Chandigarh, May 21
Three employees of a tavern adjoining a liquor vend in Sector 52 were brutally hacked with a butcher’s knife by a colleague in the wee hours of the morning today. According to the police, following a violent dispute Karan, a Burail resident, attacked the three men in their faces, rendering them blind. They were admitted to PGI where their condition is stated to be critical.

Karan, who is said to hail from Nepal and was working as a cook in the tavern, is absconding.

The victims, all in their mid forties, have been identified as Sansar Chand, Rajinder alias Pappu, and Bharat Bhushan. While Bhushan had joined the liquor vend recently the others had been working there for over a decade, the police said.

The entire tavern, where the victims used to sleep at night presented a gory sight with blood splattered all around. Pools of coagulated blood were found at three places where the victims had laid down their bedding, indicating they were attacked when they were in deep slumber.

It was obvious that the victims, who were blinded in the attack, struggled to find their way out of the tavern. The walls, refrigerators and doors of the kitchen adjoining the tavern had blood spots on them, suggesting the victims stumbled into them when they tried to find their way out.

The police said a few days ago Karan got into a dispute with Chand, in which Bhushan and Pappu backed the latter. Karan got annoyed and decided to teach the trio a lesson.

Bhushan told the police Karan told them last night he wanted to stay with them. After a while he went away and returned at about 12:45 am. Rajinder opened the door to him and all four then drank liquor together. They then went to sleep while Karan was still drinking. He (Rajinder) woke up only when he was attacked.

Bhushan was the first one who managed to come out of the place at around 3 am. He reportedly crawled towards the nearby Sectors 43, 44, 51 and 52 rotary, where some passersby, seeing him severely wounded and bleeding profusely, informed the police. A police control room vehicle rushed Bhushan to Government Multispecialty Hospital, Sector 16 from where he was referred to PGI.

When a carpenter came to the tavern at about 8 am for some repair work he noticed the two other victims lying inside in a pool of blood. He promptly informed the liquor vend owner, Satish Gupta, who arrived there and called up the cops, who took the victims to PGI.

A forensic team of the Chandigarh police later arrived at the crime scene and picked up some fingerprints, also recovering the bloodstained butcher’s knife used in the attack.

Employees working at the tavern said there were six waiters, four cooks and one dishwasher employed there. Rajinder and Bhushan were working as the tavern’s ‘managers’ while Chand was a cook. They said their police verification was never conducted and the cops today note down their names and addresses.

DSP (South) Vijay Kumar said a case of attempt to murder had been registered against Karan on the basis of a statement recorded by Bhushan. “We will also take action against the liquor vend owner for violating prohibitory orders under section 188 of the IPC for not getting his employees verified with the police”, he added.

Chandigarh, May 21
A district-level general secretary of the Congress, accompanied by his brother, exchanged blows and hit bottles in a free-for-all wrestling bout with staff of the DPI (Punjab) on the stairs of the office in Sector 17 here today.

The visiting brothers alleged that officials in the DPI office had been harassing them for over a couple of months by delaying a reply to a leave application of a brother’s wife.

Darshan Singh, general secretary of Congress from Bathinda, said he had come with his brother Gurtej Singh to the DPI office to ask the officials concerned about the reasons for delay in clearing the application filed by Gurtej’s wife Amarajit Kaur, who is a schoolteacher. She had applied for a leave in connection with her tour abroad.

Sources said the incident took place around 1 pm when both brothers got agitated and had a verbal duel with senior assistant Parminder Singh, which took a bloody turn. They had a clash on the second floor on the stairs near canteen.

Darshan alleged that Parminder Singh picked up a bottle of a soft drink and hurled it on his brother, hitting his head. Gurtej was injured and he also suffered bruises while he tried to overpower Parminder Singh. Parminder, on the other hand, alleged that the duo assaulted him and when Darshan tried to hurl a bottle on him, he ducked and the same hit Gurtej.

