Chandigarh, May 1
The Hotel Taj will have to wait for some more time to get the five-star deluxe rating. A committee of experts, while declining the grant of the status to the hotel for the time being, has reportedly asked the hotel authorities to upgrade certain facilities and apply again.

Recently, a team of experts headed by regional director (north zone), union ministry of tourism, S.P. Singh inspected the hotel on an application filed by the hotel to get the five star status.

Besides the Hotel Taj, the committee also did not approve four-star status to Mark Royal, Zirakpur, and hotel Western Court and Hotel KLG, both in Sector 43 here.

The inspection of Hotel Pankaj for upgrade to three-star category could not be carried out.

The denial of star status to the hotels does not reflect on the facilities there, said as a senior official.

The ministry of tourism has strict guidelines for according star status to hotels.

Currently, CITCO-run Hotel Mountview is the only five-star category hotel in the city.

Chandigarh, May 1
Demonstrations and rallies by different trade unions and employee associations marked May Day celebrations in different parts of the city today.

The Tribune Employees Union paid tributes to Chicago Martyrs at a rally at the office. Union president Bablir Singh Jandu called upon workers to unite and work for their betterment.

Workers and employees under the banner of Confederation of Trade Union and MC employees celebrated the day in a colourful manner at the Sector 17 piazza.

Union leaders addressed the gathering and exhorted employees to work hard to achieve the targets.

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions organised rallies at different places in the city and paid tributes to the heroes and martyrs who lost their lives while fighting for the rights of workers.

Leaders expressed concern over the plight of labourers and demanded enactment of a law by the Centre to “save them from the clutches” of industrial houses.

They also demanded revision of wages of labourers and sought more employment opportunities.

The Chandigarh wing of the Indian National Trade Union Congress too paid homage to the martyrs in front of the municipal corporation building in Sector 17, while the Public Health Workers Union marked the day by hoisting a flag at the waterworks department in Sector 39.

The Jan Shihshan Sansthan celebrated the day at Dadu Majra and Maloya Colony, and highlighted the problems faced by working women at their workplace.

Also, the New Trade Union Initiative organised a demonstration at MW, Industrial Area, Phase 1, to highlight the problems of workers by authorities.

Among others, employees of the Punjab State electricity Board (PSEB), the Indian National Trade Union Congress, the Punjab Roadways and various technical unions also commemorated the day.

Meanwhile, members of Chandigarh-Punjab Union of Journalists (CPUJ) today observed May Day and World Press Freedom Day-2008 by forming a human chain at the Sector 17 piazza here today.

Over 100 journalists, both from electronic and print media, participated in the celebrations.

CPUJ president Vinod Kohli demanded immediate release of interim relief to the tune of 65 per cent for journalists by the wage board.

Chandigarh, May 1
“The increasing rate of suicides and unnatural deaths in society can be checked by law alone,” said Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Vijender Jain during a conference of students, teachers and parents, organised by Yuva Sankalpa Foundation (YSF), a NGO working to intensify the social movement against suicides, at the Panjab University campus here today.

He said parents are also partly responsible for the communication gap with their children and put extra pressure on the wards, which results in social tensions. Lashing out at tele-serials, he said it is unfortunate that most of them were creating a wedge in society, which is a matter of great concern. Introducing the subject, former MP Satya Pal Jain said he was moved by a number of incidents in which either young people ended their lives by committing suicides or died in accidents, which could have been be avoided. He said time has come to start a social movement against these tendencies.

Prof R.C. Sobti, PU vice-chancellor, gave a presentation on the theme and suggested corrective measure. S.K. Jain, IG police, presented the data on unnatural deaths in Chandigarh during the last three years. He said the general public should take up the cause and create consciousness regarding the issue. Davesh Moudgil, president of the NGO, said, “Yuva Sankalp Foundation will take up these issues on a priority basis and will hold such conferences, marches, demonstrations on a large scale in future.”

However, there was hardly any concrete solution that was offered by the experts during the one-and-a-half hour conference. 

James Richard Dickenson

Chandigarh, May 1
Veteran American political journalist and election expert James Richard Dickenson who has covered many US presidential elections including those of Robert F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon has virtually ruled out the possibility of Republicans retaining the White House in the forthcoming presidential poll.

Terming the next poll to be historic on account of election of United State’s first black Afro-American or a lady to the White House, Dickenson said the picture would emerge clear next week after North Carolina and Indiana make their choice for presidential nomination.

