3 killed in different incidents
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 11 — Even as three persons were killed in different incidents, as many as 13 were arrested by the police on the charge of begging in different parts of the city since last night.

According to the police, Bhag Singh, who was sitting on a bench in Transport Area in Sector 26 was killed when he was hit by a truck (PAT-7209). The driver sped away after the incident. A case has been registered against the driver of the vehicle.

Banti, a resident of Chakka village in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, died on spot after being hit by a truck in front of the NAC market in Mani Majra. The driver fled the scene leaving behind his vehicle (PB-12-1662), which has been impounded by the police.

A case has been registered against the driver.

Pankaj Kumar, a servant, died after allegedly consuming some poisonous substance in the industrial unit where he was working. He was rushed to the Sector 32 hospital where he was declared dead.

A case has been registered against Mr C.K. Kapoor, owner of the factory, under Section 188, IPC, for not informing the police about the employment of the servant. Further investigations are on.

Meanwhile, 13 persons were arrested by the police for begging in different parts of the city. These persons have been identified as Mohan Lal, Nathu Ram, Raja Ram, Sant Ram, Mohan Lal (all residents of Shambhu Colony in Rajpura), Durjan Dass, Shiv Giri, Nanne, Narain Giri (all residents of Colony No 4), Karanti, a resident of the Sector 25 colony, Muni Lal, a resident of Sector 41, and Rikhi Ram, a resident of Chora in Karnal district.

A case has been registered.

Woman assaulted
rs Darshan Kaur, a resident of Sector 20-C, reported that she was assaulted by her husband, Surinder Kumar, and was later admitted to the Sector 32 hospital. A case under Sections 324 and 506, IPC, has been registered against Surinder Kumar, who was later arrested by the police.

Cheated
Mr S.K. Kamboj, a Sector 44 resident, alleged that he was cheated by Vishal Sharma, a resident of Kishangarh village, of Rs 72,000 for sending his son abroad. A case under Section 420, IPC, has been registered at the Sector 34 police station.

Cash stolen
Mr Baldev Singh, a resident of Palsora Colony reported that Ramasharan, his servant, had stolen Rs 45,800 and other items from his house.

A case under Sections 381 of the IPC has been registered and the accused was arrested.

Three arrested
Mange Ram and Rajbir, residents of the Sector 25 colony, were arrested under Sections 107\151, while Harpreet Singh, a resident of SAS Nagar, was arrested after being found roaming about in mysterious circumstances in Sector 32 here today. A case has been registered.

‘Baggugosha’ enters market
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 11 — Even as dainty 'baggugosha' has registered its entry in city markets, the prices of most fruits have remained stable in the past four days.

After a survey of the market, it was found that after apple, the new fruit that recorded its entry in the market was 'baggugosha' which came from different parts of Himachal Pradesh. The fruit, priced at Rs 40 in the retail market could be purchased in the wholesale market at Rs 250 per 7 to 8 kg pack. According to traders, the price of the fruit was expected to fall once its arrivals started from Jammu and Kashmir after a fortnight.

Meanwhile, except 'langra' variety of mango, no fruit witnessed a major fluctuation in its price. A kg of 'langra' variety of mango, priced at Rs 25 two days back, was available today at between Rs 18 and Rs 20. Its wholesale price has come down from Rs 125 to Rs 100 per 5 kg pack in this period.

There were, however, no changes in the prices of other varieties of the fruit such as 'dasehri' and 'chausa' as these could still be purchased at Rs 20 and Rs 30 a kg, respectively. In the wholesale market, 'dasehri' was priced at Rs 100 per 7 kg and 'chausa' could be relished after spending Rs 125 per 8 kg pack. 'Safeda' had already vanished from the market, while one could purchase 'kupi' variety of mango at Rs 20 a kg.

A kg of plum was also available at the old price of Rs 40 in the retail market and at Rs 150 per 5 kg pack in the wholesale market. A kg of cherry was available at the old price of Rs 80 a kg in retail and at Rs 110 per 2 kg pack in the wholesale market. The price of apricot remained unchanged at Rs 50 a kg in retail and at Rs 200 per 5 to 6 kg pack in the wholesale market.

