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GMCH nursing staff strike work
Chandigarh, June 15
As more than 300 nurses deputed at the emergency, ICUs, the CCU, operation theatres and general wards did not join duty in the morning, services at the hospital crumbled and all surgical operations were postponed or referred to other hospitals. Members of the GMCH Nurses Welfare Association had been on agitation since May 19 and were protesting over the delay in addressing their grievances.
They resorted to a strike after talks between them and the authorities failed to reach any logical end last evening. This put patients to great inconvenience. While all operation theatres were locked throughout the day due to the absence of nursing staff, many a patient reaching the emergency were sent back, with the advice to go to some other medical facility. Ganpati Devi (60) of Ram Darbar had been fainting and vomiting since yesterday. When her condition did not improve despite treatment, her two daughters Nisha and Sunita shifted her to the GMCH, only to be told to take her somewhere else. “No one examined our mother. Doctors merely asked us to take her to any other place,” said Nisha.
Kala of Rajpura said he got electrocuted at his house. He added that his right hand was burnt badly and he was admitted to the GMCH. Doctors planned the surgery for today, but he was told in the morning that his surgery was postponed till further planning as the nursing staff had gone on indefinite strike, he said, lying at the emergency ward. Patients lying at the emergency and wards did not get their injections in time. Seven-year-old Shivam's mother Poonam had to wait for at least two hours to get her son injected. Under treatment for a head injury at the emergency, Shivam was scheduled to get the injection at 10:30 am. A nurse came to the room, but refused to give him the injection despite requests, said Poonam. It was 12:30 pm when a doctor came to examine him and administered the injection, she added. Medical superintendent Vipin Kaushal denied that patients reaching the emergency were returned without medical treatment. Though there was some inconvenience to patients at wards and OPDs due to the strike, work at the emergency was conducted smoothly, he claimed. The nursing staff called off the strike at 3 pm and joined duty. Union president Vijay Kumar said the hospital administration assured them of addressing all grievances within three months.
35 operations postponed
A total of 35 surgical operations of orthopaedics, gynaecology and ENT, besides other departments, were postponed as all operation theatres at the hospital remained locked due to the strike.
What nursing staff want
The demands of the nursing staff include the implementation of Central pay scales and Central civil service rules, filling up of the vacant posts and change in designation from staff nurse to nursing officer. |
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Despite MC no, UT Admn to impose house tax
Chandigarh, June 15 The official pointed out that the Haryana government had been imposing house tax to get Central grants. He asked why the MC was not ready to impose house tax in the city. The Planning Commission had recently told the Administration to impose house tax. The Planning Commission had told the Administration to raise resources from all possible sources, including house tax, to fund its plan. Sources revealed that the Administration could impose the tax under Section 90(4) of the Act. According to the Act, the Administration had a special or general order to direct the MC to impose the tax not imposed by the authorities in the period specified. The city would lose around Rs 400 crore under the JNNURM if house tax was not imposed in the city. The Administration and the MC would not be able to seek more funds under the JNNURM for future projects. The imposition of house tax was one of the reforms to be implemented for states and union territories that got funds under the JNNURM. The MC had signed an MoU under the JNNURM with the Ministry of Urban Development to levy house tax to raise funds.
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MC councillors given laptops
Chandigarh, June 15 While she distributed new laptops among all councillors, the proposal on two study tours of councillors was mooted. As the meeting commenced, the Mayor distributed laptops to new councillors and assured them that data-card connections for Internet facility would be issued shortly. In the last two years, not a single agenda of the meetings had been sent to councillors on their official e-mail IDs, for which the laptops were issued to them. Neither had any proposal been mooted by councillors after detailed research on the Internet, nor had any presentation been given by any councillor. Records of the municipal corporation (MC) revealed that two years ago, laptops were given to all councillors on the plea that they would not have to go on study tours. It was also pointed out that the MC would save a lot of paper by issuing lengthy agendas of meetings to councillors online, but the previous practice was still being followed. Even during the pre-house meeting today, councillors proposed two new study tours, one to Kerala and the other to Mumbai, Pune and Goa. The previous proposal was of study tours to Jalandhar, Amritsar and Srinagar, Surat and Mumbai and Kolkata and Darjeeling, but were rejected by councillors. MC records revealed that the projects proposed after study tours, like the night food street, the fish market, the blind park and the 'dhobi ghat' were defunct and no effort was being made to make those succeed. An example was the night food street near the PGI. After a controversy over prices of food items, the authorities had shut it. The MC had come up with the blind park for special children at Sector 26, but there was no provision to make them acquainted with different plants. There was a modernised 'dhobi ghat' at Sector 15, which had not been equipped with basic machines needed for washing. There were no takers for the first air-conditioned fish market in the city. When this project was mooted, it was decided that the shops would be handed over to Mani Majra and Shastri Nagar fish-sellers at nominal rates to provide them a hygienic place.