The police was informed about the incident, which took both parties to the Neelam police post in Sector 17.

Both parties were taken to the Sector 16 Government Multi Specialty Hospital for medical examination, where stitches were administered to Gurtej Singh.

Hours later, when contacted for comments, both parties said the matter had ended in a compromise. The SHO of the Sector 17 police station, Inspector Jaswinder Singh, said they had resolved the matter amicably.

Chandigarh, May 21
The ICSE Class X tricity topper status of Agam Bedi, a student of YPS, Mohali, has come under a scanner with other schools accusing the YPS of having flouted the ICSE norms to calculate his aggregate percentage.

Agam had been declared topper when the YPS claimed that he had an aggregate percentage of 96.5 as compared to Saloni Goel of Little Flower School with 96.28 per cent.

However, within just two days of him having enjoyed his five minutes of fame, the ICSE affiliated schools from the tricity have accused the YPS of distorting the aggregate percentage.

“It’s not the YPS student but our student Saloni Goel who has topped in the tricity. Aggregate percentage is calculated by taking all seven subjects into account but the YPS has manipulated Agam’s aggregate by taking six subjects and avoiding English in which he score just 80 marks,” claimed a teacher of Little Flower Convent School, Panchkula.

Vikrant Suri, director, Tender Hearts School, accused the YPS authorities of breaching public trust. “They not only calculated aggregate out of six subjects but also ignored English which is a mandatory subject,” he said.

Saloni, meanwhile, is disappointed over not getting the due recognition of her feat. “I am the tricity topper and not Agam. Even if you take the best of six subjects into consideration, which includes English, I would still score more than him,” she said.

Chandigarh, May 21
Panjab University (PU) is baffled at the entry ‘not absent, not present’ by centre superintendents at various examination centres during the annual examination for the current session.

The examination department has confirmed the peculiar entry in attendance sheets at different examination centres in the city as well Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana districts.

Confirming this, AK Bhandari, Controller of Examination, said the remark had been entered in attendance sheets against the names of a large number of students who were absent from that particular centre.

This situation had arisen because certain students were not appearing at the centres allotted by the university. The examination branch was in a fix to figure out how marks of such students had appeared.

The superintendents concerned could be summoned to the university to explain as to how marks of students were shown in the gazette.

The other superintendents could have to explain as to why they had allowed students not listed at the centres to appear.

Superintendents at other stations did not want to fall into the trap of long-drawn enquiries and travelling to Chandigarh from their respective towns.

Certain teachers argued that the recent enquiry marked by the university into the case of swapping of examination centre by Panjab University Students Union leader Simrajit Singh Dhillon had created fear of taking up examination duties among teachers.

“There have been cases of students appearing at other examination centres. The teacher on examination duty tries to safeguard his position and leaves it to the university to figure out if the student appears at any other centre. Out of compulsion, the university has to declare results since students involve the university in legal battles,” said a PU official.

“The primary reason for this attitude is the fear of facing the wrath of the university in cases when the teachers are not at fault. The recent case of a teacher being attacked brutally by a student for lack of communication from the university is an example,” said Dr Iqbal Singh Sandhu of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teacher Union.

Chandigarh, May 21
The garbage processing plant at Dadu Majra here, managed by Jai Parkash Associates, attracted the ire of muncipal councillors today.

After a debate for more than one hour at the House meeting on the stink emanating from the plant and the garbage dumping ground, the House directed Municipal Commissioner Roshan Sunkaria to talk to the company to take remedial measures and submit a report within two months.

Sunkaria said the plant was not fully functional and the machinery installed there was not conforming to the detailed project report.

The company had cut the garbage processing procedure to cut its cost on the plant, which was not only causing the smell, but left the corporation with a small portion of land at the dumping ground within two years, though it was meant for 85 years, he said.

The Commissioner said the security of the company had been forfeited for violating the agreement and sought suggestions from the House on the administrative action to be taken in this regard.

