Chandigarh, June 3
Perhaps having learnt lessons from the negligence that led to the radioactive leakage of cobalt-60 in Mayapuri, New Delhi, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board of India (AERB) has ordered the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences & Research to close down its gamma knife unit and cobalt machine in the absence of a medical physicist.

Confirming the move, PGI spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar said after receiving the instructions from AERB, the institute’s administration has suspended the procedure from May 14 till the appointment of a medical physicist, who is responsible for monitoring the radiation dose and its safe applications.

According to officials, since the recruitment procedure is lengthy, the gamma knife services - necessary for treatment of cancer - may not be available for a few more months.

The absence of the procedure at PGI is obviously going to result in difficulties for cancer patients undergoing treatment at the hospital. Many will have to pay exorbitant charges to get the treatment at private hospitals, as they would end up paying almost double than what it costs at PGI.

Sources said brain tumour patients would have to undergo traditional neurosurgery in the absence of gamma knife services at PGI. At private hospitals they will have to shell out Rs 1.5 lakh for the gamma knife procedure, which costs Rs 75,000 at PGI.

The sources also revealed that the posts of medical physicists are not in proportion to the number of machines being used for radiation therapy at PGI. Of the eight sanctioned posts only four have been filled. Recently one medical physicist resigned, thus taking the total number of vacancies to five.

According to AERB’s instructions, there should be a separate medical physicist for each radiation process including gamma knife procedures.

Chandigarh, June 3
The UT education department appears to have been singularly harsh in penalizing Strawberry Fields World School, Sector 26, for failing to comply with certain conditions the former has stipulated while other schools have been let off relatively lightly on the same ground.

Based on the findings of the department’s inspection committees, schools in the city are given provisional recognition. On the issues of irregularities in not paying DA to teachers, no fire inspection reports and shortfall in seats for economically weaker sections, some schools including Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36 and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Sector 27 have been given provisional recognition till March 2013 and March 2011, respectively.

At the same time Strawberry School, which was found lacking on the same grounds, was given extension of provisional recognition till March 2013 by an inspection committee. In the latter’s final report, handed over to the school’s director, Atul Khanna, the school has been told to rectify the irregularities and shortcomings within just three months. However, other schools have been asked to “ensure that all conditions are complied with within six months before the expiry of the extended period of recognition.”

When contacted for his comments, Khanna said: “Our school is a responsible institution and not a fly by night operator. It has unfailingly conformed to the law of the land during its years of existence. It was rather strange that we heard of the entire recognition issue through the media and not from the department concerned in what would be the correct mandated way”.

“The observations raised by the department are regular in nature and the school will respond to them”, he added.

The Tribune is in possession of a copy of a communication issued by the education department before its final order that had taken an unusually serious note of anomalies in Strawberry School as compared to those found in other schools in the city. The note read: “The noncompliance referred to above are of a serious nature and the same cannot be condoned, especially when the school is charging exorbitant fees from students. Hence prima facie provisional recognition granted to the school cannot be extended further, rather the same needs to be withdrawn.”

Keeping in mind “the future of the students”, Strawberry School officials have been given three months to rectify the irregularities failing which the provisional recognition will be automatically treated as withdrawn without any further notice or opportunity.

UT home secretary Ram Niwas said DPI (schools) Sunil Bhatia was the “right person to be contacted for official comments”. However, the latter did not offer any comments despite being contacted repeatedly over the past five days.

It is also worth mentioning that the inspection committee report showed Strawberry School to be affiliated to CBSE whereas the school is now affiliated to ICSE.

Chandigarh, June 3
A proposed five-star hotel and a shopping mall at Mani Majra township are likely to never see the light of day. In fact, the UT administration’s upcoming metro rail project is set to play spoilsport in Mani Majra’s future emergence as a ‘happening place’.

The administration’s intentions have been amply made clear in a recent missive to the municipal corporation, asking the latter not to formulate any plan for Pocket Nos. 1, 2 and 3 as metro stations are planned to be built in that area. Earlier the civic body had proposed a five-star hotel and a shopping mall in these prime locations.

A senior official confirmed that the administration had instructed the MC to scrap its projects from these pockets. However, nothing was mentioned about the rest of the Mani Majra master plan in the communication.

