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TOP STORIES

IT park’s troubles just won’t end
Chandigarh, June 9
Taking note of the disturbing impact of continuing development of the IT park on infrastructure, ecology and farmers, eminent residents, including Nek Chand, creator-director of Rock Garden, have urged the Union Home Ministry to scrap Phase III of the IT park which was “in violation of the city’s master plan”.

Nari Niketan
Rape Victim: Panel to decide on motherhood status
Chandigarh, June 9
An expert committee of PGI doctors, functioning free from the influence of the Chandigarh administration, will decide the motherhood status of the Nari Niketan rape victim.

Where is Kamla?
Cops say she’s absconding, but dept claims otherwise
Chandigarh, June 9
The alleged cover-up operation by the police in the Nari Niketan rape case is now more or less official as there seems to be a concerted effort to shield Kamla, a safai karamchari who was named by the victim as an abettor to the crime.

Bengali flavour on board
Chandigarh, June 9
What may be a Bengali foodie delight and a gesture of welcome to the new Railway Minister, the menu card of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) now contains favourite Bengali dishes “macha-jhol” and “sandesh”.

COMMUNITY

No stopping misuse of water Chandigarh, June 9 A spurt in the population, particularly in the southern sectors of the city, has residents longing for much-vaunted facilities like adequate supply of water. Water wastage in the city is rampant. Water flows freely in the absence of a tap nozzle at Pandit Colony in Sector 52, Chandigarh, on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Parvesh Chauhan

Tribune Impact
Blocked choe: Admn acts swiftly, but MC takes it easy
Chandigarh, June 9
Taking cognisance of the chocking of N-Choe, highlighted by The Tribune yesterday, the administration rolled up its sleeves to remove all the blockages in the choe, today. On the other hand, the Municipal Corporation is yet to wake up from the deep slumber to take notice of the chocked drainages in the city.

After a report “Monsoon Fury: No lessons learnt”, was published in these columns yesterday, the administration has taken steps to clear the choe near Sector 23; but (right) garbage still lies at the roundabout near Sector 20, Chandigarh. Tribune photos: Manoj Mahajan

Mohali roads to be beautified
Mohali, June 9
Mohali will be among the five cities in Punjab, where special beautification of roads will be undertaken with landscaping features and facilities for pedestrians. The Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) has appointed Dickson Rothschild India Pvt Ltd for the beautification project, which will also be undertaken in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Bathinda.

Army-Fortis standoff continues
Chandigarh, June 9
A meeting between the Army authorities and the management of Fortis, Mohali, to end the impasse over the re-empanelment of the hospital for the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) ended without reaching any decision today.

Art lovers mourn Habib Tanvir’s death
Chandigarh, June 9
The couplet, ‘Bichhra kuchh iss tarah se ke rutt hi badal gyi, Ikk shaks saare shehar ko veeran ker gya’ veritably reflects the magnitude of poignant feelings expressed by city art-lovers while mourning the demise of legendary thespian Padma Bhushan Habib Tanvir at an assembly organised by Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademy here today.

Gallantry allowance enhanced
Chandigarh, June 9
The Chandigarh administration has enhanced the monthly allowance for various decorations. While the revised allowance would be Rs 10,000 for Paramvir Chakra and Ashok Chakra awardees, for Sarvotam Yudh Seva Medal, it would be Rs 2,500; for Mahavir Chakra and Kirti Chakra, Rs 7,500 each; Uttam Yudh Seva Medal Rs 2,000; Vir Chakra and Shauriya Chakra Rs 3,500 each; Yudh Seva Medal Rs 1,500; and Sena Medal (Gallantry) Rs 2,000.

Admn urged to undertake welfare projects
Chandigarh, June 9
The Federation of Sector Welfare Associations (FOSWAC) expressed concern at the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to not give the green signal to the Chandigarh administration to go ahead with people-oriented schemes like rehabilitation of slum-dwellers, setting up of a cattle village at Maloya, construction of a modern terminal market at Sector 39 and public utility services at Dadu Majra.

Dental implant centre opened at polyclinic
Chandigarh, June 9
Punjab Governor and UT administrator SF Rodrigues yesterday inaugurated the dental implant centre at the Government Polyclinic, Sector 45, as part of its initiative to strengthen healthcare infrastructure in southern part of the city.

City Scope Letters
Citizens, too, should be responsible
Raveen Thukral is right when he quoted the self question-answer in his thought-provoking article. “We can’t be everywhere and people have to also take preventive steps for their own safety in their defence.”

