The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

Hundreds of children attend rally
Our Correspondent

SAS Nagar, August 31
Hundreds of school children took part in a rally here on the concluding day today of a training programme organised by the Ropar police aimed at making children aware of their rights and protecting themselves against child abuse.

The police had selected 60 students of Government Senior Secondary School in Phase III BI for the seven-day training programme. The police personnel involved in the programme had themselves undergone training under an Indo-British project, Mr V.K. Vaid, Inspector, who was in charge of the programme, said.

A vehicle procession, including trucks and autorickshaws, was organised through different parts of the town. Hundreds of students of the school participated in it. Banners had been put up on vehicles against drug abuse, etc.

The DSP (Commando), Mr Lakhbir Singh, said efforts were being made to remove fear of the police created in the minds of children by parents. The focus was to bring the police and the public closer to each other. Once that gap was bridged it would help reduce the crime rate.

Mr Mohinder Singh Dhillon, Project Officer, Family Planning Association of India, said if children set limits for themselves nobody would be able to put them on the wrong track. He cautioned children about the ways AIDS could be spread. He said AIDS was a big challenge as there were now around 37 lakh HIV positive cases in the country. By the year 2010, he said, it had been estimated that 10,000 persons suffering from the disease would die daily.

Dr Anil Joshi of the local Civil Hospital urged the children to stay away from drugs. He said older children sometimes made other children take drugs or indulge in smoking at the time of ragging. This at times became a habit among the victims.

Mr Furinder Singh Walia, who said his mission in life was to fight drug abuse, appealed to the students to play a role in saving society from drugs. He said no religion allowed the use of drugs.

Dr Vijay Rattan
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 31
Dr Vijay Rattan, Professor of Public Administration in the Department of Correspondence Studies, Panjab University, has been elected a member of the national executive committee of the New Public Administration Society of India at its national conference held in New Delhi on August 24 and 25.

A press note by Dr Rattan said in his paper on e-governance by information technology initiatives of a micropolitan city, he had examined the information technology policy of Chandigarh and analysed various measures taken by the Chandigarh Administration to make Chandigarh a smart e-governed city and create a scenario in which every citizen would be able to assess the benefits of new technology.

COURTS

HIGH COURT
Plea on withdrawal of ORP dismissed
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 31
Upholding the orders passed by a single Judge Bench directing the withdrawal of ORP rank — from the rank of Superintendents of Police down to Inspectors — a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today dismissed three appeals filed by Moga’s SP Narinder Pal Singh and others challenging the same.

In their appeal taken up by the Chief Justice, Mr Arun B. Saharya, and Mr Justice V.K. Bali, the SP and others had alleged that the Judge had completely overlooked the fact that some of the respondents, who had filed the writ petition, had also been promoted in the same manner as they had been. As a result, the respondents could not claim that they had any grievance in the matter.

Counsel for the appellants had asserted that the change of pick-and-choose method of granting promotions was not correct. Giving details, they had added that the police force had to play with their lives during the days of terrorism and in such a situation it was necessary to recognise the efforts of personnel who had given an exemplary account of themselves.

Mr Justice J.S. Narang, in his orders on August 20, had directed that the “ORP ranks, from the rank of SP to Inspector, should be withdrawn forthwith and the promotions to these ranks should be made in accordance with the law”. The Judge had also ordered Punjab’s Principal Secretary to look into the matter after consulting the Director-General of Police. He had further ordered that the entire exercise of granting regular promotions should be carried out within six months of receiving the order.

Adampur vote recount on Sept 4

In less than three years after Indian National Congress candidate, Mr Kanwaljit Singh, was declared elected by a margin of six votes from the Adampur assembly constituency, the High Court today fixed September 4 for resuming the recount of the ballots. The process had been stopped following the death of Mr Kanwaljit Singh’s father.

Pronouncing the orders, Mr Justice J.S. Narang of the High Court also directed Mr Kanwaljit Singh to authorise a nominee to represent him during the recount. In an application, he had earlier asked the court to grant time before restaring the process.

