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I-T officer’s bank lockers bare gold
CBI sleuths recover 1-kg brick, coins, jewellery worth Rs 45 lakh; total seizure so far worth Rs 1.5 crore
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
A CBI search of the bank lockers of accused income tax officer Rakesh Jain, arrested in a bribe case this week, has revealed another haul of gold. CBI sleuths today recovered a brick of gold, weighing 1 kg, worth Rs 30 lakh in addition to gold coins and jewellery weighing 500 gm worth Rs 15 lakh from the accused’s locker in the Sector 17 branch of the Bank of Baroda and another locker in the Sector 22 branch of the State Bank of Patiala.

Two gold bricks, weighing 1 kg each, worth Rs 60 lakh had already been recovered from the accused’s Sector 22 residence, in addition to Rs 24 lakh at the time of the raid when he was arrested. The total amount of gold and cash recovered from the accused’s possession has now touched Rs 1.5 crore. Sources said the CBI was exploring the possibility of booking the accused in a separate case of disproportionate assets.

CBI sleuths had also recovered documents pertaining to investment in shares amounting to Rs 60 lakh from his residence.

Jain was arrested on Tuesday while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a real estate agent, Ashok Arora, for settling the issue pertaining to income tax notices served on him.

Jain had initially demanded Rs 3.5 lakh as bribe and the deal was finally settled for Rs 2.5 lakh. Arora had paid him the first instalment of Rs 50,000 when the CBI laid a trap and arrested the accused. The bribe amount of Rs 50,000 was recovered from the undergarments of the accused’s mother. A lot of hue and cry was made by women in the house at the time of the raid.

The police is still scrutinising the 16 bank accounts of the accused and prima facie transitions of over Rs 5 lakh from these accounts have been established.

Jain will now be produced in a court on Monday as he is in five-day CBI custody. He was arrested on February 5.

Accused spills the beans, names senior I-T officers

During his interrogation, Jain, who is in CBI custody till February 10, has spilled the beans and has named his colleagues and certain senior officers of the Income Tax Department in Sector 17 who were supposed to share the bribe amount and had been asking him to collect the bribe. A CBI official said the accused had revealed a number of names of his seniors during his interrogation and the entire nexus was being established. CBI sources said they would summon officials of the Income Tax Department.

CBI may book Jain in disproportionate assets case

Following a huge recovery of gold and cash from the accused’s residence and bank lockers, CBI officials are exploring the possibility of booking him in a case of disproportionate assets as the assets recovered from his house and bank lockers are far more than his income. CBI DIG Mahesh Aggarwal said they were exploring the possibility of registering a separate case of disproportionate assets against Jain.

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Attachment of Cars
HUDA officials burn midnight oil, prepare allotment letter
Hina Rohtaki
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, February 8
Officials of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) had to “burn the midnight oil” to prepare the allotment letter of an allottee to get back the HUDA Administrator’s official car, which was attached by a court yesterday.

To ensure that the official vehicle was released immediately, officials of the allotment branch of the estate office of HUDA worked overnight to prepare the allotment letter of the litigant, Tarun Gulati.

Sources in HUDA said since the time HUDA Administrator Surjit Singh’s car was towed away by court officials, they were under “pressure” to get back the car immediately. For the past one week, Gulati was running from pillar to post to get the allotment letter issued. After the attachment order from the court, the letter was prepared overnight.

“HUDA officials worked overnight and prepared the allotment letter. Court officials were informed that the allotment letter had been prepared following which the car was released,” said an official of HUDA.

It took the officials five hours to complete the allottee’s file. After all the papers were checked, the officials got Chief Administrator DPS Nagal, HUDA Administrator Surjit Singh and Estate Officer Ashwini Sharma’s approval.

A Panchkula court had yesterday ordered the attachment of the official cars of Nagal, Surjit Singh and Ashwini Sharma after they failed to comply with the court orders in a booth allotment case.

