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| Friday,
December 13, 2002, Chandigarh, India |
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HC for status quo Issuing notice of motion for January 28 next year on a petition filed by Professor and Head of PGI’s Department of Surgery Dr Jai Dev Wig seeking directions to restrain the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mr Shatrughan Sinha, the Director and other respondents against ousting him from the headship, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today ordered the maintenance of status quo. |
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Plan to redefine role of PCRs Chandigarh, December 12 In the light of the sensational serial burglary in markets of southern sectors, the role of 65-odd Police Control Room (PCR) vehicles stationed at pre-determined points in the city had come under the scanner. Instead of changing their static locations after every few hours as per the prevailing practice, the men on the PCRs would be on the move at short intervals. The Inspector General of Chandigarh Police, Mr Rajesh Kumar, said he had put the Senior Superintendent of Police on the job. Without going into the finer details of the new plan, he said it would be put in practice in the coming weeks. The basic aim of the entire exercise was to prevent crime, he added. Sources in the police said the patrolling on the PCR gypsies and motorcycles would be more intensive during the night hours. After the recent spate of thefts and robberies, the residents have been demanding that the vehicles instead of changing their static location after every three hours should take rounds of the residential and commercial areas in coordination with the under-staffed beat staff of the respective police stations. It is learnt that the new officials were laying stress on better coordination between the PCR staff and the beat staff of the 11 police stations in the city. As per the prevailing practice, the role of the PCR vehicles was to react after an incident had taken place by reaching the spot and informing the reserve officer of the respective police station. Sources say that the force in the police stations was woefully inadequate and was often put on miscellaneous duties. Not denying that the beat staff had to be pulled up, a police official said static points of the PCR vehicles helped the criminals in selecting their escape routes. The residents demand that the
deployment pattern of the vehicles should be changed after every few days to ensure that there was no laxity on part of the cops. IGP, Chandigarh Police, says guidelines of the Chandigarh Administration regarding pitching of security tents outside the homes of the police officials would be strictly followed The security staff provided to the Sub -Divisional Police Officer (SDPO’s) have pitched their tents on public places in violation of an order of the Chandigarh Administration to get tents put up outside the homes of their officials. The Administration had said wherever space constraints did not permit the removal the tents the force will come in shifts from reserve locations for duty. Tents set up for use by security personnel are usually a source of irritation and discomfort for city residents. Sources said the SDPO’s had been provided with a guard of a Head Constable and three constables. The Chandigarh Administration had issued reminders to the Director General of Police, Punjab and Haryana, respectively and also to Inspector General of Police, Chandigarh on August 25, 1998. Thereafter reminders were issued in years 1999, 2000 and 2001. |
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Jacob for change in building bylaws Chandigarh, December 12 Chandigarh today faces numerous problems and challenges that cannot be simply wished away. From a city that was planned only for 5 lakh people, its population has nearly doubled. It has one of the highest per capita ratio for vehicles, putting tremendous pressure on its transport system. Being the hub of the North West Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, the city is not just the administrative capital of two states and a Union Territory, it’s a vibrant engine of commercial growth and a nodal centre of trade for the entire region. The city has already been ranked as number one city in the country as far as infrastructure development is concerned by the recent report of the Planning Commission. Also the city has a large influx of migrant labourers and employment seekers from less developed parts of the country. The burgeoning growth of the adjoining satellite towns of Panchkula and SAS Nagar have combined to put enormous pressure on the city reserves. While many of the problems and changes have come about as a natural process of the city’s growth in a democratic socio-economic setup, General Jacob said it would not be unfair to also point out certain in built flaws in its master plan. The city was never planned to accommodate the underprivileged sections of the society like pavement hawkers, dhobis, domestic helps, safai karamcharis etc. Advising the town planners not to ignore harsh realities on the ground and recognise the fact that Chandigarh is a place of pilgrimage for architects and planners world over and a proud face of modern India, General Jacob warned that an over-zealous and misplaced voice for keeping its growth strait-jacketed in the name of conservation would defeat the main cause. What truly needs to be conserved, leaving aside some monumental edifices designed by Le Corbusier, is the spirit of Chandigarh being a “laboratory of architecture and urban planning”. The Governor said some other problems that the city faced were perhaps due to its flawed master plan. There were road intersections every half a kilometer along its traffic arteries, compounding its traffic problems, calling for innovative and modern mass rapid urban transportation systems. General Jacob said even the architectural needs and aspirations of the people had now changed. Today, even the middle class family could own a car and various other modern gadgets for which necessary modifications in the building
