The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Life-saving drugs out of stock at civil hospital
Suman Bhatnagar

Ambala, August 22
The Civil Hospital at Ambala City is facing acute shortage of life-saving drugs these days which is causing inconvenience to the patients, especially to the BPL card holders. According to sources, those patients who come to the emergency ward are generally asked to bring some of the life-saving drugs from private chemists.

During late night hours, relatives of the patients find it difficulty to arrange the medicines, as most chemist shops in the city close after 10 pm.

Two chemist shops earlier located on the hospital campus were closed down last year.

An asthmatic patient suffering from cardio arrest came to the emergency ward of the hospital at 4 am. She was serious and required immediate treatment.

The doctor on duty prescribed her two injections and a few tablets.

The staff on duty asked her relatives to bring those medicines from some chemist shop, as they were not available in the hospital.

It was drizzling at that time and patient’s relative had to go around 1,000 yards to bring the medicine. Another poor patient faced the similar situation, when one of the relatives of the patient protested that at least life-saving drugs should be provided by the hospital.

The staff nurse said a few life saving medicines were out of stock. She said if they wanted to save patent’s life they should have arranged the medicine.

According to a doctor in the hospital, the emergency ward should have sufficient stock of life saving medicines.

One of the senior doctors in the hospital said they had no option but to deal with the situation.

He said the healthy directorate allowed the hospital authority for the local purchase of Rs 10,000 per month which was quite insufficient for the 200-bed hospital.

However, civil surgeon was not available for comments, as he was on leave.

Residents throng market before Raksha Bandhan
Gagan K Teja
Tribune News Service

People buy rakhis from a shop ahead of the Raksha Bandhan in Patiala, on Sunday. Tribune photo: Rajesh Sachar

Patiala, August 22
With just two days left for Raksha Bandhan, city markets on Sunday wore a crowded look with hundreds of buyers purchasing designer and fancy rakhis. Huge rush was witnessed at market places like Tripri, Leela Bhawan, Dharampura Bazar, Adalat Bazar etc.

With many youngsters also hitting the gift galleries in order to hunt for a perfect gift for their siblings, the shops donned a festive look.

Rakhis ranging from as low as Rs 2 to Rs 2,000 were available in the market, whereas special rakhi shops were also set-up in various markets. With most girls opting for small and decent rakhis, the trend of silver and gold rakhis has also picked up.

Several jewellery shops are even making gold rakhis worth thousand of rupees.

A shopkeeper at Kila Chowk said he had already made six gold rakhis and more than 100 silver ones starting from Rs 500 to around Rs 2,000.

Earlier, ladies preferred simple threads but now, it has become a status symbol and another way of displaying wealth, he added.

On the other hand, even brothers are leaving no stone unturned to impress their sisters. Bikramjeet Singh said: “My sister has always been my inspiration. She is seven years elder to me and helped me in every walk of life. Since I was young, she offered me money to buy things that I required. Now, I have started earning, I try to gift her something that she desires and has been longing for. For us it's no more about gifts, it's more about togetherness and our love for each other, he added.

Not only the grown-ups, but even kids seem excited about shopping. For children, fancy and cartoon character rakhis like Super Man, Ben-10, Spider Man, Mr Bean, Bhim and others are available in the market.

Vikas manch to stage dharna on Sep 6
Our Correspondent

Kalka, August 22
Shivalik Vikas Manch, Haryana, will stage a dharna at Panchkula to protest against the partial attitude of the state government towards Kalka. This was decided at a meeting in Kalka here today. Vijay Bansal, state president of the Shivalik Vikas Manch, while addressing the workers meeting, condemned the state government for being biased towards Kalka.

He alleged that in the past five years, the state government had provided 60,000 jobs, but the unemployed youths of Shivalik area, including Panchkula, Yamuna Nagar and Ambala had been deprived of the jobs. The department of education, Haryana, has recently set-up 12 universities and 36 model schools in the state, but not even a single university and school was started in the Shivalik area.

Bansal further alleged that various development works were carried out in the state with Rs 300 crore under the Special Development Scheme throughout the state, but the Panchkula district, including Kalka, Pinjore and its vicinity were deprived of the scheme.

Violation of pollution norms
Chemical factory to compensate residents
Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, August 22
Residents of Hebatpura village, who were protesting against the pollution norms being violated by chemical factory Nector life science and threatened to block national highway on August 22, today postponed their protest after getting an assurance from the factory management.

According to village sarpanch Dr Tarsem, factory management had assured to provide Rs 1,49,000 to farmers, who had lost their crops due to chemical mixed ash that damaged various crops during the monsoon this year.

Nearly 18 acre of crops was damaged, he added. Notably, village residents were raising the issue of polluted water and ash problem originating from power plants of the chemical factory with the authorities concerned.

Meanwhile, general manager of the factory, Harinder Singh said ash of the power plants had entered into the nearby fields with flood water that was impossible to control.

Crops of some farmers had been damaged due to flood, which was a natural calamity, he added. He assured that compensation was being provided to the affected farmers.

COURTS

1-day remand for accused in kidnap plot case
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 22
A local court has sent the three more accused - Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi, Surjit Singh, alias Raju and Manjit Singh, alias Changiara - for hatching a conspiracy to kidnap a city resident, Harsh, by two Australian nationals and a Ropar-based NRI, to one-day police remand.

The police has demanded a three-day remand, but the court turned down the plea. The trio was arrested from Amritsar for conniving with the two Australian nationals and a Ropar-based NRI for hatching a conspiracy to kidnap Harsh for a ransom of Rs 1 crore.

