NEIGHBOURHOOD

Traffic snarls a routine in Kalka
Our Correspondent

Kalka, November 9
Traffic jam has become a routine affair in Kalka and Pinjore, causing a lot  of inconvenience to commuters. The commuters said frequent traffic jams on the NH-22, Main Bazaar, Kalka, and NH-21A (Pinjore-Nalagarh Highway) were due to the bottleneck of the Pinjore narrow bazaar. They had to face inconvenience to reach their destinations.

The problem gets intensified in the evening hours, especially on Sunday due to apni mandi in Kalka.

Residents of Pinjore said frequent traffic jams were witnessed on the Pinjore-Nalagarh Highway, but the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) authorities had become a mute spectator on the issue of constructing the Surajpur-Basaulan mini bypass.

Resentment prevails among thousands of daily commuters from Chandigarh to Baddi against the state government and the NHAI for their lethargic attitude towards the construction of the bypass.

Due to the apathetic attitude of the NHAI, the construction of the bypass is lying pending for the past more than four years.

The state government had already sanctioned the 7-km bypass and acquired 250 acres of land in this context.

The NHAI was to construct this bypass. But it had not taken any initiative to construct the bypass till date. The bypass would connect NH-22 with NH-21A. It would help in smooth running of traffic in Pinjore.

The commuters have demanded from the state government and the NHAI to immediately start the construction work of the above said project.

They said the construction of this bypass would be a viable solution to ease the traffic congestion.

Dera Bassi, November 9
The district police are on their toes to monitor the entry of the supporters of Sant Rampal, whose hearing is scheduled to be held at the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh on Monday.

In the wake of the arrival of the followers of the sect head, the District Administration has asked police authorities to maintain law and order in the district and initiate preventive measures.

Anil Sharma, Superintendent of Police, Dera Bassi, along with four additional companies of Punjab Police personnel have been deputed in the sub-division to monitor the situation.

The police personnel have been deployed at strategic points and special traps have been laid on different entry and exit points in the sub-division. Additional police parties have also been deputed at Ghaggar railway station in Mubarikpur, Dappar railway station and Lalru railway station, claimed the Superintendent of Police.

The police are also keeping a close watch on vehicular movement heading towards Chandigarh from Haryana and the neighbouring states.

A visit by The Tribune revealed that the police had laid nakas on roads linking Zirakpur with the Chandigarh railway station, Dera Bassi-Barwala Road, Lalru-Malikpur Road and at different places on the Chandigarh-Ambala highway.

Police personnel could be seen stopping vehicles bearing Haryana registration numbers and questioned the occupants.

Besides this, the Punjab Police have also deployed police personnel in civvies at several vulnerable spots across the subdivision to monitor and keep the law and order scenario under control.

Dera Bassi, November 9
The leaders of BJP, Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and certain other parties have accused the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) of violating the guidelines of the Punjab Municipal Act.

The leaders and workers alleged that the SAD has carried out wrong delimitation of the municipal wards in two municipal councils i.e. Zirakpur and Dera Bassi, and in Lalru, a nagar panchayat.

The BJP and AAP leaders have been protesting outside the office of the Zirakpur MC for over a fortnight now against the wrong delimitation of 31 wards of the civic body. Dera Bassi-based Congress leaders have lodged their complaint (by e-mail) to the office of director, Department of Local Government of Punjab. Lalru-based leaders, belonging to the SAD, CPI, Congress and AAP, staged a dharna against the government recently.

A former president of the Dera Bassi Municipal Council, Amrit Pal, alleged that the SAD government has flouted the norms while carrying out the delimitation process.

“I have made a written complaint to the director of local government, Punjab, and other authorities concerned. I have explained all the facts in detail but to no avail,” he claimed. He alleged that the authorities have come out with rectified blue prints thrice but that too to benefit the SAD contenders in the municipality. Accompanied by various residents and workers, Master Mohan Singh of SAD, Ram Narayan of CPI, Krishan Gupta of Congress, Surjit Singh Rana and some other leaders had lodged a strong protest against the delimitation of 17 wards of the Lalru nagar panchayat. After a merger of 15 villages in the Dera Bassi Municipal Council, the number of wards in the municipality has gone to 19, and the Zirakpur MC, having 15 villages, tops in three civic bodies with 31 wards. The Lalru Nagar Panchayat that will see its first election has as many as 12 villages and 17 wards. 

Chandigarh, November 9
To prevent the supporters of Sant Rampal — whose hearing is scheduled to be held at the Panjab and Haryana High Court on Monday, from converging at the railway station — the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel kept a strict vigil at the station today.