This was revealed by the Commissioner after councillor Manjit Chauhan said the House had failed to take any steps to get rid of the smell and Mayor Anu Chatrath asked the Commissioner to clear the air.

Dadu Majra councillor and former Mayor Kamlesh said the non-functional plant had forced residents of Dadu Majra to live in filthy conditions, causing skin problems and eye ailments.

On the other hand, Brig RS Sahota (retd), vice-president of Jai Parkash Associates, refuted the allegations and said a committee set up by the Finance Secretary had pointed out that the reason for the foul smell was irregular lifting of garbage from the city.

The plant had been reporting meat waste, dead animals and unfit garbage to officials concerned till date, but nothing had been done, he said.

The corporation was supposed to compost inerts and rejects from the plant, which was not done, he added.

Chandigarh, May 21
The Chandigarh Police is groping in dark to establish the identity of four persons who allegedly shot at a businessman outside his residence at Mani Majra last night.

The police said the victim was operated upon last night and his condition is stable. Describing the condition of the victim, a police official said that Lalit was talking to them when they were shifting him from a private hospital in Panchkula to the PGI. He was asking for water. Lalit could not describe anything substantial about the robbers, he said.

The SHO of the Mani Majra police station inspector Partap Singh said they had not been able to get any clue in the case so far to establish the identity the robbers. He said teams had been constituted for the purpose and they were scrutinising the list of the suspects.

Sources said that after the robbery in Mani Majra last night, four persons snatched a Mahindra Scorpio in Mohali at gunpoint. Both the Mohali and the Chandigarh Police reached the spot. Inspector Partap Singh said they were in touch with the Mohali police.

The SHO said that according to the eyewitnesses, three persons attacked Lalit Gupta while those who snatched the Scorpio were four. He, however, added that it could be possible that their fourth accomplice might be sitting in some vehicle nearby.

Chandigarh, May 21
Obtaining a passport will no longer be tedious process as the Ministry of External Affairs has launched the Passport Seva Project.

A part of the service has already been outsourced to the IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which bagged the project in an open tendering bid. However, the sovereign final authority to issue the passport remains with the government only.

According to a release circulated by the Ministry of External Affairs to the media here today, the issuing of the passport has been made simple and convenient with a minimum waiting period. A total of 77 Passport Service Kendras (PSK) are being set up across the country depending on the number of regions from a particular area.

Spelling out the vision of the project, the release said, it aimed to deliver all the passport-related services in a timely, transparent, accessible and reliable manner through a streamlined process and committed, trained and motivated workforce.

A pilot Passport Service Kendra at Chandigarh will be opened soon, the release mentioned. The main objective of the project is to ensure that there is on an average of 45-minute waiting period in decent and comfortable conditions for citizens for submission of applications. The waiting time will be less than half-an-hour for those applicants who register themselves online.

The project will include extensive training for staff for the purpose of the availability of online services such as fixing appointments for applicants coming to file their applications to the PSKs and to end tracking of applications by the citizens. Effective information system is also being put into place which includes three national call centres and grievance redressal system for the status of application via SMS.

However, the government employees will continue to perform sovereign and sensitive functions such as granting, printing, dispatch of passports, overall monitoring and policy issues.

The project also addresses all the possible security concerns not only relating to data security but also individual security. The system will eliminate leakage or modification of the database. The selected service provider will have to comply with security provisions at all the three key levels.

Chandigarh, May 21
With the repatriation of Information Technology (IT) Director and Director Public Relations (DPR) MS Brar to his parent cadre of Punjab, a major reshuffle in the UT administration is on the cards.

Since MM Sabharwal, who is replacing Brar, is a comparatively junior-level officer, he may not be entrusted with the charges held by Brar, thus, necessitating a reshuffle in the administration.

Besides, IT Director and DPR, Brar also holds the charge of Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner.

Official sources indicated that the three important charges held by Brar might be distributed to other senior PCS and HCS officers, as the new incumbent would take some time to adjust in the new working environment of the UT administration.

