Chandigarh, July 12
The Panjab University administration seems to have been caught between the outgoing and the new Vice-Chancellor. Even as RC Sobti’s tenure ends on July 22, he has ‘refused’ to chair the Syndicate meeting.

He has asked officials to contact the new VC, Arun Grover, who is yet to give his consent to chair the meeting.

“With nearly a fortnight left, this month’s Syndicate meeting is nowhere in sight,” said varsity officials. The Syndicate meeting is to be held every month. As the Syndicate meeting could not be held last month, this month’s meeting becomes mandatory.

“We have 15-odd days left and we have to set an agenda to be sent to the syndicate members 10 days in advance. Professor Sobti has refused to chair the meeting and has asked us to go to the new VC, but we have not been able to contact him,” said an official.

However, syndics feel that Sobti should have chaired the meeting as he is well versed with the university issues. “This meeting holds importance as it will be last syndicate before the senate elections. Sobti should have chaired it because he knows about the issues rather than Grover who will not be of much help,” said a syndic.

Chandigarh, July 12
Even after six months, the UT Administration has failed to resolve the dispute between two departments of the administration over the restriction on the height of buildings around the Sukhna catchment area.

While preparing a draft to develop an eco-sensitive zone in the catchment area of the Sukhna wildlife sanctuary, falling in the union territory, the office of the Deputy Commissioner and the UT Forest and Wildlife Department had submitted different points on the restriction.

The experts’ committee on the eco-sensitive zone, constituted in March last year, is yet to complete its report. At present, the draft and objections of both the departments are pending with the UT Administration.

The DC’s office had maintained that construction should be allowed as per the UT building bylaws in the area from the boundary of the sanctuary till a distance of 500 metres. The Forest and Wildlife Department had asked how the DC’s office could propose the height of buildings.

It was submitted by the forest department that building bylaws would change with time and the height should be fixed at between 24 feet and 26 feet to save the wildlife and forest area.

The DC office had stated in the report to the UT Administration that construction should be allowed as per the Chandigarh building bylaws, which only allow three or four storeys. Whereas the forest department had submitted that instead of building bylaws, the height of structures should be fixed at between 24 feet to 26 feet.

The forest department had pointed out that the building bylaws could be changed with time and population increase, but the height would not be changed if it is fixed.

The forest department has apprehensions that if Punjab and Haryana also include building bylaws in their plans after the UT draft, it will benefit realty players as the building bylaws in the two states allow taller buildings, which in turn will affect the wildlife and forest area of the sanctuary. 

Chandigarh, July 12
Putting an end to the ongoing rift with the UT SSP, inspector Amanjot Singh withdrew his protest resignation today. The step was taken after two departmental inquiries against him were dropped.

In his letter to the UT SSP today, inspector Amanjot wrote since both the inquiries against him had been dropped, he was withdrawing his resignation.

The matter was settled after a meeting with the UT Inspector General of Police at the police headquarters in Sector 9 on Tuesday when the inspector agreed to take back his protest resignation and the police department decided to drop both the departmental inquiries against him.

Amanjot had resigned on May 22 alleging he was targeted by ASP (Central) Desraj Singh and the UT SSP as both the inquiries against him were uncalled for and he was innocent.

Chandigarh, July 12
Following the UT Administration’s decision to leverage Aadhaar in its various social welfare schemes inter alia social welfare disbursement, slum rehabilitation and scholarship payments, the education department in coordination with the UIDAI, Chandigarh, held a sensitisation programme for cluster heads and principals of various government schools from the city.

Nearly, 18 principals attended this sensitisation programme.

During this programme, they were apprised of the uniqueness of Aadhaar, authentication service, its linked payments and the manner in which it can be leveraged in scholarship disbursal. They were informed to collect the UID data of beneficiary students and to get the left out beneficiary students enrolled for Aadhaar.

The principal of Government School, Sector 37, took a special initiative to enable the left out school students to get enrolled for Aadhaar during school timing. The camp was inaugurated by the principal yesterday.

Other government schools in the region are also planning to conduct similar camps, so that the students can conveniently enroll for Aadhaar. These special camps in the schools will have an advantage that the school administration can facilitate the proofs of identity and address of these students. This initiative is expected to help the students, especially students from marginalised sections of society.

Mohali, July 12
Tall claims of the state government regarding improving infrastructure at schools seemed to have no ground as the Government High School at Desu Majra village, located on the Kharar-Mohali road, has been grappling with more than one infrastructure-related problem.

The ground surrounding the school complex, which also houses Government Primary School, has virtually been turned into a mini pond due to water logging. There is no system to drain out the accumulated water, said the school staff. The situation is even worse in the primary wing. It is not even possible to enter the classrooms due to the pool of water at its entrance.

“The depth of the pool of water is about two feet at some points. The students here are too small so there is always danger of some mishap,” said a teacher on the condition of anonymity.

