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March 20, 2001, Chandigarh, India |
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Move to slim down PU staff
strength Chandigarh, March 19 The UGC will also compare with what is the present status of the staff and suggest abolition of various posts, if required. In case some departments are found to be over-staffed then similar suggestions will be made. The UGC is expected to give its report to the MHRD and a consultative committee of the Government of India where representatives of the Union Finance Ministry and other related ministries will study as to what is to be done in the future to fund the PU. With PU’s salary bill rising from Rs 11 crore in 1991 to a whopping Rs 65 crore this year, a close rethink is being carried out, sources said. The meeting was held in Delhi over the last weekend. This was the first such meeting to discuss PU’s financial health since 1976 when Haryana had backed out of funding the PU after Kurukshetra University was established. The PU is funded 60 per cent by the Central Government while 40 per cent is funded by the Punjab Government. At the meeting it was brought out that the PU may be overstaffed and some departments have become redundant as the number of students has dropped drastically due to a changed economic scenario and due to more options before students. During the meeting some cases were pointed out where the number of students in a department is abysmally low and does not justify employing full time lecturers. Other cases of special studies where “chairs” have been established but there are few takers. It may be recollected that last year in April the Chandigarh Administration which passes on the Central funds to the PU had raised queries over the how the expenditure of the university was spiralling upwards. |
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PU Registrar skirts round pension
scheme Chandigarh, March 19 Bringing this to the notice of the GOI, a group of retired senior lecturers of the university have written to the Under Secretary quoting the letter of the Registrar and pointing out that the 1991 scheme does mention a cut off date “...seeking repeal on the ground of its not mentioning the cut off date is simply misleading. It applies to all those employees of the university who retired after January 1, 1986,” states the letter. Sending information of this variety to the Government of India has rather serious effects. First of all it debars all those who retired between 1986 and March 31,1998 from being eligible for opting for pension. Secondly, it gives an impression that the new 1998 scheme is as a result (cut off date being march 31,1998) financially viable while the earlier scheme was not. However a quick look at the figures projected in the Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) newsletter dated February 11,1999, show that either of the two schemes if implemented from 1990 or from 1998, will be incurring annual deficits to the budget to the tune of Rs 3 to 4 crore in the former case and Rs 1 to Rs 2 crore in the latter. “Thus both the schemes are equally implementable or rather equally non-implementable”, says the then secretary of PUTA, Dr M. Rajiv Lochan. Also to be noted is the fact that the pension scheme of the university remains unimplemented, for reasons of being completely financially non viable with no form of grant or subsidy allowed to make it run as the provisions of the schemes regulations also provide it to be self financing. These retired lecturers also state that if the 1991 scheme is non-viable, the University can easily implement the same scheme prospectively rather than retrospectively as it will be doing in the case of the 1998 scheme. “The condition of non-payment of arrears can also be applied to the existing scheme,” they state. The possibility of implementation of the pension scheme since its inception in 1991 has been a matter of discussion in the university for over a decade now. However the syndicate meeting of March 18, 2000 resolved to provide guarantee money of Rs 20 crore out of the budget head “Foundation for higher education and research” in the “unlikely event of erosion of the corpus leading to the disruption of regular payment of pension may be supplemented from time to time so that the scheme does not get into jeopardy.” Sources, however, state that the Senate has neither the authority to use this fund for the purposes of pension nor will the finance department of the university allow it to be used for purposes other than academic. |
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Farmers cry for medical
help Chandigarh, March 19 Leaders of the BKU complained that many farmers were suffering from various ailments and had to be hospitalised, yet no provision has been made by the hospital authorities
here. They demanded an arrangement of doctors and medicines for the protesters. “The farmers are living here in dirty environment, sleeping in the open and drinking dirty water. We need some doctors and medicines here”, the vice-president of the Punjab Kisan Sabha, Mr Bhupinder Singh
Samber, said. Leaders of various unions celebrated fifth day of their dharna as ‘Martyrs Day of the Kisangarh farmers and observed two-minute silence. Leaders of the unions also threatened that they would intensify their agitation if their demands were not met by the government. Mr Pashora Singh
