Chandigarh, December 22
A five-year-old boy, son of a grocery store owner, was allegedly kidnapped from outside his home in Burail village on Tuesday afternoon. Khushpreet alias Khushi was picked up by an unidentified suspect who subsequently demanded a ransom of Rs 10 lakh from the child’s family. The boy studies in Ajit Karam Singh Public School in Sector 45.

Khushpreet was first reported missing by his mother, Kulwinder Kaur, who last saw him playing outside their home before she left for school to pick up her elder son, Inder, who is eight years old. She returned to see her younger son missing following which she began searching for him in the neighborhood.

The boy’s family then lodged a complaint with the police and a missing report was initially filed.

The family members soon received a ransom call at 4:30 pm on the phone number of Khushpreet’s uncle. The caller asked them to arrange Rs 10 lakh in cash. They again informed the police who subsequently registered a case of kidnapping in the Sector 34 police station based on the complaint filed by Khushpreet’s father, Lakhbir Singh.

“I had gone to pick up my elder son from school. Meanwhile Khushi had returned early and had gone to his father’s shop for a packet of chips. He returned home on foot alone following which he removed his turban and tie and came out of his house to play. I was at the shop for some time and when I returned home I found him missing,” said Kulwinder.

After it was informed about the incident the police swung into action and began a search for the suspect. According to sources, the boy’s family was called a number of times during which the caller changed his location. The cops are also suspecting the kidnapping could be the work of someone close to the family who could have committed the act due to an old enmity.

According to unconfirmed reports, the boy’s family had arranged an amount of Rs 4 lakh and the police had laid a trap to apprehend the suspect. Investigations were on till the time of filing this report.

Chandigarh, December 22
The UT administration’s idea of “adjusting” its arbitrarily declared 15 per cent reservation for students belonging to “economically weaker sections” in the city’s schools with the 25 percent reservation specified under the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 has been slammed by the union human resources & development ministry.

The administration had in a controversial decision announced it would only bear the expenses for ten percent of the total 25 percent seats that are required under the RTE Act to be reserved for EWS students. The reason: It expects schools to reserve and bear the expense of 15 percent seats in all classes for EWS students in compliance with its arbitrarily framed rules.

Claiming no other obligation can be merged with the RTE Act, the HRD ministry’s official spokesperson, Mamta Verma, said: “The (RTE) Act is very clear on this issue. There seems to be a misinterpretation by the Chandigarh administration. States may have asked schools to teach a specified number of students free of cost in return for any concessions granted to them. But these cannot be coupled with the act. The schools will be reimbursed for all 25 percent seats that they reserve for disadvantaged groups and any remaining obligations imposed by the UT administration has to be dealt with separately. Out of a total estimated cost of implementing the act in the union territory, 68 percent will be borne by the central government with the remaining 32 percent by the UT administration”.

Sources close to the HRD ministry said it was possible the Chandigarh administration was seeking to save on paying its share by imposing the locally devised 15 percent EWS clause. Verma, however, declined to comment on this.

According to chapter IV (2) of the RTE Act, a school providing free and compulsory elementary education shall be reimbursed expenditure so incurred by it to the extent of per child expenditure incurred by the state or the actual amount incurred by it, whichever is less. Provided further that where such school is already under obligation to provide free education to a specified number of children on account of it having received any land, building, equipment or other facilities either free of cost or at concessional rates, such school shall not be entitled for reimbursement to the extent of such obligation. The administration’s imposition of reservation for EWS students in city schools is a major bone of contention between it and city schools. While the former insists schools should reserve 15 percent of their regular seats to provide free education to EWS students, they, however, resent this, saying only those schools allotted land after 1996 are bound to do so. Even so, the reservation percentage as per allotment letters is only five percent.

Chandigarh, December 22
The mock drill testing the alertness of the Chandigarh Police and the fire department at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Sector 17, turned out to be nothing more than a spectacle for curious onlookers.

