Chandigarh, August 20
With the arrest of two Australian nationals and a Ropar-based NRI in Australia, the police today claimed to have foiled the kidnapping of a city resident for a ransom of Rs 1 crore. The target was the son of a former general manager of PUNSUP.

The police said the accused had hatched a conspiracy and hired three persons for Rs 10 lakh for keeping the victim hostage until the ransom amount was paid. The accused had planned to transfer the amount in their Australian bank account, which they wanted to use as “seed money” for investing in drug trade.

Those arrested have been identified as Gursher Singh of Zail Nagar in Ropar and Australian nationals Simon Ginty and Grant Alan Easton. Gursher had gone to Australia for studies and hatched a conspiracy with Ginty and Easton to kidnap his friend, 23-year-old Harsh Sinha from Chandigarh.

The accused were produced before a local court today, which remanded them in three-day police custody. Gursher had planned to call Harsh for a chat and later kidnap him and take him to Mullanpur. He asked Harsh to meet him near the Sector 40 temple.

The IGP said the crime branch got a tip off from the Punjab police. Using electronic surveillance, the police traced down the suspects at Sector 35 yesterday and apprehended them.

They were sitting in a Gypsy and two knives and 20 gm charas were seized from them. Three air-pistols were also found in the vehicle.

DSP Satbir Singh said various cases under the relevant Sections of the IPC, the NDPS Act and the Arms Act had been registered.

During questioning the accused disclosed that they reached India on August 15 via Malaysia, where they stayed for two days. After purchasing a Gypsy from Delhi, Gursher Singh contacted his cousin Bhupinder Singh, asking him to arrange for persons who could keep someone hostage.

His cousin contacted an acquaintance, Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Amritsar, who further engaged Raju and a Nihang and they reached Chandigarh. They met at the Sector 43 ISBT and went back after striking the deal.

Harsh told the police that Gursher Singh was a classmate of his brother in college and confirmed that he had received a call from Gurhser, who wanted to meet him.

Chandigarh, August 20
In a bid to deal with the ever-increasing incidents of assaulting teachers in or outside the school campus, the UT education department has sought help from police officials.

In a letter shot to UT SSP Shrivastava, the department has asked him to arrange for regular visits of areas’ SHOs to the identified sensitive schools.

“The incidents are unfortunate and the need is to deal with these incidents seriously. We have identified some schools, which are trouble stricken and forwarded the list to the UT Police. I have written a letter to the SSP asking him to make the SHOs’ visits to the schools as confidence building exercise. It will also act as a deterrent for miscreants,” revealed DPI (S) PK Sharma.

Chandigarh, August 20
Contradictions remained central to the ongoing investigation into the road accident that claimed the lives of 21-year-old Sukhwinder Singh and six-year-old Harpreet Singh, both residents of Kansal village, near here.

The UT IGP, PK Srivastva, talking to the media today, said the case was nothing more than that of causing death due to rash and negligent driving. The police had registered a case of causing death due to rash and negligent driving under Sections 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC.

The family of the victims and the lone eyewitness, however, accused the police of distorting facts to favour the accused — 19-year-old Sukhmani Brar who reportedly belongs to an influential family.

Asked about the delay in arresting the accused 20 hours after the incident, the IGP admitted that there had been delay and said they were looking into the lapses and would take action.

The IGP asserted that the victims’ family was satisfied with the action taken by the police, but his claims went for a toss with Harpreet’s father Dalbir Singh accusing the police of shielding the accused.

Accusing the police of distorting facts and tampering with the accident spot, Dalbir Singh alleged that the original spot was away from the place the police was showing as the accident spot. Further challenging the police theory, he alleged that in its investigation the police showed that the victims took a left turn from the roundabout before being hit by the car. However, they were going straight when they were knocked down, he stated.

The IGP also ruled out the allegation of a car race being the reason behind the mishap. This is despite the fact that the eyewitness and the complainant in the case, Sarabjit Singh, a resident of Khudda Ali Sher, has been claiming that both cars — Sukhmani’s Honda Accord and Armanraj’s Maruti Swift -- were racing at the time of the accident. The IGP stated that the investigation hinted that the cars were not racing.

The police has drawn flak for heavily relying on the statements givens by Sukhmani and her friends Armanraj Singh and Rahul, claiming that they were not racing. A police officer said they had obtained the mobile phone call details of the accused, which supported their claim that Sukhmani had called them for help, which proved that they were not together on the road.

