Chandigarh, November 17
Bringing to an end the long drawn out trial in the sensational murder of Anuradha Sandhu, a boutique owner, in May 2008, additional sessions judge Gian Chand Garg today sentenced her husband, Baljinder Singh Sandhu, alias Talla, a property dealer, along with two accomplices, his servant Vijay Pal Ram alias Nikku and his mate, Ashok Kumar Shoki, to life imprisonment.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 and six months’ imprisonment on each of the convicted men in case of default in payment of the fine. All three were sentenced under section 302 read along with section 120B of the IPC.

Sporting a white shirt and light blue jeans, a confident looking Sandhu entered the court with a calm face. Justice Garg came inside the courtroom at about 12:30 pm. While the order was being pronounced, Sandhu exhibited signs of nervousness and then shock when the verdict was delivered.

Also present in the court were Sandhu’s brother, Karamjit Singh, his nephew, Sunny, and his uncle. However, no one among Anuradha’s family members was present on the occasion. Sunny said the family would appeal the verdict in the high court.

Vijay and Shoki were additionally awarded seven years’ imprisonment under sections 460 read with 397 of the IPC separately.

Sandhu was taken to the Sector 17 police station to take his fingerprints after the pronouncement of the judgment. He kept on repeating he was innocent and had been framed by the police. Vijay and Shoki did not offer any comments on the verdict.

Anuradha was brutally murdered in her Sector 38 West home on May 18, 2008. Her body was found with her throat slit in a large pool of blood in her bedroom on the first floor of the duplex house. She had been beaten up and allegedly administered an injection. Her husband, who was the first to report the matter to the police, was however arrested the next day.

It may be recalled that, barely hours after the murder was detected, the Ropar police found a body said to be that of her servant, Vijay, near Ropar, who was initially suspected to be behind the killing. He was later found to be alive and part of the conspiracy to murder Anuradha.

The judge observed in his 119 page order that “the motive behind the crime was there as the suspect, Baljinder Singh Sandhu, wanted to get rid of his wife Anuradha to marry Noor Kataria. Sometimes a motive plays an important role and becomes the compelling force to commit a crime”.

Meanwhile, Sandhu’s lawyer, Sukhija, said: “I won’t comment on the case because I’ve not gone through the details of the judgment. The affected party has the freedom to approach the high court and I won’t be able to comment on this front too. I don’t think I can give you the phone numbers of the family members because at this moment they wouldn’t like to say anything on the case.”

Panchkula, November 17
Two more cases of ATM card cloning of the State Bank of Patiala (SBP) surfaced in Sector 20 here today, causing anxiety among bank customers who have operated this ATM.

One of the complainants Nandlal Thukral, retired Superintending Engineer, Panipat Thermal Plant, in his complaint to the police, said someone had withdrawn Rs 32,400 in two transactions (Rs 20,000 and Rs 12,400) on November 14 from the SBP’s branch in Dera Bassi.

He said he had a pension account in the SBI at Panipat and used the ATM in Sector 20 to withdraw pension, as he had shifted to Panchkula after retirement. He said he had withdrawn Rs 3,000 from the Sector 20 ATM on November 10. He had approached the SBI branch in Sector 20 in this regard, which advised him to file a complaint with the Dera Bassi police.

Thukral said the SBI officials in Sector 20 told him that they had warned their customers to withdraw the money or block the ATM who had withdrawn the money from the Sector 20 ATM on August 22. The officials further said he was not informed about the same as his account was at Panipat.

Jai Bhagwan, a resident of Shakti Enclave, Dhakoli, in his complaint to the Dera Bassi police, said Rs 36,800 had been withdrawn from his account on November 15 from the SBP’s ATM in Dera Bassi.

A retired Army officer and now working in a Dera Bassi-based factory, Bhagwan said he had a pension savings account with the SBP in Phase X, Mohali.

