Cash, jewellery stolen
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 15— Cash and jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh were reported to have been stolen from the house of Mr S.S. Kapur, a resident of Sector 37.

In a complaint, Mr Kapur alleged that the thieves broke into the house while his family was not at home last night. No arrest has been made so far. A case has been registered at Sector 39 Police Station

Arrested: The local police has arrested Jaikishan, a resident of Panchkula, for allegedly not returning a car, which he had borrowed from a Sector 35 resident.

Deepak, a Sector 35 resident, had alleged that Jaikishan had borrowed a car from him but did not return it despite a number of requests. A case has been registered at the Sector 35 Police Station.

Injured: Three persons were injured in two separate road accidents in the city on Sunday. Hari Singh, a resident of Dhanas, who was driving a motorcycle, was injured after he was hit by a scooter being driven by Kamal Raj, a resident of Phase 3B1, SAS Nagar, near the Dhanas bridge.

In another case a pedestrian, Rohit, a resident of Kumhar Colony in Sector 25 was injured after being hit a scooter.

SAS Nagar

Questioned: In connection with the death of a Nepali couple, found dead under mysterious circumstances on Friday last, the local police has questioning some acquaintances of the deceased.

Sources in the police said that efforts were being made to ascertain whether the deceased had some old enmity with the persons seen last with them. The police suspects that liquor consumed by the couple had been mixed with some poisonous substance.

Vegetable prices stable
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 15—The prices of most of the commonly used vegetables have remained stable in the local market during the past three days.

During a survey of sector markets it was found that though the supplies of vegetables from Himachal Pradesh, which remained affected due to rains during the past fortnight, were returning to normal, still vegetables were selling at high prices.

A kg of cauliflower, priced at Rs 40 during past week, was still available at the old price.In the wholesale market, the vegetable was selling at Rs 170 per five kg. Cabbage was also priced at its old price of Rs 15 a kg in retail and for Rs 60 per 5 kgs. Carrot was selling at a higher price of Rs 32 a kg in retail and for Rs 130 per 5 kg in wholesale market. The vegetable was selling for Rs 28 a kg last week. One could purchase 'arbi' at its old price of Rs 16 a kg in retail and for Rs 60 per 5 kg in wholesale market.

Bittergourd has become costly during this period. A kg of the vegetable priced at Rs 20 just three days ago, could be purchased today after paying Rs 24. In the wholesale market the price has increased from Rs 80 to Rs 100 per 5 kg. On the other hand, lady's finger has become slightly cheaper as in place of Rs 20, a kg of vegetable was selling for Rs 15 in the retail and for Rs 55 in the wholesale market.

According to traders, the price of vegetable has started coming down with fresh arrivals in the market from parts of Punjab and Haryana.

There was no change in the prices of capsicum, squashgourd and 'tori' as these could be had for Rs 28 and Rs 24 a kg respectively. Tomato and lemon, too, could be purchased at their old prices of Rs 24 a kg in retail and Rs 100 per 5 kg in wholesale market, while ginger could be had for Rs 60 a kg.

The price of radish has increased during this period. A kg of the vegetable, priced at Rs 16 just three days ago, could be had today for Rs 20. The wholesale price has increased from Rs 60 to Rs 80 per 5 kg. One could purchase peas at old price of Rs 32 a kg in retail and at Rs 130 per 5 kg in wholesale market. Onion and potato were available for Rs 10 and Rs 4 a kg respectively.

Electioneering yet to gain momentum

AFTER five days of the filing of nomination papers, only one candidate — Mr Mata Ram Dhiman of the Bahujan Samaj Party — has filed his papers for the lone Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat so far. Only three days are left now.

The speed may pick up on Monday when the President of the local unit of the Lok Shakti, Mr Ravi Parkash Kansal, files his nomination papers. The BJP nominee, Mr Krishan Lal Sharma, will file his nomination papers on the last day, i.e. August 18. Though the AICC has informally cleared the name of Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal for the Chandigarh seat, no formal announcement has been made. Only when the formal candidature is announced that the Congress will decide the time for filing the nomination papers of its candidate.

