NEIGHBOURHOOD

Couples make beeline to adopt abandoned newborn
Tribune News Service

Kalka, May 22
Fifty per cent of annual budget of the Shivalik Development Board should be spent on various development projects in the interior area of Panchkula district. This was urged in a letter written by Vijay Bansal, former state secretary of the Congress, to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda recently.

Bansal said it had been mentioned in the letter that in 1993, the then state Congress government had formulated the board for the development of undeveloped area of Shivalik belt of three districts, consisting of Panchkula, Ambala and Yamuna Nagar districts.

He said most of the area of Panchkula district was semi-hilly, interior and undeveloped and notably the most of the villages were still deprived of civic amenities and various development projects were hanging fire due to the shortage of adequate funds.

So 50 per cent of the annual budged of the board should be spent on Panchkula district, he demanded.

The villages of the district at present are deprived of any canal for the irrigation purpose.

Two years back, the public health department had sent estimate to the board regarding installation of tubewells in Kedarpur, Masjidwala, Ganeshpur Bhorian , Chapehar, Kharkua, Deraguru, Raipur, Bakshiwala, Kajiana, Rattpur, Shahpur, Gorakhnath, Nawan Nagar , Paploha , Kheranwali and Johluwal villages of 
Pinjore block.

The CM has also been urged to issue directives in connection with the release of adequate grant for the installation of the above said tubewells. Earlier, in the last couple of years, with the funds of the board, various development projects have been carried out in many villages of Pinjore block.

Patiala, May 22
It may sound strange but is true that certain persons have set up an unauthorised parking lot on the busy Mall Road. To cap it all the district administration and the local municipal corporation are both ignorant about the existence of the parking lot.

The parking lot has been set up right outside the judicial complex on The Mall, opposite the Central State Library. A sum of Rs 10 is charged per car and the attendants at the “parking lot” swoop on any vehicle stopping outside the judicial complex. A receipt is issued to the owner of the vehicle in the name of Central State Library parking lot.

Attendants of the parking lot, when asked about the owner of the parking lot here today, told The Tribune that the owner was not available today and could be contacted only by appointment. They developed aggressive postures when asked who had authorised them to set up this parking lot.

District Bar Association president Rakesh Gupta told The Tribune that he was not aware of the existence of the parking lot. He said initially vehicles were parked along the boundary wall of the judicial complex for free and no parking fee was ever charged.

He said it was news to him that certain persons had set up a parking lot without any sanction. He added that because of certain domestic exigencies he was occupied for a couple of days and would look into the matter when he got back to judicial courts.

Nirmaljit Singh, chief librarian at the Central State Library, said the library had nothing to do with the parking lot and the name of the library was being misused if certain persons were issuing slips with its name printed on these.

Deputy Commissioner, Patiala, Deepinder Singh said it was not in his knowledge that any sanction had been given to any person for a parking lot on the Mall Road. He said this could be the handiwork of certain unauthorised persons and he would depute an officer to look into the matter.

Mayor Ajit Pal Singh Kohli said the corporation had not given any contract for a parking lot on the Mall Road. “How come a parking lot has been illegally developed at The Mall?” he quipped adding that he would have the matter inquired immediately.

Patiala, May 22
The Union government has given its nod to Gian Sagar Dental College and Hospital for renewal of permission for admission to the third batch of 100 BDS students for the academic year 2009-10.

A communication sent by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to the GSDCH said the permission was subject to the condition that the admission process would be completed as per the time schedule prescribed in the regulations of the Dental Council of India.

A team of the Dental Council of India had sometime back inspected the Gian Sagar Dental College and Hospital for the purpose of admissions to the third batch of BDS students and it had submitted its report to the government.

Patiala, May 22
The Patiala district administration has finally banned bathing in the Bhakra main line (BML), which has virtually become a “death trap” for youngsters.

That the river has turned into a “death trap” for youngsters was proved by the fact that three to five youths lose lives every year in the BML particularly, for their fetish for bathing in the river. Earlier, too, there has been hue and cry over the long-standing problem but, the administration had failed to take any action for a long time.

The BML turns a favourite spot for fun-loving youngsters, who in their quest to find some respite from scorching heat, descended at the Nabha road bridge and the Samana-Sangrur road bridge to enjoy bathing at these two points.

Interestingly, both points had adjacent police posts but this did not deter the enthusiastic budding swimmers.

