The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

TRIBUNE DEBATE
PU needs to revamp entire poll process
“Restrict voting rights to postgraduates, scholars in graduates constituency”
Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1
If not scrap the graduates’ constituency from the Panjab University Senate, the university seriously needs to revamp the entire electoral process of the constituency to give it a more creditable place.

The debate has arisen following the arrest of Mr Paramjit Singh Pammi, a Fellow, by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau, in connection with the ongoing infamous recruitment scandal of the Punjab Public Service Commission.

A cross-section of academicians contacted by The Tribune voiced their concern over the electoral process of the constituency that has degraded its importance and also made suggestions to make the constituency more fruitful in Senate proceedings. Fellows from the graduates’ constituency gave their own reasons in defence of the constituency.

“The arrest of one fellow should not be seen as a reflection on worth of the entire constituency. A perusal of the university records will show that even teachers have figured among the tainted flock. It is the system and not the individual that needs consideration for future improvement”, a senior fellow said.

Prof Manmohan Gupta, Department of Physics, said “ the question mark on the system should not narrow down to one individual only.” It is renovation of the system which needs deliberations. Graduates’ constituency in its present form has outgrown its utility. The voters’ list is scattered and not well maintained. The numbers are ever-growing.

Professor Gupta said the voters’ list in the graduates’ constituency should be restricted to postgraduates and researchers alone. People in this category are also educated and definitely close to the field in question.

Prof I.M. Joshi, Department of Chemistry, said individuals mattered more than a constituency. All categories which also include nominated members can contribute immensely on the basis of their touch with the academic field on the one hand and vast experience on the other. Instead of the ‘blame-game’, a review of the system was the need of the hour. Nobody has ever attempted a re-look on the issue which needed to be done.

Mr Ashok Goyal, a Fellow from the graduates’ constituency, said: “We must first answer what was the definition of an academician. We are graduates and have been a part of the system under discussion. People ‘here’ seem to be interested in monopolising the system for themselves. What is wrong in a discussion? What is wrong in representation for a cross-section of society that is affected by the decisions of the institution?”

Prof B.S. Ghumman, Department of Public Administration, said students were most important stakeholders in the university and there was every justification in giving them a representation on the university body. The electoral system needed a change and the university should restrict the voting rights only to postgraduates and research scholars. This would lower the number of voters but raise the level of discussion.

Dr Jagdish Kalra, Department of Correspondence Studies, however, differed on the subject. He said the constituency in its present form had become redundant and outlived its utility. Under the existing circumstances it only seemed to be ruled by groups of vested interests. In fact the whole constitution of the university needed a review and the university should be, if possible, converted into a central university. The university list still had names of voters who had died several years back. The records were ill-maintained.

Mr Dhirender Tayal, another Fellow from the graduates’ constituency, said a revamp in the system was worth consideration, but, the constituency’s real worth could be gauged from the proceedings of the Senate in terms of their contributions on vital academic issues. The voters list needs to be pruned in the first place to make the system more transparent and allow interested alumni get closer to people in their constituency and get along the real academic issues.

Dr Rajesh Gill, Department of Sociology, said younger people should be represented on bodies like Senate. One man caught on the wrong foot should not be seen as a statement on the entire group. In fact many of the constituencies, including those of academician, are led by ‘political’ leaning which have become a part of the university system over the past more than a couple of decades. The university should make efforts to give representation to young lecturers and Readers who largely remain in the background.

Power may cost more in city
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1
Power is likely to cost more for residents of the city. The hike is to be implemented anytime and is expected to be less than 5 per cent of the existing tariff.

This means a hike of about 8 paise per unit for residential users and about 12 paise per unit for industrial and commercial users. The exact figures are being worked out as to what should be minimum cost increase.

The hike will be across the board and will affect residential, commercial and industrial users. Officially, the Administration needs to bridge the gap between the cost of purchasing power and the money it recovers from people by way of bill collection. Sources say the Union Finance ministry has hiked the target for revenue collection in the power sector from Rs 200 crore in the last financial year to Rs 214 crore in the current financial year.

