Panchkula, April 27
It was a kidnapping that never was. High drama was witnessed after a woman, who could not find her two-and-a-half-year-old son in the courtyard of her house, filed a complaint in the Sector 15 chowki that their servant had kidnapped her son.

The police, who had earlier received flak from city residents for its failure in solving two incidents of kidnapping, was on its toes for about half-an-hour, making frantic calls to the police control room. However, the police heaved a sigh of relief after neighbours identified the child in the market and informed the woman. The woman withdrew the complaint and said her son told her that he had asked the servant to take him to the market for an ice-cream. He took the child, but without informing anyone.

According to information, the child was playing in front of the house under the supervision of their new domestic help when he asked him to take him to the market for an ice-cream.

Chandigarh, April 27
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Chandigarh police today arrested Naresh Gulati, director and chief executive officer (CEO) of Oceanic Consultants, a leading immigration company in Sector 9, in a case of embezzlement of shares worth crores of rupees. The police had registered the case in February this year on the directions of a local court.

He has been remanded in one-day police custody. While requesting police custody of the accused, the police said the money allegedly used in the crime and the computer which he reportedly used to forge documents were yet to be recovered from the possession of the accused.

Gulati has been accused of transferring shares worth crores in his name and that of his mother by using forged share certificates. His estranged wife, Shalini, had lodged the complaint against him.

Chandigarh, April 27
Things would have been difficult for the families of Swastik (7), Harjasan (8), Himanshu (18) and other children like them, suffering from primary immunodeficiency disorders (PIDs), had there been no good Samaritan around.

They need up to Rs 30,000 every month for their treatment. The worst part of the problem is that they have to bear these expenses throughout life, till a permanent economical treatment is not invented.

Till then, donors from society and the corporate world can change the lives of such patients, opined speakers at a meet organised by the Indian Patients Society for Primary Immunodeficiency (IPSPI) and the Indian Society for Primary Immune Deficiency (ISPID) at the Advanced Paediatrics Centre of the PGI to mark World Immunology Day here today.

The IPSPI is affiliated with the International Patient Organisation for Primary Immunodeficiency (IPOPI). The IPOPI is observing World Immunology Week from April 22 to 29.

PIDs are conditions in which a part of the body's immune system does not function properly. These disorders are inherited and children affected get recurrent infections in the form of repeated pneumonia, diarrhoea and skin and soft tissue infections.

A majority are present in early infancy, although milder forms may not get recognised until adulthood. Data collected from several countries in Europe and North America suggest that approximately 1:1,000 individuals are affected with PIDs and a majority of the affected are male children.

“My son Swastik had been diagnosed with the problem in 2006, Before that, he had suffered pneumonia 17 times. Till now, I have spent more than Rs 15 lakh for his treatment and even sold my house to arrange the money for it,” said Karamjit, a welder, who requires injections worth Rs 21,000 every month.

Himanshu, a student of a polytechnic college at Yamunanagar, needs injections worth Rs 28,000 every month. His father Tara Chand is a helper at a clinic.

Emphasising the need for increased awareness of these conditions among physicians as well as the public Dr Shobha Sehgal, IPSPI president and professor emeritus, Department of Immunopathology, PGI, said this was the only way
to make others help such families.

There was a need of intravenous immunoglobulins, which was a life-saving drug for these children, to be freely available and at a cheaper cost in India, said Dr Deepti Suri, assistant professor, Department of Paediatrics.

Many philanthropic bodies had come forward to help such patients, but with the ever-increasing cost of therapy, more help was needed for these patients, she added. 

Chandigarh, April 27
To sensitise the medical as well as paramedical staff of various hospitals in Punjab and Chandigarh over care of trauma patients, a two-day trauma system planning course will start at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, here tomorrow.

The first-of-its-kind workshop, to be supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO), will be inaugurated by Laxmi Kanta Chawla, Punjab Health Minister. Faculty from the WHO, including Dr Charles Mock, Dr Manjul Joshipura and Dr JS Thakur, focal point country office (India), would be the main presenters.

The workshop will impart training to health planners on various aspects of health planning, including pre-hospital care, treatment at fixed facilities and the rehabilitation aspects of the trauma care.

GMCH director-principal Dr Raj Bahadur said trauma has become the fifth most important cause of death among all communicable and non-communicable diseases because of modernisation of road traffic accidents.

While the Centre was taking many steps in this regard and had planned to set up trauma centres on the golden quadrangle, the National Disaster Management Authority was giving its inputs for developing trauma centres at state, district and zonal levels. In addition, it was planning small trauma centres on national highways.

