Chandigarh, April 2
The State Consumer Redressal Commission has penalised the PGI for not treating Anupama with "due care and skill", which resulted in her death last year. The institution been directed to pay a compensation of Rs 7 lakh to Anupama's parents for the mental agony and emotional trauma.

The forum has also directed the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) to pay Rs 3 lakh as compensation to the victim's kin for failing to get its bus insured. Anupama's leg was crushed under a CTU bus, and she later died due to the leg injury.

Anupama (15) had died at the PGI in July last year. Her left leg was crushed under the rear tyre of a CTU bus following which she was taken to the PGI for treatment. In August, her parents had filed a complaint against the PGI and the CTU, alleging negligence on their part.

"Anupama's death took place due to doctors' negligence. Had they taken due care, they would have operated upon the patient on the day of her admission. As a result, gangrene and septicemia could have been avoided and her life could have been saved," the forum said in its judgment issued today.

The commission held that since the CTU was part of the Chandigarh Administration and the Administration had already paid Rs 3 lakh to Anupama's parents on humanitarian grounds, the CTU did not need to pay compensation separately.

Anupama was rushed to the PGI on July 17 and succumbed to her injuries on July 24. Following her death, an internal probe committee was constituted, which gave a clean chit to the doctors and the paramedical staff involved in the case. Following this, an external probe committee was constituted on August 2.

The external probe committee also failed to nail the culprits. It only concluded "error in judgment" on the part of the team of doctors and paramedics. 

Chandigarh, April 2
Though the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission today penalised the PGI and the CTU for deficiency and negligence, leading to Anupama’s death, her parents say their loss remains irreparable.

“We are grateful to all those who supported us and ensured that the PGI and the CTU were penalised. The amount of compensation is heavy. But can it bring back our beautiful daughter?” asked Amit Sarkar, Anupama’s father with moist eyes.

“But we are thankful that at least it has been proved that the PGI did injustice to us. Our daughter kept suffering in deep mental and physical pain. Yet, doctors did not attend to her on time,” he said.

“My daughter kept fasting from the day she was admitted to the hospital till the day she was operated upon. On July 17, doctors said she would be operated upon. We brought the OT material before 6 am in the morning on July 18. Everything was ready, but when the doctor came at 10 am, he informed us that Anupama’s surgery would not be performed in the morning and it would be done at night,” he said.

Chandigarh, April 2
Three months after an external committee probing the cause of Anupama's death submitted its report along with recommendations, the PGI has failed to ensure the proper implementation of the recommendations.

The committee, headed headed by Prof SS Gill, Vice-Chancellor, Baba Farid University, Faridkot, was formed to probe the cause of Anupama's death and also the alleged negligence on the part of the PGI authorities.

While the committee failed to nail the culprits, it came up with the conclusion that the doctors made an error in judgement. It submitted 25 recommendations to the PGI.

Chandigarh, April 2
City residents will now not be able to engage langurs to deal with the monkey menace.

Following directions issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), now langurs will also not be able to provide respite to the residents from the monkey menace as the UT Administration has directed the residents not to engage langurs since the animals fall under the protected species.

The Administration had recently received directions from the MoEF, according to which, under the Wildlife Protection Act-1972, langur is a protected species under Schedule II and under Sections 2, 8, 9, 11, 40, 41, 43, 48, 51, 61 and 62 of the IPC.

The Sections stipulate that langurs cannot be owned, bought, sold or hired. Any violation of this law is liable to punishable with a three-year jail term or fine or both.

A senior official of the UT Administration said after receiving the MoEF directions, they had discussed the issue in detail. It was decided to issue directions to the residents, organisations and private institutes not to engage langurs.

He said since the monkey menace was a big problem, especially in northern sectors of the city, langurs were used to get rid of monkeys. The directions from the MoEF mentioned that langur handlers could face prosecution.

Maninder Singh, a resident of Sector 28, said before issuing such directions, the authorities should have made arrangements to tackle the monkey menace. "In Sector 28, many monkey bite cases were reported after which people started engaging langurs, but after the fresh directions, we are now in a fix," he said.

Echoing similar views, Vinod Kumar, who works in a private firm in Sector 8, said last year they had to bear the brunt of the monkey menace outside their office after which they called langur handlers.

