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Family receives pilot’s body Zirakpur, February 8 A Flight Lieutenant with Desert Tigers of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Bharat Kumar (30) died in a MiG-23 crash in Rajasthan on Saturday morning. Bharat Kumar died on the spot while his fighter plane soon after take off caught fire and crashed at the Chandhan field firing range about 40 km from Jaisalmer. Bharat Kumar’s father came to know about his son’s death while watching a
Watching TV news channel on Saturday morning. Subsequently the IAF authorities also informed the family.
Relatives and family friends from civil and IAF flocked the house of Sharmas. Bharat’s wife Nidhi Sharma and mother Indira Sharma were still unconsolable. Bharat had finished his schooling from Central School, Subathu, and graduation in science from Bangalore. After qualifying Combined Defence Services (CDS) he was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in 1996. His first posting was at Sikandrabad. After that Bharat Kumar also served at Tejpur and Jodhpur. Currently he was posted at Halwara in Punjab. While talking to The Tribune Ajay Kumar Sharma, father of the deceased, recalled that Bharat had called up his family three days ago. His last words that still echo in my ears were, “I am missing you all. I will come soon and take Nidhi and Sparsh to Amritsar.” Bharat was married to Nidhi in 2000 and has a five-and-a-half years old son, Sparsh. He had last come home in January to attend the marriage of his younger brother, Himesh Kumar Sharma, a Captain in the Army, and had returned on January 26. Ms Tara Devi, grandmother of Bharat rushed to Bartana from Subathu soon after getting the news. Accompanied by a unit officer, the body reached Chandigarh Air Force Station today morning and was taken to the Command Hospital. Meanwhile, the cremation ceremony will be performed with full military honour at Mani Majra cremation ground on Monday.
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Ravi Sidhu to report at SP office Mohali, February 8 Mr Tirath Singh, his lawyer, said today that he had presented himself before the SP, Mohali, Mr Kunvar Pratap Singh, on January 31, within a week of his release on January 24, and his next visit to the office will be on February 14. Facing serious charges of corruption, Mr Sidhu was granted bail by the Supreme Court on the condition that he surrendered his passport with the SP and mark his presence at his office every alternate Saturday for the first six months and once a month thereafter. “Since the passport is already with the police, since the time of his arrest, this condition stands fulfilled. Then on January 31, he met the SP Mohali and gave a written application that he may be marked present,” said Mr Tirath Singh. |
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Land-owners form protest committee Mohali, February 8 Land-owners of Sohana, Lakhnaur, Landran, Bermpur and Manak Majra villages today decided to form protest committees at the village level which under the aegis of the Sohana Sangharsh Committee (SSC) will submit a formal protest to PUDA after which they will move the court for stopping the acquisition process. PUDA on January 24 had advertised its first notification on January 19, 2004 with respect to acquisition of approximately 690 acres of land in these five villages. According to the PUDA notification, over 170 acres of land will be acquired in Sohana village, another 209 acres will be acquired in Lakhnaur village, 21 acres in Landran, 124 acres in Bermpur and 162 acres in Manak Majra village. The Sohana Sangharsh Committee (SSC) had been formed to protest against the acquisition of land by PUDA for carving out Sectors 76 to 80. Mr Devinder Pal Singh of the committee stated that another meeting of the landlords had been called on February 10 to give final shape to their plan of action. “No one in the village wants to part with his land. It is like robbing these people of their bread and butter,” he said. |
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Assessees may not find it easy to evade IT Chandigarh, February 8 According to Mr Vijay Khanna, Chief Commissioner, North Western Region, Income Tax Department, “The department has made it compulsory for the companies to submit their tax deduction at source (TDS) returns of their employees on floppies and preferably on CD Roms at different centres of the National Security Depository Limited (NSDL) set up in 46 cities. The number of these centres will soon increase to 107, that will upload the TDS data on the departmental computer server, and we will cross check it with their income returns filed by the assessees.” In North Western Region, that comprises Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir, there are over 25 lakh income tax assessees. Since a majority of them belong to the salaried and business classes, the department keeps a close watch on them after the introduction of the new system. The official said since TDS work alone constituted over 40 per cent of the total returns received by the department, with