NEIGHBOURHOOD

Pensioners a harried lot
Tribune News Service

Khamano (Fatehgarh Sahib), March 14
The working at the local tehsil came to a standstill today after its employees staged a dharna over the storage of bug-infested foodgrain in the complex.

A stock of wheat and paddy has been lying in the complex for the past over two years.

Raising slogans against the Punjab government for not initiating steps to shift the rotting wheat and paddy, employees said they had been suffering from skin infections on account of the infestation.

“The situation aggravates when the temperature rises. No employee of the tehsil, including the tehsildar, has been left untouched by the the nuisance,” said a stamp vendor, Amarnath.

Naib tehsildar Manjit Singh said it was difficult to sit in his office due to the infestation.

“Just a few days ago, employees found a snake near the window of my office. We have been writing to the Deputy Commissioner and the SDM regularly to find a solution to the problem but to no avail,” said the naib tehsildar.

The employees rued that they could not eat or drink properly as the premises was overrun by bugs and insects. The problem aggravated in the evening, especially after 4 pm, they added.

“We have already informed SDM Rupanjali Kalsi in this regard who is likely to visit the tehsil complex shortly,” said the employees.

Avtar Singh, a resident of nearby Ranwan village, and Balbir Singh from Khamano, said a similar problem persisted in their area due to the storage of rotting paddy.

Heaps of rotting paddy procured by various agencies remained dumped at Ranwan village and the tehsil complex but despite assurances by SAD leaders, including the Chief Minister, nothing had been done in this regard, the residents added.

Meanwhile, scores of people who had come to the tehsil complex from far-off places to get their work done had to return disappointed on account of the strike.

Mandi Gobindgarh, March 14
The steel-manufacturing units, re-rolling units and furnace industry expects waiver of entry tax and reduction in VAT (Value Added Tax) and special package besides strengthening of the basic infrastructure.

The President, Steel Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mandi Gobindgarh, Bharat Bhushan Tony, said that the steel town was yet to get basic infrastructure in the industrial town. “We are demanding construction of an overbridge in the city for a long time besides repair of roads, which have developed deep potholes and vehicles move at a snail’s pace”, he said.

Steel analyst Anil Suraj said that the Mandi Gobindgarh industry should get incentives on the lines of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Though we failed to get anything from the Central government in the recent Budget, we now look at the Punjab government for help.

Mahinder Gupta president of the Furnace Association, Mandi Gobindgarh, rued that the industry from Punjab was witnessing exodus for a long time now, which should be stopped. The industry of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh was flourishing with the help of the Central and state governments but such units in Punjab were on the verge of collapse, he said.

Patiala, March 14
Researchers and practitioners working on various aspects of information technology in Indian languages deliberated upon various issues related to major Indian languages such as Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, Sanskrit and Tamil during the three-day international conference on “Information Systems for the Indian Languages (ICIL-2011)” organised by the computer science department, Punjabi University.

Convener of the conference Dr Gurpreet Singh Lehal said the conference concluded on Friday.

Dr Venu Govindaraju, professor, State University of New York, said digital access to handwritten documents was needed. Roopinder Singh, Assistant Editor, The Tribune, applauded the efforts of the department.

Dr Rajeev Sangal, director, IIIT-Hyderabad, dwelt on open architecture for machine translation. Dr Santanu Chaudry, professor, IIT-Delhi, highlighted the wide spectrum of Indian languages.

Dr AG Ramakrishnan, professor, IISc-Bangalore, presented a tutorial on the current state of art technology in online handwriting. The main attraction of the conference was a demonstration on working systems for Indian languages.

A demonstration on the working of softwares like Online Gurmukhi Script Recognition System, Isolated Word Recognition System for Punjabi, Text-To-Speech Synthesis System for Punjabi, Hand-filled Form Processing System for Gurmukhi Script, Urdu to Hindi and Reverse Transliteration System was given. — TNS

Chandigarh, March 14
Moving ahead with investigations into the sexual assault on a five-year-old girl reported two days ago, the police today procured the video recording of the wedding ceremony that was held in the community centre of Sector 40 on March 12.

The girl was abducted from the venue, sexually assaulted by the accused and then dumped in a school in the same sector an hour later. The accused have not been identified yet.

The police today questioned the members of the catering staff and DJ system who were hired for the arrangements for the ceremony.

The SHO of the police station Sector 39, Inspector Charanjeet Singh, said the identification parade of the suspects would be conducted soon.

