SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD NOVEMBER 27, 2016 3TIMES CITY

Ahmedabad: Pushing up their driveagainst illegal hookah bars in the city,Zone VII police have initiated theprocess of cancelling licences ofsix hookah bars in Satellite andAnandnagar areas on Friday.The decision was taken after thehookah bars were found floutingnorms laid down by the judicia-ry for running such establish-ments.

The drive initiated a fort-night ago by city police has alrea-dy covered over 20 hookah barsin various western city parts, and non-cognizable offences have been registe-

red against the businesses. From almostall the places, police teams have collec-ted samples which have been sent for fo-rensic examination.

“Guidelines are clear for hoo-kah bars - it should not be morethan 20% of the total area of theestablishment which should ha-ve licence to run a restaurant oreatery,” said a city police official.“There should be a separate areafor smoking and the area shouldbe under CCTV surveillance. Ma-ny hookah bars were found usingtobacco that did not have statuto-ry warning on the packets accor-

ding to the rule,” said a senior city policeofficial.

Cops move to cancellicences of 6 hookah bars

Ahmedabad:Quite oblivio-us of demonetization ofRs500 and Rs1,000 notes, ma-ny traffic jawans deployedat traffic junctions in the ci-ty had collected fines fromrule violators in the invalidnotes. Now, these cops are ina quandary as the traffic he-adquarters has refused toaccept these notes. Left withno option, the jawans havebeen spending long hours inqueues to deposit such notesin their personal accounts.Then they join another longqueue at ATMs to withdrawthe sum so that they can de-posit the fines collected by

them in the department cof-fers.

A traffic head constablesaid that the same problemwas faced by some constab-les deployed to deliver e-challans. “These policemenkeep a booklet of about 100memos. The prevalent prac-tice is they go to the trafficheadquarters once all thememos are exhausted. Bythe time some of them finis-hed the memo book, the

high value notes were demo-netized and they were leftwith several invalid notes.Now, the headquarters isnot accepting the old notes,”added a police personnel.

“Many of us had to standin queues, leaving our jobs,to withdraw money and la-ter deposit the fine amountwhich we had collected fromrule violators. The trafficheadquarters could have ac-cepted the money in old cur-rency and deposited it in thebank treasury to help us av-oid this unnecessary hass-le,” said a traffic police offi-cial.

Additional commissio-ner of police, traffic, Sub-hash Trivedi said that afterdemonetization, a notifica-tion was issued not to finecommuters for two days be-cause of the cash crunchand after that fine should becollected in new currencynotes.

They HadCollected FinesIn Invalid Notes

DEMONETIZATION BLUES

TOI

Sarfaraz.Shaikh@timesgroup.com

Ahmedabad: Withdrawingcash from an ATM has beco-me mission impossible. San-ket Shah, a resident of Satel-lite visited 20 ATMS from Sa-tellite to Navrangpura to findonly two dispensing money.One had a very long queue,and the other one had around30 people waiting in front.

Shah said that he had runout of cash and with weekendapproaching he needed somecash on hand. “Some of myrelatives are coming and I ne-ed cash. Hence I was runningfrom one ATM to another. Fi-nally, I could get money at theStandard Chartered bankATM in Mithakali.” Shahwas not alone. Those needingcash had a tough time findingATMs which had money.

On Saturday, the ATMoutside Dena Bank on Ash-ram Road was operationalonly in the morning, and ranout of cash by afternoon. TwoATMS that were operatingnearby were that of HDFCBank in Navrangpura andthat of the Standard Charte-red bank near Mithakali. Ho-wever, the ATM of StandardChartered Bank was dispen-sing only Rs 2,000 notes.

A security guard at one of

the ATMs on Ashram Roadwas busy ensuring that eachperson used only one ATMcard. “If someone wants towithdraw from another acco-unt, he has to stand in the qu-eue again,” said the guard,adding, “People are comingin with at least six to sevencards and withdrawing fromeach account. I have been as-ked by bank officials to ensu-re one transaction per per-son.”

Mayur Patel, a resident ofSatellite, was still searchingfor an ATM in Memnagar atabout 12 in the night. He hadthought that there would be asmaller crowd at midnight.Patel said that he checked at

least 10 ATMS in Satellite andMemnagar only to find thatthey had run out of cash. Aro-und 90% of ATMs were notdispensing cash, said Patel.Even when cash arrived atATMs it was running out wit-hin a few hours.

