NEIGHBOURHOOD

Zonal youth festival concludes
Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, October 6
On the concluding day of the zonal youth festival of Punjabi University (Fatehgarh zone), which was hosted by Cordia Group of Educational Institutes, Sanghol, Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib, won the overall trophy and Patel Memorial College, Rajpura, was declared as runner-up. The third place was bagged by BZSFS Girls College, Morinda. Over one thousand students from 37 colleges had participated in the competition.

The prizes to were distributed by Lord Diljit Rana, honorary counsel of India to north Ireland.

He emphasised that education should be imparted in a right manner so that students could have proper employment opportunities. He said extra-curriculum activities were important for the overall development of students.

Banur, October 6
The Banur police has seized duplicate electricity wires from a electricity shop at Gajjukhera village on Saturday. Ravinder Kumar Grover, resident of Gajjukhera village, was arrested and a case under the Copy Right Act, 1957, has been registered against him. 

The police said the accused was selling duplicate wires by pasting illegal stamps of Havells company. The seized wires were of worth Rs three lakh. The accused was running an electricity shop from where the wires were seized. 

Ambala, October 6
An inter-school debate competition on topic social networking was organised at Chaman Vatika Public School, Ambala City. 10 schools participated in the competition. Aniket Singh of Convent of Sacred Heart and Monika Banerjee of SD Public School were adjudged the best speakers of the competition. Chaman Vatika bagged the best team award followed by PKR Jain Vatika School and St Stephen's School, Chandigarh. The participants were awarded with mementos and certificates.

Rajinder Nath, chairman of the school, stressed that winning a competition was not as important as knowledge of social networking. 

Chandigarh, October 6
The issue of paid maternity leave to the contractual female employees working in different government departments in UT has further got fillip after the Central Administrative Tribunal, Chandigarh, in its latest judgment, on September 21 last month, ordered the Chandigarh administration to grant paid maternity leave to 11 contractual female teachers working in Chandigarh government schools.

At present, the administration allows only 12-week of maternity leave without pay, admissible only to such employees who have completed a minimum of one year of their contract successfully.

Disposing the case on the basis of its earlier judgement given in case of Rupinderjit Kaur, dated on October 28, 2010, the CAT said the issue in the present case is no longer res integra and has already been decided in several cases including in the case of Krishan Kumar Vs Union of India and in the case of Rekha Rani Vs Union of India and upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In these cases, it has been held that female contractual employees are entitled to be paid maternity leave.

Legal counsellor of the 11 female teachers, Raj Kaushik, said this issue had also been settled in various judgments of Supreme Court. “In this case, the CAT order clearly states that female contractual employees are entitled to get salary against their maternity leave period. The Chandigarh Administration, therefore, must comply with these judgments and amend its recruitment rules in favour in female contractual employees.”

But as per the information, till last year, there was even no policy in the UT to grant maternity leave without pay to its female contractual employees. It was in April this year that the personal department sent letter to all the departments of the UT to strictly comply with 12 weeks of maternity leave without pay to their contractual employees.

A female contractual teacher said the matter has not been addressed on priority basis in Chandigarh despite having many judgments on this issue.

“We should be entitled for at least six months of maternity leave with salary as ruled by Supreme Court in one of its judgement than 84 days of unpaid maternity level, allowed by UT at present.”

Prerna Puri, additional secretary (Home) said the department could not comment on it without studying CAT’s fresh judgement.

Mohali, October 6
The local court announced 10-year imprisonment to the three people, accused of possessing drugs, here today. The accused Rajesh Kumar, Ashwini Kumar and Vijay Kumar, all from Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, had been arrested with 2.20 kg opium at Kharar in February 2010. Along with imprisonment, the court had also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on each of them.

Chandigarh, October 6
A Punjab Police DSP, who has been posted in Chandigarh, has filed an eve-teasing complaint against a resident of the city alleging that the latter threatened, sent objectionable SMSes and teased his daughter. The DSP, Jilla Singh, who has been posted at the CID wing of the Punjab Police in Chandigarh, has filed the complaint against Deepak, a resident of Sector 27.

Police officials confirmed that the DSP, who resides in Sector 38, had complained to the police against Deepak, following which a case was registered at the Sector-39 police station.

Inspector Charanjeet Singh, SHO of the Sector-39 police station, said the DSP earlier resided in Sector 20 and Deepak also lived in the same sector. “The DSP’s daughter and Deepak came to know each other while they were staying in Sector 20,” he said, adding that later on Deepak started compelling the complainant’s daughter for marriage, she refused. Following here refusal for marriage, Deepak started threatening her.

In the meanwhile, the DSP, along with his family, shifted to Sector 38 and Deepak moved to Sector 27.

The police stated that the DSP complained that he, along with his wife, son and daughter, were receiving threats and objectionable SMSes on their mobile phone from unknown numbers and they suspected Deepak was sending those SMSes.

Earlier, the DSP had made a complaint to the women’s cell where it was decided that Deepak would delete all the SMSes and a picture of the complainant’s daughter from his mobile phone. However, after that Deepak started sending objectionable SMSes to the entire family.

The mobile numbers from which the SMSes were sent are under surveillance. The police stated that Deepak had been threatening the DSP’s daughter for the last few months. A case under sections 294, 323, 506 and 507 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered and an inquiry initiated.

No arrest has been made so far.

Girl’s entire family harassed

Earlier, the DSP had made a complaint to the women’s cell where it was decided that accused Deepak will delete all the SMSes and a picture of the complainant’s daughter from his mobile phone. However, after that Deepak started sending objectionable SMSes to the entire family.

Mohali, October 6
A 25-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself at her resident in Phase 7 today.

The victim, Rekha, a student of PGDCA in Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45, was said to be under depression. No suicide note has been found from the spot.

The victim's father works as an agent at Grain Market, Sector 26. The police has started investigation.

Chandigarh, October 6
The second day of the ongoing Inter-College Boxing Tournament for men at the PU witnessed players opposing referees’ decision. The boxer, representing PU, Anil Kumar Chahal, staged a protest after he alleged favouritism by a panel of referees to advance his opponent Surinder to the next level. Surinder of GGDSD College, Sector 32, Chandigarh, beat Anil Kumar in a closely fought match, held in 57 kg.

The complainant, Anil, later said he had registered his complaint to the Vice-Chancellor as well as the director sports, UT. Yesterday too, there was protest by some boxers who alleged that local boxers were being favoured in the tournament.

Results of final bouts held on October 6, 2012:

48 Kg Shubham, DAV b Sumit, SGGS Chandigarh.

51 Kg: Naveen SD-32 b Sunil, Khalsa College. 54 Kg: Ashish, AS. College, Khanna b Gurmeet, SGGS, Mahilpur. 57 Kg: Surinder, SD-32 b Anil, PU. 60 Kg: Subham, SGGS b Ashish, SD-32. 64 Kg: Intzar, Govt College, Muktsar b Khushpreet, AS College, Khanna. 69 Kg: Gaganpreet, SD-32, b Sandeep, SGGS. 75 Kg: Sukhdeep, SR College, Dalla, b Arun, GPC, Alour. 81 Kg: Vishwajeet, PU b Shamshad, Govt. College, Muktsar. 91 Kg: Rajbir, SD b Dharamvir, PGGC-11. +91kg Deepinder, SD-32, b Channpreet, Malwa College, Samrala. — TNS