Chandigarh, June 28
The rise in the prices of vegetables has burnt a hole in the pocket of the common man in the city. Prices are on fire after damage to the crop due to rain. The prices of most of the vegetables have gone up by 50 per cent.

Local traders say shortage of supply has led to the rise in the prices.

The prices of tomato, beans, lemon, ginger and onions have shot up. Vijay Kumar, a vegetable vendor at Sector 26, said: “Rain has damaged the crops, triggering a massive shortage of the vegetables. All our stocks have exhausted and we are being dependent on Himachal Pradesh for the supply of vegetables.”

Supervisor of the wholesale market Balwinder Singh said: “This is a common phenomenon during rains. But this year, heavy rains in the hill state have affected the supply of vegetables.”

The price of tomato has gone up to Rs 35 from Rs 20 in two weeks. Similar is the case with other vegetables witnessing a hike of Rs 10 per kg. Onions are giving tears to people at Rs 25 kg from Rs 15 kg two weeks ago. The price of bananas has also shot up to Rs 70 per dozen from Rs 50.

“The hike in the prices of vegetables and fruits has affected the monthly budget,” said Ameesha Singh, a Sector 27 resident.

Chandigarh, June 28
Thousands of lives have been lost in the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, but the 'insensitive' councillors of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation are busy taking the credit for providing relief material to the victims.

It all started when Mayor Subhash Chawla allowed Congress councillor Gurbax Rawat to discuss the agenda to provide relief to the flood victims in the House. To this, BJP councillor Heera Negi stood from her seat and asked the Mayor how he could say that Gurbax was a real benefactor of Uttarakhand residents.

Negi said she belonged to Uttarakhand as she was born and brought up there. Her in-laws' house was also in Uttarakhand. Negi said she also belonged to the state and had been helping the flood victims. Negi alleged that the Mayor was to make political mileage out of a tragedy.

The Mayor, however, denied that he said Gurbax Rawat was the real benefactor of Uttarakhand residents.

Gurbax Rawat, whose husband and in-laws are also from Uttarakhand, said she wanted to help the victims, but the BJP councillors politicised the issue. Rawat said the Uttarakhand tragedy should be declared as a national disaster and the councillors should come forward to provide financial assistance to the victims.

Earlier, a two-minute silence was observed for the flood victims.

Later, councillors of the BJP-SAD questioned the Mayor about the help being provided to the flood victims. They also questioned MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, UT Administrator Shivraj V Patil and the UT Administration's role in rescuing the pilgrims of the city from Uttarakhand. They said a disaster management cell should be formed in the MC.

BJP councillor Davesh Moudgil asked the Mayor to explain his role in helping the flood victims from the city. Another BJP Councillor Arun Sood targeted MP Pawan Kumar Bansal on the issue.

Replying to the allegations, the Mayor said Pawan Kumar Bansal had already given Rs 30 lakhs from the MPLAD fund. He clarified that he had visited a camp for Uttarakhand flood victims in Sector 43 and had provided facilities of drinking water and mobile toilets to them.

Chandigarh, June 28
Arrested for cloning debit/credit cards, the accused couple, Mukul Garg and Ramandeep Kaur, used to sell expensive cellphones online through popular websites OLX.in and ebay.com.

Police investigations revealed that the couple used to sell smartphones purchased by cloned cards through these websites.

Ramandeep Kaur and Mukul Garg were arrested from the Chandigarh airport on Wednesday for their alleged involvement in a number of ATM card cloning cases. They used a magnetic card reader to clone cards.

The accused have named two other accomplices during the police investigations. Besides selling cellphones online, the accused were also in constant touch with a Delhi resident, Harish, to whom they handed over the newly purchased phones for sale in the second hand market. Harish used to give them 10 per cent commission on the resale of costly phones.

The police said some petrol pumps as well as shops where cards were cloned in connivance with their employees were under scanner. A police team, which left for Ludhiana today, questioned some suspects known to the accused. The team also searched the accuseds’ residences.

