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Wednesday, September 16, 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, September 16, 1998 |
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 An activist introduces his organisation's agenda for the coming campus council elections to a student of Panjab University on Tuesday. — A Tribune photo by Manoj Mahajan Randhawa allowed to contest
poll Police
remand of engineers extended Minister
opens dispensary |
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Engineers’ Day celebrated |
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Telephone
rent to go up Philatelic
advisory panel recast
Carver is AIAIA city chief 16
detained in Panchkula ‘Treat
young as fellow adults’ Sartaj
Gill gets bail |
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Randhawa allowed to contest poll CHANDIGARH , Sept 15 — The election tribunal of Panjab University today allowed Dyal Pratap Singh Randhawa of the Students Organisation of Panjab University to contest the coming campus council elections on September 18 . The NSUI-PUSU-HSA alliance and the ABVP had filed objections to Randhawa contesting as president of the council. The decision was taken after more than four hours of deliberations, sources said. The Panjab University Students' Union has given indications of approaching the high court against this decision. An office-bearer of PUSU said they were not even given a copy of the decision . The main rivals of the organisation, PUSU-NSUI-HSA alliance and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad had filed objections separately against his name. Both organisations alleged that since Dyal Pratap Randhawa was named in the FIR of the stripping incident which occurred at the Student Centre last year under a non-bailable section of the IPC, he was ineligible to contest the elections . The ABVP in a written objection said the University Calendar Volume III provides that a candidate who was "accused in a non-bailable offence" is ineligible to contest. It further provides that a student who brings "bad name to the university by his misconduct on or outside the campus" was also ineligible . The ABVP also alleged that Randhawa did not possess the degree of the the previous class. Randhawa said the allegations were made by the rivals merely to divert the attention from the campaign. The tribunal after going through legal and technical aspects of the issue allowed Randhawa to contest the elections, sources said. The tribunal is also understood to have rejected at least two nominations. One of the candidates who was rejected was suspended from his department for six days , it is reliably learnt . The battle of displaying flags continued for the second day in succession with SOPU and the NSUI-HSA-PUSU alliance joining in to outsmart the ABVP in terms of numbers of the flags and banners on the campus. Enthusiasm was writ large on the faces of students when candidates went to file their nominations in various departments in the morning. Campaigning on the campus as compared to the previous year was not much. The Punjab Students' Organisation also announced its candidates for the elections. Shashi Pal Ratra has been named of the post of president; Nitin Kaura for vice-president; Balwinder Singh for secretary; and Sarmad Sharif for joint-secretary. The organisation is a voice against aimless politics, an office-bearer said. The chairman of the election campaign committee of the NSUI, Gurwinder Singh Grewal, in a press note said understanding with PUSU and the HSA was only till the elections. Further cooperation would be issue-based. Meanwhile, students of the evening college went on strike against refusal of permission for elections. Tomorrow is the last date for withdrawal. Tomorrow proceedings will be an open house at the Student Centre which will be addressed by two members from each panel. PUSU alleged that a proper
procedure was not followed in nominations of GGDSD
College. A similar allegation was made in case of the
GCG, Sector 42. The Principal, Mrs Mohini Sharma, said
those who were complaining had come after the scheduled
timings. |
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Transfer of DSPs soon CHANDIGARH, Sept 15— The transfer of 16 Inspectors, including six Station House Officers, of the Chandigarh Police yesterday has sent the right signals among the force, while the much-awaited transfer of Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs) is to take place in a few days. Meanwhile another batch of Sub-Inspectors and Assistant Sub-Inspectors are likely to be reshuffled, according to highly placed sources in the police. In the past four days the police authorities have shuffled 16 Inspectors. Besides this a total of 64 SIs and ASIs have been shifted from one place to another in an unprecedented move. The transfer of DSPs is on the cards and should have been ordered this week, sources said. However, certain officials