Chandigarh, December 10
Taking up a petition filed in public interest for declaring illegal the UT administration's decision not to allow ICL to conduct Twenty20 matches in the Sector 16 stadium, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued a notice of motion.

The petition filed by city advocate Mashwinder Singh says the decision has deprived the administration of huge gains in terms of money and comes as a setback to promoting sports in the city.

Stating that the decision not to provide the stadium to the ICL had resulted in loss of public money spent in sprucing up the stadium recently, the petition said the same should be declared “illegal and arbitrary.” 

Chandigarh, December 10
More houses will be constructed for the judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Sector 19 here. Ten kanals of land has been identified for the purpose.

With the increase in the strength of judges, the Chandigarh administration has decided to construct more houses for them. At present there are 33 houses for judges and the requirement is for 53.

Sources said earlier the judges’ houses were to be constructed in Sector 10 in place of type-13 houses, occupied by government employees. But the decision was rolled back after the administration decided on multi-storey houses for the employee at the site.

During a meeting of the committee (residences and building), senior officials of the administration tabled two proposals: One was to construct six houses in Sector 24 and the other to construct houses on 10 kanals in Sector 19. Efforts are afoot to identify another site in the northern sectors.

The sources said the strength of the judges now was 42 and the same was likely to increase. Apart from the increase in the requirement of houses, additional space was needed for new courtrooms in the High Court premises.

As the sanctioned strength of judges is 53, the court requires 53 functional courtrooms. Owing to shortage of space, relevant records pertaining to the record room, lok adalat, recruitment cell, copy branch and liquidation branch are being housed in temporary premises. 

Chandigarh, December 10
Rekha Punia, 34, a reporter with Siti Channel, allegedly attempted suicide at her Sector 35 residence here this morning by consuming poison. She is battling for life at the PGI, where the doctors termed her condition as “critical”.

The police found a suicide note scribbled on a greeting card in her house in which she had said that none should be held responsible for her decision to end life. The note said that she loved her 12-year-old-son, Bishu, and wanted that he be brought up with care and affection. “I wanted to live and enjoy life, but that was not to be,” the note said.

The incident came to light at 10 am when Rekha called up her office informing them that she had consumed poison.The staff rushed to her house and found her lying on bed with her son in her arms. Her husband, Chunni Lal, an employee with the accountant-general of defence services, Simla, was not at home at that time.

She was taken to her family doctor at Mohali from where she was shifted to a private hospital in Kharar. The doctor there referred her to the Sector 32 Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). She was taken to the PGI instead. The doctors there put her on a ventilator, saying her condition was critical.

Rekha’s colleagues said on way to hospital, she kept saying: “ I do not want to die.” SHO of the Sector 36 police station Devinder Sharma said Rekha suffered from fits. She had been in depression ever since her brother’s death last year that had sent her into irreparable grief.

Chandigarh, December 10
The Border Security Force (BSF) has set up an Officers’ Institute at its campus in Lakhnour near Mohali to cater to the requirements of serving as well as retired BSF officers.

This is the first such BSF institute in this region.

BSF sources said the institute became functional this month and top officers from the Punjab and Haryana police forces have also visited it. The institute is attached to the officers’ mess of the BSF establishment at Lakhnour.

The institute would provide entertainment and recreational facilities, including hosting of social get-togethers and parties. Sports facilities and guest rooms would also be available.

A few such BSF institutes are already functional in other parts of the country.

The Director General BSF would be the institute’s chief patron and the Additional Director General (West) would be its patron. A management committee, which would be headed by an officer of the rank of DIG, would be responsible for its functioning. The management committee will include a retired BSF officer as an executive member.

There are four types of membership for the institute - permanent membership for all serving and ex-BSF officers, honorary membership for certain distinguished citizens, associate membership for widows of BSF officers and transit membership for officers arriving here for short stays, temporary duty or training.

Chandigarh, December 10
The Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice, Justice Vijender Jain, will air his views on "PIL and the role of courts" at a forum in Beijing on December 15.

The three-day forum on "Public participation in environmental compliance and enforcement in Asia" is scheduled to commence on December 13.

It is being organised by the State Environmental Protection Administration of the People's Republic of China and the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN).

Founder-cum-executive member of AECEN, the Chief Justice will also speak on the role of judiciary and environmental adjudication at a dinner repetition on December 14. It is being hosted by the National Judges College of China, the American Bar Association - Asia and the Natural Resources Defence Council.