Even as an additional force comprising 400 GRP and RPF force has been deployed on the premises, the security personnel also underwent training on how to manage a mob at the station.

All top officials of GRP and RPF were on their toes the entire day to review the arrangements, besides inspected the area where extra vigil was needed.

Sources said this time, both the forces have joined hands to prevent the supporters of the sect head from creating ruckus at the railway station as had happened during his last hearing on November 5.

Security has been tightened in such a way that there will be no movement or gathering on the station premises.

Officials said the unmanned points from the Chandigarh and Panchkula side at the railway station, besides the entry and exit points had been cordoned off by the security personnel to avoid any untoward incident. The personnel did not allow large groups of people from entering and assembling at the railway station today.

Sources said vigil will be maintained during the checking of tickets at the entry point of the station and only those persons with platform or train tickets will be allowed to enter the premises.

During Sant Rampal’s hearing on November 5, scores of supporters had arrived at the station leading to a stampede-like situation.

As per records, there is 100 per cent booking for both the morning Shatabdi and other trains. 

Chandigarh, November 9
Kalyani of SD College, Sector 32, and Deval of PAG Audit Haryana, Chandigarh, lifted the women and men singles’ titles by defeating Nadia Bhatt of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Pankaj Sidana of New Public School, Sector 18, respectively.

The 27th Chandigarh State Table-Tennis Championship for S Gurmeet Singh Grewal Memorial Trophy was held at the table tennis hall of Sector 23, here today.

Chandigarh, November 9
Sahil Thakur of Tender Heart School, Sector 33, and Nidhi Gupta of  St Mary’s School, Sector 46, clinched the sub-junior title in boys’ and girls’ categories during the ongoing 16th Raj Kumar Babuta Memorial Prize Money Carrom Ranking Tournament in St Stephen’s School, Sector 45, Chandigarh.

Chandigarh, November 9
Six table soccer players, who brought laurels during the 11th National Table Soccer Championship, were honored at CL Agg DAV Model School, Sector 7, today.

In the open doubles’ event, Aabhaas and Shobhit from Chandigarh, Ashok and Neeta from Punjab, Naseeb and Ravinder from Chandigarh were honoured.

In the open singles of the table soccer championship, Arshad Mohammad, Nikhil and Ravinder, all from Chandigarh, were felicitated. 

Chandigarh, November 9
A match between SGGS College, Mahilpur, and GHG Khalsa College, Gurusar Sadhar, Ludhiana, was halted for more than 20 minutes following a decision taken by the match referee. The stoppage was further extended after the organisers started measuring the area to remark the penalty spot during the second-half of the match.

The league match of the ongoing Inter-College Football Championship for Men (A-division) ended in a 1-1 draw on the Panjab University campus. It seems that the recent hike in referee’s facilities has failed to raise the standard of the game.

It is learnt that the problem arose when a controversial penalty-kick was awarded, after Ludhiana’s custodian marched forward to punch the ball and in the meanwhile, one of their defenders allegedly pushed Mahilpur’s striker. The matter was sorted out only when the Director Sports Panjab University, who was sitting near 
the fourth-referee bench, intervened.

Later, Ludhiana’s custodian spotted fault in marking of the penalty-spot and the same was rectified during the match in the presence of the department’s head.

Mahilpur’s side, however, failed to convert the awarded penalty in their favour. The situation exposed the low maturity level in supervising the match. Around six yellow cards, excluding one red card, were shown to players. At one moment, even the referees were caught losing their cool. Earlier, in the first half, Mahilpur side played with upper hand and scored the lead through Harjit Singh while, left winger Nand Kishore levelled the score through David.

In their previous match played on Saturday, GHG Khalsa College, Gurusar Sadhar, defeated DAV College, Hoshiarpur, 3-0.

In the second match, SGGS College, Sector 26, Chandigarh, went down against DAV College, Hoshiarpur, 1-0.

In the previous league match, SGGS played a 1-1 draw against SGGS College, Mahilpur. 

Chandigarh, November 9
Two local bodybuilders Chetan Sharma and Guradesh Mann will represent India in the 6th World Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Championships in Mumbai from December 6 to 10.

Chetan Sharm (28), a personal trainer, confirmed his place in the sports physique category while, 28-year old Guradesh Mann, physiotherapist and personal training manager at a gym in Sector 9 will compete in athletic physique category.

A total of five male bodybuilders and one female bodybuilder represented Chandigarh in the trials held at Vadodra. The event witnessed a participation of over 500 bodybuilders from across the country in 35 different categories. — TNS