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Finally, UT Adviser Pradip Mehra goes
Chandigarh,February 10 Mehra was engaged in a bitter slugfest with former Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gen. SF Rodrigues over the latter’s pet but controversial mega projects, including the Medicity, Film City and Theme-cum-Amusement Park in the backdrop of the alleged irregularities in land allotment to big realtors. In the wake of his opposition to the mega projects, Mehra was sidelined during Rodrigues’ tenure with junior officers having a direct access to Raj Bhavan. Sources said Mehra’s sudden and swift transfer, which was first reported by Chandigarh Tribune on February 6, came on the directions of UT Administrator Shivraj Patil who, in addition to being unhappy with Mehra’s performance, wanted a new team of officers at the helm of affairs. Development in the city had virtually come to a standstill during Mehra’s mostly lacklustre tenure, which, in fact, was reflected in his own Republic Day speech only last month. As the senior most civil servant and also a local lad who had studied and grown up in the city, Mehra had every opportunity and authority to shape initiatives and clear bottlenecks in project execution and therefore cannot escape the blame for a tenure marked mostly by non performance and under achievment. This was Mehra’s second assignment to the top post after having earlier served in UT from November 1995 to April 1997. Mehra, a 1975 batch IAS officer, is an additional secretary level officer who is expected to be posted to the Government of Delhi.
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A kidnapping that wasn’t
Chandigarh, February 10 The police was on its toes for over three hours when it later came to light that the girl had, in fact, concocted a story to hide the fact that she bunked school yesterday. The girl, who had apparently gone on a date with her boyfriend during school hours, cooked up a story of her kidnapping as her classmates saw her at the gate after the full break yesterday. Her classmates, who knew her as being absent during the day, then informed the teachers about the girl being seen at the school gate after the full break. Her uncle had dropped the girl to school in morning yesterday. When her teachers quizzed her today, the girl, who is a resident of Sector 23, replied that four boys abducted her in a Maruti van yesterday from the school gate, blindfolded her with a black cloth and after taking her to various locations dropped her back to school. She also said that they threatened her and told her that next time they would seek ransom from her family. Her teachers immediately informed the police and summoned her parents. Taking no chances, the police recorded the statements of the girl and also took her to various locations to ascertain where all she was taken by her ‘kidnappers’. However, as the police probed deep into the mystery, numerous contradictions were found in her statements and she later broke down and narrated the true story that she spent the day in a park in Sector 35 with her boyfriend. A daily diary report has been lodged in Sector 36 police station. SHO, Sector 36 police station, Inspector Sukhbir Rana said they could not have taken any chances and thus explored all angles, but later it was found to be a concocted story.
Previous incidents
This is the third incident since the past month when the police has been on tenterhooks investigating kidnapping cases that never happened. January 14: A hapless mother had informed the police that her 11-yr-old son had been kidnapped. After a search of two hours, the police discovered that the son had reached home in Sec 33 on his own as he was annoyed on being denied a delicacy by the mother. February 3: A 19-year-old student of Chitkara College alleged that she was abducted and later dumped in Sec 21. But the police found numerous contradictions in her statements. Purnima, a resident of Sec 21, had stated to the police that two men abducted her in a car in Sec 21 when she had alighted from her college bus. She also said that the two beat her with a belt in a moving car and later dumped her.
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Mock drill finds fire extinguishers non-functional
Chandigarh, February 10 The drill began after the fire department received a call from the Sadar market in Sector 19. Fire tenders from Sector 17 and the Industrial Area reached the site on time. The tenders had to be parked on the roadside as they could not get easy access to get to the spot where the drill was being conducted. Ironically, during the past four years the market committee failed to install even a single water pipeline connecting the market to the water tank that was constructed near the booths to provide water during any fire incident. Sources close to the fire department said though fire officials asked shopkeepers to deposit money to lay the pipeline no funds have been collected till date. The team also found most of the shopkeepers had not refilled their cylinders that had been installed in their shops. MC fire & emergency committee chairman Davinder Singh Babla, who led the team, issued a warning to the shopkeepers to refill their fire extinguishers by Monday. “A fire committee team will ensure separate space for parking fire tenders marked with a ‘no parking’ signboard is set aside in every market. If any vehicle is found parked in that area the owner will be fined. A communiqué will be sent to the UT chief engineer’s department to ensure electricity wires are properly fixed in the city’s market places to prevent any fires due to electrical short circuit”, Babla stated.
