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| Friday,
June 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India
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House kept in dark on audit report Chandigarh, June 27 A Congress member, Mr Chander Mukhi Sharma, brought the issue of recovery of the amount from Mr Gupta for allegedly returning the contract money of Rs 24.2 lakh to parking contractors after he kept in abeyance the decision to impose paid parking following protests from traders. Mr Gupta had put the decision of the House on hold and never got the resolution to impose paid parking annulled in the House. There are several court rulings, including the latest one on re-imposition of paid parking, to implement the decision of the House which never withdrew it. The question of the Congress councillor came as a masterstroke to silence a vocal Mr Gupta, who had single-handedly put the Congress on defensive in the previous meetings of the corporation. Mr Gupta was today very calm. The issue became more serious when the Legal Affairs Committee Chairman, Dr K. S. Raju, sought powers of the Public Account Committee to monitor audit objections. The Municipal Commissioner, Mr M.P. Singh, while opposing transfer of such powers to a committee as ‘’fool-proof’’ audit procedures in the corporation did not leave any room for a review of audit objections. While admitting that such objections and instructions for recovery had been made by the audit
parties, Mr Singh said audit was a public document and anybody could take its copies. He said the objections, if not attended, went to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. The whole debate, however, has left the defence of the present audit system redundant, especially with the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, (extended to Chandigarh) under Section 174 (para 4) making it obligatory to the corporation to provide a copy of audit objections and their redressal to all councillors. Had the provisions been followed scrupulously, the no-objections certificate acquired by Mr Gupta would not have been given and probably the matter related to recovery would have been settled. The Commissioner ultimately had to allow giving copies of audit objections to the councillors in the future. But the delay and only administrative handling of the objections had left a scope for not taking the objections seriously, which the competitive party politics would not have allowed in a game of one-upmanship. Mr Gupta will also be caught on the wrong foot (probably due to the lack of information to both politicians and officials) as even keeping the House decision in abeyance without going back to the House might even increase the dues on Mr Gupta for causing a loss per annum of the possible contract amount of paid parking in the subsequent years. Even officials might have to share the blame for issuing no-objection certificate to Mr Gupta for a decision taken in a political capacity of Mayor probably without understanding the implication of going back to the House. The issuance of the no-objection certificate also indicates that the audit objections were not taken seriously by officials. |
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Ex-Mayor’s effigy burnt Chandigarh, June 27 While the union activists shouted slogans against the BJP and Mr Gupta outside the Municipal Corporation building, Mr Gupta took the Mayor, Ms Lalit Joshi, and the committee appointed by her under the chairmanship of Mr Pardeep Chhabra to task for suggesting new rates for levying a parking fee on taxi operators. Mr Gupta argued in the House that when the corporation had passed a resolution to levy a charge of Rs 5,000 for a piece of land up to 2,000 sq ft and Rs 7,500 for a plot above this size, the reported agreement between the Chhabra-led committee and the union was unauthorised. |
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No breakthrough in car,
cash robbery case SAS Nagar, June 27 A local industrial unit owner, Mr Rajinder Garg, had been robbed of about Rs 1.83 lakh in cash and his brand new car by men posing as railway officials who had come to strike a business deal with him. The police has been able to get a photograph of one of the three criminals from the ATM section of the bank from where he had gone to withdraw cash from the victim’s account. Cameras have been installed in that section by the bank. The police is now making efforts to identify the photograph. The police also questioned the victim and his wife about the criminals. Information was also gathered by the police from the bank and the lodge where the crime had taken place. Mr H.S. Bhullar, DSP, said investigations were on and the police was getting the sketches of the criminals prepared on the basis of the information it had collected since yesterday. It is reported that the criminals met Mr Garg at Paras Lodge in Phase IIIB2 here yesterday to strike a deal, but robbed him of his cash and a mobile phone and locked him up in a toilet. The also took away his Ikon car that he had bought recently. They threatened him and ordered him not to complain to the police. However, he brought the crime to the notice of the police yesterday. Mr Garg, who lives in Panchkula, is engaged in the manufacture of railway spares in the Phase VIII Industrial Area here. The criminals are reported to have approached him for purchasing fish-plates for the ongoing Chandigarh-Ludhiana rail project. They had earlier met him a few days ago at home in connection with the “proposed deal”. |
