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Talk on AIDS
awareness CHANDIGARH Ms Suman Gupta and Ms Manu Sharma participated in a talk on Drug Addiction by the Drug Awareness Cell, Lala Lajpat Rai Bhavan, here on Thursday. Another talk was also organised by the state AIDS Control Society, UT Chandigarh. As many as 150 volunteers are attending the camp. |
City lad wins national motor
rally CHANDIGARH Karandip Singh, who arrived here today, said he and his navigator, Jaidass Menon of Bangalore, were declared winners even though the second leg of the seven-leg 423 km two-day rally could not take place as the Kudremukh National Park authorities denied permission to the cars taking part in the rally to pass through the park. Twentysix-year-old Karandip Singh, who finished his graduation from Hindu College, New Delhi, told TNS here today that the organisers, in order to decide the over-all winners awarded half points to the competitors in the cancelled segment in accordance with Article 18.1 of MAI sporting regulations. He said that he and Jaidass Menon of team MRF were tied at 40 points with team-mates Jagat Nanjappa and Anita in the Group N production cars. But having achieved three wins at Mumbai, Pune and Kochi to just one win of the Nanjappas at Coimbatore, Karandip and Jaidass were adjudged the national champions in Group N. It was the maiden win for the local lad who had his
schooling, in Lawrence School, Sanawar. Karandip says he has dedicated the win to MRF team and his car tuner J. Anand, a former racing champion based at Coimbatore. Of the 12 cars which took part, only 10 could complete the rally. “I had a narrow escape as my car hit a stone in the first special stage on the south Karnataka border. Due to this my steering rod developed a crack. But that did not deter me and my navigator as we had performed well earlier .” Karandip said they went to the second special stage covering Kudremukh without having a rain check on the vehicle, with the result the steering rod gave away and he lost control over the vehicle. The duo rolled thrice, went off the road before finally settling near a villager’s house. He said since he had already won thrice at Mumbai, Pune and Kochi, his points tally comfortably placed him on top to win the championship for the first time. The youngster disclosed that he was picked up by MRF after he had won the Chandigarh Auto Cross held at the Sector 17 Circus Ground in 1998, where he was pitted against the then national rally champion Manik Raikhy of Team JK Tyres. |
‘Mayor should have more powers’ CHANDIGARH The people have a lot of expectations from the MC, but it is not able to deliver much within the given constraints. “I tried my level-best to accomplish various development works during my tenure, but I wanted to do much more,’’ said Ms Shanta Abhilashi while addressing mediaperson. However, she remained tight-lipped on various controversial issues. Answering a host of questions, the Mayor said she got the support of the Administration in carrying out various development works in the city. Work of strengthening and recarpeting of the roads was taken on war footing. She pointed out that almost 90 per cent of the work had been completed and the remaining would be undertaken during the next financial year. Highlighting the fact that sources of revenue generation have also been enhanced, she pointed out that following revision of water tariff, the MC is expecting to net a revenue of Rs 24 crore by March next year as against Rs 13 crore netted last year. The imposition of sewerage cess, for the first time this year will also generate an annual income of Rs 2 crore. In addition to this, sewerage connection fee varying between Rs 500 to Rs 10,000 (depending upon the size of the plant) will be charged from residents and institutions who apply for new connections. Besides this, the auction of parking places has also yielded a sum of Rs 1.5 crore. She admitted that a number of development works were still to be completed, but added that the work was already going on. Answering to a question about poor road conditions in Industrial Area, Phase-I, she pointed out that the road from the Purv Marg to causeway has been widened, the road between CTU workshop and Junction 39 has been recarpeted and same is the case with the road in front of the Ordnance Cable Factory. Ms Abhilashi further said that despite constraint of funds, the amount of ward development fund was raised from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore this year and the entire amount has been spent on development works. Development of various parks and green belts has also been undertaken in different sectors of the city costing Rs 118 lakh. Strict policy was adopted to deal with the problem of
