Chandigarh, April 26
The Chandigarh Administration has strongly opposed the multi-tower high-rise Tata Camelot project proposed to come up near Sukhna Lake. The Administration even demanded withdrawal of ‘Gold Grading’ given to the project by the State Expert Appraisal Committee, Punjab.

In its reply to the Punjab State Expert Appraisal Committee on the pending application for environmental clearance for the group housing-cum retail complex (CAMELOT), the UT Administration has opposed the project on the grounds that it was coming up near Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary.

In its reply, the UT Administration stated that the Camelot project site was only 123 metres on the northern side and 183 metres on the eastern side from the sanctuary and would disturb the natural habitat of wild animals.

Chandigarh, April 26
The UT Health Department has sent 29 samples of Easyfive vaccine to Central Drug Laboratory at Kasauli following the death of six-week-old Divyansh Sharma. The drug control officer has banned the sale of the vaccine for 20 days. Divyansh died two hours after he was vaccinated. The department had seized the vaccines yesterday and found that the vials had two expiry dates.

An official spokesperson said on the basis of a telephonic complaint received on April 24 through Dr Soma, DFWO, Chandigarh, a team of three officials, including Sunil Chaudhary, drugs control officer, Dr Neeraj medical officer, GMSH-16, and Dr Vandana Mohan, medical officer, police hospital, Sector 26, visited Baby Care Chemist at Advanced Paediatrics Centre at the PGI from where the vaccine was purchased.

The team recovered 29 vials of the vaccine with the manufacturing date of April 2011 and the expiry date of March 2014. The vaccines are manufactured by Panacea Biotec Ltd, New Delhi.

During investigations, it came to the fore that the vaccine was supplied by Sanyog Enterprises, Sector 24, Chandigarh. The authorised distributor of the vaccine is National Pharmaceutical, Mani Majra.

The drug control officer also visited the premises of National Pharmaceuticals, Mani Majra. Surinder Singh Bawa, sole proprietor of National Pharmaceuticals told the visiting team that he received a communication from Panacea Biotec Ltd on April 23, 2013, regarding the recall of the stock of the vaccine Easyfive-TT, B No P1062/SBP-A immediately. He informed the team that after receiving instructions from the firm, he dispatched the unsold stock of vaccines (490 vials) to the company depot situated in Zirakpur through a courier.

Surinder Singh also submitted records relating to the purchase, sale and courier receipt of goods and vaccine returned to the company and the copy of a letter received from the company to the team. Presently, no stock of the vaccine is available with the firm. He said National Pharmaceuticals had also directed them to immediately recall the unsold stock from the market. 

Chandigarh, April 26
“I have lost faith in vaccines. I would not get my younger son vaccinated. I am too scared after losing my son who was administered a vaccine that had two expiry dates,” said grief-stricken Subhash Sharma, who lost his six-week-old son to vaccination.

“We were never vaccinated. Still we survived. I lost my son, younger of the twins. I am more angry than aggrieved by the tragedy. How could the pharmaceutical company play with the lives of innocent children,” questioned Subhash, who has not told his wife, Pooja, what led to the tragedy.

Talking to The Tribune team at his Halo Majra residence, Subhash said it was a shame that for a few rupees, the pharmaceutical companies were playing with the lives of children.

His wife, Pooja, who is unaware of the controversy surrounding Easy Five, the vaccine, believes that her son, Divyansh Sharma, died of the sudden death syndrome. “She is traumatised. She wakes up in the middle of the night and starts calling Divyansh. She sees him writhing in pain in her dreams,” he said.

“People who are close to my family are asking the name of the vaccine so that they don’t administer it to their children,” he said.

Chandigarh, April 26
Three passengers travelling on the evening Shatabdi from New Delhi to Chandigarh complained of stale food being served to them, which resulted in food poisoning of one of them.

Yashjeet Gupta, chief operating officer of a private firm, who boarded train number 12,005, said a bread stick served to him had the manufacturing date of April 16. A diabetic, Gupta felt nauseatic after eating it. He said the pantry manager of Coach No. 3 refused to provide him with the complaint book.

