NEIGHBOURHOOD

6-yr-old killed in accident
Four others seriously injured in a head-on collision
Our Correspondent

The school bus that had a head-on collision with a college bus, which claimed the life of six-year-old Jaskaran Singh (inset), at Chunni village, near Fatehgarh Sahib, on Friday. Tribune photo: Vicky Gharu

Fatehgarh Sahib, December 16
In a tragic incident, Jaskaran Singh, a six-year-old student of Lemon World School, Landran, was killed and four others were seriously injured when the school bus ferrying students from Fatehgarh Sahib had a head-on collision with a bus belonging to the Continental Group of Institutes near Chunni on the Fatehgarh Sahib-Chandigarh highway near here this morning.

When the mishap took place, the college bus was on its way to the campus at Jalbehra. Several occupants in both buses, who received minor injuries, were discharged after first aid. According to the statement given by driver of the school bus, Palveer Singh, driver of the college bus was driving rashly and he was trying to overtake another vehicle when the accident happened. Hans Raj SHO, Bassi Pathana, said an FIR had been lodged against Jatinder Singh, driver of the Continental Group of Institutes bus.

The ambulance reached the accident site and took the injured, Jaskaran Singh, to a hospital in Mohali, but doctors’ efforts to revive him failed. After a post-mortem, his body was handed over to his parents and the latter was cremated in the evening at Nogawan village.

Describing the incident as unfortunate, the school authorities closed the school for two days. School principal Geeta Kaushik said the incident had left the management, staff and students in grief. Other school students injured in the accident were Arkin Markin and Paramvir Singh, both students of class V and residents of Bassi Pathana.

Ambala, December 16
Cracking its whip against encroachers, the Ambala Cantonment Municipal Corporation (MC) authorities removed several illegal rehris from the Gandhi Market here today. Gandhi Market Association president Yadavinder Singh registered a complaint with the MC’s secretary stating that there were some illegal rehris in front of their shops, which were disturbing their business.

The MC today removed these rehris from the Gandhi Market, although the team met with some resistance from rehri owners, the drive was peaceful, as the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Baljinder Singh was also present on the spot with his team. The Gandhi Market road has been reduced to a narrow artery, as both sides have been encroached upon by these rehris.

The road around the main Gandhi Market has been eaten up by temporary as well as permanent encroachments. The rehris parked in front of the shops have become a regular nuisance. Vehicles cannot move around on this road easily. Members of the market association said the rehris and kiosks had come up all over during the last couple of years and no one takes stern action against these encroachers.

Now with the encroachments taking alarming propositions, the problem seems to have gone out of the hands of the corporation.

The team led by Krishan Kumar Yadav, secretary of the Municipal Corporation, here today removed the illegal encroachments from the Gandhi Market and he further added that the drive would continue and all encroachers would be sternly dealt with. Local MLA Anil Vij also reached the spot in favour of rehri owners and alleged that the district administration was harassing the poor.

Chandigarh, December 16
Just two days after a Single Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the declaration of result from ward No. 19, a Division Bench today lifted the embargo.

The Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice Rajiv Narain Raina also stayed the operation of the Single Judge’s order and issued notice for January 3 on the petition. Acting on a petition challenging BJP candidate Raj Kishore’s candidature for the municipal corporation elections from ward No. 19, the Single Judge had stayed the declaration of result from that ward. The directions had come on a petition filed by a resident, Ravi. In his petition, Ravi had claimed that Raj Kishore could not be included in the Scheduled Caste category here. Elaborating, he said Raj Kishore’s case was included in the SC category in Bihar, but was not mentioned in the list here.

The High Court had earlier directed the returning officer of Election Commissioner to decide the issue within a week on merits. The petitioner’s counsel, Manu K Bhandari, contended that the returning officer dismissed the petition, but not on merits. The Single Bench had initially observed: “After hearing the counsel for the petitioner, going through the record, with his valuable assistance, considering the entire matter deeply, without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case and taking into consideration the nature and urgency of the matter, the writ petition is disposed of with the direction to the returning officer, Election Commission, Chandigarh, to treat copy of writ petition filed by the petitioner as representation and to take appropriate action, in accordance with law, within a period of one week positively, from the date of receipt of the certified copy of this order.”

