Rain breaks dry spell of 5 months
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 23 — The city and its surrounding areas had the first major rain of the season today, bringing to an end the dry spell of weather since the beginning of this year.

Until this morning, the local meteorological office had recorded only 13.8 mm of rainfall. Today between 8 a.m. and 5.30 p.m., 14 mm of rain was recorded. Meteorology experts say that rain occurred because of the low pressure zone which has developed over north-west Rajasthan and its neighbourhood.

The day temperature was 35.2° Celsius which is the normal temperature. The experts maintain that more rain is expected during the next 24 hours as there were no signs of the low pressure subsiding immediately.

Though for the past three days, the day temperature had come down considerably with the sky mostly remaining overcast, but there had been no rain. Only some pockets had traces of rain or some drizzle.

The experts point out after a virtual dry winter, there has been literally no rain in this part of the country for the past more than five months.

The rain caught the Public Health Circle of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation unawares as only yesterday work on cleaning of storm water gulleys and chambers was started in some parts of the city. In fact, in some areas and some important roads, work on providing of new storm water gulleys has been in progress.

The Municipal Corporation has also taken in hand a major project in disposal of rain water in some of the heavily populated sectors, besides some commercial sectors, including sectors 17,22, 35 and 43 where drain pipes of bigger diameter are being laid.

While the rain mostly brought cheer to the residents, it brought misery to people living in slums, unauthorised colonies and even in some new Sectors, including 52 and 61, where, in the absence of any proper drainage, the rain water collected in pools, leading to slush in certain pockets.

Farm experts say that rain is useful for paddy transplantation. It will also ease pressure on both water and power supply which because of prolonged dry and hot spell were crippling normal life, both in urban and rural areas.

New IGP to join on June 1
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 23 — Mr S.K. Singh, an IPS officer of the 1970 batch and belonging to the Union Territory cadre, will take up his new assignment as Inspector-General of Police, Chandigarh, on June 1.

Mr Singh told Tribune News Service over the telephone that he had already conveyed his consent to the posting in Chandigarh to the Union Home Ministry setting at rest speculations that he was not interested in coming to the city as he would retire next year.

"I shall be there on June 1 at 9.30 a.m. in uniform to serve the people of Chandigarh," said Mr Singh. "The only delay has been because of the house. I am occupying a house from the President's quota . I have to vacate this house and put up my family elsewhere before I come to Chandigarh. I am busy in arranging that," he said.

Smack worth 1.5 crore seized
From Our Correspondent

SAS NAGAR, May 23 — In the biggest seizure of smack in recent years in the town, the police arrested a man and seized from his possession 1.460 kg of the narcotic, valued at about Rs 1.50 crore in international market, here last everning.

The suspect, Tejpal Singh (50), was arrested from near the Phase IX petrol station where he was waiting to deliver the narcotic.

Addresing a press conference today on behalf of the Ropar SSP, Mr Jaskaran Singh, the local SP, Mr B.S. Randhawa, said the man was arrested during a routine check on drug dealers carried out every 10 to 12 days.

The arrested man was produced at the Press conference by the police and was asked to give details of how he got involved in the drug ring.

The man, Tejpal Singh, said he had been working as a private typist at the SDM’s office here for the past two years. Around six months ago, a man who said his name was Swami Patandar Dev, approached him to get some documents typed in connection with the latter’s HIG flat (1521, Sector 70). The “Baba” claimed he was from Shastri Nagar in Kullu and said he was also the Mahant of a dera near Beas.

Tehpal Singh, who said he had a diploma in electrical engineering from an Ambala polytechnic, met the “Baba” several times later and on one occasion, the latter proposed that they set up a charitable blood bank society. This body was then set up by five or six persons.

Later, the “Baba” proposed the formation of a trust named “Shakti Nam Rog Nidhan.” He said funds were needed for such societies and that he had contacts in Madhya Pradesh from whom brown sugar could be obtained and sold here.

Initially, Tejpal Singh, who has four unmarried children, including three daughters, said he refused to be part of the plan, but ultimately, succumbed to temptation.

