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IT Park Mess
Chandigarh, May 13 Krishna Mohan and SK Sandhu, former Home Secretary and Finance Secretary who been repatriated to their parent cadres of Haryana and Punjab, respectively, were summoned to the UT Guest House by Arun Ramanathan, former Union Secretary and inquiry officer appointed by the MHA. Both bureaucrats, who reportedly played a key role in the allotment of land to the IT majors, were quizzed for over two hours by the inquiry officer. “The bureaucrats were asked about their versions to the objections raised in the special audit report to corroborate the allegations of malpractices in the allotment of land at the IT park,” sources said. Ramanathan, on a three-day visit to the city, is scrutinising files pertaining to land allotment. A majority of files are with the Chief Vigilance Commission (CVC), which also probed the land allotment. The MHA had ordered an inquiry by Ramanathan and asked the UT administration to extend support to him. The special audit, conducted by a team of officials headed by the MHA’s chief controller of accounts, had found “glaring discrepancies” in the allotment of land. The special audit had come down heavily on the administration for acquiring commercial land at low prices and allotting it to private players at prices much lower than market rates. Cases of direct allotment at low prices, violations of tender clauses and irregular appointment of consultants to supervise auction process were also highlighted.
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Sachin fans get to meet their idol in flesh
Zirakpur, May 13 For most of those present the event turned out to be the one of the most memorable of their lives. “Only the lucky ones get a chance t talk to this ‘living legend’ of cricketing. We not only got to meet him but also had an opportunity to interact with him”, said many in the audience. Some diehard fans were overheard saying they could not trust their eyes that Sachin was there in front of their eyes and was also answering their questions. “I can’t believe my idol is sitting in front of me. Please allow me to touch you”, Ramandeep, a young cement dealer from Ludhiana requested the Master Blaster. The cricketer just flashed a broad smile in answer. However, his request was politely turned down by celebrity anchor Mandira Bedi and company officials as well. “What I’ve achieved in my life is only because of the love and support of my fans, my family and my friends. Things could have turned out differently in the absence of affection you people”, said Sachin amid huge applause. He also displayed his wit by saying he had to pay all his bills after hitting the first-ever double ton in ODI (one-day international) cricket. “I wasn’t able to realize the importance of my feat as I had to pay all my bills after breaking the record”, he said with a smile. When another cement dealer cracked a joke on cricket in Punjabi, Sachin laughed aloud saying he understood the language, though only a little bit. “I’d never imagine in my wildest dream that one day I would get a chance to interact with Tendulkar,” said Gurdip Sharma from Jammu.
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Nari Niketan Case
Chandigarh, May 13 Taking up an application filed by the public prosecutor for crossexamining the victim in the presence of a Nari Niketan official, the court today issued notice to the defence counsel for May 15. The 16-year-old mentally retarded girl was allegedly raped last year while she was staying at Nari Niketan. Additional amicus curiae Tanu Bedi had moved the application in the high court, on whose basis the standing counsel was asked to move the local court through its public prosecutor. The prosecutor moved an application to additional district & sessions judge Gian Chand Garg to immediately permit the prosecution to depute a female employee of the institute, where the victim is presently staying, to stand next to her and assist the court in understanding her correct version. Bedi had earlier approached the high court seeking direction that, in the pending trial, “the victim, whose cognitive capacity is retarded and who has some speech problems, and at times the words spoken by her are not clearly understandable by a person who is not well acquainted and has not interacted enough to understand her language, be provided assistance of a person who is well acquainted with her language and speech so as to stand next to her during her crossexamination”. The high court had yesterday said the true version/deposition of the victim needed to be correctly understood by everyone including the presiding officer, prosecution and defence. Thus the prosecution should move an application in the trial court urging it to grant the permission, it had stated. The case will now come up for the next hearing on May 17.