Chander Shekar, who boarded the same coach, said that even after one hour of the incident no railway official turned up to enquire about their condition. 

Mohali, April 26
Mohali Deputy Commissioner Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu has directed the municipal councils and nagar panchayats to submit plans for beautifying and improving facilities in their areas.

The directions were issued at a review meeting, chaired by the Deputy Commissioner, on development works being carried out in the district.

He told the officials to make their towns green and clean, beautify parks and improve the functioning of streetlights. Plans should be chalked out to give a new look to the areas under their jurisdiction.

The officials should supervise development works and the incomplete works should be finished on a priority basis. Transparency should be brought about in government offices, said Sidhu.

He asked the officials to launch a campaign to remove iilegal hoardings or posters from government buildings and public places.

Chandigarh, April 26
The UT Administration has proposed to extend the tenure of UT Chief Architect Sumit Kaur. The tenure of Sumit Kaur, who had come to the UT on deputation from Punjab on October 1, 2008, was to end on April 30. But sources in the UT Administration say that the Administration has proposed to extend his tenure by six months.

Consent in this regard has also been sought from the Punjab Government.

Chandigarh, April 26
A meeting on cyber crime was organised for bank and petrol pumps representatives here today. Addressing 300 representatives, DSP Cyber Crime Rajesh Kalia highlighted the features of cyber crime and modus operandi of cyber criminals. He gave a brief introduction of the cyber crime cell.

At the meeting, the bank employees were sensitised about the security features in banks, ATMs, use of installation of CCTV cameras, and security guards deployed on the bank premises. They were advised to co-operate with the police department to curb the banking and cyber frauds. The petrol pump authorities were made aware of growing ATM frauds, skimming and cloning at pumps. They were advised to keep a strict watch on their employees and install CCTV cameras at all strategic locations where swipe machines are kept. — TNS

Chandigarh, April 26
The Panjab University ST, SC, BC employees association today submitted a memorandum of demands to the Vice-Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes.

The association in their representation to Raj Kumar Verka, Vice-chairman National Commission for Scheduled Castes demanded that the employees' association should get Senate representation to raise the issues of SC, ST, BC employees working at university.

The employees also demanded that the backlog of the vacancies of teaching and non-teaching posts under reserved category should be filled.

The list of demands also included implementation of the roster system in non-teaching posts as per reservation provided for ST, SC category.

Chandigarh, April 26
Third TFT theatre festival began with a comedy play "Khajoor Te Atkya", directed by Patiala based theatre director Jaspal Deol, at Tagore theatre Sector 18 here. Full of entertainment, it was based on Advocate Naveen Verma, a candid middle class man, who lived peacefully with his wife Shanti and was infatuated by their thrilling novel characters.

One day criminals and all kinds of suspicious characters landed up in his otherwise peaceful home and produced a chaotic situation with hilarious visuals such as walking corpse, ghost and disappearing objects. An unemployed young man, initially misunderstood as a thief, found refuge in Naveen's house and eventually protected the panic stricken family from crooks and thieves. The play was full of acting exercises. Tomorrow, a play Baldey Tibbey will be staged.

Chandigarh, April 26
Dr Upneet Lalli, deputy director, Institute of Correctional Administration, will provide a rare peep into the unknown world of Punjab prisons through an exhibition of photos taken by her during her recent visits to various prisons in the state. 

Chandigarh, April 26
Overruling the decision of Board of Studies (BOS) to give 20 grace marks to the BCom second-year students in the Cost Accounting exam, the Syndicate at Panjab University (PU) has decided to re-conduct the exam, keeping in view the wider perspective and interest of students.

The recommendations of the BOS were discussed in the syndicate meeting held on Thursday evening and the house after a long deliberation decided that re-examination should be conducted. Controller of Examination (COE) Parvinder Singh stated on the basis of the syndicate's unanimous decision, a fresh proposal to re-conduct the exam had been sent to the Vice Chancellor. Dinesh Talwar a Syndicate member said that the decision had been taken while considering the welfare of the students on the account that by having numerical in the paper, most of the students score almost full marks in numerical.