AECEN is a regional network of national and sub-national agencies from Asian countries committed to improve environmental compliance and enforcement in Asia. AECEN's mission is to promote improved compliance with environmental policies, laws and regulations through the exchange of innovative policies and practices.

The network objectives include promotion and implementation of improved environmental policies, laws and regulations.

Chandigarh, December 10
To modernise the secondary education system and make it more practical, a symposium was held at the CII here today.

Initiated by the president of CIIS Educational Society, Col B.S. Sandhu (retd), the discussion dwelt on the human resources potential of India which was underutilised because of the limitations of the educational system to cater to the modern day needs of the industry at large.

Dr Daljit Cheema, adviser to CM, Punjab, Dr S.K. Sharma, director, CORDI University Sanghol, Abhijeet Mukherjee, vice-chancellor and director, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, Dr M.S. Garewal, institute director, CIIS, John Aslin, coordinating director, Thompson River University, and Prof Roelof K. Brouwer, University of British Columbia, were among those present.

Dr Cheema said the mismatch and pseudo human resources potential should be rationalised and upgraded if the country had to progress.

Prof Brouwer stressed the need to include the latest technologies like artificial intelligence as part of the modern curriculum. He said artificial intelligence was the future for all computer languages.

However, the curriculum of most engineering institutes evaded this crucial future technology as it required state-of-the-art facilities, infrastructure and highly specialised faculty.

Abhijit Mukherjee said it was for the nation to recognise the trainable lot and impart education which was not only academic, but also utilitarian and consequential from the professional point of view.

Dr M.S. Grewal enumerated the efforts being undertaken by the CIIS in bringing reforms pertaining to global education to Indian students.

Lt Gen K.S. Mann (retd), adviser, CIIS, said strategic tie-ups with British, Canadian and New Zealand-based colleges and institutes had benefited Indian students.

Chandigarh, December 10
Already short of land for urbanisation, the Chandigarh administration has failed to protect its prime land from encroachments.

As a result, commercial establishments and houses have come up on a large chunk of acquired land on the outskirts of Buterla and Baheri village here.

The UT administrator has announced to turn Badheri village into a model village.

The encroached land was acquired by the administration around 30 years ago as part of capital outlay and handed over to the engineering department.

Sources in the administration said deputy commissioner R.K. Rao recently wrote to the UT engineering department to get the land vacated for planned use. But no action was taken, it was learnt.

While the land of the two villages has been transferred to the municipal corporation, that on theouter periphery of the villagesis with the UT engineering department.

A UT official said houses and shops had come up on a strip of land in Butrela village. Private structures have come up right up to the road facing AG Colony of Sector 41, adjoining Shivalik Public School.

With the authorities least interested, encroachers have even raised a construction on a sewer line.

Chandigarh, December 10
International Human Rights Day was celebrated at the Law Bhavan auditorium, Sector 37, today. The function was presided over by Justice Mongia, chairperson, Punjab Human Rights Commission.

Justice Mongia enumerated the redressal system available to the gathering of more than 500 human rights activists.

Chairman of the Universal Human Rights of Organisation (UHRO) Ashok Bector advised all human rights activists to work for underprivileged and fight against female foeticide, drugs, AIDS and child labour.

Celebrating Human Rights Day, Doaba College of Education, Mohali, organised various competitions for students. A number of competitions namely slogan-writing, paper-reading and poster-making were held in the college. In the slogan-writing competition, Harwinder Kaur won the first prize while Sunita bagged the second position. Priyanka and Mandeep bagged the first and second positions, respectively, in the paper-reading contest. Amandeep won the first prize in the poster-making competition.

Chandigarh, December 10
As many as 35 government and 15 volunteer teachers from the Alternate Innovative Education Centres (AIECs) were given certificates for the successful completion of the staff training and implementation of Intel Learn Program at GMSSS, Sector 19, here today.

Intel Learn Program is designed to encourage the innovative 21st century thinking and technology skills through community education. In collaboration with the office of state project director-cum-director public instructions (S), the programme is helping youths between 8 and 16 years from the rural areas of Chandigarh to develop their skills with a focus on digital literacy, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration.

DPI (S) S.K. Setia said these 35 government teachers had imparted Intel training to around 1,140 learners in the year 2006-07 and all 15 volunteer teachers from nine schools had taught to approximately 750 learners in the year 2007-08.

