Mohali, July 14
The man who posed as the political adviser to the Prime Minister and was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police had earlier befooled the Mohali police, which provided him a security cover. The Kharar MLA was also taken for a ride as he honoured the impostor during his visit to the town three days back.

A resident of Delhi, Manmohan Singh came to Mohali on July 11 escorted by a police Gypsy amid security arrangements to meet a cloth merchant, RK Goyal. He was accompanied by a number of people and they reached Phase III B2 in four cars.

Chandigarh, July 14
The proposed subways along Dakshin Marg, Madhya Marg and other roads and an overbridge aimed at tackling the increasing traffic problem on city roads is soon going to be a reality as the Central government has sanctioned Rs 15 crore for the same under the Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Sources said the UT administration had already appointed a Delhi-based engineering consultancy agency for the purpose at Rs 50 lakh. The agency is expected to submit a detailed project report (DPR) within three months and the work on the project is likely to begin by the year-end.

The proposed subways and an overbridge at the Mauli Jagran crossing before the Housing Board Chowk will be connected with the upcoming underpasses. As per the proposal, the first subway will come up near the Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT) at Sector 43.

Chandigarh, July 14
Awareness regarding pledging of bodies for the welfare of humanity seems to be percolating to the lower strata of society as the PGI has received a similar pledge from a 70-year-old domestic help recently.

Reeta Mairikrux

The donor is Reeta Mairikrux, living with a Sector-36 based family. She was inspired by Jyoti Basu, who died on January 17, said Nishi Chaudhary, the employer.

Reeta was looking after his 90-year-old mother for the last 10 years, said Nishi, who settled here after retiring from her tea plantation job in West Bengal.

“I had heard of Basu on television, whose body was taken to hospital for research as per his desire,” said Reeta, holding the documents relating to her pledge.

“Then there was an appeal on the radio about body donation and I decided to pledge my body. I contacted the PGI authorities and completed the formalities. Now I am satisfied that my body will be of help to mankind,” she said.

She was so enthusiastic to pledge her body that she visited the PGI several times, spending the money from her pocket for going by rickshaw, said Nishi.

As she was not educated, it took her at least five times to visit the PGI to complete the formalities, he said.

The head of anatomy department, Dr Daisy Sahni, said there was a good response to their appeals for the purpose and till now, 735 persons had pledged their bodies at the PGI.

Chandigarh, July 14
Two unidentified youths duped a woman of her jewellery on the pretext of polishing her ornaments at her Sector 52 residence here today.

The complainant, Jaspal Kaur (35), alleged that two youths, claming to be distributors of special powder to clean metal, came to her residence. They gave her demonstration by cleaning some utensils and offered to clean her jewellery. Convinced, she gave them her gold chain and a ring. The swindlers put chain and ring in a pressure cooker and asked her to bring it’s lid. On coming back, she found the youth missing with her ornaments. — TNS

Ambala, July 14
More than 100 flood victims have been treated for skin problems in Cantonment, Mulana, and Saha where crowded hospitals are bracing for an influx of patients, sources said here yesterday.

The area was hit by floods where a large part of the district was submerged. Thousands of villagers were forced to abandon their inundated homes.

A senior doctor of the local hospital said here that there were 20 cases of diarrhoea were reported yesterday. Four people were infected with water-borne diseases. Most of the diarrhoea patients were children and infants.

Sameer Pal Srow, Deputy Commissioner, said all medical officers had been asked to be vigilant and keep a track on fever and diarrhoea cases in their respective areas. He said special teams had already been deployed for distribution of chlorine tablets in vulnerable areas.

A team of doctors was sent in these areas to assess the flood relief and rehabilitation programme. They also visited various relief camps in the flood-affected areas of the district, including Janetpur, Sadopur, Kakru, Naggal, Khera, Jansui and other parts of the Cantonment. The team also went to interior villages that were flooded in the district.

The teams constituted by the Deputy Commissioner visited the affected areas that are either too far or badly connected by roads. In many villages that they visited, basic amenities like a primary health centre or chlorine tablets for disinfecting drinking water were not available.

Senior Medical Officer (SMO) of the Civil Hospital said all cases reported from various dispensaries and hospitals were being investigated. Common complaints encountered were fever, cough, loose motions, skin diseases, he added.

Among the116 patients that were seen in Samlehri, Khudda and Kardhan villages, there were 34 cases of fever with cough and cold, 20 with loose motions, 12 with skin infections and 50 with miscellaneous complaints like weakness, generalised body ache, and headache, the sources added.

