Chandigarh, August 18
It has now come to light that serving officers may have submitted false certificates to gain admission for their wards under the gallantry awards quota. Service awards like the Vashisht Sewa Medal (VSM) have been termed as gallantry awards in order to get benefit of the quota. The Tribune is aware of at least two such cases during this year’s admission process.

The nomenclature of the certificate’s title to be submitted for availing benefit under the quota reads “Certificate of Gallantry Award to Military/Paramilitary Personnel”. The Tribune was shown two such certificates that mentioned VSM as gallantry award in these certificates. The VSM is awarded for distinguished service and is not a gallantry award.

These incorrect certificates have been countersigned by the authorities concerned at military and para-military establishments. Admission has already been granted to wards of service medal awardees, ignoring some candidates who are wards of gallantry award winners.

According to para 2.2.5.5 of the prospectus, only gallantry awards qualify for availing benefits under the quota. The awards mentioned in order of precedence are from Param Vir Chakra to Menton--in--Despatches, followed by “other awards”. Awards like President’s Police Medal for Gallantry and other medals given for gallantry to police, paramilitary and fire services personnel fall in the “other awards” category. Legal experts have contended that the “other awards” sub-category of the gallantry awards category deal with those gallantry awards that could not be mentioned in the prospectus.

There was a controversy over whether the Chief of Army Staff’s Commendation for gallantry could be considered in the gallantry awards category for availing the benefit of the quota. The Joint Admission Committee had refused admission to the ward of officers decorated with the chief’s commendation for gallantry on the pretext that the Hindi version of the citation contained the word ‘prashansa’, which literally meant ‘appreciation’ and not ‘commendation’.

While an official communiqué from the Headquarters Western Command, Chandimandir, to the Zial Sainik Welfare Officer, Chandigarh, stated that the chief’s commendation could be considered as a gallantry award, a similar query sent to the Army Headquarters has not elicited a response. While the official Indian Army website lists the commendation as a gallantry award, it does not find a mention under the gallantry awards section in the handbook on benefits published by the Kendriya Sainik Board.

Chandigarh, August 18
The death of 32-year-old Sushil Kumar, who was rescued from the flooded Patiala ki Rao rivulet in Dhanas yesterday, has exposed the preparedness of the fire department that took almost two hours to pull him out of the nullah.

The assessment and coordination left a lot to be desired and rescuers were poorly equipped. The brave fight put up by Sushil to save himself came to nothing, but the story may have had a favourable end had the authorities reacted to the situation promptly and professionally.

Sample this: The fire department received a distress call at 4.37 pm and the first fire engine, a water bowser, reached the spot at 4.45 pm. It was not of any help as it was ill-equipped to handle such a rescue operation. At 5 pm, a hydraulic platform was pressed into service and it took officials almost half hour to find a suitable spot to station it. Sushil was pulled out at about 6.30 pm.

Offhand, the response timings of the fire department appear satisfactory, but officials, on the condition of anonymity, said the entire exercise was futile and could have been avoided if the advanced emergency rescue engine had been used. The fire department has two such engines, which are equipped with life-saving jackets, breathing apparatus, a boat and are capable of operating effectively under water, besides having a cutter and ropes.

The rescue team, in this case, had only one rope and no cutter. The rope around Sushil was cut with a plier obtained from a resident. A fireman admitted that the absence of an extra rope hampered the operation since they could not reach the victim.

MC additional commissioner P.K. Sharma admitted that due to the crisis, they “forgot” to use the high-tech rescue engines. However, he was quick to add that the department was planning to form a disaster cell to handle such situations in future.

Chandigarh, August 18
The great Indian political drama is being replicated at Panjab University in the run-up to the senate elections. While in the past, these elections used to be a low-key affair, this time around candidates are following the footsteps of politicians.

With a huge crowd of supporters, motorcades and leaflets on windscreens with names of candidates and the constituency, the senate elections have just got bigger.

Though for students’ elections, the university follows Lyngdoh Committee recommendations like limited budget and restricted canvassing, it seems there are no rules as regards to the elections to the governing body of the PU.

Some candidates are coming to file their nominations with hundreds of supporters. In most cases, the supporters are non-voters or those who have nothing to do with the elections.

