Chandigarh, May 27
Two persons died in a head-on collision between a bike and an Activa scooter in Sector 3 last night. The mishap occurred near the Haryana Chief Minister’s residence when the biker, who was riding recklessly and coming from the wrong side, collided head-on with the Activa scooter. Both riders sustained serious head injuries and could not survive the mishap.

The deceased have been identified as 31-year-old Anish Kumar, a resident of Nayagaon, and 45-year-old Devi Dutt Bhatt, a resident of Kaimbwala. Another pillion rider, Mam Chand, was critically injured in the mishap.

Dutt was on his motorcycle and Avinash, along with cousin Mam Chand, was on his Honda Activa when the mishap occurred around 11.45 pm.

The police have registered a case of causing death due to negligence against the deceased, Dutt, who was coming from the wrong side at a very high speed.

The mishap occurred when Anish Kumar, who worked in the Punjab MLA hostel canteen, was heading to his Nayagaon residence after completing his work.

Dutt and Anish’s two-wheelers collided on reaching the T-point in Sector 3.

Anish’s brother, Videsh Kumar, who was also going on his bicycle behind them, rushed to rescue them and informed the local police about the incident.

A police team rushed them to the PGI, where Anish was declared brought dead. Dutt died later. The condition of Mam Chand is stated to be critical. The impact of the mishap was so huge that Anish flew into the air, following which his helmet broke into pieces and he sustained serious head injuries. Anish is survived by his wife and two children, whereas Dutt is survived by his wife and six children.

Dutt was an employee of a leading catering company.

Police investigations revealed that Dutt was riding his bike on the wrong side and thus collided head-on with Anish's scooter.

Chandigarh, May 27
Hostel inmates in Panjab University are making a quick buck, thanks to the high demand for rented accommodation in and around the campus. The Panjab University authorities were in for a shock when they stumbled upon cases in which students had sublet their hostel rooms for amounts ranging between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000.

Recently, three cases in boys' hostels came to the notice of wardens in which students had sublet their hostel rooms and were charging a hefty rent from the occupants for the accommodation. Sources said in Hostel Nos. 1, 2 and 4, after receiving complaints from students, a check was conducted by the wardens and three cases were detected. The students, who were charging between Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 as rent from each occupant, had taken the rent of around six months as advance.

The sources said PhD students, who were allotted these rooms, had got jobs and had sublet their rooms to students who failed to get the facility.

The authorities have recovered the amount charged by the students from the occupants as rent and a fine of Rs 5,000 has been imposed on the students for the illegal act. As part of the punishment, the students have been asked to accommodate the occupants along with them on "daily basis charges".

Dean, Students' Welfare, Navdeep Goyal confirmed that the wardens had complained about such cases in the recent past. He said to get rid of the subletting problem, the authorities had decided not to allot rooms to single occupants from this year in any hostel. He said there was no such complaint from girls' hostels as these already had a 100 per cent occupancy.

A hostel warden said on condition of anonymity that according to the norms, if any such case came to light, for the first time, such students were supposed to be fined Rs 2,500, besides a warning.

Chandigarh, May 27
The results of the CBSE Class XII examinations of the Panchkula region, comprising Punjab, Haryana, HP, Chandigarh and J&K, will be declared tomorrow. This has been confirmed by board Chairman Vineet Joshi.

Due to uncertainty over the declaration of the results, confusion and anxiety prevailed among the school authorities, students and parents throughout the day today. Students kept logging on to the official website of the CBSE to know the date and time of the announcement of the results. However, the website did not carry any such notification. Last year, the board had declared the Class XII results on May 27.

Students can check their results on the official website of the CBSE (http://cbseresults.nic.in/) by logging in using their roll numbers. The results can also be checked through the SMS and the IVRS. BSNL customers can type cbse12 followed by the roll number and send it to 57766; Tata Docomo, Aircel, Vodafone and Reliance users can send cbse12 roll number to 58888111; and Airtel subscribers can send cbse12 roll number to 5207011.