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Getting aadhaar cards issued a harrowing experience
Aarti Kapur
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
Residents are having a harrowing time in getting the Unique Identification (UID) cards issued, which have been made mandatory for the availing of various government facilities.

People, who have submitted all the details necessary for the issuance of cards, have been waiting for more than six months now. Adding to their woes, neither the UT Administration nor the UID Authority of India (UIDAI) has made any arrangements to attend to their enquiries regarding the delay or for making any changes in the issued cards.

Assistant Director General, UIDAI, Charu Bali said the department was making every effort to address grievances of the residents by opening a number of counters at the headquarters. A communication has also been sent to the UT Administration to open UID counters at e-sampark centres of the city for addressing public grievances, but a response is still awaited from their side, the ADG said.

Secretary (IT), UT Administration, Prerna Puri said the department had received a communication from the UID department and was working on the modalities to enable desired services at some centres shortly.

This correspondent’s visit to the UID office in Sector 17 today revealed the state of affairs. Officials were seen surrounded by a huge crowd that had turned up to enquire about their UID cards. Complaining about the mismanagement at the UID office, residents said to get any information they had to visit the office twice or thrice, as the officials manning the counters were clueless about the delay too.

Fifty-one-year-old Saroj Devi, who had visited the office twice, has failed to get a satisfactory response to her enquiry as to how she could change the incorrect spellings of her name in the UID card. This was happening despite the government advertising about the cards since long, she said.

There were hundreds of other people from the region who had similar grievances.

Sandeep Kumar, who had been visiting the office for the past four weeks, said when the Government of India had allotted the work of issuing the UID card to various agencies, why no grievance counters were set up at those centres to avoid the burden on the headquarters. He said he had to book a new car but had failed to do so as a UID card was required for the same.

Important information

  • Any correction in data on the UID card can be done within 96 hours of enrollment at the centre where the enrollment has been done.
  • The enrollment status of the Aadhaar card can be checked online at https://portal.uidai.gov.in/ResidentPortal/statusLink
  • In case the website states your Aadhaar number has been generated but you have not received it yet, you can also log on to http://eaadhaar.uidai.gov.in
  • To correct or change or update the Aadhaar data log on to https://portal.uidai.gov.in/updatePortal/home.action

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COMMUNITY

Need holistic understanding of developmental issues: Experts
Tribune News Service


Prof Janak Pandey, Vice Chancellor, Central University Bihar, Patna, delivers a lecture at CRRID in Chandigarh on Friday. Tribune photo: Manoj Mahajan

Chandigarh, February 8
In collaboration with the Indian Association of Social Science Institution (IASSI), the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) organised the seventh Tarlok Singh Memorial Lecture on its premises here today.

Prof Janak Pandey, Vice Chancellor, Central University Bihar, Patna, delivered the lecture and spoke on the “Psychological Perspectives on Development”.

He said the amount of investment required to holistically understand development issues, was missing. “We need to assimilate different disciplines together to bring new social theories that can bring more insight into the changing social and economic phenomena. He emphasised the potential of psychology to contribute in national development and understand social change and growth.

The lecture was attended by eminent scholars from various institutes and universities instituted in the memory of founder chairman of IASSI, Tarlok Singh. He had worked closely with our first Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal Nehru in the promotion of planned development of our economy.

Prof Sucha Singh Gill, Director General of CRRID, gave the welcome address and presented an overview of various activities carried out by the CRRID. A book titled “Rethinking Planning and Development: The Indian Context-Tribute to Tarlok Singh” edited by eminent sociologist Prof Yogesh Atal was also released at the occasion by Dr Rashpal Malhotra, Executive Vice-Chairman, CRRID and Dr SR Hashim, Chairman, IASSI. Dr Rashpal Malhotra stressed on the role of spirituality in the overall development of a nation.

