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Rain, squall tear through city heart
Chandigarh, September 15 While hundreds of uprooted trees led to power failure in many sectors, commuters were stranded on roads for hours as most roads were flooded with rainwater. The downpour, which can easily be termed as one of the heaviest this year so far, put a question mark on the claims of the municipal corporation (MC) about its monsoon arrangements. Low-lying areas and parking lots were inundated at many places and streets turned into rivulets, affecting commuters. Even Madhya Marg, which
The rain in Sectors 17, 18, 21 and 22 was so heavy that commuters were forced to stop in the middle of the road due to low visibility. It took commuters stranded at Piccadily Chowk hours to reach their offices. “I was stuck in a traffic jam at 10.25 am and could reach my office only at 1.20 pm,” said Amar Singh, a resident of Sector 44. Power supply in most sectors was disrupted due to which traffic signals and streetlights stopped working. In some areas, the damage to electricity poles was extensive and tree branches were entangled in wires. Repair work will begin only in the morning, said officials. Around one-fourth of the city was badly affected while almost the entire city experienced intermittent power breakdown. The storm left a trail of destruction with trees damaged or uprooted in several places and electricity and telephone services severely hit. The traffic police removed at least 22 trees from roads to restore traffic. Ten vehicles that broke down due to waterlogging were towed away, said Vijay Kumar, DSP (Traffic).
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Snehalaya’s security staff in dock
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 15 While two days had elapsed since a special investigating team (SIT) was formed to prepare a report in the case, the police had failed to come up with any concrete conclusions. Ten children had gone missing from Snehalaya this year. The police had dispatched teams to their residential addresses in other states. The Snehalaya authorities were in the dock for their lackadaisical security measures, making it easy for the children to @escape by scaling the walls. Inspector Charanjeet Singh, SHO of the Sector-39 police station, said it was still not clear as to what were the exact dates when the children went missing. He stated that they would take a list of all security guards and scrutinise their attendance records. “Investigations have revealed that five of the 10 missing children escaped some time in the previous three months. The role of security guards is under our scanner and we will question them,” he added.
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PU student suspended for ‘ragging’
Chandigarh, September 15 Fearing the act to be “ragging”, the anti-ragging committee of the department suspended him as a preventive measure even as the key complainant, Saksham’s father, took a U-turn asking the committee to revoke its decision as his son was now settling down. The matter came to the fore on September 12 when Saksham wrote a letter to his hostel warden informing him about his seniors urging him to accompany them to the mess and the department. This was followed by a mail from his father to department officials that his son was being harassed ever since he joined the department and he thus detested going for classes or staying in the hostel. The PU refuses to accept the “withdrawal” of the complaint, citing anti-ragging norms, but it will only be tomorrow that the anti-ragging committee will decide if the harassment justifies to be termed as ragging.
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police
not yet informed about ragging incident
Chandigarh, September 15 “ PU is tackling the issue for past two days on its own we have got no
information about it. Last year, when a similar complaint was reported from a
hostel we were informed within minutes and an FIR was lodged within 24 hours”,
said Gurmukh Singh, SHO, Sector 11 police station. When questioned about the
same, the Dean, university instructions, BS Brar, said that the norms
mandated informing the police only after it was established that ragging
had actually taken place, “ The boy has been suspended as a preventive
measure by the anti -ragging committee of his department. We will have
PU anti-ragging committee meeting tomorrow and only then will we be able
to confirm whether it was ragging or not. Its after that we will inform
police officials,” He said. Meanwhile, Saksham’s father in a fresh
email sent to the university has asked the university to abstain from
taking any stern step as he never intended it. His email has left PU in
a tight spot.