The cost of purchasing power has been steadily rising during the past 12 months, said sources, adding that costs had gone up as new power purchase agreements had been signed with several hydro and thermal power producers.

If the hike is not effected, it will mean the overall profit earned by the Administration from power will go in the negative. This may not be to the liking of the Union Power Ministry which has just announced that it will make Chandigarh a model city for power reforms and changes.

In the past, the Chandigarh Administration has been asking and getting more budgetary allocation by projecting itself as a progressive Union Territory where revenue collection is more than the expenditure.

The cost of power is more when it is procured from newer generation plants as they have their own capital costs to recover.

The last time a hike was effected it was more than a year ago.

Also increasing the cost of purchase for the Administration is the regime of the Availability Built Tariff. Under this, anyone drawing more power than the allocation has to pay fines. The fine is calculated on the basis of power which is available on the grid when the overdrawl takes place.

In the middle of April, Chandigarh had been overdrawing power from the Northern Power Grid. This overdrawal was occurring between 10 a.m and 5 p.m and for this the Administration will be fined. After fines, each unit cost Rs 3.70 to the Administration.

Meanwhile, steps are being taken to plug line losses, which presently hover around 23 per cent. A large part of the line losses, is theft due to kundis in slums and various villages. The Administration aims to curb some losses by introducing bulk supply scheme for jhuggis and slums.

No LPG-run vehicles for schools
Monica Sharma

Chandigarh, May 1
The UT Education Department is issuing directions to the school authorities to ensure that the vehicles being used for ferrying students are not running on LPG cylinders.

The instructions were being issued by the department following reports that the practice of deploying vans running on LPG cylinders for transporting students to the schools were rampant in New Delhi.

Sources in the department claimed that the practice was adopted in New Delhi soon after a problem of ferrying students was created due to shortage of buses running on CNG. They added that in Chandigarh such vehicles were being deployed by some of the private contractors as they were much economical to run.

“We are not sure of the number of such vehicles being run in the city for carrying school children,” revealed a senior officer in the department. “Chances are that the number of such vehicles is just marginal, may be one or two, but we do not want to take risk with the lives of the young innocents”.

Giving details, the officer stated that converting the vehicles to enable these to run on LPG cylinders was not only illegal, but was also dangerous. They added that so far in Chandigarh special LPG kits meant for converting the cars from petrol to gas were not available.

The officer added that in the absence of proper and safe kits, the possibility of a mishap occurring due to the busting of the gas cylinder could not be ruled out. “It has come to the notice of our counterparts in New Delhi that as many as eight to 10 students were being packed in the vans being used for transporting the students,” the officer asserted. “Students sitting on the gas cylinders too was a common sight”.

In order to avoid the possibility of such mishaps, the department was issuing instructions to the schools, the officer stated. “We are telling them to keep their eyes and ears open for such vehicles. Though the school authorities may not be able to do much about it, they can at least inform the parents of such children about the perilous implications of sending their wards to schools in such vehicles. We are also asking them to inform us about the presence of such vehicles so that we can in turn request the police to act in accordance with law against the violators.”

The officer added that they were also in touch with their counterparts in New Delhi. “We are doing so in order to know the steps being taken by the authorities there to curb the menace being created by such vehicles”.

Rallies, speeches mark May Day
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, May 1
May Day failed to bring cheer to the lives of workers today. To appease workers, industrialists arranged ‘langar’ and paid extra amounts to dailywagers to keep their industries running today.

The Chandigarh UT Subordinate Services Federation held a gate rally at the UT Building Maintenance Booth, Sector 20, to mark the day. Various leaders who addressed the gathering criticised the Central Government for its privatisation policies. The leaders also criticised the government for not enhancing the Income Tax limit and urged the government to release the pending bonus. Members of the Non Teaching Employees Federation of Panjab University held a gate rally at the Administrative Block to mark the day. Speaking on the occasion, various employee leaders ciriticised the alleged passive, indifferent and discriminative attitude of the authorities concerned towards non-teaching employees and their demands. The Federation threatened that if their demands were not accepted by May 8, they would stage a dharna and rally to press for their demands, stated Mr Dharam Paul Sharma, president of the Federation in a note.

