Mohali, May 26
Balbir Singh, alias Balla (28), who reportedly won top honours in an international karate meet, Asia Cup, 2012, held at the PAP, Jalandhar, landed in the police net in Mohali late last night. The police have recovered 150 gm of heroin, worth around Rs 1 crore, from his possession. The heroin was to be supplied to certain persons in the area.

Balla, a resident of Bhojra village in Tarn Taran district, was arrested on a tip-off near Cheema Hospital at Phase IV here.

According to Sub-Inspector Rajeev Kumar, SHO of the Phase I police station, Balla was going somewhere on foot when the police arrested him.

“We seized a polythene packet from his pocket, which contained the drug,” said the SHO.

Talking to Chandigarh Tribune, Balla said unemployment led him to the crime. “I had won the gold medal in the Asia Cup karate championship, held at the PAP, Jalandhar, in 2012. Even after that, I could not get a job. I finally ended up supplying drugs in a bid to earn a handsome livelihood for my family,” said Balla, who is matriculate and son of a former subedar. Balla is married and has a daughter.

The SHO said the police were trying to find out the persons for whom the contraband was meant.

“We have registered a case under Sections 21, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act against the accused,” he said.

Chandigarh, May 26
There was excitement among city residents to see Narendra Damodardas Modi (63), being sworn in as the 15th Prime Minister of India, on their TV screens.

While some completed their work early, some witnessed the swearing-in ceremony with their friends, but they did not miss the opportunity to watch Modi take oath live on television.

Be it student, working class or senior citizens, people from all walks of life saw the swearing-in ceremony. It was not only the local unit of BJP, who had made arrangements to see Modi live on TV at the party office in Sector 33 but arrangements were also made in various markets of Sectors 15, , 23, 29, 44 and 51 where shopkeepers had installed LCD screens to see the ceremony and even distributed sweets.

Not only in the markets, but at restaurants, food joints, people were seen glued to the TV screens. Mannat Arora, a young woman entrepreneur, said today she completed her work early and reached home before 6 pm. Along with her parents she saw the glittering function at Rashtrapati Bhawan. She said she had lots of hope from Modi, she said.

Echoing similar view, Mukesh Goyal, a businessman of Sector 44, said today they distributed sweets and ladoos in the market as history was made with Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. Now, they are hopeful that the Modi government will bring about a change in the system, he said.

Residents even watched the function on TV screens along with their friends. Dalip Singh, a resident of Sector 47, said he watched Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on TV screen with his friends. There were some important work in the evening, but he preferred to see the ceremony. They even distributed sweets to friends and public, he said.

Chandigarh, May 26
Even as there is disappointment among city residents over city MP, Kirron Kher not being given a ministerial berth in today, a ray of hope has emerged with Rajnath Singh being given the charge of Home Ministry.

While the BJP leader, Harmohan Dhawan was the Union Aviation Minister, former Congress MP Pawan Kumar Bansal held different portfolios including that of the Railways. Kirron Kher has not been able to a bag ministerial berth in Modi government.

But more than appointing the city MP as a minister, the residents wanted UT officials to act and deliver. Since most of the problems related to the functioning of the Chandigarh Administration arerelated to the Ministry of Home Affairs, persons close to Rajnath Singh expect an efficient team of bureaucrats to propel the development of the city.

Vineet Joshi, national spokesman, BJP Kissan Morcha and media in charge of Rajnath Singh in the 2006 elections, said the residents could hope for officers who would deliver. Joshi was among the persons who was invited to attend the oath ceremony at Delhi.

Chandigarh, May 26
Anticipating that after winning the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat after a gap of 15 years, the BJP can bring a no-confidence motion against sitting Congress Mayor Harphool Kalyan in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC), the Congress has started its work to protect the Mayor’s seat in the municipal corporation.

Recently, the local Congress unit directed its councillors in the MC, to protect Mayor’s post if the BJP brought in the no-confidence motion. The BJP is likely to bring in the no-confidence motion in the upcoming MC House meeting.

The Congress has already lost the post of the Senior Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Mayor to the BJP in the mayoral elections, which were held on January 1. Cross-voting was one of the reasons for the defeat of Congress candidates.