The police said family members of the girl would be summoned to the police station once it recorded the statements of the caterers. The girl was found missing from the wedding venue by her parents and was later found abandoned after an hour in a nude state. Medical examination ruled out rape.

Panchkula, March 14
The two persons who robbed a Sector-11 resident of his Swift Dzsire car and a mobile at gunpoint at the Sector 4-11 roundabout late last evening may be part of a gang of auto lifters. In its investigation, the police has learned that the car left by the snatchers belonged to a sub-inspector of the Panjab Police, Harpreet Singh, who is currently posted at the Zirakpur police station.

The car was stolen by the suspects on March 11 from Zirakpur and a case had been registered there in this regard.

The unidentified persons, who had come in a Maruti Zen car (PB 08AJ 1337) had hit the victim, Tarun, on the hand with a sharp-edged weapon before taking away his Swift car (CH 01AA 2393). The suspects had left their car behind.

A case under Section 392 has been registered at the police station-5 against the suspects.

Police sources said a team of the Punjab Police today contacted the local police and sought details about the car snatchers. The sources further said the police had also got the sketches of the two prepared, which were likely to be released tomorrow. The police believes the two may be members of a gang active in the neighbouring districts of Punjab. — TNS

Panchkula, March 14
The local court today awarded 10-year imprisonment to a rape accused who had violated an 11-year-old daughter of a labourer in Sector 26.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Kanchan Mahi awarded the sentence to Daleep Kumar, a resident of Sector 26, besides slapping a fine of Rs 5,000 on the accused.

The case dates back to April, 2010 when the victim had returned home after school.

Taking advantage of the absence of the victim’s mother from home, the accused forcibly entered the house and raped her.

The police said Daleep worked as a carpenter at a construction site in Sector 26 and the victim’s mother was employed as a labourer there.

The police informed the court that the victim’s mother found her daughter bleeding after she returned home a few hours later.

On the complaint of the victim’s mother, the police had registered a case under Section 376, Indian Penal Code, and arrested the accused.

Chandigarh, March 14
Two robbery and four theft incidents, including one with a West Mumbai resident, who came to attend the second Chandigarh Marathon here, were reported in the city on Sunday night.

In the first incident, Raj Kumar, a resident of Mani Majra, was on his way home when two youths attacked him and robbed him of his purse containing cash and valuables. Later, the accused identified as Suraj and Ashish, were arrested from near Fun Republic area. In another incident, Amandeep Singh of Burail-45 was near his village when two motorcycle-borne youths Nand Lal and Pawan Kumar robbed him of his mobile.

Amandeep, a passerby, noted down registration number of the motorcycle, which led to the arrest of Nand Lal and Pawan. The police said Himanshu Sharma of Sector 45-D was near a gurdwara in the same sector when a motorcyclist Kulwinder Singh robbed him of his cell phone last night. The victim was able to note down the motorcycle’s registration number which led to the arrest of Kulwinder.

M John, a resident of West Mumbai, left his bag containing a Dell laptop in his car at the Rock Garden’s parking lot and went inside for attending a programme. On return, he found his bag missing and lodged an FIR at the Sector 3 police station. Gurpreet Nagpal of Sector 47-C was out of station, along with his family members, when thieves entered his house after breaking locks and decamped with Rs 35,000, 100gm gold, 2kg silver.

Chandigarh, March 14
As cricket is treated as a religion in our country and no one can change its status here, it seems that even exams fails to stop budding players from following it.

Cricket stadiums are witnessing more players coming for practice these days in comparison to stadiums of other games. Exams have so far not affected practice hours of budding cricketers.

Cricketers from different schools of the city attend their daily practice sessions at the Cricket Stadium, Sector 16. There is a low turnout of players at the Football Stadium and the Hockey Stadium.

“I study for my exams, but after my practice session. I cannot concentrate on studies if I miss practice. It is better to spend two or three hours on the ground” says Guriender Singh, studying in class X.

On the other hand, football and hockey players in school prefer to miss practice. Some coaches have accepted that there is a low turnout during exams every year.

“As our exams are about to start, we prefer to sit at a common place with our books instead of discussing field tactics. We do not want to miss the fun of playing, but due to exams, we have to take a step backwards,” state a group of players from a government school at Sector 22.

A group of football players, when told that 50 or 60 budding cricketers go for their practice session everyday, come up with their own logic.