In fact, electioneering is yet to gain momentum here. There is not much of political activity which gives one any indication of the general election being just three weeks away.

Though the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, is expected to inaugurate the election campaign of Mr Krishan Lal Sharma on August 19, the programme of other top leaders of other parties is yet to be announced.

Congress workers expect Mrs Sonia Gandhi to address one of the election rallies here.

Chief Vigilance Officer

The Chandigarh Administration has sent the names of two officers to the central Vigilance Commission for appointment of the new Chief Vigilance Officer for the Union Territory. The charge is currently held by the Adviser to the Administrator, Mrs Vineeta Rai, after the previous incumbent, Mrs Anuradha Gupta, opted to go back to her parent State of Haryana.

The Administration has now sent the names of the Chairman of the Chandigarh Housing Board, Mr Balbir Singh, and the Finance Secretary, Mr Rakesh Singh, to the Commission to select one of them for the position.

Mr Rakesh Singh is also holding the charge of the Chief Electoral Officer for the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Previously, the Home Secretary had held both the charges — the Chief Electoral Officer and the Chief Vigilance Officer.

OSDs

The Adviser to the Administrator of Chandigarh, Mrs Vineeta Rai, has been trying new persons to work with her as an Officer on Special Duty. Initially, she had Ms Geetanjali Kundra, an IAS officer of the UT cadre, who also held the additional charge of Joint Secretary, Coordination, besides being a Subdivisional Magistrate and holding the charge of Block Development Officer.

She was replaced by Mr Satya Pal Arora, an HCS officer of Haryana. Now Mr Arora has been appointed Director, Public Relations. His predecessor, Mr Chandersekhar, will also look after the work of OSD to the Adviser to the Administrator besides being the full-time Administrative Officer of the Sector 32 Government Medical College Hospital.

Nothing changes

Despite two days of pretended hectic activity by various departments following reports published in the Chandigarh Tribune and Punjabi Tribune, there appears no visible change for the better in the MCC-run Panchayat Complex in Badheri except draining out the stagnant water clogged in its open compound, flattening of the debris piled up inside along the boundary wall and cleaning up of the open-air dais meant for cultural activities. As none is seen there at work, the clean-up operation seems to have come to a standstill while a lot more remains to be done.

Who will restore the electricity and water supply for which the complex is crying since the new democratic setup came into being nearly three years ago? Similarly, who will affix window-panes to the rooms where the homoeopathic dispensary is housed? Who will do the white-washing and repairs to the building, which shows cracks and plaster-eruptions at a number of places? Who completes the construction of the partially builtup boundary wall? Who uproots the congress grass and the wild vegetative growth which is conspicuous by its presence?

Surprisingly, instead of throwing the debris out, it has been spread out on the compound much closer to the buildings where departments like bank, post office, dispensary and anganwari function. Still there is residue of garbage lying in one corner of the complex facing the cooperative bank.

Interestingly, the MCC earns a monthly rent from the 16 shops attached to the complex (for meeting its maintenance expenses) besides Rs 2000 monthly rent from the bank but not even a penny is spent on it.

I. Day greetings

Yasmin Dutta of Panchkula is fast becoming our guest artist. She sends a hand-made card or item on every national festival, be it Republic Day or Independence Day.

For August 15, she has made a cute wooden flowerpot decorated with little trinkets in her trademark style. From artificial flowers rise flags of India as well as those of Pakistan, the USA and the UK etc. The message inscribed on the pot reads:

It is time the whole world realised;
Slowly but surely, our India has arrived …
Friends are proud; others surprised;
'coz despite all odds, we have arrived!

When Kargil was booming, she had sent a shoebox decorated into the shape of a collection box for the valiant soldiers. But soon enough, The Tribune started its Kargil Fund to which you, dear readers, contributed more than Rs 2 crore.