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TRIBUNE IMPACT Chandigarh, June 27 After the food problem issue was highlighted by Chandigarh Tribune on April 29 this year, CITCO-owned Baithak Restaurant has also introduced a lunch thali which is available at only Rs 20, which has indeed proved to be a crowd-puller. According to information available, the number of visitors have gone upto 1000 to 1500 on weekends and a little less during the week days. “Ever since the foodstalls have been reopened and Baithak has introduced this new thali system, Kala Gram has witnessed a tremendous rise in the number of daily visitors,” confirmed a source. “We are serving tikkis for Rs 5 and soft drinks at it’s original price,” said the source. “Because the aim is not to make a profit by catering but drawing more population to Kala Gram,” he added. The foodstalls have not only attracted visitors but also has increased their staying period there. “Now with Kala Gram offering soft drinks and snacks , the place has become ideal for a lazy Sunday outings,” said Mr Vinod Kumar , a visitor at Kala Gram. Above all, the artistes who come from far-flung places to perform here are not subjected to long walks in search of affordable ‘dhabas’ or take up the cumbersome work of cooking in an unfamiliar surroundings. “With CITCO serving reasonable food and also NZCC organising for the artistes sometimes, we are getting to sample a wide variety of north Indian cuisines which are indeed bringing out the essence of true cultural exchange,” said an artiste, who came to perform at Kala Gram recently. “For artistes who come from far-off places to perform only for two or three days it was not possible to organise cooking utensils or to walk to nearby ‘dhabas’,” he added. The NZCC had opened up three foodstalls for snacks and beverages last year but had to close them down only after a month as CITCO, which has control over catering services in Kala Gram had objected to it. After a great deal of consideration for about six months, a conclusion was drawn in favour of NZCC, allowing them to continue with their project. Recently the NZCC has also taken up the task of getting reasonable food for their resident artistes from outside at their request. Enthused by the response of visitors, aristes and artisans residing in the campus, the NZCC was also considering to re-open their canteen in the near future, according to the sources. |
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Panjab University sanctions
‘prompt’ re-evaluations Chandigarh, June 27 Students seeking ‘prompt’ re-evaluation can apply by July 5. The rest of the students can apply for re-evaluationin the normal routine which will also be taken up by the university. A decision to this regard has been taken by a committee under the chairmanship of the Dean of University Instructions. The committee had met following complaints of ‘unfair marking’ due to dismal results . The argument of ‘lopsided’ evaluation was corroborated by a senior faculty member. The department sources, however, have denied any short-comings. The students had also given a memorandum to the university following a protest ‘dharna’.
The Vice-Chancellor will pick from a list of evaluators from ‘outside’ in a random sampling to give full credit to the re- evaluation, it was pointed out. The department has also postponed the scheduled date for enterance examination to the MA I(English). The examination scheduled for July 2 will now be held on a new date which will be notified by the department subsequently. Chandigarh, June 27 The courses for which results were declared included MA I (Hindi), MA (Punjabi), MA I (political science), MA II (Indian theatre), MA I and II (fine arts) and M.Com (annual system through correspondence). Copies of the result gazette will be available at the enquiry counter on all working days.
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Small mistakes in prospectus, big trouble for students MISTAKES THEY MAKE
Chandigarh, June 27 Sources maintain that some of the institutes are supposedly instructing the learners in certain courses even though these have never been taught in the schools. Others have reportedly discontinued offering courses that the instructors were teaching for the past so many sessions — all thanks to the mistakes in the erroneous prospectus. The students are, therefore, depending more on guide books and tuitions Principals of the schools affected by these mistakes are tight-lipped about it. “We are not aware of it”, “Yes, we were told something about it, but are not very sure”, “We have nothing to say, please go and talk to the authorities in the Education Department,” are some of the standard replies. Senior officers in the department are, however, more vocal about it. “Yes, there are some mistakes in the prospectus about the courses being offered by certain schools, no doubt about it,” confirms an officer on the condition of anonymity. Giving details, the officer says, “In case of a Government Girls Model Senior Secondary School, fine arts and French have not been mentioned in the prospectus even though the school has been teaching these subjects for quite some time now”. He adds: “In two other cases, a Government Senior Secondary School and a Government Model Senior Secondary School are supposed to be offering fashion designing and clothing construction courses, even though these institutes are not instructing the students in these subjects. These schools are only offering courses in textile designing”. As a result of the mistakes, confusion is likely to prevail among the students at the time of admissions. Another officer in the Education Department says, “Certain students have opted for particular schools in their admission forms because of the courses being offered by them. At the time of admissions, they will find themselves in a fix. I am sure they all will be forced to run hither and dither in order to get admission in schools offering courses of their choice”. The Director Public Instructions for Schools, Mr D.S. Mangat, was not available for comments.