It was followed by a panel discussion on “Globalisation and social change: Perspective from various social sciences”. The panel was chaired by Prof TS Papola, Honorary Professor at the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, and delved on the impact of globalisation on social change. Prof Hashim, one of the panelists, spoke on the adverse impact of globalisation on the education system of developing countries.

Prof Yogesh Atal, an eminent sociologist, spoke on the four phases of development and highlighted definitional crisis, methodological crisis, and the absence of empirical data on globalisation. Carrying forward the discussion, Prof SL Sharma deliberated on the prevailing perspectives on globalisation, namely neo-liberal and socialist.

While Prof Partha Mukherjee stressed on the overarching presence of globalisation and delved on historical conjectures related to the growth and development of globalisation, Dr SP Ahuja highlighted the loss of sovereignty in the globalised world.

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Poor mobile network irks patients
Ritika Jha Palial
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
Owing to poor mobile phone network inside all its buildings, patients and their attendants have a harrowing time locating each other on the PGIMER campus everyday. As attendants of the patients keep shuttling between the Emergency Ward, Nehru Hospital or New OPD block for registration, collecting test reports and further consultation or admission of the patients, they have to struggle while trying to connect to each other over the phone.

Sources said recently a survey was conducted by the Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL), a Central government owned agency, which found that the antennas currently installed at the PGI buildings catch networks of only two service providers. The mobile phones of other common service providers do not catch the network inside the buildings. The situation is similar at the Advanced Paediatric Centre, Advanced Trauma Centre and research block.

"The patients' attendants are often heard speaking unusually aloud in the corridors due to poor network. This leads to a lot of disturbance and also causes inconvenience to the users," said a PGI official.

"A proposal has been mooted by the institute for installation of a multi-centric setup, which can catch networks of all the service providers to solve the problem," the official added.

"The network problem occurs more inside the buildings, whereas in open spaces, the phone catches network on the campus. But it is not possible to move out to answer all the phone calls. My father is admitted at the Advanced Trauma Centre and somebody needs to be around him for assistance. As I had to leave for some work, I called one of my relatives to stay here. It took me an hour to explain the exact location to him as the call dropped several times," said Amit Thakur, attendant of an accident victim.

Sources said poor network connectivity is one of the major causes of overcrowding at the PGI as more than one attendant comes with each patient as one stays with the patient, while the other moves around the counters.

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Chandigarh scan
Latest advances in surgery discussed

The 8th Annual Conference of the Pediatric Endoscopic Surgeons of India was inaugurated by Prof YK Chawla, Director, PGI, and the former Director and Prof Emeritus, Dr IC Pathak, at the Advance Pediatric Centre, PGIMER. The first day of the CME saw renowned Pediatric Surgeons from across India discussing the latest advances in minimally invasive surgery in newborns and older children. The topics discussed in details were minimally invasive gastro-intestinal, genito-urinary, thoracic and hepato-biliary surgeries. Advanced surgical procedures included single port laparoscopic surgery and Robotic Surgery. Treatment of hydrocephalus in children through endoscopic route was also highlighted by the pediatric neurosurgeons.

Nominated

Prof Emeritus Gopal Krishan of the Geography Department at Panjab University has been nominated as the National Fellow by the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research, New Delhi. Krishan holds a degree of the Doctor of Sciences awarded by the University of Pecs, Hungary. He was also the president of National Association of Geographers of India, New Delhi; Institute of Indian Geographers, Pune; and Indian National Cartographic Association, Hyderabad.

MCM-36 makes a clean sweep

The creative artists of the MCM DAV proved their mettle in an on the spot painting contest held at Sohan Lal DAV College of Education, Ambala. The students of the MCM College made a clean sweep victory. Radhika of BA-III won the first prize, Shreya Sharma of BA-II bagged the second prize. The third prize was bagged by Sarita of BA-III while the consolation prize was bagged by Shama Praveen also a student of MCM DAV. The contest had numerous participants from colleges across Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh.

