Chandigarh, October 7
Municipal Corporation officials are likely to have a tough time at the special house meeting scheduled for tomorrow, as most of the pending projects, which are mentioned in the action taken report, have been lingering for the past two years after the approval of the house.

Interestingly, the action taken report, which is going to be tabled in the house, carries the agenda relating to public health and roads department, and most of the projects had been tabled in the house twice for the approval of revised estimates, as they were not completed on time.

The action taken report has 76 agenda items of the past two years relating to the widening and re-carpeting of roads in various sectors of the city. Out of these, only 50 per cent agenda items had seen the light of the day and rest is lying in the files of the corporation.

Surprisingly, in the public health department, out of 34 projects, only one has been completed till date and the rest are yet to be started by the department concerned.

The action report mentions that around 25 per cent of the road construction was pending since the tenders had not be floated by the authorities and similar situation is of the public health department. The rest of the agenda is also pending due to some technical problems.

At the last house meeting, the councillors had raised the issue that the officials table the similar agenda a number of times, for the revised estimate approval, as the work is never completed on time. After which Mayor Kamlesh called a special meeting to discuss the action taken report of pending agenda items.

During the last house meeting, Congress councillor, Anu Chatrath, referring to the agenda of paver blocks in her ward, remarked that despite their approval by the house around a year ago the work had not started till date.

Another BJP councillor, Gurcharan Das Kala, also said that the work related to streetlights and the house has approved community centre eight months ago, but nothing has been done.

BSP councillor Jatinder Bhatia stated that the purpose of convening this meeting had failed, as they had received the agenda papers just 10 hours before the schedule of the meeting. He said it was not feasible for the councillors to go through such a lengthy agenda and pointed out its faults and discuss it properly in the house.

Akali Dal councillor Harjinder Kaur suggested that rather than calling a single meeting to discuss the pending projects, the Mayor should have clubbed some of the wards and called three or four house meetings to do justice to her endeavour.

Chandigarh, October 7
At an important meeting of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) later this week in New Delhi, the Chandigarh Administration will seek that the UT Administrator should be given the financial power of clearing a project up to Rs 25 crore. Currently, he cannot clear projects worth more than Rs 10 crore.

Confirming the development, a senior official said, “The project costs, on an average, had multiplied over the past several years. In case of projects for which we need the clearance from the Centre, the work gets delayed by several more months. For instance, we need approximately Rs 18 crore for the new block of the General Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32. There are chances of the work being held up for some time. The project at the General Hospital, Sector 16, also needs a bigger amount than the sanctioned financial powers of the administrator.”

The meeting, scheduled for Friday, will be attended by Mr Ram Niwas, Home Secretary, Sanjay Kumar, Finance Secretary, and Bhupinder Singh, Joint Secretary(Home), besides others. The meeting will take up the review of the latest update on major ongoing projects in the city.

The UT is also seeking a clearance to make the registration of marriages compulsory, like in Haryana. It is also seeking permission to issue Scheduled Caste\Scheduled Tribe certificates in the wake of certain technical loopholes under the current provisions. Candidates seeking gobs in the government segment were the most affected.

The UT is working on the facility of video conferencing in the Burail jail. In case of compensation cases, in wake of poor absorption in services, the UT plans to get approved a one-time payment of Rs 5 lakh instead. The UT is considering the regularisation of services of daily wage workers in different categories.

Chandigarh, October 7
Rakesh Kumar Sharma of Sector 8 has accused the Chandigarh police of implicating him in a case of reckless driving to shield their colleague’s minor son who was involved in the mishap.

Sharma told the UT DGP today that policemen were forcing him to pay compensation to the erring boy, even as he was not at fault, and blatantly ignored the fact that the other party, Amit Chauhan, was not authorised to drive a vehicle, being underage.

Amit’s father Kamal Chauhan is a head constable with the Chandigarh police. The police said Amit had fractured his leg, which Sharma termed a plain lie.

The mishap occurred on the internal road of Sector 8 on Sunday evening, when Sharma, who was coming from Sector 7 in his Tata Indica car (CH03P 0940), was taking a turn toward Sector 8-B. The car collided with a motor cycle being driven by Amit.

Meanwhile, the police booked Sharma on the charge of causing injuries due to rash and negligent driving on the basis of Amit’s complaint.

