The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

100 beauticians attend workshop
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, July 24
The Citizens Awareness Group in collaboration with the Surya Foundation and the State AIDS Control Society, UT, organised a workshop for beauticians at a local beauty parlour in Sector 35, here today.

Discussing various methods of spreading of the disease and the means of it’s prevention, Dr Ramneek Sharma, founder Director of the foundation stressed the need for taking extra care in sterilising their equipment to prevent spreading of AIDS among their clients as well as themselves.

Dr Ajit Saroya, a social scientist and consultant with the State AIDS Control Society said the city had 362 full blown AIDS patients with 31 reported death cases.

The workshop was attended by nearby 100 beauticians of the city and surrounding areas. Kits and relevant literature on AIDS were distributed.

PGI employees hail decision
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 24
The PGI Employees Union, has welcomed the decision of the Union Health Minister, Dr C.P. Thakur, to revoke the cancellation of membership of the PGI Deputy Medical Superintendent , Dr D. Bahera, Additional Professor, Pulmonary Medicine, as a special invitee to the governing body and academic committee of the institute.

The employees union, in a press note said Dr Bahera’s membership was cancelled three days ago due to “administrative reasons”. Overruling this decision, in a fax message yesterday, the Union Health Minister has asked the PGI Director to give Dr Bahera agenda of the governing body meeting scheduled to be held tomorrow in New Delhi.

Dr D. Bahera is a special invitee in the Governing and Academic Body. Mr Ashwini Munjal is the seniormost faculty member amongst the reserved category.

SPORTS

Overall trophy for YPS
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, July 24
Yadavindra Public School, SAS Nagar, bagged the overall championship trophy on the concluding day of the Ist ICSE Schools (Chandigarh region) Badminton Championship here today at the indoor hall of YPS. The boys title went in favour of YPS, SAS Nagar, while girls trophy was clinched by Little Flower School, Sector 14, Panchkula. St Kabir Public School, Sector 26, remained runners-up in the boys section and third place went to St Stephen’s School, Sector 45. In girls section, YPS, SAS Nagar, finished second and St Stephen’s School bagged third place. Dr H.S. Dhillon, Principal of the host school, gave away the prizes.

Results: finals — boys: YPS, SAS Nagar b St Kabir-26, 2-1 (Salil lost to Ravinder 10-15, 7-15; Manvir b Sahil, 15-5, 15-7; Ravinder and Manvir b Salil and Pratik, 15-10, 11-15, 15-3): girls Little Flower b :YPS, SAS Nagar b; 2-0 ( Kannu b Opender 11-1, 11-1; Pallavi Aggarwal b Manpreet 11-2, 11-3).

For third position— boys: St Stephen’s-45 b Little Flower, 2-0 (Puneet b Sanchit 15-5, 15-11; Gautam b Mohit 15-11, 17-14) girls; St Stephen’s -45 b St Kabir-26, 2-0 (Gehna b Sukriti 11-6, 11-0; Parul b Reetika 11-2, 11-4).

Weightlifting trials

The Chandigarh Amateur Weightlifting Association will hold selection trials in men and women section on July 27 at the Weightlifting Coaching Centre, Sector 42, to select the UT team for participation in the forthcoming National Games to be held in Punjab from September 18. This was stated by Mr H.S. Bansal, Secretary of the association.

ADMINISTRATION

PUDA becoming computer savvy
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 24
The Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) has begun to emerge as an e-enabled organisation.

According to the Chief Administrator, PUDA, Mr K.B.S. Sidhu, a comprehensive strategy in this regard is at an advanced stage of implementation. The broad objective is not merely to ensure the speedy recovery of dues and to keep a strict check on expenditure but also to streamline the system so that customer-friendly environment can be created.

Giving details Mr Sidhu said that daily collection register of all schemes of PUDA in SAS Nagar had been fed into a centralised server. As such, information regarding outstanding principal amount, interest or penal interest, if any, was now available at the click of a mouse. Earlier, these cumbersome calculations had to be done manually and this led to inaccuracy and delays. Many a time, the allottees who were desirous of clearing their dues, could not be intimated the exact outstanding amount, owing to the inherent drawbacks of the manual system. This data was now being processed regularly through a software package which shall generate outstanding dues notices, wherever the allottees had failed to deposit the instalments in time.

On the expenditure side, the nine engineering divisions in SAS Nagar have already implemented a custom-built accounting software package. This has allowed not only a close check on the cash flow and facilitated the budgetary allocation process but has also helped in keeping a track of the mounting inventories.

