Cycle rally on pulse polio
Tribune Reporters

SAS Nagar, January 3
The Rotary Club organised a cycle rally of schoolchildren to spread awareness about the pulse polio campaign due to begin tomorrow.

More than 325 students from 12 schools of the township participated in the rally that was flagged off by the SDM Mr Darshan Singh Sandhu, from the Civil hospital, Phase VI, here today. The students were addressed by Mr Manpreet Singh, president of the club, and the past District Governor of the club, Major Som Dutt.

This year there is special emphasis in SAS Nagar of the pulse polio campaign due to threat to the population here due to a case being reported in Sector 52 on the Chandigarh-SAS Nagar border.

PATIALA: In an effort to ensure an effective pulse polio campaign, the district administration has decided to seek the cooperation of NGOs , teachers, anganwadi workers, the Ayurvedic Department and other social organisations who would be deputed for manning booths at different places in the district.

DERA BASSI: As many as 32,000 children would be vaccinated during the pulse polio immunisation drive in Dera Bassi block on January 5 and February 9. To eradicate polio, the health department has constituted 153 teams, including six mobile ones, to benefit the children of rural and slum areas of the subdivision. 

MRCP for city cardiologist
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 3
Dr J. S. Grewal, DM Cardiology, PGI, and Consultant Cardiologist at Mediwell Heart Institute, Chandigarh, has been awarded the MRCP (Member of the Royal College of Physicians of the U.K.) degree.

With this achievement he joins the select few in the country and becomes the first cardiologist from Chandigarh to have both DM (Cardiology) and the MRCP degrees. He has been invited for the convocation in London on January 23 by the President of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

UT senior weightlifting teams
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, January 3
The Chandigarh Amateur Weightlifting Association has selected the UT senior weightlifting teams for the 39th men and 15 women Junior National Weightlifting Championship to be held at Chennai from January 6 to 10.

The team is: men — Gurjit Singh, Harjit Singh, Sukhdev Ram, Jatinder Singh, Amandeep Singh, Jagmohan Singh, Jatinder Singh (Junior), Jaswinder Singh, Baljinder Singh, Samardeep Singh. Kamaldeep Singh- stand-bye; women — Harvinder Kaur, Sarabjit Kaur, Meenu Dogra and Deepika; (officials) H.S. Bansal — manager; and D.S. Bains — coach.

Black belt winners

Four Choi-Kwang Do martial arts students of Panchkula, Dakshi (nine), Divanshu (10), Surjeet (19) and M.S. Narayan (32) got the pride of place when they received black belt at the Choi Wang- Do national training camp held at Mumbai from December 27 to 31, 2002. Dakshi, the youngest among all, is a student of Saupin’s School, Sector 9, Panchkula, while Divanshu is a student of Little Flower Convent School, Panchkula. Others who took part in the above training camp include, Shruti and Aayush. The team was headed by Mr BS Thapa, Technical Director and Chief Instructor.

Soccer team

The Central Civil Services Regional Board for Culture and Sports has selected the following soccer players for the All-India Civil Services Football Tournament to be held at Bellary, Karnataka, from January 18 to 26.

The team is: Deepak Seth, Rajeev Rattan, Jatinder Singh, Hemant Kumar, Deepak Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Shashi Kumar (all AG, Audit, Punjab);

Rakesh Sharma, Amit Kumar, Sanjiv Marya, Harvinder Pal, Deepak Gurung (all AG, Audit, Haryana); Charanjit Lal, Anil Saini, Sunil Kumar (captain) and Ram Chander (all Commissioner, Central Excise and Customs, Chandigarh). Mr Suresh Kumar Jaswal of AG, Punjab (Audit) ad Charanjit Lal of Central Excise and Customs, Chandigarh will be the coach and manager of the team respectively.

Sports day

The annual sports day of the junior wing of the Satluj Public School, Sector 2, Panchkula, will be held tomorrow in the multifarious stadia of the school. The programme will have relay race, yoga, tricycle rally, ribbon drill and dumb bells among other items.

ADMINISTRATION

TRIBUNE IMPACT
Process to remove encroachments starts
Nishikant Dwivedi

Mullanpur-Garibdass, January 3
The Ropar Deputy Commissioner, Ms Seema Jain, today initiated a process to get a piece of land, belonging to the Provincial Government (of the Capital Project) in Mullanpur Garibdass village, vacated of all encroachments. She also issued directions to fence the land to prevent any further encroachments.

Chandigarh Tribune had carried a report on encroachments on some parts of this land, measuring about 54 acres, yesterday. The government is considering transferring the land to the Puri Development Trust on a lease basis for the construction of Institute of Engineering and Technology.

However, parts of the land allotted to villagers in 1975, will be excluded from the fencing, clarified the Deputy Commissioner. She also formed a committee for construction of a sports stadium in the village, for which Rs 5 lakh had been sanctioned. While forming the committee, Ms Jain also fixed a time limit of two months for construction of the stadium.