All networks can send cbse12 roll number to 9212357123 or 7738299899. 

Chandigarh, May 27
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Chandigarh, today sentenced a person, who has been repeatedly challaned for drunken driving, to imprisonment for six months and imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 on him.

The accused, Varun Sharma, a resident of Sector 40, has been previously also challaned four times for the offence of drunken driving. The provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act provide for enhanced penalty in the case of a subsequent offence of drunken driving by an offender. The court ordered that in default of the payment of the fine, the accused will have to further undergo imprisonment for one month. The court has also disqualified the accused from holding any driving licence to drive any class of vehicle for six months. The accused was challaned on May 21 at a traffic police barrier on the rear side of the Police Lines, Sector 26.

The breath analyser test of the accused was conducted with the help of an Alco-Sensor machine and alcohol content to the extent of 175 mg/100 ml of blood was detected. The challaning officer of the traffic wing remained present in the court with all relevant record and the defence counsel for the accused was also given an opportunity to give evidence. However, the court sentenced the accused after being satisfied with the case of the prosecution.

Going by the statistics, licences of around 300 motorists have been suspended in the past five years. In all, there were at least 350 repeat offenders; the exact number is not available, but licences of only regular repeat offenders were suspended for three to six months.

Over 4,000 offenders are challaned each year for drunken driving by the traffic police.

Chandigarh, May 27
In the first phase of allotment of vends through tendering process held here today, the UT Excise and Taxation Department was able to sell 68 per cent of vends as no application was received for the remaining vends.

Most of the stakeholders were able to get the vend even by quoting bids slightly above the reserved price of the respective vend.

Of the 173 vends opened for bidding, there were applications for 119 vends, an apparent outcome of the UT’s move to bring the quota of liquor and rationalise the licence fee in its new excise policy (2014-2015).

Against a reserved price of 79.26 crore, the department was able to earn Rs 92.32 crore, an increase of 16.48 per cent in case of IMFL vends.

Compared to the Indian-made foreign liquor (IMF) vends wherein 91 vends and modern liquor shops were sold out of the total 123, the response to the country vends was poor as there were takers for 28 of the total 50 vends.

Excise and Taxation Commissioner Mohammed Shayin said while in case of IMFL the hike in revenue compared to previous year was 16.48 per cent and in case of country liquor, the hike was 9.64 per cent.

Figures provided by the department reveal that a vend in Sector 17 market attracted an increase of just Rs 2,700 and one of the vend in Sector 28 recorded a hike of just Rs 993. The highest increase was registered by vends which went for Rs 2.61 crore against a reserve price of Rs 1.44 crore in Sector 42 and another vend which went for Rs 1.63 crore against a reserve price of Rs 95 lakh in the Sector 47 market. Around 20 vends attracted bid of over Rs 1 crore.

Chandigarh, May 27
Tradelinks Pvt. Ltd (through its managers in Chandigarh and Mohali), has been directed to refund Rs 3 lakh paid by a complainant for furnishing work. The company has also been asked to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation for delaying the delivery of hardware.

Complainant Manjeet Singh contacted opposite parties for fabrication of doors and windows. He stated that he made an advance payment of Rs 3 lakh but the opposite parties failed to ensure timely delivery of hardware.

While one of the respondent did not contest, the other stated, the complainant never fulfilled the contract entered between the parties. He was liable to pay 50 per cent of the amount of the contract. The last revised quotation received by him was of Rs.15,14,793.21 according to that the complainant was liable to pay the 50 per cent of the amount, which roughly came toabout more than Rs 7,50,000. The 40 per cent amount was payable at the time of pre-delivery of the materials and 5 per cent against the installation.

The forum, however, observed: “The first estimate was sent on January 17, 2013 and the delivery of the ready hardware was promised for February 16, 2013, but the revised estimate of Rs10,29,946.47 was sent on April 10, 2013, which shows that even after taking the advance in January, 2013, the opposite parties did not give the delivery till April 10, 2013. The opposite party (second respondent) has not clarified about this delay even after receiving advance payment of Rs.3.00 lakh from the complainant.”

