Chandigarh, September 19
With the Punjab government keeping the decision on land pooling scheme in abeyance, bureaucrats and big realtors, who own large chunks of land in Chandigarh’s periphery, especially Mullanpur, are a happy lot.

The government’s decision seem to be an offshot of the differences between the political class and the bureaucracy on the issue. While farmers term the decision as being “beneficial” for the farming community, the bureaucrats and realtors have their own axe to grind.

“The vested interests in the government are behind the postponement of the decision on the land pooling scheme as the farmers stand to benefit from it. Under the land pooling Act, the farmers get residential and commercial property in lieu of government land for acquired property for various projects,” Devinder Singh Baidwan, an office-bearer of the Pind Bachao Committee, Mohali, said.

Sources said the bureaucracy’s opposition to the land pooling scheme was evident from the fact that a large number of bureaucrats, police officials and public representatives owned large chunks of land on the periphery. This was particularly true in and around Mullanpur Garibdass, where the local planning area is being developed.

An IAS officers’ society had bought a large piece of land at Shingariwala village, near Mullanpur, and an MLAs’ society had purchased land at Nayagaon. “These influential sections of society feared that the land pooling scheme may prove harmful to their interest,” a farmer, Harjit Singh, alleged.

Builders claimed that with the land prices skyrocketing, land pooling was not a feasible idea. Under the scheme, the local authority or private developers have to provide a developed commercial and residential plot depending on the area acquired from the farmer. While the government and developer stand to lose in the long run, the farmer is the ultimate beneficiary.

Panchkula, September 19
The decision of the INLD to field former cricketer Yograj Singh, an outsider, has sparked a controversy among local party workers who have decided to revolt against his candidature.

Though no one has come out in the open to oppose his candidature, people have started approaching INLD city president Manoj Aggrawal, a front runner for the ticket, to contest the elections as an Independent, alleging that the party had ignored local workers while considering the candidature, sources in the INLD said.

The dissidence in the party would prove detrimental for the prospects of the actor-cum-cricketer.

A senior INLD leader admitted that the decision of the party to field a newcomer had left the leaders to think about their future in the party and it had also hit the morale of the workers.

On the other hand, the BJP has relied on its old stalwart and former Chandigarh Mayor, Gyan Chand Gupta, who spent a major part of his political career in Chandigarh. He joined the Haryana BJP in 2003 and got the post of treasurer in the state. He was elevated to the post of state vice-president in 2006 before being made the election in charge of the party in the Panchkula Vidhan Sabha area during the Lok Sabha elections.

In the newly carved constituency of Kalka, the saffron party has fielded a nondescript leader, Varinder Rana, senior vice-president of the youth wing of the party.

Rana, working as an administrator at BRS Dental College, Barwala, would face INLD candidate Pradeep Chaudhary and BSP probable Vijay Bansal. Bansal, a former Congress leader from Pinjore joined the BSP yesterday, and claimed to have a pact with the BSP over the ticket from Kalka.

Meanwhile, the Congress ticket also seems to be going to an outsider despite the fact that local party leaders have been sending feelers to the high command against it. If sources in the Congress high command are to be believed, the name of Kuldeep Sharma, working president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, is being quoted as a front runner from the Panchkula seat while the names of Bhagat Singh, a local leader, Sanjay Chhoker, state youth president from Samalkha, and Rajoud MLA Satinder Rana are being discussed as probables from Kalka.

Mohali, September 19
In what points towards the sloppy investigation by the Mohali police who was apparently shielding its own man, a medical report of the Chemical Examiner, Punjab, has revealed that the head constable, who had mowed down two children while recklessly driving a car, was heavily drunk at the time of the accident.

On December 6 last year, two sisters, Simarpreet and Ishpreet, were killed and their mother and brother were seriously injured when the cop, Parminder Singh, hit them with his Maruti Zen car while negotiating a rotary here. He was bailed out on the night of the accident.

All this while, the police had been claiming that the cop was not in an inebriated state. But the medical report clearly states that the blood alcohol concentration in his blood was estimated to be 115 mg per 100 ml.

