Chandigarh, August 7
UT Adviser KK Sharma today asked the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation to revise house tax.

In an open house discussion with members of the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission on the assessment of finances of urban local bodies, the Adviser said house tax should be charged as per the Municipal Corporation Act. It is the duty of the Administration to check whether the MC is performing its duties properly. The Administration only approved the house tax rates which were proposed by the MC, but the rates should be revised, said Sharma.

Recently, the Chandigarh Administration had notified imposition of house tax in the city. The tax on residential property will be Re 1 per square yard annually. The houses less than 125 square yards, EWS or LIG category and in the villages within the limits of the MC will be exempted.

In the open house discussion today, the chairman of the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission PS Bhatnagar said the residents should pay taxes if authorities were providing better services. The MC should create its own resources to be self sufficient, he added. Bhatnagar also advised the MC to reduce its establishment cost.

Chandigarh, August 7
Mayor Subhash Chawla today targeted the UT Administration for not giving the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation its due share of revenue. He demanded that the MC’s share of revenue should be increased from 17.5 per cent to 30 per cent.

In an open house discussion with members of the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission and UT officials, Mayor Subhash Chawla said in recent years, departments like primary health, primary education and maintenance of V3 roads and big gardens were transferred to the MC, but the revenue share was not increased by Administration. The recommendation given by the Second and Third Delhi Finance Commission were not followed by the UT Administration, which also resulted in financial crisis, he added.

The Mayor also pointed out that though many departments were transferred to the MC, but the tax revenue, which was earlier used by the Administration to run these departments/functions, was not transferred to the MC.

The Mayor also demanded that the funds should be given to the MC in lump sum rather than grant-in-aid in instalments spread over a financial year. The UT Administration should also release arrears of Rs 426 crore as per the recommendations of previous Delhi Finance Commissions, he added.

Echoing similar views, BJP councillor Arun Sood, who is also the leader of opposition in the MC, said the revenue share is the right of the civic body. He pointed out that the constitution has defined 18 functions for the MC, but these functions were not properly transferred to MC to date. He said instead of increasing water tariff, authorities should stop leakages and wastage of water.

Sood also questioned improper distribution of function by the Administration. Why only 70 per cent roads were transferred to the MC and why department like malaria was with the Administration when sanitation was with the MC, Sood questioned.

Chandigarh, August 7
The Director-Principal of the GMCH-32 today said the counselling for the MBBS course was postponed in view of the pendency of the decision on the proposal sent to the Medical Council of India (MCI) for the approval of 50 additional MBBS seats.

The assertion came less than a week after the move of the Chandigarh Administration and the GMCH-32 to invite fresh applications for admissions after the last date came under the Punjab and Haryana High Court scanner.

He added that for conducting counselling of additional 50 MBBS seats, a conscious decision was taken due to extraordinary situation and peculiar set of circumstances. “Accordingly, the admission notice dated August l was issued calling for fresh applications. It was also mentioned that the candidates who had already applied need not apply again. Thus, the decision was taken to afford an equitable opportunity to those candidates who had not applied in view of lesser number seats advertised. Furthermore, since the selection process for the MBBS seats was based on merit, such an opportunity would attract more meritorious candidates for 50 additional MBBS seats,” he said.

A student awaiting admission in the second round of counselling, Arpit Agrawal, had earlier filed a writ petition before the High Court, challenging the action of the Chandigarh Administration and the medical college for inviting fresh applications for admission, even though the last date was June 24.

He alleged that many students, whose application forms were deficient for want of documents, too had been given admission in the first round of counselling.

This was despite the fact that the brochure/prospectus specifically provided that incomplete applications were liable to be rejected and application form would not be entertained after June 24.

It was also pointed out by the student that fresh applications were not being entertained after the cut-off date for the admission against the 15 per cent all-India quota. But the Chandigarh Administration was acting arbitrarily causing grave prejudice to the petitioner. He added that it would also affect the admissions in each category for which reservation had been provided.

Mohali, August 7
Thirty-five students of Government Model Senior School, Sector 16, had a narrow escape when the school bus they were travelling in tilted precariously at Kansal village this morning.

The operator of the bus, Bharpur Singh, who has eight buses, admitted that he does not have permit for the bus. He said the vehicle was second hand and was purchased from Rajasthan. “The bus could not be registered in Chandigarh as I was yet to get no objection certificate from Rajasthan,” said Bharpur Singh.