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PU exam papers: Complaints pour in again
Chandigarh, May 13 The complaints, as in the past, include question papers being out of syllabus, wrongly structured, vague and wrong division of marks. The complaints have been forwarded to the departments concerned, however, no error has been reported to date. Confirming the development, AK Bhandari, Controller of Examination, said: “The matter has been forwarded to the board of studies concerned. A majority of complaints in this category have been filed by students from affiliated colleges outside the city.” He said he was not sure about the exact number of complaints received, but it was around the same average like every year. He claimed that on an average, 85 per cent of such complaints turned out to be frivolous. Discrepancies in question papers have been reported earlier as well. In a large number of cases, the university was forced to give grace marks to students. One complaint pertains to the late arrival of question papers like it happened in case of two local colleges last year. “Panjab University has initiated the process of upgrading the examination system and special care is being taken about the paper setting process, which will be followed by similar standards in the evaluation process,” a senior official stated. The remark gains importance in the context that a sizeable majority of seniors, particularly experts, had distanced themselves from the examination process. “The fact is that a student’s standing is evaluated on the basis of his result card, so, the university needs to set high standards in the examination system and evaluation,” the official added.
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Slum Fire
Panchkula, May 13 Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president MM Mullana, who visited the affected families, had announced an ex gratia of Rs 1,000 to each family on behalf of the state government. However, after seeing their plight, he said he would take up the matter with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for provision of immediate financial relief to the victims. He said the compensation would be given to them within a day or two. However, Panchkula municipal council former president Manvir Kaur Gill later claimed that the compensation had been enhanced by the Chief Minister to Rs 10,000 per family after Mullana took up the matter with him this evening. Mullana also distributed mattress and sheets to each family. However, he expressed displeasure as no official from the Red Cross Society was present at the scene.
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CBSE Class XI admission system out, finally
Chandigarh, May 13 According to the board, the score card of all qualifying students will have a grade point for individual subject, a cumulative grade which will be equivalent to the aggregate percentage and an appropriate multiplier that will help schools to break the ‘tie’ situation and get the actual performance of every student. Responding to a query of the DPI (S) enquiring about the admission process to be followed in lieu of the grading system introduced in class X, the board has apprised him of the system, which will be fine tuned and explained to all schools within two days. “We had got a query from the DPI (S) of Chandigarh, who expressed his apprehension over the admission process to be followed with large number of students expected to get the same grade. We have informed him that we would be out with CGPA within next two days and it would be the governing rule for all admissions. It’s a pilot test and hope it works well,” Said, Rama, Public Relations Officer, CBSE. Certain private schools have ironically filled almost 95 per cent of their sets on provisional basis using pre-boards marks as the key criteria. According to educationists most of the parents speculating confusion over admissions played it safe by admitting their children even before declaring of the board results. The private schools when apprised of this system said that it was too late to adopt it as the board results are just a few days away, though the government institutions would go by the CBSE directives.
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UT seeks Centre’s nod for 114 healthcare posts
Chandigarh, May 13 According to officials, the sanctioned strength of doctors and other related staff in the health department has not been augmented in the city for almost two decades and as a result healthcare services are suffering. Apart from these, the city as it is faces a shortage of doctors with several posts lying vacant. The officials said as against the sanctioned strength of 28 senior medical officers and 117 medical officers, the city presently has only 16 and 115, respectively, on the rolls. Though 11 doctors were recently recruited on contract under the National Rural Health Mission, they are yet to join. Interestingly, the proposal has sought a sanction of 22 posts for the deaddiction centre at the Government Multispecialty Hospital, Sector 16, which has been operating virtually without any dedicated staff for the past one year now. The posts for which the sanction has been sought include psychiatrists (2), senior residents (2), pharmacists (2), nurses (8), helpers (6) and a social worker and a psychologist. The psychiatrist at the Sector 16 hospital looks after the work at the deaddiction centre. The government has also sought staff strength for opening two new dispensaries in Sector 38 West and Sector 52, which have witnessed a considerable growth in population in the recent past with many housing societies coming up there.
