M A I N   N E W S

Neeru Nanda new Adviser to Chandigarh Admn
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 11 — The Chairperson of the Chandigarh Housing Board, Ms Neeru Nanda, has been appointed Adviser to the Chandigarh Administration.

An order to this effect was issued by the Department of Personnel under the Union Home Ministry here today, official sources said.

Ms Nanda, an IAS officer of the 1971 AGMU cadre, will replace Ms Vineeta Rai, who is being appointed Additional Secretary in the Central Government’s Department of Urban Development.

“Ms Rai, an IAS officer of the 1968 AGMU cadre, presently posted as Adviser to the Chandigarh Administration, has been placed at the disposal of the Central Government to be posted as Additional Secretary in the Department of Urban Development,” the order said.

Amritsar, Chandigarh coldest
Tribune News Service and UNI

CHANDIGARH, Jan 11 — The northwest continued to shiver as the cold wave sweeping across the region intensified further today with mercury plummeting by 3 to 10°C while dense fog once again hit the rail, road and air services.

The cold wave in the northeast region has already claimed 11 lives, six in the city, three in Punjab and one each in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

Around 70 Ladakh-bound passengers were stranded here as the Indian Airlines’ Chandigarh-Leh flight was cancelled for the second time in two days because of zero visibility caused by dense fog. The Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar-Delhi hopper flight, too, was cancelled because of fog.

The weathermen predicted not much change in the prevailing cold wave conditions and forecasted isolated light to moderate rains in Himachal Pradesh and light to moderate rains at isolated places in Punjab during the next 48 hours. Ground frost too was likely to occur at isolated places in Punjab and Haryana during this period.

In and around the union territory of Chandigarh minimum and maximum temperatures dipped by 6°C and 10°C to 1°C and 9°C respectively, making it the second coldest place in the plains after Amritsar. Amritsar stayed coldest with the low 0.7°C., three degrees below normal.

The city had same level of temperatures on January 14, 1997 in the past one decade.

Ambala in Haryana with the low of 2.5°C, four degrees below normal was the other colder place in plains followed by Ludhiana (Punjab) reporting the minimum of 3.2°C., three degrees below normal. Rohtak (2.8°C), Hisar (3.8°C) Patiala (4.0°C) were the other colder places in the plains.

Srinagar and its surrounding areas in the Kashmir valley saw the minimum dipping to -7°C, five degrees below normal, while state’s winter capital Jammu recorded the low at 4.7°C, three degrees below normal.

Bhuntar in Himachal Pradesh reported the low of -2°C, three degrees below normal while state capital Shimla registered some improvement in the minimum rising to 4.2°C, two degrees above normal. Sundernagar too reported the minimum of 0.5°C.

However, Siachen continued to be the coldest region in the higher altitudes with the low hovering around -46 °C below freezing point followed by Leh in Jammu and Kashmir and adjoining tribal belt in Himachal Pradesh with -17°C to -14°C.

Dense fog, right from Udhampur and Jammu to Suratgarh in Rajasthan and Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh disrupted normal movement of train services which ran one to four hours behind schedule. The vehicular traffic in the region moved at a snail’s pace with headlights on till around mid-day.