NEIGHBOURHOOD

Teacher suspended over corporal punishment
Our Correspondent

Kalka, July 14
The district primary education officer today suspended a primary teacher of Government School of Bhorian village of Pinjore block for severely beating up a girl student of class III.

Kanhiya Lal, a JBT teacher, canned Kajal, a class III student. Umesh Kumar, father of Kajal and a resident of Bhorian village, said Kanhiya punished his daughter as she was not able to answer some of his questions.

Anguished over the incident, villagers gathered at the school and demanded an action against the teacher. Following this incident Nisha Sharma, district primary education officer (DPEO), Panchkula, suspended the accused teacher.

The DPEO tendered an apology to the villagers for the act of the teacher. She also issued directives to the teachers of the school to follow the rules of the government under which corporal punishment and even scolding students were in violation of the education rules.

Kalka, July 14
Shivalik Vikas Manch has sent a memorandum to Mamta Banerjee, Central Railway Minister, regarding various pending demands of the railway department at Kalka.

Vijay Bansal, president of the Shivalik Vikas Manch, highlighted various demands like up gradation of foundry of Northern Railway Workshop, Kalka, restarting of Kalka-Amritsar train, which was closed around 20 years ago, extension of Janshatabdi Express up to Kalka, setting up of Railway halt at Pinjore to facilitate the industrial towns of Baddi and Barotiwala of Himachal Pradesh, modification of residential houses of railway colony, drinking water and sewerage system, which has been deteriorated , up gradation of Kalka Railway Hospital, ATM facility at railway station, construction of boundary wall of railway station in wake of safety measures, renovation of old railway rest house and running room, which are in a deplorable state, setting up of more tubewells for railway colonies and starting of Palace on Wheels from Delhi to Kalka via Panipat and Kurukshetra.

Mohali, July 14
In the case of four persons seeking emigration to the UK on the basis of forged bank documents, the British High Commission has forwarded the details of the visa-seekers to the Director-General of Police, Punjab.

The Mohali police has sought the help of the high commission in ascertaining the details of the applicants who are believed to have forged their documents.

Earlier, a representative of the Commission had alleged a nexus between a nationalised bank in Mohali and four persons seeking to immigrate to the UK. The Commission has reported to the Punjab Police that the bank statement submitted by at least four applicants to support their financial position was found to be fake after verification.

On the basis of a complaint, the Mohali police has lodged an FIR under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC. On June 29, the Liaison Officer of the British High Commission Seema Rana had written to the DGP. The case had been marked to the Superintendent of Police (Detective), Mohali, Varinder Pal Singh.

The SP said at this juncture, it would be difficult to comment about the role of the nationalised bank in Sector 70 here. “We would probe the matter after going through the details forwarded by the High Commission.

The role of agents, if any, would also be probed,” he said.

Chandigarh, July 14
A local court today remanded Kashif Ali, the suspected Pakistani spy, in seven days police custody. The Public prosecutor had sought 10 days of remand for the accused, saying that they had to take him to several places in Rajasthan, Delhi and Lucknow to know about the route he had taken to come to India through the Nepal border.

Meanwhile, sources said that Ali had “close relations” with a woman working in the office of a senior Haryana Police official. However, the police found nothing incriminating against her.

Investigations revealed that apart from the Army, Ali had also made his way into the police, though nothing has come out during his interrogation.

The investigators earlier found out that he was in touch with several women in the city and was an “expert” in developing new relationships. He has several acquaintances in the city. He was so deft in winning trust that a Sector 35-based property dealer, Hakam Singh Sama, had given him his blue Maruti car (CH01-H-0010). The police had arrested him with the same car on July 10.

The public prosecutor said the police wanted to know how many persons came along with Ali to India from Pakistan, his foreign and local aides, besides getting information about the persons who provided him restricted information about the Army.

Seeking remand, the public prosecutor said the police wanted to know who sourced money to Ali through Western Union from the UAE. The police also wanted to know about the information he had dispatched to Pakistan and his mode of communication.

Chandigarh, July 14
Justice Surya Kant today directed the deputy general manager (DGM) (personnel), Punjab & Sind Bank, to remain present in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 26, along with the list of promotees and stations at which they were promoted in February, 2008. The promotions were made from middle management scale-III to senior management scale-IV.

