NEIGHBOURHOOD

Locality near Ghaggar river susceptible to landslides
Tribune News Service

Kharar, July 29
The department of local bodies has declared the decision of the municipal council, Kharar, to withdraw a case in the high court pertaining to land in Khanpur village as null and void.

In an order released, the director of local bodies, SK Sharma, has stated that the decision of municipal councillors of Kharar stands overruled.

Sources said the department has passed clear instructions for pursuing the case seriously in larger interest of public.

On July 14, the municipal council in its resolution number 53 had decided not to contest its claim on landed property measuring 10 acres, which falls in the municipal area of Khanpur village.

One Bhajan Singh from Jhingra village has moved a simple application to the council allegedly claiming his possession and right on the said land.

Bhajan had requested the municipal council to withdraw from legal contest pertaining to this land in favour of him. His application was discussed in the MC meeting on July 14 and the councillors had decided, with majority vote, not to pursue the claim of the MC over this property which has the market value worth Rs 100 crores.

Ambala, July 29
Indian National Lok Dal secretary-general and Dabwali MLA, Ajay Chautala, yesterday accused the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government of misusing the relief fund.

Addressing a district youth workers’ function at Mohra, near Ambala, he said the Congress government had been giving undue advantage to a particular area at the cost of the rest of the state to consolidate its political position in the area.

Canals were not maintained properly and drains were not repaired, he added.

Ajay alleged that the state government had misused the calamity relief fund. He said Hooda had promised equitable allocation of resources to all districts, but this had remained only on papers. He said if the government had taken timely steps, people could have been saved from the fury of floods.

Rajbir Singh MLA, Barara, Youth INLD president, Mandip Singh, district president Balinder Singh, senior party leader Ram Singh Kodwa and Ravinderjit Singh Desi, spokesman of the party were all present.

Ambala, July 29
Ambala district administration will launch a campaign from August 2 to make the twin city clean and green. According to sources, around one lakh herbal, fruity, traditional and ornamental saplings will be planted in various educational institutions, police stations, government offices, hospitals, playing grounds and on the canal banks.

Deputy Commissioner Samir Pal Saro organised a meeting of district officers in this regard in which representatives of social organisations were also present.

He asked the officers to plant maximum saplings on their office campus. He said the recent flood had badly affected the environment of the city and it could be recovered by planting more saplings.

Saro said, besides the state offices, the co-operation of Central government offices like postal, telecommunication would also asked for. He said he would also meet the Army authorities. He said any one could get saplings of various plants from the government nursery free of cost.

Meanwhile, a number of social organisations and NSS wings of educational institutions have offered their support to the district administration to make the twin city green.

Patiala, July 29
“Teeyan da Charrata, Punjab di Kushboo”, a programme for special children, which is being organised by the Rainbow Society for Special Children, concluded here at Punjabi University, Patiala.

Society president Nancy Ghuman told mediapersons that various schools for special children from all over Punjab participated in the two-day competition, in which participants showcased their talent in bhangra, giddha, solo dance, group songs, group dance competitions, etc.

Dr Jaspal Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Punjabi University, was the chief guest for the closing ceremony. He also gave away the prizes to the winners.

In the MR group dance competition, the first place was bagged jointly by Navjiwani School for Special Children, Patiala, for Punjabi folk giddha and S Tara Singh Red Cross School, Nawanshahr, for Punjabi malwai giddha.

Jiwan Jyoti School for Special Children, Nabha, achieved the second place in Punjabi folk bhangra, whereas Mini Bright School for Special Children got third place for Punjabi lok nach.

The first and second prize in the group dance went to Deaf & Dumb and Blind School, Safdipur, Patiala, and S Tara Singh Red Cross School, Nawanshahr, respectively. Mini of Bright School for Special Children, Pathankot, got the first place in solo dance.