Dickenson was talking on ‘Media and Elections in Democratic Societies’ at the Institute for Development and Communication, where he highlighted the American perspective, while Kanwar Sandhu, editor Chandigarh Hindustan Times provided the Indian perspective on the issue.

Dickenson said change in the American political landscape was phenomenal where four years ago the republicans were for a permanent Republican majority as compared to a near pre-poll elimination of the same party.

“The US presidential poll has never been so long and intense. Barack Obama has a clear lead and is a favourite for the nomination being young, idealistic and is often compared to John F. Kennedy. He is seeking nomination on issues of progress and unity of the US. While on the other hand he said Hilary Clinton had the advantage of being experienced and hardworking”.

Talking about news media Dickenson said free flow of information was integral to any democracy. Enhancement in technology had helped the flow of information. The US media he said had come to be trusted by the people due to the “Pinocchio” factor (Pinocchio was an Italian cartoon character whose nose grows if he lied. Bigger lies resulted in a longer nose). Explaining this he said newspapers like the New York Times had reporters to monitor advertisements of political parties for accuracy and rate them on their truthfulness, evoking the reader’s confidence. He attributed the fairness of media to the evolutionary process of the press.

Sandhu while describing election in India as nothing short of a “wonder of the world” due to the number of voters (700 million) and vastness of area said literacy was increasing participation in the poll process.

Indian media was equally interested in the US presidential election due to the large number of NRIs living in the US and also because the US foreign policy in South Asia directly affected India and its relations with its neighbours like Pakistan and China.

Sandhu went on to highlight the need for regulation on exit and opinion poll that invariably go wrong. He said there was a need for debate on issues like criminalisation of politics, funding of elections, registration of non-serious groups as parties and need for negative or neutral voting. He expressed concern over the growing trend of surrogate advertisements and blurring of news and advertisements by the media.

Dr. Pramod Kumar, who moderated said large families, mainly funded the US media, yet it maintained its free flow of information and remained unbiased, evoking readers’ trust. The issue of winning readers’ trust was a big challenge for the Indian media, which was loosing credibility due to trivialisation of news. Retreating the observation made by Sandhu he added that the media must learn to distinguish between “what is of public interest but not in public interest”.

“Media constitute the core of an election campaign” Pramod said. He added that elections are treated as events where the voter is bombarded with advertisements as if candidates are nothing but a sop product. “There is no doubt, that people have tremendous trust in the information supplied by the media. But the moot question is whose interest this trust serves?”, he further added.

Panchkula, May 1
One person was killed while two others were injured when a canter loaded with LPG cylinders hit a tree on the Panchkula-Barwala road here today. The deceased, Narinder, a resident of Sonepat, was driving the canter.

The injured - Yogesh and Kamal - were admitted to Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh, in critical condition.

With this, the death toll on the highways passing through the district has reached 14 since the last month.

The police said the canter driver, who was on his way to Baddi, lost control over the vehicle, presumably due to drowsiness and hit a tree on the roadside.

The police has registered a case and sent the body for postmortem.

KHARAR: Meanwhile, Sohana resident Bahadur Singh was killed while two others Dinesh and Ram Chander were injured as the car they were travelling in was hit by a speeding truck here late last night. The accident took place near Radiala village. The victims were on their way back home after attending a marriage at Balachaur in Hoshiarpur.

When they reached near Radiala village, a speeding truck hit their car. All injured were rushed to Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh.

The deceased worked as driver with a college in Sohana. The police has booked truck driver Ajay Kumar. No arrest has been made so far

Mohali, May 1
Lawrence Public Senior Secondary School functioned normally here today after witnessing a tense atmosphere for two days in connection with the turban row even as the police has not registered any case against the school for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of the Sikh community.

Three Sikh students of the school studying in Class X were not allowed to enter their classroom on April 29 when they had come to the institute wearing turbans.

This attitude of the school authorities had created a lot of resentment among members of the Sikh community who staged a protest outside the institute. Following this, the principal tendered an unconditional apology in writing yesterday.

DSP Swarandeep Singh (city II) said no case was registered against the school as his office had not received any written compliant against the same. Moreover, the principal had apologised and members of the Sikh community were satisfied with that, he added.

