Panchkula, October 6
Almost 18 hours after he was kidnapped yesterday, the one-and-a-half- year-old child of a local businessman was released by his abductors this afternoon after reportedly receiving Rs 20 lakh as ransom.

However, the police as well as the boy’s family members, who are relatives of Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources Pawan Bansal, denied they had paid any ransom money for the child’s release.

It is believed the kidnappers had demanded Rs 1 crore as ransom but finally settled for Rs 20 lakh. The money was handed over to them in Dera Bassi and the child was released in Sector 25 here.

It may be recalled that Arnav, son of Puneet Bansal, was abducted from the courtyard of his home on Tuesday evening. He was playing there along with his twin brother Aarav and two cousins. His mother, Marisha, was also there with the kids.

When Marisha went inside the house a man wearing a blue t-Shirt and carrying a helmet came there and picked up Arnav. When Anika objected the man told her to call her parents there as he wanted to talk to them. When Kanika went to the house the man pushed Lakshya and Aarav aside and fled from there with Arnav.

Sector 25 police post in charge sub-inspector Khazan Singh told reporters the kidnappers released Arnav at a salon in Sector 25 from where his parents took him home. However, no senior police officials were present there to brief the reporters about the case.

According to superintendent of police Maneesh Chaudhary two youths along with Arnav had come to the saloon for getting the child’s hair cut. “However, they fled from there after leaving him there. The police is working on various leads and expects to arrest the kidnappers soon”, he added.

Arnav’s grandfather, ML Bansal, denied that the family paid any ransom to the kidnappers. “We didn’t get any ransom call from the abductors, but received a call from a barber in Sector 25 that someone had left the boy at his saloon”, he added.

When the family’s car carrying Arnav arrived near the rear gate of their house in Sector 7 the boy’s mother began to cry at seeing her son safely back. The family members tried to dodge reporters by opening the house’s front gate while the car arrived at the back gate.

Even after a medical examination was conducted on the child the reporters were kept waiting outside the house for about half an hour. The family came out with the boy only after being persuaded.

Chandigarh, October 6
Fund crunch has forced the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) to pull out of the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme, which fetched it an award at a glittering ceremony in New Delhi.

After receiving financial assistance under the Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for the project, the CHB has now said it would not be able to complete the project.

More than 25,000 one-room flats were to be constructed at various locations in the city under the project. The CHB had already constructed around 10,000 such houses.

The UT administration had decided to give these houses on a monthly rent of Rs 838 per house after checking the eligibility of the candidates.

Sources claim that only 512 houses have been allotted so far while the allotment letters for another 1,248 houses were handed over to the eligible allottees three months ago, but they are yet to get the possession of these houses.

Interestingly, around 36 allottees in Ram Darbar even received keys to their houses a few months back, but after the orders of higher officials, those keys were taken back.

Sources claim that if the authorities had handed over the keys to the allottees three months back, they would have earned over Rs 10 lakh per month. Collectively, the CHB has so far lost Rs 30 lakh as rent that it could have earned if the allottees were given the possession of these houses.

Even as the CHB brochure published three years back for the project clearly specifies the colonies to be rehabilitated, some officials have been exerting pressure on the CHB to relocate residents of a specific colony first.

The colony in question was supposed to be relocated at Maloya (1), flats for which are still under construction. Thanks to the “arm-twisting” act of some officials, the residents of this colony would now be relocated at Dhanas, where 8,448 flats are ready.

However, CHB officials apprehend that the change in relocation plans at this point of time would be an arduous task. Moreover, the CHB had already made an announcement to relocate Colony number 4 residents at Dhanas.

The CHB had spent nearly Rs 343 crore on various housing schemes under the project, but has failed to receive even a single penny till date from the administration.

