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| Thursday,
April 4, 2002, Chandigarh, India
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Burning of leaves: driver chargesheeted Chandigarh, April 3 This is the second case of giving severe punishment, for those employees who are causing air pollution in the city by resorting to a banned practice of burning leaves. The Municipal Commissioner, Mr M.P. Singh, today chargesheeted Chander Pal, after a report submitted by the Medical Officer, Health, Mr G.C. Bansal. The Additional Commissioner, Mr Ashok Vashishth, had yesterday suspended a sweeper, Kuldeep Singh, for the same charge. The charge sheet has now been given to the MOH who is likely to issue a show-cause notice to Pal to explain his position in a day or two. Pal is accused of refusing to lift tree leaves and instead asking sweepers in sectors 8 and 9 to burn them. The burning of leaves was witnessed by Mr Singh and Mr Vashishth during an inspection visit last week. When the Commissioner asked for a report on the burning of leaves, the MOH informed that sweepers in the sector had told him that they were asked by Pal to burn leaves. The Municipal Corporation had recently been approached by an expert to convert these leaves into wood but the Finance and Contract Committee had rejected the offer saying conditions of the private operator was unattractive. The committee then decided to approach other companies having this knowhow to dispose of tree leaves. |
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MC pays for
official's negligence Chandigarh, April 3 The corporation did not receive the compensation order courtesy a negligent SDO of the Public Health Department dealing with the case. The Municipal Corporation came to know of the court decision years later only when court officials attached the vehicles for the recovery of Rs 80,000 instead of Rs 50,000 as the amount had increased due to penal interest. When the corporation officials contacted the lawyer who pleaded its position in the case, he told them that the copy of the judgement had been given to the SDO dealing with the case. The SDO however, did not accept intially that the copy was not handed over. |
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Two lion cubs die
at zoo Chhat Bir, April 3 Sources in the zoo disclosed that a six-month-old cub, that had sustained injuries in a fight among other big cats, died due to the alleged negligence of zoo veterinary staff. After being given tranquilisers for treatment, the animal did not regain consciousness again and died on way to the zoo hospital. Meanwhile, another cub was found dead in an enclosure in the safari this morning. The cub had sustained severe injuries some time ago and the mite infested wound lead to its death, sources revealed. Both the cub-carcasses were taken to the Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana, for postmortem examination. The exact cause of the deaths would be ascertained only after the post-mortem reports, the zoo authorities said. |
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Back to school for parents! Chandigarh, April 3 Schools present a funny sight as teachers recite poems while playing on piano, and the parents, like obedient children, sit straight on benches listening attentively. Or else, they draw figures on blank sheets before passing them over to the young innocents for painting. ''I didn't realise how bad my drawing was till today,'' says a mother whose three-year-old son has taken admission in nursery in a high-profile school . "The teacher wanted me to draw a human face and I just couldn't do it. This is not all. I couldn't even cut the figure neatly with the help of scissors. God, I am clumsy!'' The motive behind making the parents of nursery students attend classes along with their kids is very clear. Ms Anu Sharma, teaching in a leading playway school, says, ''The children do not feel that they have been abandoned in a school, or else their parents are just dumping them in the institute to get rid of them for at least a few hours everyday." ''We want the children to realise that they are indulging in something interesting, something even their parents enjoy doing and that they have not been left alone to fend for themselves.'' The parents, she adds, will be asked to attend classes for at least a week "till the time the children get used to the concept of schooling and are convinced that learning is not a punishment, but actually fun". Parents, too, do not mind attending classes. For one, they do not have to walk into the classrooms in uniforms on time. They can come in cool casual shirts over regular denims. Then, they are not spanked for conversing with their next- seat neighbour. Are not even blamed for it. The fun doesn't end here. For talking in Hindi, while the English class is in progress, they are not fined. Are not even made to stand on bench with their arms raised or with their face towards the wall. "It's actually fun," says Madhu, a mother residing in Sector 32. "For the first time, I am not scared of teachers. Poetry is not scary. Drawing is interesting and there is no tension of doing the homework. And the best part is that my mother-in-law is doing all the cooking as I have to be present in the school. I wish the course is extended from one week to one year". |
