Dera Bassi/Chandigarh, December 21
Dr Deepak Kaura, a city-based cardiologist who went missing from his Sector 19 house last night, was found murdered in his Tata Aria car parked on the Dera Bassi-Habatpur road this afternoon. The 45-year-old victim, who was the owner of Oxford Hospital in Sector 19, was last seen in his car with a woman. In 2010, Dr Kaura was sentenced to four-year imprisonment in connection with his wife’s suicide. He was granted bail by the High Court last year and got engaged to a Canada-based NRI woman on December 10. They were scheduled to get married in January.

The police has registered a case of murder on the complaint of his father, Dr HM Kaura, who suspects that the murder was preplanned. The diamond engagement ring of the doctor, his mobile phone as well as the keys of his car were missing from the spot. The police has recovered Rs 24,000 from the pocket of the victim.

The murder came to light at 2 pm when a passerby spotted the abandoned car and peeped inside. He saw a man wrapped in a blanket lying motionless with the front seats pulled back. He called the police, which reached the spot and identified the body as that of Dr Kaura. The face had turned blue and there were blood spots on the nose and ears.

His family members told the police that he had left the hospital at 7 pm yesterday and returned after some time to examine a patient. He told his driver, Harpreet, to keep his tiffin containing home food in the car. Harpreet told the police that when he went to the car to put the tiffin he saw a woman sitting on the front seat. Dr Kaura left at around 10 pm.

The victim is survived by a daughter who is studying in class X and a son who is at a medical college in Ludhiana.

Chandigarh, December 21
Politics has hit rock bottom in Panjab University (PU) with a hate mail against the Vice-Chancellor being traced to the residence of Anu Chatrath, a former Mayor.

Anu Chatrath’s husband, Dr Deepak Kapoor, is in the race for the post of Dean, Business Schools, the elections for which are scheduled for tomorrow.

The Vice-President holds the post of the Chancellor of the university.

The issue, which is bound to dampen the celebrations of the Chatrath group which won 13 seats in the Syndicate elections, came to the fore about a month ago when the Vice-Chancellor’s office reportedly received a communication from the Chancellor’s office.

According to the Chancellor’s office, one of the university professors had accused the Vice-Chancellor of misappropriation of funds and demanded an inquiry into his telephone records.

The language left the Vice-Chacellor, RC Sobti, suspicious and he contacted the professor concerned, but got to know that he had not complained and that the mail id was fictitious.

Following this, he shot a complaint to the IG Police, who forwarded the case to the cyber cell.

The IP address was traced back to a Sector 8 house which belongs to the in-laws of Anu Chatrath, former Mayor and PU Senator. Her husband Deepak Kapoor teaches business studies at the university and made headlines for accusing the VC of misbehaving with him during an interview for the controller examination.

While Sobti refused to comment, one of his close officials revealed: “It came as a shock to all of us that Senators could stoop so low. We have just learnt about it and will decide on the further course of action soon.”

Chandigarh, December 21
The Congress factor has certainly gone into the selection of the nominated councillors with “Congressmen” dominating the “navratan” list, which was announced by the UT Administration today.

Anoop Sunny Gill, director of SDA Church, Sector 41; educationist Prof Aruna Goel; Dr Amrit Tiwari; retired IAS officer Babu Lal; Major (retd) DS Sandhu; businessman MP Kohli; industrialist Sat Paul Bansal; social worker Shagufta Parveen; and architect Surinder Bahga have been nominated as councillors.

While BJP state president Sanjay Tandon termed the “list of favourites” as “murder of democracy”, BSP convener Hafiz Anwar-ul-Haq said they would challenge the list in court.

While the Administration claimed that it preferred wide-ranging experience in various fields in deciding the list, but sources said five nominated councillors were either directly or indirectly associated with the Congress.

Dr Amrit Tiwari is the mother of Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari, who is also Ludhiana MP. Similarly, Shagufta Parveen is the daughter-in-law of senior Congress leader Khaleel Ahmed who was former vice-president of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee.

Sat Paul Bansal is also believed to have a close association with the Congress. Major (retd) Sandhu, sources said, had campaigned for a Congress candidate in the MC elections. Anoop Sunny Gill was also inclined towards the Congress.

Defending the Administration, a senior official said an attempt had been made to give representation to various sections of society in the MC. Candidates involved in social services, education, medical activities, architectural art, trade and industry, defence and candidates with scholarly credentials have been nominated.