Principal of the school Anujit Kaur said she was not aware of the accident.

Chandigarh, August 7
Two unidentified miscreants snatched Rs 1.45 lakh from an employee of a LPG dealer at the Sector 47 market this evening.

The incident took place at 7.50 pm when Mohan, an employee of Sabharwal Gas Agency, reached the agency office on the first floor of the building in Sector 47 after collecting cash.

As he was about to enter the office, one of the miscreants with a muffled face snatched the bag containing cash from him and fled with his accomplice who was waiting for him downstairs on his motorcycle.

Gurdial Singh, owner of the gas agency, said: “We tried to chase the miscreants after Mohan raised the alarm, but they fled.”

The police has registered a case against unidentified miscreants.

Chandigarh, August 7
The family of 55-year-old ML Arora, who underwent a heart transplant at the PGIMER three days ago, kept him admitted for over two weeks in pursuit of a donor at the institute since transplant was the only option for his survival.

Failing to find a donor, they returned disappointed only to hear from doctors at the PGI that they have found a donor. The doctors asked the family to return immediately from Ambala.

As Arora regained consciousness on Tuesday after undergoing a nine-hour long surgery on Sunday, he wished to meet the donor’s family.

“It is a rebirth for my husband. We will visit the donor’s family after his recovery,” said Arora’s wife Veena.

“We had lost all hopes. His heart had almost stopped functioning. The doctors and chemists had been cooperative,” she added.

The PGI receives a number of patients with organ failure, but finding suitable organ donors continues to be a challenge for the authorities.

The family of 40-year-old Kashmir Singh, who was declared brain dead, agreed to donate his organs. A native of Garhshankar in Hoshiaprur, Kashmir Singh was admitted to the PGIMER on July 31 in a critical condition after he met with a road accident on July 30.

Chandigarh, August 7
Village residents of Chandigarh today organised a protest rally on the Sector 25 rally ground against the anti-village policies of the UT Administration.

At the rally, which was organised under the banner of the Pendu Sangharsh Committee, village residents participated in the rally and raised slogans against the UT Administration.

They also submitted a memorandum to Additional Deputy Commissioiner (ADC) Tanvi Garg. In their memorandum, they demanded extension of the “lal dora” and relaxation in the draft building bylaws for the villages.

SAD Councillor Malkiat Singh who also participated in the rally, said that UT Administration had acquired village residents’ land to develop the city, but now, the UT Administration was not considering their demands. On building bylaws, he said the administration should take views of the village residents before finalising the building bylaws in the villages, he added.

The village residents also demanded that two villages Kaimbwala and Khuda Ali Sher should not be included in the Sukhna Catchment area. In the catchment area, the Supreme Court had already banned new constructions.

They also demanded that instead of issuing notices, the authorities should provide basic amenities like water, electricity, school and dispensary to them.

Mohali, August 7
Residents of Phase VI today held a protest against the Municipal Corporation's decision to earmark a dumping site in a green belt near the booth market. The protesters sat outside the office of the civic body in Sector 68 and demanded that the dumping site should not be earmarked near the market.

Chandigarh, August 7
UT Administrator Shivraj V Patil today directed senior officials to expedite work on the Metro project.

The officials are mulling over setting up a special purpose vehicle (SPV). Patil told the UT officials to hold regular meetings with Punjab and Haryana on the Metro project.

The UT Administration and the two states have approved the format of the MoU circulated by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD).

There will be two corridors of the Metro with a total length of 37.57 km. A substantial part of the Metro line is in Chandigarh. The East-West Corridor will extend from Transport Terminal in Mohali to Grain Market in Panchkula. The North-East Corridor will be from Capitol Complex in Sector 9 to Gurdwara Singh Shaheeda in Mohali.

The total cost of the project is Rs 10,900 crore. This would be shared between Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana. It is proposed that within the sectoral grid of Chandigarh, the Metro will be underground keeping in view the heritage of the city. The cost of construction of the underground Metro is almost three times the cost of elevated Metro lines. Punjab and Haryana had already given a consent to share the cost of construction.

Chandigarh, August 7
The Safai Karamchari Union, Chandigarh, today took out a protest rally in Sector 17.

Members of the union laid siege to the Municipal Corporation and condemn the anti-worker policies of the civic body. More than 2,000 sanitation workers took part in the rally. The traffic police had to divert traffic.

President of the union Krishan Kumar Chadha criticised the policies.

