The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

NEIGHBOURHOOD

School bus impounded for not following norms
Suman Bhatnagar

Ambala, January 6
The Ambala Police has impounded a school bus today, which was not following the norms and guidelines issued by the Punjab & Haryana High Court in this regard.

According to information, the school bus of Mata Gujri Senior Secondary School, Patiala, was picking up students from Nanyola village close to the Haryana Punjab border this morning. The police checked the bus and found that neither the speed governor nor horizontal grills were fitted in the bus.

Moreover, fire extinguisher and first-aid box were also not available in the bus. The driver failed to produce some of the required documents of the bus to the police. The police impounded the bus.

It is to be mentioned that after the mishap of Arjun Public School, the Ambala police has launched a drive to keep a check on school buses in the district. Around half a dozen buses of engineering and management colleges were challaned recently for not implementing the direction of the court. All the schools in the district have been closed till January 16 due to heavy fog and cold.

DC office flooded with poll duty exemption requests
Strict action apprehended even in case of false complaints
Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, January 6
The strictness of Election Commission during the Assembly polls is not only a matter of concern for the candidates but for the polling and presiding staff too. The polling staff, which used to enjoy the hospitality of the candidates are now scared of doing poll duty apprehending strict action even if a false complaint is lodged against them. That's why the employees assigned polling duties are rushing to the Deputy Commissioner to get their duties struck off on one pretext or another.

Heavy rush is witnessed outside the Deputy Commissioner Office, particularly women employees carrying small kids requesting to be exempted from duty. Marriage, pregnancy, newly delivered children, illness, and being only member in the family to look after old parents and in-laws are the major causes mentioned in the request letters. The Deputy Commissioner marks genuine cases to the Election Office for consideration.

Yashveer Mahajan, Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer, said that for the three Assembly constituencies in the district, 438 polling booths had been set up and approximate 1,750 employees had been put on election duty and 25 per cent had been kept in reserve. The training of these staff will be conducted at their respective programme centre. He said that employees who were making requests for exemption of duty on flimsy grounds would be dealt with severely and strict disciplinary action would be initiated against them. He said only genuine cases would be exempted.

He said that free and fair poll would be ensured and the polling staff had been briefed to remain neutral during duty and those violating the Election Commission guidelines would be severely dealt with severely.

One nomination paper filed in Bassi Pathana
Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, January.6
Yashveer Mahajan, Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer said on the second day of filling of nomination papers one Amar Nath Singh had filed in his nomination papers in the Bassi Pathana ( R) constituency as a BSP candidate in the office of Navjot Kaur, SDM-cum-Election Officer. He said that in other two constituencies Fatehgarh Sahib and Amloh no nomination paper was filed. He said nominations could be filed up to January 12 except Sunday.

COURTS

Case against Saji Mohan
Cross-examination over
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 6
In the drug pilferage case against former Narcotics Control Bureau Zonal Director Saji Mohan, the prosecution today completed the cross-examination of investigation officer Harcharan Singh Gill.

Bureau counsel Kailash Chander said 18 prosecution witnesses had recorded their statements till now. The Chandigarh Police had booked the IPS officer under various sections of the NDPS Act in 2009. Brought to Chandigarh on production warrants from a Maharashtra jail, Saji Mohan was present in court along with the other accused today.

SSP deposes in graft case against SI
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 6
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Naunihal Singh today deposed as prosecution witness in the district court here in connection with a corruption case against a UT police official.

The SSP recorded his statement as he had given sanction to the CBI to prosecute sub-inspector (SI) Nirmal Singh. The CBI had arrested Nirmal Singh while accepting a bribe of Rs 5,000 at the Sector-34 police station in May past year.

Subash Kumar of Sector 48 had lodged a complaint against Nirmal, alleging that the police official had been demanding Rs 5,000 from him for dropping his name in the chargesheet in a case registered against him.