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Pandemonium at MC
meeting SAS Nagar, June 27 Amidst allegations and counter allegations and thumping of tables the ruling group passed all items on the agenda except the one relating to the inclusion of Balongi and Badmajra in the municipal limits of the civic body. Slogans were raised against the President, the Executive Officer and the Municipal Engineer of the civic body by seven councillors of the Opposition group in the House and in front of the office building. Before the start of the meeting two opposition councillors — Mr Manjit Singh Sethi and Mr Amrik Singh — started accusing the council President of adopting a biased approach as far as the development works in the town were concerned. They alleged that the wards of the opposition councillors were being neglected while overspending was being done on development works in the wards of certain municipal councillors of the ruling party. Mr Amrik Singh said on the basis of the estimates for development works cleared by the council so far a sum of Rs 46 lakh should have been worked out for each ward. But the amount being spent by the civic body for development works in the wards of opposition councillors ranged between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 20 lakh only. The opposition councillors also said the ruling party’s step of clearing all items on the agenda of the meeting without reading them was illegal. Mr Kulwant Singh, President of the council, said that the allegations levelled against him were baseless. He denied that any discrimination was being done by him against the Opposition councillors. He said as some wards were fully developed, like Phases I to VII, less amount was being spent on development works in that area. More stress was being laid on development in the up coming sectors. He said in certain wards of the ruling group members, like wards Nos. 3, 4, 5, 25, 26 and 27 only about Rs 1 lakh in each ward had been spent on development. The President said he had always wanted that the agenda items be read in the meeting which should be followed by discussion but certain Opposition councillors had always tried to disrupt the proceedings as they were not interested in the development of the town. However, a copy of the agenda had been circulated among the councillors a week in advance. The House rejected the proposal to bring Balongi and Badmajra villages within the jurisdiction of the civic body. The councillors said by bringing these two villages under MC limits they would not be able to earn any additional revenue but the villages would only become a liability. The issue was on the agenda of the council meeting held in November last year also but a decision on it was kept pending. However, following directions from the Deputy Director, Urban Local Bodies,
Ludhiana, the matter had once again been brought on the agenda of the council meeting. The meeting also cleared, among other things, proposals worth about Rs 2 crore for the undertaking of development works in the town. |
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Beware! adulterated food may leave a bad taste Chandigarh, June 27 According to these figures, while most of the spices/condiments and pulses checked are adulterated with colours, a large percentage of pre- cooked food and chutnis have also been found to be adulterated with colours. The local health authorities state that colours both permitted and non-permitted are not to be used in any of these ite “Colours are allowed to be mixed in sweets and ice creams and that too only permitted ones, but many manufacturers/packers of spices and condiments were found to be adding not just permitted colours but also non permitted ones,” says a source in the Health Department. Similarly, cooked food like dals, rajmah, puri chholle, chicken etc. available in some of the city's roadside and rehri markets have been found to be adulterated with both permitted and non-permitted colours. ‘‘In some of these food items, we even found colours used for dying purposes,’’ says one of the food inspectors. Non-permitted colours are extremely injurious to health and can cause kidney problems and even cancer. Even permitted colours, if used extensively over a long period of time can cause similar problems. ‘‘Permitted colours are allowed in ice creams, sweets etc as these are not eaten very frequently at least not as frequently as dals or rajmah or chick peas.. To have permitted colours in such stuff is dangerours’’, says the health department food inspector. Some of the major defaulters included Shivam Bakers and Confections Sector 42, who were using non-permitted colours in their products; Shankar Lal who sold puri chole in Mani Majra and used non- permitted colour along with Govardhan Dhaba in Mani Majra. Among those adulterating spices with non permitted colours included Laxmi chilli and Ashima turmeric which was also packed in fabricated bags with Agmark printed on them. The Health Department has in the past six months raided a large number of outlets trading in spices, condiments, pulses etc. and cooked food stalls and dhabas in the city. As per the directions of the Director, Health Services, who is also the Food Health Authority, the department's food inspectors have been asked to collect samples regularly from various outlets especially from the colonies, rural areas, dhabas, bus stands and vendors selling food articles in front of schools, cinema house etc. According to sources, the Health Department has also written to the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation to help them in the implementation of the PFA Act by deputing municipal staff to look into the sale of cut fruits, cane juice, open food in the open which also poses serious health hazard to the consumer.
