NEIGHBOURHOOD

Couple meets with accident, woman dies
Tribune News Service

Dera Bassi, November 6
Despite repeated complaints, residents of some villages are bound to face pollution of meat plants situated near here. Residents allege that they have complained to the authorities concerned regarding the pollution of meat plants, but no result has come out so far.

They complain that due to the stench emanating from these plants they feel uneasy while having their meals. Sapattar Singh of Samgouli village, who is fighting a legal battle against the meat plant owners, say although the high court ordered them to check air pollution, the problem continues due to lack of implementation of the orders.

Sapattar alleges that owners of the meat plants have not set up pollution control devices in their plants. He blames the officials of pollution control board for not checking pollution control devices on the premises of meat plants.

Congress leader Rakesh Sharma and block Congress president Harbhajan Singh state that though residents of various villages have complained to officials of the pollution control board, no action has been taken to check the spread of air pollution.

Faqir Chand of Bhagsi and Sahib Singh of Mukandpur villages rue that people of nearby villages are living in very bad conditions due to the stench coming from meat plants.

An official of one of the meat plants, while denying the charges of residents, says they have implemented the pollution control norms properly.

Meanwhile, Dr Babu Ram, member secretary of the pollution control board, says officials of the board have checked the implementation of the pollution control norms many times in the meat plants.

“If there is any problem, a proper checking of meat plants would be conducted again to ensure the implementation of pollution control norms,” he assures.

Chandigarh, November 6
In a relief to RK Dawra, general manager (telecom), BSNL, who was suspended on charges of sexual harassment, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) revoked the suspension orders here today.

The complainant had claimed that that as his suspension orders had been given by an equi-ranked officer and not by the competent authority, his application should be allowed.

Dawra had challenged the suspension orders issued on August 11, 2010, placing him under suspension with immediate effect by Arun Kumar, GM, Haryana circle, Ambala.

While contesting the plea, the respondents stated that though he could not dispute the presented legal proposition, he was under instructions to state that telephonic orders for placing the applicant under suspension had been granted by the competent authority and papers had already been forwarded to the competent authority for ratification, which had not come about so far.

Pronouncing the orders, the tribunal held: “In this case before the court, the impugned order does not even purport to have been granted on the basis of the telephonic instructions of any other quarters, much less the competent authority. We, thus, have to adjudicate upon the validity or otherwise of the impugned order on the basis of whatever is recorded in it.”

The tribunal further held: “We will at the same time like to make it clear that it will be open to the competent authority to grant an order afresh in the context.”

Taking an excerpt from an apex court’s judgment, the tribunal added: “The second equally relevant matter is that when a statutory functionary makes an order based on certain grounds, its validity must be judged by the reasons so mentioned and cannot be supplemented by fresh reasons in the shape of affidavit or otherwise.” 

Chandigarh, November 6
Spurned by her boyfriend, a 20-year-old woman allegedly slit her wrist to end her life at her residence in Sector 22 on last evening.

The woman, identified as Jyoti, is undergoing treatment at the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16. SI Jaspal Singh Bhullar, in-charge of police post-22, said Jyoti had an affair with 21-year-old Mohit, a resident of Sector 22. They had been friends since their school day.

Mohit, a BCom student in Government College, Sector 11, had been seeing another girl and Joyti came to know about it, leading to souring of their relationship.

Yesterday, Jyoti called up Mohit on the phone and both had an altercation. Thereafter, Mohit went to her residence and again had a confrontation there. In the process, Joyti locked herself in a room and allegedly slit her wrist. Joyti’s father broke open the door and took her to the hospital.

A case has been registered against Jyoti for attempted suicide, and her father and Mohit under preventive measures for breach of peace.

Panchkula, November 6
The Panchkula-Barwala National Highway continues to be a killer stretch as two more persons lost their lives in separate accidents in the past two days.

A 30-year-old resident of More Thickrey, identified as Kulwinder Singh, died late on Thursday night when his tractor-trolley fell into the seasonal rivulet near Ramgarh on the national highway while negotiating a curve near a narrow bridge. Kulwinder was immediately rushed to the Sector 6 general hospital where he was declared brought dead. His eight-year-old son, Jaspreet, was also injured seriously in the accident. The body was handed over to his relatives here this morning after post-mortem.

Jaspreet told the police that they were returning to their house after finishing the work in the fields. Kulwinder, who was driving the tractor (PB-O1L-9136) tried to negotiate a turn after passing a stationery vehicle near the bridge, but lost control and it fell into the rivulet.