Sidhupur, Mr Rachpal Singh, Mr Hardev Singh Sandhu, Mr Bhupinder Sambar and Mr Pirtha Singh were among the leaders who addressed the farmers. |
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New PGI OPD starts Chandigarh, March 19 To top it all, the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking is yet to start operation of its buses till the new block. This resulted in a windfall for the rickshaw-pullers who fleeced members of public by charging upto Rs 20 to take commuters the new OPD located about a kilometre away from where the CTU buses stop at present. PGI authorities clarified
that
Upon entering the OPD people had to search for the reception area which was not clearly marked. Actually the habit of not reading signboard also added to the problems. It was after an 12-month wait for VIP that the new state of the art Rs 20-crore OPD block of the PGI, was finally ‘‘put to use ’’. The Union Health Minister, Dr C.P. Thakur, is expected formally inaugurate the building on April 4. All OPD services , except radiotherapy and dental services, started functioning from the new block. According to the authorities, the radiodiagnostic facilities like x-rays and ultrasound are expected to function soon. According to the PGI authorities, the registration timing and days of the OPD will remain the same as before that is from 8.00 am to 11.00 am from Monday to Friday and 8.00 am to 10.30 am on Saturdays and all gazetted holidays. The OPD will remain closed on Sundays. Routine blood, urine and stool tests will be carried out in the new OPD block while the sophisticated tests will be all centralised. For the time being the X-ray and ultra sound is also being carried out from the old OPD. Meanwhile, the authorities are in the process of displaying necessary indications and information at multiple points for the public to help reach the various OPDs running on the five floors of the new building. The Rs 20-crore state-of-the-art OPD, despite being completed last year, had been awaiting a formal inauguration. In fact, the five-storeyed 2,70,000 square feet OPD was visualised more than a decade ago and the construction work for the four blocks commenced in November 1994 The building has four blocks. While the B and C blocks are five-storeyed each, block A has four levels. The building has six operation theaters, one day care center, six lifts, cafeteria and 22 registration points. The building is equipped with 500 KVA generator and has a extensive parking area for 250 cars and 500 scooters. The 25,000 square feet of covered area is air-conditioned and air-cooled. Besides, it has tow architectural features, including a water fountain.
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4 of 24 SCO sites auctioned Chandigarh, March 19 While the auction of the four of the 11 SCO sites in Sector 9-C, near CITCO petrol pump, drew a favourable response and will generate a revenue to the tune of approximately Rs 7.13 crore to the MC, there were no takers for any of the
13 SCO sites in Mani Majra. The response was equally poor when it came to the auction of 22 booths and three built-up booths in Mani Majra. According to information, three-bay site of SCO 185-86-87 in Sector 9-C with an area of 557.273 sq yd in the corner was auctioned for Rs 2,23, 80,000 as against the fixed reserve price of Rs 2.23 crore. The two-bay site of SCO 160-161 (359.255 sq yd) fetched Rs 1, 59, 70,000 as against the reserve price of Rs 1.44 crore. The SCO 172-173, (368.479 sq yd) auctioned for Rs 1.78 crore as against the fixed reserve price of Rs 1.38 crore. The third two-bay site of SCO 174-175 ( 359.255 sq yd) fetched Rs 1.52 crore as against the reserve price of Rs 1.44 crore. The said sites have been auctioned on leasehold basis for a period of 99 years. However, there were no takers for the remaining three three-Bay sites and four two-Bay sites. The single SCO site in 61.21 acre development scheme, Mani Majra, and 12 others ( SCO 35 to 46) in Pocket No 1, Mani Majra, could not be auctioned. The reserve price of most of the sites in Mani Majra was
approximately Rs 1 crore and perhaps bidders found the same to be on the higher side. It may be recalled that the reserve price of these sites in Mani Majra had earlier been reduced from Rs 43,000 sq yd to Rs 35,000 sq yd by the Finance and Contract Committee following poor response to the auction. Sources say this could also be due to the property being offered on leasehold basis now, while it was on freehold basis with the erstwhile NAC. Meanwhile, all seven subway shops in the Sectors 17/22 bus stand area, Thakurdwara and Butrela villages fetched fairly good prices. While subway shops No 3 and 4 were auctioned for Rs 15,000 per booth per month, shop No 13 was auctioned for Rs 16,500 as against the reserve price of Rs 6,500 per booth per month. Three Thakurdwara shops No 1 and 2 in Mani Majra were auctioned for Rs 3,500 per month, while shop No 3 was auctioned for Rs 4,550 per month as against the fixed reserve price of Rs 2,500 per month. The single shop (No 5) in Butrela village fetched Rs 3,600 per month against the reserve price of Rs 1,500. As per the rules, an allottee has to pay 10 per cent of the amount at the fall of the hammer and another 15 per cent within 30 days. The balance 75 per cent is to be paid in annual instalments with 18 per cent interest. In case of non-payment, the MC charges a penal interest of 24 per cent.
