Opium seized from SAS Nagar resident
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 5 — Lakhwinder Singh, a resident of Phase II of SAS Nagar, was arrested on Saturday night from the road dividing sectors 11 and 12 here after 1.48 kg of opium was seized from him. A case under Section 18 of the NDPS Act has been registered.

Liquor seized: The police on Saturday night recovered 48 nips and 24 pints from Babu Ram of Bapu Dham Colony and registered a case under Sections 61,1,14 of the Excise Act against him.

Driver disappears: The police has registered a case under Sections 407 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code against the driver of a truck who had not reached Shimla after loading 260 bags of fertiliser here. The case has been registered on a complaint of Mr Kuldip Singh of Tagore Transport of the Transport Area here. No arrest has been made so far.

Scooter stolen: Mr Gurmit Singh, a resident of Phase IX of SAS Nagar, lodged a complaint with the police on Saturday that his Bajaj Chetak scooter (CH01E 8681) had been stolen from Piccadily Cinema.

Rich blend of ghazals, ragas
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 5 — It was an evening of ghazals in raga. Subendhu Ghosh made the evening memorable with his semi and light classical music with a blend of ghazals and classical ragas. His presentation was innovative and aesthetic.

The programme was organised by the Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) at University Business School today.

Subendhu's expertise in khayal and tarana was also well reflected in his performance. Moving in rhythm from madhya taal in raga bhoopa set in teen taal, Subh ghadi shubh din aayo sakhi re to a faster pace, he sang from Ghalib's famous collection Dile nadhan tuje hua kiya hai, koi umeed nazar nahin aatri and Faiz Ahmed Faiz's Donon jahan teri muhabat mein har ke and Wo ja raha hai koi.

Subendhu also recited a bhairavi composed by Gohar Jaan of Calcutta. He emerged as an accomplished musician, having learnt his art from the doyen of the Tampur gharana, Ustad Hafiz JKhan. He was ably assisted by Mahendra Prasad on the tabla, Neeraj Gandhi on the harmonium and Rajeev Kumar on the tanpura.

Dr Subendhu Ghosh is on the faculty of biophysics at Delhi University where he conducts research on neutral networks and teaches students. He is an accomplished musician. Last, but not the least, he is a music director, playwright and actor.

Police band sings to Jacob's tune

IT was a rare treat to the eyes and ears the way the Punjab Governor and Administrator, Chandigarh, Lt. Gen (Retd) J.F.R. Jacob, at the end of his visit to the Chandigarh carnival 1999 conducted the show of Chandigarh police brass band.

Twirling a baton General Jacob led the bandmen, who played a famous symphony, “quick march-hanste lushai,” which showed a fine sense of fluctuations right in tune with the ensemble.

Early this year when the migrant Pathans from Darra Kurrum adjoining N.W.F.P (Pakistan) now settled in Chamba (HP) presented tribal dances at the festival of gardens, Lt-Gen B.K.N. Chhibber (retd), then Governor and Administrator, Chandigarh, UT, was so much thrilled that he joined the folk dancers.

Mr S.K. Sharma, President of the Environment Society of India, who has been organising the police band shows for the last 15 years says that the strength of the Chandigarh police brass band has gone down from 26 to 14 only. Thus there is an urgent need to recruit Pachmari trained ex-servicemen. In addition the Chandigarh Police should present torchlit (mashal) physical drill in tune with a evergreen Lata’s song, “Aayee Aayee Raat Suhani Sun Le Khushi Ki Kahani”, on such occasions.

Goa connection: Lieut-Col Partap Singh Gill (retd) and Lieut-Gen JFR Jacob (retd) have at least two things in common. Both are ex-defence officers and both have worked in Goa, Colonel Gill as its Lieutenant-Governor and General Jacob as its Governor. And now both are in Chandigarh. Colonel Gill as a retired man and General Jacob as Governor of Punjab-cum-Administrator of Chandigarh.

Last week when Colonel Gill called on General Jacob, both exchanged notes, both of their Army days as well as those of Goa days.

