NEIGHBOURHOOD

Safai workers dump garbage at councillors’ rally
n Say infighting has hurt their chances of regularisation
Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, June 3
The infighting among councillors today took a bizarre turn when safai workers, who had been bearing the brunt of the internal wrangling, dumped garbage at the venue of opposition councillors’ rally against the municipal council president.

They were, however, unable to dump the filth outside the council office due to tight security arrangements.

Nine opposition councillors had organised the rally on the eve of the monthly meeting of the council convened by its president Manjeet Kaur Dally.

Police had to be called in to keep things under control. The safai workers raised slogans against the councillors alleging that they had not been regularised due to the internal wrangling of the councillors.

Dally accused the nine councillors of impeding growth by preventing the passage of resolutions for the development of the area.

The opposition councillors, however, refused to recognise Dally as the council president as she had been in minority for the past one year and “removed” from the post through a no-confidence motion against her a few days ago.

The president has the support of only four councillors out of 14, including the local MLA.

The opposition, with the support of 10 councillors, had removed the president from the post on May 2 by passing a no-confidence motion against her. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the her removal the same day.

In her appeal before the court, the president had asserted that the clause of minimum period (six months) required between two meetings for the removal of an MC chief had not been followed.

Opposition councillors have also filed an appeal in the High Court. Hearing in the case is slated later.

The council has Rs 14 crore for area’s development but the infighting of councillors has prevented the passage of even a single resolution in the past one and half years.

Ambala, June 3
A fire broke out in a scientific goods manufacturing unit Lobo, located on the Ambala-Jagadhari road near here this evening.

It took 45 minutes by two fire tenders to control the fire. Residents saw flames and smoke coming out of the factory and informed the fire station. Goods worth several thousands were reportedly destroyed. According to factory owners, they still have to estimate the exact loss due to fire. However, short-circuit is suspected to be the reason behind the incident. 

Ambala, June 3
A retired Army officer Harsewak Singh, a resident of Lotti village, was arrested by Naraingarh Police in Ambala district on the complaint of his daughter-in-law.

According to sources, Harjinder Kaur, daughter-in-law of Harsewak Singh, lodged a complaint with the police that he was allegedly trying to molest her since three to four years in the absence of her husband, who was residing abroad.

The police has registered a case against him and investigations are on. 

Ropar, June 3
There has been no development in the missing case of XEN Vipan Gupta, posted at Governor House, Chandigarh. He has been missing since May 1.

His wife Rashmi Gupta said Vipan’s Maruti car was found parked on the bridge over Sutlej at Ropar on May 1.

Apprehending that Vipan might have taken fatal plunge into Sutlej waters, the police tried to find the body with help of professional divers, but all in vain.

“All the police stations and posts located along the river have been sounded, but we have got no response. We had even issued a public notice, but couldn’t trace Vipa,” said SSP Ropar Jatinder Singh Aulakh. 

Lalru, June 3
One person was killed when a crane overturned on him near Jollan Khurd village on Thursday morning. The driver of the crane sustained severe injuries.

The deceased has been identified as Desraj, 40-year-old, a resident of ward no. 13 at Dera Bassi.

SHO Harit Sharma said the incident occurred around 8 am. The crane reached the spot from Dera Bassi to extract an earlier overturned truck near Jollan Khurd.

When crane was pulling the truck, it lost its balance and overturned and fell on Desraj, killing him on the spot while driver Gurnam Singh sustained injuries. Handesra Police has registered a case under Section 174 of the CrPC. 

Rajpura, June 3
Tension mounted here today following a bid to allegedly encroach upon a piece of land by volunteers of a gurdwara. Members of various Hindu organisations sat on a dharna and blocked the Rajpura-Patiala-Chandigarh road for more than seven hours.

The agitators were opposing raising of an iron shed and a gate from a piece of land in ward no 14 on which Hindu organisations had been organising Ram Leela for the past few years.

Agitators alleged that though the land belonged to the government, it had unanimously been selected to organise Ram Leela instead of some another land around 10 years ago.

Charanjit Lal Sharma Rashtriya, president of Shiv Sena, alleged that volunteers of a gurdwara tried to encroach upon the land.

“We started our protest in the morning and continued till evening when the matter was resolved with mutual understanding of both the groups,” he said. He added that members of the gurdwara had organised a langar (community kitchen) over the land by fixing permanent structures that irked other religious leaders of Rajpura.

Members of Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal also tried to shut down shops near the main market of Tahli Wala chowk, wherein minor scuffle was reported. Senior police and district administration officials from Patiala also reached the spot. SAD-BJP leaders, SAD (B) general secretary Prem Singh Chandumajra and Rajpura MLA Raj Khurana intervened to pacify both the parties. It was decided that land would remain in its previous form and langar would be allowed to be held for next two days or so.

Patiala, June 3
Overloaded auto-rickshaw is a common sight in Patiala. One can see numerous persons sitting in an auto despite the ruling that the drivers should not accommodate more than three persons at a time.

These drivers not only play with the lives of people travelling but also pose threat to others. Many auto-rickshaws carry as many as 10 to 15 schoolchildren at a stretch in order to make money and worst is that even the parents don’t object to it.

“Practice of taking so many kids together at a single go is very risky. My son used to go to school in an auto that carried more than 10 children. When I asked his auto-rickshaw driver to reduce the number of children, he said I could change the auto,” added Manjeet Kaur of New Mehar Singh Colony, Tripri, Patiala.

