NEIGHBOURHOOD

Farmer drowns in Ghaggar
Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, June 27
A seven-year-old child received serious injuries after a stray dog bit him repeatedly here today. Deepak, son of Ram Pal, was walking down the road when a stray dog attacked him. Several bite wounds were found on the child’s body.

The victim was first taken to the local Civil Hospital, but was later referred to the GMCH, Chandigarh, in serious condition.

Several cases of dog bite have been reported from the town in the past few days. Residents have demanded action from the civic body to curb the menace.

Patiala, June 27
The work on widening of the Lower Mall Road has begun, bringing respite to hundreds of commuters and students who use this stretch regularly. The road has been a traffic bottleneck due to encroachment by local shopkeepers.

The entire stretch from the Fountain Chowk to the NIS Chowk had been illegally occupied by shopkeepers as authorities had turned a blind eye to the problem.

Regular traffic jams and parking woes had become the order of the day. At certain places, car and scooter mechanics had extended their operations right up to the road.

The work on the two-laning of the road had been started and would be completed in the next few months.

“Parking along the road is set to improve as electricity poles have been removed from one side, giving more space along the road,” claimed Harjeet Sethi, who runs a shop along the road.

Traffic policemen claimed that traffic jams were often witnessed in the morning and afternoon hours as a number of schools were located on the stretch. Even the presence of a traffic policeman near the market hasn’t been of great help in solving the problem.

Local eateries had encroached upon the road outside their shops and put public life in danger by placing gas cylinders out in the open. A majority of these eateries were using public land for seating customers by putting chairs outside their shops.

A senior traffic police functionary said with the road getting cleared of encroachments, their job would get a little easier.

“Earlier, we were planning to issue challans and trying to find passages despite a narrow road. Now, we are looking at increasing the parking space on both sides of the road. This will ease traffic automatically,” he said.

Rajpura, June 27
The local police arrested a man with 1.15 quintal poppy husk near the Ambala octroi post here today. The accused, Jaswant Singh (42), a resident of Khanaura village in Hoshiarpur, was smuggling poppy husk in a Scorpio car bearing a registration number of Haryana.

Kharar, June 27
Mandeep Singh, a resident of Housing Board Colony, Ludhiana, was killed in a road accident near Mamupur village on the Kharar-Ludhiana road here today. His wife Amanjot received serious injuries.

The two were travelling in a car from Chandigarh to Ludhiana.

According to sources, another speeding car hit Mandeep’s car from behind, as a result of which Mandeep lost control of his vehicle and the car veered off road before falling in a ditch.

While Mandeep died on the spot, seriously injured Amanjot was admitted to the local Civil Hospital. The police has booked the driver of other vehicle, Baldev Singh, for negligent and rash driving.

Mandeep was married seven months ago.

Kalka, June 27
A youth of Bhima Devi Colony of Pinjore sustained serious burn injuries after his clothes caught fire while working in the kitchen here today. He was taken to the PGI, Chandigarh.

According to sources, Kuldeep Singh, alias Ladi, son of Nirmal Singh, was alone in the house and was busy making tea on a stove when his clothes caught fire.

He was taken to a private hospital in Pinjore from where the doctors referred him to the PGI, where his condition was stated to be critical.

The family was away to attend a marriage when the incident took place.

Patiala, June 27
A three-day training camp on “Disaster Management” being organised by the Society for Peoples’ Welfare and Awareness, Patiala (SPWAP), an NGO, was inaugurated by Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Jatinder Kaur at BN Khalsa School, Sabzi Mandi, Patiala, here today.

More than 50 participants attended the training on the first day. Civil Surgeon urged all NGOs in Patiala to co-ordinate with district administration and district health department for such training programmes for effective implementation of such activities during natural disasters. According to Dr DS Bhullar, secretary general of SPWAP, the aim is to prepare people, especially the youth, from flood-affected areas in the district to tackle and control flood-related mishaps and events under the disaster management move of the society by the team being led by the District Training Commissioner Scouts Jaspal Singh and first-aid trainer Kaka Ram Verma.

He said the three-day camp would be extended for involvement of more youth.

Kharar, June 27
A four-year-old girl was brutally murdered after a failed attempt to rape her near the Gillco Valley area here.

The police has arrested the accused, identified as Pappu Mandal, neighbour of the victim. In his complaint to the police, the child’s father, Shyam Pal, a migrant labourer, said on Sunday night he and his four-year-old daughter Sadhna were sleeping outside their temporary room. At around 3 am, he realised that the child was missing. He raised the alarm following which his wife Kanti Devi started looking for the child.

The couple found Sadhna’s body lying a pit near the under construction flats. The body had bruises all over. The police said the child was thrown from a building before being strangulated. The child’s mother, Kanti Devi, also alleged rape, but the post-mortem report denied raped.

The police rounded up a number of persons and found that Pappu Mandal, friend of the child’s father and a resident of Jharkhand, had abducted her and had tried to rape her.

