Chandigarh, December 5
Raising a question mark on the city’s tag of a safe city, an unidentified person robbed a woman of her jewellery at gunpoint at one of the city’s busiest crossings in broad daylight today.

A 45-year-old woman, Taara Jamwal, was robbed of her gold chain, two bangles and two rings at gunpoint while she was seated in her car near the busy Aroma traffic light point at Sector 22 here this afternoon.

The incident occurred at 4 pm when Taara was waiting for her husband, SK Jamwal, an Intelligence Bureau officer, who had gone to the market for some work.

Taara told the police that the windowpane was half rolled down when an unidentified person put a gun on her forehead. He then entered the car from the driver’s seat and threatened her at gunpoint.

The youth robbed her of her chain, bangles and rings. He also told her to empty her purse, which contained Rs 10,000.

Chandigarh, December 5
A theft worth Rs 5 lakhs was reported from a house at Sector 38 past night. Gurwinder Kaur Sodi, a social worker, reported to the police that she went to Batala on Saturday and returned home today, only to find her house ransacked.

She told the police that thieves fled with Rs 5 lakh that was kept in a leather bag in her cupboard and left the bag on the bed. The bag contained 300 notes of Rs-1000 denomination and 400 notes of Rs-500 denomination.

The police said the woman, who was a widow, resided alone. It added that her son was settled in Canada and her daughter was staying with her husband.

The police said she had got the money as she sold some property in Batala recently. The thieves fled with some cheques, it added.

In another case, Rajwinder Singh, a Mohali resident, reported that someone stole nine mobile phones and some documents from an SCO at Sector 20 past night.

Mohali, December 5
Almost a week after two women stole gold jewellery worth Rs 8.5 lakh during a wedding at Nimantran Marriage Palace in Zirakpur, thieves struck during a wedding at Dara Studio in Phase VI here this evening.

They decamped with Rs 80,000 and gold jewellery worth Rs 3 lakh. The cash and jewellery were stolen from the bag of Dr Manjeet Kaur, mother of the bride.

The family alleged that CCTV cameras installed on the premises of Dara Studio were not functional and the management of the marriage palace did not cooperate in tracing the thieves.

By the time the police reached the spot, the thieves had escaped. Surjit Singh, who represented the bride’s family, said CCTV footage could have helped in identifying the thieves.

Phase-I police station’s station house officer Manjit Singh said videos recordings by the cameramen engaged by both families were played to identify the thieves.

The police suspected that thieves removed the cash and jewellery when the mother of the bride was busy in the wedding ceremony. The family lamented that the police did not do much to track the thieves.

In the case of the theft at the marriage palace in Zirakpur, Gurminder Singh Randhawa, a retired Brigadier, had alleged that despite two woman thieves being handed over to the Zirakpur police, it had failed to recover the jewellery stolen.

The women were caught on camera committing the theft. The incident took place when Randhawa’s wife Virshpal Kaur was busy during the wedding ceremony of their daughter.

A young woman came near her and took the jewellery out of her handbag. The women, identified as Jamna and Sanju, had not helped the police in the recovery of the jewellery. Other members of the gang were yet to be arrested.

Chandigarh/Dera Bassi, December 5
Hundreds of passengers of the 12232 Chandigarh-Lucknow and 12984 Ajmer-bound Garib Rath were stranded at the Chandigarh railway station as the axle of the engine of the Delhi-bound Shatabdi developed a technical snag near Lalru this evening. Hundreds of passengers travelling by the evening Shatabdhi, too, were stranded.

The snag left to the derailment of the entire rail network on the tracks in the evening. Besides the two trains mentioned earlier, the Kalka-bound 12005 Shatabdi, which was scheduled to arrive at 8.30 pm, was stranded at the Ambala railway station.

The track, allowing single vehicle movement only, affected all trains in the evening. The Ambala-Kaka passenger train stood at Dhulkot, the 54512 Nangal Dam train was stationed at Ghaggar and the 12057 New Delhi-Chandigarh Jan Shatabdi was halted at Lalru till the time of the filing of this report.

Tony, who was traveling with his family, rued the lack of facilities provided by the railways staff. He said they were provided nothing more than a glass of soup and requests for food were turned down.

