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Woman dies after delivery
Chandigarh, November 7 According to the family, which belongs to Mani Majra, the woman, Jiya, had no history of any medical illness and appeared to be fine after the delivery. "She delivered her son at around 5.30 pm yesterday. This morning, she rose from the bed and suddenly collapsed," said Jiya's mother-in-law. While the hospital authorities said they would not comment until the postmortem was conducted, the family said the death seemed to have a connection with the C-section delivery. "I am not a medical professional and cannot say with certainty what was the cause. But the doctors had clearly told us that she was quite healthy throughout her pregnancy and even after the delivery. There may be some lapse in stabilising her post-delivery that led to her death," said 24-year-old Pawan. An official from the hospital said the statements of the family members, including the woman's parents, would be recorded and a board would be formed to conduct the postmortem. "The woman's relatives are coming from Chhattisgarh and we will wait for them for a day," said the official.
Recent cases
December 2009: In a case of mistaken identity (there were two women by the same name in a similar state of pregnancy), Suman was administered a unit of B-positive blood that was meant for the other woman. When it was detected that she had been transfused with the wrong blood, it was too late. The foetus died and her kidneys were affected. Suman later underwent treatment at the PGI for her damaged kidneys. July 2011: Bulbul, a resident of Bihar, visited the hospital while she was in labour. Ignoring her condition, she was made to shuttle from one window to another and she delivered a child outside the OPD counter in a standing position. The baby's head hit the floor, which resulted in the infant's death August 2012: A 30-year-old woman, Manju, and her baby died after the delivery at the hospital that resulted in a huge drama at the hospital. August 2013: The agitated family of a 38-year-old woman, who died along with her baby in her womb, had vandalised the entire hospital, enraged over a delay in the postmortem. The family had alleged gross medical negligence. Couple had fought all odds to marry Jiya, the deceased, and Pawan got married a year ago after a courtship of several years. The two had fought all odds to unite their families and convince them for the cross-cultural wedding. The acceptance for the wedlock in both families had improved ever since Jiya was expecting the baby. "My mother had given her all luxury during her pregnancy to ensure that she remained healthy. Jiya wanted a baby boy. While God granted her wish, He took her away from us," said Pawan.
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Road accidents claim two lives
Chandigarh, November 7 In the first incident, 43-year-old Rajesh, a Class IV employee with the PGI, was hit by a bike on which three youths were triple-riding. Rajesh was driving a scooter while his colleague Mohan Singh was riding pillion. The incident occurred at 8.45 pm when the scooter collided head-on with the bike. The mishap occurred near the Khuda Lahora bridge near the PGI. The police said both the bike and the scooter were at high speed and the impact of the collision was such that parts of the scooter, including the front wheel, were lying scattered on the road. A crushed helmet was also found from the spot. The police shifted all five victims to the PGI where Rajesh, a Maloya resident, succumbed to his injuries in the morning. The police has registered a case of causing death due to negligence under Section 304-A of the IPC against the motorcycle rider. The three youths who were triple-riding have been identified as Rohit, Suresh and Akhlesh, a minor. Inspector Gurmukh Singh, SHO of the Sector 11 police station, said it was still not clear as to who was riding the bike as all three were still admitted to a hospital.
The picture would become clear once the accused were fit to give their statements. The case was registered on a complaint of Mohan Singh. In a hit-and-run case, 35-year-old Sita Devi was crushed under an unidentified vehicle on the road dividing Sectors 8 and 18 on Madhya Marg last night. The incident occurred when the woman was crossing Madhya Marg on foot while on her way to Sector 26 around 9.15 pm. No passerby noted down the registration number of the four-wheeler, whose driver sped away after hitting the woman. The deceased was a native of Nepal and was residing in the servant quarters at the house of her employer in Sector 18.