Hundreds of members of the GBA Workers Union joined a procession taken out by members of various government, semi-government and industrial workers. The procession started from Industrial Area, Phase I and passed through Sectors 28, 27, 19, 18, 22, 21, 30, 29 before terminating at Phase I. Later, a public meeting was held in Industrial Area.

A large number of roadside footpath workers under the banner of Footpath Workers Rozgar Bachao Samiti held a rally at the Labour Chowk. They demanded reinstatement of the contractual employees of the GMCH, Sector 32, who had been sacked recently.

Chicago martyrs remembered
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1
The Tribune Employees Union today paid rich tributes to the Chicago martyrs on the occasion of Labour Day.

At a massive rally held on The Tribune premises, speakers reminded the employees of the sacrifices made by the martyrs. They appealed to the employees to follow the path shown by the martyrs. They flayed the Union Government’s “anti-labour” and “anti-employee” policies and appealed to the employees to wage a struggle against any such policies. They were also critical of the emerging trend in the newspaper industry to introduce the contract system. Balbir Singh Jandu, president of the union, unfurled the newly adopted flag of the union for the first time.

Prominent among those who addressed the rally were Mr Balbir Singh Jandu, Haresh Vashishth, Anil Gupta, senior vice-president and general secretary, respectively, Jagtar Singh Sidhu, Surinder Singh and Renuka Nayyar.

COMMUNITY

Permanent police force needed to check encroachments
Our Correspondent

SAS Nagar, May 1
The anti-encroachment drive of the Municipal Council here is suffering from a serious handicap due to the lack of a permanent police force to tackle offenders who put up resistance.

Incidents of offenders attacking members of the municipal staff deputed to remove encroachments have been reported from time to time. Among the recent incidents was one in Phase V market about a week ago and another in the Phase X market. In both incidents employees of the civic body were assaulted when they tried to remove encroachments.

The council president, Mr Kulwant Singh, said today that the two offending shopkeepers of the Phase V and the Phase X market apologised in writing when the council decided to register a case with the police against them. They also gave an assurance that in future they would not indulge in violations.

Interestingly, it was seen today that despite an assurance, the Phase V shopkeeper had again encroached on the verandah in front of shops.

In the same market bicyle shop owners have once again resorted to encroachment despite repeated action against them by the civil body.

In October last year employees of the enforcement wing of the council were bashed up by kiosk owners in Phase III B1 when they went to remove encroachments in front of the rehri market.

Mr Kulwant Singh said the anti-encroachment drive could not be fully effective unless police personnel were provided on a permanent basis to assist the enforcement staff. Once again a letter had been written to the Ropar Deputy Commissioner a few days ago to provide police force.

The council had cleared a proposal at its June 16 meeting last year to have police force deployed on a regular basis at the office to tackle various problems. An ASI and four constables were to be on deputation with the council for a period of one year and were to be paid by the civil body.

The council had earlier written to the SP and the SDM complaining that police help was often not available at the time of removing encroachments.

On August 2 last year the council had written to the Ropar Deputy Commissioner requesting him to direct the Police Department to send personnel to the civic body according to its demand. But nothing happened.

Will the district administration this time take the council’s request more seriously and help the town to take a cleaner look?

Fault in pipeline inundates Sector 29
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1
The intersection connecting sectors 27, 28, 29 and 30 was inundated today due to loosening of a joint of a water supply pipeline in sector 29.

The Public Health Department was engaged in repair till the report was filed late in the evening.

The routine supply of the area was not affected as it was an internal line supplying water from the Sector 32 pump station to Sector 26, official sources claimed.

