Helmet rule: women get exemption till Aug 3
CHANDIGARH, July 29 — Women driving two-wheelers or riding the pillion without helmets in the city will not be challaned for the offence till the case is decided by court, which takes up the matter on August 3.

Anti-encroachment drive: 357 challaned
CHANDIGARH, July 29 — In the first phase of the anti-encroachment drive of the local municipal corporation, 357 offenders have been challaned.

Impressive Punjabi plays
CHANDIGARH: The drama that is meaningful and accessible to a society is one which arises from it and is not imposed on it. And this is where Sardar Gursharan Singh fits in, because his theatre had always been for the masses, fighting for their basic fundamental rights.
Third middleman gets bail in kickback case
CHANDIGARH, July 29 — The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr S.S. Lamba, today granted bail to Sunil Kalia, one of the three alleged middlemen in the ongoing kickbacks case registered by the Chandigarh Administration against certain officials of the engineering department.
Internet facility expanded
CHANDIGARH, July 29 — The Internet facility in the city has been expanded by providing additional 64 lines for access and these lines are available under two new dialling groups, The Principal General Manager , Telecom, Mr Prithipal Singh said today .
Rafi Awards-98 finals tomorrow
CHANDIGARH, July 29 — The final round of the singing competition for the Rafi Awards-98 will be held at Tagore Theatre here on July 31.

Helmet rule: women get exemption till Aug 3
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 29 — Women driving two-wheelers or riding the pillion without helmets in the city will not be challaned for the offence till the case is decided by court, which takes up the matter on August 3, said the UT Administrator, Lieut-Gen B.K.N. Chhibber (retd), while talking to newspersons this morning after inaugurating HDFC bank's branch in Sector 35.

The Administrator, who is also the Governor of Punjab, asserted that orders to this effect had been issued. He also quoted the example of an old notification by the Chandigarh Administration that had exempted Sikh women from wearing helmets.

With the statement of the Administrator, all women have been saved from the trouble of wearing helmets.

Later in the evening the Inspector-General of Police, Mr R.P. Singh, said that the police was now laying stress on educating the masses about the helmet. However, the enforcement drive had not been stopped. He added that sections 193 and 199 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, had exempted women from wearing helmets.

Similiar information has been passed on to the high-powered committee that is implementing the judgement of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The IG said that many persons having skin problems approached him for permission to put black films on the windowpanes of their cars. He said he had asked the applicants to approach the court to decide the matter as he had no powers.

Another point that has been brought to the notice of the committee is of black filming used on private vehicles of protected persons.

The verdict says only government vehicles of a protected person be allowed the use of black films on windowpanes.

The police has contended that security is provided according to the threat perception of an individual and he may or may not be allotted a government vehicle, the IG said.

Anti-encroachment drive: 357 challaned
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 29 — During the first phase of the anti-encroachment drive launched by the local municipal corporation under the directives of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, 357 offenders were challaned, while 168 unauthorised structures demolished in different parts of the city.

The drive was launched by the civic body authorities on July 27. In the first phase of the move, the corporation authorities have planned to clear encroachments along the main roads of sectors 2, 11, 15, 24, 37, 41, 54, 59.

According to the Secretary of the municipal corporation Dr Amarpal Singh, 32 unauthorised structures were demolished and 104 persons challaned in different southern sectors of 45, 29, 20, 31 and 32. Most of the structures were temporary and raised by taxi operators, roadside vendors and shopkeepers.

The demolition operation witnessed resistance from residents at several places.

In Burail, the anti-encroachment excercise had to be suspended for some time as a group of residents resisted the efforts of the staff in removing the encroachments. The infuriated residents raised objections, alleging that the staff was following a pick-and-choose policy while removing the encroachments.

They alleged that the staff was not removing the several water tankers parked along the road, though small items displayed outside shops were not spared. This led to the suspension of the campaign for some time.

However, the residents were pacified by the Secretary of the civic body, Mr Amarpal, who reached the spot and assured the residents that nobody indulging in the encroachments would be spared. He explained that the tankers could not be removed as the staff did not have additional tractors for towing these away.