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CLTA starts coaching children Chandigarh, April 3 Mr Kashyap said they would be taught fundamentals of grip and footwork and encouraged to enjoy the game rather going in for competitive play in the
initial stages. He also highlighted the latest upgradation of infrastructure in the CLTA complex, including tournament-level floodlighting of the plexi-cushion centre courts and the establishment of a state-of-art gymnasium with special facilities for technical guidance. He said the star player of the CLTA, Sunil Kumar, had finished as runner-up in the National Grass Court Tennis Championship at Kolkata. Amanjot Singh and Saurabh Singh had also done wonders in the under 18-section with latter winning two ITF tournaments. Then Chhatwinder Singh, at the age of 16, had unseated
a number of seeded players. Among the girls section, Shruti Dhawan was the quarter-finalist of the women event in the nationals. Taskeen and Alipt Sandhu had also performed well. Kinshuk Sharma, a young trainee was able to bag a silver medal in the national school games. Mr M. Ramsekhar, secretary of the association, explained the main features of the future scheme for boys and girls in the age group of 10-12 years, currently in progress in city. The CLTA has organised this unique coaching camp on behalf of the All-India Tennis Association for talented children of Punjab, Haryana, UP, Delhi and Chandigarh. Out of 30 participants, four boys and equal number of girls will be selected for the national camp to be held in Delhi by the end of this month. |
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Biotechnology key to future of agriculture Chandigarh, April 3 These views were expressed by Dr C S Prakash in an exclusive interview to TNS here tonight. He is Director, Centre for Biotechnology Research and Professor, Plant Molecular Genetics at the College of Agriculture, Tuskegee University , the USA. He oversees research on food crops there besides having a website, www.agbioworld.org. A widely travelled scientist, he is instrumental in leading to the development of transgenic sweetpotato, identification of DNA polymorphism in peanut and development of a genetic map of cultivated peanut. His team has recently enhanced the protein content of crops several fold through genetic modification. His research gets funded from the US State Department of Agriculture as well as National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Dr Prakash is in Chandigarh for a seminar on Biotechnology in Northern States being hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry here tomorrow. Making use of biotechnology in fruits and vegetables will not only increase their quality, nutrient content but also shelf-life of the produce that can be transported to far-off places. The new scientific techniques could provide value addition to farm produce, so essential to ensure remunerative returns to producers and quality stuff to consumers. In fact biotechnology is a tool, a technique that will reduce dependence on high-price plant protection chemicals and even fertilisers, at a later stage, which have added enough toxicity to the soil, air and water. On the range of benefits, Dr Prakash listed several of these, including production of ‘’zero-calorie sugarcane or high-nutrient value potatoes’’. Punjab and Haryana are the store houses of agriculture, where potential for higher production had been fully exploited and that has given rise to related problems, environmental, ecological health, depletion of water, storage etc. Therefore, the introduction of biotechnology can now be effectively used to improve ‘’quality’’ of life and health through good food and preserve biodiversity. Dr Prakash noted that Bt cotton would now be sown in these states. Talking of economics of cotton cultivation, he said a farmer now invested around Rs 500 per hectare on cottonseed and about Rs 5,000 on sprays. But Bt cotton would mean around Rs 750-1,000 on seed but reduce cost of sprays to around Rs 500 or so. ‘’India must start a vigorous pro-biotechnology campaign and dispel fears created by misinformation. The corporate sector must be involved. The country has the basic knowledge and human resource. It is just taking the technology off the shelf and introducing it in the lab and on the land’’. The state agricultural universities should reorient their research and teaching to include tissue culture, genetic engineering, transgenic plants, gene expression, plant genomics etc. Biotechnology, thus holds the key to food security as well as farmers security. |
Sialkot Gandhi’s daughter
