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A quiet, but warm, Christmas
Chandigarh, December 25 While churches were lit up and payers were offered, most Christians gave a miss to feast and gifts this year. “We celebrated Christmas by holding prayers for the lives lost in the tragedy. Instead of annual feast and exchange of gifts, we had subdued celebrations that too with family members. We also held special prayers for people who lost their lives in the terror attacks,” said Suparna Sharpe, a teacher in Carmel Convent. “Though we had usual carol singing, Mass prayer, etc. it was more as condolences and prayer for peace and tranquility. People did come over and lit candles but we skipped usual lavish feast. We appealed against exchange of expensive gifts when people in Orissa are struggling to rebuild their lives,” said Father Stephen, Catholic Church, Sector 19. Pastor Daniel Masih, Church of Jesus Christ, Sector 38 West, said: “Jesus had only one objective of spreading peace. The country has been torn by growing violence. We hope that through Christmas the message is conveyed to the humankind to live in harmony with each other by bridging the gap between different castes and religions.” “Lord Jesus sacrificed his life for the welfare of humankind and treated everybody equally. So all religions should be respected and there should be ensured justice to all without the appeasement of any particular religion,” said Sharan Mathew, a church visitor.
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Mayoral Polls
The decision was taken at a meeting held here under the chairmanship of AICC Secretary and observer for the polls Maj Ved
Prakash. According to sources, the party high command had zeroed in on the candidature of Kamlesh (Mayor),
H.C. Kalyan (Senior Deputy Mayor) and Vijay Rana (Deputy Mayor). The final announcement was made today by Ved Prakash at a meeting attended by Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal and CTCC (Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee) President
B.B. Behl. A three-time councillor and a former Mayor, Kamlesh, wields a considerable influence in the slums of the city, which are considered to be a crucial vote bank for Bansal in the next Lok Sabha
elections. Kamlesh, a non-Balmiki, had been a front-runner for the post from the beginning.
H.C. Kalyan, a Balmiki candidate, has been given the post of Senior Deputy Mayor as Balmikis reportedly form a majority of the Scheduled Caste votes in the city. The post of Mayor has been reserved for an SC member this year. The BJP has already named Ram Lal for the post.
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Mega Projects: Division in Cong comes to fore
Chandigarh, December 25 Even as top leaders of the party, including three former Mayors and a current Mayor of the municipal corporation of Chandigarh (MCC), demanded a CBI inquiry into mega projects of the Chandigarh Administration and asked Rodrigues to proceed on leave till the completion of the inquiry, Bahl’s absence blunted Congress’ attack on the Raj Bhawan. In fact, Bahl’s absence from the press conference was not surprising as his closeness to the Raj Bhawan is well known and he had gone on record showering praises on Rodrigues for his developmental works in the city. However, the absence of minister of state for finance Pawan Bansal could be seen in another light as the suave minister apparently did not want to make it Rodrigues versus Bansal. Party sources said the press conference had the “blessings” of Bansal. However, his protégé, including MCC Mayor Pardeep Chhabra, former Mayors Subhash Chawla, Anu Chatrath and Surinder Singh, and Congress spokesman Amarjit Sethi stole the limelight and trained their guns against the Administrator for alleged irregularities in the mega projects and giving a raw deal to the elected representatives of the people. They even claimed that a party delegation, preferably led by Bahl, would meet the senior party leaders in New Delhi highlighting various acts of omission and commission of the Chandigarh Administration in allotting land for the mega projects. The senior party leaders had a tough time in explaining the absence of the party president at the meet, touted to be a major show of strength against the Raj Bhawan. Rodrigues and Bansal do not see eye to eye on the mega projects and inadequate land compensation to the UT villagers. The main spokesman, Chawla, who faced a volley of inconvenient questions, claimed that Bahl was with “party sentiments” on the issue of the mega projects. However, Bahl expressed ignorance about the press conference. He even expressed ignorance about the mega projects though they had been well-publicised in the media recently.
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Campus Brawl
Chandigarh, December 25 The police arrested the accused taking preventive measures under Sections 107 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code and produced them before the SDM. The SDM, later, released them on bail after issuing warnings, said Sector-11 police station SHO Sukhbir Rana. Meanwhile, taking cognizance of the incident, Dr
C.S. Grewal, director sports, PU, suspended leaders of both groups — Ramesh Kumar of SCD Government College, Ludhiana, and Pankaj Kumar of PU campus — for picking up the fight. Speaking to the
TNS, sports director confirmed: “Both players who created nuisance yesterday on the campus have been suspended from their teams and a three-member committee has been constituted to look into the matter.” Sukhdev, coach of SCD College, said: “The players had fled the scene after the clash. While the police arrested eight, the remaining suspects are still elusive. They might have fled to their homes.”
