Chandigarh, July 27
A major tragedy was averted on Thursday when three Class VIII students of Government High School, Sector 11, fell from the second floor of its primary wing building.

The injured, Rakesh, sustained injuries on his jaw and fractured his left leg. He was operated upon for his broken jaw. Others who sustained injuries include Rajesh Kumar and Ranjit Singh. Ranjit sustained minor injuries while Rajesh suffered a bone displacement on his right hand.

The incident took place shortly after the recess when these students were plucking fruit from a tree from the second floor and the railing gave way.

Major tragedy was averted since one of them clung on to the tree while others fell on a muddy surface.

Principal Satpal Singh, who was not present in the school at the time of incident, said the injured students were given first aid immediately were taken to the Sector 16 government hospital.

Worried parents who rushed to the hospital raised concern over the safety of children in the school. Rajesh’s mother Vimla Devi, a resident of Naya Gaon, said the school should authorities have been more vigilant.

Terming the incident unfortunate, principal Satpal Singh said: “We have already asked the engineering department to inspect the building, especially grills and railings. Students’ movement will also be checked during recess,” he added. 

Chandigarh, July 27
The crime branch of the UT police achieved a major breakthrough in yesterday’s shootout incident at Sector 22 with the arrest of two persons, residents of Sector 52. A shopkeeper, Kailash Chand, was shot dead in his shop on Thursday.

The police managed to crack the murder case within 24 hours of the crime. The accused were arrested late on Friday evening. Investigations revealed that the accused committed the crime with robbery as the motive and fired gunshots when the shop owners resisted and attacked them. The accused had fled with a gold chain and cash from the shop.

While senior police officials are yet to divulge details, sources revealed that the accused were traced on the basis of the cell phone of one of the accused, which was recovered from the crime spot.

The accused will be produced in a court tomorrow where the police will seek police remand for detailed investigations. One of the accused has an injury mark on his arm as the victim, Madan Lal, had bitten him during the scuffle.

Earlier, the UT police had announced a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh for providing information of the accused.

Owner of the Raj Provision Store in Sector 22, Kailash Chand, was shot dead from a point-blank range with a country-made weapon and his brother Madan Lal and servant Tilak Raj were injured inside the departmental store yesterday. The police had recovered a country-made weapon and shells from the spot.

Chandigarh, July 27
A clash between members of the Panjab University Students’ Union (PUSU) and the Indian National Students Organisation (INSO) on the Panjab University campus left one injured.

The supporters of both the organisations had gone for campaigning at the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), Sector 25, when they had an altercation.

Sources said members of both the organisations hurled stones at each other and fled the scene. Later, they clashed outside the law department in which Amrinder Singh, a PUSU supporter and a student of the French department, was injured. He was rushed to the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16.

Chief Security Officer of the university PK Dhawan said both the groups clashed outside the law department and windowpanes of a car belonging to a PUSU supporter was smashed by INSO members. 

“By the time security guards reached the spot, both the groups had dispersed. The registration number of the car which was damaged was flashed at all entry gates following which the students abandoned the car near the university residential area and fled after scaling the boundary wall,” said Dhawan.

Police officials said a case against Dharminder Lathwal, Sunil Lathwal and Sahil Sandyal had been registered under Sections 323, 427 and 506 of the IPC. 

Chandigarh, July 27
Waking up from a deep slumber following the tragic death of Anupama, a student of the Government Model Senior Secondary School for Girls, Sector 18, the UT Administration is now planning to deploy traffic marshals outside schools to manage traffic during morning and afternoon hours. The UT Administration has asked the UT police to submit a report in a week’s time. The concept of traffic marshals for managing traffic outside schools and other crowded areas is prevalent in foreign countries. In Chandigarh, traffic marshals assist the Chandigarh Traffic Police during nakas.

A senior official of the UT Administration said the issue of deployment of traffic marshals outside schools was taken up at a recent meeting between officials of the administration, the UT Police, the education department and the CTU authorities.

The UT Administration has sought a report on the availability of traffic marshals with the police and the powers to be given to them. Sources said traffic marshals require special powers to stop traffic without the help of the police. A senior police official said: “If the UT Administration decides to deploy traffic marshals outside schools, it will have to issue a notification authorising them to stop traffic.”

Admn to conduct survey

The UT Administration has also decided to conduct a survey with the help of the UT police under which police officials have been assigned the responsibility of visiting each school and interacting with principals to know their requirements and the problems faced. Officials visiting schools for the survey have been asked to urge principals to deploy some staff members outside their campuses after school hours to ensure safety of schoolchildren.

Chandigarh, July 27
Union minister of parliamentary affairs and water resources Pawan Kumar Bansal’s wife Madhu Bansal today visited Deep Complex to address problems faced by residents due to lackadaisical attitude of the authorities.

