Chandigarh, January 14
A Sector 35-based electronics store has been penalised by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum for selling a defective air-conditioner to a Sector 46 resident.

The district forum has directed the proprietor to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation to the complainant, Anuj Aggarwal.

Aggarwal bought a split AC for Rs 30,000 from the respondent on April 10, 2012, stated the complaint. The AC carried a warranty of one year for the whole AC and additional four years for the compressor.

According to the complainant, after installation, he found the AC was not cooling properly, following which the matter was brought to the notice of the respondent on August 21, 2012.

On this occasion, the defect was rectified.

Thereafter, the complainant again lodged complaints of defects with the respondent on November 22, 2012; April 10, 2013; and July 4, 2013, and also served a legal notice dated July 17, 2013, but the respondent failed to remove the defects.

Moreover, on being served the notice, no one appeared on the respondent’s behalf. The forum observed that the AC was well within the warranty period when the complainant lodged complaints with the respondent.

“It was the bounden duty of the respondent to have attended to those complaints and carry out necessary repairs to remove the defects pointed out by the complainant. However, they even failed to attend to the complaints lodged by the complainant. Therefore, the stand of the complainant goes un-rebutted and the present complaint deserves to succeed,” the forum observed.

The respondent has been directed to repair the defect in the AC “to the complainant’s satisfaction” without charging anything. The respondent was also told to pay Rs 5,000 as cost of litigation.

Mohali, January 14
A Mohali court today awarded four-year sentence to 10 persons in an attempt-to-murder case.

The Mohali additional district and sessions judge Dilbagh Singh Johal found Avtar Singh, Jarnail Singh, Harjit Singh, Harwinder Singh, Harmesh Singh, Harpal Singh, Gian Singh, Dharam Singh, Raghbir Singh and Jatinder Singh guilty in the case. The accused have also been fined Rs 3,000 each.

The police had booked the accused on the complaint of one Amarjit Singh. He and his relatives were allegedly attacked by the accused with sharp-edged weapons at Dehar village in Lalru on July 4, 2011, following a land dispute. In the attack, Amarjit’s father Harmesh Singh and uncle Bhupinder Singh sustained serious injuries.

The Lalru police had registered a case under various sections of the IPC.

Chandigarh, January 14
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum penalised the Samsung Electronics India and two of its city-based dealers for selling a defective handset and failing to fix the problem.

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed the company besides Sector 22-based Chawla Brothers and Sector 44-based Sparkle to get the handset repaired free of charge with an extended warranty of one year.

They have also been directed to pay Rs 8,500 as compensation in addition to Rs 2,500 as litigation cost.

Kulwinder Singh, the complainant, purchased a Samsung Galaxy S3 mobile phone from the Chawla Brothers. Within 10 days of the purchase, as noted by the forum, the complainant started facing problems in the outgoing calls and visited Sparkle to get the phone repaired. He requested the opposite parties to replace the handset because it had a "manufacturing defect", but to no avail.

Chandigarh, January 14
Barely a week after a minor girl was abducted and later traced to Ghaziabad, the accused in the case shot at the girl’s father this morning. The accused, Bunty, and his father Prem Kumar shot at the girl’s father, Sanjeev Kumar (46).

Sanjeev Kumar received bullet injuries on his right thigh and has been admitted to the Advanced Trauma Centre of the PGI. His condition is stated to be stable.

The police have arrested Prem Kumar, while the main accused, Bunty, is at large. An empty bullet shell was recovered from the spot. The bullet was fired with a country-made pistol.

The police said the reason behind the attack was a financial dispute between Sanjeev and Bunty. The accused was threatening Sanjeev to reach a compromise in the case of abduction against him, the police said.

The incident occured in the morning when Sanjeev had gone for a morning walk near the sabzi mandi in Palsora at 7.15 am. Prem confronted him and an argument began. Soon, Bunty also reached there and shot at Sanjeev in his right thigh and fled. Prem was later arrested and efforts were on to nab Bunty, the police said.

Sanjeev’s daughter was abducted from near his house on January 3 and she was traced to Ghaziabad on January 6. Bunty was arrested on January 8 but released on regular bail the next day by a local court.

The police said Sanjeev had taken Rs 35,000 from Bunty and Prem, but failed to return it. He said recently, Sanjeev filed a complaint alleging harassment by Bunty and suitable action was taken in this regard. A case of attempt to murder has been registered against the accused.

Chandigarh, January 14
Four special children of SOREM (Society for Rehabilitation for Mentally Challenged) school won laurels for the City Beautiful.

These four skaters represented the city in the recently concluded National Roller Skating Championship and won 9 medals in different events of the competition. The championship was conducted in Bareli (Uttar Pradesh) from January 6 to January 10. Manpreet Singh, Akashdeep, Gaurav and Aryan Raj represented the city in the national games.

Manpreet Singh has won laurels, in all three events, he has participated in the 100mts men’s event and bagged silver medal while in 300mts he managed to attain a gold medal. Taking his tally further, he also won a bronze medal in the 2X200mts event. Sharing his joy, he said, “It’s good, I have won the medal and I have many more in my home.” His teammate Akashdeep also performed well and won two medals. He won a bronze medal in 300mts event whereas in 2X200mts he again bagged a bronze medal. He attained fourth place in the 500mts race. “I am happy with my performance and will try to win more medals in future. My coach guided me well and I am ready to play anytime-anywhere,” said Akash Deep.

