Ludhiana, August 11
The Plastic Surgery unit of Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, in association with Fresh Start Surgical Gifts (FSSG), a charitable non-government organisation of the USA would organise a two-day workshop on Reconstructive Plastic Surgery from August 17 at Dumra Auditorium of the DMCH.

Talking to mediapersons here yesterday, Dr Ashok K. Gupta, In charge of Plastic Surgery Unit of DMCH, said during the two-day workshop, operations on poor and under-privileged would be conducted by a team of expert plastic surgeons from all over India. A CME programme on “Burns Update 2001” would also be organised on August 18.

On the opening day of the workshop, Dr A.K.Gupta, a leading plastic surgeon and Chairperson of the Indian Sub-continent Chapter of the FSSG from Mumbai, Dr Sanjeev K.Uppal, member of Board of Directors, FSSG, and the organising secretary of the event, Ms Allison Saxman from the USA, Associate Director of the FSSG, would operate on the poor patients, who require plastic surgery for congenital deformities, like cleft lip, cleft palate, mitten hand, contracture formations due to burns, post traumatic tissue losses etc. “Poor and deserving patients are advised to get registered for the operation session at plastic surgery OPD before August 15”, added Dr Gupta.

Fatehgarh Sahib, August 11
Due to the negligence and lack of clear-cut directions by the Director, Local Bodies, the Municipal Council, Sirhind, is suffering a huge financial loss, due to charging octroi at a less rate on CI castings. Majority of the municipal councillors of Sirhind and Fatehgarh Sahib Municipal Council in a complaint to Mr Balramji Dass Tandon, Minister for Local Bodies, have alleged that a deliberate and calculated move of the Executive Officer (EO) of the Council has rendered a loss of more than Rs 60 lakh by way of charging octroi at a less rate of Rs 0.14 per cent per quintal on CI castings, where as all corporations and the councils in the state are charging Rs 17 per quintal on the same items in view of a circular letter No.2/70/95/3 LG 111/2112, dated December 14, 1995 from the Director, Local Bodies.

They alleged that the Director gave different clarifications to the Sirhind MC for octroi rates for the same material through his seven different circulars. It was interesting to note that in his four circulars he directed the council to charge Rs 0.1 per cent quintal, where as in his other three circulars he directed to charge Rs 17 per quintal. They said these frequent revocations of the directions had not only hit the image of the government but had also led to suspicion. In this way the governments vacillating mind and oscillating octroi schedule rates on CI castings a loss of Rs 60 lakh to the council. They said that while disposing off a writ petition the High Court through its order dated October 12, 1998 in CWP no. 9906 of 97 in favour of the contractors that during their tenure the rate Rs 17 per quintal was rightly chargeable. The court, in the same order, had also directed the state government to take a final decision for future in respect to the rate of octroi on CI castings and their parts and convey the decision to all councils and corporations in the state of Punjab so as to remove any confusion or controversy in this regard as early as possible, preferably within four months from the date of this order.

But till today, despite clear-cut orders of the court the state government had not yet conveyed its decision to remove the confusion. They alleged that the Executive Officer did not bother to get the clarification, despite repeated requests of the councillors; they said the EO deliberately kept on ignoring the issue just to favour certain industrialists. They urged the minister to get the High Court orders implemented, in letter and spirit, to avoid further financial loss to the council.

The councillors, in a separate Press release, also alleged that due to the negligence on the part of the EO, the PSEB imposed a penalty of Rs 2,32,072 on the council as the council did not obtain the prior sanction to increase the existing load before installing 500 sodium lights. They said the council had to deposit Rs 1,85,000/- as security for the extended load and council was now paying the instalments of Rs 68184/- per month to PSEB for the penalty. They said if the EO had taken the prior permission the revenue loss could have been saved. They demanded that this penalty should be recovered from the EO.