Tuesday, April 27, 1999
|
N E W S Tuesday, April 27, 1999 |
|
| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
5 pc sales tax on petrol
proposed CHANDIGARH, April 26 — The Chandigarh Administration proposes to levy 5 per cent sales tax on petrol. A draft notification to this effect, inviting objections from the public, is likely to be issued in a day or two. It may be recalled that on February 3, the administration had issued a similar draft notification proposing 2 per cent sales tax on petrol in the Union Territory. No follow-up action was taken on the notification as it was issued in anticipation of a similar proposal to levy sales tax in Punjab. The Punjab Government, however, decided to raise sales tax on petrol from 10 per cent to 12 per cent. Since the draft notification was issued in the middle of February, the Punjab Government has already levied 12 per cent sales tax on petrol at the expiry of the period for filing of objections. Since, there is no sales tax on petrol in Chandigarh, the administration decided to enhance the proposed rate of sales tax from 2 per cent to 5 per cent. The administration had thought that even after levying of 5 per cent sales tax, petrol will continue to be more than 50 paise per litre cheaper in Chandigarh than the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana. In fact, Haryana was first to introduce sales tax on petrol a couple of years ago after the state decided to go dry. To meet revenue loss on account of excise duty, the state had levied sales tax not only on petrol but also on diesel. In Chandigarh, there is
CST on petrol. So after calculating CST and 5 per cent
sales tax, it will be cheaper by 50 to 60 paise a litre
than Punjab. Since a formal decision has already been
taken, the process of amending the Punjab Sales Tax
Rules, as applicable to Chandigarh, is expected to start
this week. |
Three constables sacked Chandigarh, April 26 — Three constables of the Chandigarh police were dismissed from service today. Two were dismissed for allegedly taking bribe from passing truck drivers and the third for allegedly raping a woman last night. Constables Lakha Singh and Anil Kumar, attached with the Police Control Room (PCR), were arrested for allegedly accepting bribes while Constable Raj Singh, posted in the CIA wing of the police, was arrested for raping a Mauli Jagran woman. In the second case, the police is investigating the angle of prostitution, Dr Kiran Bedi, IGP, said. The arrested cop, Raj Singh, has alleged that the woman had accepted money in lieu of having sex with him. The cops , who were taking bribes, were nabbed because of the timely complaint lodged by Mr Ishwar Singh Rahi, an employee of The Tribune. He rang up the control room, saying that two cops on a motor cycle (CH--01--G--9775) were taking money from truck drivers near the poultry farm in Industrial Area, Phase I. Mr Rahi had been informed by Surinder Singh, driver of truck number ( RPK--487) that the duo had taken money from him. Following the call, a team of the Police Control Room (PCR), led by Inspector Bakshish Singh, swung into action. However, by the time the team reached the spot, the two constables had probably heard the message on their wireless sets and changed their location and handed the money back to the truck driver. In future, the inspectors will have an option to use a second channel on their wireless sets to keep such messages confidential, Dr Kiran Bedi said. The constables were arrested under Sections 13(1\A) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. In the case of the rape, Rajni, alias Darshana, has alleged that she was returning home from Mani Majra last night when she was accosted by a person on a scooter ( PB--29--0894). In her complaint to the police, she has alleged that the man asked her to accompany him to the CIA staff office as an enquiry was pending against her. On the way, the cop allegedly raped her in the woods of Makhan Majra village. On the contrary, the cop has said that he paid money for sex to Rajni. According to the local SSP, Mr N.S. Randhawa, the constable has said that he and the woman were together when they went to Hallo Majra. From there the cop was to drop her back. On the way, the woman cried for help upon seeing a team of policemen on horseback. The cop was arrested and booked under Sections 376, 377, 342 and 506 of the IPC. Now the number of calls received at the control room have jumped from an average of 30 per day to 60, she said. Besides, the police has made it point to call back the complainant to assure him or her about the outcome of complaint, Dr Bedi said. ...now cops will be fired In future, any act of moral turpitude by the personnel of the Chandigarh police shall mean dismissal and not suspension, as was the practice earlier. There will be no long-winding inquiries. However, time-bound inquiries will be conducted as and when required, said Dr Kiran Bedi. The pending inquiries will also be speeded up, the IG assured. Besides, those found drunk on duty will also be dismissed under the rules. UT police to honour
do-gooders Chandigarh, April 26 — The Chandigarh police will organise a "parakh sammelan " on May 5 to honour civilians and police personnel who have done good for the service of law and order. They will be given some cash award with certificates, the IG, Dr Kiran Bedi has said. Discussions will be
initiated to see what else can be done to improve the
working of the force. |
Phones lost ring at night Chandigarh, April 26 — Around 30,000 telephone subscribers in Panchkula and Mani Majra woke up this morning to find that the telecommunication link between the township and other parts of the country had snapped. There was no dial tone on the phones since late last night. The fault was rectified around 11: 30 this morning. According to sources in the Telecom Department, batteries in the exchange at Panchkula got discharged, or lost the capacity to supply power to the exchange, resulting in the snag. The batteries are fitted with a rectifier that brings down the voltage of power from the routine 220 volts supplied by the Electricity Department to the requirement of the exchange, that is 52 volts, sources said. Whenever there is a power failure, the batteries take over automatically. How this error snapped communication links is being investigated by officials. No damage of the exchange equipment has been reported, sources said. Meanwhile subscribers, many of whom run businesses in Chandigarh, were a harassed lot. STD PCO operators lost business as well as some small-scale units. People could not contact
relatives in other cities. |
Central Govt offices closed
today CHANDIGARH, April 26 — Offices of the Punjab and Haryana governments and the Chandigarh Administration will open, while those of the Central Government will remain closed on account of Muharram tomorrow. It is a restricted
holiday in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh tomorrow, while
for Central Government offices, it is a gazetted holiday.