Defending the police action of invoking Section 304-A (causing death due to negligence), the IGP said it was the appropriate section in case of a fatal road accident. Saying that the incident did not invoke Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), the IGP said the two cases — BMW case (Delhi) and actor Salman Khan’s case in Mumbai — cited in a section of the media were ultimately filed in the court under Section 304-A for trial. He said he himself had supervised the probe in the BMW case when he was in Delhi as the SSP.

Chandigarh, August 20
The office of the Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA), adjoining the municipal corporation, went without water today as its meter was disconnected on account of non-payment of tariff. As per records of the corporation, the RLA owes more than Rs 50,000 for the last six months.

The MC is carrying out a drive to disconnect water connections with pending tariff above Rs 50,000.

Officials said several reminders had been sent to the RLA for depositing the pending tariff. Last month through an official communique, the RLA office had requested
the public health department of the MC to not disconnect the water connection and give it one month’s time to pay the bill. The RLA authorities, however, failed to deposit the amount on the stipulated day.

The public health superintendent engineer, RK Goyal, said the department was in the process of issuing notices to defaulters and disconnecting water meters of those who were not paying the tariff on time.

Records of the MC show that more than Rs 8 crore was due from defaulters and of this, Rs 3 crore was due from private property owners. The rest of the amount is due from government departments. 

Mohali, August 20
The Punjab revenue department’s inability to demarcate de-notified forestland in Karoran, Nadah and Perch villages, locked under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), has literally turned over 1,000 hectares in these villages into no man’s land.

It has resulted in anxiety among forest officials as the demarcation is vital to ensure that the Act is not violated in areas adjoining the de-notified land.

The boundary of the de-notified land runs in a zig-zag manner along the forest areas. The officials apprehend that VIPs, including politicians, bureaucrats and police officers who own land in the area, might intrude in the forest area in the guise of de-notified land.

Punjab Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal said it was a along exercise and due to shortage of staff, it was taking time. The de-notified khasra numbers would be released soon.

Sources in the forest department said since March this year, repeated letters had been written to the respective Deputy Commissioners to get the land demarcated. As per the recommendations of a committee set up by the state government to carry out the de-notification exercise, the identified areas had to be delineated on maps and also on ground by the revenue department.

Consolidated maps of such areas had also been prepared for each village and prominently displayed so that all concerned had information regarding it.

Today again the department shot off letters to the Mohali DC to carry out the exercise. The sources said since the land ordered to be de-notified from the list of forest areas under Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act by the union ministry of environment and forests could only be used for bona fide agricultural and related activities to sustain the livelihood of the owner and not for commercial use, the revenue department was reluctant to carry out the exercise.

“Any violation of the conditions of de-listing of the PLPA land would have to be checked by the revenue department and not the forest department,” an official stated.

Chandigarh, August 20
It was the third day in succession that the city woke up to a pleasant windy morning today. As the day progressed, the humidity level kept on increasing. The Met office has some good news for the city residents: “Nights will remain cooler and pleasant towards the weekend.”

The weather officials have predicted rainfall later this evening.

The city recorded a maximum temperature of 32.8 degrees Celsius (°C), a raise of 1.1° C as compared to yesterday’s 31.7 and the minimum temperature dipped marginally by 0.5 ° C to 27.0 ° C, which was normal for this time of the season.

“Skies will remain cloudy with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers in some parts of the city tomorrow.

The maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover around 32 and 26 ° C ”, a met official said.

The Met official informed that the humidity was on the higher side. It was recorded at 87 per cent and the minimum was 69 per cent.

Doctors said cases of water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, dehydration and vomiting were a major cause of concern in this weather.

“One should see a doctor in case of headache, vomiting or if high fever persists for more than 24 hours. Extra precaution should be taken in case of children, the elderly and expecting women,” said Dr DS Dhillon. The number of patients with symptoms of water-borne diseases rises during this time of the year,” he added.

The news emanating from the weather room is that the prevailing weather conditions — higher humidity conditions during the day and pleasant nights- is likely to continue in the next couple of days in the city.

The weathermen said there was a possibility of partial cloudy conditions with a spell of rain or thundershowers in isolated parts in the city on Saturday.

Chandigarh, August 20
After launching WiMAX Broadband Service in Punjab, state owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is all set to introduce the service on a trial basis in the city from the second week of September.

WiMAX, a technology, that will allow subscribers to use their broadband services on wireless through out the city will surely be a boon to the net savvy and on the move computer users. BSNL plan to invest over Rs 70 crore in rolling out our services in Punjab and Chandigarh.