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Amritsar-based businessman bags '0001' for Rs 17 lakh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 15
A total of 148 numbers were auctioned in the daylong exercise. The RLA earned Rs 70.42 lakh from the auction. In April, former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore had bid Rs 9.05 lakh to get 'CH01AM-0001' for his Mercedes car. Despite inadequate seating arrangements and uncordial organisers, number-bidders waited till late this evening. Slow-rotating ceilings fans and inadequate cooling by air-conditioners caused irritation to visitors. "When I am paying the bid money and the Administration is earning in lakhs, it should have the courtesy to provide proper seating arrangements and other basic amenities," said MPS Chawla, a local industrialist, who came to bid for a vanity number. The second-highest price of Rs 2.70 lakh was fetched by the number '0020', followed by '0002', that went for Rs 2.50 lakh. Among other numbers that fetched good prices were '0009' ( Rs 2.16 lakh), '0005' (Rs 2.06 lakh), '0007' (Rs 2 lakh), '0003' (Rs 1.85 lakh), '0006' (Rs 1.45 lakh) and '0011' (Rs 1.25 lakh). Registering and licensing officer Sanjeev Kohli said the authority earned Rs 70.42 lakh from the auction. The advance amount for booking the numbers was between Rs 5,000 and Rs 25,000, depending on the specific number.
What Rs 17 lakh can fetch
Value of ‘0001’
CH01AN Rs 17 lakh CH01AM Rs 9.05 lakh CH01AL
Rs 5.80 lakh CH01AH Rs 7 lakh CH01AG Rs 1.4 lakh CH01AF Rs
70,000 CH01AE Rs 5.71 lakh CH01AD Rs 8 lakh CH01AC Rs 10 lakh CH01AB
Rs 4.3 lakh CH01AA Rs 2.6 lakh
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House tax to be charged
Panchkula, June 15 For those who have plots of 250 square yards the actual tax would be calculated on the 60 per cent of the covered area, which is nearly 150 yards. They would have to pay house tax at the rate of Re 1 per square yard while for the 14 marla and one kanal houses or above would have to pay tax on the collectorate basis. Notably, the State Government had decided to impose house tax from April 2010 in different cities of the state during a cabinet meeting in this regard on May 30. The MC executive officer OP Sihag said that they were awaiting the final notification from the Local Bodies department in this regard and it would take another one month or so for them to start sending notices to the house owners to deposit house tax after assessing the same on their own. Sihag said that there were around 46,000 houses in the town and about 90 per cent houses are of 250 square yards or less. He said there are about 7 per cent commercial sites while the industrial houses or other establishment constitutes 3 per cent in Kalka and Pinjore towns, which fell under the corporation after upgradation of the town from Council to corporation. As per the earlier plan, the people having houses up to 250 sq yards would have to pay house tax at the rate of Rs 1 per square yard. Similarly, the house tax at the rate of Rs 1 per square feet would be charged on 500 square feet self occupied flats. Fifty paise per square yard would be charged on vacant plots of 250 square yards while no tax would be charged on vacant plot of up to 100 square yard. According to information about Rs 17,000 would be charges from self occupied houses having an area of 500 square yards. A booth owner would have to pay Rs 3500 per annum while a showroom owner having an area of 400 square yards would have to pay Rs 40,000 for a single floor. Similarly, those owning industrial plots of 1000 square yards would have to pay Rs 29,000 besides fire tax. Most of the houses in the town are of 10 marla or lesser size and the tax limit for the houses above 250 sq yards had been set after taking collectorate rate and size of plot into consideration as was stated in Haryana Municipal Act. This would be the first time when Panchkula residents living in their own accommodations would be paying this tax. As of now, Panchkula MC levies tax from commercial, industrial, institutional and rented properties only.
