At whatever level in sports these days, suspicion lurks like a murky shadow. Remarkable sporting achievement is often viewed as fueled by something other than protein shakes and push-ups — criminal intent and the business of murder. The macabre death of Pakistan cricket team coach Bob Woolmer has once again turned focus on bookies. This is what city sportsmen told our reporter.

Chandigarh, March 23
Ranjit Bajaj’s tryst with controversy continues. But this time it is not about a brawl. It’s about the Tricolour, which the MTV roadie and co-owners of Asia’s biggest sports bar in Sector 8, allegedly left hoisted beyond sunset.

At 11.45 pm yesterday, the Chandigarh police control room received a call, stating that the national flag was hoisted atop the building of Score, the sports bar, where Bajaj is chief operating officer.

A PCR van and two police officers were sent to the spot to verify the claims, which is tantamount to insult of the Tricolour under the Emblem Act.

Not folding the Tricolour by sunset for a ceremonial hoisting the next morning is an infringement of rules and an insult to the flag.

A senior UT police officer said police personnel sent for a spot-check found “no flags hoisted on the building”. SSP Gaurav Yadav also said, “Had we found any evidence, we would have taken action.”

Eyewitnesses, meanwhile, informed the Tribune that two flags — the Tricolour and another black flag bearing the “Score” insignia — were aflutter the building last night.

Chandigarh, March 23
An 11-year-old boy was allegedly strangled to death by his father inside a local gurdwara in the wee hours of today. On a complaint of Jaspal Singh, priest of Dalima Vihar Gurdwara, the police has arrested the suspect, Rajinder Singh.

The priest alleged that Rajinder and his wife Gursharandeep Kaur, who were accompanied by their son Arshpreet (11) and daughter(7) Manpreet, woke him up 2 am. They urged him to open the doors of the gurdwara as they wanted to pay obeisance. He did so.

As he strolled in the gurdwara corridor, he could hear the couple recite their prayers inside. "However, when I peeped inside through the window, I saw Rajinder strangulating Arshpreet," Jaspal Singh said. He raised an alarm and a crowd gathered at the gurdwara.

Rajinder took an unconscious Arshpreet to his home. In the meantime, the crowd informed the police and took the boy, a student of Class VII, to a local hospital, where was declared dead.

Sources blamed the murder on superstition. They said Rajinder was a frequent visitor to deras. His wife was a kidney patient .

“The murder seems to be an outcome of superstition,” SHO Bikramjit Singh Brar said, adding that a case under Section 302 of the IPC had been registered.

During interrogation, Rajinder confessed that he was a frequent visitor to deras. Last Sunday he had visited a house in Chandigarh with his family, where a "baba" held akhand path. The sources said Rajinder was depressed because of his wife’s illness.

An inconsolable Rajinder said he could not figure out what he had done. The police said Rajinder would be interrogated later as he was “greatly disturbed" and could barely talk.

Chandigarh, March 23
Bred on patriotism, inmates of Cellular Jail or Kalapani went on a hunger strike in 1937 after a patriot was tortured to death by the prison authorities.

Mahatma Gandhi intervened and requested them to call off the strike. But in a communiqué forwarded to the inmates, desire for repatriation was mentioned as the cause of the agitation. Needless to say, it gave the fasting revolutionaries a taste of pain.

All this and many more grave realities of torture, fatal brutalities and noxious hardships have been brought alive by sitting Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge Justice S.N. Aggarwal in his book, “The Heroes of Cellular Jail”.

The paperback, which takes the reader from the time the jail was a nothing less than a torture factory to its memorial status, was released at a function at Law Bhawan here this evening by High Court Chief Justice Justice Vijender Jain. The ceremony coincides with the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev.

For Justice Aggarwal, it all started with his posting as a judicial officer at the Andamans.

“The UPSC wanted to know why I wanted to go there and I categorically told them that I want to salute the soil where the blood of the freedom fighters mingled with the soil for attaining freedom.”

In an anguished voice punctuated with emotions, Justice Aggarwal says: “Those were the days when the revolutionaries were not treated as political prisoners, but simple anarchists. In fact, the first batch of 216 freedom fighters, sanctifying the soil with their arrival in 1858, was described as ‘sepoy mutineers’ by the Britons. Even chanting of the national song used to invite penal action, resulting in flogging and torture of the revolutionary!”

Quoting the chapters on hardships faced by the prisoners and their sheer will to succeed against the odds, he says: “An editor of a revolutionary newspaper, Ram Hari, was confined to a dark cell. But he managed to jot down a three-page note on the existing non-living conditions after getting hold of a pen and paper.”

The note was published in a newspaper after it was handed over to the editor of another newspaper in Bengal by a fellow prisoner released earlier from the jail. It was, subsequently, carried in The Tribune, which was read in London. It compelled the authorities there to question the chief commissioner of the Andamans about the existing conditions.

