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Call for strike in city colleges today
DPI forms probe panel
The DPI College, Chandigarh, Mrs Raji P Srivastava, has constituted a two-member committee comprising Dr Pahlad Aggarwal and Dr Upinder Mehra to liaison with the college and students to help resolve the issue. Meanwhile, special security arrangements are being made outside colleges in view of the strike call made by PU student leaders.
Chandigarh, August 30 Various attempts made by the college administration, including a three-hour meeting with student leaders to resolve the issue failed to break the impasse . The strike will continue tomorrow. In a call made jointly by Mr Dalvir Singh Khangura of the Students Organisation of Panjab University and president of the Panjab University Students Union (PUSU) Amandeep Singh all colleges in the city have been asked to boycott classes tomorrow in support of the agitating MCM students. Principal of the college Puneet Bedi as well as the leaders of the striking students have hardened stance. While students insist that Ms Jagdish Bains, the teacher who allegedly slapped Shivani, a first-year student, for using a mobile phone on the campus, apologise before the entire college, the Principal pointed out that the teacher had already apologised to Shivani and her family. The Principal today allowed the students to bring mobiles to the college for use only outside the campus. But, the students insisted that they be allowed to use these in the campus, promising not to use these in classrooms and the corridors. While the Principal agreed that not to take action against any student participating in the strike, she refused to take immediate action against the teacher who had slapped the student. The students, dressed in black tops and blue jeans (following the strike dress code that had been decided yesterday) collected outside the college this morning and raised slogans against the college. However, a large number of students gathered outside the principal's office and started raising slogans in favour of the college management. While “MCM murdabad” could be heard outside the college, “MCM zindabad” ranted the air inside the college. Those in hostel were told that they would be given a "surprise gift" by the college management in case they did not join the strike. Some students were also told that since the entire incident was being shown on national television channels, they would not get jobs anywhere in India, said a student. The strategy made some impact with a large body of striking students going back to classes. However, by this time the students who were outside the college were joined by SOPU members, who also indulged in sloganeering. Some activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also reached the college, followed by PUSU members. A large police force accompanied by the quick reaction team led by DSP KIP Singh also reached the spot. The college principal was advised by the police to come to the college gates and talk to the striking students to resolve the issue. With the Principal on one side of the college gates and the students on the other, the students argued with the Principal. The “gate” talks failed, as did a long meeting that was held later on the advise of the police. The police had a hard time trying to keep the situation under control. The police had to tackle the ugly spats between the “MCM zindabad” and “MCM murdabad” groups (as they referred to themselves). Some girls resorted to hurling the choicest of abuses at each other.
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Water connection now in two days
Chandigarh, August 29 The Chandigarh Administration has approved the proposal of the Municipal Corporation for simplification of rules, regulations and amendments in water supply bylaws. Dispute settlement and redressal committees will be formed to sort out disputes and litigations relating to water charge bills and related matter. The water supply bylaws were earlier silent on certain issues, which posed a problem for scores of consumers. The earlier system of sanctioning of water connection was a lengthy one. It would take five to six days for the consumer to gett a water connection. Under the new bylaws, the water connections up to 15 mm (which are approximately 99 per cent of the total water connections applied for ) will be sanctioned by the respective SDEs. The time taken for sanctioning of domestic water connection will now be reduced to less than half the time period taken earlier. For dispute redressal and settlement of water bills, divisional-level, circle level, chief level and Commissioner Level Dispute Redressal Committees(DRCs) will be formed, which will act as reviewing authority and appellate authority for disputes. Municipal councillors have been made members of all these committees. The SDEs concerned will be nodal officers for the divisional and circle- level DRCs whereas the XENs will be nodal officers for the chief and Commissioner-level committees. Divisional-level DRCs will consist of the Public Health XEN as Chairman, two councillors, the Assistant Controller(Finance and Accounts) and SDEs of the division. The committee shall be review disputes involving an amount ranging from Rs 10,001 to Rs 1 lakh. Commissioner-level DRCs will consist of Commissioner as chairman and the Chief Engineer, the SE(PH), two councillors, the CAO and XEN as members. The committee shall act as an appellate authority for disputes beyond Rs 1 lakh. In case the consumer is not satisfied with the billed amount, he will have to make a written request to the nodal officer of the DRC concerned along with 33 per cent of the billed amount as draft receipt.
