Hans Raj shows his card in front of the ATM of the SBI at Sector 17 in Chandigarh on Saturday. A Tribune photograph

Further enquiries revealed that the miscreants had changed his PIN (personal identification number). He took up the matter with the bank, which examined his account and said the amount had been withdrawn from various ATMs.

Similarly, Raj Kumar, a general manager (accounts) with the Lalru-based Agro-Dutch Industries and a resident of Sector 37-D, said he lost Rs 1 lakh in five instalments in the past two days.

He checked with the SBI branch at the PGI and after confirmation that the amount had been fraudulently withdrawn, lodged a complaint with the bank. Bank officials advised him to report the matter to the police.

Ankur, a private employee of a unit at the Industrial Area, and Kulwant Singh, a resident of EPF Colony, Sector 30-A, were also duped of Rs 20,000 each in similar fashion.

Mohali, August 21
In the August 12 incident in which car-borne youths had fired three rounds of gun shots, injuring a commando of the Punjab Police, near Burail Jail close to Phase IX, Mohali, the main suspect in the case has turned out to be a former president of the DAV Students Union, Amandeep Multani.

Interestingly, it was Multani, who had complained on the day of the incident that Patran-based owner of a gymnasium, Amarinder Singh, alias Captain, had fired at him after an argument over a girl.

Mohali SSP GPS Bhullar said the student leader had been misleading the police. “We will take suitable action after arresting the suspect,” he added.

Investigations by the police revealed that Moga-based youth, Sartaj, had been calling up a girl, also known to Amandeep. Amandeep, who called Sartaj to Mohali, objected his calling up the girl. On the day of the incident, Sartaj, along with Pardeep and two other friends, came to Mohali in their Swift car.

Near the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) office in Phase IX, Amandeep, along with accomplice in three cars chased Sartaj’s car. While chasing, a gunshot was fired at the car, but the occupants escaped unhurt. The second gunshot was fired at Sartaj’s vehicle, which hit the Punjab Police commando. The chase continued till Sartaj’s vehicle took a U-turn towards Mohali.

Sources said occupants in Sartaj’s car were so scared that while moving towards Moga, they met with an accident near Phillaur and their vehicle was badly damaged. The vehicle was still lying in the Phillaur police station. 

Chandigarh, August 21
The Chandigarh police today arrested three persons from Amritsar who had allegedly connived with the two Australian nationals and their Ropar-based NRI associate for hatching a conspiracy to kidnap a city resident for a ransom of Rs 1 crore. The police has also arrested a shopkeeper from Sector 17 here who sold knives to the accused.

DSP (crime) Satbir Singh said a joint team of the UT and Amritsar police conducted a raid and arrested Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi, Surjit Singh, alias Raju, and Manjit Singh, alias Changiara (Nihang), in connection with the case. they were arrested on information provided by their accomplices Gursher Singh, Simon Ginty and Grant Alan Easton, who were arrested by the UT police on Thursday. They had settled a deal with Gursher and Australian nationals for Rs 10 lakh for keeping the hostage.

The police has arrested Gurdev, owner of Corner shop in Sector 17, for allegedly selling two knives to the accused. The police has also identified a gun shop from where the accused had bought air guns. Since the involvement of the gun house owner did not figure in the crime, the police did not arrest him.

Mohali, August 21
Private multi-speciality hospitals here have shown lack of concern for the poor by refusing to provide free facilities to the BPL (below poverty line) families.Efforts were made by the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) and the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) to persuade many such hospitals to show generosity, but all in vain.

Over the past three years, the PHSC and GMADA had been holding meetings with these hospitals to persuade them to provide free treatment and facilities to a certain percentage of persons holding yellow cards, but the sufferings of the poor have failed to move these fund-rich hospitals.

According to sources, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Roshan Sankaria, MD, PHSC-cum-secretary, Health, on September 12, 2007, where it was decided that the persons living below the poverty line should be given treatment free of cost by these hospitals, which were given land at concessional rates by PUDA.

