C H A N D I G A R H

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TOP STORIES

Laptops+Councillors= Error
MC endeavour to get elected representatives online fails to click Rs 80 lakh spent on machines goes down the drain
Chandigarh, February 21
The supposed "empowerment" of the city's councillors through information technology in order to reach out to residents is proving to be a damp squib, thanks to their continued apathy in using the laptops that the Municipal Corporation provided to them.

Mice ‘get hitched’ to breed for research
Chandigarh, February 21
Marriage may be a big gamble for human beings but for mice at Panjab University’s animal house appears to be a lifelong alliance without involving any deception. 
Research scholars check the health of rodents from the US, who are part of a special project at Panjab University’s animal house. Tribune photo: Pradeep Tewari 

5 juveniles held for stabbing vendor
Chandigarh, February 21
The Chandigarh Police today arrested five juveniles for robbing and stabbing a vegetable vendor on February 10 this year.

Caught on the wrong side of the law
Chandigarh, February 21
The arrest of the five juveniles in the case of robbery and stabbing brings to light a grim reality - crime by juveniles and vandalism by minors appears to be on a steady rise with reports of an increasing number of minors taking crime into their hands.

11-year-old tigress dies at Chhatbir zoo
Banur, February 21
An eleven-year-old tigress died at the Chhatbir zoological park near here on Sunday night. According to zoo officials, the big cat was suffering from a chronic degenerative bone disease for a long time and was being treated by doctors stationed at the zoo premises.

COMMUNITY

Facing parking blues on the doorstep
Chandigarh, February 21
The haphazard parking of vehicles in front of the houses of those living in the back lanes of the markets along the Madhya Marg in Sectors 8 and 9 has left the residents fuming.

Trapped in own house! Vehicles parked haphazardly in front of houses in the back lanes of the markets of Sectors 8 and 9, Chandigarh. Tribune photos: Manoj Mahajan 

3 UT officials await posting orders
While others handle multiple tasks
Chandigarh, February 21
While certain UT officials continue to groan under overwork, the UT administration is yet to issue posting orders of three officials — two PCS and one HCS — who joined the administration several days ago.

Yet again, MC staff lose out to deputationists
2 admn employees given charge of JE
Chandigarh, February 21
The municipal corporation authorities are apparently ignoring their own employees by preferring deputationists while filling posts lying vacant in various departments.

MC, residents need to clean up their act
Chandigarh, February 21
Residents of Sector 27-C are having a tough time, courtesy a marriage held at a park in the sector on Saturday.





Remains of the Day: A park in Sector 27-C is a mess after a marriage party in Chandigarh on Saturday. Tribune photo: Manoj Mahajan 

Protest by 200 contract workers
Chandigarh, February 21
Over 200 workers employed on contract basis through different agencies at the PGI, the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16, and the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, along with contractual workers of Punjab Engineering College staged a protest march here today.

Election Row
Mayor’s plea rejected
Chandigarh, February 21
The UT Deputy Commissioner today rejected the application filed by Municipal Corporation Mayor Ravinder Pal Singh praying that the notice issued to him regarding the mayoral election petition was not under the MC Act.

Level crossing opens to traffic
Zirakpur, February 21
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has thrown the railway level crossing on the Zirakpur-Kalka highway open to the vehicular traffic, providing much relief to commuters on this segment as they were forced to cover an extra 12 km to reach their destinations due to the closure of the road for vehicles.

The Zirakpur-Kalka highway at the railway level crossing that was thrown open to traffic after a month on Monday. A Tribune photograph

Punjab pensioners to hold protest on March 9
Mohali, February 21
A general body meeting of the Punjab State Pensioners Association was held here today, where the union flayed the government for its alleged anti-pensioner policies. It also chalked out the future course of action to press for their demands.

Birthday wishes all the way Students from Bhutan take out a cycle rally to mark the birth anniversary of their king in Chandigarh on Monday. Tribune photo: Pradeep Tewari

Book of one-act plays released
Chandigarh, February 21
“Soya hua Shehar”, a book of one-act plays authored by noted playwright, actor, director and short story writer Kumar Sharma Anil was released under the aegis of Srijan at Shivalik Public School here yesterday.

Sale of drugs on the rise
Memo submitted to DC
Bassi Pathana, February 21
Activists of the Human Rights Manch, Punjab, held a meeting here today and expressed concern over the rising sale of drugs and female foeticide cases particularly in rural areas.

‘Encroachment goes unabated’
Zirakpur, February 21 The residents of Green City, Mamta Enclave, Lakshmi Enclave and Shanti Enclave formed a joint coordination committee for welfare and development of this area yesterday. They demanded that the local administration and the Municipal Council should solve their grievances on priority basis.

EDUCATION

UBS chairperson resumes charge
Chandigarh, February 21
University Business School (UBS) chairperson Dinesh K Gupta, who resigned from professorship last week, today resumed the charge. He had resigned to express dissent on the manner in which Panjab University has tackled certain MCom students of UBS, who were protesting against him.

Students of University Business School welcome chairperson Dinesh K Gupta on Monday. Tribune photo: Pradeep Tewari

Few takers for CBSE ‘skip boards option’
10,000 city students to sit for boards, while 4,000 for school exams 
Chandigarh, February 21
The Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) ambitious initiative of making Class X boards optional has failed to click with city students with a few takers for the “skip boards’ option”.

Dept finally wakes up to need of counselling
Chandigarh, February 21
Following an inexplicable delay, the UT education department has finally woken up, barely a week before the Central Board of Education (CBSE) exams, to the need for providing counselling to Classes X and XII students.