Justice Surya Kant observed it appeared the officer was acting in a malafide manner, as he gave very short period to the petitioner to join his promotional post in Bhubneshwar and then revoked his promotion on the ground that he failed to join his new assignment within the stipulated period.

Petitioner PC Sood, working as a senior manager at Chandigarh, was promoted vide order dated February 15, 2008, and was directed to join at Bhubneshwar by February 25, 2008.

As he suffered a fall in his house on February 23 the same year, he applied for medical leave and enclosed a medical certificate from the bank’s approved doctor. But the deputy general manager (P), without giving him any opportunity of hearing or calling for his explanation, totally disregarded the medical certificate and issued an order revoking the promotion order.

Panchkula, July 14
Some unidentified youths fired at two youths near herbal park on the dividing road of Sector 25 and 26 and took away their Skoda car here late this evening.

According to information, two youths Preet Ahluwalia (17) and Gandharv (19), residents of Sectors 4 and 6, respectively, were coming from the Ramgarh side and had stopped near the site. The accused, who were already waiting in their Indica and Verna cars there, snatched their mobile phones and then asked for the key of Skoda (DL-2AF- 0011).

However, when the two hesitated to give the key, the accused fired shots near Preet’s feet to terrorise them and fled the spot taking away the car towards Ramgarh. However, Preet immediately found his mobile nearby and informed his parents about the incident. The parents further informed the police that immediately reached the spot.

SP Maneesh Chaudhary along with senior police officers also reached the spot and recorded teh statements of Preet and Gandharv.

Chandigarh, July 14
The student artistes of International Institute of Planning and Management, Mohali, presented a cultural bonanza “Aagman-2010” at the Randhawa auditorium here today.

The programme commenced with lighting of the lamp. Prof Amit Baruah exhorted the students of business education to scale horizons in their chosen realm. The guest of honour, Rana Ranbir, a popular TV and film actor, gave his best comedy classics.

“Aagman” witnessed performances by the students on classical dance by Prabhjot, western songs by Sumit and skits by Anu Bajaj.

The fashion show, which constituted three rounds - IPL round, Bollywood bites and the Milan show - proved to be the boisterous presentation. Amidst applause, Karan Chopra and Tanya were crowned Mr and Miss Aagman, respectively. The programme concluded with a vibrant bhangra performance.

Chandigarh, July 14
City lad Digvijay Singh Mehta defeated Kshitij Kamal of Delhi in the HTA-AITA Men’s and Women’s Tennis Tournament 2010 being held at Jassowal, Ludhiana.

On the fourth day of the tournament, Digvijay Singh Mehta of Chandigarh defeated Kshitij Kamal by 6-4, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

Whereas in the doubles quarterfinals, the duo of Surya Pavan of Andhra Pradesh and Jatin Dahiya of Haryana defeated Digvijay Singh Naruka of Chandigarh and Rishabh Dev of Punjab. The local duo was defeated in the straight sets by 4-6, 6-4, 10-4.

On the other hand, sixth seeded Saurabh overcame top seeded Guriender Singh by 6-2, 6-0. Whereas Suraj Beniwal thrashed third seeded Arvind Vishnu Bestha to reach the semifinals by 6-1, 6-3, while GP Prajnesh continued his brilliant run and defeated Vishwesh Sinha by 6-0, 6-2.

While in the girls’ singles contest, Shweta C Rana toiled hard to register a win over Gundeep Kaur. In the three-set match, Shweta after loosing the first set won the match by 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. Nupur Kaul, Sharmada Balu and Bhuvana Kalva also won the quarterfinals in the girls’ group.

Chandigarh, July 14
In the opening match of the second BTS Gold Cup (under-14), the Police DAV, Ambala, defeated DMW, Patiala, by 45 runs.

After batting first, the Ambala team was bowled out on 81 runs in 17 overs. Chasing the target, the Patiala team was all out on 36 runs.

Brief scores:

Police DAV: 81 all out in 17 overs (Vinod 20; Rahul Gothwal 6 for 20, Parvinder 2 for 22).

DMW: 36 all out in 11 overs (Subham 10, Aseem Pathak 5; Vinod 4 for 6). — TNS

Ambala, July 14
Seeing the situation getting worse after the recent floods and announcing an all-out war against the state government, residents of Nishat Bagh met Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Kumari Selja for over half an hour yesterday.

