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Man murdered over trivial issue
Jansla (Banur), July 17 Gurcharan Singh, nephew of SGPC member Surjit Singh Garhi, allegedly attacked Roshan Singh, a retired inspector of PRTC (Punjab Roadways Transport Corporation). “Gurcharan was threatening us for the past few months. We recently bought a piece of land and also built a palatial house, which he could not tolerate. He kept on taunting us whenever we passed by and was jealous of our success,” said Harvinder Singh, one of the sons of the deceased Roshan. He said Gurcharan always blocked their path whenever they visited fields or used to park a tractor-trolley on their way. “We have to request him everyday to keep aside the vehicles near SYL Canal,” said the family members. Last evening too, Roshan’s sons urged Gurcharan to remove the tractor parked on the path, following which an altercation took place between accused Gurcharan and son of the deceased Harvinder. Harvinder also alleged that Gurcharan forcefully took away his motorbike and left him stranded on way after slapping. The matter was then brought to the notice of the SGPC member Surjit Singh Garhi, who told the aggrieved family members to lodge a police complaint against his nephew Gurcharan Singh. Villagers alleged that despite repeated attempts, the police failed to reach their village. Taking advantage Gurcharan, along with a few others, attacked the retired PRTC inspector Roshan. Roshan was beaten up with iron roads and was declared dead on reaching Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital. SGPC member Surjit Singh Garhi, when contacted, dissociated himself from his nephew and said he was not in touch with his nephew for the past many years. “In fact I have told villagers to lodge a complaint against my nephew and called up police repeatedly but no cop reached there,” he added. Meanwhile, ASI Balraj Singh who was on night duty at Banur police station and head constable (munshi) Avtar Singh were suspended for dereliction of duty immediately after the agitation by villagers. A case has also been registered against the accused. No arrests have been made so far.
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Youth rescued from drowning
Panchkula, July 17 Unable to assess the sudden rise in water level in the river, the three youths went to collect coins at around 9 am and were swept away in the strong current of the Ghaggar. The youths were identified as Raju, Ravi and Munna. While Raju and Ravi managed to come out on their own, Munna was rescued when the water started receding. According to eyewitnesses, after being swept away for around a kilometre, the youths managed to swim to an island near Herbal Park. When the water level started receding after two hours, Raju and Ravi came out, but Munna could not dare to swim. The water level in the river rose to over 10 feet due to heavy rains in the bordering state of Himachal Pradesh last night. Senior officials of the district administration, including Sub-Divisional Magistrate (City) Mahavir Kaushik, MC executive officer KK Jain and DSP (HQ) Badri Parshad reached the spot to supervise the rescue operations. Local MLA DK Bansal gave away Rs Rs 2,100 to the rescuers. Meanwhile, the Choice road in Zirakpur was also flooded with choe water turning the place into a mini lake.
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MC sans recruitment, promotion policy
Chandigarh, July 17 At a recent meeting held under the chairmanship of UT administrator Shiv Raj Patil, officials of the corporation were directed to decide as to how they would recruit staff, who were being transferred from the Chandigarh Administration. The administration has prepared a draft to transfer departments to the MC, which includes all green belts, 18 sanctioned and three unsanctioned dispensaries, a polyclinic, Ayush Hospital at Maloya and seven primary schools. Sources in the corporation disclosed that they were drafting the rules under which the fresh recruitment would be done. An official said that authorities were studying the Delhi service rules and the Punjab service rules to decide, which rules they would follow in MC. Records shows that in all departments, the employees are not getting any promotion since the inception of the CMC in 1996, as there is no service rules framed for this purpose so far. Strangely, it was found that all important posts in most of the MC departments were being held by officers on deputation from the neighboring states or the administration and the authorities had not promoted their own employees. In 1997, at the general house of the CMC it was decided that Punjab rules of 1965 would be followed for transferred employees from the Chandigarh Administration. Then in 2005 a fresh notification was approved by the House which repealed the 1965 Punjab rules and authorities were asked to draft fresh service rules and table it in the House. But till date the authorities have not tabled any service rules in the house. Similarly, the Fire And Emergency Department’s recruitment and promotion rules were yet to be tabled and approved by the House. So the employees were not getting their due benefits during their services. In fact every financial year, the MC departments approve fresh posts in the budget and forward it to get it sanctioned by the administration as majority of the departments are facing staff crunch. But the administration had not sanctioned any fresh post for any department of the corporation till date.
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Marigold and
Shanti Homes Enclave
Kharar, July 17 “Site plans as well as brochures of the developer claimed that we would be provided with complete set of civic amenities. On the contrary, the developer has not even pumped out rainwater from the area. The colony stinks badly and there is no place for children to play,” said Swarn Singh, president of the Marigold and Shanti Homes Housing Society. They added that in spite of repeated requests to the developer, none of the grievances had been redressed. The drinking water supply was also very poor. Women said the water got frothy on being boiled. “The developer claims that a bore-well has been dug around 140 feet deep to provide drinking water supply, whereas it is located just 85 feet deep and caters to just 10 houses. All other houses have been bereft of adequate water supply,” Swarn Singh said. Alleging use of substandard material in construction, they added that the roads had developed potholes, walls of some houses had developed cracks and electricity wires had been hanging precariously from poles. Kuldeep Singh Soni, proprietor of Home Enclave, said he had developed just 10 plots in the colony and rest were owned by Jaspal of Marigold and Shanti Enclave. On inundation, he said it was not just the problem of his colony but that of entire Kharar and Mohali. “Jaspal from Marigold and Shanti Enclave has developed this colony,” he added. However, Jaspal was not available for comments.