The cyber crime cell had cracked ATM fraud cases that rocked the city in the recent past and arrested a young couple yesterday who was adept at ATM card cloning through a magnetic ATM reading machine. They committed a series of frauds by cloning cards across the city.

Chandigarh, June 28
With the appointment of Charu Sandhu as first Trade Commissioner, Chandigarh, the provincial government of British Columbia (BC) in Canada has set in motion the process of strengthening trade and investment relations with India in general and Punjab in particular.

In November 2011, then Premier of British Columbia Christie Clark had announced setting up of a trade and investment centre as part of the Canadian Consulate-General office here.

Last year in December, British Columbia health minister Michael De Jong had formally inaugurated the office in Chandigarh.

The office will now become functional after the full-time appointment of Charu. In fact, when Christie Clark visited India, she also expressed her earnest desire to take Bollywood awards function to Vancouver. Last month, not only were the Christie-led Liberals voted back to power in Canada, the Bollywood film awards were also successfully organised there.

The bureau will come up on the premises of the Consulate General of Canada here. It will look after activities in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and HP.

Panchkula, June 28
The Panchkula Administration has asked Chandi Kotla residents to move out of the “flood and landslide” prone area as soon as possible. Not only this, even the Army has been asked to be prepared for any untoward incident.

At Chandi Kotla village near Chandimandir, 50 houses had either collapsed or developed cracks on September 11 following heavy land-slide due to incessant rain. Chandi Kotla village is situated in a hilly area where people have carried out unauthorised construction.

The PWD Department (B and R) and the Irrigation Department have also been asked to be prepared in case of any natural disaster.

“Since the rainy season is here and the houses have already developed cracks, we have asked all the residents living there to vacate the area quickly. We have told them that we are ready to render them complete help,” said Ashima Brar, Deputy Commissioner, Panchkula.

The administration has offered help and told the residents living in the village that dharamshalas and gurdwaras will be made available to them for the time being.

She further added, “In case of flash -flood situation, we have asked the Army to help us out. I have spoken to Brigadier PK Goyal and a meeting was convened in this regard.”

Last time, during the landslide, We sought the technical assistance of the Geological Survey of India. Certain recommendations were made by the professors of the department of geology of Panjab University. It was told that the inhabitants should quickly be shifted to a safer place.

After what happened in the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the administration has decided be prepared in advance and not take any risk.

Chandigarh, June 28
The city will witness shortage of 9 MGD (million liters per day) of canal water from the coming year. The city will give 6 MGD of water to Panchkula and 3 MGD to the Chandimandir area.

During the discussion of installing 45 new tubewells in various points of the city, MC Commissioner Vivek Pratap Singh informed the House about the possible water shortage in the coming year. He said to meet the demand and supply gap there was a plan to install 45 new tubewells.

The Commissioner informed the House that water would be released to Panchkula and the Chandimandir area as per the water-sharing agreement signed by Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana governments in 1983.

Punjab is already taking its share from Bhakra dam, but Haryana's portion was being used by Chandigarh since then.

Vivek Pratap Singh said that Panchkula would get its share from January 1 next year the work of laying pipelines to Panchkula will be completed by that time. Regarding Chandimandir, he said that there were chances that they would start giving water to Chandimandir by October end this year. The MC is already supplying 3 MGD water to Chandimandir. Now, the MC will have to provide another 3 MGD to it, he added.

At present, the water availability of UT is 87 MGD. Of it, 67 MGD comes form Kajauli canal, which is about 27 kilometers from Chandigarh, and the remaining 20 MGD is generated through tubewells.

In the house meeting today, BJP Councillor Arun Sood said that before installing these tubewells, the MC should carry out some study from the Central Ground Water Board. On this the Commissioner assured that they would do so before starting the work.

Finally, the agenda regarding installation of tubewells was passed in the House meeting.

Chandigarh, June 28
The issue of Congress Councillor Mukesh Bassi’s letter to Mayor Subhash Chawla also rocked the MC House meeting today.

