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Civil Service Exam Periphery takes the lead this time Lalit from Kharar tops tricity with 41st rank while Kashish of Mohali and Deepti of Panchkula rank 58 and 81, respectively Neha Miglani Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 11 After consecutively figuring in the toppers’ list in the civil services exam for years on end, the performance of Chandigarh candidates has not only been disappointing, but also been overshadowed by that of candidates from the neighbouring cities of Mohali and Panchkula and even small towns located in the periphery.
This is in stark contrast from 2005 to 2009 during which Chandigarh-based aspirants had bagged laurels by figuring in the top 10 by securing ranks ranging from two to 10. In 2006, Gurneet Tej, daughter of a local journalist, had scored the second position. In 2007, Dr Amit Soni of Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, also scored the second rank, while in 2008, Dr Khusbhu Goyal secured the 10th rank. In 2009, Sharandeep Kaur, daughter of a farmer, came second. Last year, Nishui Srivastva ranked 27 while Neha Bansal and Anil Bhandari stood 63 and 68, respectively.
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IIT grad cracks it in first attempt
Chandigarh, May 11 Such was his determination to excel that he did not appear for the campus placement drive at the IIT last year. The motto of “intention, attention and manifestation” worked for him and he cracked the civil services exam in the first attempt. “I owe my success to my parents. They have been my biggest strength,” said Kashish. A former student of Yadvindra Public School in Patiala and Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, Kashish chose physics and maths as his core subjects. “It was a challenge with these subjects in terms of syllabi and effort. But my college curriculum and study helped me crack it,” he said.His passion for Indian classical music de-stressed him during preparation. “Even during my preparation, I was travelling with my guru across the country. I have been learning music for 10 years now,” he said.
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Content writer 3rd in tricity
Panchkula, May 11 A resident of Sector 12-A, Deepti said she had done MA in economics from Panjab University in 2006. Her father, a businessman, and mother, who works with the post and telegraph, motivated her to appear for the exam. She said her brother Nitin, an engineer in the US, helped her with notes. Deepti, working as a Web content writer with a private company, said she participated in quiz and essay writing competitions in college and would study everyday for about eight hours. “My parents and teachers motivated me and I took it as a challenge and tried to improve my general knowledge. Economics and public administration were my main subjects,” she said.Nineteen-year-old Vivek Soni, a resident of Sector 17, and ranked 150, also credited his parents and teachers for his success. A student of MSc (finance) from the London Business School, Vivek said he cleared the exam in the fourth attempt with physics and psychology as the main subjects.
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Experts blame it on changed exam pattern
“Even though the notification of this change came after the prelims, but students were aware of it much before. A majority of students for whom it was a last chance were not well prepared, but were forced to attempt it anyway. A changed pattern would have compromised on their chance to make it. This led to a decline in the result,” said Anil Sharma, director of the IAS Study Circle here.Some others cited the dip in the overall result of the medical or engineering specific subjects. “A majority of successful candidates have been from engineering or medical background, but this year the results of these subjects have been dismal which impacted the city result as well,” Sharma said. However, Praveen Bansal, director of Abhimanu’s IAS study group, said there was nothing dismal about the result as a number of students who had cleared the examination remained the same.
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IPS dream may come true
Chandigarh, May 11 His father Karnail Singh is a driver in the Punjab Police Housing Service. “The department where my dad is employed is headed by an IPS officer and the aura always mesmerised me. Even my dad wished to see me in that chair and this dream became my passion. Now after three attempts, I hope to be one,” said Harpreet. However, things did not come easy to this PU law graduate. “I had to take an education loan for my law degree and am yet to repay it. My grandfather, who is a freedom fighter, funded my coaching, but it is the sacrifices made by my dad, which made the difference. I remember that I had asked for a bike but my father got me a car and rides a scooter to work,” he said, adding that “I want to change the notion that meeting a ‘babu’ is a hassle.”
