NEIGHBOURHOOD

Ryan school awards students
Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 9
The Patiala Eye Hospital and Lasik Laser Centre celebrated Women’s Day by organising a free eye check-up camp at Malko Majra, near here, where over 580 patients were examined.

The camp, organised by the Bhai Behlo Charitable Trust, was the fourth annual camp organised with the patronage of Master Jarnail Singh, a renowned philanthropist of the area, who is an NRI settled in Canada. Dr Sukhdip S Boparai, chief consultant of the Patiala Eye Hospital and Lasik Laser Centre, said over 40 patients had been operated upon for cataract.

Dr Boparai underlined the urgent need to create awareness among the masses for regular eye check-up and lamented that the first time they visited an eye specialist was when they needed reading glasses. With computerised machines available not many visited doctors. This was the reason why doctors in our country got glaucoma cases in advanced stages. 

Ropar, March 9
Six students of the Sahibzada Ajit Singh Academy (SASA), Ropar, have been invited by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to Finland.

The team will participate in a week-long conference at University of JOENSUU in Finland in the second week of April. The students are Ranjit Singh, Gurtej Singh, Harmandeep Singh, Gurkirat Singh, Ranjodh Singh and Gurveer Singh.

These students will share their knowledge regarding global warming, its causes and remedies, along with other school students from 112 countries across the globe.

The SASA students are among those, who are going to arrange workshops on environmental issues. All lodging and boarding is being provided by the UNEP and the department of school education, Finland.

These students will visit Finnish Forest, JOENSUU Art Museum, Carelicum at JOENSUU at Helsinki, Kindergarten Museum, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Ateneum Sinebrychoff Museum of Foreign Art, Cygnaeus Gallery, Seurasaari open Air Museum and Urho Kekkonen Museum. 

Bassi Pathana, March 9
Resentment prevails among residents of the town against the local Municipal Council authorities for serving them notices imposing a heavy amount of house tax on their properties as per the new rules of the government.

The residents have decided not to pay the increased house tax. Representatives of various organisations today held a meeting and decided to launch an agitation if the council did not withdraw the house tax notices.

Manoj Banda, general secretary, in a press note, said the authorities had imposed a heavy amount of taxes on the citizens to generate funds. He said there was no drinking water and sewer, sanitation arrangements, street lights, roads and drains are in a pitiable condition and no source of employment in the town.

The residents are hardly meeting their both ends as they are not in a position to pay heavy taxes. The population is decreasing day by day as the people are leaving the town for want of facilities. He warned that if the government did not withdraw its order, they would teach the ruling alliance a lesson in the coming Parliament elections.

Tejinder Singh, Executive Officer, said notices had been sent as per new assessment. There was no question of withdrawal of notices. Objection could be filed and the house would decide accordingly.

Kulbhushan Malhotra, president of the council, said a three-member committee had been formed to sort out the grievances.

Chandigarh, March 9
Pakistani spies Abid Mehmood and Abdul Wahid were today convicted by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Kanchan Mahi after a trial of six years.

The two accused have been convicted under the Official Secret Acts, the Foreigners Act, criminal conspiracy and for using fraud documents as genuine. The quantum on the sentence will be pronounced on March 10.

Abid, 27, while talking to mediapersons after he was convicted said, “The orders that have been pronounced are right and justified in the eyes of law.”

Both Abid Mehmood, along with Abdul Wahid and Mohammad Arif, both Indian nationals, was arrested by the Chandigarh police on February 23, 2003. The prosecution had stated that highly sensitive information pertaining to military deployment and battle formations in the country was in Abid’s possession, besides orders of battle of the Western, Northern , Southern and the Eastern Command.

The Pakistani spy also had a list of as many as 30 infantry battalions, armoured units, artillery regiments, air defence regiments, rocket and missile units, as well as allied and support units located in Chandimandir and Ambala, along with names of their commanding officers.

The prosecution further alleged that Mehmood had drawn several charts, listing out various units and formations under the jurisdiction of different headquarters. Besides English, a number of notings in Urdu had also been made. Abid was residing in India illegally after changing his name to Nihal Chauhan.

The prosecution held that on February 23, 2003, Abid, along with co-accused — a juvenile, had done an illegal act by inspecting prohibited plans and making site plans of military deployments of various places and clicking photographs of prohibited military area.

The prosecution also held that Abid, along with Abdul Wahid and a juvenile, had inspected prohibited places and made site plans of military deployments.

Abid was also alleged of fraudulently using fake identity card of Election Commission of India in the name of Nihal Chauhan and one fake certificate of inter- college sports. 

Chandigarh, March 9
Additional district and sessions judge SK Aggarwal today sentenced Ramesh Kumar to rigorous imprisonment of seven years for raping a minor girl in 2007. Ramesh, a resident of Colony No. 4, was convicted under Sections 363, 366, 376, 120-B of 
the IPC.

The case was registered in the Industrial Area police station on the complaint of the victim’s father. The girl, who was a student of fifth standard, had gone missing and it was alleged that she was allured by Ramesh, who abducted her and raped her.

The police recovered the girl from the possession of Ramesh from Delhi on March 23, 2007. During the court proceedings, the victim also deposed that Ramesh had raped her while she pleaded him to take her back home.

Panchkula, March 9
Thieves allegedly decamped with more than Rs 75,000 by breaking the windowpanes of two cars parked in the market of Sector 20, here today.