It is ironic that about 500 acres in Mani Majra have been lying vacant for the past two decades as the UT administration failed to approve the ‘original’ master plan submitted by the MC a long time ago.

Former Mayor Surinder Singh said if the administration planned to construct a metro station on prime land of the corporation, it should allot land for these projects in some other area. “According to the high court’s orders, if the authorities did npt use the acquired land within three years for the purpose it was acquired for, the owner could demand return of the land”, he added.

According to administration records, the authorities had acquired land in various pockets of Mani Majra in 1990 and 1992 and handed it over to the municipal corporation to plan various projects on it. On the basis of availability of land and requirement of residents, the civic body drew up a master plan for all-round development of the area.

However, despite various Mayors taking up the issue with the administration, the master plan’s approval has been hanging fire for the past several years. It is another matter that the MC has netted funds by auctioning prime land such as the Uppal housing project and a few school sites in this area.

So much so that even the bridge, the foundation stone for which was laid by Pawan Kumar Bansal on November 4, 2006, at Gobindpura, is yet to be completed. A 14-acre green belt is also proposed to be developed in the vicinity of the bridge.

Chandigarh, June 3
The showers that the meteorological department had been promising finally made their welcome appearance in the city after a humid morning today. Many areas of the city received light rain at about 6:30 am, bring down the temperature.

The Met has indicated there are chances of more thundershowers till Sunday evening after which temperatures will begin to rise again.

Shruti Verma, who was on her morning walk to the terrace garden in Sector 33, said it started to pour at around 6:20 am as she crossed the exhibition ground in Sector 34. "Initially there were just strong winds but it soon began raining. The weather had changed drastically and it became quite cool," she said.

People, especially children, could be seen enjoying the weather by remaining outdoors most of the time. The cool breeze, too, provided relief from the sweltering heat.

Strong winds bearing dust were also reported in other parts of the city as well as in adjoining Punjab and Haryana. The maximum temperature, which had risen to 41.7 degrees Celsius yesterday, fell marginally by 0.5 degrees to 41.2 degrees while the minimum was recorded at 26.7 degrees. The city received 2 mm of rainfall today, a Met official said.

“During the day it was extremely warm and uncomfortable due to the high level of humidity that ranged between 17 and 50 per cent,’’ the official said.

Although the weatherman also predicted rain or thundershowers on Wednesday, the city - after today’s morning showers, had a dry day with rain eluding the city. The humidity level rose to 50 per cent.

"Due to the morning showers we’re expecting a dip in temperatures of around 3 to 4 degrees C in the city. However, they did not bring any respite from the heat during the day; in fact, the light rain raised the humidity levels," the met official said.

"We’re expecting rainfall accompanied by a duststorm in the city as well as in various areas of Punjab and Haryana in the next 24 hours. Yes, it could certainly bring down the mercury by three to four notches in the region”, the official added.

“The cyclonic circulation over western Rajasthan has brought rain to the city. We can expect some more light showers tomorrow,” India Meteorological Department director Surendra Paul said. The weatherman has forecast duststorms or thundershowers with light rain at isolated places in Punjab and Haryana during the next 24 hours. Temperatures in the region are also likely to fall by 2 to 3 degrees C.

Chandigarh, June 3
Passengers of the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking buses and the Punjab Roadways were a harassed lot when the employees of the state roadways withdrew their buses from Chandigarh and did not allow the CTU buses to ply in Punjab. The union leaders of the Punjab Roadways said they were compelled to take this extreme step as the CTU authorities had failed to redress their grievances.

It was around 12 noon when the buses belonging to the Punjab roadways were withdrawn from the bus stand of Sector 43. Simultaneously, the STU buses plying in the Punjab area Mohali, Ludhiana and Hoshiarpur were not allowed to proceed further to their destinations.

The general secretary of Chandigarh Government Transport Workers Union said four buses plying on local routes no 10, 12, 35, and 20 were stopped by the Punjab Roadways Union leaders at different parts of Mohali, while 2 buses from Ludhiana were not allowed to leave the city for Chandigarh. A bus full of passengers on the way to Chandigarh from Katra was also stopped at Hoshiarpur at 2.45 pm and was allowed to proceed only at 4 pm, he said.

