Chandigarh, April 11
Over two months after he was formally named the new Adviser to the UT Administrator, KK Sharma, a 1983-batch IAS officer currently posted as Prinicipal Secretary, Public Works Department, Government of Delhi, will finally join the UT Administration on Friday, April 15.

Sharma’s joining will put an end to Pradip Mehra’s three-and-a-half years’ tenure, which has been marked by a lacklustre performance and controversies.

His tenure witnessed a near halt to any worthwhile works in the city, as also a bitter slugfest with former Punjab Governor and UT Administrator, General (retd) Sunit Francis Rodrigues, over the latter’s pet but controversial mega-projects, which included the Medicity, the Film City and the Theme-cum-Amusement Park on account of the alleged irregularities in land allotment to big realtors.

The Rodrigues-Mehra spat took its toll on development in the city. Not to talk of mega-projects, even routine development suffered and many senior officers continued to be subjected to inquiry by Central investigating agencies, the CBI and the Central Vigilance Bureau, for following Rodrigues’ orders.

The transfer of Mehra, a 1975-batch IAS officer, reportedly came on the directions of UT Administrator Shivraj Patil who, in addition to being unhappy with Mehra’s performance, prefered a new team of officers at the helm of affairs. This was Mehra’s second assignment to the top post after having earlier served in UT from November 1995 to April 1997.

Mohali, April 11
Mohali’s phenomenal 32 per cent population growth, attributed to the economic boom in Chandigarh’s periphery, has not helped hundreds of job seekers registered under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (NREGA) in the district. The reason: The Rs 123 daily wages offered under the scheme is Rs 60 less than that offered in the union territory and Rs 100 less than what can be earned in routine construction jobs. Due to the lower wages very few people are turning up to get themselves registered under the job guarantee scheme.

Statistics released by the Mohali additional deputy commissioner (general) at a meeting of the district vigilance & monitoring committee held on Monday to review the centrally sponsored schemes revealed though the scheme promises employment for a hundred days in a year, a mere 3,510 households were provided jobs whereas the number of households registered in fiscal 2010-11 was 17,369. A total of 4,094 people were given employment and the number of households that completed 100 days of work was 90.

Highlighting the issue, member of Parliament from Anandpur Sahib Ravneet Bittu, who chaired the meeting, said Mohali could not be compared to other districts of Punjab. Citing the example of Jalandhar district where the daily wages had been increased by a few rupees, he said Mohali’s proximity to Chandigarh should be kept in mind.

Deputy commissioner Varun Roozam assured the committee’s co-chairman that a proposal to hike the daily wages under the NREGA scheme would be taken up with the state government. Being a centrally sponsored scheme the issue had to be addressed to the central government, Bittu was told.

“Due to the disparity in daily wages, benefits of the UPA government’s flagship scheme aren’t percolating down to the target groups. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act requires local ‘panchayats’ to pay compensation if they fail to offer employment to job seekers”, averred Kharar MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu.

The statistics on the performance report, submitted by the ‘zila parishad’ deputy chief executive officer, reveal that on an average employment was provided for only 33.4 days in the entire year. As against the norm that one-half of the jobs should be given to women, the percentage of those who were given employment stood at only 24.56 per cent.

Sidhu pointed out that, under the Indira Awas Yojna scheme, the district administration claimed it had provided funds for renovation or upgraded of 484 houses but those genuinely needy and the poor were not getting the funds that were instead going to the well-off. He demanded the administration should provide a list of all the beneficiaries of the scheme.

At the meeting’s conclusion Bittu, while expressing satisfaction over the progress of various construction projects, sought a detailed list of the works before carrying out field inspections.

Chandigarh, April 11
He is the oldest practising doctor in the union territory and continues to work with a commitment and vigour that will put many a youth to shame.Nonagenarian Dr (Brig) Manohar Lal Kataria, chairman-cum-managing director of the Chandigarh Rural Health Care Mission, that has established rural health care centres in Chandigarh and adjoining districts of Punjab and Haryana, can be role model for social workers in the city.

At 92 years of age, the selfless social worker has, during the past three decades, been successful in setting up 20 health centres in urban, rural and slum areas of the tricity, where hundreds of poor patients are given medical care free of cost.

The number of such dispensaries is increasing gradually, with one started at the Arya Samaj temple in Sector 7 here today.

It all started when Kataria started his NGO, the Chandigarh Rural Health Care Mission. Today he has a team of 15 doctors, including Maj-Gen (retd) MS Kaundal and Col (retd) SS Bedi, all volunteers.

Together they are assisted by nearly 90 social workers and paramedics. They continue to be quietly engaged in the philanthropic job in more than two dozen dispensaries and polyclinics, including at Attawa, Mauli Jagran, Colony No. 5, Maloya and the School for the Blind, Sector 26.

