Chandigarh, July 4
Within hours after Jasmer Singh Gill set his foot at his Sector 9 residence, which was allegedly occupied by a group of youngsters, he alleged that the group manhandled him.

Gill, who returned from the USA today, told the TNS that after reaching his home, he found that Prabhjot Singh Zira along with his gunmen and other friends, was at his place. Seeing this, he started clicking their photographs as a proof of their presence.

However, they started abusing him and also pushed him, saying that it was their house and he couldn’t do anything.

Gill said that after being manhandled by them in his own house, he had gone to the Sector 3 police station and filed a complaint against them.

It is pertinent to mention that on July 2, Gill in his applications sent through fax to the UT Home Secretary, Deputy Commissioner, the DIG (Headquarters), the SSP and the ASP (Central), had sought their intervention to get his illegally occupied house vacated. He told the top UT officials that nefarious activities had been going on in his house for a long time since former SAD MLA Inderjit Singh Zira’s son Prabhjot Singh Zira sneaked into his house, posing as a tenant.

Meanwhile, the police said that they had received complaints from both the parties. Since this case has been in the court, they couldn’t do much about it.

However, they said there was no incident of any scuffle and a police gypsy was also stationed outside the house.

Panchkula, July 4
Thrashing a youth in public cost two cops dear when residents of the area gathered on the spot, blaming police for highhandedness, and caught hold of the duo at Abhaypur village late yesterday night.

The two cops, however, were handed over to police officials on the assurance that the appropriate action would be taken against them. Following this, the two cops and driver were taken to general hospital for medical test. The samples of urine of cops were sent to Madhuban Forensic lab.

The complainant Sushil (22), a taxi driver at Abhaypur village, alleged that it was around 11.30 pm and he was on the after meal walk when ASI Shiv Lal and constable Rajesh hit them with their motorcycle. On his objection to it, they started thrashing him and in the process they snatched his mobile phone and Rs 930 from his pocket, he alleged.

The cops were under the influence of liquor, he said.

Meanwhile, the residents of the locality gathered on the spot and caught hold of them and informed the high ups following which the medical tests of cops and Sushil were conducted.

A police official, confirming the incident, said the action against the cops would be taken when the reports of samples were received, he added.

Panchkula, July 4
Groping in the dark for more then one month to get a clue of missing realtor Deepak Rai Saggar, the local police now has decided to move an application in the court, seeking permission for conducting narco test on four suspects, including two property dealers from Delhi. The application will be filed on Monday, said sources.

The sources in the police said while report of lie-detecting test, conducted on two suspects, were not able to shed substantial light on the matter, now their hopes were resting on the narco test in case the court granted permission for it.

The police found the report of Madhuban lab about test on the two suspects, Rajesh Thapar and Vinay, inconclusive and now three other suspects would be sent for the same test on Monday, said the sources.

Deepak Rai Saggar (55) had gone missing along with his black Skoda car on June 1. Saggar, also known as “Jagat mama” had gone to meet his friend Vinay in Maheshpur village, Sector 21, after which he did not return home.

Now, the police has included Vinay on the list of suspects following the allegations of family of Saggar that he was in touch with the two property dealers of Delhi. These property dealers could be beneficiary in such circumstances, claimed Samir Saggar, son of missing realtor.

Meanwhile, the appointment of the family with the Prime Minister has been postponed to July 8 due to budget session.

“We had sough an appointment with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek his intervention so that the police investigation could be stepped up and July 5 was fixed for this,” claimed Samir.

Chandigarh, July 4
The existing duty hours of the air traffic services of the Chandigarh airport are proving to be the bottleneck in the commencement of the city’s first international flight to Dubai.

According to sources, the air traffic services of the Chandigarh airport have intimated to the “Air headquarters”, that the existing pattern of watch hours permits air traffic functions only up to 8 pm, and thus the proposed night flight by Fly Dubai cannot be cleared as of now.

The Fly Dubai Boeing 737-800 aircraft is scheduled to fly at 3:10 am and the arrival time being 11:20 p.m. For the same to materialise, the watch hours of the air traffic service of the Air Force at Chandigarh Airport need to be re-worked by the Government of India to a 24-hour pattern for the commercial flights.

Meanwhile, sources also revealed that a major consideration will be the increase in manpower of the air traffic services, which is required for a 24- hour service at the airport.

While permissions have been sort from the Director General Civil Aviation and the proposal is under discussion by the Air force, the delay could adversely affect the booking of tickets that had already started a month in advance.