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RJD activists protest against Gadkari
Chandigarh, May 13 Led by RJD’s Chandigarh unit chief Ravinder Krishan, the party activists gathered outside the gate of the club and condemned the remarks made by Gadkari at a BJP rally here. They raised slogans against the BJP chief, demanding a public apology from him for his comments. Later, the police dispersed them, but they continued to raise slogans till Gadkari left the venue. Addressing a rally here yesterday, Gadkari had said: “Bade dakarte the sher jaise, aur kutte ke jaise ban kar Soniaji aur Congress ke ghar par talve chatne lage” (these leaders were roaring like lions, but later bowed like dogs to lick the feet of Sonia and the Congress). He had alleged that they had gone against the cut motions in Parliament due to the fear of the CBI.
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Mothers given tips on childcare
Mohali, May 13 A painting competition and a quiz was held at the workshop while experts from the field of gynaecology and pediatrics educated the mothers on various aspects of looking after the health of their children as well as their own. A special painting competition was organised in which the theme was ‘Mother.’ —
OC
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Courier company told to pay compensation
Chandigarh, May 13 The forum has also told the company to pay Rs 5,000 as costs of litigation along with a limited liability of Rs 100. The company had failed to deliver her courier on time, due to which Nidhi lost the opportunity to appear for a certain post. Nidhi of Sector 38 submitted to the forum that her father, Rajesh Garg, had handed over an envelope to Skylark Express (Delhi) Private Limited at Sector 38 for delivery to the Registrar of the High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital. The envelope contained her application form for the post of additional district and sessions judge. The last date of receipt of application forms was July 17 last and the company gave an assurance of delivery by the previous day. The company had confirmed the delivery of the envelope, but when she did not find her name in the list of eligible candidates on the Internet, she sent them an e-mail to know the fate of her application. She talked to the Registrar-General on phone on August 18, who told her that her application form did not reach them. After that, the complainant made several attempts to contact the courier company, but in vain. On October 13, a legal notice was served on the company, which did not reply. The counsel for the company submitted that the envelope was delivered on July 17. The complainant had not disclosed contents of the courier to them at the time of booking and it gave no promise or assurance for delivery on or before the said date. The forum, presided over by Ashok Raj Bhandari and having Rajinder Singh Gill and Dr Madanjit Kaur Sahota as other members, observed that there was deficiency in service on the part of the courier company as it was due to it that the complainant lost the opportunity to appear for the post since her application form did not reach the authorities in time.
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300 traffic violators on camera in 5 days
Chandigarh, May 13 A traffic police officer said the drive would be intensified in the coming days as the cameras had brought transparency by producing scientific evidence of violations, leaving nothing to argue for. Machines in the fully automatic system would issue a challan sheet and put it in an envelope carrying the address of the violator, on the basis of details provided for vehicle registration. The traffic police was loading details of every vehicle registered in the city for the purpose. “Once the system is functional, it will be connected to all CCTV cameras and challan sheets will be sent automatically,” SP (Traffic) HS Doon said.
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CHB staff to protest Chandigarh, May 13 It was decided to start a peaceful agitation in a phased manner on the premises of the board from the second week of June till the implementation of the pension scheme to board staff.
