Chandigarh, May 7
Are dogs man’s best friends? Aye, Aye will say dog lovers. But ask 60-year-old K. I. Mammen of Sector 47 or Geeta Devi, a domestic help, from Colony 5, and their answer will be a loud no.

Both of them were recently bitten by stray dogs and are now lying in their respective homes, recouping from their injuries. While the dog bite has left Mammen poorer by Rs 20,000, that’s what the anti-rabies human serum vaccine cost him, besides confining him to bed for four months, Geeta Devi is without part of her calf muscle, which the animal bit off.

Both Mammen and Geeta are among the 15 persons, who, on an average, fall victims to dog bite every day. And the figure, if multiplied over a year, stands at over 5,000. And if one takes a look at the figures for the previous years, the number is almost the same, a clear indication that the authorities have so far miserably failed to deal with this menace.

Mammen told TNS that he fell prey to a stray dog near Faidan village on May 26. The dispensary found Mammen allergic to the vaccine available there and recommended him a human serum vaccine costing around Rs 20,000 and advised rest for four months.

Similarly, Geeta, in her sixties, told TNS that a dog bit her near her residence in Colony Number 5 a week ago. The dog tore apart her calf muscle causing a deep injury.

Sources in the Sector 19 Anti-Rabies Civil Dispensary told TNS that a single case of rabies victim was reported in February this year.

Sources in the MC said about 8,000 stray dogs are roaming in the city. The civic body failed to devise methods to curb the menace.

Pardeep Chhabra, the mayor, maintained that proposal to construct a dog pound with a capacity to accommodate 5,000 canines was under way and they were looking for a proper site.

Dr Harminder Singh, an anti-rabies expert, said the rabies virus could infect any warm-blooded animal. Describing common symptoms in rabid dog, he said the animal would be frothing in mouth, would not bark and keep itself confined. It would bite anyone coming near it.

Chandigarh, May 7
In the absence of any strict clause on school transport, the children going to schools are virtually at a greater risk. Reason: The rulebook of the Chandigarh Administration is quiet on school transportation rule.

Consequently, the students are left on the mercy of susceptible conductors, untrained drivers in the wobbly over-aged overloaded buses and autorickshaws.

The schools simply shed their shoulders to take the responsibility of safety of kids. "It is between transporter and parents to settle the issue", is their justification.

The Administration is helpless to deal with this grave situation. When the Administration can threaten to withdraw the school recognition if they don’t comply to reservation quota, then why can’t they revoke their recognition which does not take accountability of transporting children?

"Actually, there is no clause under which we can tighten the noose around bus operators. We are chalking out a traffic awareness programme and strict challaning drive to nab the violators. Moreover, the schools are least bothered to take any initiative", said Vandana Disodia, secretary, State Transport Authority.

Thousands of city residents are a worried lot after recent accident at Lojuta village near Narnaul in which over 110 children were seriously injured when an overloaded school bus overturned after the driver lost control over the vehicle. Similarly, an autorickshaw carrying kids of a private school at Mohali overturned a few months back because of being overloaded.

The question arises that when the schools virtually dictate parents to go according to their terms, then why do they become softer when it comes to deal with transport contractors?, said a parent.

Dr Rohini said, ‘‘My kids goes to Sector 8 school, Chandigarh, from Panchkula in a bus. In this 32-seater bus, I have observed, around 48 children and eight staff members go to school. Children are made to sit on the lap of another children because of fear of being challaned by the police”.

Though most of the principals admit that the school authorities should not wash their hands off the issue, they argue that parents’ expectation too cannot be met. “The parents want their children to be picked from the gate of their house and be dropped at the doorstep. We cannot cater to individuals’ convenience. So, we avoid to get into this and let them settle it with the contractor”, they said.

Chandigarh, May 7
In was a day of chaos on the road dividing Sector 34 and 35 throughout the day owing to re-carpeting of a stretch on the road.

Paying a scant regard to the inconvenience of the road users, the authorities diverted the traffic through the parking lot in front of the shops, only to further aggravate the hardships.

