19112024-CT-01.qxd 11/19/2024 12:24 AM Page 1 c m y b Chandigarh tribune MC OKAYS 25% BUDGET HIKE FOR WATER SUPPLY SCHEME 50 TRAFFIC MARSHALS TO DEAL WITH WEDDING SEASON RUSH MODELS SHOWCASE OUTFITS BY RENOWNED DESIGNERS Water supply scheme, sanitation issues rock General House meeting of the Mohali civic body. P2 Mohali police launch community policing campaign, rope in 50 marshals to tackle traffic jams. P2 Bollywood actress Sara Ali Khan stole the limelight as she walked the ramp wearing Valaya’s collection. P4 » » TWITTER/THETRIBUNECHD MAINLY CLEAR SKY MAX 24°C | MIN 14°C YESTERDAY MAX 25.3°C | MIN 14°C SUNSET TUESDAY 5.25 PM SUNRISE WEDNESDAY 6:52 AM » TUESDAY | 19 NOVEMBER 2024 | CHANDIGARH FORECAST FACEBOOK/CHANDIGARHTRIBUNE CHANDIGARH Move comes after Kataria declines civic body’s request for special grant Saurabh Malik Dushyant Singh Pundir WHAT’S ON Civic body serves ~41 crore property tax notice on PGI Hold joint meet on holistic development plan, HC directs UT Admn, IIT-Roorkee Chandigarh, November 18 The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed that a joint meeting between its building committee, IITRoorkee and UT Administration be held on November 27 to iron out the creases which exist in the path of executing its holistic development plan. The Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Anil Kshetarpal also emphasised the need for a “positive mind” in resolving the issues around the execution of critical projects, including the construction of slip roads, heritage conservation efforts, and the allotment of land for administrative purposes. The Bench was hearing pleas seeking directions to the Union of India, the Union Territory of Chandigarh and other respondents to expedite the High Court’s “holistic development plan” for reducing the load on the existing building. The Bench made it clear that the meeting would include representatives of the IIT-Roorkee, the UT Administration, and the Registrar of High Court Building Committee. The direction came after Additional Solicitor-General of India Satya Pal Jain suggested the joint meeting. The Bench also directed Tribune News Service National Silk & Wool Expo: Himachal Bhawan, Sector 28; on till November 20 Naturally: An art exhibition by 13 artists; 105 Arts, Sector 11; on till November 22 APNI MANDI Chandigarh: Sectors 29 and 56, and Dhanas Panchkula: Sector 15 Mohali: Sector 71 Please send information about events in tricity at: whatson@tribunemail.com INBRIEF AIDE OF ROBBERS GANG KINGPIN HELD Dera Bassi: The The police have arrested an accomplice of the kingpin of a gang of highway robbers, who was nabbed in an encounter near Lehli in Lalru on Sunday. While Satpreet Singh, alias Satti, was caught in the shootout, Sandeep Kumar, alias Saibi, 34, a resident of Patiala, who was accompanying him, had reportedly fled the spot. TNS YOUTH ARRESTED WITH HEROIN Panchkula: The police arrested a youth with heroin. The suspect was identified as Mayank Singh (23) of Hangola village in Raipur Rani tehsil. The car in which the suspect was travelling was impounded. TNS CH01CX SERIES Bid for vehicle fancy numbers from Nov 25-27 Chandigarh, November 18 The Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA) will hold an e-auction of numbers of the new series ‘CH01CX’ along with the leftover fancy/special registration numbers of the previous series from November 25 to 27. The registration for e-auction began today and will conclude on November 24 (5 pm). The vehicle owners can register on the national transport website https://vahan.parivahan.gov.in/fancy and obtain the unique acknowledgment number (UAN). The link is also available on the website www.chdtransport.gov.in. The re-auction will be held for the leftover fancy/special registration numbers of previous series, including CH01CW, CH01CV CH01-CU, CH01CT, , CH01CS, CH01CR, CH01CQ, CH01CP CH01CN, CH01CM, , CH01CL, CH01CK, CH01CJ, CH01CG, CH01CF CH01CE, , CH01CD, CH01CC, CH01CB, CH01CA, CH01BZ, CH01BY, CH01BW, CH01BX, CH01BV , CH01BT, CH01BR, CH01BP , CH01BN, CH01BM, CH01BL and CH01BJ. Those who have purchased their vehicles on Chandigarh address will only be allowed to participate in the e-auction. — TNS Chandigarh, November 18 The Municipal Corporation (MC) today issued a notice to the PGIMER, a premier health institution of the region, over property tax dues of over Rs 41.53 crore. It will soon issue notices to Panjab University (PU), Punjab Engineering College (PEC) and other defaulters. Among the defaulters are 670 buildings of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the central governments. The MC decided to recover tax from the biggest defaulters after Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria turned down the Mayor’s request to release special grant to the civic body to resume stalled development projects and directed officials to cut down on annual expenses besides increasing revenue from their own sources. The MC has started the process to recover property tax and water dues. The financial health of the MC has deteriorated as several institutions repeatedly defaulted on tax