50 pc voters seal fate of candidates Polling peaceful in UT CHANDIGARH, Sept 5 — The fate of all 16 candidates was sealed in the electronic voting machines as nearly 50 per cent of 5.83 lakh electorate exercised their franchise for the lone Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat here today.

Mounted police patrols the streets of Bapu Dham Colony to ensure peaceful polling in the city on Sunday — Tribune photo by Gautam Singh

Low voter turnout in Panchkula
PANCHKULA, Sept 5 — The indifference of the electorate was evident from the low turnout at various polling booths of Panchkula district till noon. Here policemen on duty clearly outnumbered the voters who came to exercise their franchise sans much enthusiasm. By the end of the day, the polling percentage had climbed upto 50 per cent.

Poor voting in urban areas
SAS NAGAR, Sept 5 — A low voter turnout at the polling stations in the urban areas compared to the rural areas marked the polling in the Kharar segment of the Ropar parliamentary seat on Sunday.

• 1 EVM develops fault; replaced
• 2 held for impersonation
• Lowest turnout in Sec 44, 45

Poll percentage worries parties
Chandigarh, Sept 5 — The polling began on a slow note and failed to rise up to the expectations of the poll managers of the major political parties at the end of the day.

Protest at Dadu Majra against irregularity
CHANDIGARH, Sept 5 — Like other counting centres in the city, the one at the Government College for Girls, Sector 42, recorded moderate polling percentage, with about 48 per cent of the total electorate of 1,47,294 exercising their franchise.

Sidelights

Two senior Cong leaders expelled
CHANDIGARH, Sept 5 — Two Vice-Presidents of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee were expelled from the party for six years each on the charge of persistently working against the party candidate, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, in the Lok Sabha elections, the polling for which was held today.

Powers restored to PU dept
CHANDIGARH, Sept 5 — In a step to ensure participation of the best team in cultural activities at the national level, powers regarding selection of the team were restored to the director of youth affairs in Panjab University recently.

'Emphasis on total education'
CHANDIGARH, Sept 5 — Emphasis should be laid on the wholesome education of students, with special focus on confidence building exercise, with a view to preparing them to meet the challenges ahead of them. These views were expressed by Mr Charles Samuel, Principal of Mount Carmel School, Sector 46, in an interview here today.

Meat-cum-fish market for SAS Nagar
SAS NAGAR, Sept 5 — Plans are afoot to provide proper place to the shops unauthorisedly selling meat, fish, pork and chicken from populated areas of the township. This move has been initiated by the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority following complaints of unhygienic conditions being spread by these shops near residential areas.

Seasonal vegetables cheaper
CHANDIGARH, Sept 5 — The prices of seasonal vegetables such as lady's finger, ''tori'' and gourd has come down in the local market during the past four days.

Good omen
RAIN before an event is considered a good omen. And Chandigarh has been lucky on that account. Some parts of the city had showers on Saturday afternoon and virtually the entire Union Territory had some rain on Saturday night or early Sunday morning.The rain, however, did not disturb the election process.

Godrej Club lift Bathany Cup
Chandigarh, Sept 5 — Godrej Cricket Club won the final of the 12th Bathany Cup Cash Prize Cricket Tournament after beating Life Insurance Corporation of India XI by 14 runs here at the CRPF grounds today.

When is National Sports Day?

Villages face garbage disposal problem
IT is disheartening to note that villages in Chandigarh face the threat of some epidemic breaking out in the absence of a garbage disposal system. Khuda-Lahora, 1.5 km from the PGI, is one of these villages.

Pulse polio drive in October
CHANDIGARH, Sept 5 — An intensive progamme has been chalked out by the Chandigarh Administration to administer pulse polio drops to 1.30 lakh children up to 5 years in the city during the four rounds of pulse polio immunization in October. in a recent study done by the reproductive and child health (RCH) project, the immunization coverage (against six vaccine preventable diseases, including polio) in the Union Territory is one of the highest compared to the rest of the country.