Fridge as a shop

While driving on the road dividing Sectors 21 and 22, one is intrigued by the sight of refregerators tied to the large trees that line it. The mystery is solved when one sees spanners and screw drivers laid out on a gunny sack in front of these and tins and boxes of various shapes and sizes stacked in the shelves. Not something to eat, but nuts and bolts and valves.Behold the ubiquitous refrigerators in its latest avatar of a cycle repair shop!

Ram Samuj is the owner of this "khoka" refrigerator which he bought off the "kabariwala" in Industrial Area for Rs 300 a few months ago. On the same road there are some more repair shops like this one, though the old ones made of wooden planks definitely outnumber the "refrigerator" kind. The owner says that he switched over to using the refrigerators as a shop because it was far more sturdy than the wooden kind and wouldn't rot in the rain. And it definitely does attract attention!

We owe to the western world the invention of this household appliance, but they can definitely learn from the ingenious mind of the Indian the "other" uses it might be put to. And in today's world where garbage is such a huge problem, solutions like this one go a long way.

Year of the elderly

The Sector 7-B Satyaksh Seva Charitable Trust is making an endeavour to look for elderly people to engage them in meaningful and constructive activities. The Trust maintains that elderly are the repository of immense wisdom and invaluable experience. The Trust is keen that such elderly people and volunteers should join them to work collectively for the betterment of the society. Those interested can contact the Trust at Arya Samaj, Sector 7-B. Telephones : 601330, 772201.

Economic census

A fairly large number of children are involved in both agricultural and non-agricultural enterprises in the Union Territory of Chandigarh. According to the latest economic census completed, of 2987 persons involved in agricultural enterprises, 2078 are men, including 992 from urban areas and 1086 from the rural areas. Of the remaining 730 are women, 495 from urban areas and 235 from rural background. In this group 179 children are working in agricultural enterprises. If one looks at the overall involvement of children in all enterprises, both agriculture and non-agriculture, nearly 1500 children are involved. The total number of people working in all enterprises is 2,15,300 of which 1,82,719 are men, 1,78,342 from urban areas and the remaining 4377 from rural areas. This number also includes 30438 urban women and 666 rural women.

The third interesting revelation of the economic census has been about hired persons. In all 1,70,821 persons are hired by various enterprises. Of these 1,42,636 are men.This number is predominantly of urban workers — 1,41,184 — while in women section also, there are 27,657 urban women out of a total of 27,969 workers.

Save nature

Those who visit the fruit nursery of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh in Sector 26 for purchasing saplings are attracted to about 60 brisk chicks walking with their mothers in groups.

These are white breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) who have found their monsoon home around a pond in the nursery. They laid their eggs in the bushes around the pond last month. The young chicks were born early this month. Some are seen chasing insects and worms. Other are enjoying yummy shoots of marshy plants. When a visitor goes close by their mummies give a sound alarm bell, kook, kook, kook. The young babies become adventerous and jump into the pond and disappear.

The pond is situated on the back sides of the nursery and the Technical Teachers Training Institute (TTTI) Sector 26. Its size is shrinking as the sanitation staff of TTTI throws garbage and other waste materials into the pond. ESI President SK Sharma who has been watching the development keenly told the TTTI authorities that if this is not checked the pond will disappear and so will the innocent birds.

Eveleen wins jr, sub-jr matches
By Our sports reporter

CHANDIGARH, Aug 15 — Eveleen won her matches in the sub-junior and junior girls singles on the second day of the 9th Chandigarh State carrom championships, in progress at st Stephen's school, sector 45, here today. She downed Nitika Rani 25-7, 25-10, and Shikha Thakur 25-10, 24-9.

The top seed in men's singles, Tejinder Harry, ousted Vinod Vashisht 17-9, 25-0 to advance into the next round. In the women's section, Saroj Chandel and Veena Dumra won their matches against Pallavi Piplani and Puneet lamba. The doubles pair of Dhruva and Sumit won both doubles matches in junior and senior sections.