“DC Deepinder Singh has banned swimming activities in the BML now,” said an official. KK Malhotra, a member of the PPCC, demanded that permanent police watch facilities should be set up at the two places to avoid any untoward incident in future.

Panchkula, May 22
While the Lawyers for Humanity, an NGO, seeking action against the abetment of bonded as well as child labour in brick kilns at Panchkula, is to file a petition in the high court tomorrow, the NGO has already written letters to the Haryana Governor, the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Chief Minister and the Panchkula Deputy Commissioner requesting them to take steps which could improve the situations.

A team of lawyers, including R S Bassi and Hirdey Pal Singh, president and secretary of the NGO, were approached by labourer Shankar, allegeing that he was being forced to work on the kiln while he had to leave for his native village in Bihar.

The owner of the kiln has refused to give him wages for the past six months, he alleged following which the lawyers visited the site and even found the children working at the kiln under inhumane conditions.

Meanwhile, the district administration claimed that it was a dispute between a few laborers and the owner.

“Labour officer R K Nain was sent to the brick kiln today who found most of things in proper order,” said Panchkula SDM Rajpal. It was found that only three or four labourers had complaints against the owner and the matter was resolved, 
said the SDM.

Chandigarh, May 22
The practice of fielding proxy-investigating officers (IOs) before the courts has not gone down well with the Punjab and Haryana High Court. It seems the high court is of the opinion that the investigating officer is well versed with the case, and the developments that have taken place ever since its registration.

As such, the IO should himself be present before the court during the hearing of matters connected with the case, rather than sending some other official to attend the proceedings.

The issue came to the fore before the high court this morning during the hearing of two separate criminal cases pertaining to the states of Punjab and Haryana. Both the cases from Rewari and Amritsar pertained to the grant of bail.

As Justice Harbans Lal took up the matters separately, it was noticed that the investigating officers were not themselves present during the hearing of the petitions. Instead, they had deputed some others for the purpose.

Taking a serious view of the matters, Justice Harbans Lal asked Rewari superintendent of police to remain present in the court on July 27, and Amritsar senior superintendent of police to remain present a day before. They have been asked to explain the position as to why officials other than the investigating officers have been deputed to attend the hearing.

This is not the first time the role of the investigating officers has come under the high court’s scanner. Earlier also, the court has been summoning senior police functionaries to remain present before the Bench following the failure of the investigating officers to turn up for hearing in bail matters, despite the acceptance of the notices.

In fact, their functioning is a matter of much speculation, with a section of lawyers not ruling out the possibility of some of the investigating officers deliberately delaying appearances before the courts on one pretext or the other in an apparent attempt to favour one party or the other.

Chandigarh, May 22
A scene was created at a park in Sector 11 here when a man abused a girl and harassed her in full public view this evening. The drama went on for about half an hour and ended only when a youth intervened in the matter and reported the matter to the police, which arrested the accused.

Taking to TNS, the victim, an inmate of hostel of College of Architecture in Sector 11, said she was sitting in the park when the youth came along and sat near her on the same bench. He began passing filthy remarks against her. She moved to some other place, but the miscreant followed her.

Fed up, the victim told the man to behave, but he refused. She had a heated argument with him, following which one Vishal Joseph of Sector 38-West intervened in the matter. He caught hold of the man and called the police.

Chandigarh, May 22
The police, along with the UT health department officials, seized around four quintals of spurious butter and other milk products from a house in Sector 37, here, this afternoon.

The health department officials had taken samples of the dairy products and seized rest of the products.

The raid was conducted on the basis of information provided by a human rights activist that spurious milk products were being produced illegally in the house.

The teams raided the house, but could not get anything on the first instance. A police officer told The Tribune that they were about to return when someone went to the backyard of the house and found huge quantities of spurious milk products.

The teams seized four quintals butter, 10 kg cheese and wrappers of Amrit butter. The wrapper mentioned address of the packing unit also. Navneet, the owner of the house, and his employee Sham Sunder told the police that they supplied products to Himachal Pradesh.

The police said, earlier, a similar raid was conducted in Milk Colony, Dhanas, and Navneet was the driver of the man running the unit at Dhanas.

Mohali, May 22
DIG (Internal Vigilance)of the Punjab Police KS Pannu has lodged a complaint with the Mohali police that an unidentified person had threatened him on his phone.

In his complaint lodged with the police yesterday, he has quoted an incident in which a canter hit his car while he was coming from Phase 7 to his phase 11 residence.