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Missing files case: move to reinstate Chandigarh, March 19 Sources also revealed that even as the inquiry into the case is pending with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)-cum-Secretary, Chandigarh Housing Board, Ms Varsha Joshi, efforts are on to get the suspension of an officer of the rank of a Deputy Superintendent of Police and an Inspector, revoked. Senior police officers in the union territory, however, denied this and maintained that no written orders for revoking the suspension of the accused police officers had been so far received. Although the inquiry into the case was ordered almost two years ago, following a report carried out in The Tribune in February 1999, the inquiry after being conducted at various levels has not reached a conclusive stage as yet. Important case files, including two files relating to murders in Chandigarh, had been missing for more than a decade. Subsequently, four more case files, including those of the “beef tallow case” and one relating
to a property dispute in Sector 21 were also found missing. Interestingly, in all these cases of missing files, one or more of the accused were involved as Investigating Officer or Supervisory Officer. These missing murder files related to the killing of president of the Hindu Suraksha Samiti, Inder Pal Gupta at his Sector 27 shop on April 17, 1984; and the murder of a migrant labourer from Uttar Pradesh, Ganpat Rai, on the intervening night of February 6 and 7, 1983. The case file of the “beef tallow case”, wherein four truckloads of tallow worth Rs 16 lakh was smuggled into the city and negotiations were being made to sell it off to a local trader here on August 10, 1983. Another case related to a property dispute between an NRI, Jagdish Kaur, and her tenants over a house in Sector 21. Case files of other cases of forgery and theft were also among those found missing. The preliminary inquiry conducted by the then Legal Remembrancer had indicted two DSPs, an Inspector, a Sub Inspector and an Muharrar Maalkhana Head Constable for the missing files and case diaries from the various police stations. Following the receipt of this inquiry report, the then UT Home Secretary, Ms Anuradha Gupta, had ordered for the suspension of Inspector P.K. Dhawan and DSP Devinder Thakur. Subsequently, on the formal complaint of Joint Secretary, Home, Mr Gurmil Singh, an FIR under Sections 467 and 468 of the IPC was registered against DSP S.C. Sagar, DSP Davinder Kumar, Inspector P.K. Dhawan, SI Balihar Singh and MMHC Yashpal on May 6, 1999. Except for S.C. Sagar, who was reinstated by the Administrator, UT on July 30, 1999, all others are still under suspension. It was in this case that led to the tug of war for power between the then UT IG, Ms Kiran Bedi, and the UT Home Secretary, Ms Anuradha Gupta. Earlier, the SP, City, Mr Baldev Singh, had reported in his inquiry that the missing files had been recovered from the store room at the first floor of Police Station, Sector 26. This was also submitted to the LR, Mr Sanjiv Kumar, who, however, reported in his inquiry that the “recovered” file was a forged document and Inspector P.K. Dhawan and DSP Davinder Singh, in connivance with MMHC Yashpal and SI Balihar Singh were held responsible. He had reported that changing the original files of an FIR and creating a new file was tantamount to forgery. Meanwhile, it seems that the case files going missing is a common phenomenon, considering the fact that as many as four case files were also found abandoned on the top of a cupboard in the Sector 19 Police Station last year. |
