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No clean bill of health Half of the force suffers from high BP, obesity; calcium deficiency common Aneesha Sareen Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 1
The free medical camp was organised by the Chandigarh Traffic Police in association with drugs company Cipla. In addition to the 60 policemen suffering from hypertension, another 40 were found to be diabetic. Results of the bone marrow test conducted on the police officials revealed that a whopping 80 of them had calcium deficiency. While 25 traffic policemen were found obese, 30 of the traffic policemen were found to have respiratory problems. What could press the panic button for senior officials was that the maximum numbers of ailments were detected in the ranks of constables and head constables and in the younger age group. A team headed by Dr Arun Girdhar and Dr Gyanender Maini advised the policemen to maintain fitness standards. According to police officials, erratic lifestyle, high stress levels and unhealthy eating habits had taken a toll on the fitness levels of the traffic policemen. Ajay Puri, event manager for the pharmaceutical company, said hypertension was found to be the most common problem amongst the traffic policemen as per the tests conducted today. “Their duty comprises standing in the sun all day and their work involves a lot of stress. Respiratory problems are not that are prevalent, but it’s hypertension that was alarming,” he said.
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Lalru blast incident: ‘Compensation for victims insufficient’
Dera Bassi, May 1 The victim’s wife (whose name could not be ascertained) was at her native village, namely Pathra, Uttar Pradesh. The completely charred bodies of the victims were beyond recognition and the sources claimed that Patrakhan was identified by a “kara”, which he had worn on his wrist, while another victim Bunty was identified by a toe of his one foot. The identification of the third victim Sushil was done with his clothes, whereas the fourth victim was yet to be identified, said the sources. Sushil also belonged to Pathra village while Bunty was a resident of Basauli, who reportedly served tea in the company. Bunty’s father Baljit Singh lamented that his son had left the house on the fateful day at 6 am, but did not return. A pall of gloom descended on Bunty’s house as mourners kept on pouring in throughout the day. Meanwhile, many acquaintances and relatives, who came to claim the victims’ bodies, lamented that the compensation was not sufficient. “The company and the administration should increase the compensation amount so that families of the victims would be able to lead a normal life,” said the relatives. Earlier, high drama was witnessed at the spot when company officials instructed the relatives and its employees not to talk to media on any issue related to the incident. An initial probe has revealed that there was problem with a safety valve in the boiler. SSP (Detective), who has been conducting an inquiry in the case, said there were lack of safety norms in the factory.
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7 endangered species of turtles seized
Chandigarh, May 1
The police arrested Sumit Gupta and booked him under the Wildlife Protection Act. PFA in charge Saurabh Gupta said they got secret information and deployed a decoy customer for the purpose. A deal was settled to purchase two turtles at the cost of Rs 7,000 between the accused Sumit and the decoy. Initially, Sumit demanded a sum of Rs 10,000 and after bargaining, the amount was settled for Rs 7,000. The police then arrested the accused and search of the house revealed that five more turtles had been kept in the house. The police said the turtles belonged to a highly endangered species Chitra indica found in deep sea. A case has been registered at the Sector 17 police station.
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UGC last date for form submission now May 4
Chandigarh, May 1 Some technical “snag” has left thousands of applicants baffled in successfully filling the form. Due to the ongoing problem, the UGC has for the second time extended the last date to May 4, which earlier was May 2. Applicants said the UGC link to fill the application form had not been working for the past few days, leaving them repeatedly trying to log on to the site. Lakhwinder Singh, an aspirant, said he was continuously trying to fill the form for the past three days. However, the server was not taking the load. Amardeep Singh, another applicant, said he had been spending hours at cyber café trying to fill the form. “ The UGC should take immediate steps and streamline the process of applying online so that the applicants don’t face inconvenience,” he said. The UGC had made it mandatory for the candidates to apply online along with sending the application forms by post. The exam is to be held on June 24. The problem seems to be more acute in rural areas due to the lack of sufficient resources, leaving the students helpless. The applicants demanded that the UGC should extend date by a few more days as thousands of aspirants from across the country would be trying, and the two-day extension won’t serve the purpose. Initially, April 30 was the deadline for the submission of forms online, which was extended to May 2 and now to May 4, while the last date for the submission of hard copies of forms is May 10. Exam Coordinator at PU Professor Neeilma Kumar said with the students applying together at the last moment, the website had more load, leading to the delay.