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2 held for extortion racket
Chandigarh, November 7 The accused went to a grocery shop belonging to Ishwar Chand, a resident of Sector 56, and threatened him that they had made a video of the shopkeeper while selling adulterated cooking oil in the market. They said they had done a sting operation and would get him arrested, and demanded Rs 15,000 from him. The shopkeeper called them to take the money and passed the information to the local police about them as he doubted their integrity. The police laid a trap and the duo was caught while taking the money. The police recovered fake identity cards of a national media channel from their possession. The
police said apart from extorting money from Ishwar Chand, they had extorted money from a chemist threatening him that he was selling drugs to youngsters in Mani Majra on October 27. Sudershan Bhatia, owner of Bhatia Chemist in Samadhi Gate, Mani Majra, told the police that the duo had extorted Rs 15,000 from him, threatening that they would "telecast the sale of prohibited drugs" from his shop. A case of extortion was registered at the Sector 39 police station.
DSP link?
Police sources said the accused had a close link with a DSP of the UT police and had also threatened the in charge of a police post that he would get him suspended using his "influence".
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Bank official arrested for Rs 13.5-crore fraud
Panchkula, November 7 According to sources, Naresh is allegedly involved in the Rs 13.5-crore fraud case in which the CBI has already arrested the key accused, Gurpreet Singh, alias Neeraj. Gurpreet Singh had fraudulently withdrawn Rs 13.53 crore from the account of the Haryana Public Health Department through three duplicate cheques, which were presented at the SBI, Dehradun, through Gramin Bank, Dehradun. The signatures on these cheques were also found forged. The department has a saving account in the Sector 10 branch of the SBI here. “During interrogation, Gurpreet had stated that Naresh was involved in the fraud,” said sources, adding that Naresh had helped Gurpreet in accessing the account of the department.
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After onion, tomato prices spiral out of control
Chandigarh, November 7
From Rs 30-35 per kg, the cost of tomato has increased by almost 165 per cent and is now selling at Rs 80 per kg. While market sources indicated that the rise in the cost of tomato was temporary and the prices were likely to normalise soon, residents are feeling the heat and have reduced its consumption. “Even if there is a hike of Rs 10 in the price of any vegetable, buyers tend to panic. To restore their confidence, we are being forced to sell some vegetables at wholesale rates,” said Ravinder Rana, a vendor in the Sector 15 market. “Vendors say this rise is temporary and there will be some relief in the coming days. For now, I have reduced the consumption of tomatoes and other vegetables and am relying more on pulses,” said Anuradha, a buyer in the Sector 23 market. A shortage in the supply of seasonal vegetables like peas and tomato due to changing weather conditions has triggered the price hike, according to suppliers. The cost of peas has increased from Rs 100 per kg last month to Rs 120 per kg now.
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Better panchkula Only 32 buses cater to a population of over 3 lakh in Panchkula. This is the dark side of the public transport system in Haryana’s modern town. Despite the status of a planned city, public transport is virtually non-existent in Panchkula. People use their own vehicles or the most hazardous mode of transportation, auto-rickshaws. In the concluding part of the series on commuting, The Tribune reporter Vivek Gupta, along with photographer Nitin Mittal, takes stock of the situation
The major problem is that the city has no exclusive connectivity from one sector to another and towards important public offices and landmark places, even it has expanded beyond the Ghaggar and is continuously on the expansion spree. Most of these 32 buses ply on inter-city routes from Ramgarh and Zirakpur towards Chandigarh through some sectors of Panchkula. While their inadequate frequency is a big issue, a large number of people in the city have no information about their timings and routes. An official of the Haryana Roadways said the city required at least 150 buses, including a fleet of minibuses, for the inter-sector as well as the inter-city connectivity. As a result of poor transportation facility here, the city largely depends upon overloaded auto-rickshaws and mini cabs, which fleece the people with heavy charges and also put their lives in danger. BB Singhal, former vice-president, Municipal Council, Panchkula, said: “In the absence of a strong local transport system, residents here are totally dependent on auto-rickshaws. Besides having a huge local population, the city also gets people from across the state since it houses over 40 Haryana state offices. But it is painful to see that the so-called de facto capital of Haryana has a weak local transportation system". Vijay Nalwa, a resident of Sector 12-A, said: “Auto-rickshaws charge Rs 100 for a few km. This is gross injustice”. Jai Narain, a resident of Sector 10, said: “City residents suffer because there is no bus service in between the sectors and poor service for important places like the DC office and the railway station. What we need is a strong local public transportation, which is currently missing in Panchkula.” SK Nayar, president, Citizen Council, Panchkula, said: “Once inter-sector bus service was started in 1992 on an experimental basis, but it was discouraged by the Haryana Roadways. Then, it was not adopted further".
