NEIGHBOURHOOD

Panchayat elections in May
Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, January 20
Nearly 108 village panchayats of Dera Bassi block, have been divided into 771 wards for the forthcoming panchayat elections. This assignment was completed by the employees of pachayat department.

Informing about the move, official of the block development and panchayat office informed that formula of making wards for the purpose of panchayat elections was to divide the total population of village with the total panchayat members of concerned village.

They further said that five wards had been made after the population of 1,000, 7 wards after the population from 1,000 to 2,000, 9 wards after the population from 2,000 to 5,000, 11 wards after the population from 5,000 to 10,000 and 13 wards had been made where population crossed over 10,000.

Meanwhile, officials of panchayat department told that objections regarding ward making had been submitted with the SDM office by concerned villagers. Surprisingly, census of 2001 had been made main base for counting population. Employees, who had completed this assignment, said that there was a big gap between the population of 2001 and 2012.

Meanwhile, SDM Inderjeet Kaur Kang said nearly 20 objections had been received from the residents of different villages regarding the ward making that had been removed and sent to Deputy Commissioner office for further action.

Dera Bassi, January 20
Students of Col VR Mohan DAV Public, Dera Bassi, launched water conservation programme which they said will continue through out the year. School authorities told that this programme would include a bonanza of activities as speeches on water conservation everyday by the students of various classes in the morning assembly.

Fatehgarh Sahib, January 20
The three-day pulse polio campaign to administer polio drops to the children up to the age group of 5 years was launched in the district today.

Dr Jaswant Singh Astt Civil Surgeon and Dr Jagpal Singh Deputy Medical Commissioner inaugurated the campaign by administrating polio drops to the children at a camp at Sirhind town.

Dr Jaswant Singh told that 561 teams have been constituted to manage 286 booths set up in the district. He said that representatives of religious, social organisations, police personnels, social security department council staff and other government departments are helping the health department in this campaign. He said that there is target to administer polio drops to 65,163 children. He said besides, over 23 mobile teams have been constituted and they are touring in the remote rural areas and slums. — OC

Mohali, January 20
Seeing non-compliance of the provisions of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act - 1996 in the area, the Mohali District Legal Service Authority (MDLSA) has asked the Labour Department to clear its position over the issue.

“Only 3,000 construction workers have been registered in Mohali and Ropar districts so far under the Act. This clearly indicated that the provisions of the Act are not being implemented here properly as the number of such workers here is substantial,” said Gopal Arora, Chief Judicial Magistrate-cum-Secretary of the MDLSA.

A communiqué has been shot to the district labour inspector by Gopal Arora, asking him what the department was doing for the compliance of the provisions of the Act in question here.

Gopal has sought a report in this connection from the district labour inspector within seven days.

Notably, under the Act, Punjab had defined rules in 2008 to give benefits to the construction workers.

“It has been seen that the rules and the provisions of the Act are not being complied here properly. So, I have sought a report in this connection from the official concerned,” said Gopal.

The MDLSA recently held two camps at the construction sites in Phase 11 and Mullanpur where the officials found that no worker was registered under the Act.

“During the camps, we have registered 25 workers at Phase 11 and 82 at Mullanpur,” said Gopal, adding that more camps would be held in the coming days.

After getting registered, the workers receive smart cards, which ensure free medical treatment, Rs 1 lakh ex gratia grant in case of death while working, Rs 50,000 disabling grant in case of permanent injury, interest-free loan of Rs 30,000 for marriage of a construction worker’s daughter or Rs 5,100 for the wedding of the daughter, scholarship of Rs 1,500 to their children attending school in class IX, X and XI, interest-free loan for bicycle and computer and many more benefits.

Mohali, January 20
A 23-year-old woman of Sector 56, Chandigarh, has been raped allegedly by a local property dealer after giving her sedative near Nada bridge in the Naya Gaon area yesterday night.

On the victim’s complaint, the police has registered a case against the accused, Naresh, a resident of Daun village, here. — TNS

Chandigarh, January 20
It seems that the UT Sports Department is in no mood to upgrade the facilities meant for players in all the local stadiums, here. Boasting of coming up with hi-tech gyms at the Sports Complex, Sector 42, and Lake Sports Complex, the department has still not woken of the fact that there is a dire need to upgrade the gyms of all local stadiums including Football Stadium, Sector 17, Sports Complex, Sector 46, and Sports Complex, Sector 7, here.

