Chandigarh, May 3
Cracking the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services exam, four candidates from the tricity have made it to the list of top 100 successful candidates. The topper from the tricity has bagged the 17th all-India rank. Last year, nine students from the tricity had figured among the top 100.

Ankita Chakravarty, a resident of Sector 10, Panchkula, bagged the 17th all-India rank and is the topper from the tricity. She is followed by Harpreet Singh (22nd rank), a resident of Sector 22, Chandigarh, and Parth Gupta (52nd rank) of Sector 7, Chandigarh. Kriti Garg, younger sister of SDM (East) Tanvi Garg, also made the city proud by bagging the 80th rank.

The performance of students from the tricity in the UPSC exam this year is not as impressive as it was last year, when the third all-India topper was from the city.

Ankita, who did her MBBS from AIIMS, New Delhi, always wanted to be a doctor till the last year of her graduation when she realised that the Civil Services was her true dream.

“A few of my seniors had cracked the UPSC exam, which motivated me to prepare for the Civil Services. Fortunately, I made it in the first attempt,” said Ankita. Her father, Dr Satish Chakravarty, runs a nursing home in Panchkula.

Ankita, who loves to read, write and hang out with friends, used to study between six to eight hours a day while preparing for the UPSC exam.

Ankita has remained meritorious throughout her academic carrier. She scored 97 per cent marks in Class X, 92.6 per cent marks in Class XII and 67.4 per cent marks in the MBBS.

Harpreet Singh of Sector 22 bagged the 22nd rank and stood second in the tricity. Son of a lawyer, Harpreet always wanted to be a civil servant and managed to get success in his third attempt.

Harpreet, who scoreed 92.5 per cent marks in Class X and 78 per cent marks in Class XII, joined the University Institute of Legal Studies, PU, and later did MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in international relations and is now pursing PhD on the same topic.

His mother, Gurmeet Kaur, a housewife, said it was the happiest moment of her life, which she had always dreamt off.

Following Harpreet is Parth, who did his BTech from the IIT, Madras, and had joined the private sector. However, he realised that the Civil Services was the right choice. “My parents are bureaucrats. I did engineering and joined the private sector. Later, I decided to prepare for the UPSC exam,” Parth said.

While Parth’s father SS Prasad is the Principal Secretary (Higher Education), Haryana, his mother Ranju Prasad is the Postmaster General, Punjab. “I am more delighted on my son success than I was when I had cleared the UPSC exam in 1984,” said SS Prasad.

Parth loves to play football and tennis and has a keen interest in reading non-fiction. He scored 89.83 per cent marks in Class X and 79.8 per cent marks in 
Class XII.

Kriti Garg, who bagged the 80th rank in the UPSC exam, has already cleared the Indian Economic Services exam in 2011 and is undergoing training. The number 80 has turned out to be lucky for the Garg family as Tanvi Garg had also bagged the 80th rank in the exam, followed by her sister Kriti.

Chandigarh, May 3
Following the four tricity candidates who cracked the UPSC exam was Kritika Batra, a resident of Panchkula. Kritika made tricity proud by bagging 103rd All India Rank.

Kritika did her BCom from Shri Ram College of Commerce and Mcom from Hansraj college, Delhi University. She is currently pursuing PhD in finance from University Business School, Panjab University.

Kritika's mother Harsh Batra who is principal of Government College of Education Sector 20, Chandigarh, stated that her daughter was meritorious throughout her academic carrier. "It is a great feeling for me to watch her become a bureaucrat", she added. Experts believe that although not many students made it to top 100, the number of students cracking the exam is high. Raj Malhotra, vice-president, Abhimanu Coaching Institute, said that around 35 candidates from tricity managed to clear the exam. Other students from tricity who made it top 200 include Sonia Mahajan with 150th rank, Anchal Sood 184th rank, Amanat Mann with 194th rank, Gaurav Grover 198th rank.

Chandigarh, May 3
The referral of Sanuallah Khan, a Pakistani prisoner who was badly thrashed inside a jail in Jammu and Kashmir, to the PGIMER on Friday brought the premier health institute to a standstill, causing inconvenience to other patients.

Patients in the Orthopaedics Trauma ward were the most harassed as a special passage was created near the ward inside the Advanced Trauma Centre for taking Sanaullah to the ICU on level 2. The police pushed many attendants of patients and other visitors inside the Orthopaedics Ward to keep the area clear.

Security officials allegedly turned away a number of critical patients entering the trauma ward on trolleys and wheelchairs, forcing them to take longer alternative routes.

While Sanuallah was taken to the PGIMER around 6.45 pm, patients and their attendants were pushed to corners. Some of them had to be confined inside the trauma ward for over three hours ahead of his arrival.