the introduction of e-filing, the department would have sufficient time for other work. Finance Minister Jaswant Singh had recently announced to do away the filing of income tax returns for income tax assessees with an annual income of up to Rs 1.50 lakh and to introduce e-filing of TDS returns by the companies. Mr Khanna added, “A nodal centre has been set up at our Mumbai office that will look after the whole project. The companies will first have to take individual new 10-digit TAN number and then they will file the TDS returns on the given software. Since in every income tax ward there is a special TDS cell, its staff will now focus on proper scrutiny and verification of the information provided.” Regarding the impact of outsourcing of TDS work, Mr Manoj Kohli, Chairman, Chandigarh Branch of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), said, “Since information regarding previous income tax returns of assessees will be available to the IT officials on the computer network, the assesses will find it difficult to befool them. It will become difficult for individuals and companies to cheat the department by filing TDS and individual returns at different centres.” Besides better tax compliance, the new system would also expedite the process of refunds, he added. |
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Sikh Regiment’s reunion to be held at Ranchi Chandigarh, February 8 A large number of retired Sikh Regiment officers as well as officers from other regiments and arms who have been associated with the Sikh Regiment are expected to attend the reunion. The Colonel of the Sikh Regiment, Lieut-Gen S.S. Chahal, and the commanding officers of all units of the regiment are expected to participate. War widows have also been invited. Special travel arrangements are also being made for ex-servicemen and widows. Besides discussing regimental matters, a host of social and cultural functions, including a barakhana and a reunion dinner at the Officers’ Mess, are being organised to mark the occasion. Meanwhile, retired Sikh Regimental officers, along with their wives, settled in and around Chandigarh, got together for their bi-monthly lunch, hosted by Brig K.S. Kahlon and Col S.S. Kahlon, here today. A number of officers, including Col Shamsher Singh, who had liberated Dras from Pakistani hands in 1948, Lieut-Gen N.P.S. Bal, Lieut Gen B.S. Randhawa and Major-Gen C.S. Panag, were present on the occasion. Members of the association host the lunch on a rotational basis. |
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Now spam jam on your cell phone Chandigarh, February 8 Ask city-based business man, Mr Vivek Sharma. He was away to Delhi for three days to attend a family function in January. While in the national Capital, he says, he received as many as 10 calls from marketers offering him services of varying kinds, from getting a credit card to housing loan, besides numerous messages from cell phone operators as he entered into respective operator’s telecom circle. His cell phone bill cost him Rs 150 extra, just because of the spam on his cell phone. Even as numerous finance agencies get on “this new wave for marketing, which brings their message right to the people’s doorstep” and in one of the most cost-effective ways, the cell phone spam, after they have yet to take head-on the e-mail spam, stares the city residents. From astrologers asking you to know about your stars, to offering loans at lowest interest rates, there is a spam jam on your cell phone now. Though the cell phone
operators in the region deny it, the general feeling among residents is that the list of cell phone subscribers is sold out to telemarketers by low-end
employees. Cell phone companies say they’re determined to nip cell-spam in the bud. They don’t want cell phone spam to become a problem like e-mail spam. Besides putting their integrity to test, spammers are also slowing down the entire system. Mr Vinod Sawhney, CEO and Director (Mobility), Bharti Mobile Limited, says since spam on the cell phone puts to test the integrity of the operator itself, we are very particular that our subscribers’ lists are not let out to the telemarketers. He, however, adds, “Telemarketing is used as a tool to sell things world wide. It also offers an opportunity to the subscribers to know of the options available.” Cell phone subscribers say spam can irritate you at any time in the day. “Sometimes, you get spam late in the night. Like in other countries, there should be a procedure to filter out the unwanted messages,” says Harpreet Singh, a resident of Sector 38 (West). He says some countries have made commissionerates for cell phone subscribers, where once their numbers are registered, no company can disturb them. Such regulatory bodies will have to be set up here also, he adds. Adds Mr Randhir Verma, president of the Chandigarh Telecom Subscribers Association, “Cell phone spam began about two years ago. It has become intensive in the past one year. Though it is unethical, it is not illegal as even the telecom regulatory body TRAI has no powers to stem this new form of spam.”