About the Intel programme, Setia said, “Intel Learn Program is preparing the students to acquire thinking skills of higher order.

The teachers have enhanced their teaching-learning skills.”

Panchkula, December 10
The four-laning of the Zirakpur-Pawanoo highway faced its first major hurdle today when shopkeepers at Kalka expressed resentment against the removal of alleged encroachments by the roadside.

At a meeting with DC Rajinder Kataria at the municipal committee office, shopkeepers sought more time to contest their case. They wanted 60 days’ time instead of the 72-hour deadline to remove encroachments.

Kataria was in Kalka and Pinjore to listen to the grievances of residents after they were served notice for removing encroachments.

Having identified encroachments along the national highway, the district administration is in full swing to clear the highway to facilitate the beginning of the four-laning process.

Beopar Mandal general secretary Ajay Singhla said the shopkeepers today decided to go on an indefinite strike to protest against the indifferent attitude of the administration.

The demolitions were not being carried out according to the revenue records, he alleged.

Recently, the central government had awarded the contract for the four-laning of the road. The Rs 295-crore project, entailing the construction of the Pinjore-Kalka-Parwanoo bypass as part of the four-laning, was awarded to Jaiprakash and Associates on a built-operate-and-transfer (BOT) basis in September. It will have a concession period of 20 years, including a construction period of 30 months, sources said.

The project involves four-laning of 28.69 km and construction of six-lane structures like bridges, grade separators, flyovers and underpasses. Of this, 11.250 km are on a new alignment for a combined bypass for highly congested towns of Pinjore and Kalka in Haryana and Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh.

The proposed bypass, which will reportedly take off from near Mallah, just before Yadvindra Gardens in Pinjore, will meet the NH-22 near Parwanoo.

There are over 400 alleged encroachments on both sides of the road in Kalka and Pinjore.

There is a long-standing dispute between the administration and the alleged encroachers, including shopkeepers, over maps showing the land as part of the government land.

Over the year, the encroachers have allegedly occupied the prime government land substantially reducing the width of the road.

Under the NHAI Act, the width of a national highway has to be 45 metres in the urban areas and 60 metres in the rural areas.

But in J&K where the bulk of the Army is deployed, the cash awards are woefully low. Is this the way a state should treat the soldiers who are sacrificing their lives for its security almost every day?

They saved Fazilka

Fazilka, a border town in Ferozepore district wrote itself into history in the 1971 war because of the fierce fighting that it witnessed in which, the Indian Army’s casualties were 200 killed and 450 wounded.

When the enemy infiltrated into the Indian territory and captured Beriwala bridge near the border, 4 Jat commanded by the late Maj-Gen (then Lieut-Col) Suri, launched two attacks, one each on the nights of December 4 and 5, to dislodge the enemy from the bridge. The unit suffered heavy casualties in his battle. One of the Company commanders of 4 Jat, who was seriously wounded, was carried away by the enemy and his body was returned only on December 18, after the ceasefire.

An Asafwala stands a beautiful memorial at the site where on December 18, 1971, the bodies of 64 war heroes of 4 Jat, who fell fighting to save Fazilka, were cremated. The memorial was raised jointly by the Army and the residents of Fazilka in 1972, on the land donated by the latter. The Shaheed Samarak Society looks after the upkeep of the memorial. The residents of Fazilka commemorate the event at the memorial every year.

Signing of life certificate

“When I discovered a few days ago that my pension for the month of November was not credited to my account, I asked my bankers the reason for this. I was told that I had not signed the life certificate in November to say that I was alive”, says an 84-year old defence pensioner. He is not alone. A sizeable number of pensioners did not get their pension for the monh of November because they had forgotten to sign the yearly life certificate.

Why can’t the banks display a notice in the month of November every year to remind the pensioners about this mandatory requirement? Still better would be to remind the pensioners through the medium of newspapers as is done in case of Income Tax returns. If this certificate is signed in the beginning of the financial year the pensioners are likely to remember it.

— Pritam Bhullar

Chandigarh, December 10
Rampant misuse of domestic LPG for the commercial purposes during the ongoing marriage season has prompted oil companies to get tough with unscrupulous consumers.

In fact, oil companies are set to launch a campaign against the diversion of domestic supply for commercial purposes by marriage palaces, resorts and hotels, Jagdeep Kumar Rana, senior area manager of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), told The Tribune.

