Chandigarh, April 23
Binder and John, both teenagers, were killed in a road accident when a vehicle rammed into their scooter on the Kaimbwala-Kansal road here late tonight.

According to the police, both victims, who were the residents of Nayagaon, were on their way to Saketeri village where they had to deliver some items for a religious congregation (Jagrata). The mishap occurred near Satasang Bhavan on the road.

Both victims were severely wounded and suffered multiple injures. The police said smashed helmets were found on the spot. They were rushed to the PGI where they were pronounced dead on arrival.

Binder is a musician in a brassband group while John is working as a salesman in a Sector 17 showroom.

According to tthe SHO of the Sector 3 police station, a case of causing death due to rash and negligent driving has been registered against the unidentified driver in this connection. 

Chandigarh, April 23
Even as the Chandigarh administration thinks big on the information technology (IT) front its much-touted online payment facility for the electricity and water bills seems to be a non-starter.

Due to lack of coordination between the Information Technology Department and the Axis Bank, the proposal has failed to take off. At least bitter experience of Madan Gupta Spatu, a Sector 20 resident, who has been moving from pillar to post for the past about six months to deposit the bill online, bears a testimony to the fact that the "people-friendly" decision was facing teething troubles.

Spatu claimed that he opened an account with the Axis Bank in November 2008 to avoid queues at the e-Sampark centres. However, when he logged on to the official website of the administration (www.chandigarh.gov.in) to pay the bill, he was in for a disappointment as the message "invalid response code in the input URL" was displayed on the system.

"When called up the officer in charge of the administration, I was told that the system was alright from their end and there could be problem from the Axis Bank side. However, when I contacted Sumant Nanda from the Axis Bank, he put the blame on administration officials for not rectifying the defect," Spatu alleged.

Even when Nanda tried to pay the bill from Spatu's password, the website could not accept the payment. The non-acceptance of the bill was intriguing as Spatu had been paying telephone bills through the direct net banking in the same account with Axis Bank.

Though Spatu had been regular in posting mail about the non-functional online payment facility, the bank officials and the administration seemed to be least bothered to rectify the fault.

“What is fun of marketing city as the next IT destination by developing the IT Park here when the administration cannot provide the basic facility to the consumers,” Spatu rued.

This was despite the fact the IT Director, in an e-mail sent to Spatu, had claimed that the payment of electricity bills can be availed at www.chandigarh.gov.in under the Sampark online section. 

Chandigarh, April 23
The police is clueless about the whereabouts of three persons of Kishangarh village, who allegedly kidnapped and repeatedly raped a woman of their village in a moving car before dumping her near Leisure Valley in Sector 10, here, on Tuesday.

The SHO of the Manimajra police station said efforts were on to trace suspects Kaka Singh, Vinod Kumar and Gurnam Singh of Kishangarh village.

The victim had alleged in her complaint that she was picked up from the village on Monday evening after forcing her to inhale some anaesthetic and was raped. One accused Kaka Singh is a partner with her husband in property dealing business. The accused reportedly informed her husband about her location.

Sources in the police said the victim, a mother of three, had failed to provide any details about the make of the vehicle or its registration number in which she was abducted. She could only tell that it was a black car.

A senior police officer said the case had taken a political twist due to factionalism in the village. One party is siding with the accused while the other with the victim. Both parties debated over the issue and the matter was reported to the police after they failed to reach a compromise.

The police said after the arrest of the suspects, they would reconstruct the entire sequence of events taking into record the call details of the mobile phones used by the suspects to corroborate the same with the statement recorded by the victim. A case of kidnapping, illegal confinement, rape and criminal intimidation has been registered on the victim’s complaint after she was medically examined on Wednesday. 

Morni (Panchkula), April 23
Politicians are known to make absurd promises during elections. However, taking aged people for a ride by assembling them for a public meeting on a hot afternoon on the pretext of disbursing pension to them beats all.

In the anticipation of getting pension, several villagers of the Madhna area gathered in an open field on the invitation of sarpanch Pattram Kandara this afternoon.

However, even after a wait for hours, they got nothing and returned home dejected.

This clever move was the brainchild of the sarpanch, who lured innocent villagers by making a false promise just to ensure assembly of a decent crowd for a roadside public meeting of Congress’ candidate for the Ambala constituency and Union Minister Kumari Selja.

The minister, who was on a whirlwind tour of the Morni and Barwala areas, arrived around 11.45 am and left within 45 minutes after making an election pitch.

Soon after her departure, the sarpanch also vanished but many of the elderly kept waiting till late in the evening in the hope of getting pension “promised” to them. Some of them even waited at the scene till as late as 4.30 pm.

As for the announcements made by the leader, at least these harassed villagers had no word of appreciation. “Kya vishwas karen,” said Palal Ram, a resident of Gablabad village, adding that the area had been neglected and there was a perpetual problem of water, electricity and unemployment.

“Pension dee nahi, sarak, bijli pani kahan se denge,” he said, adding that price rise had broken their back.