The authorities began the work in the morning unmindful of the chaos caused by heavy traffic on the road at the office hours. At 9 am traffic started clogging at the rotary near the Hotel Southend with the harried motorist tried to make way from whatever space they found along the road.

On seeing the traffic jams ahead, some motorists tried to reverse their vehicles to change the routes, thus blocking the way of the vehicle following them.

To make the matters worse, the traffic police was conspicuously absent from the scene. Further, parking lot employees stopped the vehicles to charge money and created further confusion, as it was difficult to make out who were entering into the parking or using it as diversion.

During the launch hours, the scene became all the more chaotic with people rushing to the eateries and all sorts of vehicles, including trucks using whatever little space they found.

The haphazardly parked vehicles also added to the woes of the motorists with the absence of parking lot employees unable to streamline the parking of the vehicles.

Despite the fact that the issue of re-carpeting or construction of roads during night time or early in the morning was raised several times, the authorities seem to have been uninterested in sorting out the warships the commuters face on the roads.

Chandigarh, May 7
Acute shortage of judicial members in the Punjab and Haryana Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has led to a number of cases pending in the consumer courts and the government has not made any recruitment so far.

The Punjab commission had already recommended few names to fill the vacant posts by March 13 this year, but still the posts are lying vacant. It has been long since Justice R.C. Kathuria, president of Haryana Consumer Disputes Commission that functions from Sector 5 in Panchkula has retired, but the charge has not been given to anyone so far.

Buddhi Chander Prakash, a member of the Punjab commission, retired on February 1 this year, and the post is still lying vacant. The commission is surviving on president Justice S.N. Aggarwal and a member, Jasbir Kapoor.

Interestingly, Kapoor will also be retiring on May 16 and the Bench here will be left with the president holding the court.

According to sources, there are 5,200 cases pending in the Punjab redressal commission, while 11,000 cases are pending in the Haryana redressal commission.

“The retirement age has been specified by the government itself so it should have been alert enough to take measures to fill the post.

The Punjab government has taken no such step, though the commission had recommended names. This shows the callous attitude of the authorities. We hope that the vacant posts are filled up at the earliest,” said a government official.

The file is pending with secretary food supply, R.P.S. Pawar. When asked, as to what was the reason behind the delay, he said, “I don’t remember but I will check the files and then answer your query.”

The file is pending with secretary food supply, RPS Pawar. When asked the reason for the delay he said, “I don’t remember about this. I will go to office, check the files and then will attend to your query.”

Chandigarh, May 7
The additional deluxe building in Sector 9 here, housing offices of several top UT departments, seems to be nobody's baby with over 1,000 employees working under unhygienic conditions.

Located just opposite the UT secretariat, where the top brass of the Chandigarh administration formulates policies for the city's upkeep and development, the building seems to have escaped the attention of the authorities concerned. Offices of the tourism department, IT department, education department, vigilance department and several offices of the engineering department are situated in the complex.

Even as a huge amount has been spent on renovating the offices of the officers, the ordinary employees are at the receiving end in terms of basic amenities. Even as the mercury soars, the water in the coolers is not fit for drinking purposes as the coolers are infected with insects, alleged Balwinder Singh, a union leader. In fact, the coolers had been placed along with the toilets making it a serious health hazard. So much so, one of the coolers had been placed right inside the women’s toilet on the ground floor.

As the overhead water-storage tanks have not been cleaned for years, the fear of epidemic looms large over the building.

In the absence of any canteen facilities, the employees and the visitors are forced to eat in unhygienic conditions from the vendors plying their trade illegally outside the building. In fact, there was reportedly a provision for the canteen on the ground floor. However, that space had been occupied by the testing laboratory of the building and roads department in clear violation of the Factories Act, 1948, which makes the functioning of canteen mandatory for any office having more than 50 employees.

Balwinder Singh alleged that heat in the testing laboratory made the building fire-prone. With old furniture and official records stacked in the corridors, the exit from from the building could be difficult in emergencies, the employees alleged.

