Chandigarh, February 18
While acquitting the accused, Jaswinder Singh, alias Rocky, in the sensational Dimpy murder case of 2006, the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Shalini Nagpal has come down heavily on the UT police. It has passed strictures against it for shoddy investigation. The accused was acquitted on February 5.

The court, in its detailed judgment, showed its reluctance to rely on the testimony of a UT police officer, Inspector Amanjot Singh (then a Sub-Inspector), who was never the investigating officer in the case. Amanjot had deposed as a prosecution witness in the case in the court as he had recovered the weapon used to kill Dimpy from the accused's possession. It was the only circumstantial evidence in the case. The CFSL report had proved that the same weapon was used to kill Dimpy at Sukhna Lake in September 2006.

"The evidence of Amanjot must be ruled out of consideration. The court is reluctant to rely upon the testimony of Amanjot against whom the accused has levelled allegations and who has shown undue interest in the probe though he was never the investigating officer. In these circumstances, the prosecution was required to examine at least one other witness to prove the recovery of the pistol, which was never done. The recovery of the weapon is suspicious and not free from doubt," said the court.

"If Amanjot was not involved in the investigation as he claims, his undue interest in the investigation and his visits to Delhi and Gurgaon a few days before the alleged recovery remain unexplained. The very fact that Amanjot had been raiding various hotels, restaurants and shopping malls in the area of Gurgaon looking for Jaswinder Singh makes his statement regarding the recovery of a .45-bore pistol on July 27, 2008, in Sector 11, Chandigarh doubtful," said the court.

The defence had pleaded that Jaswinder Singh was arrested from Delhi and not from Sector 11.

Chandigarh, February 18
City residents can hope for better secondary health care during the next financial year as of the Rs 122.74 crore sanctioned for medical and public health facilities in the Budget for the city, Rs 23 crore has been set aside for strengthening Government Multi-Speciality Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, and a 100-bedded hospital in Mani Majra.

Besides, Rs 4 crore has been sanctioned for upgrading a poly clinic at Burail village into a 50-bedded hospital for ensuring better health facilities in southern parts of the city.

The funds will be utilised on improving ambulances services, equipment, bed strength as well as the staff strength. The GMSH has started computerising its records using a software, e-office.

An official of the UT Health Department said the Budget was surplus this year as a significant part of last year's budget had been left unutilised.

To meet the staff shortage at the GMSH, Rs 19.45 crore has been sanctioned for hiring more staff, maintenance of the newly built 24-hour operation theatres and providing better gynaecology services at the hospital.

To strengthen the 100-bed hospital at Mani Majra, Rs 4.60 crore has been allocated. At present, the hospital runs a dedicated physiotherapy unit. Experts are planning to start diagnostic services at the hospital.

The department plans to add 10 ambulances this year to the existing fleet of 10. These will include two advanced life support ambulances based on Punjab’s 108 model which will have in-built ventilators and facilities for deliveries.

The 50-bedded hospital is under construction. The poly clinic is being upgraded to reduce the burden of more than 3,000 patients at the GMSH OPDs every day. The allocation of work for setting up a regional trauma centre in the southern part of the city will be initiated this year and Rs 50 lakh has been allocated for the purpose.

An amount of Rs 1.25 crore has been sanctioned for improving the services pertaining to the genetic screening test for newborn children at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32. A significant number of expectant mothers have been examined for diagnosing possible deformities in babies at the hospital.

Besides, Rs 67.68 crore has been earmarked for strengthening the infrastructure at the GMCH. The hospital plans to construct a mutli-level parking and introduce computerisation to allow patients easy access to lab test reports.

For providing special care to the mentally challenged, Rs.1.52 crore has been earmarked for the implementation of a scheme at Mental Health Institute and Rs.5.68 crore for the Government Institute for Mentally Retarded Children and upgrading the Regional Institute for Mentally Handicapped.

Panchkula, February 18
In a relief to senior Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka, a local court today rejected a plea filed by a youth to book the officer for instigating his father to commit suicide.

Finding no substance in the allegations levelled by the complainant, Nitin Poswal, the application was dismissed.

In his complaint filed in December 2012, Poswal, a resident of Sector 14, Panchkula, had sought directives to the SHO of the Sector 14 police station from the court to register a case under Sections 306(abetment to suicide), 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to hurt feelings), 116 (abetment of offence) and 166 (public servant disobeying law with intent to cause injury to a person) of the IPC against Khemka. The application was filed under Section 156(3) of the CrPC. In his complaint, Poswal said his father Jaswant Singh Poswal was a clerk with the Housing Board, Haryana, at Sector 6, Panchkula, during Khemka's tenure as Chief Administrator of the board.

He said his father was a union leader and Khemka had started targeting him. His father filed representations against Khemka to the higher-ups, which annoyed the officer.

