Chandigarh, August 13
As the authorities closed the main gate leading to the Emergency as soon as the deceased’s relatives started throwing stones, over 10 patients suffered a lot of inconvenience in reaching the Emergency. As vehicles were not allowed inside, relatives of patients coming to the hospital on rickshaws or three-wheelers had to carry them on their shoulders and walk up to the Emergency.

Other patients who came by ambulance or other vehicles took alternative routes to enter the hospital. The vandalism by the deceased’s family continued at the entry to the Emergency as well, as they had blocked the passage, delaying the entry of patients.

“To ensure that nobody was hurt during the incident and the agitation did not spread, we closed the gate for some time. However, we managed patient entries from other gates till the time the gate was closed,” said Dr Rajiv Vadhera, Medical Superintendent.

Panchkula, August 13
Maggots in wheat, fungus-laden and insect-infested rice and rotten vegetables formed the mid-day meal for 1,000 students of three government schools here today.

During a surprise check by Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) and Secretary of the District Legal Services Authority Jaibir Hooda and his panel advocate Manbir Singh Rathi in storerooms and kitchens of Government Primary School, Sector 15, Government Primary School, Sector 4, and Government Primary and Middle School, Haripur, today, it came to light how the administration was “giving poison” in the form of the mid-day meal.

The CJM has sent a report with videography evidence to the Panchkula Deputy Commissioner, the Member Secretary of the Haryana Legal Services Authority and the District Education Officer to take immediate action.

The CJM was shocked to see dingy walls and unhygienic conditions in the kitchens and storerooms where the food stuff was kept.

“I was shocked. Rice, wheat and pulses meant for students were laden with fungus, cobwebs and were infested with worms and insects. How can they give such food to the students; it can cause death,” said Hooda.

Fungus was also found in drinking water tanks. No head teacher was found in Government Primary School, Sector 4, and Government Primary and Middle School, Haripur, at the time of the surprise check.

Chandigarh, August 13
The UT Excise and Taxation Department today failed to attract even a single bid for the allotment of 97 liquor vends, both IMFL and country-made liquor. This was the fifth attempt by the department to dispose of the vends. It is perhaps for the first time that no bid was received for the allotment of liquor vends.

The vends had earlier been surrendered or had remained unallotted. Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner Naresh Dubey said not even a single application was received despite the fact that the reserve price had been reduced by 5 per cent.

Chandigarh, August 13
The CITCO Workers Union in a representation to the senior officials of the Chandigarh Administration has stated that 17 employees of the corporation, who are occupying government accommodation, have been given notices by the estate office to vacate the houses on the directions of the court.

It has also been learnt that Punjab and Haryana have not identified any house to be vacated and they have left it to the estate office to identify those houses which have been allocated or re- allocated without fulfilling the requisite norms and treated as illegal allotment to the employees after the rules laid down in 1996.

The estate office while adhering to the High Court orders with 1996 rules did not check the facts or background on the basis of which the houses have been allocated to CITCO in the right perspective.

It is on record that while handing over the management of Hotel Mountview in 1982, on lease by the Chandigarh Administration to CITCO, the said property had 33 commercial rooms and 24 residential rooms inside the premises. The CITCO management was competent to allot or re- allot these 24 residential houses to its employees as CITCO pool.

However in 1989-90, the expansion of Hotel Mountview was planned with concurrence of the Chandigarh Administration under which the 24 residential rooms meant for the employees were to be dismantled and accordingly the administration decided to allot 24 houses falling in the Chandigarh General Pool, as a special case for a period of three years, besides CITCO was asked to construct its own colony. Since then, those 24 houses being a part of the lease of the hotel remains with CITCO for which the lease money fixed by the administration has been paid by them.

CITCO could not take up construction of its own colony due to the financial constraints as the expansion and up-gradation of the hotel continued and the entire cost thereof had been borne by its management out of its financial resources and till date CITCO has made an investment of more than Rs 35 crore solely in Hotel Mountview.

Chandigarh, August 13
The PGIMER today called a meeting of all the 14 chemists on the campus and issued strict instructions on ensuring proper cold chain in storing vaccines. All the chemists attended the meeting chaired by Dr AK Bhalla, Additional Medical Superintendent, Advanced Pediatrics Centre (APC).

Dr Bhavneet Bharti, Associate Professor, APC, also attended the meeting.

The move came in the wake of a recent incident of a baby’s death after being administered a pentavalent vaccine. In April this year, a six-week-old baby died, 16 hours after he was given the Easy Five vaccine for protection against five common diseases.