Dimple Madaan, principal of the high school, said there is a nullah in front of the school that carries sewer of the entire village. “During rains, the nullah overflows and dirty water enters the school complex. A child might catch some disease in such conditions. We live in a constant fear,” said the principal.

Moreover, many naked electric wires were seen hanging at several points in the school. “We have made several complaints but nobody bothers to repair them,” said the staff.

A portion of the building is also said to be ‘unsafe’ as several cracks have developed in the walls and roof of it. “We have also requested the authorities to remove the portion as it can cave in at anytime and cause some mishap. Over 400 students have been studying here in both the schools,” said Dimple Madaan.

Mohali, July 12
For better performance and co-operation among various key departments in the district, the local administration has decided to constitute a special committee, consisting senior officials of all the important departments.

Giving details, the Mohali Deputy Commissioner, Varun Roojam, said the main job of the committee would be to assess the status of the ongoing developmental works in the town.

Several problems have started developing in the town due to lack of co-ordination among the departments. These problems include drainage of water, non-functional traffic lights and incompletion of roads repairing or laying works. It would be committee’s responsibility to keep checks on the developmental works and to ensure that the related departments would work in accordance to avoid any problem.

Meanwhile, Harbhajan Mann along with other senior officials of the administration has begun holding meetings with the residents of the town. “We will hold the meeting separately for each phase here and try to solve all kinds of problem,” said Mann who held a meeting at Phase I today. –– TNS

Chandigarh, July 12
Protesting against erratic water supply, hundreds of residents of Sector 52 and 53 staged a dharna on a road leading to Mohali and disrupted the traffic four hours this morning.

The residents, carrying empty buckets, gathered on the road separating sectors 52 and 53 and raised slogans against the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. Later, they blocked the traffic.

Sector 48, 49, 50 and 51 have been receiving very little water supply due to repairs of the PSC main line from the waterworks, Sector 39, to waterworks, Sector 52. The line had

been damaged due to rain at the choe near the Beant Singh memorial, near Sector 52, on Tuesday.

“We have not get a drop of water for the past three days and the officials concerned still did not have anything to say about water supply becoming normal in the coming days,” said Satpal, a local resident.

“While there is no water for household chores, including bathing and washing, we have to arrange for water ourselves. The water tankers provided by the corporation have proved to be sufficient for a huge population of these sectors,” said Veena Devi, another resident.

Chandigarh, July 12
The state-owned Punjab Information and Communication Technology Corporation (Infotech) has failed to initiate disciplinary action against its officials who had auctioned a 1.52-acre freehold commercial site at the IT Park in Sector 67 accepting less earnest money.

The officials allowed the bidder to bid for the site without making him deposit the minimum 10 per cent earnest money. Against the earnest money of Rs 6.20 crore, the bidder had deposited only Rs 4 crore.

Though the bidder later surrendered the site and went to the Punjab and Haryana High Court against Infotech’s decision to forfeit Rs 4.15 crore deposited by him, the board of directors of the corporation, at its meeting held in August, 2011, had decided to initiate disciplinary action against the erring officials.

It was also decided that the Managing Director would look into the facts as to why 10 per cent of the auction amount was not deposited at the fall of the hammer.

After three unsuccessful attempts, Infotech had claimed to auction the site for Rs 62 crore against a reserved price of Rs 35 crore to Nirankar Singh of Sarao Hotels, Mohali. “Though the next bidder had quoted just Rs 2 lakh less than Nirankar Singh's bid, Infotech should have allowed the second bidder to buy the property as the first bidder had failed to deposit the 10 per cent amount. The decision should have been taken there itself,” said an official.

According to the standard practice, the 10 per cent of the bid money has to be deposited at the fall of the hammer. If the 10 per cent money is not deposited at the time of auction, the auction has to be declared null and void.

Incidentally, the corporation had brought down the reserved price for the site from Rs 60 crore to Rs 45 crore in the second bid and then to Rs 35 crore at today’s auction. In the end, the site was sold for just Rs 2 crore more than its original reserved price.

“If the high court rules in favour of the bidder, we would move the higher court. But, action should be taken against the erring officials for causing loss to the corporation,” said an official.

Chandigarh, July 12
More than 60 passengers who were travelling in a Baijnath-bound Haryana Roadways bus had a miraculous escape when it rammed into The Tribune roundabout in the wee hours today.

The bus driver, Abdul Hamid, dozed off while driving and lost control over the bus at 2.15 am. The passengers had got down the bus by the time the police reached the spot. No one was injured.

It was only in the morning that the bus could be removed from the roundabout. The bus was coming from Gurgaon.

The police has booked the driver in a case of rash and negligent driving under Section 279 of the IPC at the Sector 31 police station.

In yet another mishap at the Sector 48/49 road, near the BSNL roundabout, this morning, a Ford Fiesta and an Endeavour collided and overturned.

Both the drivers, Jaspal and Yashpal, had a miraculous escape. The mishap resulted in a traffic jam on the road. No case was registered as a compromise was reached. 

