NEIGHBOURHOOD

Panel meets agitating farmers
Tribune News Service

Farmers agitate during the visit of the Patiala DC at Rajpura on Monday. Tribune photo: JS Virdi

Rajpura, February 14
A six-member team constituted by the Punjab Chief Minister today visited Rajpura and met farmers from seven villages whose 1,360 acres of fertile land is being acquired to set up an information and technology park and knowledge city.

The team comprised SAD general secretary Prem Singh Chandumajra,

Rajpura MLA Raj Khurana, SAD rural president Ajaib Singh Mukhmailpur, MD of Infotech Corporation Punjab Rakesh Verma, Deputy Commissioner Patiala Deepinder Singh and District Development and Panchayat officer Daljit Singh Virk.

The members interacted with sarpanches of all seven villages, besides members of the bhumi bachao sangharsh committee to resolve the issue of acquiring land.

The committee would present its report to the Chief Minister after which the price of the panchayat land would be fixed. Officials said farmers were in favour of the IT park, but they were demanding the maximum price for their land.

Though most of the land belongs to the panchayat, some farmers are fighting a battle in court to claim a few acres. Such farmers would be given compensation as per the decision of the court, said the officials.

President of kisan sangharsh committee Garib Singh said the committee, in connection with the price land, made inquiries. “I have asked them to give at least Rs 25 lakh per acre. Those who have installed electric motors in their lands have demanded more than Rs 30 lakh,” he said.

Balwinder Singh, sarpanch of Aakar village, said farmers who had been cultivating panchayat land on contract basis for several decades should get at least Rs 21 lakh.

Ambala, February 14
The Ambala Judicial Magistrate, Rajnish K Sharma, sentenced a driver of a car to one -and-half year imprisonment and a fine of Rs1000 for negligent and rash driving, which led to the death of a youth and also caused injuries to another person. 
According to the prosecution, two boys Aman and Mukesh were going on the Ambala -Jagadhri road near Ambala Cantt on a motorcycle on July 9, 2006. A car coming from the opposite direction hit their motorbike. Both the boys were thrown away by the impact of the hit.Aman died on the spot while Mukesh sustained injuries.

Later the police registered a case against the Sarob Ali, the driver of the car, on charge of negligent and rash driving.

The Magistrate observed in the order," The convict is not entitled to benefit of probation. There is a loss of a precious life. It will lead miscarriage of justice and the conscious of kith and kin of the deceased will be shocked if the convict is released on probation. The persons on wheels have great responsibility while driving the vehicles on road. The survivors and the family members are affected not only by immediate death or disability but also lifetime psychological and physical suffering."

Dera Bassi, February 14
The police has arrested and booked one person under the charges of conducting illegal registration of his land that was already sold.According to information, Bhola Sharma son of Lal Chand Sharma, resident of Parvati Enclave, Baltana near Zirakpur, was trying to resale his 200-yard plot in 44 lakh that was already sold.

The accused had prepared illegal documents to sell his plot again to Chandigarh resident. At a time of registration, Naib Tehsildar Varinder Singh Dhoot had identified illegal documents and the accused was handed over to the police.

The police had registered a case against Bhola Sharma.

Fatehgarh Sahib, February 14
Employees of Sirhind Municipal Council today staged a dharna in front of the MC office. They were protesting against thrashing of an employee, who was removing some illegally installed posters near Chungi Number 4 on Friday.

The protestors raised slogans against the state government and did not worked till the evening. They were demanding action against those who beat up the council employee. — TNS

Patiala, February 14
Haryana defeated SSCB by a margin of 28 runs to snatch four points in the North Zone Ranji Trophy (league) one-day matches, played at the Dhruv Pandove Cricket Stadium, Patiala, here today.

Batting first, Haryana piled 246 runs in the stipulated 50 overs, following an 82-run opening partnership between openers, MB Dagar and R Deewan, who scored 50 and 36 runs, respectively.

Useful contributions came from SS Sunny (33), JO Sharma (29) and DP Singh (23).

SJ Singh bagged four wickets for the SSCB team giving away only 42 runs in his quota.

In reply to the target, the SSCB was all out for 218 runs for the loss of nine wickets.

Y Singh top scored with 56 runs before being run out, while PM Reddy scored 44 runs in 100 balls. S Chaterjee and SJ Singh scored 26 and 22 runs, respectively, while other batsmen failed to capitalise on a batting track.

Amit Mishra bagged three for 48 runs, while JO Sharma took two for 39 in his 10 overs to ensure an easy win for their side.