Kataria, who is originally from the Army Service Corps, studied medicine after he joined the Army. Since then, he has acquired a number of degrees.

In addition to his medical degrees of MBBS, MS and several other postgraduate degrees in medicine,Kataria has a PhD and has done MBA, LLB, LLM and DLit. He continues to regularly visit at least one of the medical facilities being run by the mission.

“It was in 1981 that I decided to do something for the deprived in society and started giving free consultation in slum areas, religious places and other community places. Since then, there was no return as many other like-minded persons joined hands, following which there was no dearth of manpower or funds,” said Kataria.

At the age of 92, when people find difficulty in moving about, Kataria works tirelessly seven days a week and still prefers to visit at least one of the spots in the slums or rural areas so as to keep himself updated with each and every problem being faced by the patients in the respective areas. The hobby of reading is still intact.

“After returning by 2 pm from the visit of dispensaries, perusal of several religious books and meditation is a must in my routine,” he added, with a message for others that “work is worship and no worship is bigger than serving mankind”.

Chandigarh, April 11
MC Commissioner Roshan Sunkaria, a Punjab-cadre IAS officer, who will complete his tenure on April 15, will, like outgoing UT Adviser, be remembered for his three-year lacklustre innings.

Projected as a “demolition man”, the 1988-batch officer will be remembered for the many controversies that marked his tenure, especially on the issue of sharing of executive powers between the Mayor and the MC Commissioner.

During his three-year stint, the development of the city virtually came to a standstill with a majority of projects like modernisation of dhobi ghats, milk cattle villages, dog pound, malba bylaws, land allocation for religious places at Dadu Majra and Dhanas bridge, repair of cheap houses and construction of a school in the PGI, hanging fire.

Neither did any of the old projects see the light of the day nor were any new projects initiated. Even two of the major projects of the city, including the first multi-level parking in Sector 17 and the Kajauli waterworks, Phases V and VI, failed to take off during his tenure.

The IAS officer was engaged in a bitter slugfest with every Mayor for the past three years over the issue of share of executive powers.

Despite having every opportunity and authority to take initiatives and clear bottlenecks in project execution, Sunkaria will largely be remembered for under achievement.

After the ministry of home affairs rejected the panel sent by the UT administration for the MC Commissioner a fortnight ago, the administration has decided to give charge of MC Commissioner to Deputy Commissioner Brijendra Singh.

A fresh panel of officers was being sent to the ministry for approval.

Chandigarh, April 11
The CBI Special Court of Ritu Tagore today deferred the hearing into the judge bribery case to April 30 when it will be decided whether or not notices will be issued to Justice Nirmal Yadav (retd), who is accused in the case.

The investigating agency had submitted the charge-sheet in the case last month and also recorded fresh documentary evidence comprising 126 pages in the previous hearing on April 6.

As the case came up for hearing today, the CBI sought more time to address arguments in the case as the special public prosecutor was not present in court. Following the request, the case was adjourned today.

Lawyer AS Chahal, appearing on behalf of Ravinder Singh, co-accused in the case, argued that cognizance of the investigation report could not be taken in the absence of the accused. The request was turned down by the court.

The judge remarked that the documents submitted by the CBI could not be handed over to the accused at this stage. The court added that barring Justice Nirmal Yadav (retd), all other accused were being represented through their counsels.

On March 4, the CBI had filed a charge-sheet the day Justice Nirmal Yadav had retired as Uttarakhand High Court Judge.

The other four named in the charge-sheet are Sanjiv Bansal, also former Additional Advocate General of Haryana; Delhi businessman Ravinder Singh; Nirmal Singh and Rajiv Gupta.

The case first broke in August, 2008 when a packet containing Rs 15 lakh in cash was “mistakenly” delivered to the Sector-11 residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, another judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

It later came to light that the money was meant for Nirmal Yadav and was allegedly meant to be a bribe money in a case she was hearing.

The CBI had earlier filed a cancellation report in court in December, 2009 which was rejected by the then CBI Judge Darshan Singh. The case was reopened and the CBI sought fresh prosecution sanction in the case.

Panchkula, April 11
In his fight against female foeticide, ‘mahant baba’ Ramdass Udasin has been almost single-handedly been launching various campaigns to inculcate awareness on the pressing need to eradicate the social evil and persuade newly-wedded couples against it.

It was the revelation of the skewed sex ratio in the 2001 census that set Ramdass on his mission to take up cudgels against female foeticide.

Talking to the Tribune he said: “I was pained to see the dwindling sex ratio in the country’s northern states, especially Punjab and Haryana. I then began visiting villages and counselled parents as well as youths against this menace”.