are of the opinion that the reshuffle of SHOs and posting of new officials would break the continuity in maintaining law and order. Thus the DSPs should not be moved till Dasehra that falls on October 1. The Inspector-General of Police, Mr R. P. Singh, said: "The transfers are routine and were ordered as many of the transferred officials had completed their tenures at their present positions." On the other hand, the reshuffle has sent the correct signals as many new officials have been given a chance to handle " important" posts, opined a middle-level official. The idea of the authorities to avoid transferring the SHOs from one police station to another has been well received. The authorities in the past used to order transfer of SHOs by just swapping their places. This resulted in "unexposure to crime at police station level" for the other Inspectors, an official said. The same yardstick is likely to be applied in the case of DSPs. The transfer in case of DSPs is being decided by the Chandigarh Administration. In the past seven years, only two DSPs have handled key positions of DSP, Central Division, and DSP, East Division. They were ordered to swap places some three years ago while eight other DSPs have been "sidelined" to non-important positions. The present DSP, South Division, joined around two years ago at the present post. Senior officials in the Chandigarh Administration are keen on giving other officials in the DSP cadre a chance to handle important assignments. Large-scale transfers have resulted in many of the Inspectors, SIs and ASIs, who have been handling inconsequential postings, getting a chance at the police station level. Atleast three Inspectors— Mr Ajaib Singh, Mr S.S. Rana and Mr Kultar Singh—will handle postings of SHOs for the first time. Many of the SIs and ASIs
who have been transferred out of police stations had been
occupying their positions for several years. Most of them
have been transferred to inconsequential places under the
"rotation scheme" of transfers implemented by
the Chandigarh Police authorities. |
Police remand of engineers
extended CHANDIGARH, Sept 15 — The Judicial Magistrate, Mr Jasbir Singh, today extended the police remand of Sadhu Singh and K.K. Salgothra, Executive Engineer and Junior Engineer of the Chandigarh Administration, respectively, by one day. Both of them were arrested by the vigilance department in connection with the kickbacks case registered against certain officials of the engineering department. The prosecution pleaded with the magistrate that they were to recover three ceiling fans from Sadhu Singh. These were given to him by the alleged middleman, Sunil Kalia. As for Salgothra, the prosecution contended that he maintained a diary about the exact amount received from the middlemen. The amount was to be recovered from his in-laws in Saharanpur. The defence counsel, on the other hand, argued that the prosecution was using the provisions of the law with a view to harassing the accused persons. They had curbed the liberty of the suspects on frivilous grounds. He told the magistrate that the applicants had been in police custody for four days. However, the prosecution had failed to recover anything from them. In a rare gesture of solidarity with their colleagues, a large number of officials of the Administration reached the courtroom when the remand proceedings were in progress. They threatened that if the Administration did not release the arrested persons, they would go on two days’ mass leave from September 17. They also demanded
immediate reinstatement of the suspended persons. |
Tankers supply unsafe water CHANDIGARH, Sept 15 — In the absence of any check by the civic authorities, private water tanker operators continue to make a fast buck by reportedly supplying unsafe water endangering the health of the public. The authorities have been advocating a ban on the supply of water without being chlorinated and tested for diseases. At present tankers are reportedly filled from uncertified and untested sources, mostly from tubewells. Since groundwater is not fit for consumption without proper treatment, the danger of an outbreak of diseases is on the high side. Moreover, tubewells from where the water is supplied have been sunk without clearance of the local administration and are operating illegally. The ban had been imposed as the groundwater table in the city and its surrounding had registered a substantial fall. Some water tanker operators told TNS that a blanket ban would only create problems for the common man as the civic authorities did not have the requisite number of water tankers to meet the needs of the city. They said all precautions were taken by them to ensure that the water do not have any impurities and was totally safe. They, however, could not spell out the methods followed to achieve the same. An operator said that he periodically got the water tested from a private laboratory and pointed out that the groundwater was safe. If the entire rural population could drink tubewell water and still remain immune to diseases, there was nothing wrong with its consumption by the urban folks. The lucrativeness of the business could be judged from the fact that the number of stands from where the water tankers could be hired have increased in various parts of the city and villages. Senior officers of the corporation had decided some months ago that while a fee would be levied for using government land for parking, the issue of ensuring the potability of water would be referred to a committee. Senior officials of the