Painting competition: The Hyderabad-based Vijay Informations-Fine Arts Academy is all set to organise its seventh all-India painting competition for school children. Competitions will be held for all age groups - from class 1 to class 12. The last date for sending entries is December 31.

Competitions will be in three categories — Sub Juniors (Ist to V standard); Juniors (VI to VIII standard) and seniors (IX to XII standard). Participants can send up to five entries. The organisers plan to award 100 gold medals and each participant will get a certificate.

A suggestion: There are different responses to the ongoing drive launched by the UT Administration to remove hedges and other encroachments outside houses. While the administration claims this is being done to ensure proper laying of roads within the sectors and smooth flow of traffic, the residents feel this is a bit too much as they are only beautifying the vacant area by planting flowers and other ornamental plants. These vacant spaces, they allege, will otherwise become dumping sites for refuse and other waste material.

With the space shrinking in City Beautiful, the so called anti-encroachment drive should be modified so as to address the concerns of the public as well. While the Administration is right in not letting any permanent concrete structures come up on public land, it should allow the use of vacant space for raising a temporary shed for parking of vehicles, more so in marla houses where the construction of garages is not possible. With the satellite townships of Panchkula and Mohali already allowing 65 per cent coverage of the plot area for construction as compared to 60 per cent here, the Administration can consider granting this concession to the people. Even otherwise an exercise is on to amend building bylaws for which suggestions have been invited. Will the planners spare some thought?

Trials eyewash, selections biased
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Dec 5 — The procedure adopted by the UT Education Department to select teams for the National School Games has come in for sharp criticism. A senior Sport Department official said selections should be done at regular inter-school meets.

The UT Education Department had issued a letter in May for organising inter-school meets from August to December.

The School Games Federation of India had also provided them with a detailed calender where venues and dates had been marked in advance.

However, the department, in the first week of November, asked for trials to be conducted in various disciplines and the process to be completed in the third week of November.

Mr Brahmjit Kalia, District Education Officer, when asked about the holding of these trials, said in this way, even budding players could also participate in the trials.

However, in team games like cricket, hockey, football and volleyball, participants were judged in only two hours. Even if 60 participants appeared for the trials, it would mean hardly two minutes for each.

One of the parents whose son missed the trials this year but had taken part in the inter-school meet viewed this as a mere eyewash. He said coaches mostly selected wards of influential persons.

In Punjab and Haryana, players for State School Games are selected as probables prior to a final selection before the departure of team.

Chandigarh has been given direct entry into the National School Games. By only taking part in these games, a student is considered a good sportsperson. This improves his chances of getting admission in professional institutions.

In past, Chandigarh has fared badly in many sport disciplines. Though there are many reasons for it, the foremost has been a wrong selection policy and inclusion of overage players in the teams.

Recently, many cases of overage players were noticed by the Education Department in inter-school matches. The department had sent warning letters to various school heads. However, an accurate date of birth verification method has still not been devised. Medical examinations of suspected players could be a solution, another parent said.

Selection trials for the under-14 cricket team, were held on November 3 at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, where in just two hours, 25 probables were selected. Later, five players who had objected to this were also selected.

The UT Depratment had already announced that the UT Inter-School Under-14 Cricket Tournament would be held from November 9 to 19 at St John's High School, Sector 26. Still selection trials were held before this.

In the under-14 section of the tournament, St John's High School were the winners, where 18 school teams of the UT had taken part. Surprisingly, when the final selection was made after the tournament, not even a single member of the team was in the 16-member squad announced here.

In this tournament, Shivalik Public School were the runners-up, followed by St Stephen's School at the third place and Government Model High School, Sector 38, at the fourth.

In the final team list, most players are of those schools which could not even reach the quarterfinals.

Brother C D'Abreu, Principal of St John's School, had even sent a letter to the DPI (schools) of the UT, urging him to be fair in the selection of the teams. He had said as the his school's team had won the inter-school meet, its players could constitute a strong National School Games squad at Datia (Jhansi district in UP). The games are to be held from December 10.