The second day's results are:

sub-junior boys singles — Hardeep b Gurinder singh 25-2; Ankit Kalsi b Moni Ahuja 22-10; sumit Yadav b Sarvesh singla 25-5.

sub-junior boys doubles — Harmanpreet and Amanpreet b Praithi Chugh and Rohit Malhotra 25-19, 25-0; Gagandeep and Gurvinder singh b Damanpreet and Abhishek Bansal 23-18, 22-7.

junior boys doubles — Devinderjit and Charukh b Ramanpreet and Baninder 20-6, 23-8; Rozerio Sampson and Sanjay negi b Zubin Mehta and Ashish vashisht 25-0, 25-3; Amarinder and Deepak b Navdeep Gill and Pukhraj singh 25-0, 25-10; Dhruva and sumit b Taranpreet and Paramdeep 18-7, 25-14; Anu Papneja and Gurinder singh b Money Bansal and Deepak Bansal 23-6, 20-15; Chanderdeep and Vaibhav b manbir singh and Rahul tripathi 20-6, 20-18; Gurmohan Walia and Sunil b G. singh and Ashutosh Vashisht 25-10, 25-0.

sub-junior girls singles — Eveleen b nitika Rani 25-7, 25-10; Pallavi Piplani b Deepika 24-5, 18-7.

sub-junior girls doubles — shikha jain and Monika Kamboj b Ramneet Kaur and Priyanka 25-14, 25-0; nitika and Balvinder b Angel and Rupinder kaur 25-0, 12-0.

Junior girls singles — Eveleen b shikha Thakur 25-10, 24-9; Bhavna Sachdeva b Amanpreet kaur 25-10, 25-10.

Men's singles — Sumit b Randhir singh 25-5, 13-19, 16-6; Taranpreet b N.K. Arora 22-8, 22-19; Deepak kumar b Om Prakash 25-4, 25-5; sudhir Sidhu b vinod vashisht 17-9, 25-0; Paramdeep b K.C. saxena 23-8, 25-0; Charukh goyal b N.S. Pahwa 25-0, 25-7; Rozerio sampson b S.K. Mishra 25-10, 25-7; Gagandeep b K.S. patwal 25-4, 25-6; Deepak Kumar b B.S. negi 25-8, 25-10; C.M. sharma b Randhir kalsi 21-5, 25-14.

Men's doubles — Dhruva and Sumit b S. chakarvorty and S. Mukherjee 25-2, 25-5; Devinderjit singh and Paramdeep b subhash and deepak Kumar 25-13, 18-19, 21-9.

women's singles — Bhanu jain b Inder Kanta 20-15, 24-10; Veena dumra b Pallavi Piplani 21-6, 25-14; Saroj Chandel b Puneet lamba 18-10, 20-17.

Women's doubles — Anjali negi and Veena dumra b Pallavi Piplani and Eveleen 25-0, 25-10.

Godrej Club in final

Fine bowling by Vijay Pal, who claimed four wickets for nine runs, and a good spell of three wickets for seven runs by Ajay Sikka helped Godrej Club beat star cricket club by ten wickets to enter the final of the 11th Bathany cup cash prize cricket tournament at the CRPF grounds here today.

brief score — Star cc- 58 all out (Rajinder Kohli 17, gurdip Rana 16, Vijay pal 4 for 9, Ajay sikka 3 for 17, naresh dhingra 2 for 12); godrej- 62 without loss (Harminder bawa 37 n.o., Vanet chawla 20 n.o.).

In another match, LIC Cricket club defeated videcon cricket club by three wickets.

brief score — Videcon CC- 124 all out in 25 overs (Ritesh manchanda 49, manish chadha 34, dinesh Mongia 2 for 24, madan lal 2 for 21, amit Uniyal 2 for 30); LIC CC- 125 for 7 in 22 overs (madan Lal 67 n.o., Rahul Panta 21, Amit Uniyal 17, Harminder singh 2 for 19, surinder 2 for 23).