They demanded that permanent jobs should be provided to the kin of those workers who had died on duty. They appealed to the government to fill 1,328 vacant posts. They said the workers who had been working on a contractual basis should be regularised under the Punjab Act. They stated that if their demands were not met, they would not let MC vehicles collect garbage from the city.

Chandigarh, August 7
The PGIMER is soon going to conduct examinations online to curb cheating. The institute body of the PGIMER has given in-principle its approval to the proposal on conducting computer based end-to-end online examination for admission to MD and MS courses and other recruitments.

The proposal was to introduce the system for recruitment to various posts in addition to the MD and MS examination, where the strength of applicants remained higher and centres were to be chosen. The institute had quoted the example of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducting various online examinations.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the Institute body of the PGIMER chaired by Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. “While the MD and MS examination are scheduled to be held in October or November this year, it will take us some more time to start the new online system,” said a senior official from the PGIMER.

The institution will outsource the online exam to some agency. "Online examination using an outsourcing agency will be a viable option for its smooth conduct and also to prevent any cheating,” cited the agenda of the meeting.

During the MD and MS entrance exam conducted by the PGIMER in November last year, the CBI had unearthed a cheating racket and arrested several decoy candidates who were using hi-tech bluetooth devices inside the exam hall.

The scam forced the institute to then reschedule the exam in December. A majority of the candidates caught cheating were from Andhra Pradesh.

A case is still pending in the courts. Earlier, in September 2010, the CBI had arrested two PGIMER doctors for availing admission by impersonation.

Chandigarh, August 7
The municipal corporation councillors, members of the Zila Parishad today levelled allegations on the officials of the UT Administration for not redressing their grievances. They also complained that the UT officials always delayed their projects, which resulted in the increase of project cost.

Chandigarh, August 7
Known for defending political, economic and social rights of women, the city-based theatre group Ropak Kala and Welfare Society began its three-day theatre festival with Punjabi writer Veena Verma’s strong feminine story “Mull Di Tinwi” at Tagore Theatre here today.

The play highlighted the plight of women still being sold like a commodity in the open market.

The play tells the story of Lachmi, a 24-year-old woman from Kolkata who is sold to a truck driver from Punjab, Maghar Singh. He takes her to his hometown and exploits her physically for several days.

There are several instances in the play where Lachmi questions her very existence, while spending sleepless nights.

Leaving everything on her fate, she starts looking after Maghar Singh, who too has a life full of problems. Finally, Maghar Singh’s father, with whom he has had a strained relationship, sees how affectionately Lachmi is caring for him and forces him to marry her. In the end, Maghar Singh’s lust turns into affection and he decides to marry Lachmi.

Directed by Sangeeta Gupta, the play had a non-linear narrative and dug into the past of the protagonists to explain the present. The presence of two narrators continuously highlighting the crisis in the life of the protagonists helped in a smooth progression of the play. The performance of Gurinder Singh, Sumandeep Kaur and Vinod Kumar was well applauded.

After the play, a city-based acclaimed female theatre actress Raman Dhillion was honoured for her contribution to the medium.

Tomorrow another strong female-oriented play, “Sati”, will be staged at 7 pm at Tagore Theatre.

Chandigarh, August 7
The car of a Sector 32 (D) resident was damaged after a big branch of a tree fell on it when it was parked outside the house. MR Gaba, stated that the roof and the windshield of the car was damaged as the branch on it.

Chandigarh, August 7
A 38-year-old resident of Burail allegedly committed suicide by jumping into a well this afternoon. The victim, Raju, was suffering from depression. The police has shifted the body to the Government Medical College and Hospital in Sector 32.

The incident occurred at 1.30 pm when the victim jumped into the well near “Baba ki Mazar” in Burail where he drowned. Passersby informed the police which rushed the victim to the hospital where he was declared brought dead.Raju worked as a labourer and was residing with his family in Burail. He is survived by his wife and three children. Family members told the police that Raju used to stay quiet most of the time and used to speak very little.The police said the post mortem would be conducted tomorrow. The police has initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC.

Chandigarh, August 7
An increased number of complaints of hacking of social networking sites have been reported this year.

So far, this year, the Chandigarh police has received 500 cyber-related complaints this year against just about 170 in the previous year. Out of the total complaints, three cases of Facebook hacking were registered this week alone.

