The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

Roadside Parking: Truckers’ will, motorists’ nightmare
Kharar-Chandigarh stretch
Megha Mann
Tribune News Service

Vehicles laden with construction material parked along the Baltana link road at Zirakpur. Tribune photos: Vicky Gharu, Nitin Mittal

Kharar, February 1
A large number of haphazardly parked trucks and encroachments dot the Kharar-Chandigarh road, near the sales tax collection barrier here. These encroachments often lead to traffic bottlenecks and contribute to accidents.

Ironically, roadside parking, which has become a major cause for accidents, is only checked during VIP visits.

“Whenever a VIP convoy has to take the road, the police clears the entire stretch of illegal parking. On such occasions, one can seldom find an obstruction, especially caused by trucks, all the way up to Kharar,” says Vishal a shopkeeper near Balongi.

Vishal adds that he has witnessed at least five accidents in the past few months alone. “A truck barged into a roadside hutment, killing a shopkeeper, last year. Shreds of glasses, broken during accidents, can be seen on any given day on the stretch.”

Pankaj Kumar, a resident of Kapoor Chowk, Kharar, says there is no check on driving on the wrong side of the road, which often results accidents.

“My cousin’s car recently rammed into an overladen truck being driven on the wrong side of the road near Janta Nagar. Though the car occupants escaped with minor injuries, the car was totalled,” he says.

Daily commuters point out that they seldom see police officials award challans to buses, trucks, auto-rickshaws and two-wheelers for speeding.

Gursharan Singh, an engineering student and victim of an accident, feels the stretch from Balongi to Kharar is quite dangerous for two-wheeler riders.

“My bike was hit twice on this road by a speeding car and a truck. I broke my nose and knee for no fault of mine,” he adds. In both accidents, the vehicles moving ahead of him braked suddenly due to reckless driving by others.

Despite the tall claims of the authorities, nothing has been done in this regard, he says.

“The sections of the road near Sunny Enclave, Janta Nagar and Bansan Wali Chungi need traffic lights. Also, the traffic police needs to be deployed at least during the peak hours there,” he adds.

Baltana link road

Zirakpur, February 1
The Zirakpur municipal council has failed to remove tractor-trailers and trucks laden with construction material parked illegally along the Baltana link road. This has been causing inconvenience to motorists and pedestrians.

Residents and shopkeepers allege that they have made several representations to the municipal authorities but the latter have failed to pay heed to their problem.

They rue the fact that the MC authorities have turned a blind eye to the violations and have been making false promises to them on the issue.

While the council has spent lakhs of rupees on widening the roads, it has done little to check encroachment on these by trucks and tractor-trailers.

A large number of tractor-trailers and trucks laden with construction material can be seen parked haphazardly outside shops in the area adjoining Kalgidhar Enclave on any given day. Even the contractors dump stone dust along the road, causing inconvenience to pedestrians.

Jagtar Singh, councillor of ward No. 12, says he has informed the council officials about the violation many a time but the enforcement wing has failed to initiate steps in this regard.

Dera Bassi SDM Puneet Goyal said he was not aware of the matter. He assured of directing the MC officials to take action against the violators.

COURTS

Payal Murder Case
Four-day police remand for two accused
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, February 1
Two of the accused in the Payal murder case, including the husband of the victim, surrendered before the local police here last evening.

Vinod Kumar, the husband, and Jaswant Singh, a relative, were produced in a local court, which remanded them in four-day police custody. The accused will now be produced before the court on February 5.

Chandi Mandir police station SHO Jangsher Singh said investigations were on and raids were being conducted to arrest the other accused in the case.

Earlier, the report of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Madhuban, suggested strangulation as the main cause of death.

A three-member panel of doctors from the General Hospital, Sector 6, had also confirmed the observation in their final opinion.

Payal was found in a water tank of the house in Sector 26 here in November last year. The family had taken her to a private hospital but she was declared brought dead.

Three days after the incident i.e. on November 21, the police on the complaint of the victim’s father had registered a case under Section 302, IPC, against Payal’s husband Vinod Kumar, who works as an operator in the military telephone exchange department, brother-in-law Pardeep, father-in law Capt Jaipal (retd) and mother-in-law Sharbati Devi along with relative Jaswant Singh.

Payal, a resident of Faridabad, had married Vinod 10 years ago and had a nine-year-old boy and a six-year-old daughter.

Her father Hanuman Parshad, in his complaint to the police, had alleged that the accused had been harassing his daughter for dowry.

He had claimed that he had given a Maruti car and enough cash to her in-laws at the time of the wedding but the latter continued to harass his daughter.

cheque bounce
SBI employee gets jail
Tribune News Service

Mohali, February 1
An employee of the State Bank of India (SBI) has been sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 5,000 in a cheque bounce case by the court of Mohali Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate here.

The accused, SK Behl, a resident of Panchkula, had taken Rs 50,000 from the complainant, SA Murgan, a resident of Mohali, after promising to pay 18 per cent interest per month through a thrift and credit society.

The accused, who was then working as an assistant at the Phase I branch of the SBI, had set up the Mohali Cooperative Non-Agricultural Thrift and Credit Society in 1994-95 in association with other employees.

The society had collected money from around 1,100 members, claiming that it would pay 15 per cent annual rate of interest.

In his complaint, Murgan had claimed that the cheque issued to him by the accused had bounced, forcing him to serve a legal notice under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Act on the accused. While pronouncing the judgment, the court awarded imprisonment to the accused.

SC notice to PGI on Talwar’s appointment
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, February 1
The Supreme Court has issued notice to the PGIMER, Chandigarh, seeking its response within six weeks to a petition challenging the appointment of Dr KK Talwar as Director-cum-Professor.

