NEIGHBOURHOOD

Another youth drowns in flooded choe
Our Correspondent

Rain leaves villagers homeless
Our Correspondent

Bassi Pathana, July 7
While water has started receding in the town, normal life was thrown out of gear in its surrounding villages. Due to overflowing of water in Sirhind Choe and SYL canal, the rainy water had entered into the houses and thousands of acres of cultivated land has been flooded with rainwater and the paddy crop destroyed.

Flood-like situation has arisen in villages like Sehjadpur, Nand Pur Kalour, Badwala, Gopalon, Loolon, Jodhpur, Fatehpur Arian, Mahadian, Raipur Gujran and majority of villages falling in the Khera belt, which were 4 to 5 feet under water.

Residents of certain low lying villages have become homeless. There is acute shortage of fodder for cattle.

Deputy Commissioner Yashveer Mahajan, accompanied by SDM Ravinder Kumar and other officials, today visited the affected area. He said all departments concerned have been directed to immediately start the rescue measure. He said the police has also been directed to start 24-hour patrolling in rural areas.

Kharar, July 7
Jung Singh (60), a resident of Pannuan village, was killed owing to a land dispute here late Monday night. Acting on statements of the deceased’s son Balwinder Singh, the police has booked Jaspal Singh, Jasneet Singh, Bhagwant Singhad and Bachittar Singh from the same village in murder case.

He told the police that his mother was village panchayat member and was against the incumbent sarpanch. Issue of a piece of land in the village was under consideration with the office of district development and panchayat officer. Statements of Jung Singh’s wife were taken and the next hearing for this case was scheduled for July 13.

The accused started abusing Jung Singh around 10.30 pm on Monday when everyone in the house was about to sleep.

Jung Singh got out of the house and ran behind the accused. Before his family members could reach him, the accused had hit him with something and fled from the spot. Jung Singh fell down unconscious. He was taken to the civil hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

Chandigarh, July 7
Gaje Singh was appointed as clerk in Haryana against a vacancy for “dependant family members of deceased government employees”, though his father was neither dead, nor a government employee.

Holding that Gaje Singh’s case was not isolated and it was apparently a scam, Justice Daya Chaudhary today ordered judicial probe into the rip-off.

Pronouncing the orders in an open court, Justice Daya Chaudhary observed the seemingly big scam required thorough probe. As such, the matter be handed over to Punjab District and Sessions Judge-cum-Registrar (Vigilance) for thorough investigation.

Justice Chaudhary directed the Sessions Judge to submit his report within three months of receiving the documents; and asked the state of Haryana to hand over the relevant record, including the reports of previously conducted inquiries within 10 days. The case will now come up for further hearing on November 29.

As Gaje Singh’s plea for anticipatory bail in a cheating and forgery case came up for hearing, Justice Chaudhary observed he was medically examined even before he was issued appointment letter for clerk in the irrigation department. Elaborating, Justice Chaudhary observed Gaje Singh joined service on March 2, 2000, on the basis of appointment letter issued on the same day, while he got his medical examination done from Bhiwani civil hospital in February 2000. This made the story of his appointment on the basis of fake documents all the more suspicious. His father was alive at the time of appointment and was even now carrying out farming. Referring to a report by the sarpanch, Justice Chaudhary added he never in government job.

Justice Chaudhary added in the open court that it was not a case of single employee Gaje Singh, appointed as per the policy of ex-gratia appointment framed by the state government. There were several other similarly situated employees.

To make the matters worse, action had not been initiated against the officers responsible for issuing appointment letters and disbursing salary for sufficiently long period of seven and eight.

Justice Chaudhary also referred to the affidavit of Haryana principal secretary Urvashi Gulati on previous decision not to proceed against superintending engineers J.S. Ahlawat and M.K.Gupta, along with executive engineer B.S. Chand in matter. No reason was assigned behind the decision, Gulati had added.

Chandigarh, July 7
Declaring that telecom company Bharti Airtel has handled the complaint of a petitioner in an unprofessional manner, a lok adalat has told it to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation for changing the bill plan of a broadband connection without consent.

Referring to the company as unprofessional, it held, “We are convinced that the company has not exhibited a professional approach for consumer satisfaction and has harassed a consumer, for which she had to obtain the services of a counsel.”

The lok adalat stated, “The respondent has not been able to produce any document to corroborate its contentions that the change of plan was carried out as per verbal request made by the petitioner and had not replied to the legal notice served upon it.”