In the solo singing competition visually impaired category, Mukesh of Deaf & Dumb and Blind School, Safdipur, Patiala, got the first prize and Amritpal of Navchetna School got the second place in same category.

Moreover, Navchetana School won first place in the group song of visually impaired category. In MR category, Gurdip Singh of Jiwan Jyoti School for Special Children, Nabha, got first prize for Punjabi song and Rani of Navjiwani School for Special Children, Patiala, bagged the second place for Punjabi song.

In the hearing and speech impaired female senior category, the first prize went to Anu of Deaf & Dumb and Blind School, Safdipur, Patiala. The second prize went to Harpreet Kaur of Police Line School for Deaf & Dumb. Similarly, Robin Rai of S Tara Singh Red Cross School, Nawanshahr, got the third place.

In same category of males, the first prize went to Satvir Singh of S Tara Singh Red Cross School, Nawanshahr. Pardeep of Nawjiwani School for Special Children, Patiala, was awarded with first place in solo dance in MR category. Harsimran Singh Shah of Navjiwani School, Patiala, got the first prize in male solo dance (MR category), whereas Sonam Sharma of Jiwan Jyoti School, Nabha, achieved the second place in same category.

Patiala, July 29
A workshop on data security and information availability was organised by the Academic Staff College, Punjabi University, Patiala, here today in collaboration with Cyberoam and University Computer Centre.

Technical experts from more than 35 different organisations took part. Experts from the Cyberoam Company demonstrated the might of their UTM. Also, they provided tips on surfing pattern and Internet usage at the college, Internet attacks phasing, hacking, spamming etc.

Vice-Chancellor of the university Dr Jaspal Singh stressed that if ethical values were suitably set in by users, security was possible.

Experts also discussed that protecting student community and young generation from unhealthy atmosphere was a major challenge to any educational institution or organisation having Internet.

Patiala, July 29
Patiala lads and eves excelled during the 9th Sub-Junior State Tae kwan do Championship that was held at Tran Taran recently.

They won six golds, four silvers and two bronze medals during the championship under coach Satwinder Singh.

As many as 350 players participated, including 33 from Patiala.

In boy's category, Umesh, Vinaypreet, Gulshan Kumar, Love Kumar and Alam Khan won gold medals and Mousin Khan won bronze medal.

In girl’s category, Amitjot Kaur won gold, Sharanjit Kaur and Jasleen Kaur won silver and Yashmita Sood won bronze medal.

Chandigarh, July 29
Justice Surya Kant of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the operation of 32-month-old order of February 27, 2008; vide which the promotion of Punjab and Sind Bank’s senior manager PC Sood was forfeited on the ground that he had not joined the promotional assignment at Bhubneshwar within the stipulated period.

Observing in the interim order that “the postings made by the respondent bank totally lacked transparency”, Justice Surya Kant said “after going through records and hearing the counsels for the parties, in my considered opinion, the impugned order dated February 27, 2008, forfeiting the promotion of the petitioner deserves to be stayed”.

Justice Surya Kant asked the bank to relieve the petitioner within a week and directed that the petitioner should join his assignment on the promoted post by August 7. Justice Kant had earlier directed the deputy general-manager (personnel) to remain present 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 Kant observed it appeared that the officer was acting in a malafide manner, as he gave a very short period to the petitioner to join his promotional post at Bhubneshwar and then revoked his promotion on the ground that he failed to join his new assignment within the stipulated period.

The petitioner, working as 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 fell 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 DGM (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.

Chandigarh, July 29
The process of promoting inspectors to the posts of Deputy Superintendents of Police in Chandigarh is expected to remain in a state of suspended animation, with the Punjab and Haryana High Court yesterday ordering status quo in the matter.

The directions by the Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice AN Jindal came on an application filed by inspector Yash Pal and 13 other Chandigarh Police personnel. They were seeking directions to the Chandigarh administration and other respondents against promoting inspector Ram Gopal as the DSP.

