06012021-CT-01.qxd 1/6/2021 12:09 AM Page 1 c m y b Chandigarh TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY | 6 JANUARY 2021 | CHANDIGARH PAGE 2 GUIDELINES, DATE SHEET ISSUED FOR JAN 15 EXAMS PU uploads guidelines, instructions on the official website for the online examinations starting on January 15. PARTLY CLOUDY TRICITY COVID REPORT CHD SAMPLES TESTED SAMPLES REJECTED POSITIVE NEGATIVE RECOVERED REPORTS AWAITED ACTIVE DEATHS P’KULA MOHALI 1,86,419 1,42,473 1,81,423 936 — — 20,026 10,087 18,411 1,65,457 — 1,62,623 19,464 9,763 17,132 73 — 389 240 180 931 322 144 348 SUNSET WEDNESDAY 5.38 PM BJP rebel Shukla’s nomination rejected Filed papers against party nominee for Mayor’s post Tribune News Service CHANDIGARH 81 PANCHKULA 96 MOHALI 108 401-500 301-400 201-300 101-200 51-100 0-50 MAX 19°C | MIN 14°C | YESTERDAY MAX 20.7°C | MIN 14°C Sandeep Rana AIR QUALITY INDEX SEVERE VERY POOR POOR MODERATE SATISFACTORY GOOD INBRIEF BURGLARS STRIKE AT TWO HOUSES Chandigarh: Two thefts have been reported from different parts of the city. In the first incident, complainant Sarabjit Gupta, a resident of Vikas Nagar, Mauli Jagran, who is a cigarette vendor, reported that ~1.50 lakh, cigarettes worth ~90,000 and gold jewellery were stolen from the ground floor of his house on January 1. The police have registered a case at the Mauli Jagran police station. Another theft was reported from a house in Sector 44. Complainant Archana Sharma (63) reported that her husband is admitted to a hospital and she was in the hospital when her maid called up on January 4 to inform that locks of the house were broken. She reported that jewellery and other valuables were stolen from the house. The police have registered a case at the Sector 34 police station. TNS Chandigarh, January 5 The political upheaval in the BJP yesterday turned out to be a damp squib today. In a blow to BJP’s rebel councillor Chandrawati Shukla, her nomination for the post of Mayor was rejected on technical grounds today. She had filed her papers in protest against the party’s official candidate, Ravi Kant Sharma. While Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla was her proposer, Satish Kainth was the seconder in the nomination form. The Congress had yesterday declared that Babla might withdraw his candidature to support Shukla, but the plan came a cropper today. MC Secretary Anil Kumar Garg reasoned: “One person cannot be a proposer or seconder more than once. Councillor Kainth was the proposer for Babla and seconder for Shukla. Thus, the second nomination was invalid.” However, Leader of the Opposition Devinder Singh Babla alleged: “It is due to the pressure of the ruling BJP that Shukla’s nomination was cancelled. Before this, the BJP had wrongly changed the wards during the delimitation process. People will teach the BJP a lesson in the coming MC elections.” City BJP president Arun Sood said: “As per Section 59 of the MC Act, the nomination THE REASON ❝ One person cannot be a proposer or seconder more than once. Councillor Satish Kainth was the proposer for Babla and seconder for Shukla. Thus, the second nomination was invalid. ❞ — Anil Kumar Garg, MC SECY was rightly rejected. If the Congress thinks there is an anomaly, it can move the court. Thirteen new villages were added to the the MC limits, so ward delimitation was bound to happen. The Congress does nothing else than abusing the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” Looming issues Shukla’s candidature may have been rejected, but the threat of cross-voting still looms large over the BJP . Sources said unhappy councillors might turn the tables in favour of Congress Mayor nominee Babla during the elections on January 8 in the MC House. Though there are 27 votes in the House, the saffron party has already lost several votes before the poll. Ex officio member MP Kirron Kher and councillor Heera Negi are unlikely to come due to illhealth. Former ally and SAD’s lone councillor Hardeep Singh has already declared to boycott the poll. BJP councillor Bharat Kumar has announced his resignation stating that he would not vote for anyone. Sood, however, said: “All our 20 councillor votes are intact. They will vote for the party candidate.” The Congress has five councillors. ‘Will not allow mobile phones’ Congress Mayor candidate Babla said they would ensure that no BJP councillor brought mobile phones to the House on the date of voting. Reportedly, some councillors are asked to click photos as a proof that they voted for the party nominee only. Pulled up for treating symptomatic patients without RT-PCR Covid test Karam Prakash Patiala, January 5 In the wake of the rising number of Covid deaths despite a sharp decline in the number of positive cases, the Health Department has issued strict warnings to private hospitals against “hiding” suspected cases. The department has directed private hospitals to conduct WRONGFUL PRACTICE In an incident, a private hospital allowed a Covid patient, aged around 75, to go home without informing the Health Department. The patient died within a few hours. issued a ❝We havehospitalsstrict warning after it came to the fore