corporation were not available for comments. |
Engineers’ Day celebrated CHANDIGARH, Sept 15 — The Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh state centre of the Institute of Engineers organised a function in connection with the 31st Engineers' Day here today. Major-Gen R.R. Oberoi (retd), Chairman of the Bhakra-Beas Management Board, while calling Dr M. Visvesvaraya a man of vision, said: "Total quality approach is required to be invoked in the multi-disciplinary aspect of the problems to meet the challenges of the future". He said earlier the engineers were always trained for planning, design and construction of projects with the sole aim of serving society. But now the engineers were mostly trained, concentrating on their own speciality without adequate appreciation of other related components of the system. Mr R.S. Gill said without incorporating the concept of "total quality" in their fields the engineers would find it difficult to do justice to their profession. Discussing the topic from the point of view of completing gigantic projects like the Bhakra Dam, where the engineers had to take spontaneous decisions, depending upon different moods of the nature, Mr Jagman Singh said it was the "total quality" approach which was useful to the executors and planners of such projects. Mr Manjit Singh highlighted the achievements of the Indian aerospace programme by giving examples from the PSLV project with which he was associated at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd in Bangalore. Mr A.S. Balhotra, Regional Director of the National Productivity Council, spoke about the role played by various engineering organisations in promoting the "total quality" control in various educational institution and industries. Engineers’ Day was celebrated by CPWD Junior Engineers’ Association as a recognition of the services of Dr Visvesvaraya, the only engineer to be awarded the Bharat Ratna. A blood donation camp in
Kendriya Sadan was organised. |
Student stabbed in Panchkula PANCHKULA, Sept 15 — A student of the local Government College was seriously injured after he was stabbed by a group of about 10 persons on the college premises here this morning. The victim, Irshad, a student of the B.A III, was standing along with his fellow students when the miscreants, reportedly armed with knives and other crude weapons, barged into the college and stabbed him. Another student, Parmod, who was accompanying the victim, also received abberations in the melee. According to the information available, at least seven students of the college were among the persons involved in the incident. The officiating principal of the college, Ms S. Malhotra, said eight students of the college — Baljeet Singh, Hardeep, Om Singh, Varinder Kumar, Jinder Anand, Pawan Duhan, Sudhir Kumar, all students of B.A III, and Deepak Sharma, a student of B.Com III — had been suspended. She said nearly 20 persons, including some outsiders barged their way into the college around 10.30 a.m. after the third period of the day had ended. The miscreants then dragged Irshad and one of them stabbed him in stomach. A profusely bleeding Irshad was then taken to the local civil hospital to give him first-aid before he was moved to the PGI in Chandigarh. She said the name of the college students accompanying the miscreants, who had been identified by eyewitness, had been given to the police. After the incident, teaching work was suspended for the day. The police has booked seven boys — Hardeep, Umesh Sood, Neeraj, Pawan, Sudhir, Dharinder and Dharminder — all students of the college for their alleged involvement in the incident. A case under Sections 148, 149, 323, 324, 307 and 506 of the IPC has been registered against the college students, said a police official. No arrests have been made. The condition of the injured student who was admitted to the PGI is reported to be stable. The local MLA, Mr Chander
Mohan, has condemned the stabbing incident. |
