Chandigarh, April 13
The demand of power in April has already surpassed the demand of last year and the UT Administration is finding it difficult to meet the demand and supply gap. In April, the city is already witnessing power shortage as the demand for power has gone up to 250 megawatts (MW) whereas last year in April, the demand was around 205 MW. The present allocation of power for the UT Administration is of 200 MW.

To bridge the gap, the UT electricity department has already started imposing cuts in the name of maintenance work. On Friday too there were power cuts in some parts of Sector 18, 19, 21, 45 and Dadu Majra colony for one to two hours.

An official of the electricity department said that the demand was increasing day by day and it was expected that this summer, the demand would go up to around 340 MW.

He further added that next week onwards there would be some relief as the UT Administration was expecting 30 to 35 MW additional power from power companies.

Charanjiv Singh of Sector 21 said that the administration should not purchase power at the last minute ie, when the city is already reeling under power crisis, rather arrangements should be made during the winters.

Wasim Ahmed of Sector 45 said that on the one hand, the Administration had proposed to hike power tariff but on the other they were failing to provide regular power supply.

If there was power shortage in April, one could imagine what would happen in June, he added.

Though the authorities claimed that soon 90 MW power would be bought from three companies, Tata Power, NVN and PTC India and 30 MW will come from Jammu and Kashmir. During winters, Chandigarh gives power to Jammu and Kashmir and in summer the UT gets power from Jammu and Kashmir.

There are 2.28 lakh power consumers in Chandigarh. The administration has allocation of 200 MW of power from May 1 to October 15 while the consumption goes up to 320 MW.

Chandigarh, April 13
A 23-year-old student died after a recklessly driven bus hit his motorcycle late last night at Labour Chowk, near Sector 33.

The police said the deceased identified as Amit Kashyap, a resident of RCS Enclave, Sector-49, was an undergraduate student.

Sources said that Amit was returning home after taking notes from his friends when the accident occurred. Injured Amit was rushed to GMCH-32, where doctors on duty declared him brought dead.

A case was registered against bus driver Jagdish Kumar, a resident of Mahadev village in Mandi district.

The accused was arrested and later released on bail. The case is under investigation at the Sector 34 police station.

Chandigarh, April 13
Patients at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, can expect some relief as far as the cost of medicines is concerned. Now, the chemists having their outlets on the hospital premises will extend a discount of 15 per cent on branded medicines and 30 per cent on generic medicines to the patients.

The hospital administration has already allotted one of the two chemist shops with a condition to extend a discount of up to 30 per cent on the medicines and surgical items on the pattern of the PGI at chemist shops situated on the hospital premises.

Till now, the chemists at the shops in the hospital building had no such binding.

Though the hospital administration had taken a decision in this regard in March last year but due to opposition of the Chandigarh Chemist Association this policy could not be implemented till now.

That time the association had asked its members to refrain from participating in the bidding process for a shop stating that giving a discount of 15 per cent on branded medicines and 30 per cent on generic medicines and surgical products, the interests of the chemists’ fraternity were being hit.

In the past one year the call of the association lost steam and the chemists came forward to participate in the bidding process and a shop was allotted at a lease of over Rs 19 lakh per annum.

Now, the chemist shop owner has also begun offering discounts to patients. “Though there is no such condition in our rent agreement, we keeping in view the interests of the patients have already started extending the discount of 15 per cent on branded medicines and 30 per cent on generic medicines and surgical products,’ said Aman of Sidh Medicose at the Emergency Ward of the hospital.

This policy will help unburden patients making the treatment affordable, said Dr Raj Bahadur, GMCH director principal. Any shop to be set up on the hospital premises in future will have to adhere to such patient-friendly norms, he said.

Zirakpur, April 13
The town remained without power for nearly 36 hours after the electricity cables were snapped due to the storm that had hit this part of the region on Wednesday night. However, the power supply was restored this evening.