Chandigarh, April 3 Author of two books, both based on her experiences as an educationist, Dr Sucheta Goindi is one of those rare individuals who still adhere to those golden ideals which spurred our freedom fighters. And a fighter she is. Recalling her early days of starting to teach in an all-boys college in the mid sixties where she remained as the only woman faculty member for over a decade, Dr Sucheta says that those were the most formative years of her life as she relived Gandhiji’s experiments and learnt how peace and love can be spread through non-violence and how it is important to have hatred for the wrong and not the wrong doer. “It was ingrained in us by our father not to ever suffer any injustice and to raise one’s voice against everything that one feels is going wrong,” she says. “I was then, on the UP government’s special insistence, made the Principal of the first women’s college in Rampur, a Muslim-dominated area where education of women beyond school was virtually unheard of in those days. It was a difficult assignment but I took the challenge and starting from a broken chair and table, we made the college one of the best colleges in the state. In the 15 years that I was there never was the police called in the college even once and it is a record of sorts in UP where goondaism during college years is commonplace,” she says. Now the Chairperson of Women’s Commission for Higher Education in the state, Dr Sucheta has also been on the Women’s Advisory Council, Allahabad University, her alma mater. A topper in Masters in Philosophy, Dr Sucheta was also the first in the country to get a doctorate in aesthetics of philosophy. But her ideas about the role of education in society are clear and forthright. “Being a highly educated person or an intellectual is useless till the education we have gained is used to bring about social change and sadly the intellectuals sitting in the universities do not understand this. They are psychologically ill in believing that they are intellectuals. It is our duty to give back to society what we take from it,” she points out. Working in Allahabad with an organisation, Kriti, Dr Sucheta is doing wonders for the educational uplift of women in the state. “Education in the sense of degrees is secondary, the first thing is to make the women believe that they are individuals with a life of their own and that they are equal to men in all respects. Then comes economic independence for women, which lies not in doing 9 to 5 jobs but learning skills in crafts. Bearing children and taking care of them is something I feel is very important and no woman has ever been emancipated by shouting from rooftops that she is not going to have children or marry because she is liberated,” she adds.  |
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Red tape ‘chokes’ 8-seater vehicle owners Chandigarh, April 3 Normally a vehicle is given a certificate for road worthiness for 15 years and the road tax is also deposited for the same period, however, eight seaters are, strangely, not covered under this rule. Due to this red-tapism, a large number of city residents, who own eight-seater vehicles, face this problem and in the first week of April it gets worse as everybody’s road tax limits ends on March 31 thus the rush. Each year these vehicle owners are required to get their vehicles inspected and passed by a Motor Vehicle Inspector for fitness and road worthiness. Interestingly this clause applies only in case of eight-seater vehicles. All other four-wheelers are exempt from such annual inspections. This clause means that owners of such vehicles have to queue up after every 12 months and get their vehicles inspected. The ordeal does not end here as owners of these vehicles cannot pay one-time road tax like other vehicle owners. After the road worthiness certification is acquired, owners have to stand in another queue to deposit road tax. This requires extensive paper work and generally takes around three days to complete the formalities. Interestingly this running around is required to be done only in Chandigarh. In neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh no annual inspection is required and vehicles can be registered and road tax paid in one go. Sources said a proposal to allow one-time registration and payment of road tax in Chandigarh had been doing the rounds of officials concerned for the past two years. The latest was what should be the base to calculate the one-time tax for eight-seater vehicles and then notify it. The original proposal was mooted by the then SDM (south), Mr Ashish Kundra. Almost nothing had happened since then with the files just doing the rounds from one department to the other. Sources pointed out that it was ridiculous that vehicles, which were manufactured using top class technology, were called each year for inspection. What could an MVI spot in such a technologically-superior vehicle was anyone’s guess, said a Sector 18 resident, who was agitated that he had to the rounds each year. In the past several owners used to argued with the State Transport Authority (STA) staff over this fact, however, lower level staff could do nothing unless orders were issued from the top. Explaining the reason for this annual check-up an official explained that authorities went by the thumb rule that any vehicle which had eight-seat capacity, was running as commercial vehicle. Though in today’s times this concept was untrue as a majority of eight seaters were private vehicles, admitted officials. |