Chandigarh, July 12
The Government Multi-Speciality Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, has removed the nurse who was accused of harassing a patient and her relatives at the gynaecology ward on Tuesday night. The nurse, who has been identified as Gurkeerat, was on duty at the time of the incident. After receiving a complaint from the patient, we have asked the service provider to remove her from the GMSH, said Deputy Medical Superintendent, Dr G Diwan.

Laxmi was admitted to the GMSH on July 9. The nurse on duty not only misbehaved with the patient and her attendants, she also avoided attending to the patient despite repeated requests of her relatives.

Meanwhile, Shailesh, Laxmi's husband, has lodged a complaint with the hospital authorities in this regard.

A nurse, a ward servant and a guard were the only people present in the ward while no doctor could be seen there throughout the night, he said. My wife had already delivered the dead baby at the bed in the ward and no doctor was available there, he said.

On the other hand, the nurse kept on insisting to shift the patient to the labour room and she only conducted all the procedure, said Shailesh.

All this has raised a question mark over the working of the hospital staff.

If cases were so handled then what was the logic behind going to the hospital for delivery cases, said Renu, a resident of Sector 47. Any medical complication at the time of delivery should be attended to by the doctor only and when doctors were not present in the labour room then who would take care of the would-be mothers, she said.

The medical experts said there could be many medical complications, including disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) in such cases which require immediate attention of an experienced gynaecologist. The DIC is a condition when the bleeding does not stop and leads to paitent's death in many cases, said the medical experts. 

Chandigarh, July 12
Joining the nationwide biodiversity sensitisation campaign, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked its affiliated schools to participate and popularise awareness through optimum use of formative tasks or projects related to issues and concerns about biological diversity and India’s role.

In a communication sent to the schools, the board has asked them to use continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) as a tool to make the students aware of value of the diversity and need to preserve it.

The CCE gives weightage to classroom interactions, projects and articles, which are termed as the formative tasks. The schools have been asked to use this aspect to generate among students the respect of different life forms, their protection and nurture.

Biodiversity must be promoted through co-curricular activities. These may include collaborative activities like bringing out newsletters, role play, slogan drives, landscaping, exchanging and nurturing plants.

Biological diversity forms an integral part of education that can be discussed through areas such as science, social science, languages and mathematics, read board communication to the schools.

In this context, the CBSE affiliated schools are required to familiarise the students with the logo and slogan prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for the 11th conference of the parties (CoP-11) to the convention on biological diversity (CBD) and adopt it as a motto of the year.

The schools have been asked to submit a brief report of the plan and execution, along with detail of any one experience and observation to the board, latest by January 31, 2013.

Chandigarh, July 12
With certainty over the principal coming back to the college, the good old days are surely back at DAV College, Sector 10.

The college, which had seen a dip in the number of admission seekers last year owing to the uncertainty of principal and tiff between BC Josan and management, is now being thronged with the applicants seeking admission to various courses.

In terms of preferences, it’s BA, BBA and BCA, which got hundreds of students competing for limited seats. Till Monday, the total students admitted in BA were 153, while in BBA and BCA, it was 73 and 54, respectively.

“We received the admission form of the topper who has scored 98 per cent marks in class XII and has now got admission in BBA. Another student, who has scored 95 per cent marks in class XII, has also taken admission in BA in the college,” said Prof Arun Agarwal, dean admissions, DAV College.

He further added that there were more than 40 candidates who had scored between 85 per cent to 90 per cent marks in their senior secondary examinations and took admission to the college. The cut-off for BA was 65 per cent, BBA 70 per cent and BCA 69 per cent in the college, added Prof Arun Agarwal.

Unfortunately, however, the violent reputation of the college has taken its toll on the number of women applicants, as only 30 per cent of the total admission seekers 
are girls.

Meanwhile, MSc (bioinformatics) and MSc (biotechnology) are getting a few takers, but the college authorities blame it on PU’s OCET, which according to them, was, too, tough to qualify this year.

Chandigarh, July 12
The Panjab University’s law department saw a huge rush of students today, as the counselling for LLB first semester began. Over 737 applicants from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi came for the counselling.

Counselling for the students claiming the reserved category is fixed tomorrow from 9.30 am to 1 pm. The physically challenged and sports category candidates has to appear in the counselling on July 17.

While, MCM DAV College for Women, Sector 36, is drawing a huge response for its fusion or off beat vocational courses. Claiming to provide hands-on training and placements, the college has managed to get an array of popular courses and now applicants are queuing up for them. — TNS

Mohali, July 12
A five-day faculty development programme, “Applications in mechatronics”, sponsored by the Punjab Technical University (PTU), was organised at the GGS College of Modern Technology, Kharar.

Around 100 teachers attended the programme. The event aimed at providing a platform for academia to interact with experts and exchange innovative ideas to provide guidance for students’ education. — OC