Challenging his election, Mr Dalvir Singh Dhirowal (Shiromani Akali Dal) had contended that there was a difference of seven votes between the ballots retrieved from the boxes and calculated at the commencement of counting.

Arguing before the court, his counsel had added that six votes polled in the petitioner’s favour had been misplaced. He added that the number of votes polled in each candidate’s favour was neither announced nor displayed after each round despite the Chief Election Commissioner’s directions.

Going into the background, he had stated that the elections were held on November 25, 1998, and counting took place after three days. Besides, 35,285 votes were cast in Mr Kanwaljit Singh’s favour, while 35,279 votes were polled in the petitioner’s favour. As many as 651 votes were declared invalid.

Notice on ex-Dy Speaker’s security

On an application filed by Karnal’s Superintendent of Police seeking the withdrawal of security provided to Haryana’s former Deputy Speaker Ved Pal, Mr Justice Amar Bir Singh Gill and Mr Justice Swatanter Kumar of the High Court today issued notice for September 26.

In his application, filed on behalf of Haryana’s Chief Secretary and others, the SP had stated that as the state was facing an acute shortage of manpower and it was difficult for them to spare personnel, they be permitted to withdraw security. Mr Ved Pal’s arrest has already been stayed by the High Court.

Claiming the possibility of implication in false cases due to political rivalry with the Chief Minister, Mr Ved Pal, in his petition had contended that Mr. O.P. Chautala was openly announcing that the petitioner would be put in jail in some case.

Plea dismissed

A Division Bench of the High Court dismissed a writ petition filed by S.K. Builders against the Punjab Police Housing Corporation. The petitioner had challenged the orders cancelling tenders for the construction of houses at the PAP Jalandhar. The petition was dismissed by Mr Justice Amar Bir Singh Gill and Mr Justice Swatanter Kumar.

Notice of motion on sole distributor case
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 31
A Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued notice of motion for October 16 on a petition challenging the appointment of a “sole distributor” by Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited over and above the already existing distributors. The petition was filed by Goel Traders and 14 other such concerns.

Counsel for the petitioners had earlier submitted that the federation, also known as Verka products, had been selling products, including lassi and ghee, at fixed rates in the city. The petitioners were the distributors of the same for the past many years on fixed commission. The system was working well till suddenly on August 10, the management appointed a private person as the “sole distributor” for Chandigarh who was charging higher rates from the distributors which was resulting in an increase in the prices of all the products.

Counsel for the petitioners had contended on their behalf that the “sole distributor” had been appointed on political consideration and certain influential political leaders were having a secret share in the deal. He had further alleged that the “sole distributor” was sitting in the Verka office and charging money from the distributors. As a result, the residents had to pay more for the milk products which was illegal in the eyes of the law. Seeking the quashing of the appointment of the sole distributor, counsel had also sought directions for quashing the agreement arrived at between him and the Verka Management.

CULTURE

Anchoring involves creativity: Anil
Parbina Rashid

Chandigarh, August 31
If you think anchoring a TV show is all about looking good and talking in front of the camera, then you are wrong. It involves a lot of hard wor and creativity, if you believe Anil Jha, producer, director currently in the city to teach communication skills to the students at Government College for Girls, Sector 42.

“It looks glamourous from outside but once you get into the anchoring, you come to know the amount of tears and sweat that the job requires,” says Anil Jha who has carved a niche for himself in various aspects of post-production for serials like “Khul ja sim sim”, “Family fortunes”, “Bol baby bol” and “The price is right.”

The trick of good anchoring lies in the formula, KISS, says Anil which stands for “Keep it simple, stupid.” One has to have a discerning eye to look beyond what meets the eye and yet keep everything simple and clean, adds Anil. Besides, an anchor also has to keep up to date with the latest technology involved in production and post productions involved with the programme, he says.

Anil’s romance with dramatics started when he acted in one of the episodes of Ek Kahani for Doordarshan. However acting alone could not hold the interest of this creative person, so he switched over to direction.

However, it was the Rotary International Scholarship that enabled him to do a communication Course from Berlitz School, Frankfurt, which changed the course of his life. It was what he learnt during that period from international media, kindled a spirit in him to teach the youngsters all about communication skills. Now interacting with students has become an important part of his existence.