LIC, NIAC win

Superb batting by Anil Kumar, who scored 66 runs, helped LIC Employees cricket club trounce Haryana Financial Corporation by 76 runs in the Inter-government/financial sector employees cricket tournament, being played at Panchkula.

In another match, new India Assurance Corporation defeated National Insurance corporation by eight wickets.

brief score— LIC- 145 for 7 in 25 overs (Anil 66 n.o., S.M.S. Chauhan 22, Sanjay 28, Rajinder 2 for 30); HFC- 69 all out (Rajinder Mehboob 30, Sanjay Sharma 3 for 15, Gundeepak 2 for 18, Vikas garg 2 for 17, Amarjit Kumar 2 for 7).

brief score — NIC- 55 all out (Vishal 15, Anil chawla 4 for 10, S.P. Sharma 3 for 6, Sanjay 3 for 10); NIAC- 56 for 2 (S.P. Sharma 24 n.o., Anil 20 n.o.).

Taekwondo championship

The Taekwondo Association of Chandigarh will organise the second taekwondo championships for schools and colleges of the city on August 22. The meet will be conducted at Skating Rink Hall, sector 10.

The last date of receiving entries is August 20. those interested may contact Mr Harjinder Kumar at 106, Sector 33-A, or Mr Rajiv Kumar at 3191, Sector 37-D.

Property tax proposal unjustified

The news item “MCC to levy property tax” in Chandigarh Tribune came as a rude shock to property owners of Chandigarh. It has come as the last nail in the coffin for property owners with rental incomes stagnant to inception levels. The doctor is charging “today’s” fee, vegetables are available at “today’s” prices, petrol etc are all sold at “today’s” rates, why should we contend with rentals that are 30 years old? To add salt to our wounds, MCC now proposes to implement a new tax on the hapless owners.

An article in a local daily criticised the BJP state unit of Punjab for not allowing the passage of Model Rent Bill, 1995, in Punjab. The newspaper had reported that the Punjab Government has decided, with total disregard to the Model Rent Bill, to totally shelve the Model Rent Bill and instead propose only some changes in the old draconian East Punjab Rent Act, 1949.

Both houses of Parliament have given their assent to the new Rent Act and it is yet to be enacted even after five years of passage of the same. Is it not a mockery of democracy? The BJP suffered heavily in the recent Assembly elections because of its pro-trader image, resulting in unimaginable prices of essential commodities. Farmers were last year repeatedly saying that traders are buying their onion crop at the rate of Rs 2 per kg. Even the hapless farmer was surprised how it jumped to Rs 100 a kg on reaching the market.

We urge the state unit of the Punjab BJP-SAD not to overlook the interests of landlords who have suffered from this draconian law for the past 50 years. The basis of the Rent Control Act is to provide protection to the poor against exploitation. Even if accept this official reason as justified, the least the government can do is to define who is poor and in case the tenant is above this definition of poverty, that tenant should not be allowed to take advantage of the Rent Control Act. The application of rent control should be based on the poverty/ richness of the tenant and not on the rent he is paying.

The Rent Control Act is being used to control the rent of a private person. The government should also have price control on parallel lines . If the government cannot control prices , what right does it have to control rent only? Over and above this, the MCC now wants to burden the property owners with a new tax.

We request the BJP-SAD Punjab state unit to kindly implement the Rent Control Act at the earliest to prevent further damage. I hope that sense will prevail within the BJP cadres and they will not block the passage of the Rent Bill if they want to get the Bill for the Property Tax passed in the MCC.

