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No RTE admissions this yr
Chandigarh, February 4 The decision came following an emergency meeting of the Independent School Association where representatives of over 60 schools decided not to conduct any admissions as the UT had not only failed to specify and notify “per child reimbursement”, but also violated the Act by forgoing the neighbourhood criteria and results of its child-mapping survey. The association has decided to ask the UT to adjust the poor children in government schools, where more than 40 per cent seats are reportedly still lying vacant. While association president HS Mamik refused to divulge the details of the meeting, a school representative revealed that 3,000 seats would be converted into general and advertisement for the admissions would be issued next week. Education Secretary VK Singh, however, said the schools could not overrule the Act of Parliament and would have to undertake the admissions. “They can’t defy the law. We will call them next week and sort out the issues. Admissions will take place for sure,” he said. Though the newly appointed DEO, Ram Kumar, is meeting school heads on Monday, but the representatives are in no mood to budge. “It’s not us, but they who have violated the Act by overruling the neighbourhood criteria and not completing duties mandated under it. We reserved seats and tried to work out things, but their high-handedness botched it up. A majority of us got only handful of applications under the RTE, but we can’t admit students because the UT seems to be in no mood to make any payment in this regard. We have been trying to get in touch with them since last month, but they have been evading it. We will be issuing an advertisement informing people about the conversion of seats. No poor child stands to lose anything as government schools have enough seats to adjust them,” a principal said. The schools will also be furnishing bills of teaching disadvantaged students in the last academic year, which stand at about Rs 10 lakh per 20 students. “We will be sending a copy of the bills to the UT to give it an idea what is costs to teach these students. There are many schools, which have no EWS obligation in their land allotment, but still admitted poor students last year. The UT should reimburse them also,” another representative added.
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Issues troubling RTE implementation
Chandigarh, February 4 With schools refusing admissions under RTE, the Act may end up being postponed to 2013. However, what comes as a clear indicator on the seriousness of efforts on the part of schools as well as the UT administration is the fact that one year has passed, but the issue is still plagued by the same contentious problems.
Issues haunting RTE
Reimbursement
Requirement: The RTE Act requires the UT administration to reimburse schools for admissions made under the reservation quota. The schools are to be provided with the average learner cost of government schools or that of their own, whichever is less. Status: Though initially the UT administration had worked out Rs 1163 as reimbursement per child. But later on, the schools were asked to submit monthly claims, which were to be ‘dealt according to the act’ . The schools refused the same and have demanded a fixed figure not less than Rs 2500 and the first instalment on April 1. No consensus has been achieved in this regard.
Neighbourhood criteria
Requirement: The Act asks schools to admit students under this quota from within 1 km radius around their schools. Status: Though the UT administration kept the neighbourhood criteria intact for its government school admissions, private schools were asked to entertain applications from the entire city, which led to another tussle. The schools, citing an observation of Delhi High Court, claimed that the UT administration had no power to amend any aspect of the Act.
Reimbursement of books, uniform and transportation
Requirement: The act is silent on whose responsibility it is to get books, uniforms and transportation for children admitted under the quota. Status: With most schools working out the cost of books, uniform and transportation to a minimum of Rs 10,000 per year, per child, the schools want the UT administration to fix responsibility. In case schools are expected to provide these, then they wish to get reimbursed for it separately.
Child mapping
Requirement: Section 6 of chapter 3 of the RTE Act states the UT administration is not only required to identify the disadvantaged children eligible, but also to make the list public. Schools are required to make admissions according to this list. Status: Though the UT administration made its child mapping results public in December 2011, they proved to be botched up. The surveyors failed to find a single eligible child in several slum areas, making this data unusable. Though schools are taking the results as an excuse to say that there are no eligible takers for the reserved seats, the UT administration has asked them to consider all the applications that they get.
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Kidnapped child rescued, four arrested
Panchkula, February 4 The accused have been identified as 28-year-old Varinder Kumar of Badayun (UP) and his wife Ram Kumari, and 35-year-old Hanish Ansari of Betiya Bihar and his wife Sakeena. Varinder was known to Rishi Pal and had been living in Ramgarh for a few years. Varinder would sell “chole-kulcha” and Hanish was working as a mechanic in another village near Ramgarh. It was the first kidnapping attempt by the accused and the ransom call landed them in the police net. They had planned to extort money from Rishi, who owned a 4-marla plot in UP. Initially, only Varinder and his wife had planned the kidnapping and later included Hanish and his wife. Varinder picked up the child on January 26 from Ramgarh village where the boy was playing with his friends. On February 2, they demanded a ransom of Rs 5 lakh from the family. The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Panchkula, Maneesh Chaudhary, said though the accused were aware about the financial position of Rishi, they knew he had some land in UP. After the ransom call, the police put the mobile number under surveillance, which helped in tracing the accused. With the help of the tower location, the police raided a jhuggi at Charnia village in Pinjore and recovered the child. The accused had kept the child at a house in Pinjore, where Varinder’s wife was working as maid. After keeping him there for three days, they shifted him to Charnia.