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CTU to launch night service
Chandigarh, May 1 At present, the night bus service is operational between the ISBT-17 and the ISBT-43 and to the railway station. The new bus service would be especially for night travellers. The buses, under the night service, would run from Saranpur to Panchkula via the Sector 17 bus stand and from Mohali to Panchkula via the ISBT-17 and the ISBT-43. The buses would pass through almost all the parts of the city. “It had been seen that visitors to the multiplexes in Industrial Area, Phase 1, IT Park and Zirakpur faced a lot of inconvenience during the night as there was no mode of public transport available in the city at night,” said a CTU official. The routes for the new service witness a high rate of occupancy during the late evening hours. After conducting a thorough survey, the Transport Department has decided to run the night bus service. Initially, 10 low-floor buses would be run on six routes. “The frequency would be increased depending upon the occupancy rate,” said the Director, Transport, TPS Phoolka. Besides, the CTU has also decided to run five-minute bus service along the proposed metro routes in the city, from the PGI to Sector 17, IT Park to PGI, Sector 48 to PGI, the ISBT-43 to railway station, the ISBT-43 to the airport and similar other routes. Sources said ordinary buses, which were being withdrawn from the non-profitable long routes, would be put to use in the city during the daytime. The CTU has already revised the bus service timings on the route between the ISBT-43 and the Chandigarh Airport. As per the schedule, the bus will run from the ISBT-43 at 8 am, 9.40 am, 1.40 am, 3.40 am and 5 pm while the one from the Chandigarh Airport will start plying at 9.20 am, 11 am, 3 pm, 5 pm and 6 .25 pm.
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Safai karamcharis in city go on strike
Chandigarh, May 1 The residents of a majority of the sectors were left with no other option but to dispose of their garbage on their own at the Sehaj Safai kendras or garbage bins in their areas. Even at Sector 15, which has been made a garbage bin-free sector, the public had to dispose of the garbage in the bins at the nearby sectors. A resident of Sector 37, Rajnesh, said the employees had not turned up in their area for the door-to-door collection of garbage for the past two days. The MC Commissioner, VP Singh, said they were planning to launch a similar garbage collection project in other parts of the city after the success of the pilot project at Sector 22. He said since the Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed for the implementation of this project all over the city, so it was being done in phases. Objecting to the deployment of contractor’s employees at Sector 22 for the door-to-door collection of garbage, the old employees alleged that earlier the authorities had assured them that they would be reemployed under a new scheme being launched by the authorities. But, not even a single employee has been reemployed at Sector 22 by the authorities so far.aThe employees complained that the contractor was offering them Rs 5,000 per month as salary whereas earlier, on an average, they were earning Rs 8,000 monthly. They said if the authorities went ahead with a similar project at the other sectors of the city, they would go on an indefinite strike.
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Estate Office to verify occupants’ antecedents
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 1
Assistant Estate Officer, UT, Rahul Gupta has said the teams would verify the antecedents of the occupants of all such quarters and submit their report in a time-bound manner. The survey by the teams would give information about the status of houses being sold or rented out in violation of the allotment rules. These EWS quarters have been in the news for a long time for violations of building bylaws and allotment rules. The quarters had been allotted in the late seventies and eighties to the dwellers of slum colonies. There have been several complaints of allottees not regularly paying rent to the UT Estate Office. The CBI had recently raided EWS quarters in Sector 30 following complaints of these having been been rented out. The CBI was also probing inaction on the part of the estate office. Sources in the estate office said the CBI had sought details of about 30 EWS houses and the same had been provided to it. The allotment rules state that the allottee would not sell the house, there would not be any subletting and no commercial activity would be undertaken at the allotted quarters.
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UT to act tough against auto-rickshaws coming from Panchkula, Mohali
Chandigarh, May 1 The transport authority has been issuing permits to the owners of the registered LPG auto-rickshaws and to those who have made alterations in their diesel/petrol-run vehicles in order to run them on LPG. “No permit is being granted by the authority to run auto-rickshaws on petrol/diesel engines,” said the Secretary, State Transport Authority, Balbir Singh Dhol. It was found that some auto-rickshaws were coming to the city from the neighbouring towns of Panchkula and Mohali, adding to pollution in the city. “In future, illegal operation of autos coming to the city will not be tolerated and these vehicles will be challaned/impounded and the office of the authority will not be responsible for the harassment of passengers,” he said. The STA, in order to curb the plying of overloaded vehicles and those with incomplete documents, a special drive was launched in April. More than 2,000 vehicles were checked and the owners of 415 were challaned, impounded or issued notices. An amount of Rs 9.20 lakh was recovered from the violators. Besides, schools and bus operators have been advised to engage only those drivers who have a minimum of five years of experience of driving heavy vehicles.
