IT Chandigarh

Sibling’s Death

Mohali: The death of two siblings here under mysterious circumstances yesterday had the entire health department on the doorstep of the victim’s family this morning.

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The two children had died within hours of one another. While Chander Bhan (10) died at the civil hospital, Phase VI here, under the care of doctors, his sister Pinky (4) reportedly died minutes after she had a glass of juice at home.

Since the incident happened close on the heels of diarrhoea outbreak at Madanpur village, where three children had died before the outbreak was detected, the deaths were attributed to diarrhoea.

Fearing yet another outbreak, the team of health officials conducted a door-to-door survey and collected water samples from the area.
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Chandigarh: Commuters faced a lot of inconvenience today due to a massive rally organised by the Sarav Karamchari Sangh Haryana (SKSH) at Sector 25 in support of their demands. Traffic jams were witnessed on the busy Madhya Marg as hundreds of protestors marched from the railway station to the rally ground.

Thousands of Haryana government employees from various organisations participated in the rally, which went on till late afternoon. Protesters holding placards kept on pouring into the rally venue till the end.

The police remained on its toes throughout the day, making arrangements and regulating traffic. Officiating SSP Dinesh Bhatt directed the police stations to send their force to the rally venue.

The protestors were adamant to hand over their memorandum to the Haryana Chief Minister. Their demands included recruitment to one lakh vacant posts in government departments and boards, regularisation of part-time and contractual employees, jobs on compassionate grounds, abolition of privatisation, scrapping of the contact system and outsourcing, reemployment of the retrenched employees and 33 per cent reservation for women.

Condemning the anti-people policies of the government, representatives of the protesting employees said the present government led by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was only continuing with the anti-employees policies of the previous Om Prakash Chautala government.
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Over 60 per cent tenements sold

Chandigarh: A scam, involving the illegal sale of dwelling units allotted under different rehabilitation schemes, has been going on with impunity for the past 30 years.

Over 60 per cent of the tenements or sites leased out to slum-dwellers have been disposed of.

Officials admit that it’s the sheer greed of the slum-dwellers that is driving them to avail of highly subsidised housing schemes and then return to slums. Most of the slum-dwellers hail from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

In the survey carried out by the estate office about two years ago, officials stumbled upon startling facts that revealed that there was a large-scale sale and purchase of plots. Though the record was never compiled for the reasons best known to the officials concerned, some cases were got registered against the violators.

In some cases, the allotments were cancelled on paper but the physical possession was never taken.

In 2002, the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB), during a survey of EWS houses in Mauli Jagran, found that a majority of the dwelling units had been sold.
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Chandigarh: Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj makes a winning combination with Chandigarh-based actor couple Dolly and Kamal Tewari. The last time this team was in news was when Dolly bagged the Filmfare award for best costumes in Vishal’s “Omkara”. This time, it’s about “Blue Umbrella”, adjudged the best children’s film at the national film awards ceremony. Both Kamal and Dolly feature in the film in important roles.

“There’s something masterful about Vishal’s works. He weaved magic with “Omkara”; he repeats it in “Blue Umbrella”, which is all about human emotions. And Vishal knows emotions too well to falter,” says Dolly, who also did costumes for the film, which will be released tomorrow.

For Dolly, “Blue Umbrella” was a challenge - one, because it was a cinematic adaptation of Ruskin Bond’s classic short story of the same name; two, because it had children in important roles.

“I have done one children’s film with Viren Saini earlier, but this one outclasses all.Vishal shot the film in a small village in Chamba, but wanted his characters to appear universal as the theme itself. To drape actors in traditional, yet, contemporary ways was difficult,” Dolly said.
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Chandigarh: On the face of it, it looks like an ordinary plea seeking diversion of canal water to prevent damages to a private land. But, according to Punjab, if the plea is accepted it will not only endanger many lives but also lead to loss of valuable water to Pakistan. Importantly, Rajasthan will be deprived of much-needed water, leading to an inter-state crisis.

The plea filed before Himachal High Court by Harbhajan Singh, resident of Mohtli village in Himachal Pradesh, submits that Punjab be directed to divert the water of Madhupur Beas Link Canal (MB link canal) entering Himachal to the territory of Punjab (into Nalwa Nallah) so as to restrain the flow of the said water through Mohtli and Majra villages in Kangra district.

The petitioner also sought that Punjab should compensate him and other affected persons for the damages and inconvenience caused to them due to the said water inflow with effect from the year 1967 till date.

Even as the plea has serious repercussions on inter-state water management, Himachal High Court passed an ex-parte interim order on July 9. The order stated that water of MB link canal should not be released into the natural creek (Chakki Khad) in Himachal Pradesh, so as to cause any danger or loss to the property of the petitioner and other affected persons.
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Mohali: Deputy commissioner H.I.S Garewal has been asked by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis ( NCSK), ministry of social justice and empowerment, to send a detailed report on safai karamcharis of the local municipal council working unauthorisedly in offices and residences of senior functionaries and not in areas assigned to them.