After the latest directions, they would now not be able to hire the services of langur handlers, he said.

The Administration had three langurs, Manu, Mangal and Udham, to chase away monkeys. The UT Forest and Wildlife Department used to pay Rs 7,500 each to trainers of these langurs. In all, the department used to pay Rs 2,70,000 to the trainers annually. The Administration has now left the langurs in the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary. 

Chandigarh, April 2
Anupama's tragic death has not gone waste. The number of separate buses for government schoolchildren has now increased to 40 after the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking, in coordination with the Education Department, yesterday started 15 new buses to ease the transportation problem.

More buses are expected to be added in the near future as the department is reviewing the demand for CTU buses.

Anupama, the only daughter of her parents, fell from a CTU bus in front of her school, the GMSSS, Sector 18, in July last year. She later succumbed to her injuries allegedly due to negligence on the part of the PGI.

A senior official of the Education Department said Anupama’s death had "woken up" the Administration, which had now taken several steps to ensure students' safety.

One of the steps was starting separate buses for students. The UT Administration now has 40 buses plying on different routes, including the periphery, for the transportation of students.

Among these buses, 30 ply in the morning hours and 10 in the afternoon hours. CTU General Manager SP Parmar said the department was plying more buses in the morning hours because of the demand. “As far as the afternoon hours are concerned, we already have our general bus service running on at full swing. While 10 separate school buses are plying for students on various routes in the afternoon, we can increase the number if there is a need," said Parmar. Last year, more than 6,000 students had applied for CTU passes, it is learnt. 

Mohali, April 2
Three persons sustained injuries in a police lathicharge on the employees of Punjab Animal Husbandry, during their protest at Kharar here this morning.

The injured persons, identified as Manjit Singh, Shaukat Ali and Gurmeet Singh have been admitted to the local Civil Hospital today. The police had also arrested around 10 persons for creating ruckus, who were later released by the local court.

However, the police has registered a case under Sections 353, 186, 283 and 188 of the IPC against several unidentified protesters, claimed that the protestors were not cane-charged. “Some of them sustained injuries while slipping from Khanpur bridge in an attempt to evade their arrest”, said DSP Rajbalwinder Singh Marar while talking to the Chandigarh Tribune.

The DSP said that the policemen chased some of the protesters as they were trying to block the traffic on the Kharar-Morinda highway.

On the other hand, the injured persons claimed that they were beaten up by the policemen with lathis during the protest.

Earlier, a high drama was witnessed when around 400 employees divided in groups and tried to block the traffic on the main highway at three-four different sites under protest. At first, the protesters, who came from various districts, gathered at Council Park to stage the protest.

The protesters were demanding to regularise their jobs. “We want to meet the Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal or Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Badal to apprise them of our grievances”, demanded the protestors.

Panchkula, April 2
In a major goof up in the Jyoti murder case, the Panchkula police introduced a wrong Section 4 of the SC and ST Act in the case, despite the fact there was no relevance of the same. However, after the formation of Special Investigation Team (SIT), they admitted their mistake and deleted that Section and introduced Section 3 of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act-1989 and 120B (Criminal Conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

An SIT was formed to re-investigate the case after the father of the victim filed an appeal in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the police were under the influence of the main accused, Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary.

Several objections were raised by the District Attorney when the challan was sent to him for confirmation. The SIT comprises three persons- Panchkula Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Ashwin Shenvi, Panchkula Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Virender Sangwan and ACP Naraingarh Suresh Kaushik

The father in his appeal alleged that the police was acting in connivance with Chaudhary and may even destroy the evidence. He had requested the court to either get the investigation done from an independent investigating agency or some senior official.

It was recently that the hair sample reports of Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary, from the Forensic State Laboratory (FSL) which revealed that the hair samples did not match with those of the hair strands found on the victim’s sweater at the time of the murder. The court had then sent a notice to the Panchkula police asking them to put up report about the complete case. Now the court seeks the handwriting samples of Ram Kumar and wants him to write the same words, which were mentioned on the abortion papers of Jyoti.

Jyoti, 24, was found murdered on a road in Sector 21, Panchkula on November 22, 2012. It was later that the police arrested Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary and his aides who according to the police had murdered the victim because she was forcing him to continue with the relations.