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City forgets hockey legend Dhyan Chand
Chandigarh, August 29 The day is celebrated all over the country to commemorate the birth anniversary of hockey legend Dhyan Chand. The Chandigarh Sports Department, however, organised an exhibition hockey match between teams of the Chandigarh Hockey Academy at Hockey Stadium, Sector 42, which turned out to be a low-key affair. Veteran Olympian Tarlochan Bawa, who was the guest of honour, seemed upset over the trivial show. Expressing disappointment, Mr Bawa said, “It was sad to see a thin crowd. Besides, there was no senior official from the Administration here to see the match. This only shows the ‘could-not-care-less’ attitude of sports officials and sportspersons towards the day. The new generation seems to have forgotten hockey magician Dhyan Chand.” Mr Bawa had played with the legend at Ferozepore and learnt skills from him at the NIS, Patiala, in 1956. Mr Bawa said the department should call schoolchildren to stadiums and hold sports competitions among them to mark the day. The Director, Sports Department, UT, Mr I.S. Sandhu, too, admitted that the department and sports associations needed to do more to celebrate the day. Mr Sandhu said: “To celebrate the day with pomp and show, we will start a state award function from next year. The joint secretary of the COA, Mr Maha Singh, was clueless about the day. But some schools and colleges held special functions.
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Chandigarh draws blank in defence recruitment
Vijay Mohan Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 29 Figures released by the Defence Ministry earlier this month show that four persons from Chandigarh were enrolled in the Army in 2003-04, while only two were enrolled the following year. No one joined the Army in 2005-06. Chandigarh is a high urbanised city having a male literacy rate of 86 per cent. Unlike the Army, recruitment in the Air Force and the Navy are done on an all-India merit basis without resorting to allocation of vacancies depending on caste. The requirement for technical manpower is higher in the Air Force and the Navy, for which a host of training institutes in the city and its periphery can be good feeding ground. Chandigarh’s male population as per the 2001 census is over five lakh, out of which the recruitable male population (RMP) would be about 50,000. “If not a single person out of 50,000 people makes it to the services in two years, then the state of affairs speak for themselves,” an officer said. Also, armed forces are no longer an attractive career option with the youth. As far as the Army is concerned, recruitment depends upon the number of vacancies allotted to a particular region annually. Depending upon their caste, Chandigarh would be able to provide candidates for several regiments. Besides, there is no caste barrier for recruitment into technical trades, for which the educational qualifications are higher. Among the 33 states and union territories, Chandigarh’s position is at the bottom, just a notch above Lakshadweep. Even Pondicherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands are ahead of the city in their contribution to the rank and file. If the intake from Chandigarh and Delhi, which too is highly urbanised and has a higher male literacy is compared, Chandigarh’s contribution to the Army in 2004 was just 0.008 per cent of the RMP, while that of Delhi was 0.18 per cent. Available data reveals that there has been considerable decline in recruitment for all three services. From a high of 88,429 men recruited into the Army in 2003-04, in the aftermath of Operation Parakram, recruitment came down to 27,688 in 2005-06. Till June 2006, the Air Force had recruited 5,470 airmen vis-à-vis 7,549 airmen last year. Similarly, the Navy’s intake has come down from 3,585 in 2004 to 1,478 so far this year. Armed forces officers say that recruitment figures need not be constant and intake varies from year to year depending upon a host of factors, including availability of vacancies. “Intake can be increased if there are new raisings or reduced if manpower needs to be shed due to technological upgradation,” an officer said.
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Passport office detects fraud
Chandigarh, August 29 A FIR against the applicant of the passport, Mr Mandip Singh, a resident of village Fatehpur Jattan in district Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, has been registered at the sector 34 Police Station. Taking this incident seriously the passport office has become more vigilant in its checking of documents. The verification certificate was issued by Manisha Trighataia, SDM, Bassi Pathana, district Fatehgarh Sahib. When it was checked with her if such a certificate had been issued it was found that a certificate had been issued, however there was a difference in the wordings of the one issued and the one finally submitted by the applicant. Talking to TNS, Mr Vipul Kumar, Regional Passport officer, stated that earlier they would only check with the office of the issuing authority. However, now they personally check with the person who has issued the certificate and it was only because of this that the fraud was detected. “We have become more stringent, this is a case of its kind as the verification certificate was issued, but the wordings were different. The applicant later retyped the certificate as per the given format and also forged the official’s signatures. We could only detect it as the official took the time to read out what she had issued.” Interestingly, Mandip Singh, who according to his documents is stated to be illiterate and an agriculturist, never turned up to collect his passport. A passport under the Tatkal scheme is issued within seven days and while earlier it was issued only for a year, now it is issued for ten years. The verification certificate is thus an important document as in place of a police verification it is taken to be a clean chit of the applicant’s character. The certificate can then later hold the issuing authority liable in case of any misconduct by the passport holder. It may be mentioned here that the regional passport office receives around 50 applications every day for issuance of passports under the Tatkal scheme. According to rules a verification certificate can be issued by certain officials only, which are clearly stated in the passport information booklet attached to the application. Moreover the certificate has to be in a fixed format as given in the booklet itself. Passports under this scheme are being issued under this scheme since January 2000.