Talking to newsmen on draw of trade discount scheme of BSNL, General Manager, Telecom, Naresh Sharma, said, “The services will be initially available in few sectors, including Sector 4, 9, 14, 15, 17, 20, 22, 27 and 34. While in Sectors 18, 19, 21, 30, 31 and 33 speed is likely to be weak due to network. However, he admitted that since it was only a trial phase, the subscriber may not get the usual high speed of WiMAX as complete infrastructure was yet to be in place.

Sharma said that once the service was fully enabled in the city, the user after installing the Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) would be able to access internet service through WiMAX upto 8 MBPS.

He said that charges of Wimax varied according to the data plan. For Rs 220, the user could download 400 mb data and Rs 999 plan was available for unlimited uses and speed of … would be available.

Talking about the other schemes of BSNL, he said, 2G and 3G SIM would be available free of cost for new users till August 31. On activation of 2G SIM, the customer will get 50 MB free data download along with 1000 local and 1000 national sms free. While, 3G customers on recharge of Rs 120 will get minimum 100 voice call and 200 mb data free of cost for 30 days from the day of recharge. For broadband, no installation charges will be taken for new registration.

Lucky draw was taken out by vice president, Mohali Industry Association, Anurag Agarwal and 15 winners were given free ITC/Call Now card of the value equal to their current bill of the customer. The winners of landline customers for April were Dr Ramesh Girg, Amrit Singh, Dr Kamlesh Gulati, Rama Kant, Jagdish Chand Malhotra etc.

Chandigarh, August 20
The draft prepared for the departments recently transferred from the Chandigarh administration to the municipal corporation is expected to be tabled during the meeting of Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC), to be held on August 23.

Sources said the authorities had already appointed nodal officers for departments, including education, health and roads, to work out modalities of infrastructure, available staff, vacancies and the status of new projects sanctioned in the respective areas. These officials will have to prepare a detailed report of each department which is going to be transferred to the corporation.

Sources said members of the committee would discuss the draft which would be tabled in the general house meeting 
for discussion.

It may be mentioned that the administration has approved the transfer of all V3 roads, parks, green belts, 20 civil dispensaries, 21 health care centres, two polyclinic, Ayush hospital and six primary schools. The administration has directed the corporation to create its own cadre within six months for the purpose.

Chandigarh, August 20
The Chandigarh administration has constituted various standing committees of the Administrator’s Advisory Council(AAC)-a development which will go a long way in initiating the process of public participation in the decision-making process.

According to a order issued by Home Secretary Ram Niwas, Justice SS Sodhi, RK Saboo, PC Sanghi, Chaman Lal Gupta and Saudamini Bambah will be members of the urban infrastructure for the city committee, while Deepa Jain Singh, Harjinder Kaur, Maj-Gen MS Kandal (retd), Neelam Man Singh and Partap K Aggarwal will be members of the Education Committee.

The Environment Committee will have Justice Kuldip Singh, Chand Nehru, Manju Jaidka and Vikram Sehgal as members and the Health Committee will have BB Bahl, CL Bains, Hanbans Kaur Bahia, SK Sharma and Sadanand as members.

The names of Charanjiv Singh, Kiran Johsi, ML Sarin, Sumitra Amarkant and GPS Sahi figure in the Urban Planning and Heritage Preservation Committee. Politicians Sanjay Tandon, Gurbachan Singh and Devi Dayal Sharma and retired IPS officer VK Sharma will constitute the Law and Order Committee.

On the other hand, DP Azad, ML Verma, Sabastian Jose and Bhajan Singhm will be members of the Sports Committee.The Transportation Committee consists of KS Raju, Madhu Sarin, Mansur Ali and City Mayor Anu Chatrath, while the Traffic Management Committee will have Gurdeep Singh Atwal, Harish C Sethi, Manmohan Singh and Gurdeep Singh as members.

Bir Ghaggar (Panchkula), August 20
Three families whose houses were damaged in landslides about three weeks back are still waiting for the compensation to be given by the district administration.

One of the victims, Darshana Devi, talking to The Tribune today said that no government official or political leaders have visited them since July 27. She said mosquitoes were giving them sleepless nights as the community centre was covered only from three sides. They were, therefore, susceptible to vector-borne diseases, she added.

Another resident, Vijay, whose house was damaged, said the district administration had not given any relief to them except providing them with 2-kg rice and wheat besides some spices and a half litre of mustard oil on the first day.

He said they had taken up the matter with village sarpanch Ram Sarup who had assured that he would take up the matter with the district administration. However, nothing had been done in this regard, he rued.

Another victim, Sanjay, said the administration started supplying water through a water tanker after three days. He alleged that tanker owner had told them that he would not be supplying water to them in future. He said even the officials of the electricity department have asked them to apply for a meter otherwise power supply to the community centre would be disconnected.