New panel announced

The Student Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) at DAV College, Sector 10, today announced its new panel for the next academic session. Meet Jatana was announced as the president of the party while Ravi Sandhu will be the party chairman. The new SOPU body will address the students' problems in the college.

Blood donation camp held

The Rotaract Club and the NSS Wing of Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45, organised a blood donation camp. A medical check-up of voluntary donors was conducted and eligible donors were selected for blood donation. Ritu Singal, president, Rotary Club, Chandigarh, inaugurated the camp. She also donated the blood. As many as 80 volunteers donated blood at the camp.

Sale of fluids banned

The District Magistrate, UT, has prohibited the sale of correction fluids to the minor children in the Union Territory, Chandigarh, for a period of 60 days starting from February 7 to April 7. These orders have been issued as a measure of emergency under the Section 144 of the CrPC. These orders are being issued keeping in view that some minors, especially school going children are committing crimes after using correction fluid.

Mohali scan

Training programmee

A five-day Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on Induction Training Programme through ICT was organised by the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) and sponsored by the MHRD concluded at Sri Sukhmani Institute of Engineering and Technology, Dera Bassi. The chief guest, Prof Gurpreet Kaur, Registrar, expressed her concern over the quality of Technical education in various colleges .She also appreciated the Initiative taken by the MHRD for organising training programmes.

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Create water-holding points to check waterlogging, says expert
Kulwinder Sangha

Mohali, February 8
A top expert on urban drainage problems from the IIT, Bombay, has suggested the creation of water-holding points in the town to check water from entering houses during heavy rain. Prof Kapil Gupta from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT, who was in Mohali on February 4, is reported to have advised officials of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) during a visit on the issue of waterlogging problems. He advised that level of parks and green belts should be reduced in order to create water-holding points. This would help check rainwater from entering houses and also recharge the underground water.

Sources said that Gupta, who also met GMADA Chief Administrator, AK Sinha, pointed out that it was not easy to replace the drainage system of the town, which was quite old and inadequate.

Waterlogging could be controlled to a large extent by holding water in parks during heavy rain. This method was adopted on the international level.

GMADA officials submitted their proposals in connection with waterlogging to Gupta, who has been involved with urban drainage issues for more than 20 years.

Gupta will be analysing the proposals and submitting his report in this regard in about a week’s time to Sinha.

Gupta had visited Mohali in September last year when officials of GMADA had discussed the waterlogging problem with him and also showed him maps, drawings and other details of the drainage system of the town.

Sources further said in order to check waterlogging in various parts of Phase III B1, GMADA had proposed to set up a hi-tech underground reservoir having a storage capacity of 5mgd (million gallons a day) in the Rose Garden in that area.

The estimated cost of the project was about Rs 2 crore. Rainwater could be intercepted there and pumped out later after the downpour stopped. The estimate had been sent to the Technical Adviser for approval. After getting technically approved, it would be sent to the IIT, Bombay, for vetting.

If the project proved to be successful, it could also be implemented in Phase IV, where a similar reservoir could be constructed in the Bougainvillea Garden.

GMADA also proposes to lay a storm water pipeline from the III-V chowk towards the PCL chowk to ease the situation. The town faces a waterlogging problem in various areas, including Phases I, IIIB1, IIIB 2, IV, VII and XI.

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Sector 42 residents get contaminated water
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
Residents of Sector 42 have allegedly been getting contaminated water for the past three days. On a complaint of the residents, a team of officials of the municipal corporation took water samples from houses. An official said the reason for contaminated water supply was that the pipe of sewer and water has been linked with each other.

But after taking samples of water a day before yesterday, the public health department found the fault and discontinued water supply for one day to the residential area.

Sources said the team of officials took the water samples today also to confirm that there is no contaminated supply in the area.

Residents of Sector 42 said it was strange that due to callous attitude of the department the children and senior citizens were on medication for the past one week.

They said that it was strange how the sewer and water pipeline were mixed with each other.

It seems that there is no check of the officials on the water supply of the city, they said.

