NEIGHBOURHOOD

4 peddlers held as police intensifies campaign
Surinder Bhardwaj

Dera Bassi, August 17
Dera Bassi has been facing an acute traffic problem due to a lack of proper roads, crossings and overbridges on the national highway.

All roads leading to the local bus stand were facing frequent traffic jams. Commuters were also facing congestion on the tehsil road that connects various localities of the town. Residents said due to the absence of parking space near the tehsil road, the judicial and administrative complex should be shifted out of the town.

Traffic jams were also caused due to the absence of overbridges on the national highway. The construction remained suspended due to differences between the Centre and the state government over the cost sharing.

Traffic incharge Kulwinder Singh admitted the traffic problem on the national highway was caused due to the absence of an overbridge and roundabouts at proper points.

Residents expressed surprise as overbridges were constructed at Lalru, Dappar and Zirakpur, but Dera Bassi, which they claimed was the focal point of the area, still awaited construction of an overbridge. The resident demanded an overbridge be constructed at the earliest to solve the traffic problem.

Fatehgarh Sahib, August 17
Demanding a Rs 1000 hike in the honorarium given to them, a five-member delegation of the Asha Workers Union Punjab (ASUP) submitted a charter of demands to the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

The state ASUP president Kirandeep Kaur Panjola said other long-pending demands include Rs 500 as Diwali bonus, free bus travel, insurance, three day attendance facility in a week, and confirmation of Asha facilitators after one year service.

Panjola said their demands be accepted without further delay so that they too get the basic facilities as being provided to government employees.

Badal assured the delegation that a meeting in this regard would soon be held in Chandigarh.

Chandigarh, August 17
Seeking a thorough probe into the case involving irregularities in the theme park project, the complainant in the case moved an application in the CBI court yesterday asking the court as to why senior UT officials had been let off by the CBI and also asked the court during the course of arguments as to why former UT Administrator SF Rodrigues was not questioned even once though the CVC report had aroused suspicion that high-ups were involved.

The court accepted the application and had issued a notice to the CBI to file a reply by August 22.

The CBI had filed a closure report against three ex-UT Administration officials, including former UT Adviser Lalit Sharma (now retired), former UT Home Secretary Krishna Mohan and former director (tourism) Vivek Atray in April, this year.

A clean chit has been given to all the officials as well as MD of Unitech, a real estate company accused in the scam as per the CBI's closure report.

The CBI had registered the case in 2010 after a year long inquiry report in the investigation of a multi-crore mega project-amusement-cum-theme park.

The CBI had booked the two senior IAS officers, an HCS officer and a real estate company to whom the project was awarded by the Chandigarh Administration.

The CBI is yet to take a call on the closure report and the complainant Vivek Aditya has strongly objected to filing of the closure report.

The FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the multi-crore amusement-cum-theme park project scam stated that the Chandigarh Administration's former top bureaucrats in connivance with M/s Unitech Limited indulged in criminal conspiracy and awarded 73.65 acres of land in Sarangpur village to Unitech Limited at Rs 5.5-crore fixed annual licence fee and 1.1 per cent annual revenue sharing.

Chandigarh, August 17
A local court today framed charges of culpable homicide against eight accused involved in the murder of a youth at Aroma lights in January this year. Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Preeti Sahni framed charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of the IPC against all the accused.

While the UT police had initially registered a case of murder following the incident, it had dropped the charges of murder and converted the charges to culpable homicide in the chargesheet filed in the case in April.

The court framed charges under Section 304 IPC against Sukhjit Singh Sooch, a Mohali resident, Harsimranjeet Singh (28), a resident of Sector 44, Chandan Singh (24), Sandeep Kumar (27), Gautam Singh (23), all residents of Burail, Anand Singh (27) and Mahavir Singh (25), both residents of Sector 41, and Prashant Kumar Dabral (31), a resident of Sector 49.

The incident had occurred past midnight when 28-year-old Harminder Singh was killed following a scuffle outside the Aroma lights in Sector 22. The victim, an MBA student, had recently returned from Ireland and had gone to Aroma when he got into a scuffle with a group of youths. He was murdered in a spur of a moment and the attack was not pre-planned, the police had stated.

During the course of arguments of framing of charges, it was argued that the accused came out of the coffee shop while they were having ice-cream. The group then got into a scuffle with the youth and following verbal arguments, they beat Harminder up and stabbed him to death. The assaulting youths had fled leaving behind their Scorpio's number.

The case is now listed for next hearing in September when the trial will begin.

