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March 26, 2003, Chandigarh, India
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Pandits
vow to fight back Chandigarh, March 25 Col Dharam Veer(retd) of the VHP uttered, “It's high time for us to fight our own battle and pick up weapons against our enemies.” President of the Kashmir Sahayak Sabha Sqd Ld B. L.Sadhu(retd) said, “If the situation does not improve we will be forced to become militants for saving our lives.” He
added, "We hold agitations. Every now and then memorandums are addressed to the authorities. The result is there for all to see. Nothing is ever done to redress our grievances either by the Centre or the state government.” North India coordinator of the Panun Kashmir Movement Vinod Koul suggested, “Kashmiri Pandits should be considered a separate entity. We should be given a homeland with a union territory status. This is the only permanent solution to the present imbroglio of displaced Kashmiri Pandits.” Blaming the government for its weak policies, president of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha Nancy Ganjoo said the state government had failed to protect the minorities in the state. The healing touch is causing more pain to the victims of terrorists.” |
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ATF factions protest
Chandigarh, March 25 One faction led by its state president Rajesh Sharma, protested against the killings at plaza in Sector-17. The activists of other faction led by national president Viresh Shandilya gathered at Matka Chowk and sent a memorandum to the President through the Governor of Punjab demanding the dismissal of J&K Government. TNS
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13 MC panels get Cong-nominated chiefs Chandigarh, March 25 Nominated councillor Mr C.K. Sawhney today filed his nomination
for the chairmanship of the House Tax Committee while the rest of them
either filed their papers or were preparing them yesterday. Pradeep
Chhabra, Sohan Lal, Balraj Singh, Harpreet Kaur, Shyama Negi, Dildar
Khan, Pushpa Sharma, Jitender Bhatia, Dr. K. S. Raju, Ms Amar Kulwant
Singh,C.K. Sawhney and K. Atmaram have been elected chairpersons of 12
committees. Ms Negi will chair two committees. Mr Chhabra will be the
chairman of the Water Supply and Sewerage Disposal Committee, Mr Sohan
Lal of the Road Committee, Mr Balraj Singh of the Sanitation
Committee, Ms Babla of the City Beautification Committee, Ms Shyama
Negi of Electricity Committee and Mr Dildar Khan of the Slum
Development Committee. Pushpa Sharma has been elected chairperson of
the Fire Committee, Dr. K. S. Raju of the Legal Affairs Committee, Ms
K. Atma Ram of the Resource Generation Committee, Ms Shyama Negi of
the Apni Mandi Committee, Ms Amar Kulwant Singh of the Art and Culture
Committee and Chandigarh Vikas Manch leader Jitender Bhatia of the
Enforcement Committee. Vice-Chairpersons of different committees
supported by the Congress have also won unopposed.
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City gets Central aid for waste project Chandigarh, March 25 The scheme, when implemented, will change the concept of cleaning with residents being able to call sweepers on walkie talkies any time and municipal staff regularly making people aware about maintaining cleanliness. The city’s proposal, sent by the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committees (CPCC) and prepared by the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC), was chosen over projects from all other states whom the CPCB had asked to send detailed project reports as per a circular sent on May 16, 2000. The CPCB would sign a memorandum of understanding with MCC and CPCC for the demonstration project in couple of days, sources told the Chandigarh Tribune. ‘‘The grant of the project has added a feather in the cap of the city which has left behind foreign investors' most favoured destinations of Hyderabad and Bangalore to be chosen for providing the country leadership in cleanliness and environment protection,’’ Mayor Subhash Chawla said. The Mayor said the project had followed MP Pawan Bansal's focus on cleanliness of the city. The project would take care of the collection, segregation, storage, transportation, processing and disposal of municipal solid waste. The objectives of the project were: to set up model facilities on demonstration basis for the implementation of Rule of the Environment (Protection) Act, document the entire scheme for implementation to its commissioning and assessing the actual performance and to share the information for dissemination with other local bodies at the national level. The objective of the project was also to build up capabilities of local bodies in the management of internal resources, which was expected to improve with better service delivery. The MCC had already won accolades for implementing the garbage bin-free scheme in various sectors, which was likely to be extended to the whole city after this MoU. The garbage bin-free scheme conceived by the MO(Health), Dr. G. C. Bansal, had attracted the CPCB’s attention which wanted to implement it at the national-level to ensure better delivery of service at less expenditure. |
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HUDA breaks locks of 36 booths Chandigarh, March 25 These booths built by HUDA had been under unauthorised occupation for the past three to four
months. The enforcement staff led by Tehsildar Bachchan Singh had to break open 36 booths while one booth was vacated by the encroacher himself. It is learnt that HUDA had constructed 165 booths in this area about four years
ago. While 100 of these had been allotted to shopkeepers who were operating from kiosks, the remaining, including the ones repossessed today, had been lying vacant since then.