A kg of royal apple could be purchased at Rs 40, while a 14 to 15 kg pack could be had at Rs 450. There was no change in the price of banana also. If a dozen of it could be had at Rs 20, 100 bananas were priced at Rs 140 in the wholesale market.

There was a slight increase in the price of pomegranate as a kg of the it, priced at Rs 40 three days back, could be purchased today at Rs 50. Grapes were priced at Rs 80 a kg.

Naveen wins city chess
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, July 11 — Naveen Jain finally emerged the winner of the 10th Chandigarh Chess Championship which concluded here today at the Sector 42 sports complex. Naveen, from day one of this four-day championship, maintained lead in all rounds.

Today he ensured his victory when he earned 7.5 points at the end of the final round. Players who came close to him included Abhinandan Vohra, Sanjeev Biswas and Baijnath Prasad. All of them got six points each. Mr A.P. Saksena, President of the Chandigarh Chess Association, who was the chief guest, gave away the prizes.

Meanwhile, the Chandigarh Chess Association, the organiser of this event, has selected four players on the basis of this championship who will further participate in the National 'B' Chess Championship to be held at Mumbai from August 17 to 31. The players are Naveen Jain, Abhinandan Vohra, Sanjeev Biswas and Baijnath Prasad.

The points position at the end of the final round was as follows: 7.5 points — Naveen Jain; 6 points — Abhinandan Vohra, Sanjeev Biswas and Baijnath Prasad; 5.5 points — Naveen Bansal, Ajay Jaswal, Kanwar S. Singh and R.S. Tiwari.

Five points — Anil Raina, S.S. Bhullar, Vipin Negi and Rohit Chodha; 4.5 points — A.N. Dey, Titus Verghese, Vipnesh Bhardwaj, Nitin, Joy Bhatia, Virinder Malik and Chetan Vikas; 4 points — Manmohan Singh, B.S. Rawat, C.M. Sharma, Karma Angdui, P.R. Kansal, and Preeti Gupta.

Three-and-a-half points — S.K. Nanda, H.P. Singh and Jatinder Kaur; 3 points — Devinder Singh, D.R. Rikhi, K.S. Nanda, Malook Bir Sekhon, Shweta, Manoj Sharma and Vir Ji Razdan.

Two-and-a-half points — Simranjeet Kaur, Amit Kaushik and Hemant Moudgil; 2 points — Varun Khullar and Nikhil Chopra; 1 point — Deepak Verma and Ajit.

Godrej club win

A brilliant performance by Harminder Bawa who scored 72 runs and fine bowling by Ajay Sikka who took four wickets for only nine runs enabled the Godrej Cricket Club to beat the AS XI by 51 runs in the Bathany Cup Cricket Tournament played here at the CRPF grounds today.

Brief scores: Godrej CC — 179 for 7 in 25 overs (Harminder Bawa 72, Sanjay Sabharwal 52, Vikas 21, Anil 4 for 27). AS XI — 128 all out (Deepak 33, Sanjay 27, Ajay Sikka 4 for 9).

In another match of the day, the Shinestar Club defeated the Youth Club by one wicket.

Sector 23 win

The team of Sector 23 led by Rajan won the second Street Players Cricket Tournament by defeating the Sector 11 team led by Sameer Bhardwaj by 115 runs in the final played here today at Government College, Sector 11. The tournament was organised by the Yuvsatta and the Master's Sports Welfare Society for players under 17 years of age.

Brief scores: Sector 23 team — 154 for 5 wickets in 20 overs (Gaurav Saini 63 n.o., Punayshil 17, Yogesh 16). Sector 11 team — 40 all out in 9 overs (Ashish 4 for 16 runs, Rajan 2 for 9 runs).

Silly dramas by Chandigarh traffic police

The Chandigarh Traffic Police had announced that it would challan women two-wheeler drivers and women two-wheeler pillion riders flouting the helmet rule from June 28 and no one would be spared.

