NEIGHBOURHOOD

Girl does a Munnabhai in exams 
Attar Singh
Tribune news Service

Kharar, March 29
With the term of nagar panchayats expiring and no polls in the next three months, village sarpanches are reluctant to apply for World Bank-aided prestigious rural water supply and sanitation project.

The issue came up at the recently held SAS Nagar district-level meeting wherein officials disclosed that many sarpanches were not willing to start with the project fearing that their successor would take credit for launching this scheme.

Water table has depleted to a large extent in many villages of the district and even in other parts of the state. The scheme has been drafted to help solve drinking water problem in all affected rural areas.

SAS Nagar has been included in the first batch of the project in Punjab, whose pilot batch received good response from 88 villages of Malwa, Majha and Doaba.

The basic objective of the water scheme component under this project was to ensure 70 litres of water per day per person in the rural sector.

The villagers are supposed to contribute 10 per cent of the total cost of infrastructure. Many villages, facing acute water supply, have lapped up the project readily. Till now, 20 villages of SAS Nagar, including two from Majri block, eight from Dera Bassi block and 10 from Kharar block have already deposited their part of contribution.

However, many sarpanches are not confident of resuming power after elections and fearing this, they are reluctant to start scheme in their villages. “Twenty is a very small number. In fact, many more villages need it. But sarpanches are not ready to shun their political interest and step forward for the cause of their village,” observed a senior official of the department of water supply and sanitation.

The department officials have even tried to make these sarpanches understand the benefits of the project but to no avail. “If their political bosses teach them to go ahead with the project, irrespective of political interests, they might change their minds,” added another official.

Interestingly, in Doaba, many NRI’s have shown their keenness to contribute 10 per cent on their own. But their request has been declined following World Bank’s rule that the entire community needs to contribute for the cause.

The state government had initiated this prestigious project in February this year. Under the project, 3,044 villages will be provided with basic civic amenities of safe drinking water and sewerage at the cost of Rs 1,280.30 crore.

The project, on completion after five years, will benefit a rural population of 74 lakh.

The estimated cost of the project is Rs 1,280 crore with World Bank providing Rs 751 crore and the state government giving Rs 245 crore. The share of the central government will be Rs 207 crore and community contribution will be Rs 77 crore. 

Chandigarh, March 29
Bathinda district dominated the proceedings by winning top honours in both men and women sections in the 2nd Punjab Open Yachting Championship at Sukhna Lake here today. The duo of Vishal Gaud and Mandeep Singh from Bathinda emerged winners (13.35 sec) in the men’s cadet while in women’s section, Meena and Mandeep Kaur, also from Bathinda, secured top honours (13.04 sec).

Sudhir Kumar and A. Kumar got the second position with 13.36 seconds whereas Amandeep Singh and Parwinder Singh won the third spot (13.41 sec) in men’s category.

While the other medallists in women’s section were Rashdeep and Rupinder (silver medal, 17.02 sec) and Kanchan and Asha Rani (bronze, 20.40 sec).

The chief guest Gulzar Singh Ranike, minister for sports and youth affairs, Punjab, gave away the prizes to the winners. He also announced aid of Rs 2.5 lakh for the Punjab Amateur Yachting Association and Rs 5,000 each to the medal winners. 

Chandigarh, March 29
It was a disappointing day for local players as six of them got out after the first-round qualifying matches, in the $ 10,000 India 5 Futures ITF's Men’s Circuit, commenced at the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA) courts, Sector 10, here today.

The players, including Deepinder Bains, Armaan Choudhary, Mandeep Yadav and Arvind Singh had got entry through wild card but could not deliver up to mark. Only Bains put up some resistance before losing to Vikram B Reddy 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6).

The other two local players were Navinder Pal Singh and Jitin Bishnoi, who made their exit after losing to Chinese Ying-Zheng Wang (6-3, 6-0) and Russian Ilya Belyaev (6-2, 7-6 (5)), respectively.

In other matches, unseeded Mithun Murali upset Rohan in straight sets 7-5, 6-1 while Chinese Zhuo-Qing Zhou shocked ninth seed Ajai Selvaraj 6-1, 6-4.

A total of fifteen Indians and six Chinese advanced to the second round today. 

Chandigarh, March 29
CLTA trainee Param Pun clinched top honours beating Nihit Rawal of Total Tennis Academy 7-5, 7-6 (3) in boys’ under-10 age category in the ongoing 4th Late Sh L.D. Kapoor Memorial Total Tennis Championship, being held at YMCA, Sector 11, here today.

In girls’ under-10 age group, the second seed Vanshika Sawhney of CLTA defeated the top seed Nandinee Sharma 7-6 (4), 6-4 to win the trophy.

