Chandigarh, March 22
The prime accused in the fake degrees scam made hundreds of forged degrees of various universities sitting in the comfort of his home. The special investigating team (SIT) of the UT police recovered a whole factory of rubber stamps and a polymer rubber stamp-making machine from the Kharar residence of the prime accused in the scam, Raman Kumar, who resided in a rented accommodation there.

Using a computerised polymer stamp-making machine, which they used for making stamps of government authorities with utmost precision, the accused prepared rubber stamps, which were then used to stamp certificates.

In addition, the police recovered a large quantity of stamp material, including bottle of poly-gum, butter paper, glazing sheets, shampoo, toothbrush, packing tape yellow tape, print enhancer, scissors for making stamps. A colour printer, scanner, laptop for preparing fake and fabricated documents were also recovered.

DSP Anil Joshi said they recovered the machine from the rented accommodation of the accused in Kharar which was used to “authorise” the fake degrees by stamping them.

With the help of the machine, the accused prepared stamps dating back many years. Stamps were made in respect to the then presiding government official or registrar of that year.

The police said the accused made 108 stamps using the machine which belonged to Superintendent, District and Sessions Judge, Ludhiana, Examiner, Copying Branch, District and Sessions Judge Ludhiana, Registrar Birth and Death, Registration Unit, Municipal Committee, Hissar, Union Bank of India, Phase-1 Mohali, Krishana Auto Sales, Khajuria, Phagwara, Registrar Death and Birth, Kharar, Executive Magistrate, Karnal, Principal, Guru Nanak Dev Polytechnic, Bidar, Inspector Food & Supply, Assandh, Karnal, State Bank of Patiala, Phase 10, Mohali Assistant. Food and Supplies officer, UT, Chandigarh, Punjab National Bank, Patiala, Punjabi University and Kurukshetra University.

Meanwhile, a local court today extended the police custody of accused Varinder, Manjit and Raman by two days, while the remaining accused were sent to judicial custody.

In addition, the police raided the coaching centre of the accused women Mukta Sharma in Zirakpur-Sai Service Education Wing - and recovered documents from the office.

Chandigarh, March 19
High drama prevailed at a majority of city colleges today where it was virtually a day of protests against “hefty” fines being levied from students short of requisite number of lectures.

Accusing college authorities of overcharging them, students of DAV Sector 10 and Dev Samaj College raised a hue and cry today, saying the fine being levied, Rs 1100, was unjustified.

“It has come as a huge shock to us. Every year the fine was just about Rs 250 but this year they have asked us to pay Rs 1,100 to get our roll numbers. When we tried reasoning with them, they had no answer,” said a protesting student at DAV Sector 10.

“It may be OK with students of private colleges, but in our case it is totally unacceptable. We have been asked to pay 1,100 but are yet to get any reason for it. The colleges blackmail students at the 11th hour before the exams and levy hefty fines. The PU should take a note of it,” added a student of Dev Samaj College.

Even the students of Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College for Women accused the authorities of seeking Rs 6,500 from them despite being already issues a no-dues certificate.

Interestingly, when contacted, principals refused having levied any such fine or getting a single complaint..

“ It’s surprising for me to know all this as not even a single student has approached me so far. The university has prescribed fixed amount of fine for skipping lectures and that is what is being charged,” said Ashok Nanda, Principal, DAV Sector 10.

“Nobody has been asked for a whopping amount like Rs 6,500. The university norms talk about Re 1 per lecture missed and fine for mandatory tests missed by students and college is abiding by it only. Any student who feels she has been duped should contact me,” said Charanjit Kaur Principal GGSCW, Sector 26.

Chandigarh, March 22
After a long wait of 11 days, the UT Forest and Wildlife Department finally managed to capture the leopard stuck in a pipe underneath the runway in the IAF area here.

Experts of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the UT’s Forest and Wildlife Department officials carried out the operation in the evening. The mission was completed in around one hour with the tranquilising of the leopard. Immediately after tranquilising the animal, officials administered an antidote to the leopard.

UT Chief Conservator of Forests-cum-Chief Wildlife Warden Santosh Kumar said a team of veterinary doctors would check the leopard in the coming days and later the leopard would be released in the wild.

