In brief

Man dies,grandson hurt in accident
MOHALI: Piara Singh of Mullanpur Garibdass village died while his grandson Baljinder Singh sustained serious injuries when a speeding Mahindra Pickup jeep rammed into the car,in which they were travelling on the Mohali-Landran-Sirhind Road near Chunni village on Saturday afternoon. Baljinder told the police that as they were taking a turn towards Chunni-Garanga village road from the main road,a recklessly driven jeep rammed into their car,leaving both the grandfather-grandson duo seriously injured. Both of them were rushed to a nearby hospital,where Piara Singh succumbed to the injuries while Baljinder was admitted for treatment. The police have booked jeep driver Tarsem Lal of Ludhiana ,who fled the spot.

Mohali SSP bereaved
MOHALI: Vir Chakra awardee Colonel Joginder Singh Sidhu (retd),maternal grandfather of Mohali SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar,died following a prolonged illness in Patiala on Saturday evening. He was 95. Col Sidhu had raised the 18th Punjab Infantry in the Indian Army at the time of war against China.   The funeral will take place at Daun Farms near Bahadurgarh in Patiala on Sunday at 12 noon. Meanwhile,Mohali Deputy Commissioner Prabhjot Singh Mand has condoled the death.

CPI activists to hold dharna on Dec 30
CHANDIGARH: Activists of the city unit of the Communist Party of India will hold a dharna on December 30 at the Masjid Ground in Sector 20. The members will be protesting against the alleged autocratic and dictatorial attitude of the UT Administration. CPI General Secretary Devi Dyal Sharma demanded that Section 144 imposed in the city be scrapped and the post of chief commissioner be revived in the city. They also sought places to be identified for residents to hold meetings and dharnas.

Blood donation camp held
CHANDIGARH: The Chamber of Chandigarh Industries (CCI) in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry,Northern Region, and Chandigarh State AIDS Control Society organised a blood donation camp and awareness session on HIV/AIDS on the theme ‘Building partnerships for a safer tomorrow’,at the CITCO Community Centre in Industrial Area,Phase I,on Saturday. The aim was to engage the young industrial workforce in the voluntary blood donation movement and sensitive them about HIV/AIDS. Around 272 units of blood were collected at the camp. This was the tenth camp held by the organisation. Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal inaugurated the camp. Those who had donated more than five times were also honoured at the camp. CCI President Vinod Mittal said the organisation has a mandate towards social causes. A movie show and an exhibition on HIV/AIDS was organised and counselling services were also provided. Information material and posters were distributed among visitors.

Sanitation drive held in Sector 22
Chandigarh: A SANITATION drive was flagged off in Sector 22 by area councillor Pardeep Chhabra on Saturday. The drive was organised under the Partnership Initiative Programme,in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation and other welfare associations. Chhabra led a group that went from door to door to educate residents to adhere to the norms for the disposal of solid waste. Printed leaflets were also distributed to residents which contained information on disposing of waste through the garbage collector and segregation of dry and wet waste.
Chhabra also exhorted children to take the lead in spreading awareness about not littering streets and public places.
He further sought the cooperation of residents in forming self-help groups so as to build public pressure in the community for proper disposal of solid waste and maintaining sanitary conditions in and around the area.
Additional safaikaramcharis were deployed by the office of the Medical Officer of Health,under the supervision of sanitary inspectors,for getting public places and backlanes cleaned.
Mechanical road sweepers,dumper placers,tractor trolleys and cyclerickshaw carts were deployed for lifting roadside waste. Lime dusting was also done.           

Self-styled ‘babas’ held for duping people
AMBALA: One Dharmender,a resident of Rohtak,and Pawan Kumar from the nearby Babyal village,lodged complaints with the Maheshnagar police alleging that they had been robbed of cash and goods by some local babas who promised to solve their problems allegedly using witchcraft. Following the complaint,the police arrested Baba Musa Khan,Baba Fateh Khan,Baba Arif Khan and Baba Shajish Khan while the alleged kingpins Baba Raza Bengali and Baba Muskan are absconding. The arrested persons claimed the two kingpins extracted gold from their victims which amounted to crores of rupees besides cash worth lakhs.

CHB proposal on Parsavnath speculative: Finance Secy
CHANDIGARH: UT Finance Secretary Sanjay Kumar said on Saturday that it was speculative to say that the Chandigarh Housing Board may take up the Prideasia project if Parsavnath,which had been allotted the project earlier,does not complete it. Referring to a news item in Chandigarh Newsline,under the headline ‘Parsavnath out,Prideasia CHB baby now’,Sanjay Kumar said the statements attributed to him were quoted out of context. “To put the facts on record,at present arbitration proceedings are on between Parsavnath and CHB and at this stage nothing can be said about the project.” He added that the Administration can take a decision only after the arbitration proceedings are over. “It was just a speculative opinion of mine to a speculative question and no decision or formal views in this regard have been even contemplated by the Administration,” he added.

UBS alumni roped in for seminar
CHANDIGARH: The University Business School,Panjab University,will be holding a two-day international conference on ‘Management and Valuation of Intangibles’ from Tuesday at the English Auditorium. This was announced at a press conference on Saturday. The conference will be followed by the department’s alumni meet which will be held on Thursday. The seminar will see over 400 students of the department getting expert views,some of who are also alumni of the department. Technical sessions will also be held on the occasion to give a deeper understanding of the topic to students. Talking to Newsline,Dinesh Kumar Gupta,chairperson of the department,said UBS was consciously trying to keep its students in sync with the changing times so that the “brand of UBS remains intact”. He added: “We are holding seminars and guest lectures which have our alumni as resource persons. The main objective behind this is to make students learn as much as possible. We are also taking guidance from our alumni to bring in relevant changes in the syllabus and in placements since they are better-equipped with the innovations that are happening in the field.”

Exhibition at Shemrock School
MOHALI: Toddlers of nursery,LKG and UKG put up an exhibition of different themes at Shemrock Senior Secondary School on Saturday. Speaking on the occasion,Principal Air Comd S K Sharma said: “To give students a taste of reality,a project on hospital involved actually setting up a hospital scene and the same was applied to other themes of the exhibition.” Each class was given a different theme such as alphabets and words as birthday celebrations,seasons,transportation,animal kingdom,unity in diversity,art and craft and first aid.

Global warming campaign ends
PANCHKULA: A weeklong awareness campaign on global warming organised by The British School concluded on Saturday. Students of different classes took up various activities to understand the importance of environment for the survival of human race. Pamphlets were also distributed to parents to make them aware about the effects of global warming.

Rape case: Protest over police ‘inaction’
CHANDIGARH: Irked over police inaction in the rape case of a four-year-old on December 12,protestors gathered Bhakhra Beas Management Board colony in Sector 36 today and shouted slogans against the police.
The protestors led by former mayor Harjinder Kaur,alleged the police were not nabbing the accused who committed rape after luring the girl while she was playing a park at Sector 35 on December 12. The protestors also named a policeman and asked the police to investigate the matter.
Her mother,who works as domestic help in Sector 35,had reportedly left her daughter in the park with other children. The girl was later found by her mother and rape was confirmed by the Government Multi Specialty Hospital in Sector 16.