The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

‘Silent’ man to approach President
By Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 18 — Despite 200 days of observing silence in protest, the plight of 58-year-old ward servant of the PGI, Somnath, remains same. Ever since his condition was reported through these columns during the last week of June this year, he has not managed to secure benefits at the hands of the PGI authorities. Benefits apart, he has received intimation that the PGI authorities have decided to send him home by effecting his retirement from January 31, 2001 onwards.

Hapless and dejected, Somnath is now planning to knock at the doors of Rashtrapati Bhavan. When he visited The Tribune office this morning, Somnath looked tired from his incessant journey for protection of his dues. He wrote (since he does not speak), ‘‘Never even once have I absented myself from duty. But I have been unfairly singled out. My family is in doldrums because I am not being paid despite the fact that I have been regularly working.’’ Somnath informed that he would sit in protest outside Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 2. ‘‘This is my last hope. I don’t want to see my family dying from day to day,’’ he said.

The case of this man, who roams about with a wooden plank tied around his neck and does not speak in protest, is getting complicated by the day. While he alleges that the PGI authorities have not paid him his arrears for the past 10 years, the PGI authorities point out that no injustice has been meted out to him. Now even as Somnath had been attempting to have his way around with the powers that be by remaining silent in protest in the hope that the officials would reinstate him and pay him his dues as ordered earlier in 1990 by the then Health Minister Rasheed Maqsood, the PGI, has decided to send him home.

Intimation of Somnath’s retirement was issued by the PGI here on September 2 through a circular which mentioned that he would be retired from service with effect from January 31, 2001. The PGI Director has sent this communication to the Financial Adviser.

Silence has not helped him at all, but Somnath does not seem to have lost hope. Given the altered circumstances, he has effected changes in the content of the wooden plank which he carried earlier. As of today, the plank mentions in clear words his future course of action.

Wrote Somnath, ‘‘I have been running from pillar to post to get my dues released from the PGI authorities.’’ He also offered documents in support of his claim. Among these was a letter of complaint which he had written to the President of India wherein he had mentioned that his salary had not been released since November, 1990.

Somnath alleges that a certain official of the institute had asked him to pay some money as gratification in return of preparation of exact due drawn statements of his salary bills. He added that since he was poor and he could not pay, he had been suffering since then.

160 units of blood donated
From Our Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, Sept 18 —As many as 160 units of blood were donated on the occasion of the Global Blood Donation day organised by the Sri Sathya Sai Organisation, Chandigarh unit, at Sai Old Age Home-cum-Seva Centre, Sector 30, here yesterday. The camp was conducted by the doctors from the Blood Bank, PGI.

According to Dr R.S. Prasad, state coordinator of the organisation, ‘‘the third Sunday of September each year, is devoted for this cause by various Sai organisations all over the world’’. Twelve samitis of the city unit and other volunteers took part on the occasion’’, he added.

SPORT

City boys win Narang Cup
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Sept 18 — Chandigarh boys stole the show on the final day of the North Zone Inter-State Badminton Championships, which conlcuded last evening in New Delhi. City players won the Narang Cup for Boys for the first time.

Mr D.K. Mukerjee, founder of the association, said overall the city players did well in all four events — in the Chadha Cup for Women they remained runner-up, in girls, they reached the last four and in men they gave tough fight to Punjab in semifinal before losing at 2-3. The boys won from Delhi in the final after beating Punjab in the semifinals.

It was Vivek Sharma who won both his singles and doubles matches and was the star of the day. Now Chandigarh has qualified for the Junior National Inter-State Badminton Meet, which will be held at Chandigarh from November 15. The team comprised Vivek Sharma, Varun Sharma, Deepak Sidhu and Naresh Kundu.

The boy; final results were; Chandigarh b Delhi 2-0 (Vivek Sharma b Sandeep Kaushik 15-11, 15-4; Vivek Sharma and Varun Sharma b Mubhashir Khan 11- 15, 15-4 and 17-15).

Strike by STC staff
Employees of the Sports Training Centre, Sector 18, on Monday observed a complete strike in support of their demands on the call given by the Sports Authority of India Employees Association, Delhi. The press note stated that the strike was also observed at the other centres located at Patiala, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Calcutta regional centres.

Teams announced
The Punjab Cricket Association announced two teams, Punjab cricket senior team and PCA colts team, which will take part in the JP Attray Memorial Cricket Tournament to be held next week. Mr Chaman Lal was the chairman of the selection committee.

The members of the teams are: Punjab senior :Vikram Rathore (captain), Ravneet Rickey, Yuvraj Singh, Munish Sharma, Ankur Sondhi, Dinesh Mongia, Reetinder Sodhi, Harminder Jugnu, Navdeep Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Amit Uniyal, Sarandeep Singh, Binwant Singh and Rajan Singh.

PCA colts: Pankaj Dharmani (Captain), Anil Kakria, Sanjay Kumar,Vivek Mahajan, Sanjay Dhull, Vikramjit, Gautam Mandora, Sandeep Sanwal, Vineet, Sanjay Mahajan, Rakesh Raini, Ishan Malhotra, Ankur Kakkar, Gaganinder Singh and SP Singh.

PATIALA

Katoch Shield match
Superb knocks by Sanjay Mahajan (93) and Dinesh Mongia (89) enabled Chandigarh to score 336 against Patiala on the first day one of the three-day Katoch Shield match played at the Dhruv Pandove Stadium here on Monday.