payment. Recently, MC Commissioner Amit Kumar issued a warning to major property tax defaulters, mostly government buildings, to clear their dues or face action. TOP DEFAULTERS PROPERTY PU PGI Sports Complex IAF (residential) LOCATION Sector 14 Sector 12 Sector 42 Sector 31 The Commissioner held a meeting with top 10 defaulters in each category —government commercial buildings, autonomous commercial buildings and government residential buildings — and stressed that continued delay could lead to strict action against them. During a meeting of the House on October 30, the MC had revealed that government and commercial buildings owed it Rs 250 crore DUES ~67.53 cr ~41.53 cr ~6.13 cr ~3.03 cr PROPERTY LOCATION NITTTR Sector 26 PU (residential) Sector 14 Electricity Dept Sector 23 Dist Courts Complex Sector 43 as property and service tax, which made a significant portion of the annual revenue of the civic body. Out of this, Rs 187 crore is locked in litigation or disputed cases. Residential properties also owe the MC Rs 15.8 crore in unpaid taxes. Councillors had expressed resentment over the continued default on payment by government establishments. Strict action must be taken against government build- Road contractor booked for causing death by negligence Gaurav Kanthwal Tribune News Service Mohali, November 18 A day after The Tribune highlighted how the lingering road widening work in Sector 77 led to the death of a 27-yearold man from Ludhiana, the police today registered a case against SS Builders, the firm awarded the work, for causing death due to negligence. Cops said no signage or barricading was done near the road. Jeep driver Saahil, a Haibowal resident, died and his three co-passengers were injured as the vehicle overturned on the uneven stretch of road near Sector 86. The MOHALI MISHAP vehicle flipped several times before coming to a stop. Saahil and his fiancée, along with two friends, had come to the city for shopping as they were to get married three months later. On the statement of the deceased’s mother Vijay Kumari, a case under Sections 106 of the BNS and Section 158 of the Motor Vehicles Act was registered at the Sohana police station. Sohana SHO Jaspreet Singh Kahlon said, “SS Builders had given the road widening work to one of their subsidiaries. No taping, barricading or signage were put up at the construction site.” The victim’s kin said due to poor visibility, Saahil might not have seen the uneven road. The gap between the two surfaces of the road is around one foot. The police said a survey would be conducted near all under-construction site and road widening works and the builders would be asked to pay attention to road safety rules. DUES ~3 cr ~2.95 cr ~2.70 cr ~1.03 cr ings that fail to pay their dues, the councillors stated. They emphasised the urgency of recovering dues from these institutions. Nearly 30,000 commercial units (non-residential properties) in Chandigarh, including government buildings, fall under the property tax ambit. A total of 1,08,372 residential properties in the city are also charged property tax at a fixed rate. Tribune News Service the UT Transport Department secretary to be made a respondent in the matter, ensuring that all relevant parties were present to resolve outstanding issues regarding road construction, parking spaces, and the impact on heritage sites. Jain, during the course of hearing, assured the Bench that a decision would be taken by the competent authority within seven days on conversion of forest to non-forest land. The assertion came less than two months after the court expressed hope that the Union of India would take swift action to address the diversion of forest land near the Rock Garden, which had been causing traffic congestion around the court complex. Regarding the creation of additional parking space behind the Haryana MLA Hostel, the UT Administration assured the court that the work was progressing and would be completed by November 20. The court also reviewed the progress on the creation of a service road parallel to Uttar Marg on the northern side. The UT Administration referred to a tentative report submitted by the IIT-Roorkee, which outlined three pending key aspects — the finalisation of impact assessments after stakeholder consultations, results and recommendation and the submission of a heritage impact assessment report. As such, the court opted to wait for the final report from the IIT-Roorkee before passing any further orders. The court also reviewed the issue of allotting a building in Sector 17, Chandigarh, for its administrative branches. The UT Administration confirmed that an allotment letter would be issued within 15 days, prompting the court to defer any further orders on the matter. The court was informed by the UT that the proposal for constructing a verandah in front of court room number one had been referred to the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee and the Heritage Foundation. The Administration assured the court that the drawing for the verandah would be sent to the Archaeological Survey of India in the absence of