During the meeting, the residents revealed that the authorities are giving step-motherly treatment, as there is confusion between the corporation and UT Administration regarding in whose jurisdiction the area is?

Due to this confusion, the residents are suffering, as neither the MC authorities nor UT Administration is taking any interest in providing them the basic facilities.

Former general secretary BS Rawat pointed out that in 2007, Deep Complex was de-notified and in 2008, it was transferred to the municipal corporation. But in 2009, the UT Administration had again issued a notification to revert the area of Deep Complex from the corporation. Resultantly, till date no decision been taken to de-notify the village and transfer it to the corporation.

The residents also raised an issue that in the past three budgets, as per records of the corporation, the MC had being earmarking crores of rupees every year for sewerage and storm water works without considering whether the area is under their jurisdiction or not.

Mohali, July 26
The Maharaja Ranjit Singh Armed Forces Preparatory Institute here has acquired a MiG 21 fighter aircraft, which has been presented by the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne.

The aircraft has come from the Air Force Station, Bathinda, and has flown operational missions during the Kargil conflict. Now, having completed its active flying days, it will continue to inspire and motivate young men of the institute to “touch the sky with glory”.

Major-Gen BS Grewal, Director, said the plane would be displayed on the institute premises for the purpose of motivation of young cadets to join the Air Force.

Earlier this year a Vijayanta tank was presented to the institute by the Headquarters, Western Command. 

hanidgarh, July 27
Unlike Carnatic classical music, Hindustani classical music has very few artistes who play the violin. And it is even more rare to find women violin players in traditional Indian music. One such artiste, a Delhi-based classical violinist, Anupriya Deotale, gave a performance at Home Science College, Sector 10, Chandigarh, on Wednesday.

Organised by SPIC MACAY, she beautifully played raga Charukeshi - a day raga - with various compositions and expressions.

Despite the fact that the violin (having four strings) is a flat instrument compared to the sarangi or sitar, she created enough resonance, moods and expression with her performance.

In an hour-long performance, she experimented the raga with all its scales having vilambit, madhya and dhrutt laya.

"It was my destiny to pick up this instrument," said Anupriya during an interaction with the mediapersons. She said that she started with vocal music training but her next class used to be violin and this is how she fell in love with the instrument,” she said.

"It is really difficult to have proper sur and gamak on the violin, but that is what keeps me going," she further added.

While her favourite ragas include Marwa, Puriya and Ragya Shri, she said that raga Charukeshi is generally considered a new entrant to Hindustani classical music, but it has been a part of our tradition for a long time now. It is a sampurna and melodies raga and is also very popular in Carnatic music, she said.

She was accompanied by Zohaib Khan on the tabla and Jivesh Singh on the tanpura and had gripping jugalbandi. Later in the day, she performed at Kendriya Vidyalya, Zirakpur and left audience awestruck with her performance.

She is on a 10-day-long circuit of 20 concerts in and around Chandigarh, Hoshiapur, Jalandhar, and Patiala. She will be performing on July 27 at KB3 near the Chandigarh airport at 10:00 am and at the KV high ground near Zirakpur at 12.30.

On July 28, she will be performing at the KV Chandimandir at 9:00 am, and the KV, Sector 31, at 11:00 am, followed by her trip to Punjab. 

Chandigarh, July 27
It seems the local municipal corporation is the least bothered to regularly update its website. Owing to the unavailability of data from the departments concerned, officials, who had been repatriated long ago, still figure on the website.

According to the information in the RTI column of the website, former MC Commissioner Roshan Sunkaria, who was repatriated last year, is still heading the RTI section, horticulture XEN Arun Kansal, who retired last year, is still holding the same position in the corporation and the XEN, electrical, who was repatriated three months ago to the UT Administration, is heading the department concerned.

The authorities have even failed to update the column of working and history on the website for the past six months. Even the details on the citizen charter about the officials of various departments are not correct.

When The Tribune tried to contact officials mentioned in the citizen charter column of the corporation, it was found a majority of them have either been repatriated to their parent states or transferred by the authorities. The MC records reveal that since 2004 when the citizen charter was approved and put on the official website, it has not been updated by any department regarding the shuffling of their officials.

Surprisingly, the official website has an action taken report of the development works of 2010, after which such reports were tabled in the House a number of times and discussions were held on it, but the same information has not been updated by the authorities.

The MC Commissioner column on the website has been left blank as if the new commissioner has nothing to share with the residents of the city.

Computer programmer with the MC Mahesh Gandhi said the work of updating the information on the citizen charter of various departments was under way. He said details from some departments were awaited and till date only the public health department had sent its details to the IT department.