According to information, with the help of air force staff, the UT wildlife squad, led by Bhupinder Singh, broke the pipe from both ends and reached in the range of 3 feet from the leopard. Thereafter, he was first tranquilised and immediately the antidote was given. Around 8.30 pm, the team of veterinary doctors from Chattbir zoo checked and properly treated the leopard. Thereafter, he was put in a cage andtaken to Chattbir Zoo.

To lure the big cat, a live chicken and a goat were placed on both ends of the pipe as a bait, but the leopard was not coming out. Officials had put up a cage in front of the pipe to catch the leopard in case it ventured out. In the initial days, they had even tried to scare away the leopard with crackers and had put water inside the pipe but in vain.

Thereafter, the forest and wildlife department officials changed their strategy and decided to confine the leopard in a restricted area. After a day-long exercise on Tuesday, the officials had managed to confine the leopard under 25-foot area in the pipe. Thereafter, they had sought the help of the experts of the Wildlife Institute of India at Dehradun.

Chandigarh, March 22
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today set a 24-hour deadline for the Chandigarh Administration to remove tents pitched for the security of the judges outside their houses.

Directions on the removal of 62 tents pitched by the Punjab and Haryana Police are likely to follow on Friday, when the case comes up for further hearing.

The Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Mahesh Grover asserted: “Senior standing counsel for UT Administration Sanjay Kaushal has submitted that out of 12 tents, which have been hoisted by the Chandigarh Police, the majority are for the benefit of the judges of this court.”

“We stop further examination of the matter at this stage and direct the UT Administration to remove such tents by tomorrow and report compliance to the court by 10 am. At the same time, the UT Administration will ensure that adequate security is being provided to the Judges concerned.”

“Once the UT Administration acts in terms of this order and reports back to the court by tomorrow, further orders of similar nature will be passed by the court in respect of the other 62 tents, which have been hoisted by the Punjab and Haryana Police.”

Taking a suo motu cognisance of a Tribune report in the matter, Justice Ranjit Singh had earlier asserted “no one is above law, however so high he or she may be placed. The Chandigarh Administration needs to be asked to perform its functions in accordance with the law.”

Justice Ranjit Singh had also directed the issuance of notice to the Union Territory of Chandigarh through its Administrator “to show cause as to why these illegal encroachments etc be not removed”.

In an apparent attempt to prevent the encroachers from getting away with the illegalities, Justice Ranjit Singh in his detailed order had also made it clear to the administration to ensure all violating officers were brought under the ambit of law.

“Various violations done by influential officials or officers in the government accommodation allotted to them have been highlighted in the news-item, along with the photographs showing the illegal encroachments or constructions done by them.”

“The Chandigarh Administration would also carry out checks and report, if any such illegal construction or encroachment has been done by any other official or officer in the government houses allotted to them in Chandigarh”.

Chandigarh, March 22
Having food at the night food street located near the PGI, sector 14, will be cheaper from now as the Municipal Corporation has decided to decrease the eatables rates by 10 per cent from the existing rate list. This was decided at a meeting of the Finance and Contract Committee chaired by Mayor Raj Bala Malik here today.

Chandigarh, March 22
Despite the recent reports of honey bee attacks in the city in local newspapers, there is no department in the Municipal Corporation to deal with it. Interestingly, the MC officials of the health and horticulture wings are passing the buck on each other.

A Punjab police commando was attacked by honey bees near the police headquarters in Sector 9 today.

Records of the corporation revealed that on an average three or four complaints regarding inconvenience due to the presence of hives on the road side or in some buildings are made by the residents daily. According to the official records of the MC, a special cell has been constituted to deal with hives but after receiving any complaint they forward it to the horticulture wing.

But a majority of them are not entertained by any of the departments concerned with the excuse that they do not have any infrastructure to deal with it.

Sources in the corporation revealed that recently the MOH Department had sought legal opinion from the law officer as to whether the honey bee job is under the jurisdiction of the pest-control department. In reply to which the law officer had stated that it was not under the preview of the pest control as honey bee was not a pest.

