NEIGHBOURHOOD

Armed robbers decamp with cash, jewellery
Hemant Kumar

Dera Bassi, June 3
New entry tax system imposed on various items from February 2010 by the Punjab government has caused inconvenience to truckers and businessmen at the Punjab-Haryana barrier, Jharmari.

Trucks laden with different items could cross the barrier after depositing the tax money only and the tax money could be in thousands and lakhs. The long lines of trucks at the Punjab-Haryana entry point had become a routine business because of the new entry tax system.

Tax collecting officials at the Punjab-Haryana barrier said the state government had imposed the entry tax from February 2010 on 12 items. The entry tax is being charged on different items from 2 to 12 per cent, as on yarn 4 per cent, iron 4 per cent, wheat flour 4 per cent, cement and marble tiles 12 per cent, lubricant oil 12 per cent, diesel 8 per cent, refined oil 4 per cent and on transformers 4 per cent.

Meanwhile, industrial association president Hardyal Singh Cheema suggested that to avoid the burden of truck drivers and industrialists, tax should be received by the government through monthly return.

Ambala, June 3
The State Election Commissioner Dharamvir yesterday organised a meeting of district administration in connection with the Panchayat poll arrangements.

He asked district administration to issue election notification scheduled for June 6 and 12 and said right of every individual for peaceful and undisturbed life should be respected.

He asked the returning officer to obtain signatures of candidates while allotting symbols and check drinking water at the polling booths. He said identity slips supplied by the candidates to voters should be on paper and must not contain any symbol or candidates’ name. He asked the authorities not to allow crowd to gather near polling booths.

Sameer Pal Srow, Ambala Deputy Commissioner, said the district which goes for the Panchayat poll on June 6, including Saha, Barara and Shehzadpur in the first phase, is all set for elections and measures have been taken to ensure smooth conduct.

He said on the day of polling no liquor should be offered to any person. KK Sindhu, Inspector General of Police, Ambala, said the police had already identified sensitive areas and the police would be deployed accordingly to ensure fair elections, he said.

Mohali, June 3
A three-month-old order of director, rural development and panchayats, to suspend seven members of Mullanpur Garib Dass panchayat has been stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The orders were passed after the affected panches took legal recourse alleging that they had been suspended as some other members were involved in selling village shamlat land.

Handing down the orders, Justice Ranjit Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court observed that dispute among the panchayat members appeared primarily due to valuable land under control of the panchayat.

The aim was apparently to control the land and then grab it. Action against the number of panches for not attending the meeting or not accepting the agenda was something unheard of. “Such an order could not have been made unless some influence was at play. Some high-up, having interest in the land, may be involved,” observed the court.

It may be mentioned that Mullanpur Garib Dass gram panchayat is keenly contesting the case of alleged wrong mutations of around 500 acres of shamlat land of the village in the Supreme Court.

The panches had been suspended acting on a complaint of Dewan Singh, sarpanch of the village gram panchayat. The panches who had been suspended were Niab Singh, Lal Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Paramjit Kaur, Kirna Devi, Ajnala Latava and Amarjit Kaur. The sarpanch had stated that they did not participate in a meeting called to check illegal cutting of wild grass on the village land.

On the other hand, the panches stated that on February 11, they had given in writing to the SHO, Mullanpur, seeking action against illegal sand quarrying and cutting of wild grass. They claimed that they had been suspended after they sought details to go through the expenditure and status of development grants from the sarpanch.

There are differences among the panchayat members over different issues. They pointed out that one of the sitting panchayat members was involved in selling the village shamlat land.

Chandigarh, June 3
The court of civil judge SK Sharma yesterday acquitted an accused of stealing a television set from a room at the Haryana MLA hostel, here.

The accused, Suresh Kumar, was arrested in March, 2008, when Karam Chand, husband of a former MLA, had alleged that he had stolen a TV set from his room at the hostel.

After the acquittal, Suresh Kumar said he had been working as cook for Karam Chand and the latter had falsely implicated him.

They were planning to file a defamation suit against Karam Chand, said Munish Dewan, the lawyer of the defendant.

Dewan said Karam Chand, in his complaint, had accused Suresh Kumar of theft. The television set was also recovered by the police from the storeroom of the hostel where Suresh Kumar had been staying. Suresh Kumar, however, in the court contested that the television set belonged to him and he had the cash memo in his name against the purchase of the set.