Apparently, this trend has not gone down well with the academia. “It is deplorable... setting such precedent. The future generations will not forgive those who are indulging in such trends. It was never like this before. People should understand that such gimmicks can’t influence sensible voters,” Deepak Manmohan, who has been contesting senate elections for the past 32 years, said.

“This is an unhealthy trend. What is the difference between senate polls or panchayat elections if we have to do this? This will disturb the academic atmosphere,” Rabindarnath Sharma, contestant, said.

Chandigarh, August 18
After having brought down the electricity bill in the Rashtrapati Bhavan and Prime Ministers Office (PMO) by cutting down the energy consumption, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has now identified 320 buildings that will be constructed in accordance with the energy conservation building code.

It was last year that the code was implemented in the Rashtrapati Bhavan and PMO, which helped in bringing down the energy consumption by 40 per cent. The energy audit of Rashtrapati Bhavan was conducted recently, which showed that the electricity bill had been reduced by Rs 49 lakh after the implementation of the code.

This was disclosed by Ajay Mathur, director-general of BEE, during a recent visit to the city. He said a local energy saving company, Honey, had been hired for the project. “The company helped reduce the energy consumption by modifying the lighting, air conditioning and heating systems, besides introducing energy saving devices. This helped in reducing the energy consumed at Rashtrapati Bhavan by 23 per cent, and at the PMO by 32 per cent,” he said.

Going by the success achieved in these buildings, the BEE identified 20 other buildings in the capital where this project will be implemented. Mathur also said they were now involving the municipalities for energy saving.

“In Gujarat, we have identified 10 municipalities that will be working with us to save power bill on street lighting and for pumping water,” he added.

Mathur said energy audits would first be conducted to check the power consumed so that it can be compared with the bill after implementation of the energy saving devices.

He said they had also asked the municipalities across the country to identify projects where the energy saving measures can be implemented.

“It could be in street light, pumping water or even implementing the energy conservation code in buildings in area within the jurisdiction of the municipality,” said Mathur.

Chandigarh, August 18
The Chandigarh police today issued a lookout notice for Haryana’s additional advocate general Sanjeev Bansal and Delhi-based businessman Ravinder Singh, who are wanted in a case involving the delivery of Rs 15 lakh at the residence of a Punjab and Haryana High Court judge.

Besides, the police has also served summons on Panchkula-based property dealer Rajiv Gupta, Nirmal Singh and Pankaj Bhardwaj of Sector 18, Chandigarh, to join the investigations.

According to police sources, Bhardwaj had joined the investigations after receiving the summons.

Meanwhile, the police has dispatched teams to raid various places to arrest Bansal and Ravinder Singh.

Earlier, Parkash Ram, clerk of Sanjeev Bansal, was arrested by the local police when he left behind a carry bag full of money at the residence of the judge, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur.

A case under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered on the complaint of Amrik Singh, a restorer at the High Court.

He was present at the residence of the judge when the clerk had arrived with the money.

Bansal, who had earlier claimed that the amount was part of earnest money meant to be delivered at the house of a property dealer with a similar name, has been absconding.

The police has apparently gathered circumstantial evidence that points at a possible attempt by the law officer and others to use money to influence a case.

Chandigarh, August 18
UT administrator Gen S.F. Rodrigues (retd) today asked officials concerned to speed up work on various development works, including modern terminal market, warehousing complex, relocation of the existing grain market-26, construction of lake in the Patiala-ki-Rao, medicity, education city and development of the institutional area in Sarangpur.

The directions were issued by General Rodrigues to officials during a session to listen to the grievances of general public here.

Advocating the need for strengthening the concept of public-private partnership, he asked officers to make the system of governance more transparent and free from bureaucratic hurdles to facilitate the process of improving service delivery systems and change the life and outlook of people.

Accompanied by Jean Rodrigues, the Administrator heard the grievances of people for around two hours at the UT secretariat and set deadlines for sorting out general and individual issues submitted by people in public hearing session.

In some cases, he asked for the compliance report within a week’s time.

When a deputation brought to his notice the illegal money lending business by some unscrupulous elements, the Administrator asked the IGP and the DC deputy to make an inquiry and submit the report within seven days.