With land allotment at the IT Park under scanner of various agencies, the administration cannot afford to entrust a junior-level officer with the responsibilities of IT Director and DPR, say sources.

Anyway a reshuffle is long overdue in the administration, which is facing “official crunch” due to the reluctance of PCS and HCS officers to join the administration in the backdrop of the controversies surrounding the much-touted mega projects.

To deal with the crunch, the Haryana government recently amended the HCS (Executive Branch) Rules, 2008, under which the consent of the officer was not required for posting in the UT administration.

Usually the posts of the IT Director, DPR and the Director Tourism had been handled by HCS officers.

According to sources, the administration is expecting a couple of officers from Haryana and the reshuffle will take place following the posting of HCS officers in the union territory.

At present, certain officials are “overburdened”, as they are handling several public dealing departments, while others have light work to do. The reshuffle will restore the balance in the discharge of official duties by various HCS/PCS officials.

Chandigarh, May 21
Shalini Dhillon might have seen the Bollywood hit ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’ and in all likelihood shed a tear or two during the emotional scene when the protagonist vociferously objects to a doctor treating a comatose patient (Anand Bhai) as a ‘subject’ and not as a human being. Her tears would have probably given way to a smile upon seeing Munna Bhai’s sidekick, Circuit, walking into the hospital with the ‘mast’ bed for Anand Bhai so that his prolonged stay in the hospital did not “put pressure on the resources” there.

However, even in her wildest dreams, Shalini, 32, a resident of Mohali, would not have ever imagined finding herself in Anand Bhai’s shoes one day and being meted out the same treatment by doctors who are meant to be compassionate while being professionals.

After sustaining serious head injuries in an accident on Monday, Shalini has been lying unconscious in PGI’s surgical ward (neuro) in a precarious condition with doctors adamant on discharging her. They feel her recovery, if at all, could be a long drawn process and thus be a burden on the hospital’s resources.

Though there is no Munna Bhai by her side, her harassed husband, Mukesh, has taken up the cudgels for her and is opposing the doctors’ move to discharge her. “She was admitted to the hospital’s emergency ward on Monday and operated upon the same day for head injuries. But from the very next day the doctors began asking me to take her home as her recovery could take as long as six month,” he said.

When this reporter visited the hospital today, Shalini was lying unconscious. Though she made some violent movements she was not in her senses and was not responding to anything.

When asked the doctor on duty in ward 3 said she was stable and did not have fever. And then he went on to say: “Her condition might improve after six months or even a year. I can’t say for sure when she will recover completely as many areas of her brain are damaged. She has been kept under observation for quite some time and we can’t keep her here any longer as this is a tertiary care hospital”.

“So what does one do?” asked an agitated Mukesh. “Her condition is serious and the chances of infection are still high. She is unconscious and rarely opens her eyes,’’ he said, adding his repeated requests to hospital officials to stay here had yielded no results as the doctors were bent upon not keeping her there.

Though Mukesh is desperately looking for other options he fails to understand why the hospital authorities are so adamant in discharging his wife. “She can be kept for a few more days or at least till the time we make other arrangements in some other hospital,” he said.

The accident and events that have unfolded thereafter have turned Mukesh’s life upside down. His business in Sector 17 is now neglected as he runs from morning till evening trying to find a solution to this problem.

When contacted Dr KK Mukherjee of PGI’s neurosurgery department said, “I cannot make any comment on the matter. Let me verify the details first”.

Chandigarh, May 21
Traffic will remain diverted on certain stretches of roads approaching the Cricket stadium chowk from tomorrow.

According to a release issued here today, traffic will be diverted from the small chowk near Gurdial Singh petrol pump to the cricket stadium chowk (Sectors 16, 17, 22 and 23). The traffic will also be diverted from the Kisan Bhawan chowk to the Cricket Stadium Chowk.

Besides, traffic will also be diverted from small chowk of Sector 16 and 23 to the cricket stadium chowk. There will also be diversion from the traffic light point of Sectors 16-17 to the cricket stadium chowk.