The UT Police’s action heroes went ahead with their exercise without evacuating the RBI building, which was under the threat of a ‘bomb blast’ and had supposedly been engulfed by heavy fire.

The UT’s anti-sabotage check teams lay stretched on the ground about 15 metres from the employees, listening to a speech by the SHO, with their guns pointed towards the building housing ‘terrorists’.

All 390 employees of the bank were asked to stand on the RBI campus by the internal security officer as the local police team had not earmarked any location outside the campus, where the employees could be shifted safely.

The bomb disposal squad arrived and began the exercise without evacuating the building complex where the employees had come following the fire alarm.

Cops were never informed about “what they came for”. A cop said, “We were only told about major fire at top floor of the building.” To top it all, the anti-terrorist team never came to the spot.

The exercise was preceded by a formal communication to the departments concerned by the RBI. Sector 17 SHO Jaswinder Singh said the department had received a written communiqué that a mock drill would be conducted in the RBI building. As expected, they had not been informed about the exact time.

At 4 pm, the fire alarm of the RBI started ringing. Employees ran to leave the building and police vehicles reached the spot to cordon off the area. The police put barricades on the main road and asked the motorists to take a detour.

The drill was conducted jointly by the fire department, the ITBP, the Chandigarh Police and the security guards attached to the Central Bank.

Chandigarh, December 22
For four years now the city has been dubbed as a paradise for smugglers who are illegally sneaking liquor into neighbouring states. Blame it on the UT administration’s lopsided excise policy, the structure of which is patently “smuggling friendly”, the absence of institutionalized interaction between the stakeholders and the excise department or the low excise duty - the fact is that for years now the department has done little to reexamine these factors. Moreover, it is facing a severe shortage of staff to check liquor smuggling.

Sample this: For 208 liquor stores, 30 wholesale licensees and over 17 license holders of pubs and bars besides four liquor bottling units in the city and other categories of license holders, the UT excise department has just only officials at the operational level to prevent this illegal outflow - two excise inspectors, one excise & taxation officer and one assistant excise & taxation commissioner.

In fact liquor contractors, who are on an average bringing in revenues of over Rs 600 crore into the city, are peeved that ever since the administration switched to the license system in 2006 there has hardly been any dialogue between the stakeholders and administration officials.

“Earlier, liquor contractors were considered at par with the government’s revenue collecting agent and their views were considered before giving the final shape to the excise policy for the next year. Besides, the problems faced by the wholesalers, manufacturers and liquor consumers were also considered”, said Satyapal, a former president of the Chandigarh Wine Merchants Association and one of the oldest liquor contractors running his business in the city for the past four decades.

In a letter written a month ago to the advisor to the UT administrator, the deputy commissioner and other top administration officials, Satyapal pointed out no meeting had ever been held or any suggestion from liquor licensees, manufacturers and wholesalers ever sought by the administration since 2006 when the latter switched its new excise policy from the auction to the licensing system.

“The introduction of the license system accompanied by the decision to not fix a quota of “Indian made foreign liquor” (IMFL) for each vend on the lines of other states along with the introduction of an excise duty far less than the neighbouring states are major causes for the outflow (read smuggling) of liquor. The officials have shown little concern to all these factors”, said another wholesale liquor dealer who did not wish to be named.

“There is practically no uniformity in the licensing system. Although different liquor vends may be selling the same product, they’re required to pay a different license fee. For instance, the license fee for liquor vends last year was Rs 35 lakh and their running cost is the lowest as compared to those who are operating from stores with high rentals in others markets in the city. Moreover, liquor vend owners are having a monopolistic business because of their strategic locations compared to others”, the dealer added.

In 2006 makeshift liquor vends were allotted on the basis of draw of lots. However, the authorities have been promising the wholesale dealers and others that these vends would be shut as soon as they create social problems such as drinking in the open, drunken driving resulting in accidents and disorderly parking around the vends.

Moreover, the liquor vends are also causing losses to the municipal corporation by defaulting on monthly rentals, which are as low as Rs 30,000 compared to rents as high as Rs 5 lakh in some areas of the city.