Mohali, April 2
In a surprise move, the residents of Phase 5 blocked an approach to the road by putting huge stones and tying up a rope near Sahibwara Gurudwara, here today.

The T-point on the road is highly accident-prone and the authorities are least bothered despite a number of accidents here every now and then. The road, which has been blocked meets the Balongi road (One of the busiest roads here) at Phase 5. Occurring of accidents has become a routine affair, as this point is very dicey. Today morning a youth, who was waiting for a bus while standing near the point, sustained injuries when he was hit by one of two cars, which collided near him.

“We are fed up now and thats why we took this step”, said Paramdeep Singh, Harpreet Singh, K P Singh and Pawan Preet, all residents of Phase 5 while standing on the road, carrying placards to aware the public about the danger that this road carries.

Talking to Chandigarh Tribune, Paramdeep Singh said that after today’s accident, some of the residents gathered at the spot and decided to block it so that no further accident could take place. “We will continue blocking the road till the authorities wake from their slumber”, said the residents.

On the issue, Mohali Deputy Commissioner Varun Roojam said that he had called the residents to meet him tomorrow to resolve the issue. “Whatever Master Plan of the town allows, we will do accordingly”, said Roojam while admitting that the openings on the main road were surely very dangerous.

Panchkula, April 2
Even before the first bill of the property tax will reach your home, be prepared to shell out extra money from your pocket as administration has announced an increase in the collector rates of the property. It’s a general presumption that hike in collector rates will only affect the new buyers but the reality is that it will also affect the budget of every household.

While a hike of around five per cent has been made in the residential plots, a hike of 8-10 percent has been made in the rates of industrial plots.

Panchkula residents are already spending sleepless nights since the property tax has been given retrospective affect and accordingly will be enforced with effect from year 2010. The first bill will comprise the amount of previous two years as well. The notification issued by the government mentioned that the till now the residents had been given time till June 30 to convey if they wanted to pay the property tax of the years 2010-11 and 2011-12 as per the previous collector rates, else the bill amount would be as per the current collector rates along with the tax of the current year and penalty.

"Residents have already been complaining about the previous rates and now collector rates have been hiked thereby burdening the pockets even further. What about the elderly who have no means to earn? How would they pay?", said BB Singal, former Vice-President of the Municipal Council.

The collector rates in the residential plots, houses in Sector 6, 7, 8, 9 and Mansa Devi complex are the highest with a hike from Rs 50,000 to 52,000 per square meter thereby making the property tax higher in the area. In Sector 2, 4, 10 and 11, a hike from Rs 47,000 to 49,000 per square meter has been made. Similarly a hike of Rs 2,000 has been made in the industrial plots as well.

Chandigarh, April 2
To speed up the ongoing works at the Chandigarh railway station, an inspection team, headed by Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) PK Sangi today visited the station. The DRM directed the officials to speed up the ongoing construction of parcel rooms and waiting rooms.

The team also inspected the preparations for the commencement of work on a foot overbridge, which will start on April 4. The Divisional Railway Manager also reviewed work on the installation of four accelerators and a lift for the physically challenged and senior citizens.

Sources said the DRM instructed the officials to speed up the construction work as the deadline for the face lift of the station is September and in the coming months more trains will ply from the station. — TNS

Chandigarh, April 2
Members of the Students Organsiation of Panjab University (SOPU) today staged a protest at the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) to press for their demands made by students for allowing them to appear in the compartment exams of odd semesters in even semesters.

Rashpal Hakuwala, party president, SOPU, said the UIET department had introduced a new grading system under which all compartment exams were taken on the basis of odd and even, as a result of which students who are in the sixth semester were not being allowed to take the reappear exams of the third and fifth semesters.

“With placements starting from the seventh semester, these students fear of not getting a chance to sit in the placements due to the backlog of the compartment exams,” students said.

The students demanded that they should be allowed to take the compartment exams of odd semesters during the sixth semester so that they become eligible to avail the opportunity to appear for the placements.

Renu Vig, director, University Institute of Engineering and Technology, said the demands of the students were already under consideration and there was no reason to stage a protest.

