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| Wednesday,
March 14, 2001, Chandigarh, India |
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Kiosks removed in Sector 15 Chandigarh, March 13 The eviction orders were carried out by the Estate Office staff. The khokha owners of readymade garments and vegetables themselves took away the angle irons and tin sheets of the
khokhas. Despite some resistance, the staff was able to remove the same from there by the evening. The appeal of the khokha owners, who did not figure in the list of about 200 booth
allottees, was rejected by the Finance Secretary, who is also the Chief Administrator. Meanwhile, 15 routine challans were issued in Sectors 11 to the dhaba owners in the rehri market, who had encroached upon the MC land by blocking the public passages by putting extra benches, tables and chairs. |
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Inferior material used in PGI Nursing Institute:
report Chandigarh, March 13 This follows reports that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) found that some of the materials used in the building were of an inferior quality and did not meet the standards set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The building was to be completed within 24 months after its initiation in 1998 and was said to be one of the biggest nursing projects of North India. However, due to certain reasons the building could not be completed on time. According to the official spokesperson of IDMA Laboratories Limited, Chandigarh, the samples were sent by the Assistant Engineer Civil II Subdivision II, PGI, on May 13 and May 15, 2000. The reports were delivered on May 25, 2000, after the officers of the department refused to collect these as results of these samples did not match their requirements, he said. When contacted, the PGI Superintendent Hospital Engineer, Mr G.S. Rosha, said that neither has the CVC marked any inquiry into the matter and nor has any substandard material been used in the construction. The CVC representatives visited the site in August, 2000, not on a complaint but as a routine visit and had raised certain observations which they had asked to be replied to, he added. Regarding the test report of the IDMA lab of material having failed the compressive strength and mix ratio as per the IS 14201, 1994, Mr Rosha said that this material had not even been used at the PGI Nursing Institute Building. “I have checked up with the Executive Engineer concerned,” he added. On the other hand, the IDMA report says the cement concrete channels marked ‘‘Ashoka’’ for compressive strength and mix ratio did not even meet the Indian standards, thereby failing sample test. Against the compressing strength of 150 kg/cm2, it was found to be 83.9 kg/cm2. The mix ratio of cement, sand and aggregate was 1:4.4:2.5 against 1:2:4. The cement concrete kerbs also failed the compressive strength and mix ratio test, he said. According to the laboratory, the aluminum samples which were sent for testing were also not found up to the mark, he said, while adding that on account of this, the PGI was yet to pay Rs 33,000 to the lab for conducting all the tests. The officials concerned are trying to brush aside the payment issue, because they know that the results of these samples do not meet the standards, said the IDMA lab representative. Incidentally, the CVC had reportedly sent certain observations on the reports of the test failure to the PGI and asked the administration to fix responsibility. When contacted, Prof S.K. Sharma, Director, PGI, said that he would like to conduct an inquiry into the matter. Incidentally, all important samples of the PGI are tested in the IDMA, a government-approved laboratory. Chandigarh, March 13 |
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Malhi for Canadian visa office in city Chandigarh, March 13 Incidentally, he was the first turbaned Sikh to enter Canada’s Parliament seven years ago. At present, there are five Indo-Canadians in the House of Commons. One of them, Mr Herb Dhaliwal, is a Federal Minister also. Mr Malhi came here as part of an official delegation led by Canada’s Minister for Citizenship and Immigration, Mrs Elinor Caplan, and stayed back in Punjab for some days before returning to New Delhi on his way back to Canada this morning. In a chat with The Tribune at the residence of the Punjab Education Minister, Mr Tota Singh Didarsinghwala, here last night, Mr Malhi said that he was not in the habit of making “claims” , maintaining that he “promises less but delivers more”. Referring to the upgradation of the Chandigarh trade office to a visa office, Mr Malhi said he and Mr Dhaliwal had taken up this issue with the Canadian Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the Foreign Minister besides the Citizenship and Immigration Minister. “I am not able to tell you the latest on the subject as I left the delegation after its brief visit to the city on March 7. The delegation visited Bangalore and Mumbai before returning to Canada on March 10. When I go back and meet the Citizenship and Immigration Minister, only then can I comment on the outcome of this visit,” he said maintaining that criticism of the Liberal government by an Opposition MP, Mr Gurmant Grewal, about the lack of “political will to upgrade the Chandigarh office” was perhaps misplaced. “I know what is happening now and what will happen next. Why should our government send its Minister and on all-party parliamentary delegation to India if it is not sincere about solving the problems of Indo-Canadians of Punjabi origin? Our Minister did meet the Minister of State for External Affairs in New Delhi,” he said, claiming that he had seen the reply sent by India’s Foreign Minister to Canada’s Foreign Minister in 1999 about the upgradation of the Chandigarh office. “I may reiterate that our demand is that the Chandigarh office should be upgraded to a visa office,” Mr Malhi said. He disclosed that after the delegation left Chandigarh, he had a long meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, and the Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, on the issue and had been promised full support by the Punjab Government. Once this