BJP Councillor Asha Jaswal also accused the Mayor of interfering in her ward. She said that the Mayor should not play politics and not instigate residents of her ward against her. She said that instead of providing help, the Mayor was interfering in her ward.

Another BJP councillor Arun Sood said that the letter written by Bassi to the Mayor in which Bassi had levelled allegations against the Mayor for interfering in his ward, proved that it was the habit of the Mayor to interfere in other councillor’s ward.

By giving an example, Sood said that he was against installation of paver blocks in his ward but the Mayor during a visit in his ward announced the installation of paver blocks in the market area. Sood said that they welcomed the Mayor’s visit but he should have taken the local area councilor along with him. When the BJP Councillors were targeting the Mayor, Bassi was also present at the meeting.

On Opposition councillor’s allegations, the Mayor said that as the city Mayor he had all the right to visit any part of the city. He denied the allegations levelled by BJP Councillor Asha Jaswal that he was instigating her ward residents. He challenged her to prove her allegations.

Chandigarh, June 28
Pleasant weather continued to prevail in the city and the Meteorological Department predicted similar conditions in the next two days too. Residents can hope for a relaxed weekend as the rain will bring down the temperature in the coming days.

As the city received15 mm of rain yesterday, the humidity level decreased to 86 per cent.

As per the Met Department, over the last few days the mercury has dipped and today the maximum temperature settled at 33.6 degree Celsius, three notches below the normal, while the minimum temperature recorded was 24.7 degree Celsius.

As per the weather forecast, the city will witness cloudy sky with rain and thundershowers. The maximum temperature predicted for tomorrow is 33 degree Celsius and minimum at 24 degree Celsius.

Weathermen said that the rain and dip in temperature in the city was due to western disturbances prevailing over Pakistan and adjoining areas like western Rajasthan.

The sudden fall in the temperature provided an opportunity to the residents to leave the closed confines of their homes and venture outside. Parks and picnic areas in the city were abuzz with activities as the residents made the most of the pleasant weather. 

Panchkula, June 28
Around 200 officials of the Panchkula Administration, including Deputy Commissioner Ashima Brar, have contributed their one day’s salary to the relief fund for the persons affected by heavy floods in Uttarakhand.

Other officials include Additional Deputy Commissioner, Panchkula and Kalka Sub-Divisional Magistrates, Panchkula City Magistrate, District Revenue Officer and District Development and Panchayat Officer.

The donation is being sent to the state government through relief account number 6527000100005390 of the District Red Cross Society.

Residents are also coming forward to lend a helping hand. A Panchkula resident, Vinod Bagai, who is the managing director of Samar Estates here, donated Rs 1 lakh to the relief account today.

Mohali, June 28
With 44 sarpanches and 977 panches being elected unopposed, 3,355 candidates are vying for seats in various gram panchayats that go to poll in Mohali district on July 3.

Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Electoral Officer Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu said 844 candidates were contesting for the post of sarpanch and 2,511 aspired for a seat of panch. There are 356 posts of sarpanch and 2,124 posts for panch.

Singh said of the 44 sarpanches elected unanimously, 16 were from Kharar block, 20 from Majri and eight from Dera Bassi.

He said 377 panches were elected unopposed from Kharar block, 329 from Majri block and 271 from Dera Bassi block.

Sidhu said the State Election Commission had fixed an expenditure limit of Rs 23,500 for the election of sarpanch, and Rs 16,000 for panch. 

Zirakpur, June 28
The police got another day’s remand of former Batala Superintendent of Police Mohan Lal in the case of 23-year-old woman’s death.

Earlier on Wednesday, SP was sent on a two-day remand after his surrender.

The deceased, Lovepreet Kaur, was found dead near an apartment registered in Mohan Lal’s name. He was booked on June 24 under Section 306 of the IPC after an inquiry into the case.

The police said the next action would be taken after receiving forensic reports. The SP was transferred to Chandigarh recently.