The man said the “Baba” obtained a bank draft for Rs 1.20 lakh from Jammu for buying smack. The two then went to Shamgarh in MP and bought 1.5 kg of the drug from a “follower” of this “Baba”

Tejpal Singh said he and the “Baba” reached Ludhiana on May 18. The “Baba” then said he was going to Kullu and Tejpal Singh reached SAS Nagar with the smack. He said the “Baba” brought the smack from MP.

Tejpal Singh, who is a resident of Mohali village, said he managed to sell 40 gm of smack for Rs 8,000 here before he was caught. He was waiting near the petrol station to deliver the smack to a buyer.

The SP said a case under Section 21, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act had been registered. Efforts would be made to arrest the “Baba” also.

‘Equality for women still in letter’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 23 — "Even after 50 years of Independence, equality for women in our country remains in text books and in the constitution.'' This was stated by Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers and Food and Consumer Affairs, in his convocation address at Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector 36, here today.

Mr Barnala stressed that men who claimed that women were at a par with men and were recognised as equals were deceiving themselves and the women of the country. The travails of the female child began ever since her birth. Studies on children and women reflected a negative female to male ratio, high mortality and morbidity rates of the female child, less access to food, health and education and early induction into domestic work, marriage and motherhood.

Mr Barnala said social prejudices were on the rise and mortality among female children was high in the country, which was in sharp contrast to the statistics of developed countries. "A random estimate predicts that there will be 480 million females in our country as compared to 500 million males in 2000 AD. This means that disparities will continue into the 21st century. This is against the worldwide trend and needs correction,'' he said.

Stating that the role of women centered around marriage and motherhood, Mr Barnala said efforts were needed to promote better economic conditions and bringing about a change in social attitude. He added that status of women in society could improve only if there was change in attitude.

Coming out sharply against conservative women, he said it was not just men who practised cruelty against women but older women were guilty of the same. He stressed the need to educate these women, who were perpetrators of crime against young women.

Mr Gobind Singh Kanjla, Minister of State for Youth Services, Removal of Grievances and Welfare of SC\BC, Punjab, announced a grant of Rs 50,000 for the college. He praised the college for turning out students who could make a difference to society.

Earlier, degrees were conferred on 234 students, while 10 students were honoured for excellence in academics at the convocation and prize distribution function. Students who had secured over 70 per cent in the final examination and had secured merit positions in the college were given prizes.

The prize winners were Ripple Sood for standing first in the college, followed by Nivedita Garg, who was second, in the 1996-97 session. The third position was bagged by Amrinder Kaur, while Sutapa Roy and Ginni Duggal shared the fourth position.

The students who were honoured for the 1997-98 session were Mandeep Bhatia, who stood first in the union territory and second in Panjab University, Supriya Kharbanda, who was second in the UT and third in PU, and Alka Anand, who came third in the UT and fourth in PU. Two other students, Ritu Vohra and Harmeet Kaur, were given prizes for standing fourth and fifth, respectively, in the union territory.

The programme began with a prayer by the students, followed by the annual report of the college read out by the Principal, Dr Satinder Dhillon. She highlighted the academic achievements, the camps organised for the growth of students and teachers, the various activities undertaken during the session, the sports achievements and the various student clubs of the college.

19 nodal centres for CBSE results
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 23—The regional office of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) here has set up 19 nodal centres in the region for the distribution of results of Class X and XII examinations.

According to a board press note, the principals of the schools, in which these centres have been set up, will have to depute an authorised person for the collection of the result from the local office of the board. Each centre will cater to about 10 schools of the area, the principals of which will further depute their representatives for the collection of the result of their schools. All local government schools will collect the results from the office of the DPI or DEO on the date, to be notified later through media, the press note said.

Similarly, all local independent schools will have to collect the results from the CBSE regional office through their authorised representatives. The detail of the nodal centres is as follows: DAV Public School Amritsar, MGN Public School Jalandhar, DAV Public School BRS Nagar Ludhiana, Ramjidas Bhagwan Das Public School Bathinda, Dashmesh Public School Faridkot, Buddha Dal Public School Patiala, MCM DAV School Pathankot, Maharaja Hari Singh Collegiate School Jammu, DAV Centenary School Rohtak, Navyug Public School Sonepat, MASD Public School Panipat, Guru Harkrishan Public School Karnal, Aggarsain Public School Kurukshetra, DAV Public School Gurgaon, DAV Public School Faridabad, PKR Jain School Ambala City, Satnamji Girls School Sirsa, New Yashoda Public School Hisar, and Dayanand Public School Shimla.

