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UT officials to lose extra security, perks
Chandigarh, September 19 Sources said these facilities had been extended to officials of the UT Administration and the police since they were serving in Chandigarh, which had a tag of a disturbed area. At present, besides senior IAS and IPS officers, state cadre officials and SHOs get a personal security officer (PSO). The sources said with the quashing of the disturbed area notification, a majority of the officials would lose the PSO cover. With the quashing of the notification, the UT officials, who earlier have the privilige to retain the government accommodation in their parent state, along with the government accommodation in Chandigarh, will now have to surrender the accommodation in their parent state. The sources said foreign tourists, who earlier needed CID clearance to visit the city, may now be exempted. According to petitioner Surinder Bhardwaj, the disturb area tag was a hurdle for the tourism industry. Often when a tourist planned to come to Chandigarh, information on the Internet made him change his/her plan.
Quashing of disturbed area tag
Admn's take
— Shivraj Patil, UT Administrator
— KK Sharma, UT Advisor — Anil Kumar, UT Home Secretary
How UT defended the tag
Powers under the 1983 Act
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Boost for Union Territory’s green initiative
Chandigarh, September 19 This state-of-the-art building has many features of a green building like the "earth air tunnel-forced ventilation system". The tunnel has been dug 25 ft under the building and the air will be circulated in various rooms of the building through pipes. The terrace has reflective white tiles, to reflect back heat and thus reduce the need for artificial climate-control measures. Special green blocks have been used in the entire parking and pavements, which shall ensure a green cover all around the building as well as allow rainwater to percolate into the earth for recharging of groundwater. UT officials said these green features had been incorporated with technical help from The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), New Delhi. An official of the Engineering Department said Paryavaran Bhawan had been constructed at a cost of Rs 11.45 crore and had a total plinth area of 87,674 sq ft. The building will house the offices of the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee, the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Forests and Wildlife and the Department of Environment of the Chandigarh Administration. Solar plant opened The UT Administrator also inaugurated a 50 kWp solar photovoltaic plant at the UT Secretariat building in Sector 9. Patil said the available space on the rooftop of the Secretariat building and that of the nearby building could be utilised to install more solar panels in the second phase to meet the energy needs of the UT Secretariat
24 ACs installed
Special features
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Eight college students suspended for ragging
Chandigarh, September 19 The first-year student was allegedly ragged by his seniors on Monday night. The next day, he submitted a compliant against them to the college authorities. Sources said the student made a complaint to the Principal alleging that he was ragged by his seniors throughout the night. “The student complained that his seniors kept him awake throughout the night and did not allow him to study,” the sources said. The suspended students are from different classes and are residents of the same hostel. This is probably the first time that a ragging incident has come to light at the Chandigarh College of Architecture and a group of students has been suspended for it. College Principal Pardeep Bhagat, while confirming the incident, said all eight students named by the victim were immediately suspended and an inquiry had been initiated into the incident. “The vigil in the hostel during night hours has been increased,” the Principal said. However, the Principal refused to divulge the contents of the complaint, stating that the matter was being investigated.
Sources said the hostel staff had also been asked to verify whether some other students had also been ragged in the hostel. The college provides a five-year course in Bachelor's of Architecture, admission to which is made on the basis of the AIEEE, conducted by the CBSE.
How to curb ragging
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Many private schools closed today
Chandigarh, September 19 All three St Xavier schools (Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula) will also remain closed. The school authorities said the decision had been taken in view of the likely transportation problem due to the bandh. The other schools that will remain closed tomorrow are British High School, Little Flower School, Gurukul and Hallmark School, Panchkula.