This scheme was supposed to be funded after the CHB was made a nodal agency in the multi-crore deal with Parsavnath. The realtor, however, pulled out after paying only Rs 516 crore and the matter went into arbitration. After this, the CHB was asked to pay Rs 300 crore as tax on this amount and the Centre government got Rs 278 crore deposited in the consolidated fund.

Panchkula, October 6
Still without any clue in three kidnapping incidents that occurred in the town during the past two years, cracking such cases appears to have become the Achilles’ heel of the local police.

The police has so far failed to solve last year’s cases in which a two-year-old child, Jiya, and a local realtor, Deepak Rai Sagar, were kidnapped. Even though the families of the one-and-a-half-year old boy, Arnav, who was abducted from the courtyard of his house in Sector 7 yesterday evening, as well as those of Jiya were able to get their wards released after reportedly paying huge ransoms there has been no headway yet in the abduction of Sagar.

The police suspects the same gang that was involved in the abduction of Jiya and a five-year-old child, Mehak, in Mohali was behind Arnav’s kidnapping. The cops are of the view that the suspects had used a Suzuki Swift car in all these incidents, but failed to gather any clues in any of these cases.

However, superintendent of police Maneesh Chaudhary said the police was working on “important leads” in the cases. “Investigations in other kidnapping cases are also on and the police is coordinating them with its counterparts in Chandigarh and Mohali”, he added.

With a population of about six lakh, having two national highways and bordering two states and a union territory, Panchkula district has emerged as a soft target for kidnappers, Chaudhary said. “Dozens of escape routes prove handy for these criminals to sneak into other areas immediately after the crime making the work of the police that much more difficult”, he added.

BB Singhal, former vice-president of the municipal council, said active policing was missing in the town. “The local administration, instead of considering Panchkula as a district in the state, should accord it the status of a metropolitan city. The nature of crimes committed in the town is similar to that of metros like Delhi and Mumbai. Keeping this in view officials should improve the infrastructure besides expanding the police force in the district,” he added.

Zirakpur, October 6
A Zirakpur resident got a shock of his life when the Chandigarh Police allegedly auctioned his stolen but recovered car without even informing him.

Shocking it may sound, but cops put the vehicle under the hammer allegedly without even finding out who the real owner was.

Deepak Mehta said he was surprised when was told that someone else was the owner of his Maruti car bearing registration number CH-01-R-5799.

The car was stolen from Zirakpur on October 3, 2009. A case was registered after a fortnight, but the police failed to track down the vehicle. He said on September 11, 2010, he saw his car on a road between Halo Majra and Industrial Area and he called up the police.

Acting on the information, the police took the car into its possession and took it to the Sector 31 police station. But the keys were not handed over to Mehta as cops wanted him to get his claim testified from the Zirakpur police. As the investigating officer was on leave for two days, Mehta said he had to spend some impatient moments.

He then moved the court of the illaqua magistrate for the release of the vehicle. It was there that he found out that the car had already been auctioned.

In response to a query put by the illaqua magistrate, the police said: “On October 7, 2009, the car was found unclaimed in Sector 47. The police had already auctioned the vehicle in the presence of officials deputed by the SDM (East), Chandigarh, because no such person was found residing at House Number 2132/1, Sector 40-C, Chandigarh.”

Mehta said the matter was then referred to the sub-divisional magistrate concerned. Going into the background of the controversy, Mehta said the vehicle was initially registered in the name of one Avtar Singh Sandhu, from whom he had purchased the car in March 2006.

The police made attempts to verify the address and the ownership through the traffic helpline, which apparently had not been updated as the registration certificate contained his name and the Chandigarh address. Mehta said the case was still pending before the SDM (East).

Chandigarh, October 6
With the administration top brass concluding its report on the Bulbul case, certain doctors and paramedical staff of Government Multispecialty Hospital, Sector 16 are now staring at the possibility of criminal negligence charges being filed against them. UT administrator Shivraj Patil will take the final call in the case.