Traffic on the road leading to PGI's gate number 1 was stopped for 10 minutes (6.35 pm to 6.45 pm) while Sanaullah’s ambulance was entering the hospital.

The police deployed a posse of around 200 cops within a 20-km radius of the PGI for the prisoner's arrival. Over a dozen police gypsies were parked in and around the PGI as part of the security arrangements.

The police rounded up a group of Shiv Sena activists who were raising slogans against Pakistan.

Chandigarh, May 3
Chemists in the New OPD Block have encroached upon a significant portion of the patients’ canteen by occupying a number of tables. However, the violation does not seem to have caught the attention of the authorities.

Two chemists in the New OPD Block have been using the tables as counters for running the shop to explain dosage to patients, leaving no space for other patients to sit.

A patient, who remains on his toes for hours together waiting for his turn outside the OPD, fails to find any space for relaxing while eating out at the canteen.

While several employees of medical stores keep occupying the tables around the chemist shop throughout the day (till the OPDs run), officials feel that this is the only solution to streamline the patient rush at the stores.

“There is very less space available around the chemist shops and the area remains overcrowded. This way, the system remains streamlined,” said Manju Wadwalkar, official spokesperson for the PGI.

“Wherever you go in the PGI, you only find a huge rush of people. I have been visiting the PGI for the past couple of months and have rarely found any place to sit anywhere. Coming here is almost like a punishment since you have to keep standing throughout. One rarely finds space even in the canteen,” said Udayveer Singh, a 60-year-old patient.

The authorities claim to be keeping a close watch on the malpractices, especially by chemists. However, they have failed to take note of the encroachment.

Chandigarh, May 3
Toilets in the new OPD block at Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16, have turned into public toilets. Constructed for patients, the toilets are being used by labourers working in nearby construction sites.

The officials are finding it difficult to get the toilets cleaned as the labourers pose as patients.

Nearly 250 labourers working in the nearby construction sites, including the nursing college building, prefer using the hospital toilets to public toilets.

The officials have been facing a tough time in maintaining cleanliness in the hospital.

"We get the toilets cleaned twice a day but now we are thinking of getting these cleaned more often," said Medical Superintendent Dr Rajiv Vadhera.

More than 2,500 patients visit the OPDs at the hospital everyday. The new OPD block was opened in October last year. There are eight departments in the building and there are eight toilets on different floors of the building.

The hospital witnesses a heavy inflow of patients, adding to the challenge of maintaining hygiene and cleanliness in elevators and wards too. "Cleaning toilets is a big challenge for the staff. As each toilet is being used by as many as 200 persons, the staff is burdened," said an official.

Panchkula, May 3
Five persons were killed while nine others were injured, some of them seriously, when a truck collided head-on with a maxi cab on the Panchkula- Baddi road this evening. The maxi cab had 14 persons on board against its seating capacity of seven.

The truck driver fled the spot after the accident. The victims, mostly women and all residents of Pinjore, were going home from a factory after completing their work when the accident took place.

One of the dead has been identified as Surinder, the driver of the maxi cab, while the others are yet to be identified.

The cab was on the way from Baddi to Pinjore while the truck was going from Panchkula to Baddi when the mishap took place.

The victims were taken to the General Hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula, where five of them were decalred brought dead. One of the nine injured, Kranti, was referred to the PGI from the hospital.

“The impact of the collision was so strong that the cab was thrown to a distance and overturned, " said Raj Kumar, an eyewitness. The police went to the spot after passersby informed it about the mishap.

Panchkula Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashwin Shenvi went to the General Hospital to know the well-being of the injured. 

Mohali, May 3
Congress MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu today flayed the changes made “overnight” in the zones for the block samiti elections in order to “benefit the SAD.”

Balbir Sidhu, who was addressing a press conference, said the Punjab Government had carried out changes in the zones for the block samiti elections in the Mohali constituency on the pretext that four villages, Harlalpur, Jandpur, Bhagomajra and Badali, had been included in the Kharar Municipal Council. These villages in the Kharar constituency had no link with the Mohali Block Samiti zones.

The MLA said the SAD had effected such last-minute changes to give an advantage to its candidates and accused the ruling party of violating the poll rules.

The MLA said that in first list issued earlier, which was signed by IAS officer Karuna Raju, the Kharar constituency had been divided into 25 zones. In the first list, the Gobindgarh zone was reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates, but now it had been reserved for Scheduled Caste women candidates.

He said that in the first list, the Patton zone was reserved for Scheduled Castes women. However, a change had been made now, reserving it for general category women.