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Villagers halt road construction SAS Nagar, March 25 While no final decision
could be reached at, the villagers forced the PUDA officials to order
the contractor, through whom the construction was being done, to stop
the construction of the road and also made them undo the little work
that they undertaken since the morning. Sources in PUDA alleged that
some of the villagers were taking undue advantage of the high court
stay orders, which were specific and related to only some pieces of
land in the village. “We have the Land Acquisition Collector’s
order, stating that the kutcha roads of the village are not under stay
and we are working according to that,” said a PUDA official. One
villager, Mr Jaspal Singh, whose land was under stay, said even if the
kutcha roads were not covered under the high court order, these were
part of village common land and belonged to everyone in the village
jointly. “Today they are making a road here, tomorrow they may erect
a wall and landlock us. How will we come out of our homes,” he
asked. Sources in PUDA alleged that the villagers had been
misbehaving with the labourers and making their work difficult. These
charges were, however, denied by the villagers. PUDA officials also
said they had asked for a team led by PUDA officials which, along with
the police, would now undertake the work. The villagers, on the other
hand, said till PUDA showed a high court order to the effect that
kutcha roads of the village were not covered under the stay order,
they would not allow any construction on these roads to take
place. Development of Sectors 76 to 80 had been delayed for over two
years pending a decision of the Supreme Court on the matter. However,
in the last four months, PUDA had started development work in those
pockets in these sectors which were not under litigation. Work on
sewerage and roads had been given on contract by PUDA. |
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City to get substations,
transformers Chandigarh, March 25 Though all these upgradation projects were planned in August, last year, work is expected to be over by May. However, a major project of interlinking all 66 KV power sub-stations will take some more time. Under the project it was planned that all substations will be interlinked and in case of breakdown power can be supplied from other places. Last year, the department had promised a new power line between Sector 34 and the substation in Sector 32. The line is being laid and will be done by May 1 when the load starts rising, power engineers said. To speed up repair work the Administration has purchased hydraulic ladders. Other than this the Administration has also awarded the work for the construction of two new 66 KV substations in Sector 47 and the information technology park, Kishangarh village at a cost of Rs 10 crore. The Bhakra Beas Management Board will construct the substation at Sector 47 while Power Grid Corporation of India Limited will work on the other one. These will completed in the next 12 to 18 months. The Chandigarh Administration has asked the Power Trading Corporation (PTC) to purchase 30 MW of power from various sources to meet the city requirement. The city will require about 230
MW of power during the summer. The rate is expected to be about Rs 2.60 per unit. |
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Administration
inks four pacts on power Chandigarh, March 25 The projects will be completed in the next five to nine years. Chandigarh has been allocated 22 MW from the projects. The Secretary Engineering, Mr Karan Avtar Singh, on behalf of the Chandigarh Administration and Mr S.K.Aggarwal, General Manager Commercial, on behalf of the NHPC signed the agreements. Chandigarh purchases power from the Bhakra Beas Management Board, National Thermal Power
