Chandigarh, July 8
Asserting that a valuable life has been lost under the garb of money, the court of District and Sessions Judge, SK Aggarwal, today sentenced four convicts of the murder of a chartered accountant (CA) Rajesh Goyal in 2007 to life imprisonment. The court sentenced Kanav Arora (37), Shiv Kumar (23), Ashwinder Singh (30) and Mandeep (25) to life imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 on each of them. Half of the amount collected as fine (Rs 60,000) will go as compensation to the widow of the victim, Sonia Goyal, the court stated.

Setting aside the plea of the convicts to show leniency to them, the court stated that the convicts perished a very valuable life under the garb of money.

While the prosecution had pleaded for capital punishment of the convicts, the court stated that taking into account the facts and circumstances of the case and also the antecedents of the convicts including their age, it was not found to be a rarest of rare crime warranting the awarding of capital punishment.

The court also refused to give the convicts benefit under Section 428 of the CrPc in which the period already undergone in prison after arrest by the police is included in the total imprisonment that is awarded.

The murder took place on May 22, 2007, when Rajesh was found bludgeoned to death in his first-floor office in Sector 42. As per the prosecution case, the embezzlement of around 77,300 shares worth Rs 1.90 crore was the motive behind the killing of the CA. The four convicts had siphoned off money amounting to Rs 1.9 crore which Goyal’s client had earned by trading in shares. The murder was committed by Goyal's partner Kanav Arora along with the other three convicts.

Arora, a resident of Sector 21, was authorised for the sale-purchase of shares in the name of Goyal through the demat scheme. Other three convicts Shiv Kumar, a resident of Naya Gaon, Mandeep Singh, a resident of Phase X, Mohali, and Ashwinder Singh, a resident of Sector 21, were accomplices of Arora. Shiv Kumar was working as a computer operator with the prime accused.

In the judgment, the court relied on circumstantial evidence, CFSL reports confirming that blood recovered from the spot matched with the blood found on the clothes of the victim and statements of eyewitness Arvind Singh Bedi, who had seen all the accused fleeing the spot of crime. Statements of the victim’s father-in-law testifying that Rajesh had told him some days before the murder that he was being threatened by the accused also led to the conviction.

Chandigarh, July 8
Satisfied after the verdict, Sonia Goyal, wife of slain Rajesh Goyal and mother of two children, said she is thankful to the judiciary for showing the convicts their rightful place. “My husband’s soul can now rest in peace, as the killers have been rightfully punished.

He had no enemies and was killed simply because the miscreants wanted to grab the huge money his client had earned through shares,” she said. Rajesh's family was gearing up to go to Srinagar for a vacation when the incident took place, which shattered their lives completely.

 "He spoke to me just 15 minutes before the murder and I asked him to bring fruits on his way back. We were so happy in our close-knit world,” said Sonia with tears welling up in her eyes.

She moved ahead with parental support. Sonia is now pursuing her masters in education from a Panchkula-based college and went to take her exam on Monday soon after the verdict. — TNS

Chandigarh, July 8
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the Chandigarh Administration to set up an independent authority for the preservation of Sukhna Lake and reiterated that the stay order passed by the Bench in the case did not preclude Tata Housing from seeking permissions for the Camelot project.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Augustine George Masih made it clear to the company that the project could go ahead only after the grant of permissions.

The Bench also gave the Chandigarh Administration time till August 21 to file its reply on the setting up of such an authority. The Bench also granted the National Institute of Hydrology one week’s time for submitting its report on Sukhna Lake.

As the case came up for hearing, the Administration also informed the Bench that it would undertake remedial steps for cleaning up the lake’s water channels. Now, the case will come up for further hearing on August 21.

Tata Camelot’s ambitious plans of raising skyscrapers in the lake’s vicinity had run into legal hurdle on a previous date of hearing. Taking up the case, the Bench had directed the States of Punjab and Haryana, along with the Chandigarh Administration, to stop construction activity in the lake’s catchment area.

Going into the background of the controversy, the Bench asserted: “In the order dated March 14, 2011, directions were issued for restoring the lake and its former glory by observing that no housing colony or building activity of any kind would take place in the catchment area, either within the forest area or agriculture area. We have been apprised that despite the direction, construction activities are going on….

“Both the states, as well as the UT, shall submit their report with regard to the violation of the directions issued in the order dated March 14 last and the action taken against the violators”.

The High Court had also made it clear that Tata Camelot project could make further progress after the grant of clearances, sanctions, permissions and fulfillment of other pre-conditions.