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Bottomline Chandigarh, March 19 Though the exact loss of property is yet to be estimated but property worth lakhs of rupees, cash and other personal belongings of the dwellers were reportedly destroyed. However, no loss of life has been reported, but a few of them sustained minor injuries. According to sources in the Fire Department, the exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained but in probability it has been caused by the negligence of the dwellers, who either callously threw a bidi or it was caused due to a stove or a burning lamp in one of the jhuggis. All, except for 5-6 jhuggis in one corner, which had thatched roofs of husk were burnt in no time at 10.50 pm. The fire perhaps broke out in the jhuggis located behind the mandir. Labourers were taken in for a shock, when all their hard-earned money and other belongings like beddings, clothes and cycles were burnt. The whole area presented a sad picture today as people were seen sitting amidst their meagre belongings. Arvind Kumar sustained minor injuries on his left foot when he tried to put out the fire by throwing water. The colony president, Mr Dinesh Kumar, has alleged that the damage has been largely due to the indifferent attitude of staff of the Industrial Area fire station, which is barely 100 metre away. Even though a dweller ran to inform them of the outbreak but they wasted lot of time arguing with people and the sole fire-engine with them did not have enough water to extinguish it. The behaviour of the one of the attendants on duty at the station was rather rude and abusive when people asked him to put the fire-engines into action, alleged Dinesh. In the next half an hour, 8 to 10 fire- engines from other stations reached the spot, but by that time jhuggis had been razed to the ground. Besides jhuggis, a few khokhas were also gutted. The Chief Fire Officer, Mr G.S Bajwa, when contacted, said the department employees had swung into action in no time and he too reached the spot by 11 pm soon after he received an intimation and the fire was put off in one and a half hours by 10 vehicles. However, inquiry will be conducted against the said official who misbehaved with residents. According to him, the fire spread fast because most of the jhuggis were made of husk and a few others were covered with tarpaulin. The Chandigarh Administration, meanwhile, is conducting a survey to assess the exact number of jhuggis gutted, the number of persons affected and the loss incurred by them. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr M. Ramsekhar has deputed two tehsidars in the area to ensure that temporary food and shelter arrangements are made for the people. While tents have been put up and community langar has been started. Officials maintain that as per rules there is no provision to provide any compensation to the dwellers of unauthorised jhuggis on the MC land and there is no such precedence but the authorities concerned will go all out to provide them with basic necessities. While clothes and rations have been made available by a Panchkula-based society, the Red Cross, UT, will also distribute clothes and other daily-need items among dwellers in the next few days. The area councillor, Mr Rajender Kumar, has sought that measures should be taken to rehabilitate the affected people. BJP leaders including the president of the local unit, Mr Dharam Pal Gupta, a former Mayor, Mr Gian Chand Gupta; the president of the colonies cell, Mr Hari Shanker Mishra, and the general secretary of the BJYM, Mr Shashi Shanker Tiwari, have expressed sympathies with the affected people. |
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Goods worth Rs 50,000 were gutted in another fire which broke out in a tailor shop in the Keso Ram complex at Burail village late in the evening today. The fire was reportedly caused by a short-circuiting in Nishad's tailor shop. No loss of life was reported. According to sources in the Fire Department, clothes, a TV and sewing machines were destroyed. Two fire-engines from the Sector 32 and Sector 17 fire stations reached the spot and controlled the blaze within 20 minutes.