Now, with the victory of newly elected MP Kirron Kher, the BJP-SAD alliance has 13 members in the MC House, since the MP is also the ex-officio member of the MC House. Recently, Independent councillor Gurcharan Das Kala also joined the BJP.

In a 36-member MC House, the BJP needs a simple majority or two-third votes of members present in the House to bring a no-confidence motion. Now, in the MC, the BJP-SAD alliance has 13 votes, the BSP two votes, the Congress 12 votes and nine votes belong to the nominated councillors.

Chandigarh, May 26
A week ahead of the beginning of the new excise policy 2014-2015, the UT Excise and Taxation Department has blacklisted at least 18 liquor contractors who had failed to clear dues to the tune of Rs 3.40 crore.

The defaulters have not only been barred from participating in tomorrow’s process for allotment of vends in the city but have also been stopped from disposing of their movable and immovable properties.

After giving ample opportunities to the excise licencees, who had failed to clear their dues for the year 2012-2013, the department has now blacklisted them. This list of defaulters does not include the licencees of the year 2013-2014, who owe another over Rs 3 crore to the department.

“Though the total pending dues against the defaulters was Rs 8.33 crore, the department managed to recover Rs 4.93 crore,” said Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner Ashok Bhalla.

Among the main defaulters are Davinder Singh (Rs 1.95 crore), Inder Enterprises (Rs 66 lakh) and Kashnir Singh (Rs 39 lakh).

Chandigarh, May 26
The team of the UT Health Department, which found a majority of doctors “absent” during a surprise inspection at civil dispensaries in the city a few weeks ago, today submitted its final report to the UT Health Secretary.

The team has recommended that those who were working on deputation and found absent should be repatriated as “disciplinary action” and a show-cause notice be served on others.

The report stated, “In all dispensaries, it was found that most of the doctors were on leave without getting it sanctioned from the competent authority.”

"Their leave applications were placed in the attendance registers and were shown to the inspecting team. But these were not sanctioned by the competent authority, which means these applications are emergency devices either written by someone else or kept on record for such an eventuality and if nobody checks, these could be destroyed later," the inspection team noted in the report, a copy of which is with Chandigarh Tribune.

On the action part, the report stated, “In all these cases, those on deputation need to be repatriated for demonstrative effect and substitutes be called.”

Ten days ago, an interim report of the inspection was submitted to the UT Health Secretary.

Chandigarh, May 26
The Chandigarh Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (CCPCR) has summoned four UT police officials in a case wherein cops visited the Children’s Home for Girls (earlier Bal Niketan), Sector 15, in uniform.

The commission chairperson professor Devi Sirohi has directed SHOs Malkit Singh and Dalbir Singh along with police constables Sudesh and Jyoti, who were part of the team investigating the Bal Niketan case, to appear for a hearing on June 26, 2014.

Sirohi revealed that inquiry officer Aarti Goyal, who appeared before the commission today, was clueless about the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act according to which police officials cannot enter the child destitute home in police uniform for the purpose of investigation. She informed the commission that Dalbir Singh had deployed her to investigate and record the statements in the case.

Aarti Goyal further failed to inform the commission whether the police department had any special juvenile unit in Chandigarh and if it had, who was heading it.

Professor Devi Sirohi said SHO Malkit Singh who was also asked to appear today had sent a letter that due to some urgent work, he would not be able to appear for the hearing.

On April 22, the UT police had booked Bal Niketan supervisor Manish Kumar under Sections 354 and 354 A of the IPC, and Section 12 of the POCSO Act. Besides Kumar, the role of two women caretakers, Manjeet and Meena, is also being investigated for alleged negligence.

The victims had submitted a written complaint at the public window of the police headquarters and child-line 1098 against the supervisor. The girls had complained that they were sexually assaulted, beaten up, tortured and intimidated by the supervisor after which the police investigated the case.

Panchkula, May 26
Carrying their medals, Bhim Award winner hockey player and her husband, an international rowing player, protested against demolition of the boundary wall of their house at Chowki village by Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) on Saturday.

Kamla Dalal, a former national hockey player, and Gurjinder Cheema along with a number of others met the Deputy Commissioner (DC), Dr SS Phulia, and tried to surrender their medals.