Haryana Governor A.R. Kidwai, present at the function along with sitting and retired High Court judges, said the book should be included in the curriculum.

COMMUNITY

Citizens’ Grievances
Stench in city sub-centre
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 23
Consumers visiting the BSNL office-cum-collection centre and Piccadily theatre in Sector 34 have not just been facing unhygienic conditions but also stench wafting from choked sewer lines for the past nine months.

While medical officer of the health and public health circle of the Chandigarh municipal corporation have been making tall claims of keeping the city free of garbage and stink, the existence of unhygienic conditions in the city’s sub-centre is a poor reflection on the monitoring services of the high-profile civic body.

Due of the apathy of the civic body, the frequented city sub-centre has also become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Many shopkeepers and offices have started dumping waste and garbage on the stagnant water, turning it into a cesspool.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has reportedly brought the plight of its staff and customers to the notice of the municipal corporation several times, but to no avail. So far, no corrective measures have been taken.

BSNL SDO (buildings) Amarjit Singh said his department had brought the matter to the notice of the municipal corporation on a number of occasions. However, inordinate delay in fixing the problem was leading to unnecessary harassment to general public.

He said in a communication on January 25, 2007 to the executive engineer, municipal corporation, division 4, Sector 9, the BSNL authorities had stated that “foul smell is spreading all around and road in front of the cinema hall has been flooded with sewage coming out of a manhole”.

He added: “The situation was brought to the notice of the junior engineer concerned at the office in Sector 32 but to no avail. BSNL sewerage system outlet is the only one connected to the manhole, but due to blockage the internal sewerage system of the telephone exchange is badly affected and public coming to the exchange is facing a lot of inconvenience.”

Chandigarh, March 23
Landowners and farmers of UT villages today chose to register their protest against the land acquisition policy of the Chandigarh administration by donating blood.

At least 80 units of blood were donated at a camp organised at Kishangarh.

Under the banner of the Mani Majra Farmers’ Welfare and Environment Protection Association (MFWEPA) and the Pind Bachao Committee, the landowners marched to the venue to mark their protest.

The day was chosen to coincide with the martyrdom day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev.

Voicing their concern over the Land Acquisition Act, the landowners sought equal partnership in the development projects of the administration.

Angrez Singh, president of the committee, who has been instrumental in raising the concern of farmers, said land acquisition affected the future of coming generations of farmers.

Madhu Sarin spoke on the use of land acquisition where originally land was earmarked for purchase by displaced farmers.

Kultar Singh, a farm owner, said the benefits from the development of their land must be passed on to them.

The association plans to release a white paper on the study of land acquisition for phases I and II of the Rajiv Gandhi Technology Park within a month.

Jyoti Subramanian, president, Chandigarh farmers’ action group, said landowners had been kept in the dark about the development planned in their area.

She urged the administration to stop acquisition of land immediately and frame a time-bound rehabilitation policy for them.

Residents of Shastri Nagar also joined the peaceful protest by landowners.

Chandigarh, March 23
At least 116 persons donated blood at a camp organised by the Chandigarh Beopar Mandal to mark the death anniversary of its founder-president Inder Lal Batra.

SSP Gaurav Yadav, who was the chief guest, lauded the gesture of the trading community of the city in organising the blood donation camp.

Earlier, welcoming the chief guest, mandal president Charanjiv Singh spoke about the contribution of Batra towards the cause of trader’ unity.

A team from the PGI, led by Dr Neelam Marwah, head of department of transfusion medicine, conducted the camp.

The mandal also conferred lifetime achievement award posthumously on Inder Lal Batra.

Balwant Rani Batra, his widow, received the award from Yadav.

Chandigarh, March 23
Welcoming the decision to introduce a coin of Rs 10 denomination, ex-servicemen in the city have urged the government to dedicate the new coin to Param Vir Chakra (PVC) winners.

In a letter written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Saviours for Human Rights of Armed Forces, a local NGO, has stated that the government has in the past issued coins in the memory of political leaders, the letter states that through the coin the nation will pay homage to its soldiers who have died in the battlefield.

The NGO has also asked the Reserve Bank of India to issue a set number of coins of Rs 10 denomination dedicated to each PVC winner. — TNS

Chandigarh, March 23
A homosexual activist working in the HIV awareness sector today launched the city’s first-of-its kind condom bar.

Part of the ambitious programme of State AIDS Control Society (SACS), the bar has come up as an HIV/AIDS prevention measure. The logic - use of condom helps you avoid risk behaviours.

The bar has been opened at Yuvsatta, Bapu Dham Colony, Sector 26.

Inaugurating it, Sulemaan, the activist, said it would help people avoid risks.

