07012021-CT-01.qxd 1/7/2021 12:43 AM Page 1 c m y b Chandigarh TRIBUNE THURSDAY | 7 JANUARY 2021 | CHANDIGARH PU BRACES FOR CHANGES AS BCI SCRAPS 1-YR LLM COURSE PAGE 2 As per Bar Council of India notification, postgraduate course (LLM) has to be of two years (completed in four semesters). FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY TRICITY COVID REPORT CHD P’KULA SAMPLES TESTED 1,87,897 SAMPLES REJECTED 938 POSITIVE 20,104 NEGATIVE 1,66,855 RECOVERED 19,525 REPORTS AWAITED 110 ACTIVE 256 DEATHS 323 MOHALI 1,42,473 1,81,972 — — 10,121 18,474 — 1,63,053 9,782 17,165 — 445 195 960 144 349 AIR QUALITY INDEX CHANDIGARH 37 PANCHKULA 105 MOHALI 50 401-500 301-400 201-300 101-200 51-100 0-50 SEVERE VERY POOR POOR MODERATE SATISFACTORY GOOD INBRIEF WATER SUPPLY TO BE HIT IN MOHALI Mohali: The water supply will remain affected for two days in Phase 3B2, Sector 70-71, Mataur, Shahi Majra, Phase 9, 10, 11 and Industrial Area, Phase 1 to 5, due to repair work at the Kajauli waterworks being undertaken by the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. On January 7 and 8, there will be no water supply in the afternoon. The supply in these areas will be at low pressure in the morning and evening. TNS NO AFTERNOON SUPPLY IN CITY ■ The MC authorities have asked city residents to store adequate water in the morning on January 7 and 8 as there will be no water supply in the afternoon while water will be supplied at low pressure in the evening on the two days. However, there will be normal water supply on January 9. TODAY 4 am to 9 am Normal supply Afternoon No supply 6 pm to 8 pm Low pressure TOMORROW 5 am to 9 am Normal supply Afternoon No supply 6 pm to 8 pm Low pressure MAYORAL POLL Prohibit phones inside polling room, Congress urges Badnore Chandigarh, January 6 The city Congress has requested UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore to ensure a free, fair and transparent election for the post of Mayor of the Municipal Corporation (MC). In a letter to Badnore, city Congress president Pardeep Chhabra stated that it had been seen that the ruling party had made a mockery of the democratic process on many occasions due to their majority in the House. “I request you to instruct the authorities concerned and election officers to ensure all rules and election guidelines are followed in letter and spirit,” he said. Chhabra said in the past, it had been reported in the media and elsewhere that photographs of the election ballot had been clicked and leaked to outsiders or senior leaders. To stop this practice, no such gadget (phones, cameras, pens, smart watch, etc), which can be used to click a photograph or record the video of the ballot/vote, should be allowed to be carried by anyone inside the voting room. COVISHIELD TRIAL VOLUNTEERS TO BE OFFERED VACCINE AGAIN PAGE 3 AMID COVID, SHUTTLERS USE TECH TO BETTER THEIR FITNESS The Serum Institute of India will offer vaccination to volunteers if their antibody levels are not satisfactory. MAX 22°C | MIN 12°C | YESTERDAY MAX 23°C | MIN 13.6°C SUNSET THURSDAY 5:38 PM Winners of badminton c’ships say technology helped them better their fitness during Covid-induced lockdown. SUNRISE FRIDAY 7:20 AM TWITTER/THETRIBUNECHD 4 more birds found dead at Sukhna Cause of death unknown, samples sent to Jalandhar laboratory for testing FACEBOOK/CHANDIGARHTRIBUNE Three get life term in Kalka murder case Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 6 Four more birds have been found dead at the regulator end of Sukhna Lake here today. During patrolling of forest areas, Sukhna Lake and other water bodies of the city, a team of the Department of Forest and Wildlife, UT, found a common coot dead on Tuesday evening. During surveillance, four more birds of other species, including a common crow, were found dead at the regulator end of the lake today. The reason of their death has not been ascertained so far. However, the samples of the dead birds have been sent for testing to the Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Jalandhar. An official of the Forest Department said a total of five birds, including a migratory bird, had been found dead in the lake so far. The Animal Husbandry Department, UT, collected more than 200 samples from poultry farms, live markets, water bodies, etc, and sent these for testing. The results are expected in four-five days. The department said there was no cause of concern and field officials and ❝Forestconcerned have all others been kept on a high alert to keep a strict vigil and look for possible signs and symptoms or mortality among wild birds. ❞ Debendra Dalai, Workers of the UT Forest Department remove dead birds from Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh on Wednesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: RAVI KUMAR there was no ban on poultry products in the city. Meanwhile, the Forest and Wildlife Department, UT, today received the guidelines relating to avian influenza from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The department shared the guidelines with the Department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, UT, and