Chandigarh, December 22
The cold wave sweeping the region claimed its first victim as a 47-year-old man was found dead near the emergency ward of the PGI here today. The identity of the deceased could not be established.

According to police post in-charge Usha Rani, the security guards deputed at the entry to the emergency ward noticed the victim lying at the scene around 4 am.

Presuming him to be a patient or an attendant, they tried to wake him up but found himdead. The body had been sent to the mortuary. — TNS

Chandigarh, December 22
“Forget Munni and Sheila; join Santa Claus and belly dancers.” This is one of the many options being thrown up by discotheques and hotels for revellers to shake a leg on Christmas and New Year eve.

Many places in the city will witness dance performances on Christmas eve. While a popular discotheque is organising belly dances on December 24, Chandigarh Club members can hope to shake a leg with item girls of a TV reality show on the tunes of a popular VJ.

Many dance parties are also being held at various private places, where local and Delhi-based dancers will perform. If local event management companies and some local organisers are to be believed, belly dancers, preferably Russian, are a major hit with city residents.

Navneet Joshi, director of a Chandigarh-based event management company, says many local hotels, clubs and resorts prefer belly dances and performances by item girls these days. Half-a-dozen hotels, clubs and resorts have already announced such programmes while the rest will reveal their plans two or three days before the event.

Not only on New Year eve, many rich denizens of the tricity book these dancers for their private parties. “These affluent persons organise private parties, preferably at farmhouses in the periphery of the city or other safe places, where belly dancers are called to celebrate the occasions in style,” says Anup Sharma, who runs an advertising agency in Chandigarh.

These dancers normally charge between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh, but due to heavy demand on such occasions, their rates are over Rs 2.5 lakh per function,” he adds.

Organising belly dances has become the most popular attraction for hotels, resorts and clubs to entice more clients for December 31. These dancers are also much in demand in Punjab’s cities, especially Ludhiana and Jalandhar.

Chandigarh, December 22
Cold wave conditions persisted in the city and its adjoining areas even today, with the city recording temperatures below normal. Residents battled chill as the minimum temperature rose by a degree to 5.4 °C against 4.4 °C recorded yesterday. Weather officials said the minimum temperature was likely to plummet further. The city today recorded a maximum temperature of 20.1 °C.

As the chill continued unabated, people were seen snuggled around bonfires, particularly during the morning and evening hours.

The mercury movement on Monday and Tuesday indicated that the city is under the grip of cold wave.

“Snowfall at the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh is the reason behind the cold wave conditions here,” said a Met official. He said cold wave conditions were prevailing over many parts of neighbouring Haryana and Punjab and things were not likely to improve till Friday.

The weatherman warned that the situation might worsen in the coming days. The condition in other parts of North India was no better.

The weatherman predicted clear sky with fog/mist in the morning, lending no respite from the chilly winds in the next couple of days.

The cold conditions have also hit the day-to-day life in the city. Business has also been affected due to the chill.

“There will be shallow fog tomorrow (Thursday) and it will remain till noon. Foggy conditions will persist for the next few days. On Thursday, the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 20 °Celsius and the minimum is expected to be around 5 °Celsius,” an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Chandigarh, December 22
After much delay, work on the installation of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) at the Chandigarh Airport has been completed and is all set to be operational by month-end.

The ILS installed belongs to category I, which helps landing and take-off of flights in visibility of 1,200 metres. Even the AAI authorities claim huge progress with the newly installed ILS, much to the relief of air passengers.

However, sources said the old structure of the ILS in front of the new ILS was yet to be dismantled. The calibration would be done thereafter, which would take a few days, they added.

The new ILS was installed with assistance from the Air Force authorities, the sources said.

This winter, too, many flights have been delayed or cancelled due to poor visibility at the airport.

Now, aircraft will be able to land at the city airstrip despite poor visibility during the foggy months ahead.

The ILS is a navigation aid that gives precision guidance to planes approaching and landing on the runway using both radio signals and high-intensity lighting arrays.