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Roads, houses inundated in Mohali
Mohali, September 15 Within half an hour of the downpour, roads were knee-deep in water, giving a hard time to office-goers, who found their vehicles stuck in waterlogged roundabouts. A number of trees were uprooted along the roadside. Power supply was also affected in different parts of the town as the supply was suspended by the electricity department fearing damage to the transmission lines. The worst affected were Phase XI residents, who found their houses in two feet of water. The fire tenders requisitioned by the district administration to pump out water from the area arrived two hours later. The residents complained that the flooding of houses had been a chronic problem and the local authorities had done precious little to resolve the issue. There were reports of water entering low-lying houses in Phase I. Potholed roads made matters worse for motorists as they struggled to negotiate bad sections. The worst affected was the commercial street passing through Phases III, IV, V and VII where the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) had dug up the road for widening. Motorists taking the road were put to great inconvenience, as the work there had been going on at a snail’s pace. XEN (public health) HS Dhammi said rainwater entered some houses in Phase XI. Part of a sewerage line in Industrial Area, Phase VIII, caved in, damaging the road. ZIRAKPUR
Heavy rain in the morning led to chaos on roads, as traffic jams were reported from various parts of the town. The road from Baltana to Choice Resort was also flooded with rainwater. Water accumulated on internal roads of residential colonies in Baltana, Dhakoli and Pabhat. Shopkeepers on the Zirakpur-Patiala Highway claimed that they had to bear the brunt every time it rained as rainwater entered their shops. They said they had been raising the issue for the past five years but the MC had failed to solve their problem. Power supply was also affected in Baltana, Dhakoli and Pabhat. Anup Walia, a resident of MS Enclave, Dhakoli, rued that power supply to their area was suspended last night and was restored in the afternoon. He said in spite of repeated visits to the complaint centre, no body was present there to take care of his complaint.
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P’kula residents grapple with waterlogging
Panchkula, September 15 The most affected areas were Sectors 12, 15, 19, 20, Rajiv Colony, Abheypur Colony, Ambedkar Colony and Industrial Area Phases I and II. While almost all roundabouts of the town faced waterlogging, the HUDA and MC authorities remained busy passing the buck, with no one ready to take the responsibility. The parking area of the district courts and entrance to the General Hospital, Sector 6, remined submerged for hours. Kamal Joshi, a resident of Sector 15, said streets were also flooded in their sector. “We have complained several times to the MC and HUDA to clean the road gullies, but to no avail,” he added. Vinay Sharma, resident of Sector 19, said his car broke down on the Industrial Area road after it hit a waterlogged section. “I had to leave my car and walk back home. I later called a mechanic to fix the car,” he added. MC’s executive officer KK Jain said there were reports of waterlogging in the town. Although residents faced problem in certain parts of the town, things were largely under control, he added.
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Catchment area in UT map? Not yet
Chandigarh, September 15 The officials, who had come to attend a high-profile meeting conducted by the Union Urban Development Secretary at the UT Guest House here, shocked senior UT functionaries in an informal talk by saying the UT was just looking the management of the wildlife sanctuary. Though a discussion on the catchment area was not a part of the agenda of the meeting, UT officials just had an informal talk with their counterparts in Haryana on the issue. “It came to us as a shock when some senior officials of Haryana cold-shouldered the issue, saying it had been given to the UT only for management,” said a senior UT official. The official added that the reply from the Haryana officials was not in good taste. The Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Haryana were present during the meeting. The UT had already taken up the issue of including 25.4 sq km of the catchment area within the UT boundary with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Survey of India. “We have taken up the matter to show it as a part of Chandigarh as the area has been vested with the Union under Section 48(5C) of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966,” said Santosh Kumar, UT Chief Conservator of Forests. The Sukhna reserve forest had apparently been holding up the city’s master plan as the land in question was in the possession of the UT administration. Its revenue records continued to be with the Punjab and Haryana governments even decades after the area was acquired for soil conservation works under the Act. Though the land transferred to the UT on March 15, 1963, vested with the Union and was under the administrative control of Chandigarh, it was outside the 114-sq-km area of the UT. This area did not include the 25.4 sq km of the wildlife sanctuary. The UT Conservator of Forests had forwarded the case to the administration to initiate the steps required to include the area within the UT a few months ago. The file was reportedly lying with the office of the UT Deputy Commissioner.