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Industry told to check its waste
Dera Bassi, February 21
Taking a note of a report carried in The Tribune, the Pollution Control Board gave directions to the industrialists to check the harmful industrial ash lying on the Dera Bassi-Barwala road.


Harmful industrial ash covered by sand on the direction of the Punjab Pollution Control Board on the Dera Bassi-Barwala link road. A Tribune photograph 

Admn reviews preparations
Patiala, February 21
The Patiala district administration today held a meeting to review preparations for the seven-day Shaheed-e-Azam Punjab Games that would start from February 28 at various venues across Patiala.

Schoolkid abduction kingpin arrested
Ambala, February 21
The Ambala district police today claimed to have arrested the kingpin in the case of kidnapping of eight-year-old student Vansh. The accused was identified as Parminder, a resident of Handesra.

3 killed as truck collides with auto 
Ambala, February 21
Three persons were killed and three injured when an auto-rickshaw collided with a mini-truck on the Ambala-Chandigarh road near Ambala City last night.

Milk plants raided in Ambala
Ambala, February 21
A team of the Ambala Health Department, led by deputy civil surgeon Dr Surender Mohan, raided at a milk products manufacturing plant at Saha, near Ambala Cantt, and later it raided Vita milk plant at Ambala City today.

COURTS

National Litigation Policy: Centre falters again 
Chandigarh, February 21
The Centre has faltered in the implementation of the National Litigation Policy, once again.

Quarkcity engineer’s murder case
Witnesses did not see assailant: Defence 
Mohali, February 21
Continuing with the arguments in the five-year-old murder case of Quarkcity engineer Sukhwinder Singh, the defence counsel of Himmat Singh Brandy, one of the accused, today argued that none of the two prosecution witnesses Gurvinder Jit Singh, brother of the deceased, and Karan Kad, had identified Himmat Singh as no identification parade had been conducted by the police.

Samjhauta blast case
Fresh warrants issued against suspects 
Panchkula, February 21
After failing in its attempt to nab three Samjhauta blasts case suspects -- Sandeep Dange, alias Parmanand, Ramchandra Kalsangra, alias Ramji, alias Vishnu Patel, and Ashwini Chauhan, alias Ashok, alias Prince, alias Amit, the National Investigating Agency (NIA) once again sought the non-bailable warrants against the trio in the district court here today.

Teachers’ Recruitment Scam
Court asked to assist Bench
Chandigarh, February 21
Just about a fortnight after the Punjab and Haryana High Court summoned judicial record on the controversial teachers’ recruitment scam, the Bench today asked the trial court to expeditiously proceed in the matter.

CRIME

2 booked for kidnapping woman
Chandigarh, February 21
Acting on a complaint by a Mumbai resident of his wife’s kidnapping on January 2, the police has booked two city residents, Shyam Sood and Mohammed Farooq Khan, for the offence.

Woman run over by truck
Chandigarh, February 21
A 35-year-old woman, who riding pillion on a motorcycle, died while her husband sustained serious injuries in a road accident at the Sector 39/40/55/56 roundabout late last night.

2-year-old run over by tractor
Mohali, February 21
Karanbir Singh, a two-year-old boy, was crushed under a tractor-trailer in Maujpur village near Sohana on Sunday.

SPORTS

It’s game on for cable operators
Chandigarh, February 21
It seems that the differences in opinion of cable operators and broadcasters to telecast the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) matches are further confusing the masses.

Despite cricket fever, kabaddi draws crowd
Chandigarh, February 21
Despite the cricket fever, which has gripped the country, it was quite a surprise when a kabaddi tournament witnessed thousands of buffs at the Circus Ground.


Down but not out: The ICC Word Cup fever has failed to dampen the craze for kabaddi as a large number of enthusiasts turned up at the Circus Ground in Sector 17, Chandigarh, to watch a match between Sant Ishwar Akhara and Shankar Pura Club during the 1st Kabaddi Cup being organised by the Raiders Youth Club on Monday.  Tribune photo: Manoj Mahajan.

Punjab rout Haryana by 5 wickets
Chandigarh, February 21
Audit General (AG), Punjab, defeated rivals AG, Haryana, in the final match of the North Zone Indian Audit and Accounts Department (IA&AD) Cricket Tournament held at the Sector-16 Cricket Stadium here today. Punjab routed Haryana by five wickets.

Sale of tickets begins
Chandigarh, February 21
It came as a relief to the local cricket authorities at the PCA, as the first day selling of league match tickets between South Africa and Netherlands on March 3 witnessed a good response from the masses in the city here today.

HOWZZAT!: A woman shows a ticket of the ICC World Cup league match outside the PCA Stadium in Mohali. Tribune photo: Manoj Mahajan

Anupinder emerges overall champ
Chandigarh, February 21
Anupinder Singh Grewal of Chandigarh fired a one over par 73 card to clinch the overall individual championship as Chandigarh romped home with the team honours in the Chandigarh Legal Fraternity Golf Tournament held on the par-72 greens of the Chandigarh Golf Club.

Harleen first in U-14 high jump
Mohali, February 21
In the five-day annual inter-house athletics meet that commenced today at Yadavindra Public School (YPS), Mohali, Anandini Singh (Patiala House) secured the first position in 800m U-10 girls’ category, followed by Mankeert Narang (Patiala House) and Avneet Kaur (Patiala House), who secured second and third position, respectively, in the field and track events.
A participant tries to cross the bar in the high jump event during the annual athletics meet at YPS, Mohali, on Monday. Tribune photo: Manoj Mahajan