Chandigarh, April 10
The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) stadium witnessed a sea of cricket buffs during the first match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings this evening.

Though the match was scheduled for 8 pm, the spectators started queuing up at the entry gates at 6 pm.

“We came early to gain an easy entry to the stadium. But after reaching here, we had to wait for long,” said Kavita Kumar, a spectator.

“We never expected such a mad rush of spectators for the first match. People have come to see Dhoni in action, said another spectator Aiysha Chaudhary. Long queues were witnessed at gate numbers 4, 5, 6, 7, 11 and 12 of the stadium. There was no separate queue for women.

Chandigarh, April 10
Detecting cancer at an early stage will now be convenient as a super-speciality molecular diagnostic lab, capable of detecting cancers and other genetic diseases, has been set up in Chandigarh.

The lab has the facility to diagnose all kinds of DNA/RNA extraction procedure tests and will facilitate the PGIMER in examining the samples. After collecting the samples, reports will be out in 24 hours.

Panchkula, April 10
In its reply to the court in the Jyoti murder case, the Panchkula police today said it was not mandatory for it to supply the copies of the chargesheet to all the accused at the same time. The court had pulled up the police after it failed to provide the copies of the challan to the accused.

Ram Kumar Chaudhary, the main accused, had applied for bail on a plea that documents in the chargesheet were not complete and the challan filed by the police had flaws.

In its reply, the police said as per Section 173(7) of the CrPC, it was not mandatory for the investigation officer to supply the copies of the challan to all the accused at the same time.” 

Panchkula, April 10
In a shocking incident, a man allegedly pushed his wife and banged her head against a wall and tried to run his car over her and his seven-year-old ailing son on the premises of the Panchkula court this afternoon.

The couple had a matrimonial dispute and the victim, Vinita Kaul, had come to the court to record her statement.

Vinita fell unconscious after the incident and was rushed to the Sector 6 general hospital. Her son, Swarit, who has a hole in his heart, also suffered injuries on his knees.

Following the matrimonial dispute, Vinita has been living with her parents in Sector 20, Panchkula. Her husband works in a company at Gurgaon.

“Vinita had just come out of the courtroom with Swarit when Himanshu, in a fit of rage, banged her head against the wall. He also pushed her and she was about to fall from the second floor. He did not even bother about his son who had also suffered injuries,” said Navin Kaul, the victim’s brother. He added: “As if this was not enough. Himanshu tried to run his car over Vinita when she was crossing a road near the court.”

The victim’s father, Vijay Kaul, was also injured while trying to save Vinita and his grandson. “We could not believe our eyes. We just rushed to save the child,” said Ram Kumar, an eyewitness.

The registration number of Himanshu’s car was flashed across all PCRs, but managed to flee.

Panchkula, April 10
Festivities have begun at the Mansa Devi temple and those visiting the temple are set to usher in Navratras in a special way tomorrow. A special corner has been set up near the main entrance gate where couples will be seen taking pledging against female foeticide.

“A few NGOs will be helping us. It is actually a very nice initiative because many people visit the shrine and it is the best platform to make them aware about the issue,” said DP Dattana, Chief Executive officer (CEO) of the Mansa Devi Shrine Board.

He further added, “Some devotees are less educated and I believe this will be the right place to tell them and make them aware of what is happening in the society and what steps should be taken to eradicate female foeticide.”

The preparations are on in full swing and arrangements for the golf carts have also been made to facilitate the elderly and physically challenged. These were introduced during the last Navrtras to give them a hassle-free darshan.

Not only this, for the first time, a zig-zag railing has also been constructed so that devotees may not have to stand in long queues and more can be accommodated.

For the first time, a medical camp is also being held for women. A mammography machine from the PGI has been installed so that women visiting the temple can get a free check up done.

Other than the normal ‘prashad’, devotees will be able to quench their thirst at ‘chabeel’ stalls set up at various corners of the temple.

To avoid any untoward incident, the Commissioner of Police, Rajbir Deswal, has begun the verification exercise of the slum dwellers who are putting up near the Mansa Devi temple. 

Chandigarh, April 10
A family has lost its young member in a road accident due to stray cattle and Congress and BJP leaders are busy playing politics over the stray cattle menace instead of supporting the family.