Chandigarh, May 27
To attain the coveted UNESCO heritage status for Capitol Complex in Chandigarh, UT Home Secretary Anil Kumar today directed the UT Chief Architect to complete the original drawings and hand it over to the Engineering Department to complete the uncompleted work.

Anil Kumar today visited Capitol complex along with UT Chief Architect Sumit Kaur, UT Chief Engineer SK Chadha and other officials and checked the shortcomings.

Anil Kumar said directions had been issued to the UT Chief Architect to complete the original drawing of Capitol Complex and handover to the Engineering Department to complete pavement, remove wild growth and other shortcomings, he said.

He said, buildings in Capitol Complex designed by Le Corbusier were a part of transnational nominations.

Recently, the UT Home Secretary had attended a review meeting in Paris wherein the Paris-based Le Corbusier Foundation had asked the trans-national countries to speed up the process for the submission of the joint dossier to UNESCO.

The foundation, a coordinating body for the seven trans-national countries, which have decided to jointly claim the UNESCO world heritage status for the works of master architect Le Corbusier, had told the UT Administration to submit the document on Capitol Complex to the foundation. Thereafter, the UT Administration had sped up the process of completing documents and drawings.

Le Corbusier’s works in Chandigarh along with his other works in countries like France, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, Germany and Argentina would be included in the proposed trans-border serial nomination for the UNESCO heritage status for 2015.

The Union Ministry of Cultural Affairs has already given its nod to the UT Administration in this regard.

The UT Administration has been pushing the city’s case for the UNESCO heritage status since 2006. In 2006-07, Chandigarh featured on a tentative list drawn up by UNESCO.

Chandigarh, May 27
The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) is going to purchase two dog vans to catch stray dogs in the city.

Facing criticism to control the growing number of stray dogs in the city, the MC has proposed to purchase two vans that would be pressed-in to service for catching the stray dogs.

The issue to purchase the vehicles will be tabled before the Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) at its meeting scheduled on May 29.

At present, three NGOs have been roped in for the dog sterilisation programme in the city. The MC staff catches stray dogs for the two NGOs and transports them to their clinics for sterilisation. Officials stated that two more dog vans would help in catching more dogs for sterilisation.

The issue of hiring four pharmacists and two ward servants for the civil dispensaries under the MC will also be discussed at the F&CC meeting.

The committee will also be discussing the amended terms and conditions regarding paid parking in the city.

Mohali, May 27
Intensifying their stir, several protesting staff members of 108 Ambulance today climbed on a water tank in Phase VI to press their demands.

Some of them also threatened to commit suicide, the District Administration and local police rushed their senior officials at the spot to pacify the protestors.

According to sources, Mohali deputy commissioner Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu also summoned the company, which has employed the staff in question to run the ambulances with its record to check whether or not these employees were being paid according to norms.

The deputy commissioner has also constituted a committee under Mohali Additional Deputy Commissioner Parveen Thind and SDM Lakhmir Singh to check the record in question.

Earlier, the protestors also sat on a dharna in front of the main gate of Punjab Health System Corporation at Phase VI and gheraoed the corporation’s managing director, Husan Lal.

“If our demands are not met, we will block traffic on the Mohali-Kharar highway tomorrow,” said BS Saini, senior vice-president of 108 Ambulance Employees Association, Punjab.

He alleged that the employees had been forced to work for 12 hours while they were being paid wages of eight hours only.

On the other hand, a senior official of Ziqitza Health Care Limited, which has recruited the staff, claimed that for the smooth functioning of the ambulance service the company had recruited a total of 270 new drivers. “As many as 230
ambulances have been running across the state while 10 ambulances have been sent to the workshop for some repair. We have asked the protesting
staff to join their duties on or before May 28 otherwise their services will be terminated,” said the official of the company’s management.