that private were treating symptomatic patients without getting a Covid test conducted. In fact, private practitioners were not even isolating the suspected patients. — Dr Satinder Singh, PATIALA CIVIL SURGEON ❞ UT sees 41 cases, one death Chandigarh, January 5 With 41 fresh cases of Covid-19, the UT has crossed the 20,000 infection mark to reach a tally of 20,026. One more death was reported, taking the toll to 322. A 45-year-old woman from Maloya died at the Govern- ment Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32. A total of 116 more patients recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours, taking the tally of recovered patients to 19,464. There are now 240 active cases in the city. — TNS One fatality, 36 32 test +ve, no cases in Mohali death in P’kula Mohali, January 5 One more Covid fatality was reported from the district during the past 24 hours, taking the toll to 348. It also saw 36 fresh cases, taking the tally to 18,411, while 58 more patients were cured of the disease. Among the fresh cases, 35 were reported from Mohali (urban) and one from Dhakoli. Of the 18,411 positive cases reported from the district, 17,132 patients have been cured. There are now 931 active cases. — TNS Panchkula, January 5 As many as 32 fresh Covid cases surfaced in the district during the past 24 hours. However, no death was reported from the district till Tuesday evening. Civil Surgeon Dr Jasjit Kaur said of the 32 positive cases, one case each was reported from Morni and Sector 7, two each from Kalka, MDC-5, Sector 2, 19, 20 and 25, three from Sector 8, seven from Sector 21 and four each from Pinjore and Sector 6. — TNS Sarwan and Pawan claim top two positions, respectively, in the 55-kg category of Greco-Roman event. SUNRISE THURSDAY 7.20 AM TWITTER/THETRIBUNECHD FACEBOOK/CHANDIGARHTRIBUNE Warmest Jan night since ’17 Chandigarh, January 5 The city recorded the warmest night of January in four years. The city recorded a minimum temperature 14°C on Tuesday, nine degree above normal. Last year on January 22, the highest minimum temperature was 11.9°C. On January 31, 2018, it was 10.2°C. However, on January 26, 2017, at 14.6°C, the city had witnessed a slightly warmer night. Meanwhile, the city witnessed 2.8 mm of rainfall till 8.30 pm on Tuesday. Light rain is expected on Wednesday as well. — TNS A woman walks on a road amid mild rain in Chandigarh on Tuesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: PRADEEP TEWARI BJP and Congress councillors at the MC office on Tuesday. Pvt hospitals caught on the wrong foot Tribune News Service PAGE 3 SARWAN, PAWAN CLAIM TOP TWO POSITIONS IN WRESTLING TOURNEY The police nab 4 persons for repackaging liquor brought from Chandigarh and selling it as foreign brands. TRIBUNE PHOTO FORECAST PAGE 3 LIQUOR SMUGGLERS’ GANG BUSTED, 4 LAND IN POLICE NET the RT-PCR test of the suspected patients. According to the Health Department, suspected patients are not tested timely and start taking treatment from private service providers due to which proper Covid treatment gets delayed. Hence, the fatalities are on the rise. In the warning issued to private hospitals and clinics, the department told continued on page 2 Vet Dept collects samples of poultry, migratory birds No symptoms of any disease found in birds so far: Official Dushyant Singh Pundir Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 5 In the wake of deaths of migratory birds and chickens in neighbouring states, the UT Veterinary Department today collected over 20 samples of birds from different areas in the city. A senior official of the department said the samples were collected from seven-eight places, including poultry farms in Mani Majra and Hallo Majra and water bodies in the city, including Sukhna Lake. The official said special teams were formed to collect the samples that would be sent to the Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Jalandhar for testing. As a pro-active measure, the department was keeping a close watch on the situation for the past three days, but so far, no symptom of any disease was found in the birds in the city, he added. The official said the samples were being sent to the laboratory so that the department could timely prepare for any eventuality. He said sample-collection was a routine exercise carried out on a monthly basis, but due to the deaths of migratory birds in Pond Dam in Himachal Pradesh and continued on page 2 JALANDHAR LAB COLLECTS 80 BIRD SAMPLES PAGE 3 Chhatbir zoo shuts aviary for visitors Precautionary step in view of bird flu scare Gaurav Kanthwal Tribune News Service Mohali, January 5 The walk-in aviary and bird enclosures at the Chhatbir zoo have been closed for visitors as a precautionary measure keeping in view the bird flu scare in the region. The zoo authorities have already implemented the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the state government. The walk-in aviary at the zoo is the longest in the country with 45 species of birds and is a major attraction for the visitors. Officials said the aviary, set up on nearly two acres, would remain closed for at least one OFFICIALSPEAK ❝ All samples