As per the announcement, the traffic police started challaning women driving a two-wheeler or pillion riders without helmets as part of its special drive launched to comply with the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court when suddenly the challaning staff were ordered by top officials to discontinue challaning from the same afternoon. By the time the orders were received by the traffic police personnel, nearly 270 women on two-wheelers had been challaned and the fate of those challaned is not yet known.

U.T. Home Secretary N.K. Jain had stated that the Administration had decided to suspend challaning women riding without helmet till July 15 — the date of next hearing of the special leave petition filed by the Administration before the Supreme Court. Mr Jain also stated that we shall request the apex court to give us proper instructions in this regard and act accordingly. What a silly statement and what a childish excuse. Couldn’t he and the Administration take this step a day earlier so that this silly drama of challaning had not taken place at all? Why this drama of helmets again and again after every six months? Why can’t the Judiciary and the Administration follow the Chandigarh Motor Vehicle Rules 1980 in which women were exempted from wearing helmets? Where is the guarantee that a person wearing a helmet would not be killed in a road accident? From where the judiciary and the Administration have formed the impression that all those killed in road accidents die because of head injuries?

Agreed that wearing of helmets is safe for drivers of two-wheelers but one thing is sure that there are few persons who are not concerned or bothered about their own safety! What is the Administration doing about local buses of Chandigarh Transport Undertaking which are involved in road accidents killing people, including those wearing helmets? If Chandigarh Administration is really worried about the safety of its citizens, it must just forget the drivers of light motor vehicles and concentrate on heavy motor vehicle drivers and teach them lessons on road safety norms instead of educating women two-wheeler riders about the benefit of wearing helments.

One fails to understand why drivers of two-wheelers are put to inconvenience and hardship everytime for no fault of theirs. Earlier, during days of terrorism the Administration banned the pillion riding on two-wheelers by adult males and that order also continued for quite some time in spite of the fact that terrorists managed to commit crime even on bicycles and run away without being chased and caught.

Now it is the turn of helmets and again two-wheeler drivers are in the grip of Administration. Why always harass middle-class and lower-class society on the pretext of protection? Where is the need for banning the movement of cycle rickshaws in and around Sector 17?

It is high time that the Chandigarh Administration woke up and did something concrete rather than simply hand over “challan-books” to traffic police and collect “chanda” in the name of safety norms.

Gurpreet S. Malhotra
Chandigarh

Inducing soil erosion

How the Chandigarh Administration is helping induce more soil erosion can be seen on Madhya Marg. Labour force is busy in scrapping grass cover from the dividers all along the Madhya Marg right from the Housing Board chowk and also from road side berms. Grass provides much needed cover to soil surface to protect it from the beating action of rain.

In the absence of grass cover, rain drops dislodge soil particles which flow with rain water and choke the drainage system, which is already inadequate for the volume of water that drains from Chandigarh roads. Besides, some part of silt gets deposited near the kerbs which leads to skidding of scooters. Later, when the water dries up, it is converted into dust.

It is estimated that from a soil surface devoid of grass cover, about 1.5 kg of soil is eroded from every square metre of area due to rain. The length of the divider between the Housing Board chowk and the lights at railway crossing is about 2 km. Taking its width as 1 m, the area comes to about 2000 sq m. That means about 3000 kg of soil may be eroded from this patch alone with one intense shower. The cumulative effect during the entire rainy season can be imagined.

It is advisable that maintenance of the dividers/road berms should be carried out after the rains are over. If the labour force is spare, it should be used for some other constructive works rather than adding to the problems of drainage system.

S.P.Mittal
Panchkula

Dating in parks

Apropos of the article ‘Dating in parks embarrasses onlookers in Chandigarh Tribune dated July 5. The headline attracted my attention and I wondered how dating could embarrass people.

On reading the article, I was reminded of a curious observation that a cousin of mine who is an NRI settled in the USA made while we were shopping in Sector 17 market. He said people in Chandigarh seem to have a habit of staring at each other with an exploring and prying look in their eyes. Any loud gesture instantly draws the attention of the people towards you and a boy and girl walking together scarcely escape the attention of the people here.