Another deputation submitted that the mobile tower was creating noise pollution in their residential areas. Rodrigues asked the finance secretary and the DC to ensure issuance of enforcement guidelines in this regard and take urgent action against the violators under the law.

The finance secretary mentioned that mobile towers in residential localities were not allowed and the existing ones were being removed.

The Administrator offered all help to a deputation of Mani Majra residents for upgrade of infrastructure facilities in the cremation ground site for bringing improvement in the services.

Chandigarh, August 18
After achieving Olympic glory, the local golden boy, Abhinav Bindra, is now set on making Commonwealth Games 2010, which is be hosted in Delhi, as his next destination.

The Olympic gold medallist, in a welcome ceremony organised by the Punjab State Sports Council, said he was very well prepared for the Commonwealth Games 2010. He said, “I will have to decide for my team to participate in the Commonwealth Games 2010. I would definitely share my experiences and skills with the upcoming talented shooters of Punjab to prepare them for the games.”

Bindra was awarded a cash prize of Rs one crore by the Punjab government for his outstanding performance in Beijing Olympics and for bagging the historic gold medal for India.

However, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, confessed of having neglected the talent that the state is blessed with. “No doubt can be put on the fact that the state of Punjab has produced the most talented sports persons in the country. But it is very unfortunate that we could not give them the best training to stand up to competitions like Olympics. That is why, India lies at the lowest rank of Olympics with only one gold medal,” said the Chief Minister. “But I hope the glory that Abhinav has brought for us will spread a wave of inspiration among other sports persons to get many more gold medals,” he added. The Chief Minister also announced that the government would soon formulate its sports policy to provide excellent infrastructure and training to young players in order to compete at international sports events like Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.

The ace shooter from Chandigarh made the country proud by winning a gold in the 10-metre air rifle event at the Beijing Olympics.

Chandigarh, August 18
Relatives and friends of Sushil Kumar, who was rescued from the swollen Patiala ki Rao and later died at the PGI yesterday, staged a dharna and disrupted traffic for around half an hour on the road separating of Sectors 25 and 37 today.

They were demanding compensation and employment for the victim’s wife from the Chandigarh administration.

They alleged that no official of the administration, municipal corporation mayor Pradeep Chabbra or union minster of state Pawan Kumar Bansal, who was in the city, visited the family to express their grief.

They also demanded an inquiry against the fire department and the police for negligence in performing their duty.

Meanwhile, BJP workers also protested against the partisan attitude of the corporation in dealing with the case and criticised the authorities.

They submitted a memorandum to additional deputy commissioner I.S. Sandhu who had gone to the scene to resolve the issue.

He assured that he would arrange a meeting of the victim’s family with the UT deputy commissioner.

Thereafter, the dharna was lifted and the body was cremated.

Chandigarh, August 18
The Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, protesting against revocation of land given to the Amarnath Shrine Board, will hold a rally in the city on Wednesday.

A total of six buses carrying protesters from Jammu will arrive in various cities of Punjab tomorrow and one of the buses is scheduled to reach Chandigarh. The strategy of the Samiti is to fan out in important cities of Punjab and mobilise support of the local people for restoration of the land to the Amarnath Shrine Board.

“The bus coming to Chandigarh will arrive in the city tomorrow evening, via Nangal, Ropar and Kharar. The group will be welcomed at Dara studio, Mohali, from where they will be taken to Parshuram Bhawan in Sector-37,” said Col. Dharam Veer, president of Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti in Chandigarh.

“The Samiti has organised a special programme for the pilgrims at Parshuram Bhawan on Wednesday morning.

“After a small programme, a rally will be held in the city, covering sectors 37, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 29 and 30. The rally will be conclude at the Bhawan,” he added. Around 200 to 250 people are expected to join the rally.

According to members of the Samiti, the motive of the rally if to bring awareness among the people of Punjab against the injustice being done to the Amarnath pilgrims. “The Yatra has been carried on for more than a century by thousands of people every year. Our protest will continue till we bring justice to the pilgrims. We will try to strengthen our movement in Punjab by asking people to join against the cancellation order of the land given to the Shrine Board by the Jammu and Kashmir Government,” said Col. Dharam Veer.