Mohali, May 27
The Municipal Corporation here is all set to introduce a new ward-and-watch scheme to keep a tab on encroachments, illegal dumping of malba (debris) and the state of the civic body’s property.

The scheme has been approved by the director, local government, and is likely to be implemented in about a month’s time. A private company has already been shortlisted for undertaking the work.

The ward-and-watch scheme will be implemented on a trial basis for a period of six months and will be extended only if it is found to be beneficial. Feedback from residents on the scheme will also be taken into consideration.

Sources said the scheme would be introduced in 10 sectors of the town. The agency, to which the work has been assigned, will use three vehicles for keeping an eye on encroachments, unauthorised dumping of malba and the corporation’s property in the town. Apart from the driver, there will be three private security men in each vehicle.

Confirming the decision to go ahead with the scheme, Uma Shankar Gupta, corporation commissioner, said the work of keeping watch would be done 24x7. It would be carried out in three shifts of eight hours each.

He said the employees of the private agency would report to the corporation regarding encroachments in various parts of the town, including verandahs in the market areas. They will also present a report on the places where malba has been dumped illegally. Theft of the MC’s property such as grills and the condition of streetlights will also be recorded.

Gupta further added that after getting reports from the ward-and-watch staff, MC employees would be assigned the work of removing the encroachments, issuing notices to those who had illegally dumped malba and repairing streetlights. 

Mohali, May 27
Over three years have passed still the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) is yet to get a chunk of two acres of land from the Indian Air Force for widening the Mullanpur-Siswan highway.

Due to the non-transfer of the land in question so far, the GMADA is finding it hard to complete its project of making six-lane seven-km long road stretch.

According to GMADA authorities, only the Ministry of Defence could transfer the piece of land. “Talks have been on between the ministry and the secretary, state government (Punjab), for the past few years which resulted in delaying the completion of the project,” said Kirti Bas, MD, Transparent and Institutionalise Land Acquisition, a private company which the GMADA has hired for its land acquisition processes.

The official maintained that without getting the possession, they (GMADA) could not touch the land, which falls on the main road stretch.

Notably, in 2010 the GMADA had started the process of acquiring a total of 56 acres of land for widening of the road stretch, which connects Chandigarh and Mullanpur area to the Kurali-Siswan-Baddi Road.

When the work in this direction began, it came to light that the Revenue Department of GMADA had not acquired around 11 acres of land which resulted in the delay in the construction work of making it a six-lane road.

“Last year in November, we had acquired that 11-acre land in urgency and started the construction of the six-lane road. The awards of this piece of land are yet to be announced. The project of six-laning of the road will be completed only after we get the possession of the Indian Air Force land,” said GMADA authorities.

Chandigarh, May 27
Chetan PS Rao, Deputy Director (Administration), Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), completed his Chevening TCS Cyber Programme fellowship at the UK.

The objective was to bring in innovations, use latest technology for solving problems and making IT services safe and resilient against fraud and cyber attacks in PGIMER.

Chandigarh, May 27
Kidney donation within the family should be primarily encouraged to deal with the problem of compatible kidneys needed for transplantation, said UT Home Secretary Anil Kumar while releasing a book 'Incompatible Blood Type Kidney Transplant' here on Monday.

Authored by Dr Priyadarshi Ranjan, a transplant surgeon at the Fortis Hospital, Mohali, the book elucidates how kidney transplant is possible even when the donor and the recipient have different blood groups. — TNS

Chandigarh, May 27
In the absence of clear guidelines on the semester system for undergraduate courses, city colleges are in a fix whether to release their prospectus for the academic session 2014-15 or not.

While the admission process is all set to begin on July 7, the college authorities are clueless about implementation of semester system for the first-year undergraduate courses as decided by the Panjab University (PU).

Meanwhile, the colleges that have got their prospectus printed have not mentioned the details of courses or about the semester system.