The worst-affected areas were Peermuchlla, parts of Baltana, Pabhat, Lohgarh and Chhat village. A survey of the area revealed that at several places power cables were damaged due to falling of trees.

An official of the electricity department said their men were busy restoring the power supply since Thursday morning.

Residents stated that they had approached the officials concerned but did not get a satisfactory reply. Sources said the problem had only worsened due to shortage of man power in the electricity department at Zirakpur.

The official said the number of residential colonies had increased in Zirakpur. With this the demand for power had also increased, he added. “We have asked the authorities concerned to solve the problem of staff shortage,” the official added.

Chandigarh, April 13
While some parts of city continue to face the problem of low water pressure, a leaking supply line in Sector 22-A went unnoticed as no MC official turned up to repair it.

Mohali, April 13
Successful applicants under GMADA’s Purab Premium Apartments Scheme are having second thoughts on their investment and in an unprecedented development hundreds have sought withdrawal from the scheme. The GMADA authorities were taken by surprise as one of their property schemes had failed to woo investors to the desired extent.

Initially, the response to the apartments scheme was lukewarm and nearly 300 applicants withdrew before the draw of lots was held. Now, the situation has come to such a pass that for the first time successful applicants (at least 240 so far) have sought refund. Officials in GMADA apprehended that the figure might double in coming days .

Sources in GMADA said 125 successful applicants who had opted for Type 1 apartments had asked for refunds, while the number of applicants asking for refunds for Type 2 category stood at 70. As many as 45 applicants sought refunds for the Type III apartments. GMADA had launched its 4,500

multi-storeyed flats scheme in Sector 88. Priced between Rs 37 lakh and Rs 69 lakh, the 15-storeyed flats have been categorised into one bedroom, two bedroom and three-bedroom apartments. A total of 11,987 applications were received by GMADA for the three categories of flats.

The sources added that apart from those who had sought refunds, there were a large number of successful applicants who were not submitting the required documents to GMADA because they wanted to withdraw from the scheme. In case, they withdrew after letters of intent were issued to them (which is done after verifying various required documents) they would have to forego 10 per cent of the earnest money. In order to save themselves from the 10 per cent deduction of the amount deposited, the documents were not being submitted.

Getting disturbed by the unprecedented move of the successful applicants, GMADA recently went in for publishing advertisements (more than one third of the page) in some newspapers on the pretext of congratulating successful applicants and reaffirming the authority’s commitment. In the advertisement, the development authority stated, “Trust in GMADA will fetch them handsome returns of prosperity and healthful living”. The aim of giving the advertisement was mainly to ask successful applicants to submit all required documents to the Estate Officer by April 23. It was for the first time that GMADA had to publish such an advertisement after the draw of lots for a sale of property were held.

Disappointment had also prevailed among GMADA officials when the draw of lots for the scheme was held on three days last month and a majority of the applicants had failed to turn up.

Officials of GMADA were of the view that the scheme on the whole had not received a good response as it was not investor-friendly.

Moreover, the clause incorporated by GMADA that the property could not be sold or transferred for five years acted as a hindrance for applicants and people had as yet not got used to the concept of living in 15-storeyed apartments.

Mohali, April 13
The police is on a lookout for a dismissed police constable and his accomplice who had allegedly defrauded people by taking money and offering “jobs” in the police force.

As per reports, Pawan Kumar, who was dismissed from the police force, had allegedly defrauded 21 persons hailing from various parts of Punjab. He had allegedly collected lakhs of rupees from them on the pretext of offering “jobs”. He had also put them on various security related duties.

The fraud came to light when Jasbir Singh, a resident of Durali village, and one of the victims, disappeared under mysterious circumstances and his father came to lodge a complaint with the Sohana Police.

Darshan Singh, father of Jasbir Singh, said his son had been missing since March 27. He had gone for a hair cut and did not return. He suspected the role of Pawan Kumar and his accomplice Kamaljeet Singh in the mysterious disappearance of his son as they must have feared that he would expose their activities.