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Wild growth, blocked road gullies dot Phase X
Mohali, September 15 Not only the condition of internal roads in some pockets is bad, even the main road passing through the sector was in a state of neglect. Wild growth can be seen in vacant spaces, especially near the market. A vacant plot of the labour department, where a Model Welfare Centre is to be constructed, has a very thick, wild growth. This site is located next to a private hospital. Residents have also complained that muddy water is supplied quite frequently in the area. A part of Silvi Park, which has been reserved for the entertainment of small children, is in a state of neglect. A small pool, which was made to give boat rides to children, is dirty and without water. Wild growth in abundance can be seen in the area where children’s play items are installed. Savita Mishra, a resident of the area, said the park near the overhead water tank in the area was not maintained at all. It was full of wild growth and had no play items for children. It appeared as if no authority was looking after that pocket of Phase X. Amteshwar Kaur, former municipal councillor, said nearly 40 per cent of the road gullies in the area were blocked. Some of the storm water sewer pipes did not have any connections and existed only on the surface. Whenever complaints were made the authorities concerned gave assurances of cleaning the road gullies, but nothing much was done later. Parks were also not maintained properly. Executive engineer of the public health department, JS Dhami, however, said: “Such a large number of road gullies could not remain blocked. Had this been the case water would have entered the houses of people. Moreover, the work of providing proper links to storm water pipes was done by PUDA and my department was only maintaining the system. But whenever I got a complaint, the needful was done.”
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Hospitality industry faces inhospitable terrain
Chandigarh, September 15 “A sizeable majority of hotels and restaurants in the city have bars, banquet or dining halls in their basements. Certain big shopping outlets also use their basements for commercial purposes. The administration should change rules in view scarcity of space. In fact, these structures need to be regulated,” says Ashok Bansal, general secretary, Hotel Association of Chandigarh. Echoing similar sentiments, JPS Kalra, general secretary, Chandigarh Business Council, says instead of taking stringent measures, need-based changes should be allowed. He feels there is a need to amend the rules. “The basement, which can be used as warehouse under to the rules, can be converted for habitable purposes after paying charges. The clause that forbids makeover at the time of grant of permission keeps the owners or occupiers at bay,” he says. He says the city was planned for a populatin of three lakh. With the figure crossing 10 lakh now, the question is where will the rest go to earn their livelihood, says Kalra. “The old bylaws for commercial properties, formulated according to the working conditions of that time, have become obsolete and new changes are required with changing times,” say the businessmen, adding that if people are ready to carry out legal and technical amendments with prescribed fee, there is no need for such resumptions and increasing number of judicial as well as quasi-judicial cases relating to city commercial property.
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Patil snubs BJP councillors over misconduct
Chandigarh, September 15 The delegation of BJP councillors had gone to the UT Secretariat during a public hearing session to complain against MC officials. Sources in the administration said the Administrator snubbed the councillors and marked an inquiry against councillors who often misbehaved and used abusive language with officials during general house meetings.
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Mullanpur eco city
Mohali, September 15 It may be mentioned that in case of Aerocity, some of the banks started refund of portion of interest charged on the financed earnest money only after the issue was raised in the media and GMADA started refunding the earnest money of the unsuccessful applicants within few weeks of holding the draw of lots. Acting wiser and witnessing the unethical stand adopted by most of the banks by holding the earnest money for a longer period even, GMADA has this time announced to hold the draw of lots within one month of closing the scheme. The scheme closes on October 22 and draw of lots would be held on November 30. Accordingly, GMADA would be refunding the earnest money within few days from the date of draw of lots. In case of Aerocity, GMADA had announced to refund the earnest money to the unsuccessful applicants within 90 days from the date of draw of lots or 180 days from the date the scheme closes. For the period beyond 180 days, GMADA had to pay interest at a rate of 5.5 per cent pker annum. But GMADA started refunding the earnest money to the banks within month of concluding the draw of lots. Though in case of Mullanpur, the authorised 12 banks have yet not come out with their criteria to be adopted while charging the interest on the financed applications, sources reveal that the banks were planning to charge interest for a period of four months. “Ideally, the banks should refund portion of the interest charged on the financed money within two months of holding the draw of lots,” said Manjeet Sethi, a resident of Phase III-A. Since GMADA officials are this time very particular about mentioning the dates-wise schedule of the entire process, the banks should have no problem in refunding the earnest money to the applicants soon after the money was credited back in their accounts.
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Naat Utsav
Chandigarh, September 15 The opening play written and directed by Harjit Choudhury for the Lok Kala Manch of Mandi Mullanpur Dakha brought into focus the misery of the poor subjugated farmers who fall prey to the ill designed unethical motifs of the land-grab mafia. The play is based on a true story of a government teacher and poet Master Sadhu Singh Taktupura, who sacrificed his life fighting for the rights of people who lost their land. Accomplished actors Surinder Singh portrayed the role of poet Takhtupura who is hailed as the literary exponent of the poor peasantry and Anju Choudhury as his partner in life and struggle for justice. The live music weaved in the lok sangeet of Punjab was made under the direction of Navdeep Daula. Dr Prem Singh honored the artistes. Punjabi adaptation of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s Red Oleanders (Lal kaner) will be staged by the Suchetak Rangmanch tomorrow.