office was upgraded, it would benefit people from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir besides those of Chandigarh, he added. He said the official delegation during its Indian visit reviewed all complaints and the working of the visa processing centres, both visitor and immigrant, in Delhi and Mumbai. At present, in the case of the spouse visa, if all documents were submitted in tim it took three to four months for the application to be processed. Talking about the new immigration and citizenship law, he said if all went well, the new law would be in place by January next year. Regarding the nomination filed by Ms G. Malhi as an Independent, he said that her nomination had the “forged signatures” of some of his supporters. He lodged a formal complaint with Elections Canada with sworn affidavits of those whose signatures had been forged. “Only last week, Elections Canada started an inquiry into my complaint,” he said. She had been fielded with an intention to harm him. “But we saw through their game and started a damage-control exercise in time”, Mr Malhi added. |
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Bomb hoax at District
Courts Chandigarh, March 13 Surprisingly, the court had got hoax calls many a times but the police has failed to nab the culprits. Sources in the Police Department said that the Police Control Room was informed by an advocate at about 10.15 a.m. that he had got call from an unknown person that a bomb had been planted in the court premises. It may recalled that on January 31, the court work had been suspended for nearly one and half hour due to a hoax call. The very next day, the UT Additional and District Judge, a Senior police official, and the President of the District Bar Association had inspected the court premises and it was decided to enhance the security in the court complex. As a result one of the entrances of the court was closed and photography was strictly banned inside the court premises. Soon after receiving the information, about today’s incident police force including the Superintendent of Police, Mr H.G.S Dhaliwal, reached the spot. Advocates, employees and litigants were directed to leave and a special police force with sniffer dog and bomb detectors searched the court premises for about two hours. The President of District Bar Association, Mr N.K Nanda, when contacted said “some serious steps has to taken by the Administration as the bomb hoax has become a simple tool for the anti-social elements to disturb the court work. Talking to Chandigarh Tribune the litigants and advocates complained that some step has to taken by the court authorities and the Police Department to avoid such calls and to save the invaluable time of judges, advocates and employees. “As there are 19 courts, hundreds of litigants, advocates, employees are daily visiting of the courts. The Police Department and the District courts authorities must do something to ensure the safety of the visitors,” said Satinder Singh, an advocate. |
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Bottomline SAS Nagar, March 13 The increase in the number of kiosks has not brought in more revenue for the civic body, rather the MC has even failed to realise the ‘tehbazari’ (enforcement fee), running into lakhs of rupees, from shopkeepers of these markets. Shopkeepers of Phase I and Phase 3B1 markets have not paid the ‘tehbazari’ for the past over two years. Enforcement officials put the figure at about Rs 10 lakh. A kiosk attracts a premium of upto Rs 3 lakh, depending on its location. Owners of kiosks, who are called ‘pradhans’, fragment their temporary structure in two to three parts, depending on the ‘tehbazari’ receipts. It is possible that the MC officials issue bogus receipts. An FIR regarding the theft of official records of the Enforcement Wing by an employee has already been registered. The Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) conducted a survey and constructed booths in Phases X and XI for kiosk owners who were occupying its land. After announcing the list of successful applicants during the allotment, officials received information that certain bogus applicants had managed to enter their names into the list. PUDA has freezed the list. Sources in the civic body said the involvement of the enforcement staff in patronising this practise could be proved by the fact that in the year 1997-98, a resolution had been adopted by officials to allow the transfer of the ownership of a kiosk on a payment of Rs 5,000. While the council was not able to recover its dues from kiosk owners, the permission to allow the transfer raised doubts. Sources said the records of at least 135 such cases had been kept under lock by a senior MC official. Mr Baljeet Singh, head of the Phase 3B1 market body, says that shopkeepers refuse to pay the ‘tehbazari’ to the council as it had failed to provide basic amenities here. “We had paid Rs 2.5 lakh to the council for issuing no-objection certificates to shopkeepers for obtaining power connections, but nothing was done for this purpose. The MC chiefs have never listened to our demand,” he said. He said he was not aware that the number of kiosks was increasing. Mr Kulwant Singh, President of the civic body, does not rule out the involvement of officials of the enforcement wing in this case. “I have asked for the records of upto 1997 from the Enforcement Wing to investigate how the kiosks have mushroomed,” he said. Col H.S. Sangha (retd), head of the Residents’ Welfare Association of Phase 3B1, who had taken up the matter with the local administration, said residents of Phase 3B1 houses facing the market were the worst hit by the unchecked growth of kiosks. The kiosk market has reached right upto the main road, leading to traffic chaos. The Deputy Commissioner of Ropar has been apprised of the situation. |
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READERS