Ambala, July 14
The Haryana government has provided free water connections to 8.73 lakh households belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the state at a cost of Rs 377 crore under a special scheme called “Indira Gandhi Drinking Water Scheme”, which was initially launched in November 2006.

According to information, out of the total water connections provided so far to the SCs’ households, 7.48 lakh are in rural areas and 1.25 lakh in urban areas. During the current financial year, 98,000 water connections (72,000 in rural areas and 26,000 in urban areas) will be provided to the SCs’ households at a cost of Rs 30 crore. Till date, 9,100 water connections have already been provided during the current financial year, he added.

Chandigarh, July 14
There was high drama at the Sector 31 police station when a transporter alleged that State Transport Authority (STA) officials wrongly impounded his tipper loaded with gravel for overloading and later filled it with gravel to legitimise their action.

The transporter, identified as Surjit Singh, further alleged that all this happened in connivance with personnel at the Sector 31 police station, where the tipper was parked.

Surjit Singh said his tipper (HR68-0722), loaded with gravel and being driven by Rajbir Singh, was stopped by STA officials near Hallo Majra on Sunday morning. The STA official stated that the vehicle was loaded to six tonnes and a penalty of Rs 8,000 was imposed. Being a Sunday, no official was available at the STA office. The next day, nobody bothered to listen to them as STA Secretary Vandna Disodia was on leave, Surjit alleged. He claimed that Disodia gave them a hearing on Tuesday.

She ordered the weighing of the tipper, but instead of sending a neutral person, the official who issued the challan was asked to weigh the vehicle, alleged Surjit.

The tipper was weighed at Phase I, Industrial Area, and was found weighing 40 kg over the permissible limits, claimed Surjit. He alleged that officials refused to hand over the receipt and details of weighing to him.

Following this, while the STA Secretary failed to take any action against the officials, they started threatening him of dire consequences and he approached the Home Secretary, who asked the STA to inquire into the matter.

After meeting the Home Secretary, Surjit reached the police station at Sector 31 along with some of his friends and relatives. He claimed that the tipper was found loaded with gravel upto the brim while this was not the case when it was parked on Sunday.

Half of it was empty even on Tuesday, when it was weighed, he claimed. STA officials had filled the tipper with gravel to save their skin, he alleged.

On the other hand, the head munshi of the police station, Mahender Pal, claimed that the key of the tipper was handed over to him on Monday morning by the munshi on night duty, but he did not find the tipper at the police station while taking custody of impounded vehicles.

A few hours later, the tipper was found parked at the police station, he said, but failed to answer as to how the tipper was removed from police station.

Chandigarh, July 14
In the garb of social meetings, the Youth Congress will conduct elections at two community centres of the municipal corporation (MC), which is against norms. As per rules of community centres, those cannot be booked by any political party for functions or elections.

The Youth Congress has booked a community centre at Sector 30 and another at Pocket 7, Mani Majra, for holding elections, scheduled for July 15 and 16.

Sources in the corporation stated that the community centres had been booked by the Youth Congress for social meetings. An official said they had no information about elections there.

Chandigarh Youth Congress returning officer Anirudh said four venues, Rajiv Bhawan at Sector 35, Punjab Congress Bhawan at Sector 15 and the two community centres, had been finalised for elections. He said they would elect ward body members. He said 450 nominations had been filed and they would elect about 250 members.

The MC official in charge of community centres, Varinder Salgotra, said that he had no information about Youth Congress elections at the community centres.

He said tomorrow, they would check the purpose for which party had booked the centres, and if found that any election was being conducted, the department would get the community centres vacated and security forfeited.

Chandigarh, July 14
Despite sending six or seven reminders to the deputy commissioner’s office for recovery of compensation granted by a consumer court the former has made no effort to resolve the matter.

The complainants, who were awarded compensation by the consumer court the opposite party failed to comply with its orders, filed executions under section 25 of the Consumer Protection Act. Subsequently, the consumer court issued certificates that were sent to the DC’s office.

Thus it appears section 25 of the Consumer Protection Act has virtually become “ineffective.” Commenting on it, the president of one of the district consumer disputes redressal forums, Jagroop Singh Mahal, said: “I don’t think there has been any cooperation by the DC’s office on recovery of the compensation awarded by consumer courts. We just keep on sending reminders to them.”

Till June 2010 there were 29 executions pending with the consumer courts wherein the latter has alerted the DC’s office for effecting recovery of compensation. In one of the executions filed on April 30, 2007 against Berkely a consumer court had sent a certificate on March 23, 2009 to the Panchkula DC. However, the complainant is still waiting to get the compensation.