In a recent meeting, the PU Senate had approved the semester system for the first-year undergraduate courses in all 192 affiliated colleges of the university. But no official communication has so far been sent to any college about the decision.

Officials of city colleges are running from pillar to post in the university and even have sent written communication in this regard but in vain.

University sources said the Vice-Chancellor (VC) had called a special meeting of the College Development Council and directed the officials to issue a letter to all the colleges about the semester system so that they could finalise their prospectus without any further delay.

A senior PU official said in the next two days, a communication regarding the semester system for undergraduate courses would be sent to all the colleges.

A spokesperson of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26, Chandigarh, said they had held up the printing of their prospectus as they had not received any guidelines from the university about the semester system, subject combinations and syllabus.

A spokesperson of the MCM DAV College for Women, Sector 36, Chandigarh, which has released its prospectus, said in their prospectus, they had stated that admissions to the first-year undergraduate courses would be subject to the decision of the university.

The GGDSD College, Sector 32, Chandigarh, has got its prospectus printed without any information about the first-year admissions. A spokesperson of the college said it was mentioned in the prospectus that the details about first-year subject combinations would be made available on the college website later.

Chandigarh, May 27
The School of Communication Studies (SCS) of Panjab University (PU) has created a history with six research papers of doctorate students getting selected for the International Association of Mass Communication Research (IAMCR) conference, a prestigious international forum of media researchers.

The researchers from the SCS will be representing their alma mater at the conference to be held at Hyderabad International Convention Centre from July 15 to 19. The theme of the conference is Region as frame: politics, presence, practice.

Scores of mediapersons as well as researchers from all over the world would be attending this event.

The papers have been selected through a stringent peer review system from amongst nearly 15,000 entries received from across the world.

The researchers whose papers have been selected are Neha Miglani Vadhera, Siddhartha Negi, Sahil Koul and Mukesh Kumar. The papers range across various aspects of media studies. 

Chandigarh, May 27
Panjab University will be spending Rs 35 lakh on digitisation of theses, manuscripts and rare books.

A meeting of the Board of Finance (BOF), chaired by Vice-Chancellor Prof Arun Kumar Grover, today approved the allocation of funds for the current financial year. The BOF also approved a sum of Rs 44.25 lakh for subscribing to online resources at the AC Joshi Library. The university will subscribe to the IEEE/IET Electronic Library, Emerald Management, Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, Summon’s discovery tool Pro-quest, J-Gate plus, Theilheimer’s Synthetic Methods of Organic Chemistry and Pro-quest Indian Journals, which are highly used by faculty and research scholars.

Further, the board accorded approval to revise the remuneration for evaluation of post-graduate and undergraduate examination answer books. The evaluator would now get Rs 22 for evaluating a post-graduate exam answer book and Rs 18 for an undergraduate exam answer book. Earlier, it was Rs 18 and Rs 15, respectively.

Sources said there were two items on the agenda that were deferred by the board as the panel raised objection on these.

The BOF rejected to increase the amount of stipend to the newly appointed staff of engineering department from Rs 2,350 to Rs 5,000. The board asked the officials to reveal as to under what norms, the department proposes the hike and table it in the next meeting.

Another issue that faced objection was the recovery of the grade given to technicians of the university after the audit report had raised objections on it.

Director, Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Amit Shukla, PU Registrar Prof A K Bhandari and UT Joint Secretary Finance Sandeep Hans were among those who attended the BOF meeting today.

Chandigarh, May 27
Eleven students from classes VIII to XI of Bhavan Vidyalaya, Sector 15, Panchkula, will be attending a six-day SPIC MACAY 2nd International Convention to be held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras from June 8 to 14.

The students, along with three teachers who will accompany the students, will see the performances, presentations and talks conducted by great maestros of classical music and dance, folk art, theatre and literature etc.

School principal Dr Shashi Banerjee has been encouraging the students to practise their art and perform to perfection at the event.

About 1,500 students from across the country and abroad will be attending the event and experience an ashram-like environment.