Panchkula, June 17
Taking a lead over Chandigarh and Mohali, the Panchkula district today started video conferencing in the court complex here today.On the very first day, cases of 17 undertrials lodged at the Ambala jail were disposed of by three judges, including Chief Judicial Magistrate Rakesh Singh, Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Birbian and Jaiveer Hooda.

Surinder Bairagi, who was a public prosecutor in these cases, said two screens were installed in the court to hear the cases from the Ambala jail. The accused in judicial custody are supposed to be produced before the court every 14 days.

Explaining the procedure of video conferencing, Bairagi said the judges directed Ambala jail officials to produce the accused. The jail officials, who then produced the undertrials before the camera in the jail, identified them by name, along with other personal particulars of each accused with the relevant FIR details.

Chandigarh, June 17
Officials of the UT Administration have been burning the midnight oil over the past couple of days, courtesy the detailed questionnaire handed by the committee appointed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) pertaining to the mega projects.

Sources say the questionnaire, which runs into nearly 100 pages comprising over 60 questions, has left the top brass of the UT Administration exhausted.

The deadline for submitting one part of the reply was June 16, with the remainder required to be submitted by June 24.

Insiders say what has perplexed the officials are the intricate details that the committee had asked specifically pertaining to the land acquisition for Rajiv Gandhi IT Park.

Sources maintain that since the acquisition of the land for the first phase of the IT Park began more than a decade ago, many records were not available with the present set of officials.

Sources also say that the questions that have been sought by the committee not

just pertain to the mega projects, including the Theme-cum-Amusement Park, Fim City, IT Park, but also certain other UT departments.

The committee appointed by the MHA investigating “discrepancies” highlighted in the special audit on the allotment of land to certain infotech majors at the IT park, had arrived in the city only yesterday. Former IAS officer DR Bhalla, who is also one of the members in the committee appointed by the MHA is scrunitising the reply filed today.

The committee members had also recently questioned former and current bureaucrats of the UT administration in connection with alleged irregularities in land allotment.

Earlier, the union home ministry had ordered an inquiry into the matter by Arun Ramanathan, another retired IAS officer, and had asked the UT Administration to extend support to him.

The special audit, conducted by a team of officials headed by the ministry’s chief controller of accounts, had found “glaring discrepancies” in the allotment of land to IT firms.

Last month, Ramanathan and Bhalla had visited the city for three days and scrutinised the files pertaining to land allotment and quizzed certain bureaucrats. 

Chandigarh, June 17
Students opting for the commerce stream in city government schools are bound to face a harrowing time, as the number of applicants have massively exceeded the number of available seats.

Out of the total 11,000 admission forms sold so far, over 4,000 students have opted for 1,400 commerce seats and the number is expected to increase in coming days. “With every passing year the number of applicants for commerce keeps increasing. But it seems that this time it has outshone the regular science streams. Competition is always tough, but this year it will be worse as a large number of students seem to be opting for it,” said District Education Officer Chanchal Singh.

Interestingly, the last year’s cut-offs of various schools for commerce have been much higher than corresponding medical or non-medical streams. As per the speculations, this year also cut-off will be as high as 9.6 CGPA in all preferred government schools. The educationists, meanwhile attribute it to the increasing MBA craze among students. “Its not just engineering or medicine that attract students but most of them want to pursue MBAs or go in for civil services. For pursuing MBA, commerce seems to be a better option,” said one of the counsellors, UT education department.

In contrast, vocational courses seem to be the last choice for many students. This is because students do not aspire for jobs immediately after passing out from school. “We have good vocational courses, which are primarily taken up by students hailing from rural backgrounds. Most of the students wish to opt for any vocational subject only at graduation level,” added a UT official.

Chandigarh, June 17
Faced with the prospect of manpower shortage throwing a spanner on its expansion plans, the National Cadet Corps (NCC) is roping in retired armed forces officers on contractual basis to fill vacancies in units as well as higher establishments.

The NCC has a sanctioned strength of about 1,500 officers drawn from the three services and at present is short of about 25 per cent regular officers. “This deficiency is commensurate with the shortage of officers in the regular forces,” NCC Director General Lt Gen RK Karwal told The Tribune here today.