Indian Air Force controls the local airport and their ILS, which is essential for landing of aircraft during poor visibility, had been lying non-functional for a long time.

Installed almost 15 years ago, the Air Force’s landing system was of the oldest version and was no longer being used by any airport in the country.

Last year, the city airport was closed from December 29 to January 25 owing to poor visibility.

There are 11 regular flights from the city airport for destinations like Delhi, Mumbai, Jammu and Bangalore.

The AAI authorities have been claiming to start international operations from Chandigarh this January.

Chandigarh, December 22
Murders, hit-and-run cases, snatchings, robberies and thefts — the Chandigarh police remained on its toes throughout 2010, with the city witnessing a spurt in crime incidents.

Petty crimes like motor vehicle thefts and snatchings continued to spell trouble throughout the year even as the number of robberies recorded a significant increase.

A 22-year-old MBA student, Neha Ahlawat, was found raped and murdered near a taxi stand in Sector 38 (West) on July 31. While the police rounded up several suspects of the area, no breakthrough could be made.

Besides the Neha murder case, the Chandigarh police came under severe criticism for its shoddy investigation in the hit-and-run case involving 19-year-old Sukhmani Brar as the accused.

The police arrested the accused after a considerable delay of 18 hours and imposed bailable sections against her, inviting wrath from all corners.

Sukhmani Brar, alias Amanat, was responsible for killing two youngsters, including a seven-year-old, near the Punjab Chief Minister’s residence on the night of August 17. She was driving a Honda Accord at breakneck speed.

The police arrested the accused in a case of (causing death due to negligence 304 A), while according to legal experts it was a fit case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (304).

Other cases that made headlines and put the police in a tight spot for its failure to crack them included a daring daylight robbery in Sector 35 on November 2.

Subhash Bajaj was robbed of Rs 15 lakh in cash and foreign currency amounting to $ 8,000 (Australian) by two youths at gunpoint.

Besides, a robbery attempt at Tanishq showroom on November 4 in Sector 17 and car snatching at Sector 8 rotary raised a big question mark on the efficacy of the police.

In addition, thieves created quite a ruckus in the city when a spate of thefts at 10 showrooms in Sector 26 and Sector 24 in a single night was reported in April this year.

Besides, clashes between rival groups in the PU kept the police on its toes.

With Naunihal Singh taking over as the UT SSP in September, new projects were initiated and steps taken to give the PCR fleet more powers.

Chandigarh, December 22
Shivalika, a new transit facility of the Defence Accounts Department (DAD), was inaugurated by Nita Kapoor, Secretary (Finance), Ministry of Defence, here yesterday.

Located in Sector 35, the foundation stone of the building was laid on August 20, 2009, and had been constructed within the stipulated costs and timeframe. It will provide logistic support to DAD officers and other functionaries visiting Chandigarh.

Paras Ram, Principal Controller of Defence Accounts, Western Command, Major General RK Kalra, Major General-in-Charge Administration and other senior defence accounts officers were also present on the occasion — TNS

Chandigarh, December 22
Investigating into the incident of wrong blood transfusion at Government Multi-Speciality Hospital (GMSH), which led to the death of patient’s unborn child, SDM (South) Vinod P Kavle recorded the statements of Suman, the victim, and her relatives at the PGI here today.

Kavle will return tomorrow as the statement of Des Raj, husband of Suman, could not be recorded today.

UT Home Secretary Ram Niwas ordered a magisterial probe into the incident on December 19.

Meanwhile Suman, a resident of colony No 4, continues to battle for her life at the PGI.

PGI spokesperson said the condition of Suman was stable. Though there was no improvement in the condition of her kidneys, which were affected due to wrong blood transfusion, her haemoglobin had increased to 10.

Chandigarh, December 22
Members of CHB Employees Coordination Committee today held a meeting and decided to start a pen-down, tool-down strike from December 24 by staging a dharna on the premises of the Chandigarh Housing Board until their demand for pension for employees was met.