Railway police helpline doesn’t work
Chandigarh, June 9
Signboards displaying the toll-free helpline number (0171-135) of the government railway police (GRP) at the railway station here has proved to be a futile effort.

Police Recruitment
2,000 clear fitness test
Chandigarh, June 9
As many as 2,000 candidates, including 400 women, have cleared the physical efficiency tests conducted by the UT police for 210 posts of constables and wireless operators.

Amendment to VAT Act
Chandigarh, June 9
The Ministry of Home Affairs has approved the amendment to the Punjab Value Added Tax Act. This amendment would facilitate the implementation of deemed assessment scheme in city, which would help dealers in getting their pending tax assessment cases cleared through deemed assessment at their own option.

Peace march against racial attacks
Chandigarh, June 9
The All-India Human Rights Watch staged a candle march today, condemning the attacks on Indians in Australia and considered it as black days.

Sufiana soiree pervades
Chandigarh, June 9
The information and public relations department, Haryana, organised a Sufiana musical soiree to mark the Kabir Jayanti celebrations at the Tagore theatre here yesterday.

EDUCATION

Defence Quota in PU
Eligibility criteria irks serving personnel
Chandigarh, June 9
Eligibility criteria laid down by Panjab University (PU) authorities for admission to engineering courses may have resulted in a large number of wards of serving armed forces and paramilitary forces being deprived of the benefit of reservation of seats under the defence quota.

Processing Fee
GCG-42 — No dues, no savings
Chandigarh, June 9
If one goes by the documents provided by the Sector-42 Government College for Girls in response to an RTI application, it seems that city colleges could have learnt a bit about ‘managing’ the processing fee.

MCM College, Sector 36
College Admissions-2009
Gone are the times when a Bachelors Degree in Science was opted by students who could not get into their dream engineering college. If the experts in the field of pure sciences are to be believed, the stream is all set to witness a major revolution in coming years.

No meeting of promotion committee in two years
Chandigarh, June 9
Due to lackadaisical attitude of the Chandigarh education department, the hope of staff of the department to get any promotion has faded, as many of them had retired waiting for that auspicious day.

Selection of Principals
PU mulls giving power to teacher-senators
Chandigarh, June 9
If all goes well in the coming Senate, Panjab University “teacher” Senators will now select college principals. According to sources, the university is all set to moot a proposal of confining the membership of principal selection committees for those senators only who are into teaching.

Don draws flak for inviting politicians as chief guests
PU panel to take up matter today
Chandigarh, June 9
Prof Rupinder Tiwari of the biotechnology department, Panjab University, has allegedly invited the university’s wrath for objecting to frequent inclusions of Punjab politicians in the list of chief guests on various functions.

Govt schools to get facelift
Chandigarh, June 9
A joint meeting of the education and the engineering department was convened under the chairmanship of Home Secretary Ram Niwas here today for renovation and repair work of the government school buildings.

NIIT varsity to start session from September
Chandigarh, June 9
NIIT University is all set to start its first academic session in September, 2009, at Neemrana in Rajasthan. It aims at developing a new breed of professionals who have deeper industry linkages, a research mindset and whose education is multi-faceted and enabled by the latest technology.

Orientation programme begins at Landran
Mohali, June 9
A one-month orientation programme for introducing the students of PGDM course to management and its scope started at Chandigarh Business School, Landran, here today.

NEIGHBOURHOOD

10 held for flesh trade
Mohali/Lalru, June 9
The police claimed to have busted two separate flesh trade rackets in Mohali and Lalru and arrested nine persons, along with 10 girls, during a raid carried out at various places in the district.

MC for easing traffic in city
Commissioner meets officials
Ludhiana, June 9
With an aim to ease traffic bottlenecks, Municipal Commissioner GS Ghuman, along with his team, met traffic officials here today to discuss in detail vehicular movement in areas like Bharat Nagar Chowk, Jagraon Bridge and Fountain Chowk.

Former tehsildar booked for cheating
Kalka, June 9
The district police has registered a case of cheating against Naresh Kumar, a former Tehsildar, for allegedly illegally executing the sale deeds of government land.

Moving truck catches fire
Ambala, June 9
A truck, loaded with tiers and other daily consumable goods, caught fire while it was running on the GT Road near here. Most of the goods turned into ashes before the arrival of the fire brigade.

Paddy on 10 acres destroyed
Sirhind/Bassi Pasthana, June 9
Paddy transplanted in nearly 10 acres was destroyed by the agriculture department on the last day of the ban today. The government had put a ban on the sowing of paddy until today.