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New MC chief fire officer yet to take up post
Chandigarh, May 11 Sources close to the UT administration revealed on April 9, 2010 the home secretary issued an order (no 6/1/250-FII(8)-2008) promoting Gosain, who was station fire officer at the time, to CFO after holding a departmental promotion committee meeting and adjudging latter’s suitability on the date when the vacancy had arisen. The orders also mentioned that Gosain could not be denied promotion to the position of CFO on the ground of physical handicap as, according to section 47 of the Disabilities Act 1995, no department can refuse the promotion on the ground of such disability. The home secretary had also instructed MC officials to seek an explanation of the officer concerned on taking prejudicial action against the official and debarring him from the promotion on account of disability and send a report in this regard to the administration. Rather than taking any action against the officer who delayed the process of appointing the new CFO according to the administration’s instructions, the civic body has not bothered to implement the decision so far. Sources close to the MC said on January 6, 2010 the civic body had sent Gosain’s case to the administration for promotion to the position of CFO, which had been lying vacant for the past six years. The fact is that since 2004 no permanent appointment has been made for this highly technical post.At the meeting of the MC fire committee held here on Wednesday members created an uproar on the issue of the missing file on the new CFO’s appointment. The panel’s chairman, Devinder Singh Babla, asked officials to produce the file at the next meeting scheduled on May 16, saying otherwise the matter would be taken up at the civic body’s general house meeting. Meanwhile, deputy commissioner cum MC additional commissioner Brijendra Singh said he would “look into the matter”.
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IT Park: SC orders status quo on Phase III
Chandigarh, May 11 With the Supreme Court today ordering the maintenance of status quo on the acquisition of land in Phase III of the IT Park till the pendency of the case, the acquisition has virtually been put on hold for the time being. The Punjab and Haryana High Court in March this year had dismissed a bunch of 61 petitions by UT farmers and other residents against the acquisition of 272 acres of land for Phase III of the IT Park. Following the High Court order, the administration was in the process of chalking out a blueprint for the development in the area, including allotment of land to an IT firm to make Chandigarh an information technology destination. UT farmers, who had been protesting against the acquisition of land for Phase III on the plea that the land in Phases I and II had not been fully utilised, had approached the Supreme Court against the HC order. The farmers had also been agitating against meagre land compensation for the acquired land as compared to neighbouring Mohali where farmers had been compensated at the rate about Rs 1.5 crore per acre. Meanwhile, president of the Chandigarh Sanjha Morcha KS Kahlon said the farmers were “satisfied” with the apex court interim relief and they had full faith in the judiciary. Officials said they would wait for the Supreme Court order for the next course of action. The future course of action on land acquisition would only be decided once the UT administration gets a copy of the apex court order, a senior official added.
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International Nursing Week
Chandigarh, May 11 A nurse on duty requested the doctor to avoid surgery. She proved right because the child was normal after two days. A vigilant nurse pointed out to a doctor, who was carrying an overdose of medicine in the syringe to be injected in a child. The doctor checked well in time before committing a mistake, which could have been disastrous. These two examples are small expressions of a changed job profile of a nurse. Instead of the typical image of a nurse following a doctor, without any questions, a nurse today is well aware and better educated. Diploma holders today are at least BSc, a sizable majority are MSc and also include PhD holders. Her professional experience, too, is changed and there is a corresponding change in her profile. Constant attention by a good nurse as important as any operation by a surgeon, said a former United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold (1953-61). Showcasing in real life, the secretary general’s observation are hundreds of nurses at the PGI, government and private hospitals besides scores of dispensaries: “The nurses today are highly qualified and specialised, which help them donning great confidence,” says Santosh Sharma, a nurse at the PGI, who was awarded with the National Florence Nightingale Award two years ago in 2009. “While almost all the nurses used to be diploma holder till 70s, now they are holding degrees like BSc, MSc and even PhD,” she said. A nurse can play a major role in the recovery of a patient, along with a doctor, said Santosh. As nurses stay with patients most of the time, patients feel more comfortable while discussing their problems with them. While role of doctors remain limited to the prescription and surgery or other medical necessities, a nurse, along with medical care provides psychological support as well. The monetary benefits and employment opportunity have made nursing as one of the most sought after profession, says Amarjit Nafra, nursing superintendent, PGI. “The profession even commands more respect in the society. There was time when not many youngsters used to come forward to marry a nurse, but the scenario has taken a turn with people preferring to marry them as compare to other professions,” she added.