She reached here to meet the people and assess the situation in the flood-affected areas here. The residents of the locality lamented that no officer from the administration had visited them, adding that they had no faith in the local administration and the municipal corporation. No arrangements were made to drain out water from the area, they added.

The residents of the area complained that the drains were choked and the water was flowing around and inside the colonies and other parts of the city. They alleged that the administration had not taken any flood-control measures prior to the monsoon. The majority of the complainants were from the low-income group.

People rued, “We demand that there should be a proper drainage system and all internal roads should be metalled, they alleged. Some low-lying areas were still flooded and had begun stinking.”

Shelja after listening to their grievances assured that the government would provide them help. She also reviewed the flood situation and visited the affected villages in the district. She said that she would try her best to get a Central package for the flood-affected people and farmers whose crops had perished in the floods.

Chandigarh, July 14
In a nail-biting match, the city senior hockey team overcame the Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy (MPHA) in a floodlight match to enter into the semifinals of the Rangaswami Cup Senior National Men’s Hockey Championship being held at the Aishbag Stadium in Bhopal.

The visitors thrashed the hosts in a tie-breaker by 7-6. The match was stopped for about 40 minutes due to controversy created by the hosts over the goal netted by Gurjant Singh in the 21st minute of the match.

Chandigarh goalkeeper Harjeet Singh made a brilliant save of the third penalty stroke in the tie-breaker to make sure the ticket to the semifinals. The Chandigarh team would now take Mumbai in the semifinals on July 16.

The Chandigarh team drew the first blood in the sixth minute of the match when Harmanpreet Singh sounded the board through a field goal, but the city players failed to stop the MP Hockey Academy to net white ball inside the goal net in the 16th minute of the game.

After the 20th minute of the game, Gurjant Singh converted a minus pass by Deepanshu Bhardwaj into a goal. When the referee awarded the goal in favour of the visitors, the hosts opposed to the decision of the referee.

According to them, Deepanshu crossed the ball to Gurjant after the ball passed the outline.

The match was interrupted for about 40 minutes. After the interference of TV umpire, the goal was awarded to Gurjant, but the hosts taking advantage of being the local body pressurised the umpire to deny the goal. The final decision went in favour of the city players.

The match then went to the golden goal after a 2-2 draw in the stipulated time of 70 minutes.

Due to no goal in 30 minutes, the match moved to the decider tie-breaker.

In the tie-breaker, Gangandeep Singh (Sr), Gagandeep Singh (Jr), Pawan Bassi, Ramandeep Singh and Gourav Toki converted the penalty strokes into the goals, whereas the hosts failed to pass the ball through international goalkeeper Harjeet Singh, who made an outstanding save to ensure the win.

Talking over the phone, enlightened coach Manmohan Singh praised the team’s effort to win the match even playing under pressure. “The boys played like a unit and moreover the combination of the senior and junior boys provided the team both experience and energy to win the match,” said Singh.

Chandigarh July 14
The Chandigarh junior girls’ soccer team would face Bihar on the opening day of the 9th Junior National Football Championship for Girls, which will begin from tomorrow at PEC grounds.

As many as 27 teams, including last year’s champions, Orissa, were scheduled to participate in the tournament, but due to withdrawal of Jammu and Kashmir team, only 26 teams would participate in the All-India Football Federation (AIFF)-backed national meet.

The first match of the tournament would be played between Kerala and Sikkim in the morning, whereas in noon, the hosts would face Bihar.

The Chandigarh team is clubbed with Jharkhand, Puducherry and Bihar for the league matches.

After their first match, the Chandigarh team would take on Puducherry in their second match on July 17 and in their last league match, they would face Jharkhand on July 19.

After a month-long camp under Sports Authority of India (SAI) coach Nariender Thapa, the Chandigarh junior girls would prove their mettle against the opponents to win the title. All 26 teams are divided into eight clusters (groups). The teams in each group would play with each other to move into the quarterfinals.

The pre-quarterfinals would be played from tomorrow, whereas the quarterfinals would begin from July 21.

The semifinals and the final would be played on July 28 and July 30, respectively, at the Sector 17 Football Stadium.