Official sources conceded that the maintenance of the building left much to be desired. Space constraints forced the authorities to accommodate a large number of employees, resulting in congestion.

However, the construction of the state-of-the-art building adjoining this building, foundation stone of which was laid by the then adviser to the administrator Lalit Sharma last year should take care of the space constraints and other problems of the employees, the sources added.

Chandigarh, May 7
In the wake of increasing incidents of violence on the Panjab University campus, the traffic police today carried out a special drive and challaned those with filmed windowpanes. The cops even removed films from the windowpanes of the challaned vehicles. This is the first time that the challans have been issued on the university premises.

According to sources, a special drive was carried out this morning to restrict and identify the miscreants entering the campus. The police, along with the traffic cops, checked every vehicle that entered the the campus. The drive started at around 10 am and was carried on till the noon. All three entry gates to the campus were monitored.

According to Ramesh Chander, SHO, Sector-11 police station, intensive steps were required to maintain peace within the campus. “Monitoring and challaning the violaters would certainly help, he added. Moreover, it is even difficult to judge the identity of persons sitting inside a filmed vehicle.”

However, presence of the traffic cops on the premises created some resentment among the students as earlier, the cops were only deployed outside Gate No. 1 in order to regulate the traffic. “Increasing incidents of violence have brought the traffic police inside the university, which is really shocking,” said Ramandeep Singh, a student.

Chandigarh, May 7
In a unique gesture that will go a long way in tackling Chandigarh's hazardous waste menace, the Punjab government has allowed the Union Territory to dump its hazardous waste at the common hazardous waste management plant at Nimbuan(Dera Bassi).

In fact, the decision of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has been conveyed to the Chandigarh administration and the local industry has already started sending its consignments of waste to the Dera Bassi plant in special-purpose vehicles. The administration had already chipped in with its nominal share of Rs 2.28 lakh to avail of the facility, sources told The Tribune here today.

On October 3 last year, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had inaugurated the Nimbuan Greenfield Punjab Limited (NGPL) facility, a project of the central government, Punjab government and the state's industry to tackle the problem of hazardous waste in Punjab.

Since then the Chandigarh administration had been trying to tie up with the PPCB, nodal agency for the plant, to let its waste be dumped at its plant. In fact, Chandigarh generates only about 300 metric tonnes of hazardous waste as against 36,000 tonnes per annum by the Punjab industry.

Given the miniscule quantity of the hazardous waste generated by the Union Territory and unavailability of a suitable dumping site here, it was felt that there was no need to create a separate dumping facility for the local industry, PJS Dadwal, additional director, environment, said confirming Punjab's decision to allow dumping of hazardous waste at Nimbuan plant.

Moreover, with the shopping malls-cum-multiplexes replacing the existing industry in the city, the generation of the hazardous waste has been going down over the years making the creation of the separate facility at Chandigarh an "unviable" proposition.

"Besides taking care of the health of the residents, Punjab's permission to dump waste at its facility will spare the valuable industrial space for expansion," Rajeev Gupta, general secretary of the federation of small-scale industries, added.

Chandigarh, May 7
Passengers at the Inter-State Bus Terminus, Sector 43, will get to wait for the buses in the lap of luxury on nominal payment.

The passengers can now beat the heat while waiting for buses by paying Rs 10 for two hours.

Besides, a crèche and a medical room has also been set up at the bus stand to make it state of the art.

The AC hall, the creche and the medical room, to deal with emergencies, started functioning today.

“In the sweltering heat, waiting for a bus while sitting in the AC hall is a top-class comfort. As it is going to remain full all the time, the authorities should have made it bigger,” said Narinder Singh, a commuter.

On the charges, CTU director PS Shergill said, “We want that genuine passengers only should enjoy the facility, that’s why we are slapping the nominal charges.”

Setting up the crèche at the bus stand seemed the right step as a total of five children were left by their parents there on the inaugural day of the crèche. It is being run by the Indian Council of Children’s Welfare (ICCW), UT branch.