According to Mr Amarpal, under the second phase of the drive encroachments along the main roads of sectors 4, 9, 17, 22, 35, 52 and sector 61 would be removed.

Military farms in total mess
By Gobind Thukral
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 29 — Most of the 50 odd military farms with over 14,000 hectares of prime agriculture land are in a total mess. Indeed these are a blot on the fair name of the Army. None else, but the Comptroller General of India in its latest report wants the government "to close these down without any further delay".

The functioning of these farms tell a woeful tale. A huge infrastructure, sufficient number of cattle-over 15,000 — and yet the Army has to buy between 40 per cent to 50 per cent milk from the market for the troops.

The CAG has made a thorough study of the farms starting from 1991 to 1997 and came to this conclusion. It was the second scathing indictment by the CAG. These farms at best could cultivate 24 per cent of the area. During the past five years, these farms purchased fodder worth Rs 26 crore from outside. Missed fodder and milk target meant a loss of Rs 27 crore and Rs 30.57 crore, respectively, between 1991-92 and 1995-96. The Army could have saved Rs 7.14 crore if it had purchased milk from the open market during this period. The farms lost between 11 per cent and 39 per cent of the animals costing Rs 20.48 lakh due to TB. No treatment was provided. "If leased out, these farms could earn a hefty Rs 350 crore annually", a senior Army officer here said.

This sad story does not end here. While the herd strength increased by 74 per cent, the milk yield went up by only 54 per cent. An extra expenditure of Rs 69.43 crore was incurred over local purchase during these five years. The annual accounts during these five years under investigation showed a profit of Rs 9.41 crore. But an analysis of these accounts showed a net loss of Rs 22.80 crore. "A clear case of camouflaging to show artificial profits", the report said.

Failure of the army to ensure optimum utilisation and proper management of land resulted in an avoidable expenditure of Rs 26 crore on local purchase of fodder. A comparison of the all-India average local purchase rate of fodder and average farm production rate for the years 1992-93 to 1995-96 revealed that the latter was always higher, resulting in an extra expenditure of Rs 28 crore during the period under review.

What is worse fodder worth Rs 48.73 crore was transferred from one farm to another between 1991-92 and 1995-96 and an expenditure of Rs 25.60 crore was incurred on the transportation. There was no documentary evidence to support that only surplus fodder produced was transferred. Thus, the possibility of transfer of locally purchased fodder from one farm to another involving avoidable transportation charges could not be ruled out.

Analysis of the shortfall in the milk targets revealed a maximum of 13 per cent to 40 per cent shortfall in Bangalore, Meerut, Panagarh and Namkum and a minimum of 7 per cent to 16 per cent in Kirkee. In other farms at Deolali, Ambala, Agra and Ferozepore it ranged from 18 per cent to 33 per cent. Bangalore attributed the shortfall to non-availability/contaminated supply of water while Deolali and Namkum attributed this to insufficient supply of water, shortage of fodder and concentrates, Meerut and Kirkee attributed the shortfall to outbreak of foot and mouth disease among the cattle. These reasons furnished were indicative of poor management.

The expenditure on rearing cattle was more than the value of young stock matured into milking animals primarily because of rearing of calves beyond the prescribed percentage of 25. This resulted in annual losses ranging from Rs 1.27 crore to Rs 3.16 crore. In 1995-96 valuation rates of young stock were abnormally increased and a profit of Rs 108 lakh was shown. The basis for increasing the rate was not made available to audit. Thus, the genuineness of the inflated profit could not be verified.

Namkum and Jabalpur were holding sick animals suffering from TB varying from 11 per cent to 39 per cent of their total holding. Treatment of TB infected animals was not considered economical due to financial crunch. As a result 317 animals valued at Rs 20.48 lakh died during these years.

Adulteration seemed to be part of the management practices. The milk after milking in cattleyard was issued to the dairy section after recording the butter fat content for further supply to troops and paying customers. Thus, the butter fat content as well as quantity of milk recorded in cattleyard and dairy stock sheets should be the same. Test checks revealed that although the quantity of milk remained the same the percentage of butter fat varied from 0.2 to 0.7 in both sections in Lucknow, 0.3 to 0.7 in Jabalpur and 0.1 to 0.4 in Ambala. Thus there was dilution in the quality of milk delivered indicating a loss of milk which was neither noticed nor investigated.