Drivers go on strike
The members of the LPG Auto Driver Union today went on a strike and organised a rally in Sector 25 to press for their demand for an increase in the fares from Rs 6 per km to Rs 10 per km, as the cost of LPG has shot up from Rs 32.40 per litre to Rs 54.42 per litre. The strike caused a lot of harassment to the commuters.
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Sufi singer mesmerises audience
Chandigarh, May 1 ‘A” graded artist of AIR Jageer is one of the popular performing artists in all the genres of music like that of the folk songs, ghazal, devotional shabad, sufi and classical music. The ICCR regional officer, Nalini Singhal, welcomed the chief guest and audience Jageer struck the sufi chord with “Mil Bullya Ikk vaar” before rendering a “Heer Kali” traversing in all octaves. Jageer’s melodic rendition of Heer Waris, the slumbering love legend of Punjab was really captivating as also a poem “Gallan Des Punjab diyan” authored by GS Musafir. As the crowd desired, Jageer presented songs laced with romanticism all sculpted by Dr Tejinder Singh and Balwinder Singh.
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Golden Forest investors to launch stir
Chandigarh, May 1 Shamsher Singh Sandhu, president, Golden Forests Investors’ Society, alleged that whenever they tried to seek redressal for their grievances from the committee members, they were asked to come next time. He said the committee had accumulated about Rs 450 crore by selling some of the assets of the company but not even a single penny had been distributed among the investors. Nikhil Kant Syal, spokesman of the GFIL, said more than Rs 11 crore had been spent since the constitution of the committee eight years ago. He said the company owns vast stretches of lands in Punjab (3,000 acres), Uttarakhand (2,500 acres), Madhya Pradesh (1,250) and Andhra Pradesh (1,000).
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Computerisation at Civil Hospital begins
Mohali, May 1 The work will be carried out in a phased manner and all important wings of the hospital will be computerised in about two months. The work was being undertaken by the Punjab Health Systems Corporation. To begin with, three new computers, along with printers, had been purchased for patient registration and billing. Two were being used for registration and one for billing of facilities like dialysis, operation, X-ray, blood bank, physiotherapy, laboratory and ambulance. With computerisation, OPD cards also indicated the identity and phone numbers of patients, the OPD rooms to visit, apart from name, gender, category, age and time of issuance. Dr Rajiv Bhalla, SMO in charge, said work with new computers was started on April 12. He added that patient registration and billing were earlier being done manually. He further said computers were not functional earlier and the software had also got corrupted. He said the emergency would be covered in the next phase, Which would take around 10 days. He also said inventory, radiology and laboratories would be computerised later. He added that the indoor wing, operation theatres and the labour room would be done in the last phase.
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More errors in PU paper
Chandigarh, May 1 Students complained that a 15-marks question was out of syllabus in the unit-IV of the paper. The error didn’t end there. Students also reported that two questions which appeared in the Unit III of the question paper were actually from Unit-II. This caused confusion and a majority of the students couldn’t attempt the unit. Nishtha Jaswal, Chairperson, law department, said that she has received a representation from the students which would be sent to the Board of Studies. The Board of studies would take the decision on the issue. “Some imbalance in the questions have been reported and the issue would be examined,” Jaswal said. On April 19, BSc-I students appearing for the botany examination in all colleges were surprised to find the answers to a 10-mark fill-in-the-blank question printed in the question book itself. On April 26, question paper of BA-III Hindi exam that was supposed to be of 90 marks turned out to be of 84 marks only. Confusion marred the BA-III History examination on April 27 after the world maps part of the question paper was not supplied at various examination centres. On April 28, the BCA-III exam of Discrete Maths had a six-marks question that was wrong.