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Mayor told to book Sec 22
byelaw violators Chandigarh, April 3 In a memorandum addressed to the Administrator of UT and Mayor, Mr J.S. Uppal, general secretary of the association, said that although these problems had been brought to the notice of the authorities at different levels, nothing concrete had been done by the lower staff for reasons best known to them. The memo said: “The backside of the shops facing the residences presents a dismal picture of violation of the building byelaws and encroachment on public land. The shopkeepers have illegally constructed / opened back doors to use them as sale outlets/ sale counters, which remain open throughout the day. Loading and unloading of chuna/cement trucks, rehries and even rickshaws is done through these backdoors. Sales of chuna and cement from the rear side is causing health hazard to the residents. The loading and unloading process continues from morning till evening, with the result that the residents, particularly ladies cannot sit in the space outside their houses. They have to keep their doors closed. We would, therefore, request that the back doors being used for sale of chuna and cement may kindly be got closed/locked.” “Environmental cleanliness in this locality has further been damaged by ‘kabari shops’ located also in front of these residences. Polythene bags, waste papers, empty plastic bottles etc keep flying here and there, adding more pollution to the already polluted area. The `kabaries’ are freely using the government land as dumping ground for their waste materials, which remain scattered, blocking the back lane. Even those responsible for removal of encroachments on public land seem to have adopted a lenient view in their case for reasons best known to them. Can such kabari shops be allowed to be opened just infront of the residences is a question that has gone unanswered so far. |
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Ban on washing cars, watering gardens likely Chandigarh, April 3 The available water supply for the city was 55 MGD against a possible demand of 95 MGD in the peak summer months of May and June. A part of shortage could be met from tubewell water supply but the gap was still huge, official sources said. Though availability of water was not sufficient to continue the afternoon water supply but rescheduling of evening and morning supplies may enable the afternoon supply to be continued, sources said. The afternoon supply will, however, put certain pressure on cost of water supply due to additional pumping efforts. The afternoon supply was started recently on the demand of the Congress Mayor, Ms Lalit Joshi. Ms Joshi was, however, optimistic about the continuance of the afternoon supply. SDOs of the Municipal Corporation would start inspections early in the morning from April 15 to check whether people were adhering to the ban or not. If somebody was found flouting the ban, the officials could issue a notice for disconnection of the supply and confiscate supply material. |
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Labour colony residents
to be ‘rehabilitated’ SAS Nagar, April 3 A three-member committee has been set up at the level of Ropar Deputy Commissioner to check the PUDA survey. This was stated by Mr Birdevinder Singh, MLA (Kharar), at the Municipal Council office here today to hear the grievances of residents. He said dwelling units and the necessary civic amenities would be provided to the deserving residents of the labour colonies on the basis of the recommendations of the three-member panel. The MLA said after the rehabilitation plan was implemented, the grievances of residents of the town with regard to such illegal colonies would end. No more such colonies would be permitted in the town later, he added. Mr Birdevinder Singh said a resident of Sohana village, near here, had been illegally collecting money, running into thousands of rupees, from rehri owners at weekly sabzi mandis organised in different phases. He was caught while collecting the money from Phase VI, but the police had taken no action against the man. The MLA said the police must take the appropriate action against the man or he would be compelled to take up the matter with the Vigilance Department. The MLA heard a number of grievances, including those related to the supply of drinking water proper drainage in villages and police inaction in various cases. |