He said his son and others were deployed as security guards by the recruiters and given Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per month. But when his son got to know that he had not been offered a job in the police even when he had given Rs 2 lakh in this regard and had only been defrauded, he felt very upset. The amount of Rs 2 lakh was allegedly given to Pawan Kumar through Jasbir Singh’s maternal uncle, Naib, who was arrested by the police.

Chandigarh, April 13
To maintain transparency in the management of group housing co-operative societies in the city, the UT Administration has issued directions to these societies to conduct an audit regularly.

The orders were passed, as there were reports of embezzlement of huge amounts in the management of some societies. In the city, there are around 102 group housing co-operative societies.

A senior official of the UT Administration said they had got information that managements of some societies were flouting rules blatantly and holding elections without doing the mandatory audit. The orders were passed to safeguard the interest of society members, he added.

Sources said it was also stated in the orders that if a management would fail to conduct an audit regularly, the Administration could be barred from holding elections and an Administrator would be appointed by the Administration to run the affairs of the society concerned.

As per information, there were also complaints that managements of these societies had not spent funds in a transparent manner and many society members had demanded a regular audit. The sources added that there were provisions of Section 48 (1) of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961, for the auditing of the accounts of every cooperative society once a year.

Mohali, April 13
Sanjay, a Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris) died at Chhatbir Zoo yesterday at around 3.30 pm after surviving for 24 years and three months.

The average lifespan of a tiger in the wild is 10 to 15 years and in captivity, it may extend from 18 to 20 years.

Giving details, Basanta Rajkumar, Director of MC Zoological Park, Chhatbir, said Sanjay was born in the zoo on January 18, 1988.

“As per available record, it was one of the oldest tiger in the country,” said the director.

Sanjay, who had lost most of its teeth, including canines and incisors about four years ago and was given special soft meat, was not keeping good health for the last one year. The tiger was confined to the animal house in his last days, he added.

After the tiger’s death, the zoo now has 11 tigers. Recently, the zoo had acquired two white tigers, one from Nandankanan Zoo in Orissa and another from Delhi zoo.

Chandigarh, April 13
The department of ENT, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), has successfully performed a state of the art, cochlear implant surgery on a three-year-old deaf child. After the surgery conducted on March 3, using high tech cochlear Implant system imported from France, the implant was found to be responding well.

The child is now getting a speech therapy and help for cognitive development from audiologist-cum-speech therapists. The team headed by Dr Arjun Dass, professor and head, department of ENT, performed the surgery. Gurvinderjit Kaur, audiologist-cum-speech therapist informed that the parents are happy as the child is able to hear sounds which he was not listening before the implant.

With this, doors have opened for a large number of patients who are suffering from severe to profound hearing loss, said GMCH director principal Dr Raj Bahadur.

The child was diagnosed of having hearing loss after birth. The assessment was carried out at the GMCH only. Before the cochlear implant surgery, the child was taken up for speech and hearing rehabilitation after fitting the hearing aid for six months. The cochlear implant is a miracle of medical science which helps even patients with profound hearing loss. Doctors took great care in installing the new device which does not require any drilling on the skull, thus making it very safe even for a child with a thin skull bone. 

Chandigarh, April 13
As many as 76 volunteers donated blood in a camp organised by the Indo-Swiss Training Centre (ISTC) of the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation at its campus here on Friday.

Chandigarh, April 13
The Surnai and Asian paints teamed up to present a Hindi adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic composition “Lady from the Sea” at the Tagore Theatre here yesterday. The play, titled ‘Mareechika’ was directed by the eminent Rajasthani folk, film and theatre personality Ila Arun along with KK Raina. Keeping the thematic content and concept alive, Ila structured the play in the rustic backdrop of Rajasthan, apparently to embellish the presentation of story telling with the rich musical strains of the folk music.