A resident of Sector 44, Satnam Kaur stated in the petition that she had subscribed for the broadband-cum-landline number 4621301, which was installed in 2007.

She had gone in for a plan whereby she received a bill of Rs 550 per month, including a rental of Rs 399, which she had been depositing regularly.

Since January, 2009, she had started receiving a bill with a monthly rental of Rs 524 per month instead of Rs 399. She kept paying the bill until she noticed the discrepancy in the bill for November, 2009.

On enquiry, a customer care executive disclosed that it had changed the plan and accordingly, charged Rs 524 per month. She argued that she had never requested for change of plan. She pursued the matter, but no action was taken.

She served a legal notice on the company on December 17 last, but it did not evoke a response. The telecom company refuted all charges and maintained that the change in plan was made on verbal request.

Chandigarh, July 7
The police yesterday arrested two persons, who allegedly robbed three women of gold ornaments using an airgun and a toy pistol on July 2.

UT SP (Traffic and Security) HS Doon said an airgun and a toy pistol, which were used in the robberies, along with a stolen car, three stolen motorcycles and gold ornaments, were recovered.

The police was on a lookout of jewellers at Sectors 22 and Sector 23 and Nayagaon, who had had been purchasing stolen ornaments from the accused.

The duo was identified as 22-year-old Ijlass Ali of Sector 15 and 26-year-old Vinod Kumar of Sector 33. They were produced in a local court today, which remanded them in five-day police custody. Two more members of the gang were yet to be apprehended.

According to the police, they used to target women during the night and early morning hours and rob them at gunpoint, always wearing helmets to conceal their faces.

They waylaid and robbed a woman at Sector 24, another near the Punjab Engineering College at Sector 11 and yet another at Khudda Ali Sher village on July 2.

The SHO of the Sector 11 police station, inspector Sukhbir Singh Rana, said a checkpoint was set up near the Himachal Sarai Bhawan at Sector 24 on the basis of information.

He said the duo was spotted on a black Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle and told to stop for checking. He added that they displayed a fake registration number on the motorcycle.

The police recovered an airgun and a toy pistol during their search. DSP (Central) Jagbir Singh said the duo disclosed during interrogation that it had stolen the motorcycle from Sector 17.

A Maruti car and two other stolen motorcycles were recovered from them, apart from three gold chains, four earrings and two noserings.

The DSP said the accused were habitual criminals and had twice been booked under the NDPS Act and in a case of assault. “More cases of robbery and snatching are likely to be solved following their sustained interrogation,” the DSP said.

Chandigarh, July 7
Chandigarh lad Deepinder Singh sailed into the semifinals of the HTA-AITA Men’s and Women’s Tournament-2010 at Harvest Academy in Jassowal (Ludhiana) here today.

He beat Haryana’s Suraj Benipal 7-6 (2), 6-7 (5), 7-5 in a nail-biting match.

The first two sets of the match, which lasted five hours, were decided through tie-breaker. The first set (7-6 (2)) was clinched by Deepinder, while he lost the next one by 6-7 (5).

In the decider, the 21-year-old held his nerves and won it 7-5 to set up semifinal clash with Vishwesh Sinha from Maharashtra. Deepinder is a final-year student of SGGS College, Sector 26, here.

In another quarterfinal match, unseeded Vishwesh Sinha beat fourth seed Shantanu Rajput of Delhi 6-0, 6-0, while in a major upset, second seed Bharat Bhardwaj of Haryana was ousted by eighth seed Prosonjit Paul of Jharkhand 6-2, 3-6, 3-6.

Today results: Men’s singles pre-quarterfinals: Arjun Singh (Dli) (6) b Digvijay Mehta (HP) (Q) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4; Gurinder Singh (Pb) (3) b Amardeep Singh Jaglan (Har) (Q) 7-6 (7-2), 6-2; Prosonjit Paul (Jha) (8) b Garry Singh Amor (Chd) (LL) 7-5, 7-6 (7-5); Bharat Bhardwaj (Har) (2) b Surya Pavan (AP) (Q) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.

Men’s singles quarterfinals: Vishwesh Sinha (Mah) (WC) b Shantanu Rajput (Dli) (4) 6-0, 6-0; Gurinder Singh (Pb) (3) b Arjun Singh (Dli) (6) 6-2, 6-1; Prosonjit Paul (Jha) (8) b Bharat Bhardwaj (Har) (2) 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Women’s singles quarterfinals: Shweta C Rana (HP) (1) b Shalaka Manjunath (Kar) 6-1, 6-2; Natasha Palha (Goa) (4) b Saadgi Rajani (Guj) 6-1, 6-3; Sharmada Balu (Kar) (WC) b Rajbir Kaur (Pb) 6-3, 6-0; Nupur Kaul (Mah) (2) b Ravnoor Kaur (Chd) (6) 6-3, 6-3.