After the receipt of the legal opinion, the MOH sent a communication to the horticulture department that it should be handled by them as a majority of the hives are on trees which are under its preview.

Surprisingly neither the MOH department has received any official communication to deal with hives nor is it being looked into by the horticulture department.

Chandigarh, March 22
Ironically four semi-automatic parking system, which were installed in different parking lots, have been left to be rusted and the authorities have mooted a fresh proposal of converting all parking sites in Sector 17 into fully automatic ones.

At a meeting of the Finance and Contract Committee chaired by Mayor Raj Bala Malik here today, it was decided that fully automatic system will be installed in all the parking lots in Sector 17. This is for the third time that a similar proposal of installing fully automatic parking systems had been proposed in a meeting of the committee.

The proposal of hike in parking fee has been unanimously deferred by the members of the committee on the ground that after upgrade of the parking lots they will consider increasing the parking fee for the public.

In the month of October last year four semi-automatic systems had been set up in the parking lots near Sahib Singh and Empire Store in Sector 17, Sector 22 B and Sector 35 B, but these have not become functional due to the delay in handing over these to the contractors. Sources said after the installation of the systems, two reminders had been sent to department looking after the parking lots to take over the infrastructure and utilise it but till date no response has been received from them.

In June, 2010, members of the committee had approved the installation of the automatic and semi-automatic access systems in four major parking lots of the city in the next few months.

Interestingly, the present committee which comprises the three former Mayors, is fully aware of the fact that the city parking lots are not designed for the installation of fully automatic systems.

In 2002, members of the then F&CC had reviewed the presentation of an Australian company on installation of electronic parking lots in the city. In that meeting the company had informed the members that city parking lots were not designed for installation of electronic parking system as most of them have one entry and exit point.

Chandigarh, March 22
The conditions laid down in the tender floated for a shop on the PGI campus has led to resentment among the chemist community following which the Chemist Association of Chandigarh has decided to refrain from the tendering process. Today was the last day to file the tender form.

Terming the conditions arbitrary, illegal and interventon the association, in a letter to the PGI authorities, sought their intervention in the matter.

The association organising secretary Deepak Batra said they had met the Deputy Director (Administration) who assured them of looking into the matter.

The PGI authorities had floated a tender for the lease of a chemist shop in the Gol Market on its campus on March 4. Several new conditions incorporated in the tender, however, left the potential contractors fuming.

Condition No. 42 requires the round-the-clock presence of licensee, they said. It was humanly impossible that the licensee shall himself remain present for 24 hours on the premises. Of course, he can remain present for specified hours, to be notified at the shop. This shows that the conditions have been imposed with oblique motive alone, contended the association.

According to condion No. 41 a contractor who surrenders the shop will be barred from bidding in the future. The association terming it as totally arbitrary said the shop could be surrendered due to failure in meeting the expenses. Under such circumstances disqualifying him for the future will be great injustice only, said Batra.

Further no time limit has been fixed for refund of security amount.

There is no time limit prescribed for refund of the security of the bidders, said the chemists. The tender has provision that contractor has to pay huge penalties and fines with 18 per cent interest in case he fails to make payments in time to the PGI, said the members the association.

Meanwhile, Manju Wadwalkar, spokesperson for the PGI, said the demands of the association would be considered by the Estate Committee, keeping the interests of patients at the fore. 

Panchkula, March 22
In a sheer display of its helplessness, officials of the Mata Mansa Devi Shrine Board were virtually robbed of all media identity cards and entry passes for the Navratra fair coverage by a group of hooligans posing as media persons here today.

Though the board officials declared the ‘looted’ identity cards as null and void and said it would be issuing fresh ones, it left the local journalists shocked at a press conference where gatecrashers pounded on them and took away all the passes.

The officials of the shrine board, district information and public relations had invited media persons for a brief regarding the fair arrangements and for the issuance of identity cards. As soon as the officials of the shrine board started distributing the passes, some unidentified persons pounded on the officials and grabbed the passes as the media persons witnessed the commotion silently. Most of the gatecrashers managed to take away about five or seven passes each along with blank identity cards.

Even the District Information Public Relations Officer could be seen distributing the ID cards to persons unknown to the local media outside the conference venue while the local media persons were sitting inside the conference hall.