The director had employed two traditional story tellers, called Bhopi and Bhopa, who used the folk form of Phad to link the sequences of events and kept the story moving. The Ibsen story stands completely changed to the Indian milieu and during the course the narratives, the story tellers themselves becomes the characters. They play almost as if the spirit world and the real world had merged into one. The solidity of characterisation, rehearsed sequences, lighting and audio visual effects, eloquent stage movements, adherence to timings were the features of the production. However, long drawn sequences and musical renditions weakened the impact at times .

Leading the cast, Ila Arun ( Bhopi) fully utilised her abilities as an accomplished singer, dancer and actor. Also, Ravi Khankal (Bhopa), Ishita Arun (Rampyari), KK Raina(Lakhpat Bhopa), Tejinder Sidhu, Ashok Banthiya, Kanavir Vohra, Sheriyan Menon, Pitobhash, Vinay Jain were also impressive. Chief guest Sameer Mathur, IAS, Chhatar Singh, IAS, and SK Mishra, IPS, graced the occasion.

Mohali, April 13
Six persons, including five policemen, sustained injuries when a Cielo car and a Swaraj Mazda collided near Phases VII and III B-2 traffic light point here this morning.

The injured were admitted to a hospital. 

Chandigarh, April 13
The results of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) entrance examination have begun to pour in, ending the long wait for thousands of MBA aspirants. From the results received so far, more than 10 students from the city have made it to these coveted institutes. Those students who have succeeded in making it to the IIM include Ajay Negi, Ishita Mehta, Jasmeet Singh, Parshant Kuriyal, Silky Mitaal, Yatish Jain and Arushi Jain.

IIM Calcutta was the first to come out with the final admission list for 2012-2014 session. Out of the 13 IIMs that have conducted group discussions and rounds of interview, results lists of only IIM Bangalore, Calcutta and Ahmedabad have been declared so far. The results for the other IIMs are still awaited, and since some of them concluded their interviews quite late, the results are expected to come only by the end of April.

A visibly ecstatic Silky Mittal, who made it to IIM Bangalore, said, “I feel on top of the world. All the hard work paid off and all the members of my family are elated to have received the news. The whole day was pretty much spent receiving congratulatory messages. ”

Another student, Yatish Jain, hailing from Ludhiana and a graduate from SRCC, was on top of the world to receive a call from IIM Bangalore. He said, “It is like a dream come true. A lot of hard work, honesty and expert guidance helped me get through.”

The IIMs declared the results of the written test in January and more than 150 students received calls for the prestigious institutes from the region. This year's results saw girls outperform boys. “This year has seen a significant increase in the number of girls who made it to the IIMs and this is bound to reflect in the final results for these institutes,” said Hirdesh Madan, Head, North India, Bulls Eye.

This year all the IIMs have also considered performance of class X, XII, and graduation along with the CAT score at interview and final stage. Close to 2 lakh students had appeared for the examination which were held between October 22 and November 18.

Around 10,000 students appeared for the exam from this region. The total number of students making it to the IIMs this year will be much more as the admission this time have been conducted for 13 IIMs, which include the 6 new ones which started over the last two years. The six new IIMs, (Ranchi, Rohtak, Kashipur, Trichy, Udaipur and Raipur) conducted a common interview process, easing the process for the students.

Chandigarh, April 13
In a bid to streamline the evaluation process and to ensure that the results of post-graduate courses are declared on time, the Panjab University has decided to introduce ‘Complete Table Marking’ evaluation instead of sending the answer sheets to evaluators. Sending answer sheets to evaluators was said to be the major reason for the delay in declaring the results. Earlier, the concept of table marking existed mostly for under-graduate courses and only for a few post-graduate courses.

PU Controller Examination AK Bhandari said that the university would now be getting the answer-sheets for post-graduate courses evaluated in PU only. “Earlier, the maximum number of answer-sheets used to be sent to the evaluators at their homes which generally delayed the results as the evaluators used to check the answer sheets as per their own comfort. Table marking would end such delays,” Bhandari said. Officials said that except for the answers sheets of Law students, table marking would be introduced in all other streams.