bylaws were needed. In fact, a very major flaw of Chandigarh’s architectural idiom had been that it was not climate responsive. In a region where we had seven months of hot weather, homes with no verandas and small openings made them veritable hot houses. Features like sun-breakers and tiny chajjas with fixed glazings were not rooted in the vernacular wisdom of our built forms that had stood the test of time and changing seasons. Informing about measures being taken to meet the requirements of the future, he said the Chandigarh Administration was taking timely initiatives and steps to ameliorate some of the problems. As the area of the city was finite, we would have to think of ways of not only increasing the housing stock possible on the land available but also utilising the existing used areas. Recent amendments to the existing bylaws and the Rent Control Act were aimed in this direction. He said today building industry had come a long way and full utilisation must be made of the new materials and technologies available. With Chandigarh emerging as an Information Technology hub, exploring sleek, inspiring building forms, breaking the monotony of existing ones, may not be out of place. This does not imply that the city’s basic architectural expression be altered radically. |
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Vajpayee to launch water scheme Chandigarh, December 12 As per the scheme, the Central Government will provide 90 per cent grant for a rural potable water project in which 10 per cent of the project is funded by the people, user groups or panchayats with people’s collection. Announcing this at the northwestern region seminar for sensitising media about the coverage of villages, the Union Rural Development Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar, said the policy would be a new initiative towards making citizens a partner in the development of the country, “which can not remain the responsibility of governments alone”. The scheme has apparently been conceived on the pattern of “Janmabhumi” of Andhra Pradesh with modification that the kind would not accept as collection. It is being perceived as a effort to test waters for more such schemes where the people will collect funds for specific tasks to involve them in development and give them partnership in social assets to check corruption, and make them responsible. He said these demand-driven projects brought by the people would be given preference over other drinking water schemes of the government adding that the launch of the scheme would not, however, stop other schemes in this regard. In an apparent move to encourage the people to take up maintenance of assets created in this process, the minister announced that the Central Government would also provide a one-time maintenance grant for those who successfully operate it for six months. The handing over of maintenance would imply that the group that collect money for the project would have to take some user charge. Mr Shanta Kumar clarified that the 10 per cent of the project did not have to be funded by any government agency except in cases of water arrangement for rural schools in poor areas where it could be funded from the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Fund. He said funding for such projects would not be a problem as a sum of around Rs 1200 crore was ready and international agencies also appreciated this effort. Realising that there had been slippage of funds for rural development, he said within 15 days the ministry would create district-level monitoring and vigilance committees for each district and at the state-level to monitor all schemes of the Rural Development Ministry. He said these committees would comprise elected representatives and officials. The Chief General Manager of NABARD, North-West, Mr A. Ramanathan, urged the media to devote a page to developmental news and success stories which we quite innumerable in villages. The General Manager of NABARD, Mr P. Satish, said unfortunately the country could not invest in rural infrastructure and agriculture sectors where studies showed returns per unit invested were the highest at 17 per cent. The Union Rural Development Director, Mr Ghanshyam Goel, said the government was aligning its working on a four-pronged strategy of creating awareness about rural development, ensuring transparency, mandatory meetings of gram sabhas four times a year and ensuring people’s participation. The Punjab Minister of State for Rural Development, Mr J. S. Randhawa, said international funding agencies had assured Rs 700 crore for drinking water and sanitation in the state. He said the government had chalked out a plan for 1450 village for sanitation and sewage. The Principal Information Officer, Mr Sahab Singh said the vernacular media had a responsibility of giving proper coverage to rural development. Ms Swarup lamented that states had been lacking on monitoring of schemes and north Indian states were way behind southern states in taking advantage of the Central Government’s schemes. The Punjabi Tribune Editor, Mr H.S. Halwarvi, said the media should strike a balance between positive and negatives stories and journalists should resolve to change the trend to strength positive efforts by giving them a proper coverage. A Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Research, Dr Krishan Chand, said sanitation and drinking water were basic human rights and law should include them as such. He said comprehensive master plans till 2020 for each village should be made to develop them in an integrated manner. |