encroachments. Illegal structures were removed from the MC land in Ottawa, Badheri, Butrela and Burail villages. The phari vendors occupying verandahs and parking places in Sector 22, near Kiran cinema were also removed. The public corridors were cleared up following removal of encroachments in Palika and Sadar bazars in Sector 19. Even Shastri Market in Sector 22 was cleared up. As many as 3,766 jhuggis and other illegal constructions were removed. She further said that Rs 4.60 crore have been spent on the maintenance of parking places in various sectors. The MC also undertook recarpeting of various roads in colonies falling under its jurisdiction such as Palsora, Dhanas, Mauli Jagran, Bapu Dham and Karsan at a cost of Rs 55 lakh. The construction of community centre in Sector 46 has been completed at a cost of Rs 20 lakh. Streetlights on Uttar-Dakshin Marg have been made functional. Various underground and overhead systems on a number of roads have been made functional by providing additional improvement on the existing streetlights amounting to Rs 70 lakh. The MC issued 14893 challans till October this year and collected Rs 25,46,880 against last year’s collection of Rs 24,77,110. The collection from the Divali melas was also approx Rs 14 lakh till October as against Rs 7,78,800 last year. The auction of unclaimed goods, confiscated by the enforcement staff has yielded a sum of Rs 5.67 lakh against Rs 2.23 lakh last year. She said the construction of new fire stations in Capitol Complex, Sector 1, and Timber Market, Sector 6 would be completed by March. The MC has also collected over Rs 5.86 lakh by imposing fine on the owners of stray animals, while 166 animals were auctioned. The modernisation of slaughter house will be done at an estimated cost of Rs 4.70 lakh and the tender notice will be advertised shortly in various newspapers. She said that the long-pending demand of the Senior Deputy Mayor for a room was also taken care of. The issue of starting Punjabi papers in the House was also settled. Among those present on the occasion were the Commissioner, Mr M.P. Singh, Chief Engineer, Mr Puranjit Singh, Senior Deputy Mayor, Mr Des Raj Tandon and Deputy Mayor, Mr Mohinder Singh. The Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor have also demanded more powers for their respective posts. |
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Dissent surfaces for
Mayor’s post CHANDIGARH In a written statement, Mr Jain, who was one of the contenders for the top post, said, “The local leadership of the BJP is mistaken if it thinks that they can exploit a true party worker in the name of unity and commitment. The announcement of Mayor’s candidature at the last minute lacks farsightedness and leads to forced discipline and dictatorial trends, instead of self-imposed discipline.” Mr Ram Dass Aggarwal, in charge of party affairs of Chandigarh, could have selected any experienced male councillor out of Mr Des Raj Tandon, Mr R.L. Arora and Air Marshal R.S. Bedi (Retd), if I was not acceptable. We have already given two Mayor’s posts to two experienced women as per the Act and they had done well. Then what was the need to give last year’s general seat of a Mayor to a woman,” he asked. “It looks that local leaders want to keep the issue of so-called groupism alive for their own ends. Difference of opinion on some local issues in the Corporation should not be called as groupism or indiscipline.” The Congress is a rejected organisation and its candidates are no match to our candidates who are well educated, experienced and active candidates. But we should not be over-confident as certain remarks of our over-enthusiastic councillors about the nominated councillors and other colleagues from time-to-time can affect election results. It may be recalled that Mr Rajinder Kumar, a councillor owing allegiance to the Gian Chand Gupta group, had petitioned the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1998, pleading that the nominated councillors should not have voting rights. The councillors of the group had repeatedly accused the nominated councillors of siding with the Satya Pal Jain group when Mr K.K. Addiwal was the Mayor. However, “In the interest of the city and party, we should preserve our unity and solidarity and vote enblock for our own competent BJP candidates, who are sure to win by a thumping majority,” adds Mr Jain. Meanwhile, several leading traders of the city today urged the councillors to rise above party politics and vote for the Congress candidate and prominent trader, Mr Raj Kumar Goel. Mr Goel could protect the interests of the trading community in a better way, the meeting felt. The meeting was attended, among others, by Mr J.P.S. Kalra, Mr Subhash Kataria, Mr Rajinder Manocha, Mr L.C. Arora, Mr Kamaljit Panchhi, Mr Jagdish Kapoor, Mr Arun Malhotra and Mr R.S. Bhalla. The state president of BJP, when contacted said, “We are confident of our candidate’s victory as assurance of support has come from nominated councillors, besides our own party councillors. While we are in the process of meeting the councillors for the elections on December 23, we plan to hold a meeting tomorrow to discuss the details.” |
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