The officials claimed that the SDO in charge of the repair operation, Mr Rajinder Walia, had informed that the supply line would be rectified by the night.

Surprisingly, the joint was loosened due to a high pressure of the supply at a time when the Municipal Corporation had enforced ban on car washing and watering of lawns due to an estimated paucity of supply.

Corporation sources said the city as of now had sufficient water but the ban was imposed to stop misuse of water at a time when the supply might fall short any day. The sources said such loosening of joints was normal. The water surge and hammering weakens the joints resulting some time in such major leakage of water for sometime.

The leakage was notice around 4 pm but as the line was not directly linked to public water supply, there was no effect on the evening supply in the area.

Panel to discuss hike in property tax
Sanjay Sharma
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1
The House Tax Assessment Committee will discuss hiking the property tax on commercial property and government buildings from 2 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively, to at least 5 per cent.

“Two per cent tax is as good as no tax, barely meeting the collection cost and leaving no money for development with the Corporation that is burdened with at least spending Rs 15 crore for the maintenance of roads alone. So it needs to be hiked to at least 5 per cent,’’ authoritative sources told Chandigarh Tribune here today.

The meeting of the committee is scheduled for May 3, it was officially made known. Official attempts to get the rate increased to 5 per cent are believed to be on the suggestion of the Chandigarh Administration, which the Congress claimed had agreed to 2 per cent rate before the party passed the tax in the budget.

Sources in the corporation said the Administration, considering the poor fiscal health of the municipal body and Central Government, directed cut in the annual grant. It was of the strong opinion that unless the hike was not done, the corporation would find it difficult to carry out its developmental and maintenance activities.

The meeting will also discuss the property tax bylaws, a draft of which has already been made.

A self-assessment scheme will also be offered to the assessees, sources said. Another attempt of the officials to get the rate hiked has come after the officials had put up a spirited resistance to the passage of 2 per cent rate but the Congress put its foot down.

The Congress had put condition of the Administration honouring its suggestions of providing a matching grant to the tax effort and had brought it on the record of the House.

The Congress is to be believed to be blocking the fresh effort, feeling deceived by the Administration.

Nominated members had during the budget discussion pointed out that the rate was too low to be implemented. The House Tax had been hanging fire despite the passage by the House, probably as Administration might have developed second thoughts. Bylaws had also been framed for long time.

The imposition of House Tax had been resulting in a tiff between politicians and the Chandigarh Administration. Municipal Commissioner M P Singh had gone to Bangalore in a national seminar to find out the best possible solution to the issue.

The Bangalore formula was found to be most suitable, which even the Mumbai Municipal Corporation is also studying for implementation.

The new formula may consider having different yardsticks for different areas and market price evaluation could be the basis for the assessment of tax, sources said.

Bansal justifies Mayor’s action
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1
The local Congress MP, Mr Pawan Bansal, here today came to the rescue of the besieged Mayor Lalit Joshi asking the BJP if ‘’it was even opposed to humanitarian relief to the displaced people of Colony Number 5’’ and threatened to hit streets if they were removed by the Administration without their legitimate rehabilitation.

Mr Bansal said those who had legitimate right to resettlement as per the December 8, 1996 cut off date for rehabilitation, had to be accommodated in the Administration’s policy.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Bansal clarified that the Mayor was not encouraging the grabbing of the government land but was extending humanitarian relief of water supply through tankers and providing the displaced people with place to settle temporarily as a social worker. The BJP had yesterday criticised the Mayor for ‘’illegally trying to settle’’ the displaced near Burail Jail and had called for a House meeting challenging the Mayor’s authority to use the Administration land for the purpose.

The place where the people had settled for few days had reportedly been levelled and Municipal Corporation tankers had supplied water to them.

Flanked by the Mayor and leader of the Congress in Corporation, Mr Subhash Chawla, Mr Bansal said as a social worker water tankers of the Corporation had been sent by Ms Joshi and individuals from the party had paid for the service taken from the Corporation. The MP argued whether it was wrong to provide the people with drinking water which is provided free by the Corporation to even those protesting on Matka Chowk.