The free treatment was to be provided to 5 per cent of the indoor patients and 10 per cent of outdoor patients. Eight multi-speciality hospitals in Mohali were asked to draw a mechanism for referring patients from the BPL families. The records show that only one hospital (Ivy Hospital) was providing free treatment to the BPL families, while five managements had refused to do so on legal grounds and two remained silent.

The eight hospitals which were issued letters in November, 2007, by the GMADA were Chandigarh Hospital and Research Centre, Sector 69, Fortis Hospital, Sector 62, Cosmo Hospital, Sector 62, Singla Hospital, Sector 70, Silver Oaks Hospital, Sector 63, RGS Healthcare, Sector 69, Ivy Hospital, Sector 71, and Indus Hospital, Phase-I.

In the letter, it was stated that for helping yellow card holders an additional condition was inserted in the allotment letter. “The allottee shall provide free treatment to the yellow card holders for the time being in force up to 10 per cent of the outdoor patients and five per cent of the indoor patients. The allottee shall document the facilities made available and details thereof sent on regular basis to the GMADA or any other such authority declared by government.” The hospitals were also asked to send regular reports to the GMADA, the PHSC and the civil surgeon.

Responding to the issue, four hospitals-Cosmo Hospital, Silver Oaks Hospital, Chandigarh Hospital and Research Centre, Singla Hospital- wrote a letter to the civil surgeon PK Sridhar stating that: “We never accepted the obligation to provide free medical care to the BPL patients.”

They pointed out that their hospitals were allotted land under the PUDA policy of 1996 at a hefty premium rather than at concessional rates.

The condition now added was unjustified and contrary to the terms governing the allotment of the land. There could be no legal or contractual ground to unilaterally amend the concluded contract, they added.

The letter further stated that though they were providing free services to deserving patients, in absence of any legal sanction, the request made must be declined.

Chandigarh, August 21
Alumni of various Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were in the city today to promote the forthcoming global conference, PanIIT2010, to be held at Noida in October.

IIT-Delhi alumnus Pradeep Gupta, chairman, Cyber Media India Limited, said at a press conference that the IIT alumni were spearheading the movement to organise its think tank to contribute to the growth of IITs as well as to the socio-economic development of the country.

“We have been able to engage IITians settled abroad as well in India in paying back to their country by initiating research and development, upgrading skills of faculty, sharing industry knowledge, encouraging entrepreneurship, and initiating projects that can address problems like poverty, unemployment, and health in the country,” Gupta added.

Ashok Madhukar of the IIT-Kharagpur, member of the PanIIT organising committee, said the setting up of another IIT at Ropar, provided a clear agenda to the IITians in the region to work closely with it.

Rakesh Verma, managing director, Punjab Infotech, said the state government was keen on forging a sustainable partnership with PanIIT to leverage its support and guidance for ensuring state’s transition from a resource-based economy to knowledge-based economy.

Shashi Munjal, convener of the IIT-Delhi Alumni Association, hoped the curtain raiser conference at Chandigarh would be a precursor to engaging local IITians to work closely with the IIT-Ropar in establishing a proactive contact with students, help in adaptation of the curricula to suit the industry requirements, and contribute to the skill enhancement of IIT students so that they emerged as super-specialists ready for the industry.

The PanIIT Global Conference will be held in Noida from October 29 to 31.

Chandigarh, August 21
The University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), Panjab University, today announced the launch of its national event called “Effi-Cycle” in which 18 teams comprising engineering students from top educational institutes in the country will participate to create a vehicle that runs on human power.

Addressing the issue of global warming, students of the engineering and technology wing said the department had taken a giant leap towards the green technology. They added that the target product would be eco-friendly and efficient.

The Indian chapter of SAE (Society of Automotive Engineering) International, SAEINDIA, a global organisation involved in identifying ideas and innovations for advancing the engineering of mobility systems, today introduced the Effi-Cycle 2010 event to be hosted at the UIET Chandigarh on October 23-24, 2010.

