Chandigarh, June 27
In a stark contradiction to the high standards of cleanliness expected at medical institutions, water tanks on top of hospitals in different parts of the city are lying uncovered, serving as a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and germs spreading water-borne diseases.

A survey by the Chandigarh Tribune team has revealed that water tanks on top of the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital (GMSH) at Sector 16 are lying open.

Some do not have lids while lids of other tanks are left dangling. Water appears clear on the surface, but mud and other foreign particles can be seen settled on the bottom. Plastic waste, including a jar, has been seen floating at one place.

Tanks on top of the government polyclinic at Sector 22 are also lying open. Touching tanks from inside has revealed that those have not been cleaned for long.

In a letter to the UT engineering department, the GMSH authorities had asked the tanks to be cleaned and covered. There was no reaction to the communication, dated March 14 and May 11.

The hospital authorities had sought the cleaning of underground and overhead tanks and requested a chlorination check to prevent the spread of water-borne diseases.

Requesting anonymity, a senior doctor said, "The communication was sent because open tanks could serve as potential breeding places for carriers of cholera and other diseases in the wake of the monsoon. We will take up the matter at the senior level."

UT health services Director Chandermohan said, "The matter is a serious lapse and will be rectified immediately."

Indian Medical Association's local unit president RS Bedi said, "It is a contradiction to see government institutions flout safety standards and corner private doctors on many issues. Providing clean water is a basic facility expected at hospitals."

Area councillor Pradeep Chhabra said, "The matter does not concern the municipal corporation directly. Since issue involves public health and safety, we will take it up at the highest level."

A layer of mud lies in an uncovered tank on the roof of the polyclinic at Sector 22 in Chandigarh. Most common cause of disease Contaminated water is the most common cause of disease. Around 60 per cent of diseases caused to human beings are water-borne, with children below five years of age being more susceptible. One of the most common ways of water getting contaminated is through storage tanks. Cleaning those is either neglected or only plumbers or sweepers are engaged for the purpose. Cleaning techniques Storage tanks must be kept clean to prevent the deposition of sludge and sediment. Keeping tanks and other reservoirs clean is an important part of maintaining water facilities at buildings. Two methods are generally adopted to clean water tanks. The first method is manual, wherein a labourer enters a tank and scrubs it from inside. The other method is the use of jet-cleaners, anti-bacterial agents and disinfectants.

New Delhi, June 27
About 60 roadside liquor vends in Chandigarh, ordered to be shifted or closed by tomorrow by the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC), will continue to do business as usual as the Supreme Court (SC) today stayed the HC verdict.

A Bench comprising Justices HL Gokhale and Ranjana Prakash Desai also issued a notice to the Chandigarh Administration and the PIL petitioners who obtained the HC order, directing them to file their responses within four weeks to an appeal filed in the SC by one of the licence-holders.

Deepak Jain, petitioners’ counsel, contended that the Administration had granted licences for one year, till April 30, 2013, under the Punjab Excise Act, 1914, and the excise policy, 2012-13.

Under the contract, the Administration had provided space on a monthly rent of Rs 92,550 for each area, measuring 20 feet by 40 feet, to set up temporary structures using prefabricated material.

Entertaining the PIL filed by residents of different sectors, the HC had passed an order on May 28 for shifting the shops to alternative locations within 30 days.

The petitioners had contended that liquor vends and taverns were creating public nuisance and traffic hazards.

In the event of non-compliance, the shops should be closed, the HC had ruled. The court had also sought a compliance report by July 2.

The UT Administration had, in fact, opposed the PIL in the HC, contending that the allotments had been made in accordance with the excise policy, 2012-13.

It would suffer a loss of about Rs 70 crore if prefabricated structures were removed, the Administration had contended.

Jain argued that the allotment of liquor vends with prefabricated temporary structures was directly linked to the provision of space by the excise department.

Chandigarh, June 27
The UT police today filed a charge sheet in the NRI kidnapping-for-ransom case, that was registered on April 10. The charge sheet was filed against six accused and the police added sections of robbery, wrongful confinement, receiving stolen property and forgery in the charge sheet after completing investigations.

The charge sheet was been filed in court under Sections 364-A, 341, 342, 397, 411, 468, 471, 473 and 474 of the IPC.

Navneet Singh Chatha, a Canada-based NRI, was kidnapped for a ransom of Rs 1 crore on April 10. A team of the crime branch of the UT police had rescued him following an extensive operation at Darua village in Kurukshetra.

The NRI's brother in Canada had received a ransom call, demanding Rs 1 crore. The police laid a trap and arrested the six accused who kidnapped the NRI.