“I think it is the first bus stand, which houses the facility of crèche to facilitate the commuters as well as the people of nearby areas,” said Vinod Kumar Garg, organising secretary of ICCW, UT branch.

“Earlier, we were a little doubtful about how people would respond but I think coming of five students on the first day is quite satisfying.

However, the real picture will unfold in the coming days”, said Garg.

Expressing happiness over the facilities, Tilak Raj said, “The authorities should be patted on the back for the innovative steps”. 

Mohali, May 7
In what is bound to give an edge to the Congress in SAS Nagar district, the Bhartiya Janta Party has pitted 16 candidates against its state allies Shiromani Akali Dal for the forthcoming zila parishad and block samiti elections on May 12.

While the BJP has fielded four candidates for the zila parishad elections, another 12 BJP candidates are in the fray for the block samiti seats.

District president of the BJP, Khushwant Rai Giga, said the alliance with the SAD was at the state level and not at the local level. “We are a national party and there should be no problem if we field our own candidates. If we win at these seats it is ultimately the victory of the SAD in Punjab.” he said

When asked if the BJP candidates would be campaigning against the SAD candidates, Giga said, “Of course. But there would be no criticism. We would talk of development issues at the local level,” he said.

He pointed out that the BJP-SAD candidate list would not benefit the Congress. “BJP has tapped into the Congress rural vote bank, not the SAD vote bank,” he explained.

For the zila parishad elections in the Mubarakpur zone, which is reserved for an SC candidate, Satnam Singh of the SAD is giving a fight to the Congress candidate Daljinder Singh. For the Jaulakalan zone, which is general candidate seat, Gurvinder Singh of SAD is pitted against Bhupinder Singh of the congress.

In the Lalru zone, which is also a general candidate seat, it is Surinder Singh of the Congress against Mukesh Rana of the SAD. Also in the fray is the BJP candidate Ranjit Singh. On the Amlala zone seat, reserved for a general category woman candidate it is Salita Devi of the SAD against Baljit Kaur of the Congress.

In Khizrabad zone reserved for an SC woman candidate, there are four women in the fray- Sahejpreet Kaur of the Congress, Harjit Kaur an independent candidate, Karnail Kaur of the Congress and Bhupinder Kaur of the BJP.

In the Teor zone, Kuldeep Singh of the SAD would fight Gurmit Singh, an independent candidate and Mehar Singh of the Congress. For the Mullanpur Garibdass zone, Kirpal Singh of the Congress would fight Charanjit Singh of the SAD and Malkit Singh, an independent candidate.

For the Gharuan zone, reserved for a woman candidate Kanta Singla of the BJP is pitted against Gurdev Kaur of the Congress, Babita, an independent candidate and Manjinder Kaur of the SAD. For the Sohana zone, reserved for an SC candidate, Sukhdev Singh an independent candidate is fighting Karnail Singh of the SAD and Gurmukh Singh of the Congress.

For the Manoli zone, Harinder Pal Singh of the BJP is pitted against Karam Singh the Congress candidate and Jasvir Singh the SAD candidate.

For the block samiti polls in the Dera Bassi block the BJP has fielded Jagdeep Singh from Nagla, Jai Singh from Dappar, Hoshiar Singh from Kheri Gujran, Jagmeet Kaur from Chadiala and Rakesh Mehta from Bhagsi. Somnath Goel from Lalru, Gulzar Singh from Paragpur and Jasmer Singh from Samgoli.

In the Kharar block the BJP has fielded Sukhdarshan Singh from Balongi, Jagdish Rai Jand from Mullapur and Gurmeet Singh from Bari Karoran. In the Majri block the BJP has fielded Suman Bala from the Tira zone.

Chandigarh, May 7
The Uttarakhand government will be honouring city resident Dr Jiyalal Handoo with the Vidya Bharti award for his contribution to literature, this month. Recently, he was conferred two gold medals by the International Penguin Publishing House and the Friends Forum of India for his literary and social works.