Chandigarh, May 26
Unpleasant scenes were witnessed as Kings XI Punjab team left the hotel in the city where they had been putting up. A supporting staff of the team misbehaved with a photojournalist of The Tribune while the staff at the hotel manhandled him. The team left for Kolkata at 8.30 am.

Kings XI Punjab will play its first play-off match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday.

Before leaving, a supporting staff of the team, who claimed to be the security head, misbehaved with the photojournalist and the hotel staff manhandled him and tried to damage his camera.

The police personnel deployed there acted as a mute spectator.

"We have not allowed any mediaperson on the hotel premises for the last three and a half years. And you (the journalist) are also not allowed to cover anything," said a staff member who claimed to be the head at that hour.

The staff member, however, failed to reply when asked if covering the event was not permissible then why the journalist was allowed to enter the hotel with a camera.

Chandigarh, May 26
The Rotary Club, Chandigarh, honoured five citizens with the Vocational Service Award for going beyond their call of duty.

Dr Anuradha Sharma, a doctorate in Chemistry and working as Associate Professor in Government College, Sector 11. She founded 'Hamari Kaksha' in 2003 to teach underprivileged children and today it has been providing surrogate parenting to nearly 700 children at its five branches.

Constable Anuj Kumar posted at Sukhna Lake was honoured for showing exemplary character by returning money and other valuables to their owners who had lost them at the lake.

Fireman Sunil Kumar, posted at the Fire Station in Sector 11, showed exemplary courage by rescuing many persons when the chlorine-filled container of a heavy vehicle burst on the road separating Sectors 23 and 24 near Hotel Parkview.

Ramandeep Kaur, a Nursing Sister Grade II working at PGIMER, was honoured for her selfless service in promoting organ donation.

Harpal Singh of the Chhatbir Zoo was honoured for his efforts towards conservation of wildlife.

Chandigarh, May 26
For 58-year-old Vijay Kumari (knee arthritis patient), who was recommended a total knee replacement at the PGIMER a few months ago -- to overcome immense pain in knees and inability to walk freely -- compliance to correct exercises for about 3 months as well as her daughter-in-laws’ motivation did wonders to her.

Vijay does not require total knee replacement anymore.

Tired of the indigenous treatment for the last couple of years, she went to the PGIMER four months ago.

The doctor’s recommendation of a total knee replacement was no less than a shock to her.

Before knee replacement, she was directed to follow a correct exercise regimen.

While moving her legs without support had become almost “impossible” for her, her daughter-in-law Jyoti Sharma took up the responsibility of taking her regularly to a workshop at PGI. She also ensured a two-hour exercise regimen everyday at their residence in Mani Majra.

“I had put on a lot of weight due to the indigenous medicine and my movement was restricted. But, now, the exercises have not only strengthened my knees but also helped me reduce weight,” said Vijay.

More than 100 other patients like her also enrolled in the project introduced by a Phd student, Dr Meenakshi Sharma, under the guidance of Prof Mandeep Dhillon (orthopaedics) and Prof Amarjeet Singh (community medicine) for the past three months and showed considerable improvement.

Chandigarh, May 26
A Subdivisional Engineer with the Chandigarh Housing Board, Kailash Garg, has been placed under suspension by the Chief Executive Officer of the Chandigarh Housing Board.

While suspending the Subdivisional Engineer , the Secretary has ordered disciplinary proceedings for major penalty.

Mohali, May 26
After five days of recovering the decomposed body of Congress leader Rajwant Singh Shergill, the Mohali Police are yet to get any vital lead to work out the sensational blind murder case so far.

The police, which earlier were sure of solving the case within 24 hours after recovering the body on May 21 morning, are now cross-questioning close relatives of the victim, including his wife.

Confirming the development, Mohali Superintendent of Police (City 1) Swarndeep Singh said the police have cross-questioned the victim’s wife and his other close relatives today.

“During the process, we came to know about some facts, which needed to be probed thoroughly,” said SP Swarndeep Singh. The SP said his wife told the police that she was aware of only two-three mobile phone numbers of her husband.

“We have recovered around nine SIM cards, which were being used by Shergill. His wife claimed that except two or three mobile phone numbers of Shergill, she was ignorant of the rest,” he said.