In 2009 the consumer courts again kept sending reminders. Around seven executions were pending in 2009 in which two to four reminders were sent but no recovery was effected.

In 2008 a complainant, Soma Devi, had filed the execution on March 13, 2008 and court had sent at least reminders but there was no positive response. In two other cases of 2008 reminders were sent six times.

According to the procedure when the opposite party fails to deposit the compensation amount, the petitioner files an execution for compliance of court orders. After this the forum issues a certificate to the DC’s office wherein the consumer courts seeks recovery of compensation amount from them. If the compensation amount is recovered by the DC’s office the execution is dismissed.

However, in most of the executions filed the consumer courts just keep sending reminders time and again requesting the official concerned but usually no recovery is made.

Chandigarh, July 14
The UT Inspector-General of Police (IGP), PK Srivastva, today promoted head constable Des Raj to assistant sub-inspector for being instrumental in arresting over 500 proclaimed offenders during a function at the Multipurpose Hall, Police Lines, Sector 26. According to a press note, Des Raj was promoted on ad hoc basis in recognition of his performance.

The IGP awarded first-class commendation certificates to HC Sita Ram for donating blood 70 times and Kailash Chand and home guard volunteer Rishi Pal for their performance last month.

The IGP also awarded constable Naresh Kumar a first-class commendation certificate for achieving third position in a scientific investigation competition at the All-India Police Duty Meet.

The IGP gave appointment letters on compassionate grounds to wards of 11 policemen. The IGP also honoured two sub-inspectors, Amrik Singh and Han Chand, who retired on June 30.

The IGP launched a plantation drive at the Police Lines to keep the city green. Senior officers planted sapling during the drive.

Zirakpur, July 14
To solve the ever-increasing problem of traffic congestion on the busy Chandigarh-Ambala highway at Zirakpur, the PWD department of central works division has decided to construct service roads on either side of the stretch between the UT barrier and the starting point of the flyover.

Besides, the PWD officials have also planned to lay down proper drainage lines along the highway.

According to officials of the PWD, this project would be completed in six months at an estimated budget of Rs 4 crore. The department has already floated the tenders that would be open on July 23.

A flyover had been constructed on the Chandigarh-Ambala highway more than a year back to facilitate safer and faster road journey for the commuters.

XEN PWD (Central Work Division, Ropar) Karnail Singh stated that the project has been approved by the Central government. The paper work has been completed and the department concerned has been asked to submit their cost estimates. The department has already written to the forest department for removing the trees on either side of the highway.

“We have also deposited the money to the electricity department to shift the power lines and polls, wherever they come in the track of the service roads,” Karnail Singh added.

He said the drainage work would also begin along with other work. The drainage lines from the UT barrier to the flyover would be connected to Sukna choe drains.

Karnail Singh stated that the encroachments along the highways would be removed soon. After the completion of the project, the roads would be re-carpeted again and all illegal medians on the stretch would be closed down with iron grills. He said the problem of sales tax barrier where trucks were parked along the highway would be partially solved after the completion of the service roads.

“Tenders for the project have been floated and the work on service roads and drainage lines would be started in the first week of August,” he added.

Panchkula, July 14
Vishnu Phogat, a resident of Panipat, today alleged that the state police was shielding an HCS officer and demanded for a CBI inquiry into the case.

Vishnu, who submitted a complaint to the Director General of Police (DGP) at the police headquarters in Sector 6, today said the authorities concerned had handed over the inquiry to an inspector from state crime branch into the complaint in which she had levelled charges of sexual assault on the HCS official. She said earlier the inquiry was being conducted by a DSF rank official.

As the DGP was not available in his office, she submitted her complaint to his staff claiming that police was not investigating the matter thoroughly. She said the police had not framed the HCS official under Sections 376 and 511, which was registered against him by the Ganaur police in 2008.

She claimed that six DSPs had investigated the case, but nothing came out of these. She alleged that essential papers regarding the case were missing from the previous report submitted by the police. She demanded that the case should be handed over to the CBI now.

Phogat, in her complaint in September 2008, had alleged that the HCS officer in Sonepat sexually assaulted her at his official residence when she had gone to meet him for some domestic work.

Panchkula, July 14
Taking a serious note of the complaint filed by the president of the district unit Kisan Morcha, Bharat Bhushan Sharma, following an altercation last month the state BJP leadership today expelled him from the party for six years.