The Chief Fire Officer, when contacted, confirmed the incident. |
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Pvt AC buses from ISBT
soon Chandigarh, March 19 Already demands have been pouring in to start luxury buses to Haryana , Rajasthan, Uttaranchal and J& K, sources in the administration said. Transport authorities in Chandigarh met two days ago to study the objections filed by members of the public till March 8. Two major objections have been filed. One of them has been filed by the Chandigarh Government Transport Workers Union. They have threatened to go on strike if permits were issued to private operators. Punjab has been pressing for about 10 months for such a scheme which would allow private air conditioned buses having route permits from Punjab to enter Chandigarh legally. At the moment all such buses terminate in neighbouring S.A.S. Nagar from where passengers are ferried in jeeps and other vehicles to destinations in Chandigarh or Panchkula. This not only results in evasion of passenger tax but also causes harassment to travellers, who have to shift with bag and baggage from one vehicle to another. Last month the Chandigarh Administration had invited objections by inserting an advertisment in the newspapers. The idea is to reduce the burden on the state from investing in such luxury buses while there is demand for such buses, said sources. In any case such buses, which have been operating illegally, till now are popular among residents. If private buses are allowed to operate from either the ISBT or a fixed destination it will be with all the legal trappings. This will include an insurance cover for passengers, proper seat numbers, fixed arrival and departure timings for destinations. Even the fare structure will be controlled partially, sources said while informing that a final approval is pending at the highest level. A committee comprising the Joint Secretary, Home, and the Secretary, State Transport Authority, studied the objections and incorporated in the main scheme. Inviting of objections is an important part in any decision of the government. |
Shift deaddiction centre, demand
residents SAS Nagar, March 19 The association secretary, Mr Bachan Singh Mundra, said the deaddiction centre of the Punjab Red Cross had been running in the residential area for the past few years. Neighbours got disturbed as inmates of the centre were often found using rough and abusive language in a loud manner, the TV set was used daily at a high volume and there was frequent coming and going of vehicles, including tractors, at odd hours. Besides, an open bathroom had been built in the courtyard next to the wall of an adjoining house. This created a foul smell, besides, presenting an indecent view. He said the problems had been brought to the notice of the secretary to the state Red Cross based in Chandigarh several times but to no avail. A memorandum was also submitted recently to the Punjab Governor, seeking the shifting of the centre to a government hospital or any other place away from the residential areas. Dr J.S. Lamba, project director of the centre, said the patients were mentally sick persons and the staff were also working under stressful circumstances. The centre was a popular place for treatment and even got patients as far away as Dehra Dun, Bareilly and Delhi. It was rendering immense social service. Dr Lamba appealed to the residents to have patience and tolerance. He said the centre staff were always counselling the patients and trying as best they could to control their activities. He said he was prepared to get the centre shifted if alternative accommodation was provided. The residents, too, must help the centre find suitable accommodation. However, the centre must not be closed down at any cost in view of the invaluable service it was providing to the sick, he added. |
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Residents move court against authorities SAS Nagar, March 19 The residents under the banner of Citizens Welfare Council have given one month’s time to the departments concerned to stop the discharge of sewage from Chandigarh and SAS Nagar into the rivulet failing which they would go to the court. Representing the case, Mr B.S. Tej, president of the council, said the health of people in the area was at stake due to unhygenic conditions created by the raw sewage, both domestic and industrial. He said a nullah starting from the north of Chandigarh was being used to discharge sullage of Chandigarh and SAS Nagar in the absence of a proper sewage treatment plant. Apart from the water pollution, the sullage had created severe air pollution too. The residents lament that nothing had been done by the authorities in Chandigarh and Punjab to check this environmental hazard. They lamented that an expensive exercise by the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) to check erosion by a seasonal rivulet had proved counter productive and has resulted in an uneven bed leading to stagnation of the sewage. Channelising the embankments of the seasonal rivulets and stone-pitching apparently without carrying out a proper study. Instead of flowing downstream the sewage was moving towards the embankments leading to unhygenic conditions. Progress on a sewage treatment plant for the town has been tardy. No progress on setting up the proposed treatment plant at Dairi village along the Kharar-Banur road has taken place so far. Officials of the PUDA admit that no agreement on the site had been reached between the PUDA and the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. While Chandigarh civic body was stressing upon setting up the joint sewage treatment plant on the southern side of the Chandigarh-SAS Nagar border opposite to Sector 48, the PUDA authorities had refused due to its non-feasibility.