Neelam, a resident of Sector 42 said a large number of residents had collected water in the buckets to show it to the Municipal Corporation officials about the quality of water being supplied to them.

She said that even by boiling, the water problem could not be resolved. She added that she had been purchasing drinking water bottles from the market for the past one week due to the contaminated supply in their area.

Another resident said though water tankers were sent by the Municipal Corporation yet they were not getting sufficient supply as per the requirement of the colony residents of the area.

He said that it was the duty of the authorities to provide safe drinking water to all citizens. But the safety of the residents seems to be the last priority of the authorities.

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e-payment of taxes gets under way
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
The e-payment system of state taxes of the UT Excise and Taxation Department was today launched by UT Adviser KK Sharma here. The facility would enable the department to collect online taxes. Officials while explaining the system, said e-payments have several advantages which are never available through the traditional modes of payment and the new facility will help the department in getting faster and smoother collection of taxes and help in eliminating the chances of leakage and fraud in the revenue.

After getting response from banks, the department would authorise them to collect VAT and other taxes online and through physical mode by cash or demand draft. Under the facility, citizens will be able to make payment through Internet banking accounts for monthly VAT, central sales tax, state excise, and other taxes of the department. Further, the department is also considering the banks to handle e-refunds to the dealers through electronic payment system.

At present, the dealers have to deposit the tax in cash at the treasury branches of the State Bank of India. In case of cheques or demand drafts, these are deposited in Sampark centres, which are situated in many sectors.

Recently, the department started the facility of accepting statutory forms online. Earlier, the statutory forms such as C, F and H etc were issued which required the physical presence of the dealer.

Explaining the new facility, officials said another big advantage of e-payment is environment protection, as it reduces the usage of paper, such as challans, cheques etc. The SBI will provide the system of e-payments to its customers but in the next two phases all banks will be integrated. It was also assured that the module of e-refunds would be launched by the end of next month.

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HP MLA gets B-class facilities in jail
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, February 8
Doon MLA, Ram Kumar Chaudhary, was allowed the B-class facilities in the Ambala jail by the court here today. However, regarding the execution of the General Power of Attorney (GPA) in the name of Chaudhary’s wife, the court has asked the investigating officer to file a reply asking whether the Ambala Tehsildar has the jurisdiction to do that.

It was after the police apprehended Chaudhary’s escape from the police custody and requested the court not to allow him to visit the office of the Sub Registrar, Baddi, for the execution of the General Power of Attorney (GPA) in his wife’s name.

On the other hand, the court has directed the Jail Superintendent to provide B class facilities to Chaudhary. In the B class facilities, Chaudhary would not be required to stay with the common prisoners that are in the ‘C’ cell. According to the jail officials, he would get a television, a helper and newspapers facility.

The counsel of Chaudhary has already withdrawn the security application, which was filed in the court stating that he has threat to life in the jail following which he should be provided security.

It was on February 2 when Chaudhary had moved an application regarding the execution of the general power of attorney in wife Kuldeep Kaur’s name to manage all his business in his absence.

Apart from Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary, the other five accused in the Jyoti murder case are lodged in the Central Jail, Ambala as they were sent to judicial custody.

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Fire Dept’s NOC must for buildings
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
The UT Administration has directed the Estate Office to get the no-objection certificates (NOC) from the fire department before issuing completion certificate to any building in the city. These directions were given by the UT Adviser to the Administrator KK Sharma during the coordination committee meeting of the UT Administration and the Municipal Corporation here today.

In the meeting, Mayor Subhash Chawla raised the issue that majority of the government buildings in the city had not taken the NOC from the fire department, due to which during a fire incident in the building it became difficult for the fire brigade to get it under control on time.

Pointing out the shortage of the doctors and nurses in the dispensaries handed over to the MC, the Mayor also made a demand for sending 15 doctors and 15 nurses on deputation to the civic body. The Adviser assured that seven doctors will be sent on deputation soon.