Besides, Balbir Sidhu said, in the case of the Kumbra zone the reservation status had been changed from Scheduled Caste women to general category women.

Similarly, in the first list the Durali zone was reserved for general category women, but this was changed to general category candidates.

Meanwhile, no candidate filed the nomination papers for the zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections on the first day today. Poll papers can be filed till 3 pm on May 7. The elections will be held on May 19. District Electoral Officer-cum Deputy Commissioner Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu said that all steps would be taken to ensure free and fair elections.

He said there would be 10 zones for the zila parishad poll and 63 for the panchayat samiti elections. The nomination papers could be filed at the office of the Additional Deputy Commissioner (General)-cum-Returning Officer in the district administrative complex here.

He said for the panchayat samiti poll, the candidates could file their nomination papers at the office of the SDM, Mohali, in the case of the Majri Panchayat Samiti; at the Kharar SDM’s office in the case of the Kharar Panchayat Samiti; and at the Dera Bassi SDM’s office in the case of the Dera Bassi Panchayat Samiti. 

Mohali, May 3
After snapping ties with the SAD in the coming block samiti and zila parishad elections, the Mohali unit of the BJP today announced candidates for various seats.

The district unit of the BJP held a meeting to discuss the names of the candidates for the elections which was presided over by Sukhwinder Singh Goldy, president of the unit. The party unit announced the names of its candidates for five zila parishad seats. Names for 50 seats were proposed for the block samiti poll but the names of only 10 could be finalised.

Goldy had said yesterday that the BJP and the SAD could not reach a consensus on the sharing of seats and he had apprised the party high command of their decision which was taken at a meeting of the core committee of the district BJP. Goldy had said that they had asked for three zila parishad and 15 block samiti seats in accordance with an arrangement the BJP had with the SAD in 2008. 

Chandigarh, May 3
The City Beautiful, country’s second-most urbanised UT that ranks high on prosperity indicators, has reported a noticeable improvement in the child sex ratio (0 to 6 years). The child sex ratio of the city is 880 females per 1,000 males. In 2001, the sex ratio was 819 females per 1,000 males.

In the Primary Census Abstract released by the UT Census Department today, the city has shown an improvement in the sex ratio, as there are 818 females per 1,000 males. This is below the national average of 940 as per the Census 2011. The ratio was 773 females per 1,000 males in 2001.

The figures of the Census 2011 released by TN Bindhyeshwari, Director of Census Operations, Chandigarh, reveal that the city population has risen by nearly 17.2 per cent against the national growth figure of 17.7 per cent. With 9,252 people for every sq km, the city is the second-most densely populated after Delhi, which has 11,296 people per sq km. The total population growth in the previous decade was 40.33 per cent.

As per details from the Census 2011, Chandigarh has a population of 10.54 lakh, an increase from the figure of 9.01 lakh in the 2001 Census. The total population of Chandigarh as per the 2011 Census is 1,054,686, of which male and female are 5,80,282 and 4,74,404, respectively. In 2001, the total population was 9,00,635, in which males were 5,06,938, while females were 3,93,697.

Out of the total population of Chandigarh, 97.25 per cent people live in urban regions. The total figure of population living in the urban areas is 1,025,682, of which 563,127 are males, while 4,62,555 are females. The urban population in the past 10 years has increased by 26.86 per cent.

Around 2.75 per cent live in the villages of the rural areas. The total population of the rural areas of Chandigarh was 29,004. The population growth rate recorded for this decade (2001-2011) was 68.51 per cent.

There has also been positive improvement in literacy levels. The literacy level in females has shown more than 5 per cent increase.

The literacy rate in Chandigarh has seen an upward trend and is 86.43 per cent as per the 2011 population Census. Of that, male literacy stands at 90.54 per cent, while female literacy is at 81.38 per cent. In 2001, the literacy rate in Chandigarh stood at 81.94 per cent, of which male and female were 88.42 per cent and 75.37 per cent literate, respectively.

Chandigarh, May 3
Defying the prevailing perception that government sector institutions resort to archaic setup, the Income Tax Office in Chandigarh, located at the Aykar Bhawan in Sector 17, has come up with a swanky café, offering all kinds of fast food and beverages at half the market price.

The eating area in the building has been upgraded and divided into two areas, a high-end café and a regular eatery offering extensive meals. The café will serve as a waiting area for the visitors.

The café offers pasta, coffee and a number of snacks available at other popular coffee shops in the city. The café was conceptualised by Garima Singh, Additional Commissioner, Income Tax. The committee, which gave the go- ahead to the concept, was headed by Chief Commissioner Jaspal Singh.