The media persons gheraoed the office of the Chief Executive Officer, Mata Mansa Devi Shrine Board, DP Dattana, for about an hour, but to no avail.

When the DIPRO, Vinod Kasyap, was questioned about all this mismanagement, he expressed his helplessness stating that he had got the ID cards today only.

Later in the evening, all the ID cards issued earlier were cancelled and the media persons were directed through email to collect new ID cards and passes from his office late in the evening.

Mohali, March 22
The Punjab Human Rights Commission has sought a report from the Mohali Deputy Commissioner on the water crisis in Kambala village, near here.

Justice Baldev Singh and Baljinder Singh, members of the commission, in their order asked the DC to get the matter inquired into and send a report after taking effective steps in this regard before the next date of hearing on April 25.

The commission took prima facie cognisance of the matter under Section 17 (i) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

Jasdeepak Singh had alleged in a complaint to the commission that the water supply to Kambala village was disrupted from January 1 due to which residents were facing a lot of problems.

According to reports, residents have complained that after the tubewell in the area became non-functional in January, they had to depend on hand-pumps and water tankers to meet their daily needs. They said about three months had passed after the breaking down of the tubewell but the authorities had not yet made arrangements for adequate supply of water to the village.

The residents further said an assurance had been given by the authorities concerned to supply water from Kambali village. However, the supply was only for about an hour every day. Besides, the pressure was low with the result that the water did not reach all areas in the village.

The residents said prior to the tubewell becoming non-functional, muddy water was received by residents. Repairs were carried out on the tubewell after which the water quality improved for some time. Later, the tubewell stopped working.

The SDO (Rural) of the Department of Public Health, Balihar Singh, told The Tribune that there was a sudden break down of the tubwell in Kambala village. Now, a new tubewell would be sunk, the expenditure estimates for which had been sent to the higher authorities for approval. The SDO said that work on sinking the new tubewell had got delayed because of the Assembly elections in the state.

However, as a stopgap arrangement before the sinking of the new tubewell, a 1,000-metre water pipeline was being laid at a cost of Rs 4 lakh from Kambali to give relief to the Kambala residents, he added. 

Mohali, March 22
Genetic abnormalities inherited from parents or sporadic are considered to be the main reason for recurrent miscarriages. Other reasons could be structural defects in uterus like septum, fibroid, didelphus, adhesions in the cavity, etc, bacterial and viral infections like bacterial and viral. Smoking, alcohol intake, and drugs are also among major contributors to miscarriage.

This was stated by Dr Preeti Jindal, MD, DNB, MRCOG (UK), recurrent miscarriage specialist, who has taken the initiative of coming up with a recurrent miscarriage clinic at Max Hospital here today.

Earlier in the morning, Dr Usha Bansal, Civil Surgeon, Mohali inaugurated the clinic.

Dr Jindal said autoimmune and thrombophilic factors like antiphospholipid syndrome are most ignored but most successfully treatable causes of recurrent miscarriage.

Single miscarriage is seen in 20 per cent of the expectant mothers while two consecutive miscarriages are suffered by 5 per cent of the expecting mothers and three consecutive miscarriages are seen in one per cent of the expectant mothers and repeated miscarriages is being termed as recurrent miscarriage.

The new clinic has come as a hope for the region where there was a poor awareness level among the physicians and patients about disease management. 

Chandigarh, March 22
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Teachers Welfare Association (SSATWA) organised its general house meeting at the Jama Masjid Ground, Sector 20, yesterday where they re-emphasised their “Mission Regularisation”.

Arvind Rana, president of the SSATWA, said, “The meeting has been called to appeal to the finance-cum-education secretary, VK Singh, to direct the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Society, Chandigarh, to regularise the services of all the SSA teachers in a time bound manner. Even after the direction of the secretary MHRD, in a Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting held on March 24, 2011, to regularise the services of all the SSA teachers, the SSA Society and education department have done nothing in this regard. We shall now strive to get regularisation policy formed within next 20 days.”