On the other hand, Sharma, in his complaint lodged with the DGP, alleged that Amit was driving recklessly, yet the police had favoured him.

The investigating official, sub-inspector Sewak Singh, did not take him for a medical examination, as Amit looked to be under the influence of some intoxicant. Amit was also not wearing a helmet.

In an attempt to put the blame on him, Sewak Singh allegedly guided the photographer to take a picture from a certain angle so that the damage caused to his car remained obscure, claimed Sharma.

Sharma said two women had a narrow escape in the mishap when Amit rammed his motor cycle into them after hitting the car.

At this, some onlookers bashed him up, but he was saved following Sharma’s intervention.

The police ignored these facts and tried to find fault with him, forcing him to pay compensation to Chauhan.

He even said the police came after 30 minutes of his making a call on the telephone number 100.

At least 24 persons had assembled on the spot, including an advocate, and they were were witness to the incident.

“I went to the police station for three days, but the police officials kept on delaying the issue. They did not record the statement of any of the onlookers present there, including the two women”, said Sharma.

Attempts to contact Sewak Singh proved futile as he evaded telephone calls after he was asked about the incident.

DSP (Central) Jagbir Singh said Sharma was at fault even if Amit was a minor and was driving without a driving licence.

He said if found minor, they would book him for driving without a driving licence.

Expressing surprise over the logic given by the DSP, Sharma questioned the use of a driving licence.

Such irresponsible behaviour of the police would encourage underage driving, he claimed.

Chandigarh, October 7
To discuss the significance of modern architecture in India and in the world and to celebrate World Architecture Day, an International conference on “towards a global architecture” will be held on October 11 at Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10.

The conference will be organised jointly by the Embassy of Mexico in India, the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA), Chandigarh-Punjab chapter and the Saakaar Foundation, a press note said here today.

While Pawan Kumar Bansal, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources, shall be the chief guest, Surinder Bahga, chairman of Chandigarh-Punjab Chapter of IIA and principal architect of the Saakaar Foundation, will deliver the keynote address.

Architect Eduardo Terrazas, an architect from Mexico, shall be dwelling on his own projects. Prof Gerald Steyn from Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa, shall give his presentation on “the Indian impacts on east-African architecture”. The third presentation shall be by Dr Stefano Boeri, an architect from Milan.

The technical sessions shall be chaired by architect Jit Kumar Gupta, Director, College of Architecture, Bhaddal, Dr SS Bhatti, former Principal Chandigarh College of Architecture, and Renu Saigal, former Chief Architect of Chandigarh.

Chandigarh, October 7
The Chandigarh administration is making arrangements for the supply of another 1,000 MW by 2018.Efforts are underway for long-term tie-ups with some Central power projects to ensure uninterrupted power supply to Chandigarh, a press release said here today.

At present, Chandigarh is getting 265.17 MW of power from 24 power generating stations. But the demand has doubled in the last five years. From 150 MW in 2004, it has gone up to 300 MW per day. The per capita power consumption in Chandigarh has risen to 1,500 units, which is almost 100 per cent more than the neighbouring states.

The power requirement of the city has been increasing rapidly with fast economic growth and increase in trade business, service sector activities and also increasing demand of residents has resulted in rapid growth of demand, whereas the peak power consumption in 2006 was around 200 MW. In 2009, it has crossed the mark of 300 MW. It is expected that 2011-12, the requirement might increase to more than 400 MW.

This was disclosed by UT Finance-cum-Engineering Secretary Sanjay Kumar. Resultantly, the administration has already initiated efforts to tie-up the future requirements and it is already in touch with 15 projects, including thermal plant, Hisar, Dibang Power Project, Arunachal Pradesh and the Mahalaxmi Mega Thermal Power Project, Orissa, for firm allocation of power.

Surinder Pal, chief engineer, Chandigarh, said the 400 MW Koteshwar generating project in Uttaranchal had agreed to supply 20 MW of power to the city. The administration has given its consent, the PPA has been received, vetted and sent back, he said.

The 3,000 MW Dibang Power Project in Arunachal Pradesh will allocate 500 MW power to Chandigarh once it is completed in 2017-18 and the Mahalaxmi Mega Thermal Power Project, Orissa, will supply 150 MW to the city.