At a meeting held chaired by adviser to the administrator Pradip Mehra, it was decided to take “definite and decisive” action against the doctors and paramedical staff and send the report to Patil for a decision on the matter.

Sources said various courses of action, including criminal cases, repatriation and departmental action, were deliberated upon at the recent meetings of the officials in concurrence with the recommendations of the UT legal remembrancer. The latter had reportedly indicted Dr Veena Sarna, head of GMSH’s gynaecology department, Dr Usha Bansal, Dr Praveena Dhiman and Diplomate of National Board students Dr Deepak Thakur, Dr Rita Gaba and Dr Vandna. In fact, Sarna is facing charges of destruction of evidence.

On July 21, Bulbul, a poor woman from Bihar, was forced to move about in the hospital’s gynaecology ward during labour. She delivered the baby near the OPD counter and the head of the baby reportedly hit the floor, causing instant death.

The legal remembrancer had prepared a foolproof case against those indicted by the committee, comprising ADC PS Shergill and GMSH director-principal Raj Bahadur. The panel had reportedly pinpointed “criminal negligence” on the part of the hospital’s medical staff.

“Since the doctors are gazetted officers any action against them can only be initiated at the level of the UT administrator”, an official said, adding the administration wanted to sent a clear signal that the guilty would be punished.

An inquiry conducted by GMSH officials termed the incident as an outcome of a “technical and system failure”. However, UT home & health secretary Ram Niwas ordered another probe into the case on the plea that the report was “sketchy with gaping holes”. The preliminary postmortem report of the baby had mentioned a blood clot in its head while the report of the histopathology test confirmed the baby was born alive.

Mohali, October 6
The Mohali municipal council today unanimously cleared the proposal to upgrade the civic body to a corporation, even as Zirakpur was kept out of the proposed limits.

The House unanimously approved the proposal to include all areas falling under the Assembly constituency in the proposed limits of the corporation. However, Zirakpur that was earlier included in the proposed plan was excluded.

Noisy scenes were witnessed at the meeting as both the ruling and opposition councillors wanted to take credit for giving the green signal to the expansion move.

No sooner did council executive officer Vijay Kumar Gupta read out the requisition notice given to the civic body by nine councillors for the formation of a corporation, than Congress-backed MLA from Kharar Balbir Singh Sidhu said the proposal had been cleared in toto, much to the shock of opposition councillors, who wanted to take credit for it.

When Sidhu, who is an ex officio member, made a move to leave the meeting hall soon after clearing the proposal, opposition councillors objected saying the issue should be discussed in the House before its passage so that some changes could be made in the proposal.

This led to heated arguments between MLA and some councillors of the opposition group with council chief Rajinder Singh Rana saying there was no need for discussion when the requisition notice given by opposition councillors had been cleared by the ruling group.

The executive officer appealed to the councillors several times to maintain the decorum of the House.

Bharat Bhushan Maini said the MLA “had hijacked the agenda of the opposition councillors”.

He said certain villages and other areas that were left out in the requisition notice be included in the limits of the corporation, to which the MLA objected initially.

However, Sidhu finally said all villages falling in the Mohali sub-division should be included in the corporation and that he had no objection if more areas were also included.

Later, Maini, Kuljit Singh Bedi, Harmanpreet Singh and Paramjit Singh Kahlon said all areas falling within the Assembly constituency, except Zirakpur, be also included in the proposed limits of the corporation. The proposal was finally cleared unanimously by the House.

Talking to mediapersons, the MLA said GMADA should transfer all properties to the civic body so that the income of the council could go up.

He also suggested the reservation of two sectors in the town for people to keep animals to meet the requirement of milk of residents.

Meanwhile, Lakhwinder Kaur Garcha, member of the All-India Congress Committee and former general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee , thanked municipal councillors for keeping Zirakpur out of the proposed limits of the corporation.

She had earlier appealed to all 30 councillors, through letters, not to include Zirakpur as it would adversely affect the development of Mohali.