Test check of cost of production of cream/butter in six years revealed that it was higher than local purchase rates, resulting in an extra expenditure of Rs 84 lakhs.

Ambala had been pasteurising milk procured from Haryana Development Corporation which was already pasteurised. This resulted in an avoidable expenditure of Rs 21.48 lakh on pasteurisation besides loss of milk valuing Rs 2.46 lakh in handling of milk for pasteurisation between July 1995, and December, 1996.

Dairy produce worth Rs 14 crore was issued by Lucknow to various units/formations during December, 1996. The consignee units acknowledged the receipt of dairy produces worth Rs 42.52 lakh only and receipts of the balance quantity worth Rs 98.10 lakh were yet to be confirmed.

Documents showed that way back in 1988, the cag had made a similar assessment of these farms and their working. In May, 1997, the Defence Ministry said that an expert committee had recommended that these farms should be managed by the Army as a departmentally run organisation. And yet another committee suggested that these should be treated as a service organisation and the cumbersome accounting system should by simplified. "These recommendations are yet to be implemented", sums up the CAG.

Impressive Punjabi plays

CHANDIGARH: The drama that is meaningful and accessible to a society is one which arises from it and is not imposed on it. And this is where Sardar Gursharan Singh fits in, because his theatre had always been for the masses, fighting for their basic fundamental rights.

And such significantly pertinent themes as rights of a woman, evils of war, abominable divide and rule policy of rulers, and the like were illustrated in the two Punjabi plays and one skit directed by Gursharan Singh on Wednesday evening. Staged at Tagore Theatre, the plays were presented by the Sahit Chintan Chandigarh.

The first play of the evening was based on Saint John Irwin's play, 'Progress', called 'Ik Maa, Ik Bomb', which talked about the obsession of a scientist, Henry, to create a "big" bomb and his sister, Jane, who has lost her 19-year-old son in a war. Gursharan takes it upon himself the task of dissemination of the idea of a just and a prograssive society though his plays. 'Ik Maa, Ik Bomb', sees him as the self-possessed Henry whose frequent thumping of fists on the table make the play all the more didactic. Anita, in the role of Jane abhors war that destroys and stabs her brother to evert the making of another bomb.

The second play of the evening, 'Khamba Wali Kudi', based on Punjabi writer Gul Chauhan's story, talked about the problems of working women along with the dilemma of equlity among men. The director obviously did not fail to inspire, through this play, that the life that most people live is not worth living. The 'spread of wings' in a woman is recommended. Amrit Pal, in her role as the girl with wings, seemed somewhat restricted due to her closed movements paired with fast but inanimate dialogue delivery. Bashir as Ramu, the servant, was interesting to watch.

The plays were interspersed with an attractive skit, 'Miss Chandigarh' by the children of Sant Ishwar Singh Senior Secondary School, Mohali. 'Miss Chandigarh' was about the conflict between Punjab and Haryana over Chandigarh. — Sonoo Singh

Third middleman gets bail in kickback case
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 29 — The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr S.S. Lamba, today granted bail to Sunil Kalia, one of the three alleged middlemen in the ongoing kickbacks case registered by the Chandigarh Administration against certain officials of the engineering department.

Sunil Kalia had been in judicial custody for 90 days. As the Administration failed to put up challan in the court in this case, he is entitled to be enlarged on bail.

Mr Lamba ordered that Sunil Kalia would furnish a personal bond of Rs 20,000 apart from a surety of the like amount.

The judge rejected the bail application moved by Harsh Kumar and Gurpreet Singh, Executive Engineer and Subdivisional Engineer, respectively, of the Chandigarh Administration.

Sunil Kalia is the seventh person to get bail.