The committee, which was constituted to check the status of gaushalas of other states before starting the process of shifting unclaimed impounded cattle from the city, cancelled its visit scheduled for April 10 due to petty politics being played between the Congress and the BJP.

Congress councillors and the Mayor claim that the BJP councillors are not serious about the issue, whereas, the BJP councillors said that they would go to gaushalas only if the Mayor accompanied them as the Mayor was the chairman of the committee.

Committee member and Congress councillor Mukesh Bassi said that the BJP councillors only levelled allegations but when the time came for them to act, they never come forward. Initially, a three-member committee involving two BJP-SAD members was formed on the issue, but their members boycotted the committee. Today again, instead of visiting the Delhi-based gaushala, they made ‘excuse’ that they would go only with the Mayor. The BJP councillors should not politicise the issue, he added.

Whereas BJP councillor and committee member Arun Sood said that Mayor was the chairman of the committee and he should accompany the committee members. In the absence of the Mayor, the committee would become useless therefore they wanted that they would visit the gaushalas only if the Mayor went with them. The claim of the Mayor and the Congress councillors that they are serious about the stray cattle issue is far from reality, Sood added.

Mayor Subhash Chawla said that it was decided that the committee members would visit gaushalas, but today the BJP took a stand that the Mayor should also go with them. The Deputy Mayor was ready to go with the BJP councillors but they did not agree. The menace was a serious issue and he had been meeting various NGOs soon they would start shifting the stray cattle to other gaushalas.

Chandigarh, April 10
The UT Administration's bid to ease congestion by installing traffic lights at the Sector 29-30-31-32 roundabout on Dakshin Marg has added to the chaos.

With scores of ambulances taking the road to reach Government Medical College Hospital (GMCH-32) everyday, traffic jams have become a routine affair on the stretch.

Mandeep Singh, a commuter, said, "In order to reach the hospital on time, ambulances coming from Ambala take the road and get stuck in snarl-ups. As a result of which, crucial minutes can turn out to be fatal for a patient," he said.

Interestingly, with a new traffic light point installed on the Dakshin Marg, there are now six traffic lights in a row from Tribune chowk to the Kisan Bhawan roundabout. SP (Traffic) Maneesh Chaudhary said the lights were installed with an aim to ease congestion. "On the basis of a report submitted by the ground staff, we sent a proposal to the UT Administration, which gave a go-ahead to the installation of lights," Chaudhary said. Daily commuters stated that the Chandigarh police should have deployed more staff to ease congestion instead of installing lights.

Mohali, April 10
The Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) has planned to beautify the surroundings of the 15-km Aerocity road on the pattern of approaching roads of the airports of Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

GMADA's chief administrator AK Sinha said both the sides of the road would be developed as green buffers, having beautiful and decorative plants.

"We are contemplating developing strips on the pattern of green buffers on both the sides of the airport roads of Hyderabad and Bengaluru. We are also in talks with the companies that have developed these belts," said Sinha.

When asked about the cost of the project, Sinha said they were yet to earmark the amount.

The road is 300 ft wide out of which 100 ft will be metalled and 26 ft will be used as service lane on each side of the road. Green buffers will be developed on the remaining 50 ft road.

Panchkula, April 10
Commissioner of Police Rajbir Deswal today pulled up a policeman at the Sector 20 police station for his casual approach. The surprise check was a part of the safe street campaign. 

Chandigarh, April 10
City girl Anahita Sachdev has been awarded the second prize at the prestigious “The World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship”, which concluded recently at Clifton School, Durban, in South Africa.

Anahita, class XII student of Vivek High School, Sector 38, was among the 150 students who participated from 14 countries, including US, Britain, Canada, Australia, Lithuania, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Bermuda, Germany, Hong Kong and others. Her award came in the category which had students with English as the second language. Three more students of the school took part in the competition.

Talking about her experience, Anahita, 17, said it was an enriching experience to compete with the best of the students in the world. Parliamentary debating was an interesting round, followed by another round on interpretive reading and persuasive speaking.

“I spoke on the overuse of technology since it has been affecting everyone’s life today,” she said.