The kidnappers fired shots at the police and the police had to open fire. The charge sheet was filed against Pradeep Malik, Nitin, Sanjeev Kumar, alias Soni, Sukhdev, Anil Kumar and Ajit Singh. While Pradeep fired shots at the police, Soni was the owner of the farmhouse where the victim was confined.

Of the six accused, Anil Kumar had three cases of murder registered against him and was a proclaimed offender with the Haryana Police. As per the charge sheet, the police had recovered Rs 12.5 lakh, 300 Canadian dollars, the Honda Accord car of the victim, a Swift Desire car robbed from a person in Panchkula and two mobile phones.

An investigating officer said the NRI was robbed of his purse and belongings at gunpoint in confinement, following which the police added sections of robbery with attempt-to-murder under Section 397 of the IPC.

The Swift Desire car used in the crime was stolen from Panchkula and an FIR in this regard had been registered there. The police had recovered a fake registration certificate of the car and added sections of forgery in the charge sheet.

Chandigarh, June 27
In a major blow to the UT Administration’s efforts to save the Sukhna Lake, the chairman of the committee constituted to save the lake has stepped down from the post.

Sources said the reason behind this was that members were not taking the committee’s decisions seriously and not participating actively in discussions during meetings.

The UT Administration had now given the charge to convene meetings in the future to UT Finance Secretary VK Singh. UT Chief Conservator of Forests Santosh Kumar was made chairman of the committee last year.

The sources revealed that he wrote a letter to UT Adviser KK Sharma a few days back that some senior officer of Secretary rank should be made chairman of the committee for its smooth functioning.

The sources added that he stated that he would continue to be a part of the committee as member and would lend his full cooperation to the save Sukhna campaign.

The UT Administration had constituted the committee on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The committee had proposed several techniques, but all proposals were later rejected one after the other.

Requesting anonymity, a member of the committee said other members were not paying heed to proposals and directions of the committee.

Whenever a proposal was mooted for any department, officials with the department concerned skipped the next meeting.

Officials with the UT Administration and the Punjab government concerned did not implement decisions of the committee.

It was decided to make arrangements to stop the flow of sewage from the Kansal area in Punjab and the Kaimbwala area in Chandigarh, but nothing was done.

The sources added that members of the committee did not come to meetings on many occasions and sent junior officials instead, who were not aware of the minutes of the previous meeting.

Chandigarh, June 27
The day for 35-year-old Sumesh Kumari, a resident of Dadu Majra colony, begins at 3 am in the morning now, as she has to fetch water for her household needs. She has to reach early at the hand pump, located 8 km away from her residence in Dadu Majra village, to avoid long queues of people at the water tankers, as there has been no water supply in her colony since fortnight.

This is not only the story of Sumesh Kumari, but other women of 1,000 families residing in this colony are facing the similar situation. Women and children are seen carrying pitchers and buckets in the cart in the morning hours for getting water from the only hand pump in the adjoining village. In protest against the poor supply of water, residents of the colony today staged a protest and jammed a road near the Dadu Majra colony. The residents broke pitchers on the road and raised slogans against the authorities for poor water supply.

An official of the municipal corporation assured the residents of the colony that by tomorrow morning, the water supply situation will positively improve.

The residents alleged that despite a number of complaints to the municipal corporation, no action has been taken by the officials concerned, except giving standard reply that they are trying to improve the water supply situation in the area.

Resident welfare association general secretary Narinder Chaudhary revealed that since December 2009, their colony has been getting water only once in the morning and for storing water they have installed motors in their houses. But the situation is now getting worse day by day, as for the last two months, the colony has not received a single drop of water for the whole day.

When contacted, area councillor Sat Prakash Aggarwal expressed helplessness and said he had been regularly communicating with the department concerned, but no action had been taken by them till date.

Sunita, a resident of Dadu Majra colony, said her domestic budget had been disturbed for the last five months, as she had to allocate special funds for buying pitchers and buckets for storage of water. She said the hand pump in the village was the only lifeline for the residents of the colony.

Meanwhile, the residents who are residing on the upper floors in Sectors 21, 35 and 44 are again facing the problem of the low water pressure for the last two days. The corporation claimed that necessary steps had been taken to improve the situation, but no fruitful results have emerged in the areas.

Mohali, June 27
Residents of Phase X are up in arms, as they have been getting muddy water for past one week. “The water is completely unfit to use. Let aside drinking, you cannot even wash your hands with such dirty water,” said Raj Kumar, a resident of MIG houses, here while showing the brown-coloured water, which was supplied today morning.