Chandigarh, May 3
The Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) of the UT police organised a two-day workshop under the supervision of UT SSP Naunihal Singh at Police Lines, Sector 26, Chandigarh.

The workshop was attended by 105 keepers/representatives of various hotels of the city, who were imparted practical training of C-Form Module by officers of the FRO Chandigarh and the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

After the workshop, all hotelkeepers were requested to register user IDs of their respective hotels with FRO Chandigarh shortly, and extend their cooperation/help for implementation of C-Form Module (online submission of C-Form) under Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking (IVFRT) project in all hotels of Chandigarh, accordingly. — TNS

Chandigarh, May 3
Air Commodore Arun Kumar Barik has been appointed as the next Air Officer Commanding, No. 3 Base Repair Depot (BRD). Presently serving as chief engineering officer of the Eastern Air Command at Shillong, he will take over from Air Commodore Suresh Singh.

Barik was commissioned as an engineer in the Aeronautical Engineering (Mechanical) branch on February 14, 1983. He is trained on SU-30 and Mig-21 fighter aircraft. His appointments include Commanding Officer, Air Force Liaison Establishment, Chief Engineering Officer of a fighter base and Director (Engineering A) at the Air Headquarters. He was instrumental in the induction of SU-30 MKI fighter aircraft in the IAF. For his distinguished service, he was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal on January 26, 2010. — TNS

Chandigarh, May 3
Flying Sikh Milkha Singh poured his heart out over the recent fight at the Chandigarh Golf club, saying he was hurt about what the gentlemen's game had done to him. "My image has been massively spoiled because of the recent controversy despite the fact that I was not at all involved in any manner," said Milka Singh, who was given Lifetime Achievement Award by the Chandigarh Senior Citizens Club at a local ceremony here today.

He said he was shocked that the club members hit each other and then, his name was unnecessarily dragged into the issue. "This incident not only maligned the reputation of the club but also stained the game," he said.

The veteran Olympian was seen sharing a personal note with senior citizens today. While everyone knows him as the Flying Sikh, not many are aware that this tag was given to him in Pakistan in 1960 during a track event, in which he never wanted to participate.

Sharing the episode, he said he did not want to go to Pakistan to attend the games as his parents were killed there during riots after the Partition.

"However, I was persuaded by the then Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, to participate and it was there that I got the title of Flying Sikh after I defeated Pakistani champion Abdul Khaliq in a 200-m race," he said.

"When the race began, Khaliq took an initial lead as he was a 100-m sprinter. But, I overtook him and won the race. After the race, General Ayub (the then Pakistan president) came up to me and said Milkha you did not run, you flew. And that's how I got my name," he told the audience.

He said he regretted that he did not win a medal for the country in the Olympics. "I was a hot favourite in the 400-m race but a small mistake pushed me back and I missed the medal which I still regret," he said.

Milkha said he wanted to see somebody win a medal in athletics before he died. 

Mohali, May 3
A blood donation, medical check-up and eye camp was organised by the Youth Development and Sports Club at Landran today.

It was inaugurated by Punjab State Women’s Commission chairperson Paramjit Kaur Landran and former Mohali Municipal Council president Kulwant Singh.

Club president Gurinder Singh Gill said 180 persons donated blood at the camp, which was organised in cooperation with the Red Cross and Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital. Besides, 320 persons underwent free medical check-up.

He said lenses would be provided free of charge to 64 persons.

Punjab Chief Parliamentary Secretary NK Sharma, who was the chief guest, announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh to the club, while Kulwant Singh gave an assistance of Rs 51,000. 

Chandigarh, May 3
Even after the prevailing confusion, thousands of young medical aspirants are all set to appear for the first ever National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) on May 5. 

It is a result of a combined step taken by the Central Government and the Medical Council of India to organise a single medical entrance exam for both MBBS and BDS courses. Even as several medical colleges across India have already issued the dates for their separate medical entrance examination, following the Supreme Court’s interim order, the NEET is still relevant as most of the government-run medical institutions are going ahead with this common entrance test for admission in their undergraduate medical courses. 

For instance, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, will conduct no separate entrance test this year and will consider results of the National Eligibility Entrance Test. Candidates will be selected on the basis of their state ranks, which are to be separately announced along with the all-India ranks of students. 

Similarly, the government-run medical colleges in Punjab and Haryana have not released any advertisement for their separate PMT, so far and they are most likely to go with NEET for the new session. As per the information, Banaras Hindu University; Christian Medical College, Vellore and Ludhiana, All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi; KGMC, Manipal; Aligarh Muslim University; JIPMER, Puducherry; and UP CPMT are among the colleges which have already declared dates for their separate medical entrance exams, scheduled later in May and next month.