When the victim identified Shyam, he allegedly strangulated her threw her from a building.

Chandigarh, June 27
Leave investigations into theft cases to the police, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has told insurance companies.

The High Court has said the companies cannot act as “super investigators” to probe the veracity of theft claims and has also made it clear that the companies cannot deny or repudiate the claim on the ground of delay in informing it.

The ruling came on a petition filed by National Insurance Company Limited against Ravi Dutt Sharma and another respondent.

Virtually raping the insurance companies on the knuckles for acting in an unfair manner in theft cases, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “The companies, in my view, are not acting fairly in all such matters after charging a huge premium.

“The intention is always to repudiate the claim on one ground or the other. The conditions of the insurance agreements are so minutely printed that the person gets hardly any time to go through such conditions to make it legally binding in any appropriate manner”.

Justice Ranjit Singh also asserted: “The National Insurance Company, though a public sector undertaking, has chosen to behave like private insurance companies”.

Justice Ranjit Singh observed that Sharma had put up a claim after his Toyota Corolla, insured with the petitioner-company, was stolen from outside his friend’s house.

Sharma immediately lodged a complaint with the police on November 24, 2009, and also informed the agent. But, the company repudiated the claim on the ground that the information was supplied late, “whereby it lost its right to investigate”.

Justice Ranjit Singh ruled: “I have my doubts whether the insurance company can act as a super investigator once the complaint was lodged with the police about the theft. The responsibility to investigate or to ascertain the cause of theft or whether it was there or not would really be that of the police.”

Dismissing the petition, Justice Ranjit Singh concluded: “Merely a delay on the part of the insured to inform the petitioner-company would not be reason enough to decline or repudiate the claim”.

Chandigarh, June 27
The opening match of the Air Force Hockey Championship between Maintenance Command and Air Force Headquarters ended in a draw at the 3BRD Astroturf Hockey Ground here today.

The match ended in a 3-3 draw. Jagroop Singh drew the first blood for Maintenance Command during the 27th minute of the game.

In the second half, Harwant Singh levelled the score in the 47th minute, but Sanjay Singh Yadav again took the lead in the 49th minute of the game. Sanjay again strike the board in the 59th minute of the game to take the score to 3-1, but for Air Headquarters, S Jijo and Tripati scored the levellers in the 61th and 67th minute of the game, respectively. 

Chandigarh, June 27
The sports might need speed, skill and stamina, but for 57-year-old Bhola Nath playing soccer is a passion. Bhola Nath, famously known as Bhola Uncle in the field of football, has his own motive to remain in touch with the game at this age.

The soccer player, who tackles the ball with ease, is a government employee and a member of his office team, which play north zone and all-India football tournaments. He also represented Haryana (Kalka) in the national games during his early days. He is still fit to play a match and can be seen playing with youngsters in the field and guiding them.

“It’s been years that I am kicking the ball and in every kick there is something to learn. Soccer has given me everything; all one need is respect in life and that I have earned a lot from the game. This is the main thing that keep me attach with the game,” said Bhola Nath, who came to the city 37 years ago.

The veteran wants his passion to be spread in the periphery areas, as according to him, budding players there have no access to coaching as compare to players in the city. “There is talent all over the place, the difference is some polish it to become the best and some cannot. I cannot coach players neither I am eligible for it, but I could convey the zeal among these youngsters,” he said. “I want the players of the periphery area to know more about the game as all of them could not access to the coaching centres.

Chandigarh, June 27
Chandigarh defeated Panchkula in the ongoing Haryana Inter-District Cricket (U-16) tournament being held at Barwala here today.

City team defeated Panchkula by 49 runs in the knock out stage of the tournament. Earlier, batting first Chandigarh team made 176-runs in the allotted 35 overs. Anoop Dhanda contributed the most 74 off 82, whereas his counterpart Kapil Puniya contributed 44 runs in total. Yugneek was the pick of the bowlers for Panchkula after his six for 35.

In reply, Panchkula team was bowled out on 127 runs. Sagar Sharma top the score chart with his 42-run contribution. For Chandigarh, Rahul took four for 22.

In another Inter-District (U-19) match, Chandigarh defeated Kurukshetra by five wickets. Earlier batting first, Kurukshetra team was bowled out on 95 runs in 30 overs. In reply, Chandigarh team achieved the target in the 31 over of the game.

Scores

Chandigarh- 176 all out in 35 overs (Anoop 74, Kapil 44, Kapil Puniya Yugneek six for 35)

Panchkula- 127 all out in 29.2 overs (Sagar 42, Rahul 4 for 22, Aseem 2 for 20, Arun 1 for 18)

Kurukshetra- 95 all out in 29.3 overs (Ashish 25, Mridank 22, Guntashveer four for 12, Deepak three for 14 and Pankaj 2 for 10)

Chandigarh- 96 for five in 31 overs (Gaurav 41 no and Ashish 2 for 24).