The NCC has plans to increase its cadet strength from 13 lakh to 15 lakh. This will require additional officer strength of 140. About 100 of these will be re-employed officers.

“The Army, too, is engaged in raising new formations and the pressure on manpower is immense,” General Karwal said.

“Re-employing ex-servicemen in the NCC is a suitable means of meeting our needs and we have drafted qualitative requirements that retired officers must fulfil for joining us,” he added. While the commanding officer of a unit would always be a regular officer, re-employed officers would be placed as second-in-command or staff officers in group headquarters and directorates. Final approval from the Defence Ministry for re-employment was expected soon. Selected officers would be on a one-year probation before being approved for tenure of another four years and their remuneration would be at par with their last drawn salary.

“All three services have a crunch as far as the officer cadre is concerned. The minute the services can provide us with the supervisory staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force, we can increase them to almost any level,” the Ministry of Defence’s representative had stated before the committee.

According to the parliamentary report, there are 529 vacancies existing at present in the NCC. On the other hand, the Army is facing a shortage of 11, 456 officers, while the navy and air force are deficient of 1,439 and 1,343 officers, respectively.

General Karwal said there was a move to increase the vacancies reserved for NCC C-Certificate seeking a commission as officers in the Army. These vacancies were being increased from the annual 64 to 90 in the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun for permanent commission and from 100 to 125 in the Officers Training Academy at Chennai for short service commission.

Mohali, June 17
The vice-chairman of the Punjab School Education Board Dr Suresh Tandon, today released a book “Eco guru” written by subject experts of the Board.It’s a reference book on environment education for all teachers of schools affiliated to the Board.

After state government made environment studies in schools, the board was asked to develop a handbook. Ministry of Environment and Centre for Environment Education’s help was taken to compile the book.

The handbook is for class III to XII teachers and attempts to provide opportunities and resources for teachers to support them in developing healthy attitudes and encouraging positive actions through activities, projects and field experiences. It is based on the syllabus prescribed and developed by the PSEB and NCERT.

Dr Tandon said there was a feedback form in the handbook to be filled by teachers. Initially, handbook would go to 1,000 schools of Punjab where teachers would send their feedback, inputs and suggestions on the handbook. This would help in improving the content for the development of the Punjabi version of the handbook. Shruti Shukla, scientific officer in the board, was the project co-ordinator for the publication of the book.

Panchkula, June 17
Taking a step forward towards women’s empowerment in Haryana, the district social welfare department has decided to hand over the task of distribution of driving licenses and vehicle registration certificates to self-help groups in which the majority of members are women from below poverty line families.

Till now these documents, issued by a subdivisional magistrate, were distributed by the postal department through Speed Post. While 115 self-help groups in the rural areas of Raipur Rani and Barwala area have already been assigned the job, three such groups in urban areas have also evinced interest to join in.

The scheme would not only ensure these documents are delivered to the recipients properly but would generate a significant amount of income for the poor in the district.

About 8,000 driving licences and vehicle registration certificates have been issued by the SDM, Panchkula. The social welfare department spends Rs 12 for delivery of every document. The self-help groups, however, will be paid Rs 10 for every document, leading to a substantial saving.

“Involving self-help groups in distributing these documents will eliminate many problems in the procedure”, said district social welfare officer Virender Singh.

The move would help in reducing the incidence of unscrupulous elements obtaining these documents by providing false particulars as members of self-help groups are well informed about the residents of their areas.

“Moreover the groups can ensure delivery any time even if the recipient was not available at his home for days at a stretch. In such circumstances postmen usually return the mail to the sender and the applicants have to rush to the SDM’s office to get hold of them, said Singh.

Zirakpur, June 17
The Zirakpur Municipal Council is planning to set up a slaughterhouse at Gazipur village to maintain hygiene in shops selling meat.The issue of setting up a slaughterhouse is likely to be discussed in MC meeting, scheduled to be held on Friday. The proposal has been mooted after the Zirakpur MC realised that meat was being sold without verification from veterinarians. Moreover, the animals were being slaughtered in shops leading to mess and the possibility of spread of an infection.