Another city resident Puneet informed that they could not help but travel in such autos because they refused to go anywhere till the auto was full. “In case you ask them to carry only few passengers, they will ask you to hire a special one,” he said. The administration must check this practice, as all this is going on under the nose of the administration and the administration is a mute spectator.

Assistant district transport officer Karanjeet Singh said that the department issued challans everyday in this regard. “We conduct routine checking and issue challans to defaulters not only for overloading but also to those who run autos without permit. Sometimes they repeat this practice but we will ensure that no such practice continues in case there were more cases of overloading,” he added.

Patiala, June 3
The Doctors Federation of India (the Docsfed) and the In-Service Wing of Punjab Branch of Indian Medical Association (IMA), has hailed the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, Sat Pal Gosain, for announcing to crack a whip on the drug mafia, which is indulging in sale of habit-forming drugs.

While assuring their support, president of Docsfed, Dr DC Sharma and chairman of In-Service Wing of Punjab Branch of IMA, Dr DS Bhullar, stated that a deputation of doctors will soon meet Gosain to discuss the steps needed to curb the sale of habit -forming drugs.

Sharma and Bhullar alleged that the former Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, Laxmi Kanta Chawla, was not interested in taking stringent steps against the drug mafia. “The common habit-forming drugs like alprazolam (alprax), lomotil, dextropropoxyphene (proxyvon), cough mixtures and narcotics like morphine, are essential drugs, which are prescribed by doctors for therapeutic purposes. The government is duty bound to ensure easy availability of these drugs at all retail chemist shops. Confiscation of the stocks of these drugs is no remedy to the problem of drug menace. However, the government should firmly check their misuse and illegal sale of such drugs”, they demanded.

Suggesting steps to curb the illegal sale of habit-forming drugs, Sharma said that directions should be issued to all chemist shops across the state that they would not sell any medicine without a written prescription. “Also, the sale of medicines should be regulated through the cash memo/bill”, he said. 

Chandigarh, June 3
A day after the cyber crime cell of the police booked three employees for duping their employer, the police arrested one of the accused today. The police arrested A Quadri, a Panchkula resident, and produced him in a local court, which remanded him in three-day police custody.

Inspector Neeraj Sarna, in-charge, cyber crime cell, said raids were on to arrest the other two.

Taking a cue from Bollywood flick ‘Rocket Singh — Salesman of the year”, the three had stolen their employer’s confidential data and started a parallel firm from the office by targeting the clients of their employer’s company.

They managed to earn huge profits for themselves, while their employer suffered a loss as his clients were being taken away.

Smita P Bhatia, managing director of Metro Exporter Pvt Ltd, had reported to the police that A Quadri, Ajay Singh Thakur and Rajesh Nanda, all employees, cheated the company by stealing its confidential data and utilising the data for their own use by operating a separate firm within the office.

The accused stole the confidential record that contained company’s terms and conditions for putting up quotations in foreign countries, details of company’s customers and details of internal meetings of the company.

Chandigarh, June 3
Registration of an FIR is mandatory in case of missing children below the age of 18 years. The direction came at a meeting presided over B Bhamathi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), at a meeting held in connection with the implementation of the crime and criminal tracking network.

Chandigarh, June 3
The police today arrested a 37-year-old watchman, Hari Singh, of Industrial Area, Phase II, for allegedly raping a 28-year-old woman late last night. The victim, a resident of Daddu Majra village, alleged that the accused locked her in a room forcefully and raped her. The girl managed to escape and reported the matter to the police.

The police said the accused contacted the victim, who is a dancer, and asked her to perform in a wedding function and called her to his workplace. When the victim reached the factory, the accused allegedly locked the door and raped her. The medical examination of the victim has confirmed rape. The accused, a native of Nepal, is married and is father of four children. A case has been registered at the police station-31.

Panchkula, June 3
Manpreet (31), a resident of Sector 7, today committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan at her house here this afternoon.

According to police, the incident came to light when victim’s husband Inderjeet Singh, who works in motor market at Mani Majra, came home for lunch.

He asked his children about Manpreet and they replied that she was in another room and had locked herself in.

When Inderjeet knocked at the door there was no reply. He then entered the room by forcibly pushing the door and saw her hanging from the ceiling fan.

He immediately informed the police, which took the body into its custody and sent it to the mortuary at Sector 6 General Hospital.

Inderjeet told the police that his wife had called him up for lunch. He said, as he was busy he would reach late and was shocked to see his wife hanging.

According to sources, the police was yet to register a case, as they were waiting for victim’s parents.

The sources said investigations in the case were on and the body would be handed over to the family after the autopsy.

Panchkula, June 3
Chandigarh defeated Jharkhand in the league stage of ongoing 13th All-India Ranbir Singh Hooda Cricket (U-17) Tournament being held at Tau Devi Lal stadium in Panchkula.

In the first match, Chandigarh team defeated the visitors by six wickets.The visitors were bowled out on 92 runs in the allotted 20 overs. For Chandigarh, Kamljeet and Piyush took three wickets each. For Jharkhand, Sandeep Das (23) and Debashish Paul (19) were the main contributors.

Vaibhav Bansal (34) was declared man of the match.

Scores

Jharkhand: 92 for 9 in 20 overs (Sandeep Das 23 , Debashish Paula 19, Kamaljeet Singh 3 for 19, Piyush Arora 3 for 25 and Anish Ahmed 1 for 6).

Chandigarh: 93 for 3 in 11. 5 overs (Vaibhav Bansal 34, Megha Pandey 26 not out, Rishabh Sharma 12 and Debashish Paul 2 for 21).

In the second match, Bangladesh defeated CFI XI by 113 runs.