The Bench had minced no words to further make it evident that the project promoters and other respondents “will have to comply with all the requirements spelt out by the Periphery Control Act and the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995”.

“The provisions of the Periphery Control Act, and the 1995 Act, are complementary to each other and the provisions of the two statutes would apply to the housing project in question,” the Bench had ruled.

Chandigarh, July 8
Moving ahead with recording speedy trials, especially in cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, the district courts today created history by concluding the recording of evidence in two such cases by putting them on fast track. While in one case, the entire evidence in the case of rape of a minor was recorded in a single day, the evidence in another case was concluded on the second day of its hearing.

The court of District and Sessions Judge Shalini Nagpal today completed recording of the evidence in both the cases, which were registered this year only.

In the first case, statements of five witnesses were recorded and evidence was concluded in a case of rape and kidnapping registered against Istkhar Ahmad, a resident of Khuda Ali Sher. The FIR in the case was registered on February 25 and the chargesheet was produced in the court on April 30. While the court had framed charges in the case in May, today was the first day of recording of evidence when all the witnesses were examined. As per the case, the 17-year-old victim had reported to the police that she was forcefully abducted and then kidnapped by her neighbour Istkhar when she was going for tuition. The case has now been adjourned to July 20 for arguments by defence counsel.

In the second case, a 16-year-old girl, a resident of Colony Number 5, had alleged that she was kidnapped by a youth, Deepak, on the pretext of marriage. The police had registered the case in January this year when the girl, who worked as a domestic help in Sector 23 alleged that the accused kidnapped her and took her to Delhi from where she was recovered by the police.

The court examined four witnesses and concluded the evidence on the second day of hearing itself, making a history in courts.

The cases have now been adjourned to July 22 for arguments by the defence.

Public prosecutor Manu Kakkar said efforts of the investigating officers in both the cases bore fruit and cases of offences against minors were being taken very seriously by the courts.

Chandigarh, July 8
Showers this morning exposed the lack of maintenance of parking lots at the PGI. The failure of the engineering wing of the premier institute to prepare for the monsoon was reflected not only in the public parking lots, but also several staff parking areas, which remained waterlogged.

Besides wild growth in these areas, waterlogging has emerged as a major cause of inconvenience for the staff and patients. The staff parking near the research block, for instance, was found in a pitiable condition, as faculty members had to brave the muddy water accumulated all over while walking to their vehicles.

The condition of the staff parking at the New OPD Block was equally deplorable. The condition of parking lots in and around the Advanced Paediatric Centres was even worse. There were some slots completely covered with muddy water, especially in the two public parking lots in the area. 

Despite paying parking fee, visitors struggled to find a proper parking space. The public parking in front of the PGIMER library, too, faced similar problems. The road connecting the Advanced Cardiac Centre with the Gol Market on the campus, being in a low-lying area remained waterlogged as well. In the absence of sufficient number of road gullies, this road remains inundated during monsoons.The authorities, however, are yet to take note of these problems.

Chandigarh, July 8
The city received 14 mm rainfall, bringing a sigh of relief to resident from humidity and high temperature, today. The day temperature came down to 29 degree Celsius, which was below six degree than the normal temperature. The day mostly remained cloudy and windy even as the rain stopped after 12 pm. The weather department is expecting light rainfall in the next 24-36 hours. The weather was expected to remain dry for 5-6 days soon after the rain, said Met officials.

Surindra Pal, regional meteorological officer, said monsoon had slowed down this month but was is expected to pick up after 5-6 days. "The light rainfall is expected in the next 24 hours," he said.

This month has largely remained dry except the last two days when the city recorded over 50 mm rainfall. On July 7, the city recorded 38.3 mm of rainfall and today's rainfall was 14 mm (8.30 am till 12 pm) Last month, the city had received 275.2 mm rains, taking the total rainfall to 329 mm.

The officials said even as lean period was expected to continue in the first half of the month, the next half of the month would witness good rainfall.

Chandigarh, July 8
A day after a clash between the Congress and BJP supporters near Colony No. 4, leaders of both the parties today met Inspector General of Police, Chandigarh, RP Upadhayay, and submitted complaints against each other.