It is worth mentioning here that not just the area, which faced the collapse, damaging the three houses near the embankment of the Ghaggar, but the entire locality in the area is susceptible due to loose soil.

The victims said if the district administration failed to pay any compensation they would be forced to protest by blocking the national highway 22. They said they had lost all their earnings in the incident as their houses were totally damaged in landslides. They alleged that the irrigation department was responsible for their plight as they failed to construct two, out of three, spurs in the river.

Meanwhile, cracks have appeared in three more houses in the same lane during yesterday’s heavy rains. Tehsildar Satish Singla, after visiting the site, had said compensation would be given as per policy of the state government. He said he would submit his report to the Deputy Commissioner.

Zirakpur, August 20
Lack of basic amenities in the godown area in Pabhat village on the Chandigarh-Ambala highway has been annoying the owners of the godowns of multinational and Indian companies.

The owners and tenants allege that the state government and Zirakpur municipal council have been collecting crores of rupees from the traders as taxes but fail to provide basic facilities like proper roads, streetlights, drainage system and drinking water. The work of sewerage laying, too, was slow, leading to inconvenience to suppliers and dealers.

They claim that for the past eight years they have been submitting their complaints to the state government, municipal council president, and other authorities concerned, but nothing has been done so far.

A visit to the area reveals that a majority of the approach roads are un-metalled and dotted with potholes. During night, it is difficult to walk on the roads as there are no streetlights. In rainy season, waterlogging is a routine affair which damages the goods in the godowns.

“We have written to Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal about the pathetic condition of the godown area and requested him to provide us with basic facilities on priority basis,” says Amit Jain, president of C&F Association, Zirakpur. Due to poor conditions and “kuccha” roads, trucks drivers are forced to park their trucks on the highway causing inconvenience to commuters, he added.

FS Nagra, president of the Commercial Welfare Association of godown area, states that the area is one of the biggest commercial hubs in the state and the authorities concerned had been collecting crores of rupees from the godowns in the form of taxes annually.

He says they have submitted their representations to the state government and municipal council officials many times, but the authorities have turned a blind eye towards the basic requirements of the godown owners.

MC president and district planning chairman NK Sharma claims that most of the work of sewerage laying has already been completed and only 15 per cent of it is left. He says in the last MC meeting the council has passed a budget for the development in godown area and facilities will be provided to them shortly. The tenders for re-carpeting of Pabhat-Chandigarh link road will be called soon, he adds.

Chandigarh, August 20
There have been great irregularities in the promotion of steno typists since 1994 at Powercom and Transco Limited. Promotions of employees in all categories working in the power board are done on the basis of seniority-cum-merit, but in the stenography cadre, promotions are done on the basis of merit alone which is contrary to the rules and regulations of the board.

As a result, about 170 steno typists are affected due to this anomaly. It was revealed in the information sought under the RTI Act.

According to a press note received here, the matter has been brought to the notice of the chairman as well as administrative member of Powercom, yet nothing has been done to end the injustice.

The steno typists have now appealed to the authorities to end the stalemate; otherwise they will be forced to move the court.

Chandigarh, August 20
A first year student of Panjab University’s department of environment sciences today lodged a complaint at the Dean Student Welfare (DSW) office against a boy who misbehaved with her at the student centre.

The girl, along with her friend, submitted a written complaint to the DSW, but the boy could not be identified. The PU authorities said the incident was a minor one and was resolved. “The incident was a minor one and the matter has been resolved,” said DSW Naval Kishore.

The incident, which was earlier being speculated as a ragging incident, later turned out to be an incident of eve-teasing and misbehaviour.

With the student council election round the corner, security at the campus has also been strengthened.

University officials today also added that in the wake of today’s incident at the student centre, which is the hub of activities at the campus, the security at the centre would also be strengthened.

Chandigarh, August 20
“Master achievers do not do different things but they do things differently”. It veritably applies to acclaimed film actor thespian Lillete Dubey, who gave a new dimension to her production, an English play, “Love on the Brink”, staged in the Tagore Theatre here today.

The much awaited theatre spectacle organised by the Durga Das Foundation was supported by HDFC, First city Infratech, with The Tribune Group of Newspapers. The play adapted by Sandhya Divecha from Tony award winning play “Luv” by Murray Schisgal with certain aberrations suiting the Indian milieu was an attempt to explore the concept of love and search for the ideal marital relationship, family life and living.

Without any conventional storyline and didactic sermonising, the two-hour wickedly satirical hilarious comedy kept audience engaged. The playwright and director had devised absurd but comic situations, potential enough to generate humour and genial laughter by the three accomplished actors.