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Passport seekers have something to cheer about
Chandigarh, August 29 Applicants will now not have to fret about filling in their application forms as they will have an official to help them do so. This, hopes Mr Vipul Kumar, Regional Passport Officer, will help curb exploitation of applicants by touts. “An official will be there to help applicants and answer any query that they have regarding the application. We have to finalise the place where he will sit, which will be done in a few days,” he said. The number of counters to receive fresh passport applications has been increased from the earlier two to three last week. “Earlier, we had two counters only; while one was on the ground floor, the other was on the first floor. Now, we have set up three counters on the ground floor,” said Mr Vipul Kumar. He said this would help reduce the rush at the office and also the time people have to spend there. The office has about 33,000 pending cases. As many as 18,000 of these are awaiting police verification, while about 10,000 are cases which have objections. The passport office here also receives applications from Haryana, Himachal Pardesh, parts of Punjab and Chandigarh. Last year, the office had received about 1.65 lakh applications. While a passport office exists in Jalandhar, Himachal Pradesh is now all set to get a passport office soon. In an effort to control the ever-increasing rush and also to help speed up the process, the office now has two officials receiving passport applications. While one receives the applications, the other checks these and verifies if these are correct. This not only reduces the number of days for issuing the passport but also reduces the workload on officials at a later stage.
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Educate society to empower women, says AWWA chief
Chandigarh, August 29 “Society has to recognise and empower the woman as a self-respecting individual. The irony is that we call our country Bharat Mata, but we don’t respect our women”, she remarked. Talking about the corporate world, Ms Mohini Daljeet Singh said: “In their training programmes, companies should highlight the legal aspects of sexual harassment and the rights of women should be incorporated in the programme. This will help in educating their fellow employees and restraining them from exploiting them”, she added. Making a presentation on “Status of women – an overview”, Ms Jyoti Seth, Head of Department of Sociology, Government College of Women, pointed out, “Of the 1. 3 billion people living in poverty, 70 per cent are women. The majority of the world’s refugees are women”. A panel discussion on women empowerment with Vijaya Pushkarna, Special Correspondent, The Week, was held. The panel concluded that the corporate sector needed to take a series of measures that would empower women in their own companies as well as in the rural areas.
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UT move to tackle non-communicable diseases
Chandigarh, August 29 The Home Secretary will select members from the PGI, the Municipal Corporation, Medical College and the General Hospital for the committee. The committee will give suggestions to tackle diseases like hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes. Special budget will be provided for tackling NCD-risk factors on the basis of the project implementation plan. Cycle rallies will also be organised in various parts of city soon. The committee will promote healthy lifestyle. The committee will also work to curb the menace of drug abuse, alcohol and tobacco use. Prevention and control of communicable diseases and the cholera cases occurrence and steps taken by the Department of Health to contain the same were also discussed. A campaign will be started by the Department of Rural Development to improve sanitation in villages. Cleaning of drains is also being taken up. The issue of defecating in the open, especially on the outskirts of labour colonies and choe areas, was also discussed. It was decided that the residents should be educated not to defecate in the open and utilise the facility of Sulabh Sauchalayas constructed in various labour colonies.
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Rana takes over charge
Mohali, August 29 The minister said the municipal elections were won by the Congress. Even though the party had not fielded any candidates at the time of the elections, they were aware as to which party the candidate from their ward belonged to. Mr Balbir Singh Sidhu, president of the Mohali district unit of the Congress, said councillors owing allegiance to his group would work up to the expectations of voters. He said no discrimination would be done and development works would also be carried out in wards of Opposition councillors. Later talking to mediapersons, the minister said civic bodies of the state would not face shortage of funds after the abolition of octroi in the state. A separate fund had been constituted out of which the civic bodies would be provided funds according to their sources of income.
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Maloya panches meet Home Secretary on merger issue
Chandigarh, August 29 The delegation comprised Tarsem Pal, sarpanch, Ram Kumar, Ram Lal, Mahender Singh, Sunita, Major Singh and Bhupinder Singh, all panches of Maloya. The delegation said the decision was not in the interest of the people of these villages. These five villages should not be transferred to the MCC, as it would be a clear-cut violation of the Panchayati Raj Act and the Constitution. The delegation said the decision to merge these villages in the MCC seemed to have been taken hurriedly without taking into consideration the exact position of the each village. Majority of the land in Maloya and Daddu Majra villages was agricultural and the main occupation of the residents of these villages was agriculture, which was their main source of livelihood. The leaders said if the land of these villages was acquired keeping in view the total area, the Administration and the MCC should pay at least Rs 20-30 crore per acre for the land so acquired, which was the present market value, the rate at which the MCC had sold land by way of auction, because after the acquisition of the land it would come under the urban area.