Nirmal registered a case of assault and trespass on a complaint lodged by Rajinder Kaur of Sector 44 against Jasbir Singh, Jagga Singh and their friend Subash on May 18. Subash was later released on bail. Nirmal had told Subash that he would dilute the case if he gave him the money. Nirmal was caught at the police station, where he had called Subash to give him the money.

CRIME

Youth found murdered
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 6
A 20-year-old youth of Palsora village was found murdered near his residence here today. The victim, Monu, was a drug addict and had injuries on his head.

A passerby spotted the body and informed the police. The body bore a deep injury above the eye. The police recovered a syringe and a bottle containing contraband.

Vineet, brother of the victim, told the police that Monu left home past evening and did not return home at night. He further said Monu had a violent scuffle with Ajay and Kallan, residents of Palsora. Vineet alleged that the duo was behind the murder. A case of murder under Section 302 of the IPC was registered at the Sector-39 police station.

Shop burgled in P’kula
Cigarettes worth Rs 6 lakh stolen from Sector 6
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, January 6
Burglars broke into a shop in Sector 6 and decamped with cigarettes worth Rs six lakh here today.

Ironically, the shop is situated nearly 100 yards away from the police post set up in the market.

Sumit Singla, owner of Ganpati Traders, said he was a distributor of cigarettes and used to get the consignment from a company every Thursday.

A consignment worth Rs 6 lakh was received at the shop and thieves took away the bulk packings of cigarettes, he said.

Interestingly, no lock or door of the shop had been opened or damaged from outside by the thieves.

Singla said the shop had an entry from the rear side also.

While leaving for home, he had closed the rear door and locked it from inside before putting down the shutters on the front side of the shop.

As locks on the front shutter were intact the lock on the back door was found broken giving credence to the theory that some one had hidden himself in the shop before it was closed down for the night.

The police has started investigation and a case has been registered.

Consignment received every Thursday

}I am a distributor of cigarettes and get a consignment from a company every Thursday. A consignment worth Rs 6 lakh was received at my shop and thieves took away bulk packings of cigarettes~

— Sumit Singla, owner of Ganpati Traders

SPORTS

Flag hoisted upside down
Deepankar Sharda
Tribune News Service

In step: Students perform at the inaugural function of the 57th National School Games at Hockey Stadium, Sector 42, Chandigarh, on Friday. tribune photo: parvesh chauhan

Punjab and Manipur fencers in action during the National School Games at the skating rink in Sector 10 of Chandigarh on Friday. Tribune Photos: Parvesh Chauhan And Manoj Mahajan

Chandigarh, January 6
Going by the saying “To err is human; to forgive divine”, organisers of the ongoing 57th National School Games hoisted the flag of School Games Federation of India upside down, here.

The incident occurred during the inaugural function of the tournament at the hockey stadium in Sector 42, today. However, soon after realising the error, the organisers hoisted it correctly. Earlier, players from various states were welcomed by students of government schools.

Finance-cum-sports secretary VK Singh and Adviser to UT Administrator KK Sharma graced
the occasion.

Students presented a giddha. A total of 2,200 players are participating in the event. On the first day, events like choi-kwang-do, fencing, cricket and handball matches were organised.

Results

Cricket: Delhi bt Bihar by nine wickets; Punjab bt NVS by 23 runs; Chandigarh bt Chhattisgarh by nine wickets; Haryana bt Daman by 111 runs; Tamil Nadu bt Orissa by 77 runs; Maharashtra bt Karnataka by six wickets; Uttarakhand bt Puducherry by 53 runs; Uttara Pradesh bt Gujarat by nine wickets; IPSC bt West Bengal by 87 runs; KVS bt Andhra Pradesh by 105 runs; Kerala bt Goa by 118 runs; Madhya Pradesh bt Rajasthan by 35 runs;Dodge ball(Girls): Punjab bt UP 2-0; Chandigarh bt Haryana by 2-1; Handball(boys): Haryana bt Jharkhand by 4goals; Delhi bt Chattisgarh by 17 goals; handball (girls): Haryana bt Uttar Pradesh; Delhi bt Jharkhand; Himachal Pradesh bt Andhra Pradesh; Uttarakhand bt Madhya Pradesh; Dodgeball(boys): Punjab bt NVS 2-0; Delhi draw with Chandigarh; Maharahtra bt Kerala 2-0.