“We had already taken up the issue with the Controller of Examination and the decision regarding the same will be taken soon,” the director said. 

Chandigarh, April 2
Members of the UT Cadre Educational Employees Union staged a protest against increasing the working hours of teachers outside the District Education Officer’s (DEO) office, Sector 19, here today.

The members gathered at the Masjid ground of Sector 20 and marched towards the DEO office.

Swarn Singh Kahlon, president of the association, said the union was demanding a rollback of the decision made under the RTE Act.

“The teachers are already overloaded. On an average, there are 70 students under one teacher. Moreover, if the authorities want to follow the RTE rules, they should recruit more teachers and have proper infrastructure in order to provide students with all facilities under the RTE. We will submit a written representation to the education secretary and will continue our strike till the rollback of the decision,” said Swarn Singh Kahlon.

Chandigarh, April 2
Diluting the importance and urgency of the complaint of sexual harassment made by teachers of the Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College for Women, Dasuya, against the superintendent of an examination centre, Panjab University has failed to take any action on the report that was submitted by a four-member committee on March 8.

The teachers had made a complaint against the centre superintendent, who was on examination duty in the college, to PU on December 24 last year alleging sexual harassment by him. The teachers had also alleged harassment at the hands of the college authorities.

It was only after the issue was raised in the Senate meeting on January 20 this year, the university formed a four-member committee to probe the allegations. The committee recorded the statements of the teachers and the centre superintendent.

One of the committee members said gauging the seriousness of the complaint and the pace with which the probe had been conducted, the university should immediately take the findings of the report and decide the further course of action.

“The report was submitted well in time and it could have been tabled before the Syndicate in its meeting held on March 16 and brought to the Senate meeting held on March 24,” said a committee member.

Sources at PU said during inquiry, the allegations levelled against the centre superintendent were found to be true to some extent.

The committee had also sent the CD of voice recording provided by the complainants as evidence to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Sector 36, for authentication. The voice samples of the centre superintendent were also recorded by the probing panel and sent to the laboratory.

Arun Grover, Vice-Chancellor, PU, was not available for comments.

Chandigarh, April 2
Besides textbooks and stationery items, parents are now being forced to buy school diaries and notebooks from particular bookshops.

Yesterday, Chandigarh Tribune in these columns highlighted how a handful of booksellers have created a scramble in the city for the sale of books with parents being forced by schools to buy books from these shops only. Just 5-6 shops are catering to over 100 schools in tricity.

Bhavneet Arora, a parent, said the administration must take note of the rampant sale of books by a few booksellers. “What is the point forcing parents to buy school diaries and notebooks from a particular shop,” she said.

There has been 5 per cent to 10 per cent increase in the prices of notebooks from the last year.

“Schools claim that the present arrangement has been made for the comfort of parents, but it is actually harassing us. Last week, there was a huge queue in front a bookstore in Sector 22. Books referred by schools are not available elsewhere,” said Avinash Mehta, another parent.

Books being sold on school premises

Several schools, affiliated to both CBSE and ICSE, are even selling books on their premises. During a random check by The Tribune, it was found that, St Xavier's School, Sector 44, Ryan International School, Sector 49, and St Stephen's School, Sector 45, had book counters on their premises.

While there is no clear policy from the ICSE, the CBSE is very clear about the fact that books can’t be sold on the school premises. There are standing orders by the Education Department prohibiting the sale of books on the school premises.

Marvin West, principal of St Xavier’s, an ICSE-affiliated school, said books were being sold for the comfort of parents. Moreover, there was no order by the ICSE prohibiting the sale of books on the school premises.

Chandigarh Tribune tried to contact Rosy Sharma, head of Ryan International-49, a CBSE-affiliated school, but could not be contacted.

Meanwhile, RJ Khanderao, regional director, CBSE, said it was not permissible to sell books on the school premises. “I will inquire into the matter,” he said.

Chandigarh, April 2
The Department of Computer Science and Applications (DCSA), Panjab University, organised a one-day IT fest “Sangharsh- 2013” here today on the university campus.

Students participated in IT quiz, debate, rangoli, treasure hunt, software and web development, debugging, client master and 70MM movie maker competitions. The students of various departments of Panjab University as well as from the neighbouring colleges and institutes participated in the fest.