Chandigarh, July 24
Four years after he was arrested, a local court today convicted Pakistan spy Kashif Ali, a resident of Faisalabad in Pakistan, of spying. He has been convicted under various Sections of the Official Secrets Act and the Foreigners Act, and under Sections 419 and 120-B of the IPC. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced tomorrow.

Besides, the court convicted a co-accused in the case and acquitted three others.

The court of CJM Anubhav Sharma today convicted Kashif Ali of Faisalabad, who was arrested in July 2010 when he was residing with a fake identity of Pawan Kumar in Sector 44 here. He had been residing in the city with a fake identity for the previous two and a half years when he was finally nabbed. Another co-accused, Anand Kumar, has been convicted in a cheating case under Sections 419 and 120-B of the IPC. Three others accused in the case have been acquitted.

According to the prosecution case, the accused, Kashif Ali, was passing information about national security to his handlers in Pakistan. The police had recovered sensitive information pertaining to national security from the possession of Kashif, who had been living in the city as Pawan Kumar, and called himself a native of Delhi. The police said the accused actually belonged to Zulfiqar Colony at Faisalabad in Pakistan, and he had been monitoring defence installations.

The police were alerted by a source about Kashif’s whereabouts, and they accordingly placed a barricade near the Laxmi Narain Temple in Sector 44 on July 11, 2010. The accused arrived in a blue Maruti car and was stopped for questioning. He gave his name as Pawan Kumar, a resident of Pitampura in Delhi, and claimed to be a hiring agent dealing with property. But when the police tightened the interrogation, he gave in and disclosed his real identity.

The police then conducted a search on him and found a driving licence issued in Delhi to his alias; a receipt issued by the Regional Passport Office, Chandigarh, to Pawan Kumar was also recovered from him. The police also recovered certain incriminating documents relating to the Indian Army and a digital camera. He was then arrested.

Chandigarh, July 24
A technical snag in the power line from Mohali led to a disruption in the power supply to a majority of the sectors in the southern parts of the city this evening.

The supply remained disrupted for around three hours. According to an official of the Electricity Department, parts of Sectors 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43, 44, 51, 52 and 53 were among the affected areas.

UT Superintending Engineer MP Singh said the southern sectors were without electricity as the power line from Mohali had developed a technical snag.

The department was flooded with complaints from residents from various sectors. Over 200 complaints were received.

Chandigarh receives a major share of power through Mohali.

While 67 per cent of its power is received through Mohali, about 10 per cent is received from Dhulkote (BBMB) and the remaining 23 per cent through Nalagarh.

Dr Jagdish Jaggi, president of the Residents Welfare Association, Sector 37, said the power supply to Sector 37 remained disrupted for over an hour.”Power cuts in our sectors have become a routine,” Jaggi said.

Mandeep, a resident of Sector 47, said the entire sector witnessed a blackout for about an hour, leading to inconvenience to residents

The fault in the 220 kV substation in the Industrial Area, Mohali, also caused power cuts for half an hour in several areas of Mohali from around 8.30 pm. The affected areas included Phase I, Phase II, Phase V and Phase VII, and Sectors 70 and 71. 

Chandigarh, July 24
Nearly seven months have lapsed since the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the UT Engineering Department and the Municipal Corporation to repair cycle pathways in the city, but the authorities concerned seems to have lost track of the orders. So many cycle tracks need repair and cleaning, as the authorities continue to soft-pedal on the issue.

Pathways at so many places disappear from under the wheels, throwing off track the safety of the cyclist. In fact, efforts to encourage the cyclists to use the tracks have hit a roadblock, with fissures, craters and garbage bins practically throwing the trails out of gear.

Taking up the matter, Justice Rajive Bhalla of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had on November 8 last year observed that claims of having repaired the tracks under their control by the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh “appear to be prima-facie incorrect”.

“The Engineering Department and the Municipal Corporation are directed to repair cycle tracks preferably within two months. It is made clear to the Engineering Department as well as the Municipal Corporation that they should not make excuses and instead ensure repair of cycle tracks.

“As regard lighting of cycle tracts, every effort be made to complete lighting work within three months after obtaining due sanction from the authority concerned,” Justice Bhalla had added.

As the Punjab and Haryana High Court takes up the traffic regulation and road safety case once again on Friday, the Tribune carries out a reality check by taking a look at some of the tracks.