Chandigarh, December 16
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum-I, while rejecting the claim of a Sector-8 resident over the foreclosure amount charged by ICICI Bank, has directed ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company to pay Rs 90,372 along with 12 per cent interest per annum from the date of filing of the complaint till its realisation.

The forum, comprising president PD Goel and member Madanjit Kaur Sahota, also directed the insurance company to pay Rs 10,000 as costs of litigation to the complainant.

The complainant, Japji Kaur Cheema, had submitted that she had taken a housing loan of Rs 1,02,68,000 from ICICI Bank and was issued a life insurance policy by ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. as part of the loan agreement against one-time premium of Rs 2.68 lakh.

Later, a sum of Rs 19,474 was refunded to her out of the paid premium. She decided to foreclose the loan but the bank charged Rs 2,30,227 as prepayment/foreclosure charges from her, which was paid under protest as there was no clause in the loan agreement with regard to it.

She further averred that she surrendered the insurance policy with the request to the bank to refund the amount of premium but despite her repeated requests, only Rs 1,49,605 was refunded.

The bank, while taking some preliminary objections, said as per the agreement, they were supposed to charge 2 per cent amount as the foreclosure charges.

The insurance company denied that it was mandatory to obtain the insurance policy. It has been stated as per the terms and conditions of the insurance policy, if there is full repayment of the loan, then the policy holder is entitled to the surrender value, it claimed.

In the present case, after surrender of the insurance policy, the amount of Rs 1,49,505 was credited to the account of the complainant.

It was further pleaded that the complainant enjoyed the life cover till the policy was cancelled.

The forum, while giving relief to the bank observed that the insurance company had not produced on record any terms and conditions of the insurance policy that in case of full repayment of the loan, the policyholder was entitled to the surrender value.

Panchkula, December 16
The police today claimed to have arrested three accused in the case of attempted theft at an ATM here on December 11. They were identified as Surinder, Suresh and Krishna, who had been staying at Ram Darbar in Chandigarh.

During the wee hours on December 11, the accused tried to break into the ATM of the ICICI Bank at the Sector-15 market. A watchman in the market heard a noise and raised the alarm. The accused, standing in front of the ATM, fled before the police personnel in the vicinity could reach the spot. While Surinder was from Una district in Himachal Pradesh, the other two were from Bihar. — TNS

Panchkula, December 16
A body of an unidentified woman was found burnt under a bridge near Pinjore here today.

It seemed that the woman was killed at some other place and her body was brought here and burnt to destroy the evidence, said the police. There were no marks of struggle on the spot. The woman had been wearing bangles and seemed to be young. It was around 8.30 am that Dalbir Singh, a local resident of Basola village, noticed the body. A case under Section 302 of the IPC has been registered.

Chandigarh, December 16
Three laptops, five pen drives, Rs 2 lakh in cash and other valuables were reportedly stolen in four incidents on Thursday night.

Three of the thefts were committed after smashing the windowpanes of parked cars in Sector 34, Sector 21 and Industrial Area.

Amit Mehra, a Delhi resident, reported to the police that thieves stole two laptops, a hard driver, ATM card and Rs 3,500 in cash after breaking the windowpanes of his car in Sector 34.

Also, Jagjit Singh of Sector 21 reported that his bag containing cheque books and other documents were stolen after breaking the windowpanes of his car in Sector 21. Thieves again stole a bag containing Rs 2 lakh after smashing the windowpanes of a Honda City car of an industrialist, Charanjit Singh, in Industrial Area, Phase I.

In the fourth case, Dr Gograj Garhwal of Sector 15 reported to the police that his laptop along with other electronic goods were stolen from his room.

Chandigarh, December16
After an excellent performance by Varun Khullar, the batsmen of Punjab team showed a fine show and scored 452 for 7 in 77.5 overs, during the match of Col CK Nayudu Cricket Match for boys’ (U-22), being held here today.

Starting by Jeevanjot Singh’s 120-runs contribution, the Punjab team was able to achieve the total after trailing by 97 runs in the first innings.

He was equally supported by Preet Kamal Rai (55). The duo made a 136- runs partnership. Later he was joined by Himanshu Chawla and together they scored 99-runs for the 3rd wicket.

Himanshu was caught by wicketkeeper Dass after a well executed 83 off 89 studded with four boundaries and two sixes. Middle-order batsmen, Gurinder Singh (33) and Gurkirat Mann (91), were the main contributors.

