NEIGHBOURHOOD

Residents protest against police inaction
 Youth beaten to death

Kalka, June 13
Anguished over the inaction against the police personnel who had severely beaten up a youth of Paploha village near Kalka, who died at the PGI, Chandigarh, on Sunday night, hundreds of village residents today blocked traffic on the NH-21A near Baddi.

Village residents kept the body of the youth and sought action against the police personnel, who were involved in assaulting the youth. Notably, Sucha Singh (28), a youth of Paploha village, who was employed with some private firm in Baddi, was severely beaten up by the police personnel on duty, during a naka on May 31, 2010, as he was not wearing a helmet, when he was coming from his duty.

In an attempt to save himself, the youth got stuck to a live electricity transformer and was electrocuted. He was rushed to the PGI, Chandigarh, where the doctors amputated both his arms and he succumbed to his injuries late last night. Sohan Lal, victim’s father, said even after 12 days of the incident, the Himachal Pradesh Police has not taken any initiative to lodge an FIR against the accused.

Kalka MLA Pardeep Chaudhary also rushed to the spot and demanded stern action against the accused.

The traffic on highway remained blocked for more than two hours from 12 pm to 2 pm and was restored only after an assurance given by SSP Gurdev Singh. — OC

Lalru, June 13
The police has booked two persons under the charges of abducting a 14-year-old girl of Batoli village by misleading her. The case was registered on the complaint of Hardev Singh, victim’s father.

He alleged that his daughter, who was working with Grinders factory on Sitarpur road, was removed from the job by factory owner Pawan Majal on June 7.

He alleged that his daughter had gone to the factory to collect her dues on June 8 but never returned.

He said factory worker Umesh, hailing from Baku village, district Kasodi in Uttar Pradesh, misled the girl and abducted her on the behest of factory owner Pawan Majal.

Dera Bassi, June 13
A brick-kiln labourer was killed due to snake bite at Dharmgarh village near Lalru yesterday. The deceased was identified as Ramia, a native of Chhatisgarh, who was working with GGS brick-kiln at Dharmgarh. 

The police has taken an action under Section 174 of the CrPc on the statement of deceased’s wife. She said that a snake had bitten her husband while he was sleeping. The body had been handed over to the relatives after conducting the post-mortem. 

Zirakpur, June 13
The municipal council’s initiative to install interlocking paver blocks on the town’s streets has run into controversy even as civic officials claimed such blocks were much more durable than conventional ones and reduces wear and tear on roads. “The concept of interlocking paver blocks isn’t new and is now accepted worldwide”, an official averred.

Work in progress Paver block being fitted at Baltana in Zirakpur

Sand scattered where paver blocks were fitted on the Baltana-Panchkula road. Tribune photos: Nitin Mittal

Meanwhile, residents and shopkeepers complained such blocks had turned the streets “slippery” making them accident prone, adding many of the blocks installed had sunk in at some places. They demanded the department concerned should ask sanitation officials to regularly maintain the paver blocks and replaced broken blocks with bitumen.

A shopkeeper in the Baltana market observed minor vehicular accidents had become a routine affair on a small stretch of the Panchkula-Baltana road. “The huge lumps of sand lying on this street often led to accidents”, he said.

Said Manoj Kumar, a resident of Baltana: “The interlocking paver blocks are not properly suited for the streets here as they give a semi-urban look to the area. If the municipal council installs such blocks instead of bitumen their regular maintenance is necessary to avoid major accidents.”

On the other hand, a senior MC official of the department claimed the experiment of installing interlocking paver blocks had been a big success and the council had even been receiving applications from residents to install such blocks in their areas.

Chandigarh, June 13
In a significant development, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled against providing bonus marks to students of rural areas in job selections. With this, the High Court has made a clear departure from the opinion earlier expressed by another Bench in the Sudesh Rani versus State of Punjab case.

The ruling by the then Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Jasbir Singh had come on 27 petitions filed by Sudesh Rani and others on the issue of selection of 4,000 posts of educational service providers and 9,998 posts of teaching fellows.

The then petitioners had alleged the weightage ran contrary to the provisions of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution and as such could not be sustained.

Upholding the weightage to rural candidates in the recruitment of teachers, the Bench had asserted it would “neutralise the disadvantage suffered by them.”