The Mayor also raised the issue of hike in the honorarium of the councillors on the pattern of Punjab.

Accepting the demand, the Adviser asked the officials to get the details of the honorariums paid in Punjab so as to adopt it in the Chandigarh MC as well.

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Ban on use of cyber cafes without identity proof
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
The UT Administration has prohibited the use of cyber cafes by persons whose identity could not be established by the owner of the cafe. Orders issued by District Magistrate Mohammed Shayin have directed cyber café owners to maintain a register for recording the identity of the visitor. They have been asked to note down the visitor's name, address, telephone number and also see their identity proof. Visitor will have to make the entry in own handwriting and also sign the register kept for this purpose.

The District Magistrate has also directed the landlords, owners and managers of paying guest facilities to inform their respective station house officer about the antecedents of guests staying at their accommodations.

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Mock fire drill checks quake preparedness
Our Correspondent

Mohali, February 8
Preparing the officers and the public for natural disasters such as an earthquake, a mock drill was organised at the Industrial Area, Phase-I, here today. The drill was part of preparations being made for a district-level mega mock drill on February 13.

As part of the drill, the local fire brigade was informed that a fire had broken out at an industrial unit, following an earthquake. On getting the information, fire fighting units and civil defence units swung into action.

Officers rescued the people trapped in the mock fire and sent them to the first-aid centre. After administering first-aid to the victims, they were sent to hospitals in ambulances.

The drill was inspected by Deputy Commissioner Varun Roojam and SSP GS Bhullar.

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FESTIVAL OF Letters
Award-winning lyricist shares nuances of writing

Chandigarh, February 8
The 4th Chandigarh Festival of Letters on the theme, “Patterns of Story Telling: Traditions, Innovations, Visions and Revisions”, commenced today at Panjab University.

As many as 150 delegates participated on the opening day. The three-day festival will see more then 100 paper presentations in parallel sessions.

The evening of the first day was devoted to an interaction with award-winning lyricist Irshad Kamil at the English Auditorium.

Panjab University in collaboration with the Chandigarh Sahitya Academi and the Society for Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the World (MELOW) organised the festival of letters. The festival of letters began four years ago in the city. It is a three-day event in which selected writers from across the country are invited. — TNS

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STA to print commercial vehicle RCs
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
With the Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA), Chandigarh, struggling to clear the backlog of registration certificates (RCs) and driving licences (DLs), the State Transport Authority (STA) started the facility to print RCs of commercial vehicles here today.

UT Home Secretary Anil Kumar inaugurated the facility at the Sector-18 office of the STA.

The printing of RCs for taxis with registration numbers in the series of CH-02, CH-02-AA and CH-01-R will be carried out at the STA office. Earlier, applicants had to shuttle between the RLA office and the STA office to get the RC of their vehicles issued.

STA secretary Balbir Singh Dhol said the equipment installed at the STA office included a printer for smart card registration certificate and an enforcement module of VAHAN software.

A generator set of 62.3 KVA has also been placed for the power backup, he said.

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Play ‘Munna Ki Wapsi’ staged
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
The play “Munna Ki Wapsi” was staged today at the Tagore Theatre. It was directed by Chandreshekhar.

The play revolved around a domestic helper, Raicharan. He was the caretaker of a baby called Munna. One day he took the little boy near the bank of a river where the baby drowned. He was accused of kidnapping the baby and kicked off from the job. He then shifted to another city and was blessed with a child. Soon after delivering the baby her wife died. His guilt of losing 'Munna' never allowed him to act as a father. One day his guilt reached crescendo and he took his son to his master’s house and told the master that he kidnapped Munna and now he was back to return him.

The story ended when the master and his wife hesitantly believed Ram Charan and sent him back with a promise to send some remuneration every month through money order. But when the first month money order was sent it found that no one lived at the given address.

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Minor girl’s baby may not survive
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
The child born to a 17-year-old girl at the PGI, Chandigarh, yesterday, is reportedly in danger as he has an underdeveloped brain. The child has been kept in an incubator for observation.