The Chief Administrator said income and expenditure software packages had further been integrated through a computer programme so that management could view the instantaneous trial balances at any time.

The PUDA had also finalised an arrangement with all collecting banks to make available the details of the payments received by them on behalf of PUDA from its allottees, in the form of a soft copy. These floppies will be loaded on to the centralised PUDA server and individual accounts of the allottees will be automatically updated. Arrangement had also been made to ensure that demand drafts received in PUDA Estate Office at SAS Nagar were fed into the computer on daily basis. This would automatically avoid the problem of missing credits and duplicate credits.

Mr Sidhu said PUDA web site http:\\puda.nic.in, which was hosted by Chandigarh branch of the National Informatics Centre (NIC), was being regularly updated. All new schemes and the draw of lots were intimated at this site. Arrangements had also been made to publish the various tender notices. The website will also make available the facility for any customer or potential client to register himself online, free of cost, on the website. A person so registered would receive e-mails about various schemes being launched by PUDA. Arrangements were also being made to modify the website so that person could download an application form from the site for any scheme and apply through the regular channel. The application fee amount, however, will have to be added to the earnest money in all such cases.

MC may adopt tough stand over fee issue
Tribune News Service

SAS Nagar, July 24
The SAS Nagar Municipal Council is likely to adopt a tough stand over the issue of PUDA not passing over to it the non-construction fee charged from occupants of vacant plots in the town. The fee is charged by PUDA from the plot holders who fail to raise construction in a specified time period.

A resolution allowing the council to stop the process of taking over the areas developed by PUDA if the latter failed to decide on the issue of fee is expected to be passed in the next meeting of the civic body scheduled for July 27. The construction of sewerage treatment plant by PUDA would also be sought by the civic body.

Sources in the civic body confirmed that this issue would be listed for the July 27 meeting. An official of the civic body said most of the maintenance projects in the developed sectors was being looked after by the civic body, so the fee should be charged by it.

The issue had been discussed at a meeting held between the Additional Chief Administrator of PUDA, Mr Dipinder Singh, and the President of the civic body, Mr Kulwant Singh, few months back. The PUDA had reportedly offered certain amount of fee on the basis of per sq yard area of vacant plots. The issue had to be approved in the Accounts and Finance Committee meeting of PUDA. But nothing materialised.

The issue of PUDA offering land for office complex of the local civic body at a rate of Rs 7,600 per sq yard will also be taken up at the meeting. Officials of the civic body said when PUDA was offering land at a subsidised rate to the Local Government Department and to educational institutions there was no rationale in offering land to the civic body at a rate of Rs 7,6oo per sq yard. Roughly the cost of the land came to around Rs 3 crore, whereas the civic body had kept Rs 1 crore for the land and the construction of the building.

Move to ease parking hassles
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 24
The strategy to make all underground parking lots functional and introduce paid parking in the city was discussed at length at a meeting today. The meeting was presided over by the UT Home Secretary, Mr R.S Gujral, who is also secretary, Local Bodies.

According to sources, the meeting was held after the case regarding the underground parking was taken up by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The HC had in its orders observed that the MC Commissioner, Mr M.P. Singh and Deputy Commissioner, Mr M. Ramsekhar had upon appearence assured that they would ensure appropriate action for proper utilisation of underground as well as surface parking.

A Division Bench comprising Mr Justice Mr G.S. Singhvi and Mr Justice M.N. Kumar had further impressed upon them that the Administration and MC may impose fee for parking vehicles.

MC officials impressed upon the need to cover the underground parkings completely before they can be put to proper use. At present, they are partially covered and being in the basement they get flooded during the rainy season. The Chief architect was directed to redesign these parking lots in such a way that they can be used to ease traffic congestion.

MC Chief Engineer, Mr Manmohanjit Singh reportedly informed that MC is already trying to make the underground parkings in Sector 8 and 17 functional. This is likely to ease the problem to quite an extent, but public ought to co-operate.

It was also proposed that to further ease out the traffic chaos particularly from the busy areas in Sector 17, paid parking should be introduced. It is pertinent to mention that the parking lots is with the Corporation.

Depts asked to clear audit objections
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 24
The Engineering Department and the Education Department were today asked to speed up and clear the audit objections against their respective departments. This was pointed out during the bi-monthly senior officers’ conference here today. The Adviser to the UT Administrator, Ms Neeru Nanda, told the officials of these departments that the number of pending audit objections were quite high in their cases. The revenue generating departments were asked to ensure that they achieved their targets for the current year. The budget spending of various departments was also reviewed for the first quarter of the financial year.