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Celebrations begin at PGI
Chandigarh, May 11 The theme for this year is “Closing the Gap: Increasing Access and Equity,” which is relevant in this era of modern healthcare scenario. A function will be inaugurated by professor V Sakhuja, director, PGI. Amarjit Nafra, nursing superintendent, will introduce the theme highlighting the activities to be carried out over the week such as hand-washing techniques, sterilisation techniques in different wards of Nehru Hospital at Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16. Student nurses at School of Nursing celebrated the International Nurses Day. The programme was inaugurated by Dr Rajiv Vadhera, medical superintendent-cum-joint director, health and family welfare, Chandigarh Administration. He highlighted the services rendered by nursing profession. Amarjit Kaur, principal, School of Nursing, elaborated upon the contribution made in nursing profession by Indian girls.
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Policy on paver blocks deferred
Chandigarh, May 11 The meeting chaired by Bhupinder Singh unanimously refused to discuss the policy and officials were asked to reframe it and present it in the next meeting scheduled for May 19. Referring to the directions of the chief engineer issued on May 6 on paver blocks, Congress councillor Chander Mukhi Sharma said when the chief engineer had already issued orders about laying of paver blocks in the city, what was the fun in getting the policy approved by the committee. He demanded that before discussing the details about the policy in the committee, the orders of the chief engineer should be withdrawn. Committee members objected that in the policy papers presented by the authorities, they had not mentioned about the rules to be followed while laying paver blocks in markets and greenbelts of the city.
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Consumer forum penalises shop
Chandigarh, May 11 In her complaint, Rashim stated that she had purchased four video CDs from Chandigarh Music Centre on payment of Rs 464. But when she played the CDs on a DVD player, she found that they were audio CDs and not video. She approached the music centre with a request to provide video CDs, but she was told that they were not available and refused to refund Rs 464. In their written reply, Chandigarh Music Centre admitted that the complainant had purchased four CDs from their shop but denied that she asked for video CDs as the CDs were chosen by her. They further stated that the video CDs asked by the complainant were not available in the market as they were neither manufactured nor had been released by the music company. However, the representative of the Music Centre made a request to the complainant to exchange the same with the product available at the store, but she was adamant to take the refund of the amount. During the course of arguments, authorised representative of Music Centre conceded that the Music Centre was ready to refund Rs 464 to the complainant.
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Ban on plastic bags
Mohali, May 11 Kainth, who addressed government officials and representatives of wholesale dealers and manufacturers of polythene bags, said the use of such bags not only adversely affected the environment, it even choked sewer lines and stray animals also died after consuming them. He directed executive officers of civic bodies to purchase micro-meters to check the thickness of polythene bags. Polythene bags having a thickness of less than 30 microns were banned by the government. He urged officials concerned to spread awareness among public.
— OC
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Sec 63 housing scheme issue resolved
Mohali, May 11 GMADA has been objecting to the high rise blocks of the housing scheme coming close to the residential block of Phase IX. After holding discussions at the construction site, CHB officials told GMADA officials that a fresh layout with the realignment would be submitted in the next two days. Estate officer, GMADA, Balbir Singh said the CHB had agreed to maintain a minimum distance between the houses in Mohali and the Sector 63 housing scheme. Recently, the CHB had started construction at the site after much delay. The project has been embroiled in some controversy or the other ever since the project was launched almost three years ago. The CHB plans to construct 2,108 flats in Sector 63, which includes 336 three-bedroom flats, 888 two-bedroom flats, 564 one-bedroom flats and 320 EWS flats at an estimated cost of Rs 414.45 crore.