Panchkula, June 28
Commissioner of Police, Rajbir Deswal, today convened a meeting of all hoteliers in Panchkula and sensitised them about the crime and identification of the visitors. He also asked them to install the CCTV cameras on and around the hotel premises.

“We have asked them to follow certain guidelines. They have been told to do the proper identification of the visitors and take their phone numbers, even of the foreigners are visiting the hotel,” said Deswal.

He further added, “Particularly those hotels have been alerted that are situated in the peripheral areas where anti-social elements supposedly stay around.”

In the recent dacoity at Sector 4, the miscreants had taken shelter at an Ambala-based hotel.

The hotel managers were even asked to maintain the registers so that it becomes easy for the police to trace the criminals.

Mohali, June 28
Fortis Hospital today celebrated its twelfth anniversary with a special function held on the premises. Over 700 doctors, paramedical staff, nurses and administrative staff of the hospital got together and presented a cultural show, exhibiting their spirit of camaraderie and compassion.

The celebrations had kicked off on Wednesday, with stalls being put up in the OPD area for attendants and staff. This was followed by a very fun-filled sports day on Thursday. The anniversary day began with a table tennis tournament, followed by cake cutting and the cultural programme. The staff members who completed five and 10 years at the hospital were also felicitated.

Mohali, June 28
Supply of free water to a section of consumers here is not only resulting in the wastage of water but is also causing a major revenue loss of over Rs 1.80 crore annually.

Nearly 60 per cent of the water supply connections provided by the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation have been exempted from paying water bills by the government.

As per the government orders, residents living in five marla or less houses had to be provided free water supply.

The total number of water supply connections in the residential areas of the town is 16,127 out of which 9,652 have been exempted from charges by the government.

It is learnt that about 5.9 mgd (million gallons a day) of water was being consumed by the residents who were paying for the supply while nearly 4 mgd of water was being supplied free to other residents.

Revenue collected by the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation was about Rs 3 crore a year while the losses suffered due to free water supply connections was over Rs 1.80 crore annually.

Officials of the department concerned said the ailing and worn-out water supply system could have been improved to some extent had the department not supplied free water in any pocket. There were hardly any funds available for the upgradation of the existing system and requests for the same had to be made to the Municipal Corporation and GMADA to make the system function.

Sources said the maximum number of free water supply connections had been provided in Phase XI where the number stood at 3,085 followed by Phase I where there are 1,293 free water connections provided to the residents.

In Phase X as many as 1,089 water connections were exempted to people living in LIG, MIG and Housefed quarters while in Phase IX the figure stood at 914. The minimum number of free water connections were in Sector 71 and the figure here was only 33.

Sukhminder Singh Barnala, former municipal councillor living in Phase XI where there the maximum number of free water connections, said the free water connections not only resulted in lot of water wastage but also deprived other residents of adequate quantity of water. He said he had to circulate notices to those availing free supply not to waste water. At times threats had also to be issued that action against them would be recommended to the authorities concerned.

Mohali, June 28
A girl allegedly committed suicide at Phase V here today. The victim was identified as Seema. Her family members staged a protest outside the police station at Phase I against the failure of the police to arrest all those who were allegedly responsible for her death.

According to reports, some of the her relatives alleged that her brother-in-law, the only accused arrested by the police, was being given VIP treatment.

The protesters also tried to gherao the jeep of the SHO of the police station. But he managed to make his way. It is reported that the protesters also reached Dara Studio where the SSP pacified them and asked them to meet him at his office later.

Chandigarh, June 28
The number of students with CGPA 10 and 9 who have applied for admission to Class XI in UT’s government senior secondary schools has seen a considerable increase this year.

With this, cut-offs for admission to various streams in Class XI are expected to rise. The number of schools with a cut-off of CGPA 9 and above is also expected to increase.

As per officials, the most affected will be those with CGPA 8, 9 and below as it is going to be difficult for them to get admission to top government schools, especially in the science and commerce streams.

The school and stream-wise merit list will be out on July 1 for 39 government senior secondary schools.