Corporation, NHPC, National Power Corporation through National Regional Electricity Board
(NREB). Anticipated demand by the 2011-12 has been worked out to be 484 MW, a 10 per cent rise every year. The four projects are: * Uri project(stage-II,280 MW), Baramula district, Jammu and Kashmir, date of completion 2007-08, share of Chandigarh — 2.8 MW. * Pakal Dul project, Doda district, Jammu and Kashmir, date of completion 2009-10, Chandigarh’s share— 10 MW. * Sewa project (stage-II), Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, date of completion 2007-08, Chandigarh’s share — 1.2 MW. * Parbati project (stage-II), Kulu district, Himachal Pradesh, date of completion 2010-11, Chandigarh’s share — 8 MW. |
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Few takers for group housing societies The Department of Town and Country Planning has now made blueprints of developing plots allotted to the societies as residential plots of sizes varying from one kanal to four marlas. A decision to this effect had been taken by senior officials of the department in November last year, after most of the allottees of these societies surrendered these plots to HUDA, thus stalling the development of Panchkula Extension. Officials say that with almost 93 per cent of these societies in Sectors 23, 24, 25, 27 and 28 — which form Panchkula Extension — already surrendering their plots to HUDA over the past two years, the development of these sectors has been stalled. Of the 139 such plots allotted in these above-mentioned sectors, 129 have been surrendered. While 479 residential plots have been carved out in Sector 23, which was earlier meant to have only group housing societies, 869 new residential plots have been earmarked in Sector 27 Part I and II (earlier 337 residential plots were marked in this sector), 1,303 plots have been created in Sector 28 Parts I and II. The new blueprints have been sent for a final approval from the government and these plots are likely to be floated in April. This new blueprint for Panchkula Extension has only eight group housing societies for Sector 23, 21 in Sector 27 and no society in Sector 28 Part II as compared to the earlier housing society sites totalling 24 in Sector 23, 59 in Sector 27 and 33 in Sector 28. Though group housing societies have so far proved to be unpopular here, the authorities had hoped for a reversal in these sectors. However, the mysterious cracks near Nadda choe, that appeared in January, 2001, created a fear psychosis and a lot of plot holders, especially group housing societies, began to surrender the plots. In fact, other than in Mansa Devi Complex here, the concept of group housing societies has not picked up. Even in Sector 20 here, most of these societies are still unoccupied. Though HUDA has made efforts to woo residents for group housing schemes by offering sops in terms of increasing floor area ratio (from 150 sq metres to 300 sq metres), decreasing the size of plot for a society ( from 1 acre to 0.5 acre) and certain other changes in registration (as compared to 40 members required for registration earlier, only 20 are required now), it has failed to have an impact in Panchkula Extension. HUDA had created the much- publicised Panchkula Extension here across the Ghaggar. Eight years down the line , HUDA has failed to evoke good response for its development. While a large number of
allottees of residential plots in Sectors 27 and 28 have reportedly surrendered their plots to HUDA, the frequent enhancement costs imposed on plot holders in Sectors 25 and 26 ( almost 53. 20 per cent increase in price since the allotment) have led to a number of sellers and no buyers.