Last night he, along with his wife, went to Panchkula for filling petrol in their vehicle. They were shocked when an employee of petrol pump told them that there was only Rs 72.47p in their account. On Wednesday, he visited the Dera Bassi branch and inquired about his account, where he came to know that somebody had withdrawn Rs 20,000 and Rs 16,800, vide two transaction numbers 3595 and 3596. He said last time he had operated his ATM on November 8 in the same branch.

AGM SBP Sanjeev Gupta said they feared that more such cases were likely to surface, as some of the customers of their bank were yet to check their accounts.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the managers of bank’s branches in the tricity was held at the SBP’s regional office in Sector 5 here today. The authorities here have sought report from all SBP’s ATM located in various parts of the state here today.

Confirming the same, Deputy General Manager PC Sethia said they had sought a report from all their branches in Haryana, which would be forwarded to the bank’s head office in Patiala. He said they would also seek approval for the posting of security guards at the bank’s ATMs in the state. They were seeking legal opinion from the bank’s legal adviser with regard to filing complaint with the police.

SP Maneesh Chaudhary said they had received two complaints in this regard but was yet to receive any complaint from the SBP authorities. He said if the bank authorities submit any complaint, it would be clubbed with those submitted by the customers for further investigation.

Chandigarh, November 17
Pushpinder Kumar, a resident of Baratma village, district Atna, Madhya Pradesh (MP), who is undergoing treatment at the PGI here, lost Rs 1 lakh to two snatchers in the wee hours in a park of the hospital today.

The amount was in a bag, which the snatchers took away from his mother Basanti Devi at around 3 am. Basanti Devi was sleeping in a park on the PGI premises with the bag under her head, when the snatchers pulled it off. Basanti Devi, who woke up immediately, raised an alarm.

“Some people were sleeping nearby, but nobody came to help my mother,” said 20-year-old Pushpinder, adding that he was not around when the incident occurred.

Basanti Devi said both snatchers had covered their faces and sped on a scooter after the incident. Narrating his story with tears in his eyes, Pushpinder said he had come to the PGI for his stomach ailment around one month ago. “I was told by a doctor that the treatment expenses would be around Rs 1 lakh, so we came with the cash worth Rs 1.10. In the absence of any accommodation, we used to sleep in the open in the park,” said Pushpinder.

“We are left with not even a single penny,” rued Pushpinder, adding that he had taken a job with one of the parking contractors in the PGI to support his treatment.

Meanwhile, the police has started investigations after registering a case in this regard at the Sector 11 police station.

Chandigarh,November 17
Onion, the essential ingredient of the Indian cuisine, is bringing tears to the homemakers, with almost 100 per cent increase in the price of the essential commodity during the past two months.

With the skyrocketing prices of the vegetable, onion is virtually going out of the reach of the aam aadmi.Less yields in the onion-producing states, particularly Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, in the backdrop of heavy rains and floods is largely blamed for the price rise.

While small onions were priced at Rs 15 per kg a couple of months back, the same are available at about Rs 30 per kg. Similarly, big onions, which were quoted at Rs 20 last month, were now available at around Rs 40 per kg.

“The onion has toppled my daily vegetable budget in November and we have considerably reduced its consumption due to high prices,” rues Anuradha Sharma, a homemaker.

Ram Sumer, a vegetable retailer, explained that the vendors had to increase the rate as the prices had suddenly shot up in the wholesale market.” The wholesalers were blaming the steep hike on reduced supplies from the onion-producing states,” he quipped.

While the supplies have suddenly dipped, the demand has virtually remained constant as the marriage season was in progress.”We are not increasing the rates for orders booked in advance.But for new orders, we will be forced to increase the rate as the onion prices will push up the preparation costs,”Vinod Polka, a caterer, asserted. The situation on the onion front has been compouded due to onion exports. India’s onion production is pegged at around 130 lakh tonnes in 2010-11 and the country has already shipped more than 10 lakh tonnes of onion so far in this fiscal, said SK Khosla, a Sector 40 resident. Residents demanded that when there was an acute shortage of onions in the country the least the government should do is to ban the onion exports.