Zirakpur, February 14
Acting fast on a theft case, the Zirakpur police today arrested a storekeeper of Big Cinema, a multiplex in Paras Down Town Square, for stealing approximately ` 5 lakh cash from the locker of the multiplex’s office. The police also recovered the entire amount from the under construction house of the accused.

The accused has been identified as Rakesh Kumar, a resident of Sharma Enclave, Lohgarh village. He was working at the multiplex from the past two years.

Zirakpur SHO Yogi Raj stated that after viewing the CCTV footage, the identity of the accused was discovered and found that the accused was an insider as he was wearing an official uniform while committing the crime.

The official said that after the proper interrogation of staff members of the multiplex, the suspect was identified as Rakesh Kumar, who was wearing the same jacket that was visualised in the CCTV footage. Later, he confessed to committing the crime and took the police to his house where he had hidden the cash in the bathroom, the official added.

According to the police, in his complaint, Abhishek Ranjan, manager of the Big-Cinema, said the incident came to light in the morning when he was cross checking the amount in the locker and he found that the cash of two-day collection was missing. He immediately informed the higher authorities about the crime who called up the police.

Talking about the modus operandi, Rakesh, who is a graduate, revealed to the police that firstly he watched the movie in one of the Audi and kept waiting till 4 am so that he could commit the crime at an appropriate time. Rakesh told the police that he gained entry inside the locker room after breaking the lock of the exit point. He had covered his faced to escape from the police and also removed fingerprints from the grill. He was well-versed with the place where the locker keys were kept. After committing the crime, he left the keys at the security guard’s cabinet and managed to flee from the spot.

The SHO said a case on the complaint of multiplex manager had been registered and the accused would be produced in the court tomorrow.

Mohali, February 14
Several persons from Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur and Patiala have alleged being cheated by a Sector 70-based Immigration Consultant Kuru Kirpa Enterprises on the pretext of sending them to Canada. After submitting a complaint to the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Mohali, the victims are camping in Mohali for the past few days to get back their money.

In a written complaint, the victims alleged that amount varying from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh had been taken from them. Few months ago, cheques of refund sent by the company had bounced. Amarjit Singh, one of the complainants, alleged that the proprietor of the firm flaunted connection with senior police officials in the Mohali police. He pointed out that last month a case had been registered against the firm.

Chandigarh, February 14
The Chandigarh Police have busted an inter-state gang of vehicle thieves and arrested four of its members, Lakhbir Singh of Ludhiana and Gurbachan Singh, Major Singh and Rajbir, alias Amandeep, residents of Faridkot. A total of five cars and six two-wheelers were recovered from their possession.

The police said the gang had been active in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. They were arrested from the IT Park road here by laying a barrier after the police received secret information.

They were travelling in a Maruti Swift car bearing a fake registration number (HR-04D-5983). They had snatched the car from Ludhiana.

DSP Roshan Lal said the gang used to target vehicles with women or children on board with ignition on. After snatching the vehicle, they used to push the occupants out.

The accused had a criminal background and had been arrested by the Punjab Police in similar cases. They were produced in court and remanded to police custody till February 16.

Chandigarh, February 14
Deepak Vishvkarma defeated Mohit Dahiya to clear the first round of the boys’ U-16 category of the CLTA-AITA Championship Series Tennis Tournament being held at the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Complex and Lake Sport Complex here today.

After giving a tough fight, Mohit lost the match to Deepak by 6-4, 6-4. In the girls’ U-16 group, Rimpledeep Kaur cleared the first round after defeating her rival Nimrat Walia in straight sets by 6-0, 6-0. In the boys’ U-18 category, Vishwesh Sinha got the better of Varun Chawla by 6-0, 6-0, whereas in the girls’ U-18 category, Victoria Chahal defeated Kavita Mishra by 2-6, 7-5. 6-2.

Other results:

Boys (U-16): Deepak Vishvkarma beat Mohit Dahiya 6-4, 6-4; Ranjeet Singh beat Sumit Pal Singh 6-4, 6-2; Allen Johnson defeated Jagtar Singh 6-2, 6-0; Yuvraj Bains beat Param Pun 6-2, 6-0; Richie Agarwal beat Ishaque Eqbal 6-3, 6-1; Pranav Suri beat Digvijay Pratap Singh 6-2, 6-0; Ankush Arora beat Adhhayan 6-1, 6-1; Nishat Eqbal beat Aditya Deswal 7-5, 6-4; Hardeep Singh Sandhu beat Gagan Sharma 7-5, 6-4; Anmol Singh Sandhu beat Rohit Kumar 6-3, 6-1; Manish Drall beat Santbir Singh 6-3, 6-2; Ranjeet Singh beat Dushyant Agrahari 6-4, 6-4; Barun Gill beat Rahul Seth 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6).