Chandigarh, October 6
Mismanagement of traffic regulations came to the fore again during peak traffic hours along President Pratibha Patil’s route from Punjab Raj Bhavan to the Chandigarh airport today.

Commuters using the Madhya Marg, from transport lights to the Tribune roundabout, and the Chandigarh-Amabala road up to the airport traffic lights remained stranded when the President’s cavalcade passed through these busy roads.

Traffic on the Tribune roundabout and on the roundabout near the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, came to a standstill with motorists forced to take diversions. In the absence of any apparent planning to divert the heavy flow of traffic on the roads diving Industrial Area, Phase II, and Sector 31; Sectors 31 and 32; and Sectors 32 and 33, motorists had a harrowing time reaching their destinations. The traffic police did not allow commuters to take the Uttar Marg from the Tribune roundabout to the Sector-20 gurdwara roundabout, leaving them jostling for space while taking U-turns, only to add to the chaos.

Nonplussed, road users were seen arguing with the traffic policemen who kept ordering them to go back instead of directing them to use specific routes to avoid traffic jams.

Those using the road separating Sectors 31 and 32 were forced to use other routes, which were also clogged.

Traffic policemen made frantic attempts to clear jams at the Tribune roundabout, where long-haul buses kept adding to the chaos.

DSP (traffic) BS Negi said the police had already planned diversions on the VIP routes causing little inconvenience to road users. Diversion were imposed on the Housing Board lights to ease up traffic jams at Madhya Marg and the situation was well in control during the VIP movement, the DSP maintained.

Chandigarh, October 6
The booking of three bureaucrats — Lalit Sharma, Krishna Mohan and Vivek Atray — who worked with the Chandigarh administration, in the theme park-cum-amusement park case by the CBI has brought the land acquisition policy of the administration under a cloud again.

Though the three have been booked for alleged irregularities in the allotment of land measuring over 73 acres of land in Sarangpur village to Unitech Limited, the epicentre of the controversies surrounding mega projects and the IT Park is the “lop-sided” land acquisition policies of the administration.

In fact, the land acquisition policies of the administration have been under fire from various quarters, including farmers, politicians and media. The registration of the case by the CBI is set to provide new fodder to UT farmers, who have been alleging unfair treatment by the administration in the land acquisition by the administration. While the same area of land acquired fetched around Rs 2 crore in the neighbouring Mohali, the land in the city was acquired at a fraction of that price. “The entire land acquisition process in recent years smacks of a bureaucrat-realtor nexus and the CBI probe would expose this. In fact, there was a need to review the entire land acquisition process for mega projects, including the IT Park,” says KS Kahlon, president of the Chandigarh Sanjha Morcha.

With land acquisition process under the scanner, the chorus against the Phase III of the IT Park will now become louder.

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) and the administration are reportedly having differences over the utility of land measuring 272 acre for Phase III when the land for Phases I and II is yet to be fully utilised.

Even union minister for parliamentary affairs and water resources Pawan Bansal went on record recently to oppose the Phases II and III.

Earlier, the CVC and the MHA had rapped the administration for the low land compensation to UT farmers and had raised accusing finger at the allotment of land to major realtors and IT giants in the IT Park here. The CBI is also probing the alleged irregularities in the allotment of land to Parsvanath Developers for the now-scrapped Film City and land allotment to the IT firms.

Chandigarh, October 6
The six-day “Festival of Theatre Traditions” organised by the Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademy in collaboration with the Sangeet Natak Akademy, New Delhi, got off to a majestic start with the staging of a nautanki - Amar Singh Rathore - at the Randhawa auditorium here today.

The centuries old drama staged in many formats of theatre was produced and presented by Mohan Swaroop Bhatia of Swastic Theatre Ensemble from Mathura under the direction of Sundeepan Vimal Gaud.