the authorities concerned to take all precautionary measures to check the spread of virus in case of any eventuality in Chandigarh. Debendra Dalai, Chief Conservator of Forests, UT, said the forest field officials and all others concerned had been kept on a high alert to keep a strict vigil and look for possible signs and symptoms or mortality among wild birds. Considering the gravity of the matter, all bird watchers, volunteers and visitors to the lake and any other water bodies have been kept on high alert and asked to note any unnatural symptoms in the birds such as diarrhea, head tilt, paralysis, sluggish behaviour, etc. In case of noticing any such symptoms, they have been asked to report to the Department of Forest & Wildlife, Chandigarh, at its phone num- CHIEF CONSERVATOR OF FORESTS, UT ber 0172-2700217. Dalai requested the general public not to get panicked with any misleading information on bird flu or avian influenza in Chandigarh. The UT authorities are on their toes after more than 2,400 birds of different species were found dead in Pong Dam in Himachal Pradesh and over a lakh chickens died in poultry farms in the Barwala area of Panchkula district. Panchkula authorities failed to show urgency? Chicken deaths: Four-member team form Jalandhar collects fresh samples from Barwala Amit Bathla Tribune News Service Panchkula, January 6 Even though poultry birds have been dying in huge numbers at poultry farms in Barwala since December, there is no clarity yet behind the unusual mortalities with ‘passive’ response of the local authorities to the “unprecedented situation” being the main reason. Late, insufficient, wrong samples Several weeks after the poultry farms started witnessing mass deaths of poultry birds, the Animal Husbandry and Dairying Department sent samples to the Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (RDDL), Jalandhar, to ascertain the cause for mass deaths. The samples reached the lab on January 3. A senior official at the lab HC fixes Jan 25 for UT Admn’s reply GARBAGE COLLECTION Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 6 Just about a fortnight after the Chandigarh Administration’s move to scrap “manual dumping carts” or rehris involved in door-todoor garbage collection came under the judicial scanner, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today fixed January 25 for reply by the UT and other respondents. Appearing before Justice Lisa Gill’s Bench, UT counsel Pankaj Jain submitted that the authorities concerned would make efforts to accommodate the garbage collectors by adjusting those with driving licences as drivers and helpers. Counsel APS Shergill and Harmanjit Singh Sethi, on the other hand, contended that the UT had no plans for their rehabilitation. A maximum of 300 garbage collectors could be adjusted, while their number was around 3,000. Seeking directions for junking the system that “illegally” prevented the garbage collectors in the city from earning their daily livelihood, the petitioners had earlier claimed that hundreds of garbage collectors in the city would be rendered jobless and left in the lurch. The petition filed by Shamsher Singh and 28 other petitioners through counsel Shergill and Sethi urged the court to issue directions, calling upon the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents to show cause how and why the policy mandating the replacement of rehris with motorised door-to-door garbage collection vehicles was set to be enforced without hearing/involving the stakeholders in the deliberation process or without even conducting a public hearing necessary under Article 14. continued on Page 3 Sunday and the samples were insufficient to detect the cause of deaths of lakhs of poultry birds in Barwala. He added that during the examination, they found many samples were taken from healthy birds. Toll confusion said the Haryana department had sent them 80 samples, including four carcasses, on 14 heritage items to be auctioned in Luxembourg Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 6 As many as 14 heritage items, designed by architects Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier, will be auctioned in Luxembourg on January 10. The heritage items, likely to fetch between ~1.44 crore and ~1.75 crore, include an office cane chair, office cane chairs with inclined backrest, a set of two senate committee chairs, a set of two easy armchairs, a cafeteria table, dining chairs, a low fireside chair, a student chair, a small desk, a teak sofa, a set of two armchairs and a set of two stools. In a letter, Ajay Jagga, member, Heritage Protection Cell, Chandigarh, requested Santosh Jha, Ambassador of India to Luxembourg, to initiate an inquiry into the auction of heritage goods as to how these banned items had gone beyond the territory of India in violation of the MHA orders, dated February 22, 2011. He also requested the Ambassador to look into the matter so that the auction of the smuggled heritage items could be stalled after ascertaining the facts. c m y b PAGE 3 Sources said the actual toll could be much higher than 4.30 lakh as confirmed