“I got the message of the sarpanch through village ‘cowkidar’ that the minister would disburse pension today,” said Lajwanti, who reached Madhna from Chaudhary ka Vaas village around 11 am hoping to receive pension.

It was more than a kilometre-long trek through hills to reach here, she lamented.

In the evening, the sarpanch claimed that pension could not be disbursed in the morning as the money for the purpose did not reach the bank in time. However, pension was disbursed to some of the elderly in the evening, claimed the sarpanch.

He, however, skirted the question of violation of code of conduct by disbursing pension.

Chandigarh, April 23
Seven nominations have been received on the penultimate day of accepting nominations for Chandigarh. Vansun Massey today threw his hat in the election ring from Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar).

Vansun, a native of Chandigarh for last 15 years, declared his assets, bank balance and accounts to be “nil”. “If voted to power, I would try to raise a grant of Rs 25,000 for marriageable daughters of widows and the widow pension would be enhanced to Rs 1,000,” he said

Other candidate representing the Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar) Subhash Tamoli also filed his nomination papers. A hair dresser by profession, it is for the second time for Tamoli, a resident of Ram Darbar to fight the elections.

Third candidate Goswami BV Bharti withdrew his nomination papers when the Returning Officer pointed out the overwriting of his name. Goswami will file his papers from Janata Dal United party tomorrow.

However, other independent candidates, who filed their nominations, included SK Suri, Khem Lal Bansal and Naresh Kumar. SK Suri has declared Rs 30,000 cash amount with him and Rs 20,000 with his wife, Rs 5.17 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh deposits in bank in his and his wife’s name and possessing jewellery worth Rs 90,000 with him and Rs 3.25 with his wife.

Another candidate Khem Lal Bansal, a resident of Sector 28, has declared to have an agriculture land worth Rs 1.5 crore, industrial sheds worth Rs 1 crore and movable assets as cash amount of Rs 1.5 lakh with him and dependents, etc.

Yet another Independent candidate Naresh Kumar, a resident of Burail, has declared to have cash amount of Rs 40,000 in his and his wife’s name, deposits of around Rs 20,000 and an Esteem vehicle.

This was despite the fact that the BSP was granted permission to hold a rally at the Circus ground on April 17, he alleged.

Chandigarh, April 23
The long wait of the professional colleges in the city for the faculty may finally be over with the Chandigarh Administration taking up the matter regarding finalisation of recruitment rules with the Central government.

Home Secretary Ram Niwas will take up the matter of finalisation of recruitment rules for the appointment of faculty, including principals, with the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) officials in New Delhi tomorrow.

The issue of the finalisation of the recruitment rules had been hanging fire for over a decade now with the administration and the MHRD engaged in a "letter war" over the issue.

Due to non-finalisation of the recruitment rules by the UPSC/MHRD, several city colleges, including Government College of Architecture, Government College of Art and Chandigarh College of Engineering and Technology, were facing acute shortage of faculty.

Recently, the Chandigarh and Punjab chapter of the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) had sent a representation to the Chandigarh administration bringing to the latter's notice the acute shortage of faculty at Government College of Architecture. 

The representation had alleged that due to the failure of the authorities concerned, a number of top posts had been lying vacant in the college. For the past over 13 years, the college was without a regular principal, it alleged.

“The administration is making efforts in impressing upon the MHRD about the need to finalise the recruitment rules for the improvement of academic standards in the city,” Ram Niwas said. 

We confiscated the cycles and rickshaws and the riders were rounded up. But later they were released as per orders of the higher authorities. No action was taken against them,” he said.

Chandigarh, April 23
Accusing the Chandigarh Police of bias, members of the Chandigarh Industrial Area Tenants’ Association (CIATA) staged a protest outside the Industrial Area police station here today.

Association president Sanjiv Sagar said the members had protested against the police on Tuesday when it registered a false case against tenant Jaswinder Singh Sethi on a complaint filed by his landowner Sanjiv Bajaj. DSP (East) PK Dhavan further demanded 48 hours to resolve the issue by conducting a probe into the matter.

Sagar further said after the lapse of the ultimatum, the police failed to take an action while on the other hand it threatened to arrest them. And thus, they assembled outside the police station at 3 pm and raised slogans against the police.

They called off the protest around 7 pm when the DSP assured his intervention into the matter and called both parties at his office.

Chandigarh, April 23
With three new ‘Passport Seva Kendra’ (PSK) centres in the pipeline, passport seekers need not grumble anymore of long queues, delay in delivery of passports and tiresome waiting hours.

The work on installation of a new high-end server to speed up the process of issuance of passports is in its final stage here.

In an effort to revamp the submission system of passport applications, the centres are being opened in Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Ambala in collaboration with the Tata group.

“Along with the Tata staff persons, government employees will be deputed at the centres. The scrutiny of applications as well as the partial processing will be done at these centres. Only then the files will be sent to the passport office and passport will be dispatched,” informed Vitul Kumar, the Regional Passport Officer (RPO).