Since the campaign cannot succeed without the active support of the administration, the oil companies will write to the DC, who is also director, food supply and consumer affairs, to help curb the misuse of LPG cylinders meant for domestic use, Rana informed.

The misuse of domestic LPG cylinders for commercial purpose is widespread in the region in the wake of the huge price difference between them. As the domestic cylinder cost Rs 303 as against Rs 1,021 for the commercial cylinder, a majority of the marriage palaces and hotels used domestic cylinders.

And during the marriage season, this menace assumed alarming proportions creating artificial shortage of LPG in the region. Repeated raids by the oil companies to curtail the misuse have failed to yield positive results allegedly on account of the lukewarm attitude of the local administration and the police.

The oil companies, Rana said, would suggest a strategy to the administration whereby the administration would ask the commercial establishments, including hotels and marriage palaces, to disclose their consumption pattern. A data base would be created to check the misuse of domestic gas supply by the commercial establishments, Rana added.

Recently, the oil companies had started the process to block domestic multiple gas connections in a bid to curb the misuse of the LPG cylinders under the "one family, one connection" policy of the Central Government. Officials observed that the misuse of the domestic supply for running automobiles and for commercial purposes was routine affair.

Strict implementation of the "one family, one connection" policy and support from the administration and the police could go a long way in curbing the diversion of domestic supply for commercial activities, the officials hoped.

Mohali, December 10
Democratic rights are being crushed with the authorities failing to hold MC elections to the posts of senior vice-president and vice-president even after four months of expiry of the terms of previous incumbents.

Sources say the role of ruling party politicians, who wish to see their own men occupy the two posts, for the inordinate delay cannot be ruled out. Certain SAD leaders are reported to have been making efforts to win over councillors backing the council chief to their side to capture 
the posts.

Rishiv Jain and Harmanpreet Singh were elected senior vice-president and vice-president, respectively, soon after the council elections were held on July 30, 2006. Their term expired on August 17 this year.

Sources said the deputy commissioner had forwarded a letter to SDM Raghbir Kaur Khaira in which he had appointed her convener for the elections and asked her to get these held at the earliest.

When contacted today, Khaira said she had received the letter from Garewal about two months ago but could not get the elections held as various time-bound works like the atta-dal scheme had to be completed.

She, however, denied that there was pressure on her from SAD leaders to get the elections delayed.

President of the council Rajinder Singh Rana alleged that elections were being delayed due to political intervention. He said various tactics were being allegedly adopted by members of the SAD to win over councillors of his group.

He said a police case was registered against Rishiv Jain and Gurmeet Singh Walia to “pressurise” them into joining the group of councillors owing allegiance to Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Punjab minister. But both councillors of the ruling group had a firm stand and as such the efforts to win them over turned futile.

According to sources, 12 members of the Opposition group owe allegiance to Capt Kanwaljit Singh while the 13th member belongs to the Congress. These 12 members had met Capt Kanwaljit Singh last week in connection with the elections.

Efforts are being made by the Opposition group to win over four members of the 19-member ruling group so that the post of senior vice-president of the council was won by it.

There are 31 councillors in the Mohali civic body. The MLA, an ex-officio member, also has a 
voting right.

Chandigarh, December 10
Thieves decamped with nickel sheets and copper wire worth over Rs 1 lakh after breaking into a factory in Phase II, Industrial Area, last night.

The owner of the factory, Ram Pal Bansal, claimed that it was the second theft in his factory in less than a month.

He told the police that the theft came to light when his employees came to the factory at 9.30 am. They found the premises ransacked and informed him.

The thieves gained entry by breaking open the tin roof and stole nickel sheets weighing around 80 kg and copper wire weighing about 15 kg.

He said in November, articles worth Rs 45,000 were stolen from his factory. He had lodged a complaint with the police, but nothing came out of it.

The SHO of the Sector 31 police station, inspector Har Sahai Sharma, said a case of theft had been registered on Bansal’s complaint and the spot was examined by experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory.

Denying allegation of police inaction, he maintained that he had not received any complaint about the theft that took place in November.

Chandigarh, December 10
Three persons robbed a man after assaulting him on the Dadu Majra-Maloya road last night.

Ram Pal Yadav of Maloya Colony reported to the police that he was waylaid by three youths last night. The miscreants thrashed him and robbed him of his mobile phone and his wallet containing Rs 5,000.

He informed the police about the incident and was taken to hospital for medical examination.