The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Patiala parks in state of neglect
Umesh Dewan
Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 22
Cattle grazing grass, heaps of garbage, dogs barking at people, parked cars and makeshift eating outlets - this is the picture the parks in the royal city depict. Owing to the irresponsible attitude of the civic body, more and more parks in the city are being encroached upon. Even the parks which are free from encroachments portray a deplorable state.

Following numerous complaints by city residents, The Tribune took a round of the city and found out that almost one third of the total parks in the city were either fully or partially encroached upon. As per the details gathered by the TNS, there are 298 parks in Patiala city, out of which 20 are fully encroached upon and 71 are partially encroached.

A visit to Moongfali Market, behind Chhoti Baradari, revealed that a dairy owner had converted a municipal park into a cattle shed. The shopkeepers in the market said the dairy owner was tying his buffaloes in the park and was throwing the garbage in that space.

Residents of Pratap Nagar told the TNS that Shaheed Bhagat Singh Park in their area was encroached upon by some unscrupulous elements, who had constructed shops on the park. “It is ridiculous that permanent encroachments are coming up on parks and the civic body is watching all this as a mute spectator,” rued one of the area residents Satinder Kaur.

However, a round of Sri Guru Ravidass Park on the bus stand road was even more shocking as a dhaba has been operating from the park.

Parks in several other city areas, including New Rajpura Colony, Sewak Colony, Model Town, Lower Mall road, Bhupindra road, Arya Samaj, Sirhind road, Rajpura road, Nabha road, Passey road and Hargobind Nagar, also depicted a shabby look on account of makeshift encroachments and lack of maintenance.

“We cannot take our kids to the park due to presence of stray dogs. Besides, there is hardly any space in the park to walk as it is encroached upon by a dhaba owner,” said Jaswinder Singh, who resides near Gurdwara Dukhnivaran Sahib.

The park opposite to Gurdwara Dukhnivaran Sahib has been converted into a parking lot. “Cars remained parked in the park the whole day, but the municipal corporation has not taken any action against the person running this parking lot,” said area resident Harkrishan Gupta.

When contacted, Municipal Commissioner Manjit Singh Narang admitted that almost one third of the parks in Patiala were either fully or partially encroached upon. “Some of the encroachments are decades old and we are trying to get the encroachments cleared as per the municipal laws,” he said, while adding that civic officials have been asked to remain vigilant to ensure that no new encroachment comes up in any of the park.

Regarding the upkeep of the parks, Narang said, “It is a fact that the parks are not being maintained properly, but we are trying our best to ensure the upkeep of parks. We have asked area welfare associations to come forward and take the responsibility of maintenance of parks. The MC would pay the area welfare associations monthly financial assistance as fixed by government for maintaining the parks.”

Builder killed in accident
Tribune News Service

Kharar, December 22
A 27-year-old builder got killed in an accident last night when his car was hit by a bus near Desu Majra village.

The deceased has been identified as Vikram Singh, a resident of Palheri village. Vikram was a builder and currently had undertaken a project of building multi-storey flats in Kharar.

A speeding Hoshiarpur-bound roadways bus hit Vikram’s car while overtaking another vehicle.

Some passer-by and cops took Vikram out of his car and took him to the Kharar civil hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. Though the bus driver fled from the spot, the police was trying to trace him.

The police has registered a case against the unidentified driver on the complaint of Amandeep Singh, a resident of Lakhnaur. The body was handed over to Vikram’s family members after conducting the postmortem at the Kharar civil hospital.

Relatives of Vikram said he was married just one year ago and was blessed with a baby around a month ago.

COURTS

Hit-&-run case
HC orders release of Sukhmani’s passport
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 22
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the release of passport of Sukhmani Brar, alias Amanat, accused in the controversial hit-and-run case, in which two persons were killed, one of them a child.

The direction came with a rider. Justice Jaswant Singh directed furnishing of fixed deposit receipt of Rs 20 lakh.

Justice Jaswant Singh further directed that the amount would be released to the family of the deceased, in case she failed to return to the country by January 31.