A few passengers who had booked the tickets in advance revealed that the airlines have mentioned the words “Subject to government approval” on the tickets. The airport officials claimed that they were hopeful of the clearance by the Air force, making way for the much-awaited flight. 

According to the Centre’s new greenfield airport policy, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is the nodal agency for giving clearances for construction of any aerotropolis project. As the proposed site for the airport city is close to the air force station, the proposal has also to be cleared from the Defence Ministry, said sources in the state government.

Since a lot of commercial activity is already taking place along the national highway, coming up hotels and malls will add to the economic activity. GMADA wants to tap the potential of the area around Zirakpur. Since a new road linking the proposed international airport with Panchkula is on the cards, the potential of the area of airport-related activity could be fully utilized.

Officials in GMADA disclose that once the international airport is in place, the airport hub will serve as a catalyst for aviation and logistic business in the region.

Another area being tapped is along the Zirakpur-Patiala highway. “The international passenger potential is many times more than the domestic potential as it would have a good number of passengers. The demand is mostly for NRIs from Punjab who will prefer Mohali to Delhi as the road travelling time will be reduced.

As per the master plan report, the development of aerotropolis will be undertaken in the first phase of development in the GMADA region. Activities like aviation academy, logistics uses, offices relating to aircraft companies, aircraft catering companies and kitchen have also been planned.

Chandigarh, July 4
Chandigarh continues to score on the healthcare front. The findings of the District Level Households and Facility Survey-3, conducted in 2007-08 and made available now, read like a success story of the Directorate of Health Services, UT Administration.

While in some fields, Chandigarh has scored full marks, in others, it has considerably improved upon its tally over the last survey conducted in 2003-04.

A spokesman of the Health Department said that Chandigarh had done its villages proud by scoring 100 per cent in extending healthcare facilities to the villagers by making these available to them under the “Janani Suraksha Yojna”. All villages have accessibility to health sub-centres within 3 km.

The Health Department has scored another hundred in making women aware about the danger of diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection (ARI) and providing treatment to all children, suffering from ARI or fever. In other fields like institutional deliveries, safe deliveries, child immunization and vaccination of children for polio, the UT has improved its grade over DLHS-2, says the report (See accompanying chart). More importantly, Chandigarh has also done well in providing infrastructure, staff and services at its Community Health Centres (CHCs).

The DLHS-3 was conducted in the Union Territory of Chandigarh from July, 2008, to August, 2008, gathering information from 1,033 households. “The most important finding of the survey is that the campaigns and programmes of the UT Health Department have succeeded in spreading awareness among the people about healthcare and availability of health services,” said Kavita Talwar, District Family Welfare Officer.

The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) was the nodal agency which carried out one of the largest-ever demographic and health surveys in India with a sample of 7 lakh households covering all districts of the country.

Chandigarh, July 4
Walking on the footpath has not only become arduous task but dangerous too for the residents of Chandigarh and outsiders as the road gullies, which were recently constructed in various areas on the roadside for the outlet of water have been left uncovered.

According to the plans of the Municipal Corporation, the road gullies should be covered with cement lids for safety purpose and iron mash put on it to level it with the footpath. Interestingly, the authorities remember to dig the holes for the road gullies but forget to cover it with cement lids or with iron mash for safety.

Surprisingly, the authorities are much concerned about the safety of the VIPs, because while visiting VIP sectors, it was found that the work of renovation of road gullies had been completed, whereas in other sectors of the city, the authorities are not even bothered to cover these road gullies, as required, putting safety of the public at peril.

The authorities claim that they have made all arrangements for the monsoon, but strangely, no drive had been organised to clean these road gullies for the quick draining of rain water during monsoon.

One of the senior officials revealed that even though the city road gullies have been upgraded, but it will not serve any useful purpose during monsoon.

Because no care has been about the slope of the road while constructing them. If one monitors the construction of road gullies, one finds that these have been constructed on upper side of the road rather than lower side, thus going against the basic rules followed by the engineers.

In the recently held house meeting of the CMC, the issue of the uncovered road gullies was raised by the councillors, on which the chief engineer commented that he had called for tenders and soon the work would be completed.

Manjit Singh, a Congress councillor, said the monsoon has already hit the city, but the corporation authorities had not even bothered to clean these road gullies to avoid inconvenience for the public. He said he had approached the officials concerned a number of times, but in vain.

Complaining about the level of the road gullies, which were recently constructed, he said it was mere a wastage of money as these gullies would not serve any useful purpose due to unplanned construction. Another councillor of Akali Dal, Harjinder Kaur, said the authorities had not learnt any lessons from the manhole death incident, which happened two years ago.