Besides providing condoms, the bar will also provide information on their proper use, through models, handbills, posters and stickers.

Dr Kavita Chavan, deputy director, SACS, said millions were getting infected with HIV just because they were not using condoms.

It was possible to eradicate the transmission of the virus and prevent suffering from AIDS by promoting prevention efforts.

She said condoms helped prevent sexually transmitted diseases like human papilloma virus (HPV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), hepatitis A, B, and C.

About the promotion programme of the SACS, Parmod Sharma, coordinator, Yuvsatta, said the objective was to open condom bars in all of field offices of Yuvsatta.

To promote correct and consistent use of condoms, volunteers will hold special one-on-one sessions, street plays, condom fairs, poster exhibitions, film and magic shows.

In days to come, around 100 different types of condoms combining different features will be provided through condom bars.

Chandigarh, March 23
Chief commissioner of income tax R.S. Mathoda today called upon tax consultants to help income tax assessees in tax planning for better coordination between the department and general public.

Addressing members of the Income Tax and Sales Tax Bar Association, Mathoda hoped that the computerisation and modernisation in the department would go a long way in the smooth functioning of the tax administration.

Lauding the role of tax consultants in the taxation system, the chief commissioner advocated the division in hindu undivided family, particularly transfer of assets in the names of female members of the family, for better tax planning and empowerment of women.

He assured the members of earmarking a place for members of the bar association in the central revenue building.

R.K. Chaudhary and Prem Inder Rattan, president and general secretary, respectively, of the association, also spoke.

Chandigarh, March 23
The administration needs to resolve various issues related to industry and draw a road map for infrastructure development on the basis of projections for the next 25 years and even ahead, said Vikram Sahgal, chairman, Chandigarh committee of the PHDCCI, at its first meeting here yesterday.

He said the city did not have a convention centre, which could accommodate around 1,000 persons under a single roof, for business related activities.

It was a big handicap for business both in and around the city and restricted pro-business activities.

Madhukar Gupta said the centre should be built on the lines of India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, adding that the idea was initiated by the administration on an earlier occasion and a site in Sector 15 was earmarked for the purpose.

On power it was desired that the administration should establish a Chandigarh electricity regulatory commission, a statutory body that had representatives from industry to deal with related matters.

Subhash Kohli, co-chairman, of the committee, while appreciating the move of administration to get 24-hour radio cabs and light and sound shows started in the city, said there was a room for improvement in tourism infrastructure, including establishment of more hotels, information centres, trained tourist navigators, etc. which would help grow the service sector.

The PHDCCI asked the administration to have sufficient industry representatives and offered its Chandigarh office as the secretariat to the Chandigarh advisory council.

The PHDCCI also appreciated opening of “sampark centres”, but suggested that these be made more effective while providing complete service to public.

It added that the administration should start issuing social security number on the lines of developed nations for bonafide residents of city and give privileges to those who registered themselves with full information so that important services like issuance of ration card, licence, date of birth certificates, vehicle registration, police clearances and depositing challans, could be carried out without additional documents.

Mohali, March 23
Taking a U-turn, the police today released Vijay Pal Singh Dimpy arrested for allegedly duping a war widow of her land.

A senior police official said the police carried out investigations and even interrogated Dimpy but failed to find that he had any role to play in the land fraud case.

As such he was released.

Dimpy was brought from Delhi on March 20. He was remanded for two days by the police.

His remand ended today after which an application was given in the court by the police to set him free.

Mohinder Kaur , a war widow, had complained to the police that she had been duped of her land which was allotted to her by the state government after her husband Amar Singh was killed in action.

Inspector general of police S.K. Sharma had directed the SSP to register an FIR against those involved in the case.

The police had arrested Dimpy while two others wanted in the case are still at large.

Chandigarh, March 23
The three-day India Travel Mart was inaugurated by commissioner of tourism Keshni Anand Arora here this evening. The event, which is the seventh in a series, is being organised at Hotel Shivalik View.

Arora said the need of the hour was that North Indian states joined hands and offered themselves as a single tourism destination to domestic and foreign tourists. Since films and television had an important part in promoting the country as a tourist destination, “ we must promote our destination to cinema producers.”

The mart offers a variety of holiday destinations and packages, including packages by three foreign tourism boards- Dubai Tourism, Singapore Tourism Board and Tourism Malaysia.

Among the states participating in the mart are CITCO, Haryana Tourism , Himachal Tourism and Karnataka Tourism. The highlight of the show is pilgrimage tourism, adventure tourism, eco-tourism, medical and herbal tourism and wildlife tourism, besides promotion of preferred, unexplored and summer destinations.

The Indian Railways, leading hotels, resorts and palace hotels and tour operators/ travel agencies are participated in the show.