Ramdass, who ran away from his house in Punjab’s Malwa region about 52 years ago to become a member of the Udasin sect, said this year he had launched a signature campaign, adding more and more people, especially young couples, were coming forward to support this social cause at the ‘Navratra’ fair.

“Last year too I organized rallies at my shrine, motivating people to accept the girl child.

Similar campaigns were also held in Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Uttaranchal in view of the declining sex ratio. I’ve been able to convince many people as over 100 couples have taken the vow till now,” says Ramdass.

He said he would also honour eminent women in the country who had also contributed to the fight against female foeticide at the 2013 Chaitra Navratra fair to be held after the ‘Kumbh mela’ in Allahabad.

He further urged the district administration and the shrine board to allow artistes who played traditional musical instruments like the ‘tumbi’, ‘dhol’ and ‘sarangi’ at the next festival to be held in October this year.

“Western culture has had an adverse impact on that of the country and there is a need to protect the same”, he added.

Chandigarh, April 11
The Chandigarh administration needs to take more steps to make the city disabled friendly so that people on wheelchairs can easily access all places, including markets, parks, banks, post offices, cinema halls and restaurants.

This was stated by Gurbir Singh Kochhar, president of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, during the annual get-together at the Architecture College, PEC campus, Sector 12, here yesterday.

Nearly a hundred patients of muscular dystrophy and their families from Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana attended the programme.

Muscular dystrophy was a genetic disorder that progressively weakened muscles which moved the human body and there was no known cure for this disease.

“For a large number of us who are forced to spend our lives in one room because of lack of mobility, such a get-together is a great opportunity to move out and interact with fellow patients and share our joys and sorrows,” stated 53-year-old Atul Goyal of Solan.

He had been confined to a wheelchair for the past 24 years. Upendra N Goswami from the department of physiotherapy at the PGI gave physiotherapy tips.

Dr Sandhya gave a practical demonstration on how a patient could be given first-aid at home in case of respiratory or other problems.

Pallav Mukherjee, an architect and nominated councillor, said the city could easily be made disabled friendly and this required a small fraction of the funds spent annually on maintenance. 

Chandigarh, April 11
The ninth triennial general council of the SBI Officers’ Association, Chandigarh circle, was held here yesterday.

At least 2,500 officers from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir Haryana and Chandigarh participated in the event.

Pawan Kumar Bansal, local Member of Parliament, was the chief guest. The meeting was attended by trade union leaders from different parts of the country.

GD Nadaf, general secretary, All-India State Bank Officers’ Federation, raised the issues of improvement in pension scheme, transfer policy and regulated working hours.

He opposed the merger and acquisition of banks and the increase in FDI limit in the financial sector. He demanded the nationalisation of small private-sector banks.

Bansal lauded the role of public-sector banks, especially the SBI, in the development of the economy.

He assured the gathering of taking up the issues raised by their leaders with the departments concerned.

Chandigarh, April 11
After setting up an Advanced Facility for Small Animal Research, the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research will now have a bio-safety laboratory having facilities for prevention of airborne infection to animals in the facility.

This was stated by Dr VM Katoch, secretary, department of health (research), and director-general, Indian Council of Medical Research, here today.

Accidental airborne infection in an animal care facility can influence the validity of experiment results and the economics of laboratory animal care.

It is not an uncommon practice to maintain laboratory animals under observation for their normal life span, especially in toxicity studies of pharmaceuticals and in cancer research.

The longer these animals are kept, the greater the possibility that they may contract an infection. An outbreak of infection is expensive because of lost time, effort and money besides unresolved or invalidated experiments.

The funds for the facility, which will come up at a cost of around Rs 3 crore, will be borne by the Indian Council of Medical Research, he said.

Earlier, the Advanced Facility for Small Animal Research of the Central Animal House of the PGIMER was inaugurated by Dr Katoch.

The state-of-the-art facility will be used to conduct advanced medical research using small animals, including mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits.

This is a first-of-its-kind facility in any medical institution in India and is centrally air-conditioned with a modern animal operating theater, laboratories, IVC system as well as facilities for conducting animal autopsy.

The complex was constructed by the Chandigarh Housing Board at a cost of around Rs 4 crore and was commissioned for use in July, 2010.

The facility will perform in accordance with the guidelines for the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experimentation on Animals (CPCSEA) wherein all research is conducted after approval by the Institute’s Animal Ethics Committee.

Zirakpur, April 11
Members of the Zirakpur Residents Welfare Association took out a candle march on Sunday. They were protesting against the multiple hike in building map and land fee in Zirakpur.