Vice-president Abneesh Dadwal said: “When the UT’s Legal Remembrancer has cleared the case of CHB employees for pension, there is no reason why the authorities are sitting over it.”

Chandigarh, December 22
Such was the compelling charm of the captivating dance performances by child prodigies and adults that the entire audience, including their parents and older persons, too, could not resist shaking a leg as the eighth edition of the Shiamak Winter Funk was held at the Tagore Theatre here today.

The annual dancing bonanza was a tie-up between the Shiamak Davar Institute for Performing Arts, Mumbai, and the Durga Das Foundation.

The event, marking the culmination of a twelve-day dance workshop brought its own share of elegance, energy and rhythm to the city that was already high on bhangra and hip hop, said Atul Khanna, foundation director.

Atul also said trained instructors hone dancing skills based on person's natural talent and comfort-level. Designed as a fun and compatible learning programme, the relationship between dance and therapy as also spirituality is explored with negativity being erased and an enthusiastic amount of energy that is warm, cheerful, friendly and compassionate generated, added Khanna.

A total of 200 persons aged between four and 40 took the centrestage. Using a mix of Hindi and English music and contemporary dance steps, Shiamak's unique brand of modern dance virtually ignited the entire city to grooving beats and tunes.

The show had 10 sequences, capturing different moods, styles and beats. The dancers had a great time and the audience, too, was enthralled as they sat immersed, tapping their toes, clapping hands and humming popular tunes.

Dressed in elegant costumes, young participants took entry from both ends to synchronise with each other in foot work, body movements and emotional expression.

The dance number “Jai Ho” exuding patriotism and national ethos was well received.

The audience cheered the dancers during the performance of the boisterous number “Munni badnaam huyi..” besides all the other Punjabi numbers.

Chandigarh, December 22
Yaadgar-e-Rafi Society will hold Mohammad Rafi nite on December 24 at the Tagore Theatre.

According to a press release, at least 30 singers are expected to perform.

Asha Hooda, wife of Haryana Chief Minister will be the chief guest and leading playback singers Bhupinder and Mitali, will preside over.

Kamal Sharma, a senior announcer of the All-India Radio, Mumbai, Kundan Singh, Rafis’s classmate from Amritsar, and Dr Jawahar Lal, former director, Health Services, Punjab, will be honoured on the occasion.

Chandigarh, December 22
Living up to his reputation of lending smiles to shocked faces, satirist Jaspal Bhatti today raised a team of Santa Claus’ to gift onions to housewives this Christmas.

Bhatti, accompanied by students of Mad Arts institute, went to the grain market in Sector 26 to purchase onions that they would pack as gifts for local residents this Christmas.

“Onions will bring smiles to the faces of people who have removed the vegetable from the menu of dishes served at their homes. Onion was as important as salt in our daily diet. Smile on the face of a person gratified with food was beyond words,” he quipped.

Delivering the “gifts” as part of his “Onion Show”, he said “getting onions will cheer up the atmosphere of the common man’s home, which will be more than giving children chocolates. We will gift small-sized onion to only a limited number of families to reach as many houses as possible”.

He appealed to all Santa Claus’ of India to hide onions in ladies’ purses and stockings hung in homes to spread happiness around X-mas and the New Year.”

Bhatti also appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to get himself into the costume of a Santa Claus and start delivering onions to the common man. On how he was coping with the exorbitant prices of onions in the market, he retorted: “We have got funding from those involved in big scams like 2G. You will get to know about the funding agencies through Wikileaks shortly.”

Bhatti said he had presented his wife a garland of vegetables instead of a diamond necklace to show how vegetables are slowly getting out of the reach for the common man.

Mohali, December 22
The municipal council authorities are not serious about stopping the misuse of verandahs in markets and have failed to act tough with offenders who have been adopting a couldn’t-care-less attitude to notices issued in this regard by the civic body.

Verandahs in various markets of the town have been encroached upon by shopkeepers, especially by eating joints, grocery stores and shops selling sanitary fitting items much to the annoyance of residents who have to face the inconvenience.