Some passengers left the train and attempted taking some service from the main road adjoining the station. They chose to shift to other vehicles as they were uncertain about the departure of the train.

Raj Kumar, a senior manager with a private company, said, “I am walking to the road and will hire a cab. We are on a single track and do not know when normal train movement will commence again.”

Station superintendent Praveen Kumar said the axle of the Shatabdi, which left for New Delhi at 6.20 pm, developed a techinal snag near the Dappar railway station at 6.40 pm. He said the technical snag was detected by employees at the Dappar railway station and a team of technical experts was immediately dispatched to the site, along with an accident relief train, and it took about three hours to rectify the fault. He said the section between Ambala and Lalru was cleared and traffic restored on the Ambala-Chandigarh section by 10.30 pm.

Sunita Garg, a resident of Sector 10, who arrived at the local railway station along with her five-year-old son by the Kalka bound station around 12 midnight, said the Railways had failed to make any alternative arrangements for passengers at Ambala railway station. She said when passengers enquired about the time it would take for the train to reach Chandigarh, the officials feigned ignorance about the same.

Chandigarh, December 5
After over 20 meetings, numerous changes of plan, tall promises, cribbing private schools and one long year, nothing has changed the fate of the botched-up UT child mapping survey results.

Determined to get the RTE implemented and racing against the December-30 deadline of private schools, the UT education department has asked all government school principals to review the child mapping results submitted almost a year ago and conduct a fresh survey, as an when required. The meeting has left principals shocked.

“It was in January that we were told to revisit the results, but when we cited some technical problems, those were shifted to management committees. Now after almost a year, it is shocking to find that everything stands where it was almost a year ago,” said a principal.

“As per the department, my sector needs another survey, but how do I get it done? How can I ask teachers to conduct the survey without getting a written order from the department? If this had to be done, why did they wait for an entire year,” asked another principal.

In the past, GMADA had tried to straighten the zigzag boundary of Mohali with Chandigarh by mutual transfer of certain pockets of land. GMADA had raised a six-foot-high wall to separate pockets of vacant prime land bordering Chandigarh, but it had been broken at several places.

“The plight of residents of Sector 53, facing Nehru Colony in Chandigarh, can be gauged from the fact that every morning, they are greeted by slum-dwellers defecating in the open. As the day starts, milch cattle and pigs reared by them are left to feast on the greenery being maintained by residents,” said an official.

Chandigarh, December 5
Despite the fact that the authorities have earmarked a special parking area for VIP cars owners of these vehicles continue to flout norms as one can see a number of cars parked at the entry point to the Chandigarh Airport putting others to inconvenience.

Not only at the entry point but the violations are also noticed at the exit point. Drivers of the cars, under question, are no less than a VIP. There is no security personnel posted outside the terminal building to direct them to park the vehicle in the parking area specially marked for these cars. These drivers can also be seen chatting with their colleagues besides smoking in the area when the Tribune reporter visited the site.

The situation becomes worse in the evening hours when top bureaucrats of the UT administration and Haryana and Punjab return to the city after attending meetings at New Delhi. Interestingly, even the drivers of the prominent businessmen in the city also park their limousines or SUVs in front of the exit door at the terminal thus throwing the security concerns at the airport to the winds.

Airport director HS Toor was not available for comments despite repeated attempts as he was in Delhi on a private visit. However, a senior officials without commenting on the illegal parking of VIP cars said the parking arrangement had been provided at the airport as per the guidelines of the Airport Authority of India.

Suresh Sharma (28), an IT professional with a multinational company at Mohali, said that recently he went to receive his grandmother, who was to arrive from Delhi at 6.30 pm. As a number of VIP cars were parked in the porch outside the terminal building he could not find any space to pass through to park his car in the parking area. He said his old-aged grandmother suffering from severe arthritis had to walk about 100 meters up to the car.

He said instead of directing these drivers to park the vehicles in the VIP parking in front of the terminal building, the security personnel were standing as mute spectators.

Chandigarh, December 5
The Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO) authorities have asked for an inquiry into the missing over 16,000 litres of fuel from its petrol station at Sector 9 here.

CITCO’s managing director (MD) DK Tiwari has ordered the general manager (GM) to submit the report on the issue within three days.