“Though the case had been submitted before the court, no effort was made by the police to book the head constable under the case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder,” Dalbir Singh, the father of the girls who has been trying very hard to get a copy of the medical report, said.

As per the Motor Vehicles Act, the legal limit of alcohol blood concentration was 30mg/100 ml. The legal penalty under Section 185 of the Act prescribes imprisonment for six months, with or without fine of up to Rs 2,000 for the first offence.

For the second and subsequent offences, the penalty is heavier and imprisonment can stretch up to two years. “It is shocking that a cop with such high concentration of alcohol was moving around freely. He should have been behind the bar for driving under the influence of liquor,” Darshan S Dhaliwal, a lawyer, said.

A former Joint Commissioner of the Delhi police, Maxwell Pereira, quoting a study on the effects of various amounts of alcohol on a driver’s behaviour, stated that when alcohol concentration in the blood was 0-20 mg/100 ml, there was deterioration in special skills that resemble driving skills in some subjects.

When the blood alcohol concentration was greater than 80mg/100 ml, the accident probability of drivers was very high — being six to seven times (when the concentration is 100mg/100 ml) that of drivers with less than 10mg/100 ml.

The act of the cop had affected two families. Not only did the two sisters die, the accident also almost crippled a Nehru Colony family, Longshri (25) and her son, Shivam (4). While the woman was operated upon and a rod was inserted in one of her legs, the boy had to undergo surgery to rectify his broken arm.

Mohali, September 19
“An inebriated cop driving his car on the busy Mohali roads is shocking. Strict action should be taken against him to discourage incidents of public servants behaving irresponsibly and endangering lives on the roads,” these were the remarks of Dalbir Singh, a father who lost his two daughters, Simarpreet and Ishpreet, in a road accident on December 6 last year.

A medical report of the cop has revealed that the blood alcohol concentration was estimated to be 115 mg per 100 ml. After learning the outcome of the report, the family of the victims said they had been stating from the day one that the head constable, Parminder Singh, was drunk.

The family is anguished against the police for not taking strict action in this case. The family was waiting for an autorickshaw after returning from Phase I when the mishap took place near the roundabout of Phase II and IV here. In the accident, three members of the victims’ family, Dalbir, father, Swaran, mother and Gurkirat, brother, had a miraculous escape.

Dalbir said he would seek a strict action against the cop in the court. 

Panchkula, September 19
More than 50,000 devotees paid obeisance on the first day of Navratras at Mata Mansa Devi shrine here today.

Colourful as usual, the first Navratra saw people thronging the temple to pay obeisance since early morning even as stalls along the roadside geared up for the rush.

Three organisers provided langars for the public, keeping quality control in mind while teams of the health department took food samples for testing and issued instructions to parshad vendors to keep food items covered.

Meanwhile, Asha Hooda, wife of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was among the first persons to visit the shrine.

Giving details about the arrangements, Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Yadav said additional buses would be plied for the devotees for various destinations during the Navratras.

He said the shrine board had also arranged different ‘bhajan sandhyas’ and cultural programmes for entertainment of the devotees. He said adequate security arrangements had also been made for maintaining better law and order during the mela by the Haryana Police. Duty Magistrates had also been deputed, he added.

More than Rs 4 lakh, in addition to 3 gold items and 42 silver items, were offered by devotes till the evening.

Chandigarh, September 19
A class VIII student of Bhawan Vidyalaya, Sector 27, and a resident of Sector 32 tested positive for H1N1 influenza today.

His entire family was quarantined as a precautionary measure.

Also, two more suspected cases of swine flu were reported at the PGI today. A 42-year-old PGI employee and a student of a private school with symptoms of swine flu were admitted to the hospital.

“The samples taken from both patients had been sent to the PGI laboratory,” said HC Gera, UT nodal officer for swine flu.

Meanwhile, UT health officials informed that samples of four patients collected yesterday were found negative today.

Chandigarh, September 19
“It seems like we have been shifted from one slum to another,” feels Manjesha, living with her family of seven members in one-room flats allotted in Sector 38 (West), after being relocated from Bapu Dham just a month ago.

Gauri, who lives in a ground floor flat in the complex, says: “Earlier where five to 10 families used water together in the slum, each family in the housing complex fights for water every single day.”