Maybe, they are waiting for another such tragedy to happen to wake them up. She said she had raised the matter in the last meeting of the general house. At that time, the chief engineer had promised that the necessary action would be taken for the safety of the public. 

Chandigarh, July 4
While passing by Sector 17, strolling in Rose Garden, dating someone in Pinjore Garden, has it ever come to your mind that these places have become sexual tryst sites for homosexuals in tricity?

It may not go down well with many of us, but apart from the above three mentioned places, Mani Manjra, Shanti Kunj, and Sector 43 are the hubs where male prostitution rackets are running under the nose of the UT Police.

In what may come as a telling tale by a male sex worker, the rackets of male prostitutes are up and running in tricity wherein political bigwigs and many of influential people are also involved. It may be noted that though the Delhi High Court has given its nod to consensual gay-sex, it has not given a free hand to male prostitution.

Robby (name changed), a male sex worker, says “I have been serving as a sex worker for the past two years. I am an class VIII dropout and have to resort to this profession to earn my subsistence. There are many places which are known as “cruising sites” for gay hunters”.

Spilling the beans, he said, “Rose Garden, Shantikunj, Mani Manjara, Mohali Phase-7 are some of the meeting points of gays and their customers. It may be astonishing but we are also picked up by chauffer driven cars. Many of out stationed students come to these places and take us with them in their rented rooms lest somebody invades their privacy.”

“Why are we deprived of the right of living as normal human beings? Why does not society put a question mark on those high-profile people who come and satiate their desires? I would not like to name them, as it could put me in deep trouble but our customers’ list also includes choreographers, politicians, businessmen, ” he added further.

“Like the pimps of female prostitutes, we are also guided by these pimps. And most of the pimps are themselves gays. We are left with no choice, as it is a means of our subsistence. We are not given employment opportunities as we are not considered fit for the job because of our sexual orientation,” said another sex worker on the condition of anonymity.

Chandigarh, July 4
Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) elevated to the honorary rank of naib subedar in the Army now have reason to cheer. They will be placed in the pay grade of naib subedar for the purpose of fixation of their pension.

Till now, honorary naib subedars were being paid the pension of havildar with just Rs 100 as an additional benefit for the honorary rank. Orders to this effect were issued by the Department of Ex-servicemen in the Ministry of Defence a few days ago.

Honorary rank of naib subedar is granted to select NCOs retiring in the rank of havildar as a mark of recognition of the services rendered by them.

Accepting the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission in this regard, the government has notified that havildars granted the honorary rank of naib subedars would now be paid the pension of a regularly promoted naib subedar. The said benefit would, however, only be extended for fixation of pension and not for other service privileges like leave encashment and gratuity.

“The honorary rank of naib subedar granted to havildar will be notionally considered as a promotion to the higher grade of naib subedar and benefit of fitment in the pay band and higher grade pay will be allowed notionally for the purpose of fixation of pension only,” the orders applicable from January 1, 2006, state.

As far as pre-2006 pensioners are concerned, the minimum guaranteed full pension for honorary naib subedars was Rs 5,000. The minimum pension for this rank would now be Rs 7,750.

Chandigarh, July 4
Employees of Reliable Recharge Service Centre gathered outside the Sector 31 police station and complained to the police, accusing employer of the organisation of duping customers and not paying salaries of his employees.

Amrinder Singh, team leader of the organisation, said there were more than 100 employees working with the organisation but most of them were not paid their salaries. Some of them were paid salaries by bank cheques, which were later found bounced.

The employees said they were working on monthly salary of Rs 7,200 and were told to be paid Rs 300 extra on every customer they engaged. They were assigned the job of selling recharges to the customers.

According to them, they were to sell a plan in which a recharge of Rs 100 gives customer Rs 1,000 talk time. The customers were supposed to get Rs 50 talk time within 48 hours after the recharge and Rs 100 talk time each month later on. However, the employees, who had also taken this connection, claimed that they didn’t get anything after getting Rs 50 talk time and the customer also call them to enquire about their remaining talk time.

The employees worked for a month with the organisation which is situated at Industrial Area II.

Manoj Batra, MD of the organization, was not available despite the repeated attempts.

Meanwhile, the SHO of the Sector 31 police station said, “We have received a complaint and after verifying it, we will register a case”.

Mohali, July 4
Members of the Ex-servicemen Movement, Mohali, and Defence Widows of Army Flats (AWHO) today staged a protest against an order of the Punjab government to levy stamp duty on current market rates and not on the original allotment price.