A news item in this regard was published in these columns on December 4, which mentioned the siphoning of of 8028.28 litres of unleaded petrol, 8019 litres of diesel, 135 litres of speed petrol and 71.27 litres of hi-speed diesel, worth Rs 8.91 lakh (then rates) from the petrol pump in a period of six months from April 1 to October 31.

This was the second such incident as more than 18,067 litres of unleaded petrol, worth Rs 12 lakh, was found siphoned of from the Sector-56 petrol station of the corporation in just four months and-a-half, from April 1 to August 18, this year.

The CITCO authorities had recently issued a charge sheet to the in charge of the Sector-56 petrol pump following the inquiry report of the local vigilance department in the case of the missing fuel.

Chandigarh, December 5
With each passing day, the city’s election scene is catching up pace with elections offices being inaugurated and door-to-door campaigning going on in full swing.

Local MP, Pawan Kumar Bansal inaugurated Ward 8 candidate Rajesh Sharma’s election office today.The candidate also donated blood at Parshuram Bhawan. Blood donation was arranged by the Purvanchal Society.

Rajesh Sharma said that his main agenda would be based on the problems of Sector 37 residents, which included better functioning of garbage treatment plant and irregular supply of electricity.

The election office of Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, Satinder Singh from Ward No 18, was inaugurated today by party president Sanjay Tandon and Harmohan Dhawan in the Sector 27 market. While addressing the party activists Sanjay Tandon said that the city wanted change as the development work had come to a standstill during the Congress regime.

Congress candidate from Ward No 3 Pardeep Chhabra also campaigned in various parts of Sector 22. Chhabra apart from door-to-door campaign met also the representatives of Resident Welfare Associations of the sector.

Shiromani Akali Dal Chanadigarh unit candidate Harjinder Kaur in the second phase of the campaign started one-to-one contact this morning from Sector 35D with her local supporters from the sector, distributing hand cards and hand bills reminding each residents voter that one ‘must cast one’s vote which was the fundamental right of each one. The day ended with campaigning at Sector 34.

NH Widening

EC asks candidate to change poll symbol 
It is strange that after four days of allotting the election symbol of a railway engine to an independent candidate Mohammad Saleem Khan, the returning officer Rahul Gupta today asked him to change his symbol. The returning office told him that as this symbol had been registered with the Nav Nirman Sena Party in Maharashtra so it could not be allotted to him. On some other symbols proposed by him he was allotted the symbol of “almirah” for the coming municipal election.

Khan alleged that due to the fault of the election department he had to bear the loss of about Rs 15,000 which he had spent on the preparation of the hoardings, posters and banners for his canvassing in his area.

BJP, Cong supporters clash in Sector 22
A day after high drama was witnessed in Sector 44 when supporters of the BJP and Congress clashed, another scuffle between BJP-Akali candidate Arun Goyal of Ward Number13 and supporters of the Youth Congress was reported in Sector 22 last night.

Goyal alleged that three persons abused and threatened him near his residence in Sector 22. The police has arrested three youths of the Youth Congress under preventive measures in this regard. Goyal told the police that youths were led by Puneet Kapoor. The accused were let off on bail.

Yesterday, supporters of SAD-BJP candidate Harjinder Kaur and Congress councillor Chandermukhi had clashed in Sector 44.

Complaint lodged against Anu Chatrath
A complaint has been lodged by independent contesting candidate Vivek Hans Garcha of Ward Number 2 against Congress candidate Anu Chatrath for violating model code of conduct. Vivek alleged in his complaint that Anu Chatrath had pasted posters and banners at religious places and public property which was in clear violation of the Defacement Act. He further mentioned in his complaint that yesterday the residents of Khudda Lahora complained that she had put up her hoardings at their houses without their permission.

The BJP also made a complaint against her to the election observer for her participation in a Nirankari function.

Chandigarh, December 5
It’s not just the candidates contesting MC polls who are going through hectic campaigning schedules and sleepless nights, but their families and friends too have entered the political arena in a bid to garner maximum support to register a win.

Chalking-out the next day’s plan, coordinating with supporters for campaign, arranging meetings are some of the works the families and friends of the contesting candidates are looking-after. If that’s not enough they are also involved in door-to-door campaign.