Directions for furnishing the original title deed of a property were also issued.

The UT police has all along been opposing the demand of release of passport of Sukhmani Brar on the ground that she might flee.

In fact, the UT stand so far has been once the accused leaves the country, it will be difficult to get her back.

Demanding the release of her passport, Sukhmani, on the other hand, had contended that she required the document to go abroad for filling out academic forms.

Denial to release the passport would adversely affect her academic career.

Sukhmani had moved the court demanding release of her passport deposited with the police after she was named as accused in the FIR.

High Court
Notice to Punjab, SSP in cheating case
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 22
Rajiv Kumar has allegedly paid dearly for greener pastures across the seas. The Rohtak district resident allegedly paid Rs 7 lakh to travel agents for going to Canada. However, he claims he was neither sent abroad nor was the money returned. To make the matters worse, the police is not acting on his plea, Rajiv Kumar has told the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Acting on his petition, Justice Jaswant Singh has issued notice of motion to the State of Punjab, the SSP, and four other respondents.

Justice Jaswant Singh observed: “The prayer is for transferring the investigation of FIR No. 90 registered on October 25 at police station Sohana, Mohali district, under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC on the ground that no proper investigation is being conducted.

“It is submitted that the named accused in the FIR are travel agents and have been paid a sum of Rs 7 lakh for arranging to send the petitioner to Canada. It is submitted that neither the money was returned nor the petitioner sent to Canada.

“It is further submitted that the police officials are under the influence of the accused and hence not taking any action.”

Fixing January 19, 2011, as the next date of hearing, Justice Jaswant Singh added: “At the asking of the court, RK Nihalsinghwala, additional advocate-general, accepts notice and prays for time to ascertain the status of investigation.”

In his petition, Rajiv Kumar had sought transfer of the investigation to the CBI, crime branch of the state or any other independent agency.

He added that FIR was registered against Anila Pannu and Narinder Mor of Chandigarh, but further investigation was not carried out.

Sofat withdraws bail plea
Sanjay Bumbroo
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, December 22
Ludhiana-based doctor Sumit Sofat today withdrew his regular bail application in connection with attempt to murder case registered against him in July last year in Chandimandir police station here.

Presently lodged in Ambala jail, Sumit had sought bail on health grounds.

The local police had strongly opposed his bail application. The police informed the district court that the disease of Sofat could be cured by Ambala jail doctor and there was no need for any other treatment.

Notably, this was for the second time that Sofat had moved regular bail. Earlier on October 25, Additional District and Sessions Judge Ritu Garg had dismissed the regular bail application filed by Sofat.

On September 17 the police, on a tip off, had arrested Sofat, a resident of Heera Nagar (Ludhiana), near Hotel Sunbeam, in Sector 22, Chandigarh.

Sofat was booked following investigations into his complaint regarding robbery and shooting in Morni hills on July 19 last year. The investigations had revealed that the incident was planned by the doctor himself to implicate one Ramesh Pashan and his two sons in a criminal case.

Earlier, Sofat had alleged that Pashan and his two sons, Vinayak and Abhinav, with the help of their driver Ranjit and two other unidentified persons, had attacked and injured his driver Nelson, who was shot twice in the chest. Sofat had also alleged that Pashan family had robbed Rs 33 lakh from his vehicle.

CRIME

12 proclaimed offenders held
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 22
The police arrested 12 proclaimed offenders, wanted in various cases, from different parts of the city today.

A team headed by inspector Gurjeet Kaur, in-charge of the special cell formed to arrest proclaimed offenders, arrested Jasbir Singh, Daljit Singh, Vikas, Trilok Singh, Dharamveer Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Rajbir Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Nand Lal, Santosh, Parveen Kumar and Kamal Kumar from different parts of the city. They have been involved in theft and cheating cases. In all, 11 constables and head constables have been attached with the cell headed by an inspector. They have been divided into different teams, which work in coordination with all police stations.

Man commits suicide

A 40-year-old man committed suicide by setting himself ablaze at his residence in Bapu Dham Colony, Sector 26, today. The incident took place around 3.30 pm.