by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today. Haryana Poultry Farmers’ Association president Darshan Singla has downplayed the situation. He said the mortality was comparatively less than the official figures and the fatalities were not because of bird flu. Dr Sukhdev Rathee, Deputy Director (Animal Welfare), Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Haryana, said he continued on Page 3 Cop killed in mishap Patiala, January 6 A Punjab Police constable, posted at the Samana police station, was killed in a road accident on Tuesday night. The deceased has been identified as Mandeep Singh. The accident took place near Daftriwala village when the constable was on the way to his village. The police said the constable’s car was hit by another vehicle around 8.30 pm. The police booked the driver of the unidentified car and began a probe. The deceased is survived by his wife and a son. The victim’s kin have demanded financial help and a government job for a family member on compassionate grounds. Meanwhile, senior police officials, who met family members of the deceased, assured them of all possible help. Samana DSP Jaswant Singh said, “Mandeep was hard working. His death is a loss to the Police Department. We will try to provide all possible help to his family.” — TNS Panchkula, January 6 The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Narender Sura today awarded life imprisonment to three and two-year rigorous imprisonment (RI) to two more in the 2016 Kalka murder case in which a 19-year-old youth was bludgeoned to death with an iron rod and jewellery items worth around ~50 lakh were looted. The murder, in which convicts Iqbal Ahmed and Mohammad Abid hit victim Shubhanshu Verma on the head multiple times with an iron rod, was recorded in CCTV cameras. After the murder, the footage got leaked and reached the common man too. People uploaded it on YouTube and TV channels also ran it. Iqbal Ahmed, a resident of Ghaziabad (UP), and Mohammad Abid, a resident of Delhi, were fined ~5 lakh each. Jagdish Ram, a resident of Delhi, who brought Ahmed and Abid in an Innova, was also sentenced to life imprisonment with a fine of ~2.50 lakh. Abid’s wife Naseem Begum and jeweller Ram Gopal Verma, both residents of Delhi, from whom stolen jewellery items were recovered, were fined ~10,000 each. The court awarded ~11 lakh of the total fine imposed on the convicts to the mother of the victim for “loss to the family”. One more accused, 2-yr RI for 2 more; 19-yr-old was bludgeoned to death, ~50-lakh jewellery looted Mohammed Sadiq, son of Abid, was declared a proclaimed offender in the case. * What had happened The victim, Shubhanshu Verma, younger son of jeweller Jagdish Raj Verma, used to sleep inside the shop, which was situated on the road leading to the famous Kali Mata temple in Kalka. On the intervening night of July 4 and July 5, 2016, the accused, Iqbal Ahmed and Mohd Abid, residents of Delhi, entered the shop after cutting its tin roof with a gas cutter. While Ahmed held Shubhanshu from his throat, Abid hit him on the head multiple times with an iron rod. The court observed that it was about 10 times the victim was hit and a huge volume of blood oozed out. Later, they broke open a chest at the shop and fled with jewellery items. The next day, as Shubhanshu was not picking up the phone, his father along with his brother went to the shop where they found him lying in a pool of blood. He was rushed to the Community Health Centre at Kalka where he was declared brought dead. He used to sleep inside the shop for security purposes. SEE ALSO PAGE 3 A CCTV grab of the incident. Hookah: Club to UT sees 78 be shut for 3 days cases, 1 death Chandigarh, January 6 A club in Sector 26, Veda, was today closed for three days for defying the hookah ban. SDM (East) Sudhanshu Gautam ordered its closure. The UT Administration had banned serving of hookah to contain the spread of Covid-19. The Administration had recently ordered that hotels, restaurants and bars violating the ban by serving hookah to customers will be continued on Page 3 Marine Drive? Chandigarh: With 78 fresh cases of Covid-19 and one death, the tally of infection has reached 20,104 and the toll 323 in the city. A total of 61 more patients recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours, taking the tally of recovered patients to 19,525. There are now 256 active cases in the city. One death, 63 +ve in Mohali Mohali: One person died of Covid19, while 63 new cases were reported from the district on Wednesday. As many as 33 more patients have recovered from the virus. The district has so far seen 18,474 cases while 17,165 patients have been cured. — TNS 34 new cases in Panchkula A woman drives a car on the walkway of Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh on Wednesday. She unknowingly entered the lake area from the regulator end. TRIBUNE PHOTO: RAVI KUMAR Panchkula: The district on Wednesday reported 34 fresh Covid cases, taking the overall tally to 10,121. The Covid toll remained at 144. While 9,782 patients have recovered from the infectious disease so far, 195 cases are active. — TNS