Income limit for legal aid up
CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — The Chandigarh State Legal Services Authority has raised the upper limit of annual income to extend the benefit of legal aid to a wider section of society.

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Congress brain-storming session from September 4
CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — Suicides by farmers in Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and other states, problems of indebtedness in the agriculture sector, agriculture policy and other related issues will figure in the three-day "vichar manthan shivir" being organised by the All-India Congress Committee.

Probe ordered into suicide by student
CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — An inquiry has been ordered into the reported suicide by a 12 year-old-girl student of Government High School, Sector 38, on Saturday. The two-member inquiry team has been asked to submit its report within 10 days.

Fee for change in status hiked
CHANDIGARH , Aug 24 — Fee for girl students who opt to become private candidates from the regular ones has been hiked by Rs 50 in Panjab University. Students will now have to pay Rs 250 instead of Rs 200 for the change in status while submitting the examination form .

Lawyers take out procession
CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — Lawyers at the District Courts today abstained from work in the first half in protest against the demolition of certain structures at the District Courts.

Income limit for legal aid up
By Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — The Chandigarh State Legal Services Authority has raised the upper limit of annual income to extend the benefit of legal aid to a wider section of society.

The authority, which met today under the chairmanship of Mr Justice N.K. Sodhi, approved the upper limit of annual income at Rs 30,000 against Rs 18,000 at present. Other members of the authority, who attended the meeting, included the Finance Secretary, Dr G. Vajralingam, and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr R.P. Singh.

When contacted the Member Secretary of the authority, Mr S.K. Sardhana, confirmed that the revised upper limit has been approved.

Until now, it was Gujarat which had fixed Rs 20,000 as the upper limit of annual income for entitlement to legal aid or legal services. It was argued that in Punjab, Haryana and Union Territory of Chandigarh, this upper limit of Rs 18,000 was meaningless as these states and union territory has the highest per capita income in the country where the minimum wages for a daily wager were Rs 2,500 a month.

The clause (h) of Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, inter-alia provides that every person who has to file or defend a case shall be entitled to legal services under the Act if his annual income is less than Rs 9,000 or such other higher income as prescribed by the state government, if the case is before a court other than the Supreme Court, and Rs 12,000 or such other higher amount as may be prescribed amount as may be prescribed by the Central Government, if the case is before the Supreme Court.

Accordingly the Administrator of Chandigarh had prescribed the upper income limit of Rs 18,000 for entitlement to legal services. The rise in cost of living has rendered this upper limit of annual income meaningless. It was felt that the upper limit of annual income should be increased by the State Legal Services Authority.

Even the Member Secretary of the National Legal Services Authority has informed the Chandigarh State Legal Services Authority that the Parliamentary Committee on Estimates also felt that the upper limit of annual income of a person entitling him to legal services shall be raised.

Under the Act, a workman, a woman or a member of Scheduled Castes can avail himself or herself of the benefit of legal aid or legal service irrespective of his or her income. At present, a daily wager gets about Rs 2500 a month. Accordingly it follows that annual income of a daily wager works out to Rs 30,000.

The authority considered it appropriate to raise the upper limit to Rs 30,000, implying that those who actually need this facility need not file affidavits concealing their actual annual income.

The Administrator has been requested to amend rule 16 of the State Legal Service Authorities Rules, 1997, to formalise this increase in the ceiling of upper annual income...

Marginal fall in onion prices
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — Here is a good news for housewives. After being sold at Rs 25 for 1 kg for about three weeks, the prices of onions have started registering a downward trend.

According to a study of the Sector 26 vegetable market by TNS today 1 kg of onions are available between Rs 15 and Rs 20, depending on their size and quality. If one has to pay Rs 20 for 1 kg of fine quality Nasik onions, one can purchase similar quantity of local produce for Rs 15 only.

The sharp rise in the price of onions started about a month back when all of a sudden, the onions turned dearer at Rs 25 per kilogram. The reason for the staggering price of onions was attributed to dwindling arrival of the produce in the market, owing to flash floods in Gujarat and Maharashtra, which had destroyed crop in the two major onion-producing states.