It is high time that the UT Education Department improved itself and coordinated with the UT Sport Department and the Sports Authority of India, said one of the parents. Meanwhile, Mr Kalia said the UT Education Department had refused to organise the proposed National School Games in basketball, table tennis, fencing, hockey and lawn tennis from December 25 at Chandigarh due to a lack of funds. Past year, Chandigarh had hosted the National School Games in various disciplines.

Coaching centre lift crown
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Dec 5 — In the Chandigarh Amateur Weightlifting Association sponsored third Women's Weightlifting Championship at Panjab University Gymnasium Hall today, 45 weightlifters of local colleges took part.

Weightlifting Coaching Centre, Sector 30, won the tournament by obtaining 43 points, followed by Panjab University campus at the second spot after getting eight points. Government College for Women, Sector 42, finished third by securing six points.

Results: 48 kg — Reena 1, Rama Devi 2, Kanwal Sarna 3; 53 kg — Reenu Prabha 1, Anita 2, Poonam 3; 58 kg — Vidushi Tyagi 1, Rajni Rani 2, Surjit Kaur 3; 63 kg — Madhulika 1, Saroj Bala 2, Ekta Dhillon 3; 69 kg — Sarabjot Kaur 1, Gurminder Kaur 2, Gurpreet Kaur 3; Saravjeet Kaur 1, Rajiv Bhattal 2; above 75 kg — Harpreet Kaur 1, Harpreet 2, Parveen Kapoor 3.

Seniors' walk: Senior citizens of the Chandigarh, both men and women, took part in a walking meet organised by the Sport Department of the UT as part of the Chandigarh Carnival celebrations here at Leisure Valley in Sector 10 today. The walk began at 6 am and distances to be covered were 1 km, 2 km and 3 km in the above-75, 70 to 75 and 65 to 70 age groups, respectively. Mr D.R. Sethi, aged 82, was the oldest male participant in the above-75 age group.

Past year, Hari Singh died at the finish line after securing first position in the above-75 age group. This year, his family donated a trophy in his memory for the winner of the meet's above-75 age group. A two-minute silence was also observed to pay homage to Hari Singh.

Results: Men's (65 to 70 years) — G.S. Virdi 1, B.K. Saggar 2, J.K. Sama 3; 70 to 75 years — P.K. Vaidya 1, R.D. Soni 2, R.R. Batta 3; above 75 years — Major Gian Singh (retd) 1, Piara Singh 2, J.M. Thapar 3; women's (65 to 70 years) — Nirmal Mittal 1, Chanchal Saggar 2, Rajinder Malhi 3.

Basketball teams: Sarita of Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector 18, and Harminder Singh of DAV Model School, Sector 15, will lead Chandigarh girls' and boys' teams, respectively, in the 16th Youth National Basketball Championship to be held at Chittorgarh (Rajasthan) from December 8 to 10, according to Mr K.S. Bharti, Secretary of the Chandigarh Basketball Association.

Boys: Harminder Singh, Sangram Singh, Harmandeep Singh, Harveer Sidhu, Brinder Dhillon, Om Bahadur, Sundram Suri, Harsimran Singh, Bikramjeet Singh, Vishal Jamwal, Amandeep Singh and Rajdeep Singh.

Girls: Sarita, Shriya Singh, Deeepika Mohan, Neha Kohli, Amandeep Kaur, Navneet Kaur, Anchal, Harpreet Kaur, Gayatri, Babita, Deepika and Upjit Kaur.

Manjit and Baje Singh will be the coaches, while Gurcharan Kaur and Paramjit Kaur will be the managers.

Kho-kho tourney: The Chandigarh Kho-Kho Association will conduct the UT Sub-Junior and Senior Kho-Kho Championship on December 11 and 12 at Sector 42 Sports Complex, according to a press note of the association. The players selected in this championship will take part in the North Zone Kho-Kho Championship to be held at Barabanki (UP) from January 8 to 11, 2000, and the Mini National Kho-Kho Championship to be held at Calcutta in the first week of February next year.

Entries close with Mr D.S. Kohli, kho-kho coach at the venue.