The administration has also given its consent to the proposals and after completion of formalities, PPAs would be signed with these projects.

The administration has already signed PPAs with 20 new Central generating projects of NTPC and NHPC for firm allocation of 221 MW of power to the UT and the supply will start within three years.

The maximum demand for power in 2005-06 was 208 MW. It has now touched 318 mw (July 2009). In 2005-06, the administration purchased 12,435 lakh units (LUs), 13,925 LUs in 2008-09 and is expected to buy 15,039 LUs in 2009-10.

The expenditure incurred on the purchase of power, which aggregated Rs 285 crore in 2005-06, touched to Rs 410 crore in July 2009. The Chandigarh administration realised revenue (SOP plus ED) of Rs 343 crore in 2005-06, Rs 396.5 crore in 2008-09 and is expected to net Rs 415 crore in 2009-10. 

Chandigarh, October 7
After a lapse of almost two weeks, the Chandigarh Traffic Police has issued challans to two escort vehicles of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker’s cavalcade for driving with rear registration number plates.

The violation was highlighted in these columns on September 25. UT SP (Traffic) HS Doon said the escort Gypsies belonged to the cavalcade of the Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha. The Gypsies (PB-12-G-2746) and (PB-65-G-9033) had been booked for playing without registration number plates on September 24, the day The Tribune team noticed the violation.

The traffic police officials said the security staff of the cavalcade had told them that the number plates of both the vehicles had fallen. Though they had put on the number plates on the both the vehicles, but they were booked for violation committed on that day.

The Tribune had raised the issue that the delay on the part of the traffic police to trace the offending vehicles would ultimately allow the security staff to cover up their offence.

A traffic police official said they had taken the action on the basis of a photograph carried in Chandigarh Tribune on September 25. About delay in reaction time of the traffic police helpline, he said they had checked the record and found that that the operator had flashed the message. He, however, avoided the query about the failure of the traffic police to intercept the offending vehicles, which kept on moving on the city roads for over 10 minutes, after receiving the message.

Interestingly, the violation was spotted minutes after UT DGP SK Jain asked the city residents to use police helplines to inform the police about the crime and other violations for a prompt action during an interaction at Sukhna Lake.

Chandigarh, October 7
The Chandigarh municipal corporation’s fire department may be equipped with the most hi-tech equipment, but when it comes to its proper use, fire personnel are surprisingly ignorant about it.

The department had purchased multi-purpose vehicles five years back, specifically to handle fire related to chemicals, oil, grease and electricity.

Each vehicle had a nitrogen gas vessel, which should be kept filled up so that the vehicle could be used immediately in case of a fire.

Strangely, while visiting the fire stations recently, it was found that these nitrogen gas vessels were empty and pressure gas was at the zero mark, which clearly showed that there was no gas in these.

On being asked, one of the fire personnel revealed that there were verbal orders from their head not to fill these vessels till a fire incident occurred in the city.

On being questioned, officials clarified that they kept the vessels empty as there were complaints of gas leakage when these was not in use.

Interestingly, when a similar query was posed to an official of the Delhi fire department, who had been using similar vehicles, he said it was strange that the Chandigarh fire department kept these vessels empty.

If firemen had to fill a vessel at the time of an incident, it would take about eight minutes to fill it to its capacity of 1000 kg.

Even if the firemen filled the vessels with pressure at the spot of the incident, there were chances of bursting of pipes connecting the cylinder with the vessel.

During training, directions had been given to firemen that such vehicles should be kept ready, round-the-clock so that these could be used at the time of emergency.

When asked if there was any chance of leakage if the vessels were kept filled and remained unused, the official said if there were no technical fault in the vehicle, such a leakage was not possible.

When contacted, MC chief fire officer P.K. Sharma said all fire vehicles were fully equipped with all chemicals required so that these could be immediately used at the time of a fire.

Chandigarh, October 7
As the city rejoices in the spirit of festivals, the Panjab University girls were not devoid of holy colour, as they dressed up in their best attires to celebrate Karva Chauth today.

For those who were engaged, married or gladly fasted, the day started with a special sargi being served to them in the PU girls hostel at 4 am.