This had created such a situation that whereas the arrival in normal days was 20 truckloads a day, it had been reduced to only about three in the local vegetable market.

According to vegetable merchants, the reason behind the decrease in the onion prices was a slight hike in the arrival of the produce during the past two days as the market was receiving between four to six trucks per day. According to an official of the local market committee, the arrival was on the rise due to the supply of fresh crop from Himachal Pradesh.

Interestingly, within a day decrease in prices, the onions, which as an important salad item had disappeared from the dhabas, have resurfaced again, though in smaller quantities.

However, there is no noticeable fluctuation in the prices of other vegetables as they are stable at their earlier prices. A kilogram of garlic is available at Rs 40, while one could buy 1 kg of 'pahari' potatoes between Rs 10 and Rs 12.

A similar quantity of cabbage is priced at Rs 16 and peas at Rs 25. However, ghia and ladyfinger have witnessed a marginal decrease as both have been priced at Rs 5 and 11, thus providing some relief to the middle-class.

As for fruit, apples are affordable being sold at Rs 15 and Rs 25 per kilogram. Similarly Bananas too can be bought at reasonable prices.

Five lakh bogus claims filed for old-age pension
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — More than five lakh claims filed for availing old-age pension from the Punjab Government have been found to be bogus after verification and scrutiny conducted by the Department of Social Security and Women and Child Development.

Addressing a press conference in this connection, Ms Jagir Kaur, Minister for Social Security, said today a special campaign was launched by the department to identify the beneficiaries under the old-age pension scheme. Applications were also invited for this purpose to avail the pension.

As many as 10,91,632 persons applied for the pension and out of these 6,19,883 applicants were found ineligible.

Many of the applicants made a false entry with regard to their age. Even men and women of 50 years applied for the pension after getting their applications attested by sarpanches, doctors, etc.

For men the eligiblity age is 65 years and for women it is 60 years. Officials concerned said that when they suspected foul play in claims they verified the age from voter lists and other sources and it did not tally with the age mentioned in the applications. Hence, such claims were rejected.

Ms Jagir Kaur said that as many as 2,63,462 persons had been sanctioned old-age pension and the remaining 2,88,267 applications were being processed.

She said that to provide pension to eligible persons, Rs 137.23 crore had been earmarked during the current financial year. She said that as many as 6,7800 widows and destitute women be provided pension during the current financial year.

She said that the department had also decided to set up women cells at every district headquarters to take up the cases of women in distress. She said that such cells after scrutiny would forward the cases to the Punjab State Women Commission which had been revived after three years.

Congress brain-storming
session from September 4
By Sarbjit Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — Suicides by farmers in Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and other states, problems of indebtedness in the agriculture sector, agriculture policy and other related issues will figure in the three-day "vichar manthan shivir" (Brain storming session) being organised by the All-India Congress Committee at the initiative of its President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, at Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh from September 4 to 6.

Although meetings of the Congress Working Committee and extended sessions of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) have been held in recent years a number of times to discuss mostly issues pertaining to party, such a brain storming session is being held by the party after a gap of 24 years.

According to party office-bearers earlier such a session was held at Narora in Uttar Pradesh in 1974 under the leadership of the then Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi.

About 200 select delegates, including presidents of the Pradesh Congress Committees, leaders of legislative wings of the party in the state, members of the Congress Working Committee and some special invitees have been requested to attend the session.

Capt Amarinder Singh, President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, who has been invited for the session, told TNS here today that he would present a paper on agriculture affairs. He said that he was preparing the paper and its scope would cover the agriculture scenario in the whole country.

"I totally disagree with the agriculture policy being followed in the country and want drastic changes in it", he added. All this would be highlighted in the paper, he said.

He said that he would urge for diversification in agriculture and prefer the introduction of crops which had a potential for export. He said that wheat-rice rotation in Punjab and adjacent states had ruined the top soil and its nutritional level was also going down. Farmers were earning nothing by sowing wheat and transplanting paddy. They were required to shift to other crops like potato which could be exported after value addition.

