Government vineyard dries up
By Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 6 — One of the oldest vineyards maintained by the Punjab Horticulture Department in Sector 23 has perished in mysterious circumstances during the past few years.

The vineyard comprising about 150 grapevines is part of a plant nursery being run by the department and was set up in 1961 as the then Chief Minister of Punjab, Mr Partap Singh Kairon, had a keen interest in planting fruit-bearing plants and trees along with ornamental trees the city. The vineyard, had flourished into one of the best in the city and surrounding areas and was popular for its good quality fruit.

The process of degeneration of the plants set in during the past couple of years. They were repeatedly attacked by termite against which the authorities had been taking measures time and again. The maximum damage was witnessed during the current year as the plants are bereft of any fruit during the ongoing fruit bearing season. While a couple of vines can be seen with a little foliage, a majority has dried up completely.

According to the contractor of the orchard of the department, the vines were damaged due to spray of bordeaux mixture on vines in an excessive quantity. He said that the vines were laden with fruit the last season and it is for the first time that there was no fruit. Refuting his allegation, a gardener at the place said the damage to the plants occurred due to excessive frost during the winter season. "Not only has the frost damaged plants in the nursery, but it also resulted in an extensive damage to grapevines in the entire region." He, however, said the vines bore sufficient fruit during the last season. "Just a couple of years back, each vine used to give at least 50 kg fruit during the season," he said, citing termite attack as another reason of the damage to the vineyard.

According to horticulture experts, though frost was unlikely to cause such a widespread damage, it was possible that the bordeaux mixture might have a high copper content which could have resulted in an extensive damage to the vines. "You need to test the mixture before spraying it, but sometimes people just don't go through the testing procedure," said a horticulturist.

Mr Gurdip Singh, Horticulture Development Officer of the department, said the vines died as they had completed their age, which was around 30 years. He denied that the damage had occurred due to spray of some chemical in excess or due to its overuse. "The maximum damage to the vineyard was caused by lack of an irrigation facility for it. We don't have any tubewell for watering for the past about six to seven years and we are being forced to use sewage water for the purpose of irrigation of plants," he complained.

He said the department had taken up the case with the UT Administration a number of times, but nothing had been done so far. Mr Gurdip Singh said in place of damaged vines, new plants were being planted.

'Collaboration among schools needed'
By Poonam Batth
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 6 — "Collaboration in education shall be the key to development in the next millennium,'' says Mrs Sarita Manuja, Principal of DAV Public School, Sector 8 C, who believes in giving the existing system an international look in various qualitative aspects.

She is of the view that more emphasis should be laid on practical training (learning by doing) to make the child self-reliant. Efforts should also be made to encourage 'self-paced learning' in which the child develops the capability to extend the process of learning beyond the fixed curricula, class rooms and fixed school hours.

According to her, there should be collaboration among educational institutions in developing the latest infrastructure in education through computers to keep pace with the extensive use of computer technology and facilities like Internet.

A post-graduate in English from Panjab University, Mrs Manuja has studied all through in Chandigarh. She started her teaching career as a lecturer in one of the colleges, taught in a few Himachal schools before she took over as Principal of a DAV school there. She joined her present assignment in 1996.

Talking about the changes in methodology to meet the needs of the modern day educational scenario, Mrs Manuja reveals that not only have the facilities been upgraded in the computer laboratory but students have also been provided access to the Internet.

To encourage the concept of self-paced learning, the school has provided learning stations which give students freedom to learn at their own pace, she adds. Emphasis is also laid on improving reading habits by helping them make extensive use of library.

She asserts that a parent is the third but the most important angle in a child's lear learning. "It is essential to involve them in the learning process. Make them aware of the philosophy and methodology and then seek their feedback for effecting the necessary changes,'' she maintains. The school has been organising various workshops for parents and question-answer sessions to clarify their doubts on the system of education as well as to elicit their requirement so as to draw out the best in a child.

A teacher has to be innovative, constantly creative to the needs of a child; understanding and conscious of his evaluation. In a classroom, "a teacher is one who assumes the role of a facilitator, manager, informer, co-participator, consultant, adviser and general overseer .''

Teachers, whom she considers an equal partner in deliverance of education to the students, enjoy considerable freedom besides the stipulated latest pay and perks. They enjoy freedom of action, delegation of authority, scope for expression of innovations in teaching. However, the watchword is restraint and responsibility, she says.

The pension scheme for DAV teachers is in the pipeline and is almost at the final stages of execution.