BSP willing to leave 7 seats for ally
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, May 23 — Mr Aman Kumar Nagra, the State President of the BSP and former Member of Parliament from the Ambala Lok Sabha constituency, has said in case of a pre-election alliance with another party for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the party will contest three seats and leave the remaining seven seats for its alliance partner.

Mr Nagra, who was talking to mediapersons before addressing a meeting of party workers at its office in Rally village here today, said he would fight the election from Ambala, while Mr Pardeep Chaudhary, a grandson of Mr Devi Lal, would contest from Bhiwani.

"The party will field candidates from all 10 parliamentary seats in case there was no truck with any other political party", he said. He added that discussions were being held with political parties except the BJP.

On the issue of the crisis in the Congress party, he said as the founder of the Congress was A.O.Hume, the question about the nationality of the Prime Ministerial candidate of the party, being raised by dissidents, was wrong. He said the BSP was against promoting members of a particular family. He added that the political uncertainty could be eradicated if there there were only two major national parties.

He said the projects funded by the MP development fund sanctioned during his tenure were in progress in the the Vidhan Sabha constituencies of the Ambala parliamentary constituency. Computer training centres were being set up at Barwala, Naraingarh, Chhachhrauli and Bilaspur at a cost of about Rs 10 lakh. He listed various development works undertaken under the MP development fund scheme.

INLD workers hold rally
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, May 23 — Workers of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) held a procession to protest against the failure of the Bansi Lal government in fulfilling its pre-election promises here today.

Addressing the workers before the rally, Mr Abhey Singh Chautala, a youth leader of the party, said the problems of water and electricity were the same as before. The law and order situation had deteriorated.

Claiming that the June 30 deadline given by the Chief Minister to supply round-the-clock electricity was to mislead the people, he said the dictatorial style of Mr Bansi Lal had created problems for himself as his own MLAs had rebelled against him.

A procession, which started from Sector 12-A and ended in Sector 7, was flagged off by Mr Abhey Singh Chautala. It was led by Mr Surinder Garg, President of the district (urban) unit of the party.

A memorandum of demands was submitted to the Deputy Commissioner.

Workshop on child care held
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 23 — The Environment Society of Haryana (ENSOH) conducted a workshop in Panchkula from May 21 to 23 under the 'Reproductive and Child Health care' (RCH) programme of the Ministry of Health, Government of India.

Mr R.K.Taneja, a retired IAS officer and Founder-Secretary of ENSOH, informed that in this workshop, training was given a to TBAs, anganwadi workers and health workers from Government Primary Health Centre (PHC)) of Ramgarh village and eight other surrounding villages, namely Kot, Billa, Moginand, Madanpura, Jaisinghpura, Shyamtu, Mattanwala and Makiyan. The programme is being implemented under the guidance of SWACH foundation, Panchkula.

Initially a baseline survey of the area to be covered was conducted with the help of qualified health staff of ENSOH trained by SWACH to identify the target group. The survey revealed the following statistics — Population of covered area - 10155; number of pregnant mothers - 150; number of lactating mothers - 510; children in the age group of 0-5 - 920; number of adolescents - 2088 and number of eligible couples - 1748.

The training was attended by around 50 participants consisting of traditional birth attendants (TBAs), anganwadi workers, health workers and health inspectors. The training was aimed at upgrading the knowledge and skills of the participants to properly look after pregnant women, manage deliveries without causing risk to the mother and the newborn, bring home advantages of immunisation to pregnant mothers and newborns. Information was also given on benefits of breast-feeding, early diagnosis and control of pneumonia and diarrhoea, prevention and control of AIDS/STD and family planning methods available. Health literature in vernacular language, disposable delivery kits and baby weight measuring devices were distributed free of cost.

