IT Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: The chairman, Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN), Panchkula and SDO, UHBVN Jind sub-division, have been directed to pay up Rs 19 lakh as compensation to a Jind resident, Bharat Bhushan, for the losses he faced due to a fire that gutted his shop at Narwana tehsil. The Panchkula District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum passed the orders on Friday.

Bharat Bhushan of Jind, had been running a general store at Old Karkhana for the last several years. On the intervening night of May 7-8, 2005, around 11 pm, a fire broke out in his shop after a blast due to sparking in the electric supply line, which had been in place for 20-25 years. The complainant stated the fire was caused due to poor condition of the wiring.

He added that he had requested the UHBVN chairman many times to either replace the old wires or make proper arrangements for the maintenance of electricity system in the shop. However, he said, no action was taken. The complainant alleged that even after being informed about the fire, the SHO, Jind sub-division, did not give any positive response. He added that due to this, he suffered huge losses.

Bhushan approached the forum and claimed a compensation for losses suffered in the fire. However, the SDO, Jind and chairman, UHBVN, Panchkula pleaded that the complainant had let an oil lamp burning in the shop after closing it. They added that as the complainant had been negligent, the fire got out of control, due to which he suffered the losses.
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CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday, modifying its earlier order, permitted the Punjab vigilance bureau to continue with its investigation into the charges against former state police chief Sarbdeep Singh Virk. However, the bureau was restrained from filing the chargesheet in the court till his petition, now being heard, was disposed of.

This order by justice HS Bhalla came at the conclusion of the day’s hearing on the petition filed by Virk for transfer of probe against him to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The case was registered against him in September, 2007 by the VB for allegedly amassing wealth and assets disproportionate to known sources of income, doing business while in service, misusing official position, harbouring a person wanted by law and giving him a fake identity.

At the same time, the bench directed state counsel Reeta Kohli to ensure that the state police chief filed the status report about the other case registered by the police against Virk at Kharar for allegedly grabbing the land of an army widow. The bench sought to know if the case continued or was cancelled in the absence of reference to it by state authorities.

During the hearing, Virk’s counsel Rajinder Singh Cheema questioned Sumedh Singh Saini’s appointment as the acting director of VB, arguing that the orders violated provisions of the vigilance Act which specified that the selection of person to occupy the post was to be done through a committee of officers, whereas in this case the appointment order was issued by the principal secretary of home department.
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CHANDIGARH: Waking up to the crisis being faced by prospective investors and the industry, Punjab government decided to drastically cut the External Development Charges (EDC) and Change Land Use (CLU) fee on Friday.

In what chief minister Parkash Singh Badal termed as a ‘Lohri gift’, the charges have been brought down to nearly 10% of the previous amount. This is the second such reduction by the government since it came to power. The charges were notified in July 2007. As they were said to be too high, the government lowered them in case of residential projects in September.

The EDC on petrol pumps and gas godowns has been reduced from Rs 3.34 crore to Rs 35 lakh per acre in the periphery of Chandigarh, from Rs 1.75 crore to Rs 21 lakh per acre in medium potential zones and from Rs 1.05 crore to Rs 7 lakh in the low potential zones.

Petrol pumps and gas godowns would no longer be required to obtain CLU as the DCs have been authorised to give the final NOC, the secretary, Housing and Urban Development, Arun Goel said.

For setting up industry in free enterprise zone in the periphery of Chandigarh and in industrial zones of Local Planning Area of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, the EDC had been reduced from Rs 53.51 lakh per acre to Rs 5.50 lakh per acre, while the CLU has been fixed at Rs 50,000. In the rest of the state, there would be no CLU on industry while the EDC have been reduced from Rs 30 lakh per acre to Rs 1 lakh per acre. Warehousing, logistics and IT parks would be included in the industry category.
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Chandigarh: The Progressive Traders Welfare Association, Sector 17, today gave over a memorandum to Mayor Pardeep Chhabra drawing his attention towards the ill-maintained pockets in the commercial area. The traders said the area between the underconstructed TDI Mall and the Bridge Market near the General Post Office (GPO) is neglected by the civic body. They added that there were no functioning streetlights, no water kiosks and the whole area was unkempt.

They proposed that the area should be developed as a recreational spot by installing joy rides for children as the spot would be a crowd-puller once the construction of the mall was completed. The traders also urged the MC to remove encroachment in the area.

Source: ENS

Chandigarh: The accusations of illegal construction by S S Virk, former Director General of Police (DGP), brought the controversial G Valley Cooperative Housing Society and its beneficiaries under the scanner of the High Court.

The Vigilance was caught unawares after advocate R S Cheema, defence counsel for Virk, raised the issue that the ‘illegal’ society is still in existence. Reacting to the point, Justice H S Bhalla asked the Punjab law officer as to what action has been taken by the Vigilance against the cooperative society.

The officer maintained in his defence that it was Virk who was guilty of selling the property to all the IAS and IPS officers and not them, who had merely purchased the land.