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Admn seems in deep slumber
Rajinder Nagarkoti Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 15 As the UT Administration is not even bothered to check these illegal connections, it is the common man, which is facing the problem. Every year, the UT electricity department faces loss to the tune of Rs 7 crore from nearly 20,000 unauthorised connections. In addition to the kundi connections, the distribution and transmission loss are pegged at 18 per cent by the administration. To overcome these losses, the UT Administration had hiked the power tariff two times in last two years. Sources said the electricity, which was being enjoyed by these illegal kundi connection holders, could be used to meet the demand and supply gap in the summers. According to a survey conducted by an NGO, around 3.5 lakh people are living in 40 slums of Chandigarh. According to the survey, 14 of the slums that are being provided electricity through private contractors are not satisfied with the services and a number of slum dwellers are using kundi connections. Rajinder Pandey, a resident of Sector 44, said their sector was continuously facing long power cuts in the summers, but those indulging in power thefts are enjoying round-the-clock power supply. The common man is paying the bill for using the electricity, but these people are enjoying it free of cost, he added. Sham Singh, a resident of Sector 46, said the department had shown nearly 18 per cent transmission loss, maximum of which is due to the kundi connections. From the past many years, the UT Administration has miserably failed to remove these kundi connections. People in colonies are running coolers, fridge and other electric appliances, but the common man is only getting scheduled and unscheduled power cuts, he added. For years, the UT has not been able to check such connections and now it has decided to legalise kundi connections in some of the areas by providing them meters. The administration has also approved the proposal forwarded by the UT electricity department to allot a group of 10 to15 people using unauthorised connections.
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Councillors take U-turn
Will table fresh policy for approval of authorities during next House meeting Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 15 In a pre-House meeting of all party councillors with Mayor Raj Bala Malik here today, the issue of free parking passes was discussed and the councillors unanimously approved that a fresh policy should be drafted for the same. Interestingly, BJP councillor Arun Sood who had taken up this matter in the House was mum on the issue of recovery of the financial loss and stressed to draft a fresh policy for it. Passing the buck to the UT Administration to take action against those who had issued passes beyond their eligibility, the BJP councillors supported the move of the ruling party councillors to chalk out fresh policy in this regard. Avoiding any controversy on the issue of number of free parking passes to the councillors, it was proposed in the meeting that each councillor should get one councillor pass and four complimentary free parking passes from the authorities. Besides this, one pass to a mediaperson and two passes each to an ex-MP and present MP was also approved. Cancelling free passes to all other categories, including officials of the corporation, the councillors proposed that the draft policy should be formulated on these lines. All party councillors asked the Mayor to instruct the officials to draft a fresh policy on these lines at the earliest. The councillors suggested during the meeting that the Mayor should be allowed to avail 25 free parking passes, but she rejected the proposal. Mayor Raj Bala Malik said she would instruct the authorities to draft the policy on the lines proposed by the councillors and tabled in the General House meeting for approval. It may be mentioned that in the finance and contract committee meeting, which was held yesterday, the issue was tabled by the MC Commissioner for free parking passes for 10 categories. But it was rejected by the members on the ground that the BJP has submitted a complaint to the UT Administration and until then the action will not be taken on it.