Minister opens dispensary SAS NAGAR, Sept 15 — A large sum has been earmarked to provide latest equipment in the local Civil Hospital so that people need not go to the PGI, Chandigarh. Mr Inderjit Singh Zira, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, said this after inaugurating a Civil dispensary in Phase V here today. In an unusual step, residents of the area got the building constructed after raising funds of their own. The dispensary had been named Dharana Bhavan. Mr Zira said the dispensary would be cleared officially and there would be no medicines shortage. He announced a grant of Rs 31,000 for the dispensary from his discretionary funds. The minister said medicines worth over Rs 12 crore were purchased for hospitals last year. He lamented that out of the budget of Rs 450 crore of the health corporation, 75 per cent went towards staff salaries, leaving very little for other purposes. The Ropar Civil Surgeon, Dr Rajinder Singh, said the Phase VI hospital had been upgraded to 200 beds and work on the extension of the building would begin in December. This work would be over within 16 months. Doctors’ residential quarters would also be constructed. He highlighted the problem of civil dispensaries located in the town and said the Phase II dispensary had been shifted to Phase V. No land had been earmarked for dispensaries in Phase I, II, and X. The Phase I dispensary was being run in small rented accommodation which the landlord now wanted vacated. The Phase X dispensary, he said, was running in the Phase IX dispensary building. The SDM, Mr M.P. Arora, urged the health authorities to provide a civil dispensary in Phase II also. Ms Daljit Kaur, MLA
(Kharar), Ms Satwant Kaur Sandhu, MLA Chamkaur Sahib), Mr
Harinder Pal Singh Billa, President, Municipal Council,
and Mr Amrik Singh Mohali, MC, also spoke. |
Sectional officers meet Adviser CHANDIGARH, Sept 16 — A deputation of the UT Sectional Officers’ Union met the Adviser to the Administrator here and submitted a memorandum to him with regard to arrest of engineers in the kickback case. According to Mr Avtar Singh, general secretary of the union, because of the arrests, many posts have fallen vacant in the department affecting the work. Union members suggested way to improve the efficiency. Arrests of engineers without any proof of their involvement should be stopped, they said. Mr Avtar Singh said some
representatives of the ministerial staff and engineers of
the electrical circle approached the union with a
decision to go on mass casual leave on September 17 and
18 in case the arrested persons were not released by
then. |
Telephone rent to go up CHANDIGARH, Sept 15 — The bimonthly telephone rent will go up by Rs 90 in the city and between Rs 50 to 70 for village subscribers of the union territory. A decision to this effect was taken today. The new rate will be charged in the forthcoming bills of subscribers. The bimonthly rent is at
present Rs 275. The rent varies for rural exchanges. |
Carver is AIAIA city chief CHANDIGARH, Sept 15 — Mr Harold Carver, Principal of St Stephen’s School, has been elected president of the newly formed Chandigarh branch of the All-India Anglo-Indian Association (AIAIA). The elections were held in the presence of Mr N.A. O’Brien, president of the AIAIA. Also present was the assistant general secretary of the national body, Mr S. De Costa. The others elected to the Chandigarh branch executive were Mrs J. Saupin (vice-president), Mr J. Norman (honorary secretary), Mr V. de Rozario (educational secretary) and Mr B. Phillips (treasurer). Mr O’Brien lauded the
community’s contribution in the fields of education,
defence, railways, nursing and sports. He reminded the
Anglo-Indians that they were Indians first. This is the
first city branch to be set up in the country. |
Philatelic advisory panel recast CHANDIGARH, Sept 15 — The union government has reconstituted the Philatelic Advisory Committee to apprise the government of matters pertaining to postage stamps and philately and such other matters as may be referred to it from time to time. The Union Communications Minister, Mrs Sushma Swaraj, will be the chairperson of the committee. Mr Kabindra Purkayastha, Minister of State for Communications, will be the co-chairman. The committee has four officials and 28 non-official members. Mr Satya Pal Jain, local MP, Mr P. Upendra, Mr Rajnath Singh, Mr Shekhar Gupta, Ms Shobana Bhartiya, Ms Dayanita Singh, Ms Nalini Kamaini, Mr Vikramjit Singh Sahni, Gen K.P. Candeth, Mr Gopinath Gajapati, Mr Swaraj Parkash and Mr Trishala Jain are among the non-official members. Besides, secretaries of
the Sahitya Academy, the Sangeet Natak Academy, and the
Lalit Kala Academy; directors of the National Museum, the
National Gallery of Modern Art, Nehru Memorial Museum and
Library, the National Institute of Design; the chairman
of Indian Council of Historical Research and the
Principal, Delhi College of Arts, are other non-official
members of the committee. |
16 detained in Panchkula PANCHKULA, Sept 15 — In the wake of the strike call given by the Haryana Karamchari Mahasangh and workers union of the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) atleast 16 persons have been taken in custody from different parts of the district. The administration has
made security arrangements to thwart attempts by