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66 kV sub-station opens at PGI
Chandigarh, December 25 The PGI had planned to set up this sub-station keeping in view the growing demand of electricity there. They had approached the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), a well-reputed organisation in the power sector, for constructing and commissioning of a 66 kV sub-station within its premises for meeting with the present as well as future demands of electricity. According to PGI officials, development of the institute is reflected through its electricity requirement and the premier institute PGIMER takes lead in this direction. Due to introduction of state-of-the-art equipment in the existing blocks and addition of new blocks like cardiac centre, advanced paediatric centre, eye centre, new OPD, working women’s hostel and nursing institute, the electricity requirement of PGIMER has almost doubled. Prior to expansion and addition, the sanctioned load and installed capacity of PGIMER was 10 mW and 15 mW, respectively, which would increase to 18 mW, and 23 mW, respectively. With the commissioning of 66 kV, 25 MVA capacities to PGIMER sub-station, reliable and quality electricity is now available for this premier Institute. “The 11 kV distribution infrastructure of the UT electricity department was not adequate to cater to the growing electricity demand of PGIMER,” said an official of PGI administration. On this occasion UC Mishra, chairman, BBMB, Prof KK Talwar, director PGIMER and Prof. Amod Gupta, sub-dean, PGIMER were present along with other senior officers of PGI and BBMB.
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Railway ticket counters at city post offices
Chandigarh, December 25 In a development that would go a long way in facilitating harassed railway passengers, the railways and the department has entered into a pact to open reservation counters at the General Post Office (GPO) at Sector 17, Sector 22, Sector 47, the PGI and the Phase I post office in Mohali. “With Chandigarh emerging as a major rail traffic junction in the wake of the start of new trains, the authorities have decided to open new counters for the benefit of the railway passengers,” said Karan Singh, senior divisional commercial manager, Ambala division. Sources said opening of the new counters was necessitated due to influx of a large number of persons from other parts of the country, particularly from UP and Bihar, into the region. With Chandigarh having trains to major parts of the country, the existing railway booking centres were virtually bursting at seams, forcing people to wait for a long time. While the railways had been looking for a partner to assist it in the railway booking, the department had been diversifying into various ventures, apparently on account of the loss of the traditional mail in the the wake of the IT revolution. Opening of the railway booking centres at the post offices is seen as a step in the diversification drive of the postal department which currently has excellent infrastructure at prime locations.
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US firm to start research project at CRII
Chandigarh, December 25 Bill gates foundation has also approved to finance the project. The centre would provide all facilities and opportunities to biotechnology research scholars to analyse the feasibility of their projects related to technologies, tools, and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Millipore president Sudhir Kant, who was in Punjab University to attend the silver jubilee reunion of the university business school, said: “Ten students will be selected for this centre from all over the country having scientific research background and desire to work on project related to technology or tool which would give new direction to pharma industry.” He said each scholar would get two years to research on the product and decision to launch it in market depending upon its results. He added that this centre would not only provide infrastructure to scholars, but a mentor also, who will guide students how to market
their products. Kant said his company was approaching the Bangalore government for setting up this project.
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Tracking psychology of stress
Chandigarh, December 25 Sharma is all for redressing the grievances of the soldiers because they can, he feels, endure combat but day-to-day humiliation bogs them down. For his significant contributions in the field of psychology, the National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) which is the national body affiliated to the International Union of Psychological Science has conferred the NAOP Fellowship on Sharma. The announcement was made during the annual convention of NAOP held at Guwahati IIT last fortnight. University Grant Commission’s National Professor as well as Professor Emeritus Sharma settled in Chandigarh after his superannuation from Himachal Pradesh University, where he headed the department of psychology. His areas of specialisation are stress, emotions, health and well-being in educational, organisational, clinical and cross-cultural contexts. For this reason he has lectured the police and the Army frequently. Recently, Sharma delivered the keynote address at a Life Sciences Cluster Conference titled “In service of the soldier: Life sciences perspective. The conference had been organised by the DRDO and the Ministry of Defence and Sharma’s lecture in the technical session on “Soldier performance: Health and well-being”. The paper “Stress-induced psychological vital signs in military domain: assessment and intervention issues, ” evoked a tremendous response from the audience as well as defence experts. Says Sharma: “The military environment is characterised by jobs with high stress, low autonomy, little personal control over workplace, long working hours, and/or deployment in combat-related or in internal security duties in insurgency-wracked areas”. All this entails chronic exposure to potentially traumatising events. Sharma has researched on anxiety, anger and depression as stress-induced psychological vital signs of emotional distress or poor well-being and their role as precursors of a number of mental health problems. He believes military as an organisation is an authoritative institution, armed forces are founded on discipline, following orders and deference to those of higher rank and working diligently without complaining until mission is complete. And the psychologist in Sharma soldiers on.