Away from home, the girls completed their fast with all rituals, applying mehndi, visiting temples and then finally ending their fast on seeing the moon.

The Sector 15 market near university remained flooded with girls. Most girls preferred visiting the Sector 15 temple to perform the puja with decorated plates in their hands.

“We have been fasting each year and this year it has been exceptionally holy, as the astrologers predicted. The mess persons were kind to serve us the traditional sargi,” said Charu, a student of PU hostel no.1.

“There was a small puja by girls in the hostel and those who could not go home, enjoyed the celebration here,” added another girl.

Every year, the roads close to girls hostel remain a hot spot geri-route for boys, and girls could be spotted chitchatting in balconies.

“It is same every year, girls gather on the hostel ground and even balconies to break their fast and boys can be seen riding their bikes and cars close to the hostel gates,” said Surabhi.

Though most girls got henna applied a day before, henna artists could be spotted in every nook and corner of the market.

Artists from different corners in the city and a few even from Rajasthan could be seen decorating palms with intricate and traditional designs.

Councillors during an MC meeting in Mohali on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph

Twentyone municipal councillors had given a requisition notice for convening a meeting to pass a no-confidence motion against Rana on September 29.

Chandigarh, October 7
A seven-day NSS camp concluded at Government College, Sector 46. TR Tekta youth officer, NSS Regional Centre, Government of India, presided over.

The function started with the lighting of a lamp and NSS clap. Achla Dogra, Dean of the College, and Gurjeet Kaur, vice-principal of the college, were also present.

Dr Baljit Singh, programme officer, NSS, conducted the stage and welcomed the guests. Dr Prashant Gaurav, chief coordinator NSS, read the report on the activities undertaken during the seven-day NSS camp.

The students sang NSS song and presented a cultural programme. The students also presented poems on social issues like dowry and female foeticide under the guidance of Dr Surinder Kaur, programme officer.

Shalini Sharma of BA (III) was declared outstanding girl NSS volunteer and Dharmender of BA (III) was declared outstanding male NSS volunteer. The students were given trophies for spreading awareness regarding swine flu by Amrinder Singh, chairman Salaam Zindagi Charitable Trust.

Panchkula, October 7
With four days left for campaigning for the Assembly elections to end, none of the candidate seemed to be in a comfortable position to take a lead over others in Panchkula.

While all parties have stepped up their efforts to garner support from different quarters, the list of promises from candidates have started getting longer.

D K Bansal

While Union Cabinet Ministers Selja and Pawan Kumar Bansal have put their weight behind party candidate D.K. Bansal, the joining of Bahujan Samaj Party city president Deepak Sharma and general secretary Vinod Katyal along with their supporters yesterday proved a shot in his arm.

Prior to this, Bansal was finding it hard to retain the vote bank of the party despite the fact that Panchkula was considered a safe bet for the Congress as Selja, the Congress candidate during the parliamentary elections held on May 7, registered a lead of 3,900 votes over Rattan Lal Kataria, the joint candidate of the INLD and the BJP.

After the denial of ticket, a majority of local Congress leaders were hell bent on “teaching a lesson” to the party high command for fielding an outsider for the last 16 years.

Bansal had initially emphasised on improving the law and order situation and education facilities, but now, he had included the abolition of the Apartment Act, the development work in slum areas and villages and better roads and connectivity to Chandigarh in his list of assurances to the public.

Gian Chand Gupta

On the other hand, his rival Gian Chand Gupta, a senior BJP leader and former Chandigarh Mayor, was banking on Congress infighting even after losing a substantial chunk of votes of the INLD in rural areas his collegue Ratan Lal Kataria had bagged during the Lok Sabha elections from here.

Out of the 29,789 votes Kataria had polled from Panchkula, around 10,000 votes were presumed to be the contribution of the INLD, which had a strong presence in rural areas.

Without this, the target of reaching the Assembly would be a hard one for Gupta, whose difficulties had multiplied by his detractors in the district, who made it a point not to accompany him during the campaign.

The BJP leader was leaving no stone unturned to entice voters.

In addition to harping upon the party manifesto, Gupta, had promised the construction of chaupals, training farmers in modern agriculture techniques and the promotion of organic crops.