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SGPC poll
Hindi fortnight celebrations
The Northern Regional Office of the Bureau of Indian Standards organised Hindi fortnight celebrations from September 1 to 15. Dr. Archana R Singh, chairperson, School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, was the chief guest at the concluding function on Thursday. KK Narang, deputy director-general, BIS, while welcoming the chief guest gave details of the Hindi work done at the BIS.
Award for PGI doctor
Sunita Malhotra, dietician at the Advanced Cardiac Centre,
PGI, has been awarded the “Young Investigator Award” for her paper titled “Impact of Nutrition Management in patients treated with irradiation. Is the nutritional Intervention useful?” was presented in the 16th World Congress on Clinical Nutrition
(WCCN) and the sixth International Congress on cardiovascular diseases from September 11- 14 held at New Delhi. Prof Sushmita Goshal and dietician Sunita Malhotra jointly conducted the study in the department of radiotherapy. Head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy were enrolled for the study. These patients were given nutrition consultation along with individually tailored modified diet plans and were prescribed high protein supplement as these patients experienced a dry/sore mouth, had difficulty in mastication or swallowing food which resulted in decreased dietary intake and loss of body weight. The continuous nutrition support and management along with sample meal plans helped in limiting efficiently the critical weight loss during irradiation.
Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Shivraj Patil on Thursday released “Winning over Diabetes”, a book written by Dr Sarvinder
Gandhok. Talking to mediapersons here, Gandhok said, "Winning Over Diabetes" is a first step in the long journey envisioned by the doctor with the aim of educating the general population about various common diseases, their causes and ways to manage in order to live a happy and healthy life. Meanwhile, Patil also released two Punjabi books of Prof Pandit Rao
Dharennavar, assistant professor, sociology, Post Graduation College, Sector 46.While one book is on Jagaddaguru Basavanna and the second is on Gyani Allam
Prabhu.
Hindi Diwas
The Office of the Directorate of Audit(Western Command), Sector 9, on Thursday organised a function to mark the Hindi Diwas. Param Ram, director, underlined the need to use Hindi in the routine work.
Audit officials’ function
The Association of the Audito Officers organised a function at the Parshuram Bhawan in Sector 37 on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, R Haridasan, general secretary, presented the annual report and rued that the audit officers were getting a raw deal as far as pay and perks were concerned. The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation councillor (MCC) Jatinder Bhatia, who was the chief guest, promised to take up the grievances of the audit officers with Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources Pawan Bansal.
Debate contest
The Swami Vivekananda Group of Institutions organised a function as part of the Engineers’ day celebrations on its campus at Banu on Thursday. A debate contest was held on the occasion. Mukesh from IT (third semester) won the debate by outclassing Aman from IT( third semester).Ashwani Kumar
Garg, chairman and Ashok Garg, president, Swami Vivekanand Group of Institutions, were present on the occasion.
Kashmiri Pandits
Paying homage to the victims of terrorism, including victims of the recent blasts at Delhi, city-based Kashmiri Pandits observed 'Balidan divas' in the city. A large number of pandits converged at the Kashmiri Bhawan in Sector 24 here last evening and raised anti-terror slogans. "The community is still living in exile and its members are like refugees in their own country. The state and Central governments have done little to rehabilitate the community," Chandigarh's Kashmiri Sahayak Sabha President, PN Ambardar said addressing a gathering of the community members.
Birth anniversary
Collaboration
Doctor Z India Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. in collaboration with Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC, Mohali), and the Scientific Society of Ministry of Communication and information technology has organised two days training programme in the telemedicine project for doctors and IT experts from private hospitals of Chandigarh, Mohali, Muktsar and Jalandhar. Dr. Zora Singh, managing director, Doctor Z India Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. highlighted that for the first time C-DAC, Mohali, had joined hands with Doctor Z India Healthcare for implementation of a telemedicine project . Singh was optimistic that the end user at Muktsar and Jallandhar would be able to provide services to patients from their areas and other far-flung areas of Punjab.