As a result, most people seem self-conscious and their behabiour is very guarded. He further said in the USA you could do your own thing without being bothered about other people. A young couple walking hand-in-hand, laughing and gesturing would not attract any undue attention except, perhaps an understanding smile from onlookers.

Love is a universal feeling experienced by each and every one of us at one time or other in our lives. But any public expression of this feeling exhibited by a couple, such as holding hands or laughing together, instantly strikes us as brazen and vulgar.

In most cases, these so-called lovers are nothing more than friends sharing thoughts and enjoying each other’s company whose tender gesture expressive of fellowship and camaraderie are interpreted in a wrong manner.

In this context, an incident related by a friend comes to my mind. She was sitting in a park with a male friend of hers when a group of tiny-tots approached them and one of them pointed his finger towards them and whispered to the other “look, boyfriend girlfriend,” The attitude of the adults is much the same, whereby upon seening two young persons of opposite sex together they immediately brand the latter as lovers.

In any case, mere dating in a public place by two persons in love should in no way be the cause of embarrassment to educated enlightened adults. Love and its expression are nothing to be ashamed of as long as they are within the bounds of rules of decorum.

As far as those indulging in obnoxious activities of public nuisance, they should be punished but not at the expense of innocent love-birds. Police personnel posted at public places to check such incidents should act with discretion, taking the due care not to harass innocent couples.

Sarabjit Singh
Kharar

Memories of The Tribune

“Memories of The Tribune, by Mr V.S. Mahajan (Chandigarh Tribune June 29) was an interesting piece to inspire me also to saunter in the memory lane of The Tribune. I have been a proud reader of the paper since 1927 when I was in Toba Tek Singh (now in Pakistan), where my father late Pt Harbans Lal, was Manager of Messrs Clements Robson and Co, a British firm engaged in the export of wheat to England. He was a contributor since 1951 among other elderly Chandigarhians contributors like Gian Chand Jain (96), P.D. Shastri (89) Dr Sansar Chandra (82) and M L Puri (94).

The Tribune came into being towards the end of the 19th century in Lahore.

The mayhem and holocaust of 1947 forced it to migrate as a refugee newspaper to perch on Bantony Cottage, Simla. It then shifted to its own building at Ambala Cantt in early fifties, and then to its spacious and grand building at Chandigarh.

I can recollect some earliest articles of late twenties e.g. series of articles by Sir Chhotu Ram on agricultural reform, the Kanso case and the trial of Baba Gurdit Singh of Kamagatamaru fame.

The Tribune has maintained its lofty character of nationalist, secular, liberal, pragmatic and rational journalism inspired by its illustrious founder’s pristine ideals and a galaxy of editors of high calibre like Naginder Nath Gupta, Kali Nath Ray ( for about 2 decades) Jung Bahadur Singh, Jozeph Pothan, Natrajan, R. Madhavan Nair, Amolak Ram, Prem Bhatia, V.N. Narayanan and Hari Jaisingh.

The Tribune has remained my best friend over the years and even today. I relish it very much.

Baij Nath Sharma
Chandigarh

Medicine availability

On July 5, there were two different items in your paper concerning the Panchkula District General Hospital. One was about the fate of a child patient whose parents faced the crisis of non-availability of a medicine at 1.00 a.m in Emergency and had to go all the way to the PGI to get the medicine.

I had written on the subject even last year that we should think of a solution and had suggested that either the hospital have its own arrangement of providing medicines in an emergency during night, or open a shop by inviting tenders, or take the help of the Red Cross or request and persuade five or six chemists just behind the hospital itself to open one shop at night by rotation. People are going to face this problem more and more in the coming days with the expansion of the hospital.

The second news item was about the unhygenic and epidemic-like conditions around the hospital, especially on the side between it and the residences. This has been pointed out innumberable times. The Hospital authorities should tackle it at the earliest by avoiding any red tapism to prevent any epidemic in the rainy season.

Harish Khanna
Panchkula