WHO to set norms on mustard oil testing
CHANDIGARH, Oct 3 — The World Health Organisation is in the process of laying down standards for testing of mustard oil to prevent the occurrences of dropsy which is caused due to adulteration in the oil, disclosed Dr Uton Muchtar Rafei, Regional Director, WHO, South East Asia Region. He was talking to mediapersons at the PGI here this morning.

WHO to set norms on mustard oil testing
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 3 — The World Health Organisation (WHO) is in the process of laying down standards for testing of mustard oil to prevent the occurrences of dropsy which is caused due to adulteration in the oil, disclosed Dr Uton Muchtar Rafei, Regional Director, WHO, South East Asia Region. He was talking to mediapersons at the PGI here this morning.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been working to find a specific test to check for the nature and degree of adulteration in the oil.

WHO will use the most reliable test to check the quality of the oil, Dr Rafei said, and added that his organisation was keeping a close watch on cases of dropsy and would provide assistance to the government as and when required.

However, it cannot intervene on deciding on how the oil is to be sold or packed in future, said Dr Vijay Kumar, Programme Director , WHO, for communicable diseases. Dr Kumar, a former head of the Community Medicine department, PGI, had accompanied Dr Rafei on the visit.

The nature of 'dropsy deaths' definitely indicate that it was adulteration and not accidental contamination, he clarified.

In India, WHO wants to keep watch on plague , dengue, yellow fever, and a new type of cholera. A new type of cholera strain has emerged in the past few years and WHO has formulated a serum to control it.

Dr Kumar explained that dengue was spreading and urban areas were more problematic.

The same was the case with malaria and tuberculosis (TB). India needs to have a very strong TB control programme as several drug resistant forms of TB were coming up. To treat such forms of TB, WHO has a six-month course of direct observation short term treatment that has shown 85 per cent success.

TB needs special care as TB with HIV positive cases was being reported and the link between the two was very strong. India today had four million HIV positive cases of which 67,000 were full blown cases of AIDS. WHO has also written to the Government of India that general practitioners in private practice have to be educated to recognise TB cases.

In case of malaria, WHO will start a worldwide "roll back malaria " programme. This will be 10-year programme and the aim will be to reduce deaths.

Dr Rafei pointed out that a new kind of drug resistant malaria parasite has been found to attack people on the Burma-India border. "We will pay special attention to this border as well as other border areas as people living there are prone to cross border infections also," he added.

The cross-border infection from Burma could be very dangerous, he added....

Refund sale price of 57 shares, orders forum
From Our Correspondent

PANCHKULA, Oct 3 — The local consumer court has directed a member of the Northern India Stock Exchange, Chandigarh, to refund the sale price of 57 shares of Reliance company to a local consumer along with interest at a rate of 15 per cent .

The consumer has also been awarded a compensation of Rs 5000 for being harassed on account of the delay in payment of the sold shares.

The order was passed by Mr R.C. Taneja, president, and Mr V. Aditya and Mrs Rekha Sharma, both members, of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum on the basis of a complaint filed by Mr B.D. Bhatia, a resident of Sector 16.

Mr Bhatia in his complaint alleged that he was holder of 57 shares of Reliance company and approached the broker-member of the stock exchange, Mr O.P. Goel, who informed him that the shares had been sold at a rate of Rs 338 per share.

The complainant alleged that the broker told him that the shares had been sold for Rs 18,688 excluding the usual commission of 3 per cent which came to Rs 578. The payment of the amount was shown on NISE account. He alleged that the share broker did not disburse the above said amount despite repeated demands.

In its orders the forum while holding the share broker responsible for harassing the consumer awarded Rs 500 as costs of the proceedings.

Bhupi arrives on pop scene

CHANDIGARH: There was a time when 'balle-balle, shaava shaava" was the domain of the folk music of Punjab only, but now it seems to have become the catchword of popular music everywhere. This is where the contributions of the likes of Gurdas Mann and Daler Mehndi come in.

The latest to join this bandwagon of young and successful Punjabi pop singers is Bhupinder Chawla of the "Jogiya Khalli Balli" fame. At a press conference at the Chandigarh Press Club on Saturday evening introducing himself as Bhupi, he talked about his music, the similarities that he shares with Daler Mehndi and the pop culture prevailing today.

Climbing the ladder of fame with his first album with Magnasound-Jogiya Khalli Balli, which he says is Arabic for a "carefree jogi" — Bhupi has just recorded a Hindi duet with singer Bela for producer Smita Thackre's new film "Hasina Maan Jayegi", for which Anu Malik has given the score.

Talking about the film he said: "Though the song has been recorded, I'm not sure whether I want to give the song to the film or not because I want to appear on the screen myself to sing my own song and it has been refused. I don't know the real reason for the refusal but they've said that the film does not have a scope for a singer and want Sanjay Dutt to sync the song".

Replying to the question that with a music video, why would a singer want to appear on the big screen, Bhupi remarked: "It" my desire to come on the silver screen, because I've never been there. If a Sharukh Khan or a Sanjay Dutt can appear on the big screen, why not me?"

A classical singer from the Rampur Gharana, Bhupi has been part of a 10-member band for the past seven years and has been performing in the country and abroad. His elder brother, G.S. Chawla, also forms a part of this troupe as the lyricist.