The main accused in the case include Gursher Singh, an NRI, Simon Ginty and Grant Alan Easton, both from Australia.

CRIME

Miscreants decamp with Rs 7 lakh, beat up family
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, August 22
A group of persons barged into a house in Sector 7 and decamped with Rs 7 lakh after beating up all the members of a family here this morning. The victim family, in its complaint to the police, alleged that the accused had locked the house from inside and started beating them up. They didn’t spare even the 80-year-old women suffering from high blood pressure.

The accused also took a bag containing Rs 7 lakh and mobiles phones. One of the family members Prem Bala had received injuries in her left eye, the family alleged.

Anil Gupta, resident of Sector 7, said accused Harish Kumar, a resident of Lohgarh near Zirakpur, had purchased a flat and had taken a loan of Rs 10 lakh. He said they had taken three cheques of Rs 10 lakh, Rs 50,000 and a blank cheque from Harish as security about three months ago.

He said recently Harish informed that he wanted to cancel the loan and return the amount. However, the accused only returned Rs 7 lakh, while they had all the documents, including cheques taken as guarantee.

Gupta said they had told the accused that if they had any problem it could be resolved amicably. He alleged that police instead of getting the medical done were trying to favour the accused, who were allegedly having political links.

He alleged that some of the accused fled as soon as the police arrived.

However, Navrattan Bansal, president of the Congress committee, Dabwali, said father-in-law of Harish said Anil Gupta and his associates had promised to help them in getting a loan of Rs 70 lakh.

He said Gupta had told his son-in-law that he would charge 10 per cent of the amount to be financed.

He said Gupta and his associates had misguided his daughter and son-in law and were trying to grab the flat as the latter had shown the market value of the mortgaged property worth Rs 25 lakh. Bansal refuted the allegations of thrashing of the family members.

Illegal allotment of co-operative flats
Top officials of society booked
Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 22
In a new twist in the illegal allotment of flats in the United Co-operative House Building Society, the police today registered a case of cheating against the president and honorary secretary of the society Bhupinder Kaur and Kuldeep Singh Virk. The case has been registered after the police sought legal opinion on a report filed by an inspector of the Registrar Cooperative Societies.

Satinder Singh, a member of the society, had got a stay on fresh allotments from the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2007. Despite ban, the president of the society allegedly allotted nine flats. After conducting an inquiry, the inspector found that the allotments had been made in an illegal manner. A case under Sections 448, 420 and 120 of the IPC has been registered at the Phase VIII police station.

The president and secretary of the United Cooperative House Building Society, Sector 68, Mohali, allegedly committed frauds and forgery with the members of the society.

The flats of the society were sold in open market and the buyers were enrolled as members and given out-of-turn allotment of flats by defrauding the old members.

The scam involves embezzlement of funds and property of the society amounting to more than Rs 100 crore. The members of the society approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The members of the society alleged that despite stay on further allotment or delivery of possession the president of the society instigated some in-eligible and non-genuine members to forcibly occupy the flats in contempt of the court order.

The members of the society filed a complaint before the registrar, Co-operative Societies, Punjab (Annexure - II). Assistant registrar, co-operative societies, Mohali, referred the matter to Mohali SSP to lodge an FIR against the president, secretary and those members who have illegally trespassed into the society flats.

Man held for culpable homicide
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 22
The police has arrested a Maloya resident, identified as Arvind Chauhan, on the charges of culpable homicide not amounting murder in the death case of one Subhash. Subhash, who was electrocuted on Friday night, had been living in the same house in which Chauhan was staying.

The police claimed that Chauhan used to steal power through ‘kundi’ connection. On the fateful day, Subhash was electrocuted due to high voltage, caused by the ‘kundi’ connection.

The deceased was a fruit vendor.

SPORTS

Chess: Himal on winning spree
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 22
Himal Gusain of SD Public School, Sector 32, has won the Chandigarh Chess Championship for the fourth time in a row with 7.5 points at the end of the last round, which concluded at St. Xavier’s Senior Secondary School, Sector 44, here today.

Sanjeev Biswas with 6.5 points bagged second position, while third position went to Abhinandan Vohra with 6.5 points and Baijnath Prasad with 5.5 points secured fourth position.

These four players have been selected to represent the city at the National Challengers meet in Bhiwani, Haryana, from September 15.

The point position at the end of the last round:

7.5 points: Himal Gusain

6.5 points: Sanjeev Biswas and Abhinandan Vohra

5.5 points: Baijnath Prasad and Nitin

5 points: Pradeep Singh Negi, Shweta, Vipan Negi, Rakesh Kochar, Tejas Nagpal, Jaskeerat Singh Ahluwalia, Tarini Goyal and Harish Chand.

4.5 points: Tanya Kaushal and Arunima Goyal.

4 points: Manu Aggarwal, Sunil Bansal, Karan Bhatti, Simranjeet Kaur, Anubhav Tuknayat, Rahul Arora, Naresh Kumar, Tejpal, Manas Sharma and Bhupinder Singh.

3.5 points: Surindra Arya, Snehlata, Kashish Kaushal and Dalbir Singh.

3 points: Varun Utreja, Vibhushit, Prathima, Dhruv, Nandinii, Pradip Singh and Sunil Rana.

2.5 points: Shivika Jain

2 points: Swapan, Lakshya B Singh and Anhat.

1 point: Manas Das