She said: “The competition provided the students an opportunity to test their oratory skills and realise the importance of the art of communication”.

“It was a five-day event and each day was full of surprises and excitements. It was the best platform for creative churning,” she said.

Chandigarh, April 10
This time, marathon participants will get an opportunity to run along the scenic beauty of the Sukhna Lake during the “Chandigarh Running and Living Marathon” on April 14.

There will be 21.1-km-long 'special' route for the city residents on April 14. The full and half marathons will start from the Rock Garden at 5 am. The 10.55-km or quarter marathon will start from the Rock Garden at 6 am. Finally, the five-km-run will start from the Rock Garden at 8.30 am.

Director (Tourism) Tanvi Garg appealed to the city residents to join in the cheering on Sunday.

Chandigarh, April 10
To commemorate the 258th birth anniversary of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, father of homoeopathy, Homoeopathic College and Hospital, Sector 26, today organised a free medical camp for the poor and needy persons.

Sanjiv Walia, president of the Homoeopathic Association of Chandigarh, along with Dr PK Mittal and Dr KK Dhiman, principal of the college, were present on the occasion. They also examined the patients. A lecture on the life history of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann was delivered by Dr Anupreet of the Department of Organon.

Chandigarh, April 10
Sixteen-year old Nidhi, an inmate of Snehalaya, was awarded certificate for the Food and Production Training Programme at the Dr Ambedkar Institute of Hotel Management Catering and Nutrition, Sector 42.

Nidhi wants to join the college as a full-time student and later work as a chef in a leading chain of hotels of the country.

Total 21 Snehalaya inmates trained in cooking different types of food were among the huge lot of college students proudly honoured for the first-ever training under the scheme “Hunar Se Rozgar Tak” during the annual day function of the college.

This was a unique training programme. For the first time, a special one-time permission to relax the minimum age from 18 years to 16 years was accorded to the institute by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, to train the inmates.

The inmates dressed in the uniform of hotel management students were sitting along with the college students with dreams of working for some hotel or opening their own restaurants.

Seema, another inmate, who learnt to cook various dishes, including Chinese and South India during her two-month training programme, wants to continue with her passion of cooking and learning different food dishes.

“I want to learn more recipes and open my own restaurant offering a variety of food to customers,” she said.

Satish Awasthi, resident manager of Snehalaya, said these skilled children were also roped in for cooking meals for inmates at the shelter home.

KK Sharma, Advisor to the Administrator, was the chief guest on the occasion. He honoured the students of the college for various achievements and awarded certificates to the inmates of Snehalaya.

Chandigarh, April 10
Rift among nominated councillors widened today as nominated councillor Surinder Bahga said that instead of acting like a watchdog, nominated councillors were playing into the hands of the Congress in the municipal corporation.

While withdrawing his nomination from the post of the chairman of the Water Supply And Sewerage Disposal Committee of the MC, Bahga in a letter to the MC Secretary stated that the nominated councillors who were supposed to act like a watchdog to implement the jointly decided criteria had themselves became claimants of many chairmanships or membership.

Bahga stated that the public of the city expected them to play a non-partisan role and be neutral and work for the betterment of the city. Here the case was different and they played the role of B-team of the Congress.

Chandigarh, April 10
Panjab University made a major gaffe in the Cost Accounting exam of BCom second year. The paper was supposed to be a mixture of theoretical and numerical type questions but it turned out to be complete theoretical paper.

For thousands of students in examination centres in Chandigarh and across Punjab it was like a bolt from the blue on finding the numerical part of the question paper missing.

Queries from different examination centres started pouring at the university as soon the exam began. The students on finding the numeric part missing demanded that the exam should be cancelled, however, the examination centres continued with the exam as no directions were received from the university to stall the exam.

The examination was of 80 marks out of which the students had to attempt the theory part of minimum 40 marks.

Parvinder Singh, Controller of Examination (COE), said the matter has been reported to him and an inquiry has been marked.

“The question paper will be sent to the Board of Studies to establish whether the paper setters followed the guidelines or not,” Singh said.

COE further added that if any discrepancy is found in question paper setting then the students will definitely get the benefit decided by the Board of Studies.