“The challenge is to create consciousness amongst the youth towards environment-friendly solutions for mobility engineering,” said a UIET official.

“With the inception of an event, specifically catering to the environmental concern, the foundation has been laid for students to contemplate over advanced technologies and charter the path towards a better tomorrow,” said Renu Vig, director, UIET. 

Chandigarh, August 21
Taking cognisance of the minor blast in a laboratory of HS Judge Dental College, Panjab University, RC Sobti, Vice-Chancellor, has constituted a four-member committee to probe the incident and suggest corrective steps to be taken by the university.

The committee, comprising K Gauba, Director Principal, HS Judge Dental College, Ravi Gupta, Fellow, RK Khullar, Panjab University Health Centre and M Joshi, Special Officer, VC Office, (Convener), will submit its report within three days.

Sobti said the committee would look into the incident from different perspectives to find out the causes that led to the incident and also recommend the corrective action to be taken by the PU administration so that no such incident takes place in future on the PU campus.

Meanwhile, even as the institute teachers claimed that it was the negligence of the student concerned, certain PU officials added that the lab attendant present on duty and the teacher should have been vigilant as well. 

Chandigarh, August 21
Even as the sole eyewitness of the road accident that claimed lives of two cousins, Sarabjit Singh, had been claiming that Sukhmani Brar was drunk at the time of mishap, the police had not recorded it in the first information report (FIR).Investigators had not taken the fact on record in the FIR and mentioned that circumstances of the mishap were not in detail.

As per the FIR, Sarabjit Singh was coming from Sector 17 and saw the car, which was on high speed and was being negligently driven and rammed into the motorcycle without blowing horn. Sukhwinder Singh, who was driving the ill-fated motorcycle, was thrown into the air due to the impact of the collision and landed on the bonnet and windscreen of the car. Sukhwinder’s cousin, Harpreet, who was riding pillion, fell on the road.

Nowhere in the FIR was it mentioned that the car driver was drunk. On the other hand, the fact that the cars were racing was played down in the FIR, which mentioned that the car driver sat and sped away in the other car, which was tailing it.Meanwhile, members of the RTI Activists Federation, Punjab, today carried out a peace march to the Sector 36 residence of Sukhmani Brar, demanding constitution of a fresh team to investigate the case.

The state president of the federation, HC Arora, led the peace march, along with president of Citizens Forum on Human Rights, Shushil Gupta, in Sector 36 holding placards appealing to the city residents to say no to rash and drunken driving.Seeking intervention of the UT Administrator into the matter, they said an inquiry should be ordered to probe the conduct of the investigation officer and SHO of the Sector 3 police station, Inspector Mahavir Singh and his team, which failed to arrest Sukhmani for 20 hours after the accident. 

They also demanded a fresh investigation team for examining whether the case deserves to be registered under Section 304 of the IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), instead of Section 304-A of the IPC (causing death due to negligence) in the facts and circumstances of the accident.They also said adequate amount be granted by way of compensation to the families of the victims of the mishap, Sukhwinder Singh and Harpreet Singh. 

Chandigarh, August 21
Nothing can be more humiliating for defence personnel than being pushed out of civilian premises after public humiliation.A sergeant, proceeding on annual leave, was humiliated and thrown out of the railway booking counter yesterday after he argued with the clerk over denying him concession on the ticket of his physically challenged son. Coming to The Tribune office immediately after the incident, the sergeant broke down while narrating his shocking encounter.Sobbing inconsolably, he mumbled, “Looks like there is no pride left in our services. 

Till this afternoon, I had always believed that soldiers had a special place in society.”“The clerk denied me the ticket, saying the concession certificate did not carry the sex of my child in the relevant column. I have been travelling with my son, suffering from permanent disability of spastic diplegia, on the same certificate for the past more than three years, but never faced any problem,” he said.Denying the ticket, the booking clerk wrote on the certificate, “Bring proper concession performa. Sex not mentioned.” 