The BCom students were left surprised on April 10 after they found that the paper which was supposed to be a mixture of theoretical and numerical type questions turned out to be an entirely theoretical paper.

Based on the complaint by students, a referral committee of experts was formed by PU, which found that the student’s complaint was genuine and the exam should be re-conducted. The referral committee's recommendations were tabled before the Board of Studies (BOS) which however, recommended 20 grace marks to the students.

PU officials stated that the examination branch had short listed the tentative dates in the month of May when the exam could be conducted."The date of examination will be finalised in the coming days", officials added.

Over 4,000 students that appeared in the exam across various examination centers in Chandigarh and Punjab will have to re-appear in the exam.

Chandigarh, April 26
The BA, BSc second-year students of Panjab University (PU) affiliated colleges will have to re-appear in the Paper -B of mathematics, after the question paper of the exam, held on April 17, turned out to be exactly the same that was attempted by the mathematics students last year. The Vice-Chancellor (VC) has given an approval for re-conducting the examination.

The mathematics paper-B on ‘differential equations’ had shocked everyone after it was found that not even a single question in the question paper differed from the 2012 question paper. The sequence of the questions was also the same exposing the casual approach of PU authorities towards examination.

PU officials said that the re-examination will be held on May 11 in the evening session. “The time of examination and examination centre will remain same for all the students”, officials stated.

Controller of Examination (COE) Parvinder Singh stated that the university before deciding any action against the paper setter, has asked him to give an explanation for the lapses. “The paper setter will be given the copy of an enquiry into the incident and asked to present his point of view , only after which further action will be taken’, Singh said.

Chandigarh, April 26
It seems that UT teachers are not interested in acquiring master degree in tough subjects. As many as 20 lecturer posts in subjects like commerce, and chemistry could not filled by way of promotion since the education department could not find the eligible candidates from TGT cadre for these posts.

There was only one single candidate, promoted in commerce stream beside problems in chemistry and physics too. On the other hand, the department had no difficulty in promoting subjects like English, history, economics and other social subjects. An official said that the response was less in difficult subjects because since the same were not easy to pursue through correspondence when compared with other soft subjects, for which there were many easy opportunities.

One of the officials stated, "There were some eligible candidates but they could not meet the length of the service required for promotion, he said. As per the information, the department proposed to fill 226 posts under various subjects but the number came down to 187 in the final list. The officials said that some posts also remained vacant because of already excess appointment in direct recruitment quota, which also proportionately brought down the share of promotion quota in various subjects".

Chandigarh, April 26
The second annual design collection show titled, "Shears and Ruban's" by the MSc final year students of University Institute of Fashion Technology (UIFT) organised by PU today was an endeavour to let the students investigate and present their skills. The event was organised while keeping in mind the styles which were modelled to relate to a selected season, an upcoming holiday, or a specific venue (office, a beach, a cruise) and to celebrate cultural diversity with fashions from different regions of the world. The show targeted the sensitivity of the general public about the business of fashion.

Twenty six collections in all were showcased and event was a huge success with the first women wear collection by Sarika Rana titled "Ode to Nature". While "Purple Pink City" was an Indian traditional collection by Neha Sharma to showcase the great state of Rajasthan famous, not just for its vast desert but also great palaces and monuments.

The vibrancy of colours and energy of pop art were seen in the next collection titled "Art Attack", by designer Jatinder Kaur.

Whereas, Sukhdeep added his talent to create his design collection "Sufiana". Thus the colour and the silhouettes in this collection were kept simple, flowing and unrestricted.

Chandigarh, April 26
National Commission for Schedule Caste (NCSC) has asked the UT Administration to submit a report on the status of EWS admissions in the private schools under the Right To Education Act. 

While informing the same here today, Dr Raj Kumar Verka, vice-chairman of the commission said that as per the media reports, the private schools in Chandigarh declined to enrol admission to weaker section students under RTE act. Seats are vacant in more than 80% of the schools. Since it is a serious matter, commission has taken the cognisance of such violations and asked the UT Administration to submit the report to the commission at the earliest, said Dr Raj Kumar, who was here in Chandigarh for a review meeting on issues relating to SCs with UT officials.