In an attempt to justify the weightage, Advocate-General Hardev Singh Mattewal had relied on a scientific study by Punjabi University, Patiala, through its Department of Economics and the Centre for Research in Economic Change, published in September 2006, under the heading “Rural students in universities of Punjab: An exploratory study”.

Taking a contrary view in the civil writ petition number 11071 of 2011 on teachers’ selection, the vacation Bench of Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia and Justice Augustine George Masih asserted: “In Sudesh Rani’s case, a Division Bench of this court had noticed the contention of the then Advocate-General. It was submitted that due to terrorism in Punjab, rural areas were the worst- affected as most terrorist activities had occurred in the rural areas of the state and it were rural education centres from were the terrorists would select youths for their own motives…. With all humility at our command, we are unable to subscribe to this conclusion and express our doubts”.

“We also have our serious reservations regarding the study conducted by Punjabi University on which the entire edifice has been built in Sudesh Rani’s case to uphold grant of five bonus marks to the candidates who have passed the middle and matriculation examination from the schools situated in rural.

“Terrorism in the State of Punjab is now history. Time has come to move on and make a new beginning.”

Chandigarh, June 13
The UT police today failed to procure further police remand of Simarjot Singh, who was arrested for blackmailing an IAS couple last week. The police said they were yet to arrest two more accused in the case.

Simarjot Singh had reduced the extortion money of Rs 2 crore to Rs 25 lakh while making a deal with the mother of deceased Anandi Gulati, senior IAS officer Sashi Gulati, police officials said. Anandi had committed suicide by jumping from the fourth floor of her school building (Bhawan Vidyalaya) in Sector 27 last month.

In addition, mother of accused Simarjot, Jagdeep Kaur, is also involved in the crime along with her son. The police said. She had moved an application for anticipatory bail and was currently absconding.

The police further pleaded to get five-day custody of the accused and the request was turned down by the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) KK Goel. Simarjot was then sent to 14 days judicial custody.

Simarjot Singh was arrested as he was blackmailing the parents of Anandi by making a false claim that he would upload objectionable pictures of Anandi on social networking site. Simarjot was arrested and two international credit cards, fake bank statements and other forged documents were recovered from his possession on June 9. The efforts of police to trace his two accomplices, including one Harish, proved futile.

Mohali, June 13
Two motorcycle-borne youths snatched a gold chain from Gurinder Kaur, a resident of Phase-IV, here this morning.

According to sources, the incident occurred when the victim went for a morning walk near the park where two youths snatched her gold chain from her neck. Though, she raised an alarm but the youths managed to flee from the spot.

The number plate of the motorcycle was covered with mud, the sources added.

Panchkula, June 13
Keeping the police on its toes, burglars once again strike the town. This time they decamped with cash and jewellery worth Rs 2.5 lakh from the house of an advocate of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Advocate Satinder Kadian, a resident of Sector 26, said he had gone to Haridwar, along with his family on June 10. He said he had received a call from one of his neighbours about the incident. The police said burglars decamped with cash, jewellery and goods worth Rs 2.5 lakh . 

Chandigarh, June 13
After defeating Mohali in the four-day final of Dhruv Pandove Trophy (U-19), Amritsar team once again overcame Mohali in the ongoing Inter-District (U-22) Cricket Tournament being held at the PCA Stadium, Mohali, here today.

Amritsar defeated hosts Mohali on the basis of first innings lead to attain two points.

Earlier, batting first, Mohali set a target of 301-runs after a brilliant ton by Gurkirat Mann (139). Birkanwar Singh also contributed 51 runs in the team’s total.

In reply, Amritsar made 327 for 5 in 95 overs. Shiv Love Sabbarwal (72 off 388) and Aman Bawa (96 off 203) guided the team to be in a strong position at the end of the innings.

Later, Mohit Handa and Navneet Virk were unbeaten on 37 and 49 runs, respectively.

Mohali- 301 for all out in 95 overs (Harpreet Mander 43, Gurkirat Mann 139, Birkanwar Singh 51, Tarun Sharma 23 , Barinder Singh 14 no, Rahul Kanojia 4 for 99 and Pankaj Chaudhary 4 for 80)

Amritsar-327 for 5 in 95 overs (Rohan Marwaha 22, Shivlove Sabharwal 72, Aman Bawa 96, Sharad Loomba 27, Mohit Handa 37, Navneet Virk 49 no and Aarush Sabharwal 12 no)

In the second match of the day, the match between Chandigarh and Ludhiana ended in a draw.

Due to no result from the match, both the teams shared one point each.

