NEIGHBOURHOOD

Woman elopes with cousin, dies in mishap
Tribune News Service

Kharar, August 19
A woman, who eloped with her cousin from Sundernagar in Himachal Pradesh, died in a road accident here.

While the Kharar police has initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC, the Mandi police, Himachal Pradesh, has expressed doubts over the death.

The victim, Puja, daughter of Harpal Singh from the BBMB Colony, Sundernagar, had eloped with her cousin Lalli on August 13. SP, Mandi, Sonal Agnihotri confimed that a missing report was lodged at the Sundernagar police station.

Lalli and Puja had eloped with an intention to get married. A resident of Jandpur village in Kharar, Lalli brought Puja to his home town. Lalli and Puja stayed at the place of the former’s relative in Rasanheri village after getting married. Yesterday, the couple was going on a motorcycle, when Puja suddenly fell from the vehicle and died.

SP Agnihotri said a team of Sundernagar police has been sent to inquire into the matter. Lalli is a proclaimed offender from Ropar district and the Kharar police was further investigating his doubtful antecedents. Her postmortem was conducted today and the body was handed over to Puja’s father Harpal Singh.

Ambala, August 19
The 60-year old rakhi industry at Ambala, which has more than 50 per cent share in the country, has been losing its share in the past two decades. The share in the national market has dropped to nearly 10 per cent.

“We have introduced rakhis made of chandan wood this year and have received good orders,” said Gian Chand, one of the oldest manufacturers of rakhis in Ambala who started his business after the Partition.

Talking to The Tribune he said rakhi business in Ambala had declined, as “Jalli” and “Foam” rakhis for which Ambala was famous couldn’t face “Silk” and “Zari” rakhis of Calcutta and “Dori” rakhis of Punjab which has ultimately affected the market share of Ambala rakhi industry severely.

Wholesale rakhi traders in the town said the craze among buyers to purchase rakhis made in China has now vanished, the trend this year is local-made rachis. The local manufacturers now see a ray of hope while introducing new designs in higher range also. According to manufacturers, last year they made “Zari” rakhis and the quality was appreciated by customers.

One of the old rakhi manufacturers Bidhi Chand said most of the bulk rakhi buyers have switched to Delhi market where the varieties of rakhis are available under one roof. Delhi has emerged as the biggest market in the country giving a cut-throat competition to Ambala manufacturers. The shopkeepers have not purchased Chinese rakhis this year, he added. The Haryana government granted exemption of sales tax to rakhi manufacturers and helped the industry to survive in spite of increasing cost of raw material. Murari Lal, another manufacturer, said during the boom, the rakhi industry was functioning like a big industry and had hundreds of takers. He said he started manufacturing rakhis 30 years ago in this town and supplied to other states.

Chandigarh, August 19
Dismissing the application of a lecturer at the Government College, Panchkula, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) passed orders that the applicant had no right to seek selection as a couple case.

The applicant, Prem Lata, working as lecturer in defence studies at the college, had filed an application, seeking deputation to the education department of the union territory, in November, 2007.

She had stated that her husband, Dr BP Yadav, worked in Chandigarh, due to which she had sought deputation.

She had sought appointment as a couple case and cited the example of Amandeep Kaur, wife of Samvartak Singh, who was DPI(S) at that time, who was selected for Government College, Sector 42, on deputation.

Pronouncing the orders, the CAT said, “Though there are administrative instructions that husband and wife should be posted at the same place as far as possible, this does not give the right to the applicant to get selected for a post on deputation.”

Mohali, August 19
Cellular operator Vodafone has detected a fraud to the tune of Rs 3.82 crore by a contractor engaged to sell recharge coupons, SIM card and mobile phones. The contractor, under the garb of dispatching orders, tampered with the software to cause loss to the company.

The modus operandi of the thugs was cancelled after dispatching the same and put a revised order, thus causing financial loss to the company.