Answering a question on corporal punishment, Mrs Manuja feels that today's child is very sensitive, who can quickly sense the teacher's displeasure and just cannot afford to lose his teacher's sympathy. In fact blaming the adults, she opines that at first we keep sending wrong signals to the child, unconsciously leading to his indiscipline and then the next blunder is to try and rectify them through violent means.

"Tuitions are a necessary evil. They are more a fashion than a requirement at least up to Class X'' she laments. However, in classes XI and XII, tuitions become a must from the point of view of competition examinations for professional courses. She suggests that if the disparity between the question papers of the board examinations and competition examinations is removed and they work out a similar pattern, the schools will be able to check the growing menace.

Her advice to the students of today — be observant, alert, competitive, self-reliant and aware. The high percentage has become a necessity for a modern day child because today's education system does not leave him with too many choices.

Revealing her future plans, Mrs Manuja says that the focus in future will be on developing more and more quality teaching and learning programmes. Personality development courses are also on the cards for children in the age group 11-13 years.The school will also have a multi-media room by the year-end to meet the requirements of the knowledge explosion. The target is to constantly strive to help students not only with placements at the national level but also at the international level.

Illegal constructions continue
From Our Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, June 6 — The slum-dwellers of Nizampur Kumbra, popularly known as Shaheed Bhagat Singh colony, in Sector 49 are a harassed lot. besides charging a lump sum for every piece of land sold here, some land owners, in connivance with middlemen, charge monthly rent from the slum-dwellers.

The pucca one-room structures were constructed on the recently-acquired land in Nizampur Kumbra by some migrants after purchasing the land. A colony resident alleges, "middlemen charge between Rs 2,500 and Rs 5,000 on the purchase of land measuring 14 feet by 11 feet. After raising the structure, we are asked to pay a monthly rent of Rs 30 per house. On the purchase of land, no sale letter is given."

The colony residents are living under unhygienic conditions. Due to absence of sewerage, water logging is common. The residents have to cover long distances to fetch water as hand pumps are few. Mr Bal Kunwar alleges that those having hand pumps are making quick bucks by selling water on a monthly fee of Rs 40 per family.

No electricity connection has been provided by the UT administration. kundi connections have been seen in some of the structures.

The colony of about 10,000 residents, inhabiting about 2,600 houses, lacks proper toilets. Mr Naresh Kumar, a karyana-shop owner, says, "Because of absence of lavatories, females suffer a lot as they have to cover long distances to defacate." He adds that water-logging has become a problem as it spreads bad odour, mosquitoes and diseases.

A quack alleges that some unauthorised land owners, in connivance with middlemen, are developing land by raising illegal structures for renting them to unsuspecting persons, especially those from the poor sections of society . He further alleges that on the collection of Rs 30 as monthly rent from each dweller, the land owner gives Rs 2 per dweller as commission to the middleman.

The UT administration had demolished about 450 unauthorised and uninhabited structures here in May. But the construction of the razed structures is still on in violation of the Periphery Control Act.

Some residents of this colony have a different tale to tell. They say their houses had been constructed almost five years ago and are included in the survey list prepared by the administration last year. Some own ration cards and voters' identity cards.

School in state of neglect
From Our correspondent

MANAULI (SAS Nagar), June 6 — Roofless classrooms and broken windows of the Senior Secondary School at Manauli, about five km from Phase XI, SAS Nagar, speak volumes of the neglect of the education system in rural areas. The school lacks basic facilities, with classes being held without paying attention towards the maintenance of the building.

There are more than five rooms and most of them are in a dilapidated condition. One room is without a proper roof. Its asbestos sheets have been damaged with time. Students attend classes in such conditions, says Mr Dalbir Singh, a local resident.

Two more rooms of the school building are also in a very poor condition. Roofs and walls of these rooms have developed cracks. A student of the school says that rain water leaks from the roof.

Students say during rains, several classes are combined in the absence of sufficient space. Such an arrangement further affects studies. Two teachers giving separate lectures to different classes in the same room makes mockery of teaching, a student adds.

A teacher of the school agrees that the poor condition of the school building is a major risk to the lives of both students and teachers. Higher authorities seem to be totally ignorant of the ground realities and the problems being faced by the teaching staff and students, she adds.

She says despite several complaints and reminders to the authorities concerned, nothing had been done in this direction so far. She further adds that in the absence of sufficient accommodation, the classes are held in the open.