Notably, the proposal to upgrade these stadiums was approved way back in 2008. But the department is yet to co-ordinate with the engineering department to beautify the gyms. A layout for improving infrastructure of the football stadium and the Sports Complex, Sector 46, was prepared way back in 90’s but no work has been done till date. The machines used inside these stadiums are in bad condition and some are non-functioning.

“We cannot pay a sum of Rs 1,000 (on an average) every month to undergo weight training sessions in private gyms. So having no option, we perform our exercise in the available gyms,” said a group of players at Sports Complex, Sector 46.

On the other hand, concentrating on a particular game, the department has provided a proper-gym equipped with modern machines at the Cricket Stadium, Sector 16. Serving the VIPs with best of the facilities, a hi-tech gym is provided at the Sports Complex of Sector 42 and the Lake Sports Complex. Only players of state run football and hockey academies are allowed to use gyms while for general public, there is monthly fee structure criteria.

Ropar, January 20
SSIET, Badhani Pathankot, and SUSCET, Tangori, lifted trophies in the PTU Inter- College Volleyball Championship in Men and Women categories, respectively, here today.

The five-day tournament was inaugurated by Ropar SSP, Inder Mohan Singh, at IET Bhaddal Technical Campus here during the PTU Inter- College Volleyball Championship in Men and Women categories, on Wednesday.

SSIET Badhani, Pathankot, won the trophy defeating CGC Gharuan by 16-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-21 and 15-11. Similarly, in women’s category SUSCET, Tangori, took away trophy defeating IET Bhaddal by 25-7, 25-22 and 25-18 in the final match played here today.

In men’s competition, CEM, Kapurthala, secured third position by defeating RIET, Rail Majra. Earlier, in first semifinal SSIET, Badhani Pathankot, defeated RIET Rail Majra and in second semifinal CGC Ghauran defeated CEM, Kapurthala, by 25-16,25-21 and 25-22 during the PTU Inter- College Volleyball Championship in Men and Women categories.

BBSBE, Fatehgarh Sahib, secure third position by defeating PIET, Patiala, by 25-19,19-25, 25-14 in women category. Earlier, in first semifinals, SUSCET, Tangori, defeated PIET, Patiala, by 25-19and 25-13 and in second semifinals IET Bhaddal defeated BBSBE, Fatehgarh Sahib, by 25-22 and 25-20.

Chandigarh, January 20
The students of Guru Asra Trust Snehalya bagged maximum prizes during the Kids Olympics organised by the Rotaract Club Chandigarh Himalayan district, at Sports Complex, Sector 7, here today.

Children from different age groups and city based orphanages participated in various events including track and fun events. The event was led by an inaugural ceremony headed by the chief guest, Rotary District Governor, Manmohan Singh.

Around 350 children from eight orphanages including-Snehalaya, Gurasra (Palsora and Phase VII), Kartar Asra, Ashiana, Hamari Kaksha, Sahaita and Bal Sadan participated in the competition.

In track events, 50 metres race, lemon and spoon race, sack race and long jump was organised while for kids category relay race were conducted.

Chandigarh, January 20
The women baseball team secured runners-up position in the All-India Inter-University Baseball Championship, organised by Delhi University, New Delhi, from January 16 to 20.

A total of 18 universities participated in the competition. The Delhi University, New Delhi, secured first place following by the Panjab University. Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, attained third and fourth place, respectively.

Chandigarh, January 20
Local tennis coach, Rupinder Singh Saini, has been invited to attend the 7th AITA National Coaches Workshop, to be held in Bangkok from March to 13 to 16. The workshop will be based on skills on improving the coaching aspects and around 200 coaches from the nation are invited to take part in the workshop.

Rupinder is currently giving his services to the tennis players of Panjab University. Except being a regular part of the Panjab University, he also holds the experience of coaching in Master Tennis Academy (Sri Lanka). He was coach of the Indian Tennis Team coach for World University Games held at Shenzen (China) during 2010-11.

He also officiated as an organiser-member in the recently held Davis Cup Tie between India and New Zealand, held at the CLTA Courts, here.