Chandigarh, August 18
Hundreds of officers of the State Bank of India (SBI) and its associate banks today went on a strike to protest against the government decision to merge the State Bank of Saurashtra with the SBI.

Over 80,000 bank officers across the country observed the strike.

A large number of officers gathered in front of the SBI local head office in Sector 17 and held a demonstration against the alleged “anti-employee” policies of the government.

Addressing the gathering, Vijay Magan, vice-president of the All-India State Bank Officers Federation, criticised the bank’s chairman as well as the government for going ahead with the merger in spite of protests by the officers.

He warned the chairman against adopting policies aimed at dividing associations and federations. He further threatened that officers would be forced to go on indefinite strike if the government failed to put a halt to all merger proposals.

M.K. Virmani, president of SBI Officers Association, Chandigarh circle, said the merger was neither in favour of the bank nor customers. “All associate banks must be allowed to grow independently as they have great potential to grow. The merger will result in reduction in number of branches and ultimately end up with retrenchment of staff,” he said.

Mohali, August 18
I.S. Bindra, who is in the chair since 1978, has been again re-elected as president of the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) while M.P. Pandove would continue as honorary secretary of the association.

After electing Bindra and Pandove as the office bearers in the annual general meeting, that took place at PCA stadium here yesterday, the house authorised both to appoint the other members of the panel.

In the new team, G.S. Walia, who was hony treasurer during the last term, would serve as hony joint secretary whereas D.P. Reddy would be the hony treasurer now onwards. Viswajeet Khanna and Sumedh Singh Saini have been appointed as vice presidents of the association. The other three vice presidents are Dr B.C. Gupta, Sudhir Mittal and Lalit Modi.

Meanwhile, the new team stressed on developing the game, especially in rural areas of the state.

Talking to media persons, M.P. Pandove said, “We have decided to develop cricket play grounds, especially in the rural areas. For the purpose, help of district associations would be sought. After their recommendations, we would send our experts there to develop those into advanced coaching centres. We would also provide financial support to these centres.”

The other decision, which was taken today, was to increase annual budget of the association. “Last year, the budget was around Rs 2.70 crore, this session it will be Rs 4.60 crore,” Pandove said. 

Mohali, August 18
Mohali residents beware. Better close down the back gates of the houses within a month. The Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) is gearing up to break down heavily on persons who have illegally opened the back gates of their houses.

Though GMADA had been taking action against such violators of and on, this time the campaign will be carried out in a much serious manner. Residents have been asked to remove the gates by September 15 and the violators will face tough action from September 16 onwards.

According to sources, GMADA could take suo motu action against such violators under Clause 157 of the PUDA Act. The police help was being sought in this regard by the authorities concerned even as the municipal council had been asked to join in the campaign. The construction division of GMADA would accompany the enforcement wing during the drive which would remove the unauthorised gates and fill the gap in the walls with bricks and mortar, the cost of which would have to be borne by the owner of the house. The gate removed by the enforcement wing would also be seized by GMADA officials.

Sources said the MC has also been asked through a letter to send a team of employees to accompany the enforcement staff of GMADA during the campaign.

The civic body team would be seizing the goods of residents who had opened up shops in the rear courtyards after opening a back gate and also imposing fines for the violations.

Among the major violators were a few residents of Phase IV whose houses fell on the sector dividing road. They had opened back gates to carry out commercial activity in violation of the norms. Occupants of houses near Madanpur Chowk were selling furniture turning the area into a furniture market. In many other areas also, back gates were used to run shops.

Kharar MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu, who lives in Phase VII, has also opened a back gate. Reacting to the GMADA plan to remove back gates, he said he had opened a small gate only to maintain the area at the back of his house. He would close the gate if GAMDA had any objection, but the authority should take the charge of maintaining areas which fell at the back of the houses. GMADA has informed the residents about its action plan through a public notice.

IN an article, Vishal Gondal, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur who founded IndiaGames, a mobile games company in 1999, dubbed Wipro, Infosys and TCS and their thousands of offshoots “the axis of evil” for Indian software and start-up space.

He said these companies played a vital role in initiating IT revolution in India with an interesting business model “body shopping” and post-US clamping on H1 visas leading to “offshore outsourcing”. But he rued that the Indian software outsourcing story which started as a great business of labour arbitrage has today left most players scrambling for margins only, largely because they have created a beast which is now unmanageable.

