Chandigarh, July 3
In a relief for city residents, the municipal corporation (MC) has decided not to impose congestion tax in the city.

In March, the Ministry of Urban Development, in a letter to the Chandigarh Administration, had asked it to introduce congestion tax in central business areas and congested parts of the city.

The Administration had asked the MC to conduct a detailed study on the imposition of congestion tax in Sectors 7, 8, 17, 22, 26 and 35. Under it, every vehicle owner was to be charged a fixed price for entering a particular road or a market area.

Now, the MC has decided not to impose congestion tax in the city. In its report, the MC has mentioned that there is no need for imposing congestion tax in these sectors or any other part of the city.

Confirming the development, MC Commissioner Vivek Partap Singh said they had decided to introduced hourly parking rates in Sector 17 and there was no need for imposing congestion tax, which was meant for Metros.

The ministry had sent the letter along with case studies of London and Singapore. After the tax was levied, traffic in central London was reduced by 21 per cent, while the speed went up by about 10 per cent.

Panchkula, July 3
Panchkula will get its first Mayor tomorrow. The elections for the post of Mayor of the Panchkula Municipal Corporation will be held at the conference hall of the Mini-Secretariat in Sector 1 here. The newly elected 20 councillors of the corporation will also take oath tomorrow.

The oath-taking ceremony and the elections are scheduled to take place at 4 pm. Elaborate arrangements have been made by the administration for the ceremony.

The conference hall was given a facelift today. The hall was whitewashed and cleaned. Fans and air-conditioners were also repaired.

“The oath-taking ceremony will take place first after which the elections for the post of Mayor will be held. The police has been asked to make adequate security arrangements,” said Panchkula Deputy Commissioner Ashima Brar.

She said, “The first statutory meeting will be presided over by the Divisional Commissioner.”

Security has been beefed up for the oath-taking ceremony. Panchkula Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashwin Shenvi said, “The police will keep a close watch on supporters of councillors. The supporters will be stopped at a distance from the venue.”

The MC poll was held on June 2 for 20 wards. The counting took place on June 4. Of the 20 seats, 14 were won by Congress-backed candidates, while three seats each were bagged by the BJP and the INLD.

Upender Ahluwalia front runner
Sources said Upender Ahluwalia, councillor from Ward No. 18, was the front runner for the post of Mayor. However, councillors owing allegiance to the Selja group and those owing allegiance to the Hooda group held meetings till late in the evening on Wednesday to finalise their candidates.

Chandigarh, July 3
A day before the mayoral poll in Panchkula, a Division Bench of the HC today refused to grant a stay on the poll process.

A petition for stay, placed before the Bench of Justice SK Mittal and Justice MS Chauhan, was filed by Satinder Singh, a member of Ward No. 4, who had contended that the poll for the posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor should be held simultaneously.

He had contended that a decision to hold the poll for the three posts simultaneously was taken during a meeting on June 26. However, on June 29, it was stated that only the poll for the post of Mayor would be held on July 4.

Refusing to stay the process, the Bench issued a notice of motion to Haryana and other respondents for July 8.

Chandigarh, July 3
Violating norms of the University Grant Commission (UGC) which stipulate that the cost of the prospectus should not be more than its cost of printing, colleges in the city are charging between Rs 400 and Rs 650 from students with Panjab University acting as a mere spectator.

Private colleges are allegedly minting money from students by selling prospectuses at exorbitant rates. While MCM DAV College, Sector 36, charges Rs 650 for a prospectus, students are being charged Rs 600 by the Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45, and Rs 500 by SD College, Sector 32 for it.

The UGC Grievance Regulations (2012) clearly state that "every institution shall fix the price of each printed copy of prospectus at not more than the reasonable cost of its publication and distribution, and no profit should be made out of the publication, distribution or sale of the prospectus".

Interestingly, the university, which is supposed to keep a check on the colleges over the price of the prospectus, itself charges Rs 1,800 for a prospectus for various courses for which entrance tests are conducted.

Mandeep Singh, a student who has applied for admission to two colleges, said the university should intervene and penalise colleges which sell prospectuses at exorbitant rates. “I have applied for admission to two colleges for which I had to spend over Rs 1,000 for the prospectuses,” he said.