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No end to
lectures’ row Chandigarh, December 12 There can be no other argument to explain the deadlock over the non-implementation of the Syndicate’s order to hold lectures for students who have been denied roll numbers for attending the minimum required lectures. On the fourth day today no lectures were conducted and in the present scenario there will be none even tomorrow, which means loss of one full academic week. The faculty is opposing this order. A section of students are already grumbling over the university’s decision to postpone the examinations. They say the university has no right to postpone the examinations of nearly 1,000 students for the fault of a handful of them. The academic loss of one week has, however, not served their cause because if the lectures are scheduled once again they will loose more time. On the other hand even if there are no classes for the ‘questionable candidates’, they have already lost one week during which examination were scheduled. The matter has got complicated to such an extent that even the Vice-Chancellor went to the department and met the faculty members to explain the reasons behind allowing special lectures. The department is deliberating over the matter which remains undecided even after four days. Senior faculty members feel that it was an appropriate time for the Vice-Chancellor to interfere and announce a special Syndicate or say that the matter would be discussed in the forthcoming Senate which coincidently is scheduled for the coming Sunday. A student said the Vice-Chancellor should exercise his powers because four days were more than sufficient for the department to take a decision in this regard. Even if it had failed to reach an agreeable solution the same needed to be communicated to the university’s top administration which was expected to take final decision. The matter is poised for interesting debate in the forthcoming Senate because there are different schools of thought evident among the teaching faculty. One defends the Syndicate’s step quoting incidents from the past when more than 100 lectures have been condoned by the Syndicate and the Vice-Chancellor. The other school says that the university had withdrawn the earlier powers so the situation demanded a decision according to the existing rules. |
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Postponement
of exams challenged Chandigarh, December 12 In his petition taken up by the Bench, comprising Mr Justice
J.S. Khehar and Mr Justice Ashutosh Mohunta, student Jitin Talwar
had earlier sought the quashing of an order dated December 7
whereby the on-going examinations had been re-scheduled “not
withstanding the fact that the papers had already commenced”.
The order, he had added in his petition against the university,
the Chairman of Department of Laws and Dean Student Welfare, was
issued in an arbitrary manner and without the mandate of law.
Giving details, he had added that the papers scheduled to be
held on December 9 had been rescheduled for December 24. The
intervening period was to be used for holding special lectures for
students falling short of lectures. His counsel had added that
there was no provision for holding special classes for fulfilling
deficiency of lectures after the commencement of examinations and
as such the order was not sustainable in the eyes of the law. |
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Admn fails to comply with CAT orders Chandigarh, December 12 In the recent notification issued by the administration on December 1, 2002 the recruitment rules of college lecturers serving in the government arts and science colleges in the city have been amended to allegedly ‘‘suit’’ those on deputation but according to sources, even these rules do not make the stay of these lecturers in the colleges ‘‘legitimate’’. According to information available, out of a total number of 370 posts listed in the recruitment rules, 310 posts are currently filled, out of which 145 are for those on deputation with majority of these having served in colleges for more than 3 years. Pointing out that according to the amended rules 40 per cent of the total posts will be for those deputation who will hold this post for a period of three years, sources have stated that there are already more than 40 per cent persons on deputation serving in the city and have long overstayed their term. According to sources, those from the nearby states are not only violating the amended Recruitment Rules of the administration but hampering the professional growth of the local candidates, as according to these amended regulations itself the 40 per cent quota for those on deputation can be filled by direct recruitment in their absence. Reacting to a question as to why CAT orders have not been complied with by the administration even nine months after these orders were passed, Mr R.S. Gujral, UT Home-cum-Education Secretary, maintained that the quota for those on deputation have not been exhausted as yet. ‘‘There is no question of sending these lecturers back to their parent states. Besides, sending them away is not going to help the aspirants here as people who are either working part time or on ad hoc would not be adjusted against the 40 per cent seats reserved for candidates on deputation,” he said. Sources said around two months back two lecturers, one from Government College, Sector 11, and the other from Government College, Sector 46, were repatriated to their original place of posting but were called back to continue at the same posts, one of them having joined the same college only yesterday. According to the Chandigarh Education Services (group B gazetted) Government Arts and Science College Rule, 1990, amended in 1997 and later 2000, there has to be no extension in deputation period without getting a consent from the UPSC, but the UPSC was not consulted in any of these cases, point out sources. “It is not just that these persons on deputation are enjoying the benefits of a better location, they are getting all the perks entitled with it, even promotions,” sources said. |