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Treat for kathak lovers
Chandigarh, May 11 Ghalib ghazal “Aah Ko Chahiye Ek Umar Asar Hone Tak?”. Another folk composition “Kesariya balama”, a Rajasthani.
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Work on widening 3.5-km stretch begins
Mohali, May 11 Videography was being done to record the structures that existed in the area that had to be widened. The work of removing the metal railing that fell in the area had also started. Widening of the road which passes through Phases IV, V, III-B1, III-B2 and VII was a significant development as it was becoming a traffic bottleneck. The work in this regard was allotted by GMADA yesterday. A dual carriageway is being carved out and the work is likely to be completed in about five months. Instead of a metalled road, concrete pavements blocks will be used to widen
the area.
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RWA panel criticises power hike
Mohali, May 11 The consumers were already struggling with higher inflation rate and daily use items were getting unaffordable, thus managing household expenses had become an uphill task. Instead of putting extra financial burden the government should emphasise on outstanding recovery, checking power theft, control on transmission losses and proper and regular maintenance of its equipment.
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HUDA to send notices to encroachers
Panchkula, May 11 According to officials, this time HUDA had decided to serve the notices with proof to the shopkeepers who had encroached on the passage in front of their shops to display items. Administrator, HUDA, Rajinder Kataria, said this was being done so that shopkeepers don’t have any excuse over the issue and would be penalised if they failed to remove the encroachments from corridors and other public places. He said the video filming of encroachments by shopkeepers in all markets had been completed and a final warning would be issued to them in this regard. Kataria said if the shopkeepers failed to remove their goods from the corridors resumption notices would be sent to the owners. He said no leniency would be shown to the violators as the displaying of items in the corridors created problems for the common man in using the passage. Meanwhile, a delegation of the Haryana Pradesh Beopar Mandal, led by its president Satnam Singh, met Kataria and assured him of full cooperation in removing the encroachments in the markets on their own.
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‘Repair of roads to be finished before monsoon’
Mohali, May 11 Sharma told mediapersons here today that the roads which were in a very bad state would be repaired on a priority basis and the entire work related to link roads would be finished before the start of monsoon. A sum of Rs 35 crore had already been spent on widening and repairing link roads in the district. He said the roads falling in Mohali town were also being widened and repaired for the smooth flow of traffic.
— OC
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Over 3,000 take AIEEE Chandigarh, May 11 On May 1, following the question paper leak though the CBSE had delayed AIEEE by almost three hours, these students were unable to appear for it, as either their centres were booked for AFMC or they themselves had to appear for this exam at some other centre. While the CBSE had stated that the difficulty level would remain the same, most of the students could be seen disappointed while coming out of the examination centres. “The paper was way tricky than the last one. It had more calculation-based questions rather than the logical or analytical ones. Those, who appeared on May 1, will have an edge over us and it is not justified,” said Sumeet Kaur, who had come to take the exam at GMSSS, Sector 19. Interestingly, even the local subject experts seem to agree with them. “Paper was more time consuming and had a number of numericals. Unlike the last paper, there were more questions pertaining to physical chemistry rather than organic which is more scoring. Students, who were good and quick at solving numericals, were comfortable with it while others found it tough,” said Sangeeta Khanna, a local chemistry competition tutor. “Rather than being concept based, a majority of questions were application or calculation based. Many questions in physics section were of IIT JEE level. Though to some extent we can say the board maintained the difficulty level, primarily the paper was more time consuming and tricky as compared to last,” added Shiv Rattan Goel, a physics competition tutor. Even mathematicians agree that many questions involved indirect application of concepts and lengthy calculations.