All banks, schools and other educational institutions in
Chandigarh, offices of the Chandigarh Administration and
Punjab and Haryana governments and their respective
boards, corporations and other undertakings will remain
open. |
Traffic jam at Zirakpur ZIRAKPUR, April 26 — Travellers were put to inconvenience following a traffic jam at the traffic lights on the Chandigarh-Delhi highway here this evening. Mr Brij Lal, conductor of a bus, said that Mr Ram Singh, driver of a Chandigarh Transport Undertaking bus, who was beaten up by some unidentified persons near Ambala city around 6.30 p.m., blocked traffic to demand arrest of the suspects by the police. According to eyewitnesses, the suspects stopped their Uno car (CH-01-X-3315) in front of the CTU bus (CH-01-G-8129), which was on its way from Delhi to Chandigarh, and asked the driver to come down. As the driver stepped out they started beating him up without any provocation, they said. One of the passengers said that the driver of a Maruti car (CH-01-M-1980) following the Uno car told the suspects to flee. The CTU driver overtook the cars and blocked the road at the local traffic lights to seek arrest of the suspects. The police checked all
the vehicles for the suspects but they escaped. The road
was later cleared on the directions of Mr H.S. Bhullar,
DSP, who visited the spot . |
Protest against demolition Chandigarh, April 26 — Residents living in the colony of the Sri Anandpur Complex Welfare Society, Kajheri, held a demonstration near the housing board roundabout here today to protest against the demolition of houses by the administration in the village on March 3 . The protesters, mostly women, assembled near the demolished colony and marched towards the roundabout, raising slogans against the administration for the "anti-people" action which had rendered hundreds of people roofless. The agitators also resolved to start an indefinite fast in case their demands were not met within a fortnight. According to Mr N. S. Sewak and Mr Mohinder Singh, President and General Secretary of the society, respectively, the administration did not serve them with any notices and did not stop them from constructing the houses at any time in the past one year. Moreover, the administration had been declaring at public meetings that all the houses built in violation of the lal dora would be provided with all the basic facilities. It was strange that while the government was not making any effort to provide the people with subsidised housing, it was demolishing the houses built by the people with their hard earned money. They have demanded
regularisation of the colony on the lines of such
structures in Indira, Dhanas, Badheri, Bajwara in
addition to other colonies under consideration of the
administration for regularisation. |
PU, what were examinees to
do? CHANDIGARH, April 26—The examinations of Panjab University for the post-graduate classes commenced today. The students taking MA (part I ) paper for English were perplexed to find contradictions in the instructions mentioned in the paper and the pattern of the paper. The instructions required the students to do five questions. While the first question was compulsory, the students were required to do two questions each from the other two parts of the paper. What surprised the students was that the third part of the question paper had only one question with two parts to offer to the students. Queries from the
invigilators at some centres where the examination was
conducted, resulted in the students being asked to take
their place since no instructions had come from the
university and the invigilators were not in the know of
things. Finally, the students came back after doing four
questions instead of five. |
AIDS awareness camps