Simran Kang , whose both parents JS Kang and Inderjit Kaur Kang are contesting elections from ward 5 and 9 is a perfect example of family participation in the elections.

“Its really tough to campaign in two wards with one consisting of colonies, following which my brother have divided the work and have even roped-in our friends to help us out in managing the election work and campaign”, Simran said.

Simran further said that while he was campaigning with his father, his younger brother was campaigning with his mother.

The intensity of participation by the families and well-wishers in the MC polls can be gauged by the fact that outstation relatives of contesting candidates have also reached the city to take part in the elections.

Congress candidate from Ward No 21 Indu Singla said that her outstation cousins reached the city well in advance to support her in elections. “My relatives are in the city till the election campaign ends, meanwhile my friends are also moving with me in the ward sacrificing their family life to support me”,

Chander Mukhi Sharma Congress candidate from Ward No 15 said that he was backed by his friends and family members who have been assigned particular responsibilities. “My brother and close friends are managing everything while I am busy meeting people in the ward. Meanwhile, the campaigning team is divided into two parts one headed by me other is been led by my wife”, Sharma said.

The well-wishers and friends of contesting candidates are also reaching early in the morning to campaign in the residential areas before people leave for their work.

BJP candidate from Ward No 7 Laxmi Devi, said that her husband and his supporters moved out early in the morning to meet maximum people in their houses, irrespective of the winter season setting-in.

Chandigarh, December 5
The Sikh Educational Society, Chandigarh, in association with the India Russia Friendship Association (A Chapter of IAFFC) and the Russian Centre of Culture and Science, Embassy of Russian Federation, New Delhi, organised a performance by the Russian Song Ensemble ‘Pereprava’ at GGS College for Women, Sector 26, under the platinum Jubilee celebration of foundation of the Sikh Education Society.

Pereprava a professional music band established by the graduates of the Russian Genesis Academy of Music. In their performances, the artistes successfully combine modern adaptation of folk songs with new songs composed in the so-called “Russian Style”.

The band has issued three solo CDs: “Russian Style”-2004, “Russian Songs and Melodies”-2006, “Russian Souvenir”-2006. The artistes played unique folk instrumental: Saratov Harmonica, Ocarina, Slip Flute, Pan Flute, Pipe, Zhaleika, Balalaika, Folk percussions and even a handsaw such as “Radio of Russia”, “Moscow Speaks” and “The Voice of Russia”.

“PEREPRAVA” is a regular participant of the open-air town and corporate holidays, ceremonial functions in Moscow and other cities. The ensemble took part in many international cultural functions in Tanzania, Cyprus, China, Greece, Germany and India, where they showcased Russian musical culture. The band leader Igor Talashov is multi-instrumental who plays professionally 15 folks instruments.

Chandigarh, December 5
Grief and shock gripped the teachers and students of Vivek High School today as the news of sudden demise of Gautam Kaushal, a class VII student, spread around.

Gautam, one of the most loved student of the school, who lost his battle with cancer, left behind teary-eyed teachers and students who paid tribute to this fighter who smiled and spread joy till the very end.

“ I don’t want to be missed for who I am but what I have done. This is how Gautam strived to upkeep his individuality despite hailing from a family of bureaucrats,” reveals Aman, a co student. Gautam had just made his place in he school council and bowled everybody over with his sense of responsibility.

“There are times when children half your age teach you a lot and Gautam was one such boy. He was fighting a deadly battle every day but not even for one moment his wit, humour and dsire to excel left him. He was the best at what ever he did,” said the school principal.

Chandigarh, December 5
The Pancham theatre ensemble Jammu presented the Hindi play ‘Kharashein’ during the NZCC Theatre Festival, organised in collaboration with the Punjab Arts Council, at the Randhawa auditorium here today.

The play was a collage of four short stories ‘Hilsa’, ‘Ravi Paar’, ‘Khauf’ and ‘Khuda Hafiz’, written by Salim Arif and interspersed with poems of Gulzar. Director Bhupinder Singh attempted to justify the essence of the play. Actors Pardeep Sharma and Swayama were impressive in the opening spell, delineating the thematic content of ‘Hilsa’, which melted into ‘Ravi Paar’.

Tapeshwer Dutta brought alive the pain and anguish of innocent people forced to migrate as refugees to India. He continued to describe the frustration, tribulations and poignant moments of massacres during Partition.