He added that the social structure of society had been kept in view while nominating them.

Shagufta Praveen claimed that she had no political affiliation and her only aim was to work for the betterment of society.

Amrit Tiwari said although her son was from the Congress, “I am totally neutral. I am surprised about the nomination. The Administration had taken my son’s consent”.

Major (retd) Sandhu also claimed that he did not belong to any political party and believed only in development. Anoop Gill and Sat Paul Bansal also denied any affiliation with the Congress.

Chandigarh, December 21
The list of nominated councillors finalised by the UT Administrator has come as a jolt to the BJP. The two prominent parties — BJP and BSP — have alleged that the Congress has played a game by nominating a majority of Congress loyalists as councillors.

Calling it a murder of democracy, Sanjay Tandon, state president of the BJP, said: “Instead of nominating people from the families of Congress office-bearers, they should have nominated the Congress candidates who lost the elections.”

The delay in releasing the list had already raised suspicion that something fishy was going on. “If their intentions were clear, the list should have been released a day before the results were declared. The Congress has tried hard to change the BJP’s situation in the House,” Tandon said.

Satpal Jain, a senior BJP leader and former MP, said nominating people closely associated with the Congress as councillors was not expected. “I request the nominated House members not to upset the verdict given by the people,” he said.

Annoyed after the release of the list, Hafiz Anwar-ul-Haq, BSP convener, said it was a mockery of democracy as a majority of the people nominated as councillors were linked to the Congress. “What is the point of having elections in 26 wards when a party’s fate has to be decided by the nominated councillors,” he said.

Haq said he would approach the court against the list of nominated councillors. “We are going to oppose the list and demand a revised list,” he said.

SAD councillor Harjinder Kaur said the Constitution demanded that the nominated councillors should be non-political and expert in their respective fields. “It doesn’t matter if they have link with a party as long as they perform their duty and refrain from politics,” she said.

Chandigarh, December 21
Residents of the tricity got a little respite from cold-wave conditions prevailing in the region for the past one week as there was a slight increase in the day and night temperatures.

The maximum temperature on Wednesday was recorded at 22.8 degree Celsius, a two-degree departure from normal, while the minimum temperature was recorded at 6.2 degree Celsius.

The weather office predicted no major change in the day temperature. However, the minimum temperature was likely to go down further, resulting in colder nights in the region, a Met official added.

The Met department predicted a mainly clear sky, with mist or haze in the morning and evening hours. The maximum temperature on Thursday would be around 22 degree Celsius.

The minimum temperature on Friday would be around 4 degree Celsius. Days would be mainly sunny. However, fog or mist could occur in some places in Haryana and Punjab.

Meanwhile, the late running of major trains in the region due to the intense fog continued for the third today. The morning Shatabdi, scheduled to arrive at 11 am, arrived late by about one hour and 15 minutes. The Himalayan Queen also arrived late by one hour.

Station superintendent Parveen Kumar said the 12311 Howrah-Kalka Mail, scheduled to arrive at 3.05 am, was running behind schedule by about 24 hours.

The Bandra-Kalka train arrived late by four hours. The 12231 Lucknow-Chandigarh Express, scheduled to arrive at 9.55 am, was late by about two hours and 40 minutes.

Morning flights from the city were also delayed due to dense fog conditions at the New Delhi airport. According to sources, the Indian Airlines flight IC 864, with scheduled arrival time of 10.50 am, was late by about one hour.

Chandigarh, December 21
UT ‘babus’ will have to wait more in owning houses under UT Administration’s innovative housing scheme for its employees at Sectors 52 and 56.

Surprisingly, the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) had engaged a private consultant to prepare the report for environment clearance.

It was reminded at the time of submission that only a consultant notified by the Government of India could do so.

CHB Chairman Satya Gopal said the board was now sending the documents to the government-recognised consultant to prepare a report for environment clearance.

“After the report being prepared, it would be sent to the department concerned for environment clearance. The process will take over a month,” he said.

However, he said tenders would be floated by the end of February. “We want to start the project as soon as possible,” he said. The scheme, floated in 2008, had hit several roadblocks.

Mohali, December 21
The Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) has decided to get a feasibility study done before going ahead with the proposal of coming up with the world’s largest mall in Sector 62 here.

According to sources, the decision of getting the feasibility study done was taken at a meeting of the development authority held on Saturday under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The help of a project management consultant will be taken in this regard.