Born in Kashmir in 1927, Handoo retired as head of the department of Hindi from Government College, Mohali, in 1985. He also served as the officiating principal of Government College, Dera Bassi.Handoo has authored 15 books, most of them are works of fiction. He has also translated literary works and edited old manuscripts. Her is now working on a book titled Indian Cultural Traditions and Beliefs, which will be brought out in English as well as Hindi. He also plans on bringing out a five-language dictionary.After his retirement, Handoo has devoted his time to literary and social activity. He arranges for free medicines that are distributed to needy patients at local hospitals. He is a recipient of several other awards from different government and other organisations.

Chandigarh, May 7
It is our responsibility to preserve the rich heritage of art in India for our posterity and for the world of art lovers so that they could have a glimpse of our rich culture. Niranjan Desai, senior vice-president of the Ocean Cine Fan, said this while talking to mediapersons at Alliance Francaise ‘Le Corbusier’ De here on Monday.

He said those countries of the world, which have rich collection of their art like Paris, always propagate it in such a manner that people from the world over desire to have a look. He regretted that in India there is no proper infrastructure available where the country’s rich cultural past and collection of antiques could be displayed to attract attention worldwide. Desai said art could only be promoted and appreciated by its lovers if it gets proper platform to be showcased. He said it was sad that art promotion had never been on the priority list of any Indian government, as it had no contribution to their vote banks.

Luckily, in the recent years, the corporate houses have come forward and are investing in the promotion of art and art films in the country. He further said it was a good gesture that some young filmmakers had turned their attention in making movies on sensitive issues, which clearly depicted that our film industry had become mature and was entering a new era. He considered cinema a force, which could change the mindset of the people. 

Chandigarh, May 7
Trying to save the rich textile heritage of the country, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), is creating software, which will host a number of traditional motifs of various traditional embroideries. Beginning with a software on phulkari, the traditional embroidery of Punjab, the CDAC will create a similar software for kutch, kashmiri and chikankari. The idea is not just to create software having various designs of the embroideries, but to later create a web portal, showcasing all these rich embroideries in their finery.

Director of the CDAC, Mohali, J.S. Bhatia here today said the CDAC works in six thematic research areas, including multilingual and heritage computing. “This software is being developed as part of our research in the heritage computing. It can be used by fashion houses, boutiques and export houses, which will get the design motifs at the click of a button. The software is being so designed that a user can not just go through the motifs, but also decide on its placement on different parts of a garment,” he said.

As the garment trade gets mechanised, the traditional Indian embroideries have taken a beating, and most fashion and export houses use the modern designs. The CDAC will be creating the software for different embroideries in a phased manner. “After the software for phulkari is launched, we will create similar software for kutch and kashmiri embroideries, chikankari and traditional rajasthani mirror work embroidery,” he said.

Bhatia said this software will also allow the user to take measurements of a person by scanning his body frame, rather than the traditional way of taking measurements by hand.

“This is an internal project of the CDAC, and will be released in the market soon.,” he added.

Panchkula, May 7
More than three months after the district administration demolished the sheds of lawyers from the parking area of the local courts, the construction activity has been resumed on the land adjoining the existing chambers.

Majority of the uprooted lawyers have started setting up the shed after the members of the bar claimed that they have got the permission to set up the shed on the land.

“The building committee of Punjab and Haryana High Court has passed speaking orders to construct these sheds on the said land on Tuesday,” said the president of the Panchkula Bar Association.

The enforcement wing of district administration demolished 157 sheds on January 20. Protesting against the demolition, the lawyers staged dharnas and observed strikes. Later, the lawyers moved to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Even as the lawyers have claimed that they have been granted permission to set up the sheds, the district administration seems in no mood to relent.

“The district administration has not got any orders from the house building committee,” said Rajinder Kataria, deputy commissioner, Panchkula. “Moreover the Punjab and Haryana High Court had referred the case to building committee for inquiring into the dispute between lawyers and administration over the issue’, said deputy commissioner.