Acting on the complaint, the police has registered a case of attempt to murder and criminal intimidation against unidentified persons. The phone from which the call had been made to the police officer was found to be switched off and given address has been found to be fake. A police official said an effort was being to trace the canter which had hit the DIG’s car. 

Zirakpur, May 22
Thieves decamped with cash and jewellery after breaking into a house at Parvati enclave in Baltana. According to the police, Ritu Sehgal, owner of the house, alleged that she went out somewhere with her family members. 

On returning they found the house was ransacked. Sehgal told the police that cash around Rs 20,000, jewellery worth lakhs of rupees and other costly items were missing.

The thieves also struck at house number 47, Ekta Vihar, in Baltana, when the family members were not at home. The things were scattered all around, however, nothing was found missing.

Meanwhile, cash around Rs 40,000 was stolen from a sweet shop on the Zirakpur-Chandigarh highway, here. The owner of the shop alleged that his servant Shankar broke the counter and took away the cash.

The Zirakpur police has registered the cases and started further investigation.

Chandigarh, May 22
The Chandigarh (UT) Wrestling Association has selected 30 probables, including 10 girls, for the state coaching at the Wrestling Coaching Centre in Sector 30 from May 25 to June 10, according to association secretary general Darshan Lal.

The wrestlers will be trained to participate in the Junior National Wrestling Championship to be held in Gonda from June 11 to 14. The final team will be selected during selection trials to be conducted on June 1.

Campers: Boys: Sandeep Tomar, Deepak, Parveen, Parvesh, Amit, Sunil, Mahabir, Kamaljot, Ajay, Parveen Kumar, Joginder, Rakesh, Virender, Mukesh, Raj Singh, Pardeep, Satinder, Padam, Sonu and Jagmit.

Girls: Sonia Mor, Nikki, Priti, Pritima, Annu, Promila, Nitu, Rupinderk, Mandeep, Manju and Jyoti.

Coaches: Ajay, Ajay, Ashwani, Jaswinder, Surinder, Kulwinder. 

Chandigarh, May 22
The newly formed All-India Cricket Federation (AICF) will organise the first Eight-Team All-India Invitational Prize Money Cricket Tournament for Under-17 in Kanpur from June 15 to 19.

AICF president Amit Thakur said states which have been extended invitation to take part in the five-day tournament are Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttrakhand, Madhya Pradesh and AICF XI.

The winners will be awarded a cash incentive of Rs 11,000 and runners-up Rs 5,100 and a running trophy. Man of the Series will be rewarded Rs 3,000. Man of the match will get Rs 501 each. The federation will conduct selection trials to choose the Chandigarh squad on May 29 at 3 pm at the Shivalik Public School ground. 

Chandigarh, May 22
Guntashveer will lead Chandigarh Cricket Team in the Haryana Inter-District Cricket Tournament being organised by Haryana Cricket Association. The tournament is being played under the guidance of BCCI. The city will play their opening match against Ambala here on May 24.

Team: Guntashveer Singh (captain), Arvind Chauhan, Parnav Miglani, Harshit Manchanda, Deepk Kumar, Manoj Kumar,Vishal, Shubham Rana, Pawan Kumar, Amandeep, Anoop, Nikhil Benerjee, Manpreet, Kunal Kakkar, Rachit Negi, Suraj Jadiyal, Sandeep Singh, Shubam Tyagi,Vishnu Shreyan, Amit Dhingra and Vishal Chitta.

Extras: Abhilav,Vinay, Mahipal Bajwa, Gurdit Singh, Rahul Garg and Anil.

Chandigarh, May 22
The Cricket Federation of India announced under-13 federation eleven team for the coming 1st Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda All-India Under-13 National Twenty-20 Day Night League Cricket Tournament for the Sawan Land Cup in Panchkula and Chandigarh from May 28 to 31 organised by the Cricket Federation of Chandigarh under the aegis of the Cricket Federation of India and the Chandigarh Olympic Association.

Amit Chaudhary (captain), Neeraj Dahiya (vice-captain), Vivek Gupta, Prince Hooda, Rahul Chaudhary, Tarun Verma, Manoj, Mandeep (wicket keeper), Gaurav Guglani, Lokesh, Vishav Verma, Raman, Vaibhav Yadav, Pahul Kumar, Lovish and Manjeet Sehrawat. Coach: Sube Singh (Haryana)