Among other topics to be discussed at the Panchmarhi session included political affairs, economic affairs, foreign affairs and organisational matters. For a meaningful discussion on each topic, the delegates would be divided into five subject-wise groups.

For this purpose a central coordination committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Mr Nawal Kishore Sharma. The reception committee would be headed by Mr Digvijay Singh, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

According to information available here, a meeting of the central coordination committee would be held under the chairmanship of Mrs Sonia Gandhi on August 31 at Delhi to approve the working papers which are being prepared by experts for the session. Such working papers were being prepared to set the agenda for discussion on a particular topic to make it a more purposeful exercise and to avoid wayward debate.

The strategy for the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha elections in certain states, including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, would also be finalised at the session.

The political situation at the national level has become a major concern of Congress Party as it is under strong pressure from certain political groups like the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha headed by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav to form a government at the national level by dislodging the BJP-led Government. The Panchmarhi session will also discuss this issue.

It is the first time that leaders of the party from various states would get a chance to interact with the top brass of the party at the session.

Probe sought into shoot-out incident
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH , Aug 24 — Majority of prominent students organisations in Panjab University have demanded an inquiry into the shoot-out case on August 21 following which Mr Kuljit Singh Nagra , a former president of the Panjab University Students Union and a fellow of the university, were arrested .

Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad , the National Students Union of India, the Panjab University Students union, the Haryana Students Association and the Jat Students Union while talking to mediapersons here today alleged that the FIR was "partisan".

No one from the students organisation of Panjab University has been named despite their role in the incident ,they alleged.

The NSUI has threatened to launch an agitation if the names of its supporters, including Munish Anand, the outgoing president of the campus council , Mr Sudhir Kamboj and Sartaj Gill were not withdrawn from the FIR.The PUSU will also launch an agitation , Mr Binder Singh , the president said. The ABVP will announce its programme later .

Mr Harmohinder Singh Lucky, president of the local unit of the NSUI alleged that the incident had been staged by the SOPU because "they did not see any success in the elections announced recently." The university calendar provides that any student who has been arrested and granted bail could not contest .This meant that their presidential candidate would have been ineligible, he added.

Mr Arun Sood of the AVBP said certain forces in the university were "consciously using students as a tool for their personal gains" which was unfortunate. The incident of Friday was a sequel to last year's incidents of violence after elections.

Mr Sunder Pal, a spokesperson of the Haryana Students Association , said the election should not be cancelled . He demanded a judicial probe into the incident.

Mr Ashwini Kaushal, a senior office-bearer of the Jat Students Association, also demanded an inquiry into the issue.

Orientation Programme: At least 80 municipal councillors are participating in a three-day orientation programme of the Centre for Women's Studies and Development, Panjab University, which began here on Monday.

Inaugurating the workshop Mr N.K.Arora , principal secretary of the Local Governments Department, to become effective councillors women needed to be more familiar with the governments functioning.

Woman succumbs to injuries
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — A pregnant woman who was injured while riding the pillion of her husband's scooter yesterday succumbed to her injuries at the PGI this morning .

Mrs Sashi Ahuja of Sector 41 was injured when the scooter driven by her husband, Mr Vijay Ahuja, was hit by a bus on the Madhya Marg in Sector 26. The bus sped off from the spot. A case has been registered.

Stabbed: A sweet shop owner, Sultan Ahmed of Mani Majra was allegedly stabbed by his former employee and his accomplice on the night of Sunday over some financial dispute. He was stabbed by Abdul Hamid, alias Sukha, and Mehboob.

Ahmed owed Rs 5,000 to Hamid and the latter had gone to take back the money. Hamid has been arrested.

Gamblers held: Four persons — Raj Narayan and Prabhu Gupta of Delhi, Surinder Kumar of Charkhi Dadri in Haryana and Mohsin Khan of Uttar Pradesh — were arrested by the police for allegedly gambling at a public place.

