Mohali, September 4
Acting tough against defacement of public property, the Mohali Municipal Corporation (MMC) got registered 11 different cases at different police stations against offenders.

“The cases have been registered against individuals/institutions for defacing the public property,” said Uma Shankar Gupta, Commissioner, MMC.

“Acting on our complaints, the police registered different cases under Section 3 of the Punjab Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1997. In such cases, the court could send the violator to prison for six months and impose a fine of Rs 1,000,” Gupta said.

He said most of the offenders included persons running paying guest accommodations, coaching centres or other such businesses.

“We have also identified 25 more such offenders against whom action would be initiated soon,” said Gupta.

Notably, the Deputy Commissioner, Mohali, had issued directions to the MMC last month to initiate action against violators.

Chandigarh, September 4
Nabbing Inspector Rajesh Shukla in a bribe case has caused a major embarrassment to the UT police. A scrutiny of the police records, however, reveals that the SHO had always been of a dubious character with his integrity in doubt.

A CBI official said, “His character has always been suspicious.”

An RTI query filed by this correspondent has revealed that Inspector Rajesh Shukla, who was posted as the SHO of Mani Majra police station in 2010, was punished by the Police Department for dereliction of duty for 16 times in his career, including a loss of seven increments, between 1986 and 2010. Seven of the 16 notices issued to Inspector Shukla involve punishments, comprising stoppage of increment.

The reply received under the RTI revealed that Shukla’s appointment as the SHO of the police station in 2010 is in blatant violation of the Punjab Police Rules. Rule 13 of the Punjab Police Act, 2007, under which SHOs are appointed states that an SHO should not be awarded a major punishment during a period of five years preceding his posting as an SHO.

On the contrary, Inspector Shukla was awarded punishment involving stoppage of two increments with permanent effect vides (March 23, 2010). He was punished after a departmental inquiry indicted him for turning a blind eye to drug peddling in his area.

He was accused of accepting benefits from a drug mafia during his tenure as an SHO of the Sector 39 Police Station in 2008.

Shukla was issued a censure notice in 1986, 1997, twice in 1998, twice in 1999, twice in 2003 and then again in 2004. He was awarded punishment that involved stoppage of two increments in 1997.

Panchkula, September 4
An elderly person was stabbed to death by miscreants with the motive of loot at a jungle in Nagal village, Barwala, last evening. The victim identified as Lal Singh (80) was sleeping when he was attacked by miscreants on his head. The miscreants took away victim’s three buffaloes.

His body was found in the jungle by a passerby. The victim was rushed to General Hospital in Sector 6, where he was declared brought dead.

The police said a villager saw someone taking away the cattle in a pickup van. “Also, there are supposed to be more than two miscreants,” the police said.

According to the postmortem examination conducted by the forensic expert, Dr Sunil Gambhir, Singh was stabbed with a sharp-edged weapon seven to eight times in the head.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Jagtar Singh said they were investigating the matter and the accused would be arrested soon.

Mohali, September 4
Deputy Commissioner Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu today suspended two patwaris, Kuldeep Singh and Balwant Singh, for negligence of duty.

Giving details, the DC said Kuldeep Singh and Balwant Singh were posted at Teor and Mirjapur villages, respectively. Both the villages fall under Kharar sub-division.

Kuldeep Singh was caught while he was taking away the official record from the government record room without any receipt or proper documentation.

“Such negligence by a custodian of the Revenue Department is not acceptable,” said Sidhu. He added that an inquiry was conducted against him, during which some other facts came to light indicating that Kuldeep Singh was not performing his duty properly.

Patwari Balwant Singh was found tampering with government records and he also did not hand over the charge to the new officer after his transfer.

“Dereliction of duty, corruption and carelessness by any government official here would not be tolerated,” said Sidhu. After putting both the patwaris under suspension, the authorities also changed their headquarters to Mohali Tehsil office.

Chandigarh, September 4
The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) will face the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) in the title clash of the Fourth All-India (U-19) Invitation Tournament for Dhruv Pandove Trophy, here.

In the matches played today, Punjab and Assam attained equal points as both the teams could not complete their first innings due to rain.

Assam started their innings from the overnight score of 61 runs for four in 30 overs.