Gaurav Bansal
Chandigarh

Unjust to students

This is with reference to the article in Chandigarh Tribune dated July 20 “UBS NRI quota up by 15 seats”. I was placed in the waiting list of the MBA NRI quota, when there were 10 seats.After the announcement of 15 more seats, the UBS authorities conducted fresh interviews of those candidates who were not called in previous GDs and interviews. It means they had secured less marks in entrance test than those who were called for interviews. After previous GD and interview, 50 students were placed in the waiting list. I wonder how and why the UBS again took interviews instead of picking up candidates from the pending waiting list.

N.D.Singh

Panchkula

Spare cops

I live in New York and am a regular reader of my favourite newspaper, The Tribune. I rarely forget to read the daily edition and keenly follow the happenings back home.

The report “Challaning cops cause jams” makes an important and interesting revelation. The article mentions that “As the drivers of these vehicles apply brakes all of a sudden, the following vehicles ram into them”.

I think it is unfair to blame this on cops. I have lived in the City Beautiful for more than 25 years and consider it to be definitely one of the best cities in India as far as traffic management is concerned. I had been challaned by cops a few times but never for overspeeding. There is an important point to be considered here: The vehicles which ram into stopping or stopped vehicles ahead of them are not maintaining an adequate braking distance and are following too closely. It may be due to overspeeding, faulty brakes or vehicles or not paying enough attention ahead while driving.

For any or all of the above reasons, it’s the people who are driving are responsible and not the cops. In fact, in such a scenario, those hitting from behind should also be cited for traffic violation — driving too close.

In the USA where traffic management is one of the best in the world and normal driving speeds are much higher than India, there is simply no excuse if one ever bumps someone from behind. Even in an accident, if one hits someone from rear, he/she is given a ticket for “tailgating” or driving too close. Even here cops adopt the same procedure for checking overspeeding with one or more cops having radar or last gun hiding and passing on the vehicle no. and description to other cops at a distance along the same route and then one is stopped by flagging one down. I have never heard or witnessed anyone bumping into a parked vehicle. The reasons are: By law one has to maintain a certain minimum braking distance between one’s vehicle and the vehicle in front — one has to be very careful watching all possible road hazards while driving.

If one does bump into the vehicle in front, you are at fault and you get a ticket. This causes you to loose certain points which raises the cost of insurance of your vehicle. Beyond a certain limit of points, one’s licence is either suspended or revoked. This acts as an effective deterrent.

Let’s give our cops in Chandigarh a break and let them do their job.

Akshey Deep Sood
USA (received via e-mail)

Guitar performance

In the news item “a fine guitar performance”, published on July 30 edition of Chandigarh Tribune, it’s written that a Hawain guitar was played but the photograph shows a Spanish guitar being played.

Dr Gaurav Chaturvedi
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, USA
(Received via e-mail)

Registration of dogs

Apropos of the news item that appeared in The Tribune dated August 8 regarding the compulsory registration of pet dogs etc within municipal limits of Chandigarh. Though the municipal corporation has made it obligatory that dogs may be registered with the Medical Officer of the corporation, I think the most important aspect as to where these dogs can be kept seems to have been ignored altogether, as keeping pet dogs in multi-storeyed buildings does not seem to fall in line with the standard bylaws of the MC.

The Tribune dated 19.4.99 highlighted the danger of keeping pet dogs in multi-storeyed government flats of UT Administration. The ban on keeping dogs in government flats is urgent and MC should devise ways and means to ensure that pet dogs are not kept in these flats and a penalty clause for defying the complete ban may be inserted to ensure ban on keeping dogs in government flats and safety of residents.

B. S. Pooni
Chandigarh

Kids’ death shocking

It was really shocking to read about the death of two children in Ram Darbar area due to electrocution. This tragedy resulted due to negligence on part of the Engineering Department officials.

The erring officials, under whose jurisdiction this area falls, and who are responsible for this type of carelessness should be brought to book and stern action should be initiated against them.

Although no monetary aid can fill the void created in the lives of parents of the deceased kids, adequate compensation should be given to these parents whose innocent children have died.

Sanjay Khurana
Chandigarh