The play highlighted the valour and devotion of Rajput warrior Amar Singh Rathore as also the secular character and magnanimity of Emperor Shahjahan, besides juxtaposing religious bigotry, political and ethical dishonesty in the reign of Mughal emperor, where Rathore was a commander of the Agra cantonment.

The rich thematic content propagating mutual harmony and humanism, elegant costumes and dialogues enunciated in chaste Urdu or Braj bhasha remained the lifeline of the production. Akademy chairperson Kamal Tewari welcomed chief guest, Dr Atamjit, who honoured the artistes.

Another nautanki “Bhakat Puranmal” will be staged tomorrow.

Chandigarh,October 6
The Le Corbusier Centre, Sector 19, has displayed some rare photographs of the city’s architect and furniture of Pierre Jeanneret to mark the 123rd birth anniversary of Le Corbusier and the upcoming 58th foundation day of Chandigarh.

The Master Plan of Chandigarh was developed by Le Corbusier in 1951, which ultimately led to the designing the Capitol Complex and establishment of the architectural controls and designing of the main buildings and monuments in the city.

The designs of housing for government employees, schools, shopping centers, hospitals were distributed among three senior architects.

The centre has also displayed some authentic Mons of Pierre Jeanneret which were designed by him between 1952 and 1965.

Some rare photographs of Le Corbusier and the Capitol Complex have also been displayed.

These photographs have been provided by the Foundation Le Corbusier, Paris (France).

These collections will be an added attraction to the visiting Indian and foreign tourists and residents at the centre.

Furthermore, due to the Commonwealth Games, the visit of foreign tourists to the city and the centre has increased manifold. The exhibition will help showcase city’s rich architectural legacy to the visitors, a press note added.

Panchkula, October 6
The Haryana government is planning to set up a breeding centre for peacock and chinkara at reserve forests of Jhabua, Rewari district, at a cost of Rs 20 crore.

Addressing the mediapersons on the occasion of the state-level wildlife week celebration at Morni here today, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, state forest minister, said the government was also planning to construct a zoo near Tikkar Taal in Morni.

He further said the government would spend Rs 10.49 crore to protect wildlife and its habitat in the state during the current financial year.

A master plan was also being chalked out for the renovation of all zoos in the state, he added.

Capt Yadav said the government had taken a number of steps to protect forest and wildlife in the state.

He said steps had been taken to check poaching in the forest areas and for the better management of wildlife areas staff had been equipped with Gypsy and weapons.

Tranquilizing guns would be provided so that the stray wild animals could be sent to their original habitat after tranquilisation.

The minister said a small booklet regarding wildlife was also being distributed free of cost to the people to increase their interest in the protection of wildlife.

He, however, expressed concern over decreasing population of peacock and chinkara in the state.

Ambala, October 6
Haryana DGP launched Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA), computer software especially designed for police working at Ambala Sadar Police Station.

Ranjeev Dalal, DGP Haryana, said the new software would help in bringing transparency in the working of the Haryana police.

He said copies of FIRs and police challans would be available to the public, which would help to reduce delay in the presentation of challans and registration of FIRs.

Dalal said special arrangement had been made to provide computer training to police officials. He called upon the police officials to undergo computer training.

Dalal also claimed that there was a downward trend the crime graph in Haryana. This was because of improved policing. He claimed that number of robberies and smuggling cases had also come down.

He asked the officers to ensure security to all private and public property in the district.

The DGP promised residents of better law and order situation and improved police response time.

Layak Ram Dabas, ADGP State Crime Bureau, Shatrujit Kapur IG Information Technology, KK Sindhu, IG Ambala Range, and other police officials were present.

Chappar Chidi (Mohali), October 6
A year after announcing the memorial to remember the historic battle that saw Baba Banda Singh Bahadur and his brave soldiers win over the Mughals at Chappar Chidi almost 300 years ago, the Punjab Chief Minister will lay the foundation stone of the ambitious project on October 9.