The Vigilance submitted that the beneficiaries had no role to play in the case. Cheema vehemently raised the issue that the Vigilance had not taken any action against the society, in which, wife of Surinder Pal Singh, SSP, Vigilance, and one of the IOs in the case against Virk, had purchased two plots from one Avinash Singh Grewal. Cheema also asked why no action was taken against the allottees in the society which was illegal.
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Chandigarh: A Sector-43 resident, Aarti (24), who hails from Bathinda and is taking coaching for MBA entrance examination in the city, was rescued today by the personnel of Chandigarh Police, who saw her drowning in Sukhna lake. Aarti told the police later that she accidentally fell into the lake. She said was meditating by the lake and while getting up from the staircase, she stumbled and fell in.

The incident took place at about 12.15 pm, when Constable Sube Singh, who was deployed at the Lake-tower saw Aarti drowning in the lake. He alerted Head Constable Balram Singh and Constable Hari Om, who were on the patrolling duty at the lake. The two reached the spot and rescued Aarti. The police personnel told Newsline that they had seen Aarti roaming at the lake under suspicious circumstances and had spoken to her half an hour before the incident. “She said she wanted to meditate, and had come to the lake,” they added.

Mann released on bail
The High court today released on bail Simranjit Singh Mann, president of Shiromani Akali Dal, Amritsar. Mann was arrested after he had gheraoed orbit buses of the Chief Minister of Punjab. His defence counsel, advocate Ranjan Lakhanpal had contended that Mann was illegally sent to jail as he was never produced before the SDM and given an opportunity to apply for bail.

Source: ENS

Chandigarh: A Division Bench of the High Court, headed by Chief Justice Vijender Jain, issued notices to an NGO (Consumer Forum, Chandigarh) and also to UT Administration, and the Registrar of Societies, Chandigarh, on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by an advocate, H C Arora.

The petitioner sought directions to Registrar of Societies, UT Chandigarh, to direct the NGO to change its name, since it is misleading to the consumers as it resembles the commonly used name for the district level Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums (popularly known as ‘Consumer Forum) set up in the Union Territory, Chandigarh .

Charges framed against Dimpy Gujral
A local court today framed charges against prominent fashion designer, Dimpy Gujral, her two daughters and three others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Charges of attempt to murder, criminal intimidation, assault, causing grievous injuries were framed against Dimpy, her two daughters, Niharika, Variti and three others, Ikroop Singh, Raju Mandal and Bahadur Singh, for assaulting the son of a former judge, Darashjit Singh and his wife at their Sector 8 residence.
A watchman Bahadur, Dimpy, her two daughters, Neha and Variti along with their neighbour Akroop had allegedly assaulted Darashjit Singh.
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Chandigarh: The Education department’s recent move permitting private players to provide career counselling to government school children is giving sleepless nights to parents. The children are all too keen on taking up a career after attending counselling sessions.

Recently, the Education department had organised a career fest where private companies had put up stalls to guide students on different career options.

After the fest, Director Public Instruction (Schools), S K Setia announced that companies would now be able to visit government schools and counsel students.

Parents say these counselling sessions have confused children and diverted their attention from academics.

From companies providing information on animation to coaching centres, all are welcome in government schools.

“Every day, my daughter comes home armed with information about with a new career option and wants me to get her admitted to various institutes. She has started arguing that if the school is giving career options, they have to be good and should be followed,” says Surinder Kumar, whose daughter studies in Class XI in GMSSS, Sector 18.
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Chandigarh: Taking cognisance of the news item “Toxic water supply worries residents”, which appeared in Chandigarh Newsline on January 11, 2008, the Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) has sought a report on the issue from Patiala Deputy Commissioner and Secretary, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), Patiala .

The officers have been asked to file their replies by February 25, 2008 explaining as to what steps are being taken to tackle the problem highlighted in the news item.

The news item highlighted the plight of Patiala residents, who are getting contaminated water, despite several complaints to the Municipal Corporation.

The Commission, after going through the content of the news item, sent a copy of its order seeking the officials’ report and also marked copies to Patiala Deputy Commissioner and Secretary, Punjab Pollution Control Board.

Over half a dozen posh colonies in the city including areas near Lehal Colony, Sewak Colony, Punjabi Bagh, Gian Colony, Kishore Colony, Sant Nagar, Mansahia Colony, are getting contaminated water. The MC has spent crores in covering the nullah in the city to isolate contaminated water.

Source: ENS

Panchkula: Post offices in Panchkula seem to be facing a severe staff crunch these days. According to an employee of Post Office, Sector 8, for the last six days, around 25,000 letters, all sent through speed post, are waiting to be delivered. There are only four postmen to deliver letters, he said.

The condition is similar in most post offices in Panchkula. Heaps of letters sent through speed post, some as old as January 3, lie unattended, popping out of torn envelopes. Ideally, letters sent through speed post are delivered within 24 hours.

This staff crunch in post offices could spell trouble for those who had applied for various posts advertised by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission recently. Almost 75 per cent of the undelivered letters lying in post offices were addressed to HSSC. The last date for submission of forms was January 7.

“I received a letter on December 1 which was sent on July 15. I was also expecting some important documents which did not reach me at all,” said Mohinder Singh, a resident of Sector 21, Panchkula.

Chief Post Master General, Haryana, P R Kumar said he would look into the matter. “We employed some more postmen recently. Though there was a staff shortage, at present, the situation has been reported as fine. In case there is any problem related to speed post, I will immediately get things looked into. Where applications of HSSC are concerned, we have an understanding with the commission. So even if they reach late, the letters will be accepted,” said SSP, Postal department, R C Sharma.

Source: ENS