Earlier bail was granted to Dinesh Sharma and Suresh Sharma, two of the three alleged middlemen; J.K. Gandhi, a Junior Engineer; R.P. Vashist, a former PA to the Chief Engineer, Heera Mani, a peon attached to the office of the Chief Engineer; and A.K. Sachdeva, a Haryana cadre Superintending Engineer who had been on deputation with the Administration as an Executive Engineer and later turned approver in the case.

Internet facility expanded
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 29 — The Internet facility in the city has been expanded by providing additional 64 lines for access and these lines are available under two new dialling groups, The Principal General Manager , Telecom, Mr Prithipal Singh said today .

The new numbers to be dialled are 720022 and 720033. Each number has got 32 access lines.

Besides this the new equipment installed by the department will enable to clear the waiting list of about 175 and now the department is in a position to provide an internet connection on demand, he claimed.

Explaining the expansion of 64 access lines, the General Manager clarified that the old numbers for dialling the internet would also remain and access could be made through any of these numbers. He claimed that this system of having different access numbers was much better than having a single master number as it provided options to the subscribers.

About the waiting list, Mr Prithipal Singh said all advice notes had been released and passwords were being issued as and when account holders complete the installation of equipment at their respective ends.

The new equipment has got the capacity up to 2,000 connections. With the clearance of the waiting list the total Internet connections energised in the Chandigarh Telecom district will be nearly 800.

The department has cautioned against involvement of any middle- man for Internet connection and has asked the people to directly approach Mr K.S. Saini, DEP (CS), at the Sector 18 office for a connection. Mr Saini's phone number is 544066 .

Rafi Awards-98 finals tomorrow
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 29 — The final round of the singing competition for the Rafi Awards-98 will be held at Tagore Theatre here on July 31.

A spokesman for the Yaadgar-e-Rafi Society said of the 425 entries only 225 could participate in the first round held in February. After another round of competition 12 male and 12 female singers were selected for the final round. The winners and two runners-up in the two categories will get the Rafi Awards and trophies.

Renowned lyricist and Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner Majrooh Sultanpuri will present the awards at the Rafi Memorial Nite to be held in September. Last year these awards were given away by music director Usha Khanna.

Mr Madan Mohan Mittal, Food and Supplies Minister, Punjab, will be the chief guest on Friday.The programme will be sponsored by Mount Shivalik Breweries and the Cultural Affairs Department of Chandigarh.

Campus beat
Mass leave by college teachers on Aug 4
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 29 — Teaching work in colleges of Punjab and union territory of Chandigarh will be affected following a call for mass casual leave and a rally on August 4.

Various teachers organisations have also given a call for an indefinite strike from August 11, demanding higher pay scales.

Dr Satya Pal Gautam, convener of they pay revision committee of the Punjab Federation of University Teachers' Association in a press note said: "Teachers have been reduced to grade B level officers of the government by denying them UGC recommended scales".

Dr M Rajivlochan, executive member of the Panjab University Teachers' Association, said: A look at the package offered by the government makes it amply clear that the total income of a university teacher during his career is going to be less than of a class A officer".

Both members urged the MPs to intervene in the matter. A similar statement was also made by Dr N.S. Mann, president of PUTA.

Prof Gautam also pointed out the ambiguity as regards payment of arrears and the date of implementing new grades by different states. PFUTA has decided to hold a rally at the housing board roundabout on August 4 in support of the demands, Prof Gautam added.

The secretary of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers' Union, Prof R.R. Rawat, said on a call given by the All-India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisation over three lakh teachers all over the country would go on an indefinite strike from August 11.

Dharna: Members of the Students Organisation of Panjab University staged a dharna in front of the administrative block on Wednesday in protest against delay in declaration of re-evaluation results.

Dyal Pratap Singh Randhawa, president of the SOPU, pointed out various difficulties being faced by students while seeking admission to higher classes. He pointed out a particular case in MBA department where a girl student was "denied admission because she did not possess the final year result".

Seats vacant: The Department of Biotechnology has invited applications for two seats in M.Sc. biotechnology.

Students who have studied vocational biotechnology as one of the subjects at the undergraduate level for three years with 55 per cent marks could apply till August 17. An entrance test will be conducted on August 23.