A printer based in the city said a prospectus printed on good quality paper did not cost more than Rs 150.

Principal of SD College Bhushan Sharma said the college had tried to provide a lot of information in the prospectus at a minimal cost.

Principal of Dev Samaj College for Women Meera Modi said the college provided free prospectus to underprivileged students and sportspersons.

HS Sohi, Principal, SGGS College, Sector 26, said a lot of work was involved in preparing the prospectus, due to which its cost often went up.

PU officials claimed that they had sent the UGC Grievance Regulations (2012) to all affiliated colleges, which were supposed to follow the norms. “If any compliant is received, we will take action against the college concerned,” said PU Deputy Registrar (Colleges) Janak Raj Dhiman.

Probe ordered into bus fire The Director (Transport), TPS Phoolka, said an inquiry had been ordered into Tuesday's fire in the engine of a CTU bus carrying around 30 passengers. He said action would be taken after the receipt of the report. The purchase of new buses will be finalised shortly, he added.

Chandigarh, July 3
Learning no lesson from three incidents of fire in low-floor buses reported in the last six months, the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) is still in a deep slumber. It has failed to propose any action plan for passengers' safety.

The CTU authorities have ignored the need to replace 120 low-floor buses purchased in 2004, which have major technical faults. According to a report tabled in the Rajya Sabha by the Minister of State for Urban Development Deepa Dasmunshi, of Rs 34.20 crore released in 2009 by the ministry to Chandigarh under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) as additional central assistance for the purchase of buses, only Rs 8.28 crore was utilised in 2010-11 and no funds had been utilised by the authorities in the next two years.

Ninetyeight old buses, which were condemned in March 2012, are still running on different routes. Last year, the Centre had released Rs 45 crore for the purchase of new buses. But, the authorities had failed to finalise the purchase of buses and the grant lapsed. Even in the current year budget, around Rs 113 crore has been earmarked by the Centre for the purchase of buses, but the authorities are yet to finalise any deal in this regard.

Sources in the CTU revealed that for the past one year, the condemned buses had not been replaced. The CTU was spending around Rs 2 lakh on the repair of these buses to make them roadworthy. The sources said the delay in the purchase of new buses was due to a controversy over the model of buses to be purchased.

The Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) on Wednesday appointed 114 drivers to cope with the staff crunch in the department. In all 420 applicants had cleared the written and practical test conducted by the department. A list of successful candidates was issued today.

The Director (Transport), TPS Phoolka, said with the appointment of 114 drivers, the department would be left with a shortage of only 20 or 30 drivers. He said the process to fill the rest of the vacancies would commence soon.

There was a shortage of around 155 drivers in the CTU as no recruitment had taken place for a long time.

Around 5,000 candidates had applied for the test.

Chandigarh, July 3
If a letter by councillor Mukesh Bassi to city Mayor Subhash Chawla, carrying grievances and sayings from the Bhagavad Gita, was not enough, a press note by the UT Administration has further deepened the differences between the two.

In the press note, which pertains to a proposal, it has been mentioned that the Mayor forwarded the particular proposal but there is no mention of the area councillor, Mukesh Bassi.

Bassi had earlier accused the Mayor of sidelining him while finalising projects related to his ward.

"A request was received from the Mayor, Municipal Corporation, that the ground of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 21, may be made available to the children residing in the local area for sports activities during the after-school hours, following the terms and conditions," the press note reads.

Meanwhile, Chawla said: "Bhaiya (dear), I have nothing to say on the issue. Owing to all these comments highlighted in newspapers, the matter has taken an ugly turn. So, I don't want to comment on this issue".

Bassi said he had explained everything about the project in his letter to the Mayor. "Till date, I am not aware of any such project being implemented in my ward. I think the Mayor is the right person to contact. I haven't received any information. Neither can I comment on the future of this project," said Bassi.

Chawla had reportedly held a meeting with the Sector 21 Residents Welfare Association regarding the same project without consulting the area councillor.

The news about this new pilot project of providing grounds for the local children at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 21, was highlighted in the same columns on June 7 with the headline "Children allowed to use school ground".