A delegation of Chandigarh Congress leaders, comprising Pardeep Chhabra, Mukesh Bassi, Pawan Sharma, Devinder Babla, Bhupinder Bahderi, Vijay Rana and Shashi Shankar Tiwari, apprised the IG of the events that led to the incident. They said local MP Pawan Kumar Bansal was on his way to attend a rally at Colony No. 4, when BJP workers attacked his vehicle. Following this, they also attacked the Congress workers with lathis and threw stones at them.

The BJP leaders, however, had a different tale to tell. The delegation, comprising state president Sanjay Tandon, Gurpreet Singh Dhillon, Amit Rana, Shakti Devshali and Harishankar Mishra, complained to the IG that the Chandigarh Police acted on the behest of the Congress party workers and attacked the BJP workers. They alleged that the Congress workers pelted stones at the peaceful protestors of BJP. They alleged that when this agitated the BJP protestors, the police battered them.

The IG assured both the party leaders that the department would investigate the matter properly and would act accordingly.

Chandigarh, July 8
The local unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad today alleged that donations, in form of eatables, provided by the local temple committees for victims of Uttarakhand floods had been dumped at the Sector 11 office of Red Cross.

President of the local unit Vijay Singh Bhardwaj said it was on the appeal made by Red Cross that donations worth lakhs of rupees had been made. He claimed that officials kept on lying to him that donations had been sent the flood-ravaged hill state.

On getting the information that the material was still at the Red Cross office, the VHP leader reached the spot. Although Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Shayin was not available for comments, other officials said the dispatch of material was stopped on behest of the Uttarakhand government.

Chandigarh, July 8
In the resumed hearing of the judge bribery case, the Central Bureau of Investigation today continued with its arguments, pressing charges against the accused, including retired High Court judge Justice Nirmal Yadav.

The CBI today told court that Justice Yadav had demanded Rs 15 lakh from Ravinder Singh, a close friend, on August 13. He had asked Sanjiv Bansal to deliver the same, which was wrongly delivered to Justice Nirmaljit Kaur’s residence, the CBI said.

In order to substantiate the allegations, senior advocate Anupam Gupta read out statements of hotelier Ravinder Singh’s employees, his wife, and accused Sanjiv Bansal’s wife, in which all the witnesses stated that the money was meant for Justice Nirmal Yadav.

Anupam Gupta said a flurry of calls exchanged among all the accused at the time the cash amounting to Rs 15 lakh was wrongly delivered on the evening of August 13, 2008, and the next morning were enough to provide evidence that the cash was meant to be delivered to Justice Yadav.

In 2008, a case was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Justice Yadav besides Sanjeev Bansal, former additional advocate general of Haryana, Chandigarh-based businessman Rajiv Gupta, Delhi-based hotelier Ravinder Singh Bhasin and one Nirmal Singh. The case has been adjourned for next hearing on July 15.

Chandigarh, July 8
To remove encroachments from the city markets, the enforcement committee of the Municipal Corporation today recommended setting up of enforcement beat boxes in Sectors 17, 19 and 22 for standing duty staff of the enforcement wing.

The decision was taken during a meeting of enforcement committee under the chairmanship of Davesh Moudgil, and attended by members Mukesh Bassi, Satinder Singh, Pardeep Chhabra, MP Kohli, Malkiat Singh, Raj Bala Malik, Surinder Bahga and MC Additional Commissioner Sunil Bhatia, here today.

In the meeting it was discussed that although the MC had deployed permanent staff in these markets to remove encroachments from corridors, there was no place for the MC staff to sit. 

The MC will recommend the engineering department to construct these beat boxes after obtaining approval from the Chief Architect office. Besides, members also suggested that warnings should be issued to vendors selling food items at night to keep the area clean. It was also discussed that the enforcement wing be strengthened by providing more manpower, extra police force and infrastructure keeping in view the markets and population of the city. It was also decided that wireless sets would be provided to inspectors and sub inspectors of the enforcement wing.

The committee members asked the enforcement inspectors to keep vigil in all the markets of the city. The committee members suggested that surprise raids should be conducted in sensitive areas and videography should be done in all the areas.

Chandigarh, July 8
A city-based Right to Information (RTI) activist has complained to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the tardy disposal of the RTI applications and lack of transparency in the Chandigarh Administration.

RK Garg, in his complaint to Joint Secretary, Union Territories, Ministry of Home Affairs, KK Pathak has stated that the disposal of RTI applications and transparency had taken a backseat in the working of the UT Administration.

He said the central public information officers (CPIOs) and appellate authorities were not working as per rules laid down under the RTI Act, 2005. Citing examples, he said an application was submitted with section officer-cum-CPIO, Home-1, on December 13, 2012, seeking copies of annual property returns of section officers, Grade-I officers and Class-I officers. 