TNS |
The national sculptors camp at Leisure Valley, however, does not fall in this category. More than a camp for artists, selected by Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi, it has turned out to be a platform for positive interaction between sculptors on the one hand and college students, school students, art critics and art lovers on the other. Thanks to the artists and their willingness to share their inspiration at large, Leisure Valley, which invariably remains dry or, at the most, feels happy to play host to cricket players, is now reverberating with fresh life and energy. No wonder some local photographers have made it a point to capture Leisure valley’s new-found image on their cameras. The first city! Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) recent workshop on pollution control drew an amazing response. About 25 representatives from voluntary organisations operating in the North turned up to interact with the officials of the CPCB, which made its expertise available to every participant, who gathered for the workshop at the UT Guest House. Ironically, a handful of Chandigarh-based NGOs participated in the workshop meant to focus on pollution problems in the entire Northern region. Where about 20 NGO representatives turned up from Uttar Pradesh alone, there were just about two from Chandigarh. Once the impending problem of pollution in the river Ganga had been discussed at length, one of the participants posed a question about Chandigarh,”What about Chandigarh? Are there no problems here? How come the city is so planned and peaceful?” Member Secretary, CPCB, Mr PJS Dadwal, who is also Additional Director, Environment, UT, gave a befitting reply: “This is a city that revels in being the first on various counts. It has the largest availability of vehicles per person. It has the largest per capita income. It also has the highest expenditure per person. Apparently, there is no problem!”
Taking cue from the Sarkar Apke Dwar of the Haryana Government wherein the entire administrative machinery attends to grievances of the people, the University Grants Commission has come up with a similar idea. The UGC has Dr RK Chauhan, a former Vice-Chancellor of Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar, as its Additional Secretary, the UGC’s Haryana connection. Holding its first such meeting with Vice-Chancellors of the
universities of the north, the UGC officials, led by the Vice-Chairman, Prof VN Raj Shekeran Pillai, said the aim was to get first hand information of the fund-related problems of the universities. He said that similar meetings would be organised for universities of the east, west and south.
A multi-faceted
personality Principal Triloki Nath, who died last week at Jammu at the ripe old age of 85, was a multi-faceted
personality. He was an academician, a religious leader, an administrator, an Arya Samajist and a sage who remained a Gandhian in thought and action throughout his life. He was Principal of DAV College, Sector 10, Chandigarh, from 1963 to 1979. Born at Srinagar in 1918, he excelled at studies and joined DAV College, Lahore, as a lecturer in English soon after passing his M.A. from that very college in 1940. His deep interest in literature and life made him a great sympathiser and lover of humanity. He could be seen on the campus of DAV College, Sector 10, any time of the day, attending to the problems of the students and staff. It was under his stewardship that DAV College scaled such glorious heights that students from all over India vied with one another to seek
admission.
You’re invited! The Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal Corporation seemed “over excited” over extending invitations to the media for coverage of the inauguration of a new public toilet in Sector 8 and a bus queue shelter at Manimajra last week. So it appeared if one went by the number of invitations received at the newspaper offices. One of the invitations was extended by the Chief Engineer, another by the city Mayor and yet another came from the office of the UT Administrator. Mr P.C. Sanghi, a councillor, said such situations sometimes came in as an
embarrassment to the authority itself. “I want the corporation, at least, to look into the matter for care in the future”, he added.
UT means under tension Most of the officials in the UT administration have been given charge of more than one department. Unlike their counterparts in Punjab and Haryana, they claim, they are overburdened, and are also under the scanner of hyper active media. The other day, a senior official in the Central Pollution Control department said: “Others may talk about comfort and better amenities in Chandigarh, but personally I feel that UT officials are always ‘under tension,’ since most of us have been given additional charge of three to four departments.”
Memorandum for what? The other day the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry submitted a pre-Budget memorandum to Mr Sampat Singh, Finance Minister of Haryana. The chamber submitted various demands like abolition of local area development tax, cut in duties and restructuring of tourism and transport departments. Responding to their demands, the Finance Minister said,” What is the purpose of pre-Budget discussion when Budget proposals have already been given final shape. Further, the chamber should not release the proposals to the press before discussions were being held.”