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Fungal infections on the rise
Chandigarh, September 19 Nearly one thousand delegates from national and international institutes are likely to participate in the event. The surgical feast is also decorated by the presence of various experts in the field like Padamshree Dr JM Hans, Dr V Anand, Dr Davinder Rai, Dr
Meghnadh, Dr Arvind Soni, Dr Janaki Ram and Dr Imtiaz M Qazi. The incidence of fungal infections involving nose and para-nasal sinuses is on the rise. In India, which is already an internationally acclaimed endemic region for fungal sinusitis, the incidence of fungal sinusitis in immune competent patients is also showing a rise, said Dr Gupta. Among the north-Indian states, Punjab with its cotton producing districts like Ferozepur, Faridkot, Mukatsar, Bathinda, Sangrur, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur and Mansa has
a high prevalence of this dreaded disease that any patient with features
of sinusitis from these area are specifically screened for fungal sinusitis, he said. Fungal sinusitis is classified broadly into the invasive and non-invasive forms. The invasive disease which is commonly seen in immunocompromised and even immunecompetent individuals is the most dreaded form which can even have a mortality rate of hundred per cent if not timely intervened. Explaining the symptoms of diseases, Dr Gupta said the immunocompromised patients, usually presents as nasal discharge, facial pain, sudden vision loss, ulceration in the oral cavity and nose. This patient can deteriorate within hours and land up in intensive care unit. Any immune compromised patient like diabetics, transplant recipients, those with any haematological malignancies, HIV, when present with a palatal ulcer should be immediately screened for mucormycosis which is the most dangerous invasive fungal disease as this is the time when the patient can be saved by radical surgery, he advised. Later, in untreated patients when the brain also gets involved the patient develops altered sensorium, seizures and loss of consciousness. This is a stage when the disease becomes virtually incurable and the patient usually expires in a few days. On the other side of the spectrum is the non-invasive form called the allergic fungal rhinosinusitis. This disease occurs due to allergic reaction to fungus. Even though the name indicated that this is a very benign disease, this can occur in any age group and is very common in Punjab where the environmental load of fungal antigens are very high. Patients present with nasal obstruction, discharge, nasal polyps, widening of distance between eyes and even loss of vision. Endoscopic sinus surgery followed by steroid therapy is the treatment here. Patient requires life-long follow up as this disease has the tendency to recur even after having cure for many years. The PGIMER, Chandigarh, is an internationally accepted research centre for fungal disease due to the endemicity of the disease. The department of ENT provides all the services to patients with fungal sinusitis in diagnosing, treatment and follow up. All the surgeries like ethmoidectomy, maxillectomy, endoscopic debridement are done here with facilities for routine nasal endoscopy during the follow up, said Dr Gupta.
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Only five tents for landslide victims
Hina Rohtaki Tribune News Service
Panchkula, September 19 After the landslides, around 50 houses at Chandi Kotala village near Chandimandir collapsed and some developed deep cracks five days ago. After an alarming situation for the whole village, the administration evacuated the houses and nearly 100 villagers were shifted to some other place. The sarpanch of the village also met the Panchkula Deputy Commissioner and MLA DK Bansal in this regard today. “It is very difficult to adjust in these small tents. The administration should be wise enough. For so many villagers, just five tents,” said Rajo Devi, a villager. Another villager, Khalil Ahmad said, “The situation is all the more worse when it rains. A day before yesterday, it rained heavily and we know how we all cuddled inside the tent. No one could sleep properly. At least big tents should have been provided.” “Not even two beds can properly fit into the tent. We all have to sleep on the floor. The administration should have thought a little about how would elderly people sleep,” said Bhago Devi. She further added, “Most of our family members including children sleep outside in the mosquitoes. It gets cold also late night.” When contacted the Deputy Commissioner, Ashima Brar, she said, “More tents would be provided to the villagers.”
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Rain leaves roads in bad shape
Chandigarh, September 19 Barely any road or round about has been left in the city, which remains unaffected from the rain fury. Huge potholes, caved in sections bore testimony of the havoc wrecked on the roads. Majority of the slip roads, constructed in the past were washed away during this monsoon. The bad condition of most of the roads and the round about exposes the claims of the Municipal Corporation and that of the UT Administration engineering department. In the last Municipal Corporation house meeting, the Chief Engineer had assured that after rains the work of re-carpeting of roads will commence but due to extended monsoon the condition of roads had gone from bad to worst. In the last two months during monsoon, three major roads caved in on the prominent roads of the city. During last week, the road, which caved in on Dakshin Marg, had been dug out for repair but till date work has not been completed. Interestingly, the patch-work, which was done by the authorities after heavy showers last month on few roads have also been washed away after heavy shower last week. During a visit to various parts in southern sectors it was found that most of the slip roads are under construction as the authorities have not carpeted them. Residents of Sector 51 complained that a number of accidents happened during night hours as there is hardly any streetlight in the area and adding to the woes of the commuter are that no slip road has been carpeted. Even the V-5 internal roads of the most of the Sectors including 15, 24, 34, 35, 44, 50 and 52 huge potholes have been formed after the rain. Thick cover of mud and slush on the roads has spelled doom for road users especially two-wheelers, who faced difficulty in driving on these roads. The authorities concerned have failed to clear the sand from the roads, which further created problem after being dried in the sunshine. Re-carpeting of roads in the city is done on the pick and choose basis said Sachin, a resident of 21.