For the past three years, the authorities had failed to update the website as the departments concerned did not bother to inform the information technology cell about the internal changes.

Chandigarh, July 27
Seeking more autonomy for the Union Territory, the main political parties have demanded an independent political setup in the form of a legislative Assembly and the posts of mayor-in-council and chief commissioner for the city. The representatives of the political parties put forth this demand before the members of the Standing Parliamentary Committee of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which was in the city today.

At the meeting, which was also attended by the senior officials of the UT Administration, the head of the committee, Tariq Anwar, discussed a host of issues. Sources said one of the committee members asked the UT Administration about the possibility of formation of a legislative Assembly in the UT. A senior official of the UT Administration said though the members of the committee discussed the issue of Assembly setup for the UT, the main discussion revolved around various projects.

Earlier in the day, councillors of various parties, led by Mayor Raj Bala Malik, demanded that the post of Chief Commissioner should be reintroduced in the city for the betterment of the city residents. At present the Punjab Governor also acts as the UT Administrator,

The Congress councillors raised the issue of increasing the tenure of the Mayor from one year to two and a half years and set up a mayor-in-council in the city. The BJP councillors demanded that the tenure of the Mayor should be of five years and there should be a direct election for this post.

The BJP and the SAD councillors demanded a legislative assembly for Chandigarh citing the the similar setups in Goa and Pondicherry, both Union Territories.

Earlier, the Mayor demanded an increase in the MC revenue share from the UT Administration from 17 per cent to 30 per cent in view of the shifting of departments of the UT administration to the MC recently. The councillors also raised the issue of pendency of grant in aid of Rs 400 crore with the administration due to which the corporation has to face a huge gap in revenue generation and expenditure every year.

Some suggestions by committee

* Member of the committee Lalu Bhai V Patel praised the government smart school concept in Sector 53 and said such kind of smart schools should be in every city of the country.

* After visiting the slum rehabilitation project in Sector 49, chairman of the committee Tariq Anwar said when Chandigarh was planned people had not thought about slums. The slum rehabilitation project is good, but the one-room houses should have more space. On this point Satya Gopal, Chairman Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB), said there were some limitations due to Central policies as well.

* After visiting the E-sampark centres, the members suggested that the UT Administration should made such centres at every sector. On this point, the UT Finance Secretary VK Singh said the Administration has already decided to built such centres at all the sectors.

Bodies put forth their demands

* Harjinder Kaur, former Mayor, presented a memorandum to the committee on behalf of the CHB Federation. The members were apprised of the recent campaign of the federation that has been aimed at getting all the need-based alterations in the CHB houses regularised and getting ownership rights for the residents of the rehabilitation colonies who have bought houses on the power of attorney.

* The CTU workers union sought fresh recruitment for a fleet of 100 buses under bought under the JNNURM scheme and highlighted the need for purchasing new buses with front engine chassis, constructing a mini-bus stand at the PGI and Mani Majra and building a new depot at Raipur Khurd village.

* The Federation of Sector Welfare Associations (FOSWAC) raised the issues regarding preserving the original character of the city, judicious utilisation of scarce land, traffic congestion, inadequate parking and public transport system, poor health care facilities, etc. 

Chandigarh, July 27
An orientation programme for first sear students of different streams was organised at the PG Government College for Girls, Sector-42, in which more than one thousand students participated.

College principal Mani Bedi addressed the freshers and motivated them to achieve all round excellence. Bedi elaborated that such programmes go a long way in making the freshers understand the academic environment of the college.

The faculty members explained about the career oriented programmes available in the college, the house examination system, attendance requirements, time table and other extension activities and the general discipline to be followed in the college premises.

‘Srishti’, the environment society of the college, organised an awareness campaign and tree plantation drive in the college. Staff members and students planted around 30 saplings of medicinal plants like amla, jamun, tulsi, harar and bahera during the drive. The NSS volunteers also participated in the plantation drive.

Chandigarh, July 27
With the new Vice Chancellor taking the charge, appointments to key post which have been lying vacant are expected to be made soon. The one-year tenure of Dean Student Welfare (DSW) is also ending at the end of July.

The position of Director Public Relations (DPR) fell vacant after Mohanmeet Khosla of School of Communication Studies resigned recently. He was also holding the additional charge of DPR. Sources said that till the time a regular appointment is made to the post, the university can offer the additional charge to one of teachers from the same department.

Sources said that name of Navdeep Goyal, an Associate Professor from the physics department, is being considered for the post of DSW. The tenure of DSW AS Ahluwalia will end on July 31.

DSW’s tenure is for one-year which can be extended by one year for a maximum of five years. Ahluwalia would be completing one year as the DSW.