Bomb hoax: A school and a college today received calls threatening that bomb had been planted. Calls were received by the Principal of a government senior secondary school and and the Principal of Polytechnic for Women in Sector 10. The police pressed its dog squad and the calls turned out to be hoax.

Stolen: Gold ornaments kept inside a car were stolen from Sector 17. Mr Narottam of Sector 6, Panchkula, had parked his car near Hotel Shivalik View in Sector 17 on Sunday. He returned after a while to find the ornaments missing.

A scooter owned by Mr Jaswant Singh was reportedly stolen from Sector 17.

Cop hurt: A constable of the Chandigarh Police, Rakesh Kumar, was injured when a scooterist Keshar Ram allegedly hit him near the rehri market in Sector 18. In another case Bharat Mehato, of the Sector 31 labour colony was arrested for allegedly possessing 12 bottles of liquor in an unauthorised manner.

MC plans new water scheme
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — With a view to easing the water shortage problem in the city, the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh (MCC), has proposed a new water supply augmentation scheme.

The scheme, which has been forwarded by the Chandigarh Administration to the Centre, proposes to bring about 60 million gallons per day (MGDs) of water by gravity from the Bhakra main line near Ganguwal (Ropar) or any other raw water source at a higher elevation from the water works, Kajauli. The water works currently meets most of the water demand of the city.

While giving technical clearance to the fourth phase of water augmentation scheme, the Central Public Health Environment and Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), an organisation of the Central Government, had desired to carry out a feasibility study on bringing by gravity from an alternative source keeping in view the high cost of pumping water from Kajauli.

The Superintending Engineer of the MCC, Mr Manmohanjit Singh, prepared a report based on the survey conducted by the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) for the S.A.S. Nagar water supply scheme and by consulting the maps of the Survey of India.

The reports say though the initial cost of the project may be as high as Rs 200 crore, the operational cost would be a fraction of the cost involved in the augmentation scheme. And the total cost would be offset by the savings that could accrue to the civic body in the long run.

Currently, 60 MGD of water was being pumped to the city against gravity from the Bhakra main canal at a distance of 27.5 km from Sector 39 which involves a recurring expenditure of Rs 10 crore per annum. When the fourth phase of water augmentation scheme was commissioned the cost was likely to shoot up to Rs 14 crore.

On the other hand the operational cost of bringing water by gravity would only be around Rs 2 crore a year saving an amount of about 12 crore a year. Besides, during power failure or any breakdown the water supply of the city is severely affected. As the population of the city was increasing rapidly, the demands for augmenting the water supply would assume more importance in the years to come, the report says.

The reports disfavour the construction of a dam on the Ghaggar as the river runs almost dry during summer months. The forbidding cost of the dam has put the project in limbo since the sixties.

The only alternative to it is to tap water from the Sutlej near Ganguwal and bring water by gravity to economise the operation and maintenance cost, the report says, adding that this could be a source of uninterrupted water supply to the city and could easily meet its future demand.

Regarding the sharing of water with Punjab, the report says that sharing of water could be on the same pattern as had been done in case of Phases I, II, III, and IV of the water supply scheme.

It may be recalled that Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh while terming the proposal as "technically feasible" has urged the MCC authorities to pay it Rs 60,000 for the simulation and computer investigation of the 3-D model of the pipelines from Ganguwal to Chandigarh in on pressure and velocities at various points.

According to sources, a Central team was likely to visit the city to study the feasibility report of the project.

Panel set up: The Punjab government has sent another panel for the post of the MCC Commissioner. Those whose names have been sent are Mr K.S. Saroj, Mr R.S. Kalsia and Mr R.L. Kapoor.

Water shortage: Residents of Chandigarh Housing Board flats in Sector 55 had to face a lot of inconvenience as there was no water supply to their flats since this morning.

According to sources a technical snag in one of the tubewells in the Ambedkar Colony in Palsora village was the reason behind the disruption in the water supply.

The Superintending Engineer, Mr Manmohanjit Singh, when contacted, said the workers of the MCC were on the job and the supply would be restored by tomorrow morning.