organised in UT Chandigarh, April 26 — "No welfare programme can succeed without the active participation of social and voluntary organisations," opined Mrs Anuradha Gupta, Home-cum-Health Secretary of Chandigarh. She was inaugurating the first day of the Family Health Awareness week at the AIDS awareness-cum-medical camp at Kumhar Colony in Sector 25. Four such camps were organised today in Kumhar Colony, Maloya, Palsora and Behlana villages by the State AIDS Control Society in collaboration with various NGOs. About 400 persons attended the camp at Kumhar Colony and 132 patients were treated for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) reproductory tract infections (RTIs). This was in collaboration with the Yuvsatta. A total of 600 persons were educated about AIDS in Palsora, while 206 were treated and 68 samples were drawn for diagnosis of STDs and RTIs. In Maloya and Behlana, about 350 persons attended the camps and were shown movies on AIDS. In the camps, 144 and 221 patients, respectively, were treated for various diseases, while 34 and 28 blood samples, respectively, were taken for diagnosis of STDs and RTIs. In Behlana, the Surya Foundation organised the camp. A spokesperson of the Health Department said that in these camps, services of specialised doctors from the PGI, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32 and General Hospital, Sector 16, were utilised. Experts from College of Nursing, PGI, counselled the patients. Blood samples of patients suspected of STDs and RTIs were also tested at the camps. Free medicines were distributed to the patients. Mrs Anuradha Gupta expressed concern over 73 HIV-positive cases in the UT. She said it signified a continuing rise in the HIV-positive and AIDS cases in the UT. The Health Secretary stressed the need for awareness among common people about the HIV and AIDS. She said in the second phase of the AIDS control programme, along with awareness, emphasis would be laid on targeted intervention. The State AIDS Control Society, has already started computerised telecounselling services in collaboration with the Servants of the People Society. Besides this, more targeted intervention projects, like those for rickshaw pullers, truck drivers have been introduced. Counselling facilities at STD clinics, voluntary testing centres and blood banks have also been provided. The camp at Maloya was organised by the Chetana Society. Speaking on the occasion, Mr P.H. Vaishnav. Director of SOSVA, said he would make all efforts to ensure that the reproductive child health project for the next year was given to the Chetana Society. The Chairperson of the Chandigarh Social Welfare Advisory Board, Mrs Kamla Sharma, urged the people to profit maximum from the government programmes. She assured that she would recommend setting up a counselling centre at the village to be run by the society. While Mrs Surya Pandit, Secretary-General of the society, gave details of its activities, Dr Vanita Gupta, its President, educated those attending the camp about sexually transmitted diseases. Also, a 'Health
Awareness Week' is being observed by the Station Health
Organisation at Chandi Mandir Cantonment from today. It
is aimed at creating awareness about the HIV infection
and sexually transmitted diseases. A large number of
families living in and around Chandi Mandir will benefit
from the programme. There will be a
lecture-cum-exhibition on May 1 to mark the conclusion of
the week. |
Power cuts irk residents CHANDIGARH, April 26—The residents of the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) flats in Sector 61 here are a harassed lot due to frequent and unscheduled power cuts in the complex. The residents allege that despite assurances by officials of the UT Electricity Department since last year, nothing seems to have been done with the result that unannounced power cuts daily make their lives miserable. With examinations underway, the students are hard hit. “It looks as if we are living in a village with the power cuts, sometimes lasting for hours together, being the order of the day. I cannot concentrate as the power cuts during the daytime upset my schedule of studies,” complains Puneet, a student. The situation is no better during the night time. A few days ago, there was a long power cut night, forcing the residents to spend a sleepless night. It was only after the residents “gheraoed” the house of the SDO concerned that the power supply was restored. What makes the matter worse is the apathetic attitude of the department with regard to the improvement in the power supply. The residents allege that the telephone at the complaint centre is kept off the hook, with the result they do not know when the power supply will be resumed. Mr M.S. Manchanda, Vice-President of the 504 MIG Flats Sector 61 Residents Welfare Association, alleges that despite repeated meetings with the senior officials of the department, nothing seems to have been done giving except giving assurances. Now the association has been assured that a separate power supply line will be provided to the sector in 15 days’ time, he adds. Since the water supply is linked to the electricity supply, the residents face many problems during power cuts, particularly during the morning and evening water supply hours. The Superintending