In another incident reported on Friday, a 24-year-old man was crushed by a truck near Sector 24 on the Barwala-Panchkula road. The police said the victim, identified a Hassan (24), a native of Uttar Pradesh and presently living in Mubarikpur village, was coming to the city on his scooter (PB-28-9954) when a truck coming from the opposite direction hit him. He was rushed to the Sector 6 general hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead. The Chandimandir police has registered a case against the truck driver and seized the truck. The driver of the truck fled after the accident.

Chandigarh, November 6
The police today arrested a mother of five along with her paramour for allegedly killing her 35-year-old husband after slitting his throat at the Bapu Dham colony in Sector 26 here on Diwali evening.

The cops said the suspect, Meena, who is in her early thirties, hatched a conspiracy with her 19-year-old lover, Ved Prakash, to eliminate her husband, Avdesh. She took her husband to Prakash's home at around 4 pm yesterday on the pretext of clearing a misunderstanding between the latter and Prakash, they added.

Meena reportedly slit the victim’s windpipe and, along with her accomplice, planned to dispose of the body when the police came to know about the crime and arrested both of them. At their instance the cops went to Prakash's home from where they recovered Avdesh’s body and also the knife used in the crime.

The body was found wrapped in a blanket and was put in a sack. The suspects were trying to find a suitable place and time to dispose of the body before they were caught.

DSP (east) Jaswant Singh Khaira said the murder was detected at about 11 am today when the victim’s neighbour informed the police about the crime. Acting on his information the police arrested Meena and Prakash from the Sector 26 grain market and recovered the body from Prakash's home.

Meena and Avdesh had been married for 13 years and had five children. The former told the police her husband used to thrash her and they had a strained relationship. Avdesh earned his living by selling ‘chhole-kulche’ (a local snack) at Sukhna Lake while Prakash sells ‘nimbu-pani’ (lemonade) at the Sector 26 grain market.

According to the police, Avdesh was an alcoholic and also did not give any money to Meena to run the household. Meena developed an illicit relationship with Prakash who also financially supported her. Of late Avdesh came to know about their liaison and warned Prakash to stay away from his wife, but the latter refused to end the affair.

Neighbours said the couple had a strained relationship and used to quarrel a lot. Avdesh is said to have once caught Prakash in a “compromising position” with his wife at the latter’s home on Thursday. Prakash fled from there and Avdesh and Meena went back to their home where they had a heated quarrel. One of their neighbours, Seema, said the next day Prakash again came to Avdesh’s home and threatened him with “dire consequences”.

Chandigarh, November 6
Unidentified assailants allegedly stabbed a 45-year-old autorickshaw driver to death after robbing him near gate no 3 of the Panjab University campus on Diwali night. A PU security guard, Mishan Lal, spotted the victim lying in a pool of blood early today morning and immediately informed the police.

Sector 11 police station SHO inspector Sukhbir Rana said the deceased, Vijay Shanker Diwedi, hailed from Gonad district in Uttar Pradesh and hired the autorickshaw (registration no: PB12 H6768) from a woman residing in Sector 20.

“Diwedi was said to be an alcoholic and was homeless, spending nights at the city’s railway station. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter who reside in his native village”, Rana added.

Lal told the police he noticed the autorickshaw was parked near the PU campus gate unattended for hours and went to enquire about it at about 7 am. He found a man lying face down in a pool of blood and called up the police control room.

A police team arrived there and took the victim to the Government Multispecialty Hospital, Sector 16 where he was pronounced dead on arrival. There was a deep wound at the back of his head that appeared to have been inflicted by a sharp-edged weapon, the cops said.

Rana said the police found the victim’s wallet, which contained no money but his driver’s licence and other documents were found in it. After identifying the victim, the police recovered a telephone number and informed his wife about the incident.

The police called forensic experts to examine the scene and also contacted the taxi stand at the train station. Autorickshaw drivers at the station told the cops Diwedi left the station at around 9 pm when a woman with two children hired his vehicle.

Sources close to the police said it appeared from the scene that the Diwedi had been killed to rob his money. “We’re yet to ascertain the motive behind the murder. However, the circumstances indicate it was handiwork of more than one person”, Rana stated.

A case of murder and common intention under sections 302 & 34 of the Indian Penal Code has been filed. The police is waiting for the victim’s family members to arrive in the city before a postmortem on the body is conducted.