'TV has no time for classical music'
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 6 — "The electronic media has taken to projecting the western culture in a big way and the youth are falling prey to it while becoming increasingly alienated from their own culture and heritage,'' Satish Vyas, santoor maestro and the son of the renowned vocalist Pandit C.R. Vyas, said here today.

The electronic media has no time to devote to classical music. Even if a slot is allocated, it is usually at some unearthly hour when the whole world is sleeping and performers are deprived of an audience. Further, programmes of classical music are last on the list of various channels, which leaves classical music groping in the dark while performers are left out in the cold, an agitated Satish Vyas opines.

"Money is the name of the game," is the reply Satish Vyas gives to the general lack of interest in promoting this form of music. He explains that sponsors are indifferent to the existence of artists in most performing arts because returns are not large in this case and such performances cater to a select audience, making them less lucrative for investment.

He rues that most of the television footage in concentrated on propagating the western culture while Indian culture has taken a backseat. Speaking on how an interest in classical music can be generated among the youth, Vyas said that a Shubha Mudgal-strategy of coming out with fusion music without compromising on quality will have to be worked out to ensure that the youth take notice of a culture that is slowly vanishing.

"The youth of today will make tomorrow's India and that is why it is important to bridge this gap between them and their culture. It is bound to fade into oblivion if things continue the way they are,'' comments the maestro.

The magic of the 100 strings, the Shatatantri Veena, popularly called the santoor, struck a chord within Satish Vyas when he was 12 years of age and thus began his affair with classical music. "After attending a performance of Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma, I was transfixed by the sound of the santoor and made up my mind to become a santoor player,'' he says.

From his own example, Vyas has concluded that if somehow, the youth can be brought to a couple of concerts of classical music, they are bound to fall for its melody and rhythm.

Appreciating the role being played by SPIC MACAY in promoting classical music and bringing it to the youth, he says that this organisation alone, cannot carry the burden for long. "The solution lies in most of the performers in this genre of music, coming together, organising some big concerts, giving soulful renditions and stirring the hearts of audiences, since sponsors are elusive. Though the thought of having mass adulation is a preposterous idea, we will be satisfied and there will be incentive to perform if we get inputs from a handful of connoisseurs of music,'' he says.

‘Three career options wise’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 6 — Students thronged the various stalls giving information on educational oppourtunities abroad, information technology and other courses and careers at the career exhibition 'Alternatives', being held at the CII, Sector 31 here. Today was the third and final day of the exhibition.

These students, from different educational backgrounds, also attended an interactive seminar on career planning. The morning session on career planning was addressed by well-known career consultant, Pervin Malhotra. She has to her credit a host of columns for newspapers and books on careers and career guidance.

In her introductory lecture, Ms Malhotra said most of the students and parents unfortunately did not look into the individual's interest but laid emphasis on what course would prove to be more lucrative. The highly-interactive session with a motley of participants, ranging from class X students to professionals, with Pervin Malhotra, was not only about the necessary qualifications and prospects of future growth but also about identification of suitable options and clearing confusion surrounding most careers and some courses.

Recounting many success stories of students who got into a career of their choice after experimenting with certain different courses, Ms Malhotra reiterated that in India it was very important to have at least three choices in order to have a safety net for oneself. She had been in advertising for 12 years before she joined publishing and then shifted to career guidance.

Most of the questions put up by students centered around computers and MBA courses. On the question of how to prepare for the entrance tests, she said, "Typically, all entrance tests are similar. And the best combination for the industry these days is an MBA plus IT."

While agreeing that the present situation was not boom time for the private sector, she insisted, "If you want to pin your hopes, it has to be on the private sector because that is where the future is, not the public sector." On the issue of preparing for the IAS, she said these examinations should be treated as the second or third option.

The stalls at the exhibition, almost 20 in number, saw hordes of students wanting to know about different courses available. The biggest rush was at the counters offering information on courses abroad.

"Some students are not interested in any course. all they are interested in is to find whether they could go abroad through these institutes," said Major Guneet Chaudhary, Resident Representative of Holborn College, London. This counter was receiving queries mainly about the law and management courses being offered.

"Earlier, most of the Indians went abroad for post-graduate studies in business, engineering or computers. But today a lot of Indian students are also interested in undergraduate studies, not only in the sciences but also in social sciences. Most of these students come back to India after completing their course," said Dr Raj Gill, Director of Strategy South Asia, Middlesex Education, London.

A lot of students could also be seen around stalls that dealt with information technology. At one such stall, Mr Manik Ahuja said, "A lot of people who come to us are curious to find out whether they could get into computers without being into the sciences and having an arts or a commerce background."