"Khemka crossed all barriers of humanity and to satisfy his ego, he dismissed my father from services in 2006 without even issuing any show-cause notice and granting him any opportunity of being heard," the complainant had argued.

Poswal said Khemka passed caste-based remarks against his father and asked him to jump from the building if he was fed up with the situation.

Chandigarh, February 18
The Central Excise Department today hastily withdrew a notice sent to the city unit of the BJP demanding payment of service tax on rallies of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The decision was taken after BJP leaders strongly reacted to the notice.

The notice was sent by the Directorate General of Central Excise (Intelligence).

A fax regarding the withdrawal of the notice was received at the city BJP office at 5 pm today.

The notice states, “Please refer to the office letter, dated February 12, 2014, on the subject (Information on non-payment of service tax by BJP/Narendra Modi). In this regard, it is intimated that no action is required to be taken at your end with regard to the letter”. The letter was signed by Senior Intelligence Officer Rajesh K Arora.

Chandigarh BJP president Sanjay Tandon said the Congress appeared to be afraid of the huge gatherings at Modi’s rallies and used the Excise Department to play dirty politics.

The Congress is trying to stop people from organising Modi’s rallies. However, in the coming Lok Sabha elections, people will vote out the Congress and elect Modi as the next Prime Minister, he said.

On February 12, the department had sent the notice to the in charge of the office of the city BJP unit, demanding payment of service tax on Modi’s rallies.

The notice was received by the BJP office on February 17. It stated, “Recently, the BJP was in the news that the party had collected money by way of selling entry tickets for Modi's rallies at different places in the country”.

“As the entry tickets were not for admission to any entertainment event or access to amusement facilities (which are in the negative list) the amount is taxable. It appears that the BJP/Narendra Modi has not paid tax on the amount collected by way of selling tickets,” the notice stated.

Chandigarh, February 18
With the announcement of a cut in the excise duty on cars, TVs, refrigerators and washing machines in the Interim Budget yesterday, prospective buyers are preferring to wait for the prices to fall.

The city has the highest density of cars and consumer durables per household according to the "2011 household amenities and assets indicators".

The excise duty has been cut by 4 to 8 per cent on small cars, two-wheelers, commercial vehicles, SUVs and large and mid-segment cars, while the duty on consumer durables has been cut from 12 per cent to 10 per cent.

A senior excise official said the new prices would be applicable with immediate effect. “However, it generally takes some time for the companies to work out the price details,” he said.

Manjeet Singh, who had booked a Maruti Ertiga, said he would wait for a week before taking the delivery of the vehicle as he was expecting a reduction of around Rs 40,000 in its price.

Pradeep Sheoran, General Manager, Sales, Tricity Autos, Maruti, said, “The prices of medium-segment cars such as Alto 800 have come down by Rs 6,000 to 7,000 while those of luxury cars such as Ertiga and SX4 have come down by Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000. The rebate is effective from today.”

On the other hand, consumers of high-end mobile phones are not excited as there is no tax rebate on imported mobile sets.

Sandeep Singh, owner of Nokia Priority, said, “Only phones manufactured in India will become cheaper. The fact is that 95 per cent of the mobile phones are being imported and so the customers will not benefit in the real sense. It is just a way to befool people ahead of the Lok Sabha elections”.

The manager of Apple Currents, Chandigarh, said, “The Budget will not affect Apple as our phones are imported.”

Buyers of TVs, washing machines and refrigerators should not expect much fall in the prices. Sahil Arora, Distributor, ID Corporations, said the price reduction in LCDs and refrigrators would be negligible. Pradeep Singla, who had come to Sector 35 to buy a washing machine, termed the marginal fall in the prices poll gimmick.

“Customers are calling us and enquiring about the revised prices. I can sense the happiness in their tone,” said Anil Nath, Sales Manager, KLG Hyundai, Chandigarh.

Chandigarh, February 18
While the BJP has already formed its booth-level, ward-level and various other committees and started its hi-tech and door-to-door campaigns in the city, the Congress is yet to set its house in order.

It is learnt that the organisational structure of the city unit of the Congress is not in place and the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee (CTCC) has even failed to form a number of booth-level committees.

There are 490 electoral booths in the city.

A senior Congress leader said recently, directions were issued to party leaders to submit their lists of booth-level workers to be included in booth-level committees but only a few leaders had submitted their lists so far.

Another Congress leader said the delay in forming committees could hamper the Congress campaign for the Lok Sabha elections and senior party leaders should form these committees at the earliest.

Presently, only sitting MP Pawan Kumar Bansal and his family members are addressing rallies in various parts of the city, especially in colonies and villages. Other leaders are not even holding meetings in their wards or areas.

Meanwhile, CTCC president BB Behl claimed that they had formed some booth-level committees and party workers would start campaigning soon. There could be problems in formation of some committees, which would be addressed soon, he said. 