The residents complained that they have apprised the concerned junior engineer of the situation five-six days ago but nobody has paid heed to their complaint.

Raj Kumar added the water did not reach at the upper floors of the colony due to very low pressure.

“First, you are getting very less water and that too, unfit to use, one can easily guess our plight,” he said adding that his entire family could not take bath today.

Another resident, Mamta, said that they were buying mineral water bottles from the market. “If this is situation in the so-called Model City, how people living in other towns, particularly in rural areas, can easily be guessed,” she said.

Public Health Executive Engineer Anil Kumar, who reached at the spot to check the situation, claimed that the problem was being rectified.

Chandigarh, June 27
Efforts of the Chandigarh health department to bridge the gap between demand and supply of manpower at its health facilities seems to be bearing fruits, as the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has asked the UT Administration to present a report on the issue shortly.

The UT health department had sought permission to recruit 631 employees. In the proposal, the UT health department officials sought recruitment of 50 doctors, 16 dental surgeons, six anaesthetists and two psychiatrists. Others posts where new recruitment has been sought include nurses (87), pharmacists (19), radiographer (10) and laboratory technicians (30).

The new recruits will be posted at the Government Multi- Specialty Hospital, Sector 16 (GMSH-16); Civil Hospital, Mani Majra; and strengthening health services at rural and urban areas.

The GMSH-16, in fact, has been reeling under staff shortage for long. The the hospital has only 116 doctors

GMSH medical superintendent Rajiv Vadehra said the Union Ministry has asked for some clarification on the issue, following which it is expected that the approval for the recruitment will be accorded soon, he added.

Panchkula, June 27
The investigating team of the local police has managed to grab the CCTV footage showing the four accused , who had robbed a resident village Haripur near Sector 21 of his car and other valuables on June 24. The police has recoverd the CCTV footage or the ATM that was used to withdraw money from State Bank of India ATM at Banur.

According to police sources, the investigating team had summoned Vipin, victim, today to check the CCTV footage and he has identified the four men who could be seen in the footage entering the ATM at around 10.45 pm on the same day.

Confirming the same the police said that investigating team has already launched the search operation to nab the accused with the help of the CCTV footage. The team would be raiding various places in Punjab also as the police have got some very strong leads, which would further help in nabbing the accused.

The accused, after robbing Vipin of his Ford Ikon car and other valuables including laptop, cash and gold jewellery, had asked him to give the PIN of the ATM card. As Vipin was aware that all the ATMs were equipped with CCTV cameras he told them the correct PIN anticipating that if the accused could be nabbed at the later stage if they used the ATM card.

Notably, 4 unidentified persons had first kidnapped the businessman, Vinay, after making him unconscious near Sector 12 when he had gone to attend the nature call. The accused had later taken away his Ford Icon car and other valuable items including gold jewellery, laptop, Rs 10,000 cash and ATM cards before throwing him out of the vehicle near Tangori village on the Banur-Landran road.

Mohali, June 27
Under a special cleanliness drive, the entire area of Phase III B 2, particularly parks and public places, was cleaned here today. Joint Commissioner of the Mohali Municipal Corporation, JC Sabharwal, supervised the drive for which at least 100 officials were deputed.

“Apart from cleanliness, the drive also aimed at preparation before monsoon. With the cleansing of the entire curve channels, and dumping sites, no garbage or other material would be left to go into drains with the rain water,” said Sabharwal.

The special drive, which would continue till July 12, was brainchild of Harbhajan Mann, chairman Planning Board here.

“I want to see the entire city clean and green. This is just a start. Such drives would continue in future,” said Harbhajan Mann while talking to the Chandigarh Tribune.

Panchkula, June 27
Learning quick lesson from the incident of child felling into a borewell and the subsequent death in Kho village in Gurgaon recently, the district administration has directed the officers to conduct a survey of unauthorised open borewell in the district.

Deputy Commissioner, Ashima Brar, while addressing the senior officers during a meeting directed them to ensure that all the borewells falling in their jurisdiction should be covered besides ensuring that any other area dug for any other purpose should also be covered to avoid any such incident.

Brar also directed the concerned officers to take suitable action against the defaulter, if any bore well/tube well holes were found uncovered.

She directed that the owner of the land before taking any steps for digging a bore well must inform in writing at least 15 days in advance to the concerned officer in the area and added that registration of all the drilling agencies would be mandatory with the district administration. Complete address of the drilling agency at the time of construction of well and complete address of the user agency/owner of the well is compulsory on the signboard at the time of construction near well, she added.