SGPC member Hardeep Singh said no school could ban wearing of a turban by any Sikh student of any age or any class and the director of education had also confirmed that there were no rules in this regard. He said legal experts were being consulted after which there was a possibility that legal action could be initiated against the school for hurting the religious sentiments of the Sikh community.

J.P. Singh, general secretary of the Gurdwara Sri Kalghidhar Singh Sabha, Phase IV, demanded that wearing of turban should be made compulsory in schools after Class VI.

Mohali, May 1
The Mohali district transport office collected Rs 1,488.30 lakh as revenue during the year 2007-2008 which is an increase of 61 per cent against the budget fixed for the year.

This is the maximum revenue earned by any district throughout the state.

The revenue earned by other districts of Punjab varied between 12 per cent and minus 12 per cent.

DTO Balbir Singh said it was possible because of constant monitoring and proper checking.

According to figures available, the Mohali office earned Rs 110.47 lakh against a budget estimate of Rs 56.04 lakh as licence fee and registration fee. A sum of Rs 1283.29 lakh was earned against a budget of Rs 783 lakh as motor vehicle tax.

Similarly, revenue earned as compounding fee was Rs 94.54 lakh against an estimate of Rs 84 lakh.

While the Jalandhar transport office and those located at Bhatinda and Fatehgarh Sahib earned 12 per cent more revenue than the budget estimate, the Mansa and Ropar district offices registered an income of minus 12 per cent and minus 11 per cent, respectively.

EDUCATION

Appointment of Readers
New DCI guidelines puts institute in a fix
Smriti Sharma
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1
Changing norms for the appointment of readers in dental colleges by the Dental Council of India (DCI) has put Dr H S Judge Dental Institute of Panjab University in a fix. Even though the institute is facing a severe crunch of faculty, the recently held interviews hardly brought any respite.

Selection of a professor and four readers approved earlier have been held in abeyance, as they reportedly do not conform to the new guidelines issued by the Dental Council of India.

The institute had advertised for the post of readers in different departments in October 2007 and in February 2008. The interviews for both the advertisements were held in April this year.

Everything would have passed off normally if it was not for the change in eligibility criteria by the Dental Council of India (DCI). The DCI changed the eligibility criteria for the post of dental readers in September last year. Earlier, a candidate with three years of teaching experience after post-graduation was eligible. Now the minimum teaching experience limit has been raised to four years.

The university authorities, however, failed to mention the change in eligibility conditions in any of the advertisements. So the interviews were held on old criteria and four dental readers and one professor were selected.

Soon, the officials realised their mistake and the vice-chancellor held back the appointment letters of the candidates for a few days, till they were sent on April 30.

Meanwhile, to get a clearer picture and reach a solution, the PU vice-chancellor R.C. Sobti constituted a committee today under the chairmanship of former Justice S.K. Jain. G.K. Chatrath, PU fellow, Dharinder Tayal, fellow, Ashok Goyal, fellow, R.S. Grewal, director, UILS, are the other members.

The committee recommended that regular appointments be made only in case of candidates who have four years of teaching experience and those who have less than four years of experience be appointed on an adhoc basis, subject to approval of DCI.

The director of the institute Dr K. Gauba said the Dental Council of India has its own norms and prior to the approval they have to consider each and every aspect related to the institute in terms of infrastructure, teachers, their qualifications and other prerequisites. “To us, whatever will be approved by the council will be acceptable in the larger interest of the profession,” he said. “We will go by recommendations of the committee and no appointments will be made against norms,” Prof Sobti said.

Panchkula, May 1
A pool party was organised for tiny tots of Shishu Niketan School, Mansa Devi Complex, Sector 5, yesterday. The children were seen attired in swimming costumes with headgears and sunglasses. The students enjoyed themselves a lot and it took an extra effort to take them out of the pool. PAINTING CONTEST: Aditya Arya of Class VI-A and Pallavi Sharma of Class VIII-A stood first in the categories I and II, respectively, of a painting competition organised at Chamanlal DAV Senior Public School, Sector 11. Students from Classes V to VIII participated in the competition. The themes for the competition were ‘Say No to Tobacco’, ‘Female Foeticide’ and ‘Road Safety’. Abhishek of VII-B and Neelima of VII-A bagged the second and third positions, respectively.

Mohali
BUSINESS SUMMIT: Dr I.T. Business School, near Banur, will organise ‘Business Summit-08’, a plethora of corporate discussion, in association with Economic Times and sponsors Pearls and Dr I.T. Planets on May 3 at PHD Chamber House, Chandigarh. The event will start at 10 am. Pawan Kumar Bansal, MP, Chandigarh, will preside over the summit.