The CPIO, in his reply, stated that no such document was available in the office records. The appellate authorities, disposing of an appeal, relied on the CPIO’s reply and rejected the appeal without hearing the plea. When the application was transferred to all other CPIOs, many claimed they had submitted their annual property returns to the Home Department. 

Garg stated that in applications regarding the Municipal Corporation, the Administration was very prompt in exchanging letters with the civic body, and attaching a copy to the applicant, but no information was supplied.

Garg complained that the Chandigarh Administration had also failed to implement the directions issued by the Chief Information Commissioner, New Delhi, as well as judgments issued by the Information Commissioner, New Delhi.

In the letter, it was stated, “It is also mentioned for necessary action that disclosures under Section 4 of [the] RTI Act, though mandatory, are also not complied [with] and many a time stale information continues [to appear] on the official website. Since the matter relates to a UT and local authorities have failed to implement [the] RTI provisions in its true spirit, this submission is made for urgent necessary action please.”

Chandigarh, July 8
To shift stray cattle from the city to gaushalas in other states, Mayor Subhash Chawla visited two gaushalas in Punjab. 

The Mayor visited Govind Go Dham Gaushala in Chandpur Rurki village (Balachaur) and Binewal village (Garhshankar). Mayor also checked the infrastructure facilities in these gaushalas.

During the visit, the Mayor met Swami Krishna Nand Ji at Chandpur Rurki, who appreciated shifting of cows from Chandigarh to their gaushalas.

Mayor Subhash Chawla said that these gaushalas were designated gaushalas under the management of registered society. These gaushalas were found to be very well-maintained and organised in terms of feed, segregation of cattle, space availability, covered sheds, storage facility of feed and water, and general cleanliness, he said. 

handigarh, July 8
City congress leaders and councillors today submitted their objections regarding the draft of the building bylaws in villages to the MC Commissioner.

They maintained that the villagers were not against the building by-laws but were certainly against the hard provisions under the rules. They demanded that there was a need of liberal building by-laws.

They demanded that the New Building Rules, 2013, should be applicable to new constructions over vacant plots or in case the owner modify, erect or re-erect a building. It was also demanded that to provide more accommodations, the maximum height of a building should be raised to 45-feet instead of 34-feet and the FAR should be revised accordingly.

Regarding the guest houses, they demanded that the minimum plot size should be 250-sq-yards instead of 500-sq-yards because there was a shortage of lower budget accommodations in Chandigarh and the villagers should to be provided a alternative profession.

Chandigarh, July 5
The city got three prizes for improvement in indoor and outdoor patient care, decrease in infant mortality rate and early neo-natal mortality rate at a national summit on best practices and innovation in public health care. The summit held at SKICC, Srinagar, from July 3 to July 5, was organised by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in which senior officers of the Union Government and representatives of WHO and UNFPA participated.

The infant mortality rate in India stands at 44 per thousand live births. As per the Sample Registration System (SRS) report, 2011, the ratio of infant mortality rate in Chandigarh is 20 per thousand live births. The rate has decreased from 29 in 2008 to 20 in 2011, as per the report.

UT Health Secretary Anil Kumar said strong immunisation strategies have been adopted. The immunisation services are provided three days a week as compared to two days a week in other states. Regular outreach sessions are also held to cover high risk population at construction sites, un-listed slum areas and among rag-pickers.

Chandigarh has achieved immunisation rate of 92.47 per cent. World Health Organisation monitors confirm that a list of beneficiaries who are due to get the immunisation is available to every field workers. Special slum interventions have also been undertaken. The treatment of diarrhoea, referral of the sick children to the hospital, along with indoor care is of prime concern.

Panchkula, July 8
A high drama was witnessed in a posh society of Mansa Devi Complex, Sector 6, in the wee hours today after a vigilant wife allegedly caught her husband with a few males and females in a flat there. The woman, who doesn’t want her name to be disclosed, is a resident of a society near the area.

The flat where the youths were reportedly caught is in the HEWO society. It is owned by a retired IAS officer, who had further rented the accommodation to a youth. It was on an information given by an auto driver that the things came to the fore.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Krishan Kumar Hooda said, “ The Investigation is on. The woman has alleged that she caught her husband along with three girls and two other men in the flat.”

He further added, “Since cameras are installed in the society, we even saw the CCTV footage while everyone was fleeing after the lady caught them.”