agitationists to disrupt essential services. |
‘Treat young as fellow
adults’ CHANDIGARH Sept 15 — A four- day refresher programme "Youth development: the emerging challenges", for Commonwealth youth programme diplomats and alumni started at the Sector 12, Commonwealth Asia Centre here today. Delegates from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and representatives from different states of the country are participating in the programme. Addressing the gathering after inaugurating the programme,the Adviser to the Administrator, Mr Jagdish Sagar, said that young people should be treated as fellow adults. "Once, our approach towards the youth is positive, most of our social problems are diminished,"he added. He said the gap between
the young and the old was increasing as the youth had an
access to latest information. |
Sartaj Gill gets bail CHANDIGARH, Sept 15 — The Additional Sessions Judge today granted bail to Sartaj Gill, NSUI campus union president, who allegedly accompanied Kuljit Singh Nagra, a Senator of Panjab University, at the time of firing incident that took place outside the Punjabi department. The judge ordered Sartaj Gill to furnish a bond of Rs 20,000, apart from one surety of the like amount. He was arrested by the local police. After the police remand,
he was sent to judicial lock-up. |
CHANDIGARH, Sept 15—The malaria wing of the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh (MCC), today organised one-day training programme for laboratory technicians and multi-purpose workers working in various malaria clinics The programme, organised to equip the laboratory technicians with latest developments in the spot examination of blood slides and investigation of disease, was conducted by experts from General Hospital, Sector 16, and Central Government. Inaugurating the programme, Dr Alka Kothari, Senior Regional Director of the Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, stressed the need to strengthen the laboratory services for early detection and treatment of the diseases. Dr S.S. Cheema, Assistant Director (Malaria), said for the prevention of transmission of diseases it was essential to improve the blood slide examination capabilities of the laboratory staff. The Deputy Mayor, Ms Harjinder Kaur, presented a research paper at seminar on "Empowering women in democracy for good governance" held at Glasgow in the UK recently. In her paper, she
advocated that literacy programme for women should be
made mandatory from the grassroots level. She said only
literate women when empowered could give
"corruption-free" governance. |
CHANDIGARH: Masks have never been the subject for a solo exhibition. They are always thought of as difficult and unusual. This barrier has been broken by an 18-year-old girl who has just made her debut as an artist. Kavita Singh, daughter of a very well-known name in the art circle of the city, Satwant Singh is determined to follow in her father's footsteps. As such, people would have very high expectations from this lass. Has she been able to fulfil them? She has and that too with a flourish. It took three months for Kavita to prepare for her show. She chose masks because "they perpetuate living art traditions both in India and abroad. History of masks dates back to the Indus Valley Civilisation. The pottery belonging to that era has motifs which resemble masks". According to her, they serve two purposes — to express and to beautify. In olden days it signified victory of good over evil. The colours used also have symbolic importance — white stands for peace, yellow for fire and heat, blue for sky and infinity. In Kavita's view, "We can change the form but cannot change the symbolic meaning of the colour". The remarkable feature of these creations is that they have been created out of waste material using papier mache technique. She has used old newspapers, wheat flour starch, threads, wool, jute, polythene bags, empty Dalda tins and cans and "katories". The exhibits displayed can be divided into four categories. The first section has masks of different countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Tibet, China. The second section derives subjects from Indian mythology — Ganesha, Kali, Shiva, Krishna, Hanuman and Ravana. African masks used for ritualistic dances and hunting with leather and wood finish showing warrior heads and animals constitute the third classification. The last division has contemporary masks made of metal sheets in relief work, depicting stylised Negro heads and demon like images of corruption, pollution and terrorism. The demon of corruption is wearing a Gandhian cap, denoting idols of Gandhi but is holding a Rs 100 note offered to him as bribe. It is heartening to see such a young person, who is doing her graduation in finearts come up with such a high calibre products. The exhibition will be open until September 30 at Indus Ind Art Gallery, Sector 8. —Priti Verma
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