The play saluted the courage of those who, despite being in trouble, extended help to the needy and those in distress. Other stories enacted by Sohan Kashyap,, Vijay Goswami and Manoj Bhatt brought into focus the continued repetition of such events.

Mohali, December 5
Dissatisfied with the designs received by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) in connection with its logo designing contest, the authority has come up with an in-house logo which is now in use.

It is learnt that GMADA’s logo does not have any specific colour. Any colour can be used depending on the design of the matter where the logo is required.

Manjit Brar, additional chief administrator, GMADA, said the logo was designed by Chief Administrator of GMADA Saravjit Singh. He said the design was based on a logarithmic spiral, which was a special kind of spiral curve.

Budding designers were called to design the logo, which matched the vision and mission of the development authority. The best designer was to be given a cash prize of Rs 2.5 lakh.

GMADA had received 179 entries for its logo designing contest from various parts of the country. Seven designs were shortlisted by a committee comprising Manjeet Brar, additional chief administrator, Satinder Singh, senior architect, Jatinder Mohan, superintending engineer and Surinder Dhundia, joint director. While three of the shortlisted designs were from participants in New Delhi, one each was from participants living in Chandigarh, Panchkula, Bijnor and Patiala.

The seven designs were later sent by the chief administrator to Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister, Punjab, who is also the chairman of GMADA, for the final selection. It was learnt that the file came back from the CM’s office without selecting any design.

GMADA authorities had desired that the logo should work well in a variety of applications from stationery to digital media, clothing, outdoor banners, commemorative items, etc.

The designers were asked to explain the rationale for the logo design, colour choice and tagline along with the entry form.

All participants had to warrant that the designs submitted by them were original works of authorship. The development authority, however, had reserved the right to modify the winning design of the competition. 

Mohali, December 5
A number of residents of Nanu Majra village, including women, descended on the office of Mohali SSP GPS Bhullar alleging that the police officials in Sohana were not arresting one Pradeep Singh, who had let loose a reign of terror in the village for the past many days.

The youth, who had brought henchmen from outside, was allegedly threatening and thrashing the village youth. Repeated complaints at the Sohana police station had failed to move the police.

Irritated over the indifferent attitude of the police, the villagers led by the village sarpanch met senior police officials. The SSP said the Sohana SHO had been asked to immediately arrest the youth and submit a report at the earliest.

Panchkula, December 5
Thousands of fans were seen jostling to have a glimpse of Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan and Sonakshi Sinha, who were in the town for the shooting of their upcoming flick ' Son of Sardar' at Patiala temple in Mansa Devi Complex.

Fans turned up in large numbers. Security personnel had a tough time contorlling the crowd.

Many devotees stayed back after paying obeisance at the temple.

“I had gone to pay obeisance at the temple but on learning that Sanjay Dutt was also there I stayed back to meet the star,” said Devinder Mahajan, a local resident.

Panchkula, December 5
The authorities efforts to get the Right To Education (RTE) Act implemented have started yielding results, as at least 80 private schools have already submitted declaration forms.

It was on November 17 that the education department had issued a show-cause notice to 102 schools for not complying with the Act.

This, however, followed the admonition by the court of the Civil Judge during the last hearing in a case filed by a local resident Pankaj Chandgothia on November 17.

Inquiries from the education department revealed that nearly 80 schools had already submitted their forms and others were expected to file the same within a few days as the time period of 21 days provided to the schools to file the reply was about to end.

In fact, all private schools in the district were required to seek fresh recognition under the RTE Act by filing self-declaration forms regarding compliance of the RTE provisions. The time-limit for filing such declarations had expired in September, 2011. On November 17, Chandgothia contended that the district education office was taking a lenient view by not de-recognising such schools. After hearing the arguments, the court granted a week’s time and directed the District Education Officer (DEO), Panchkula, to file the compliance and final action-taken report on or before November 23. That day, the District Elementary Education Officer (DEEO), however,filed a written statement before the court, saying only 11 schools out of 113 had filed the self-declaration forms under the RTE Act. The remaining 102 schools had been issued a 21-day show-cause notice under Section 13 of the Haryana RTE Rules for de-recognition.