Maintaining that Magnasound did promote him Bhupi stated: "Today it should have been Magnasound organising the show, instead the Press has done it. The company certainly did not give the kind of response we wanted. No press conferences, no shows. Only one video of my album".

Often called the poor man's Daler Mehndi, Bhupi said: "Both of us he and Daler Mehndi belong to Delhi, both started our singing careers at almost the same time and we share the same music director — Jawhar Wattal. Our video choreographers also happen to be the same. So how can people accuse me of copying him?"

Expressing his views on the Punjabi pop scene, he said: "Punjabi has today become the international language. It makes me very happy to hear people demand for Punjabi songs. Every Hindi film has a Punjabi song. Music is all about reaching to others and that's what Punjabi music is all about."

— Sonoo Singh

PU had declared results in advance
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 3 — Despite inherent flaws in its examination system, Panjab University after a gap of several years has been able to declare the results of re-evaluation of undergraduate classes in advance of the supplementary examinations which began on September 28.

The re-evaluation results of a majority of undergraduate classes, with the exception of bachelor of commerce, were usually declared for the past approximately two decades after the supplementary examination. Scores of candidates who might not have appeared in the supplementary examination after improvement in their results were thereby put to hardship.

The last of the results declared this year included BA II on September 27 and BA III on September 28. Questioned how the students could be benefited in case they did not wish to appear in the supplementary examination, an official of the examination branch informed that attempts were being made to paste photostat copies of the results outside examination centres .

The official said the declaration of results could have been advanced by another 10 to 15 days in the absence of the teachers' strike and postal strike.

There are still about 700 RLA cases in the arts stream and about 60 in the science stream. One of the reasons for the delay was that on discovery of difference of more than 15 per cent marks between the first and the second examiner, the papers were sent to the third examiner.

The re-evaluation results of B.Sc. III have been declared 40 days in advance as compared to last year; BA III have come 26 days in advance; B. Com. II have come 34 days in advance; B.Com. III have 16 days in advance ; while those of B Com I have been declared 18 days in advance.

There has also been some improvement in the declaration of the results of the annual examinations conducted in April: MA II (Hindi) was declared 45 days ahead of last year; B.Com. II and B.Com. III more than 27 days ahead; B.Sc. II about 26 days ahead; and B.Com. I about 23 days in advance. There was a marginal improvement in the announcement of the results of BA II, BA III, MA (Punjabi ) and a few other postgraduate classes.

Child falls from roof, injured
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 3 — An eight-year-old child playing with his siblings in Darua village was seriously injured when he fell down from the roof of his house this morning.

The injured child, Vijay, has been admitted to the PGI.

Meanwhile, three persons have been admitted to the PGI after being injured in separate incidents. Gurbachan Singh of Sohana was injured in scuffle near his village. Atul Garg of Panchkula was walking when an unidentified car hit him in the township.Lastly, Sukhwinder of Raipur Rani village was admitted to the PGI after he consumed some poisonous substance.

Scooter stolen: A scooter (CH-01-Q-493) owned by Anita Malik has been stolen from the PGI parking. In a separate case of burglary, a television , VCR and household items were stolen from the house of Mahesh Mahajan in Sector 21.

Beaten up: A resident of the Industrial Area, Mr Rakesh Walia, was allegedly beaten up by three persons, including two women. His household goods were also thrown out.

The police has registered a case against Kulwant Kaur, Shrestha Kumari and Ramandeep.

Loses money: A retired SSP, Mr Gurdial Singh, lost a sum of Rs 1500 when someone picked his pocket at the Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT) in Sector 17.

Kerosene seized: The Zirakpur police has arrested one person for illegally stocking and selling kerosene meant for the public distribution system and seized more than 1,280 litres of kerosene. The police is looking for two other persons involved in the case.

Police sources said while the accused, Mahaveer Prasad Jain is a resident of Sector 11, Panchkula, his accomplices — Ram Kumar and Balram — belong to Chandigarh.

The police seized six drums of 200 litres each and four jerrycans of 20 litres each.

A case under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act has been registered.

While the price of PDS kerosene is Rs 3 a litre, the going rate in the market is Rs 10 a litre. The accused used to pay Rs 5 to vendors and sell it at double the price.

As many as 890 litres of kerosene was recovered from his shop which he opened recently, while another 270 litres of kerosene were seized from an adjacent shop.

PANCHKULA

Case registered: In connection with the beating up of two boys of jhuggi dwellers, aged around 10 at Oscar Hotel in Sector 5 here, the police has registered a case against the owner of the hotel and 14 others, including members of a marriage party, alleged to be involved in the incident.

The members of the marriage party and employees of the hotel had allegedly inflicted burn marks on the boys — Rajbir and Upendar — with iron rods on the suspicion of stealing cash and jewellery.

A medical examination of the victims had confirmed the burn injuries.

Road mishap: An unidentified scooterist died while saving a pedestrian near Gurukul at Old Panchkula on Saturday.

According to the information available the deceased while saving a pedestrian fell and received serious head injuries.

He was admitted to the PGI at Chandigarh.

Suicide: A teenaged girl hailing from Kishangarh village allegedly consumed some poisonous substance, police sources said here on Saturday.

She was taken to Government Hospital in Panchkula where she was pronounced dead.