The police have also recovered one more cellphone from the Ertiga SUV, in which the Shegill’s body was found.

“Prima facie, it seemed that the cellphone belonged to Shergill. As the cellphone has been damaged due to heat in the vehicle, we are taking help of the CFSL to get further details related to the cellphone,” said the SP.

While the Mohali Police are working hard to solve this case, there are many blind murder cases which they had failed to solve till date. These include Airtel’s deputy general manager Sameer Watts, Panchkula-based realtor Suresh Kumar and mysterious death of Anuradha Bali, aka Fiza, estranged wife of Haryana’s former Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan, aka Chand Mohammad.

Mohali, May 26
The District Administration is all set to start development works at Banur town. Following a meeting with officials of the Municipal Council, Banur, at the District Administrative Complex today, Mohali Deputy Commissioner Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu issued directions to them to start special sanitation cleanliness drive, proper cleanliness of roads and drains and management of waste water to minimise the damage during monsoons.

The council has also been asked to start laying premix within a week on the main road approaching towards the Grain Market. The estimated cost of the road is Rs 47 lakh.

A decision on enhancing the beauty of the MC Park with the installation of a musical fountain was also taken at the meeting.

Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu said Rs 4.13 crore were spent on development works in the town last year.

Mohali, May 26
Drivers and staff of 108 ambulances, who continued their strike on the fourth day today, got a boost when the Punbus Workers Union and ASHA workers supported their protest here.

Earlier, the protesters had planned to block traffic on the Kharar-Mohali highway near Balongi village today afternoon but the programme was postponed at the last moment.

The protesters, who are contractual staff, demanded the government to regularise their services.

“Now we will block the traffic on the highway on May 28,” said Bikram Singh Saini, president of the 108 Ambulance Employees Association.

Notably, the health authorities have made makeshift arrangements of drivers to run the emergency service but these drivers now have also refused to run the ambulances.

On the other hand, a call attendant at 108 said the ambulances were running across the state and asked the spot where the caller needed the vehicle.

Chandigarh, May 26
In a first-of-its kind initiative, Panjab University (PU), is formulating a scheme to extend the facility for exemption of fee to students of economically weaker sections enrolled under self-finance courses from the academic session 2014-15.

The authorities have started the process to draft slabs of the exemption for the self-finance courses.

Sources said four types of slabs are going to be framed by the authorities, including 100 per cent, 75 per cent, 50 per cent and 10 per cent depending on the financial status of the applicant under the scheme for self-finance courses.

Records of the university revealed that as many as 17 partially self-finance courses are being run by the university.

Out of this, some departments are charging more than Rs 1 lakh per semester from the students as fee.

PU Dean Student Welfare Navdeep Goyal confirmed that the authorities had asked the PU student council president to draft norms for the scheme, so that it could be implemented from the current academic session.

He said the proposal had been approved in the Senate meeting held yesterday.

Sources said the authorities were mooting the norms wherein a student will get the refund of first-year fee after getting clearance from the committee constituted for the screening of applications.

From the second year, if the applicant clears the first-year exam, no fee will be charged by the Self-Finance Department.

Sources said the scheme had been mooted by the university after the decision of fee hike was taken, as students were assured that out of the total amount collected after the hike, 50 per cent would be spent on providing relief to the poor students.

Sources said about Rs 1.5 crore will be collected after the fee hike, of which Rs 75 to Rs 80 lakh will be spent on scholarships and free education of the poor students.

help at hand Four types of slabs are going to be framed by the authorities, including 100 per cent, 75 per cent, 50 per cent and 10 per cent depending on the financial status of the applicant under the scheme for self-finance courses. As many as 17 partially self-finance courses are being run by the university. The scheme was mooted by the university after the decision of fee hike was taken, as students were assured that out of the total amount collected after the hike, 50 per cent would be spent on providing relief to the poor students. About Rs 1.5 crore will be collected after the fee hike, of which Rs 75 to Rs 80 lakh will be spent on scholarships and free education of the poor students.

Chandigarh, May 26
For effective communication between parents and the school authorities, Vivek High School, Sector 38, today introduced its school’s mobile application — Vivek High School app.