The WHO had supported the GMCH to organising the course to sensitise Chief Medical Officers, Medical Superintendents and representatives of various hospitals in Punjab and Chandigarh so that middle managers at the district level were sensitised to implement the viewpoints of government as well as the WHO, he said.

Chandigarh, April 27
Dr Harinder K Bali, a cardiologist with the Fortis Hospital at Mohali, claims to have successfully conducted intracranial (inside the skull) vertebral artery stenting, saving the life of a 72-year-old.

Talking to mediapersons, Dr Bali said 72-year-old Jamit Singh was successfully treated for the narrowing of artery inside the cranium, the bony dome housing and protecting the brain.

This was the first-ever procedure conducted in the region, wherein patient with narrowing of intracranial part of vertebral artery was treated with stenting.

“In this part of the region, there have been no reports of such complex surgery with angioplasty. Open surgery was not possible because of the location of narrowing in the intracranial part under the surface of the brain.

This was the first case of intracranial vertebral artery stenting,” he said.

He added that the procedure was technically challenging as the approach to the intracranial part was complicated and the artery was just under the surface of brain. “The procedure took about 30 minutes. The patient was walking the next day,” he said.

Panchkula, April 27
There is no respite for the Sector 23 residents across the Ghaggar who had been opposing tooth and nail the dumping of garbage in the area and demanding shifting of the site to some other area.

Garbage littered on the dumping ground at Sector 23 in Panchkula.  Tribune photo: Nitin Mittal

Even though the Union Ministry of Environment had given its clearance for setting up a garbage treatment plant at Jheuriwala village, near Sector 30, it is likely to take about two years for it to become operational. The Panchkula Municipal Council had also urged the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to allot two acres at Jheuriwala village as a stopgap arrangement. But nothing has been done so far in this regard.

According sources, in view of regular complaints of Sector 23 residents, Deputy Commissioner Ashima Garg has now directed the revenue department to identify the suitable land for the dumping of the garbage. This would also be a stopgap arrangement till the treatment plant was set up at Jheuriwala, sources added.

Confirming the same, MC Executive Officer KK Jain said they were expecting to get the land for the dumping of garbage as the DC had already instructed the revenue officials to find the suitable site. He said setting up of the garbage treatment plant at Jheuriwala would take at least one-and-a-half years.

At present over 70-tonne garbage from the town was being dumped in the pits and later covered with earth at a site in Sector 23 to prevent the spread of stench in the area. The council had already identified six sites in the town where garbage collection centres would be set up.

These include Sectors 2, 12, 10, Azad Colony, Rajeev Colony and Indira Colony. These centres would have six to eight feet high walls on all sides to avoid littering of garbage.

However, the project of putting the GPS system on garbage collection vehicles to monitor their activity was yet to take off. Tenders had been already invited and the last date for the same was October 12, but nothing was done so far in this regard.

Mohali, April 27
With the Punjab government drawing up grandiose plans to turn the town into a mirror image of Singapore, the ageing water supply system here is proving to be an anachronism.

Old and worn out pumping machinery and corroded water distribution pipelines sans sophisticated digital quality monitoring are the hallmarks of the supply system in Mohali, needing a major makeover.

The expectations of residents who keep comparing Mohali with Chandigarh as far as basic facilities are concerned are very high and face disappointment when the system fails to deliver in a reliable manner.

According to sources, the water treatment plant in Sector 56 was commissioned way back in 1983. The machinery installed here about 28 years ago had outlived its life, but was still being used to run the system. Motors, centrifugal pumps, electric parts, transformers, brakers are used again and again after carrying out repairs whenever faults occurred.

Even the flash mixtures and flocculators of the treatment plant had outlived their life and were adversely affecting the functioning. Replacement of the worn out machinery did not figure on the priority list of the authorities concerned.

Even the pumping machinery installed at the water treatment plant in Sector 57 and boosting station in Sector 64, was more than 15-year-old and needed replacement. The boosting station did not have a hotline connection and water supply got adversely affected during power cuts or power failures.

The water pipelines were laid in Phases I, II and VI around 1973, in Phases III-A, III-B1, III-B2, IV and V around 1978, in Phases VII and IX to XI around 1986 and in Sector 71 around 1990.

Some of these pipes were nearly 40-year-old and had outlived their life. These had become corroded due to sand piping from tubewells and their capacity, too, was inadequate. Depth of water pipelines in some sectors was more, which created problems at the time of repair and scour.

Complaints of pipe bursts and machinery developing snags were common as a result of which residents had to suffer. About five metres of the main pipeline in Phase VI got vertically split last year and it took about three days to restore water supply to the affected area.