“The child passed stool just after the delivery, which further deteriorated his condition,” said Dr Sangeeta, project director of the Childline.

Doctors said the child had to be kept under observation since he was very weak. The child weighs less than 1.5 kg.

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EDUCATION

PEC University
Nine in race for director’s post
Amit Sharma
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
As many as nine candidates are in the race to become the Director of PEC University of Technology. With the tenure of current Director ending on March 31, the search committee has already been constituted by the UT Administration for the selection of the new director. The applications for the post were invited by the administration latest by January 31.

VK Singh, Finance Secretary, UT, who is also the secretary of the technical education, said, “We have received nine applications for the post and the committee constituted for the selection is soon going to start the selections process.”

Singh, while hinting that the selection of the new director might take few more months, said: “The committee is yet to meet and initiate the process. The director might stay few more months in the office till the selection process gets completed.”

The secretary of the technical education in December, 2012 had written to all the peer engineering institutes, including IIT, NIT, DTU, BITS, CSIO and IMTECH informing the institutes about the search committee is being constituted for the selection of the post of the director. The letter also mentioned that the UT Administration is looking for an eminent person from the field of technical education preferably from the IIT or the NIT. The administration had sought the recommendations of candidates from these institutes for the post. PEC was not included into the list of the institutes who were asked to make recommendations.

Siby John, one of the senior professors at PEC, said: “The teachers at PEC are equally competent. I feel that even the teachers from PEC should have been considered for the post of director.”

The director will be appointed for the tenure of five-years or till the director attains the age of 62 years, whichever is earlier.

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From schools
Farewell party

The management, staff and students of Saupin's 32 bid adieu to the outgoing students of Class X on Friday at the school premises. It was a scintillating and memorable moment for the outgoing students. Students of class X were traditionally welcomed with 'tilak'. To add color to the farewell party class IX students presented a wonderful cultural programme which included dances, songs and fun games. Fun and frolic marked the occasion.

St Soldier International School, Sector 28

The students of Class XII were given a memorable farewell at St Soldier International School, Sector 28, Chandigarh. The outgoing batch of Class XII was deeply touched by the efforts of students and teachers in making the event extra special. The much awaited titles were announced after the students showcased their talent.

Thanksgiving week

The students of Government High School, Sector 53, Chandigarh, visited the office of VK Singh, an IAS officer, and finance-cum-education secretary, to celebrate the thanksgiving week. The students thanked the education secretary for converting their school into a smart school. They presented a short rhythmic poem on this occasion.

AKSIPS-41

The Interact Club of AKSIPS-41 celebrated the ongoing thanksgiving week by presenting self-made greeting cards and flowers to all the bus drivers, conductors, peons, sweepers, and helpers of the school. The school's bus drivers and conductors were also honoured on the occasion. The school principal, Jagjit Sekhon, applauded the work done by these people and underlined the importance of thanksgiving day.

Awareness rally

To spread awareness about the "Disaster Preparedness", a rally was organised by the students of Shishu Niketan Public School, Sector 5, Mansa Devi Complex, Panchkula . They moved through nearby societies carrying play cards and posters having meaningful messages. The rally was flagged off by Principal Ranjna Bakshi. The students were accompanied by teachers- Meenakshi and Anu Duggal.

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Info panel penalises two Education Dept officials
Vivek Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
The Central Information Commission (CIC), Delhi, penalised two officials of the education department for not providing timely information to an appellant, Ashok Kumar, a retired Electrical Instructor from the department. The information was provided to the appellant in December last year but the CIC took the serious note of the delays caused to the appellant on previous occasions.

In the order issued last month, the CIC directed Urmil Gupta, Registrar, Schools -cum- CPIO, and Manju Shree, superintendent of the administration, Education Department, to provide a compensation of Rs 5,000 to the appellant on account of the determent caused to him by non-furnishing the request information on time.