Each ex-serviceman is being forced to pay about Rs 3 lakh extra. The protesters also showed placards. No other state, like Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana were taxing the ex-servicemen 
like Punjab.

Other states charge a stamp duty at a rate of five per cent, but Punjab charges a stamp duty at a rate of nine per cent, said Col SS Sohi.

Mohali, July 4
A trauma and orthopaedics workshop was organised here today.

The workshop was organised by the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC), with the support of Dr Mandeep Singh Dhillon, head, department of orthopaedics, PGI, Chandigarh. The workshop was inaugurated by MS Sandhu, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, which was attended by orthopaedic doctors and surgeons working in various district and sub-divisional hospitals of PHSC.

The objective of the workshop was to upgrade the knowledge of doctors in the field of orthopaedics, especially the trauma care.

The expert faculty members from premier medical institutions of the region, including the PGI, Government Medical College, Government Multi-speciality Hospital, Chandigarh, and Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, delivered lectures and presentations on various topics of trauma management.

Prof Dhillon said the workshop had been held as part of continuous medical education programme to enhance the level of knowledge and skills of orthopaedic doctors with the involvement of senior faculty members of medical colleges of the region.

He discussed key orthopaedic issues like principles of implant usage, proximal tibial fractures, calcaneal fractures and damage control orthopaedics.

While discussing with the participants, the management of plasters and surgical interventions, he said the fracture care was a major issue and interventions varied from simple plaster to modern techniques.

Prof Dhillon further emphasised the doctors to try to handle the cases of trauma at the districts or sub-divisional hospitals, where these were reported first so that load on PGI could be decreased and mortality and morbidity of cases could be reduced.

Dr Narinder Arora, medical superintendent, Government Multi-speciality Hospital, gave a lecture on proximal femur.

He said these were complicated fractures, but if C-ARM Image Intensifier facility was available in the hospital, the management of such cases became much easier for the doctor as well as patient and took lesser time.

He said C-Arm should be provided in all hospitals, where orthopaedic specialists were available.

Dr Rajnish Garg, associate professor, DMC, said better interaction was required between the surgeons in the periphery and the senior faculty of tertiary hospitals so that they could discuss the issues for the benefit of patients.

Dr Ravi Gupta, associate professor, GMCH- 32, gave a presentation on acetabular fractures.

Chandigarh, July 4
As a step towards providing prefab shelters to the rag pickers of the city, the Chandigarh Administration has made amendments in the “Chandigarh Allotment of Prefab Shelters for the Rehabilitation of Rag Pickers on License Basis Scheme-2008”.

Under the new amended policy-2009, all those persons, below the age of 18 whose names figured in the survey conducted by MC, would be provided with prefabricated homes.

Officials said it would be essential that the applicant or any of his family members and parents do not own or have been allotted any site/house/tenement whether by way of sale, lease or license or likely to be allotted a dwelling unit by the UT Administration under any of its scheme, including Rehabilitation Scheme. Besides, the monthly income of the applicant and his family from all sources should not exceed Rs 3000.

The scheme would be valid till August 31. However, all allotments made under the provisions of this scheme, during its validity, will continue to be governed under the provisions of this scheme.

Chandigarh, July 4
Four leading cultural societies paid musical tributes to Noble laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam on the premises of local Kalbari.

After the traditional Jyoti Prachand, the programme commenced with Bangiya Sanskriti Samilini, presenting two songs, one each written by Tagore and Nazrul Islam. Their mime “Devta Gras” supported with a recitation depicted the curse of the God.

The ICON, Panchkula, impressed with a repertoire of dazzling dances and scintillating songs in an especially designed ballet “Namo Nazrul-O-Rabi Pranam”.

Ably directed by acclaimed composer Rekha Roy, also the lead vocalist, the composition brought alive the distinct attributes of “Rabindra Sangeet” and “Nazrul Geeti”, which respectively bore the influence of Western and Middle East music tunes.

The host, Kali Bari-47, had the large share of ten perfect presentations of songs, led by Piyusha Mitra and Puja Ray.

The main attraction remained “Srithar Samnayotaya”, a judicious balance of the poetic and musical compositions of both poets. Sujata, Sudesna, Suchelat, K Jana and Arup Mukerjee were main contributors to the show, who highlighted the poetic prominence and musical potential of the great poets.

The programme concluded with a dance number by Bangiya Parishad, Panchkula.

Pinjore (Panchkula), July 4
Soulful strains of Sufiana and folk melodies reverberated at the Yadvindera Gardens, Pinjore, as the acclaimed maestro Barkat Sidhu spelt magic at a musical evening to mark the eighteenth annual Mango Mela here today.

