Chandigarh, January 29
With the chaos ruling the district courts, questions are being raised on the planning of the UT Administration as the "learned engineers and officials" have failed to pay attention to the need of parking space for litigants.

Hundreds of litigants, who visit the courts everyday, will continue to battle for parking space at the uneven land outside the complex since it will take the Administration three more years to come up with a multi-level parking.

The otherwise swanky complex, visited by a number of litigants as well as lawyers, has an inbuilt parking with a limited space. The parking is reserved for lawyers and other court officials. The dearth of parking space for litigants and other visitors came to light yesterday.

There was chaos outside the complex on the first day and the situation continued to be the same today, with visitors struggling to find parking space.

The shifting was done mindlessly, caring a little about the inconvenience to the visitors, who were left on their own to manage stationing of the vehicles.

Facing criticism from the public as well as the media on the first day, the authorities today put up a board at the land adjacent to the court calling it a "public parking". The provisional parking area, however, lacks levelling, proper system of parking and supervision.

Chandigarh, January 29
Exposing the lack of proper planning, there is a shortage of seating arrangements for the public prosecutors at the new District Courts Complex in Sector 43.

With as many as 10 new courts set to be operational with the joining of four ADJs and six magistrates in the near future, the public prosecutors as well as those who will join once the new courts are operational, will have to fight for space.

While the authorities made tall claims of having proper infrastructure, the inadequacies were exposed on the second day when the public prosecutors were seen fighting for space. There are 12 ADAs (Assistant District Attorneys) and four DDAs (Deputy District Attorney) in the district courts and all of them, including eight clerks, librarians and stenographers, have been allotted a small hall in the new complex with a few tables.

The public prosecutors had a tough time today as they were seen jostling for space. A public prosecutor said there was no space for them to talk at length with the witnesses. “We do not have adequate space to sit as a small hall cannot accommodate so many public prosecutors,” he said.

Moreover, there is no room to keep police files. The naib courts were puzzled as to where to store the files. Unlike in the old district courts building where naib courts were allotted a separate room, there is no such facility in the new complex.

Chandigarh, January 29
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today arrested a Punjab Police assistant sub-inspector while accepting a bribe of Rs 45,000 from the owner of Healthyway Immigration, Amit Kakkar.

The CBI laid a trap at the Healthyway office in Sector 42 where ASI Bhupinder Singh had come to take the bribe. The complainant had told the CBI that the accused ASI, posted in Jalandhar, was demanding bribe from him for not registering a case of cheating against him. The ASI had received a complaint.

The accused ASI initially demanded Rs 50,000 and then the deal was struck for Rs 45,000. A trap was laid and the accused was caught red-handed.

Incidentally, the CBI complainant Amit Kakkar was in the news in 2010 for duping over 20 persons on the pretext of sending them abroad. He was arrested and his office was sealed. The UT police had registered over 10 FIRs against him in a fraud case.

Chandigarh, January 29
A 15-year-old corruption case against a former estate manager of the PGI ended abruptly today with the court being informed about the death of the accused in Canada.

While the death certificate read that the accused died four months ago, the CBI court had initiated the PO proceedings against the accused last month. Moreover, the MHA had sent notices to the accused under the extradition treaty at least four times since 2010 and the accused was hiding in Canada ever since he retired in 2007.

The CBI registered the case in July 1997 following a complaint by GL Sood, who used to work as a manager at a shop in the PGI. He had complained to the CBI that the then PGI estate manager, Lt Colonel Mangal Singh Sodhi (retd), was harassing for bribe. ML Sodhi was the in charge for the allotment of shops at that time and he threatened the complainant to give the bribe, otherwise he would throw his belongings out of the shop.

A trap was laid and the accused was arrested. However, in 2000, the CBI filed a closure report stating that the allegations were not substantiated from statements of the shadow and the recovery witnesses.

The court rejected the closure report and ordered reinvestigations. The CBI filed a closure report in the case again in 2005, then in 2006 and again in 2009, but each time the court ordered reinvestigation. The court then took cognisance and ordered for a fresh FIR to be registered on November 14, 2009, and to summon the accused.