The Bench was apparently of the opinion that Ram Gopal’s promotion as an inspector was under challenge. As such, his further promotion as DSP could not be given a go ahead at the current stage.

A petition in the promotion matter is already pending in the high court and the application was moved in the same case. Already, the high court has issued notice of motion in the matter along with a notice regarding stay.

As the plea came up for hearing, the petitioners contended they came to know that on order dated April 13 has been issued by the Inspector-General of Police to the effect that proposal for further promotion of eligible officers to the rank of DSPs should be submitted. It is amply clear that the official respondents have not been dissuaded by the issuance of notice regarding stay and were undertaking the process of promoting Ram Gopal, who was shown to be number one in the seniority lists of inspectors, the court said.

“It is in the interest of justice that the official respondents are restrained from promoting the private respondents as DSP till July 7, the date for which notice of motion and notice regarding stay has been issued,” said the court.

Taking note of the submissions, the Bench verbally observed the administration should have held itself back as the notice regarding stay had been issued. But since the process has been initiated, the necessity to move the court has arisen.

Chandigarh, July 29
Setting aside the election of Rajindero Devi as ‘sarpanch’ of Jolly village in Naraingarh tehsil of Ambala district, justice VK Sharma of the Punjab & Haryana High Court today imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the poll’s presiding officer.

The Haryana government also received a rap on its knuckles. Sharma asserted: “The state is trying to protect the officer who is prima facie guilty of tampering sheets and has declared the candidate securing fewer votes than his opponent elected as sarpanch”.

Justice Sharma also directed the state of Haryana and other respondents to issue a notification declaring Manjit Kaur as the winning candidate.

In her petition against the state of Haryana, the state election commission, the Ambala deputy commissioner and other respondents, Kaur had alleged the presiding officer with malafide intentions overwrote in the final result sheet, deliberately ignored the counting sheets, and declared Devi as the winning candidate.

The petitioner had also accused the presiding officer of defaming her by making derogatory remarks while seeking directions for quashing the result sheet dated June 12 declaring Devi elected.

The petitioner said the election for the sarpanch’s post was held on June 12 through electronic voting machines. A total of 1,222 valid votes were polled of which the petitioner secured 727 votes.

After the votes were counted the presiding officer declared Devi as sarpanch by a margin of 65 votes even though she had secured only 438 votes.

The petitioner alleged in the impugned result sheet the presiding officer had “changed the number of votes for the petitioner and the respondent”.

Counsel for the petitioner SS Nara argued a bare perusal of the impugned result sheet shows that in front of the petitioner’s name initially “349+378” number of votes were mentioned from two booths. However, later “349” was deleted by overwriting and “172” was mentioned in its place.

Nara added: “The final result sheet - annexure P-3 - has not been prepared in accordance with the counting sheets. On the basis of counting sheets, the petitioner was supposed to be declared the winning candidate, but the presiding officer illegally declared respondent Rajindero Devi as the victorious candidate by ignoring the counting sheets”.

Chandigarh, July 29
Unable to endure the trauma of living with cancer, 19-year-old Sonia committed suicide by hanging at her Maloya residence here this afternoon.

The police said though no suicide note was found Sonia’s parents said she was depressed over her prolonged ailment.

The in charge of the Maloya police post, Sub-Inspector Baldev Kumar, said the police received information about the death at 12.30 pm. The incident was detected when Sonia’s mother came home from the market and found her hanging. The police lowered the body and rushed the victim to the Sector 16 Government Multi Specialty Hospital, where she was declared dead.

Sonia had been taking treatment for breast cancer for over a year. Her father Chotte Lal is a gardener in the UT Sports Department.

The police said a post-mortem examination would be conducted tomorrow and inquest proceedings had been initiated in the incident under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Chandigarh, July 29
Three conmen duped a city resident of Rs 42,000 near the State Bank of India in Sector 22 here today.