Seven more children recovered
Besides Vijay, the police has recovered seven more children between the age group of two and seven years. The main accused has claimed that two of the children are his while five are Hanish’s children. The police is verifying his claims and has sent the children to Shishu Grih in Panchkula.
Forced to wash clothes
The kidnapped child told the police that on some occasions, the accused would force him to wash clothes and utensils. But at other times, he used to play with the other children staying with him.
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Porsche dealer evades Rs 1.68-cr tax
Chandigarh, February 4 “The dealer has evaded Rs 1.68 crore from July 2011 to December 2011,” said Naresh Dubey, Assistant Commissioner, excise and taxation department, after the raid. The total amount earned from the sale of cars during the period (July-December 2011) was Rs 13.48 crore, but the dealer did not pay any tax on it, Dubey said. It was also detected that instead of paying the tax every month, as per rules, the dealer had paid the tax of three months (April, May and June 2011) collectively. The dealer has been asked to pay the dues immediately. “We have also asked him to pay the interest on the tax, which he (the dealer) had paid after the stipulated period,” he said.
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Sanitation not an issue; 53 challans in 35 weeks
Chandigarh, February 4 Expressing concern over the issue, MC Commissioner Prerna Puri, during a recent meeting, directed the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) to conduct a special drive in the city. The sanitary inspectors have been told to issue at least five challans each per day. “The MC might be spending crores of rupees on maintaining hygiene in the city, but it costs just Rs 500 for someone who is caught littering the roads,” a senior MC official stated. The fine remains the same no matter how many times one is caught littering the roads or dumping debris at unauthorised places. The meagre fine fixed under the Sanitation and Public Health Bylaws of the MC has not acted as a deterrent to those who throw garbage at public places. Of the 53 challans issued so far, more than 50 per cent of the offenders of sanitation bylaws are in commercial areas. It was observed that in most areas where the authorities had recently conducted sanitation drives, the condition had not improved as most of the offenders repeated the violations. An official in the medical health office said drives launched by the department to discipline the offenders had failed. A senior official said the department was drafting a proposal to hike the fine. A team of sanitary inspectors has found that the violations mainly included dumping of garbage at unauthorised places; spilling of waste water on road; dumping of “malba”; and throwing horticulture waste at public places. Last month, the MOH and his team visited various parts of the city to evaluate the sanitation conditions and issued show-cause notices to the defaulters. A notice was also served on a contractor for limited deployment of manpower in Sector 25. Meagre fine The MC might be spending crores of rupees on maintaining hygiene in the city, but it costs just Rs 500 to someone who is caught littering the roads. — A senior MC official
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GMADA to provide home to homeless on temporary basis
Mohali, February 4 Some rooms lying vacant at the sadar octroi naka have been turned into a night shelter where the civic body has provided beds, blankets, etc. In order to provide additional facilities to shelterless people, the council has cleared an estimate worth Rs 9.82 lakh for renovating the place after which the facility of water and toilets will also be made available. During a survey carried out in 2010 on the directions of the Supreme Court, the council had identified 34 persons who did not have any kind of shelter of their own. Poor people were found sleeping on roadsides and in bus queue shelters in different parts of the town, including the industrial area. Some of the identified persons were rickshaw-pullers while others were beggars. Radesh Kalra, executive officer, said that 10 beds were arranged in the rooms about two days ago and the number will be extended up to 15 after renovation work was carried out. He said that many letters were written to the GMADA authorities for providing the land for the “raen basera” but the civic body had failed to get any response in writing so far in this regard. It is learnt that over the past more than one year, the civic body had written letters to GMADA asking the development authority to transfer the land measuring 1.61 acres, which it had got vacated from encroachers, to the civic body for the construction of the building. The civic body did not have any land of its own in the town. The fund-starved council also wanted GMADA to construct the building for shelterless people, as it was difficult for the civic body to arrange the amount needed for construction work.