Seminar: A national seminar on "Resume of the 530 million-year old explosion of life on earth" will be organised by the Department of Geology, Panjab University, from August 7 to 10, a press note said.

Dr A.D. Ahluwalia convener of the seminar, said the seminar would cover "critical sections of the terminal proterozoic-Cambarian rocks in Nigali Dhar and Korgai synclines of Sirmaur district in Himachal besides others as topics".

Orientation course: A three-day orientation course on the post-literacy campaign, being conducted by the UT Education Department in collaboration with the Centre for Adult and Continuing Education, Panjab University, began here on Tuesday. At least 25 teachers from various schools of the city are attending the course.

Mrs Joginder Moti, Deputy Director, Adult Education, while inaugurating the course said the UT had been divided into zones under 12 school principals. These co-ordinators will look after the working of 40 nodal centres. Each nodal centre will have 15 post-literacy centres.

Mrs Sudesh Kaila, Deputy Director, Adult Education, said a survey to know the exact number of neo-literates in the city would be carried out.

Crime file
Cop held for selling liquor

CHANDIGARH, July 29 — A cop, Pradeep Kumar, posted as munshi in the Sector 36 police station, was nabbed from Maloya village while allegedly selling liquor this evening. Five cases of different brands of liquor were seized from him.

A team of the CIA staff of the Chandigarh Police reportedly got information that someone was openly selling liquor in the village, located in the southwestern part of the city.

The real culprit, believed to be a relative of the arrested cop, could, however, not be nabbed by the police. Highly placed sources have confirmed the incident.

Three dead: Three persons have died in separate incidents in the city in the past 24 hours. While one case is of suicide, another death has occurred due to an household accident. In the third case the exact cause of death is yet to be established.

In the third case the police recovered a body in Khuda Lahora village located on the north-western side of the union territory. The deceased has been identified as Sanjay Kumar , 21, a student of Panjab University. Around 16 tablets of a drug used as an intoxicant have been recovered from his second-floor rented house, police sources said. The police has also found an empty packaging of 32 tablets of the same drug.

Hailing from Darbanga in Bihar , Sanjay , was living in the village for the past three years and used to take tuitions to make some extra money. Yesterday afternoon, some of his students knocked at the door of his house but there was no response. The same thing happened this morning. This led to suspicion among neighbours. One of them peeped in to find Sanjay lying dead on the cot while the TV set and fan were on.

The police broke open the door and sent the body for post-mortem. The exact cause of his death will be known only after the post-mortem report. At the moment the police is working on a theory that Sanjay had died due to an overdose of the drug.

In sector 11, a 45-year-old man working as mechanic and occupying the second floor of the house fell down from the roof and died on Wednesday morning. The deceased, Mr Narinder Singh, was standing on the terrace when he fell backwards. He was rushed to the PGI , where he succumbed to his injuries around 12.30 p.m.

Suicide: Meanwhile, in Colony no 4, located near the Industrial Area Phase I, a person employed as a driver with a multinational soft drinks company allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in the afternoon.

The deceased , Shamsher Singh, hailing from Garhwal, left his house in the afternoon, saying he had some work, his wife told the police. Later his body was found hanging from a tree in the nearby woods, police said. He leaves four children.

Two injured: Two women , including a constable of the Chandigarh Police, have been injured in separate road accidents on Wednesday. Constable Kavita was travelling on her scooter when an unidentified vehicle hit her vehicle from behind, and sped away. The incident occurred around 4 pm on the road dividing sectors 9 and 10, the police said.

Ratano Devi , a resident of PGI colony , fell off a running bus near the PGI bus stand this morning. Both have been admitted to the PGI.

Car, scooter stolen: A car and a scooter have been stolen in separate incidents from Sector 41 on Tuesday night. The car (CH-01-V-1145) owned by Mr Rajesh Mahajan was stolen from his residence. An LML scooter owned by Mr Pritam Singh was also stolen.

Gold, money stolen: A woman working as a domestic help in a Sector 19 house has allegedly decamped with five tolas of gold and Rs 1,000 in cash. Mrs Gursharan Kaur has alleged that the servant , Manju , had stolen the jewellery and cash.