The maestro, supported by his disciple son, Surinder Sidhu, on vocals, brought alive the mysticism of Sufi saints, the verve and vitality of Punjabi folk and the romance of ghazals in a sold and substantial recital.

Be it Shah Hussain’s “Ni mein jhook ranjan di”, Baba Bulleh Shah’s “Terre Ishaq nachaya” or saint poet Sultan Bahu’s “Rabba merre haal da mehram tu” or “ Bande apna aap pachhan”, Sidhu sang submerged in the mystic munificence of Sufi thought. He displayed his adroit mastery over folklore in “Mitti deya baweya” and “Kithon sikhya” from the slumbering love legend Heer Ranjha.

He justified the literary aspect of emotions in Sardar Anjum’s Punjabi ghazal “Tera Ishaq Saudai” and “Gham gusaran da ki bharosa hai” and another “Russe rahe”, immortalised by Ghulam Ali, with a flawless rendition.

The ustad, however, struggled with the diction in a few Urdu numbers. He concluded the recital with the boisterous number “Meri bukkal de vich chor”.

The Haryana Tourism Minister, Kiran Choudhry and Agricultural Minister HS Chatta were present on the occasion. MS Keshni Anand Arora and Satwanti Ahlawat, and senior tourism officers graced the programme.

World renowned qawwal Hazi Aslam Sabri, who has featured in many Bollywood films, will perform tomorrow at 7 pm at the same venue.

Panchkula, July 4
Five unidentified youths allegedly thrashed INLD municipal councillor here today.

The councillor from ward no. 17, Subhash Nishad, said he was returning from Raipur Rani in his jeep with his driver and when he reached near Abhaypur village at 8.45 pm, the youths, armed with wooden sticks and pistol, attacked him on his face. The youths came in an Indica car having a Punjab registration number.

The youth first hurled abuses at him and then started thrashing him with sticks, while one of them used a pistol in his hand to hit him near his eye, alleged Subhash. — TNS

Chandigarh, July 4
The poor response in the humanities and the vocational streams continues on day three with hardly on per cent of the seats filled up in the arts’ stream.

Only 46 seats out of the 4,875 seats were filled up in the arts’ stream, while similar trend followed in the vocational stream with only 44 seats filled up out of 1,972 in the vocational stream after three days.

On the third day of the counselling at GMSSS-10, 777 students were admitted to various government schools across the city for admission to Class XI. The students in the percentage bracket of 73 and above were called for counselling today.

Following the trend of past two days, the science stream was the top choice of the students for the third consecutive day, resulting in closure of science stream seats in six coveted schools, Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35 (cutoff 88.6 per cent), Sector 16, (cutoff 86.2 per cent), Sector 37 (cutoff 82 per cent), Sector 33 (cutoff 81 per cent), Sector 19 (Cutoff 80 per cent), and GMSSS- MHC (cutoff 79.6 per cent).

In addition to these, Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 32, was also in this list with a cutoff 75.2 per cent.

Finally, out of a total of the 3,218 seats available in the science stream, 2,005 have already been filled after day three.

GMSSS-37 today announced closure of admission to the commerce stream with a cutoff 75 per cent, while in GMSSS-16 and GMSSS-35, the seats were already over in the commerce stream earlier.

Meanwhile, about 73 seats are still vacant in the humanities stream in GMSSS-16 and 90 in GMSSS-35.

Chandigarh, July 4
Not willing to give in to the administration over their demands, the contractual employees today made their stand clear that they should be given exemption from the written test. They said from Monday onwards, the strike would become more intense.

The UT administration clarified today that the contractual teachers were advised to resume teaching as soon as the schools re-opened and that they could not be exempted from the written test for 536 regular posts in government schools.

The administration further clarified that the written test was a must for all, which would be as per Class X standards, and the services of these employees could not be regularised in view of the directions of the Supreme Court that had granted relaxation in age in the new recruitments for these teachers only.

However, the UT administration has agreed to provide some benefits to the contractual employees like five years of relaxation in the age, weightage to experience of these teachers, increasing the contractual amount of these employees and the non-termination of services of the contractual employees as even after recruitment of 536 teachers, more than 400 posts would still be vacant.

Reacting to this, president of the Chandigarh Schools Contractual Teachers’ Association, said, “Though we have agreed to the request of the administration to resume duty, however, we are not satisfied by the assurances as what they are offering is our right. We will continue with strike and make it intense from Monday.”