MC sources said they had been receiving complaints from area residents regarding animals being slaughtered in almost all meat shops. They rued that the animals were not being slaughtered scientifically leading to unhygienic conditions.

Sources said the MC had identified a two-acre land at Gazipur village. A detailed report has been prepared and sent for approval. The total cost of the slaughterhouse would be finalised after the approval. It is expected to be ready by the year-end, sources added.

Sources said as the council does not have the technical expertise, a consultant will be appointed to work out the specifications and the tender document.

Ankit Sharma, a resident of Zirakpur said, “It is a serious matter as the waste meat products are not properly disposed of. The sellers slaughter the animals in their shops and dispose of the remnants into the surrounding drains.”

When contacted, MC president Narinder Kumar Sharma said: “The issue of setting up a slaughterhouse will be discussed in coming MC meeting and the site would be finalised after the councillors’ approval,” he added.

Chandigarh, June 17
The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) does not have any proper procedure to supervise the quality of work, which they allot to private contractors in the city.During a surprise visit by nominated councillors, Pallav Mukherjee and MPS Chawla, to the venue of the construction of water tank in Sector 21, it was found that the contractor was not following the proper norms of the construction.

Records of the corporation reveal that the work of construction of water tank is allotted to a Bathinda-based contractor.

As per the proposal, a water tank costing around Rs 40 lakh of five lakh litres is to be constructed for the supply of water to the sector.

When both councillors visited the site, they found that labourers are not following the proper procedure of construction.

According to Pallav Mukherjee, the concrete slab of the tank, which was recently constructed should be sprayed with water for 28 days, but these were lying dry.

When he asked about it to the labourers, they replied that they always followed this process whenever there was any construction.

MPS Chawla said while constructing this tank, the contractor should have removed the play equipment, which were installed at this place. He said the construction was going on for the last 20 days and the expensive equipment were lying on the ground like a junk.

Chawla said when an official of the engineering department was called at the spot for the supervision and asked to produce the bills relating to this work, he informed that these were yet to be prepared by the department.

Chandigarh, June 17
High drama was witnessed at the Sector 22 police station when a well-known city-based human rights lawyer Rajwinder Singh Bains alleged that he along with his son Utsav Bains were allegedly thrashed by cops led by police post in charge sub-inspector JS Bhullar.

The lawyer had objected to te ill-treatment being meted to a girl by cops at the police post. He alleged the moment they objected to the treatment being meted to the girl, the cops got annoyed and started bashing them up. The girl was allegedly being harassed and when the lawyer and his son objected, they were thrashed. DSP (Central) Jagbir Singh said there was some misunderstanding between the cops and the lawyer leading to heated arguments. The issue had, however, been resolved, he said.

The lawyer had landed at the police station after his wife, who was travelling with her two daughters in her Maruti Alto car, was hit by another vehicle near Sector 23. Both the vehicle drivers were brought to the police post. Soon after reaching the police post, Renu Bains called up her husband.

While the police was listening to both the parties, the lawyer objected to the behaviour of the cops to the other couple. Till the filing of the report, no complaint had been lodged.

Chandigarh, June 17
The department of revenue, Ministry of Finance, has sanctioned Rs 5.97 crore to the department of excise and taxation, Chandigarh administration, as a part of the project under the CT-MMP.

The project was sanctioned by the Department of Revenue at a meeting held recently, where Finance Secretary Sanjay Kumar represented the Chandigarh administration.

Sanjay Kumar said various e-services would be introduced in the city with an aim to create citizen-centric environment. The plan advocates definition of institutional mechanisms and core policies for managing e-governance initiatives. These services would be available to the citizens on 24 x 7 basis, he added.

The department has proposed introduction of e-registration, e-filing, e-payment, e-forms, e-refunds and e-redressal of grievances. This will help the dealers of Chandigarh to easily have access to all the services on anytime anywhere basis. The project will be executed in a span of two years.