The stalls on hotel industry did not seem to have many takers. Most of the students could be seen tagging along with their parents, who showed keen interest in the kind of placements available after completion of the courses, rather than the campus facilities.

'Check influx of migrants'
By Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 6 — "Strict enforcement, proper control on further development and scientific management of water to minimise wastage are the minimum steps required to maintain the unique and special character of Chandigarh," says Mr R.K. Aggarwal, retired Engineer-in-Chief and Councillor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

Mr Aggarwal, who joined the Capital Project in 1960 as an Assistant Engineer, retired from the same building in Sector 19 as Engineer-in-Chief, Haryana PWD (B&R), 35 years later. Most of his service years were spent in the Engineering Department of the Chandigarh Administration.

Except for nine months when he went to the USA on a UNDP fellowship on highways, his entire service was in Chandigarh. After his retirement, he was nominated Councillor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

Mr Aggarwal says that when he came to Chandigarh, it was a neat, clean and open city. "When I came here, it used to be a city of officials and officers. There were very few businessmen and traders. Initially, only those engaged in building material, cement and steel, were in the trade here. At that time, there used to be only one cinema hall - Kiran in Sector 22. The city also had only one hotel , Aroma, again in Sector 22.

"What I remember of those days is that Sector 22 used to be the nerve centre. Almost everyone in the city would frequent this sector in the evening. It was easy to find out about the movement of the officers or officials after the evening walk to this sector. The other developed sectors were 18 and 19. At that time, the migratory labour engaged in construction work, was also small. We had one colony in Sector 26.

"Subsequently, the second colony of migratory labour came up near the university. Unlike now, the initial influx of migratory labour was engaged in construction work," recalls Mr Aggarwal.

"I still remember that there used to be no rail overbridge between Chandigarh and Panchkula. I had gone to receive someone from the railway station. The Sukhna choe got flooded and we had to take a longer detour via the airport to reach back home. The roads used to be wide and open and there was hardly any traffic. Even Madhya Marg was a single carriageway until the late 70s. My Chief Engineer, Mr G.R. Nangia, used to have a Station Wagon while superintending engineers used to come to office in their own cars. The local telephone exchange was manual. There used to be no telephones at residences. Most of the SDOs and executive engineers used to come to office on bicycles," says Mr Aggarwal, maintaining that there used to be team work and team spirit as "everyone knew everyone".

"The rents used to be very low. One of our SEs had a one-kanal kothi on rent for Rs 100 a month. I had taken a portion of a one-kanal house on rent in Sector 18 for Rs 60 a month. As such, there was no craze for government accommodation. But then those times were different. People used to feel satisfied with whatever was given to them in government houses. Unlike now, hardly any occupant of a government house made any changes in the building or got anything additional. Complaints at the maintenance offices were promptly attended to. If anyone ever sent a complaint through official channels, it used to take longer than the routine registration of a complaint," adds Mr Aggarwal.

"Until the early 80s, the executive engineer of a Capital Project Division, used to be ex-officio Secretary, House Allotment Committee. I held this charge for three years. But ever since I constructed my own house in Sector 11, where I live now, I never tried to get government accommodation though as Secretary, House Allotment Committee, I was entitled to a government house," adds Mr Aggarwal.

Chandigarh, he says, is much more crowded now. It is no more as clean as it used to be. Initially, the city was free from mosquitoes and flies. But things are no more the same. Even the garbage disposal now is far from satisfactory.

"As far as roads are concerned, though some work has been undertaken to provide new black tops to the roads, but the road markings and pavement maintenance is still not up to the mark.

"But I strongly feel that unchecked influx of migrants may pose a serious threat to the future of the city. We are now running short of water. The pace at which the population is growing, water scarcity will become more acute. Though I am not an expert on water management, I feel that there is an urgent need to cut down distribution losses and make the supply system more effective. Further, development of the city has to be controlled by strict enforcement of bylaws.

"See what has happened to Bhubaneshwar and Bhopal. We should not allow Chandigarh to follow these examples. Encroachments and unauthorised slums must be checked and the future growth of the city must be closely monitored and strictly regulated.

"It is still one of the best cities to live in. We all have to contribute to maintain the unique character of this town. When we came here, the PGI had just come up. But now we have the Sector 32 GMCH, Sector 16 General Hospital and a much bigger PGI. But see the rush. Something must be done to check the population as facilities cannot match the growth in numbers of people needing those facilities," concludes Mr Aggarwal.