taken from Punjab are clear till now. However, as a precautionary measure, the aviary and the bird enclosures in the zoo have been closed for at least one week. ❞ — M Sudhagar, FIELD DIRECTOR, ZOO week, depending on the report of the samples taken from the region. Zoo field director M Sudhagar said, ‘’All samples taken from Punjab are clear till now. However, as a precautionary continued on page 3 Snatchers target 2 women in city Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 5 Two snatching incidents were reported from the city last evening. In both incidents, purses were snatched from the victims. In one of the two incidents, complainant Santosh Kumari (58), a resident of Sector 27, reported that she was returning home from the market around 6 pm when a motorcycle-borne miscreant snatched her purse containing ~5,000, documents and medicines. The police were informed, who visited the spot. A case has been registered at the Sector 26 police station. In the other incident, a motorcycle-borne miscreant snatched a purse from a woman, Soniya (37), near her house in Sector 44 around 8.50 pm. The purse contained ~2,000, a voter card, three debit cards and a credit card. The suspect was riding a black motorcycle wearing a helmet. The victim failed to note down the registration number of the motorcycle. The police have registered a case at the Sector 34 police station. PGI WARNS AGAINST MISUSE OF CT SCAN Doctors from the PGI have warned against the indiscriminate use of chest CT scan on Covid-19 patients. According to the doctors, CT scan is useful for those patients who show a sudden clinical deterioration or are unresponsive to treatment. PAGE 3 Panchkula Mayor, councillors take oath Kin of accident victim Will work to make city clean, beautiful and green, says Kulbhushan Goyal Panchkula, January 5 Six days after the results of the Panchkula MC elections were declared, newly elected Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal, along with 20 councillors, was administered the oath of office at the conference hall of the PWD rest house here today. The oath was administered by Ambala Divisional Commissioner Deepti Uma Shankar. Haryana Assembly Speaker and local MLA Gian Chand Gupta was also present during the swearing-in ceremony. The 20 councillors who were administered the oath were Narinderpal Singh Lubana from ward 1, Suresh Kumar (ward 2), Ritu Goel (ward 3), Soniya Sood (ward 4), Jai Kumar Kaushik (Ward 5) Pankaj (ward 6), Ushar Rani (ward 7) Harinder Malik (ward 8), Rajesh Kumar (ward 9), Gurmail Kaur (ward 10), Omwati Punia (ward 11), get ~1.11-crore relief Ramkrishan Upadhaya Tribune News Service Deepti Uma Shankar (right), Commissioner, Ambala Division, administers the oath to newly elected Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal at the PWD rest house in Panchkula on Tuesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: RAVI KUMAR Sonu (ward 12), Suneet Kumar (ward 13), Sushil Garg (ward 14), Gautam Prasad (ward 15), Rakesh Kumar (ward 16), Akshaydeep Chaudhary (ward 17), Sandeep Singh (ward 18), Paramjit Kaur (ward 19) and Mohammad Saleem Khan from ward 20. Two councillors Soniya c m y b Sood and Paramjit Kaur took the oath in Punjabi, while all others took the oath in Hindi. After taking the oath, Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal said he would try to fulfil all promises made in the election manifesto and would work with determination to make Panchkula clean, beautiful and green. DC Mukesh Kumar Ahuja, MC Commissioner RK Singh, DCP Mohit Handa, SDM (City) Richa Rathi, Deputy Commissioner, MC, Deepak Sura, state BJP vicepresident Bento Kataria, district BJP head president Ajay Sharma and district JJP president OP Sihag were among those present. — TNS Chandigarh, January 5 The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT), Chandigarh, has directed Oriental Insurance Company Limited to release ~1.11-crore compensation to the widow, two children and parents of a head constable — Gurvinder Singh — of the Chandigarh Police, who died in a road accident in 2018. Harpreet Kaur, the widow of deceased Gurvinder Singh, and other claimants filed the petition under Sections 166 and 140 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, through counsel Ashwani Arora, seeking a compensation from the driver and owner of the vehicle that was involved in the accident and an insurance company. Gurvinder Singh died in the accident after he was allegedly hit by a tractor-trailer on Deceased was a UT head constable with ~75,000 monthly salary November 11, 2018, near Ambala. The deceased was riding his motorcycle on the road from Handesra to Rani Majra when the accident took place. The counsel of the claimants stated that on the date of the accident, the age of the deceased was 48. He was serving as a head constable in VIP security, Sector 29, Chandigarh. He was drawing a monthly salary of ~75,000 and the claimants were dependent upon his earnings. So, they put forth a claim of ~2 crore as compensation, along with 12 per cent interest per annum from the date of the filing of the claim petition till realisation. continued on page 2