Chandigarh, November 17
Despite audit objections five years ago, the Chandigarh Fire and Emergency Department is continuing to dole out special allowance of Rs 3,600 annually to over two-dozen drivers of the department.

Records of the MC show that out of the 48 drivers of the department, 26 recruited in 1996 were availing the special allowance of Rs 300 per month since their recruitment. But the department rejected the special allowance plea of 22 drivers of whom 15 were recruited in 2006 and nine in 2010.

When contacted, MC Additional Commissioner (I) TPS Phoolka said the department was looking into the matter on which grounds the drivers recruited in 1996 were availing the special allowance facility.

The audit report of 2006 clearly stated that as per UT administration norms, special allowance could only be claimed by the ministerial staff, which have long working hours, but the operational staff of any department couldn’t avail this facility. The report further directed the fire department to recover the money of special allowance from the drivers availing this facility since 1996.

Sources said that after the internal audit objection from the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, the fire department sought a legal opinion about the special allowance to its employees from the UT Finance Department. The finance department also confirmed in its communiqué that only ministerial staff could avail this facility ranging between Rs 250 and Rs 1,000 per month.

Sources revealed that the fire department again sent the case to the MC legal cell for opinion as to whether the fire department drivers were entitled to avail this allowance or not. 

Mohali, November 17
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s “breakfast politics” aimed at wooing former All-India Youth Akali Dal president Kiranbir Singh Kang back into the mainstream SAD affairs failed to make much headway here today with the latter declining to cool down and announcing that any conciliatory talks would have to begin from the point of time when he quit as head of the youth wing.

Badal met Kang and his parents at his house in Sector 69 and had his breakfast here. Later, the Chief Minister told newspersons that it was merely a “social visit”. “We have family relations with Kang apart from political links. When the Congress targeted our family after coming to power in the state, Kang’s family members had provided us the big support”. He, however, claimed that political matter was not at all discussed while meeting Kang and his parents. He said that Kang was not a disgruntled leader and was not annoyed with the Badals’. “He is like Sukhbir to me”, added the Chief Minister.

Though Badal kept talking about the achievements of the Punjab Government, he left soon after mediapersons started asking questions in connection with Kang.

Badal said that sangat darshan would be held on November 19 in Sohana. The aim of holding the sangat darshan was to reduce the communication gap between the government and the public. He claimed that the development brought about in Punjab by his government in the past three years was what the Congress could not have done in 30 years.

Badal said that a committee comprising top doctors from the country was formed to give suggestions to the Punjab government so that health system could be made foolproof. A sum of Rs 350 crore will be spent in one year in providing proper buildings, equipment and doctors at health centres. District complexes will also be provided to house offices apart from going in for computerisation. He said the government was also making efforts to improve education and make the state power-surplus.

Kang, who talked to mediapersons after Badal left, said that Badal was like his father and he had full regard for him. He, however, said that the Chief Minister while meeting him and his parents had made no offer to him and if he was given any responsibility he would perform it sincerely.

Although party sources said that one of the proposals made by Badal to Kang at the breakfast meeting was an offer of a Rajya Sabha nomination whenever a seat fell vacant, Kang did not confirm this.

Kang said that there was great resentment among youth supporters of SAD as their contribution was not recognised. They were feeling ignored and his fight was in their support. Recognition should be given on the basis of worker’s contribution and not on the basis of his relation with senior leaders. He said he had resigned because youth were not being given their due.

Kang said that he was not offered a ticket to fight the Lok Sabha elections from Ropar and had this been done the Congress would not have won the seat.

Chandigarh, November 17
High drama was witnessed at the PGI emergency ward yesterday night when attendants of a patient had an altercation with a doctor on duty and called the police alleging that the patient was not being attended properly.

Later, they shifted the patient to a private hospital in Mohali alleging that the patient was being ignored at the PGI even though his condition was deteriorating.