Gaurav, a junior player of the group, has won two gold medals, one each in 100mts and 300mts event. Aryan Raj won a bronze medal in 100mts race. “We are very happy. This is for first time that we have won medals and will continue to play well,” said players. 

Chandigarh, January 14
The Punjab leg of the Coca-Cola Cricket Inter-School Cricket Cup for Boys (U-16) will start from January 18. The third season of this cup will give the young players an opportunity to showcase their talent. In the tournament, players within the age group of 12-16 years will participate. The winner of the Punjab leg will represent Punjab at the Inter-State Challenge to be held later this year. Also, a total of 24 talented players selected from the inter-state challenge will attend a week long “coaching clinic” under the guidance of prominent former cricketers of the country in association with Cricket India Academy (CIA). The organisers will also select the Coca-Cola India XI team that will play against international U-16 team from other cricket playing nations.

Speaking on the occasion, MP Pandove said “The Punjab leg will involve participation from leading under-16 cricket teams from the major districts Chandigarh, Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala and 4 minor districts. The tournament will be organised on league basis across all the districts. The district winners will further play a league-cum-knockout format tournament in Mohali.” The winners and the runners-up of the Punjab leg will be awarded with cash prize of Rs 50,000 and Rs 35,000, respectively. 

Chandigarh, January 14The cricket team of Mohali Industries Association (MIA)
 defeated Hotel JW Marriott team by 14 runs, in a match of the ongoing Corporate Cricket Cup being held at Yadvindra Public School, Mohali.

Batting first the MIA side posted 143 runs in 20 overs losing 8 wickets. Skipper Kamal Dhupar stabled the team’s innings with a 45 runs contribution whereas Gaurav remain the other principal scorer with his 36-runs contribution. Sanjay Jain also added 12 runs in the final over. For bowling side, Arun hogged the limelight and claimed 4 wickets. Abhilash Menon took 1 wicket.

Chasing the target, the Marriott team bundled up on 129 runs. Skipper Abhilash Menon contributed 26 runs whereas Rohal scored 22 runs. For MIA, Gurwinder claimed three wickets whereas Kamal Dhupar claimed 2 wickets. Kamal was also awarded with the man of match award.

In the second match, Digjam defeated Canara Bank by 4 wickets. Canara Bank team set a low target of 51 runs in 15 overs. Sunil (16- runs) and Ram Pal (12-runs) were the main contributors for their team.

For Digjam, Yuvraj Goel took a 5 wicket haul while Ajay claimed 2 wickets. In reply, the winning side scored 52-runs with Ajay and Madan scoring 10 runs each. For Canara Bank, Ram Pal and Gurbaksh took 1 wicket each. Yuvaj Goel was named as the man of match. 

Chandigarh, January 14
The city will not host the SGFI (School Games Federation of India) National School Games for cricket for boys (U-17). The reason for the decision is the busy schedule of local schools and officials of the UT Education Department.

The national level championship was scheduled to be held here from January 30 to February 4. It was to be organised by the UT Education Department. The officials of the Education Department took a back-step at the eleventh hour.

According to sources in the UT Education Department, budget constraint is also one of the reasons that made the department to pull out from hosting the championship. Earlier, the championship was scheduled for November 2013 but later SGFI postponed it till February 2014.

“We are short on many things. In February, we cannot accommodate teams. School teachers, who are responsible for organising such meets, remained busy on various projects and managing all the things becomes difficult. Had it been November, we would have easily hosted the same championship and provided best of the facilities,” said KK Bhadoo, Director, Public Instructions (DPI), schools. When asked about the budget constraints, the newly joined officer said, ‘No comments.’ The matter of fact is that we are not organising the national games. Cities like Chandigarh have no shortage of sports budget however budget constraints can be adjudged as one of the reasons for not hosting the championship,” added Bhadoo.

The authorities at School Games Federation of India are yet to decide the new dates and venue for the championship. Last week, the UT Education Department has conducted trails to select the local cricket team for the same championship. However, now the players will have to wait for new dates and venue. Local players are also feeling disheartened with the games being cancelled in Chandigarh. “The national games are among one of the competitions that receives good talent. The organisers should have conducted the games and tried to find some way out,” said Kunal, a cricket player. Another player added, “To perform as a host gives an edge over the rivals. Host always participate with an advantage of home crowd and motivation of winning the tournament on home soil. Hopefully, the team will play its best even at other venue,” said Prbhjeet, another budding player.

Chandigarh, January 14
The Chandigarh Handball Association will conduct selection trials to shortlist the girls (junior) team, at DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, tommorow (4pm). 

The selected players after attending coaching camp will participate in the 36th Junior National Handball Championship to be held in Indore (Madhya Pradesh) from February 1. The players born on or after January 2, 1994 will be eligible to participate in the championship. Interested local players are advised to report AS Rawat. — TNS