Jayanti Devi temple to be
a protected monument Chandigarh, December 12 Incidentally, an earth fill gravity dam is also located in the village. Protected monument status to the temple and the dam could attract large number of tourists, hope the villagers. A UK based NRI and Chairman, Puri Foundation, U.K, Mr Nathu Ram Puri, had recently announced a grant of Rs 1 crore for the temple. He wanted a trust to be formed for the maintenance and management of the temple. Officials in the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), Chandigarh circle, however, said they had not received any communication from the minister in the regard. According to sources, the decision
seems to have been taken at a higher level. It is worth mentioning here that the temple’s walls have caved in several times in the past. Retaining walls have been constructed to give support to the main structure of the temple. The temple faces a danger due to the soil erosion in the area. The cliff on which the temple is located is a deposit of alternate layers of sandstone and mud. Villagers also fear an earthquake may claim the temple. The temple is situated at the top of a small hill, surrounded by the Shivalik range and is visited by thousands of people every year. According to a legend, 550 years ago, this temple was situated at Kangra in Himachal Pradesh. The Princess of Kangra was a devotee of Mata and wouldn’t have food without her darshan. The temple came along with her trousseau when she was married to Prince of Hathnam, now Mullanpur and was installed at a nearby hill. The priests at the temple claim that they are successors of the priest who came here along with the temple 550 years ago. The Mata Jayanti Devi langar and Prabandhan Committee, Mullanpur-Garibdas, is of the opinion that a trust should be formed for better management and conservation of the temple. Welcoming the minister’s announcement, Mr Arvind Puri of the committee informed that in past they have met several officials and Punjab Governor in the connection. Mr Kulwinder Sharma, son of priest Mr Chandermukhi Sharma, said the priests had no objection if the government took over the temple as it was done by the Haryana Government in the case of Mata Mansa Devi. ‘‘We do not want any private interference in the temple management’’, said Mr Sharma . Mr Gurcharan Dass, a member of the village panchyat is also of the opinion that a trust should take over the temple management. ‘‘All committees should be dissolved and trust should be formed. The present priests may continue holding religious ceremonies and claim a percentage of the offerings’’, said Mr Dass. |
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RUN UP TO MC POLL WARD NO. 7 & 8 Panchkula, December 12 For thousands of electorate of Ward No. 7 and Ward No. 8 the main issue in these MC elections is provision of better living conditions, civic amenities like better water availability, more public toilets removal of garbage and better policing . Though the Congress has still not announced its decision to participate in these elections, the various contenders from these two wards, mostly owing allegiance to the party, as well as the candidates of the Bhartiya Janata Party and the ruling INLD have already started campaigning. These are the biggest wards in the township with as many as 10951 voters ( 6393 and 4558 in Ward No. 7 and 8, respectively) will exercise their franchise to elect their representative to the Municipal Council. While Ward No. 7 is reserved for Scheduled Caste candidate, the other is reserved for a Backward Class candidate and politicking to field candidates has begun in earnest. Most residents of these wards also feel that civic amenities, better streetlighting facilities, cleanliness, providing drinking water, release of more power connections and better policing are the main issues they would like to redress. A resident of Rajiv Colony, Shamim Khan (Ward No 7), said having their own elected representative would bring more accountability in providing basic services to the slum colony that had now been ignored by district administration as well as
HUDA. “Even the politicians remember us near election time only. If we had a Councillor elected from here, he would be able to take up our problem and find solutions,” he said. Even residents of Ward No 8 said the main issues for MC elections would be better
streetlighting, regular removal of garbage and regular water supply. |
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IAF employee hopes for help Chandigarh, December 12 “Being a man from the forces I would have considered dying better than begging before my relatives, but for the sake of my son’s life I even did that but not a single person came forward with help,” says Mr Virk, trying hard to control his tears. I have exhausted my entire saving on his treatment during the last three years, and today it is difficult for us to even arrange money for dialysis and blood, he says. For 37-year-old Rajinder life couldn’t have been more unfair. Despite being M.A. and B.Ed, he has not been able to get a job, forcing him to be dependent on his father’s