Earlier, a month ago, the society members had caught the same men with some girls and informed the police. The general secretary of the society, RK Singla, who is also the Chief engineer of the PWD Department, said after they informed the police, the police had hushed up the issue saying that the youths won't repeat it in future.

“We had caught these youngsters last month also but the police hushed up the issue saying that they won’t repeat it in future,” said Singla.

RM Malhotra another member of the society said, “At least, the police can do time to time verification of tenants.” “I was told by my husband that he was going out for some work. Later, in the wee hours I got a call from the auto driver that he had seen my husband with some girls in the nearby society,” said the woman.

She added, “When I went to the flat, I saw all of them in a bad state and some of the girls were drunk. As I called up the police, my husband and his other friends fled from the apot, leaving behind the girls”

The woman alleged that the police came half an hour late on the pretest that they didn’t have any lady police official. 

Chandigarh, July 8
The provisional merit list for admission to BCom first year in 11 colleges in the city was declared today with the highest percentile turning out to be 113.4.

As many as 6400 applications have been received by the Panjab University for 2,030 seats. The physical counselling for admissions would start from July 11 at the Law Auditorium.

Rakesh Kumar Gupta, coordinator, admissions for BCom I, informed that a total of 6,400 candidates had applied for 2,030 seats. In the UT pool, which has 85 per cent seats reserved, Saloni Bansal turned out to be highest scorer with 113.4 percentile. With 113.2 percentile, Aarushi Gupta is the highest scorer in the General pool, which has a quota of 15 per cent.

Last year, the highest scorer (107 percentile) in the UT pool had got admission in the SD College. The DAV College, Sector 10, was the second most popular college with 98.8 as the highest score (in percentage), followed by the MCMDAV College with 98.6 marks.

Chandigarh, July 8
The e-governance project of the Education Department will soon be a reality. If sources are to be believed, the project is set to begin in next two weeks

To start with, five government schools, Government Model Senior Secondary School (GMSSS), Sector 16, GMSSS-35, Government Smart School, Sector 50, Government Smart School, Sector 53, and Government Senior Secondary School, Maloya, have been selected for the project titled as School Management Information System. The project aims at making the management at academic and non-academic fronts better.

Sources said so far, there was no system in place to have quick connectivity between government schools and the Education Department. With e-governance, the top officials of the department would have daily access to the vital information pertaining to schools like attendance of students and service book of the teachers besides general planning of the school for its academic and non-academic works.

It is learnt that under the system, every school will have a separate website, which will also enable teachers to prepare their class lessons on daily basis. The performance of students, planning examination schedule, chalking out class timetable and a range of other school activities will be part of the system.

Official sources said parents would also be allowed access to the system to help them track the performance of their wards.

The SPIC, Chandigarh, has been hired to run the system on behalf of the Education Department.

Chandigarh, July 8
Members of the Principals’ Association of colleges affiliated to Panjab University (PU) today held an executive meeting here to deliberate upon the recent decision of the Senate pertaining to dissaffiliation of certain colleges.

“In the face of the unjustified decisions of the Panjab University regarding the future of 63 BEd colleges of Punjab and threat of disaffiliation and closure of various courses in degree colleges of Punjab forced us to take some steps in the direction,” said one of the members of the association.

Over 30 members attended the meeting today and unanimously decided to seek reversal of the decision taken by the university against various education and degree colleges.

“The deficiencies in the departments of education and physical education on the university campus have not been conveyed to the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), which shows that the attitude of the university authorities was discriminatory towards the colleges of Punjab,” the members alleged.

The members of the association believed that strict rules should be applicable to departments, regional centres and constituent colleges of the university as well.

The meeting of the General House of the association will be convened in the third week of July to discuss the situation and decide the further course of action. 

Chandigarh, July 8
The Government Teachers Union (GTU) has rejected the proposal of the 
Education Department to extend the school timings for teachers under the Right to Education (RTE) Act - 2009.

Members of the union said the assignments proposed by the department in the extended period, such as preparation of lessons, checking of copies, holding workshops and staff meeting, in the absence of students were already being practised. They claimed that all the principals and teachers were not in favour of the proposal.

“The implementation of the proposal requires appropriate infrastructure in all schools, which is not available,” they said, adding that school hours for teachers have not been extended in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and other states.

In a letter to all the schools, the Education Department had proposed to increase the school timings for teachers from 2 pm to 3.30 pm, in compliance with the RTE Act.