Woman commits suicide
Husband, in-laws booked
Banur, June 9
A woman committed suicide by hanging with the roof of her house yesterday. The deceased has been identified as 34-year-old Geeta, mother of two children. She was married to Gurmeet Singh around four years ago and was upset over the past few months due to the demand of dowry by her in-laws.

Woman commits suicide
Kalka, June 9
A married woman of Rampur Seuri village of Pinjore block was found hanging with a rope in her house. Sources of the police revealed that according to Raju, the husband of the deceased, came to know about the incident, when he knocked the door of the room, which was bolted from inside in the morning.

Awareness camp for prisoners
Ambala, June 9
The District Legal Service Authority organised a legal awareness camp in Central Jail at Ambala City yesterday to make prisoners aware about their legal rights.

School teachers to step up stir
Fatehgarh Sahib, June 9
A number of government school teachers and those associated with the Government Classical and Vernacular Teachers’ Union here today threatened to intensify their agitation if their demands were not met in the coming days.

Plays with social message staged
Patiala, June 9
The National Theatre Arts Society, Patiala, presented two Punjabi plays, “Jodian Jug Thodian” and “So Kiyon Manda Akhiey” at their monthly garden theatre festival at Baradari Gardens.

COURTS

Disability due to negligence
Pension can’t be denied, says HC
Chandigarh, June 9
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that disability pension cannot be denied to an individual in case of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound even if there was negligence on the individual’s part.

CRIME

2 telecom co. employees booked for fraud
Chandigarh, June 9
A Sector 20-based businessman, who provides telecom and wireless systems to police, Western Command, Punjab and Haryana Governor’s residence, including other government and private institutions, accused his two employees of stealing secret code of the telecom services provided by him.

Police remand for three highway robbers
Panchkula, June 9
The district police has got the custody of three members of a highway robbers’ gang, after they were brought on production warrant from Kurukshetra here today.

Man sets wife, self ablaze
Chandigarh, June 9
Infuriated over refusal of money, a Kajheri resident, in an inebriated condition, allegedly set his wife afire before trying to burn himself in the wee hours of today.

ASP Assault Case
CVC forwards letter
Chandigarh, June 9
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has reportedly forwarded a complaint lodged by Arvind Kumar Pandey, who had accused ASP (central) Madur Verma of beating him up in his office in November last year, to the UT chief vigilance officer.

SPORTS

AITA Series
Mehak ousts Lavanya
Chandigarh, June 9
Mehak Singh of Chandigarh ousted Lavanya Nath of Delhi in straight sets 6-0, 6-0 in the women’s second round match of the AITA Ranking Tournament being hosted by the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association here today.

Priyankit, Surya fashion P’kula academy win
Chandigarh, June 9
A brilliant knock of 72 by Priyankit and bowling spell by medium pacer Surya (4 for 21) helped Sri Sri Cricket Academy of Panchkula outplay Sector-37 Cricket Academy by six wickets in the semifinal of the Inter-Academy Under-10 Cricket Tournament for St Stephen’s Trophy being organised by the Desh Prem Azad Cricket Academy here today.

Six academies for u-15 cricket meet
Chandigarh, June 9
Desh Prem Azad Cricket Academy will be conducting Under-15 Inter-Academy Cricket Tournament for Ind-Swift Trophy from June 16.

Arjun to lead district squad
Chandigarh, June 9
Arjun Puri will lead Chandigarh district cricket team in Haryana Under -22 Inter-District Cricket Tournament, being organised by the Haryana Cricket Association on Government Senior Secondary School, Sector-19 ground, here.

City lad Rahul fires 71 to be tied third
Chandigarh, June 9
Eighteen-year-old Rahul Bakshi from Chandigarh fired a one under par 71 to be tied third on the opening day of the LG Karnataka Open on the par-72 greens of the Eagleton Golf Resort in Bangalore today.

Players hone skills at golf camp
Chandigarh, June 9
Karandeep Kochhar, who is back after winning the under-10 title, and city’s top lady golfer Rabiya Gill are among 29 promising city amateur golfers who are honing their skills at a camp being organised at the CGA Golf Range under the supervision of director of the National Golf Academy of India and grade A national coach Jessie Grewal.

Dodgeball trials today
Chandigarh, June 9
Dodgeball Association of Chandigarh will conduct the trials to select the Chandigarh dodgeball teams of boys and girls at Government High School, Sector 7-C, at 4:30 pm tomorrow.