Karam Chand, on the other hand, claimed that the cash memo belonged to his relative belonging to Karnal, who was the namesake of his servant.

The relative, Suresh Kumar, however, denied the claims of Karam Chand before the court, said the lawyer of the servant, following which the court ordered the acquittal of the servant.

Chandigarh, June 3
The police arrested a Mohali resident for allegedly snatching articles from people in the jungle of Darua village. The Industrial Area police station had constituted a special jungle beat after the murder of two security guards there.

Police station SHO Dilsher Singh said a police team was on a lookout for a motorcyclist, involved in several incidents of snatching and robbery in the jungle.

He said the police had searched the jungle area and made it free from anti-social elements after the murders.

During the special patrol, the policemen learned about the activities of the suspect.

A police team spotted the suspect riding a motorcycle (PB 65 H 1709) and apprehended him after chasing him in the jungle.

The suspect has been identified as 38-year-old Darshan Singh, a resident of Saini Majra village.

Darshan told the police that he had snatched a mobile phone and money from a labourer on May 17.

He also told the investigating officials that he used to spend the money to lure women roaming in the jungle area after robbing people there.

The SHO said though the accused admitted to having committed several snatching and robberies in the city, not all incidents were reported to the police.

Mohali, June 3
After good batting, Patiala bowlers put the team in the driver’s seat against Ludhiana in the final of the Punjab State Inter-District U-22 Cricket Tournament at the PCA Stadium, here today.

From their overnight 346 for eight, the Patiala innings ended at 405 in 113.3 overs. Putting their best foot forward, Patiala bowlers restricted 179 for nine in 76 overs.

Preet Kamal remained unbeaten 147 to reach Patiala at 405, whereas Kunwar Raina and Amaninder Singh shared three-wicket each to make the team’s position strengthen in the match.

Earlier, the last night’s overcast conditions delayed the start of the second day’s play by 30 minutes.

After the start, Patiala lost their ninth wicket at 392 when Amaninder Singh was trapped in front by Deepak Bansal for 49 of 112. Amaninder and Preet Kamal carved out a valuable partnership of 96 runs for the ninth wicket. Preet Kamal’s unbeaten ton (147 n.o.) contained 18 boundaries and one six.

Ludhiana team missed their in-form medium pacer Baltej Singh, who was forced to sit out due to an injury.

For Ludhiana, Deepak Bansal was the most successful bowler, returned with three for 128. He was followed by Jashan Sidhu (two for 66) and Baltej Singh (two for 77).

Ludhiana started their innings on an average note with the openers, Sunny Pandey and Akhil Aggarwal stitching 38 runs partnership.

Rajwinder Golu trapped Akhil Aggarwal in front of the wickets when he was at 21. The next important partnership of 40 runs was carved out by Gagandeep Singh and Sunny Pandey.

Then Robin Dhillon had Sunny Pandey caught by Jeevanjot for 31 off 81.

With the wickets felling at regular interval, Ludhiana were tottering at 117 for five in 44.6 overs.

Skipper Varun Chitkara too, went on four. Bharat Malhotra finished as the highest scorer with his defiant knock of 50 runs.

At the close of the play, Ludhiana were at 179 for nine, still trailing by 226 runs in the first innings.

Score

Patiala (1st Innings): 405 for all in 111.3 overs (Preet Kamal 147 n.o., Robin Dhillon 45, Vikramdit 25, Kunwar Raina 24, Himanshu Chawla 22, Mohit Mohindra 28, Amaninder Singh 49, Deepak Bansal three for 128, Baltez Singh two for 77, Bharat Malhotra one for 26, Jashan Sidhu two for 66, Gagandeep one for 41 and Rahul Singla one for 63).

Ludhiana (1st Innings): 179 for nine in 76 overs (Bharat Malhotra 50, Sunny Pandey 31, Gagandeep 30, Akhil Aggarwal 21, Kunwar Raina three for 23, Amaninder Singh three for 27, Robin Dhillon teo for 43, Rajwinder Gollu one for 31).

Panchkula, June 3
Showing the door to the Chandigarh team, Haryana moved into the semifinals of the Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda All-India Under-17 Surya Cup Cricket Tournament played at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium, Sector 3, here today.

Haryana scored an eight-wicket convincing victory over Chandigarh.