Both the victims, Parveen Mehta of Dhakoli and Sanjeev Bhardwaj of Sector 6, alleged that some unidentified persons had stolen their bags containing Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000, respectively.

Further narrating the incident to mediapersons on the spot, Parveen said he had gone to the market for some urgent work, but when he returned he found that the windowpane of his Tata Indigo car was broken and the bag containing money was missing.

Similar was the case with Bhardwaj who lost Rs 50,000 lying in his Toyota Corolla parked nearby.

Meanwhile, Parveen found his bag from Sector 12-A when someone informed him that his bag and documents were lying there abandoned. The money was, however, taken by the miscreants.

The police officials at police station, Sector 20, on the other hand said none of the owners of the cars had reported loss of any money in the incident.

Chandigarh, March 9
Bar Association, Panchkula, edged past Bar Association, Moga, by one wicket on the second day of the cricket tournament being organised by the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh, at DAV College, Sector 10, here today.

Batting first, Moga got a solid start with the help of Mohit Kamboj (73) and Gurpreet (42). However, the team crumbled in the middle overs and lost their wickets easily in an attempt to play big shots. They scored 175 for 9 in the allotted 20 overs.

For Panchkula, Sandeep Sharma and Kuldeep Singh claimed three and two wickets, respectively.

Replying, Panchkula began on a defensive note, but picked up pace after 5 overs to give their batting average a boost. It was Kuldeep Saini, who put a brave foot forward to sail his team to a win. He struck a scintillating knock of 71 runs. He was well supported by Deep Dhina (22), who scored most of his runs through singles and doubles.

The winning team achieved their target in 19.5 overs. For Moga, Gurpreet claimed 4 wickets, but his efforts went in vain.

In another match, Mewat defeated Rohtak by 58 runs here, while Fatehabad managed to defeat Sirsa by 10 runs at Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36, here. 

Chandigarh, March 9
A nine-member Kazakhstan boxing squad reached the city today afternoon to partake in the forthcoming 1st International and 16th AK Misra Boxing Championships to be held in the city from March 11 to 15.

The seven players were accompanied by their referee and coach.

The team hit the ring for practice in the evening at the Sector 42 Sports
Complex.

Other six teams, which will be participating in the tournament, are scheduled to reach the city tomorrow.

Earlier the organisers and journalists had a bad time, as they could not interact with the players due to non-availability of a translator. All players speak Russian.

While speaking to the reporters through a translator, coach of the squad, Abbas, said, “We are satisfied with our team’s performance and are confident of performing good in the tournament.”

Chandigarh, March 9
The North zone team comprising golfers from Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan finished runners-up in the fourth All-India Civil Services Golf Tournament that concluded on the Qutab Golf Course greens in Delhi yesterday.

The North Zone civil servants finished five strokes behind Delhi zone, who clinched the title with a team tally of 953.

Played over 36 holes on Saturday and Sunday, the North zone golfers tallied 958 with East zone finishing third at 975.

The 10-member North zone team was selected after a tournament held for the zone in Chandigarh.

In the all-India event, 70 golfers from seven zones of the country took part in the two-day competition that was teed off by Vice-President M Hamid Ansari on Saturday.

The prizes were given away by union sports minister MS Gill on Sunday.

Harinderpal Singh Bedi from Chandigarh recorded the longest drive of 316 yards on the second day.

Aleendra De had the opening day's longest drive of 340 yards.

RK Arora was nearest to the pin at 6 ft.

The following represented North zone: Harinderpal Bedi, Raj Kumar Arora, Bhupinder Singh, RC Mishra, Deepinder Garcha, Jasbir Singh, Gurdish Pal Singh, SS Maan, Rakesh Jolly and T Kipgen.

CSR Reddy was the non-playing captain and Roshan Sunkaria was the manager of the team. 

Chandigarh, March 9
With a score of 40 points, Capt GS Ghuman lifted the Defence Golf Cup-2009 organised by the Defence Services Golf Brotherhood at the Chandigarh 
Golf Club here.

The lifetime award was given to Col AP Singh for his contribution to the cause of defence golf in Chandigarh.

Over a 100 defence golfers, including spouses ranging from 40 years to 80 years, had participated. The winners and runners-up in various categories are -

75 yrs and above: Maj Gen K S Kandal; Col AS Sandhu.

70 yrs and above: Lt Col GS Brar; Lt Col JS Sandhu.

60 yrs and above: Maj TAS Bedi; Lt Col DS Kang.

50 yrs and above: Capt GS Ghuman; Col SOS Bath.

Below 50 yrs: Col Amit Bhargava; Col JS Chatha.

Ladies: Binny Bath; Jyoti Kapoor.

Chandigarh, March 9
Capt Sushil Kapoor of PCA has been appointed as manager for the North Zone Team for Prof DB Deodhar Trophy tournament to be played at Cuttack from March 13.

North Zone will play its first match against Central Zone on March 13. The team is led by Mithun Manhas of DDCA and has three Punjab players — Uday Kaul, Siddharth Kaul and Ravi 
Inder Singh.

The other members of the team are Akash Chopra, Virat Kohli, Rajat Bhatia, Pradeep Sangwan, Yogesh Nagar, Chetnya Nanda (all DDCA), Yash Pal (services), VS Malik, V Indulkar (HPCA), Rahul Dewan (Haryana) and S Beigh (JKCA). Nishant Thakur of HPCA will be the trainer.

The tournament which is being played on league-cum-knock out basis has six teams which have been divided into two groups.