response within 10 days. The court warned that failure to comply would lead to a writ of mandamus compelling the UT Administration to proceed with the construction. On the construction of slip roads at the junction of Uttar Marg and Jan Marg, the UT counsel told the Bench that the work, including widening of slip roads, the road near the Rock Garden entry point and the entry road continued on page 2 Travel travail Commuters drive amid low visibility caused by smog in Chandigarh on Monday morning. TRIBUNE PHOTO: PRADEEP TEWARI City resident moves Lok Adalat 6 years on, three held for manual control of traffic guilty in murder case Ramkrishan Upadhyay Tribune News Service Employees of the UT Electricity Department stage a demonstration. Power staff protest privatisation of dept Chandigarh, November 18 Employees of the UT Electricity Department, under the banner of UT Powermen Union Chandigarh, today held a protest rally against privatisation of the department. Addressing the protesters at the Electricity Office, Industrial Area, Phase 1, union general secretary Gopal Datt Joshi strongly opposed the privatisation policy of the Government of India and accused the UT Administration of ignoring the grievances of employees. Union leaders urged the UT Adviser to not change the employer without giving option to the employees and to not transfer the GPF and MPS amount of the employees to any trust without their consent. They stated that the employees of Electricity Department were governed continued on page 2 Chandigarh, November 18 The Permanent Lok Adalat (Public Utility Services) Chandigarh has issued notices to the UT Administration, the Traffic Police and the Pollution Control Committee, Chandigarh, seeking their replies on an application filed by a city resident for issuing direction to control traffic lights manually or by minimising the timing of the ones installed at busy roundabouts. In the application filed through advocate Vinod Verma, Sukhvinder Singh, a city resident, stated that traffic lights installed at major intersections of the city had become a major source of pollution due to the wrong policies of the Administration. He alleged that the timing of the traffic lights had been fixed without undertaking any c m y b Says engine idling revving up pollution at busy rotaries POLICE, ADMN DIRECTED TO REPLY TODAY ■ In an application filed with Permanent Lok Adalat (Public Utility Services), Sukhvinder Singh stated that the timing of traffic lights at major intersections was fixed without conducting any study ■ A majority of commuters do not switch off the engines of their vehicles while waiting for green light, causing air, noise pollution ■ The Lok Adalat has issued notices to UT Administration, Traffic Police and Pollution Control Committee, seeking their replies on November 19 study on several roundabouts. Due to this, the roundabouts had been witnessing heavy traffic at all times. A majority of commuters do not switch off the engines of their vehicles while waiting for the green light at these roundabouts. Due to this, pollution in the city had been increasing. He added that longer timing at traffic signals, especially during winter, was causing a lot of air and noise pollution. He said Chandigarh was established as a planned and organised city with straight, beautiful roads flanked by greenery. There were roundabouts at every intersection of sectors. Over the passage of time, the number of vehicles increased drastically and the Traffic Police, instead of increasing its strength, started installing lights at roundabouts. He said no prior survey by experts was carried out to manage traffic before lights were installed. continued on page 2 Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 18 A local court has held three persons guilty in a six-yearold murder case. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced tomorrow. Jinder, alias Ajay, Gulshan, alias Sonu, of EWS Colony, Dhanas, and Rahul of Mohali have been convicted of killing Kuldeep, aka Luvkush. A case in this regard was registered under Sections 307, 302, 324 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code on a complaint of a resident of Dhanas Colony, a driver by profession, at the Sarangpur police station on September 13, 2018. The complainant had stated that on the day of the incident, around 11.15 pm, he saw the victim Kuldeep and his friend Vijay having ice cream. He said he noticed that three boys were urinat- Court to pronounce quantum of sentence today ing in the open. Kuldeep asked the boys, one of them was identified by the complainant as Gulshan, to go away from the area as it was a residential society. An altercation ensued. Soon they started hitting Kuldeep and Vijay with helmet. Later, the accused pulled out a knife and stabbed both Kuldeep and Vijay. The accused then fled the spot on a motorcycle. The complainant stated that he took the injured boys to the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16, in his car. Kuldeep died during the course of treatment. The police arrested the three accused in the case. continued on page 2