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Mohali admn’s drive a futile exercise
Zirakpur, February 4 Last year, the Zirakpur police had registered cases against the fruit vendors on the directions of Varun Roojam, Deputy Commissioner, Mohali, after NHAI had approached the local administration about the violation. Despite the registration of cases, the hawkers are back again, creating traffic bottlenecks on the Zirakpur-Ambala highway. An official of GMR said that last month, a team of GMR employees had tried to remove the vendors from the highway but the situation became tense. He said to maintain law and order in the area, they had approached the DSP, Dera Bassi, and local administration regarding the violation. “We have written to the police and local administration to remove the vendors from the highway but no action has been taken against the violators still,” he added. Talking to Mohali Deputy Commissioner about the violation, he said the matter was in his knowledge and action would be taken against the violators. He said as the election process was almost complete, the drives to remove the encroachments and other violations would soon start.
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UT estate office targeting us: Traders
Chandigarh, February 4 “We are being served ‘unjust’ notices. If laws are not suitably amended the traders of the city will not get relief against sealing and penalty orders, we will start agitation across the city,” said Charanjiv Singh, chairman of the Chandigarh Beopar Mandal. Earlier, around 300 shopkeepers of Sector 22-D market held a dharna in the market against unjust clauses of the Chandigarh Estate rules 2009. The traders of the market were joined by members of the Chandigarh Beopar Mandal, who came from different markets of the city to extend their support. “The rules should be amended according to the growing needs of the traders instead of targeting them by sending notices for doing commercial trade in upper floors in the commercial buildings and arbitrarily increasing the penalty,” said the agitators. Four of the Municipal Councillors, including MP Kohli, Sat Perkash Aggarwal, Rajesh Gupta and PJS Mehta, chairman of Consumer Awareness Group, also joined the
dharna.
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Estate officer told to allot site to slum-dweller
Chandigarh, February 4 District forum president PD Goel and members Rajinder Singh Gill and Madanjit Kaur Sahota observed, “The opposite party has neither denied nor has filed any evidence to prove that the complainant does not fall in the category of slum dwellers. Therefore, as per the scheme of “The Chandigarh Small Flats Scheme, 2006” for phased rehabilitation of all the slum-dwellers, if the complainant is covered under the biometric survey conducted by the Chandigarh Administration, he has a right to be rehabilitated in a phased manner under the said scheme of 2006 ” Complainant Ram Parkash averred that he was a resident of Palsora Colony, Chandigarh, since 1989 and submitted the application with documents for the allotment of a house under the rehabilitation scheme. Even though his name appeared at serial No.833 in the list but he was not allotted the house as his name had been recorded as ‘Parkash’in the ration card. He said that his name had been mentioned as ‘Ram Parkash’ in the Voter ID Card and was also disclosed to the opposite party. He said the process of allotment of the house to the other applicants had started without any intimation to him. The counsel for the Estate Officer pleaded that the rehabilitation scheme had been framed by the Administration for the persons, who were residing in various labour colonies in most unhygienic conditions and were unable to have a rented accommodation. Most of the persons who were residing in Labour Colony No.4 and 5 located in Industrial Area, Phase-I and near Sector 45 could not be allotted alternative sites due to scarcity of land in the city. The residents of Palsora labour colony or Peer Colony after its demolition in 2003 started living in rented accommodations. As many as 6,000 people filed applications and after preliminary scrutiny claims of 1,262 persons were finally forwarded to the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) for consideration. The CHB allotted 1,056 houses to the jhuggi dwellers through draw of lots and remaining persons were not considered for allotment as there were only 1,056 sites available for allotment. Thereafter, the scheme of 2003 was repealed with new scheme of 2006. The most deserving persons, who could not afford rented accommodation started living in other colonies after 2003. However, their rights were protected as the Administration conducted biometric survey of 2006 and all residents of various labour colonies of Chandigarh were considered for allotment of sites in a phased manner.
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encroachment issue
Panchkula, February 4 Complainant Sansar Chand alleged that for the last two months few people of the village were trying to take possession of his property. Once they had beaten him as well. He alleged that few people in police uniform had also come to his house and asked him to vacate it but when he inquired from the police station, they denied about the visit. He complained to the DCP to take action against accused persons and issue directions to the Chandimandir SHO to lodge an FIR in this regard. Today, when he approached Panchkula DCP office, he fainted and immediately he was taken to General Hospital, Sector 6, where he is admitted.
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Elected members of rural civic bodies take oath
Chandigarh, February 4 Earlier, a notification in this regard was also issued by the UT Administrator Shivraj Patil while exercising powers conferred by the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, 1994.