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NGO helps widow
Zirakpur, May 13 The NGO has given her Rs 10,000 and will provide her lifetime pension, which is payable by the Government of Punjab under the National Benefit Scheme. NGO president Parmdeep Singh Bhabat said their organisation filled in the papers and after getting them verified from the quarters concerned submitted them to the District Social Security Officer, Mohali. —
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Duping of Car Dealer Chandigarh, May 13 Sources said the Delhi Police had told its counterpart in the city that the accused, identified as 28-year-old Varun Kaul, admitted to have duped a car dealer in Chandigarh in a similar fashion. SI Naveen Sharma of the economic offences wing of the city police, said the accused was caught when he allegedly tried to take away a Tata Safari from an auto dealer in Delhi while giving him a counterfeit draft. The car dealer then handed him over to the police, which took him in remand before he was sent to jail. Sharma said they had obtained Kaul’s production warrants from a local court. “Going by the modus operandi of the suspect, we believe that he had duped a city-based car dealer in Industrial Area, Phase I, on January 9. His custodial interrogation is required in a similar case we registered yesterday,” he said. Arvind Bhakhari of Honda had lodged a complaint with the police, alleging that a man posing as a resident of Jalandhar gave him a draft for Rs 8,92,375 drawn on the Bank of India, Gaziabad branch, for buying a car. After handing over the draft, he said he wanted to show the car to his wife at Kharar. They sent a woman sales executive along with him in a demo car. On reaching
Kharar, he called his “wife” and she sat in the front seat. The moment the sales executive stepped out of the car, they sped away. The sales woman, believing that he may have gone for a joyride, waited for a long time before returning to her office. The next day the car dealer deposited the draft in the bank, but the bank stated that it was fake. The matter was reported to the police on January 14 and a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy was registered yesterday. |
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Panjab varsity told to refund Rs 6,611
Chandigarh, May 13 It has also been asked to pay a sum of Rs 3,000 as compensation for causing physical harassment, mental agony and pain to the complainant on account of non-refund of fee as per their own rules, along with Rs 2,000 as costs of litigation. Jaswant Singh, a resident of Ludhiana, has submitted a complaint to the forum stating that he got admission in LLB 1st year (1st semester) in the Regional Centre, Punjab University (law department), Muktsar, for which he deposited fee of Rs 6,611. Thereafter, he got admission in the LLB 1st year (1st semester) at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and, therefore, surrendered his seat and sought refund of the fee, which was not given to him despite making request. In reply, the institute sent a blank form for refund of tuition fee only, though he was entitled to refund the full fee. In their written reply, the institute stated that on receipt of the letter from the complainant, he was issued a letter with the prescribed form for the refund of the tuition fee, but he failed to submit the same till date. It also mentioned that as per the report of the director, the seat vacated by the complainant was not filled and, therefore, as per the UGC guidelines, the complainant was not eligible for refund of fee, but even then as per the Syndicate decision, the university sympathetically decided to refund 50 per cent of the fee to the students. The forum observed that there is deficiency in service on the part of the department in not refunding at least the proportionate part of the fee paid by the complainant, although there might have been some contributory negligence on the part of the complainant also in the sense that he has not fulfilled all technical requirements of the university in filling the prescribed form, but that in any case is a minor issue, which can be overlooked in the interest of the justice and also on account of the fact that the complainant had already made an application for refund of fee on plain paper.
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Now, Punjab board results available on mobile phones
Patiala, May 13 Over 8 lakh students who appeared for class VIII examination this year, will be able to access their board exam results on their mobile phones on May 16 or 17, the expected dates for results announcement. The results of other classes will be declared later in the month. The students can register now by simply dialing 50005 or sending an SMS MD, Roll No to 50005 from any prepaid or postpaid Idea number in Punjab and the result will be sent through SMS once announced. Announcing the new initiative, Anish Roy, Chief Operating Officer, Punjab, J&K and Himachal
Pradesh, Idea Cellular, said, “ The PSEB has entrusted Idea cellular with the critical role of providing access to the board exam results on the mobile platform in Punjab.
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PU orders probe into fire incident
Chandigarh, May 13 Taking exception to the fact that these teachers had participated in a protest against being asked to do census duty, the department has now asked them to explain their position. According to the letter, the teachers had been assigned census duties under the Census Act, but they sat on a dharna under the leadership of a union leader, thereby obstructing and instigating others from performing their duties sincerely. The DEO said: “The notice was issued to them some days ago and they must have responded to it. I am yet to see their replies though.”
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College comes out with book on education management
Patiala, May 13 Dr AS
Chawla, Dean, Colleges, Development Council, Punjabi University, Patiala, was the chief guest at the function. He released the book. He lauded the efforts made by the college and shared his thoughts. He said such an initiative taken up by the college was an indicator of academic progression of the college. He told that commerce and business education because of its impact on the growth,the economy required special attention. Such kind of books would result in spreading management education, managerial fundamentals and grooming young students as future managers. Dr Dharminder Singh
Ubha, Principal, Khalsa College, Patiala, while welcoming the chief guest, expressed his views that there was an urgent need to overhaul the existing business education system to cope up with the dynamic world. Now, the time had come to realise the mismatch between the product and demand. This book proved to be beneficial in bridging this gap,
he added. Prof Jasleen Kaur said that in this book, scholars discussed many new ideas and suggestions to make the education of commerce and management time and value relevant. Prof
Ambika, vice-principal of the college presented the vote of thanks to the chief guest and all dignitaries present.