Another committee was formed to construct a wall around the new school building. The Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, while inaugurating the school building, had announced that the government would bear the cost of the wall. For the purpose Rs 9 lakh had been approved.

The trust had also proposed to set up toilets in the village and the matter was brought up before Ms Jain today. However, the Sarpanch, Mr Dewan Singh, raised certain objections. The Deputy Commissioner also asked the panchyat to hold a meeting in connection with the proposed toilets and convey its decision by next week. In absence of toilets, villagers, especially the women, who do not have toilets in their houses, were facing problem.

The Youth Welfare, Sports and Health Club, Mullanpur, submitted a memorandum to Ms Jain, demanding that Mullanpur and surrounding villages be made an Notified Area Committee (NAC). Residents of the nearby villages have also been demanding setting up of an electricity sub-division office.

Another long pending demand of expanding the lal dora of the village and laying of a sewerage system in the village, was also given to Ms Jain. She promised that the Administration would consider the demand of the sewerage system in the village.

Admn to acquire 10 acres for garbage project
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 3
The project for converting garbage into power has been put on a fast track with the Chandigarh Administration informing Mayor Subhash Chawla that 10 acres of land for the purpose would be acquired soon near the Daddu Majra dumping ground.

Earlier the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) was to provide land for the project which would have been a burden on the cash-strapped civic body.

The UT Administrator Lieut-Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), reportedly informed the Mayor and his team, during their courtesy visit, that the Administration would now acquire the land for the purpose and enter into a power purchase agreement with the company that would set up the project.

General Jacob, however, clarified that the supervision and control over the project would be of the MCC.

An official information to the MCC has also come and would be placed before the House in its next meeting.

With the Administration chipping in for the project, being financed 100 per cent by the Union Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Resources, the MCC will now have 5 to 7 acres of land spare for the mobilisation of resources in the future.

The Mayor was also assured that the Administrator would himself remind the Union Home Minister for a speedy implementation of the recommendations of the Second Delhi Finance Commission which had approved allocation of 17 per cent of resources of the Administration to the MCC.

Mr Chawla also requested the Administrator to give the MCC commercial sites in Sector 34 for enabling it to generate resources. General Jacob said a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner would be held for the purpose. The Mayor had pleaded that the Administration had given a lot of property, in Sector 34, to the Chandigarh Housing Board for enabling it to raise resources. The Mayor said he was “hopeful” on this count also.

The Mayor said that despite the Administration having transferred property in Mani Majra, the MCC had not been able generate much of resources.

General Jacob, however, refused any direct transfer of funds to the MCC for the moment.

DC explains code of conduct to candidates
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, January 3
The Deputy Commissioner-cum-Chief Election Officer, Ms Satwanti Ahlawat, today said that elections to the Municipal Council would be held in a peaceful, free and fair manner.

She was addressing 200-odd candidates in the fray. She said that although ensuring a free and fair poll was part of the government duty, it was their social responsibility also. She apprised them of the code of conduct for these elections.

Outlining the general conduct for candidates, she said that no party or candidate could aggravate any existing differences or create mutual hatred between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic; no appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes; and religious places could not be used as forum for election propaganda.

Regarding meetings and processions, she said that party and candidates shall inform the police authorities of the venue and time of meetings and a party or candidate shall ascertain in advance if there are any restrictive or prohibitory orders.

The Deputy Commissioner specified that the budget for the elections for candidates should not exceed Rs 30,000. Giving a briefing about the conduct on the polling day, she said that the authorised workers should be provided suitable badges or identity cards; refrain from serving liquor on polling day and during 24 hours preceding it, and no one without a valid pass from the Election Commission shall enter the polling booth.

Mayor to meet councillors
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 3
Mayor Subhash Chawla has called a meeting of the councillors tomorrow to initiate the process of making budget ‘open.’

Mr Chawla today sought information from officials about the resource position to know what councillors could contribute in the distribution of funds in each ward.

The meeting is likely to take stock of the projects already undertaken and which ones still remain to be done. The Mayor will seek an exact position on how much progress has been made on each of the project undertaken.

The Mayor had announced that he would try to make the budget of next year an open exercise with instead of the Chandigarh Administration approving expenditure on different heads, councillors would be asked to suggest the expenditure in different areas under different heads.

Administration clarification
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 3
The Chandigarh Administration today clarified that notifications issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, for acquisition of land measuring 1690 kanals, 9 marlas in Mani Majra village Hadbast No 375 were not connected with the existing Chandigarh Technology Park (CTP).

The land for CTP already stands acquired about 40 years ago and the process of providing basic amenities to it has already started. The Land Acquisition Officer (LAO), Chandigarh Administration, is hearing objections under Section 5 of the Land Acquisition Act for the additional land to be acquired for public purposes. After hearing the objections raised by the land owners affected by the new acquisition, the LAO will send his report for consideration of the Administration before issuing notification under Section 6 of the Act.