Bus queue shelters in a shambles The poor condition of bus queue shelters here narrates the whole story. With delicate structure, broken benches with no display of route and time plan of buses, these bus stoppages are in a shambles. People are largely found waiting for buses on the main roads near roundabouts, inviting a major tragedy to happen. Several proposals were mooted to reconstruct these bus shelters across the city with proper display of routes and timings, but nothing has been materialised so far. Mahesh Aggarwal, a resident of Sector 9, said: “Bus shelters are not just a waiting area for commuters, but a place that makes them aware of the entire city’s transportation system. The condition of bus shelters here clear shows how serious the authorities are about providing a good public transportation to its residents”.
Inter-city travelling a major problem
Education is not only a factor that connects Panchkula with Chandigarh. From jobs to medical facilities and to official work, Panchkula residents heavily depend upon Chandigarh. However, inter-city travelling is a major problem for the residents. There has been a steep rise in the number of commuters due to extensive urbanisation, which has taken place around the tricity, but the connectivity remains a major problem. Avinash Chander, a Panchkula-based resident, said: “The need of the hour is greater coordination between the administrations of Chandigarh and Panchkula. There are also a large number of daily commuters from the towns of Panchkula, Kalka-Pinjore Complex towards Chandigarh”. Ishwar Chander Sharma, another resident of Panchkula, said: “The city should take lead from Chandigarh and introduce regular and timely local bus service. There is also a problem of plying to nearby cities like Kalka, Barwala and Pinjore”.
Sectors beyond the Ghaggar worst hit
Sectors situated beyond the Ghaggar are the worst affected. Subhash Kapoor, a resident of Sector 24, said: “None of the sectors from Sector 23 to Sector 28 has proper bus shelters. The major issue is the poor connectivity to Panchkula city and further in Chandigarh. We have no direct transportation to Government Hospital, Panchkula, and other important public places in the city. We had submitted a memorandum to the district administration, but nothing has changed much on ground”. AK Mehta, a resident of Sector 26, said: “The city was expanded beyond the Ghaggar, but the local administration did not provide effective means of transportation”.
Auto-rickshaws a big nuisance
Around 1,600 autos ply in Panchkula, which are a big nuisance on the roads. A major problem is their exorbitant charges. Another major issue is that auto drivers lack traffic sense as they stop their vehicles anywhere, even in the middle of the road, to pick and drop passengers. They often overload their autos and drive fast to make more money, thus putting the lives of passengers and other commuters to high risk.