The Indian IT employee has got an average salary hike of about 20 per cent year on year which means in the last decade, salaries have gone up five times while attrition is on an all-time high. They have created a new breed of employees, the “OutBots” who have been programmed not to think, but to blindly follow a process designed to do a thing in a manner the company can clock most hours and bill a client without giving him a feeling that he is being taken for a ride.

Most of these companies run on a cost plus business model. These are making money and good margin, and at the same time harming the country by creating these “OutBots”.

Barring a few exceptions, most companies are happy to build routers and software for large US-based companies for a flat hourly rate, but don’t want to take the slightest amount of risk which could have transformed them into a “UT Starcom”, “Huawei” , “Lenovo”. They are content to remain outsourced partners to “Microsoft”, “Nokia” and “GE” who are making billions on the technology built by our “Outbots”.

“Outbots” will eventually destroy the software industry. The only way out is to encourage products, innovation and fight “the axis of evil”.

An edifying comment on the post said even these companies deteriorated the Indian education system by making strict academic percentage which makes aspirants rote learn lab codes and mugging up engineering subjects. Startups are looking for choosers and not beggars. And in our society choosers are hard to find. What the top software giants are doing is using the majority of the product of society. And like every ecosystem whose members influence its behaviour, they are affecting it. Bad news for startups. Big companies may pay hefty package, but a good hacker can only be satisfied by good work. Good work brings good money.

Wipro, TCS and Infosys may hire about 2,50,000 software guys. For 100 good startups, we need 1,000 good guys. It’s just 0.4 per cent of people undergoing “brainwashing” at these companies. If our society can’t produce even these 0.4%, the problem does not lie with the evil axis.

The prevailing customs in society are also to be blamed. No one would want his daughter to marry a startup guy. No one would like to promote that his son/daughter is a budding entrepreneur. The individuality of a man is not respected. The risk taking spirit is not nurtured, and any attempt to break the system is not appreciated.

The problem doesn’t easily boil down to INFY, WIT, and TCS creating a bad environment for startups. These companies were once startups and credit should be given to them for evolving their business models where they could grow into giants.

Chandigarh, August 18
In the graduates’ constituency, which is the single largest constituency and has 15 seats, a record number of nominations were seen this time. A total of 57 nominations have been filed and today was the last day of filing the nominations.

Though the real picture would come only after August 29, which is the last date of withdrawals, the observers are speculating the number to be around 50 making it a tough competition. If there is record number of nominations, so are the voters. For this time around 66, 000 new voters have joined in this category.

The nominations also sprung many surprises with many new names in the list. Among the new entrants, Dayal Pratap Singh Randhawa, former campus president, Prof S C Gupta besides three candidates from DAV camp, including M L Aeri, director, DAV colleges managing committee, Junesh Kakaria, principal, H M V, Jalandhar, Dr K N Kaul, principal DAV College, Dasuya.

Among the sitting senators, prominent ones include Rabindernath Sharma, Prabhjit Singh, Anu Chatarh, Malwindwer Singh Kang, Dharinder Tayal and Parveen Sharma besides others.

S S Hundal and Jarnail Singh who are in the senate from the lecturer constituency are also contesting from graduates’ constituency this time. Besides, Ashok Goyal has filed his nomination from graduates’ constituency as well as from the combined faculties. Similarly, G K Chatrath has also filed his nomination from medical faculty as well graduates’ constituency.

Chandigarh, August 18
Students of department of Punjabi, Panjab University, proceeded on an indefinite hunger strike seeking rollback of the decision of university authorities to scrap internal assessment in the department.

The students also demanded the university to reconsider its decision to make two subjects, which were earlier optional, compulsory.

Panjab University Campus Student Council (PUCSC) president Parminder Jaswal said: “The university authorities have singled out Punjabi department for abolishing internal assessment. The rule should be uniform and applicable to other departments as well.”

Elaborating on the issue, Jaswal said like most departments of the university, Punjabi department earlier had 20 per cent internal assessment. The students were also offered two compulsory and two optional subjects to select from a list of four subjects.