Chandigarh, February 18
To help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) achieve the target of 272 plus seats in Lok Sabha elections and make Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of the country, the Team Modi began a campaign 'Jago Yatra-2014' here today.

The march was flagged off by Gurtej Pannu, a founder member of the Team Modi, and it covered the markets and residential areas of sectors 27 and 28. Pannu said the yatra was a door-to-door campaign to make people aware about the importance of their vote.

He said in the last Lok Sabha elections, there were around 5,27,000 registered voters in the city and only a half of them exercised their right to franchise. "This time, we want to raise the voter turn out to 90 per cent. The yatra will cover sectors 7,8,9,10 and 11 tomorrow," Pannu said.

Jago Yatra will also be launched in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur and Una (HP).

Chandigarh, February 18
Acting on a petition filed by Selvel Media Services Private Limited alleging that their contract for maintenance of public toilets in sector markets was approved but tender was not allotted, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MC) and others to take a decision on the matter.

Disposing of the petition, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Arun Palli granted three days to the petitioner to supplement the representation already made.

The Bench added that the earlier representation dated February 7 would then be decided within 15 days from the receipt of the supplementary representation. The Bench also directed that the reasons assigned for taking the decision one way or the other should be set out and communicated to the petitioner. In case of an adverse decision, the same would not be implemented for seven days from the date of its communication.

The petitioner had earlier told the court that it was aggrieved by the vacillation on the issue of the award of tender floated on June 24, 2013, for maintenance of the public toilets. Opinions were expressed, but final decision was not taken. In the meantime, the task of maintaining toilets, in an ad hoc manner, was extended to the petitioner.

Chandigarh, February 18
Terming the power tariff hike petition filed by the UT Electricity Department as ‘baseless’, city residents have demanded that the petition be dismissed and power tariff not be increased.

The objections filed by the residents, traders and industrialists to the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC), stated, “As the department has not conducted an energy audit, on what basis does it claim in the petition that the proposed power tariff hike of 21 per cent is necessary to recover losses.”

The residents further stated that the transmission and distribution loss of electricity should be reduced by 5-7 per cent through implementation of the R-APDRP project as proposed by the UT Administration.

They demanded that the burden of subsidised rates of certain categories should not be levied on the general consumers and should be borne by the Electricity Department or Chandigarh Administration.

The residents also suggested that the Electricity Department should hold regular public awareness meetings and introduce usage of CFL and other economical electronics devices to save power.

The objections were filed by the Joint Forum of Industries Association of Chandigarh, Federation of Sector Welfare Associations Chandigarh (FOSWAC), Chandigarh Beopar Mandal (CBM), Chandigarh Industrial Converted Plot Owners Association, Chandigarh Business Council (CBC), Chandigarh Industrial Area Tenant Association, The Chandigarh Residents Social Welfare Federation and Advocate Ajay Jagga.

Mohali, February 18
As many as 100 students of nearly 10 schools and colleges from the tricity, Ludhiana and Jalandhar took part in a poster-making competition organised by the Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology (NIIFT) here today.

The topics of the competition included Progressive Punjab, save girl, save nation, donate blood, say no to drugs and female foeticide.

The competition witnessed encouraging innovations and creativity by the students.

The first prize of Rs 5,000 was won by Mallika Singh of St Soldier International Convent School, Mohali. The second prize of Rs 3,000 went to Sonali, NIIFT, Ludhiana, while the third prize of Rs 1,000 went to Baljinder Kaur of Government College, Mohali.

Five consolation prizes of Rs 1,000 each were also given. Vishav Bandhu, director, NIIFT, Mohali, gave away the prizes.

Mohali, February 18
A group of 33 students of the Indo Global College of Architecture participated in the annual convention of the National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA) held at the Vaishnavi School of Architecture and Planning, Hyderabad.

NASA is a national-level students’ body comprising various architecture colleges.

Chandigarh, February 18
The Municipal Corporation adjudged the neighbourhood park maintained by the Citizens’ Association, Sector 21, as the ‘best park’ in the city during a competition held here today.

It was for the first time that the corporation organised such an open competition for resident welfare associations, the results of which were also declared today.

The Citizens' Association, Sector 21, got the first position for the park opposite House No. 2165; Green Care Society, Sector 46, got the second position for the park adjoining House No. 277 and the EWS Resident Welfare Association, Sector 40, got the third position for the park near Delhi Public School.

Baljinder Singh, president of the Citizens’ Association, thanked officials of the Horticulture Department and residents of Sector 21 for their wholehearted support for maintaining it.

Executive Engineer (Horticulture) Kishan Pal said they had received 11 entries for the competition.

Panchkula, February 18
High drama was witnessed at General Hospital, Sector 6, here, today when a man who claimed himself to be a senior official with a local government department smashed the glass of the emergency ward's door by punching on it when the staff stopped him from entering and asked him to use the general way.