It also directed the DPI(s) to issue a strong warning to the officials for failing to discharge their duties as per the RTI Act, 2005.

The commission in its order said the CPIO was issued the show cause notice last year on November 22 for contravening the provision of the act while dealing with the RTI application of the appellant.

In her response, she submitted that she sent the reply to the appellant vide her letter dated September 6, 2011 in response to the RTI application dated July 28, 2011. But she failed to provide information to the appellant in response to another RTI application dated September 8, 2011. The other official was also penalised for not discharging her duties on time in the related matter.

Appellant Ashok Kumar said the department has not officially responded even after the orders of the CIC.

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Privatisation to blame for wage inequalities: Experts
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
A two-day national seminar on the theme “Globalization: Socio -Cultural and Economic Concerns in North West India” kicked off today at the DAV College, Sector 10. Dr Jagdish Mehta, Head, Department of Sociology, gave a presentation on the positive and negative trends of globalisation.

The inaugural morning session started with the scholarly presentation made by the chief guest Dr Pramod Kumar, Director, Institute for Development and Communications, and chairperson of the Punjab Governance and Reforms Commission.

Kumar in his presentation traced the historical development of the globalisation from the early 19th century which reached its zenith during 1940-70, also regarded as the “Golden Age of Capitalism”.

“In the present era globalisation in form of privatisation has been responsible for wage inequalities, poverty, and unemployment in our society,” he said.

Kumar said though gloablisation has been successful in giving freedom of economy from state but on other hand it has made economy a prisoner of the market.

Prof SL Sharma, an eminent sociologist, former chairperson, Department of Sociology, PU, in his key note address analysed the globalisation process from dual perspective.

“The first is the neo-liberal perspective. It takes globalisation as a great source of growth and prosperity while the later that is called as socialist blames globalisation for creating inequalities and disparities in society,” he said.

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National award for special child
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
Sanskriti Aggarwal has made the city proud. She was felicitated with best creative child with disabilities (female) by the President of India, Pranab Mukherji ,on February 6 at the function of National Awards - 2012 for the `Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities' at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

Pursuing kathak for last many years along with host of other activities, Sanskriti has not let her disability come in the way of her resolve. she is also suffering with Down syndrome, a condition that makes a child slow learner and low muscle tone. She has won several accolades with her sheer grit, courage and strong will.

Her father, Rajinder Aggarwal, said: "We are very proud of her achievements. She is a special child. Even after suffering from several problems like low eye vision, flat feet problem, and unbalanced body frame besides slow mental growth, she manages to fight against all the odds."

She is also the winner of state award in the field of art and culture (dance) and has more than 75 stage performances to her credit, including participation in TV shows like "Dance India Dance". She is a student of class IX, Saupin's school, Sector 32.

Sanskriti's English teacher, Aarti Malhotra, says that when she's dancing, it seems as if all her problems have vanished.

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Long-duration duties taking a toll on teachers
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
A Panjab University (PU) fellow highlighted the pressure on the teachers during the examinations in the colleges. The fellow has made a representation to the Vice-Chancellor suggesting examination reforms.

The Senate Member, Dalip Kumar, said It has been observed from the last year's schedule that one of the centres in marked colleges (allocated for semester exams), conducting annual examinations (April 3 to May 16), was asked to conduct semester exams also and they started from May 17. As a result, the faculty members, deputed for the annual and the semester exams had to work continuously from April 3 to June 15 for a period of over two months.

He said it was also noticed that certain faculty members were informed late about their at-a-stretch long duration duties.

Kumar said, "There should be separate centre superintendents for morning and evening session for effective conduct of the examination. The centre superintendents who conduct the exam for both the sessions have to work from 8 am to 6 pm."

Senate member has demanded that the faculty members, undergoing examination work during summer vacations, should be given higher rates of remuneration to compensate the arduous nature of job as per provision available with the neighbouring universities.

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