Before it was a slum, now it’s a “more organised slum” with problems aplenty for residents.

Just a month ago, almost 300 such families were relocated in the area, under the slum rehabilitation programme of the UT administration for the disadvantaged.

In continuation of the scheme, another group of families were allotted flats at the Sector 38 (West) housing complex today. But be it Bapu Dham, colony Nos. 4 or 5 or the new housing complex, stories of most still remain the same.

Most of those who have been relocated now, have been moved from prefab shelters in Sector 52 (transit accommodation). Still, problems have cropped up, right from water, security to hygiene, within a month of the colony being inhabited.

Ironically, where drainage pipes connecting the floors were underground in proper housing colonies, water seeps out in front of the houses on the ground floor here.

Even those living on the fourth floor of the building never get water. For the four hours in the morning that the water comes, the pressure is never enough to reach the top floor. With no option left, inhabitants of fourth floor fetch water from houses on the lower floors.

Shyamlal, another resident who had been shifted from the prefab shelters at Sector 52, says: “We pay Rs 600 as rent to stay in these flats but have to compromise on little things everyday.”

Moreover, under the lease agreement, tenants are not supposed to indulge in any kind of construction within the rooms. The rooms of 10x10 dimension have no partition for kitchen, etc. Leela, another resident, says: “What do we do? There are no partitions and it is difficult for six to seven family members to live in the house. For any minute alterations, our lease can get cancelled.”

While there are many who can talk about the problems for hours, there are others who believe that there are people who misuse the benefits in the complex.

Another resident says: “Some people have rented out their accommodation and gone back to slums. No one questions this. Also, more and more people have settled in from slums where we initially used to live.”

Chandigarh, September 19
At least 18,500 cases in various categories were disposed of during the quarterly lok adalat held at the district courts today.

This was part of the effort to dispose of as many cases under “Samadhan 2009” initiated by the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The lok adalat was held under the guidance of Justice JS Khehar, executive chairman of the State Legal Services Authority, UT, and administrative judge, sessions division, Chandigarh.

Litigants had lined up for the settlement of their cases early, as serpentine queues were witnessed on the premises of the courts since morning.

Braving the hot weather, the litigants waited for their turn for hours.

Except for traffic challan cases, which witnessed chaos especially over the announcement of names, the lok adalat went on smoothly.

Under the MACT Act, 24 cases were settled and Rs 27 lakh was awarded in compensation.

Also, Rs 16,75,550 was realised as fine in 13,431 traffic challan cases that were disposed of.

In all, 2,200 cases were disposed of at the pre-litigation stage pertaining to bank and financial institutions, besides 2,050 cases that were settled under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

As many as 795 civil cases, rent cases and others were also disposed of.

Chandigarh, September 19
The national conference of obstetric anaesthesiologists was inaugurated by Prof KK Talwar, director, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, at Bhargava Auditorium here today.

A souvenir was released by Prof Vinay Sakhuja, dean, PGIMER. The prestigious Association of Obstetric Anaesthesiologists’ Oration was delivered by Prof Manimala Rao from Hyderabad on cardiac diseases, pregnancy and the anesthesiologist.

The conference included various sessions wherein experts from India and abroad discussed issues concerning nuances of painless labour and anaesthesia for pregnant women.

Dr Nigel Kay elaborated different techniques to take care of pain following cesarean delivery.

Dr Diana Jolliffe highlighted the presence of an anaesthesiologist for improving the quality of care for women giving birth during normal as well Cesarean delivery.

The medico-legal aspects involving obstetricians and anaesthesiologists were discussed by Dr Edward Shaxted from the UK and Dr Sunila Sharma, medico-legal adviser to the Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists.

The general body meeting of Association of Obstetric Anaesthesiologists was held in the evening.

Chandigarh, September 19
Have you felt victimised after being charged for a value-added service (VAS) when you accidentally pressed the star button on your handset? Coming to the rescue of thousands of such harried mobile subscribers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has now made it mandatory for all telecom operators not to rely on such methods to seek consent.