income, along with his wife and two children. “The worst is that we have to pay not only pay for the operation but about Rs 1 lakh to the donor, who will give a kidney, as my wife and I am too old to do so,” he says. He has two daughters, who are both married. Mr Virk says that he specially got a transfer from Pune to Chandigarh so that he could be closer to his native village and relatives during his son’s treatment. “I have not been able to get money for his treatment even from the Air Force, as being a major he is not considered dependent on me, as per the rules,” he says. “Doctors have asked me to arrange money for the operation and to pay to the donor, but our financial condition is so bad that we are unable to pay even for the blood and dialysis cost,” he says, helplessly. He says his son’s life was now in the hands of God and only if some organisation or individual steps in with help can his life be saved. Mr Virk can be contacted at House Number 3270, Sector 31 D. |
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Bureaucracy
‘promoting’
personal interests Chandigarh, December 12 This was said by Mr Binayak Ray, a former director of the Australian Agency for International Development, Canberra, while speaking at a lecture on ‘Administrative Reforms and Sustainable Economic Growth’ at the ICSSR Complex, Panjab University, here today. Mr Ray said bureaucracy in connivance with politicians maximised their personal interests in the name of public interest. According to him “bureaucracy sleeps and continues to sleep until an emergency arises”. |
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Projects
worth 50 lakh cleared for Mani Majra Chandigarh, December 12 With the corporation showing availability of funds, the committee set priorities of water and sewerage works upto around Rs 2 crore mostly to be completed in the financial year. The committee asked officials to complete the projects within the financial year. Mani Majra emerged as a major beneficiary with four projects worth more than Rs 50 lakh being cleared by the committee. A Rs 20 lakh water augmentation scheme, Rs 29.36 lakh tubewell and covering an open drain are amongst the works cleared. The corporation also cleared Rs 70 lakh for five tubwells in the city. The committee cleared the purchase of three vans priced at Rs 2.61 lakh each and a Gypsy worth Rs 4.99 lakh. A sum of Rs 5.15 lakh each for Dhanas, Kajheri Colony, Ramdarbar and Rs 1.87 lakh for Daddu Majra were also cleared by the committee. A sum of Rs 2.29 lakh for public toilets in Sectors 20 C and D was also cleared. It approved an allocation of Rs 3 lakh for the conversion of sewe line of Sector 30 A and B from 4 inches to 8 inches. Important amongst agenda items that were deferred were the Rs 18.57 lakh allocation for a drainage line near the Golf Course and the purchase of a Rs 7.43 lakh mobile transformer as a stand-by arrangement. The Golf Course proposal has been deferred for the third time. These projects had in the last meeting been cleared in principle with a condition that the priorities would be set by the committee on the basis of a report about the availability of funds. |
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Beopar
mandal’s stir gets boost Chandigarh, December 12 The leaders said on December 19 traders from the two states would join their bretheren in Chandigarh when the mandal has given a bandh call. The two said their respective organisations would protest if the state governments implemented the same system in the states. The mandal once again clarified that it was fighting for the cause of commercial tenants only and the residential landlords had nothing to fear. |
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Two Nari Niketan inmates go missing Chandigarh, December 12 The two girls used to attend special classes, held for deranged children, and were escorted to the school by an employee of the Nari Niketan. However, for the past few days the girls had been going on their own to the school. When the girls did not report, the in charge of the niketan approached the Sector 26 police station. Inquiries by the police revealed that the girls never reached the school. The police is not ruling out the possibility of the girls being lured by someone due to their mental state. Both the girls were in their school uniform. A message regarding the girls was flashed to the police in the neighbouring states. Police parties also carried out searches at the bus stand and other public places in the city. A police team was also sent to Ambala to look for the girls. |
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People’s participation must for effective Chandigarh, December 12 He pointed out that participation of citizens was necessary to clean the ills in politics, and lamented the fact that though people had been wanting their children to get into the executive and judicial systems of the country, they had totally ignored legislature as a full-time vocation, where all the policies get formulated. He said effective governance was possible only with the participation of educated leaders and management professionals, who should be more vocal and demanding. He pointed out that the current government had taken proactive stance to bring about much-needed reforms in the system of governance in the country and tremendous endeavours were being made to develop and strengthen country’s infrastructure despite numerous challenges. He emphasised that the country had strong positives that needed to be appreciated. He also said most of the problems could be solved by the people working in different spheres. Earlier, Maj Gen D.N. Khurana, Director General, All-India Management Association, delivered the keynote address on public governance. Major General Khurana said good governance constituted flexible and proactive administration, encouragement of creativity in every sphere of social and economic life, as well as finding innovative solutions to diverse issues. In India the public governance had failed because of all pervasive corruption, lack of transparency, accountability and participation of the citizens in policy making, he said. He said there was a need to develop forum involving informed citizens to act as catalyst of change and fight corruption, for which necessary awareness had to be created right from the school level. He informed that the All India Management Association would set up a centre for public governance to take care of the recommendations by the first national convention on public governance held recently in Bangalore. The president of Chandigarh Management Association, Dr P.K. Vasudeva, underlined the need for fighting the problems of poverty, unemployment and unproductive public sector as well as corruption to bring about positive changes in the society. |