After winning the toss and elected to bat first, the Chandigarh batsmen were all out on 97 runs for seven in the allotted 20 overs.

Except Chetan (24) and Aman (22 not out), no batsmen from the city team could reach the double figure.

Ajay Duhan was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets for 10 runs.

In reply, Haryana overhauled the target making 99 for two in just 10.1 overs.

Gaurav Tandon was the highest scorer with unbeaten 47 runs.

Brief score:

Chandigarh: 97 for 7 in 20 overs (Chetan 24, Aman 22 n o, Sumit 2 for 26, Ajay Duhan 2 for 10).

Haryana: 99 for 2 in 10.1 overs (Gaurav Tandon 47 n o, Ajay Duhan 28, Aatish 1 for 17).

In another nail biting match, Punjab registered sensational win over Maharashtra in a sudden death.

Both teams scored 151 runs each in the allotted quota of 20 overs. In the super over, again both teams scored the same number of runs. The decision came in the sudden death when Piyush Arora of Punjab managed to snap wicket first.

Brief score:

Punjab: 151 all out in 18 overs (Madhur 62, Yash 17, Lokesh 15, Aakash 2 for 18, Tushar 2 for 23).

Maharashtra: 151 all out in 18 overs (Pankaj 37, Rushikesh 24, Varun 3 for 33, Piyush Arora 2 for 13).

In their quarterfinal tie, the Punjab team defeated Jharkhand by 27 runs to move into the semifinals.

Brief score:

Punjab: 148 for 8 in 20 overs (Madhur 29, Lokesh 28, Yash 26, Shadab 2 for 23, Prem Dhaliwal 2 for 24)

Jharkhand: 115 all out in 19.3 overs (Aryat Ahmed 42, Sanjeet Malik 22, Piyush Arora 2 for 7, Yash 2 for 36).

In the fourth quarterfinal, the Federation XI recorded a thumping victory over Maharashtra by 14 runs.

Brief score:

Federation XI: 119 for 8 in 20 overs (Anuj 44, Mohit Rana 12, Ashish 3 for 12, Chetan 1 for 24).

Maharashtra: 105 all out in 17 overs (Ashish 49, Animesh 4 for 19, Anuj 2 for 26).

The Sri Lankan team was scratched when one of their players was found to be over aged.

As a result, the team was disqualified and Tamil Nadu gained entry to the semifinals.

Ambala, June 3
The Ambala junior karate team won five gold, one silver and seven bronze medals in the 26th All-India Karate Championship held at Manali from May 27 to 31.

The tournament was organised by Sito Rio Karate School of India.

As many as 650 students from 20 states participated.

The Ambala karate team won five gold medals, including Nirban Singh (Army Public School), Kritik Sharma (Lord Mahavira Jain School), Sapna Dasoni and Rahul Kumar both from (Army Public School),Gurmail Singh (S D Public School) and Ishita Sharma won bronze medal from (Cecil Convent School).

Meanwhile, Delhi junior karate teams won 11 gold, two silver and three bronze medals. Jakie Chain distributed prizes and trophies to the winners.

Brahm Pal Rana and Subhash Sharma, president and chairman of the Ambala District Karate-Do Sports Association lauded the efforts of Sawraj Saini and Hemant Sharma, instructor and chief instructor of the Ambala District Karate Association.

Gujarat got first position, Rajasthan second and Haryana was placed third in the championship.

Chandigarh, June 3
Overnight leader Rajiv Kumar Jatiwal of Chandigarh could muster a poor six over par 78 card on the final day to finish tied sixth at six over 222 in the PGTI Feeder Tour event at Noida today.

He finished four strokes behind Shaurya Singh of the Army Golf Course, Delhi Cantonment, who clinched the title with a final day card of one over 73.

Manoj Kumar of Lucknow occupied the second slot at three over 219.

Sudhir Sharma of Meerut finished third at four over 220, while Pradeep Kumar of Noida and Karanjit Singh Sandhu of the DLF Golf & Country Club, Gurgaon, shared the fourth place with identical totals of five over 221.

Chandigarh’s Dayal Singh shared the eighth slot with Jalandhar’s Balwinder Singh Mattu at eight over 224.

But the limelight on the final day was stolen by Amritsar's Rajesh Pal, who fired a hole-in-one on the par-three fifth hole. He finished tied 24th at 14 over 230.