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Panels within house building societies banned
Chandigarh, August 29 Through the order, the managements of the cooperative house building societies under Rule 45 of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Rules, 1963, have been asked to inform their members about the decision of the Registrar. It had been observed that some welfare societies were functioning within the premises of cooperative house building societies and such bodies were acting as parallel bodies. Such practice was resulting in multiplication of disputes and clash of egos thereby creating hurdles in the smooth functioning of the managing committees of these societies.
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NIFAA’s Chetna Yatra from Sept 15
Chandigarh, August 29 Mr Pritpal Singh Pannu, Chairman, NIFAA, said here on Sunday that the purpose of the yatra was to highlight social issues like female foeticide, dowry system, drug addiction and AIDS. During the yatra, the NIFAA would organise street plays and hold poster-making and collage-making competitions. It would also educate the public on these issues through poems, speeches and by distributing printed material. Mr Pannu said a mobile exhibition would also be organised during the 10-day yatra. Starting from Karnal on September 15, the yatra will conclude at Thanesar after covering all the districts of the state and the National Capital. A state-level seminar would mark the conclusion of the yatra. He added that the Haryana Department of Sports and Youth Affairs had agreed to sponsor the yatra. The state government had also nominated the NIFAA for the National Youth Award.
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Resident bodies back political parties
Chandigarh, August 29 Reacting to a news-items published in these columns on August 28 under the headline “MC elections set to go non-political”, the Federation of Sector Welfare Associations (FOSWAC), the Ward No 9 Welfare Association and the BBMB Colony Welfare Society, Sector 35, termed the statement on the ‘non-performance’ of the elected councillors of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) as ‘misleading’.
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Subedar Bodh honoured
Chandigarh, August 29 Subedar Bodh scaled the world’s highest peak in 2001 and 2005, a statement issued here today said. He has achieved the distinction to become the only Indian to have scaled five peaks of heights over 8,000 metres.
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Police launches round-the-clock helpline
Chandigarh, August 29 Sharing the information about the novel initiative, Mr Dinesh Bhatt, Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations and Vigilance), said the helplines had been reorganised to increase the ambit of services provided through these units. The vigilance helpline had been added to curb corruption in government departments.
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Overhead wires pose threat to lives
Zirakpur, August 29 Mr S.K. Gupta, a Yog Vihar resident, alleged that only last evening a tragedy was averted when an electric are from the mainline fell on the roof of his house. “We are so terrified that my family is even afraid of switching on the power”, alleged Mr Gupta.
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Bihar team visits MC
Chandigarh, August 29 A spokesman for the MCC said the delegation was on a study tour to learn the best practices of the corporation. Mr Surinder Singh, Mayor, MCC, gave a presentation of the working of the MCC, including sanitation system, water works, electricity and other developmental functions. Mr Hari Narayan Chaudhary, Mr Raghuvansh Yadav, Mr Shiv Prassan Yadav, all Biahar Legislative members, were among the visiting team.
— TNS
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“Sahayak” for dialysis patients
Mohali, August 29
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Police beat box at Sec 51
Chandigarh, August 29
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Three caught stealing cable, pipes
Chandigarh, August 29 In another incident, Mr Kuldeep Singh of Sector 71, Mohali, reported to the police that he had caught Surinder Chauhan and Raju, both residents of Kaimbwala village, while stealing copper pipes from his plot. Two separate cases have been registered in this connection in the Sector 34 police station. Theft:
Held for assault:
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Industrial body rues power shortage
Mohali, August 29 He said power purchase agreements should have been entered into other states in time. He said corrective and preventive measures needed to have been taken so that power plants remained in operation and were utilised fully. He said Mohali industries needed 155 MW of connected load and another 50 MW would be needed for upcoming and sanctioned projects. However, the situation was such that there were two weekly offs, on Saturdays and Sundays. Power was not available to the industry during peak load hours from 7.30 pm to 4.30 am from Monday to Friday. Besides, no power was available from 7.30 am to 11.30 am from Monday to Friday. Apart from this, there were unscheduled power cuts due to lack of maintenance or negligence. The MIA president said Mohali should get first priority in the allocation of power projects, otherwise it would lose the mega projects that had been cleared for the area. |
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