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Bhutte
gets National Award Chandigarh, December 12 Mr Bhutte, working as section officer in the office of Accountant-General (Audit), Punjab, is the founder and president of the Leprosy Mission, Chandigarh and the Leprosy Elimination Society, Mohali. In recognition of his services the Punjab government had also honoured him with State Award-2001 for the welfare of leprosy patients and nominated him as NGO member of the Governing Council of the Punjab State Leprosy Society. |
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Woman in pursuit of identity Chandigarh, December 12 However, Nahida remained firm on her stand of courting her first love fashion by becoming the first woman in Dubai to open an institute of fashion design there. Now the owner of the National Institute of Fashion Design, Dubai, Nahida is in the city, looking for faculty members who can cater to the academic and practical needs of 100 students who have registered with her in Dubai. She is busy finalising modalities for the first session of the course that will begin from January in the new year. As we got talking with the lovely looking woman, dressed in the most contemporary fashion, it became known that she was the first woman to have ever modelled in Dubai. Representing the products of famous jewellery houses garments and furniture showrooms, Nahida went on to enter the ramp for good. “I had a Pakistani friend who was a model. She was the one who introduced me to the world of fashion shows,” she said. An MBA degree holder from the USA and a holder of a diploma in fashion design from London, Nahida had to struggle to no end to manage the ministry’s clearance for her fashion design institute. “They used to object to my dress code. I was required to cover my head and enter the ministry’s offices. From the start till the end the whole process involved a lot of labour — both mental and physical.” Being a woman of a conservative society, Nahida had to fight a lot in order to gain recognition in her own quarters. “I remember my sisters used to switch off the television whenever I used to appear on the commercial. My father and brothers were dead against my attitude towards life. They were mad at me when I returned from London with a diploma in fashion design. They later pushed me into a banking job which I quit, mich to their displeasure.” As of now, Nahida is continuing her search for identity in a closed society. She has acquired the clearance of four faculty members for her institute. “The ministry is very particular. They have allowed for teachers as of now. So I have taken two for fashion design and one each for textile and interior design. Later the strength will be increased, but only after the ministry’s permission,” she said. Herself a designer, Nahida is all set for the future, with fashion design feeding her creative self, despite social and peer pressure. |
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Chrysanthemums
set to bedazzle Chandigarh, December 12 Over 30 gardeners and workers from the MCC’s Horticulture wing were engaged all day in order to give final shape to the various sections under the contest which will take place tomorrow. The category includes chrysanthemums grown in pots. Tomorrow will be devoted to the contest and entries will be adjudged by horticulture experts. After the flowers have been judged for prizes, the Chrysanthemum Show will be thrown open for the public day after tomorrow. The show will be formally inaugurated by the Punjab Governor and UT Administrator,
Lieut-Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), at 11 am on December 14. |
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Cheque
for Ashoka Chakra awardee released Chandigarh, December 12 Mr
Khanna, an employee of the Northern Railways, was awarded the Ashok Chakra for his courage in the Ferozepore Sector during the 1965 war. |
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IMA officers’
get together Chandigarh, December 12 |
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ULTA
PULTA May be the relatives fire in the air to boost the morale of the groom. Sometimes the reason could be to scare away all former boyfriends of the bride. Although I personally feel that for the boyfriend, a glimpse of his beloved’s wedding card is sufficient reason for him to commit suicide. Sometimes the ‘mamaji’ or ‘pitashri’ of the groom opens fire to indicate that the amount of the dowry has been satisfactorily checked and the “jaimala” ceremony can now be honourably carried on. Sometimes, the groom himself fires in the air, to impress the bride. The bride smiles secretly as if saying, “let the ‘belan’ once come in my hand, then I will see your bravery!” A few days back at a wedding in Amritsar, the groom’s uncle fired in the air and the bullet accidentally hit a photographer who died on the spot. My advice is that if the groom’s family is bent upon giving the groom the ceremonial 31-gun salute let them seek permission from the DC or the city police chief. There should be some kind of system where a requisite fee is deposited with the police department so that the policemen themselves come and fire in the air on behalf of the groom’s family. But my only fear is that when the police is involved in such a marriage, it might ask for its share of the booty from the dowry. |