Engineer, Mr P.S. Chawla, says that a new 66 KV line for
the area from Sectors 39 to 52 is being provided which
will improve the situation to a large extent. Similarly,
a separate line, especially for the housing complex, will
be commissioned in a month or so, he adds. |
Under-10 basketball fest opens CHANDIGARH, April 26 — The under-10 Mini-Basketball Festival started today in different schools of the city. The festival is being organised by Active Sport (India) and five schools of the city are taking part in this fortnight-long festival. Boys and girls below the age of 10 years and most of them in Classes IV and V were dressed in a different sports kit and played this modified version of the game. In the girls section, a match was played at Vivek High School between the host school and Carmel Convent School and the latter team stole the show. Two matches each for boys and girls between St Stephens' School, Sector 45, and St Anne's School, Sector 32, were played at St Stephens' School. In both the sections, St Annes' School cornered glory. The St Stephens' teams were : boys — Nitish Kaushal, Aseem Bhatia, Jagpreet Singh, S.Pruthi, Nishant Mathur, Savinder Pal, Sahil Malhotra, Samrat Datta, Pryas Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Abhimanyu Sarin and A.Bhandar; and girls — Ajaeyta Sandhu, Gagandeep Kaur, Tammana Sharma, Priyanka, Svisah Sodhi, Zoya Sodhi, Arshjot Sodhi, Ramal Kaur, Akansha Iyer and Harsimran. The St Annes' teams were : boys — Ashish, Mohit, Varun, Antany, Biney, Rachit, Ujjval, Harshbir, Jatin, Varun Arora, Kartik, Sahib, Prashant, Adnan and Shahun; and girls — Vani Hans, Richa, Candy, Sareeu, Nivedita, Jyotsana, Ravisha, Deepinder, Erra, Surnika, Hina, Gunjan, Ekta, Vidyun and Kanika. On April 28, St
Stephens' will play Carmel Convent in the girls section
and Vivek School will take on St John's High School in
the boys section. |
70 cr for technical
education Chandigarh, April 26 — The Haryana Government has earmarked a sum of Rs 70 crore to strengthen technical education in the State, said Mr Charan Dass Shorewala, Finance Minister, Haryana, at the valedictory function of the 13th Indian Engineering Congress at the Tagore Theatre today. The function was organised by the Institute of Engineers, Chandigarh, on the theme ‘Role of Information Technology in the Competitive World’. Mr Shorewala said that a world bank project costing Rs 175.70 crore was also being implemented in the State with a view to introducing a new curriculum in the polytechnic institutes, and also to expand technical education for women. He said that permission for establishing four new engineering colleges in the state had also been granted. The State Government had a plan to set up one polytechnic in each district of the state, Mr Shorewala added. The Finance Minister
called upon the engineers for inventing equipment which
would forecast natural calamities well in time, which
could save men and material from natural devastation. |
Consumer Forum Chairman CHANDIGARH, April 26 — Mr Jaidev Singh was elected Chairman of the Consumer Forum, Chandigarh, in the election-cum-monthly meeting held on Saturday. He had earlier been discharging the duties of Secretary General for the past two decades. Mr Singh is also a member of the governing council and treasurer of the Consumer Coordination Council at Delhi, an apex body of consumer organisations in India. Mrs Kulwant Dhaliwal was unanimously elected vice-chairperson of the forum. Col Sarwan Singh, Treasurer of the forum, was elevated as the new Secretary General, filling the post created due to the elevation of Mr Jaidev Singh as Chairman. Mr H.S. Aulakh, a retired Deputy Chief General Manager of the State Bank of India, has been assigned the duties of the Treasurer of the forum. The outgoing Acting Chairman, Brig Jagmohan Singh, has been retained as Adviser to the Chairman. While Mr H.S. Walia will
head the complaints redressal committee, Col T.S. Sidhu
(retd) will look after the services committee which is to
arrange awareness-cum-sale counters in the city. Mr R.K.