Chandigarh, June 17
The undisputed king of fruits has edged out all its rivals in city households. A random survey of fruit and vegetable markets, including those in Sector 26, 19 and 22, revealed stalls selling mangoes were drawing the biggest crowds.As expected, the grain market in Sector 26 had the largest range of mangoes. Three perennial favourites - Safeda, Dashehri and Kalmi - which poured into the city from places like Warangal, Nagpur, Lucknow and Saharanpur, are available in plenty.

You can also look forward to relishing an exquisite variety of Chausa and Langda mangoes in shades of deep yellow, as they are expected to hit the city’s markets in August. Though the supply of Safeda, which is known for its large size, is abundant, Dashehri appears to be overshadowing it in sales.

The prices of the delicious fruit vary from one variety to another, with no major change as compared to last year. The produce this year has been good and the fruit has arrived 
on time. Safeda is priced at Rs 40 per kg in wholesale and Rs 55 in retail, whereas Dashehri is priced 
at Rs 20 to 22 per kg in wholesale.

“In the months of June and July, Dashehri is the king,” says Subash Chander Randhawa, vice-chairman of the Grain Market Association, Sector 26.

“Kalmi mangoes, which are transported from Saharanpur and Lucknow, are a poor man’s delight. They are just right for those who can’t afford Safeda”, says Ram Nath, a fruit vendor. The Kalmi variety is priced at Rs 12 to 15 per kg in wholesale.”

On the whole prices have managed to remain stable, as mangoes did not perish this year. “The fruit usually perishes due to soaring temperatures,” said a distributor of the market committee.

As a prelude to the bumper season, the Alphonso variety, generally beyond the reach of the common man, was sold for Rs 360 per kg in March.

Chandigarh, June 17
Around 35 RTI activists today formed a human chain at Sector 17 plaza to express their solidarity with the victims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy.The Activists Federation, Punjab, and members of some human rights organisations also carried placards.

The activist demanded that a curative petition should be filed in the Supreme Court for seeking reversal of the 1996-judgment of Supreme Court of India.

According to which it was held to be a case of “negligence causing deaths (under Section 304-A IPC).

The activists further sought Anderson’s extradition. A request for granting a reasonable or higher compensation to the victims was also made.The activists also sent a postcard regarding their demands to the Prime Minister.

Mohali, June 17
The application forms for Aerocity, a residential project launched by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority, are still in demand.Banks have received as many as 1.88 lakh forms so far and have demanded another 50,000 forms.

The issue was today discussed at a meeting between GMADA officials and representatives of banks.

GMADA has asked banks to give a report on the status of sale of brochures on a regular basis.

The banks have also been asked to keep a record of the applications.

The sale of forms for the prestigious project coming up near the international airport started on June 7. Forms are being sold through various public and private sector banks.

Balbir Singh, estate officer, said there was some confusion regarding the attestation of photographs to be affixed on the forms. These photographs had to be self-attested. Moreover, the forms could be filled in more than one name but both the applicants must fulfill all conditions laid down by the authority in this regard. Regarding the reserved category, including the defence personnel, the applicant must be domicile of Punjab. The domicile policy was as per the Punjab government’s instructions. 

Chandigarh, June 17
Taking first step towards bringing the private college fee on a par with their government counterparts, UT higher education department has asked PU colleges to submit a detailed justification of their fee structure.

The move has come with the department waking up to the fact that these colleges were working on the basis of a grant-in-aid system and were required to have similar fee structure as government colleges.

“Most colleges get grant from government and as per these grants they need to have their fee equal to the fee of government colleges. A slight difference of 10 per cent is still justified, but it had recently been brought to our notice that in some cases the gap was up to 50 per cent. So we decided to ask the colleges to justify,” said director higher education, Ajoy Sharma.

Besides regular fee, private colleges are known to charge exorbitant funds from students on pretext for student welfare.

“Facilities can’t only be on papers. Colleges will now have to justify the money being charged from students viz a viz staff salary and infrastructure. After reviewing their take, we will ask them to cut down funds,” added Sharma.

According to sources, private colleges will also have to follow government colleges in submitting their staff details, annual planners and other records to the department.

Average Fee (in Rs)

Course Private Government

BSc 15,000 10,000

BCom 14,000 11,000

BA 14,000 10,000

BCA 30,000 17,000

BBA 27,000 17,000