— TNS
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world cancer day
Mohali, February 4 Dr Rajeev Bedi, Senior Consultant and Head, Medical Oncology, Fortis Hospital, that through Saarthak “all of us can provide emotional support to each other. This is as important as the treatment options available for treating cancer.” Bittu Safina Sandhu, who heads the Rani Breast Cancer Trust, was the chief guest. She said, “while doctors and medicines do their work to wipeout this dreaded disease from our bodies, it is our will power, determination and the ability to laugh which can help us cope with cancer.”Dr Bedi said the treatment for cancer might include some combination of surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and, possibly, hormone therapy or immunotherapy. Emphasising the need for early detection, Dr Bedi said, “The earlier cancer is diagnosed and treated, the better are the chances of it being cured.”As students of the Fortis School of Nursing came to present giddha, some of the cancer patients spontaneously joined in and danced with them.
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Residents protest after police conduct search in Sec-52 colony
Chandigarh, February 4 The police had raided the area to search for the weapons used in the murder when the colony residents protested. Four assailants in the Transit Camp Colony in Sector 52 bludgeoned a 26-year-old youth to death yesterday. The police arrested four persons in the case who are residents of the same colony. Prior enmity is said to be the reason behind the attack. The incident occurred in the congested colony right outside the residence of the victim. Dharminder worked as a guard-cum-sweeper at public toilets in Sector 52. All the four accused were remanded to a day in police custody after they were produced in the court today.
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CHANDIGARH SCAN
Traders meet
A meeting of the Traders Association, Sector 17, was held today under president Kamaljit Singh Panchhi to discuss the difficulties being faced by the traders and consumers due to the installation of barricades and tin sheets alongside the show rooms in Sector 17 A and B. This has been done by the Municipal Corporation for carrying out construction activities for the overhead bridge from Taj Hotel to Light Point of Sector 17A and B. The contractor had cordoned the area with tin sheets on November 10, but no construction has taken place in last three months. The traders demand that these tins should be removed immediately and be installed at the actual site of construction. The meeting was attended by Mandeep Singh, LC
Arora, JPS Kalra, Narinder Jain, Sunil Kapoor, and Jodh Singh
Clothes donated to the poor
Students of Stepping Stones Sr Sec School collected wearable old clothes and donated them to an NGO ‘Goonj’ under their collection campaign ‘vastra samman’. Material collected from the cities will be used as a motivation for villagers to repair their own roads, clear their villages under “cloth for work” initiative of this NGO. The students were told about the NGO and their various programmes. They were encouraged to be a little more liberal in helping those who are not as lucky as them. The school Principal Mrs. Anu Kumar motivated the students to be more sensitive about the needs of the society and to rise up for good cause
Intellectual property rights seminar
Chandigarh Panchkula Chapter of Institute of Cost Accountants Of India (ICAI) organised a seminar on “Intellectual Property Rights- in Indian perspective’ and “Industrial Pollution - another explosion” at the PHD House, Chandigarh. Vikas Aswat, an attorne, explained the provisions of the IPR Act, and its importance in the global market for Indian corporate sector. He also advised what steps the corporate world should take to protect their rights and cited the examples of ongoing international disputes in relation to Basmati, Haldi and Neem etc. Anil Sharma, a practicing accountant brilliantly explained the growth story of India since 1991 and its impact on the society at large. He also discussed the impact of unbalanced growth and pollution on the natural resources of the country as a whole. For his remarkable contribution in waste management, the Chandigarh Chapter of Cost Accountants honoured Padamshree Shri Nek Chand.
Exhibition on tourism
A three-day travel mart exhibition began at Himachal Bhavan in sector 28 here. A number of people from different parts of the Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, and other parts of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh came to attend the exhibition. The main focus of the exhibition was on making travel more interesting and hassle free for the travellers. Achinto Bose, marketing manager, Tourism Malaysia, said that Malaysia is among the top 5 outbound destinations in India as it is cheaper than most other countries.
MOHALI SCAN Mother’s day function
World Wetland Day
To mark the World Wetlands Day, the Environment Protection Society (EPS), SAS Nagar, organised an Inter - School Declamation contest on ‘Importance of Wetlands and Tourism’ on February 2 in collaboration with the Golden Bells Public School, Sector - 77, Mohali. Four schools from Mohali namely Saint Soldier International Convent School, Phase-7, St. Xavier’s, Sector-71, Shiwalik Public School, Phase-6 and the host school, Golden Bells Public School, Sec - 77, participated in the contest. Col CS Bawa, chairman, Golden Bells Public School, thanked RS Chaudhari, president of the EPS and his team for organising the function. He appreciated the importance of wetlands and the necessity to call upon the people to preserve them for their various advantages.