Chandigarh, July 3
Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader, Harmohan Dhawan, today levelled allegations against local MP Pawan Kumar Bansal that he had done nothing for the city residents.

Dhawan in a press conference said that in the last 14 years Bansal had been promising people to solve their problems but people stands cheated, because all the problems which existed 14 years ago are still bothering the people today. He further alleged that Bansal had only betrayed the people but also have failed on all fronts.

On Bansal’s getting clean chit from CBI, Dhawan said that it was expected because it is not Central Bureau of Investigation but Congress Bureau of Investigation.

Chandigarh, July 3
Two illegal factories, which had come up on government land in the Industrial Area, Phase II, were demolished today during a joint drive of the UT Estate Office and the Municipal Corporation. The Estate Office officials said a furniture showroom was running on the government land and power generator sets were dumped on a vacant plot, which were removed during the drive.

The team officials also removed 25 scrap shops and around 50 temporary huts from the area. The drive was conducted on the directions of the UT Deputy Commissioner and was headed by Tehsildar-cum-Executive Magistrate Amrinder Singh along with Estate Office enforcement inspector Parveen Mittal and MC enforcement inspector Partap Singh.

In the seven-hour drive, the team also removed an illegal dhaba and some temporary shops in phase I.

Around 150 police personnel accompanied the officials.

Mohali, July 3
Taking up issue of encroachments on government land with the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority, members of the Mohali Citizen Welfare and Development Forum, a body consisting 34 resident welfare associations of the town, demand immediate survey to detect such encroachments and action against the hazard.

Sarabjit Singh Dhanoa, president of the forum, said a piece of land between two houses in Sector 70 has been developed as lawn for personal use.

“Earlier the government land was used as thoroughfare by the people of the area. Now it has been encroached thus causing inconvenience to people of the area,” said Sarabjit Singh Dhanoa.

Giving another example, Dhanoa said that about 15 feet piece of land, which falls in the main park of Sector 70, has been encroached by the house owner to sow vegetables.

“We have talked to these persons to remove the encroachment on their own but to no avail. Now we have approached the GMADA to initiate action against such encroachments,” said Dhanoa.

GMADA’s Chief Administrator AK Sinha said a complaint in this regard has been received. “I have ordered my staff to conduct survey to check the encroachments and initiate action,” said Sinha.

Chandigarh, July 3
An Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) with the UT police has been named in the Limca book of records for his outstanding achievement in social service while in the force.

Rakesh Rasila, a 47-year-old policeman, has donated blood as many as 104 times ever since he joined the police in 1987 as constable and has cremated 500 unclaimed bodies.

Panchkula, July 3
Now one won't feel the need to go abroad to get treatment for serious ailments as five well known doctors in various specialties have joined the Alchemist Hospital management.

Dr Inderjit Singh Virdi, cardiothoracic surgeon, renowned Urologist Dr SK Sharma, a former director of the PGI, Chandigarh, Dr SP Kaushik, a pioneer in the field of surgical gastroenterology in India, Dr Gauri Joshi, a well-known neurosurgeon and Dr Shubha Nagpal an ophthalmologist. This was informed in a press conference at the Alchemist Hospital, Sector 21, Panchkula.

Virdi said the hospital is a centre of excellence for Urology and Nephrology with excellent dialysis facilities. He also said the dialysis centre has seven high end dialysis machines and was recently upgraded with two new state-of the art dialysis machines and high end surgical instruments.

"The 64 Slice Dual Source Siemens Definition CT Scanner is by far the most advanced among all hospitals in the tri-city. To back these up there are 5 state of the art operating rooms and 27 ICU beds," said Virdi.

Chandigarh, July 3
The Municipal Corporation today auctioned the remaining two kiosks of Night Food Street, Chinese Food and North Indian Food, by lot.

The draw of lots was held in the presence of nominated councillor DS Sandhu and Poonam Sharma. Both kiosks were auctioned for a rent of Rs 25,000 per month.

There are four kiosks on Nigh Food Street. At present, only two kiosks, “Punjabi food” and “bakery items” are functional. The authorities had to cancel permission for the other two kiosks, as the applicants, who were allocated these, failed to fulfil the formalities to run their business on the street. Thus the MC decided to conduct a fresh draw of lots for the auction of these kiosks.