Apart from scripting, directing and editing programmes like “In Style”, “The Good Living Show”, “Sandese Aate Hain”, “Career Hunt” for Doordarshan, Anil has also made about 50 features and documentaries and about 16 commercials and 40 spots. A few of his commercials include Fedders Lloyd Air Conditioners, Futec Colour TV, Kingston Bathroom Fittings and Ufficio shirts. If this is not all, he also conducted a series of interviews for “Journal Do Almoco” for RBS TV in Rio Grande, Brazil.

To share his knowledge with budding artistes he opened a media institute in Shillong after he equipped himself with a diploma course in TV and film production from Academy-18 in New Delhi. “There is an urgent need to teach the youngsters all about media and art of communications before they make an hasty decision to join the silver screen just for the sake of glamour,” Anil add. And to prove his point, he will be shooting some footage tomorrow with the participants of the workshop.

Amritsar girl is French nightingale
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 31
Countdown to the regional finals of French nightingale contest-2001 finally came to an end at Tagore Theatre today, with a six-member jury adjudging Kanchan, an Amritsar girl, as the winner. The second rung went to Kamaldeep Kaur, a French student of the Government College for Girls, Sector 11 (who has bagged the second prize last year also), while the third prize of the evening was awarded to Mandeep Singh Bathian, a Guru Nanak Dev University student from Amritsar.

The evening was brought to the city by the French Embassy and the 15-centre Alliance Francaise network in India. Today’s contest, which saw 10 contestants in the category of French songs, is the seventh year of the contest in Chandigarh. The city has earlier had a history of winners, who have gone on to the finals and bagged a free trip to France.

As for today, there were three categories of contestants — first one had four contestants from Amritsar: Puja, Kajal, Mandeep Singh and Vikrant Kapoor; the second had GCG-11 girls: Kamaldeep Kaur, Puja Garg and Kocha; and the third lot was from Alliance Francaise, Chandigarh. It comprised Kirandeep, Navneet and Gaurav.

The contest,. which was compered by director of ALliance Francaise, Daniel Roeu, himself was open to candidates of any nationality below 25 years of age and above 18 years. After the selection at the regional level, the winners will have to fight it out with 15 other regional winners from all over the country.

All the 15 finalists will shortly send across their demo cassettes to the French Embassy in India. The Embassy will appoint its own jury and award prizes to the five best singers from the country. These five winners will win a free one-month trip to France.

As far as today’s contest goes, there were less boys and more girls. Interestingly, while the boys chose high-beat numbers, the girls went for the lighter, more soothing melodies, with the songs of Oscar award winner Celine Dion turning out to be the favourites.

‘Punjabi foundation lacks credibility’
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 31
Coming down heavily on the World Punjabi Foundation, a former Pakistan Culture Minister and eminent writer, Mr Fakar Zaman, has again dissociated himself from the foundation saying that the foundation lacked credibility and failed to do anything worthwhile for the cause of Punjabis.

Talking to reporters here, Mr Zaman clarified that he was appointed vice-president of the foundation without his consent and had nothing to do with the “shady” organisation floated during the World Punjabi Conference held at Panjab University here in December last year.

He claimed that after the Punjabi conference in Lahore there was renewed interest in Punjabi with the result that books in Gurmukhi script were being published in Pakistan now.

The Agra summit was not a failure, he said, adding that the peace process started by the leaders of the two nations would be carried forward at the session of the UN General Assembly in New York later this year.

Mr Zaman informed that the abolition of the posts of 84 Deputy Commissioners in Pakistan had helped in the strengthening of the democratic institutions in Pakistan.

An ordinance to abolish these post was issued recently under which the Nazams (Mayors) along with districts Judges and SDMs wielded substantial powers. He claimed that the candidates of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) had won on a majority of Mayoral posts. Mr Zaman was here to participate in a meeting held for the preparation of a seminar on “Farid vani” to be held next month at Panjab University. It will be organised in collaboration with Punjab Sahit Akademi, New Delhi. Eminent literary personalities, Dr Deepak Manmohan and Mr Satinder Noor, also addressed the press conference.