Sharma was hurt in the clash and was hospitalised after the two different groups within the party had exchanged fists during the election of the president of the district unit of the party on June 2. He had filed a complaint with the police against some party workers.

After the incident, state leadership, including former industries minister Shashipal Mehta and former leaders like former Ambala MP Ratan Lal Kataria and former Jagadhari MLA Kanwarpal Gujjar, while regretting the incident, had indicated that the state leadership had taken a serious note of the incident.

Despite instructions from the state leadership, Sharma had not withdrawn his complaint. As many as seven party workers were involved in the brawl which included Rajesh Bindal, Inder Juneja, Jitender Sharma, Shiv Kumar, Arun Guleria and Randhir Singh, besides Sharma. The state BJP leadership had asked Rajiv Jain, member of the state party core group, to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

Mohali, July 14
A sum of Rs 308 crore will be spent during the current financial year on improving the condition of jails in the state apart from providing basic facilities to inmates and upgrading the administrative set up.

This was stated by Hira Singh Gabria, minister for jails, tourism and cultural affairs, while talking to mediapersons here today. He said complaints had been received in connection with the PCO facility provided to jail inmates and if needed such a facility would be withdrawn by the government. He said three new jails would be constructed in the state.

Gabria said the government was thinking of ways to stop the culture of the state reaching new lows. Plans would be chalked out to enrich the cultural heritage and check vulgarity. Laws would be framed in this regard so that action could be taken against persons who violated it.

Mohali, July 14
A newborn girl was found abandoned outside an orphanage in Phase VII here last night. According to information, the child was wrapped in a towel and was about two days old. A few clothes and a milk bottle were also found near the child who was left outside Guru Asra Trust.

President of the Trust Kulbir Kaur said around midnight someone rang the bell installed near the gate repeatedly. Some children in the house were awake at that time and came out to see who had rung the bell. She also came outside but could not see any person near the house. When she switched on the light she saw some movement and found the child lying near the gate. This was the fifth girl child abandoned near the orphanage, she added.

She said the child was taken for a medical examination and was found fit. Immunisation was given by the doctor.

Mohali, July 14
Land to the Mohali Press Club will be allotted soon and the Punjab Chief Minister will be taken into confidence in this regard.

This was stated by Manoranjan Kalia, minister for local government, industry and forests, at the installation ceremony of the club held at the Gian Jyoti Institute of Management and Technology here today. The minister announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh for the club.

While congratulating the new team headed by Anil Bhardwaj, the minister said the Press was considered as the fourth estate in a democratic set up.

He said the Press had played a very important role all these years and it had become a matter of concern to check the low that journalism was indulging at present.

He lamented that in order to gain popularity certain newspapers failed to fulfil their social responsibility.

Mohali, July 14
Some of the candidates who had come for counselling in connection with the recruitment of government school teachers held a protest here today against the reservation criteria being adopted by the authorities concerned.

The protestors raised slogans against the government and demanded that 12.5 per cent of the seats should be made available only for Mazbis and Balmikis out of the 25 per cent reserved for the Scheduled Castes. The protest was held outside the gate of the Government Senior Secondary School in Phase III-B1 where counselling for the recruitment of government school teachers is being conducted.

Tulsi Ram Khosla, media in charge of the All-India Balmik Mazbi Sikh Christian Educational Movement, said the education department had advertised posts of teachers for which counselling was being done by the authorities concerned. He said out of the 25 per cent seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes 12.5 per cent should be given to Mazbi Sikhs and Balmiks and remaining half should be given to Ravidass Sikhs and others.

He said the Ravidassia community had filed a case and the matter was pending in the Supreme Court. He said students belonging to Mazbi and Balmik communities were not very good in studies and as such could not compete because of which they suffered.

Chandigarh, July 14
The Students Organisation of India (SOI) today accused the rival Indian National Students Union (INSO) of circulating forged letters that claimed the Panjab University administration had hiked tuition fees in all departments by 5 per cent. Both groups were protesting on various issues on the campus today.

With this incident, mudslinging by PU student parties appears to have got under way two months before election time. While SOI protested against “nonconsideration of backward class certificate” of a student in the masters in engineering course at the University Institute of Engineering & Technology, the INSO submitted a memorandum on the delay in exam results of first semester students (2008 batch). Of the Dhanwantri Ayurvedic College & Hospital.

“Demonstrations against PU officials are the only way to get them to meet our demands,” said Paras Suri of INSO. Meanwhile, on the issue of the letter reportedly issued by INSO on the 5 per cent tuition fee hike, SOI today released a statement saying “student groups must stop fooling students as many of the parties have now run out of issues”.