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Community centre with swimming pool for Sec 49
Chandigarh, December 25 A community centre with a swimming pool alongside in Sector 49 is turning out to be “many firsts”. The swimming pool is going to be MC’s first in the city. There was a long-felt need of a common meeting point, and a demand of having a community centre in the area was pending. It was taken up in one of the meetings of the coordination committees of the administration and the MC, and was approved by the administration recently. That’s not all, now there are plans to upgrade the same to a “club” with food services also available. According to sources, now the municipal corporation officials are even planning to turn it into a club with a proposal being sent to provide regular catering services as well in the centre. If approved, the centre can turn out to be “a one stop destination” for the residents of the southern sectors, who, for now, have to go to the northern sectors, which have clubs and swimming pools for their needs. According to sources, around one-acre land was already allotted for the community centre. Later, one acre land was allotted separately for the swimming pool.The idea of a swimming pool came up later after the community centre was approved and was taken up by the mayor. The finance secretary later approved the both. The proposed community centre would have separate rooms. As of now the facility of having rooms is only available at the community centre of Sector 47 and 23. However, the one coming up in Sector 49 is going to be not only much bigger but also hi-tech and ultra-modern. According to sources, the proposed community centre is also said to be made centrally air-conditioned.
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Admn to promote city as tourist destination
Chandigarh, December 25 Home secretary emphasised that there was a need to develop more destinations and to upgrade the existing ones in the city. He informed that the administration had already mooted the proposal to the Government of India for revamping island, plaza and regulator end of the Sukhna lake. Mentioning about the problem of scarcity of rooms during the major events in the city, he said there was a need of upgrading hotel infrastructure. The administration has already initiated plans for developing conference halls with state-of-the-art facilities in the upcoming Nehru Centre for Performing Arts, Sector 34, and the new lake in Sector 42, disclosed Ram Niwas. The other major decisions in the meeting included the issuing of permits for AC tourist coaches and renewing of tourist guides licences. As the city receives a whopping number of foreign tourists it was decided to include guides who are fluent in French, German and English languages. It was also decided to work out the feasibility for conducting tours to Capitol Complex, General Assembly, Open Hand Monument, Secretariat, Rock Garden, Rose Garden, Sukhna Lake, War Memorial and Nepli and Kansal forest. CITCO managing director Niharika Rai, SDM (south) Prerna Puri, director tourism Samwartak Singh, director health services MS Bains, deputy director tourism Vinod Kalia and president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Chandigarh Manmohan Singh were also present.
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Yearender Panchkula Dist
Panchkula, December 25 While the year ended at Panchkula with the second marriage of Chander Mohan, the sacked deputy chief minister and local MLA, the state police headquarters witnessed suicide by a rape victim at the hands of policemen at Rohtak, followed by a rape of a patient at the Command hospital. In addition to it, delay in widening of Panchkula-Parwanoo highway, failure of selling its lone five-star hotel site, and reports of frequent snatchings and thefts kept on pouring throughout the year. The Panchkula court also served a death sentence to two murder accused for the first time. The political scenario changed here when the name of the district hit the headlines on news channels and national dailies on December 8 with the appearance of Chander Mohan, the local MLA, on a news channel with his second wife, a former assistant advocate general, Anuradha Bali. Both also converted to Islam with the names of Chand Mohammad and Fiza. This, however, not only led to the ouster of Chander Mohan from the state cabinet and disowning by his own family. The local Congress workers also found them in tight spot with no second-line leader in the constituency from where he won four consecutive assembly elections. On the development front, the district got a setback when it failed even to attract a single bidder for the lone 24-storeyed five star hotel site in the town of Panchkula, which was put under hammer with a reserve price of Rs 260 crore. To worse of it, no industries, which were allotted plots in the IT Park, have initiated any development work till now, probably feeling the heat of global meltdown. The much-hyped widening of Panchkula-Parwanoo highway also remained a bone of contention between NHAI and the local administration even as Justice JS Khehar and Justice AK Mittal, a panel of two judges of Punjab and Haryana High Court, also visited the site in August, and directed the Panchkula administration