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Health teams create awareness on dengue
In 2010 and 2009, nearly 25 cases each had been reported in the city by this time. Today, teams of health officials visited the motor markets and schools of the city to create awareness among people about the disease. Two more months of the period known to be conducive for infections remain. According to health experts, the dengue virus is transmitted by an infected female mosquito, aedes aegypti. It breeds in and around houses in urban and semi-urban areas. It bites during the day, especially at dawn and dusk. On the other hand, the anopheles mosquito, which transmits malaria, bites during night time. The aedes aegypti mosquitoes are generally confined to indoor environments. The only preventive steps that can be taken against dengue are to destroy breeding grounds of mosquitoes. Open overhead water tanks, coolers, containers, used tyres, pots and other articles lying unattended provide suitable breeding grounds of aedes aegypti. Fact file
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Five-day theatre festival from September 21
Chandigarh, September 19
The festival aims at presenting the best contemporary productions in theatre from across the country. The festival will start with the play ‘Jivito Mrito’ (Vivadi Theatre Group, Delhi) directed by Anuradha Kapur. Seema Biswas will play the lead role. On September 22, ‘Piya Behroopiya’, directed by Atul Kumar, will be presented by Company Theatre (Mumbai). It is based on one of the Shakespeare`s best-known comedies “The Twelfth Night”. On September 23, an experimental play ‘Kalpataru’ will be staged by Delhi-based director Dadi D Padamjee, who is s a leading puppeteer in India and the founder of The Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1992. The play is based on nature and life and will be staged through shadow puppets, projections and music. Yet another interesting play will be staged by Banglore-based Ranga Shankra Theatre’s production ‘Bikhre Bimb’ on September 24. Directed by Girish Karnad, the play is hailed as one of the landmark plays of recent times and will feature prominent film and theatre actor Arundhati Nag, also one of the founders of Ranga Shankra. The festival will conclude with the play ‘Yaar Banaa Buddy’, featuring Yashpal Sharma and directed by Nadira Zaheer Babbar (Ekjute Theatre Group (Mumbai) on September 25.
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BJP Yuva Morcha demands FIR against PM
Chandigarh, September 19 They raised slogans against the government and its insufferable attitude towards the common man. An effigy of Manmohan Singh was placed on a horse cart and dragged till the police station. Inspector Kirpal Singh, SHO, Sector 34 police station, said the police have received a complaint against the Prime Minister from the BJP and have sent it for taking a legal opinion. The police, however, said prima facie the complaint does not fall into their jurisdiction and will be forwarded to the Delhi police. “We will decide further course of action only after receiving legal opinion. A party leader claimed that it was under this weakened leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh that such insufferable amount of corruption has housed the government. Hence, he should be investigated under the charges of the penal code that would be framed by the FIR. Sanjay Tandon, the state president of the BJP, said the coal scam is unprecedented and broken all the previous records of corruption committed by this government. He also added that the scam occurred right when he was the in-charge of the coal ministry and it became the PM’s moral responsibility to resign from government.
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City traders to observe half-day bandh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 19 Charanjiv Singh, president of Chandigarh the Beopar Mandal, said at a recent meeting they had decided to stage a symbolic protest against the 51 per cent FDI in retail and all the market associations of the city had pledged to support the half-day bandh. Jagdish Kapoor, president of the Sector-19 Market Association, said they had met the representatives of all the market associations of the city and they had agreed to hold a protest on Thursday against the FDI in retail.