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Fires in dumping sites irk residents Chandigarh, April 3 Residents on Monday again saw smoke billowing from the dump. Fire tenders were pressed into service to control the fire. Fire Department personnel said rag pickers seemed to have caused the fire while smoking during the sorting of the garbage leading to fire in the dump of dry leaves collected from the city. With wind blowing from Dhanas side, the people in the adjoining areas have to tolerate the choking smoke. Even those passing by the dumping ground have had a difficult time tolerating the smoke and smell. The Fire Department personnel, however, said that pouring water on the smoke was not a permanent solution and sand was required to douse the fire completely. The Adviser to the Administrator, Ms Neeru Nanda, the Additional Commissioner of Municipal Corporation, Mr Ashok Vashishth, and senior officials of the Fire Department today visited the site. The stench caused by burning plastic and polythene has caused irritation and burning sensation in eyes of several residents of the area. |
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Beat patrolling to go hi-tech Panchkula, April 3 This is for the first time in North India that e-beat, a technology-based patrol system, is being introduced on an experimental basis. The aim is to ensure that the patrolling in Panchkula city area by the beat patrolling staff and Police Control Room Vehicles (PCR) is regular, comprehensive and uniformly distributed. Explaining features of this new patrolling system, the Superintendent of Police, Mr Manoj Yadav, said: “It is a cost effective solution to monitor the police beat system. This has been developed using radio frequency technology.” During the first phase, the system will be introduced in 20 sectors of the township. In each sector, e- beat points at five different locations will be set up. Electronic cards called tags — the size of a visiting card, with an electronic circuit — will be implanted in the walls of houses or plots at five selected points in each sector. The patrolling staff will be given another palm-sized gizmo, reader, which they would have to swipe near a card in the sector each time they cross the point. The tags will have a unique ID and would read the ID of the reader without physical contact from a distance of 10 cm. The timing and date would get recorded on the reader. This information would then be read out from a computer having a special software, Tech Beat, and the printout taken. Even senior officers would get a tag with a unique identity so that they can go to each patrolling party and get the readings recorded. The scheme is being introduced in Sectors 2-11, 12-A, 14-19, 21, 25, Mansa Devi Sector 4, Industrial Area Phase I and II. The project cost is Rs 4.63 lakh, which has been spent to buy a computer with interface, 24 readers and 100 tags. The computer will be installed at Sector 10, near the Crime Against Women cell. |
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EATING OUT Chandigarh Besides this specialty, Salt’n Pepper offers Indian, Chinese and Italian cuisines. Over the past four years, since the eatery was opened, Jaideep realised that the city residents do not quite take to Mexican food. So, he struck the Chimi Changas off the menu some time ago. Those in the know must be wondering if Salt’n Pepper offers the dish of its own name. Well, yes. That’s their other specialty. A starter from the Hunan region of China, the Salt’n Pepper preparation comes made with baby corn, mushroom or vegetables. The non-veg delicacies come in the Szechwan style. This range includes the popular ginger chicken, garlic chicken, chicken manchurian, chicken hot garlic sauce, chicken with greens etc. Complement these with noodles (available in plain hakka style of such flavours as egg, veg, chilli and garlic) or fried rice. Italian pasta (penne and fusilli) is served with sauce of your choice: cheese sauce, cheese spinach, tomato or mushroom sauce. The Indian fare comprises the ever favourite items, both from the tandoor and kadai. Stuffed dhingli is the specialty in this category. The mushrooms are boiled, the central part scooped out and filled with cheese to be barbecued and served with green and red garnishings. The interesting part is that while this joint dishes out Indian, Chinese and Italian gourmet, its ambience is English. The green wooden hut-like front facade and the hanging lanterns inside along with the photos and green wooden alcoves, only enhance this feeling. The rust-covered marble floor, especially beneath the side bar stools, however, needs to be redone. Since their home delivery service is doing very well (call 775306, 783119 ), Jaideep is planning to open counters in Sector 10, Panchkula and Mohali to cater to these satellite towns, too. |
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Brahmin Sabha flays attack on temple Chandigarh, April 3 Mr Om Parkash Sharma, general secretary of the sabha, said there should be adequate security at all temples to stop such incidents from happening again. The president of the sabha, Mr Tarsem Lal, demanded action against the perpetrators of the attack. |
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Kamlesh Gupta to head social
welfare board A resident of Sector 21, she is also a member of the Legal Services Authority, Haryana and Chandigarh. She was also formerly member of the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum II, Chandigarh. |