Mr Bansal ridiculed the BJP for reportedly having said they would include people of slums up to 2003 for rehabilitation.

He said the opposition party seemed to be thinking to convert the city into a shanty by virtually inviting the people to settle in the city which has been left with no space to take more people. Mr Bansal demanded resettlement of the people as per the cut off date of December 8, 1996 by getting a survey done.

The MP took umbrage on suggestions that the slum dwellers were being nursed as vote banks by political parties and added that they could not be treated as second rate citizens of the city and their contribution in the development of the city was not hidden from the people.

Notice served for MC recruitments
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1
The Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh was yesterday served a legal notice by four unsuccessful candidates for the recent recruitment of firemen.

Satinder Pal of Ambala, Rajesh Kumar of Behlana, Sanjay Kumar of Hisar and Gurnam Singh of Chandigarh alleged they had been denied selection due to change in the criteria at the last moment.

They threatened to approach court if the lists of the selected candidates were not reviewed in two weeks.

The four alleged that their marks of experience were not counted in the selection process.

The candidates said they had passed the physical test and “got an impression of having done well in the interview” but were not selected.

The corporation had conducted physical test for 44 posts of fireman in January and 6000 candidates had appeared in the test.

The selection had been in the eye of storm and the Municipal House had set up a committee to inquire into the selection on April 18.

55 pigs caught under MC campaign
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1
The Medical Officer Health (MOH) of the Municipal Corporation caught 55 pigs and demolished 40 to 45 piggeries at Ram Darbar here today as part of the month-long campaign to rid the city of squatting animals.

The campaign was carried out jointly by the MOH, enforcement wing of the Municipal Corporation, and 35 policemen without much resistance from those rearing pigs.

The corporation warned people against pig rearing or face the consequences. The corporation employed its machinery for the demolition.

Officials of the corporation had earlier been beaten up allegedly by pig rearers at Daddu Majra forcing them to take the help of the police in the operation. The officials had earlier said the pigs caught this time would not be returned on payment of penalty.

Buffet bonanza at Bazm
Harvinder Khetal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh
It’s a misconception that your wallet must be overflowing if you want to have khana at Hotel Shivalikview, Sector 17. For just Rs 150 plus taxes, you can have a proper lunch and dinner, buffet style, at Bazm, the ground-floor restaurant of this prestigious CITCO hotel. Complete with a bowl of soup and a dessert, the lavish menu comprises two non-veg dishes, three veg delicacies, besides raita, salad, chapati and pulao. (The items are changed daily). And, of course, you enjoy the added advantage of the buffet system of filling your plate with as much quantity of food as you want. It is definitely a better bet than the fixed amount you get when you order fare of your choice. This facility is available to both in-house guests (for them, breakfast and dinner are inclusive in room tariff) and walk-ins. But this is not to say that you can’t order a la carte. You can opt for any detectable savoury mentioned in the menu cards of Bazm and the adjoining Le Cafe and Bar.

In fact, the USP of Bazm, ever since its inception in 1990, has been the buffet lunch. Not surprisingly, the system was restarted on demand when the practice was stopped a couple of years back. Recently in December, in a bid to attract more clientele, the hotel extended the buffet style to dinner, also. So, just walk in for any meal, pick a plate and fill it from the attractive fare spread out on the central table. No need to study the menu or wrack your brain about what to order (believe me, it’s a relief to many). This system is ideal for small get-togethers and parties of 15 to 20 persons.

Enlivening the atmosphere is the soulful rendition of Hindi melodies by Neeraj Bakshi’s band, The Music People (Monday is their day off).