Officials of the department of water supply and sanitation, which supplied water to Sectors 53 to 56, 59 to 61, 63 to 65, 70, 71, Shahi Majra, Matour villages and Sectors 57 and 58 of the industrial area, said tension prevailed among employees, especially during summer months, as running a worn-out system to the satisfaction of residents was not an easy task. 

Chandigarh, April 27
With Syndics confirming the minutes of the last meeting before commencing the new one, the forthcoming Syndicate scheduled for April 30 is going to be different.

The move aims at doing away with the alleged discrepancy in recording the minutes, which has for long, left Senate and Syndicate members hassled. The issue came to the fore when Rabindernath Sharma during a recent meeting pointed out that the minutes were in many cases not in accordance with the proceedings of the house and several important points were found missing.

“There are several issues which are not scheduled in an agenda and are taken up in the house. There are times when the VC claims to be either working on those or promises to resolve all issues. However, many a times there is no mention of such issues in minutes. How do we hold anybody accountable in such a case? The VC had long ago promised videography of proceedings,” said Rabindernath Sharma.

The members though supported the need to record proceeding, ruled out videography and eventually decided on handing out print outs of previous minutes and getting them confirmed in house.

“Videography would come with problems of its own so we have decided that for everybody’s satisfaction we would take their consent on the previous meetings so that there is no controversy,” added another Syndic.

Minutes have been a bone of contention for long as various Senate and Syndicate members, especially those who are outside Chandigarh, complain that either they have no access to minutes as they are not uploaded online in time or in many cases skip discussions or decisions on important issues.

Write a letter regarding any public inconvenience in your area, not exceeding 250 words, to the in charge, Chandigarh Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh, or send an e-mail at openhouse@tribunemail.com.

Chandigarh, April 27
What a roof top has to do with conservation of energy?

The Consul-General of Canada, Scot Slessor, believes that a roof top has a lot to do with conversation of energy. He maintained that it was the most eco-friendly way to keep houses warm in winter and cooler in summer.

Going by the studies that green roofs are known to reduce heating and cooling by up to 25 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively. Scot Slessor had organised a competition for engineering students of the region inviting them to showcase their innovative ideas not only for heightening awareness of environmental sustainability but also for developing a green roof solution using local or indigenous material.

The competition, Vyom’s, 2011, Technology Festival Green Roof contest, got an overwhelming response with 11 entries. Supported by the Halifax-based Saint Mary’s University and Punjab Engineering College here, the final short listed four entries were evaluated this morning.

A modern and planned city like Chandigarh is ideal for reviving the green roof technology, which can be later introduced in other parts of the country. Canada has been known for its success in using the green roof technology.

Shiv Kumar Kumawat, Shivnath Mishra and Saurabh Dogra, who were declared winners of the competition, won a combined scholarship of Canadian $ 40,000. (Rs 18 lakh).

The scholarship amount will be enough for them to pay for their full engineering degree at the Saint Mary University. The second placed team of Shoaib Ahmed and Ujjwal Kango got a cash prize of Rs 20,000.

Interestingly, both winners and runners-up were from PEC University of Technology. Scot Slessor said the idea to hold the competition had occurred to him when he assessed the cost of keeping both his office and residence in Chandigarh heated in winter and cool during summers.

“Developing a green roof solution suited to the local conditions using local materials for implementation on some of the Consulate General’s staff houses here has been one of the key issue of this competition,” Scot said.

“Green roofs have been in use for hundreds of years. We are now experiencing a revival of green roofs around the world again,” says Scot Slessor, who now wants to take his environmental sustainability project a step further by announcing the theme of the competition for the next year. “It will be greening bastis, the slums, of Chandigarh,” he says and prizes for winners would be announced soon.

Acting Dean Science Saint Mary’s University Steven M Smith, was “overwhelmed by the quality of entries in the competition.”

He was a member of the team that evaluated the shortlisted entries this morning. Others on the jury included Chandigarh’s first Indian Chief Architect, N N Sharma. 

Chandigarh, April 27
In what may prove to be a milestone in the city’s school education system, the UT administration will be doing away with the non-model system of education in government schools, with the first step being introduction of English medium sections in all non-model schools.

According to plan, the department shall on a pilot basis introduce one section per class, where the medium of instruction will be English. Eventually more such sections will be introduced.

The step is a resultant of ever decreasing popularity of non-model schools and increasing burden on model schools.

“If you go by application details of this year, it is shocking that while model schools are flooded with admission requests and even students, a majority of non-model schools have a large number of seats lying vacant. In many cases, people of a particular sector don’t go to a non-model school in their sector, but opt for a model school in some other sector which creates disparity and leads to problems like skewed teacher-student and classroom-pupil ratios,” said DPI (S) Sandeep Hans.