Chandigarh, March 19
The controversy surrounding change of faculty by PU Senators brewed further today with the Registrar Office receiving around 10 applications so far. While Registrar AK Bhandari was unavailable the entire day, officials claimed that the applications were mostly from the Ashok Goyal group.

PUTA has taken a strong exception to the move, accusing Senators elbowing out professors. “They have stayed in these faculties for four years, chosen deans and Syndicate; and now when academic representatives wish to represent their faculties, they have decided to change for calculation of votes. Its high time the professors who know faculties inside out get to represent them,” said PUTA president Akshay Kumar.

Panchkula, March 22
Smt. Aruna Asaf Ali Government Postgraduate College, Kalka, held a national seminar on music today. The topic of the seminar was “Role of Music in Cultural Exchange” and it was sponsored by the Department of Higher Education, Haryana. Dr AP Singh, principal of Government College, Saha, was the chief guest on the occasion while Dr Shakuntla Naagar, Chairperson, Department of Music, Kurukshetra University, was the keynote speaker.

Besides paper presentations, performances by many distinguished resource persons held the audience spell-bound. Subhash Ghosh, a renowned artist of Saras Veena and disciple of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, played Swar Ragini.

Dr Dinkar Sharma, a disciple of Ustad Bhure Khan of Mumbai, played the harmonium while Gagan Hothi, a disciple of Ustad Budhaditya Muhkerjee, played sitar. Dr Harvinder Sharma, principal of the college and renowned sitar player, enthralled the audience with his performance. 

Mohali, March 3
Members of the Punjab School Education Board Association sat on a dharna following a ban on gate meetings by the board management here today.

Lodging a protest, the members of the association covered their mouths with black bands and displayed placards. The dharna started at 9 am and lasted for about two hours. The members alleged that the board had been facing a fund crunch and they had apprehension that they would not get the pay for this month. They also demanded to abolish the norm of giving bar codes on answer sheets. “If our demands are not meet, then the agitation would be intensified,” said Pawinder Singh Khangoora, president of the association. 

Chandigarh, March 19
Angry at private schools for turning away parents from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) seeking admission of their children under the RTE Act, the UT education department has issued show cause notice to prominent private schools including St Kabir School, Sector 26, Vivek High School, Sector 38, Carmel Convent School, Sector 9, and St Stephen School, Sector 45 .

The schools have been asked to comments on and give reason for not accepting the applications for the vacant RTE seats advertised yesterday, despite being instructed. “We have received many complaints and thus on basis of those have asked schools heads to explain why are they turning parents away. The parents are approaching schools on basis of the advertisements issued yesterday, so nobody can shoo them away,” said a senior official of the department.

The UT education department had through a public notice enlisted vacant RTE seats in schools and asked eligible EWS students to apply latest by March 27. However, true to their stand, private schools in the city refused to accept applications, and in many cases shooed away the parents. While some claimed to be closed for end of term holidays, others turned parents away saying they had no vacant seats or had closed admissions. Some even, reportedly, demanded money.

The schools, however, were unperturbed as the president of Independents School Association, HS Mamik, said,” We have not got a notice as yet and will reply to it as and when we get it. We waited for three months with empty seats but the UT didn’t do anything. We are on the right side of law.”

Chandigarh, March 19
In a development which has left the Panjab University fraternity in a shock, Dean University Instructions, BS Brar, who is also the Director of ICSSR, has accused the centre supervisor Avtar Singh of blackmailing him for not hiring his son.

Submitting a set of emails sent by the concerned employee, Brar has claimed that he is being blackmailed and his image maligned, as he did not give in to any pressure of Senators and politicians to make this unjustified appointment. Interestingly, the mails name a Senator promising to have ‘worked out’ the appointment of VC.

When contacted, Avtar Singh said that his son did apply for the post and was eligible, but Brar did not hire him because Avtar had unearthed several wrong doings at the ICSSR. “ We have not received our salary for the month of Feburary till now. The budget of around 40 lakhs is lies unused and employees are being harassed becausde I highlighted the problems. So I am being victimised.”

Brar however refuted the claims saying , “A few days ago this man sang praises lauding my work. The emails will bring to fore the dirty politics which irks workers like me. I have had enough and will soon sort the issue with the VC.”