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Play ‘Baaki Itehaas’ staged
Chandigarh, September 19 The play is a beautifully story about man and mankind and depicts how a man in trying to give a meaning to his life tortures the rest of mankind. The play highlights how man after reaching a stand-still in his life and in search of a new goal discovers means for own
destruction. The play was adapted from the original script and was re-scripted to suit the present dismal life in society. The story was told through middle class characters, who continued with their endeavour to attain prosperity even with their dead dreams.
Street play staged
A street play ‘Kaisa Ho Prajatantar’ was staged today at Sector 17. The play highlighted the high level of corruption and other ailing problem which have engulfed the country. Caste divisions, religious riots, terrorism, Commonwealth Games, 2G specutrum scam and Coalgate were some of the issues highlighted during the play.
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Give info on digging borewells in advance: DC
Mohali, September 19 Mohali DC, Varun Roozam, issued directions that the authorities have to be intimated at least 15 days before starting any digging work. “One has to intimate the district collector, district magistrate, sarpanch of the respective gram panchayat, nagar council and of that health department at least 15 days before starting such work. Apart from it, the work should be got done by only registered drilling agency,” said Roojam. He also ordered to take proper safety measures at such site, which included proper fencing around the site and having steel cover being tightened with bolts and construction of cemented platform around the site. He also ordered the officials to prepare a report of all such sites where fresh digging has been taking place and the status of safety measures. “An action would be taken against those found flouting the norms,” said he.
— TNS
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Right To Education Act Vivek Gupta Tribune News Service,
Chandigarh, September 19 The current student-teacher ration in the government schools of Chandigarh is not less than 1:50 or even much more in many schools of the adjoining area. As per the recent reports carried out by Chandigarh Tribune, 93 students were found in a single section of the first class in a government school at Mauli Jagran. The present strength of teaching staff is not more than 4300 against approximately 1.4 lakh students. While taking this into consideration, the department has asked for creating additional posts of principal, head teachers, JBT teachers, nursery teachers, masters or mistresses (TGT cadre), computer instructor, accountant, clerk, librarian, lab attendant. Nearly half of the 2576 recommended posts belong to TGT and JBT teachers category. Senior officials of the department said the proposals had been prepared on the basis of requirement sent by every government school. After its finalisation at the department level, the proposal would be sent to the Government of India for sanction. They, however, said that the overall process might take some time but the efforts were already being in the direction While talking to some educationists in the city, officials said that the government must act swiftly for the effective implementation of the act. RTE activist Pankaj Chandgotia said the deadline for the implementation of the RTE Act would be over by March 31 next year but many of the important components of the act were still on the proposal stage.
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Contractual teachers asked to submit service details
Vivek Gupta Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 19 Chanchal Singh, Deputy Director (school education), said the issue of regularisation of contractual teachers could not be ruled out but nothing could be said as of now as the matter was under process. In any case, the department should have the data of all its employees, he said. The department at present has about 1000 contractual teachers. About 500-600 are recruited under the Sarav Shikhsa Abhiyan (SSA) and 180-200 are employed under the DEO panel and about 300 are recruited as guest faculty. The issue of regularisation of the SSA teachers has been going on for the last one year. In February this year, UT’s SSA society had urged the Government of India to take adequate steps to regularise the SSA teachers. Since 2005, the department has recruited more than 1100 SSA teachers but half of them left the job for better remuneration and service condition in the neighbouring states. Arvind Rana, President, SSA teachers’ Welfare Association, said it was a welcome step by the Education Department. Our issue had remained pending for long and because of it many of the SSA teachers left the jobs due to the lack of job security, he added. “If the government wants to retain the contractual employees then it has to take adequate steps to regularise us,” said Rana, adding, that the decision had already been endorsed by the education secretary and the Chandigarh Administration. According to the information, the government is in process to recruit another 800 SSA teachers, including JBT and TGT teachers, on contractual basis, which will almost double the number of contractual employees.