and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to work in close coordination so that the problem faced by commuters is greatly reduced. Before this, the local administration had to demolish hundreds of houses and shops at Pinjore during the anti-encroachment drive to hand over the encroachment-free road to the NHAI in January. Still neither the people got a traffic-jam free road till the end of the year nor the road was widened as the NHAI authorities said they never had any plan to increase the width of the road. Similarly, a pilot project of the Haryana health department to provide a super-speciality consultation at local hospitals, had to be shelved within one week of its launching last month, citing the reason that it was not found feasible in the absence of treatment facilities on these places. On the crime scene, the state police had to face humiliation when a rape victim of Rohtak committed suicide at the police headquarters here. The police had to remain on its tenterhooks as the thefts of music systems from cars and burglaries in the houses, along with car-lifting, remained a routine feature of the town. Though the police was able to nail major gangs of the car-lifters and snatchers, including some juveniles, the rape of a patient at Command hospital and gang rape of a minor put a question mark on the effectiveness of the police. The state police also came under attack from all the quarters when a woman raped by policemen committed suicide on June 9 at police headquarters, alleging that the local police was shielding the accused. The District and Sessions Court awarded death sentence to two persons, including a domestic help, on June 13 for murdering Maj Gen KC Dhingra (retd) and his wife Sangeeta Dhingra in 2007. Anand Kindo, Dhingra's driver, who also worked as a domestic help at his house, and his friend Rajan were convicted for the murder, while Anand's wife Sandhya had been handed out four years' imprisonment for conspiring and destroying evidence. Still there was a silver line with the starting of work on Kaushalya dam, Pinjore bypass, developing of new sectors, change in building byelaws and new projects by the Mata Mansa Devi Board. While the Kaushalya barrage would help in supplementing the drinking water requirements of the town and adjoining areas, the traffic jams would be a thing of past on the Pinjore-Kalka stretch with the construction of Pinjroe bypass. Similarly, the change in building byelaws would be a gift of new year to the locals by the HUDA, and the Mansa Devi Board is to offer better healthcare and education facilities with opening of multi-speciality hospital and public school.
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Urdu play ‘Kharashein’ staged
Chandigarh, December 25 The potent thematic content of the play, an adaptation of a literary classic by lyricist film producer Gulzar depicting the existential truths concerning the socio-political milieu has inspired the performing artistes that they have christened and registered their troupe as “Kharashein”. Structured in the backdrop of pre-partition mayhem and its repeat reflections witnessed in diverse formats of communal violence thereafter, the play is a condemnation of the scornful religious and moral hypocrisy. The comparatively short play brings alive the pangs and tribulation of the partition, the Mumbai riots 1993, latest leashing of terror and the terrorism assuming threatening dimensions the world over. The play has also offered an analysis of the “fear” borne of mistrust, communal tension, socio-political and ethical depravations. All female actors portrayed different characters in three stories with perfection in acting spells and emotional expressions. The immaculate delivery of dialogues laced with the felicity of Urdu literature had a brilliance and drollery through stories. Be it the tragedy of partition narrated and spelled the director actor Manuja Tyagi pairing with Shakshi or “Raavi Paar” brilliantly enacted by Alpit Sandhu and Shakshi, the “Khauf”, fear and suspicion depicted by Malvika and Mauja. The actors were supported by Malvika Sharma, Simran, Sonakshi, Akanaksha for music and technical back up. Former Punjab minister MS Gill and Harjinder Kaur chairperson PAC sat through the entrancing theatrical performance by all female cast.
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Spreading awareness on herbal tourism
Chandigarh, December 25 Arun Gupta, an ayurvedic and panchkarma specialist from Hungary, talked about the emerging trends and opportunities in health and herbal tourism here today. He highlighted the future of herbal tourism, comprising of spa, yoga and ayurveda as large number of foreigners are flocking to India to seek physical and mental health treatment. He said, “People prefer to come to India to get mental peace. There is a myth among people that ayurvedic treatment is slow and expensive and my aim is to educate the people by spreading right information.” He is planning to establish a health village called Ayushgram in every state where state-of-the-art health facilities would be available. He said, “When Kerala can promote its health tourism the Northern parts can also do the same as the states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, and Jammu and Kashmir also have potential for promoting their health and herbal tourism.”
