found.

The report stated that as per the timetable, the scheduled anatomy class was not in progress as the teacher was not in the class. To this, the principal replied that the teacher concerned was on campus itself.

The committee in its report disclosed that the teachers of anatomy subject were not present in the college, while two teachers were on leave and another teacher did not attend the college since October 2009 without citing a reason. Another teacher of the department of basic principles returned to job only on the day of the inspection, said the report. The committee also visited the dissection lab and classrooms in the college.

On April 27, a group of students from the college gave a letter to the Tribune highlighting their plight due to dire shortage of the teachers.

The students had mentioned that as against the required number of teachers for the subjects like physiology, anatomy, ashtaang hriday, padarth vigyan and Sanskrit, only a few teachers were teaching. An action is likely in the matter, hinted a university official.

Chandigarh, May 1
The Estate Office is getting a survey done of the companies functioning from Rajiv Gandhi Information Technology Park.

In this regard, some officials have also visited the IT park. At present, there are approximately 16 companies functioning out of which some are into non-IT related work as well.

While the allotment conditions of the plots clearly state that the companies should be engaged in IT and IT-related work.

Chandigarh, May 1
A local court on Friday has directed the proprietor of Moti Mahal restaurant to vacate the premises within three months as it failed to pay the rent. The restaurant is located on the ground floor of SCO (shop-cum-office) 179-180, Sector 17.

The court asked Sonia Ahuja, owner of restaurant Moti Mahal, to vacate the premises as she failed to pay the rent in the past two years.

Kripal Singh, owner of the building has filed an eviction petition under Section 13 of the East Punjab Rent Restriction Act for Eviction of the tenant on the ground of non-payment of rent on May 6 in the court of Civil Judge-cum-Rent Controller.

He stated that Sonia was running the restaurant from the above said premises since July 2002. Kripal claimed that the tenant had not paid rent since February 2008.

Divanshu Jain, counsel for the applicant, said that earlier they had sent a legal notice to Sonia Ahuja on March 23, 2009. She was asked to make the payment but they did not reply nor paid any rent.

While passing the orders the court observed that the rent was assessed by the Rent Controller to the tune of Rs.32 lakh to be paid by the tenant on April 28,2010. But the tenant failed to pay the rent as assessed by the court.

Jain claimed that many of the cheques had bounced but they didn’t take any action. “Sonia kept on denying the payment since February 2008 stating that she was passing through a bad phase.

Now the total rent payable by her had become around 32 lakh. We will file a recovery suit against the restaurant now,” he said.

Chandigarh, May 1
A one-day symposium on “Advance Techniques in Basic Research-Tools of 21st Century” was organised by the Association of Basic Medical Scientists of PGI here today.

The inaugural ceremony of the symposium was graced by Prof. NK Ganguly, Ex-Director-General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Prof. KK Talwar, Director of PGIMER along with Prof. KK Bhutani, Director, NIPER.

Eminent Scientists from various renowned institutions like Dr Parag Sadhale from IISc, Bangalore; Dr. J Agrewala, Dr. A. Bachawat, Dr P Guptasarma from IMTECH; Prof. D. Kaul, Dr. S. K. Arora and Prof. Madhu Khullar from PGIMER chaired various sessions and gave their valuable suggestions, which immensely helped the delegates.

Various talks focused on the nuances of application of advanced tools in basic research.

In the valedictory ceremony, Prof VK Sakhuja, Dean in PGIMER and Prof. Kusum Joshi facilitated various budding scientists (ABMS Members) for their achievements in various academic as well as extracurricular activities.

Overall the scientific symposium has been a success and has left a mark on the aspiring scientists of this region.

The symposium got an overwhelming response with over 600 students from different institutes of India in attendance. 

Chandigarh, May 1
The Chandigarh-Punjab Union of Journalists (CPUJ) today organised a rally at Plaza, Sector 17, to mark the May Day and to recall the scarifies of people who laid down their lives for the cause of the working class.

Members of the union also formed a human chain to press for their demand. On the occasion, CPUJ president Vinod Kohli expressed concern over the delay in announcing the Justice Majithia Wage Board Report for journalists. He urged the Central government not to grant extension to the wage board and press it to submit its final report within the stipulated period.

Kohli demanded inclusion of the electronic media in the purview of the Press Council by renaming it as the media council. 

Chandigarh, May 1
Nearly 600 school students today participated in the annual technical symposium of PEC University of Technology, “Open House”, which showcased best projects created by students of different departments of PEC.