Residents rued that the hike would burn a hole in the common man’s pocket and would also affect the development work in Zirakpur. Demanding a rollback, association chairman Bhagwant Singh Baltana said they would intensify their agitation, if their demand was not met. The march was culminated outside the municipal council’s office. — TNS

Panchkula, April 11
How serious is the education department in providing quality education to students in this district which boasts of the state’s highest literacy rate can be gauged from the fact that there are as many as 249 students spanning across six classrooms huddled in two rooms-averaging 125 per room - at a primary school with just three teachers at Fatehpur village in Sector 20 here.

In all, the school has princely number of three rooms, one of which serves as a storeroom. A mere three teachers teach students of classes nursery to V and most of them are wards of migrant labourers living in the town.

The description is not of a primary school in some remote area of Haryana but that of a government school located in the middle of the city, despite the state government making tall claims of improving educational facilities in primary schools.

The benches provided in the class are obviously not sufficient for the over crowded classroom which has to make do with ‘taats” or mats made of jute on the floor. The school even lacks basic facilities like clean drinking water and hygienic toilets.

Sources in the education department said they had constructed a school comprising three rooms on a land provided by the municipal council.

The presence of 249 students studying in just two classrooms is a clear violation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act which stipulates that a minimum of seven classrooms are required for 249 students.

The school has just a solitary functional tap for students to quench their thirst. Not only this, people residing in the neighbourhood also use this tap for drinking water. In addition, school sweepers wash their brooms. The broken boundary wall of the school complex at many places has added to the woes of the school authorities, with children living in the area often using the swings in the playground.

The sources said after taking up the matter with the authorities concerned, the school had received a grant of Rs 64,000 as a first instalment for the repair of the boundary wall and for setting up a separate store.

Chandigarh, April 11
In what comes across as a relief to thousands of Class X students of this region, State Institute of Education (SIE), Sector 32, has resumed its free career counselling service after a gap of almost seven years.

Coming to the rescue of students and parents struggling to decide for the apt stream, the institute, which has for long struggled to get a full time counsellor, is back in action to help out students through a three-tier process.

“A majority of Class X students are confused over which stream to opt for. The counselling service of the institute is highly scientific and it aims at helping out students to settle for the best option. We have struggled a lot due to staff crunch. But now, with everything in place we are catering to hundreds of students every day,” said SS Dhaiya, director, SIE.

The counselling module consists of two tests and parental counselling. “We first test students for their aptitude and then for their areas of interest. The aim is to ensure that a child opts for a stream as per his or her capabilities,” said Jasmine, SIE counsellor.

The service, which was hit for decades, caters not just to city children, but even to students from far-flung areas of Punjab and even Jammu.

On the one hand, any private counsellor charges anything between Rs 1,500 and 2,000 per session. On the other hand, this free service is one of the most commendable initiatives of the UT education system. Unfortunately, the administration has so far not cared to either spread awareness about this service or get schools to tie-up with the institute.

However, post its revival thriving on word of mouth, the institute is getting hundreds of applications every week and has conducted mass counselling tests for a couple of city schools, including St Anne’s, 
Sector 32.

“We are meant to cater to the city students, but we help children from across the region, as no such professional service is available free of cost in any of the neighbouring states. We have not advertised, but have huge rush at our institute. However, we have suggested that we must tie-up with all government schools to help their students. Similarly, it will be great if more school counsellors tie-up with us,” added Dhaiya. 

Chandigarh, April 11
Questioning the academic standing of 17 students, who have accused him of deliberately failing them twice, history department professor Surinder Singh has submitted various documents to the acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof Bhupinder Singh Brar, who is also the Dean University Instructions (DUI), highlighting the poor performance and attendance of these students.

Professor Singh, who had earlier issued a legal notice to all 17 students asking them to withdraw allegations, has reportedly asserted that while he had evaluated over 122 examination papers, these students, who had doubtful academic credentials, had levelled false allegations. “Going by the documents received by the DUI, a test of about 25 marks was conducted in the second semester and this group of students secured between 2 and 6 marks.

It was also found that the average attendance of the entire group was between 9 per cent and 46 per cent, while requisite is 70 per cent. Interestingly, the four forerunners of the protest have just attended 4 to 10 lectures out of a total of 43 taken by the teacher. It apparently seems that PU students think that by protesting they can get everything,” said a senior PU official.

Meanwhile, the Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) expressed its concern over the entire issue. Following an executive meeting today, the association demanded a thorough enquiry of the breach of the sanctity and secrecy of the external examination process.

Having received a legal notice from Professor Singh, 17 students have taken a U-turn on their allegations. By submitting a letter to the DUI, they have asserted that they have not pointed a finger at anyone. When confronted about poor academic credentials, one of them on the condition of anonymity said, “If we didn’t have requisite lectures then why did the department issue us our examination roll numbers? Attendance records of other students should also be checked.”