The play was structured in the cosmopolitan cultural background. The audio-visual effects and aptly designed sets, which were both symbolic and functional, chiaroscuro effects and music augmented the acting spells by the characters, including poor and dejected Sudipto Bandhopadhya (Bandy), an existentialist intellectual, Pankaj Chopra (Chops), a rich person, and his wife Amu. Their brilliant and vibrant acting spells with an in depth understanding of respective characters put life into the otherwise absurd theme. But the play recovers an explosive truth about the sanctity of the institution of marriage and love and longing, the ingredients for a peaceful living. The crisp dialogue delivery, expressions with frequent voice modulations and eloquent stage movements accounted for their aesthetic brilliance, while presence of the director was amply discernible in the play.

Joy Sen Gupta, Kumud Mishra and Shivani Tanksale formed the cast.

The dignitaries, including IAS Pradeep Mehra, Justice SS Sodhi, Trustee, and Raj Chengappa, Editor-in Chief of The Tribune Group of Newspapers, besides Justice Hemant Gupta, Justice Rajive Bhalla, IGP PK Srivastva, graced the function. Earlier Durgadas Foundation director Atul Khanna welcomed the guests.

Panchkula, August 20
The magnificence of diverse folk musical cultures of Haryana and its bordering areas were brought alive with élan and rustic splendour at the Inderdhanush Auditorium in the state-level “Lok Sangeet Utsav” here today.

The event organised by the Haryana Kala Parishad marked the birth anniversary of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. About 80 artistes, including folk instrumentalists, dancers and singers, participated in the mega show.

While the nagada party led by Ranjit Singh accorded traditional welcome, sarangi artistes and deru singers led by Parksh Nath, Om Parksh and Balbir Singh, respectively, charmed audience.

It were folk dances titled “Saavan” and “Khodiya” presented by 15 accomplished dancers from the parishad under the direction of veteran folk dancing maestro Leela Saini, which won applause. Besides Vandna, Seema and Ruchi who doled out “Ganga ji ke pyar mein”, celebrated Prem Dehati presented raaginis.

Chandigarh, August 20
A second-year student of Panjab University’s HS Judge Dental College today suffered injuries while working in the department lab. The incident triggered panic among students of her batch, who were working in the same lab at the time of the incident.

The institute director, however, added that negligence by the students can lead to such accidents and the students must take precautionary measures. “I have given instructions to the students on how to use spirit lamps and burners in the labs,” said Krishan Gauba, director of HS Judge Dental College.

Due to a minor blast from the spirit lamp in the lab, the girl suffered burns on her eyebrows and cheeks. Two other girls working close to her in the lab had a narrow escape when the blast occurred.

When the students were probed about the incident, they replied that it was a routine incident in the lab and such blasts were a common site.

However, the second-year students added that certain lab equipment was lying unused and there was a need to improve the infrastructure and utilise the exiting material. The spirit lamps were being used in the labs, while burners were also available but not used, claimed the students.

They were in a state of shock and expressed their apprehension about medical aid available in case such an incident occurred.

“There is no emergency kit in the department in case such incidents happen. The girl has got burns on her eyebrows and the spark could also have gone in her eyes and caused permanent damage,” said a girl present on the spot.

Dean Student Welfare Naval Kishore said the complaint of the students would be looked into.

Chandigarh, August 20
Alleged misbehaviour of two teachers with students of the department of laws, Panjab University, evoked widespread protest by the students today.

It was a platform where members of all student organisations, including SOPU, PUSU and SOI, as the students of the department joined hands to stage a dharna outside the chairperson’s office.

Dean Student Welfare (DSW) Naval Kishore reached the spot and pacified the students. The female teacher, against whom the students were protesting, also apologised to the students later. The students had alleged that two teachers did not teach and, instead, exerted undue pressure on them. Following an argument with one of them today in a classroom over a presentation topic, the students staged the protest.

Department chairperson PS Jaswal said the issue had been resolved now. “There was some argument over a topic of presentation between the students and teachers. The matter has been settled now,” said Jaswal.

The unity of student parties, however, soon dissolved when certain outsiders were spotted by the PU security in the parking lot of the department of laws.

Nearly half a dozen outsiders were identified by the PU security staff, who were taken to the Sector 11 police station for identification and later released.

Suspecting identity of the boys, the security persons asked the boys to show their identity cards, which they could not produce.

The dharna at the PU’s law department soon turned out to be a PUSU-SOPU brawl, although minor, when the members of one party outnumbered the members of other party. The alertness of the PU security prevented an incident of violence on the campus.