Panchkula, June 27
Despite tall claims of the Haryana government to make the state an educational hub the two polytechnic institutes to be set up at Nanakpura village in Pinjore block and Sector 26, Panchkula, are non-starter, as the government has failed to initiate steps to set up the same.

The land for both the institutes was to be provided by the state government, while the Central government was to provide financial assistance in setting up the same. The Ministry of Human Resource Development had approved assistance of Rs 2.3 crore for setting up polytechnic college at Nanakpura and had released Rs 2 crore as first installment in April 2010, but the project, foundation stone for which was laid by the then Chief Minister late Bhajan Lal in 1996, is yet to see the light of the day.

The project management consultancy work had been assigned to the Gurgaon-based company RITES, which had already submitted the drawings and estimates to Director General, Technical Education, Panchkula. A 10-acre of land had been provided by the gram panchayat and the work was to be completed by 2011-12 but not a single brick has been laid.

Similarly, the Polytechnic College for Women, to be set up in two-and-a-half acres in Sector 26, has been identified, but the possession of the land was yet to be handed over to by the HUDA to the department. The Haryana government had accorded Rs 4.4 lakh for the construction of the boundary wall. The construction work was likely to start in 2012-13 financial year after the department concerned completes the necessary formalities.

Vijay Bansal, patron, Shivalik Vikas Manch, who had sought this information under the RTI Act from the Director Technical Education, Haryana, said that the department alleged that the state government was least bothered in providing skilled training to the youth of this region, as the Chief Minister was concentrating only on the development of his Rohtak constituency. He said not a single penny has been spent for the setting up of the technical institutes in this part of the state forcing the students to move to neighboring states for higher education.

Lashing out at Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Union Minister for poverty alleviation Kumari Shailja, Bansal said that both the leaders have only befooling the people in this district by promising to set up technical or other professional institutes. He said that union minister Shailja had announced in 2010 an Institute of Fashion Technology to be set up in Panchkula but this project is yet to see the light of the day.

He said international universities and other professional institutes including IIM were being set up in the hometown of the chief minister while three districts of this region including Yamunanagar, Panchkula and Ambala have totally been neglected.

Chandigarh, June 27
Nearly 600 persons donated blood at a donation camp organised in memory of the national archery player and a regular blood donor, Prabhsimran Singh (Nanu), here today. The camp held at the Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Singh Gurdwara, Sector 34, was fifth since 22-year-old Prabhsimran died two years ago due to breathlessness during pilgrimage to Hemkunt Sahib.

The camp held in collaboration with the Emerging India Welfare Association and late Prabhsimran Singh (Nanu) Sidhu Memorial Trust was inaugurated by Ashok Aggarwal, Advocate General of Punjab. Prabhsimran was a regular blood donor.

The trust is only a tribute to take forward Prabhsimran’s vision of inspiring people to donate blood to save human lives in emergency, he said.

The camp was conducted under the supervision of two teams led by Dr Poonam from GMCH, Sector 32, and Dr Nidhi from a hospital from Mohali, respectively. — TNS

Chandigarh, June 27
The UT police suspended a head constable and two constables for dereliction of duty here today.

These three police personnel are in the dock for facilitating a jail inmate to meet his relative in Panchkula.

Those suspended included head constable Ranbir and constables, Tej Pal and Sanjay.

Chandigarh, June 27
The Chandigarh traffic police has started a special drive against autorickshaws plying in the city without permit. A number of complaints were received from the public.

During this drive, 103 autos were challaned. Apart from this, 80 autos were also impounded. — TNS

Chandigarh, June 27
Thousands of applicants for class XI admissions in government schools were left fuming and anxious today, as they were unable to access admission form details and common merit list uploaded by the education department for their verification.

The students are supposed to review their application details and merit list, indicating CGPA (before tie-break) and first preference stream, report and grievance last by around 1 pm tomorrow. However, all thanks to a technical glitch, the lists, which were meant to be uploaded at 11 am remained unavailable till about 4 pm.

Senior officials of the education department blamed DOEACC for the lapse. This, however, failed to sooth parents and their children, who thronged the grievance cells and department office.

“I have been sitting in a cyber café since 11 am and have not been able to see the list even after four hours. I called up the grievance cell around 12 noon and was told there was a technical issue. What if we have to report any ambiguity, will it not be a tryst tomorrow with huge rush?” said a parent from Sarangpur. While DEO Ram Kumar remained unavailable for a comment, a senior official said that it was huge traffic on the website, which led to a problem. He also claimed that the department tried contacting DOEACC, but couldn’t do so till about 4 pm.