& V I C I N I T Y
Sunday, January 3, 1999
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C H A N D I G A R H & V I C I N I T Y |
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Sunday, January 3, 1999 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Token
strike by LPG dealers on Jan 5, 6 4
French architects to attend conference on Chandigarh |
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National
integration camp concludes |
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New Year
cards slow down mail delivery CHANDIGARH, Jan 2 — Even as the New Year has begun, the systems added by the Department of Posts to deal with huge amounts of mail will continue for five more days. To clear the bulk mail of greeting cards in addition to routine mail, the department has set up a huge wooden cabinet outside the GPO in Sector 17. This cabinet has shelves with spaces divided and earmarked for various cities and states. People could post their mail in the marked shelf. The postal authorities then pack the mail into bundles and it is sent to the destinations. This reduces the burden of sorting and enables quicker delivery, says the Chief Post Master General (CPMG), Col Tilak Raj (retd). Besides the wooden
cabinet, a separate box has been maintained for letters
destined for Chandigarh and SAS Nagar. The experiment was
tried last year too and it has proved to be successful,
as people prefer to drop their mail in designated
shelves, the CPMG claimed. A similar experiment was first
carried out in metro-politian cities, he explained. |
Token strike
by LPG dealers on Jan 5, 6 CHANDIGARH, Jan 2 — The LPG distributors of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Haryana will go on a two-day token strike from January 5 in protest against the decision of the Chandigarh Administration to shift their godowns without offering them any alternative sites and for demolishing the boundary walls of three godowns by HUDA in Panchkula. Capt KJS Buttar and Capt Reet MP Singh, president and general secretary of the All-India LPG Distributors' Federation (north-western region), told The Tribune this afternoon that all the three oil companies had failed to show any interest in the problems of the distributors whom they liked to address as 'family members' in view of the coming competition from the private sector. Captain Reet MP Singh said the Administration wanted to acquire land which the distributors had purchased on their own and constructed godowns to store LPG cylinders. After acquiring their existing godowns, the Administration proposed to allot a piece of land on exorbitant rent on a 15-year lease to oil companies and not to them. This, they said, was against natural justice as "wherever land is acquired, the owner is offered an alternative site." This was not being done here. Further, the Administration was supplying a new design for the construction of LPG godowns which would cost a minimum of Rs 10 lakh. It was impossible for a distributor to raise and spend this much amount on a piece of land to which he was not even a lessee but a sub-lessee and after 15 years might be asked to clear all structures within seven days as per the terms of allotment of land. "No distributor could afford it," he said. He maintained that even banks and other financial institutions were not ready to finance construction of such godowns. As against Rs 8,000 charged annually by the Delhi Administration for similar godowns within the city limits, the Chandigarh Administration was asking Rs 15,000 a month with a 25 per cent increase after every five years, meaning thereby that after 15 years, the rent would be nearly Rs 25,000 a month. This was being charged just for providing the land. The federation has demanded that the distributors should be given ownership rights or allotted land on a 99-year lease for their LPG storage sites and the rent charged for the sites should be allotted to be rationalised and should be on the lines of the DDA. He averred that all LPG
distributor outlets would remain closed on January 5 and
6. |
4 French architects to attend
conference on Chandigarh CHANDIGARH, Jan 2 — Four leading French architects — Jean-Louis Veret, Bernard Huet, George Maurios and Remi Papillaut — will participate in an international conference on Chandigarh to be held from January 9 to 11. Two of these architects — Jean-Louis Veret and Bernard Huet — are being sponsored by the French embassy in New Delhi and the Alliance Francaise. Both architects will give lectures at the local office of the Alliance Francaise in Sector 36. The lecture by Jean-Louis Veret will be on January 5 at 6 p.m. Bernard Huet will deliver his lecture on January 7. The lectures are open to
the public. |
Fog engulfs