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MC records faulty: Schools
Chandigarh, November 7 Director, Vivek High School, HS Mamik, who is also the president of the Independent Schools' Association, said that the MC had miserably failed
to update its property tax records. “If the MC is sending a demand notice to private schools, then it should also send the account statement of the respective school. In the past, a number of schools have raised this issue, but to no avail,"
he said. Vivek High School, in its letter to the MC, mentioned that the school was regularly paying the property tax since 2005, except from 2008 to 2010, as the case was pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Till date, the school had paid Rs 20,60,752 as property tax and the MC could verify the same from the records, the school management submitted. Similarly, S Samuel, secretary, St Stephen’s Educational Society, submitted that St Stephen’s School, Sector 45-B, has not defaulted on the property tax. He stated that the school received the demand notice from the MC for the payment of property tax on February 17, 2012. Thereafter, they submitted the principal amount of Rs 14,64,877 on February 28, 2012. An interest of Rs 8,55,839 was submitted to the MC on March 13 this year. “The MC is wrongly showing the name of the school in the list of defaulters,”
he said. Likewise, St Xavier’s School, Sector 44-C, has written a letter to the MC Commissioner, in which it submitted that the school had already paid all the principal amounts of property tax till 2013-14, and all the money had been credited to the accounts of the Municipal Corporation. The school further submitted that the MC had wrongly included the school in the list of defaulters. In the past as well, a request was made to the MC to rectify the accounts regarding the school, the letter stated. “The MC is defaming our school by showing it among the defaulters,” the school management submitted. MC Joint Commissioner Rajiv Gupta, however, said that according to the records compiled by them, private schools had to pay
Rs 1.84 crore as property tax. "The matter is pending in the High Court, and we will follow the directions of the court," he said. Notices were being served on schools after obtaining legal opinion, said Gupta. Some schools had written to the MC claiming that they had cleared their dues, but the amount was still pending, he said. “The MC will send a reply to them accordingly,” said the MC official.
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Residents wake up to chilly morning, mist in air
Chandigarh, November 7 Traffic moved at snail’s pace in the evening with visibility after 4 pm recorded at 1.5 km. The director of the meteorological department, Surinder Pal Singh, said due to the Western Disturbance, the foggy condition could continue in the city. The burning of agricultural waste on the periphery was also one of the reasons behind such a situation, he said. Singh said after 24 hours, the city would witness a dry weather and a dip in temperature. The maximum temperature recorded today was 25.6 degrees Celsius, which is two notches below the normal. The minimum was 16.8 degrees Celsius, five notches below the normal. There will be generally cloudy sky with thunder showers occurring during the day tomorrow. The maximum temperature will be 25 degrees Celsius and minimum 12 degrees Celsius, as per the department.
Three flights cancelled
Three flights scheduled to take off from the Chandigarh Airport this evening were cancelled due to low visibility caused by heavy smog. One flight got delayed by over three hours. Over 300 passengers were affected, following the cancellation of these flights between 5.15 pm and 6.15 pm. A senior official of the airport said the flight operation was aborted after the landing visibility came down to 1,000 metres, which is below the permission limit. The three flights, all of Jet Airways, included Chandigarh-Delhi flights at 5.15 pm and 5.40 pm and Chandigarh-Jaipur flight at 6.15 pm. The Chandigarh-Mumbai flight of SpiceJet, scheduled at 4.30 pm, took off three hours late at 7.30 pm. The airlines had a tough time rescheduling the flights. Most of the passengers opted for the evening Shatabdi, which chugs off at 6.20 pm. The station superintendent, Parveen Kumar, confirmed that around 100 seats were vacant in the train, which were booked within an hour. Others reached Delhi on private taxis, which charged exorbitant prices. Last year, the airport remained shut for two weeks as low visibility affected flight operations.