The workshop was inaugurated by Dr Veena Saluja, DSHO, Panchkula, and presided over by Dr Varinderjeet Singh Virdi from 'Ranbaxy Community Health Care'. Also present were Dr Meenakshi Sharma from PHC, Kot, Dr Ramneek Sharma from the Surya Foundation and Dr Gupta, District Malaria Officer, Panchkula.

Judicial decisions 'must be transparent'
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 23 — Judicial administration must be accountable, the decisions must be transparent, behaviour must be morally sound and constituionaly valid in a democratice set-up.

These views were expressed by Mr Mool Chand,Vice-President of the All-India Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation, (BAMCEF), Delhi, while speaking at a symposium on ''Casteist administration of Indian judiciary''.

Various guest speakers, who spoke at the symposium, lamented the fact that there was no reservation or participation of the lower strata of society in the judicial system.

Mr Tajinder Singh Jhalli, national President of BAMCEF, pointed out that any institution which did not have the participation of the lower strata could not feel the pulse of society or relate to their problems. This was also responsible for tailor-made judgements of the judiciary, based on documentary evidence and witnesses. Often judgements were given not to satisfy the ends of justice but to permit the culprit to move out of the judicial dragnet throuh various loopholes, he said.

Dr Bhajan Kaur, a Reader in the Department of Law, Panjab University, traced the origin of common law. She said that the administration of justice had become so costly that it was out of the reach of the poor and backward sections of society. People were not delivered opportunities for securing justice because of their socio-economic conditions.

SNIPPETS

Sham-e-Ghazal postponed
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, May 23 — Hundreds of fans had to return disappointed as 'Sham-e-Ghazal' with Pankaj Udhas, scheduled to be organised in Phase VI Industrial Area here tonight by the Pinnacle Group, was postponed at the eleventh hour due to rain.

The programme, which was a part of a number of events to be organised by the group, proved to be a dud as the fans were told at the entrance of the venue that the show had been postponed and would be held at 7 p.m. tomorrow.

According to Mr Rajiv Bajaj, an official of the company, the show was postponed as the open space, where the show was to be held, was flooded with rain water.

Plea to donate eyes
From Our Correspondent

KHARAR, May 23 — Dr Ashok Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, PGI Chandigarh, has appealed to people to voluntarily donate their eyes so that blind persons could see this world.

Dr Sharma, who is Honorary, Secretary of the Eye Bank Society, PGI, was addressing a seminar here last night, which was organised by the Rotary Club, Kharar. The seminar “Eye donation camp-cum-seminar” was the first of its kind ever organised here. Dr Sharma said, at present, there were lakhs of people in India who could see this world if people came forward to donate eyes for them.

He said irrespective of age, any person could donate his/her eyes. He said cornea could be taken out of eyes within six to eight hours after death. He said cornea transplant was the most sucessful method. He praised the efforts of Mr J.P. Dhiman, President, Mr Harpreet Singh Rekhi ( Secretary) and Mr Tej Pal Jain (project chairman) for arranging this seminar in which 165 persons filled pledging forms. Mr Balvir Bakshi, Mr J.P. Dhiman, Mr Jasvir Chander, Mr Bhag Singh (chief guest) were present on the occasion.

Corporation decision criticised
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 23 — Members of the Electricity Streetlight Employees Workers Union have criticised the decision of the Municipal Corporation appointing an officer on deputation from Haryana as SDO, Electricity, instead of appointing an officer from the department.

Mr Vachespati, General Secretary of the union, said an SDO, Electrical, could not function as SDO, Electricity. The working of both departments was different. Moreover, the post belonged to an officer of the electricity wing only, he added.

'Resentment' among HVP legislators
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, May 23 — The General Secretary of the National Lok Dal, Mr Pardeep Chaudhary, has charged the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, with acting in a dictatorial manner and had deployed surveillance on his own ministers.

While alleging that the HVP leader had made the politics a family affair, he said the statement given by certain MLAs of the HVP threw ample light on the resentment brewing among the legislators of the ruling party.

258 challaned
From Our Correspondent

SAS NAGAR, May 23 — The local police has challaned 258 offenders during a 15-day drive to ensure compliance with the traffic rules.

The SI (Traffic), Mr Amrit Singh, said here today that the maximum challans (189) related to jumping of the red light. There were 27 cases of persons without driving licences. The drive was launched on May 1.