Chandigarh CHANDIGARH, Jan 2 — After a brief spell of sunshine, fog enveloped the city and its surrounding areas today, thus forcing people indoors, slowing down vehicular traffic besides hampering running of trains leading to late arrivals. Cold winds swept the city throughout the day, as Chandigarh was the coldest place in the region with a minimum temperature of 4.4°C. Residents of the Union Territory woke up in the morning to find the city enveloped with fog. In the early hours driving of vehicles was risky as well as difficult. The maximum day temperatures recorded in the city fell from 20°C yesterday to 14.4°C today. Daytime temperatures in the past five days had crossed 20°C on all days and even reached 22°C on December 29 and 30. The minimum temperature this morning stood at 4.4°C. Meanwhile several minor
accidents have been reported due to fog. Vehicle drivers
have banged into pavements or even driven into concrete
roundabouts. Surprisingly without any plausible reason,
autorickshaw drivers started charging more from early
morning commuters who have to catch trains or reach the
bus terminus. Elsewhere in Punjab, night temperatures
rose markedly, and changed little in the rest of the
region. |
National
integration camp concludes CHANDIGARH, Jan 2 — The 10-day national integration camp at Government College for Girls, Sector 11, concluded amid dance, song and skit presentation by the NCC cadets of various states, here today. As many as 15 items were staged and a few elicited tremendous response from the audience. A kuchipudi dance by Ms Madhvi from Andhra Pradesh, ‘Kajri sawan aaya’ by a Bihar cadet and the parody on NCC by cadets of the host college deserve special mention. The other states presented folk dances of their regions. The principal of the college, Mrs Vijay Lakshmi, was the chief guest. She, later gave away prizes to the winners of the various activities held during the camp. A 10-day camp organised by the NSS unit of SGGS College, Sector 26, concluded here today. Various social awareness programmes were carried out at Kishangarh village by volunteers. A camp on oral hygiene and dental check-up, a talk on drug abuse and addiction and a lecture on blood donation and on AIDS awareness was also organised. The principal of the
college, Mr P.S. Sangha, exhorted the volunteers to make
social service a habit. |
CHANDIGARH, Jan 2 — The prices of electric gadgets used in winter have witnessed a considerable hike in the past one year. According to trade sources, the hike ranged between 10 per cent and 25 per cent, depending on the product and its quality. A local-made geyser with a 25- litre capacity priced around Rs 2200 last year is available now for Rs 2600. Similarly, the price of geysers of popular brands which were available for an estimated price of Rs 4700 last year are being sold between Rs 5200 and Rs 5300 . The price of a heat convector of a popular brand which was available for Rs 1200 last year, is sold at Rs 1360 now. The price of another popular brand of the gadget has risen from Rs 900 to Rs 1100, The difference, however, is more in the case of a local-made product, which has gone up from Rs 450 to Rs 600. Likewise, the prices of room heaters too have gone up from Rs 125 to Rs 150 (local made) in this period. Other utility gadgets like electric ovens and irons have also become costlier. If a locally assembled oven was available for Rs 2000 last year, it is now priced at Rs 2500. The price, in case of ovens of popular brands has jumped from Rs 5000 to Rs 5500 during this period. The price of ordinary automatic iron has gone up from Rs 400 to Rs 500. There was, however, no increase in the prices of car heaters. If a local-made car heater was available in the market for Rs 500, the commodity of a popular brand is priced at Rs 2300. According to dealers, the
hike was mainly due to a rise in the prices of critical
components and due to a sharp increase in the power
tariff in the past one year. |
CHANDIGARH, Jan 2 — The keenly awaited conference of the principals of 104 colleges affiliated to Panjab University is most likely to be held tomorrow. The meet was earlier scheduled for October, 1998, later postponed to November 9 of the same year and then cancelled the day it was to be held. The initial postponement of the meet was on account of a workshop to be held on the various issues like environmental education, examination reforms, faculty improvement programmes, the 37 vocational courses and an improvement in the quality of education. This workshop could not be held due to a controversy arising over the participation of teachers in the principal’s conference. Later on the proposed meeting on November 9 had to be cancelled because the principals’ federation conveyed the decision to boycott the meeting if teachers were made a party to the discussions. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof M.M. Puri, had five special invitees from the teachers side. They were Mr Charanjit Chawla, Mr Jarnail Singh, Mr Ravinder Nath Sharma, Mr Satish Sharma and Mr S.S. Hundal, all Fellows and teacher representatives. Says Mrs Sneh Mahajan of DAV MCM College,"It was a principals’ meet and the teachers should realise that they were intruding in what was outside their preview". Mr P.S. Sangha of SGGS, Sector 26, opines: "The teachers' participation in the meet is something unprecedented. If teachers were allowed once, students would be invited next. It would be more appropriate to call it an educational meet in that case rather than a principals conference". Prior to this, a meeting under the chairmanship of Prof I.B.S. Passi, Dean, University Instructions, comprising six other members, held on September 29 last year, decided the agenda for the principals’ conference. During the meeting an issue was raised to invite teacher representatives in the Senate to the meet which was resented by the college principals. A resolution to have a lecturers’ meet, moved by Mr Charanjit Chawla, was unanimously agreed upon by the committee comprising teachers and principals. The idea was to involve teachers who were equally responsible for the college development programmes. It was finally resolved that the principals and teachers would be required to pay Rs 200 and Rs 100, respectively, for participation in the respective meetings. This amount was to be borne by the college management. It was decided that there would be two elected teachers from each college, representatives of PUTA and the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union. The lecturers conference will be held at a later date this year. The agenda for tomorrow's meeting of the college principals includes a provision of college development fund of Rs 20 per student, a hike in the building fund from Rs 20 to Rs 120 per annum and an increase in the amalgamated fund from Rs 200 to Rs 480 per year, all of which have been opposed by teacher representatives in the steering committee of the College Development Council held on September 20. The other items are the
payment of endowment funds for the BBA and BCA courses in
three instalments of Rs 2 lakh for the two sessions of
1998-99 and 1999-2000 and Rs 1 lakh in the session
2000-2001. An increase in the rates of honorarium and TA
DA from Rs 200 to Rs 500 and from Rs 100 to Rs 300 to the
Vice-Chancellor's nominee for the selection of principals
and to the subject experts for the selection of
lecturers. |
CHANDIGARH, Jan 2 — In a early morning swoop on Bapu Dham labour colony here the police rounded up more than 20 persons, 10 of whom were from Jammu and Kashmir. They had arrived in the city recently and had not given their particulars to the police station concerned. The police has taken their photographs and sent their particulars for verification to their respective native places. Some of them were migrant labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The search that lasted around two hours had commenced around 5 am. Fatal mishap: An unidentified man has died while another person has been injured in separate road accidents. A person died when he was knocked down by speeding car on New Year's eve. The identity of the deceased and of vehicle could not be ascertained, according to the police. A resident of Panchkula, Jatinder Kumar, was injured when his scooter skidded on the Madhya Marg separating Sector 7 and 19. Woman duped: A woman was robbed of her gold jewellery by another woman in Sector 46 yesterday evening. Rajni, of Sector 43 had gone to Sector 46 with her friend. They were approached by woman who pleaded that she was very poor and did not have anything to eat. She was carrying a child. Rajni asked her to accompany them to her house. The woman expressed her unwillingness and instead showed her bag containing gold beeds saying that she would give the bag to Rajni in exchange for her jewellery. Rajni trusted her and handed over her jewellery. Upon reaching her home she found that the beeds were fake. The police has registered a case under Section 420 of the IPC. Arrested: A resident of Sector 52, Hem Raj, was arrested while carrying seven bottles of whisky. PANCHKULA Clueless: The police is still clueless about the incident of burglary which took place at a house in Sector 12 here on December 13 last. Though the police in an FIR registered on December 14 had initially shown the loss at around Rs 30,000, the owner of the house, Mr M.L. Garg, later gave a list of missing items, including 44 tolas of gold. Mr Garg alleged that though he had given the name of two persons whom he suspected had committed the burglary, no action had been taken by the police. Case registered: In connection with the death of a cyclist, Manoj Kumar, who was hit by a Haryana Roadways bus near the local bus stand yesterday, the police has booked the driver of bus, Prithi Singh. The autopsy of the deceased was conducted at General Hospital. Accident:
A pedestrian, Mr J.L. Sharma, was seriously injured after
he was hit by a car here on Saturday. He was admitted to
the PGI at Chandigarh. |
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