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State library to start special section for visually challenged Chandigarh, May 11 In perhaps the first of its kind venture in the region, the TS Central State Library in Sector 17, the city’s oldest public library, is setting up a special section to cater to the bibliographic needs of the physically challenged. Kolkata-based Raja Ram Mohan Roy Foundation has already sanctioned Rs 10 lakh for this section. This is the only foundation in India that supports the maintenance of public libraries. According to sources, additional funds, if needed, could be sought from the government. This section will be equipped with Braille books, audio books, descriptive DVDs, computers having special software to convert text into spoken words. It will not be just about pleasure reading and entertainment, but also a plethora of information and reference material for academic and research work. Librarian Suraj P Nagpal said this section was expected to become functional this year. “We plan to have this section on the ground floor for convenience, but if space is a problem, first floor can be an option. Since the library building has a ramp as well as an elevator, physical access is not an issue,” he said.The idea of having a section to cater to the physically and visually challenged book lovers came in the wake of various government polices initiated for the welfare of such persons. “Such policies came up for discussion in the state library planning committee and the section was conceived,” Nagpal said.
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Powercom officials visit school Zirakpur, May 11 However, if there was any technical fault, it would be repaired soon, he added. Nearly 150 students are made to sit in classrooms sans fans or air coolers. They have to use their notebooks in order to escape the scorching heat.
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Panchkula: Keeping in view latest needs of industrial sector in the state, industrial training institutes (ITIs) are all set to introduce new courses. Geeta Bhukkal, Haryana Education and Industrial Training Minister, said though the state government was constantly promoting technical education, results were not that satisfactory. Bhukkal said due to a vast development in the industrial sector, the need of skilled workers was also rising. However, youngsters of the state were not able to reap the benefits of industrial development in the state, she added. Bhukkal said said there were 119 industrial training institutes in the state, out of which 30 were exclusively for women. An industrial training institute was being set up at each block of the state. —TNS
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Placement drive
Panchkula: Around 70 BTech and MBA final year students of Swami Devi Dyal Institute of Engineering and Technology and Swami Devi Dyal Institute of Management Studies have been offered jobs by HCL Technologies, SLR Infotech, Inizer Technologies, Unicon Investments and NetMax Technologies. Dr RN Nauhria, director, attributed the encouraging placement position to the academic excellence and special focus on development of soft skills.
— TNS
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Lalit Jain from Kharar topped the tricity with 41st rank followed by Kashish Mittal of Mohali who ranked 58 and Harjinder Singh (based in Ludhiana and studying in the city) scoring the 70th rank. Deepti Uppal from Panchkula managed an all India rank of 81 while Ghanshyam Bansal (hailing from Ludhiana district but studying in Chandigarh) secured the 93rd position. 
Chandigarh, May 11
Working at the PGI since 1980 Santosh Sharma was given the National Florence Nightingale Award. She had conducted a survey in the city for her research work on urinary inconsistence (UI) and found that 30 per cent of women were suffering from the problem. The research found that the affected women were shy of confiding it to anyone and avoided treatment following which the PGI started the facility of behavioural therapy for patients with UI at its gynaecology outdoor patient department.
Working at the PGI since 1973 Saroj Sharma has been involved in the rescue and care of animals as well. Saroj feels the pain of stray dogs and takes them to hospital for treatment or sterilisation spending money form her own pocket. “My son is settled abroad and my daughter helps me monetarily in this cause,” she said. She had been honoured for her services at the Society for Prevention of Cruelty against Animals in 2004 by Chandigarh Adviser Lalit Sharma.
Working at the PGI since 1980 Jagjeet Malhotra decided to join the noble profession when she was in Class XI and attended her mother admitted to the
PGI. “Devotion of the nurse towards patients touched my heart and I decided to take up the role,” she said. She was awarded with Best Worker at PGI title in 1986 and in 2008.