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SOPU protests against delay in granting PhD degree to student
Chandigarh, May 1
SOPU president Bikramjit Singh Jatana said that the case was regarding the synopsis submission of Surinder Kumar, a JRF-qualified research scholar of the department, whose synopsis submission was rejected twice by the faculty members to allegedly settle personal scores. “The issue was also raised six months earlier following which the Vice-Chancellor (VC) constituted a committee to look into the matter. However the issue was never discussed again,” Jatana said. The students raised slogans against the university authorities and the chairperson of the department. Dean Student Welfare (DSW) AS Ahluwalia reached the spot to pacify the agitating students and assured them to look into the matter. “I met the chairperson of the department and discussed the case with him after which we have planned to assign one more subject expert as the supervisor who can scrutinise the synopsis and do the needful,” the DSW said. Jatana said that they would not let a research scholar be victimised by the university and have demanded immediate action. “There are many cases where the research scholars are victimised by their guides and we would launch an intensified agitation if the university fails to act,” he added.
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From Schools
Bhavan Vidyalaya, Chandigarh, in collaboration with the Department of Transfusion Medicine, PGI, organised a voluntary blood donation camp on Saturday. A state-of-the-art blood mobile van was deputed for blood collection in which four donors can donate blood at a time. The van is equipped with latest equipments required for blood collection. Over 50 parents and several staff members from the school volunteered to donate blood on the occasion.
Welcome party Shishu Niketan Public School, Sector 43, organised a “Welcome Party” in the kindergarten section of the school. Participants came attired in colourful dresses. The party included items like a song, ramp show, dancing and poem recitation. Coordinator Gurinder Kaur welcomed the children to the event. The children were also given return gifts by principal of the school Veena Arora. She also wished them a great academic session filled with fun and learning. Prize distribution A prize distribution function was held at St Soldier School, Sector 28, yesterday. Students who achieved success in academics, athletics, football, art during the session 2011-2012 were awarded trophies and merit certificates by principal Vijaya Sidhu .She congratulated the prize winners and motivated others to work hard to achieve success in future. Two members of the teaching faculty Amarjeet Sodhi and Sonia Thakur were awarded for their dedication in being present every day of the session. Hanish Guretia was awarded for winning a prize in inter-school cycling for teachers. Pool
party The kindergarten students of New India Smart Senior Secondary School, Sector 15, Panchkula, had a nice time during a pool party organised by the school. Dressed in bright and colourful swimming attires, children played in the pool with balls, fishing nets, slides, toys etc. Principal Sharda Gupta blessed the children and said such fun filled activities must be the part of school curriculum. Earth day celebrated Stepping Stones School celebrated ‘Earth Day’ with great zeal and enthusiasm. The day started with a speech on the importance of the day. Different ways to protect and preserve the planet were also discussed. This was followed by an Earth Day pledge. Activities relating to waste management were also conducted. A power point presentation on the importance of bio-fuels was also made. Another activity, relating to disaster management and fire prevention, was conducted in the school in collaboration with the fire department. Firemen demonstrated how fire is to be extinguished during an accident at home. Principal Anu Kumar, along with the students and staff, applauded the efforts taken by the firemen for our safety. The day was also celebrated by the tiny tots of Petals (Junior Wing) of the PML SD Public School, Sector 32, today. Children came dressed in different hues of ‘green’, symbolising Mother Earth. They also brought different ‘green’ nutritious food. Children were told stories about the various ways of saving our planet. Poem recitation Budding poets of Class II participated in Hindi poem recitation at Ryan International School, Sector 49. The children had come up with beautiful lyrical poems on nature, seasons, animals and even self-composed poems. The enthusiasm of the young ones was appreciated and applauded by all Schools celebrate Labour Day To make Labour Day memorable for bus drivers, conductors, rkshaw pullers, maids and peons, the students of Manav Mangal High School, Sector 21-C, arranged for a small get together for them. The celebration started with a welcome note, followed by a speech given by a student expressing thanks towards the workers. The significance of this day was explained to the students making them aware of the contributions and hard work put in by labourers round the clock for the smooth functioning of the school. Meanwhile, in another event, Gurukul Global School took a pledge to impart computer literacy to the class IV employees of the school. Labour Day was also celebrated in St Anne’s Convent School, Sector 32, Chandigarh. The students honoured the Class IV employees in the morning assembly by presenting them with flowers, greeting cards and gifts. School manager Father Thomas gave a speech on the importance of hard work in life. Each worker was encouraged to play computer games