Drowning case: bodies handed over to parents Chandigarh, December 12 After a request of the families of the two victim for not conducting autopsy of the bodies was rejected by the
administration, a panel of doctors at the Sector 16 General Hospital conducted the post mortem. The vicesra has been sent for chemical examination. A police official said the post mortem helped the police ascertain the reasons behind her suicide. The death due to drowning has been confirmed in the autopsy. Thief arrested: Sanjiv Kumar, a resident of Ram Darbar was caught red handed while stealing a gas cylinder in a unit in Industrial Area, Phase 1 here. In another case, Manoj Kumar, a resident of Colony No. 5, was arrested for stealing a TVS motor cycle. Cheating case: Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Sector 16, complained that Gurjit Singh and Punj had taken Rs 2,53,000 for sending the complainant abroad. A case under Sections 420 and 120 B of the IPC has been registered. PANCHKULA Four held: The police has arrested — Dimple, Surjit Singh, Manjit Singh and Suresh Kumar — on charges of drinking at a public place and disrupting peace. They have been booked under the Excise Act. Car Stolen: A Maruti van ( CH-01B-2560) was reportedly stolen from near Aggarwal Dharamshala. Mr Anil Anand, owner of the car has registered an FIR with the police under Section 379 of CrPC. One Arrested: The police has arrested another member of the notorious inter- state gang of car thieves , who were stealing luxury cars from here, Chandigarh and Delhi and selling them after making their forged registration papers. The accused, Jitendra Kumar was arrested from Mani Majra. |
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Disused
building falling prey to plunderers SAS Nagar, December 12 The building belongs to the Punjab Health Systems Corporation and has been constructed on funds from the World Bank as a training centre for the medical staff of the Punjab Health and Family Welfare Department but despite completion, remains unused. With the construction men gone, the entire building is now lying untended and its windows and doors are being stolen. According to sources, all sanitary material of the building has already been stolen. According to a class IV employees of the hospital, who also works as a night watchman, a group of six or seven men come in the dead of the night and after having unscrewed the aluminum doors and windows carry these to the choe and flee. “By the time the police reaches, they have already vanished,” says a resident who has seen three of these thieves running away with sanitary goods. “Moreover they are armed with rods and spanners and one cannot face them even if one were to catch them without the help of the police,” he added. A total of four families are residing on the hospital campus and according to a member of one of them, “I have bought a search light and an air gun to keep my family secure. One day, I even accompanied the police after some doors were stolen.” The police too has the knowledge of these thefts and according to the hospital watchman, the police has reached the spot everytime the residents or hospital staff on night duty have reported of theft. The hospital staff and residents have demanded that a police post be built next to the hospital and manned 24 hours by the policemen. The in charge of the hospital, Dr Bains, said: “The building is in an area that is not inhabited and is very close to the choe with thick vegetation around it. The thieves apparently take advantage of the fact that they can easily hide in the vegetation and since the building in unmanned, it is an easy target,” said Dr Bains. |
Mohali trade bandh today SAS Nagar, December 12 The decision was taken during a joint meeting of the association with the Mohali Vyapar Mandal representing Mohali Karyana Merchant Association, Mohali Tenants Welfare Association, Halwai Union Mohali, Motor Market, Mohali Association, Chemist Association, Truck Operators Unions and various other associations held yesterday and another meeting with some of the Municipal Councillors held here today. It was unanimously felt by representatives of these associations that the experiment of having privatisation in 1998 had failed and everyone present at the meeting shared their bad experience whereby local residents, traders and industrialists had to face harassment and humiliation at the hands of private operators. ‘‘Therefore, to register their protest and stop this move it was decided to observe a complete ‘bandh’ by all traders and shopkeepers on December 13 from 9 am to 2 pm and hold a protest march from PUDA office to the office of Municipal Council Phase 7. If required be the industry will announce a similar bandh next week,” said Mr B.S. Baidwan, president of the MIA. ‘‘A separate letter is being sent to the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and the Local Government, Labour & Employment Minister, Mr Jagjit Singh with a request to intervene in the matter and stop the privatisation of octroi collection in
Mohali.’’ stated Mr Anurag Aggarwal, general secretary, of the MIA. The municipal councillor who attended the joint meeting here today included Mr Shayam Bansal, Mr Amrik Singh Mohali, Ms Daljit Kaur, Ms Manmohan Kaur and Mr Manmohan Singh. |