However, the university has now decided to abolish internal assessment in the department and made all four subjects compulsory, leaving students with no option in deciding subjects.

Chandigarh, August 18
“Curiosity, right attitude, impressive communication skills and passion are the important ingredients for successful career in media. Though print and electronic are quite different from each other but the basic journalistic ethics remain the same and must be upheld at all costs,” opined Braj Mohan Singh, Bureau Chief, NDTV, during the seminar on “Career Dimensions of Media”, held at GGD SD College, Sector 32-C, here today.

The UGC sponsored seminar was organised by the Department of Mass Communication, SD College. The panel included prominent names like Vivek Atray, director Public Relations, Chandigarh Administration, Ramesh Vinayak, Bureau Chief, India Today, Dr Mohanmeet Khosla, chairperson, Department of Mass Communication, PU, Braj Mohan Singh, Bureau Chief, NDTV India, and Rajesh Ahuja, Bureau Chief, The Hindu.

According to Vivek, “There exists a wide range of options in the world of media today. While the print media still remains strong in India, the electronic media too offers a host of challenging choices. The need is to hold the attention of the readers and viewers.”

Adding on to this Ramesh discussed the growth story of the Indian media in the light of the economic, social and technological changes that the country has witnessed.

He was supported by Rajesh, who expressed his concern over plagiarism in the media. He urged students to take up journalism as a passion rather than a profession.

A documentary prepared by the students of the college, “A Life Less Ordinary”, was also screened. The documentary, which dealt with drug abuse, was awarded the first prize at “Soch”, a festival organised by the department.

Chandigarh, August 18
CAT has directed the director, technical education, and the administration to consider the promotion of a teacher to the post of HoD of the department and pay her the dues accordingly.

K. Ranga Rajyam had been orally assigned the duties of the head of department (HoD) of pharmacy in Government Polytechnic College for Women but was not furnished the salary for the post. Claiming the salary, Rajyam then appealed before the central administrative tribunal (CAT).

Pronouncing the orders, CAT headed by judicial member Shyama Dogra and administrative member Veena Chhotray observed: “The director, technical education, directed to consider the case of the applicant for promotion to the post of head of department, pharmacy, in GPW from July 1, 2005. In the event of being suitable, she should be given the arrears of pay and allowances and re-fixation if her pension and other retirement dues as per law.”

Rajyam, a resident of Sector 42, had retired as lecturer in pharmacy from Government Polytechnic for Women in July, 2006. The applicant had been teaching in the polytechnic since August 14, 1987 and was subsequently regularised with order on June 30, 1994. Due to retirement of another lecturer in the polytechnic — A.K. Gupta — the post of head of department of pharmacy fell vacant on July 1, 2005.

According to the applicant, she being senior-most lecturer in the department was orally assigned the duties of the head of department by the principal.

Subsequently, she was given additional charge of the post of principal, industrial training institute, by the administration subject to the condition that she would not claim any other benefit regarding pay, promotion on account of this additional charge. She worked against the post till the date of retirement on July 31, 2006.

Rajyam stated that despite her being senior-most lecturer in the department, she was not considered for promotion as head of department even when a vacancy had become available from July 1, 2005. However, the education department argued that the applicant did not possess prescribed qualifications for the post and hence was not entitled to lay any claim to promotion to that post.

Chandigarh, August 18
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed a financing company, Royal Capital Services, and its owner Sanjeev Kochhar to pay compensation of Rs 25,000 to a resident of Solan, Himachal Pradesh. The forum has also asked the company to pay Rs 2,200 as cost of litigation.

The petitioner, Jeet Ram, stated that he had taken a loan of Rs 25,000 from the finance company. He stated to have given one book of blank cheques signed by him to the company.

The book of blank cheques was given as security to repay the loan amount. When Jeet demanded the blank cheques after discharging his liability in December, 2002, the company refused to return the same.

Though the petitioner requested the company to return the blank cheques, it didn’t yield a positive result.

In reply, the finance company claimed that it had given a loan of Rs 50,000 to the petitioner and the loan amount had not been repaid.

The forum observed: “The finance company has misused their position by not returning the blank cheques. Not only this, they have filed a criminal complaint against the petitioner, which amounts to mental and physical torture.”