Yograj Singh

Yograj Singh, the choice of the INLD from the constituency, more than making promises, had been an attraction to his audience for his spontaneous speech, imbued with theatrical dialogues and “shairi”.

Ironically, terming the politics a pond of dirt, Yograj promised his voters to keep his cloth clean.

Besides lauding the the Devi Lal clan, he had been showing the party manifesto, containing tall claims like Scooties for college girls to the waiver of loans.

Ruling out the arrival of his son Yuvraj during the campaign, Yograj did not consider anyone his rival, terming it a match between many players, where only one could win.

The INLD candidate could depend upon the rural vote bank of the party in the area while the infighting in the Congress and the BJP could supplement its urban votes.

He felt stronger after the local Bar Council and the Haryana Vyapar Sangh extending their support here today.

Shashi Sharma

The Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), which had got merely 4,691 votes in the Panchkula segment during the Lok Sabha elections, could expect a much better show this time following the party decision to field Congress rebel Shashi Sharma.

Sharma had a good influence among Congress workers and was set to increase the prospects of the HJC while making a big dent in the vote bank of the Congress.

Sharma had initially confined himself to slums and sectors, but now, had started wooing voters in villages, promising them better civic conditions and uplift.

The inclusion of local students for quota in educational institutions in Chandigarh was the trump card evolved by the HJC candidate to lure the youth.

Chandigarh, October 7
It might still take a few more days for the administration to decide its take on cash-for-job scam, but the controversy has already taken its toll on the much-awaited Rajkiya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan.

The ambitious project meant to benefit the secondary classes and conceived on the lines of on going Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan was supposed to be launched on trial-basis this month.

It may be noted that Rajkiya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan would aim at providing benefits like midday meals, free books, non-scholastic activities and scholarships up to the Class VIII.

Officials in education department had met the Ministry of Human Resource and Development in August and worked out the basic framework, which was to be developed and implemented, however, with the name of DPI (S) Samwartak Singh coming under the scanner, the project virtually stalled at the initials stages only.

“We had the first meeting with MHRD August and it was decided that we would submit a detailed plan and launch it on trial-basis in October. Soon after this, the cash-for-job scam unearthed and the role of Samwartak Singh came under the scanner. Now we have nobody to take decisions on the project, so it will have to wait for some more time,” said one of the senior department officials.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Ram Niwas said: “The project is going on fine. There are some problems when its comes to giving final approvals but all this will be sorted out soon as we will the get the police report in another two three days,” he added.

SP (city) Madhur Verma also asserted that the CFSL report of the mobiles would be received by tomorrow and it would clarify the allegations of Samwartak being in touch with one of the accused.

Chandigarh, October 7
In a rare distinction, two Panjab University Law department professors, have been nominated on the panel of northern India’s first regional chapter of Indian Law Institute.

The institute is an internationally recognised premier research body of India with the Chief Justice of India as its patron.

Prof Paramjit Singh Jaswal and Prof Shashi Sharma of the department of law, who have received the honour, will now attend the first executive body meeting of the chapter on October 14. The chapter includes Chandigarh, Haryana and Punjab and will be presided over by Justice MM Kumar of Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Prof Shashi Sharma will be the secretary. Anmol Rattan Sidhu and Harnam Singh will hold the post of joint secretary and treasurer of the body, respectively. Prof Paramjit Jaswal has been nominated to the executive committee of the chapter.

According to sources, nominations were done by Chief Justice of India, KG Balakrishnan and the recommendations of the names was done by Chief Justice TS Thakur of Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Prof Jaswal said students, faculty members, lawyers and judges in the city would be benefited.

“The Indian Law Institute is now a deemed university. The establishment of the institute has been done by an act of law and the opening of local chapter means immense benefit for those related to the field of law,” informed Prof Jaswal.

Chandigarh, October 7
A week-long NSS camp came to an end at MCM DAV College here today.MS Bains, coordinator NSS, Panjab University, was the chief guest.He congratulated the students and faculty members of the MCM NSS Club for their contribution to various sections of the society from the past one-week. 

The principal of the college Dr Puneet Bedi assured the guest about the college’s efforts towards public service.

Amidst colourful traditional and western performances by students, the camp concluded with the prize distribution function.

Continuing with the spirit to serve the NSS, volunteers participated in a cleanliness drive on the campus.