The narrow strip of road that takes off from near the Sector 18,19, 20 and 21 roundabout on the Sector 20 side gives no indication of the heaps of garbage that block the track ahead. The journey on the track comes to an abrupt halt before the destination as refuse spilling out of two colossal bins placed at a close distance force the cyclists to apply brakes. To make the matters worse, they have no option but to step into the traffic on the busy road dividing Sector 20 and 21 after leaving the track near the traffic lights.

The situation is a shade better on the track abutting the road dividing Sector 7 and 8. The metalled track on the Sector 7 side gives way to a massive crevice filled with sludge and muck. The cyclists have to do a balancing act to prevent the loss of equilibrium.

Peddle on the track adjacent to the road dividing Sector 19 and 18, and you find a crevice with water from a nearby tank almost constantly flowing through it. The point marks a break in the journey of the cyclists, as they have to get down to save themselves from falling during the daytime. At night, it’s that hand of providence that saves a few.

This is not all. Nearly two decades ago, Baleshwar Rai as the Adviser to the UT Administrator announced the launch of the city’s first concrete cycle track from the Sector 16 cricket stadium to the Sukhna Lake.

Mohali, July 24
It is official now that Anuradha Bali aka Fiza, the estranged wife of Haryana’s former Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan, was not murdered.

After almost two years of Fiza’s sensational death, the Mohali Police now closed her death case.

“She had died a sudden natural death due to overdose of some medicine and liquor or she had consumed some poisonous substance, so the case attracted inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPc”, stated the report of the Special Investigating Team, which was constituted by the Mohali police to work out the case. The opinion of the District Attorney (DA) (legal), sought by the Mohali police in the case, was also the same

Taking the SIT report and the DA (legal)’s opinion into consideration, the Mohali police closed the case recently.

Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police Inder Mohan Singh Bhatti confirmed the development and said, “One thing is definite Fiza was not murdered”.

He added that there was no need to continue the probe in the case. “All the investigations in the case indicated that there was no foul play so we have closed the case after initiating proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPc”, said the SSP.

Though the Mohali police have closed the case, there is still a question mark whether Fiza had died due to overdose of some medicine or some chemical reaction had taken place because she had medicine with liquor or she had committed suicide.

Notably, the medical analysis reports of Fiza confirmed presence of rat-poison along with liquor in her stomach.

Fiza’s highly decomposed body was recovered from her bedroom at her residence in Sector 48 on August 6, 2012. Her postmortem reports indicated that she might have died on August 2.

Her murder had come to light when Fiza’s uncle, whom she had called up on August 1, had gone to see her on August 6 after finding her mobile phone switched off since August 2.

Chandigarh, July 24
A consolidated cab service for local and outstation travel, bringing 75 individual cab operators under one platform, has been launched in the city today.

The service that operates via a mobile app, connects the traveller to the nearest cab tracing pickup location automatically and asks for a drop location and sends the cab driver to the pickup location directly.

While the company, Olacabs, that launched the service today claims to be bringing more safety in travel experience, better and regular income avenues for small car operators in city at Rs 18 per Kilometre tarrif, the existing larger cab operators are of another view. They said running business at such low rates would not be viable.

Olacabs claimed that it would conduct regular car audits, driver training and sensitisation sessions to ensure standardised service delivery and customer experience, without, however, owning the vehicles.

“We do not own the vehicles, but we have a mechanism to ensure standards of the vehicles,” said Anand Subramanian, director-marketing communications, Olacabs.

The existing cab owners in the city said that owning a vehicle was crucial for maintaining standards. “Owning a taxi is very important to regulate standards. We are offering the minimum possible charges for the cab service. Anything below this will make it difficult to run the business and our charges are regulated by the Administration,” said Colonel VS Dhillon, MD, Tricity Tour and Travels.

Chandigarh, July 24
Adviser to UT Administrator KK Sharma inaugurated the Garden of Palms in Sector 42 here and released a brochure on “Festivals of Chandigarh” that describes and synchronize tourist events organised by the Chandigarh Tourism.

Anil Kumar, Home Secretary-cum-Secretary, Tourism, said the garden had come up with a central financial assistance of Rs 220 lakh and Rs 279 lakh from the UT Engineering Department.