B.Com II student of MCM College sector 36 said that it’s surprising that they study throughout the year to score well in the exams and in the end a goof-up by the university spoils their hard-work. “We want that the university should re-conduct the exam so that the students”, student said.

Another student from SGGS Khalsa College Sector 26 said that he had burnt midnight oil to prepare for the exam, however, it was disappointing to know that the question paper was not according to the pattern of university. 

Chandigarh, April 10
The second year students of BCA of DAV College, Sector 10, today staged a protest outside the college for not allowing them to use the calculator during the Numerical Mathematics examination.

Students claimed that all the colleges allowed their students to use calculator during examination but at DAV College restrictions were imposed on them for the use of a calculator.

One of the BCA students said almost 50 per cent of the question paper was based on calculations for which the calculator was required. However, the students without the calculators could not attempt the questions.

Parvinder Singh, PU Controller of Examination (COE), said that he has not received any complaint from the students. However, an inquiry would be marked as soon he receives any complaint.

BC Joshan, Principal of the college, said that it was not mentioned in the question paper that students should be allowed to use the calculators.

“We tried to inquire about the issue from the university but we didn’t get any reply following which we decided to not to allow the use of calculators,” said Joshan.

He said, “We don’t want the students to suffer. If the university clarifies that the students should have been allowed to use the calculators then the college will also demand some grace marks for the affected students.” 

Chandigarh, April 10
The UT Education Department has served a notice to the private schools, directing them to furnish information before Friday afternoon regarding the admission of students belonging to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and disadvantage group under the RTE Act.

Even as the private schools had already put their foot down and refused to enrol the EWS students due to pending issue related to the implementation of the Act, the Education Department has sent the registration forms of 227 applicants to the private schools asking them to admit these students against their vacant RTE seats.

According to an official, the notice has been sent to get an exact data of how many seats under the 25 per cent RTE reservation have been filled by the private schools for the new academic session. The notice read that in case seats are still vacant and applications are also available, these seats will not be converted in to the general category without the prior approval from the Education Department.

DEO Ram Kumar Sharma said private schools have been given time till Friday afternoon to furnish their details. "We hope that the schools had enrolled EWS students and the information will be sent to us on time," he said Responding to the issue, H S Mamik, president, Independent School Association, Chandigarh, said the association had not received any such notice from the department.

Chandigarh, April 10
The practice of red-tapism in government offices in the UT again came to the fore with the unnecessary confusion over the constitution of the State Advisory Council under the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

Sample: The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had already responded twice to the Chandigarh Administration that UT was competent enough to notify the council at its own end. However, ignoring its repeated advisory, the local law department again directed the Education Department to get the council notify from the ministry concerned.

Notably, it is the third time that the case has been referred to the ministry by the UT Law Department.

Earlier on two occasions, when the Education Department had put up the case before the MHRD following law office’s directions, the ministry concerned clearly wrote (in both the occasion) that the Chandigarh Administration required no approval from their office for the notification of the state advisory council under the RTE Act.

The latest direction of the law department, again asking the Education Department to send the case back the MHRD, has however made it so much “jittery” that the education Department has decided to hold back the case and would soon discuss the matter with top officials to seek clarity on the issue.

“Putting up the case again before the ministry will embarrass the administration. Therefore, we have decided to discuss the matter in detail before taking any further action,” said a senior official

As per the information, a lot of time has already got wasted in the local correspondence between the Education Department and the law Department and further with MHRD. “Every time we put up the case with the ministry, it at least takes two months for them to respond,” said a senior official.

It was in September last year that the UT Administrator approved the appointment of the members for the council and asked the department to notify it at the earliest.

The persons nominated were Rakesh Sachdeva, Principal, DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 15; Amarjit Kaur, Principal, GSSS, Sector 15; Sartul Singh, retired JBT teacher; Father Sebestian Jose, president of the NGO Don Bosco and Nav Jeevan Society; Vandana Singh, special officiating officer, Government Institute of Mentally Retarded Children, Sector 32; and others. It also has seven ex-officio members, including Advisor to Chandigarh Administrator, Education Secretary, Director of State Institute of Education, DPI (schools), Director, Higher Education and District Education officer.