Mohin Shaikh, a residentof Rakhial was spotted stan-ding in the long queue at De-na bank.

“Not a single ATM in Ba-punagar or Gomtipur are dis-pensing money for the lasttwo days. The banks too didnot have cash on Thursdayand Friday, and hence I wasforced to come all the wayfrom Rakhial to get money,”said Shaikh.

Even WhenCash Arrives, ItRuns Out In A

Few Hours

Most ATMs withoutcash, people in peril

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: Closed ATMs compound people’s misery

Yogesh Chawda

Traffic police officialscaught in old-money trap

Ahmedabad: The Indian AirForce is conducting a recruitmentrally for male candidates of Gujaratto join as Airmen for Technical andGroup Non-Technical MedicalAssistant Trades. The recruitmenttest is being conducted at PoliceParade Ground, Bhuj, fromNovember 24 to 27. Candidatesfrom Ahmedabad, Anand, Arvalli,Banaskantha, Bharuch,Chotta-Udepur, Dahod, Dangs,Gandhinagar, Mahesana,Mahisagar, Narmada, Navsari,Sabarkantha, Surat, Tapi, Vadodaraand Valsad districts reported forselection on Nov 24 at the venue.Whereas, candidates from Amreli,Bhavnagar, Botad, DevbhumiDwarka, Gir-Somnath, Jamnagar,Junagarh, Kheda, Kutch (Bhuj),Morbi, Panchmahal, Patan,Porbandar, Rajkot, Surendernagardistricts and Union territories ofDaman & Diu and Dadra & NagarHaveli reported on Nov 26. Those who have cleared thewritten test will undergo physicalfitness tests and adaptability testson Nov 27. TNN

Ahmedabad: A selectioncommittee has decided on 14candidates to constitute thefirst batch of the SabarmatiFellowship programme. Thecommittee included luminarieslike Ram Chandra Guha, ThomasWeber and Tridip Suhrud.Nineteen applications had beenreceived for inclusion in the firstbatch. Meanwhile, the DarshakItihas Nidhi, a foundationnamed after Manubhai Pancholi'Darshak', now chaired byHasmukh Shah has agreed toprovide financial support fortwo of the 14 fellowships at theAshram. TNN

First batch selected forSabarmati fellowship

IAF launchesrecruitment rally

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Ahmedabad: The state government has notobjected to the anticipatory bail application filedby 25-year-old woman, Sharmila alias Kavita Rat-hod, who is facing murder charge after she jum-ped into the Sabarmati river with her four-month-old son on November 11.

While the mother was rescued, the child co-uld not survive. Cops at Riverfront (west) policestation charged the woman with murder. As sheis facing arrest, she moved the city sessions courtfor legal protection against possible arrest and fi-

led for anticipatory bail.Public prosecutor Sudhir Brahmbhatt did

not raise objection to the application and submit-ted that the court should take a decision on hu-manitarian grounds. Additional sessions judgeDP Mahida has reserved decision till Monday.

According to the statement given by Rathod’shusband, Alpeshkumar, after he left for his work-place in GIDC, Naroda, she left her home near Ge-eta Mandir with their four-year-old son, who wasdiagnosed with insufficient brain developmentsince the birth. To end the agony, she had jumpedwith the child into the river from Sardar Bridge.

Drowned baby: No objectionto mother’s bail application

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Man duped with lure of newcurrency notes: A Narodaresident has filed a complaintwith Naroda police for cheatingof Rs 87,000. According to acomplaint by Ramanand Yadav,he was standing near thebranch of SBI at Naroda Patia at11.45 am on Friday when a youthapproached him. Claiming toknow him, he showed him newRs 100 currency notes and toldhim that he could deposit hismoney in the bank without thequeue due to his clout in thebranch. Believing him, Yadavgave him Rs 87,000. The youthtook away the money and neverreturned. TNN

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CCI NG 3.5 Product: TOIAhmedabadBS PubDate: 27-11-2016 Zone: AhmedabadCity Edition: 1 Page: TOIACP3 User: sukrat.desai Time: 11-26-2016 23:33 Color: CMYK