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BJP foundation
day on April 6 Chandigarh, April 3 The central party secretary and in-charge of Chandigarh, Mr. O. P. Kohli, will be the chief guest. This was decided at a meeting of the members of the ad-hoc committee and party councillors. The meeting was chaired by the convener, Mr Yashpal Mahajan. |
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Appointed Chandigarh, April 3 The appointment was made by the Chandigarh in-charge, Mr Manmohan Singh, after a clearance from the national chief organiser, Mr Prahlad Yadav. |
Alert salesman prevents theft Chandigarh, April 3 The modus operandi of the gang was simple. Three of them kept salesmen in the showroom busy, while two carried out the theft. All five entered the showroom this afternoon and one of them asked a salesman to show televisions, another asked for washing machines and another one asked for cordless phones. Thus engaging all salesmen in the shop. In the meantime, the other two members of the gang started seeing phones placed in the showcase across the counter where the owner, Mr Surinder Singh, alias Baiji, sits. Seeing that the owner was busy in his work, one of them allegedly picked up his briefcase and walked off. The second one picked up a cordless phone and put in her handbag. As the duo were walking off, an alert employee, Satyen, noticed the briefcase of his employer in the woman’s hand. He raised an alarm and caught the suspects. The arrested women have been identified as Tomma, Meena, Lalmi, Kesan and Seermig. They were handed over to the police and case under Section 380 of the IPC was registered. |
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Dowry harassment case registered Chandigarh, April 3 Abducted Mishap Vehicle thefts Money stolen PANCHKULA Liquor seized One held Burglary |
Major ISPs set to provide Internet telephony Chandigarh, April 3 For city residents, while ISPs, including Glide and Satyam will shortly come out with the service and announce the charges, Net for India company, which also offers free download of software for the Internet telephony at its website has already started offering the facility. "We are planning to provide the service within a day or so ", said a Glide official . Satyam which claims to hold more than 65 per cent of the market share says it expects to add up to the number of its subscribers substantially. The company will start providing the service within a month . While speed and connectivity are going to be the crucial in this service, TRAI which has specified minimum quality of service standards, has recommended that in addition to toll quality telephony service the facility based operators be permitted to also offer a lower than toll quality telephony service for customers who can accept some degradation in voice quality by engineering a separate VOIP-based backbone accessible by a different service code. Nonetheless, the Authority has specified a minimum QOS for this service, i.e. MOS for this type service can be less than 4 but greater than 3. This, according to TRAI as been done in order to provide greater flexibility to operators and more options to the customers. So far as the users are concerned, the requirement would be a multimedia PC and one can add headphones, video camera, video card handsets and speakerphones along with the software that enables Net telephony. According to TRAI, the scope of service includes PC to PC (both within country as well as abroad) connections, PC to Phone (PC in India, Phone abroad) and IP based H.323/ SIP terminals in India to similar terminals both in India and abroad. It has been recommended that Internet Telephony through PCs or IP based terminals should be made available also through the Public Tele Info Centre (PTIC) and Internet Kiosks or Cyber Dhabas for the benefit of those who do not own the customer premises . However, penetration of Internet telephony might take some time, says Mr Vijay Kaul from Connect ( basic telephone service provider in Punjab and UT which also provides Internet services ), "Not only the factor that PC penetration in the country is low will restrict the usage of net telephony, the fact that in India it has to be from PC to PC will further limit the usage". He said with STD call rates having been already slashed the chances of high usage of net telephony within the country are low. While the infrastructure with Connect supports internet telephony, the company is not planning to start the service at least in near future. |
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Website for marriage Chandigarh, April 3 The portal gives an opportunity to those who want to get married to put their biodata and picture free of cost. Another feature of the site is that it helps one to shop for wedding, and send online invitations, tells about bride and groom fashions and also wedding rituals. One can contact florists, jewellers, photographers, sweet shops, travel agents, furniture shops and banquet halls through this website. |
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Chandigarh, April 3