Probe ordered into suicide by student
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — An inquiry has been ordered into the reported suicide by a 12 year-old-girl student of Government High School, Sector 38, on Saturday. The two-member inquiry team has been asked to submit its report within 10 days.

The Under Secretary Education , Mr D.S. Mangat , said the inquiry will be conducted by the District Education Officer (DEO), Mr Brahmjit Kalia, and the Assistant Director (vocational), Mrs Prithipal Kaur.

Meanwhile, the girl's parents accompanied by more than a 100 residents of their locality gheraoed the school this morning for more than two hours and raised slogans. The school was closed after a two-minute condolence meeting with the students earlier in the morning.

Mr Brahmjit Kalia held a meeting with representatives of the crowd within the school.

The representatives led by Mr N.K. Mattoo, President of the All India Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes Federation, demanded a magisterial probe into the incident and suspension of the teacher involved in the alleged beating incident.

Meanwhile, Seema , a classmate of Pinky today alleged that "the teacher had beaten Pinky and her in front of the entire class.

On the other hand, the teacher Ms Ravinder, has categorically denied that she ever beat Pinky or her friend Seema. "I had only asked Pinky to call her parents as some money was recovered from her." When the money was recovered on Saturday morning , Pinky had then called in Nisha , a girl of Class VIII, to testify that the money was hers (Nisha's).

Earlier, the mother of Pinky said that the money recovered by the teacher had been given by her to buy a notebook. Upon recovery of the money, Pinky had then said that a sum of Rs 20 had been borrowed by her to lend it to Seema , who had to pay it to a local STD operator.

Ms Ravinder said "I then told Pinky, if Seema owed anything to the STD operator she should pay it herself and asked both the girls to call their parents." Bags of the girls had been kept in the school to put pressure on them to call their parents.

Incidentally Ms Ravinder was not connected with Pinky or Seema's class. She had been called in by a male colleague to question the girls as another girl had complained that she had lost some money. The President of the UT Government Teachers Union , Mr H.S. Anand alleged that the incident had acquired political undertones.

Meanwhile, the police had not registered a case till last night despite a complaint lodged by the girl's family. The girl's father, Mr Chand Ram said the police had been callous in their approach. He said "As I was grieving over the dead body of my daughter, two policemen came to my house and asked me to accompany them to the police station.

The police must take action and not wait for the inquiry conducted by the Education Department, said Mr Mattoo.

Fee for change in status hiked
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH , Aug 24 — Fee for girl students who opt to become private candidates from the regular ones has been hiked by Rs 50 in Panjab University. Students will now have to pay Rs 250 instead of Rs 200 for the change in status while submitting the examination form .

Only girl students are allowed to submit their applications for conversion into private candidates. These applications have to be submitted not later than six days before the commencement of the examination.

This fee will be in addition to the difference of examination fee chargeable between the regular and the private candidates which is also to be paid at the same time. A circular in this regard has been despatched to college principals , heads of teaching departments and departments concerned of the non teaching office. These charges will be applicable from the supplementary examination of 1998.

A special fee will be charged from all private candidates who apply from places outside the jurisdiction of Panjab University. These students along with those who appear in an examination at any other place situated outside the jurisdiction of the university where the university intends to hold the examination will have to pay Rs 125.

The revised structure for charging of late fee from these candidates has also been announced .

Candidates who submit the forms upto one week after the normal date fixed for submission of examination forms will have to pay Rs 500. Candidates who submit the form after one week of the normal fixed date but not later than two months before the date of commencement of examination will have to pay Rs 1500.

Lawyers take out procession
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — Lawyers at the District Courts today abstained from work in the first half in protest against the demolition of certain structures at the District Courts.

Later, they marched to the D.C. office in a procession. They broke the barricade and forced their way into the office of the Deputy Commissioner and raised slogans against him.

On the intervention of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Central), a decision was taken to hold a meeting with the District Judge to hammer out a solution to the problem faced by the lawyer.