WRITE THE Chandigarh Administration has not learnt any lesson from its experience with the rehabilitation schemes for the slums in Sector 31 and Industrial Area, Phase I. Chandigarh Tribune had last year highlighted that it would be a fruitless scheme. Now again Chandigarh News Service has given befitting comments on the subject The rehabilitation scheme is in fact neither in the interest of the residents of Chandigarh, nor of the Chandigarh Administration. There is no justification for spending crores of taxpayer’s money on such counter-productive plans. In the first phase of construction of Chandigarh, a large work force was required but now there is no logic in this scheme. Many houses constructed by the Chandigarh Administration earlier and allotted to slum-dwellers have either been sublet or sold at a premium. Repeating the same mistake will add to environmental pollution and create unhygienic conditions and health hazards in the city. The population of migrants is increasing at an alarming rate and needs to be controlled. Political leaders have been extending patronage to the migrants for swelling their vote banks. It is time for the Chandigarh Administration to take immediate steps to save the status of the City Beautiful by controlling the influx of migrants. Chandigarh Bant Singh
PU recruitment While the government is freezing all recruitments and is trying to reduce the number of its employees, it is shocking to see that Panjab University is still in the process of a special drive for the recruitment of SC and ST candidates. Admist a freeze on recruitment, this will lead to the degeneration of an already weakened system. This is not the time for populist measures. Government institutions, and the universities in particular, should devise means of attracting and retaining good talent. The extravaganza that compromises on quality has to end. Panchkula Rajesh Mittal
Festival of gardens The Rose Festival of yesteryears has become the Festival of Gardens. Stalls put up on Jan Marg during this festival have turned it into a street fair or a mela. The first casualty of this commercialisation has been the roses, and their fragrance. These stalls should be shifted to some other site so that the spirit the festival is maintained. A look at the stalls which come up year after year, would show that they have nothing new to offer. They only fill the coffers of the Administration, by overcrowd the road and cause traffic snarls. The Administration would be well advised to shift the bazaar part of the festival to the Parade Ground where usually such activities take place. Let us revive the old magic of the Rose Festival where roses were a thing of beauty and joy for ever. Chandigarh Harinder Mohan Singh |
Delay in formation of sub-panels hits Chandigarh, March 13 Though the Mayor had constituted these committees well within the prescribed time of one month and had even held elections for the post of chairman and vice-chairman of these committees, but the same were rejected by the House. The Mayor, Mr Raj Kumar Goyal, when contacted said that the BJP-SAD councillors, who by virtue of their majority got the said committees dissolved and formed the five-member sub-committee should call the meeting to form these committees again. He is just a member of the sub-committee and not supposed to convene a meeting as a Mayor. It may be recalled that even during the tenure of the former Mayor, Ms Shanta Hit Abhilashi, these committees were constituted after 4-5 months and even then two sub-committees were not constituted namely the Legal Affairs Committee and the Electricity Committee. Meanwhile, the BJP councillor, Mr Gian Chand Gupta, blames the Mayor for the unnecessary delay in the constitution of these committees for if the Mayor had not misused his powers and given fair representation to all the councillors as per a resolution passed earlier by the House, there was no need to constitute them again. Even now since he happens to be a member of the sub-committee, he could have convened a meeting and finalised the members. However, now we plan to meet in the next 2-3 days to give shape to these committees, thereby giving adequate representation to all the coucillors.. He admitted that works pertaining to recarpeting of roads and horticulture were suffering since small estimates of less than Rs 10 lakh were approved in these sub-committees. Another BJP councillor, Mr R.L Arora, attributed the delay to two reasons. Firstly, we were waiting to hear from the Administration regarding formation of rules as sought by a Congress councillor and secondly they thought the Mayor would call a meeting. But now they plan to take the initiative of convening a meeting in the next few days. Major-Gen (retd) Rajinder Nath is of the view that the mutual bickerings amongst the councillors of both parties were definitely hampering developmental works, since the power to do these works is virtually being handed over to the officials.. There was no need to reconstitute these sub-committees and the ones formed by the Mayor could have continued with certain amendments. He further pointed out that works approved by the F and CC, which only has seven members and just four councillors, besides the Mayor and two officials, were being considered while most other councillors are unable to raise their views on any public issue in the absence of sub-committees. These sub-committees take up the approval and progress of routine works in various sectors and set priorities for the same. |
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Special drive to trace
missing persons Chandigarh, March 13 This decision was taken during the monthly crime meeting taken by the Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr Parag Jain, here today. He has reportedly asked all Station House Officers (SHOs) posted in various police stations to compile a list of all the Daily Diary Report entries regarding the persons who are still missing and renew their efforts to find the missing persons in their respective areas. The SSP also asked his force to be strict with all the religious organisations who are using loudspeakers and adding to the noise pollution. The cops have been asked to confiscate the acoustic systems of any organisation or institution that refuses to accede to the pleas for prohibited use of loudspeakers. In another major decision, the SSP has divided the entire stretch of Madhya Marg from PGI to the railway light point into eight zones so as to ensure that this stretch remains encroachment and defacement free. A