Chandigarh, August 13
Owing to the face-off between the Deputy Commissioner and the SDM (South), the functioning of the Red Cross Society (RCS) seems to have been badly affected.

There has been an acute shortage of booklets for various jobs related to the Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA) for the past over two weeks, leading to a lot of inconvenience to the visitors. The RLA officials attribute the shortage to mismanagement on the part of the Red Cross Society (RCS), which procures the booklets.

Under the existing arrangement, the Red Cross gets some commission per booklet sold at the RLA counters. To overcome the problem, the RCS employee are downloading forms from the website of the department and issuing a receipt against revenue collection.

The RLA officials said the issue had been brought to the notice of the Chairman of the Red Cross Society, but to no anvil.

“Owing to the shortage of the booklets, the downloaded forms are loosely attached to a file and submitted at the counter. When the RLA is earning crores of rupee as registration tax, proper arrangements should have been worked out,” said Arvind Singh, who was in a queue to get the forms from the Red Cross counters.

Chandigarh, August 13
Moving ahead with the departmental inquiry against the three police officers who were negligent in dealing with an accident case in which three persons were killed, senior police officials handed over a summary of allegations to the three officers today.

The three policemen, Inspector Ram Gopal, Sub Inspector (SI) Harminder Singh and SI Kuldeep Singh, were handed over summaries of allegations in connection with shoddy investigations into the death of three youngsters in a road accident involving an Audi.

The three officials have been asked to file replies to the allegations.

Three youngsters, Sahil, Kuldeep and Hast Bahadur, were killed when their Tavera was hit by a speeding Audi on the road separating Sector 18 and 17 on July 22. Instead of taking prompt action against the Audi driver, Rajat Kapoor, the police had booked deceased driver Hast Bahadur.

The occupants of the Audi car had fled the spot after the mishap.

Chandigarh, August 13
The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) today gave a major respite to five Assistant Medical Officers (AMO) of the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, and directed the UT Administration to consider their candidature before filling the posts of Medical Officer within three months.

The five doctors, Dr Anjali Gupta, Dr Rajwinderjit Singh, Dr Deepak Sharma, Dr Monika Shingari and Dr Sonia Arora, all working as AMO at the GMSH, Sector 16, Chandigarh, had moved the CAT, seeking directions to the UT Administration to consider their candidature for promotion to the post of Medical officer in Chandigarh.

The applicants, in the application moved before the tribunal, had maintained that all the posts of the Medical Officer meant for the promotion quota are lying vacant. The applicants claimed that there are 16 posts according to the quota fixed in the recruitment rules for promotion and all the posts are lying vacant.

Directing the UT Administration to consider these five doctors for promotion, the tribunal said: “The applicants had been appointed AMOs against the sanctioned regular posts between 1997 and 1999 and as per the rules an AMO with three years of service is eligible for promotion to the post of Medical Officer. The UT Administration is thus directed to consider the case of the applicants for promotion to the post of Medical Officer within a period of three months and if found eligible give them promotion.”

Chandigarh, August 13
Traders of the Sector 26 Grain Market have opposed the proposed move of the UT estate office to issue notices imposing a penalty of Rs 500 per sqft per month under the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulations) Act 1952 and Estate Rules 2007 (as amended in 2009).

The notices are to be issued to the owners/occupiers of the shop-cum-flats (SCFs) in the Grain Market. Opposing the move, the traders, at a meeting, which was convened to discuss the issue, said as per the allotment letters for the SCFs and the control sheets prepared by the Urban Planning Department, the open platform in front of the shops is the property of their owners and it is for the use as an auction space by them. The stacking of bags of grains, pulses, cereals and other products on the open platform in front of the shop does not fall under the term "misuse" or "violation".

The traders cited CWP No. 16634 of 2008 in the matter of Singh V/s Chandigarh Administration in which the Punjab and Haryana High Court had observed that the authorities in the Chandigarh Administration are not empowered to act so under the existing Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulations) Act, 1952, because under this Act power vests with the Government of India.

“The LPA filed by the Chandigarh Administration has been dismissed by the Supreme Court by upholding the above decision of the High Court. Therefore, such notices of penalties by the Chandigarh Administration are totally illegal and cannot be issued till the compliance of the Punjab and Haryana High Court's decision by the Chandigarh Administration,” said Sunil Gupta, general secretary of the Grain Market Association.

Kalka, August 13
In the first case of its kind in the banking sector, an elderly couple in Kalka is fighting a legal battle for the past 10 years to get back their own money, which they had invested after retirement to secure bread and butter for their family, because of the criminal breach of trust committed by the officials of the State Bank of India, Kalka branch on May 12, 2003.