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Rise in crime keeps policemen on toes
Chandigarh, June 15 Thieves are not only giving sleepless nights to residents but also to the police, who in return have decided to hold regular late night nakkas and patrolling in the city. A total of 550 police personnel, along with the CRPF was on the city roads from midnight to 5 in the morning with 18 checkpoints across the city, holding 10 policemen at each checkpoint. Intensive checking at six barriers including Zirakpur, Mohali, Dhillon, Mullanpur, Matuar and housing board was held. The city has witnessed 585 incidents of thefts, out of which 344 are vehicle thefts and 241 are house thefts, meanwhile, 94 burglaries have been reported so far. Fifty-nine cases of vehicle theft were registered in January that went to 69 in February, in March there were 55 cases and in April, there was sudden spurt and 75 cases of vehicle theft were reported, which further went to 86 in May. The city has witnessed 94 cases of burglary so far this year and over 60 per cent of these are unsolved. In 2011, a total of 1,502 cases of thefts were reported, while 285 cases of burglary were registered. Three thefts at Ram Darbar were reported on June 14, while in one incident at house number 388. Phase II, thieves managed to decamp with gold earrings, gold and silver mangal sutra and a few clothes. In another incident, theft at house number 1480, Phase I, was reported where the thieves managed to decamp with various gold jewellery, a DVD player, a gas cylinder and Rs 15,000 cash. The third incident was reported at house number 164/1, Phase II, where thieves managed to decamp with three mobiles and Rs 4,000 cash.
Theft cases in June
June 4: Locks of six booths broken in Sector 16. June 6: Locks of four booths broken in Sector 27. June 14: Three incidents of thefts reported in Ram Darbar.
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Elders’ abuse survey report released
Chandigarh, June 15 While Justice (retd) Jagdish Bhalla, chairman, Punjab Human Rights Commission, was the chief guest, Superintendent of Police (Operation) RS Ghuman was the guest of honour. Justice (retd) Jagdish Bhalla released the elders’ abuse survey report of the HelpAge India. He informed participants on the human rights and also updated them with the importance of Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. He also shared his experiences while dealing with such cases in his professional life. Brigadier (retd) Keshav Chandra, a former president of the Senior Citizens Association, Chandigarh, welcomed the guests and also highlighted the importance of the day. DS Grewal, president of the association, also introduced three victims of the elders’ abuse to the guests. Bhavneshwar Sharma, state head, HelpAge India, Chandigarh, presented the facts and figures related to the elders’ abuse at the national level and in the city.
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Sarav shiksha employees hold protest
Panchkula, June 15 Raising slogans against the State Government the protesting employees demanded the reinstatement of 17 MIS Coordinators whose services have been terminated without assigning any reason. Addressing the protestors, Surjeet Singh Malik, president SSKSH said that they had served the organisation for more than 18 years on contract and if their demands were not fulfilled by June 24 next they would be forced to hold an agitation outside the Parishad Headquarters in the town from June 25. Malik said that about 1500 employees are presently working on contract under the Sava Shiksha Abhiyaan Programme and most of them have been working in the Parishad for the past 10 years or more with some having been employed at the time of District Primary Education Programme. He demanded that contractual employees be absorbed against the permanent posts to secure their future on the pattern of West Bengal and Sikkim. He said that till then these employees should be given salary benefits and other perks at par with the regular employees as per the 6th pay commission. He alleged that the executive committee of the parishad had decided to start EPF and ESI facilities for all the employees but nothing has been done so far. He further alleged that half of the contractual employees of the Parishad were without extension and demanded that the contracts of all the employees be renewed without further delay besides month medical leave for all the employees. He further demanded that women employees should be provided 6 months maternity leave with pay. Later, the state project director held a meeting with the leaders of the SSKSH and assured that their genuine demands would be taken up with higher authorities. He told that sacked employees could not be reinstated as they were on contract and their services were no more required by the Parishad.
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BJP to launch ‘jail bharo andolan’ from June 22
Panchkula, June 15 Giving details about the programmes, here yesterday, the senior BJP leaders and former Member Parliament from Ambala Rattan Lal Kataria said that hundreds of BJP party members would offer for arrests on June 22 to show their displeasure on the rising prices. Launching a scathing attack on Congress led UPA Government at the centre, Kataria said people had failed to understand as to who was the Prime Minister of the country. He said at present the country was leaderless as the nation was being administered by Mamata Bannerji, Sharad Pawar, Mulayam Singh Yadav besides Manmohan Singh, who just follows the directives of the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Criticizing the youth policy in the state Kataria said that chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was only interested in promoting his son Deepinder Hooda. He said that the CM was concentrating on his home town Rohtak only as various professional institutes like Indian Institutes of Management, IIT, Defence University, AIIMS and other educational institutes were being set up there. Kataria said that even Union Minister Kumari Shailja, who claims to be close confidant of UPA chairperson, has also failed to seek any major project for her Ambala constituency. He announced that more than 25,000 BJP and Haryana Janhit Congress workers would participate in the rally at Thapar Ground at Yamunanagar on June 18. He said about 2,000 party workers from Panchkula and 4,000 from Ambala would participate in the railly to be addressed by BJP president Nitin Gadkari and HJC leaders.