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Chemists
protest against VAT Chandigarh, March 25 Most of the
chemists kept their shutters down, as a result of which patients had
to travel to the PGI, General Hospital and Government Medical College
and Hospital, where chemist shops were open. Sales at these shops went
up by almost 15 per cent. Chemists who kept their shops open said
though they were opposed to VAT, they did not down shutters to save
the public from inconvenience. PANCHKULA: The District Chemists
Association observed a bandh on Tuesday in protest against the
implementation of VAT. The bandh was complete in Pinjore, Kalka,
Ramgarh, Raipur Rani, Barwala and Panchkula. KHARAR: Chemists in
Ropar district observed a bandh and closed their shops on Tuesday to
protest against the proposed rules and regulations of VAT
2003. PATIALA: Chemists in Patiala as well as other towns in the
district on Tuesday observed a complete bandh to protest against the
Union Government’s decision to make VAT applicable to them. |
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Survey
ranks city among ‘aspiring leaders’ Chandigarh, March 25 Chandigarh has been placed ahead of the adjoining states of Punjab, Haryana and also Himachal Pradesh. The survey, submitted by the NCAER to the Government of India, has slotted the states and union territories in five categories: leaders, aspiring leaders, expectants, average achievers, under achievers and laggards. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are the four Indian states that have emerged as leaders in terms of e-readiness whereas Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa and Gujarat are ‘aspiring leaders’ and have been ranked at level two. Punjab and Haryana fall under level four under the ‘average achievers’ group. Himachal Pradesh is under the last category that is ‘ under achievers’. The states and the union territories have been rated on seven parameters: network access, network learning, network society, e-governance and network economy. Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are on the top in terms of network learning. Network learning is monitored in term of percentage of colleges and schools with Internet access, computer labs, universities offering infotech courses, number of websites of schools and colleges, etc. Chandigarh and Karnataka are also ahead of others in maintaining the network society, which is measured on number of online companies, local language websites and interfaces, number of government websites and number of households accessing Internet and percentage of households with computers and phones. The best network policy is in place in Chandigarh besides Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa and Gujarat, the survey says. According to it the network policy is evaluated on the government’s efforts to address issues related to telecom, e-commerce taxation, intellectual property and presence of an IT policy and cyber laws. |
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Residents
oppose encroachment Chandigarh, March 25 The Residents Welfare Association had on March 12 submitted a complaint to the Commissioner, MC against unauthorised construction work on MC land by a local resident of Bank Colony/Sawmills Street in Pipliwala town of Mani Majra. Residents today protested against the MC authorities. Just outside the MC office in Manimajra, they blocked the way of Mr Vasistha. The police had to intervene in the matter to prevent any untoward incident. However, Mr Vasistha denied that the residents of Manimajra blocked his way when he was coming to his office. He said no complaint had been lodged with the police. |
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Five cops
honoured Chandigarh, March 25 The honoured policemen are SI Balbir Singh Chahal, head constable Nand Lal, head constable Om Parkash, driver Parvinder Singh and Home Guard volunteer Randhir Singh. |
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One killed in mishap Chandigarh, March 25 Molestation: A 10-year-old girl of Shahpur Rajiv Colony was allegedly molested by a ricshaw-puller of the same colony on last Saturday. According to the information available, the victim was taken to a makeshift bathroom by 21 year-old Vasudev. The father of the girl, Ramesh, lamented that the officials at Maloya police post were not taking action against the suspect. PANCHKULA Five booked:
The police has booked Malkiat, Baljit, Rashim, Harnek and Phool Chand of Hangola village in Raipur Rani on the charges of assaulting Succha and threatening him over a property dispute. A case under Sections 148, 149, 323, 325 and 506 of the IPC has been registered against them. Financier booked:
The police has booked a financier, Mr R.P. Singh, of Loan Mart, Sector 26, Chandigarh, on the charge of cheating Mr Ramesh Kumar Saini by failing to provide him with finances for buying a Tata Safari car, even after the latter had given 12 post-dated cheques for a total amount of Rs 95,000 to the financier. Two
arrested: The police has arrested Harminder Singh on the charge of consuming alcohol at a public place (Nadda Sahib bus stand). Munish Kumar was arrested near Devi Nagar T-point on the charge of speculation. A sum of Rs 430 was seized from him. |
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One stabbed SAS Nagar, March 25 |
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MARKET PULSE Chandigarh, March 25 The NDTV is bringing ‘‘
breakthrough’’ technology with the help of ‘Iredeto’ software,
that would enable it to give local weather and traffic reports as done
in the USA. In other words, it would be possible for viewers in Mumbai
to cut across to local traffic and weather reports, while those in
Delhi would watch the national bulletin. The software gives an option
to do any number of ‘‘ breakaway’ stories. A press release
issued by the company said the weather, traffic and local news would
be aired on the channel as per local requirements. Said Dr Prannoy
Roy, ‘‘Although quite common in the USA, this technology will be a
novel feature in the Indian market. With this technology, the quality
of Indian broadcasting could be compared to international
standards.’’ Launched:
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Chandigarh, March 25
Panchkula, March 25