The state president of the Driver Ekta Union of Punjab, Raj Kumar, on the other hand put the onus on the Chandigarh administration and the CTU authorities.

“The Chandigarh State Transport Authority in the new timetable prepared by it had allowed every bus of CTU 10 minutes of parking time on the ticket counters while the time for buses from other states had been reduced to 3 minutes only,” alleged the union leader.

The Chandigarh administration and the CTU authorities were informed about the decision of the union which had given an ultimatum of one week and had asked to give equal time to buses from all states and yesterday too they informed them through fax about their decision, said Raj Kumar.

CTU director, ML Sharma said the things had been sorted out for now and a meeting of all parties concerned would be held tomorrow at the office of the Chandigarh State Transport Authority to address the grievances.

Chandigarh, June 3
The Chandigarh District Courts Bar Association is to hold a full house meeting on June 12 to take a decision over the construction of lawyer's chambers at the upcoming judicial complex in Sector 43.

As the district courts are to be shifted in the new building, which is expected to be completed by December, the lawyers were yet to decide on their contribution towards the construction of 440 chambers. The construction of so many chambers however will be difficult to be completed by December as lawyers who were asked to construct their chambers under self-financing scheme by the administration had not deposited any money, expecting that the administration could waive their contribution, said sources.

Chandigarh, June 3
The district consumer disputes redressal forum has directed Parsvanath Developers Limited and the Chandigarh Housing Board(CHB) to pay Rs 50,000 to an allottee at its Parsvnath Prideasia housing project at Rajiv Gandhi Technology Park, for causing mental agony and harassment. Both have also been directed to pay Rs 5,000 to the complainant as costs of litigation.

Satya Estates of Sector 35-B, Chandigarh, through its proprietor Satya Jain, in its complaint said that Rs 5,14,300 were paid to the company against the allotment of a flat and the remaining payment was to be made as per the construction-linked plan. As per the agreement executed between the buyer - the CHB and the company - the construction of the flats was to be completed by the company within 36 months from June 6, 2006.

As the company failed to make any development at the site, the complainant sought the cancellation of allotment and refund of Rs 15,85,750 along with up-to-date interest. The company instead of refunding the whole amount along with the interest, illegally deducted 5 per cent of the basic price from the total amount deposited by the complainant.

While issuing directions, the fourm observed that the complainant had not made any breach of the terms and conditions of the agreement. There is no default in payment of any installment. Rather the complainant had paid a sum of Rs15,85,750 before time.

Therefore, the company had no right to deduct 5 per cent of the basic price i.e. Rs 2,57 lakh in the present circumstances. The forum directed the company and the Chandigarh Housing Board to refund the remaining amount of Rs 2,57,000 and pay an interest on the total amount at the current SBI term deposit rate. They have also been directed to pay Rs 50,000 to the complainant as compensation for causing mental agony and harassment along with Rs 5,000 as costs of litigation. The order be complied within 45 days failing which they shall be liable to pay Rs 3,07,000 along with interest on the total amount paid by the complainant from the respective dates of deposits till its realisation at the rate18per cent p.a. besides Rs 5,000 as costs of litigation, directed the forum.

Chandigarh, June 3
In what may reflect poorly on the intent of elected representatives of slum areas and villages in serving their people, not a single meeting of the the Slum Colonies and Village Development Committee of the municipal corporation has been held in the past five months.

In the house, however, these representative make perfect orators. During each house meeting or question hour, these councillors go into overdrive accusing corporation officials of ignoring the civic problems of their respective wards.

However, none of the councillors, who are members of the slum committee, has ever raised voice against their failure to convene a meeting of the committee in the past five months.

Records of the corporation suggested that the committee was constituted by former mayor Harjinder Kaur, who was its chairman, in 2007. Regular meetings were conducted by officials in that year.

However, in 2008, the committee met only thrice under the chairmanship of Manjit Singh Chauhan. Last year, just two meetings were held, with Sheela Devi as its chairperson.

This year, most councillors are not even aware of the membership of the committee.

BJP councillor Anil Dubey said he was not aware of him being the member of the committee and that he had only heard about it.

Another committee member, Raj Kumari Mishra, expressed his ignorance about the chairman of the committee.

She said the committee had no clear agenda about the development works in slums and colonies for the past two years. This was one of the reasons why the corporation could not undertake development work in these areas.