Lion Sanjay Sardana, President of Lions Club, Chandigarh Central, has been adjudged the best president in the region IV of District 321-F and Lion Vinod Chaudhary, Secretary of Lions Club, Chandigarh, has been adjudged the best secretary in the region IV of District 321-F. Not only that, Lions Club Chandigarh Central has been adjudged the best club in the
region. This was announced in the regional conference held at Chandigarh Club last week by the Region Chairperson , Lion Sushma Malhotra. The awards were given on the basis of various service projects undertaken by the club during the past six months. The main projects which won acclaim from the judges were the Old Age Home being run by the club in Sector 15, Chandigarh, where 33 old inmates are taken care of by the club members. The second project which was mentioned especially was Lions Bal Vidya Mandir School where the club is giving free education to 175 students of Kumhar Colony, Chandigarh. The third project which won appreciation of one and all was the Youth Exchange Programme in which 20 students from Singapore were invited by the President, Lion Sanjay Sardana, to visit Chandigarh. During their stay, they were given a feel of Punjab culture and were involved in the various service projects for two weeks. Other service projects undertaken by the club are presentation of three-wheeler chairs to handicapped people, donation of blankets to PGI Sarai, blood
donation camps etc.
—Sentinel |
Telecom companies digging
carelessly, say residents Panchkula, February 8 In fact, with the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and the municipal council (MC) shifting blame for the grant of permission to the telecom companies, a strange situation has emerged as residents do not know which body should be approached. According to a press note issued by the Citizens’ Welfare Association, Panchkula has followed the pattern of Chandigarh where sewerage lines and water lines have been laid on opposite sides of each road. It was principally decided that all underground cables and pipes will be laid on side where there is no sewerage system. However, the telecom companies like the BSNL, Spice and Airtel are laying underground cables, allegedly without caring for the principles of the development of urban estates. The residents complained that ramps of various houses had been damaged by careless digging and they had to repair these at their own expense. If the digging was not regulated, the underground
sewerage lines would also be damaged, Mr S.K. Nayar, president of the association, added.  |
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Feel-good slogan a farce, says Prabha Thakur Chandigarh, February 8 This was stated by Ms Prabha Thakur, a spokesperson of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC), while addressing a press conference here today. She is currently handling the assignments of the party in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh with regard to gearing up for the forthcoming parliamentary election. Ms Thakur read out a long list of scandals in the recent years where BJP inaction had led to no follow-up. “The Tehelka expose, the controversy over the sale of coffins to the army, stock exchange fraud, fudging-up of nearly Rs 14,500 crore by HUDCO bank, are only some of the pointers to the state of affairs. Imagine the cost of coffin is more than what a family of a martyr got in compensation for the
casualties in the Kargil war. The Prime Minister gave a clean chit to a minister not yet cleared for taking bribe are only the tip of the iceberg of corruption in the casualty BJP era”, she said. “ It is interesting that the BJP that claims to be the most nationalistic party could not think of slogans in our mother tongue. “There were scores of other verbal possibilities to replace the ‘Feel Good’ slogan. To top it all there was hardly anything to feel good. Should we feel good about the increasing unemployment? Should we feel good about rising prices of petroleum products? Should we feel good about terrorism in different parts of the country? Or should we feel good about poverty?” she said. Ms Thakur, a member of the Rajya Sabha, said the government had not behaved constitutionally by announcing early elections. The BJP did not have the guts to clear the budget. Instead new sops were being announced some of which were likely to have a bearing on the pockets of the tax payers under the new government. Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, the outgoing local Member of Parliament, said the BJP had caused mental agony to the family of Rajiv Gandhi, a former Prime Minister, who had been given a clean chit by the court in the alleged pay-off in purchase of Bofors guns. In the same light, the allegation of the BJP over purchase of one million gallons of oil from Iraq did not have any truth, he added. Earlier, Mr B.B. Bahl, president of the local unit of the Congress, introduced the speaker. Ms Thakur said Mr Bansal would be the likely candidate of the party for the local parliamentary seat, however, a final decision in this regard would be announced by the party president, Ms Sonia Gandhi.