All buses coming from Haryana, Punjab, and other places to the ISBT-17 will be diverted from the Kisan Bhawan chowk to the Piccadily chowk and then on road between Sector 21 and 22 to the bus stand chowk to small chowk between Sectors 17 and 22 before going to the ISBT-17.

Small vehicles, including cars and scooters, will also not enter the cricket stadium chowk from 9 pm to 6 am. However, small vehicles will be allowed to ply around the cricket stadium chowk from 6 am to 9 pm from May 22 to May 26.

Chandigarh, May 21
Providing relief to HC Gera, biologist-cum-anti-malaria officer, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) today put a stay on his demotion for the post of anti-malaria officer.

Just 12 days before his retirement on May 31 this year, he was reverted to his earlier post on the grounds that he had allegedly manipulated his continuance on the promoted post. The UT administration had passed the orders on May 18.

Gera was appointed biologist-cum-anti malaria officer in the office of Assistant Director Malaria in 1985 and was about to retire on May 31.

Filing a petition against the order passed by UT Administration, Gera (58) submitted to the tribunal that he was appointed as assistant entomologist (AE) in 1977. The post of AE was changed to entomologist-cum-parasitalogist (ECP) in 1982. Gera mentioned that for the first time he was promoted as biologist-cum-anti malaria officer on an ad hoc basis in 1984 for six months, which was further extended for another six months. He claimed that the administration did not take any steps to frame new rules to fill the post and all his promotions were done as per the existing requirements.

Gera claimed that it was in the knowledge of the administration that he was continuing on an ad hoc basis and was yet to be regularised. He affirmed that neither the post had been filled nor the regular selection had been made.

Gera prayed to the tribunal that his order of demotion be declared illegal and in violation of principles of natural justice and he should be entitled to continue on the promoted post and further entitled to pensionary benefits in the promoted post.

Mohali, May 21
Eight blood transportation vans were flagged off by Punjab Health Minister Prof Laxmi Kanta Chawla from the local Civil Hospital here today.

The aim of providing these vans is to transport blood by storing it in refrigerated boxes installed in the vehicles, so that the quality of blood remains intact.

Each van has a capacity of transporting 192 units of blood. These vans will transport blood from the mother banks to blood storage centres and also from the sites, where voluntary blood donation camps are held.

These vans have been given to eight districts-Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Ropar, Bathinda and Ferozepur. A camp was also organised where employees of the health department donated 96 units of blood.

Chawla said that improvement had been done in health services over the past three years but a lot more still needed to be done.

When asked about the face-off she had with former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Jagdish Sahni, the minister said Sahni had alleged that she owned 16 acres of land in Haridwar, but he should have told her about the location of the land, as she was not aware of it.

She said she did not know that the ultrasound centres were being run by relatives of Sahni in Batala. A complaint was received, on the basis of which, inspections were done and it was found that illegal activities were going on there.

Chandigarh, May 21
Fulfilling the last wish of her wife, Manohar Lal Dewan donated body of Raj Rani (94), who died on May 19, to the anatomy department of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here today.

Her body will be used for research and teaching purposes, said anatomy department officials. Director PGIMER and the department of anatomy are grateful to Manohar Lal for donating the body to the PGI. — TNS

Panchkula, May 21
About 501 couples from the economically weaker sections of society tied the nuptial knot at the Sector 5 parade ground. The function was organised by Surinder Chaudhary Memorial Club (SCMC) to mark the martyrdom day of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The SCMC had also organised “langar” (community kitchen) for people coming from various parts of the district to participate in the ceremony. The couples were also given sewing machines, bicycles, nose rings and anklets.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda also paid rich tributes to late Rajiv Gandhi.

Earlier lauding the efforts of SCMC for organising mass marriages, Governor Jagannath Pahadia said the dreams of former Prime Minister had been achieved as women were in the forefront in every field.