Brief scores: Chandigarh: 336 all out in 88 overs (Sanjay Mahajan 93, Dinesh Mongia 89, Vikramjit Sodhi 78, Amit Kakria 5 for 70, Rajiv Sirhindi 3 for 110, Lakhbir Singh 26).

Cricket trials
Trials to select the Patiala District (under-14) Cricket team will be held on September 21 at 3 p.m. at the Dhruv Pandove Stadium, according to Mr R.P. Pandove, honorary secretary, Patiala Cricket Association. Boys desirous of attending the trials have been requested to bring their age certificates along with them.

Atray memorial tourney from Sept 24
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 18 — Six teams will take part in the seventh J.P. Atray Memorial Cricket Tournament, to be held at the PCA Stadium, Mohali, from September 24 to October 1, according to a spokesman of the organising committee of the tournament.

The participating teams have been divided into two pools. The pool ‘A’ comprises of defending champion Punjab Cricket Club, Air-India (Mumbai) and the Central Revenue Sports Board while the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Bishnoi Club and PCA Colts figure in the pool ‘B’.

The tournament will be held on league basis. In the semi-finals, the winner of Pool ‘A’ will clash with the runners-up of Pool ‘B’ and the winner of Pool ‘B’ will clash with runners-up of Pool ‘A’. In case more than one team finishes with the same points in a pool at the conclusion of the league matches the net run rate will be taken into account to decide the pool winners and runners-up. All the matches will be of 50 overs duration.

The tournament, which is held in memory of Mr J.P.Atray, former Additional Director-General of Police, Haryana, carried a cash award of over Rs 1 lakh. The panel of umpires consist of BCCI qualified international umpires Jasbir Singh and H.S. Sekhon as also PCA qualified umpires. On the opening day Punjab Cricket Club will take on the Central Revenue Sports Board.

ADMINISTRATION

Inadequate service at Estate Office
By Monika Sharma

CHANDIGARH, Sept 18 — Uncertainty grips you as you enter the Estate Office in Sector 17. There is no one to guide you to the window to deposit the form. When you finally locate the window, you are faced with an unending queue.

Minutes roll into hours while you wait for your turn. The service is painfully slow. Eventually when you present the form, the official returns it to you raising one objection or another. You go through the rigmarole only to be disappointed again.

“Why couldn’t he inform me about the requirements on my first visit?” You search for an answer in vain. You are so exhausted by the time you make your second or third trip that you do not mind paying a tout to get your work done.

“The staff cannot be blamed,” asserts a senior functionary at the EO. “Every day as many as 850 documents are presented which have to be verified thoroughly to eliminate forgeries,“ he said.

Acknowledging the presence of touts, the official warns that the documents procured through them may not be genuine. “We have even complained to the police and cases have been registered,” he claims.

The visitors, however, have a different story to tell. “This is my second trip to the office,” says Aslam Khan. “The documents are complete. But I don’t know why I am being asked to come again and again. On each trip, three to four hours are wasted”, he added.

Neeru, a student, is facing similar problem. “I had to wait for three hours at least to get the photograph signed. There should be a separate window for women,” she says.

Octroi collection work goes abegging
From Our Correspondent

SAS NAGAR, Sept 18 — With the auction of work relating to octroi collection scheduled to take place here tomorrow, surprisingly not a single party has approached either the administrator or the executive officer of the Municipal Council in this connection till today.

The council authorities had given an advertisement for the privatisation of octroi collection work on September 2, fixing the date of auction for September 19. However, it is learnt that only today one party came to enquire about the work but went away after meeting some junior officials only.

The auction is to take place at 11.30 a.m. and council officials are apprehensive that even tomorrow nobody would turn up.

The council authorities had earlier given an advertisement for the privatisation of the work of octroi collection on July 18, fixing the auction date for August 4.

However, according to the executive officer of the council, at that time the auction had been postponed as the Mohali Industries Association wanted some change in the terms and conditions so that the general public did not face any harassment.

It is learnt that thereafter some changes had been made in the terms and conditions by council officials.

The octroi collection work has been proposed to be auctioned for one year starting from October 1. The interested parties will have to deposit Rs 5 lakh each as earnest money.

Most of the municipal councillors, the traders body and the Mohali Industries Association have always opposed the privatisation of octroi collection work.

140 complaints taken up at khula darbar
From Our Correspondent

PANCHKULA, Sept 18 — Hundreds of civil and criminal complaints throughout the state, were taken up by Mr S.P.S. Rathore, Director-General of Police, at a khula darbar organised here today.

As the police department claimed that 140 complaints, including 45 departmental, were taken up and 95 complaints of civil nature were solved on the spot.

A complaint against the Gharonda police, which was presented before Mr Rathore for the fifth time, was also taken up. The complainant, Mr Suba Singh, a resident of Kohand village in Karnal, alleged that over 30 dacoits had forcibly entered his house in June 1999 and beaten up the women and robbed them of Rs 40 lakh allegedly with connivance of the local police.

In another case, Mrs Vimla Devi, a widow of Madhuvani in Karnal, complained that she has approached the police authorities twice for a job to her son but each time she was told the official concerned had been asked to take necessary action.

Mr Sube Singh, another complainant from Narwana, alleged that despite registering a case against three criminals involved in a murder case, the police had not arrested them so far.