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DEO issues notices to 3 teachers
Chandigarh, May 13 In a statement issued by the warden of Girls Hostel number 5,”The fire broke out in the bamboo barricade grown about 40-50 ft away from the Panjab University Campus. Security guards on a night parole noticed the fire and they informed the hostel watchman. The watchman with the help of residents doused the blaze immediately. “According to the university, they had informed the oolice and the fire brigade, but they reached the spot only after half-an- hour by then the fire had already been doused. Though there has been no loss of property or lives the university wants to probe the reason behind the fire in order to rule out any foul play.
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Student nurses awarded at PGI
Chandigarh, May 13 Officer in-charge of NINE, Dr Meenu Singh along with the deemed faculty of NINE was also present for the occasion. The programme was hosted by Dr Sandhya Ghai. The prizes were awarded for competitions of calligraphy, photography, card making, dancing, singing, debate extempore and fabric painting. All students participated with zeal and enthusiasm. B.Sc., 1st year students, nursing, have won maximum number of prizes. They won 18 prizes followed by basic nursing 3rd year students, who won five prizes. Talwar gave away the prizes to the winners and encouraged the students to keep up the performances. At the end of the function, a handmade fabric painting was presented to Talwar by nursing students. The programme was concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr Karobi Das.
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Foreign Educational Institutions Bill Chandigarh, May 13 While speaking on the issue, Tikshan Sood, minister medical education and research, Punjab, who was the chief guest, strongly opined that the Bill was being mooted by the Central government at the behest of international business lobby and was not motivated by public interest. He said the Central government was attempting to expose education sector for exploitation and was nothing else, but commercialisation of education. Prof Rajinder Bhandari, vice-chairman, Punjab State Planning Board, said the proposed Bill was neither in public interest nor in national interest. He added that it should disturb the existing educational set up and the impact was unpredictable. He asserted that the Central government should outline the quantum of privatisation and globalisation. While participating in the seminar, Dr Rajneesh Arora, Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Technical University, apprehended that only third grade foreign universities should express their interest in establishing in India and no elevation of standards of education would take place. He stated that the need of hour is to strengthen the existing universities. Dr KN Pathak, ex-Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, said in many foreign countries, population growth rate was negative, financial condition of these institutions was deteriorating and the interest of youth to pursue higher education was retarding. This is the reason for these foreign universities for aiming at India, which is seen as lucrative destination due to its population size. Umesh Dutt, national secretary, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), was anecdote speaker.
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Science quiz marks National Technology Day Chandigarh, May 13 School principal Nisha Gupta said this day reminded us to encourage and propagate technologies and to nurture technology flow to all sectors of the economy. She said the use of appropriate rural technologies could go a long way in optimally nurturing human potential. She further added that overlapping issues related to energy and
environment were posing serious challenges to both developed and developing countries. |
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Commissioning anniversary Chandigarh, May 13 The event brought nostalgic memories of their days at the academy and association in service and other professions. |
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Doctors save leg of heart patient Chandigarh, May 13 According to Dr Deepak Koshal, director of cardio-vascular interventions at the hospital, said the patient was admitted to the hospital with extreme leg pain, which was caused by blockage of artery in the upper thigh. Explaining the procedure, he said the blockages were crushed through angioplasty and a long stent (steel coil) was placed in the leg artery, after which another long stent was pushed in and through the first stent. He added that as the blood supply was gradually restored, a third stent was pushed through the first two, followed by a fourth stent pushed distally through the previous three stents, restoring the leg’s blood supply. He said the blood supply of the leg was totally restored and the patient had been discharged from the hospital. |
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