According to the complainant, Pravish, he accompanied Murari Pandey, production manager at a Baddi-based pharmaceutical unit, who suffered serious head injury at Baddi yesterday night. After Pandey was admitted in the emergency ward, the doctors attended him only once even as his condition was deteriorating. “On their repeated request, the doctor concerned got irritated and asked the security personnel to throw us out. On this, we had to call the police,” alleged Pravish.

“In the morning, another doctor came and asked us to go as they cannot treat the patient. Following this, we decided to shift the patient to a private hospital,” he alleged.

The police post in chare confirmed that Pravish had lodged a complaint regarding the misbehaviour by a doctor. However, a doctor also lodged a complaint against the attendants in this regard stating that they were misbehaving with doctors and interrupting them from performing the duty.

Denying allegations, PGI spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar said the patient was taken away by the attendants against the medical advice. The patient was being looked after and his condition was improving, still the attendants manhandled doctors on duty and took the patient without informing the hospital authorities. A police complaint in this regard has been lodged by a doctor.

Chandigarh, November 17
Even though it has three offices in the city, the Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA) continues to be plagued by a growing list of pending cases. With almost 200 new vehicles coming on the roads every day and over 6,500 pending files, the authority needs to catch up soon with the ever-increasing number of people lining up to get their vehicles registered.

While the UT administration had opened two more offices in the city’s east and south a few years ago to ease the burden on the central office in Sector 17, the number of pending files including those on vehicle registration has crossed 5,000 in the office of the SDM (south) alone. The remaining 1,500 files are pending at the SDM (east) office located in Manimajra.

Sources said the reason for such a huge backlog at the SDM (south) office was the fact that it was not networked with the other two offices. Moreover, with the paucity of staff in that office, only about 20 out of the almost 60 files accepted daily were being processed in a day.

However, officials claimed with new employees having been recruited the situation would improve in the days to come.

Recently the RLA office also faced a shortage of cards for driver’s licenses and registration certificates after the company supplying the cards was unable to provide the required number. The officials claimed the shortage had now been taken care of and the backlog would be soon cleared.

A number of complaints regarding slow and delayed delivery of documents have been pouring in, especially at the south office. Despite the authorities’ repeated assurances on speedy delivery of vehicle registration documents city residents have to often return empty handed at the RLA’s Sector 42 office.

The SDM (south) office is entitled with handling all work pertaining to registration of vehicles for residents of the city’s southern areas while the SDM (East) takes care of those residing in Manimajra and adjoining sectors.

Chandigarh, November 17
The fifth edition of the Chandigarh Theatre Festival organised by the Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademy concluded with the staging of Kannad playwright Chandershekhar Kambar’s play “Bali Ka Bakra” under the aegis of Rang Virasat at the Bal Bhawan auditorium here today.

The play virtually juxtaposed the hypocrisy and unethical means adopted by politicians to secure power and misuse it later had many twists and turns immaculately handled by director Vandna Vashsisht, an alumnus of NSD.

The protagonist, Parkash, an academician and poet, hopefully professes a change in the political scenario with a film star in the fray, but distressed to find violence, corruption, subjugation of the poor and women, land or house grabbing on the rise.

NSD alumnus actor-director Asif Ali and Chakresh excelled, while Vijay, Ritesh Jyoti and Parkash (76) justified their roles.

Earlier yesterday, a Hindi play, an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s play “Metamorphosis” was staged by the Mask Theatre in the festival under the direction of young director, Ravinder Ravi.

The play attempted to portray the psychological mindset of a man when situations depress to reduce him to the form of a cockroach, a symbolic of a week person.

CSNA chairperson Kamal Tewari expressed gratitude to artistes and audience for overwhelming response to all five editions of the CSNA’s Chandigarh Theatre Festival pioneered by the academy.

Chandigarh, November 17
The grandeur and magnificence of Hindustani classical music came alive as the soulful and melodic strains emanating from three violins played by three generations of violin wizard Padma Vibhushan, Dr N Rajam wafted across Tagore Theatre hall here today.

