& V I C I N I T Y
Wednesday, October 7, 1998
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C H A N D I G A R H & V I C I N I T Y |
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Wednesday, October 7, 1998 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Toothless high-level panels UT
decision hampers 200 students’ career Eight
councillors elect their own leader |
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 Plea to restore panchayat
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Five
suspects seek bail Bar
to file case against Mohali police Conviction
of cop upheld Ration
card through voter I-card Horticulture
staff hold rally Lakhvinder's
plea dismissed |
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Toothless high-level panels CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — It is the same old story of high-level committees being constituted for the benefit of the common man, meetings of which are rarely held. The Chandigarh Consumer Protection Council, which was launched for a period of three years in August, 1997, has met only once in October. The committee has the Adviser to the Administrator as its chairman. Many important issues raised at the meeting have since been hanging fire and will continue to do so as no meeting is scheduled in the near future. Sources in the Administration admit that such committees do not have any "real" powers and are just "paper tigers." This could be gauged from the fact that some of the departments do not even bother to send replies to the queries raised by committee members. The matters raised at the previous meeting included the "improper" distribution of cases between the two consumer redressal forums of the city and why there was pendency of cases even now. The administration had, however, stated that the forums being judicial, there could be no interference in their working but the proceedings of the committee would be sent to the president of the forums for necessary action, sources disclosed. Similarly, there has been little effect on the instructions issued to various departments in the UT not to compel the public for production of ration cards as proof of residence. Most departments still demand a copy of the ration card as proof. On the instructions of the Ministry of Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, vigilance committees at the levels of the fair price shop the area were formed, but the feedback has not resulted in major penalties." The reasons are not hard to guess as most of the shops and kerosene outlets are owned by influential persons or their relatives", rendering the committees redundant, sources added. The constitution of a steering committee for scrutinising applications for providing consumer welfare funds set up by the Central government to non-governmental organisations for undertaking consumer protection activities is also hanging fire. The minutes of the last meeting also made a note that the agenda items pertaining to measures to check fleecing and supply of duplicate parts by dealers and measures to stop the sale of inferior goods could not be taken up as representatives of the departments concerned were absent. A similar request was also made to the General Manager, Telephones, to attend the meetings regularly as issues relating to his department figured prominently in discussions. Members of the committee said the telephone numbers of senior functionaries of the department concerned, the Deputy Commissioner besides certain members of the committee should be prominently displayed at various market places, shopping centres, outside the fair-price shops, petrol stations and kerosene outlets. The Administration should
also organise seminars and initiate measures to highlight
the importance of consumer rights, awareness and
redressal, they opined. |
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UT decision hampers 200 students’
career CHANDIGARH , Oct 6 — More than 200 students will lose one full academic year of senior secondary education following a decision of the UT Education Department not to forward their examination forms of plus two to the CBSE for the current academic session. The decision will affect students who cleared their compartments of matriculation in the second chance. Names of a majority of these children have been struck -off the school rolls. The regional office of the CBSE had made it clear in September that " no candidate who has passed the secondary school examination (Class X) in the second chance compartment in 1998 is eligible to appear in Class XII . Subsequently , the Education Department pursued the case with the head office of the CBSE in Delhi. Mr D.S.Mangat, the Director, Public Instructions, said "We even went to the extent of asking for a one-time relaxation for this session". However, the CBSE refused to comply with the request, saying that there could not be two different rules for the same examination all over the country. Most of the school children affected by the decision are from ordinary senior secondary schools. There appears to be a slight confusion about the current status of these children. While names of a majority of candidates affected by the decision have been struck-off, few schools are unaware of the Education Department 's circular, if any. The principal of Government Senior Secondary School, Dhanas, said no instructions had been received in this regard by the school from the education department. The names of 12 children who have been affected continue to be students on the school records. Meanwhile, the government schools in Sectors 15 and 47 have disallowed the children from attending classes. Teachers and parents maintain that children were allowed to take plus examination under similar circumstances during the preceding years. Even the university provides two opportunities to clear compartment. A parent said that the department while refusing these students will have to take necessary steps to prevent academic loss to children who have cleared in the second chance during the previous years. As the flaw was not pointed out earlier a large number of these children might already be following higher education. Mr Y.P. Katyal, a joint secretary in the regional office of the CBSE, had pointed out that during scrutiny of the forms of a candidate it was pointed out that there should be a minimum of two years gap between the year of matriculation and plus two. Mr Katyal said the provision already existed and it was up to the education authorities to implement the same. The fate of students who