Since the hotel has a separate Chinese speciality restaurant, Bazm and La Cafe offer a choice of Indian, Mughlai, Continental and Italian cuisines. And in keeping with the changing tastes of calorie-conscious and pizza-munching Chandigarhians, Shivalikview chefs churn out less and less of massalams and butter chicken. Instead, the substitute that has gained popularity is murg tikka lababdar (boneless chicken rolls cooked in a creamy tomato-based gravy). A lot of vegetarians go in for the assortment of seasonal veggies cooked on the tawa in with an interesting mix of herbs and spices.

Le Cafe offers the kids’ favourites — pizzas, sandwiches and burgers. For those who relish South Indian, is available dosa, uttapam, vada, idli, sambar and other casuals like cheese fingers, french fires, cutlet, kathi kabab and pau bhaji.

Meanwhile, the elders can quench their thirst with both Indian and imported spirits. The aperitifs come in premium brands as well as cocktails.

As expected of a good hotel, the restaurant has a variety of starters, shorbas, beverages, desserts and salads, besides the tempting main course veg (sabz-e-lazzat) and non-veg (Mas-e-lazzat) khazana dished out from both the gas burners and tandoor.

The regulars will recall the various food festivals organised regularly at Bazm. At the same time, they would have noted the updating of the decor in the past couple of years that saw the merger of the restaurant with the coffee shop and bar overlooking the green patch outside.

One hurt in clash
Our Correspondent

SAS Nagar, May 1
One person was injured in a clash between two groups of youths in the Phase VII market here today.

It is reported that one group gheraoed the other and attacked it with sharp-edged and other weapons. The person injured was identified as Pardeep.

Election petition dismissed
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1
The election petition of the Congress candidate from ward No. 10, Mr Mahinder Singh, against his Chandigarh Vikas Manch rival, Mr Vijay Rana, was dismissed by the Deputy Commissioner today.

The rejection came after a receipt of him was produced on the changed list of polling stations, which claimed were not informed to him.

Another ground for the rejection petition was that the application had been made under the Punjab Municipal Act but it was required to have been made under the Act applicable in Delhi.

Mr Rana had defeated Mr Mahinder Singh in the elections.

HP trader found dead in hotel room
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, May 1
An apple trader and resident of Rohru, (Himachal Pradesh), Lekh Ram (60), was found dead in a room of a hotel in Sector 22 here today. According to police sources, Lekh Ram had hired a room in the hotel on April 29 and was to check out today. He had reportedly paid his bills last night and asked a waiter to wake him up in the morning. The initial investigations had ruled out foul play, said the sources.

Cars stolen: During the past 24 hours, the police received three complaints of theft of Maruti cars from different parts of the city. Maruti van (UP- 83-B-0673) of Dr S.K Mathur, a PGI doctor, was reportedly stolen from a parking lot near the hospital morgue at about 11.30 am on Tuesday. Mr Jagdish Chander Kapoor, resident of SCF No. 10, Sector 24, reported to the police that his Maruti car (CH -01-P-2201) had been stolen from the market on Tuesday. Another resident of Sector 34, Mr Manmohan, reported that his car (CH-01-Y-1736) had been stolen from his residence on Monday night. Three cases of theft have been registered.

Girl injured: A seven-year-old girl, Priya, a resident of Sector 46, was injured and admitted to Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, after she was allegedly hit by a Kinetic Honda near Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 46. The scooterist managed to escape from the spot. A case under Sections 279 and 337 of the IPC has been registered.

Assaulted: A Sector-11 resident, Mr Maninder Sarna, reported to the police that he had been assaulted and threatened by Mani near DAV School, Sector 15, here on Tuesday. The accused who was said to be riding a motorcycle fled after abandoning the motorcycle, which was later impounded by the police. The complainant had also received injures, said police sources. A case under Sections 341, 323 and 506 of the IPC has been registered.

Held for eve teasing: The police arrested Sunil Kumar, a resident of Burail, allegedly for eve-teasing at ISBT, Sector 43. A case under Section 294 of the IPC has been registered.

Liquor seized: The police arrested Mangat Ram, a resident of Maloya Colony, under various Sections of the Excise Act and claimed to recover 40 pouches of liquor from his possession on Tuesday.