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Extension of limits
Mohali, November 7 The now dissolved council had 31 wards in the area under its jurisdiction. For the next elections, the civic body will have at least 50 wards because of the up gradation to the status of corporation. The first poll to the civic body, since its status was upgraded is yet to be held. It is learnt that while three objections have been received from the residents of Sectors 76 to 80, one has been received from the panchayat of Sohana village. The objections were raised by the members of the Plot Allotment Sangharsh Committee of Sectors 76 to 80 and residents’ welfare associations of Sectors 78 and 79. They did not show any interest in being included in the municipal limits. The objections, along with other relevant documents, were sent to the secretary, Local Government, on November 6 for an approval. The objections received from Sectors 76 to 80 are of a similar nature. Residents fear that the development works in the upcoming sectors might be hit if these areas come within the jurisdiction of the civic body. At present, development is being undertaken by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) in these sectors and, in some cases, the allotment of plots is even pending. The panchayat of Sohana has objected to the proposal of bringing the village under the corporation, saying that if this was to be done now, why were the panchayat elections held in the village, the results of which were valid for five years. Panchayat members also said that at present they got grants from the state government for development works in the village, which would cease once Sohana came under the civic body. Moreover, village residents would also be subject to the payment of property tax, said the panchayat members. Commissioner of the corporation Uma Shankar Gupta said he had contacted the GMADA authorities in connection with the objections raised by the residents of Sectors 76 to 80. He was told that the development work would be carried out by GMADA in the manner it was being done at present, and the pending plot allotments would also be made. Gupta further said in the case of the objection raised by the Sohana panchayat, the higher authorities had been told that when the proposal to include 22 villages in the civic body limits was made, the former panchayat of the village had given its consent to the proposal. The case relating to the extension in the Mohali municipal limits has been sent to the secretary, Local Bodies, and the final call would be taken at that level, added the Commissioner. The Municipal Corporation had invited objections and suggestions from
the residents of the areas to be included in the extended limits.
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Rs 10 lakh donated to construct school
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 7 “Both the junior and the senior sections of the school collected the amount to ensure that the children in the flood-struck villages who have been deprived of their school would be able to resume their studies,” she said. A cheque of Rs 10 lakh was presented by the students, staff and principals of both the branches of the school, namely, Vineeta Arora of the senior branch and Taruna Vashisht of the junior school, to the Rotary Club of Chandigarh, to make this project possible. The senior school collected Rs 6.47 lakh and the junior wing in Sector 33 collected Rs 3.53 lakh for the project. The rotarians in the country have committed to build and to undertake the major repair work of all the schools up to primary-level numbering 175 schools in the districts of Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi, the most ravaged region of Uttarakhand due to the disastrous floods of September 2013. Each school in the village built by Rotary will have proper classrooms, toilets and drinking water facilities and shall be managed by the managing committee.
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City raises a toast to literature
Chandigarh, November 7 The panelists—critics M Asaduddin, Giriraj Kiradoo and Nirupama Dutt, authors Kiran Nagarkar, Vishwajyoti Ghosh and Virendra Mehndiratta, academician Rana Nayar and festival director Altaf Tyrewala—put forth their viewpoints on the first day of the three-day event. Author Kiran Nagarkar talked about the changing role of a critic in today’s time, and how a critique could make one look at a piece of literature in a different way. Translator Nirupama Dutt reflected on the fact that art and literature were subjective, and criticism was yet another way to reach out to an audience and share ideas. It also helped in promoting the literature. Author and translator Rana Nayar said: “You can’t be a critic unless you have compassion and an affinity to the book.” An evening with local poets was also organised on the first day. The poets included Bhupinder Kaur, Rajwanti Mann, Chander Trikha, Arvinder Kaur, Bittu Sandhu, Tariq Mahmood Shaam, Giriraj Kiradoo, Satyapal Sehgal, Madhav Kaushik and Nirupama Dutt. The coming days will see discussions touching upon literature, politics and society. There will be events aimed at increasing the participation of the audience.
Deepa Mehta to attend festival today
Oscar-nominated film director Deepa Mehta will be visiting the festival on Friday. Her latest movie, Midnight’s Children, will also be screened in the evening. It is based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Salman Rushdie. Renowned Indian film and theatre actor, music director, lyricist, singer and scriptwriter Piyush Mishra will also be performing on Friday.
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Paul Merchants under I-T scanner
Chandigarh, November 7 A team comprising officers of Chandigarh and Haryana conducted raids to investigate financial irregularities by the proprietors. Though members of the team avoided media queries, sources said the business associates of the company in Sectors 20 and 22, Divya Channel at Sector 38 and two offices in Mohali were also searched by the team. The operation was on till the filing of this report. Sources revealed the trading activities of the business houses were under the scanner for financial transactions.