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15 shops demolished on PGI
campus Chandigarh, June 27 The demolition was carried out by the PGI’s Estate Office under the direct supervision of the Deputy Director Administration, Ms Meeta Rajivlochan and the Superintending Hospital Engineer, Mr G.S. Rosha, with the help of the PGI security and the Chandigarh police posted at the PGI. The operation which started today morning was on till filing of this report. All the shops, which included STD booths, a barber shop, a juice shop, a cigarette-bidi shop, two kiryana stores, had been built and owned by relatives or wards of the PGI employees. Many of the PGI’s retired employees manned these shops. This shopping complex which was called the PGI’s rehri market was illegal since the area it covered fell within the PGI’s boundary walls. Mr G.S. Rosha was present at the site all through the day and till the filing of this report, demolition was on with gas cutters being used to cut through the metal. Although most of the shops had a tin roof, the rest of the structures were pucca. Sources also stated that a Municipal Councillor Anu Chatrath tried to intervene in the process of demolition after bringing a stay order from the court but the PGI authorities continued with the drive. The area was being cleared for the PGI’s Engineering Department for new construction on the campus, the sources added. The PGI employees, however, started objecting to the presence of the far larger Janata Colony on the PGI campus and the new rehri market that was coming up there. The employees also objected that many of the employees bred animals on the campus and no action had ever been taken against them. |
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2 victims of LPG godown fire
die Chandigarh, June 27 Till the time of filing the report, no arrest had been made in this connection. The police claims the godown was owned by Raman, while the villagers allege that Raman was working for a Chandigarh-based gas agency. Sanjay Kumar (16), a migrant labourer died at around 5.30 am and Bhupinder Singh, a resident of Khunimajra village, succumbed to his injuries at around 3 pm. Bhupinder was married just five months ago. Bhupinder alias Pupa (resident of Malikpur village), Rajesh Kumar (20) and Sakender (16) are still undergoing treatment at the PGI. Condition of Bhupinder is said to be critical. Shiv Shanker, another victim, was discharged on Sunday morning. Hundreds of villagers, including migrant labourers, participated in the funeral of Sanjay Kumar at
Mullanpur-Garibdas village today. Visibly angry labourers and villagers asked the police to take strong action against the
person(s) responsible for the incident. ‘‘The fire was an accident but the owner of the unauthorised godown should be apprehended’’, demanded a villager. Mr Brijesh Shah, father of Sanjay Kumar, wanted to know was the fault of his son. ‘‘He was watching TV when the incident took place. Nobody came to visit my son’’, said Mr Shah before bursting into tears. Avdesh
Shukla, a roommate of the victims, said, ‘‘We are poor people and those admitted to the PGI do not have the necessary money for treatment’’. Another roommate of the victim, Ganpat Shah, asked for help from government and NGOs so that their friends could be treated. It may be mentioned here that six labourers received burn injuries when a fire broke out in an unauthorised LPG cylinder godown at Mullanpur-Garibdas village on June 22. The fire was caused as a result of leakage in one of the cylinders. The gas caught fire from a burning kerosene stove in the shop adjacent to the godown. The labourers , were cooking at the time of the incident. When contacted, SHO of the Mullanpur police station, Parminder Singh Dhillon, claimed that search parties had been sent to apprehend Raman. The police had earlier registered a case under Sections 285 and 336 of the IPC. Following the deaths, the police says it will also impose other Sections, including 304A of the IPC, on the culprits. |
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Inspector’s house raided Chandigarh, June 27 As per sources, the sleuths started the raid at the Sector 24 house of the Inspector in the morning and it continued for several hours. The CBI carried out the search operation in the presence of a relative of Amarjeet Singh as the Inspector and his family members were said to be ‘‘away’’. The nature of the documents, which the sleuths recovered from his house could not be ascertained as the sleuths kept busy compiling the documents which were critical to investigation of the case. Whereabouts of both Amarjeet Singh and his wife (employed in Haryana Financial Corporation) were not known. Amarjeet Singh had given loans close to Rs 30 lakh to various people under cooperative schemes. |
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Tough time for Net users Chandigarh, June 27 A problem had also occurred at the gateway from where all Internet access is routed. This affected even leased lines taken up by some institutions. Sources in the BSNL said a snag had occurred between 4 p.m to 6 pm. In other cases it is problem with bandwidth allocated to individual Internet Service Provider (ISP). In such cases the users need to gets their lines checked up and also speak with the ISP’s. Today’s problem led to delayed e-mails and call centres were flooded with calls from harassed users. |
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Phone network develops snag SAS Nagar, June 27 The problem developed around 3 p.m. and subscribers complained that they faced difficulty in contacting phones in the town, Chandigarh and the nearby areas. Even BSNL telephone numbers which could be contacted using the code 95 were not accessible. |
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BJP Gen Secy
to visit city Chandigarh, June 27 This was informed here today by the BJP ad hoc committee chairman, Mr Yashpal Mahajan. |
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Man assaulted on PU
campus Chandigarh, June 27 As per police sources, after reaching near the Department of Laws, Arvind approached a girl student as he wanted some information. But the girl reportedly objected to the ‘‘tone’’ used by Rana and the two entered into an altercation. The girl made a telephone to her brother and called him on the spot. When Arvind came out of the department, brother of the girl along with another youth, intercepted him and attacked him with iron rods. The alleged assailants fled from the scene in a car. Rana was rushed to the PGI with head injuries. Arvind is a resident of Sector 41. Sources said the youth were carrying the rods in the car. A case under Section 323 and 506 of the IPC has been registered. |
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Skoda launched Chandigarh, June 27 Assembled at Aurangabad, Mr Bipin Datar, Head (Marketing & sales), Skoda Auto India Ltd., said, the petrol and diesel versions of Skoda Octavia are priced at Rs 10.69 lakh ex-showroom in Chandigarh. |
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