The results of post-graduate exams held in December last year, that were supposed to be declared by January 30, got late by around two-months. Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) president Akshay Kumar, reacting to PU’s move, said that the teachers have not been taken in confidence before making the decision. “The evaluation of answer sheets in the departments itself is acceptable; however, we wont go to a centralised place for evaluating answerer sheets,” he said.

While the under-graduate exams in all PU affiliated colleges have already begun, the university has also started the evaluation process simultaneously to declare the results on time. PU plans to declare the results of the undergraduate exams by June 15 and post-graduate results by June 30. 

Chandigarh, April 13
The Supreme Court’s decision on making the RTE reservation compulsory in unaided private schools has left the private schools and thousands of parents in the city irked. The parents claim that in a bid to give poor students an opportunity, the rights of their children to get education have been snatched.

“We are not poor and this is probably the biggest misfortune of our children. We are forced to run from pillar to post begging for admissions, while those who may not even turn up have seats ready for them. We are not at all against the Act, but our kids should not be denied of their right to education to help the EWS children. Seats should be increased in schools to adjust our children,” said president of a Sector 35 based PTA.

Owing to strict building bylaws and Floor Area Ratio (FAR), no increase has been made in nursery seats in a majority of city schools for five consecutive years, no land has been allotted to build a private school after 2003. The current number of seats in good schools is barely 1,000.

About 3,000 students out of an estimated 10000, had been left out the nursery admissions in good schools, and many are still waiting for conversion of vacant RTE seats. They might end up losing their own right to education, despite coming from literate backgrounds and having all the potential for a bright future. 

Chandigarh, April 13
The students of Panjab University staged a protest today by blocking the university’s gate number II, causing inconvenience to students and daily commuters. Nine agitating students were taken to Sector 11 police station who were later left after warning.

Around 50 students blocked the university gate in support of students sitting on hunger strike demanding that the vacant posts of teachers be filled at the earliest.

Dean Students Welfare (DSW) AS Ahluwalia, who reached at the scene to pacify the students, said that the students have been given the right to protest near the VC office; however, blocking the gate has led to inconvenience and harassment to others.

PU Chief Security Officer PK Dhawan said that when the students refused to end the agitation, the police were forced to take nine students to the police station under preventive measures. But they were later left after warning. “Students gave in writing that they won’t block the PU gates which leads to inconvenience to the general public,” Dhawan said. Dhawan said that a meeting of students has been scheduled with the Vice-Chancellor on Saturday to discuss the issue. 

Chandigarh, April 13
As many as 1081 students received degrees in the annual convocation at the GGDSD College, Sector 32, here today. Professor GK Chadha, president, South Asian University, New Delhi, and former Vice-Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, delivered the convocation address.

Addressing students, he said the time is not far when India will be the third greatest country of the world after America and China.

He encouraged the students to use their contribute to the growth of India. He said that the students today are privileged because they have technology at their disposal. He also cautioned them to make proper use of this technology and benefit from the international cooperation that is available through internet and other means of connectivity.

Mohali, April 13
The Shivalik Public School, Mohali, wore a festive look today to mark Baisakhi celebrations. It was also the school’s 42nd founder’s day. Shabads were sung in the praise of Sikh gurus, followed by a cultural programme. The occasion was celebrated with great zeal. Teacher explained the significance of Baisakhi as well as the importance of founder’s day to the students. A power point presentation was held during the event.

Shemrock School

The month of Baisakh was welcomed with usual fervour in Shemrock School, Sector 69, Mohali. Tiny tots of Shemrock School dressed in colourful traditional Punjabi attires and celebrated the festival here today. Wearing Punjabi dresses, students represented the culture of the state. Students created scenes like harvesting, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the establishment of Khalsa on the occasion. A fancy dress contest was also organised on the occasion.

Lawerance School

The Lawernace Public Senior Secondary School, Mohali, celebrated its 27th founder’s day today along with Baisakhi, Easter and Ambedkar Jayanti. Children who had won state award in Maths Olympiad were honored with gold, silver and bronze medals on the occasion.