With as many as three cases of hacking of passwords of social networking sites reported by youngsters within this week, the UT police is all set to issue an advisory to prevent such frauds.The complaints include hacking of Facebook and email accounts. Yesterday, the police had registered a case of cyber crime. — TNS

Mohali, August 7
Members of District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) Teaching Staff Association, Punjab, staged a dharna in front of the DPI office at Phase- VIII today. The protesters are apparently agitated over the mass transfers of as many as 61 lecturers of the DIET to different Adarsh and model schools.

The protesters raised slogans against the government and the education authorities and urged them to take back their decision of the mass transfer within a week.

“We will begin fast unto death from August 15, if our demands are not met within a week,” said a member of the association.

General Secretary of the association Sukhbir Inder Singh said, “The decision of mass transfer has been taken against the rules. DIET has been established following the directions of the centre government. There is already a shortage of teaching staff in the institutes. Against 300 sanctioned posts, only 200 posts have been filled. The transfer of 61 lecturers is illogical.”

He said the meeting with the Education Principal Secretary, Anjali Bhamra, today also did not yield any result.

Chandigarh, August 7
Following allegations by family members of an assault victim that doctors at the GMSH, Sector 16, did not address the gravity of the injuries in the medical report issued at the time of the incident, the authorities today said that the report of the fresh inquiry would be issued soon.

The incident occurred in April this year, when Abhishek Bedi, the complainant, was assaulted by four youths and the police had booked the latter under Sections 323 and 506 of the IPC.

The FIR was registered against the attacking party for criminal intimidation and causing hurt at the Sector 17 police station in April this year.

Dr Rajiv Vadhera constituted a board on June 25 to re-examine the case, after the family of Abhishek Bedi alleged that the injuries were deeper and it was a case of attempt to murder.

“The doctors are not providing us the report, now. We have been seeking the report of the inquiry since long,” alleged Abhishek’s mother Savitri Devi.

“If the applicants are liable to receive the report, they will be provided with the copy of the report, as per rules, at the earliest,” said Dr Rajiv Vadhera, Medical Superintendent of the hospital. 

Mohali, August 7
During the oath-taking ceremony of the newly elected panchayats in the district at New Mandi Bhawan, Phase-XI today, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal announced various schemes and handed over a cheque of Rs 12 crore to Mohali Deputy Commissioner, Tajinder Pal Singh Sidhu, for developmental works in the villages of the district.

“More funds will be provided for the purpose. We are also going to spend Rs 13,900 crores on road infrastructure in the state. With Rs 1,700 crores, all the link roads of the villages will be repaired and constructed while all the main roads will be made either four-lane or six-lane with a grant of Rs 12,000 crores,” said the Deputy Chief Minister.

He said, “Under a new scheme for the unprivileged, special cards will be prepared with which they can get quality treatment from private hospitals worth upto Rs 30,000 per year.”

The scheme will be launched soon, said Badal, adding the ‘cycle scheme for girl students’ would also be restarted.

The Rural Panchayat Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra, former Union Minister BS Ramoowalia and Chief Parliamentary Secretary NK Sharma were also present at the function.

Mohali, August 7
"With good diabetes management, the number of patients undergoing amputation of feet has come down by 90 per cent," said Dr Ravul Jindal, director of vascular surgery, Fortis Hospital.

The hospital observed Annual Vascular Day. He said there used to be eight to 10 amputations every month.

"People from the lower strata of society and those living in rural areas have a high risk of losing their limbs due to lesions," said Dr Jindal while adding that the peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is associated with old age, smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension. Dr Jindal stated that it took doctors only an hour to treat a patient with diabetic foot. "The treatment is less painful, ensures early recovery and the patient does not need to take repeated medications," said the doctor.

Chandigarh, August 7
Ahead of the student council elections, Panjab University and the Chandigarh Police have prepared a list of student leaders with a criminal background that has been sent to all the departments on the campus to verify who all are studying at the varsity.

A list of 33 cases of student violence that took place since 2007 on the PU campus has been prepared along with the names of all the accused against whom cases have been registered at the Sector 11 police station. The criminal offences include attempt to murder.

The list also figures outsiders who were never a student of the university, but were involved in the incidents of violence on the campus.

Dean Student Welfare (DSW) Navdeep Goyal said the university was verifying from the departments whether the student leaders booked in the criminal cases were PU students. “The party leaders who are not studying at the varsity will not be allowed to participate in the election-related activities including campaigning,” said the DSW.

Goyal said the absence of such leaders from active participation during elections would help the university in conducted the polls peacefully.