Five safai karamcharis of the civic body were unauthorisedly working in the office of the DC and two at his residence.One was made to work in the office of the SSP, while another was working at the residence of a senior official of the vigilance department.

As many as nine safai karamcharis were working in the office of the director, local government, Punjab, at the court premises, in the office of the vigilance department in Phase VIII and the residence of a former SDM. Some were made to do the work of drivers. Others were allegedly working in the houses of politicians. It is reported that some of the safai sewaks have now been called back by the civic body.

In a letter to Garewal on August 3 , Kalpana Amar , secretary of the commission, said that the Safai Karamchari Majdoor Union had alleged that more than 60 safai karamcharis were “working outside the municipal council at the residences of state functionaries.”
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Chandigarh: Panjab University has decided to implement the Lyngdoh committee recommendations for the coming student council elections on the campus. This will finally put to rest the muscle might on display between various student unions in the run-up to the elections which are a month away.

Yesterday, the NSUI had released a press note in which they had “protested” against “an arbitrary rule” by the university which stated that no candidate put up by a political party would be allowed to contest the election.

The vice-chancellor said today that legal opinion had been sought on the matter from university counsel Anupam Gupta. He said no person who was not on the rolls of the university would be permitted to part in the election process in any capacity.

Reiterating the point, he explained that while no political party may field candidates, “where ever the word student appears in the case of parties, they will be allowed to compete in the elections.”

He said the Lyngdoh recommendations would be implemented with certain modifications.

There would be a grievance committee, disciplinary committee and security committee to ensure fair and peaceful elections.

Source: TNS

SAS Nagar: IN yet another robbery in the city, two scooter borne persons decamped with Rs. one lakh after breaking the window panel of a car in Phase-I. Owner of the car Teja Singh, a resident of Mullanpur, had withdrawn the cash from Centurion Bank of Punjab in Phase-VII on Thursday afternoon and had come to HB-135, Phase-I to meet his relatives. He came back in a few minutes but by then the gang, who were following him, decamped with his money.

Teja Singh, while talking to Newsline in Phase-I, said that he had withdrawn the cash to pay for the construction of his house in Mullanpur. He said that when he reached down from his relative’s home, the side windowpane was broken and the money, which was on the dashboard of the car, was missing. He said that the person residing at the ground floor informed him that there were two persons on a black coloured vespa scooter. He said that one of the persons was wearing a red helmet while the other, who was dark complexioned, was wearing a “tilak” on his forehead.

It is pertinent to note here that there have been many similar incidents with same modus operandi. The gang follows a person from the he or she has withdrawn cash and whenever the gang gets a chance, the windowpane of the car is broken and the money in gone. The last such incident happened in the bank square of Phase-VII itself, where the culprits decamped with Rs. 2.6 lakh and a pistol which was lying in the car.
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SAS Nagar, August 9: A migrant labourer committed suicide in the servant’s room in a house in Phase-2 on Thursday. Twenty-three-year old painter Om Parkash was residing here with his wife Anu and 1.5-year-old daughter. Anu worked as maidservant in the same house.

According to the police, Om Parkash was in depression since one week as his wife was missing along with his daughter and he was unable to find them. He asked the owners of the house to let him stay in the room and said that he will work in their house in morning and evening.

According to sources, the neighbours saw him sitting in the lawn on Wednesday night. Today morning, when he didn’t come for work, the owners sent the gardener to check about him. When the gardener forced open the door, he saw Om Parkash hanging by the hook of ceiling fan.

The Mohali police have registered a case u/s 174 Crpc in this regard. His parents have been informed about the incident while the body has been handed over to the family after conducting postmortem.

Source: Express News Service

Chandigarh: CHANDIGARH administration has decided to confer the Administrator’s Police Medal for Distinguished/Meritorious services on six personnel of the Chandigarh Police on the eve of Independence Day 2007.

SI Sheesh Pal has been selected for his distinguished services. Inspector Ram Gopal, SI Sita Devi, Head Constable Sudarshan Kumar, Constable Balbir Singh, and Constable Jai Narain Tiwari have been selected for their meritorious services.

A screening committee was constituted under the chairmanship of UT Home Secretary Krishna Mohan with Inspector General of Police, Deputy Commissioner, Senior Superintending of Police and Joint Secretary Personnel as other members of the committee.

For the medal for Distinguished Service, the candidate should be a recipient of the Administrator’s Police Medal for Meritorious services and would become eligible for it only three years after receipt of this medal. He should have completed 20 years of service with Chandigarh Police as on January 1 of the year during which the medal is to be awarded on Republic Day or Independence Day. He should have a clean record sheet and not undergone any major or minor punishment during the period of 20 years. He should not have been involved in any Departmental Enquiry/Criminal case.
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