The concession certificate clearly reads the name as ‘Master…’. The Air Force man said he had used the same certificate, issued in April 2007, on several earlier occasions.Hurt at his public humiliation, the sergeant wrote in a complaint to the Northern Railway that the concession certificate had been issued by the Railways and the same did not have any special coloumn for sex and a column, instead, read ‘Sec’.“Rejection of concession to my son was violation of his rights.

 I will definitely pursue the case to its logical conclusion,” he added.Talking to the Chandigarh Tribune, superintendent DK Meena said, “I am not yet aware of any complaint with regard to the case. The matter will be treated on merit.”

Chandigarh, August 21
A team of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation during a surprise raid yesterday fined parking contractors in different parts of the city for irregularities in maintaining parking lots.The team under the supervision of Joint Commissioner TPS Phoolka conducted the raid in Sectors 22, 34 and 35 and imposed a fine of Rs 22,000 on the contractors for violating the parking norms.

Officials said the fine amounting to Rs 15,000 was imposed on the parking contractor of Sector 22 for various irregularities like overcharging for helmets, employees not in uniform, no attendants in the parking lot and for wrong parking of vehicles.

Though the parking contractor, including in front of hotel Sunbeam and Piccadilly of Sector 22, had installed CCTV cameras, they were not functional.During the visit to Sector 22, the team found that there was no proper marking for parking vehicles in the parking areas and most of the contractors had allowed parking of more vehicles than the capacity of the parking lots.In another parking area of Sector 35, the contractor had been fined Rs 3,000 for allowing excess parking of vehicles in the parking area without appointing requisite staff to manage it. 

Chandigarh, August 21
The city has been witnessing light to moderate showers since last evening.Rain caused waterlogging and traffic jams were reported from various parts of the city, including roundabouts of Sectors 26, 27, 28, 33, 34, 21 and 22, Hallo Majra and Airport traffic light points. Dysfunctional traffic signals at various crossings added to the chaos.

About 15 hours of continuous rain since last evening threw life out of gear.

Several low-lying areas of the city, particularly Industrial Area, Phase 1, and Sectors 26, 28, 20, 46 and 48 were waterlogged. In Sector 41, residents had to wade through knee-deep water.

Meanwhile, the Met office predicted another spell of rain in the evening. “The city may witness more rain in the evening due to afternoon humid conditions and moisture in the air,” the Met official said.

According to the official, the maximum temperature was recorded at 31.1 degree Celsius, 1.7 degrees lower as compared to yesterday’s 32.8 and minimum also plummeted to 25.2 against 27 degree Celsius recorded on Friday.

The city witnessed 86.9 mm of rains, which led to waterlogging and traffic jams in several parts of the city.

The maximum humidity was on the higher side at 98 per cent and minimum at 71 per cent. “The humidity levels are expected to remain high in the coming days,” said Surender Paul, director, India Meteorological Department (IMD).

“The sky will be partly cloudy with possibility of one or two spells of rain or thundershowers in the next 24 hours. The maximum temperature is expected to settle at 31 degree Celsius and the minimum at 25,” he added.

In spite of the afternoon humid conditions, roadside vendors carried on with the sale of eatables as usual. Oblivious to the prevailing conditions, people were seen buying ‘bhutta’ and kulchas from such vendors.

Due to continuous rain, thick cover of mud and slush on the roads spelt doom for commuters, especially two-wheeler riders, who faced difficulties.

Meanwhile, the rain brought cheers to farmers in Punjab and Haryana who said the rain in the season had actually reduced pressure on the underground water and electricity supply. They said the rain was good for the paddy crop.

“As far as the weather forecast is concerned, the weather is likely to remain the same in the next two to three days and after that it may change,” said Paul.

Chandigarh, August 21
The inquiry report of the death of newborn at Government Multi-Speciality Hospital has created a flutter among doctors in the hospital.All the doctors, not satisfied with the findings, met the director, health, here this afternoon.