Zirakpur, June 3
The power supply in Zirakpur will be affected for the next two days due to collapse of power supply tower in Banur village here this morning.

Executive engineer, Zirakpur division, HS Oberoi said the areas where the electricity was supplied from the Pabhat 66 kV grid would get power supply for some time during the day on rotational basis.

He said it would take at least two days for the power supply to be restored. He said the repair work of the tower would continue round the clock for two days. Meanwhile, the power is being supplied to Zirakpur from Mubarikpur at Dera Bassi.

Mohali, June 3
The issue of the ineffectiveness of the security gates installed in various parts of the town came into focus once again at a municipal council meeting here today even as the House cleared estimates for development works worth about Rs 6 crore.

As many as 39 security gates have been provided in various parts of the town. The huge structures bearing advertisements were put up around the end of October in residential areas, but these remained unguarded. The issue was repeatedly discussed at the monthly meetings of the civic body.

Congress councillor Kuljit Singh Bedi said the issue related to the unguarded security gates was discussed at every meeting over the past about five months, but no improvement had been brought about by the authorities concerned on this front. He threatened that if nothing was done in the next 30 days he would be compelled to approach a court for making the security gates more effective.

He said the contractor concerned had earned lakhs of rupees in less than a year and the work was given on contract for a period of five years. Some officials of the civic body must have also allegedly earned some commission while giving the work on contract. He said substandard material was used in the gates, which had already started breaking up and even the design was not up to the mark. Moreover, security guards were not provided at a number of gates defeating the very purpose for which these had been installed.

The president of the council, Kulwant Singh, told the House that when the work of installing security gates was given on contract the terms of the agreement were kept very lax.

The contractor was not asked to provide security guards and had also not been given any specifications about the designs of the gates.

The work was allotted in a hurried manner, probably due to police pressure, which had suggested the setting up of such gates. Efforts would be made to bring about an improvement in this regard.

Kulwant Singh said an improvement would be brought about in sanitation work as well, but one could act only as per the terms of the agreement, which were not tough enough to take a strict action against contractors.

Councillor Rajinder Sharma said for issuing domicile certificates and those required for old age and widow pensions, government had made a report from a patwari compulsory in addition to the recommendation of the municipal councillor. This had led to a lot of harassment. The president assured that the matter would be taken up with the Deputy Commissioner.

The estimates cleared at the meeting were for works related to roads, footpaths, curb channels, road gullies, parks, etc.

Zirakpur, June 3
The development work of Shalimar Enclave, at Himmatgarh village (Dhakola), will start soon as GMADA has issued an aid of Rs 20 lakh to the Zirakpur municipal council to provide basic amenities to officials concerned. The colony has also been handed over to the Zirakpur municipal council.

The aid has brought cheers to the residents and plot owners here.

According to GMADA, Rs 20 lakh has been given to the Zirakpur municipal council and the amount was released under the ADC received from colonies under the Zirakpur municipal council.

President of the Residents’ Welfare Association, Shalimar Enclave, Gurdev Singh Saini said: "Shalimar Enclave was set up in 2000 after getting approval and license from PUDA. However, owner had sold the plots, but had failed to provide basic amenities.

"The association had filed a writ petition in Punjab and Haryana High Court in which the license of the promoter of Shalimar Land projects colony was cancelled by the GMADA after the promoter was found violating the building plan in 2008," he added.

He also said as per the site plan, there was a provision of establishing several parks, community centre, roads, streetlights and sewerage drains in the area, but so far nothing has been provided.

The promoter had even sold the plots reserved for constructing sewerage treatment plant and community centre, he added.

The association president Gurdev Saini said the association had asked the MC president NK Sharma to start the development work soon.

NK Sharma said GMADA had transferred Rs 20 lakh for the development. “We will discuss the issue at the municipal council meeting and tenders will be called for development work,” he added.

Chandigarh, June 3
June 2010 is being observed as the anti-malaria month. As a part of various activities during the observance of anti-malaria month, the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), Chandigarh, organised first anti-malaria camp at Kajheri village.

Health and family welfare director, Dr Manjit Singh Bains, Chandigarh, inaugurated the camp. During his inaugural address, Dr Bains laid stress on the involvement of community and appealed to the residents of Kajheri village and other prominent persons for their involvement in the prevention and control activities launched by the department.