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Admission process in schools to begin in Dec
Chandigarh, November 7 DPI (schools) Kamlesh Kumar said that the meeting with the private schools was successful today, as majority of the private schools had given their consensus for common admission schedule for next year’s admission. “Tentatively, the admission process will start from December first week and will continue till January end. The exact schedule with proper dates will be released in a day or two,” said Kamlesh Kumar. He made it clear that the schools, which do not adhere to the schedule, would be penalised. According to him, the main purpose of this common admission schedule is to bring more transparency in the admission process and streamline the whole admission process for the convenience of parents and other stakeholders. “The move will ensure that private schools do not leave any confusion before starting the admission process, besides pushing for the state’s agenda of 25 per cent reservation under the RTE Act,” he said. Last year, the common admissions process started on December 5 and completed by January 30 in all the city schools. Under common admission schedule, the schools need to display information regarding the total number of seats, age requirement, fee structure, admission criteria and documents required on their notice boards and websites. The whole process of admission right from registration or admission forms to draw of lots for admission will take place between fixed time schedule. The department is also thinking of starting a helpline to enable parents and other people to register their complaints as well as obtain any kind of information relating to admission.
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Children’s Day function: Bansal’s name as chief guest opposed
Chandigarh, November 7 Committee member Rajesh Gupta Bittu questioned as to how the MC could propose Bansal’s name for the chief guest, when he was still to get a clean chit in the Railgate and booth scam. “I will write a letter to the Mayor and MC Commissioner to show my resentment,” he said. Rajesh Gupta Bittu said MC officials were spending Rs 6 lakh and publishing 5,000 cards for the function only to promote Bansal in the election year. Another committee member, Saurabh Joshi, said in the meeting, he had proposed that UT officials should be made chief guest in the function. If the MC is planning to make Bansal the chief guest, then the agenda in this regard should be brought before the committee, as the committee is competent to finalise the name of chief guest,” said Joshi. Committee chairperson Gurbax Rawat, meanwhile, said she had proposed Bansal’s name for the chief guest, but the final decision would be taken by the Mayor and MC Commissioner. Countering Joshi’s point that the committee had the power to finalise the chief guest, she said the committee could only propose. “The Committee has no power to finalise the chief guest’s name,” she said.
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Students’ body donates Rs 80,000 for treatment of five-year-old girl
Chandigarh, November 7 Students raising funds through charity programmes have made donations worth lakhs of rupees to help the poor patients. The students donated the money for the treatment of Manti Devi, who is suffering from Ventricular Septal defect. The cheque was handed over to the family by college principal BC Josan. Nav Sankalp commenced when a few students of the college decided to join together and contribute towards the society. They then decided to raise funds for the treatment of critically ill children who can’t afford the treatment. Diveeja Sharma, one of the student and member of Nav Sankalp, said both the parents of the child were labourers who came to the city for her treatment at PGI and they were presently unemployed which made the treatment of their five-year-old daughter almost impossible. “We want to continue this noble cause by helping more such children in future,” she said.
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SD College students go on hunger strike
Chandigarh, November 7 Council president Deepak Singh said after the tragic death of Himanshu, a BSc third-year student of the college, who died when a wall on the college premise collapsed in September, the college had promised that the entire boundary wall would be repaired, however, the college has failed to even reconstruct the part of the boundary wall that had collapsed. He said soon after the student elections they had demanded a student council office from the college, however, the authorities failed to provide the same. Navdeep Singh, secretary of the student council, said they had been demanding sports meet in the college but the authorities had even failed to do so. “We have met the college authorities, however, when they failed to meet our demands we had to resort to protest,” he said. The other two students sitting on the hunger strike included Ayush Mittal and Praveen Mallik. Bhushan Kumar Sharma, principal of the college, said, "The tenders for the construction of the wall have been floated and soon the work will start."
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