The ‘outsourcing’ was likely to smoothen the process not just for the applicants, but would also ensure lesser errors on the part of passport office due to simplification and streamlining of work.

Sources revealed that the centres at Chandigarh and Bangalore, which were part of the phase I of this activity, were likely to open towards June end followed by 70 such Passport Facilitation Centres (PFC) or the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) to be opened across the country.

The measure of the overall improvement in the system, however, would only be judged by the public and convenience of the applicants in the coming times.

Chandigarh, April 23
Planning to buy a smart cellphone? Wait till May. For, the BSNL is all set to come up with the latest 3G services in the city offered with a compatible latest handset.

“We will be launching the 3G services?(which enable high-speed downloads of video clips, music, pictures and data on cellphones) in Chandigarh by the second week of May," PK Paliwal, Chief General Manager (CGM), Chandigarh, said today.

According to BSNL’s general manager of the Cellular Mobile Telecom Services, Chandigarh, VK Ahuja, for availing this service, customers will have to buy 3G-enabled mobile handset. Besides, they will have to pay additional amount of Rs 300 for SIM card.

The Rs 250-crore 3G project would offer an array of services. “The mobile users will be able to get a wireless data transfer speed of 2 mbps, telecast of a select few TV channels, high-resolution picture and video downloading, video-conferencing and online gaming,” said Ahuja.

He said the availability of more TV channels would also be made to subscribers after the launch of this service. The SIM cards would be readily available to all customers after the launch, he added.

“The third generation mobile service will offer a download speed of 20 times faster than with the existing 2G service,” he said. “Families, who have loved ones settled abroad, could make the maximum use of the new 3G mobile services by enjoying a live video chat through phone,” he added.

Disclosing that the 3G would be rolled out in a phased manner, the GM said the service would be launched in Amritsar only this month while Chandigarh would get the service next month. Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Bathinda, Gurdaspur and Pathankot have the services.

Chandigarh, April 23
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed Bal Niketan Model Senior Secondary School in Sector 37 to refund an amount of Rs 7,300. The complainant, Manpreet Kaur, a resident of Mohali, had stated in her petition that she had taken admission in the non-medical stream on May 30, 2008, after depositing Rs 10,000 as a part payment of the school fees. 

Subsequently on inquiry, she was told that the school didn’t have transport facility for students studying in Mohali. So she submitted an application on June 2, 2008, for the refund of fees and was made to wait till June 9, 2008. Her grandfather was informed that there was no provision of fee refund, but the seat had to be vacated by her. 

The school authorities further informed them that in case Manpreet’s was a special case, an amount of Rs 2,700 would be refunded. However, nothing was refunded.

The school authorities stated that they never refused to make the refund and without making any delay, the refundable amount of Rs 2700 was given to her after deducting the non-refundable amount of Rs 7300 out of Rs 10,000, which was received by her in full and final vide receipt dated June 9, 2008.

Pronouncing the orders, the forum held, “The complainant’s contention is that after she visited the school on June 2, 2008, she was advised to come on another day and thereafter she visited after two days when the school authorities flatly refused to make the refund. 

Meanwhile, the school authorities contended that, in fact, she was never asked to come after two days nor she came to their premises on June 6, 2008. In view of the above discussion, we are of the opinion that the complaint should succeed.”

Chandigarh, April 23
Following The Tribune report highlighting the alleged bid fixing at an auction of old articles and furniture by CITCO, the bidders today demanded an inquiry into the matter. A delegation of the bidders and dealers present at the Hotel Mount View auction yesterday met CITCO MD D.K. Tiwari and apprised him of the matter. 

The delegation members said that since the person who placed the highest bid escaped and did not even deposit the earnest money, the articles should be given to the one who placed the second highest bid.

The dealers also sought action against the employee who made a mock bid. Sources revealed that Tiwari assured the delegation to take a decision in this regard tomorrow.

Sources claimed that since the auction had been cancelled, and the only possibility now was to hold another auction. So, the entire process of placing advertisements in newspapers and floating tenders will be done again.

Mohali, April 23
Use of the populist “atta-dal scheme” on paid hoardings in the city has attracted the attention of the district election office. The Mohali MC has been asked to explain its position on the hoardings.

The permission to put up the hoardings has been given by MC officials after payment of certain charges. Such hoardings have been put up at different locations in the city. Sources said the election office had asked the MC to explain after the violation of the code of conduct was highlighted in these columns.

Not only the “atta dal scheme” but also the SAD-BJP has put up hoardings on providing roads and setting up international airport. The code of conduct clearly states that announcements of new projects, programmes and concessions that have affect on the voters should be avoided.

But the MC has failed to go through the guidelines before giving permission. Earlier, the “atta dal scheme” had found its way on the ration cards distributed after announcement of the elections. A ration depot holder said timings of the paid advertising campaign was in an apparent bid to appease the “targeted” voters in the polls.

The MC officials are in the process of replying to the notice. Using an effective media of roadside hoardings to communicate with the targeted section of voters, the parties have bought the most sought after locations in the city to carry on their ad campaign, said an MC official.