The committee was asked to submit the findings of inquiry and suggestions in this regard to High Court, he added.

“To my surprise, they are claiming to have received the orders from the committee while only the court was competent to pass the orders”, Kataria said.

Interestingly, the lawyers have started setting up the sheds on the land owned by an adjoining school and Panchkula revenue department, which amounts to encroachment till they do not have the permission from the concerned parties. 

Chandigarh, May 7
The People for Animal, an NGO, organised a fund-raising exhibition titled “Divine Palette” at the exhibition hall of Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10, here today. Oleographs of late Raja Ravi Verma were also up for sale. Finance secretary of the Chandigarh administration Sanjay Kumar inaugurated the exhibition.

The paintings in the exhibition have been broadly classified into portraits, portrait-based compositions and theatrical compositions based on myths and legends. The works include portraits of mythological characters, including Lord Shiva, Balaji, Krishna, Ganesha, Goddess Laxmi and Saraswati as well as scenes from Mahabharta and Ramayana.

Kumar went round the exhibition and appreciated the paintings. He said the paintings were the best examples of fusion of the Indian traditions with techniques of European academic art. The exhibition will remain open till May 10.

PFA founder Payal Sodhi stated that it was an annual activity of the organisation as it was not possible for the organisation to survive and undertake numerous welfare programmes for animals only with government aid.

Everyday we read in the newspapers that the Chandigarh municipal corporation and the UT administration have created greenbelts in different parts of the city and these are inaugurated by bigwigs with much fanfare. But nobody cares to actually keep them green.

The greenbelts in southern sectors, especially the one facing house Nos. 2850-85 in Sector 40, are in poor shape. This Sector 40 greenbelt has never been attended by anyone despite the fact that a number of complaints were lodged with the authorities concerned.

I urge upon the authorities that instead of creating new greenbelts by spending huge public money, it would be better to maintain the existing ones and provide essential amenities in these areas.

S.K. Khosla, Chandigarh

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Chandigarh, May 7
Teachers and students from the department of laws joined the chain fast on its 31st day today. They protested against the delay in declaring Panjab University a central university. Teachers, including Vijay Nagpal, M.S. Bains, Geeta Joshi and Paramjit Kaur, and research scholars B.K. Chawla and Govinder Singh joined the fast today.

When asked that what was the legal locus standi of Panjab University vis-à-vis other central universities of India, Prof Shashi Sharma, chairman, department of laws, said in terms of administrative control, the PU was fully central right from its inception in 1882. Explaining its central character, he said like other central universities, it was set up by an Act of Parliament. Moreover, the vice-president of India and not the state governor was the chancellor of the university. Even in the financial matters, though legally the Punjab Government was supposed to contribute 40 per cent to the university budget, but this proportion had also been fixed by the Union.

Meanwhile, the Joint Action Committee has decided to observe May 13 as Sadbuddhi Diwas so that better sense prevails among the functionaries of Punjab as well as the union government. On this occasion, teachers and students from the Sanskrit department will make special prayers at the site.

Chandigarh, May 7
Panjab University is hopeful to declare the results of all courses early this time as compared to previous years. Thanks to the introduction of OMR sheets in the on-going annul university examinations.

Chandigarh, May 7
Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies, University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, has announced a grant of Rs 1,20,000 to Canadian Studies Centre at Panjab University for the promotion of Indo-Canadian studies.

The centre was set up in June 2005 with the objectives of promoting Indo-Canadian studies in the field of social sciences, sciences, humanities and professional disciplines like engineering, law, management and also to undertake studies in the areas of Indo-Canadian trade and economic relations thereby facilitating exchange of faculty and students.

Prof B.S. Ghuman, dean, faculty of arts and head of the department of public administration, said, “Initially, we plan to use the funds for exploring economic and trade possibilities between the two countries. Also, on the agenda is a study on domestic violence on women in Punjabi families in Canada vis-a vis Punjabi families in India.”