Orientation programme
Quality is the result of cohesive and intentional hard work aimed at promoting the interests of an
organisation. Former Governor Punjab, Lt. Gen. BKN Chibber (retired) said while addressing the employees of WWICS during a employees’ orientation programme held at
Mohali. Speaking on the occasion, Gen. Chibber spoke on ethics and ways to contribute to the growth of an
organisation. AS Chatha, former chief secretary, Punjab, spoke on the contribution of an independent director of the group. He said, “Unemployment is high despite the presence of vast resources and huge human capital, however, we lack in creating opportunities.” CMD
WWICS, Lt. Col. BS Sandhu (retired) shared with the board of directors and staff of the WWICS the ethos of running a good business ethically and the qualities of a good leadership. The former Vice-Chancellor, of Panjab University, Prof. KN
Pathak, director-general Jannayak Ch Devilal Vidyapeeth and Prof Kuldeep Singh Dhindsa were also present at the occasion.
Traffic rules
The traffic police had a vital role to play in curtailing road accidents and evacuating the injured to the hospital. This was stated by the nodal office of High Traffic Police, Ropar Range, SS Bains, while talking to traffic police personnel at Phase 6 Civil Hopsital here. He said the death rate due to road accidents was much more than other deaths and the traffic police had a major role to play.
Ban on carrying of weapons
In wake of the SGPC elections, Deputy Commissioner Vraun Roozam has imposed a ban on carrying of firearms, weapons and inflammatory items on September 18. The orders have been issued under Section 144 of the CrPC.
New batch
The Doaba College of Education,
Ghataur, extended a formal welcome to the new batch of B.Ed students on Thursday. The function started with the lamp lighting ceremony followed by the college shabad “Deh Siva Var Mohe”. Jeet Singh, in his inaugural address, congratulated the new students on joining the noble profession of teaching. He reminded the youngsters of the challenges ahead and urged them to devote their time in their professional career to work for the poor and needy. Speaking on the character of an ideal teacher, Jeet Singh said that an ideal teacher had a perpetual thirst for acquiring knowledge as well as deep compassion for the welfare of students.
Engineer’s day
—Tribune reporters
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PUTA out to ‘revamp’ structure
Chandigarh, September 15 The association has prepared a questionnaire and asked all faculty members to aid in amendment as it is necessary to bring about change in the PU faculty profile with the opening of many new departments, self-financing courses, setting up of Centre government-funded constituent colleges and growth of regional centres at Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Muktsar etc , induction of large-scale guest/contract faculty and the presence of re-employed teachers. “The constitution was framed years ago when the university was way different from today. Not just the courses but even the profile and expectation of the faculty has changed and thus this amendment is indispensable. It calls for a debate so we have forwarded a broad outline of this debate,” said PUTA president Akshay Kumar. Questionnaire
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Sahil Chauhan, a resident, said as soon he crossed the Sector17 ISBT roundabout, a branch of a
To conduct and ensure a free, fair and peaceful election, the Chief Commissioner, Gurdwara Elections, has issued directions to the Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pardesh governments. In case of demand by some parties and individuals, the commission allows videography of the events on a request by the candidate who wants to make use of video camera will get permission from the Returning Officer or the Deputy Commissioner concerned. The videography should be allowed at the place where the voters stand in queue but not inside the booth. The movement of the vehicles should be banned near the polling station, except for the officers on poll duty.
Books released
Engineer’s day was celebrated with great enthusiasm at the Sri Sukhmani institute of Engineering and Technology, Dera
Bassi, to mark the 147th birth anniversary of Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya . Students from various disciplines participated in the celebration. Group discussion, talent-hunt and paper presentations were the main highlights of the
programme. Aayush Bhardwaj and Prashant Chauhan bagged the first and second positions respectively in the group discussion. Gurpreet Singh (singing) and Roobal were the winners of the talent-hunt event. Mandeep
Kaur, Tushar and Gursimran were the winners of the PPT event. Meanwhile, to commemorate the birth anniversary of M Vivesvaraya
(Bharat Ratna), the Students of Aryans College of Engineering at Nepra
(Banur) on Thursday celebrated the 44th Engineers' day.
Engineers Day was celebrated with great enthusiasm by students and faculty members of E-Max Group of Institutions. An interactive session was organised at the Institution of Engineers (India) on the theme - Engineering preparedness for disaster mitigation.