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IT seminar today Chandigarh, December 12 The CII (northern region) will organise a seminar on IT in design and development on December 13. Mr Y.S. Rajan, Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Technical University and scientific advisor to the Chief Minister of Punjab will be the chief guest. |
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CORPORATE
HONCHO Training institutes engaged in software training might be cursing their luck after the slowdown of IT industry, but the hardware and networking training institutes have shown significant growth in recent
years. Recent data released by Dataquest, industry magazine, reveals that while other companies, engaged in training, suffered decline in their business by minus 25 per cent to 45 per cent, but the Jetking Infotrain Ltd., leading hardware and networking training company, has registered 42 per cent increase in revenue in 2001-02 over the previous year, says Mr Rajesh Vaidya, head of the local institute. Mr Vaidya, claims that the penetration of computers in city and surrounding towns has registered an impressive growth in comparison to other regions. It has resulted in an increased demand for hardware engineers and repair services. With over 56,000 internet connections in Chandigarh alone, he says, the job opportunities in the field of maintenance and upgradation of computers have increased over the past few years. Hailing from Mandi district in Himachal Pradesh, Mr Vaidya ( 35) did his BE in electronics and telecommunication from the Aurangawad University in 1990. After having a stint of two years, as a government college lecturer, he says, he decided to start to his own business. Due to his experience in hardware teaching line, the obvious choice was to start a computer training institute. He says since most of new institutes were opening in the field of software, he decided to try his luck in computer hardware and networking institute. Consequently, with an investment of Rs 10 lakh, he started the branch of Jetking, in partnership with his friend, Vinod in sector 34 here. The institute has flourished into a full-fledged training centre, where more than 600 students from far flung areas of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, UP, Haryana and Punjab as well as city are doing one year professional courses in hardware and networking. Course curriculum, he says, include theoretical and practical training in basic electronics, office tools, PC hardware support skills, networking and advanced courses in A+, Network+, MCSE, CNE and Linux. He claims,‘‘ Jetking is the first institute in this area which is using holistic approach of teaching through yoga, field study, video splitters and fun and easy learning. Further we give guarantee of placement after completion of the course.’’ About 1000 students from the institute have been already employed by the leading companies in the region, including IBM, Reliance, TVS Electronics, Samsung and D-Link as well. Regarding the demand of skilled manpower in the region, on an average a PC along with printer, scanner and other
accessories would generate a business of about Rs 1000 for the maintenance and upgradation. With the increasing number of PCs, the market for professionals is likely to increase in the coming days. Jetking with 67 training centres spread all over the country, has emerged as the leading player. Over 60,000 engineers trained by its centres are working in various companies and running their own businesses. What are your future plans, when asked this question, he says,‘‘ we have already opened another branch in Ludhiana, and another in Shimla. We are focusing on upgrading the curriculum as per the changing requirements of the market.’’ |
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MARKET PULSE Chandigarh, December 12 The brand also has in its range pullover, sweatshirts, polo and turtlenecks in 100 per cent cottons to keep one warm and snug this winter. The feeling and texture of a pattern in cotton acrylic, fleece, polar fleece is quite soft against skin. The sweaters and pullovers are priced between Rs 599 and Rs 999. A wide range of jackets in
tussar, corduroys and polar fleece are also up for grabs.
DVD-CD-MP3 player launched Mr Ajay
Kashyap, DIG, Chandigarh, today launched a new range of DVD, CD and MP3 player and home theatre manufactured by Delhi-based Ascent Electronics under the brandname of
Tanasha. The function was held on the lawns of Chandigarh Club and was attended by electronics goods dealers from all over the region.
Watch collection Continuing with its tradition of using unconventional new designs, Maxima has introduced a rate collection of “gold watches” with over 700 variants especially for this wedding season. These value-for-money couple watches are priced at Rs 1250. The collection is now available in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and other parts of the country. |
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Training programme Chandigarh, December 12 |
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The 550-year-old temple of Jayanti Devi, after Jayanti Majari village may soon be one of the protected monuments of the country. The Centre has proposed to include the temple’s name in the list of protected monuments. The status of the temple had recently come up in Parliament. 
The marriage season is on. From “ghoriwalas” to “bandwalas”, panditjis to tentwalas — all are in short supply. I have seen in many marriages, during “jaimala”, the relatives of the groom, in a fit of joy fire shots in the air. I don’t know whether firing shots during ‘jaimala’ is legal or not, but it has now become a fashion to fire in the air to express their determination of ‘dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge!’.