The accused had retired in 2007 and settled in Canada. The court sent an Interpol notice in April 2010 to look out for accused and sought extradition in terms of the extradition treaty between the two countries. The accused failed to appear in court and notices were sent through the MHA four times in 2010 and in 2011.

Finally, the court issued bailable warrants of Rs 50,000 against the accused in January 2010.

In response to the MHA notices, the Canadian government informed: “Under the Canadian Law, a warrant of arrest issued by a foreign country is of no force.”

Last month, the court initiated the PO proceedings against the accused.

Today, the CBI court received a death certificate issued by Scott Funeral Home that the accused, ML Sodhi, died four months ago.

The court then ordered that the proceedings against the accused be dropped.

Chandigarh, January 29
Next time, think twice before choosing an isolated place for a chit-chat session on the PU campus. To keep a check on couples sitting in cars at isolated places in the PU, patrolling has been started.

Following the Delhi gang rape, security guards have been directed to keep an eye on such couples.

The university's security guards have intensified patrolling in isolated areas and shady corners.

They have been directed to ask the couples to leave.

The areas identified by the security include the parking of the department of Indian theatre, parking at the rear of the English department and the UBS department, road opposite the main ground of the PU and parking area near Aruna Chandra Hall. Chief security officer (CSO) PK Dhawan said the security had been asked not to let students park their vehicles at isolated places in the evening.

The patrolling will continue till 11 pm. The CSO said the students could meet their friends in the PU market and outside the girls hostels in the evening.

Panjab University Campus Student Council president Satinder Singh said the university's security had no right to ask the students to leave even if they were found sitting in an isolated place.

"The PU security has even started harassing the couples who are taking a stroll in parks near residential areas which is unacceptable," said the president.

Chandigarh, January 29
In a shocking incident, 13-year-old Moniti Kapoor, a Class VIII student of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, died following a cardiac arrest during school hours today.

Eyewitnesses said the teenager collapsed after having lunch.

The post-mortem report revealed that the deceased suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.

A schoolteacher rushed her to the hospital, where she was declared brought dead. Family sources said her younger brother, too, died after collapsing in the school last year.

“I rushed her to Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, but doctors declared her brought dead. She was a good student,” said Samsher, a schoolteacher.

The deceased’s grandfather, however, said the school authorities failed to provide first aid to Moniti.

Chandigarh, January 29
UT Administrator Shivraj V Patil today told the officials of the UT Administration to speed up the work on the Metro project and master plan 2031.

At a meeting, senior officials informed the Administrator about the present status of both the projects. They informed Patil that they had started physical demarcation of the Metro routes. The Administration is demarcating the Metro routes, as they had received representations from the residents of Sector 35, 21, 22 etc. The UT has plans to acquire land in these sectors for Metro routes.

Regarding the master plan, an official of the UT Administration said that they were preparing the final copy. Recently, Patil had told the UT Chief Architect to submit the final copy of the master plan.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed the UT Administration to complete the master plan. The Administration had to seek several extensions for its completion.

Mohali, January 29
With the creation of 80,013 wards in 22 districts of the state, the Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Department has completed the delimitation (wardbandi) process for the upcoming panchayat elections.

“Now, the ball is in the court of the Election Commission as it will set the election date. We have also sent a communiqué to the Commission in this regard. The entire data related to “wardbandi” will be sent to the Commission by January 31,” said Jaspal Singh, deputy director (panchayat).

He said as many as 375 new gram panchayats had been created. “With the addition of new gram panchayats, now the number of total panchayats in the state is 13,095,” said Jaspal Singh.

Earlier, the number of panchayats in the state was 12,775, out of which 46 have already been merged with their respective municipal councils.

With a total of 7,824 wards, Hoshiarpur district is at the top of the table, followed by Gurdaspur with 7,279 wards. Barnala district is at the bottom of the table with 1,270 wards.

The villages having population of 300 or above have been divided into minimum 5 and maximum 13 wards. The villages with population less than 300 have been merged with other villages for the purpose. In the villages where the Scheduled Castes comprise of more than 30 per cent of the total population, two seats out of the five have been reserved.

The department has received as many as 5,227 objections against the “wardbandi”.