“There is a lot of difference between us and them. They play tournaments every now and then, for which they have to remain fit. In our case, there are no tournaments by any association or department and so, we shift our concentration to exams,” they say.

Say Cricketers Rahul Singh and Himmat, students of a government school, “Our parents stop us from practising at the grounds during exams as they say we waste time. When we promise them that we will make sure that we will get above 70 per cent in our terminal exams, they grant us permission.”

Asked how they will score when they practise as well, they smartly reply, “Even we do not know, but this assurance to our parents has helped us to come to the ground everyday and that is what we want.”

Chandigarh, March 14
Godrej and Boyce XI and ICICI Bank XI registered victory in their respective league matches during the IXth Bharat Kesho Gupta Memorial Cricket Tournament being organised by the Cricket Federation of Haryana at Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Sector 3, Panchkula, on Sunday.

In the first match, Godrej and Boyce XI defeated Infosys XI by nine runs. Whereas in the second match of the day, ICICI Bank XI got better of DCM Engg XI by 23 runs.

During the first match, batting first, Godrej and Boyce XI openers Jai Kapila and Sanjay Bhatia played aggressively and made 107 runs for the first wicket. Jai Kapila was bowled out in the 11th over after making 56 off 35 balls studded with eight boundaries and a six.

Whereas his counterpart Sanjay Bhatia continue to smash the bowler and made a quick fire of 67 off 38 balls, including 10 boundaries and two sixes.

The team managed to set a target of 176 runs for seven wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Ankit Sharma remained the pick of the bowlers after his 2 for 23. Chasing the target, Infosys XI lost their first wicket in the second over of the game after Raviender Malik bowled out Parmod Rawat.

Next batsman Sahil Seth topped the score chart of Infosys XI with his contribution of 51 runs off 33 balls, while his counterpart Raghav scored 40 runs off 35 deliveries before getting run out.

In the second match of the day, ICICI Bank XI defeated DCM Engg XI by 23 runs.

The winners made 121 runs in the allotted 20 overs. Owais Qureshi contributed 30 runs to the total. In reply, DCM Engg team were bowled out on 98 runs. Baljeet contributed 20 runs to the total. For the winners, Akul Juneja took 3 for 14.

Scores

Godrej & Boyce XI: 176 for 7 in 20 overs (Sanjay Bhatia 67, Jai Kapila 56, Vaneet Chawla 24, Ankit Sharma 2 for 23 and Raghav 2 for 26).

Infosys XI: 167 for 7 in 20 overs (Sahil Seth 51, Raghav 40, Ujjwal 21, Kulwinder Romy 2 for 23 and Ravinder Malik 2 for 28).

ICICI Bank XI: 121 for 7 in 20 overs (Owais Qureshi 30, Akul Juneja 24, Avinash Dubey 3 for 13 and Satyam 2 for 14).

DCM Engg: 98 all out in 15 overs (Baljeet 20, Akul Juneja 3 for 14 and Baljit Kalsi 3/18).

Chandigarh, March 14
With the summer vacations round the corner, the Chandigarh Golf Club has opened its greens to young golf enthusiasts of the tricity to learn the basics of the game under EGTF coach Ajay Gujral who is also the joint director of the club's golf academy.

Starting in the third week of this month, the EGTF junior golf coaching programme will run two three-month coaching camps. The first will be held from March 19 to June 19 on Saturdays and Sundays.

To meet the summer rush, the EGTF will hold another three-month camp from March 23 to June 23 every Wednesday and Thursday.

Both the batches will be conducted between 4 pm and 5 pm and will be open to members and non-members in the 6-16 age-group.

Besides, another three-month junior golf programme will begin at the Chandigarh Golf Club tomorrow (March 15) under Manjit Kochar, director (overseas), Junior Golf Development Programme, Indo-Canadian Golf Association, Canada. The junior camps are part of the Junior Golf Mission-2016, which was launched by the club's management committee on September 25 last year with an eye on the 2016 Olympics, when golf is to be introduced as a medal sport.

Birinder Singh Gill, president of the Chandigarh Golf Club, said, “In addition to the techniques of golf, Children at our academy are also taught the importance of maintaining a positive attitude, and how values such as responsibility, honesty, integrity, respect, confidence, and sportsmanship transfer from the golf course to everyday life.”

A daily trophy/prize will be given to the best performing student of the day and golf magazines and golf visors will be distributed among all children. For Registration contact Ajay Gujral at Chandigarh Golf Club or call on 9814356013.