have cleared plus two with similar ‘problem’
during the previous years is yet to be decided by both
the CBSE and the education department. |
Plea to restore panchayat BURAIL(Chandigarh), Oct 6 — Ever since this largest village of the union territory was transferred to the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh (MCC), over two-and-a-half years back, development process have come to standstill in the village. Falling in Ward No 10 of the Corporation and represented by Mr Bachan Singh of the ruling BJP, the village with a population of around 50,000 is yet to have amenities on a par with other parts of the city as promised before the incorporation of the village in MCC in 1996. On the other hand, villagers alleged, that the civic amenities were turning from bad to worse due to the indifference of the civic authorities. Fed up with the indifferent attitude of the MCC, the local unit of the Panchayat Parishad, which is fighting for the rights of four UT villages included in the civic body, had even approached the Prime Minister to exclude the villages from the corporation and restore the panchayat. "Almost no development work had been carried out by the civic body in the past three years. The sources of grants that the village used to get from the government agencies had dried up with the result that civic amenities are in a pretty bad shape", alleged Mr Chaman Lal, a former sarpanch and general secretary of the Action Committee for the Development of UT Villages. He alleged that the sanitation, which was previously being undertaken under the supervision of panches, had worsened under contractors. While the contractors were quick to remove cow dung, garbage keep lying in the open for days together, he added. Moreover, there was no sewerage system worth the name in a large part comprising Gujjar Wala Mohalla, Valmiki Mohalla and Shivji Mandir Mohalla. During the rainy season, the residents had to wade through almost knee-deep water. A Rs 10-lakh project for improving the storm water drainage had not yet been made fully functional, alleged Mr Chaman Lal. Though villagers said that power supply situation was slightly better, the same could not be said of water supply position. Almost half of the village area falling under the Kila Wala Mohalla, Hardial Wali Gali, Patti Walan da Mohalla received low pressure for the whole of summer season as the motor installed for the augmentation of water to these areas was allegedly of low horse power. Haphazard construction activity, often in violation of the building bye-laws, is continuing in the absence of any check as the bye-laws were not applicable to villages. The civic body's proposal to implement building bye-laws in villages is yet to the see the light of the day. Roads in the village are no better. But worse is the digging roads and streets for laying telephone cables. The dug-up roads were not repaired for months together, villagers complained. The villagers demanded that as dairy farming was principal occupation of a number of residents after the acquisition of their land, the administration should have provided them alternative sites before imposing the ban on keeping milch cattles. The encroachment on government land is common. Though villagers claimed that the "phirni"of the village extended up to the road separating the village from Sector 45 and 46, the temporary and permanent structures had come up right up to road berms. The distribution of mail
is erratic. For the whole of the village and Colony No 5
there is only one postman and one other employee.
Similarly, though the school in the village had been
upgraded to the higher secondary level, the staff posted
in the school is far from adequate. The school also lacks
other facilities like science laboratory, and library. |
Eight councillors elect their
own leader CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — The BJP party in the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh (MCC), virtually split last night with a group of seven councillors,besides the expelled party councillor, Mr O. P. Goel, owing allegiance to the local MP, Mr Satya Pal Jain, electing their own leader in the civic body. At a meeting here late last night, the councillors — Mr Prem Sagar Jain, Mr R.L. Arora, Mr Kanhaiya Lal, Air Marshal R.S. Bedi (Retd), Mrs Kamla Sharma, Mr Kewal Krishan, Mr Goel and Mr Bachan Singh elected Mr Arora as the leader of the party and Mr Kanhaiya Lal as secretary of the party. They replaced Mr Des Raj Tandon as they said "they have lost faith in him." The meeting urged the Mayor, Mr Gian Chand Gupta, to step down immediately otherwise they would be forced to take the unpleasant step of replacing him hinting that they might bring the no-confidence motion against him if the expulsion of Mr Goel was not revoked. Earlier these councillors had urged the party president, Mr Dharam Pal Gupta, to replace Mr Tandon and also urge the Mayor to step down as they had lost faith in the leadership of both leaders. They alleged that prestige of the party had gone down due to "one-sided, anti-people and authoritarian misdeeds" of the Mayor. The action of Jain group is being seen as setback for the Gian Chand Gupta group as the party leadership had failed to take any action against the "open revolt" by party councillors. Besides, this had given a severe blow to the "disciplined" image of the party. Mr Dharam Pal Gupta, when contacted, only said that a report on last night's developments would be sent to the party high command either tonight or tomorrow morning. The high command's decision would be final in this matter. The party did not recognise the new party leader and Mr Tandon remained the party leader, he added Meanwhile, the committee constituted to review the paid parking system may not submit its report by the deadline set for it — October 10-following last night's developments. The Mayor at one of the press conferences had said that a special meeting of the MCC could be called to take a decision on the implementation of the paid parking system. Sources said that the
Mayor might not call a meeting of the civic body before
October 10 as he was on a slippery wicket.