Panchkula, November 6
A 71-year-old peacenik from Nuria village in Uttarakhand, Mohammad Ahmed, alleged that a person in an inebriated condition snatched Rs 1,365 from his pocket near Sector 20, here last night.

A retired driver from the Army, Ahmed said he had arrived from Pinjore and was going towards Chandigarh when an unidentified youth, who appeared to be a native of Bihar, stole the money from his pocket after pushing him. He said he had lodged a complaint in Sector 20 police station in this regard.

However, officials of Sector 20 police station said they have not received any complaint in this regard. They said if Ahmed lodged a complaint they would try to get his money back.

Ahmed, on a peace mission, has covered more than 4 lakh km on his 20-year-old cycle during the last about 10 years. Ahmed said his main aim was to unite people to strengthen the country.

Ahmed said he spent nights in gurdwaras, temples or mosques and rued that he had not received any support from authorities for his mission. He said he would be completing this mission by December end and go back to his native place.

Panchkula, November 6
The police has arrested two persons for allegedly chasing city MLA DK Bansal’s car on various occasions.

The police, on the complaint of the official driver of the MLA, Ajay Sharma, registered a case against these two persons, who are employees of Dappar toll plaza, and arrested them. The two have been identified as Alok Patel, manager of the toll plaza, and his driver Deepak Sharma.

Bansal said the accused used to chase his official vehicle on various occasions in an Indica car (HR-01-S-3500). The MLA, while giving details of one of such incident, said the accused chased his vehicle on October 23 when he was returning to the city from Ambala.

The MLA alleged that the two accused used to stop their car wherever they halted. They were even giving information on their mobile phone to some other persons as well, he further alleged.

The complaint has been lodged in Sector 5 police station. Superintendent of Police Maneesh Chaudhary said the accused have been arrested and inquiry has been marked to a DSP rank officer.

According to sources, the accused were not happy with the MLA as he is exempted to pay toll tax on the barrier. Heated arguments were also exchanged between Bansal’s driver and poll plaza officials on various occasions.

Chandigarh, November 6
The police has arrested 13 persons for creating a ruckus in Ram Darbar on Divali night and apprehended another nine persons from different parts of the city for allegedly indulging in gambling. The police also recovered Rs 24,216 from their possession.

SHO of the Sector 31 police station inspector Bakahish Singh said the police received information about a street fight from Ram Darbar, Phase II. The police found two groups clashing with each other. They had an argument after a cracker landed in a house.

When the police reached the spot, both the groups armed with batons and sticks were attacking each other. The police arrested 13 persons from the spot and booked them under preventive measures.

In another incident, the police arrested nine persons for allegedly gambling at public places. Police said Jagdish, a resident of Mauli Jagran, Monu, a resident of Sector 26, Ashok Kumar, Raj Pal, Sanjay Kumar, Sajjan, Shan Mohammad, all residents of Bapu Dham Colony, Sector 26, Sonu of Sector 29 and Ashok Kumar of Sector 56 were arrested on Divali night from different parts of the city. — TNS

Chandigarh, November 6
At least 10 budding golfers between the age group of seven and 15 years have been honing their golfing skills in the EGTF junior golf camp, currently under way at the Chandigarh Golf Club Academy.

EGTF certified coach Ajay Gujral, who is conducting the junior programme, said: “We are concentrating on the grip, aim, alignment, stance, posture, chipping, pitching, putting and sand play. I am elated as 2010 has seen an unprecedented increase in the number of children taking interest in learning golf in the tricity,” said Gujral.

Budding golfers take lessons during an ongoing camp at Chandigarh Golf Club on Saturday. A Tribune photograph

To motivate young players, a golf crystal trophy is being awarded every day to the best performing student of the day, while each child has been given complimentary “Golf Plus” magazines.

Chandigarh Golf Club president Birinder Singh Gill said: “We have increased the number of EGTF junior golf coaching programmes at the club as part of our Junior Golf Mission 2016 and want more children of the tricity to come and learn golf at the academy.”

The Chandigarh Golf Club Junior Golf Mission 2016 is dedicated to the overall growth and development of young aspiring golfers by nurturing their talents and providing them with a platform for competitive junior golf to help produce players for the Olympics and European and PGA Tours, added Gill.

More EGTF Junior Golf Coaching Programmes have been planned for the coming months.