SHORTLISTED: A team from Cipla visited the SVIET campus of Swami Vivekanand Group of Institutes (SVGOI) to select suitable candidates to fill managerial positions in the company’s various establishments/field formations. The company shortlisted 25 students for interview.

FAREWELL: BCA students of the 2005-2008 batch were given a farewell by their juniors on the GJ-IMT campus. Titled “Rendezvous 2008”, the party was replete with fun-filled events and performances by both seniors and juniors.

INTERACTION: International Institute of Fashion Technology, Phase VII, Mohali, had two designers Anup Kumar and Jaswinder Kaur interacting with its students. Anup is senior executive designer working with Lee Cooper at Mumbai and Jaswinder is coordinator merchandising with Supra Overseas, an export house, at Jaipur.

Chandigarh, May 1
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today vacated the stay on January 17, 2006, notification of the Punjab Pollution Control Board, wherein norms for setting up colonies in the proximity of industries had been relaxed.

The stay orders were vacated after the board filed an affidavit stating that the guidelines in the order had been revoked.

Taking up the matter, a division bench of Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Jaswant Singh also asked the State of Punjab to file within four weeks an affidavit on developers leaving adequate buffer for maintaining green lungs in Dera Bassi area.

Dera Bassi residents had moved the High Court praying for issuance of appropriate directions for ensuring their safety.

Directions were also sought against granting permission to developers proposing to set up residential colonies within the industrial area.

The petitioners had stated that norms for setting up residential areas in proximity to industrial areas had been relaxed by the pollution control board in a complete disregard to the environmental norms.

Taking up the petition, the division bench observed: “The order of January 30, 2007, stands vacated, whereby the court had stayed the operation of those instructions.”

Directing the filing of affidavit, the bench directed the respondents “to place on record” the site plans indicating “hazardous industries, source of pollution” as well as distance between the source of pollution and residential settlements.

“We make it clear that if within four weeks the plans are not filed either by the Punjab government or by individual respondents or other instrumentality, who are covered under the policy, in this court, we will pass further appropriate order to maintain the environmental norms.”

Earlier, Punjab advocate-general H.S. Mattewal submitted that as per the directions of the High Court, a committee headed by chief secretary had been set up.

He added that previously 100-metre distance was prescribed in notification of August 7, 2007, in case of most hazardous industries, where no distance whatsoever had been specified by any authority to be maintained from residential colonies.

However, in view of HC observations, the AG submitted, it had now decided to increase the distance from 100 metre to 250 metre.

Chandigarh, May 1
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed Corporation Bank’s Sector-8 branch to pay around Rs 1.26 lakh in compensation towards interest for not disbursing loan.

The penalty includes a fine of Rs 10,000 for harassment and mental agony.

Coming down heavily on the bank, the forum stated: “The bank is free to recover the whole or part of the amount from its employees who were responsible for lapse in not disbursing loan.”

The petitioner, Parveen Kumari, a resident of Panchkula, was allotted a share in the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation and Department of Industries Haryana (SIDCO) Society at IMT, Manesar.

Thereafter, the petitioner applied for a loan of Rs 10 lakh in August, 2006 for which she got permission from her office based at Panchkula.

Thereafter, Kumari completed the requisite formalities for sanction of housing loan and was accordingly sanctioned a loan of Rs 9.8 lakh, which was repayable in 15-year installments after moratorium period of 36 months. She then contacted the bank for release of the loan installment of Rs 3.25 lakh, which was payable by January 31, 2007.

And in failure to deposit the same the society was to be charged interest at the rate of 14 per cent per annum over due installments.

The bank, instead of releasing the amount, told the petitioner that the housing loan had been declared null and void as it was valid only for period of three months from the date of sanction of loan.

Subsequently, the petitioner applied for loan in State Bank of India for which she suffered a net loss of Rs 1,16,125, on account of high interest and processing fee.

The bank argued that the petitioner had not only failed to avail of the loan in the stipulated period but also not completed the formalities due to which the loan had been repudiated. The petitioner stated that the bank after sanctioning the loan in August 30, 2005 didn’t inform the petitioner if any other papers were to be deposited till the time the bank sent a letter informing her about the repudiation of the loan.