The director, however, reportedly refused to intervene stating that the matter was being handled by higher authorities.

The inquiry report by Chandigarh Additional Deputy Commissioner PS Shergill and the Government Medical College and Hospital director Dr Raj Bahadur has indicted four doctors of GMSH for negligence which led to the death of the newborn.

Chandigarh, August 21
The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has served a notice on Engineer-in-Chief, Army Headquarters, as the latter failed to comply with the tribunal’s orders pronounced in 2006 regarding the promotion of superintendents.

The applicant, Vajinder Singh, working as a junior engineer in the office of Garrison Engineer, Dappar, had claimed that he had written a letter in July, 2006, to inform the department for carrying out the order.

However, the orders have not been followed so far.

As per the orders, the tribunal had observed that from 1995 to 96 onwards no person under the category of Supdt Gr II had been either considered or promoted to Gr I.

Singh said, “The Engineer-in-Chief has flouted the directions given by CAT and has rendered himself liable to be punished for committing contempt.”

Providing relief to superintendents, the tribunal passed orders to consider persons who were Supdt Gr II and grant them promotions with retrospective dates keeping in mind their seniority and availability of vacancies of Gr I from time to time up to April 2001.

The next date in the case is September 27.

Chandigarh, August 21
The city audience was treated to a memorable puppet and shadow art show by the internationally acclaimed Hanan Puppet and Shadow Art Troupe of China at the Law Bhawan auditorium here today.

The shadow art show, which is a rarity in the region, was brought to city by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) in association with Network of Asian Cinema (NETPAC).

Displaying utmost precision and perfect timings, the artists articulated the movements of puppets through invisible sticks to weave out a story.

The audience was so amazed that most of them believed as if a film was being screened, but the artists negated their belief by staging the last item “Apasra” operating the puppets before the audience without their shadow on the curtain.

Be it the opening “The Two Friends” and subsequent presentations like “Three Mice”, “The Fat Cat”, “The Fox and the Crew” etc the whole art work was immaculately and perfectly synchronised and executed by most accomplished actors.

Chandigarh, August 21
Musical bonanza by Dolly Guleria, a renowned Punjabi singer and daughter of Punjab nightingale Surinder Kaur, was witnessed here at Daliha Garden, Sector 36, on the occasion of Teej celebrations today evening.

The colourful function was organised by the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, in which Dolly Guleria presented rich traditional songs, including “Ambersare diya wadiya ve me khani haa”. During the function, the MC honoured 15 women from the Old Age Home, Sector 15.

While Dolly Guleria performed on “Charkha mera rangla, wich sone diya mekha, haye we tainu yaad karan jad charkhe wal dekha", the women from old age home also danced with women councillors.

Mehandi stalls, phulkari and various eatable stalls have also been arranged during the event.

Chandigarh, August 21
With the Students Organisation of Panjab Union (SOPU) announcing its poll agenda and panel, battle lines have been drawn for the upcoming student election on the Panjab University campus.

The student organisation, during a press conference at student centre, came down heavily on the PU authorities for forming several committees on a single issue. They said they would meet the PU Vice-Chancellor on Monday to submit a memorandum in this regard.

They demanded a detailed probe into the incident where a student leader was found entering the girls hostel to deliver a cake at night. SOPU members said the PU authorities should have questioned the student and instead of dismissing the two security persons, the authorities should have fixed the warden’s responsibility.

SOPU leaders Brinder Dhillon, Amit Bhatia and Harpreet Multani said their organisation would follow the recommendations of Lyngdoh Committee. He added that they had already started removing posters from boys hostels 6 and 7.

Dhillon said they would contest poll on the basis of their achievements in the past two years like teacher evaluation, Senate representation for students, launch of placement cells and completion of the hostel infrastructure and parking. He added that SOPU would release the manifesto soon. The members also announced Harsh Vardhan as the presidential candidate and Rajat Sharma as their representative.