Chandigarh, January 29
It was difficult for friends of Moniti Kapoorto believe that she was no more,when she suddenly collapsed while on her way to her classroom. Her friends tried their best to revive her by sprinkling water on her face but to no avail.

The incident inside the school premises has left her four friends in a shock of state.

“Everything happened suddenly, we had lunch, went to the washroom and on our way to the classroom, she collapsed. White froth was coming out from her mouth, there was blood on her tongue” said Divya, one of her friends.

The incident took place at 11.40 am and later at 2pm, the police officials approached the school to record the statement.

“We thought it was a fit. Soon after we realized that she was unconscious, our teachers took her to the hospital. And now, these officials informed us that she is dead. She was a very good friend”, said Komal, another friend.“We don’t know what to say. She was with us today. The police personnel told us about her sudden death” said Deepinder and Komal.Her class teacher, Sheetal, added, “She was an average student, but had a cheerful personality. Her sudden death has left us in a shock. She never complained about any illness”, she said.

Mohali, January 29
The director of the Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Department, SK Raju, has put stay on the allotment of five 5-marla houses for poor at Sanetta village here following the complaints of favouritism in allotting these to the ineligible persons.

While issuing the stay orders, SK Raju directed the District Development Panchayat officer to stop the allotment process of the houses in question. He has also set January 31 as the next hearing in the case.

Notably, the Punjab Government had made a scheme to construct 249 houses on the common land of Sanetta village, located on the Landran-Banur Highway, and gave those to the homeless people of the village.

Two residents of the village, Dr Anwar Hussain and Parkash Malra, lodged a complaint with the director that the village panchayat had given five houses to ineligible persons, who were the members of one family. They also alleged that the houses were also given to some panchayat members, ex-panchayat members and other influential persons of the village while depriving the right of the poor.

“The panchayat had sent a list of 149 persons to the government, while according to the resolution as many as 249 houses were to be given,” said Dr Anwar Hussain while talking to mediapersons here today.

On the other hand, Chaudhary Sanjiv Kumar, sarpanch of the village, termed all allegations baseless and claimed that the panchayat had no role in finalising the list of allottees.

“The government had constituted a committee, consisting SDM and BDPO, which had finalised the list of 149 after various surveys. We (the panchayat) had given the government a list of 249 persons,” claimed the sarpanch.

The complainants claimed that they had also approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court in this connection. “The court had directed us to approach the director, panchayats, first in this regard,” they said.

Earlier, under the scheme, the government had decided to give the poor and homeless residents of the village 5-marla plots and Rs 1.25 lakh each for construction. But after that, the government decided to handover the constructed houses to the eligible persons.

Mohali, January 29
With one more patient admitted to a hospital with swine-flu symptoms, the number of such patients, including those from outside Mohali district, has gone up to 24. According to reports, a patient from Baltana, was admitted to the GMCH, Sector 32, Chandigarh, yesterday.

Dr Neelam Bhardwaj, Civil Surgeon, said that 24 confirmed cases of swine flu had been reported from the district. Out of these, only 10 patients were from the district, while 14 were from outside the district, but underwent treatment at private hospitals in Mohali.

She further said that out of the 10 patients of swine flu from Mohali district, three had died while four deaths had taken place out of the 14 patients from outside the district.

Chandigarh, January 29
In order to grant six-month extension to the retiring CITCO employees, the Board of Directors of CITCO, in its meeting held at Hotel Parkview today under the chairmanship of Home Secretary Anil Kumar, gave approval for taking up the matter with the Chandigarh Administration.

The Board also approved the annual accounts of CITCO for the Financial Year 2011-2012.

The Board of Directors decided that in order to frame the future course of action, a strategic consultant may be appointed and a sub-committee constituted for the purpose.

The consultant would study the existing systems and give suggestions. The board further gave approval for LCDs and mini bars in the deluxe rooms of Hotel Parkview.

The board also gave its concurrence for taking over the management and operation of Petrol Station in Sector 33, Chandigarh. It further allowed one-year extension for the management of SAIL Stockyard, being run at Industrial Area, Phase I, Chandigarh.