“We have also asked the departments to provide us with information regarding students booked by the police in the recent past, who have taken admission to their department,” he said.

Among those who figure in the list include party leaders of various student organisations including the NSUI, SOPU and PUSU.

Police sources said suspected troublemakers were being observed closely to restrain them from actively participating in the student elections, which are expected to be held on September 4.

The PU security staff has also prepared a list of vehicles used by various student parties. These vehicles are being randomly checked on their entry to the university campus.

Sources said the Chandigarh Police was also in the process of sending a list of troublemakers to the university, asking the authorities to verify who all were the students of PU, and to crosscheck their address mentioned on the admission forms.

Chandigarh, August 7
Objections have been raised on the final list of voters prepared for the Panjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) elections scheduled to take place later this month. It has been pointed out that some of the members mentioned in the list do not teach at the varsity.

Ranjan Kumar, an associate professor at the department of physics, has written to the returning officer for the PUTA elections stating that many staff members enrolled as the members of PUTA were not the faculty members of Panjab University.

Kumar said by enrolling such members, the PUTA leadership had violated the rules. He requested the returning officer as well as the PUTA president to get an official list of teachers of Panjab University from the Registrar and check the members enrolled in the PUTA list.

The association president, Mohammed Khalid, said the teacher had raised objections over the membership of librarians, computer programmers, etc., who were members of PUTA for over a decade. Khalid said the University Grants Commission recognised all these posts as academic positions.

“The same issue has already been discussed in the general body meeting of PUTA held in October last year and the issue was resolved,” the PUTA leader said.

Chandigarh, August 7
The unit of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) at Panjab University today announced Bhupinder Singh as its party president.

The party also appointed Sandeep Jain as the vice-president. Keeping in view the upcoming student council elections, the party has appointed Shubham as the South Campus in-charge and Sandeep Pathra as the in-charge of the Department of Laws.

Bhupinder Singh said he would ensure that the elections are held peacefully and the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations are not violated.

SOPU appoints foreign students’ in-charge

The Student Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) wing at SGGS College, Sector 26, announced Zarifa Ghafari as the in-charge of foreign students. The move aims at having better coordination with the foreign students, which would help in addressing their problems more effectively. Zarifa, a student from Afghanistan, will act as an interpreter between the students of both the regions.

Awarded

Dr Sakshi Gautam, assistant professor of physics at Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45, has been awarded the SERC Fast Track Fellowship for young scientists in physical sciences by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The fellowship amounting to Rs 15 lakh is for a project titled ‘On the thermalization, multifragmentation and associated phenomena in heavy-ion collisions’ in the field of nuclear physics. The teacher attributed the success to her mentor and PhD guide Dr Rajiv Puri of PU.

Mohali, August 7
India’s leading IT giant Tech-Mahindra has selected Chandigarh University, Gharuan, as its academic partner in North India to impart industry-ready skills through on-campus training to students.

The initiative aims at creating a pool of human resources to meet the demand across the IT Infrastructure Management Services (IMS). The engineering students of the varsity, along with the diploma, MCA and BCA students having an aggregate of 60 per cent, will be eligible to join the training to be conducted by the faculty from Tech-Mahindra.

The IMS Academy leverages 'Megh'—cloud content delivery platform with a capacity to train over 5,000 associates. The courses under this initiative cover the entire spectrum of IT operations, network operations and cyber security.

Signing the MoU on behalf of the IT company, Shrikant Vaze, senior vice-president, said, "Through this partnership with Chandigarh University, Tech Mahindra aims at establishing a strong academic connect and help create skilled resources to meet the requirements of tomorrow's Digital Enterprise.”

Shrikant said the global infrastructure management services segment was expected to grow exponentially, and in order to ensure India maintained its edge in helping meet this requirement, it was imperative to have a ready pool of skilled resources. As a step in this direction, Tech Mahindra is supporting universities in the country by providing training material, faculty from the industry and simulation lab exercises based upon the real-time projects.

Chancellor Satnam Singh Sandhu said the IMS training would be offered to students in two modes, i.e. full time and part time. On the successful completion of the training, which also includes soft skills training module, the students would be certified as Tech-Mahindra- certified IT professionals.

Mohali, August 7
Over 350 students were placed during the placement drive held at Chandigarh Group of Colleges (CGC), Jhanjeri.

President of CGC, Rashpal Singh Dhaliwal, said, “Over 37 companies such as Wipro, Siemens, Idea Foundation visited the campus for holding interviews.”