Rajesh Kumar Sharma, a resident of Kurari Mohalla kalka, said he had availed a loan of Rs 72,000 under Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Yojna (PMRY) scheme from the Kalka branch of SBI in September, 2002. No collateral security was required under PMRY scheme for the business and service sectors, if the project cost was up to Rs 1 lakh.

The project cost of Rajesh Kumar Sharma was Rs 90,000. Still, the bank took two FDRs of the Punjab National Bank worth Rs 40000 each from Jagdish Chand Sharma and Lila Devi (Parents of Rajesh kumar Sharma) as a security for repayment of loan, for which the bank gave a receipt.

The bank returned FDR bearing number 439812 (for three years), however FDR bearing number 439813 (for one year) was never returned despite of repeated request to the bank officials, alleged Rajesh.

He said the matter was referred to the banking Ombudsman, RBI Chandigarh, District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum, Panchkula, where a false affidavit was submitted by the bank mentioning that both the FDRs were returned.

The matter was also brought into the State Consumer Redressal Commission, Panchkula, but did not get justice even after 10 years. However, due to information collected under the RTI Act, 2005 it was revealed that the payment of FDR under dispute was collected by SBI, Kalka on May 8, 2003 from PNB Kalka by submitting the original FDR to them.

Payment of Rs 42,915 was made by PNB Kalka to SBI Kalka branch. Amount of Rs 12,950 instead of Rs 42,915 was credited to the saving A/c of Jagdish Chand and Lila Devi on May 12, 2003 by the Kalka branch of SBI, criminal breach of trust of Rs 30,000 was committed by officials of the bank on May 21, 2003.

Rajesh kumar Sharma has now filed a case in the Kalka Judicial Court on August 12, 2013 to get justice.

Mohali, August 13
Mohali is all set to illuminate with LED (light-emitting-diode) bulbs soon.

Following the directions given by the Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, the Mohali Municipal Corporation has chalked out a plan of replacing all the existing lights with the LED bulbs.

A survey in this regard is being conducted by a private company and the Mohali Municipal Corporation.

Dilraj Singh, the joint commissioner of the MC, said, “With the completion of the project, the performance level of the streetlights would increase to 95 per cent, which currently is 70 to 75 per cent.

“Apart from that there would be saving of about 50 per cent of power. The present power load of the streetlights is 1142.16 kw. With new lights in place, the power consumption would be reduced to half,” said Dilraj Singh.

The saving of power would bring down the bill from Rs two crore (approximately) to Rs one crore per annum.

There are a total of 10,283 streetlights in Mohali. The new lights would also increase the illumination level on the roads.

In the first step, all the lights within five kilometre stretch from the Furniture Market to PCL chowk would be replaced with the LED’s. “A survey of the stretch has been done and a sum of Rs 30 lakh has been sanctioned by the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) for the purpose,” said Dilraj Singh, adding that the work of replacing the existing lights would start soon.

He said to run the new system, certain number of advanced control rooms would be set up in the town. “If there would be any defect in the lights at any point, it would be displayed automatically on the system in the control rooms. With this the efficiency level in the streetlight system would also increase,” he said.

Chandigarh, August 13
The examination system of Panjab University (PU) is in dire need of an overhaul. This is evident from the fact that the university this year received 44 complaints of goof-ups in question papers of undergraduate courses and 40 complaints of errors in question papers of postgraduate courses.

For the past several years, the PU has been witnessing errors in question papers, including questions out of syllabus and anomaly in questions. Despite repeated efforts and a number of committees constituted to make suggestions on improving the system, various question papers of the university exams continue to have glaring mistakes.

Apart from the questions out of syllabus, the university made some major blunders this year after the mathematics question paper for BA and BSc second-year students of all PU-affiliated colleges held on April 17 turned out to be exactly the same that was attempted by the mathematics students last year. Not learning any lesson from the mistake, the question paper of Punjabi (BA-III) turned out to be exactly the same as that of 2012. All questions were in the same order as they were in the question paper of 2012.

Out of the 44 complaints in undergraduate courses, 21 were disposed of by giving grace marks and 19 were rejected by the Board of Studies. No decision has been taken on four complaints yet.

Among postgraduate courses, 40 complaints were received, out of which grace marks were awarded to students in 12 cases and nine complaints were pending. Nineteen complaints have been rejected.

Despite a number of complaints registered by students, the university is yet to fix the responsibility of paper setters to ensure that the errors are not repeated again.