Men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals: Rishab Dev (Pb) & Digvijay Singh Naruka (Chd) b Surya Pavan (AP) & Veera Vasanth Venkatesh (TN) (1) 5-4 (7-3), 5-4 (8-6); Rashein Samuel (Kar) & Kamal Surana (Kar) (Q) b Harpreet Singh Sidhu (Pb) & Bhavtaran Singh (Chd) 4-2, 4-1; Saurabh Patil (Mah) & Bharat Bhardwaj (Har) (3) b Garry Singh Amor (Chd) & Gourav (Chd) 5-4 (7-3), 4-2; Shantanu Rajput (Dli) & Kunal Anand (Dli) b Maninder Singh (Har) & Sagar Manjanna (Kar) 4-1, 5-3; Ajay Yadav (Chd) & Gurinder Singh (Pb) b V Pranav (Kar) & P Nitesh (Kar) (Q) 4-1, 4-2; Digvijay Mehta (HP) & Suraj Beniwal (Har) b Prosonjit Paul (Jha) & Advait N Sadwilkar (Mah) (4) 4-1, 4-1; Manav Dhawan (Pb) & Deepinder Singh Bains (Pb) b Hardeep Singh Sandhu (Pb) & Jajbir Singh (Pb) (WC) 4-0, 5-3; Pradeep K Reddy (AP) & Vishwesh Sinha (Mah) b Anshuman Dutta (Asm) & Farid Alam (WB) (2) 4-2, 5-4 (7-5).

Men’s doubles quarterfinals: Rishab Dev (Pb) & Digvijay Singh Naruka (Chd) b Rashein Samuel (Kar) & Kamal Surana (Kar) (Q) 6-3, 1-6, 12-10.

Women’s doubles quarterfinals: Rimpledeep Kaur (Pb) & Shweta C Rana (HP) b Saadgi Rajani (Guj) & Shruti Archita (Mah) (1) 6-2, 6-1; Bhuvna Kalva (AP) & Natasha Palha (Goa) b Nupur Kaul (Mah) & Sharmada Balu (Kar) 6-2, 6-3; Rajbir Kaur (Pb) & Gundeep Kaur (Pb) b Bhavika Wadhwan (Chd) & Priyanka Rawat (Utr) 4-6, 6-4, 10-8; A Lubna Mariam (TN) & Surya Tejaswani (AP) (2) b Dimpy Khirwar (UP) & Pooja Maurya (Pb) 6-1,6-3.

Women’s doubles semifinals: Rimpledeep Kaur (Pb) & Shweta C Rana (HP) b Bhuvna Kalva (AP) & Natasha Palha (Goa) 6-2, 7-5; Rajbir Kaur (Pb) & Gundeep Kaur (Pb) b A Lubna Mariam (TN) & Surya Tejaswani (AP) (2) 6-0,6-1.

Chandigarh, July 7
Continuing with their winning spree, Chandigarh demolished Vidarbha 10-0 in their second match of the 63rd Rangaswami Cup Senior National for Men’s Hockey Championship at Aishbagh Stadium in Bhopal here today.

The Chandigarh team dominated the proceedings throughout the match. Gaurav Tokhi opened the scoring for the team in the sixth minute.

Chandigarh players pushed the momentum further, giving little chance for their opponents to stage a comeback in the game.

With a goal each by Devinder Pal Singh, Deepanshu and Ramandeep Singh, the score read 4-0 in favour of Chandigarh at halftime.

The team pumped in six goals in the second half. Gaurav Tokhi, Harmanpreet and Ramandeep Singh netted two goals each, while Deepanshu, Inderjeet Singh, Dupinder Pal Singh and Gurjant scored one goal each.

Chandigarh earned five penalty corners in today’s match and converted two. Their opponents failed to capitalise on two penalty corners that came their way.

Talking to the TNS over the phone from Bhopal, team’s coach Mohan Singh Gill said: “With the second win in a row, the team is in high spirits. Our tomorrow’s match with Uttar Pradesh is crucial, as the win will sail us into the quarterfinals.” — TNS