A survey was carried out by the council after which it had identified about 250 shopkeepers who had encroached upon market verandahs. The process of issuing notices by the civic body to the offenders started around mid-October.

The notices were issued under Section 173 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911. In the notices the council had asked shopkeepers to remove their goods from the verandahs within three days failing which these would be removed by council employees and action would be initiated against violators.

The shopkeepers would be responsible for any breakage that takes place while removing goods. These items would not be returned and the shopkeepers would also have to bear the expenditure incurred on the exercise.

Even though more than two months have passed since the process of issuing notices was started, the council has failed to take action against even a single shopkeeper so far.

In September last year also the council had issued notices to owners of 16 eating joints under Section 173. But no action was later taken against offenders.

Due to this indifferent attitude of the council authorities, the shopkeepers go on with violations unabatedly. Shopkeepers are of the opinion that issuing notices is only a formality that the civic body has been doing over the past many years and offenders keep using verandahs according their own convenience.

MC’s executive officer Amna Kumar Goyal said the civic body was compelled to issue notices under Section 173 as under this Act complaints could be made in court against offenders. He said whenever the civic body got the verandahs vacated during drives carried out in this regard, offenders again encroached upon these soon after council employees left the area.

Goyal further said that the council was about to file complaints in a court, but the legal expert of the civic body had suggested to submit complaints along with proofs. So now the council employees would get the photographs of the encroached areas clicked which would be presented in the court along with complaints.

Mohali, December 22
A dismissed clerk of the Punjab School Education Board, who was on an indefinite fast, was forcibly lifted from the scene of protest by the police today and later admitted in the Civil Hospital following deterioration of his health. Malkeet Singh was on an indefinite fast for the past seven days.

Dr Rajeev Bhalla, SMO in charge of the hospital, said Malkeet Singh, who was brought to the hospital by the police, was being administered intravenous fluids. He had been put on medication, but his condition was stable.

Mohali SDM Amit Talwar, SP (City) Harpreet Singh, tehsildar Sanjeev Kumar and SHOs of three police stations had reached the scene of protest. They tried to convince the protesters to call off the agitation as the government had given them an assurance of doing the needful. But when they did not relent, Malkeet Singh was forcibly taken away from there.

Jagwinder Singh, general secretary of the Dismissed 134 Clerks Union, said the police had resorted to mild lathicharge when the protesters tried to stop the police from taking away Malkeet Singh. They were not even allowed to enter the premises of the education board by the police.

The protesters then raised slogans against the authorities. He said the agitation was going on peacefully, but the administration tried to infringe upon their democratic right.

The general secretary said 134 clerks were given jobs in the education board during the earlier tenure of the SAD-BJP government in the state. But soon after the Congress came to power, they were dismissed alleging irregularities in their recruitment. They hoped to get their jobs back after the SAD-BJP government returned to power, but nothing was done for their welfare.

Soon after Malkeet Singh was taken away by the police, Ram Singh, another protester, sat on an indefinite fast.

Panchkula, December 22
As confusion prevailed among students over examination dates, authorities at Government College, Sector 1, were left with no option but to call students from their homes today. However, authorities had to postpone the exams indefinitely. According to sources, BMC (II) students were to appear for an examination scheduled for today as per the updated datesheet.

Earlier, the examination was scheduled to be held on December 23, which was later changed to December 22 by Kurukshetra University last week. Students said they were not informed regarding the change in the datesheet. College principal said there was no fault at their end as they had already informed the students through a notice put up on the notice board last week. He said even the faculty members had informed the students today to appear for the exams, but some students couldn’t make it. Now, the university would decide the new examination schedule, he added.

CHANDIGARH: Shivalik Public School, Sector 41, celebrated Christmas with enthusiasm.

Students sang Christmas carols, performed dance and enacted play depicting the birth and life of Jesus Christ. Children were dressed as Santa and distributed sweets among teachers and students.