Boys (U-18): Vishwesh Sinha beat Varun Chawla 6-0, 6-0; Sachin Kumar beat Bhavtaranpreet Singh 6-0, 6-2; Dev Fazal beat Anuragh Iyer 6-3, 6-0; Deepak Vishvkarma beat Mayank 6-1, 6-1; Ranjeet Singh beat Aditya Sharma 6-2, 7-5; Rishabh Dev beat Nikhlesh Kanojia 6-1, 6-1; Mandeep Kumar beat Fatehdeep Singh 6-1, 6-4; Shashank Sharma beat Vikas Berwal 6-1, 6-1.

Girls (U-16): Rimpledeep Kaur beat Nimrat Walia 6-0, 6-0; Nikita Bishnoi beat Prinkle Singh 6-4, 6-4; Renu Sharma beat Arushi Kakkar 6-0, 6-1; Victoria Chahal beat Aandita Tandon 6-0, 6-0; Valentina Shekhar w/o Karishma Mehta; Raahat Manrai beat Ayna Arora 7-5, 6-2; Prabhuti Singhania beat Shea Bhasin 6-0, 6-1; Hasan Abdal Dhanoa beat Charvi Saxena 6-2, 6-2; Dimpy Khirwar beat Sukriti Singh 6-0, 6-1; Nandini Sharma beat Ayushi Gupta 6-1, 6-0.

Girls (U-18): Rimpledeep Kaur (bye); Prinkle Singh beat Neelanchal Gupta 6-4, 6-0; Charvi Saxena beat Nikita 6-2, 6-2; Bhavya Wadhawan beat Anjali Thakur 6-1, 6-0; Renu Sharma w/o Renuma Sydeha; Hasan Abdal Dhanoa beat Dimpy Khirwar 6-0, 6-1; Prabhuti Singhania beat Valentina Shekhar 6-0, 6-0; Victoria Chahal defeated Kavita Mishra 2-6, 7-5, 6-2; Shenaz Singh beat Nimrat Walia 6-3, 6-2; Priyanka Rawat beat Vineea 6-0, 6-0; Gayatri Kumarahia beat Shrishty Dhanda 6-1, 4-6, 6-4; Devanshi Bhimjiyani (bye); Aashima Garg beat Nikita Bishnoi 7-6 (5), 7-5; Nandini Sharma beat Sharvini Shivapuri 6-3, 6-4; Priya Singh given walk over Karishma Mehta; Tahira Bhati (bye).

Chandigarh, February 14
Pushpinder Bharti was declared the overall champion in the 49th Junior Bodybuilding National Championship held at a hotel, Kalka Road, Baltana, on February 12 and 13.

Pushpinder Bharti also bagged a cash prize of Rs 31,000. Mr World Jitender Dhillon and planning board chairman NK Sharma, SAS Nagar, distributed prizes among other winners.

Chandigarh, February 14
Two-time Asian Tour Order of Merit winner Jeev Milkha Singh of Chandigarh will lead the Indian challenge, along with Kapurthala’s Gaganjeet Bhullar in the season-opening Avantha Masters, which will get underway on the DLF Golf and Country Club greens in Gurgaon on February 17.

Plagued by injuries in 2010, the Chandigarh golf icon hopes to bounce back after a dismal season. In his words, “I just want to prepare myself to be injury free in 2011.”

“2010 was a stop-and-start one and I had absolutely no momentum. Just when I thought I was getting back into the swing of things, I got injured again. It was extremely frustrating,” wrote Jeev in his blog.

Jeev said, “If I can manage to keep fit, I will be able to achieve all my ambitions. So this year becoming fit and keeping that way is definitely my priority.”

But the golfer to watch out will be 22-year-old Gaganjeet Bhullar, who has had a good start this season.

Soon after his hat-trick triumph, Bhullar said last week, “I am currently on a winning streak. There is a lot of positive energy around me and that helps me come through even in tough situations. This is the second hat-trick of titles in my career and it has given me the much-needed momentum ahead of a long and gruelling season.”

With Andrew Dodt of Australia defending the title, the Indian stars primed for the event include Rahil Gangjeet. Five-time winner of Asian Tour events in India, Jyoti Randhawa will be hoping to regain his form. Others in the fray include Shiv Kapur, who had an excellent outing at the Hero Honda Indian Open in December.