Seminar on
healthcare
Indo Global Colleges, Abhipur, hosted a seminar on the role of IT in health care. The key note speaker was Prof Yu-Chuan (Jack) Li, a pioneer of medical informatics research and the founder of Graduate Institute of Medical Informatics in Taipei Medical University. He was accompanied by Dr Shabbir, a research scholar at National Yang Ming University, China, and project manager of various health IT projects. Prof Li spoke on cloud computing in health care. The primary objective of cloud computing is to make IT applications available to small clinics and hospitals at reduced costs. Dr Sanjay Sood spoke on digital health records which is the basic ingredient for all IT applications in health care. Principal of Indo Global College of Architecture, Karandev Mankotia, also spoke on the occasion.
Musical performance
PNB ATM inaugurated
The on campus ATM installed by Punjab National Bank was inaugurated by A K Sharma, DGM Punjab National Bank accompanied by P K Jain, lead district manger, along with some other senior officials. Chairman of the group, DS Sekhon, vice chairman Harinder Kanda, JPS Dhaliwal, Director Dr Raja Singh Khela along with the faculty and staff members attended the inauguration function. It was followed by a presentation regarding banking & loan facilities to students.
Camp on adventure sports
National Adventure Foundation’s two days seminar cum workshop to highlight the role of adventure sports in building character of the youth concluded at the ITFT College Campus on the PGI-Mullanpur Road. The seminar was sponsored by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. The chief guest on the occasion was Ram Niwas, Principal Secretary to Government of Haryana. Dr Gulshan Sharma, president NIMA and executive director of ITFT welcomed the guests and initiated the
discussion. — Tribune Reporters
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UIET fest starts off in style at university
Chandigarh, February 4 Day one of the Goonj began with a rangoli making competition, followed by fun filled competitions like ‘Dabangg’, ‘Murder mystery‘ and a solo singing competition ‘Andholika’. Discussions on topics like ‘The Youth Congress’ and ‘Whether or not Iran’s nuclear development should be interfered with by the international community’ saw students engaging in debates and discussions during the fest. After a busy day packed with a myriad of events, the Goonj attendees were treated with some enthralling music from student rockbands. This was followed by the most awaited event of the function ‘The Silk Route’, a fashion show. Finally the first day of the fest concluded with a live performance by Raeth, which came all the way from Pakistan to win the hearts of Indian students. The band left everyone in a great mood with their magical music. The second day of Goonj will have Kamal Heer performing live at the star night and some featured events like the street dance, street play and wall painting contests.
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PEC students meet Senate members
Chandigarh, February 4 The authorities had decided to cancel the admissions of three ME students who had failed to get the minimum CGPA score of 4.5. The three students have also received the supported of other ME students of the college. “Two senate members whom we have approached are willing to call a meeting and discuss the issue, before finally canceling the admission,” students said. Fourteen first semester students had failed to get the minimum criteria of 4.5 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA); but in a decision taken by the PEC authorities, it was held that mercy would be granted to only eight students. The students who have been left behind had lesser scores in comparisons to the eight who were given another chance by the college. Students had also approached senior UT officials regarding the issue, but failed to get any response. “We are again planning to take our case with the Finance Secretary VK Singh who is also Secretary Technical Education,” students said. Those who have been given another chance by the college, have given an undertaking that they will show improvement in the next exam. However, the students who have been left out say that they can also show improvement if given another chance. A PEC Senate member said that if the rules were relaxed, it should have been done for everyone. “The college should consider all the students equal. Benefiting only a few students is not justified,” Senate member said.
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A function to mark the occasion of mother’s day was held at The Millennium School, Mohali, by nursery class students. The event started with the children and the mothers singing nursery rhymes together. The final was an interesting event wherein the mothers used newspapers and pins to dress their child in innovative ways. Thereafter, the students, dressed in the ‘newspaper clothes’, modelled. The ‘newspaper model’ of the day was Sana of nursery A.
As many as 200 students of The British School, Mohali, Junior Wing, performed ‘Futuristic Machine’, a musical play today. The musical play was performed by the students as part of the annual day celebrations of the Junior Wing. DS Bains, IAS, Principal Secretary, Home Affairs and Justice, Punjab, was the chief guest. The performance presented a cute picture as students, clad in colourful costumes, gave a scintillating performance that kept their parents and members of the audience glued to their seats. The musical play was written and directed by the Principal Mrs Parvinder Kaur.