The garden consists of 21 varieties of palms with over hundred palm plants, besides a tourist information centre, adventure tourism cycling infrastructure, tourist multi-play system, tourist huts and benches, walkways for tourists, artistic bridges over the rivulet for convenience of tourists connecting the garden with an artificial lake, public toilets and parking facility.

To promote garden tourism in Chandigarh, the Chandigarh Tourism in association with the Engineering Department of the Municipal Corporation and with the Central Financial Assistance (CFA), Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, under the scheme “A City of Green & Gardens”, is making efforts to bring more similar gardens such as ‘Garden of Springs’, Sector-53, Chandigarh; ‘Japanese Garden’, Sector-31, Chandigarh; and ‘Garden of Conifer’, Sector-52, Chandigarh; which will further promote Chandigarh as a “a city of greens & gardens”.

Tanvi Garg, IAS, Director, Tourism, said to facilitate residents and tourists, it had been decided that a cafeteria would be opened shortly in the garden and it would be run by the Society for Tourism and Entertainment Promotions in Chandigarh (STEPS). The cafeteria would facilitate people visiting the ISBT, Sector 43, who could have refreshment there, besides availing all information about tourist places from the tourist information centre.

Chandigarh, July 24
In a bid to make forms for different services at the UT Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA) simpler and people-friendly, the department is soon going to introduce revised forms that will provide all information, including fee for the service and the counter number where the file will be deposited to name a few.

Officials said that more information had been added to the forms that would assist people. RLA Kashish Mittal said that the form would also act as a guide to the user as every detail regarding the services would be printed on the form. “Once the forms are introduced, people will not have to depend on middlemen who charge fee from them to fill the forms and provide them with basic information”, the RLA stated. The officials said there would also be a checklist of documents that would also help people at the time of depositing the file.

Sources said to streamline the process, there would be a column in which objections if any in the file would be recorded and when someone would again come with the file then the RLA employee concerned would not go through the entire file again but would only check whether the objection had been cleared.

The officials said that once the forms were finalised they would be uploaded on the official website of the RLA.

Mohali, July 24
A sum of over Rs 14.56 crore has been spent so far on providing basic infrastructure and facilities, including proper classrooms, and renovation work in government schools in the district.

Stating this here yesterday, Deputy Commissioner Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu said improvisation in primary education was being done. The objective was to ensure that those studying in government schools had access to better employment opportunities.

The Deputy Commissioner said free school uniforms were being given to SC and ST students. This facility had also been extended to students belonging to the BPL families. For providing the uniforms, about Rs 1.97 crore had been spent.

Under the special training component scheme, training was being provided to 223 children who were lacking in their school education.

Mohali, July 24
Members of the Contractual Employees Association (CEA) of the Water Supply and Sanitation Department, Punjab, staged a dharna here today against the failure of the authorities to fulfill their demands.

The employees, who staged the protest in front of the office of the State Programme Management Cell, said the programme director had given an assurance to the CEA that its demands would be accepted at a meeting on July 3, but no intimation had been received so far in this regard by the association.

The demands of the CEA include regularisation of the services of all contractual staff; implementation of pay scales on the pattern of the SSA and the NRHM contractual staff; and continuation of the services of the contractual employees in the department after the completion of the World Bank-aided project.

The protesters said they would continue their stir till their demands were met.

Chandigarh, July 24
In a bid to tighten the noose around paid parking contractors in the city who overcharge commuters using the facility, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has decided to impose heavy fine on them starting from Rs 500, which will go up to Rs 10,000.

The committee constituted by the MC to work out the rules and regulations of paid parking in the city has taken the decision to impose fine on the contractors.

Congress councillor Pardeep Chhabra, who is one of the members of the committee, said on getting the complaint for the first time the contractor would be fined for Rs 500.

“The fine will relatively increase with the growing number of complaints,” Chhabra said.

He said after getting seven complaints of overcharging, the paid parking operators would be fined with Rs 10,000 for each complaint.

The MC frequently receives complaints of overcharging at different parking lots, however, despite several checks carried by it the problem still persists.

The committee has also decided that the parking contractors would be blacklisted if they would surrender their parking contract for two times. In the recent past, several parking contractors surrendered the parking contract over some issues with the MC.

Officials said a special meeting of the Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) is called on Friday, especially to discuss the decision.

Once the decision is approved by the F&CC, both clauses will be added to the terms and conditions for paid parking.