Punjab emerge cricket champs
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 6
The cricket team of Punjab won the first domestic championship of the season after defeating Delhi in the final of Col CK Nayudu Cricket Trophy (U-22) in Delhi.

On the final day, Delhi team were bowled out for 319 in 104.3 overs. Punjab medium pacer Baltej Singh took seven wickets.

During the day, Arjun Gupta added 10 runs to his score before being caught by Gitansh Khera off Siddharth Kaul for 75 off 172. Vikram Dahiya scored 16 off 9.

In reply, Punjab in their second innings scored 151 for 4 in 34 overs at the close of play.

Punjab lost their opener Kunwar Raina (4) and Pargat Singh (6) quickly, but Himanshu Chawla 40 off 56, including five boundaries, and Preet Kamal Singh 42 off 53 studded with eight boundaries steadied Punjab’s innings.

Later, Gurkirat Mann scored unbeaten 42 off 31, including six boundaries and two sixes.

For Delhi, bowling pair of Vikram Dahiya and Rishit Saini took two wickets each. The winning team won the match on the basis of first innings lead and 105 runs.

Scores

Punjab (first innings): 424 all out in 125.5 overs (Kunwar Raina 22, Jeevanjot 11, Preetkamal 10, Pargat Singh 78, Himanshu Chawla 21, Gitansh Khera 59, Gurkirat Singh 187, Siddharth Kaul 26,Sunny Sherawat 4 for 96, Vikram Dahiya 3 for 96 and Varun Sood 2 for 72).

Delhi (first innings): 319 in 104.3 overs (Dhruv Shorey 35, Milind Kumar 51, Vaibhav Rawat 23, Arjun Gupta 75, Varun Sood 55, Baltej Singh 7 for 88, Gurinder Singh 1 for 29, Siddharth Kaul 1 for 158 and Gunjot Singh 1 for 26).

Punjab (second innings): 132 for 4 in 32 overs at the close of play (Himanshu Chawla 40, Preetkamal 42, Jeevanjot Singh 12 not out and Gurkirat Mann 42 not out,Vikram Dahiya 2 for 52 and Rishit Saini 2 for 74).

HP outplay UP
Tribune News Service

Players in action during a volleyball match at the sports complex, Sector 46, Chandigarh, on Friday. Tribune photo: Parvesh Chauhan

Chandigarh, January 6
AG, Himachal Pradesh, spikers outplayed AG, Uttar Pradesh, in straight sets 3-0 to clinch the title of North Zone Indian Audit and Accounts Department (IA&AD) Volleyball Championship that concluded at the sports complex in Sector 46, here today.

Himachal Pradesh dominated the first set by a margin of 25-13, but Uttar Pradesh team came back in the match by a close margin of 25-27

In the final set, Himachal Pradesh overcame the rivals 25-13. Anil Nainta and Bhupinder Chouhan scored maximum points for the winning side, while Satyendra and Vimal Pandey were the star strikers for UP.

Mohinder Singh, Principal Accountant General (Audit), Punjab & UT, distributed prizes among the winners and runners-up.

Local shuttlers make it to men’s singles draw
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 6
Local shuttlers Oscar Bansal and Tushar Badechha booked their place in the men’s singles draw of the 76th Senior National Badminton Championship to be held in Bangaluru from January 17 to 25.

Officials of the Chandigarh Badminton Association said three shuttlers Varun Sharma, Vivek Sharma and Harmaninder Singh would compete in the qualifying round for making it to the main draw in the men’s singles.

Pankaj Naithani and Ashish Sharma have already marked their presence in men’s doubles main draw with Tushar Badechha and Harmaninder Singh.