Other results: Boys

(Under-10) final: Param Pun beat Nihit Rawal 7-5, 7-6(3). (Under-12) semifinals: Dheeranush Bhatti beat Rohin Vinayak 6-1, 6-0; Sachin Kumar beat Abhijit Singh 6-1, 6-4. (Under-14) semifinals: Nishchay Rawal beat Sanjog Singh 6-1, 6-0; Sachin Kumar beat Bhavya Jain 6-0, 6-3. (Under-16) semifinals: Nishchay Rawal beat Andrew Pradeep 6-0, 6-1; Taranbir Singh beat Pragun Vinayak 6-3, 6-2.

Girls (Under-10) final: Vanshika Sawhney beat Nandinee Sharma 7-6(4), 6-4. (Under-12) semifinals: Hasan Abdaal beat Nandinee Sharma 6-2, 4-6, 6-4; Vibhuti Khullar beat Nehmat Aulakh 6-1, 6-0. (Under-16) semifinals: Nikita Sharma beat Madhushami Rajendra 6-4, 6-4.

Chandigarh, March 29
Here is a wake-up call for the UT administration. Throwing all caution to the wind, the Government Multi- Speciality Hospital, Sector 16, has not bothered to refill its fire extinguishers. While this puts the lives of the hospital staff and patients at risk, it also exposes the slack approach of the hospital administration towards the maintenance and upkeep of the hospital.

A visit to the hospital showed that fire extinguishers were not refilled on the due date. A mishap can happen anytime because combustible things like plastic sheets, wood and many PVC products have been kept there. Paramedical staff and patients’ lives are at risk, in case a fire breaks out in the building.

At the backside entry of the hospital, eight fire tenders were stationed but none of them were in use. Even paediatric OPD and emergency patients as well as staff are at risk as fire extinguishers’ refilling date has expired. When The Tribune investigated the female emergency ward (medical and surgical ward) of level 3, male medical ward of level 4 and male emergency ward of level 2, the fire extinguishers were not in use.

Sources said the fire extinguishers had not been refilled for the past several years. That was the reason that most of them had no slip. Though the Chandigarh Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Rules of 1991 specify 12 fire-safety standards, the hospital did not satisfy all of these, said sources.

Medical superintendent Dr Usha Bishnoi said the fire extinguishers were checked every year. But a visit to the hospital showed that there was no refilling and even no sand buckets there.

The hospital authorities need to get into action soon. The medical superintendent said, "We have already ordered to change the fire extinguisher and refill the rest of them.” But implementation is yet to be seen.

Chandigarh, March 29
OT technicians of PGI will be on mass leave for two hours on Monday. The decision was taken on Saturday after the technicians’ talks with the institute administration, seeking a hike in pay scales, failed.

The PGI, OT Technical Staff Association is demanding upgradation of the pay scales of OT assistants on a par with AIIMS, New Delhi.

The strike will take its toll on the institute's functioning, as nearly 70 OT technicians will stop working. The institute administration, however, said that it had alternate measures to see that the institute did not suffer. The Director, PGI, Dr KK Talwar, said he would make additional arrangements to see that the patients' needs were met.

Since the management has been making constant efforts to redress the grievances of medical technologists, they should withdraw their call for a strike, said Talwar. He added that it had also been conveyed to technicians to await the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission regarding upgradation of pay scales but they didn’t agree.

Rajvinder Singh, president of the OT Technical Association, PGI, said, “We have been asking for a salary that is on a par with the technicians working at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. But we always got a verbal assurance and never a written one.”

AIIMS technicians’ demand of revised salary was met in 1996 after the governing body of the institute gave its nod. However, the technicians of the PGI here have been facing a considerable delay in the acceptance of their demands for the past 10 years. If the administration doesn’t fulfil our demand, we will go on an indefinate strike, said, Darshan Singh, general secretary of the OT Technical Association of PGI.

Mohali, March 29
A mining site located in Chadiala village falling under SAS Nagar district attracted the maximum bid of Rs 1 crore against the reserve price of Rs 10 lakh while another site at Jhajj village under Patiala district was sold for Rs 1.60 crore against the reserve price of Rs 15 lakh at an auction of mining sites held at the District Industries Centre here today.

Bikram Singh gave bids for both the sites.

Another site located in Hansala village was sold for Rs 1.11 crore against the reserve price of Rs 35 lakh. Baljinder Singh and Harnek Singh gave the bid for this site.

Similarly, a site at Dhanora village fetched the maximum revenue of Rs 2.50 lakh against the reserve price of Rs 1.50 lakh.

The auction was held under the supervision of SAS Nagar deputy commissioner H.I.S. Garewal. Among others present on the occasion were Patiala deputy commissioner D.S. Garewal and SSPs of SAS Nagar and Patiala R.S. Khatra and S.K.Asthana, respectively.