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Work unitedly or face action, MLA tells Mohali MC staff
Mohali, July 17 Sidhu, who was addressing mediapersons for the first time after the Punjab and Haryana High Court set aside the removal of his supporter Rajinder Singh Rana from the post of the president of the civic body, said there was a feeling that employees were working under pressure of the majority group of the council. Such attitude would adversely affect the development of the town. The MLA said he had held a meeting with employees and officials of the civic body yesterday and requested them to rise above party lines and work in an unbiased manner for the development of the town. He said if he failed to get the desired response, he would take action against them at his own level and also ask the council president to initiate departmental action against them. He said the government had forcibly removed Rana from his post, throwing democratic norms to the winds, but the High Court had done justice by setting aside the decision of the department of local government. He said councillors of the majority group did not attend the monthly meeting convened by Rana this month. Such an attitude would expose them in front those who had elected them. “Rana was not a nominated president but had been duly elected. If they wanted to unseat him, they should have adopted the right procedure,” he asserted. Since they could not pass a no-confidence motion against him, they used government power to remove him. He said there could be personal differences among councillors but it was their duty to work for the welfare of people who had elected them. By not attending meetings, councillors were only running away from the responsibility that residents of Mohali had bestowed on them, he added.
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MC seeks govt nod for recruiting firemen
Mohali, July 17 In a letter sent to the director, local government, Punjab, civic body’s executive officer Amna Kumar Goyal said the local fire brigade was short of 11 leading firemen against the requirement of 12 and was also short of eight drivers against the requirement of 12. Against the requirement of 46 firemen, the fire brigade only had two working on regular basis. Nine firemen had been employed on contract. Goyal further stated that 20 firemen had been recruited on contract in 2001. Later, the recruitment on regular basis could not be done due to code of conduct imposed at that time. By the time the code of conduct was lifted, the government had imposed a ban on fresh recruitment till further orders and the ban was still on. Of the 20 firemen employed on contract, only nine were still working. The others had left the job. He said the fire brigade currently had four fire engines, one water bouser and two fire jeeps. The fire brigade had to cover the entire district and fire engines were also sent on VIP duty every day. When one fire engine was sent in connection with the visit of a VIP to any place, it became increasingly difficult to send another engine in case of a fire due to staff shortage. As such, threat to the life and property of residents increased. Keeping in view the situation, permission should be granted to recruit at least 20 firemen and four drivers. The expenses to be incurred in this regard would be got cleared from the general house of the council.
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Renditions mark foundation day
Chandigarh, July 17 The programme was sponsored by Pigeon and Gilma. The programme started with a cake-cutting ceremony by veteran journalist and founder president BK Chum. Former presidents of the club Abhijit Chatterjee, Jagtar Singh Sidhu, Sarabjit Pandher and general secretary Preetam Rupal were also present. The captivating concert was a veritable mix of
Sufiana, ghazal and Bollywood numbers. Versatile Uma Patil mesmerised all with “Lambi judai”. Amanpreet bared the mysticism of
Baba Bulleh Shah by singing his Sufian kalams with perfection.
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Learning lessons from the past Recruitment of Contractual Lecturers Sumedha Sharma Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 17 In a bid to ensure transparency in its college contractual lecturer recruitment, the department has decided to re-check credentials of candidates who had appeared in the recently-held interviews at Post Graduate Government College, Sector 11. “Ever since the teacher recruitment process began, it was marred in controversy with several loopholes being detected in the system. All eyes are now on our recruitment system, so we have decided to be extra cautious. While the interview committee has already scrutinised certificates and credentials of each candidate, we are still re-checking these to ensure transparency,” said a senior official of the department. “Even before the commencement of interviews, we had some representations speculating intentional discrepancies in merit. Though we took all necessary steps to make everything error free, we still wanted to re-check records,” added another official. Meanwhile, Director Higher Education Ajoy Sharma said re-checking was being done to utilise spare time. “Re-checking of records has nothing to do with the recruitment scam. We had announced the SC and OBC reservations on the day of interview. Therefore, we will have to have one more round of interview for candidates falling under reserved categories on July 31. We have enough time left, so we decided to scrutinise records and results of candidates,” said Sharma.
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Parents come out in support of St John’s principal
Chandigarh, July 17 The march was a dignified and silent protest against the alleged harassment of school authorities by the UT administration. Reacting to the administration’s act of questioning minority status of the school, father Thomas Anchanikal, spokesperson, Shimla-Chandigarh Diocese, said, “We would like to place on record that St John’s High School is Catholic Minority Institution run by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. Indian Constitution guarantees full freedom to minorities to run and administer its own institutions.” Placid Henriques, chairman, governing body, Congregation of Christian Brothers in India, said, “The governing body of St John’s High School is saddened to hear that there are certain vested interests that are working against the school. We have the utmost confidence in the abilities of the principal and we appeal to city residents to support the institution.”
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Mohali: With a view to underline the importance of board games in development of children, Smart Wonders School, Mohali, organised a games week “Dots and dices” from July 12 to 17. Principal-cum-chairman of the school Dr RK Walia inaugurated the event. He said: “While playing board games, children make use of memory, colour recognition. They count capabilities and analyse their part as well as the opposition’s. All these things help make the brain sharper.” The week-long fun and frolic began with teachers giving a demo on various board games. Students enjoyed the word-building activity on the second day. The whole school was abuzz with activities, with students enjoying various board games like ludo and snake and ladder. — TNS
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LLM interviews on July 21
CHANDIGARH: The interview for admission to LLM for all categories (general and reserved) will be held on July 21 from 9.30 am to 1.30 pm in the department of laws, PU. The provisional merit list will be displayed on the notice board of the department on July 20 at 5 pm. The candidates are advised to bring their original documents. The selected candidates will have to deposit fee on July 23. PG diplomas The School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, is offering postgraduate diplomas in Punjabi journalism, Hindi journalism, advertising and public relations. — TNS
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