Brief scores

Punjab (First innings) 358 runs for three in 70 overs (Karan Sharma 36 runs, Sanvir Singh 71 runs, Mansab Gill 101 runs not out, Anmolpreet Singh 59 runs, Navneet Singh Virk 76 runs not out, Mihir Kanti Dev one for 93 runs, Roshan Alam one for 108 runs, Dibash Hazarika one for 49 runs)

Assam (First innings) – 69 runs for four in 32.1overs (Biplab Saikia 37 not out and Roshan Alam 18 not out, Jagjeet Sandhu two for 20 runs, Manpreet Bhullar one for 20 runs, Karan Bhargav one for 14 runs)

Bengal and Baroda also shared one points each.

Baroda started their innings from overnight score of 4 runs in 2 overs. They were 121 runs for seven in 49 overs at the end of the play.

Brief scores

Bengal (First innings)-265 all out in 97.2 overs (Nishant Dave 29 runs, Shubham Chatterjee 39 runs, Amir Gani 81 runs, Agniv Pan 40 runs, Saurabh Singh 43 runs, K Upadhaya four for 49 runs, Vikash Yadav two for 79 runs, Meet Patel two for 63 runs)

Baroda (First innings)-4 with no loss of wickets in 2 overs (Mahir Sheikh 26 runs, Pathik Dadvi 19 runs, Akshay Brambhatt 41 not out, A Chakraborty two for 27 runs, Amir Gani two for 23 runs, Ananta Saha one for 30 runs)

In the match played at YPS Mohali, Himachal started their innings from the overnight score of 124 runs for one in 42 overs. They scored 348 for six in 100 overs against the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA). For the MPCA, Sagar Sharma claimed two for 89 runs. In reply, the MPCA started their innings and were 81 runs for two in 29 overs at the close of the play.

Since the first innings could not be completed, both the teams got one point each.

Himachal (First innings)-348 for six in 100 overs (Ravi Thakur 82 runs, Dig Vijay Singh 35 runs, Priyanshu Khanduri 114 runs, Sugam Parmar 21 not out, Mayank Dagar 33 not out, Bhupendra Bhadoria one for 37 runs, Nitish Gujar one for 130 runs, Sagar Sharma two for 89 runs, Mehul Singh one for 41 runs)

MPCA-81 runs for two in 29 overs (Shivm Tiwari not out 25 runs, Salman Khan 24 runs not out, S Parmar two for 15 runs).

Chandigarh, September 4
Namdhari Hockey XI, Bhani Sahib, played a draw against VS Agriculture Senior Secondary School, Delhi, in the ongoing 13th ONGC SN Vohra Memorial Sub-Junior (U-14) Hockey Tournament at the Hockey Ground of Sector 18 here today.

Both teams played at par and ended the first half without any goal. In the second half, Namdhari Hockey XI, Bhani Sahib, opened the team’s account with Vaseer sounding the wooden plank in the 44th minute. Paramjit from the other team levelled the score in the 45th minute.

In the second match, Haryana XI, Sonipat, outclassed Malwa Khalsa School, Ludhiana, 5-0. Sachin scored the first three goals in the 16th minute, 45th minute and 46th minute while Anil, and Sagar scored a brace each.

In the semifinals to be played on Friday, the first match will be played between Haryana XI, Sonipat, and BUSH Academy, Khadoor Sahib and second match between Namdhari Hockey Team, Bhani Sahib, Surjit Hockey Academy, Jalandhar. 

Chandigarh, September 4
Government Model Senior Secondary School (GMSSS), Sector 20, beat Mount Carmel School, Sector 47, 13-9, to win the Inter-School Netball Championship for Boys (U-17 years), here.

Earlier, in the semifinal, the Government Model Senior Secondary School (GMSSS), Sector 20, beat Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 28, 12-08.

In the quarterfinal, Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 20, defeated Chandigarh Baptist School sector 45. The team defeated Baptist school, 12-00.

The winning team comprised Rahul Yadav (Captain), Sourav Deol (vice-captain), Lalit, Nikhil, Mayank, Abhishek, Tilak, Neeraj, Deepak, Aman, Ankush, Navdeep and coachDr GP Pal.