Sub-Inspector or an Assistant Sub Inspector of Police ( generally the beat in charge) would be made the in charge of each zone and has been asked to ensure that there is no encroachment or defacement. It has also been decided to launch the second phase of the alternate redressal of complaints scheme in the first week of April and the neighbourhood watch scheme in each subdivision of the city in the coming week. Meanwhile, the SSP also took stalk of the beat system , following the three murders in different parts of the city during the last month and a spate of burglaries and thefts. The various SHOs are learnt to have compiled a list of atleast 90 per cent of the senior residents residing in their respective areas alongwith the verification of their servants and the tenants. However, most SHOs in the northern police stations of the city are learnt to have complained to the SSP that the people residing here were not cooperating with them. |
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Madhan trial: SOE
‘not according’ to rule Chandigarh, March 13 Lt Col R.L. Tiwari of 603 ASC Battalion stated before the General Court Martial, which is trying Major Madhan for alleged dereliction of duty, that provisions of Army Rule 23 were not fully complied with during the recording of the SOE although at the time of the conclusion of the SOE he had certified otherwise. The statement has given a shot in the arm to the defence, which has been contending while challenging the jurisdiction of the court that there had been several pre-trial irregularities and that the SOE was not recorded in accordance with provisions of the Army Act. Colonel Tiwari is being examined as a defence witness. After his examination and cross examination were over, he was questioned by the court today. The witness stated that sub-sections of Army Rule 23, which deal with the procedure to be adopted while recording the SOE were not adopted. These included rules concerning taking down the evidence in presence of the accused, right of the accused to cross-question the witnesses and statements, if any the accused wishes to make on evidence given by a witness. Several other statements concerning disallowing the accused to put certain questions and not recording certain statements, made by the witness before the court today, proved to be contrary to statements given by him earlier. |
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Illegal use of Railways land Chandigarh, March 13 Even as commercial interests of the local people are taken care of, the Railways continue to lose money which could have come their way on account of rent if the same land is leased out to private parties. At the moment the land is being used by stone contractors to break rocks into small pieces used as rori in construction activity. The Railways is oblivious of the fact or its staff have chosen to ignore the misuse. The land being misused is located a little away from the site where goods from all over the country are off-loaded. Officials at the local railway station, when contacted, expressed their helplessness to comment and expressed ignorance if the land being used belonged to the Railways. |
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HUDA to set up new
club Panchkula, March 13 “In the club in Sector 6, our membership has crossed the 2,500-member mark and it was difficult to manage the increasing numbers. In order to give quality service, we have decided that the only solution to this is another club,” he added. The clubs set up by HUDA are done so on specific guidelines laid down by the department according to which members over 2,500 require setting up of another club as has been done in Gurgaon and Faridabad, where plans for the second club have already been finalised. To be set up on the lines of the already existing club in Sector 6, the new club will cost over Rs 1 crore and will come up in two phases. While HUDA will provide the basic infrastructure in the first phase, the second phase will see the development of swimming pool and courts for games available to members. The club in Sector 6 has a tennis court, a card room, a billiards room, a squash court, a carrom room and table-tennis facilities in addition to the swimming pool at the premises. It is learnt that the new club will house all this. Mr Wadhwa said that though the issue of membership to the new club was yet to be worked out, the department intended to separate members on the basis of their residence. “We will try and have members residing in Sector 12 and around to take up membership of the new club while those around Sector 6 to retain their membership there,” he suggested. |
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Inspector slips
to death Chandigarh, March 13 His body was cremated today. The funeral was attended by senior police officials. The deceased was posted in the Police Lines and is survived by his wife, six daughters and a son. |
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Call meeting, Sandhu urges
Amarinder Chandigarh, March 13 Mr Sandhu has been suspended for writing the article. He has stated that a representative of the party high command should be present in the meeting. He said he had not done anything wrong by writing the article. It was not a violation of party discipline. Several senior leaders of the party write articles for various newspapers and magazines and freely express their opinion about the functioning of political parties. “If the article had hurt the sentiments of Capt Amarinder Singh in any manner I tender apology for the same”, Mr Sandhu said. Chandigarh, March 13 |
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Ban orders Panchkula, March 13 Chandigarh, March 13 |
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Dhawan’s plea Chandigarh, March 13 |
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Workshop on ESI
scheme Chandigarh, March 13 |
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Protest against Hindi movie Chandigarh, March 13 |
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Blast in parked
car Chandigarh, March 13 Six booked Cycle stolen Doctor injured SAS NAGAR Theft Assaulted |
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