Dr Bains further appealed to the residents that all activities for prevention and control of malaria and dengue should be in the form of “people’s movement” in this area.

Dr Bains further said the residents should take precautionary measures for prevention and control of water-borne diseases like cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea and use of safe drinking water.

Dr GC Bansal, programme official (NVBDCP), Chandigarh, highlighted various activities, which were being carried out by the staff during the anti-malaria month. He informed that the anti-malaria services were being provided at the doorstep of the village residents. A live demonstration of various stages of mosquitoes was also arranged for creating awareness among masses.

Various teams like EDPT team with five members, health education team with 15 members, anti-larval measures team with 10 members and distribution of chlorine tablets/checking of coolers team with 10 members were deployed in the area.

Dr Bansal further informed that the village had been adopted as the project foundation village under NRHM. Special activities will be carried out to make the village “Model Village”.

Chandigarh, June 3
A Sandhya Memorial Vocational Centre and an English corner for marginalised girls at Bapu Dham Colony in Sector 26, Chandigarh, was inaugurated today by Yuvsatta and the Chandigarh Social Welfare Board.

Chief guest Lalit Joshi, along with social activist Pushpa Sharma inaugurated the centre here today.

Coordinator, Yuvsatta, Parmod Sharma said with an assistance of the Chandigarh Social Welfare Board, Yuvsatta had been running a project SAKHI in Bapu Dham that has been serving as a neighbourhood club for around 150 girls.

Various activities and classes like dance, music, yoga, stitching, communication skills, medical check-ups were presently being undertaken in the centre. A vocational centre was constructed to teach spoken English and grammar to the girls, who were either dropouts or had never been to schools, added Sharma.

On the occasion, chairperson of the board Lalit Joshi also distributed passbooks and ATM cards to 50 girls of the area whose zero per cent accounts were opened in nearby Panjab National Bank. He said the girls, especially in the urban slums, due to lack of awareness and education were facing various difficulties in their life.

Chandigarh, June 3
In an effort to streamline the forthcoming centralised admissions to BCom in its affiliated colleges, Panjab University has worked out a uniform fee structure for all colleges. The structure was handed over to the college principals and they have been strictly asked to adhere to it.

Addressing a meeting of 26 principals from across the region, which was convened by Dr Karamjeet Singh, chief coordinator, BCom centralised admission, Vice-Chancellor RC Sobti asked them to ensure that no admission is made to the 1st year of BCom without prior approval of the central counselling committee.

The principals were asked to set up the help desks and appoint contact persons to facilitate the candidates in filling up the admission forms.

The names of these contact persons should be submitted to the chief coordinator in advance.

The principals have been asked to contact Dr Karamjeet Singh in case of any problem and may refer to the Vice-Chancellor in exceptional cases.

Meanwhile, taking a cue from Panjab University’s decision to go in for the centralised admissions to BCom, the UT higher education department is all set to follow the suit for Bachelors in business administration (BBA) and Bachelors of computer application (BCA) in the city government colleges.

Informing about the decision, Ajoy Sharma, director Higher Education (DHE) said, “We have decided to opt for the centralised admissions for these courses where ever available in the government colleges.

This is to make the admission process more transparent. It will be on pilot basis which may extend to other courses in the next session.”

The students will have to apply for these courses through the common admission prospectus, which will be available in different colleges from June 7. This 152-page long document will have two admission forms, which a student needs to submit in the college he wishes an admission.

The prospectus will contain information about the colleges and courses and would be available at Rs 80 for the first year students, while the second and third year students will buy admission forms for Rs 5. 

Chandigarh, June 3
After a brilliant show at various engineering and medical entrance examinations, four students Naina Jindal (AIR 66), Rohan Murlidharan (109 AIR), Akshy Shreedhar (161AIR) and Abhilaksh Gaind (181AIR) have repeated the show at Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) which was held on May 9.

The test merit is the key basis of admission to various law colleges from across the country like NLSIU, Bangalore, NUJS, Kolkata, and NALSAR, Hyderabad.

The toppers consider hard work and passion as their key to success as Naina says: “I think what binds the achievers from across the borders of entrance tests is their passion and hard work.”