The school authorities claimed that the application would allow parents and teachers to communicate on a daily basis and at the same time, provide information on the day-to-day activities, circulars and event updates.

The authorities further said the application would also work on laptops and computers as well.

Ranging from the attendance records of students to providing information on daily homework as well as lessons taught in the classroom, besides pending syllabus, the parents will be informed on various issues.

HS Mamik, chairman of the board, Vivek High School, said, “In this fast-paced life, it has rather become important to introduce such an application.”

“The complete schedule of the upcoming examinations, formative as well as subjective assessments will be available for a review. Also, the progress of a child will be sent to his parents at regular intervals,” added Mamik.

Varun Gupta, who has developed the application, said, “We had to work on something which informative and also dealt with the psychological aspects of adolescent students.”

better COMMUNICATION
Ranging from the attendance records of students to providing information on daily homework as well as lessons taught in the classroom, besides pending syllabus, the parents will be informed on various issues. They can also discuss issues with the respective teachers.

Chandigarh, May 26
As many as 205 students received awards for their achievements in the academic session 2013-14, during the annual day prize distribution function at Government College of Education, Sector 20, today.

Dr Vandana Mehra, chairperson, Department of Education, Panjab University, was the chief guest. She lauded the institution for providing a substantive platform to students for professing their academic and co-curricular skills.

“Positive thinking and clarity of goals provide excellence to academic work,” she added.

College principal Dr Harsh Batra welcomed the gathering. The occasion also witnessed reminiscent and reflective moments as students expressed how they had come a long way in the past few months, thereby changing their roles and responsibilities from pupils to teachers.

Meanwhile, 69 students — who had pledged their eyes — received trophies and appreciation certificates on the occasion.

for a noble cause
As many as 69 students — who had pledged their eyes — also received trophies and appreciation certificates.

Chandigarh, May 26
Putting rest to speculations about the correction of errors in the biology section of NCERT books and exemplars, recently, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) examination governing authorities have claimed that they have subject experts to handle any sort of error or controversy in the examination.

The corrections were recently made in the NCERT biology online edition after an order by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

In a reply to an RTI filed by local PMT trainer, Dr Arvind had sought information whether the AIIMS examination section will ensure that the examiners will go through the corrections made in the NCERT biology section, while setting up the entrance examination paper.

On this, the AIIMS examination section had replied, “We have an appropriate confidential process in place to take care of wrong questions by the subject expert and other related issues.”

Meanwhile Dr Arvind Goyal said, “We hope the expert panel of AIIMS as mentioned by them in the reply, has taken care that there are no controversial questions in the examination.”

Dr Goyal further claimed that the students had already had a bitter experience due to so many controversies in the All India Pre-Medical/ Pre-Dental Entrance Test (AIPMT). However, if any errors appear inadvertently, the expert panel on being intimated by the students or subject experts should look into the matter.”

The AIIMS MBBS entrance test will be held on June 1.

gear up FOR EXAMINATION For biology, concentrate on revising the main points of NCERT of Class XI and XII. Revise the sample question papers of Morphology, Anatomy & Kingdoms, a day before the exam. Try to solve previous year’s examination papers. Time yourself and keep a tab on your speed while trying to solve these questions. To maximize your efficiency, it is recommended to take a short break of about 10 minutes after every one-and-a-half-hour of study. Keep your admit card, stamp size photograph, ID proof and wrist watch together. You won't forget anything before the exam.

Chandigarh, May 26
The Students for Society (SFS), has strongly condemned the decision passed by the Senate to hike course fees by 5 per cent, besides hostel and examination fees by 10 per cent.

The students alleged that the authorities had left no option for them to protest, as the decision had been passed at a time when they were busy in examinations, while others had gone home.

SFS students said the decision to hike the fee revealed the anti-student attitude of the university authorities.

This is not the first time that the university has back-tracked from its promises. Earlier, too, when the students had protested against the hike in the prices of mess diets, the authorities first assured to decrease the rates but had later back-tracked.

The authorities were also ‘exposed’ at that time when the fee committee was constituted, in which the students were given no representation. Only the president of the Students’ Council was included in it. It seems the Students’ Council has allied with the authorities concerned against the university students and their rights.