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Results of 4 reserved seats declared
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 19
Karamjeet Singh had won the Senate elections in 2008 from reader constituency with the maximum margin of votes. Singh was backed by Keshav Malhotra who is a close associate of Ashok Goyal. Meanwhile, Akshaya’s defeat was surprise to everyone as in the recent PUTA elections Manjit-Akshaya group had registered victory. In the professor science constituency, Rupinder Tewari of the biotechnology department was re-elected again. Rupinder got 20 votes and was closely followed by SK Mehta of the chemistry department who got 17 votes while the third contender Sukesh Sharma of the biochemistry department managed to get only 5 votes. Among the arts reader constituency Dinesh Kumar of the law department won the elections and bagged154 votes against Pardeep Sharma who could muster 122 votes while Kuljeet Kaur Brar of USOL got 23 votes only. In the science reader constituency MC Sidhu of the botany department won the elections by securing 92 votes followed by kamaljit Singh from the same department who bagged 55 votes while Amit Chauhan of the UIET department got 51 votes. The last phase of the elections will take place for 15 seats of graduates constituency besides elections to the eight seats, each in arts college principals constituency. The elections to the teachers constituency will also be held on September 23.
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Students hold protest outside VC’s office
Chandigarh, September 19 The students reached outside the Vice-Chancellor's office early in the morning with placards, which were highlighting their demands. The protest witnessed participation from both boys and girls of the department. One of the students, participating in the protest, said the first batch of the five-year integrated course was going to pass in 2012, however, various companies visiting the campus for placements, had started rejecting the students. The students demanded that the first batch that would be passing out should get separate degrees for both the courses so that the students could easily secure placements. “The demand was raised earlier also but nobody bothered to discuss the issue following which we decided to stage a protest," students said. UICET chairperson RK Chhabra, when contatced, refused to comment over the issues. Dean Students Welfare (DSW) AS Ahluwalia arrived at the scene to pacify the students and later in the evening a meeting with the students was also held.
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Student council members give poll expenditure details
Chandigarh, September 19 Going by the details of the expenditure submitted to the university authorities by the elected council members, all expenditure remained within the limits set by the Lyngdoh committee. The details of the expenditure come under four to five broad categories; those are charts, markers, tea and coffee, communication and miscellaneous. Kuldeep Sheoran, an Hindustan Students Association (HSA) candidate, who was candidate of SOPU-alliance declared his expenditure as Rs 4,500 only. While Kuldeep had spent Rs 3, 000 on the tent installed during elections, Rs 7,00 were spent on chart papers and sketch pens, the remaining amount was spent on tea, coffee and other refreshments. Interestingly, the joint secretary Kanhaiya Lal's expenditure is pretty surprising as he managed to win the elections by spending mere Rs 1,500. PUCSC president Satinder Singh had spent Rs 37,00 on the elections. Among the winning candidates only vice-president Seerta Arora is yet to submit her expenditure details. If the candidates contesting elections fail to comply with the expenditure limit, the election of the candidate stands cancelled. One of the student leaders alleged that it was impossible to contest the elections within Rs 5,000 and submitting the details of expenditure was just a formality.
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60 to take part in workshop at GMCH-32
Chandigarh, September 19 The workshop will be started on September 21 by the department of community medicine GMCH-32 with the support of Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi. Experts including Professor Arvind Pandey, Director NIMS (ICMR), Professor SN Dwivedi from AIIMS, New Delhi Professor Rakesh Aggarwal and Professor CM Pandey from SGPGI Lucknow, Dr Ajit Mukharjee from the ICMR, Dr Ashoo Grover from DHR Division ICMR Professor (Col) Gyanendra Singh from MLN Medical College, Allahabad will be deliberating their talks on various topics and will discuss technical issues.
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Since the High Court has quashed the disturbed area tag of Chandigarh, the Administration has to follow the direction. However, the tag had been retained for some specific reasons. There have been intelligence reports regarding infiltration from border areas. If anything untoward happens in the future, who will be responsible for
it?
We are yet to receive the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and only after receiving a copy of the judgment, will we be able to comment on the
issue.
The Administration will anaylse the judgment and then hold a meeting to decide the future course of
action.
Chandigarh, September 19
Karamjeet Singh from the UBS department defeated former Panjab University Teachers Association
(PUTA) president Akshaya Kumar, who was from the department of english, and SK Chadha of the UBS department. While karamjeet got 70 votes, Akshaya got 51 votes and Chadha managed to draw 34 votes.