NEIGHBOURHOOD

Husband, son arrested
Tribune News Service

Kharar, March 31
The police have claimed to arrested five persons with 100 gm of heroin worth Rs 50 lakh at a naka set up last night.

The accused have been identified as Simranjit Singh alias Bunty, Raghbir Singh alias Sweeta, Varun Bhatia, all local residents, and Robin Singh alias Ruby and Robin Massih, both from Fatehgarh Churian, Gurdaspur.

The police said the consignment was seized from the dashboard of a Ford Figo car in which the accused were travelling in. They were coming from the Kurali side.

"Seeing a naka, they tried to return but we nabbed them and recovered the heroin from the vehicle," they said.

After registering a case under Sections 21/61/85 of the NDPS Act against the accused, the police produced them before the court this afternoon. Later, it sent them to judicial remand.

Kalka, March 31
The Navratra mela began today with enthusiasm and religious fervour at Kalka.

On the first day of the fair, thousands of devotees from Kalka, Pinjore, Panchkula, Chandigarh, Parwanoo, Solan and adjoining villages of Kalka and other areas from Himachal and Punjab paid obeisance at the historic Kali Mata temple, which was beautifully decorated.

Over Rs 2 lakh were received as donations at the temple today. Special arrangements have been made by the local administration and the Mata Mansa Devi Shrine board to cope with the heavy rush of devotees at the temple.

Chandigarh, March 31
The Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has been penalised for not providing interest on earnest money deposited by a complainant.

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed CHB to pay the interest on the amount of Rs 70,000 at the rate of nine per cent per annum — from December 4, 2010, — to Surekha Sharma, the complainant.

The forum also directed CHB to pay Rs 7,000 as compensation for the harassment faced by the complainant.

As per the case, the complainant had applied for a one-bedroom flat in response to the scheme launched by CHB under ‘Self financing housing scheme-2008’ for employees of Chandigarh Administration.

The complainant had deposited a total sum of Rs 70,000 as earnest money. However, Sharma remained unsuccessful in the draw of lots and kept waiting for the refund. Though CHB refunded the amount, it did not provide any interest.

“There is deficiency in service on part of CHB for not paying the interest amount to Sharma,” said the forum. 

Mohali, March 31
A Mohali court today extended the police remand of recently dismissed DSP Gurbans Singh Bains and his acquaintance NK Goel for three more days till April 3.

Bains was dismissed and arrested on March 27 on corruption charges and was on remand till today. Today again, the police produced Bains and Goel before the court of Mohali Judicial Magistrate A Saldi and demanded further remand for seven more days.

The police pleaded the extension of remand, claiming that during the interrogation they got a sale deed of some rice trucks from the accused. For further investigations, extension in remand for seven more days was needed.

Besides, the police asked for more time to get details of other bank accounts and lockers and their (the accused) properties.

On the other hand, the defence counsels opposed the extension in police remand, stating that the entire case against their clients was fabricated.

Terming the case politically motivated, the defence counsels said the police had registered a case against them without any complaint.

"Moreover, the police had recovered the amounts from Bains' bank lockers. The case should have given to the Income Tax Department," said the counsels.

Notably, Bains, who was posted as DSP (City 1) here, was dismissed from his service by IGP, Zone 1, Patiala, on March 27. It was alleged that Bains had received a 'hawala' consignment of Rs 40 lakh through his wife Amardeep Shergill from Chandigarh-based NK Goel. Besides, the police had also recovered an unlicensed foreign-made Webley Scot revolver from his Patiala residence. Two separate cases, one at the Mataur police station and another at Patiala, have been registered against Bains.

Chandigarh, March 31
This year, the selection committee formed to induct new batch into the Chandigarh Hockey Academy (CHA) has decided to conduct survey and carry out trials in Punjab only. The delay in organising the trials, however, has led the committee members to face the music.

In all the trials organised on the earlier occasions, the Sports Selection Committee had visited places such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi. Members of the committee believed that since Punjab is the hub of the national game, the trials will be conducted in the state only, this year.

In 2008, the selection committee had conducted trials in Jalandhar, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Patiala, Ludhiana, Faridkot, Bathinda, Dharamshala (twice), New Delhi, Gurgaon, Lucknow (twice), while in 2011, the committee had visited Patiala, Amritsar, Batala, Barnala, Shimla, Jammu, Sonepat and New Delhi to select players.

In 2014, the committee was asked to find players from Bathinda, Faridkot, Mukhtsar, Sangrur, Haryana, Amritsar, Batala, Patiala, Ropar and Bassi Pathana. “We have been asked to focus in and around the state. Due to the cases of disparity in ages of the players that had surfaced from Uttar Pradesh and Gurgaon, we have decided to drop these cities. While in the remaining places, we were not finding the best of the players. So, now our focus will remain on the state only,” said a member of the selection committee.