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20 questions in exam repeated CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — At least 20 objective-type questions in two sets out of the four were repeated in the examination for the post of Assistant Municipal Engineer and Assistant Trust Engineer conducted by the Directorate of Local Governments, Punjab, held on Sunday. This happened in the question paper of civil engineering (objective type) held in the afternoon session. Talking to the TNS today, candidates alleged that in sets A and C the questions at serial numbers 1-20 were repeated at numbers 51-70. This meant that while students who received sets B and D attempted 100 questions while those received other two sets attempted only 80, a candidate pointed out. Officials concerned at the venue in Sectors 26 and 22 expressed their inability to help the candidates. Candidates also expressed their reservation over the general standard of the test. They have demanded
officials' intervention in the matter. |
SAD demands Governor's recall CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — The local unit of the Shiromani Akali Dal has demanded the immediate recall of the Governor of Punjab-cum-Administrator of Chandigarh for his "indifferent attitude" towards the demand of the Dal. According to Mr Gurpartap Singh Riar, president of the local unit of the Dal, members of the executive committee of the unit, who met yesterday, criticised the role of the Administrator for ignoring all genuine legitimate demands of the Dal that were submitted to him in a memorandum long ago. Even the Dal has not been given representation in any of the advisory councils and committees of the Administration. Mr Riar said that though neighbouring Haryana had taken a decision as regards introduction of Punjabi, the Chandigarh Administration was yet to take a decision on this. The Dal also demanded that
all those officers who have completed their tenures in
the Administration should be repatriated to their parent
states and new officers should be taken on deputation to
infuse new life in the local governance. |
Five suspects seek bail CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr S.S. Lamba, will hold court in the highsecurity Burail jail for hearing arguments on the question of framing charges against suspects in the jail blow-up conspiracy case. Meanwhile, four suspects Satnam Singh, Baljit Singh, Jawant Singh and Jaswinder Singh today moved their applications for bail. Mr Lamba will hear arguments on these applications on that day. Jaspal Singh Dhillon, another suspect in the case, also moved an application for bail in the court of Mr G.S. Sandhu, Additional Sessions Judge. Mr Sandhu fixed this
application for arguments on October 12. |
Bar to file case against
Mohali police CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — The Chandigarh District Bar Association today condemned what it described as "illegal and contemptuous act" of the Mohali police in ill-treating Mr Arunjeev Walia, a lawyer. Mr Walia had gone to the P.S. Central Police Station, Mohali, with orders of the court for meeting a suspect who was in police custody. The bar association also
decided to file a criminal complaint against the Mohali
police in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. |
Conviction of cop upheld CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — Mr A.S. Garg, Sessions Judge, Ambala, today upheld the conviction and sentence passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Panchkula, against a constable Pala Ram. The constable, according to the facts of the case, had been convicted of sodomy with a 17-year-old college student at Panchkula by forcibly taking him away from the college on September 6, 1994. The accused had slapped the boy and threatened him with dire consequences if he told anybody about it. The CJM, Mr V.P. Gupta, on
August 26 last sentenced the constable to rigorous
imprisonment for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs 500
under Section 377, IPC. |
Seminar
today on N-tests PANCHKULA, Oct 6 — The Zila Patarkar Parishad, Panchkula, is organising a seminar on "Nuclear tests — a need of the hour or a race" at Red Bishop Hotel here tomorrow. The leader of the
opposition in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Mr Om Prakash
Chautala, will be the chief guest. Other speakers on the
panel are Mr B.R. Jaitely, Colonel P.K. Vasudeva and Dr
Raj Mohini Sethi. |
Enrolment
drive by Congress PANCHKULA, Oct 6 — The District Congress Committee launched an enrolment drive at Bhagwanpur village in Barwala block near here yesterday. At a function organised at the village, the local MLA, Mr Chander Mohan, alleged that the district administration instead of concentrating on development activities was harassing workers of the Congress. He condemned the
deteriorating law and order situation. Mr Sanjeev Chopra
and Mr Anil Pangotra, local leaders were also present. |
Levy sugar
