Row over ‘cholera’ patient
Our Correspondent

Mohali, May 25
Even as the controversy as to who will supply the drinking water to colonies where handpump water had been declared unfit for drinking had not been sorted out, another controversy has arisen as to whether the child admitted with cholera-like symptoms was suffering from the disease or not.

While a report of a sample collected by officials of the Health Department says that the patient was not suffering from cholera, Dr V.J.S. Virdi, who attended the five-month-old child from Balmiki Colony, says that the report of a test conducted in this regard was positive.

Dr Balbir Singh, SMO of the local Civil Hospital, said a culture report received from the PGI, Chandigarh, was negative for cholera. He said a sample had been taken from the patient on the night on May 21 when the child was undergoing treatment at Cheema Medical Complex. The sample was sent for culture to the Microbiology Department of the PGI which had given a negative report.

Dr Rana Harinder, Civil Surgeon, Ropar, when contacted said the culture was the only way to confirm whether the child was suffering from cholera or not. She said she had sent the necessary information to the Director, Health Services, in this regard.

She said the officials of the Health Department had not been informed about the case after admitting the child. The child was admitted on May 20 and the local SMO was informed on May 21 and that too late in the evening. Dr Harinder said she came to know about the case from media reports.

However, Dr Virdi said initially a darting mortality test had been done and the result was positive. Later a culture was got done and again the report was positive. He said the officials of the Health Department had collected sample for getting a culture done almost 30 hours after the patient was admitted. The child was on antibiotics and this could have had some effect on the test conducted. Moreover, the swab was not carried in a proper medium from the medical complex which again could have had some effect on the report.

Mandeep, Navinder enter main round of tennis tourney
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, May 25
Mandeep Yadav and Navinder Singh today entered the main round of the AITA Talent Series Tennis Tournament being played here at the CLTA, Sector 10.

The following are the today’s results: Boys Under 14 (Final Round) : Mandeep Yadav b Balwinder S Sharan 8-3; Amit Chauhan b Munish Bhumk 8-3; Saurav Sharma b Chetanya Verma 8-1; Deepak Singh b Ketan Gupta 8-4; Vishal Suri b Kanav 8-0; Rajat Chopra b Sonam Phuntsok 8-4; Raghav Singhal b Nitin 8-5; Shikar Gaddh b Jassan S. Bhatti 8-3.

Boys Under 18 (Final Round) : Navinder Singh b Gaurav Sharma 8-4; Yogesh Phoghat b Satpal Dagar 8-0; Hazary Javed Akbar b Sidharth S. Baidwan 8-1; Gurdit Singh b Kuldeep Chug 8-2; Varun Sharma b Amit Chauhan 8-2; Uday Sadana b Saurav Sharma 8-4; Mandeep Yadav b Tanveer Sandhu 8-0; Vikas Sethi b Devesh Bubber 8-2.

Boys Under 14 (First Round) : Jaskaran Singh b Tushar Jately 7-6(5); Parveen Arora b Barinder Grewal 7-3.

Boys Under 14 (Second Round) : Mandeep Yadav b Tushar Thukral 7-4; Amit Chauhan b Jasjeet Singh 7-3; Munish Bhumk b Jivtesh Kang 7-5; Chetanya Verma b Jivtesh Saini 7-0; Ketan Gupta b Gursimran S. Siniran 7-0; Deepak Singh b Sampuran Singh 7-1; Kanav b Gurasish Shawney 7-4; Rajat Chopra b Vaibhav Gupta 7-4; Sonam Phuntsok b Deepak Garg 7-4; Raghav Singhal b Karan Bhai 7-3; Nitin b Karanvir S. Mggar 7-1; Shikar Gaddh b Dhruv Khanna 7-6 (2); Jassan S Bhati b Sidharth Mago 7-2; Saurav Sharma b Bharat Ghai 7-0; Baalwinder S Sharan b Jaskaran 7-2; Vishal Suri b Parveen 7-5.

Boys Under 18 (First Round) : Jaiverdhan Gupta b Deepak Singh 7-4; Gaurav Sharma b Shubham Kamboj 7-2; Vishal Suri b Nishant Kumar 7-5; Satpal Dagar b Bhupinder Singh 7-5; Jasjeet Singh b Kunal Singh 7-0; Shikhar Gaddh b Nitin 7-4; Sidharth S Baidwan b Chetanya Verma 7-5; Ankush Goel b Rajat Chopra 7-4; Hargobind S Dhillon b Parveen Arora 7-1; Gurdit Singh b Raghav Singhal 7-0; Sourav Sharma b Akshat Joshi 7-4; Munish Bhumbik b Nikhil Hooda 7-6(8); Tanveer Sandhu b Alankrit Senger 7-0; Dhruv Khanna b Khalendra Kadian 7-0; Raghav Singh b Pawan Kumar 7-0; Bevesh Babar b Raineet S Saini 7-3.