“The contracts of paid parking, which will be allotted by the MC, will be as per the revised terms and conditions,” an official added.

Chandigarh, July 24
To mark the opening of the XXth Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, David Lelliott, British Deputy High Commissioner, Chandigarh, and Canadian Consul General Rajani Alexander, jointly hosted a dinner here today.

British High Commissioner David Lelliott said, “Things have changed, few years back Commonwealth Games were not about medal tally but about individual endeavours.”

Rajani added “We have 265 athletes from Canada participating in the CWG and we are hopeful of bagging couple of gold medals.”

On the expectations from the Indian contigent Sumitra R Jyotsi, director, NSNIS, Patiala, said “We are hopeful of winning some medals in table tennis, weight lifting and athletics.”

She further claimed, “Though the boxing team had practised at NIS. However, due to lack of overseas competition we are not very hopeful of bagging medals in boxing.”

David Lelliott said, “We’re delighted to host this reception with our Canadian friends, a reflection of the commitment of both our governments that our diplomatic missions around the world should work closely together. Our membership of the Commonwealth is one of many interests that we share, both with each other and India.”

He further stated that the Commonwealth Games provide a fantastic opportunity for sportspersons from around the world to come together in friendship; and for us all Canadians, Indians, Britons, the whole Commonwealth Family to celebrate what unites us. And of course we would like to wish best of luck to all the sportspersons gathered in Glasgow.”

Rajani Alexander said “I am pleased to co-host this reception with our friends from the United Kingdom. Sports represents one of the best ways in which people from different parts of the world can come together to celebrate the human qualities of perseverance and endurance. The Commonwealth Games also celebrate the relationship we share with the larger Commonwealth family based on the values of democracy, rule of law, peace and security. We are happy to celebrate this occasion in India, a close partner of Canada. I wish all the sportspersons participating in the games a very best of luck.”

The XX Commonwealth Games are being held in Glasgow, Scotland, from July 23 to August 3. The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving 70 teams from Commonwealth family. 

Chandigarh, July 24
A three-year-old child, Manish, suffering from cancer of abdomen was provided free treatment by a hospital here. The Samana-based couple working in a bakery had lost hopes due to their inability to afford the expenses.

Senior oncologist and chairman of Gian Sagar Medical College Hospital Dr Barjinder Singh said the child was first examined at a medical check-up camp held in Samana in November 2013.

Chandigarh, July 24
The staff of the Chandigarh College of Engineering and Technology, Sector 26, today went on an indefinite strike against the termination of a contractual Assistant Professor from the college. As the teaching faculty was on strike, no classes were held today.

A delegation of the college staff called on UT Secretary, Technical Education, Sarvjit Singh, but no decision was taken to reinstate the faculty member. Following this, the members decided to continue the strike.

The faculty alleged that this was not a lone case and rather reflected the plight of all contractual employees, who were made to work for years in government institutions and later ‘shunted out’ at the time of regular appointment.

Vikramjeet Pawar, President, CCET Employees Union, said, “We won’t stop the protest until the authorities don’t find a permanent solution to our problem.”

“The contract staff, who now face the threat of termination, have been associated with the college from the start. It is the lone engineering college of the UT Administration but has 100 per cent contract staff,” added Pawar.

Chandigarh, July 24
Applicants seeking admission in Class XI in government schools continue to face cut-throat competition as the cut-off in the science and commerce stream after the second counselling has scaled up to a perfect 10, while it is 8.6 in humanities.

After the second counselling, 2,100 seats have already been filled up and around 2,000 reserved seats are still vacant.

As per information uploaded on the official website of the Education Department, the most sought-after school for the science and commerce stream is Government Model Senior Secondary School, Mani Majra Modern Housing Complex (GMSSS MHC MM), as the remaining seven seats in the science stream (general category), and two in commerce stream (general category), were bagged by students with 10 CGPA.

In the science stream, the cut off was 6.20 in the physically-challenged category, 8.20 in the freedom-fighter category and 9.20 in the Kashmiri migrant category.

Meanwhile, lauding the students who had secured admission in the second counselling, the Director Public Instructions DPI (S), Kamlesh Kumar, said, “I wish all students a bright future.”

Kumar said the vacant seats under the reserved category will be allotted to the general category candidates during the third counselling.