Kaplash will look after public relations, public
distribution and sample testing. Brig K.I. Kumar will
supervise the law and order problems. |
SNIPPETS 21 certificates given in
computer course The DIIT was established under the aegis of the Western Command (Headquarters) in October last year with the primary objective of spreading IT education amongst defence personnel and their dependants. The institute is equipped with “state-of-the-art” computer hardware and hi-tech training aids, including multimedia projectors. The institute proposes to start various courses in future like study leave course, multimedia, DTA, CAD, CAM and high-end programming course, including Oracle 8.0 with developer 2000 forms 5.0, Visual basic 6.0, Java and other courses. According to Mr Manjinder Sodhi, the faculty head at the institute, limited seats are being provided to civilians also. Workers stage rally Employees from various departments of the administration and the corporation assembled near the housing board roundabout and raised slogans against the indifferent attitude of the administration towards their long-pending demands. Mr Rakesh Kumar and Mr Bal Krishan, President and Vice-President of the federation, condemned the administration. Besides this, the economic policies being pursued by the government were also condemned. The gathering resolved to intensify their protest in case their demands were not met within 15 days. The main demands of the agitators were release of bonus for 1997-98, regularisation of daily wage workers, arrears of HRA, DA and CCA, implementation in the Factories Act, proficiency step to all field staff, restoration of technician scale, implementation of ticket notification in the CTU, uniforms to Class III employees, extension of the Factory Act to cover tile factories and pay scales to kitchen gardening and aaganwadi staff. 20 made CTCC office-bearers According to Mr Sunil Parti, a spokesman of the local unit of the CTCC, these nominations have been made to give women 33 per cent reservation in the organisation. Those nominated today were: Vice-Presidents — Mrs Pushpa Sharma, Mrs Bhupinder Kaur, Mrs Bhajan Kaur; General Secretaries — Mrs Shreshta Mehta, Mrs Baljit Sodhi, Mrs Kulwant Kaur Dhaliwal and Mrs Surjit Kaur; Secretaries — Mrs Tarinder Kaur, Mrs Satyawati, Mrs Asha Sharma, Mrs Surjeet Kaur and Mrs Bala Kumari; and Executive Members — Mrs Shiela Masih, Mrs Durga Devi Gurung, Mrs Bhajan Kaur Panag,Mrs Janak Arora, Mrs Neelam Gupta, Mrs Lata Sharma,Mrs Jaswinder Kaur and Mrs Sarabjeet Kaur. Draw for PUDA plots today The draw for 207 plots measuring between 6 marlas and 10 marlas will be held at the Community Centre in Phase 3BI. Ms Seema Jain, Chief Administrator, PUDA, said today that the successful applicants would be issued allotment letters in the first week of May. As soon as the successful applicants deposited 25 per cent of the total required amount, possession would be given and construction work allowed. Protest rally by Youth Congress The protesters assembled at the Nehru Park in Sector 22 and marched through the sector raising slogans against the BJP. They were carrying an effigy of the BJP and were also chanting mantras and performing other pre-cremation rituals. After holding up traffic at the Sector 22/21 traffic lights the agitators marched towards the ISBT roundabout where traffic was held up and the effigy pelted with used slippers. The protesters later burnt the effigy at the Sector 17 Plaza amid slogan shouting. Among those who addressed the gathering and condemned the effigy burning programme of the BJP included Mr Ram Pal Sharma, President of the INTUC, Mr Chander Mukhi Sharma, Youth Congress President, Mr Ravinder Singh Palli and Subash Kataria, senior Congress leaders. The protesters also warned the BJP that if they persisted with burning the effigies of the Congress in future the Youth Congress would confront them in the streets of the city. Training course on human rights While addressing the participants of the course, Mrs Gupta delineated the concept of human rights and civil rights. She impressed upon the participants to sensitise themselves to the issues pertaining to human rights gripping the criminal justice system. The participants included prison officers of the rank of DIG Prisons, Superintendent of Prisons, Deputy Superintendent of Prisons, Jailers and heads of Sub-jails from Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Chandigarh. The course, under the Indo-British training project, has been undertaken by the British Council Division, new Delhi, in collaboration with the International centre for Prison studies, Kings College, London, the Bureau of Police Research and Development, the National Human Rights Commission and the Penal Reform and Justice Association. Five city cops for Bosnia? An official intimation in this regard is expected within a day or two. Minor fire in Air Force area According to sources, the fire first broke out in the forest area adjoining the MES hangers which were being used for storing old tyres and other sundry items. According to an official, the fire broke out about 11 a.m. and it took the three BRD tenders more than one and a half hours to control the blaze. Declamation
contest The following students won prizes in the declamation contest: Senior group (15 to 18): Ravi Kaushal, GMSSS, Sector 10 (1) Harpreet Kaur, GMSSS, Sector 33 (2). Junior group (12 5o 15 years): Sonia Sharma, GMSSS, Sector 10 (1) Amrit Pal Singh, GMSSS, Sector 10 (2). Vashisth appointed Astt
Commissioner Meanwhile, the Chandigarh Administration has received a panel of names from Punjab for the post of Director of Health Services. The incumbent, Dr R.S. Sandhu, is due for promotion in his parent cadre in Punjab. Dr Sandhu is likely to rejoin his parent cadre in Punjab the in next couple of weeks. Case registered against
Neelam cinema A team led ASP, Central Division , Mr Alok Kumar, tore down the posters before registering a case under Sections 292 and 293 of the IPC. The policemen reportedly
saw the posters while managing a demonstration of the
Congress party in Sector 17. The IG, Dr Kiran Bedi, had
issued instructions a few days ago about such posters. |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | | Editorial | Business | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | World | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
