IT Chandigarh

Chandigarh, May 31: Touring Chandigarh has been made more user-friendly with the special ‘Hop on Hop Off’ double-decker bus.

For just a dollar and a few hours, the bus takes tourist to Sukhna Lake, Punjab University, the Secretariat and marketplaces.

“There should be fulsome information available related to tourist destinations in the city. As we have come on a very short visit, our curiosity took us to the Tourist Information Centre. We have been told to board a bus, and in a few hours we would be able to visit the city,” said Dr. Anand Kumar, a tourist.

Without leaving out any of the tourist spots, the journey also shares Chandigarh history with tourists.

“We had to pre-plan very smoothly. So, I went to the website and gained as much information about Chandigarh . But as for history, I didn’t get to know much because nothing much was available on the website,” said Satvik Jaitley, a tourist.

An evening visit to the Museum and Art Gallery Complex to see spectacular musical fountains is a treat. It’s a part of the dazzling sound and light show, a 45-minute movie that portrays Chandigarh’s inception, its architecture, its people and its culture.

“I found the film very nice - the filming, the sound effects and photography. The text of the film is also very nice,” said Kulwinder Alhuwalia, a visitor.

Sitting on a specially designed podium, 150 visitors can witness a display of sound and attractive lighting show. It is held on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The show indeed is a storehouse of information on Chandigarh.

Brigadier S. S. Ahluwalia, another visitor said: “I have seen quite a number of sound and light programmes, not only in India, but abroad also. I found this one as well produced. It’s a rich experience to know the history, culture and how the city came about from the scratch, what was the conceptualization, how it was planned. It is very important to documented and put it in record.” Named after the Goddess of Power, Chandi, Chandigarh was designed by French architect Le Corbusier. It was built between 1950 and 1965.

A multi-cultural city, it is acknowledged world-wide for its gardens, a lake and city planning.

Property, immigration frauds on rise

Chandigarh, June 4: Frauds in property-dealing and immigration top the list of financial swindling covered under the Economic Offences in Chandigarh. The statistics maintained by the special investigation unit of the Chandigarh Police — Economic Offences Wing — clearly revealed that about 90 per cent of the total cases investigated and subsequently registered under the provisions of Indian Penal Code are either related to property-disputes or immigration related matters.

Chandigarh Police’s Economic Offences Unit, which is under direct supervision of the Deputy Inspector General of Police Dr Vivek Gogia, is investigating as many as over 400 cases related to economic offences in one year, which fall under the category of either property-disputes or immigration frauds.

“The sudden spate of property-related frauds and disputes was because of the property-boom witnessed by the region in the year 2006-07. A large number of people fell prey to the conmen property dealers who cheated by alluring people to earn that extra share of easy money. We are still investigating numerous such complaints where people have been cheated in the name of property-dealing”, DSP (Economic Offences Wing) AS Jaggi told Newsline.

In the year 2006-07 alone, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) received more than 385 complaints related to property-frauds. Fifty-seven such complaints were received in the first five months of 2007 which are being investigated by the officials at EOW.

As far as the immigration-frauds are concerned, EOW received 77 complaints in 2006, out of which 55 cases were registered against the accused travel agents under the provisions of Indian Penal Code, out of which 17 cases are yet under investigation. And in 2007, EOW received as many as 18 such complaints in the first five months, out of which 10 cases were registered on charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating, fraud, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

“Besides these two major-categories, we also receive complaints pertaining to one-to-one frauds, business-frauds, cheque-bounce cases etc. But most of these cases are personalised in nature as they cater to either business miscommunications or some personal tiffs. We investigate through those complaints too and take them to a logical conclusion”, added another official posted at Economic Offences Wing.

Steps to be taken by EOW
Chandigarh Police Economic Offences Wing is going to issue a series of press-releases and advisories in the coming days in order to spread awareness about such conmen. “We shall be listing out certain guidelines that would educate people on the safeguards they can adopt to save themselves from getting cheated. The matter is almost ready, but is being discussed with the District Attorney. The step would be of good help to the common man. Moreover, we appeal to the city residents that whenever they indulge in any such dealing, they should first verify the antecedents of the property or travel agent and if they suspect anything wrong, they should immediately contact the city police”, said a senior UT police official.