Earlier in the match, only 132 overs were bowled due to wet playing conditions on the first day.

Ludhiana made 325 for 8 after their overnight score of 129 for 5 in 39 overs. Wicket-keeper Gitansh Khera scored a brilliant unbeaten 160 off 203. He was equally supported by skipper Deepak Bansal (38 off 113).

For Chandigarh, Gurinder Singh took 5 for 106. In reply, Chandigarh team made 205 for 4 in 36.4 overs before the end of the day. Manan Vohra (70) and Jaskaran Singh (27) were top scorers for the team. Anshul Tripathi remained unbeaten on 57 off 66, including nine boundaries.

Ludhiana- 325 for 8 in 95 (Sunny Pandey 23, Akhil Aggarwal 36, Gitansh Khera 160 no, Deepak Bansal 38, Sandeep Singh 21, Gurinder Singh 5 for 106 and Anil Sihag 2 for 62)

Chandigarh- 205 for 4 in 36.4 overs (Jaskaran Singh 27, Manan Vohra 70, Anshul Tripathi 57 no, Anil Sihag 32, Sandeep Singh 2 for 24, Himanshu Shailey 1 for 14 and Ravi Kumar Saini 1 for 25).

In the last match of the day, Patiala defeated Jalandhar at Dhruv Pandove Stadium, Patiala.

After chasing the target of 329 runs, Jalandhar team was bowled out for 216 in 55.1 overs.

Abhishek Gupta (43) and Love Kumar (48) were main contributors to team’s total. Sandeep Sharma took 3 for 37, Kunwar Raina 3 for 36.

In reply, Patiala scored 138 for 2 in 22 overs. Kunwar Raina remained unbeaten on 52 off 64, including eight boundaries, whereas Himanshu Chawla was unbeaten on 62 off 37, including 10 boundaries and one six.

Patiala 1st innings- 329 for 9 in 95 overs (Mohit Mohindra 72, Preet Kamal 65, Amaninder Singh 53 not out, Sandeep Singh 38, Shubek Gill 5 for 72, Varun Khullar 3 for 61 and Sidharth Sharma 1 for 27)

Jalandhar 1st innings- 216 all out in 55.1 overs (Abhishek Gupta 43, Love Kumar 48, Siddharth Sharma 50 no, Sandeep Sharma 3  for 37, Kunwar Raina 3 for 36, Robin Dhillon 2 for 45 and Himanshu Chawla 2 for 1)

Patiala 2nd innings- 138 for 2 in 22 overs (Kunwar Raina 52 no, Himanshu Chawla 62 no, Preet Kamal 18, Varun Khullar 1 for 19 and Pargat Singh 1 for 41).

Chandigarh, June 13
Sabrang Sandal defeated Rahul Verma during the Boys’ (U-14) match in the ongoing Manav Mangal AITA Total Tennis Championship being held at Total Manav Mangal School, Phase X, today.

Sabrang defeated Rahul in straight set by 7-5. Whereas in the Boys’ (U-12) category, Shivank Bhatnagar, Abhiuday Singh, Karanvir Hooda, MK Abhishek, Ritik Mahoptra, Vishawjit Singh, Ayush Deswal, Laksh Vohra, Sehaj Sidhu, Yuvraj Singh, Asav Kumar, SM Nargeta, and Jaskaran Thapar have moved into the second round after defeating their respective opponents.

Results:

Boys’ (U-14)

Sabrang Sandal defeated Rahul Verma 7-5

Adish Bansal defeated Lakshay 6-1

Karishna Rajput defeated Abhiuday Singh 6-1

MK Abhishek defeated Raunak Marwah 6-3

Sachit Malhotra defeated Jaskaran Thapar 6-1

MRT Prabhman defeated Sumer Sandhu 6-1

Arvind Sethi defeated Vishawjit Singh 6-2

Sidharth Basnet defeated Archit Dhingra 6-0

Shivank Bhatnagar defeated Gaurav Seth 6-0

Harnoor Khosa defeated Manav Bharany 6-0

Rohit Dhiman defeated SM Nargeta 6-1

Ayush Grover defeated Shishnu Sharma 6-1

Raghav Sharma defeated Anmol Arora 6-3

Vaibhav Rattan defeated Ayush Deswal 7-5

Utkarsh Shoukeen defeated Manhar Manchanda 6-0

Aniket Khosa defeated Parmeet Deol 6-2.