With an objective of creating awareness among young children from Classes X to XII, the students interacted with the engineering students and also participated in a quiz contest. The students were taken across various stalls put up in all departments where they were taught about several projects and working models developed by the students of the college, including award-winning entries at the BAJA competition by the students of mechanical engineering department.

Experts from various fields of engineering give lectures to the students. To encourage the students, awards were also given to the best projects, which were sponsored by PEC Old Students’ Association (PECOSA). “We gave special focus to the students from rural areas,” said Advitya Patyal, a fourth-year student. The students from Government High School, Hallo Majra, Dadu Majra, Kajheri, Maloya, Kaimbwala, Khuda Alisher, Karsan, etc, attended the programme.

Chandigarh, May 1
Following protests by traders in Sector 17 over sealing of the basement of a commercial building, the UT estate office today lifted the orders on the condition that the violations will be removed within 25 days.

Sources claim that the move comes following a three-day protest by members of the Chandigarh Beopar Mandal and a section of traders who were up in arms against the sealing of a building.

Superintendent (misuse and enforcement branch) of the estate office today lifted the orders on the condition that the occupants/tenants will get the violations removed within 25 days. Sources claim that more buildings could be sealed if violations were not removed voluntarily in Sector 17.

Notices were also served on the occupants of the basement of a building in Sector 17 before it was sealed about four days back.

However, the protesting traders claimed that no prior intimation was given to them and the sealing had adversely affected their business. They claimed that the ownership of the building was yet to be established and all these months they were kept in the dark about the ongoing legal process.

They had also demanded withdrawal of this arbitrary power to the estate office to seal any portion of the building on the pretext of misuse where as the cases were pending in courts.

Mohali, May 1
Mohali district census officials began the day by knocking at the doors of city’s “First Citizens”. Different teams simultaneously went to the houses of Mohali municipal corporation president Kulwant Singh, local Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Balbir Sidhu and Mohali Deputy Commissioner Prabhjot Singh Mand.

It has been a practice to start the census from the residence of the “First Citizen” as it creates awareness about the exercise among general public.

The census officials led by SDM RPS Wali went to the DC’s house. A total of 1,902 census officers and 321 supervisors have been put on duty. These officials will work in the first phase of the census.

In the Dera Bassi block, the census started from the house of municipal council president Manjit Kaur Dally.

SDM Puneet Goyal will perform the duty of sub-divisional census officer and tehsildar and executive officers of Dera Bassi and Zirakpur will be the census charge officers. Dera Bassi BDPO will be additional census charge officer.

Census officials said the second and last round of population counting would be completed by February, 2011.

They added that they would cover 171 villages and two towns in the block. For the purpose, around 100 supervisors and over 600 enumerators have been assigned the work.

During the first round of census, house listing will be completed in which living standard and occupation will be included.

Population counting will be done in the second and last round, census officials added.

At Zirakpur, the first phase of census operations began this morning with the enumeration of MC president Narinder Kumar Sharma.

Census officials started their day at 9 am and got good response from residents. The official said it was the first day of the operations. The enumerators and supervisors visited their respective blocks.

The official said 15 wards had been divided into 202 blocks in which enumerators as well as 32 supervisors had been assigned the duties at block and village levels.

He said the teams, including one supervisor and six enumerators, would visit residences across the town to collect information about houses and also collect data about housing amenities and assets for assessing the conditions in human settlements.

However, Banur MLA Jasjit Singh Bunny, a resident of Chhat village as per the voting list, was out of station.

Bunny claimed that the census officials called him but he told them that he was out of station.

In Patiala, the first phase of Census 2011 officially kick-started in the district with ADC (development)-cum-district census officer APS Virk formally initiating the data collection process from Khalsa College Colony here today.

Virk said the first phase of the data collection would continue till June 15.

As many as 3,342 government employees had been deputed for the purpose and 561 supervisors would monitor the process.

Chandigarh, May 1
A local court today dismissed an appeal filed by Congress councillor and former Mayor Pradeep Chhabra regarding the eviction order of the business-cum-shopping arcade of Hotel Shivalikview at Sector 17 passed by the estate office.

The court dismissed the appeal on the ground that after issuing the notice for the stimulated time period, the caretaker of the premises can ask the tenant to vacate it anytime.

Pradeep had submitted to the court that he had a licence for running his business from the shopping arcade and he had spent Rs 7 lakh for its renovation.

The estate office had issued notice to all the occupants to vacate the premises stating that the same was required for reconstruction work notice under the Public Premises Act.