Government schools in the city, especially model schools in vicinity of villages and colonies, have been left in a tight spot this year, as the number of applications received by them is ten times more than the available seats. According to a recent in-house assessment, while the infrastructure capacity of government schools has increased only by 5 to 7 per cent in the last few years, the number of applicants has been increasing at an alarming rate of 40 per cent per year. What worsens the situation is that the schools are bound to admit all deserving candidates, especially from their own sector.

“The root cause of all our problems is the mentality that non-model schools are not good. On the one hand, we have schools, where our building, classroom and staff infrastructure goes waste, because there are no admission seekers and on the other, we have model schools, where teachers are forced to flock 80 students in one classroom . The step will change facet of government school education,” said principal of a government school.

Panchkula, April 27
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today opposed the anticipatory bail plea of Moti Lal Jindal, vice-chairman, Swami Devi Dayal College of Law, Barwala.

Counsel for the CBI informed the special CBI court that the bail at this stage would hamper investigations. After hearing the arguments of the CBI’s counsel, the special court adjourned the case for orders to April 30.

On April 19, the CBI had booked three persons, including a member of the Bar Council of India (BCI), Rajender Singh Rana, an assistant trustee of the BCI, Daulat Ram Sharma besides vice-chairman of law college Moti Lal Jindal.

The CBI had raided Jindal’s residence in NAC Mani Majra and the college premises at Goalpura village near Barwala after Rana and Daulat Ram Sharma had reportedly told the investigating agency that they had accepted a bribe of Rs 1.25 lakh from Jindal for conducting the so-called inspections at the college and submitting favourable reports for continuing three-year LLB and five-year BALLB courses.

The CBI team had also seized documents regarding fee, enrolment and degrees. The investigation agency had maintained that the accused had hatched a conspiracy in November 2010 and gave Rs 1.25 lakh as bribe to Rana and Sharma for submitting a favourable report.

The CBI has registered a case under sections 7, 12, 13 (2), 13 (1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, at the CBI headquarters, Sector 30, Chandigarh. 

Seminar
Ropar: The mechanical engineering department, IET Bhaddal, organised a national seminar on advances in mechanical engineering.

Chief Guest Dr SK Mohapatra, Dean, academic affairs, Thapar University, Patiala, delivered the presidential address.

Key speaker Dr Harpreet Singh, IIT Ropar, deliberated upon the scope of research work in the area of surface engineering. In the technical session, Dr Alakesh Manna of PEC University of Technology of Chandigarh, spoke on micromachining techniques and hybrid machining of ceramic material. Dr Mannu Sharma, UIET, Chandigarh, dwelt on methods to control vibration of mechanical system by using fuzzy logics. Research papers were presented during the seminar.

Elected
Kharar: Gagandeep Kaur, a lecturer in Doaba Women Institute of Engineering and Technology (DWIET), has been elected commissioned officer in Indian Army. — TNS

Welcome party
Chandigarh: A welcome party for freshers at MDAV School, Sector 22, witnessed a host of activities. Tiny tots enjoyed the music and recited poems under the supervision of Priya Sharma and Saroj.

Earth Day
‘Vasumati Prayavarav Club’ of Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 33, celebrated Earth Day with great zeal. Poster making and slogan writing competitions were organised in which at least 150 students participated. The winners included Ashima, Aastha, Varun, Aanchal Verma (senior category) and Nitin, Vishal, Tanya, Princy, Savita, Monika, Parvesh, Harsh Mishra (junior category).

Delhi Public School
Giving voice to the environmental movement, Delhi Public School, Chandigarh, celebrated Earth Day with a week-long activities. Students poignantly spread awareness about the human impact on environment. A series of activities and competitions such as best out of waste, poster making and collage making saw all students involved and buzzing. Themes such as ‘keeping the environment clean’, ‘preserving our environment’ and ‘being aware of the perils looming large’ were aptly put across.

Govt Model High School
Shesham eco club of Government Model High School, Sector 36-D, celebrated Earth Day with paper reading and poster making competitions.

Street play
The NSS unit of GMSSS, Sector 8-B, organised a street play in collaboration with the Natak Academy on the school premises today. The play was directed by Chakresh. Students gave an energetic performance.

Convocation
Satluj Public School, Sector 4, Panchkula, held its convocation which was presided over by Maria Shasha from Russia who is here under the Teacher Exchange Programme of AIESEC. Certificates were given to more than 105 students of KET and PET.

Science olympiad
Lokavya Kumar, Class VIII student, Saupin’s-32, Chandigarh, was ranked no. 1 (Punjab and Chandigarh) during the 10th National Cyber Olympiad organised by the Science Olympiad Foundation, New Delhi.