The MC officials said the night food street was embroiled in a controversy after the shopkeepers were accused of charging exorbitant rates. Later, the MC had decided that in case any licencee was found overcharging, his licence would be terminated and a fine would be imposed on him.

In 2010, the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued notices to the Municipal Corporation and the UT Administration over exorbitant rates charged at the city’s only night food street.

Chandigarh, July 3
The UT Cadre Educational Employees Union has made a representation to the UT Education Department on the issue of deputation.

The union has submitted that several teachers, lecturers and principals on deputation have been working in Union Territory Chandigarh for the past 10 to 25 years, which is against the service rules. According to the UT policy, the period for stay in such cases is maximum five years and extendable only in rare cases, said the members of the union in the representation.

Swarn Singh Kamboj, president of the association, said the department should implement its own policy on deputation and those overstaying should be immediately repatriated.

"In case no strict order to implement the deputation policy is taken in the next two weeks, the association will move the High Court, he said.

Chandigarh, July 3
drama was witnessed near the Rose Garden at Sector 16 today evening when four persons after beating up a roadside tea vendor were chased by an escort of the UT SSP.

The Zen car, in which the accused were fleeing, was finally apprehended at Sector 15 after it rammed into a stationery i20 car in the residential area.

The incident occurred when Jagat, a resident of Sector 22, along with his three friends, thrashed a tea vendor, Raju, near the Rose Garden. As they were trying to flee, a police escort chased them when the Zen car went inside Sector 15.

The police has arrested Jagat. He has been booked in a case of rash and negligence driving.

Chandigarh, July 3
Nanhi Jaan, an initiative of NGO Veeranwali Foundation, today presented five photo therapy units costing Rs 2.75 lakh to the Paediatric Department of the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16.

Chandigarh, July 3
Students of Panjab University today staged a protest outside the Boys’ Hostel Number 1 against a warden alleging that he locked the room of one of the residents while he was sleeping inside.

The warden claimed that the room was already locked as the deadline to vacate the room had ended, and the resident entered into it from the balcony and falsely claimed that he was locked in the room.

Vineet Jakhar, a student of PU, said he reached his room in the hostel at 2.30 pm and went to sleep. When he woke up, he found that the door was locked from outside.

“The warden deliberately locked the room while I was sleeping inside, claiming that the tenure of my stay in the hostel has got over,” he said.

Soon, other students of the university reached the hostel and started raising slogans against the warden.

However, Jaskaran Singh, warden of the Hostel Number I, refuting all allegations said the room was locked at 1 pm. The student reached the hostel after his room was locked.

“The student had the permission to stay in the hostel till June 30, that too because he had taken an extension for hostel stay to appear for the UGC-NET exam. We had given a relaxation of 48 hours to all students to vacate the hostel, and those who didn’t vacate, their rooms were locked,” the warden said.

The warden said rooms of other students were also locked following their failure to vacate the hostel. “Nobody had the permission to stay after the UGC-NET exam. I only acted as per the rule,” the warden said.

Yograj Angrish, a member of the PU Senate, and also the warden of the Boys' Hostel Number VII, reached the spot to pacify the protesting students.

“There was a miscommunication between the hostel warden and the student, which was later sorted out. The student was asked to give a fresh application for the extension of the hostel till the entrance exams of Phd and MPhil, which will be held on July 27,” he said.

He said the allegations levelled by the student against the warden were investigated and it was found that the hostel assistant duly informed the student about his room being locked and nobody was present inside the room when it was locked.

Chandigarh, July 3
The inquiry by the committee formed into the case of two girls who appeared for the Combined Entrance Test for MCA held at Panjab University on June 16 with the same particulars on their roll number cards, except for their names, has hit a roadblock. The candidate, who had the details of the other candidate on her admit card, has twice failed to turn up before the committee.

The committee formed by the university had asked both the candidates to appear before it to record their statements.

“The candidate was asked to give her statement as how she was appearing in the exam on the basis of the admit card that had all particulars of the candidate sitting next to her. The candidate despite being called twice failed to appear before the committee, which points towards something suspicious,” official sources said.