The captivating concert veritably titled “Three Generations of Violinist” featured Dr N Rajam, daughter Dr Sangeeta Shanker and granddaughter Nandini Shanker, besides celebrated Ustad Akram Khan on tabla.

The trio opened up with an exposition of raga Jog through a short alaap played by them simultaneously, before Dr Rajam led them to delineate the melodic essence in a composition set to slow paced (vilambat lya) ek tal. The trio went on to embellish the bandish in madhya lya and drut lya displaying their dexterity and command in executing taans, gamaks and electrifying jhalla. Rajam presented a bhajan “Prabhu ji maine..” on violin before bringing alive the serenity of popular raga Bhairavi through two compositions to enrapture the elite music lovers.

The trio wove a series of engaging sequences on their violins to sculpt a cohesive melody for the enraptured audience. It was a delight to watch them perform individual small solo pieces comprising mutually embracing notes, which melted into the next sequence played by the trio in perfect synchronisation.

Chandigarh, November 17
Come next session and UT teachers will have to work more by one-and-a-half hour. Teachers in private and government schools who used to leave by 2 pm will have to stay back till 3:30 pm for academic planning.

With Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, coming to force from next session, all teachers will be required to devote a minimum of 45 teaching hours per week as compared to 36 so far.

The extra nine hours would be devoted for academics and syllabus planning, which will now be an important part of teacher’s schedule.

“It is applicable to both private and government schools. RTE makes planning an integral part of teacher’s duty so that the classes can be more productive. With the Act coming into force, the teaching hours will be extended upto 45 per week. We are yet to finalise on school timings, but adding one-and-a-half hour extra daily is more convenient in the afternoon rather than in the morning,” said DPI (S) PK Sharma.

The postulate, however, has failed to elate teachers, as a local teacher union representative claimed: “What will we do for one-and-a-half hour without students? It’s not that we are taking classes for all six hours in a day.

On an average every teacher has two free periods daily that are used for academic planning. We should be allowed to choose the way to complete prescribed hours rather than increasing our school hours.”

Chandigarh, November 17
Despite admitting to dire shortage of faculty in certain affiliated colleges and a poor pass percentage in the much-flagged Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA) and Bachelors of Computer Applications (BCA) courses, Panjab University is yet to devise a mechanism to check academic standards of its affiliated colleges.

In the expensive self-financing courses, including BCA, the overall pass percentage was 33.3 per cent this year across all colleges.

Accepting the gaping loopholes in its “dealing” with the colleges in the past, university officials claimed that the basic issues of poor infrastructure and absence of teachers in the colleges must be dealt primarily before monitoring the results.

In a meeting of college principals and PU dean, college development council (DCDC), held recently, a team comprising certain college principals was formed to prepare mandatory guidelines for the colleges. Only on the fulfilment of the conditions laid down in these guidelines, would affiliation be granted to the colleges.

Surprisingly, at the same meeting, a college principal highlighted that PU inspection committees seldom visit colleges that enjoy permanent affiliation.

“We have identified certain areas for improvement and are already in the process of forming guidelines to grant affiliation to courses in the colleges. A three-member committee of college principals was formed at the meeting recently for this purpose. The system of inspection in the colleges has already been revamped and we are strict in dealing with the issues like shortage of teachers and infrastructure now,” said new PU DCDC Naval Kishore.

Alleging that the colleges with poor results in certain subjects are actually deteriorating the academic standards of the university, a college principal on the condition of anonymity said, “The university is the examining and evaluating body and it also awards degrees to lakhs of students enrolled in the affiliated colleges, a poor result is a reflection on its academic standards as well.”

Putting forth another plea, PU dean university instructions (DUI) Bhupinder Brar said, “There are several cases in which university students score more than college students with the same syllabi and same question paper. The colleges must also be in a self-introspection mode. PU, at its own level, is preparing a fresh draft of guidelines for standards to be maintained in the colleges.”

“We have started plugging in all loopholes. Only on the fulfilment of all parameters, would the colleges be given extension to enrol students in the self-financing and other courses,” said Brar.