As per the common merit list uploaded on the Education Department’s website today, 458 students with CGPA 10 have applied for admission to Class XI as compared to 315 students who scored a perfect 10 in 2012. Further, 1,101 students with CGPA 9 and 9.8 are in the fray for various streams as compared to 850 students in 2012.

"This increase is the result of a massive increase in the number of students getting CGPA 10 and 9 in the recent CBSE Class X results," said an official of the Education Department.

The officials are not expecting the overall cut-off in government schools reaching CGPA 10 in Chandigarh.

“The cut-off is not likely to touch CGPA 10 despite the fact that a large number of students with CGPA 10 have applied for admission to Class XI. The highest cut-off is likely to be CGPA 9.8,” said Sunil Bedi, subject expert, UT Education Department.

He said the science stream would have the highest cut-off. Out of the 458 students with CGPA 10, 392 students have applied for the science stream, followed by 54 for the commerce stream and 12 for the arts stream.

Not only the overall cut-off, but also the number of schools with a cut-off of CGPA 9 and above is also anticipated to increase.

Last year, only three government schools - Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, and Government Model Senior Secondary School, Mani Majra, - recorded the cut-off above CGPA 9 in the general category for the science stream.

As far as the commerce stream was concerned, there was only one school, Government Model Senior Secondary School-16, with a cut-off of CGPA 9.

But, things are set to be different this time. As per the data analysed by The Tribune, 892 students between CGPA 9 and 9.8 have applied for the science stream this year. As far as the commerce stream is concerned, there are 235 students in the fray. The arts stream, too, has 32 students between CGPA 9 and 9.8.

Keeping in view these figures, there will be approximately 7-8 schools with a cut-off above CGPA 9 this year.

Sunil Bedi said in this situation, it was possible that students between CGPA 8 and 9 would have to satisfy themselves with the sixth or seventh school in the sequence of preferences filled in the registration forms for the science and commerce streams.

Chandigarh, June 28
While Panjab University (PU) is mulling over taking strict action against the affiliated BEd colleges for not fulfilling the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) norms, the university seems to have forgotten the BEd and MEd courses being run on the PU campus that are in dire need of regular faculty members.

The university acting tough with the BEd colleges had asked them to provide the compliance report as per the NCTE norms after it was found that the colleges lack enough regular teachers, qualified staff and sometimes even principals. However, the university has failed to look into the faculty shortage in the courses run on the campus.

The BEd Special Education course (with specialisation in learning disability) run by the university has already started the admission process. However, the course needs an approval from the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI). Falling to the shortage of teachers, the RCI had objected to approval for the course. There are only four permanent teachers for the course, while there is one re-employed teacher.

Navleen Kaur, coordinator of the department, said the shortcomings pointed out by RCI had been met and three guest faculties would be teaching the BEd classes from the coming session.

“We will write to the RCI regarding the guest faculty teachers being hired to teach the classes, and we hope to get the approval soon,” the coordinator said.

The Department of Education, which has three different MEd courses under it with 105 seats, has only six regular teachers, and two re-employed teachers are teaching the M.Ed classes. There is a shortage of two faculty members.

The Department of Education is the nodal research centre for all PU-affiliated BEd colleges.

The Institute of Educational Technology and Vocational Education (IETVE) on the PU campus that has four-year BA-BEd course has five teachers, of whom four are permanent, while one works on an ad hoc basis. There are two guest faculties. There is a requirement of 12 faculty members.

Sources said there were no specialised teachers for Punjabi, history and economics in the department.

Vandana Mehra, coordinator of the department, refused to comment on the issue.

A senior Senate member said the university should first set its own house in order before taking action against the colleges. “PU should appoint regular faculty to meet the shortage of teachers, instead of inviting guest faculty,” the Senate member said.

Madhu Raka, Dean University Instruction, PU, said: “We are in the process of advertising the posts in all departments and appoint the permanent faculty at the earliest”.