The girls had appeared for the MCA entrance exam and they had their roll numbers one after the other in a series. PU officials got suspicious after seeing the same photograph on the admit cards. On checking the admit cards, it was found that all particulars were the same on both the cards, following which an inquiry was ordered into the case.

Sources said there was no error from the university side as they had the records of the forms filled online by both the candidates and there seems to be something suspicious in this case.

The university seems to have been taking the issue leniently as the authorities have not even informed the police about the incident.

A senior Senate member said the university should hand over the case to the police, which would inquire whether there was some mistake on the part of the university or the candidate had deliberately filled the same details on the application form to help the other candidate.

“There is a probability that the roll numbers of the candidates with the same particulars on the application form fall together, following which one of the candidate allegedly filled wrong details in a bid to get the roll number in the series to help the other candidate,” the official sources said.

Chandigarh, July 3
The new session for Class XI will begin tomorrow in government senior secondary schools here. Today was the last date of depositing the fees by the students who were allotted seats in the first counselling.

Officials said approximately 12,000 students were allotted seats through the stream and school-wise merit list released for Class XI on July 1. As per the rough estimate, more than 80 per cent of the students had already occupied the seats by depositing the fees.

Viney R Sood, Deputy DEO, said as per the previous year’s trend, most of the students occupied their seats, but the exact information about the total number of seats filled in the first counselling would be known only in the next two-three days.

This year, GMSSS-Mani Majra emerged the favourite choice among students in the science stream as its cut-off increased to 9.8 CGPA. GMSSS-16 stood at the second spot with the highest cut-off for commerce and humanities. GMSSS-35 was another coveted school for different streams.

There are a total of 39 government model senior secondary schools in the UT. The second counselling procedure would begin from July 13.

Chandigarh, July 3
Several private schools in Chandigarh defaulted on submitting their financial details to the committee appointed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the issue of fee hike despite the questionnaires being sent to them twice in the past one-and-a-half month.

The committee, headed by Justice (retd) RS Mongia, first on May 16 and then on June 6 sent the set of questions to the private schools and mandated them to submit their details to the committee like annual fee and admission/ readmission charges for each class and their overall expenditure for the 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 sessions before June 28.

However, as per the latest status report compiled by the committee, 12 private schools have not replied anything to the committee, while eight private schools have asked for more time for submitting their details. Seeing the lukewarm response of several schools so far, the committee is not in a mood for any further leniency.

In its fresh dispatch sent to the schools on July 2, it has warned that if the remaining schools would fail to submit the required information to the committee in the next two weeks, it would have to place the matter before the High Court and ask for initiating the contempt of court proceedings against these schools.

A committee member said the private schools were simply trying to delay the issue and shying away from submitting the information, which was vital for the committee to initiate its job entrusted by the High Court.

Justice RS Mongia, head of the committee, said as directed by the High Court, the committee had to check the fairness and reasonableness of the fee charged by the private schools for the session 2012-13, which was not possible without the coordination of the schools.

“In our fresh dispatch sent to the remaining schools, we have categorically conveyed that in case we don’t get the desired information from them on time, the committee will have to place the status report of these schools before the High Court and ask for initiating the contempt of court proceedings,” he said.

A school head, who has got the fresh intimation from the committee, said the information desired by the committee could not be sent due to the summer vacation. It would be sent shortly. Meanwhile, the committee has already begun the exercise of scrutinising the information of schools that have responded to it. Sources said there were chances that the information sent by the schools might be incomplete, but the exact status report of their details would be known soon.

Chandigarh, July 3
Students of Panjab University today held a meeting with the PU authorities over the recent decision to hike the fee of regular courses by 10 per cent and that of self-finance courses by 20 per cent.

NSUI leader Manoj Lubana said they had demanded that the university should first fill all vacant teaching posts before increasing the fee of various courses.

“There is a shortage of teaching faculty, which has been ignored by the university for the past several years,” he said.

The PU authorities, during the meeting, asked the students to scrutinise the new fee structure and give a feedback on how the fee can be reduced.

Official sources said the students had been asked to prepare a presentation to justify their demand to rollback the hike.

The decision to hike the fee was approved by the Syndicate during the meeting held on June 29.