The work on the Rs 47 crore ambitious project being handled by the Punjab Government’s Cultural Affairs Department has been allotted to L and T construction Company. The monument at the historic battlefield will have depiction of battle scenes as one of its main attractions.

Planned over 20 acres, a life-size sculpture of Banda Bahadur engaged in the battle with the Mughals will be a key feature of the landmark. The historic significance of the battle will be illustrated through a light-and-sound programme. A committee of experts led by Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University Jaspal Singh stressed that the battlefield would more or less be preserved in its old form.

Of the total land that has been acquired at a cost of Rs 1.35 crore an acre, 10 acre each have been identified as ‘chidis’ and ‘tibbas’. The total cost, including the acquisition cost of Rs 27 crore, would be around Rs 47 crore. Architect Reenu Khanna has already been shortlisted to draw the conceptual plan of the memorial.

In November 2009, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had announced the construction of a memorial dedicated to Banda Singh Bahadur, who won the battle of Sirhind to bring the Mughal rule to an end. The tercentenary of the battle will be celebrated this month.

Among the main elements planned are Fateh Minar, an open-air theatre to conduct the light-and-sound show, an exhibition hall and the original battlefield. Initially, the foundation stone was to be laid in May this year, but the Chief Minister was keen on laying it after the design was finalised.

To review the arrangements, Public Relations Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan along with other senior Punjab government officials today visited the site.

Chandigarh, October 6
Should Class XII passouts with less than 20 per cent in any subject be admitted to first year graduation classes like BA, BCom and BSc in the Panjab University-affiliated colleges? The supreme governing body of the university, the Senate, is divided on this agenda, to be tabled before it at the forthcoming meeting on October 10.

A section of the Senators feel that if the permission was denied to any student, it would go against the basic “right to education”, highly propagated by the Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development.

Yet another segment of fellows believes that “If the admission is granted to any student, who cannot even secure 20 per cent in a particular subject, admitting him would only deteriorate the standards of education of the university and the affiliated colleges.”

The issue was last discussed at the Syndicate meeting on August 5 and members resolved to hear the plea of two students, who had raised this issue before the House of Syndics and had sought admission.

In this agenda, it was mentioned that such students, who secured less than 20 per cent in the subject of compartment in Class XII exams, be made eligible to join the first year of graduation classes like BA, BSc and BCom if they clear their compartment subject in the supplementary exams held in July-August or before the last date for admission with late fee and with permission of the Vice-Chancellor.

In the appeal, it was also mentioned that “heads of university teaching departments/institutes/Panjab University regional centre be directed to hold entrance tests against vacant seats. For example, in masters in social sciences, 30 out of 40 seats were vacant.”

Chandigarh, October 6
Following dismissal of 11 students of first year by the PEC University of Technology authorities, a circular to cancel admission of four more students was issued by the institute last week.

These students have been found to submit fake documents during the admission time. The decision of the PEC authorities came after a communication with the CBI, which revealed that their documents were fake.

Eight students of the second, third and fourth year of the institute, respectively, were suspected by the CBI and their documents were under scrutiny. With this cancellation, there is a tip-off of such a racket being operated in past years as well in PEC admissions as well as other technical institutes across the country.

The suspended students have been identified as Yogesh Bhyana (2009), Garvit Nain (2009), Nishant (2009) and Lovkesh Bhyana (2008). — TNS

Chandigarh, October 6
All seats in general category at department of education, Panjab University, Government College of Education, Sector 20, Chandigarh, and Dev Samaj College of Education for Women, Chandigarh, have been filled in the ongoing counselling for MEd (regular).

All the seats under general category in colleges affiliated to Panjab University have also been filled.

Counselling for a few left out seats out of 15 per cent all-India quota will be held tomorrow.

Counselling for the reserved category seats will be held on October 8th and 9th as per the schedule given on PU website, said Dr Ajaib Singh, chairman, JAC, MEd.