Chandigarh, June 28
Keeping in view the flash floods that led to the disaster in Uttarakhand, Panjab University has decided to extend the last date for the submission of admission forms for various courses from July 3 to July 6.

PU officials said this decision had been taken so that the students from the hill state didn’t miss the opportunity to apply for admission to the university.

“The local residents are stuck in Uttarakhand as many roads have been washed away due to the flash floods,” the officials said.

July 3 was the last date for various postgraduate courses, LLB and courses under OCET.

The officials said all teaching departments would be informed about the extension of the last date for the submission of admission forms.

“The update will also be put on the university website so that the students can get to know about the decision,” said the officials. — TNS

Chandigarh, June 28
A job fair was organised at Post Gradate Government College, Sector 46, for the students of all government colleges. Students from other private colleges also participated in the job fest.

Around 17 companies from various sectors participated in the fair. Some of these included Mark and Spencer, Birla Sunrise, Reliance Trends, Indusland Bank, Axis Bank, DLF, Westside, etc., officials said.

They said 728 students had registered for the fair, of whom 251 were selected. Candidates from Chandigarh and neighbouring states appeared for interviews.

“The candidates were shortlisted on the basis of direct interviews, written tests and aptitude tests. Most of the students were interested in the banking and insurance sector,” the officials said. The companies that offered jobs to the maximum number of candidates included Mark and Spenser and Birla Sunrise.

Chandigarh, June 28
Navroop Kaur of Ramgarhia Girls College, Miller Ganj, Ludhiana, has topped the BA second-year examination of Panjab University, the results of which were declared here today. Girls have outshone boys as they bagged all the top 10 positions, except the fifth.

As many as 33,608 students appeared for the BA second-year examination, of which 24,071 students passed.

Akriti Sharma of MCM College, Sector 36, and Shivangi Sood, Government College for Girls, Ludhiana, grabbed the second and third positions, respectively.

Hargun Padda of MCM College has topped the BSc Honours (Microbial Food Technology) third-year examination of the university, the results of which were declared today. All 29 students who appeared for the BSc final-year examination passed.

Nitika Rana of DAV College, Sector 10, has topped the BSc Honours (Bio-Informatics) third-year examination of the university. All 10 students who appeared for the BSc Honours (Bio-Informatics) final-year examination passed.

Chandigarh, June 28
MSc students continued their protest against the university authorities for holding the MSc fourth-semester chemistry exam again. They have planned to hold a silent protest during the Syndicate meeting scheduled to be held on June 29.

While the protest completed its fifth day today, the indefinite hunger strike by three students entered its third day.

Satpal Jain, PU Senate member, and former MP, also met the protesting students to listen to their grievances.

Dinesh Chauhan, PU student leader, said the protesting students would meet the Syndicate members and submit a representation to them regarding their demand.

The decision to re-conduct the exam was taken as three exams were held prior to the date sheet at SGGS Khalsa College, Mahilpur in Hoshiarpur. — TNS

Chandigarh, June 28
“Strategic partnership between the industry and technical institutes backed by strong leadership on both sides is the need of the hour for India to be able to create the required number of employable youth in the next 5 years,” said Dr Avinash Pant, vice-chairman, All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). He was addressing a regional workshop on AICTE - CII Survey of Industry-Linked Technical Institutes 2013 at the CII Headquarters, Sector 31, here today.

Calling for an active dialogue between the industry, institutes and the government, Pant said technical institutes and the industry should work in tandem and have a meaningful interaction with special focus on long-term projects.

He was here to launch and share the key highlights of the AICTE - CII Survey on Industry-Linked Technical Institutes 2013, which would help other institutes learn from the best practices of the top industry-linked institutes from all across the country. The objective of the survey, which is now live on the AICTE portal, is to bring out a document detailing the present situation of the level of Industry-Institute Partnerships (IIP) across the nation and draw the desired road map for the future. “Institutes should come forward and approach the industry to learn about the latest requirements, innovations, latest products, processes and ideas to bring about the required revolution in the education sector,” he said. — TNS