Pankaj Khanna, who was engaged by the company to sell the items, in a complaint lodged with the police said Manoj Babra, a resident of Bapu Dham Colony, Sector 26, Chandigarh, Sagar Negi, a resident of Baltana, Ashok Kumar, a resident of Sector 30, Chandigarh, and Vijay Sharma, a resident of Sector 41, Chandigarh, cheated the company.

Chandigarh, August 19
DAV College, Sector 10, earned 24 points to win the overall championship in the Panjab University Inter-College Kayaking Championship at Sukhna Lake here today.

PU Campus team, which managed to bag 20 points in the tournament, finished as runners-up, while PG Government College, Sector 11, secured the third position with 16 points.

Only three teams took part in the tournament.

Results: K-1 (200 m): Uday Singh Dhillon (DAV-10) 1, Ravinder Jit Singh (PGGC-11) 2 and Pawan Kumar (PU Campus) 3; K-2 (200 m): PGGC-11 (Ravinder Jit Singh and Puneet Dubey) 1, DAV-10 (Sukhdev Singh and Kuldeep Singh) 2, PU Campus (Vikram Gehlawat and Tarun Kumar) 3; K-1 (500 m): Pawan Kumar (PU Campus) 1, Uday Singh Dhillon (DAV-10) 2 and Neeraj Kumar (PGGC-11) 3; K-2 (500 m): DAV-10 (Gurnider Jit Singh and Parmesh Kumar) 1, PU Campus (Vikram Gehlawat and Tarun Kumar) 2 and PGGC-11 (Puneet Dubey and Sumit Pandey) 3; K-1 (1,000 m): Robin Rawat (DAV-10) 1, Vikram Gehlawat (PU Campus) 2 and Ravinder Jit Singh (PU Campus) 3; K-2 (1,000 m): PU Campus (Tarun Kumar and Pawan Kumar) 1, DAV-10 (Uday Singh Dhillon and Sukhdev Singh) 2 and PGGC-11 (Ravinder Jit Singh and Neeraj Kumar) 3.

Chandigarh, August 19
A hat-trick by Rahul (three for 11) of Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 44 (GSSS-44), went in vain, as the team lost to Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 27 (GSSS-27), by 26 runs in the UT Cricket Triangular (U-19) Series-2010 at GSSS-27 grounds here today.

Batting first, the GSSS-27 team were all out on 80 runs in 18 overs. The main contributor was Raju and Jagmeet, who made 16 and 15 runs, respectively.

Rahul put up a good show with ball and claimed three wickets in a row for just 11 runs. He was well supported by Rajinder, who took two wickets for 12 runs.

In reply, the GSSS-44 team could muster only 54 runs in 14 overs. Leg spinner Amit Jha played a vital role in the win of GSSS-27 with his four-wicket haul (four for 16).

For GSSS-44, Rajinder was the top scorer with 15 runs.

Patiala, August 19
There is nothing unusual about staff crunch in Punjab Sports Department. Despite several reports regarding the unavailability of coaches for training players, there is no solution to staff crunch.

To add, there has been a delay in the declaration of the new sports policy that has once again brought a doubt in the mind of sports fraternity as to how the government would be able to raise the falling standard of sports in the state.

The condition has become so critical that the sports department doesn’t even have sufficient coaches to conduct various tournaments in the state.

So much so that the department has requested the Punjab police to lend 77 coaches to conduct the ‘Panchayat Yuva Krida Abhiyaan’ Tournament to be held from August 27 to 29.

It is pertinent to mention that in the Patiala district, there is not even a single coach for hockey, kabaddi, wrestling, kho-kho, archery, fencing and shooting. Besides, there is an additional requirement of coaches in various games like boxing, athletics, gymnastics etc. The sports department had recently employed 14 coaches on contractual basis out of which three have already left. The department still requires at least 15 new coaches in the district to start certain sports centres.

District sports officer Jasbirpal Kaur Brar admitted that the department often faces problems due to lack of coaches. This has already been conveyed to the higher authorities. “Borrowing coaches during tournaments is not something wrong, but I hope the new policy will take care of all these things and help us in creating a better infrastructure for sports.”