Nagar panchayat short of staff
From Our Correspondent

ZIRAKPUR, Nov 28 — The Zirakpur Nagar Panchayat has been functioning from the village's community hall ever since it came into existence in May. The nagar panchayat's office also suffers from inadequate staff.

The office is functioning with an executive officer, an octroi inspector, a junior engineer, an accountant and two clerks. The Administrator, Mr Surjit Singh, does not sit in his Zirakpur office. He has visited Zirakpur twice since the creation of the nagar panchayat.

While the office is functioning without the approved staff, residents of this village-turned-town and six other villages are finding it difficult to get their building plans approved. They complain that they have to visit the office for every problem and the reply they get is that the problem cannot be solved in the absence of an expert in the related field.

Some residents complain that after they have got their maps and building plans approved by the nagar panchayat, their applications for no objection certificates (NOCs) are rejected by the authorities.

Mr Sandeep Kumar, a resident, pointed out that though the nagar panchayat was collecting more than Rs 70,000 daily from octroi, yet nothing has been done for the betterment of the residents.

Mr Ramesh Mittal, a shopkeeper, opined that the development of the town was possible only if the Administrator sat here. "If the residents have a problem or they want to discuss some issue with the Administrator, they have to go to Patiala, more than 60 km from here. It means extra expenditure as well as wastage of time, " Mr Mittal said.

A resident of Lohgarh village complained that there was no sign of sanitation in the town, the colonies and the villages. Heaps of garbage, filth and stagnant water remained accumulated at various places. The panchayat authorities had done nothing expect imposing octroi.

The residents also complain that the nagar panchayat authorities are not approving the building plans of houses constructed before the formation of the civic body. Without its approval, they are forced to live without electricity.

Mr Surjit Singh, Administrator, was not available for comments.

The Executive Officer, Mr Amrit Lal Bansal, however, denied that there was shortage of staff. "The residents think that the development of the area an easy task, they should know that Rome was not built in a day. It is a time-consuming process", said the Executive Officer.

Rehabilitation project by ex-servicemen
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 28 — For ex-servicemen with flair for business in transport, the local ITFT (Institute of Tourism and Future Management Trends) in collaboration with Hindustan Motors has set up a scheme for self-employment in tourist transport business.

According to Maj (Dr) Gulshan Sharma, Director, ITFT, a group of 15 ex-servicemen have formed a cooperative by working on a marketing strategy developed by the ITFT where sight seeing at Chandigarh and excursions to places like Manali, Kulu, Dharamsala, Dalhousie, Chamba, Sri Anandpur sahib, Amritsar, Kurukshetra, Wagah border, Jammu, Vaishno Devi and other places will be organised. Leading tour operators of Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Ahmedabad have been approached for a tie-up for organising tours in northern India.

The cooperative is also approaching Transport and Tourism Secretaries of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh Administration for allotment of suitable places for taxi stands for vehicles owned by the cooperative society.

A full one-day workshop was organised by the ITFT and Hindustan Motors today for all 15 members of the society. Hindustan Motors has agreed to build necessary infrastructure for the taxi stand here besides providing a telephone connection and to give special discounts to ex-servicemen buying its vehicles.Oriental bank of Commerce and Punjab National Bank have taken the lead to provide easy and prompt financial support for the cause. The travel trade associations and hotels and restaurants associations have also promised to support this venture.The uniqueness of the project is that ex-servicemen have taken up this project for their rehabilitation without taking any support from any resettlement organisation.