in the computer lab and served with refreshments. An oath taking ceremony was also conducted in the morning assembly during which the 20-member student parliament of the school pledged to serve and lead all the students of the school with total dedication. Meanwhile, the Mahatma Gandhi Student Legal Literacy Club, in collaboration with the NSS Units of Government Senior Secondary School, Sector-38 (West), also celebrated ‘International Workers Day’. In an interactive session Baljinder Singh , principal of the school informed students about importance of labour day. The day was also celebrated at St John’s School today. Workers were given the day off and their duties delegated to staff and students. Right from serving tea to emptying the dustbins, all work was done by teachers and students. Upholding the tradition of the school, the workers were treated as chief guests. Tiny tots have fun A welcome party was organised for the tiny tots of pre-primary classes by the teachers of MDAV School, Sector 22, yesterday. The tiny tots were welcomed warmly to mark the beginning of their study in school. The classes were beautifully decorated and the children came dressed in beautiful and colorful dresses. The kids danced to the tune of various songs. Sweets were also distributed among the students. Earth Day was also observed at the school. Apart from this, a poster-making competition was also organised in which classes VI to X participated. Students, through the medium of their posters, depicted the degradation of environment and also the ways to conserve and protect the planet. School event Students of Shishu Niketan Public School, Sector 5, Panchkula, had a gala time as it was a day full of activities and fun. The primary wing of the school enjoyed activities like Sandwich making, needlework, ready-to-eat snacks. Students actively participated in all these activities. The motive behind conducting these activities is the all round development of the child and to make him/her confident in every field, whether it is public speaking or it is cookery skill. Poster-making competition Vasundhra Eco Club of the Government High School, Mauli Colony, celebrated World Earth Day in the school in the form of poster-making competition under the guidance of Jyoti Sharma, Neelam Sood and Manjeet Paul Singh. The competition was held in two categories. In Category I, 36 students of Class VI to VIII and in Category II, 19 students of class IX-X participated. The posters were displayed in the multimedia room. Headmaster Ram Kumar Sharma gave away the prizes to the winners. Meanwhile, “Qudrat”, the Eco Club of Mount Carmel School, Sector 47-B, organised poster-making, slogan-writing and essay competitions to mark Earth day. The topics of the competitions were “Say no to plastic”, “Save water”, “ Water pollution”, “Population Explosion”, “Deforestation”, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”, “Global Warming”, “Oil Spills”, “Clean Fuel Options”, etc. Around 1400 students of Classes III to X of the school participated in the event. Felicitated Jupiter house of St Stephen's School conducted an unusual assembly on twin siblings yesterday. St Stephen's School has 17 pairs of twins on rolls, a rare occurrence for any school. The students at the assembly spoke about interesting incidents regarding identical twins. Twins students were also felicitated during the event. Water resources day Water Resources day was celebrated in Government Model High School, Sector 36D. A poster-making and poetry recitation competition was organised by the Sheesham Eco Club of the school. In poetry recitation Ishika, Prarthna and Anchal stood first, second and third respectively. In poster making Ashu, Payal and Tushar stood first, second and third. Headmaster Rakesh Sood gave away the prizes to these students. He appreciated the efforts of Eco Club members and asked students to take active participation in such competitions. ‘Infodip 2012’ Delhi Public School, Chandigarh hosted Infodip 2012 , an inter-school IT festival from April 27 to May 1, 2012. The event received an overwhelming response from the well-reputed schools of the tricity which included St John’s, Carmel Convent, Bhavan Vidyalaya, Hansraj, Manav Mangal, Strawberry Fields and many more. Over 200 students participated in various activities such as ‘Paint Your Imagination’, ‘Terminizer’, ‘Design Wizkid’, ‘ITicons’, ‘Viewpoint’, ‘Turning Point’ and ‘Click-Pic’. Principal Reema Dewan applauded the efforts of all the participants and emphasised on the importance of such co-curricular activities. She said that such events provide a platform to students and promote healthy competition. Water conservation Shatavari Eco-club and the NSS Units of Government Senior Secondary School, Sector-38 (West), Dadu Majra colony, organised various activities to observe “Water Conservation Fortnight” during last week as per the directions of Department of Environment, UT. Water Resources Day was also observed yesterday. Students were given valuable information regarding water conservation during interactive session, awareness rally, morning assembly etc. Different competitions, like essay writing, elocution, poster-making and slogan-writing were also organised in order to spread awareness about water conservation among the students . —
Tribune Reporters
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A medical check-up camp, organised especially for the Chandigarh Traffic police personnel at the Sector 29 Traffic lines, today revealed alarming trends, as 50 per cent of the traffic force was found unfit, with 60 out of the total 125 who were tested suffering from hypertension (high blood pressure).