The victim has been identified as Sunny Bhatt. Sunny sustained 100 percent burn injuries.

The victim, who worked as a labourer, is survived by his wife and six children.

According to the police, the incident took place in the afternoon when Sunny was alone at home.

He locked his shanty from inside and poured kerosene on his body before setting himself ablaze. On seeing smoke come out of the shanty, neighbours broke open the door and found the victim engulfed in flames. They doused the fire and informed the police.

The victim was taken to the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16, where he was declared brought dead by doctors. The police said the deceased was suffering from depression.

SPORTS

‘Provide academy to women kabaddi players’
Sanjay Bumbroo
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, December 22
“The Haryana government should set up an academy to train the budding women kabaddi players”, national kabaddi coach Sunil Dabas said during a award-giving ceremony held here today.

Talking to the Tribune Dabas said that at present there was only one academy that was being managed by the Sports Authority of India and that too was only meant for boys. She said the only kabaddi academy was at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh and she was ready to provide training to budding women kabaddi players if the state government set up a women academy in the state.

Giving example of the youngest kabaddi player Manisha Dalal (18), daughter of a farmer, who was presently undergoing training at Chaudhary Bhart Singh Memorial Sports School, Nidani in Jind district, Dabas said that women in Haryana had the required figure of a kabaddi player and if proper infrastructure was provided to them the state would have six to seven players in the team who could bring laurels not only to the state but also to the nation.

Lashing out at private public schools for promoting only glamour sports, which attracted a lot of money, she said there was a need to promote country’s traditional sports like kabaddi. She said the public sector companies had not shown any keen interest in the game and it was the police or the railways, which was providing jobs to girls winning medals at the national and international level.

She claimed that European countries had shown keen interest in kabaddi and had started developing teams. She hoped that this game would be included in the next Olympics to be held in 2016. She said China had also shown keen interest in the game due to the internal structure of the sport, which required total fitness of one’s body.

St Kabir Trophy
St John’s win by narrow margin
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 22
A five-wicket haul (5 for 12) by Manjeet went in vain as his team St Soldier’s School-28 lost by a narrow margin of two runs to St John’s High School, Sector 26 in a Pool A league match of the Under-12 St Kabir Trophy, being organised and hosted by St Kabir School-26 on its school premises, here today.

Batting first, St John’s scored 56 runs in 13.2 overs. Only Gerry Dhingra reached the double figures with 11 runs. Manjeet, Fagun and Rohit claimed two wickets each for St Soldier’s team.

In reply, St. Soldier’s batsmen too displayed poor show. The entire team fell just two runs short at the end with a total of 54 runs. Gagan Verma top scored with 11 runs. Dhananjay (3 for 7), Angad (2 for 3) and Adhiraj (2 for 5) were the main wicket takers for the St John’s team.

Brief score

St John’s: 56 all out in 13.2 overs (Gerry 11, Manjeet 5 for 12, Fagun 2 for 15, Rohit 2 for 18)

St Soldier’s: 54 all out in 19.4 overs (Gagan 11, Dhananjay 3 for 7, Angad 2 for 3, Adhiraj 2 for 5)

In the second match between DAV-15 and St Anne’s-32, the former team won the match by nine wickets.

Batting first, DAV-15 put up a dismal show to bowl out for paltry 28 runs in only 9.2 overs. Anmol (2 for 4), Saksham (2 for 6), Aryan (2 for 6) picked the main wickets for the St Annes team.

In reply, St Anne’s team achieved the partly total with losing only one wicket. Puneet remained unbeaten with 11 runs. The lone wicket was taken by Vishvajeet for St Soldier’s team.

DAV-28: All out in 9.2 overs (Anmol 2 for 4,Saksham 2 for 6,Aryan 2 for 6)

St Anne’s:29 for 1 in 8 overs (Puneet 11n.o.,Vishwajeet 1 for 16)

Today’s matches

St.Kabir vs Millenium at 9.30 am

Saupin’s vs Strawberry at 1pm.