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Satirist Bhatti receives Rotary award Mohali, February 8 Bhatti was also nominated as Paul Harris Fellow by the district for contributing $1000 to the Rotary Foundation. In his inimitable satirical way, he left the audience reeling with laughter as he related incidences of children these days who can easily operate modern electronic gadgets while their parents grope in the dark. He lamented that “defective education system” had failed to bring out real talents and interests of youth in choosing right careers. He blamed the television and Internet for giving a free access to information from drugs to sex. He advised parents to help children choose the right path according to their talents so that they could help find suitable employment. He put across this point to the audience through a skit, which he presented with his associate Brijesh Ahuja. Earlier, District Governor Kawal Bedi made an audio-visual presentation on various projects undertaken by 75 clubs in the Rotary District, comprising Chandigarh, parts of Panjab, Haryana, Himachal, Uttar Pradesh and Uttranchal. Some of the major projects included setting up of a Rs 4.5-crore blood resource centre in Chandigarh, the “Gift of life” project of Rotary Chandigarh which had benefited 96 children, including one from Pakistan, who was recently operated upon at the PGI. Chairman of the National Pulse Polio Committee of Rotary International Deepak Kapur appealed to Rotarians to develop effective strategy to completely eradicate the disease from the country. Rotarian D.N. Padhi, representative of Rotary International president Jonathan Majiyagbe, commended achievements of the district and complimented the Rotarians for carrying on tasks in service of the people. A Rotarian from Pakistan Kishan Chand who has accompanied two children for cardiac surgery, expressed his gratitude to the Rotary Club of Chandigarh. The two-day conference was inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs I.D. Swamy yesterday at Shivalik Public School, Mohali. |
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Goods worth
Rs 47 lakh destroyed Mohali, February 8 Fire officials were, however, yet to ascertain the cause of the fire. “The fire was not caused by the welding as believed earlier. There was no welding going on in the building when the fire took place. In fact, the welder was not even inside the building,” said Mr Bhupinder Singh. The building constructed on 12 kanals of industrial plot in Phase VIII was relatively new and some parts of the building were still under construction. A large part of the building was being temporarily used as a store house for highly inflammable cotton and polyester yarn, that went up in flames. A spinning unit, functioning from the premises on the ground floor, was damaged and so were some computers of a company running on the first floor. Employees of the three companies were cleaning up the place today and trying to salvage articles from heaps of burnt material. An item wise assessment of damage has also been undertaken. |
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Rent Act issue hots up Chandigarh, February 8 The POWA, held its executive body meeting today and discussed the role of leading political parties of the city on the issue of the rent act. Members were highly critical of the dual stand adopted by the major political parties while dealing the issue. Members opined that ignoring the positive outcome of the progressive policy these political parties had adopted double standards of pleasing both sides — the tenants as well as the landlords. Members assessed that landlords comprised a majority of the city population and only a small section of society — a handful of commercial tenants — has been opposing the rent notification for their vested interests to usurp prime properties on meagre rents. The body decided in principle to field its own candidate for the Chandigarh seat in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, Mr R.P. Malhotra, general secretary, of the POWA said. Meanwhile, the vice-president of the Tenants Association, Mr Pashora Singh, led a delegation to meet Mr Swami. |
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Osho meditation
camp ends today Panchkula, February 8 The camp is being conducted by Swami Prakashanad of Gidderwaha. Over 70 persons from Khanna, Ropar, Ludhiana, and Kurukshetra are taking part in the camp. Different music meditations including Sufi no-mind were experimented. The Swamiji stressed that we should connect ourselves with nature, including trees and sky. “This helps in relaxation and developing a creative attitude”, he said. The camp will conclude tomorrow. |
Canadian panel holds meeting Mohali, February 8 The CAI is an integral part of the Canadian Institute for International Studies. The committee members include representatives from General Motors India Pvt Ltd, Tata Motors, Royal Enfield, Hyundai Motors India Ltd, Toyota Kirloskar India Ltd and Maruti Suzuki Ltd. |
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