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After Gauba’s exit, VC extols his virtues
Chandigarh, February 10 Addressing a meeting of students, faculty and non-teaching staff of the dental institute at the law auditorium, university Vice-Chancellor RC Sobti exhorted the students to the virtues of maintaining discipline and obedience, particularly for those aspiring to take up medical profession. During the controversy, Sobti, however, had mostly watched protest by students from the sidelines. Students went on the protest after Gauba ticked off a girl student for dressing up casually in a message T-shirt with the words “I love NY”.Sobti, however, was cautious in referring to the issue. “Professionals, whether in law, business and medicine certainly need to look better to be acceptable to their clients and patients. However, we are not there to compel you on this count. You have to think yourself and the reasoning about the option for dress has to come from within you.” This piece of advice came as a surprise to many given the fact that the university never publicly supported this idea when professed by Guaba. Despite being absolved of all charges, the university had officially done little to uphold Gauba’s stand, which was endorsed by Sobti today.
Review decision: Faculty
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MC to prepare list of habitual encroachers
Chandigarh, February 10 This was decided in the enforcement committee meeting held here today under the chairmanship of MPS Chawla. The committee directed the officials of the department to prepare a list of habitual encroachers marketwise so that appropriate action could be initiated against them. The committee also instructed officials to adopt zero tolerance to encroachments in Sector 17. The committee members also mooted a proposal that the MC should fix a particular colour for each category of rehri in the city and issue licences. Committee members said this would facilitate the enforcement department to easily identify illegal rehri owners and challan them. They also suggested that the MC should issue new licences to handcart owners in view of increased population in the city. Instructions were given to the field staff to wear their uniforms provided by the department while conducting any encroachment drive in the city The committee further decided that a joint mock drill of the enforcement and the fire departments would be chalked out for major markets in Sectors 15, 19 and 22. The encroachments from motor markets in Sectors 15, 21, 27, 28 and 48 will be removed during special drives, the committee said.
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Mohali roads in for a makeover
Mohali, February 10
Various government agencies are spending Rs 13 crore on the re-carpeting of roads from Phase 1 to 11. The Municipal Corporation, Mohali, has set a target to re-carpet around 10- km stretch of the road, apart from the potholed parking lots of Phase 3B2, 5, 7, 9, 10 and 11. Similarly, the Greater Mohali Area Development (GMADA) in the process of spending Rs 3 crore on carpeting of the roads from Sectors 66 to 69. Similarly, the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC) has also been asked to re-carpet the potholed roads in Phase 7, 8 and 9 of the Industrial Area. The roads in Phase 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the Industrial Area come under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Council. Mohali Municipal Commissioner Parveen Kumar said due to multiple agencies handling the development works in the city, confusion persists over the maintenance of roads. The agency concerned has also been asked to identify the road sections being handled by them, he said. “In the first meeting of the committee scheduled to be held soon, effort would also be made to achieve a coordinated development of the city. We would try that on the city’s map, the roads are marked in different colours so as to identify the agency handling the job,” he said. As part of beautifying and illuminating the roundabouts, it has also been decided to install high-mast lights at all the rotaries across the city.
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Power cables damaged
Chandigarh, February 10 The underground electricity cable has been damaged due to the unplanned digging work being carried out by the contractor engaged by the Municipal Corporation. A JCB machine, engaged to dig earth, damaged the electricity cables. Area resident JS
Sodhi, a former chief engineer with the PWD, complained that the power supply of his house was cut
off due to damage to cables. He said he called
up the electricity department to repair the damaged cables but
to no avail.
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2 cars, scooter damaged in fire
Panchkula, February 10 The owner of house (no 410), Naresh Kumar, told the cops the son of his tenant, Gaurav, told him at night the vehicles had caught fire. Immediately the fire brigade was informed but area residents managed to control the blaze before the firemen could reach the scene. Though the house occupants do not suspect any “foul play” the police is investigating what caused the fire. — TNS
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Class XI student shot at accidentally
Chandigarh, February 10 Girish was taken to the Sector-16 hospital. The police has registered a case.
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Orders cancelled
Chandigarh, February 10 During inspection of seven dispensaries, the Commissioner found that some doctors had been given dual charge to work at other places, besides in civil dispensaries, due to which patients had to suffer. To avoid this mess, the Commissioner ordered that the doctors posted in dispensaries would work there only.
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Makes way for KK Sharma 
‘He was
ineffective’
Though otherwise a gentleman, Mehra failed to bring developmental projects to the execution level. In fact, the after effects of the slugfest between Rodrigues and him over mega projects continued to haunt the rest of his tenure which adversely affected his performance.
Even after Rodrigues’ exit, he failed to regain control.We approached him many times with various problems related to education but probably due to discontent amongst officers there was no immediate reaction which worsened things between us and UT Administration.
City MP Pawan Bansal, with whom Mehra reportedly shared a good rapport, sidestepped a question on Mehra’s exit. Instead he pinned his “hopes” on the new incumbent. “KK Sharma’s vast experience of creating new infrastructure while serving in the Delhi Development Authority and the Public Works Department should stand him in good stead while initiating major development works”, he said.