Education Department officials said a majority of the seats were lying vacant in schools located in the peripheral areas.

In the humanities stream, the highest cut off scaled from 8 CGPA in the first counselling to 8.6.

Tough competition was seen at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, to secure admission in the humanities stream.

The cut off for the second counselling in the science stream in the top five government schools was between 10 to 8.8 CGPA, while it was between 10 to 8.6 CGPA in the commerce stream and between 8.6 to 7.2 CGPA in humanities.

The Education Department officials said in case, a candidate could not get a seat in the school/stream of his first option, his/her name has been included in the ‘waiting list’ of that school/stream (first option).

Meanwhile, the officials further said the waiting list would be valid up to August 6.

Chandigarh, July 24
The National Students Union of India (NSUI), today announced its general body for the Panjab University Student Council Election-2014 at the Student Centre.

The newly-constituted general body of the NSUI aims to give proper representation to students of the science departments, promote participation of girls in university politics so as to empower them to take up responsibilities and involve them in the decision-making process.

The new panel comprises party convener Amrit Sohi, campus president Sanjeev Sharma, party in charge Harvinder Singh, campus in charge Rishav Budhwal, general secretary Brahmjot Singh, general secretary Naval and girl’s wing in charge Amandeep Kaur.

The announcements were made by Gagan Brar, who has been appointed by the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee to supervise and co-ordinate the university elections.

Chandigarh, July 24
With the election scenario hotting up on the Panjab University campus, the PU Security Department has approached the UT Police to manage the law and order situation during the student council elections.

The move comes in the wake of student party leaders canvassing and holding car rallies on the campus without ‘taking permission’ from the varsity authorities.

A communication has been sent by the PU Security Office to the UT Police to depute two police constables each, round the clock, on three gates in the university.

A special team comprising police personnel (four men and women each), along with an ASI officer, should be deployed outside girl hostel numbers 3 to 7, from 6 pm to 10 pm, till the election period.

In the past fortnight, there have been several instances wherein student political parties have not sought permission from the authorities to hold student or car rallies, particularly after announcing their panels.

Sources said PU’s ‘toothless’ security staff could not initiate action against student parties as they did not have power and could only ‘request’ them not to conduct such activities.

A student political party — who had sought permission to announce their panel — today held a car rally on the campus without the approval of the authorities.

Jatinder Grover, Chief Security Officer, PU, said, “We’ve written to the SSP and SHO for help which will be provided to us shortly.”

“We will take police assistance to avoid any untoward incident as a number of parties comprise students with a dark past,” he added.

Grover said a letter had been written to the office of the DSW that students with ID cards should seek permission to paste posters and outsiders should not be allowed to do so.

Chandigarh, July 24
The best of working and non-working models prepared from waste materials were showcased at the junkyard exhibition, which concluded at RIMT World School, Mani Majra, today.

The week-long workshop on waste management was organised by the students of Classes VII-X. The students –- who had displayed state-of-the-art projects — dwelled upon environmental issues, disaster management and importance of light and sound.

School principal Poonam Katoch said, “We divided the projects on themes based on the subjects taught in classes”.

She further said the competition was aimed at promoting creativity, scientific temper and understanding about scientific concepts through easily-available materials.

The students showcased working models of generating electricity through salt water, practical way of rainwater harvesting and reducing pollution in our daily lives.

Chandigarh, July 24
High drama was witnessed at the office of the Executive Engineer, Panjab University (PU), when activists of the Indian National Students Organisation (INSO), locked the XEN’s office today.

The students were protesting against the alleged lackadaisical attitude of the XEN office in completing several ongoing projects and commencing new ones.

The students staged a protest for nearly two hours, thereby locking the staff and visitors inside the office.

The university authorities opened the rear door to facilitate easy movement of visitors in the department.

Panjab University sub-divisional officer (SDO), also arrived at the spot and tried to pacify the agitating INSO leaders but they refused to talk to him and demanded a meeting with the XEN.

Later, a meeting was convened by the Dean Student Welfare Navdeep Goyal along with the XEN and INSO leaders wherein the students were assured that all pending works will be completed.

INSO party president Gautam Nain said, “We’ve submitted a memorandum twice to the Executive Engineer regarding maintenance issues of various buildings on the campus. But no action has been taken till date.”

“The repair of roads on the campus, hostel and department buildings has been pending for long,” he added.