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Bronchoscopy facility at GMSH
Chandigarh, December 25 Director health and family welfare MS Bains informed that this facility would help in confirming undiagnosed cases of chest diseases such as bronchogenic cancer, sarcoidosis, other lung diseases and removal of foreign body. As many as three patients underwent this test by a team headed by Dr Honney Sawhney, who has undergone training in the department of pulmonary medicine at
PGI.
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Pak must act against terrorism
This refers to the front page editorial of The Tribune dated December 23, 2008. After the terror attacks on Mumbai, the government has shown sincerity in combating terrorism, which the non-state actors are forcing upon us. But, in spite of the diplomatic pressure, Pakistan has taken no stern action against it. A high level of diplomacy and cancellation of the cricket tour is not enough to convince the public that much has been done in this regard. India must put a stop to the composite dialogue, stop trade across the border and prohibit Pakistan in using our airspace. The efforts must be taken in order to create a strong public opinion at an international level against Pakistan. J S Bhalla
Readers are invited to write to us. Send your mail, in not more than 200 words, at news@tribuneindia.com or, write in, at: Letters, Chandigarh Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh – 160 030
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Christmas spirit pervades schools
Chandigarh, December 25 Anu Vala, the club director, said, “The little ones simply love the outdoor and a celebration like this one is different from the regular parties.” This event was conducted in association with the Kapkids Brigade
club. Mohali Students of classes pre-nursery, nursery and KG went on horse cart ride together. They moved in a procession to wish people while the horse cart was given the shape of the royal chariot and was decorated with balloons, bells, booties, stars and a colossal Christmas tree. The chariot ride started from Phase 2 and went up to the
PCA, Phase 9. A cake was cut by the school principal and teachers. Ambala Students of the primary wing danced with Santa Claus and played games. Principal Rekha Verma, gave gifts and toys to the students. Kindergarten section of Lord Mahavir Jain Public School, Ambala Cant, celebrated Christmas by singing carols and eating cake. Principal Ruchi Sharma, distributed sweets. St Joseph school, Ambala City, too celebrated X’mas and organised many
programmes. Deputy Commissioner Sameer Pal Saro, was the chief
guest. Zirakpur Principal Pooja Sharma said, on the Christmas Day students and staff members visited the Chhatbir Zoo. Students of Playway group to Class VI enjoyed the trip and also took keen interest in the animals. They played games and were
served lunch.
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Artillery unit trip gifted to slum kids
Chandigarh, December 25 On a trip with around 100 students from various city private schools, the tour is surely special for these kids, as for most of them it’s their first holiday ever. “I am so thrilled to be on a holiday here outside Chandigarh. I could not sleep the entire night before we left for this trip and felt so great to spend a day with the soldiers. It is probably the most memorable and enjoyable time for me,” says an excited Ashok. It’s the excitement as well as apprehensions that filled their hearts for obvious reasons. “When I came to know that we are going to accompany these students from private schools, I was a little uneasy about the entire thing. I thought I will not be able to enjoy or adjust with them but trust me we have become such good friends and the entire trip is the most enjoyable,” adds Ganga. The kids spent an entire day with soldiers, who not only played with them but also exhibited various weapons. “It is great, we have always seen the soldiers on TV or read about them. Their life seemed fantastic and I am lucky that I got to know them from so close,” says Vikram as his eager friend Raj Karan interrupts and says, “It’s so great that I want to be a soldier. We got the best gift ever, which was their smiles when we presented them with handmade cards,” he concludes.
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Annual day celebrations at Gurukul
Panchkula, December 25 Financial commissioner and principal secretary, Haryana, DS Dhesi was the chief guest. Dr Rajni Thareja announced the expansion of Gurukul chain of schools. It was followed by the presentation of the annual report by the school principal, Harsimran Kaur. Students rocked the audience with their sweet performance on the famous number ‘candy man’, a birthday bash for their favourite Micky Mouse, Hip-Hop, “Pom-Poms” and “elastic”. The spectacular classical dance by senior students on ‘kisna’ implored one and all to look within oneself for God. The students of Class V performed a beautiful Dogri folk dance. However, the show stealer was an English play ‘The Jugdement Day’.
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Goonj at Guru Harkrishan school
Chandigarh, December 25 The programme commenced with the shabad and a cultural show ‘Goonj’ was organised on the occasion. The students were awarded prizes for their academic achievements. The students paid a tribute to the great Sikh warrior and a devout follower of Guru Gobind Singh, ‘S. Banda Singh Bahadur’, through their impressive performance. The chief guest, Capt. Kanwaljit Singh, Minister for Cooperation, presided over the function. The programme concluded with Bhangra followed by the National Anthem.
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Chandigarh, December 25