When contacted the PU dean of students welfare said, “There is no substance in the claim on a tuition fee hike by the university.”

Protests by the student leaders have now become a common phenomenon on the campus to get the limelight. PU officials have yet to write to the police to settle the final dates of student elections. In the past few days the officials have reportedly been considering the idea of early elections this year. However, as security is a major concern they said the date would be finalised only after meeting police officials.

‘Refusal’ to collect fees SOPU protested against some clerks in various departments who had refused to collect tuition fee. “While there was a heavy rush at the SBI fee counter there was no one to collect the fees in the departments,” said Harshvardhan Singh, party’s presidential candidate. PU’s acting dean of university instruction Naval Kishore later issued a circular to all departments directing them to collect the fee.

Memo to VC ABVP activists submitted a memorandum of their demands to the PU vice chancellor. Organising secretary Dinesh Chauhan said it raised issues like late declaration of exam results, certain construction work pending in hostels, charging Rs 100 extra for college students to get mark sheets, poor Internet facilities for students and PU hostel mess services not starting on time.

Chandigarh, July 14
After having waited for 17 long years, over 150 masters/mistresses of the UT government schools would soon be promoted to the post of lecturers.

Claiming to have already started with the prerequisites of setting up a Departmental Promotional Committee (DPC), DPI (S) Sunil Bhatia has asked the authorities for upgradation of lists.

“The DPC had not been set up for the last 17 years because some rules awaited notification. Now with that being done, we will be conducting promotions within the next two months. We have already sent letters to the school principals’ concerned to upgrade the details of eligible candidates,” said Bhatia.

The promotions will primarily be awarded to the candidates, who have upgraded their qualifications after joining their current postings and now stand eligible for lecturership. The teachers’ concerned had been raising the demand for quite sometime now and even submitted numerous representations in this regard.

“All this while, the department continued to cite some notifications problems as the key reason but never elaborated on it. The schools are suffering from lecturer crunch and all eligible candidates must be promoted immediately. Had the department done it earlier, then those who retired could have also benefited from the move,” asserted a union leader.

“Many people who joined at the level of masters and mistresses upgraded their educational qualifications by doing postgraduate degrees, etc. Though we have list of the candidates, we will still update it on the basis of feedback received from the school principals. If the eligible candidates will be more, we will work out a second schedule soon after completing the first one,” added Bhatia.

Chandigarh, July 14
The perennial favourite computer science stream in local engineering colleges has been replaced by electronics stream as the first preference of toppers this year.

Statistics related to starting rank in various streams indicate that top rank holders in the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) chose electronics as their first choice in PEC University of Technology. The Day 5 of the joint admission counselling for engineering and architecture colleges is currently in progress at PEC campus.

“I had the option of joining another regional engineering college, but I preferred to chose PEC due to its good reputation. I also had the chance to opt for computer science, instead I chose electronics,” said Pulkit Khana, a student who had come for the counselling at PEC campus.

Although the statistics available at PEC website for the year 2009 show the ranks after the third counselling, however, officials at the joint counselling revealed that as compared to the starting rank of computer science, that of electronics and communication was better this year.

For the CSE, the starting rank this year was 6,613 at the first counselling, while at the third counselling last year, the starting rank was 13,118. Meanwhile, at the fifth day of the counselling today, all candidates applying under the reserved categories, including SC and ST’s were called. The counselling will continue till midnight and the officials informed that the seat allocation process went smoothly.

“The counselling for the defence quota and that for the Chandigarh College of Architecture would take place tomorrow,” said Puneet Arora, PEC public relation officer.

Chandigarh, July 14
Having faced criticism in the past for not having filled over a dozen research chairs in various departments at Panjab University, the authorities are now speeding up the process.

Close to 100 request letters have been dispatched by the university to who’s who in different disciplines to seek their approval.

Goverdhan Mehta, eminent scientist and chairman, NAAC, has already sent his acceptance letter for the Rajiv Gandhi chair, informed officials.

The university is intending to rope these educationists and pioneers in different fields to deliver guest lectures and supervise the research work at this position.

“We are already in the process of filling up the research chairs and professorships. More than 100 letters have been dispatched to the eminent scientists in this regard. Some of the chairs have also been filled up by appointing local teachers who have been doing work in the field,” said RC Sobti, PU Vice-Chancellor.

“Amartya Sen has also been sent a request letter to accept Dr Manmohan Singh chair and the university is waiting for his approval. We have speeded up the process and the leftover chairs shall also be filled up shortly,” he added.