Meet postponed: The Chandigarh State Volleyball Championship which was scheduled to held from December 10 to 17 has been postponed till December 19 and will now be a three-day event, according to a press note of the Chandigarh Volleyball Association.

AIDS-infected deserve human rights

IN India, when the number of HIV positive and full-blown AIDS cases are on the increase, the issue of rights of those living with the virus needs a thorough debate. UNAIDS has formulated guidelines to ensure that those infected are not deprived of their basic human rights.

In India, however, it is unfortunate that the National AIDS Control Organisation’s (NACO) directive prevents the infected person from knowing his/her HIV status. The Supreme Court ruled last year that a HIV positive person has not got the right to marry as this would mean further spreading the disease. And if the infected person goes ahead with marriage, he is liable to be punished under the law. Section 269 of the Indian Penal Code lays down that a negligent act likely to spread infection of a disease dangerous to life shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to six months or a fine or both. Section 270, IPC, says that any act likely to spread a disease which is dangerous to life shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend up to two years, or a fine, or both. In our country when a person donates blood in a blood bank, his blood is tested for AIDS and if it is found HIV positive, the blood is discarded. But the donor/or a patient whose blood is tested positive is not informed.

The irony of the situation is that when a person who is infected with the virus does not know the HIV status, how can we expect to contain the transmission of the disease? NACO’s directive needs to be reviewed and in my view the donor must be informed about the status of his blood and if found positive must be counselled to go for confirmatory tests. Moreover, now anti-HIV drug combinations are also available. Though these are very expensive, they do result in longer and healthier lives.

Sanjay Khurana
Chandigarh

Planning for city: Chandigarh Perspectives, a society constituted by the Chandigarh Administration, organised the first-ever public meeting and an open session at the Sector 23 Bal Bhavan on November 13. It is a welcome idea to know the views of general public on the future development policies and programmes for the City Beautiful.

Chandigarh Perspectives was constituted in connection with the holding of an international conference — Celebrating Chandigarh 50 years of the idea — in January this year.

Hundreds of citizens participated and contributed their views in this public meeting and in an open session. These views would be considered by the Administration while framing policies for its development in future.

No doubt Chandigarh is gradually losing its charm and glory. It is no more the same neat, clean, green and open city, as it used to be in early 70s. Chandigarh is a developing city. Its population is growing and is likely to affect the development work of the city. It is expected that the population of the city as per its present growth rate would cross 20 lakh mark by 2020.

Vehicles are growing day by day. There are nearly 5 lakh vehicles in the city. This number is really high in proportion to the city’s population. Heavy rush can be seen on most of the roads. Chandigarh has become a congested and a polluted city. Gardens, parking areas, greeneary and openness have been lost. Multi-storeyed buildings and factories are being constructed.

It is the need of the hour for people to save the City Beautiful. The Administration should organise such public meetings and open sessions from time to time in which problems concerning the city should be discussed. Such meetings would create a platform in which public and the Administration could work out detailed planning of the city for future.

Sunil Dogra
Chandigarh

Secretariat building: We are three architecture students from Australia and we decided to visit Chandigarh because of the amazing buildings designed by Le Carbusier.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to see the top of the Secretariat or the High Court building located in Sector 1.

We were allowed to go into the High Court building.

We believe that tourists and students should be allowed to see these parts of the building as these are very interesting.

Tom Mckenzie
Mahilda Blazey
Tessa Blazey

Melbourne, Australia

Slum problem: House owners in Sector 21 of Panchkula are troubled by slums and a hot mixing plant. They have been running from pillar to post and knocking at the doors of HUDA and the district administration to remove a labour colony and the hot mixing plant from the sector but in vain.

Jhuggis-dwellers defecate on vacant plots, berms of the roads and near houses.

The hot mixing plant, functioning in Sector 21 since September 1994, emits poisonous smoke and black dust. It is polluting the environment and causing unhygienic conditions. It can lead to problems of bronco allergy, bronchitis, rhinitis and tuberculosis. House owners’ welfare associations of Sectors 12 and 21 have met the HUDA authorities and the district administration several times in regard to removal of the plant.

T.D. Kumar
Panchkula