NEIGHBOURHOOD

Two persons electrocuted
Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, February 15
A Dera Bassi-based property dealer was murdered on Thursday night.

The victim was identified as Rajesh Kumar Bittu, resident of Dera Bassi. Police registered a case against seven accused under sections 302,148 and 149 of the Criminal Procedure Code, but no accused has been arrested till now. Those booked in the case include Rakesh Bansal, Rakesh Mehta Mandal, president of BJP, and Shiv Chand Toni, all residents of Dera Bassi, Joga Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Gurmail Singh and Ranbeer Singh, all residents of Jawaharpur. Meanwhile, relatives of the deceased as also residents of Dera Bassi blocked the Ambala-Chandigarh national highway for some time to demand the arrest of all accused. Police said the victim was found murdered last night in front of his house at Preet Nagar, Dera Bassi. Police said iron rods had been used in this murder. 

Ambala, February 15
The construction of commercial establishments in violation of the building bylaws has been going on in the Sadar area of Ambala Cantonment since 2006.

Despite the fact that the civic body's office is at a stone's throw from the area, the officials have failed to check the violation.

In 2006, the state government had set stringent norms for the passing of building plans due to legal implications involving the possession and ownership of land in the area. Though the land has been leased for the past over 150 years, it actually belongs to the cantonment board.

Even before 2006, the individuals who had no ownership rights over the land had leased it out to others at exorbitant rates which at times ran into lakhs of rupees per square yard. After a high-level meeting, the government decided to set stringent norm for further leasing out the land in the Sadar area, for which the authorities started asking the aspirants to produce century-old documents pertaining to the land.

As the aspirants could not produce these documents, the building plans were not approved in the area.

Ever since the stringent norms were set by the local authorities, more than a 100 commercial buildings came up in the Sadar area while the civic authorities gave in writing that only eight building plans had been approved till October 2010. Even today, more than 70 buildings are being constructed in the area.

The municipal authorities had recently thwarted the construction of 12 buildings as these were being raised without any approval. However, no action has been taken against 70 buildings.

Sanjay Yadav, who recently assumed the charge of the secretary of the civic body, feigned ignorance about the matter. He assured that the matter would be looked into and action would be taken as per the law. Narinder Singh, a local resident, lamented that while the commoners were facing a "difficulty" in getting the building plans approved, the influential were finding it easy to carry out construction even if those were illegal.

Chandigarh, February 15
In the CLTA-AITA Talent Series tennis tournament, top seed Prinkle Singh of Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA) after losing first set played aggressive tennis to win the next two sets and won the girls under-12 singles title.

In girls under-16, top seed Gayatri Kumarahia of Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association defeated unseeded Sarah Dev to win the singles title.

In the first set, she faced some resistance from Sarah. The set went to tie-breaker. Gayatri won 7-3 in the tie-breaker.

In the next set, she took an early lead and maintained it to finish the set at 6-3. Fourth seeded Ishan Anirudh Sethi defeated top seed Yuvraj Singh Kooka 6-2, 6-1 to win the under-12 boys title. Second seed Param Pun had a straight set victory over qualifier Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association trainee Calvin Golmei. Param Pun used his experience and good shot selection to dominate in the match and had an easy 6-1, 6-0 win.

Chandigarh, February 15
In the CLTA-AITA Talent Series tennis tournament, top seed Prinkle Singh of Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA) after losing first set played aggressive tennis to win the next two sets and won the girls under-12 singles title.

In girls under-16, top seed Gayatri Kumarahia of Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association defeated unseeded Sarah Dev to win the singles title.

In the first set, she faced some resistance from Sarah. The set went to tie-breaker. Gayatri won 7-3 in the tie-breaker.

In the next set, she took an early lead and maintained it to finish the set at 6-3. Fourth seeded Ishan Anirudh Sethi defeated top seed Yuvraj Singh Kooka 6-2, 6-1 to win the under-12 boys title. Second seed Param Pun had a straight set victory over qualifier Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association trainee Calvin Golmei. Param Pun used his experience and good shot selection to dominate in the match and had an easy 6-1, 6-0 win.