Roshan Garg, a resident of Sector 44, reported to the police that he had gone with his domestic help, Rohit, to deposit Rs 75,000 in the bank. Leaving Rohit in queue he went away.

Rohit alleged that three persons approached him saying he could save some money out of Rs 75,000. They then gave him a packet wrapped in a handkerchief and told him it contains Rs 1 lakh.

The trio then asked him to give them Rs 42,000 out of Rs 75,000 he had. They convinced him saying that he can deposit this packet containing Rs 1 lakh in the bank and this way he can keep the rest of the amount of Rs 33,000.

Rohit later found that there was nothing but only papers in the packet. He raised the alarm saying someone snatched the amount from him.

A DDR has been registered in this connection at Sector 36 police station.

Chandigarh, July 29
New Public School, Sector 18 (NPS-18), set up a title clash with St Kabir School, Sector 26, in the Pre-Subroto Football Tournament (U-17) being played at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 22, here.

NPS-18 defeated St Anne’s School, Sector 32, by 1-0 in the first semifinal match, while the other finalist, St Kabir School showed the door to the host Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 22, by 3-0.

In the first match between NPS-18 and St Anne’s, the first half of the match went barren.

After the breather, Sahil scored the lone winning goal for NPS-18 in the 47th minute of the game. St Anne’s team players made their best effort to come back in the game but in vain.

In other match of the day, Puneet steered his team, St Kabir to win by his two goals, while Ishaqeev contributed one goal. Their rivals, GMSSS-22 did not match their fast game.

Panchkula, July 29
Seasoned player Vishal Mor upset Haryana second ranked player Parveen Rathi by 3-2 on the fourth day of the senior snooker category of the Haryana State Billiards and Snooker Championship at Sector 11 here today.

In another match of the day, Mor clinched another win by trailing Asim 3-2. In both matches, Mor lost his first two sets.

In the first match against Asim, Mor gave a chance to Asim, who hit as many as three breaks to win the first two frames. But Mor came from behind and won the next three frames without hassles.

While playing against Rathi, he repeated the same story. In the first frame, Rathi hit a break of 55 and again in the second frame, he hit a break of 47 to get 2-0 lead.

Results

Senior snooker: Vishal Mor bt Asim (3-2); Vishal Mor bt Praveen Rathi (3-2); Deepankar Singla bt Amit Ahuja (3-1); Nitin Rawal bt Sandeep Sharma (3-0).

Junior snooker: Prateek bt Raja Dhingra (2-1); Nitin bt Abhishek (2-1); Nitin bt Chirag Arora (2-1).

Sub-junior snooker: Shubham bt Gaurav Dhingra (2-1).

Chandigarh, July 29
The schedule of the 17th edition of the All-India JP Atray Memorial Cricket Tournament has been finalised. The tournament, which is being considered as the lung-opener of the domestic season, will start from September 15 to 25.

The matches will take place at various venues, including the PCA Stadium at Mohali, Sector-16 Cricket Stadium, DAV School, Sector 8, LIC Cricket Academy, Sector 26, St John’s High School, Sector 26, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium at Panchkula and Dhruv Pandove Cricket Stadium at Patiala.

The tournament will be played under the guidance of the Punjab Cricket Association and is recognised by the BCCI.

Sushil Kapoor, organising secretary of the tournament, said about 16 leading teams from across the country would take part, which will be played on league-cum-knock out basis. “The tournament carries a total award of ` 3 lakh. SG Balls would be used in the matches, which will be for 50 overs each innings. The tournament will be played under the ICC rules of One Day International match.

Chandigarh, July 29
The Chandigarh Kho-Kho Association has decided to conduct kho kho championships in sub-junior, junior and senior categories from next month. Championships, including 30th sub-junior, 32nd junior and 39th senior state kho kho championships will be held at Sri Guru Gobind Singh Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, from August 12 to 14.

The entry forms, along with entry fee have to be submitted with Shiv Lal Singh, physical education teacher. — TNS