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Police sends two teams to Solan in murder case
Mohali, June 15 The DSP Rajinder Singh Sohal said that it was difficult to gather information locally in connection with the murder, as people here hardly knew the victim. He had come from Solan recently. The teams were sent to carry out the investigations. The police suspected that someone known to the victim was behind the murder. According to the police, Vikrant Verma (38) was brutally murdered at his rented accommodation in Shivalik Vihar, Nayagaon, on Wednesday night. The suspects had allegedly stabbed the victim with sharp-edged weapon thrice after which he started bleeding profusely. When he shouted for help, his neighbours rushed him to the PGI, Chandigarh, where he succumbed to his injuries. Working in the field of medical transcription, Vikrant had shifted here a few days ago for a business venture. The body of the deceased was handed over to members of his family after conducting the postmortem examination. The police has registered a case of murder against unidentified persons. Vikrant is survived by his wife and two children.
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The pilot project of the joint venture of the RWA and MC to maintain parks is running successfully by Green Park and Welfare Association, Sector 11. In 2007 an MOU was signed with between the RWA and Municipal Corporation to jointly maintain the Poinsettia and Ixora Garden. The association was to provide some gardeners and the rest of the work was to be done by the corporation staff. A similar agreement was signed in March 2011. The agreement is still in force and the association is working to maintain the garden and green belts of the sector. According to the MOU, the association will supervise the working of the malis and liaison with the concerned corporation officials.
Powermen union holds meeting
The executive committee meeting of the UT Powermen Union Chandigarh took place here on Friday. The meeting discussed the long pending genuine demands of the electricity employees including. Later, it was unanimously decided to organise protest rallies before all the offices and massive protest demonstration will be held on July 3 near electricity office sector 18, Chandigarh and will took out procession towards Governor House.
Film schools
Annapurna International School of Film and Media (AISFM) conducted a film-making workshop for aspiring filmmakers and budding actors in a hotel at Sector 34, here on Friday. The workshop was primarily divided into three brainstorming sessions. In the first session students were given a script and were suggested to work on an ad film.
Placement
Swift Group of Colleges have placed all 200 of their nursing and pharma course pass outs of 2012 in reputed hospitals and companies. Giving details, a spokesman for the Group of Colleges said students of BSc and Post Basic Nursing were completely absorbed by reputed hospitals like Indus, Cosmo, Silver Oaks, Grecian, Grewal Eye
68 make it to PCS
Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration, Punjab (MGSIPAP) has achieved landmark by enabling 68 candidates to make their entry through Mock Interviews trial into the list of successful candidates of PCS final result declared today by the Punjab Public Service Commission. Out of 68 successful candidates who had appeared in the Mock Interview test in MGSIPAP before the final interview in the PPSC included 48 candidates in General category, 2 candidates in Physically Handicapped category, 3 candidates in Ex- servicemen (Gen. category), 1 candidate in Ex- servicemen (SC category), 4 candidates in Valmiki/Majbi Sikh category, 4 candidates in SC category, 3 candidates in BC category and 1 candidate from Sports person of Pb. category.
Lawrance Public Senior Secondary School organised a one-day camp to save surrounding during vacation. The students planted saplings.
Students get scholarship
Four engineering students of Gain Jyoti Group of Institutions got scholarships of Rs 1 Lakh under Merit-cum-Means Scholarship scheme of Government of Punjab.