The impact of the attack was so big that the pieces of broken glass fell on patients lying on stretchers near the door. However, no patient suffered any injury.

Though the person injured his hand in the first attempt, he punched again on it in anger.

Usha Gupta, Principal Medical Officer at the hospital, has confirmed the incident. The hospital authorities had to get a new glass fixed on the door.

Dr Sunil Gambhir, a senior doctor at the hospital said: “We have

discussed with the high-ups and will be proceeding with legal action against the person for damaging the property of a government hospital. We have got the CCTV footage of the incident as well.”

A doctor at the emergency said: “A well-dressed person who was in his late forties asked the guard deployed at the emergency ward to open the door. When the guard told him that it was meant for patients and he would have to use the other way if he had some work there, he started quarrelling with the staff.”

"The man also threatened the hospital staff that he was working on a high post and the latter will have to open the door at any cost," the doctor added.

Chandigarh, February 18
The foundation stone of a civil dispensary in Sector 49, here, was laid today in the presence of UT Mayor Harphool Chander Kalyan.

KK Sharma, Adviser to the UT Administrator, unveiled the plaque to lay the stone.

The Administration had already earmarked land for provision of three another civil dispensaries in the southern sectors and the corporation would start the construction work soon, he added. The Mayor said the MC had planned to construct four dispensaries in Sectors 48, 49, 50 and 52. At present, the tendering process of construction of a dispensary in Sector 50 was under process. About 250 lakh would be spent in the construction of the ground floor of this building in the first phase.

Mohali, February 18
Five students of Government High School, Kandala village, were hurt when a wall of their school building collapsed this afternoon.

Sandeep (13), Abhishek (12), Vikram (12), Munish (11) and Kiran sustained injuries on head and arms. They were shifted to Silver Oaks Hospital in Phase 9. Their condition is stable. While Kiran is a student of Class IX, others study in Class VI.

A staff member said the incident took place when students were coming downstairs as the school closed at 3 pm. Suddenly, the wall, which was constructed along the staircase, collapsed injuring the students.

Sources said the wall was very old and the recent rain deteriorated its condition. 

In the news item, ‘UT’s share in Budget slashed’, published in these columns on February 18, the figures of the budgetary provisions in the graphics under the Plan head were inadvertently mentioned under the non-Plan head. 

Chandigarh, February 18
The two PU senators — observing a hunger strike outside the Vice-Chancellor's office since Monday — called off their agitation late evening today after the authorities agreed to their demands.

The Senators — Dr Ajay Ranga, fellow and assistant professor (law), University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS), and Varinder Singh —had been staging a dharna seeking legitimate right of rotation for the post of chairperson of the UILS.

“The authorities called a meeting and agreed to our demand of allowing rotations as per the PU Calendar,” said Ranga.

As many as 10 other senators of the teaching and non-teaching association had also lent their support to the agitating officials.

Earlier, the Senators had contended that as the rules of rotation for the head of UILS were clearly defined in the PU Calendar, and all committees constituted for the purpose recommended the rotation, why the V-C was providing “undue benefit to a few selected people.”

Panjab University Syndicate in an official statement had earlier stated that it would consider the recommendations of the SS Johl Committee regarding the headship of UILS on February 22.

The Johl Committee includes Prof Veer Singh, Prof AK Bhandari, Prof Lalit Bansal, GK Chatrath, Prof Varinder Kumar, Prof Davinder Singh and DR Establishment.

The committee had unanimously resolved that the rotation of headship in the institute shall always be amongst the Professors of Law only and the incumbent Honorary Head, being the only Law Professor in the institute be appointed as Chairperson of UILS for a term of three years.

It had further resolved that one vacant post of professor be filled at the earliest to introduce the system of rotation of head in the institute.

However, the protesting senators demanded that when a rule existed, why should the issue be taken up in the syndicate?

Chandigarh, February 18
The annual Prof Roshan Lal Verma Memorial Cultural Function —‘VIRASAT’ was organised at Goswami Ganesh Dutta Sanatan Dharama College (GGDSD College), today.

The cultural extravaganza was attended by over 500 people from the college. The event commenced with the lamp lighting ceremony by Prof Navdeep Goyal, dean, Students Welfare, Panjab University.

Various competitions, including singing, solo and group dance, Giddha and Bhangra were organised. The highlight of the day was the ramp walk by students aspiring to be Miss and Mr Virasat.

Punjabi singers Prabh Gill, Babbal Rai, Jassi Gill and Hardy Sandhu also enthralled the audience.

Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill SSP, Chandigarh, was the chief guest and gave a lecture on drug addiction.

CHANDIGARH: Seven students of Dikshant International School have been chosen as ambassadors for ISS- Kalam-NSS Indo-US space-based solar power project.