quota raised CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — The Chandigarh Administration has raised the quantum of levy sugar to 900 gm per unit against the ration cards for the month of October. According to the Food and Supplies department, this has been done in view of the coming festival season. The normal quota is 600
gm. |
Training
for tribal women in saving grains CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — The regional Save Grain Campaign office, Chandigarh, started a 10-day special stipendary training programme for tribal women at Naurangabad in Sirmaur district yesterday. Dr S.R. Singla, Assistant Regional Director of the campaign, said here today that modern storage structure was essential in the house of every farmer to minimise loss of foodgrain when stored conventionally. Usually foodgrains suffer due to the attack of harmful insects, rodents, birds and micro-organisms. As many as 50 tribal women
are participating in the programme. |
Ration card through voter I-card CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — The Chandigarh Administration will provide ration cards to those who have voter identity cards but until now had been unable to provide a surrender or deletion certificate. Sources in the Food and Supplies Department said all that a person had to do was to submit is an application, an attested photocopy of the voter identity card and an affidavit, solemnly declaring that for reasons beyond his control (mentioning the reason), he was unable to submit the requisite certificates and affirm that he was not drawing any PDS items from another state. The ration cards are
provided in 10 days if the antecedents are true,
following verification by the area inspector of the
department, they claimed. |
Passport
applications processed CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — The local Regional Passport Office has processed all the applications that were submitted till July 21 and had been found complete in all respects. This information was given
by the RPO in its weekly report on the status of passport
applicants for the week ended September 30. |
Horticulture staff hold rally CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — Members of the Horticulture Workers Union held a rally in support of their demands in front of the office of the Executive Engineer, Division No II, here today. Mr Hem Raj, general secretary of the union, said that the engineer had promised to get their demands accepted but nothing had been done so far. The main demands of the
union are that work-charged employees must be treated as
regular ones and confirmation of the services of regular
workers. Besides this, the arrears should be released at
the earliest. |
Date
extended CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — The last date of registration for the national standard examination in physics (NSEP) and the national graduate physics examination (NGEP) has been extended from October 5 to October 20. This was conveyed in a
press note to the Indian Association of Physics Teachers
here today. |
CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 —A man received burns while another died after two days of his consuming an overdose of medicine and a woman was admitted to the PGI after she consumed a medicine accidentally in the past 24 hours. Dalbir Singh of Dadu Majra was admitted to the PGI with burns. In his late twenties, he, reportedly forgot to extinguish a beedi he was smoking before he went to sleep. He was admitted to the PGI. Satbir, a 19-year-old youth, who was admitted to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32 , after he consumed an overdose of medicines died today. Pooja, 23, was admitted to the PGI for taking an overdose of medicines House burgled: The home of a Dhanas resident , Jagdish, was burgled while he had gone out of station. The thieves decamped with gold and silver jewellery besides a sum of Rs 45000 in cash. Snatched: A Mani Majra-based couple and their daughter allegedly snatched a gold chain, a pager and Rs 500 from a woman of the same locality. The police has registered a case under Sections 323, 442, 356 and 506 IPC, against Hari Chand and his wife and daughter. Injured: A pedestrian, Shiv Shankar, was injured when he was hit by car driven by Mohinder Singh Gill. The car driver was arrested and the injured was admitted to a hospital. Stolen: A motor
cycle owned by Atul Kulkarni was reportedly stolen from
Sector 17. |
Lakhvinder's plea dismissed CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — The Sessions Judge, Mr B.S. Bedi, today dismissed as withdrawn an application moved by Lakhvinder Singh, one of the suspects in the Beant Singh assassination case, seeking bail for meeting his grandmother. The CBI told the court
today that the grandmother of Lakhvinder Singh had
already expired. Therefore, he had taken a false plea
that he wanted to meet his grandmother. |
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