In its recent order, the authority has said the process of confirmation from the subscribers cannot be restricted to pressing just the star key, but to selecting and pressing a combination of keys, along with the star key. Even for the confirmation of renewal of a subscribed value-added service (VAS), the subscriber will now have to be informed at least three days before the due date for renewal.

The order further says that the subscriber will also be informed about the charges for renewal and the toll-free telephone number for un-subscribing of such value-added services, three days before the due date for renewal.

It may be noted that the TRAI had earlier directed telecom operators to take explicit consent from consumers before providing value-added services. TRAI had directed operators to take consent of the customer through a customer-originated call, SMS, interactive session to a specified number or request made in writing or by fax or email. This was done to protect subscribers for whom value-added services were activated and charged for just because of accidental pressing of keys.

However, the telecom industry, led by the Cellular Operators Association of India and the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, including the BSNL, had objected to the order. They had claimed that getting such explicit consent of subscribers would significantly harm and slow down the growth of value-added services.

They rued that the multistage activation process and delay in obtaining a customer’s consent would not allow the VAS to reach to the subscribers.

Thus, the new orders regarding the use of combination of keys have now been passed to protect interest of consumers and also address the concerns of the telecom industry.

Chandigarh, September 19
In a bid to strengthen its position in the city, the National Student Organisation has decided to revamp the party structure with a series of changes.

The party’s national President Hibieden declared this during his visit to Panjab University. The party will dissolve all current bodies and hold fresh elections. In a membership campaign that will continue till October 15, students of city-based educational institutions, whose date of birth is post December 1982 will be invited for the memberships. For contesting elections, institutions should comprise at least 50 members.

Interestingly, after these elections only those bodies will be valid wherein at least 20 per cent of members cast their vote.

“We have decided to undertake these steps to ensure that the party bodies are not just confined to be the tokens of presence. We will look forward to increase our member base in the city and get the people with mettle to head the bodies.” said Rohit Chowdhary, chairman election committee, NSUI.

The party will have two general secretaries with one essentially being a girl.

Chandigarh, September 19
Even as the Panjab University authorities are claiming that there is nothing “amiss” with their TDS deduction accounts, the IT authorities today claimed that they have enough to prove that violations were being done for the past two to three years.

IT Commissioner (TDS) PK Shrivastava said investigations so far indicated violations include non-deduction of TDS for mess, canteen contractors and also some salaries. He said university authorities had so far failed to provide any documentary proof.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued by the university today, it has been claimed that the reports about the violations appearing in a section of newspapers today were wrong, as all deductions had been made according 
to rules.

Chandigarh, September 19
The vitality and grandeur of pristine Indian classical mohiniattam dance came alive during an enchanting recital at the Pracheen Kala Kendra here today.

The event organised by the Regional Chapter of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in collaboration with Pracheen Kala Kendra featured renowned mohiniattam exponent Jayaprabha Menonm under their “Horizon” series.

The foremost disciple guru Bharati Shivaji, acclaimed maestro Jayaprabha Menon had performed in Russia, France, Indonesia, Combodia and other countries.

She began her performance with "Unn Ganapathy", paying obeisance to Lord Ganesha set to raga kedar in adi tala.

She presented “Bhaja Govindam” in a contemplative mood and movements. The choreography depicted a vivid and realistic picture of the human life from cradle to grave.

She rendered an “Ashtapadi” by Jayadev based on Lord Krishna’s pranks with Gopis in Vrindavan.

She gave philosophical aura to the dance recital while presenting "Yasodhara”, enacting the life of Lord Buddha.

Jayaprabha Menon concluded her programme with choreography "Varsha Gamana" on monsoon theme.

ICCR Regional officer Gyan Chand and the Kendra Secretary Sajal Koser honoured the artistes.

Chandigarh, September 19
Joshi Library, Panjab Univeristy, in collaboration with DELNET (Developing Library Network), New Delhi, is organising 12th National Convention on Knowledge, Library and Information Networking (NACLIN-2009) on “Managing Knowledge, Technology and Change in Libraries” from September 22-25.

The inaugural ceremony will be held at University Auditorium on Tuesday. HK Dua, Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune, will be delivering inaugural address.