RTI library inaugurated
Asia’s first library of the RTI documents was inaugurated at the Dwarka Das Library, Lala Lajpat Rai
Bhawan, here on Friday. The Citizen’s Voice and RTI User’s Association is spearheading the development work of the library in association with the Servants of People’s Society. Inaugurating the library by cutting the ceremonial ribbon, Onkar
Chand, the chairman of Servants of the People, Chandigarh branch, said, “This red ribbon signifies the
red-tapism plaguing the public work in our country.” The event also marked 7th anniversary of Presidential assent to the transparency law. — TNS
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government schools Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 15 The rush is expected to make seats at a majority of model schools, particularly in Sectors 37, 35 and 16, prized ones, and if speculations are to go by the first counselling cutoff in the science stream is bound to be CGPA 10. “When on the first few days we sold 9,000 forms we thought it was the usual initial rush but now when we have already sold 15,000 forms and people are still coming for more we are expecting a tougher fight for seats in many schools. Over 8,000 students have already applied primarily for sciences and commerce and we expect 4,000 more application by tomorrow. We have always been popular for sciences but this time we have broken all records,” said a senior UT official. The rush according to many is because of the fact that a majority of private schools had already completed class XI admissions in April itself by admitting students on provisional basis. Another reason, which makes government schools a hot choice, especially for sciences, is that their attendance norms suite coaching centre timings and demands. What has acted as a booster is the good result over the last two years. “This time the Manimjara school is the top choice as not only maximum numbers of forms have been sold from there, but even the number of applications are high. The key reason behind it is the good result of the schools over the past two years which has made people of neighboring area go there. The government schools have over the last two years improved their results tremendously, making them cheap and best choice for class XI admissions,” added the official.
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PU online admission schedule out
Chandigarh, June 15 PU officials said that the availability of online admission forms for BA, BCom, LLB (5 year integrated course), B Pharmacy and B Sc (Hons) will be available on the university website on June 16, meanwhile the candidates are supposed to apply for admission before July 2. Officials said that the next step for the admission would be submission of the hard copy of the form filled by students online for which July 4 would be the last date. “The tentative merit list of the students who complete the admission process would be displayed on July 16 on the PU website and in the next two days the university will entertain objections from students regarding the merit list”, officials said. The candidates applying for B Pharmacy and BSc (Hons) courses will have to fill their preferences online on July 17 and 18 followed by a display of provisional merit list on July 19. The release of allocation list for B Pharmacy and B Sc (Hons) courses will be done on July 20. “The candidates will then have to report to the university on the basis of allocation list,” officials added.
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Another vehicle theft on PU campus
Chandigarh, June 15 The recent case of car theft has been reported from the parking lot near the PU library. Complainant Mohit Kumar, a resident of Ram Nagar, Ropar, who had come to inquire about PU admissions reported to the police that his car was stolen from the parking. This is the second incident of vehicle theft inside PU campus this month. Earlier a motorcycle was stolen from the parking of the botany department. The steps taken by the PU security to note down the numbers of vehicles getting parked in the parking near library and the student center has failed to keep a check on thefts. PU chief security officer PK Dhawan said that the CCTV footage of the parking lot is being scrutinised that shows a man walking towards the car and opening it with the key. “The man seems to be in his late thirties. He very confidentially opened the car and drove away which has been captured by our camera installed in the parking,” Dhawan said. The CCTV footage has been provided to the police and security officials at all the entry gates have been asked to keep a check on people moving in the campus. Dhawan also said that the university is planning to purchase high resolution CCTV cameras capable of recoding the registration number of vehicles and the image of driver driving the car which would be installed at all the entry gates to check vehicle thefts. Dhawan said that vigil in all the parking lots will be increased and vehicles found unlocked will be impounded and handed over to the police.
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Scuffle at PU hostel
Chandigarh, June 15 PU chief security officer PK Dhawan said that both the students had gone to hostel no VII to have food in the afternoon when they entered into an altercation. "Gurinder Singh hit the other student with a chair near the mess," Dhawan said. Security officials rushed to the scene and took the injured student for medical help. No police complaint was registered as both the students struck a compromise. A warning was given to both the students.
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Jai Kishore, a labourer at Lalru, was asked to come today for further planning of surgery on his fractured leg. He said, “I spent Rs 800 on a taxi to reach here. On reaching the hospital, I was told that nothing could be done today as the nursing staff was on mass casual leave.”