Chandigarh, August 17
The highly decomposed body of a 32-year-old senior auditor with the Punjab AG office was found at his Sector 41 residence here today. Anoop Lingwal allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself on August 14 and it was only today that the suicide came to light when neighbours noticed a foul smell emanating from his house and informed the police.

Anoop was alone in his house and his wife and two small children- a one-month-old boy and a two-year-old girl- were away to Rishikesh when he took the extreme step. A suicide note was recovered from the spot, which blamed his in-laws for mental harassment.

The police said it was questioning the victim’s sister based in Nayagaon and other family members.

The police has registered a case of abetment to suicide under Section 306 of the IPC against his in-laws who are yet to be arrested.

Chandigarh, August 17
Chandigarh took the vital first innings lead against Ludhiana on the second day of the four day match, which is being played at Sector 16, Chandigarh.

Medium pacer Baltez Singh had bowled a fiery spell to reduce Chandigarh to 62 for 3 in the first 29 overs. He had Simrat Bawa snapped by wicket Keeper Gitansh Khera for 17. Skipper Rahul Singla compounded Chandigarh’s misery when he had skipper Uday Kaul snapped by the wicket keeper Gitansh Khera for 25 and reduced Chandigarh to 90 for 4 in 42 overs.

At this stage Gurkirat Walia and Amit Prashar played a sensible knock and forged an unbeaten partnership of 158 runs for the fifth wicket, which took the hosts past Ludhiana’s modest total of 213.

Gurkirat Walia remained unbeaten on 76 off 205 balls, which included 13 crisply hit boundaries. Amit Prashar was also on the crease as the second day ended and he scored 87 off 179 balls. For Ludhiana Baltez Singh snapped 3 for 35.

Scores:

Ludhiana (First innings): 214 all out

Chandigarh (First innings): 248 for 4 (Gurkirat Walia 76 not out, Amit Prashar 87 not out; Baltez Singh 35-3 ).

Chandigarh, August 17
An unbeaten Partnership between Karan sood (51) and Rakshit Srivastava (24) enabled St Joseph's XI to beat Gurukul School, Manimajra, by ten wickets in the inaugural match of the fourth St Joseph’s Cricket Tournament. The tournament is being played at St Joseph’s school. The Gurukul XI won the toss and decided to bat first but accurate bowling by Divyansh, Avneet Singh and Aniket, who claimed two wickets each, reduced the Gurukul team to 89 runs in 20 over match.Later St Joseph’s team comfortably achieved the target without losing any wicket .

In the second match of the day, the brilliant unbeaten batting performance by Shashwat enabled Satluj Public School, Sec 4, Panchkula, to beat St Annes Convent school by 88 runs.

Panchkula, August 17
The 46th Haryana State Senior Open Badminton Championship, currently going on in Panchkula, saw two major upsets today when two unseeded players defeated 5th and 6th seeded players in the championship here.

Kamandeep Jind defeated 5th seeded Satinder Malik of Sonipat by 21-15,16-21,21-19 and in under-19 boys category Aman from Rohtak defeated 6th seeded Ketan of Panchkula.

CHandigarh, August 17
Chandigarh’s chess prodigy, 11-year-old Tarini Goyal, did the city proud by bagging a bronze medal in the 26th National Under-11 Chess Championship 2012, which concluded in Jamshedpur recently.

Her performance has ensured her a place for the Asian and the World Youth Championships next 
year, where she will represent India.

A student of Class VI, Sacred Heart Convent Sr Sec School, Tarini scored 8 points in the 11-round tournament.

During the tournament Tarini defeated many established players, including Supreetha of AP; Vantika and Palkin from Delhi; Stuti from Haryana; Samriddhaa Ghosh from Bengal and Kuber Chinmayee from Maharashtra. However, against Harshita, Toshali and Harshini, who were from Andhra Pradesh,Bidhar and Tamil Nadu, she had to contend with a draw.

While speaking on her achievement, Tarini said now she had set her eyes on the World Youth Championship title, which was eluding her since her participation in Turkey and Brazil in 2009 and 2011 respectively.

G B Joshi, Tarini’s coach, said he had always believed that there was a great chess player in making. Joshi has worked with a number of successful Indian players in the past.

Vipnesh Bhardwaj, Secretary of Chandigarh Chess Association (CCA), while congratulating Tarini Stated that the Chandigarh Chess Association was proud of her achievement and she would continue to inspire other young players from the northern region, where the game had become popular only recently.