A Bench comprising Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph also issued notice to the Union Health Ministry and the Ministry of Personnel, besides Dr Talwar on a petition filed by Dr Rohtas Kanwar Yadav, a possible contender for the post of the Director. According to Dr Yadav’s counsel, Prem Malhotra, the Special Selection Committee constituted by the institute appointed Dr Talwar as the Director on February 2, 2004 without bringing out any advertisement for the post. The appointment was for five years or until he attained the age of 62.

As Dr Talwar was turning 62 on April 30, 2008, he gave a representation to the president of the institute requesting that he should be allowed to continue for five years. Upon this, the PGIMER Act was amended providing for a five-year term or till the age of 65 years. Dr Talwar was given a second tenure for two years and one month - from April 1, 2009 to April 30, 2011. Dr Yadav challenged this before the Administrative Tribunal on May 22, 2009 and also pleaded that the Director’s post should be widely advertised to attract the best available talent.

He also challenged the decision to allow the Director to hold the post of the Professor and the Head of the Department of Cardiology. The Tribunal partly allowed the plea, directing the PGIMER to appoint someone else as the Professor within six months. It observed there was some irregularity in the appointment of the Director, but refused to quash the appointment. The high court dismissed the appeal filed by Dr Yadav, forcing him to come to the SC.

According to Yadav, the Health Ministry had objected to give extension to Dr Talwar as there was no such provision in the recruitment rules.

These needles don’t prick
Smriti Sharma Vasudev
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 1
Pine needles falling from pine trees, which were once considered waste, will now adorn drawing rooms across the globe. For efforts are on by the Kangra Mahila Sabha (KMS), a non-government organisation (NGO) working extensively in Kangra and Chamba region of Himachal Pradesh with women especially belonging to the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Below Poverty Line, to export handicrafts items made from pine needles to countries like Australia, the US and the UK. These women mostly belonging to villages in Kangra and Chamba region are weaving these pine needles into beautiful handicraft pieces such as baskets, hats, table pieces etc with the help of the KMS.

“The idea was to make the women financially strong so that they too can add to the family income,” said a representative of the KMS, who was here to participate in a conference “CSR-CSO Bridge 2011-Moving the Growth Story Forward through Inclusive Partnership”, at the CII here today.

With a little training, these women are now adding to their income after learning the skill and are now known as the master trainers in the craft. The District Rural Development Agency Kangra & Chamba have engaged the KMS to provide training to over 10,000 women in the skill across the districts.

The KMS was participating in Pehal-a dedicated exposition showcasing appreciative work of various CSOs (Civil Society Organisations) with participation of more than
20 CSOs.

The exposition, which was held on the sidelines of the conference, enabled corporates to commit to the projects, which fit into their core business and the CSR models.

CRIME

Stabbing accused nabbed
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 1
Five days after a class XII student was stabbed at Sector 22, the police today arrested the accused, Kamal Kumar.

The accused had stabbed Pardeep Singh, a student of the Government Model School, Sector 37, six times in the chest following a scuffle.

The police said they were known to each other. He was produced in court and sent to one-day police custody.

Sub-inspector Rajiv Kumar, in charge of the Sector 22 police post, said the knife used in the crime had also been recovered.

He also said the accused was 23 years of age and had been pursuing class X from Open School.

The police said besides stabbing Pardeep, Kamal had assaulted his friend Suresh Kumar.

Pardeep was rushed to the Sector 16 hospital and he was still undergoing treatment there. The assault took place over the issue of a mobile SIM card, the police said.

In two other stabbing cases, the accused are still absconding. No arrest has been made in the cases of stabbing of class XII student Siddharth Malhotra at Sector 40 and of Suresh Kumar at Sector 26.

Police adds murder charge
Our Correspondent

Lalru, February 1
The Handesra police today registered a case of murder against unknown persons after receiving a medical report into the death of Jaswant Singh, a resident of Khelan, whose body was found from a village pond on November 29 last year. The police had earlier termed it a case of drowning and initiated inquest proceedings in this regard on the statement of the family members of the victim.

However, the medical report suggested that the victim had died of physical injuries and not drowning.

SHO Harit Sharma said they had registered a case against unknown persons under Section 302 and 201, IPC, following the receipt of the report.

SPORTS

Gold Cup
Hosts BTS thrash Mount Carmel
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 1
Hosts BTS Cricket Academy thrashed Mount Carmel School, Sector 47 team, by 10 wickets in the ongoing 2nd Professional Gold Cup (U-14) match at the BTS School ground, Sector 48, here, today.

In the low-scoring outing, Mount Carmel batted first and were restricted at paltry 78 all out in the allotted quota of 20 overs. Anmol’s 40 runs in 40 balls was the only highlight of their innings.

For BTS, Rizul struck 4 for 10 whereas Parvesh Sharma claimed 2 for 9.

The chase did not prove a big task for BTS as they achieved the target in style without losing a single wicket. The team consumed just 11.2 overs to hit 82 with the help of Yuvraj Singh Gill’s 37 off 24 and Parvesh Sharma’s 29 runs in 37 balls.

In the second match between APJ, Khara, and District Coaching Center, Panchkula, the latter registered whopping 10-wicket victory over the former.

Brief scores

Mount Carmel - 47: 78 for 10 in 20 overs (Amol 40, Rizul 4 for 10, Parvesh Sharma 2 for 9).

BTS-48: 82 for no loss in 11.2 overs (Yuvraj Singh Gill 37, Parvesh Sharma 29).

Brief scores

District Coaching Centre: 136 for 6 in 17 overs (Vikram 41, Abhishek 36, Sahil Saini 3 for 15).

APJ, Kharar: 106 all out in 16.2 overs (Prabh Simran 22, Aryan Massey 16, Neeraj 3 for 11, Chinmay 3 for 14).