Boys Under 18 (Second Round) : Navinder Singh b Jai Vardhan Gupta 7-3; Gaurav Sharma b Gursimran Brar 7-6(4); Yogesh Phoghat b Vishal Suri 7-2; Satpal Dagar b Fateh S Ladhar 7-4; Hazary Javed Akbar b Jasjeet Singh 7-5; Sidharth S. Baidwan b Shikhar Gaddh 7-3; Kuldeep Shug b Ankush Goel 7-0; Hargobind S Dhillon b Gurdit Singh 7-1; Amit Chauhan b Sharanveer Singh 7-1; Devesh Bubber b Garry S Amor 7-4; Saurav Sharma b Ketan Gupta 7-5; Varun Sharma b Sagar Sharma 7-2; Uday Sadana b Munish Bhumbak 7-2; Mandeep Yadav b Khaliider Khanna 7-6(8); Vikas Sethi b Ragav Singh 7-2; Tanveer Sandhu b Gaurav Singh Toor 7-6(3).

Bhardawaj formally promoted as Chief Engineer
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25
Mr V.K. Bhardawaj was today formally promoted as Chief Engineer of the Chandigarh Administration following a decision taken by the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) at a meeting held under instructions of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

The Chandigarh Administration also promoted five Sub-Divisional Officers (SDOs) as Executive Engineers (XENs). A long-suspended XEN, Mr B.R. Madaan, was reinstated in a separate order. He had been suspended about 6 years ago in the same case in which former UT Chief Engineer K.K. Jerath had been dismissed from the service. Mr Madaan was XEN electrical.

Orders on Mr Madaan say the suspension has been revoked without prejudice to the final outcome of the criminal /disciplinary proceedings pending against him. The DPC was headed by a nominee of the UPSC and also had the UT Home Secretary, Mr R.S. Gujral, and the Finance Secretary, Mr Karan Avtar Singh. Interestingly the DPC kept the decision on the claim of Mr K.B Sharma to the post of Chief Engineer under “sealed cover”. Mr Sharma is at present is Superintending Engineer holding current duty charge of Chief Engineer, Municipal Coproration. Mr Sharma had been reinstated an year ago after his suspension in the same case which also involved K.K. Jerath.

Mr Bhardawaj had been holding current duty charge of Chief Engineer since October 1, after the retirement of Mr Puranjit Singh.

The SDOs to be promoted as XENs are: Mr S.C. Soni, Mr P.K. Rekhi, Mr Yashpal Gupta, Mr S.K. Chaddha and T.P. Mundey. The promotion of Mr Gupta is subject to the outcome of the case filed by Mr A.K. Gupta and Mr K.S. Brar, both XENs, whose case is pending in the High Court. Their services had been terminated in the infamous silt scam about a decade ago. They have moved court.

Uphill task for new HUDA Administrator
Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, May 25
Restoring the credibility of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is going to be an uphill task for the new Administrator, Ms Sukriti Likhi, who assumed charge here today.

With the functioning of the premier urban development government agency coming under a cloud in the wake of the “loss” of seven important files from the HUDA, bringing transparency in the functioning will be the priority area for Ms Likhi.

In fact, Panchkula and HUDA are not new to Ms Likhi, an IAS officer of 1993 batch. She had already worked as the ADC and HUDA Administrator (Headquarters) here before being shifted to Kurukshetra as the ADC. Before being posted here, she was the DC, Kurukshetra.

Though the HUDA Administrator wields enormous powers, the position is considered to be “sensitive one” for two reasons. One, a large number of VIPs, including senior serving and retired bureaucrats, inhibitated the township and they always keep the Administrator on tenterhooks for “sundry jobs”.

Second, thousands of HUDA residential and commercial allottees are always a dissatisfied lot alleging “raw deal” at the hands of various wings of the authority. Ms Likhi will have to make extra efforts to keep in humour both the VIPs and the general public.

To top it all, the HUDA staff-property dealers nexus is too obvious to be ignored by Ms Likhi. In fact, the property dealers call the shots here and incident of the files going missing have been blamed on their collusion with the staff.

The complaint redressal system at the HUDA office continues at a primitive stage. Scores of the harassed applicants and allottees could be seen moving from pillar to post to get various jobs completed everyday.

Meanwhile, Ms Likhi will rejoin duty on Monday. She replaces Mr C.R. Rana, who has been posted as DC, Rewari.

UT Adviser seeks proposals on development works
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25
The Adviser to the UT Administrator, Mr Lalit Sharma, today asked all departments to start sending their proposals for development works during this year. The Adviser was addressing a bi-monthly Senior Officers Conference (SOC) here this morning. He also asked officials to start planning for the future with projected increase in demand for power, water and other services. The Adviser is already preparing a plan for the next 20 years for Chandigarh.

The issues which need immediate redressal like improvement in infrastructure in the city were also discussed at the conference. Departmental heads explained the budgetary allocation they have for this year.