This year, a total of 16 players were selected during two-day final trials held in Chandigarh.

Delay in conducting trials

In majority of the venues, members of the selection committee failed to find any players from the state due to their examinations. The committee failed to attract and find a good bunch of trainees from Bathinda, Faridkot, Sangrur, Patiala and Bassi Pathana. Due to the exams of the junior classes, low turnout of players was witnessed at the venues. Committee members had returned disappointed from the nationally-renowned Shahabad Hockey Academy (the only centre shortlisted in Haryana) as the chief coach refused to send players to Chandigarh. Considering the issues, an appeal to conduct trials to induct new batch of players into the academy was written on January 19. Due to the drafting, the process was, however delayed. Till now, only 16 seats are filled against the 24 seats in the Chandigarh Hockey Academy. “Majority of players have been enrolled from Gurdaspur and Ropar. We were planning to conduct trials during the first week of March, but due to the delay, we had to shortlist players from the available centres,” said a source.

Chandigarh, March 31
The 2nd annual athletic meet of Chandigarh University, Gharuan, kicked off at the sports ground of university campus, here today.

Events such as shot put, discus throw, high jump, long jump, 400m race for boys and girls, 100m race for boys and girls and 4x400 relay race took place today.

Parminder Kaur, University School of Business, won the 400m race (girls) while Khusboo, University Institute of Engineering, won the 100m race event.

Gurpinder Singh of electrical engineering won a gold medal in shot put event (boys), while Khushpreet, USB, clinched the top spot in girls’ category.

More than 500 students of different departments are participating in the annual athletic meet. The meet was inaugurated by Dr RS Bawa, Vice Chancellor, Chandigarh University.

Chandigarh, March 31
The local team won bronze medal in the girls’ team championship during the 41st Sub-Junior National and Inter-State Carrom Championship at Varanasi.

In the hardliner, Chandigarh’s eves defeated Andhra Pradesh 2-1.

Nidhi Gupta of Chandigarh took the lead in the first match against Santhi (Andhra) in a one-sided match, 19-1 and 21-00. Andhra’s Husana outclassed Chandigarh’s Komal Gupta, 21-00 and 21-00, for an equaliser.

In the doubles match between Sanya Chadha and Maryam Khan of Chandigarh against Tanuja and Khyathi of Andhra Pradesh, the former exhibited exceptional skills and scripted victory in the closely-contested match.

The first and second match was tied after a completion of stipulated six boards, 10-10 and 14-14.In the tie-breaker, Chandigarh won both the games and defeated Andhra Pradesh, 2-1.

Earlier, in the semifinal, Chandigarh went down against Tamil Nadu, 1-2. Sanya Chadha of Chandigarh secured sixth rank in the national championship. Sanya entered into the quarterfinal defeating her opponents Roshni Singh from Uttar Pradesh 17-4 and 21-0, TH Kebiton from Manipur 21-1 and 7-1 and Aditi of Haryana 21-0 and 21-0.

In the quarterfinal, Sanya went down against Manatha of Bihar 4-21, 2-20. In the first round play-off match for 5th-8th position, she defeated B Shruthi of Tamil Nadu 20-0 and 14-10, while in the second round play-off match for 5th-6th position. She was defeated by Mantash of Uttar Pradesh 14-13, 08-10 and 09-10.

Panchkula, March 31
Hansraj Cricket Academy, Sector 6, will face Blue Bell School’s Cricket academy, Naraingarh, in the final of the 2nd Smt Kaushalya Devi Memorial Cricket Cup (Under-15) league-cum-knockout basis.

The final match for the title will played on April 1 from 1 pm onwards, here.

According to Amarjit Kumar, cricket coordinator of Hansraj Cricket Academy, best performer will get man of the match award.

Performers will also be given best batsman, best bowler, best all rounder awards accordingly.

Chandigarh, March 31
Coaching Centre, Sector 42 (A) lifted the title of the 27th Junior Handball Championship for Girls after defeating Coaching Centre of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 19.

Coaching Centre, Sector 42 (A), beat Coaching Centre of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 19, 18-5 at the handball courts of Sector 23, here today.

In the final of the championship, Khusboo chipped in 6 goals and Guljahan contributed 4 goals for the winning side. Rekha and Deepa also contributed two goals each to add to the tally. For the losing side, Madhu contributed 5 goals, whereas Alisha and Tanvi pumped in three goals each to reduce the margin.