The PUDA is yet to decide on its own sewage treatment plant. |
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Beant Singh case: accused admitted
to GMCH Chandigarh, March 19 It is learnt that the accused is suffering from a spinal cord problem and is likely to be operated upon soon. He was brought to the hospital here under tight security at around 7.30 am today. He has been kept in a private ward in the hospital here. It may be recalled that the accused was also brought to a nursing home on March 12 for an MRI scan and after the test was conducted, he was sent back to Burail Jail, where he is presently lodged. A large number of police personnel were deployed on the entire route and a convoy of five vehicles was used for the transportation of the accused. Considering the sensitivity of the case, the police had applied for exception being made in this case for handcuffing Balwant Singh, as he had to be brought out of the jail. However, the police was reportedly denied the permission. As a result, the local police has been on tenterhooks and elaborate security arrangements have been made in and around the hospital. It may also be noted that according to a notification issued by the Chandigarh Administration, the accused cannot be taken out of the Model Jail in Burail. The accused, it may be recalled, were booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation after the Chief Minister was killed in an explosion outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat. While human bomb Dilawar Singh was killed in the blast, other accused in the case are facing trial. Balwant Singh had earlier confessed having a hand in the killing of the CM. After raising slogans in the courtroom, the accused had stated that Beant Singh was killed for his anti-Sikh activities. |
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Irregularities in tehbazari fee collection SAS Nagar, March 19 Sources in the civic body said while a sum of Rs 58,000 on account of fine had been realised from roadside vendors in the past two months the revenue from the rehri markets stood at Rs 14.09 lakh till March 16. This sum was Rs 6.90 lakh in January this year. The revenue under the head during 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 was Rs 8.49 lakh and Rs 12 lakh, respectively. Recently the municipal councillors of the Opposition have alleged that due to “stakes” of certain local municipal councillors in rehri markets and “shady deals” by the council officials in allowing unauthorised kiosks in the rehri markets the council had suffered a loss of lakhs of rupees. Mr S.S. Patwari, leader of the Opposition, said the enforcement employees never bothered to collect its dues. |
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Victims’ bodies handed over to kin Dera Bassi, March 19 According to the police, the bodies of 55-year-old advocate Jaswant Kaur and her 25-year-old, driver Rakesh Kumar were handed over to their family members after conducting postmortem examinations at Rajpura Civil Hospital. The members of the bereaved families had reached Zirakpur this morning. The third person injured in the accident, advocate Avtar Singh, who was admitted to Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, was in a state of shock was also discharged by the hospital authorities. The relatives of the victims said the advocates were in Chandigarh to visit their clients. Meanwhile, the bus driver Ram Swaroop was produced in the Rajpura Court today. |
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Meat out day today Chandigarh, March 19 Mr Laxmi Marain Modi, executive director, Animal Rights International, said the movement the great global meat out” started in 1985, had been coordinated nationally and over 3.5 crore people in different countries had signed the “Meat out Pledge” to kick out the meat habit on March 20, at least for a day. Mr Modi added that in India, the movement was started in 1998, supported by a number of religious institutions and organisations. |
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Kharar Lions Club adjudged best Kharar, March 19 The Lions Club, Kharar, bagged the first prize for work done for the needy by the club while the Lions Club, SAS Nagar, got the second prize. A souvnier was also released on the occasion. |
Thug
nabbed SAS Nagar, March 19 Mr Hardeep Singh, who handed over the person to the police, said the thug used to get an identification card and receipts from the bhandara for Rs 100. He was caught when he came for donation at the door of the SGPC member in Sri Guru Tegh Bhadhur Colony in Sector 70. The man confessed before mediapersons that there were several persons collecting donations in the same manner. The Hardwar-based organisation allowed the practice. The man claimed that he was a cloth merchant and was collecting donations for just two months.
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One held with smack Chandigarh, March 19 Abduction alleged Thefts reported Cycle stolen Pedestrian injured Gambler nabbed Liquor seized |
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Police inquiry against PGI doctors ‘unjustified’ Chandigarh, March 19 According to the Prof S.M. Bose, president and Dr K.L. Narsimhan, Secretary of the association, maintained that the PGI is an autonomous organisation and the president of the governing body of the institute was the only authorised person to institute an inquiry against a faculty member for any lapse alleged to have been committed by him or her during the course of discharge of duty. The members have also stressed that since the PGI Director, Prof S.K. Sharma had already ordered an inquiry in this regard by Prof J.S.
Chopra, a former Director-Principal of the GMCH, Sector 32, the police inquiry should be called off immediately. Prof Chopra has been asked to submit his report within four weeks. |
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