For Bengal, Amit Mehra was the pick of the bowlers after he grabbed 4 for 90.

In reply, Bengal started their innings and lost their both openers after Deepak Bansal soon struck twice.

Brief Scores:

Punjab (1st innings): 155 all out in 47.1 overs.

Bengal (1st innings):252 all out in 107.1 overs.

Punjab (2nd innings): 452 for 7 in 77.5 overs (Jeevanjot Singh 120, Preet Kamal Rai 55, Himanshu Chawla 83, Gurkirat Mann 91, Pargat Singh 29, Gurinder Singh 33,Amit Mehra 4 for 90).

Bengal (2nd innings): 77 for 2 in 25 overs (Jayojit Basu 28, Sudip Cheterjee 21 not out, Arjun Dass 18,Deepak Bansal 2 for 19).

Chandigarh, December16
The team of Saupin's School, Sector 32, defeated BTS Cricket Academy, Sector 48, to reach the finals of second St Stephen Junior Cricket Championship for Boys’ (U- 12), being held here today.

In the semifinal match after, elected to bat first, the winning side scored a total of 147 for 4 in the allotted slot of 20 overs. Satyam scored handsome 67 off 64 along with Aayush (42 off 35) to achieve the total. For bowling side, Tarun took 2 for 38.

In reply, BTS failed to achieve the target and bundled out on the total of 142-runs. Batsmen Sunny scored 28 off 13 while Sachin contributed 27-runs.

Brief Score: Saupin's-147 for 4 in 20 overs (Satyam 67, Aayush 42, Tarun 2 for 38).

BTS-142 for 7 in 20 overs (Sunny 28, Sachin 27, Aayush 2 for 24).

Chandigarh, December16
Local player Rishabh Sharda routed another player Sabrang Sandal to win the title of boys’ (U-12) during the ongoing St Stephen’s School CLTA-AITA Talent Series Tennis Tournament, held at CLTA courts, here today.

In the finals of the category, Sabrang fought hard but went down against Rshab 6-4, 6-7(2) and 6-3.

In-form Karandeep Singh of Punjab won the boys’ (U-16) title after defeating Kabir Manrai of city 6-2 and 6-1.

Prinkle Singh from Jammu and Kashmir named the girls’ (U-12) title after overcoming local girl Seerat Sidhu in straight sets 6-3 and 6-3.

In the finals of girls’ (U-16) category, Bhavya Wadhawan won the match by defeating Nikita Bishnoi 6-2, 4-6 and 6-4.

Results:

Doubles boys’ (U-12): Anmol Rattan Kamboj (Chandigarh) and Abhimanyu Rozra (Hry) b Sahej Sidhu (Chandigarh) and Akshit Chabra (Chandigarh)6-4, 6-3; boys’ (U-16): Ranjeet Singh (Chandigarh) and Lakshay Bharti (Chandigarh)b Rahul Seth (Chandigarh) and Prabhsimran Singh Bal (Chandigarh) 6-4, 6-3; Girls (U-16): Bhavya Wadhawan (Chandigarh) and Gayatri Kumariah (Chandigarh) b Nimrat Walia (Chandigarh) and Karishma Mehta (UP) 7-5, 6-3.

Chandigarh, December16
Giving his best shuttler, Akshit Mahajan reached the quarter-final of the ongoing Tata Open International Badminton Tournament being held in Mumbai, today.

Akshit becomes the first player of city to reach the quarter-final stage. Akshit over passed a national player and Arjuna Awardee, Anup Sridhar, of Petrolium Sports Control Board.

After losing the first frame, Akshit gave away a tough fight to the ace player and registered win in the match.

He lost the first set by 14-21 to 8th rank holder Anup but he came back in the match and won the second set by 22-20.

In the final set, he proved his mettle after winning the final game by 21-13.

Akshit will now face Arvind Bhatt quarter-final stage. Arvind is the national champion and currently third rank holder.

Chandigarh, December16
Institute SOREM organised Annual Sports Meet for its special children here today. In the tourney, about 100 special children including children with disability participated in all the age groups.

The events included athletics events, skating, bocce, 25mt run, 25mt walk, 25mt dribble walk, sack race, object balance race and object matching. Parents and siblings of special children also participated in events including tug of war and musical chairs.

At the end of the tournament, the winners were presented with medals and certificates.