The sources said that the authorities concerned were a little apprehensive about the major project and wanted to know the exact requirements of the area before giving the green signal to the world’s largest mall. A very large mall, measuring about 20-lakh square feet, was coming up in Chandigarh and was being set up by L&T. As such GMADA authorities now wanted to know whether big business houses would be interested in purchasing space in the Mohali mall as well when they had already spent huge sums in getting unit for themselves in the Chandigarh mall. The project was likely to be executed only when the GMADA authorities were sure that almost the entire area would be sold out.

GMADA officials said that there was a proposal to set up a mall in Sector 62, spread across 5.7 million square feet . The largest mall at present was in the USA which was spread over an area measuring 4.2 million square feet. They were of the view that it would not be difficult for the development authority to sell out the space in Mohali’s city centre.

GMADA had proposed to set up the mall in 76 acres and had come out with 1,400 units of different sizes for office and commercial use. The use of the units like restaurants, shops, cinemas, hotels, exhibition halls, etc, would be defined by the authority. An amusement park, spread over an area of 20,000 square feet, had also been proposed as part of the largest mall. The estimated construction cost of the project was Rs 2,350 crore.

Panchkula, December 21
Panic gripped the area when a visitor in the busy Sector 11 market raised an alarm saying that someone had fired at his car in the evening. The police officials rushed to the spot and found that it was an attempt to commit a theft by breaking open the windowpane of an Alto car of the complainant.

It was around 7 pm that Neeraj Kumar, a resident of Sector 43 in Chandigarh parked his car in the main market of Sector 11 to visit the ATM of HDFC Bank. On returning he found the windowpane og his car was broken and had a hole in it. Apprehending risk to his life, Neeraj rushed his car towards the booth market and made a call to the police stating that someone had fired at his car.

On reaching the spot, the police found a round-iron ball used in bearings of cycles was thrown with the help of catapult to damage the windowpane by the thieves so that they could steal the bag lying in the car.

Chandigarh, December 21
Panjab University Syndicate came as a surprise package to many today with six first-timers, relatively less active, “Senators” making it to the House.

GK Chatrath group that claims to have secured 13, out of a total of 15 seats, took everybody by surprise by getting all first or second timers on floor rather than the expected safe bets like DPS Randhawa or Rabinder Nath Sharma.

The move according to the Senators was an outcome of alliance with several subgroups, including Vaid group and DAV management, in return of the assured seats. The groups, according to sources, were joined together to keep Senator Ashok Goyal at bay, who, however, made it to the house.

“We are very elated this year. Last time we swept over the house and have got 13 seats, out of total 15. The motto of the group will continue to be students and faculty welfare,” said GK Chatrath.

From Goyal group, Dinesh Talwar made it to the house, while Keshav Malhotra lost consecutively for the second year.

Chandigarh, December 21
While the election of Panjab University Syndicate were declared to be peaceful overall, the election of medical constituency created ripples raising the long deferred question. Doctors present in the House went in uproar for not even a single medico being chosen from their constituency, while it was college representatives who grabbed the seat.

Taking up the issue, Dr SK Singh demanded Senate members to justify the way a non-medico could understand and fight for doctors’ welfare. He was supported by Dr Guaba, who said if these posts were mere means of politics and just nomenclature then PU should appoint non-medics as deans also.

“When it comes to the constituency then I think PU needs to rethink its norms. How can we justify getting representatives who have no stake in a constituency? We don’t doubt commitment or intelligence of our Senators, but medicine just like laws is an acquired skill and only a medic can understand challenges and need of the constituency,” said the doctors.

Chandigarh, December 21
The seven-day NSS camp concluded at the PEC University of Technology here today. The NSS-PEC Chapter consists of 380 volunteers who target to eliminate problems of society through their efforts.

Akshaye Raj Aggarwal, student head of NSS-PEC Chapter, said, “The camp was a huge success in instigating the feeling of social service in budding engineers. We are already pursuing some projects relating to education programmes and in January we are coming up with a few more projects for the inclusive growth of society.”

During the seven-day camp, the students were taken to the Rama Krishna Mission to enlighten them about the life of Swami Vivekanand and incorporate in them his values and teachings. Yoga sessions were also conducted to inculcate healthy lifestyle in the students.

The seven-day NSS camp held at DAV College, Sector 10, also concluded today. Sapling plantation drive and a rally on public health and sanitation were the events organised to mark the camp.