PU Controller of Examination (CoE) Parvinder Singh said all paper setters against whom complaints were received had been asked to explain their side.

“We have ensured that there is no loss to students as grace marks have been awarded to them in the complaints, which were approved by the BOS,” the CoE said.

Parvinder said action against the errors made by the paper setters had to be taken by the BOS.

Chandigarh, August 13
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today restrained the Chandigarh Administration and the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, from declaring the final merit list for admission to MBBS course in the current academic session.

The High Court, at the same time, made it clear that the college authorities could continue with the counselling process. The order came after an appeal filed by some candidates against the August 8 orders quashing the Chandigarh Administration’s notification regarding extending the last date of application beyond June 24.

The High Court on August 8 had made it clear that application forms could not have been received or entertained after the cut-off date. As per the brochure issued by the Medical College and Hospital, the cut-off date to receive the application forms was June 24. Allowing the petition filed by Arpit Agrawal, the High Court had also quashed the admission notice dated August 1.

Arpit Agrawal, a student awaiting admission to the Government Medical College in the second round of counselling, had earlier filed a writ petition before the High Court, challenging the action of the Chandigarh Administration and the medical college in inviting fresh applications for admission, even though the last date was June 24.

He also alleged that many students, whose application forms were deficient for want of documents, too had been given admission in the first round of counselling.

This was despite the fact that the brochure/prospectus specifically provided that incomplete applications were liable to be rejected and application forms would not be entertained after June 24.

It was also pointed out by the student that fresh applications were not being entertained after the cut-off date for admission against the 15 per cent all-India quota. But, the Chandigarh Administration was acting arbitrarily causing grave prejudice to the petitioner and similarly situated students for the 85 per cent quota. He said it would also affect admissions in each category for which reservation had been provided.

Going into the background, the petitioner asserted the controversy had primarily arisen on account of the Administration’s action to invite fresh applications for admission to 50 seats of the MBBS course in the Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh.

These are additional seats available due to enhancement in intake capacity, permitted by the Medical Council of India as a onetime measure for the academic session 2013-2014 for 32 medical colleges, government and private, throughout the country.

Chandigarh, August 13
Teachers of private-aided city colleges today observed a two-hour strike in a bid to show their resentment over pending demands. Classes remained suspended during the strike. The Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers' Union (PCCTU) gave the call for the strike against the policies of the UT Administration, the Punjab Government and the University Grant Commission (UGC).

Over 700 teachers in government aided colleges protested against the injustice being done to them.

Prof PS Gill, president, PCCTU, criticised the latest UGC guidelines for career advancement and rejected it on behalf of the PCCTU.

He has made a call to all teachers of Punjab and Chandigarh units to attend the national rally of the All-India Federation of University College Teachers Organisation (AIFUCTO) on September 20 in Delhi against the said UGC notification.

He also criticised the UT Higher Education Department for not giving teachers their due.

Prof Ghanshyam Dev, district president, Chandigarh unit, pointed out that despite the Supreme Court orders, the UT Director Higher Education (DHE) had not given two increments to the teachers from the aided colleges with Phd degree on entering selection scale while giving the same to government college teachers.

This was the second strike call given by the PCCTU in less then a week. The classes in all colleges witnessed thin attendance.

Chandigarh, August 13
Panjab University has decided to allow all affiliated colleges to increase five additional seats per unit consisting of 40 seats in various courses in affiliated colleges in the session 2013-14. The PU has removed the cap of maximum 10 seats, which was imposed in the earlier Syndicate meeting of July 27.

The decision was taken in the PU Syndicate meeting presided over by PU Vice-Chancellor Prof Arun K Grover here today. The meeting lasted for more than four-and-half-hours and discussed many agenda items.

The PU Syndicate considered the report of the committee dated May 3, 2013, regarding complaints against Guru Nanak Girls College, Ludhiana. The college authorities admitted Jaspreet Kaur to BBA-II in 2012 on the basis of a fake DMC and migration certificate of Punjabi University, even though she had been a student of the same college in 2011-12 and had failed in BBA-I. The Syndicate agreed to the recommendations of the committee to report the matter to the police for further investigation so that the persons behind the fake certificate scandal were identified to avoid such scandals in future.

A four-member subcommittee was formed to suggest the action to be taken on other recommendations of the committee.

The PU Syndicate also resolved that the PU VC would convey the concern of the PU faculty to the Higher Education Secretary, Government of India, Ashok Thakur, regarding the second amendment in API Score.

The Syndicate decided to wait for the report of the Board of Studies, Faculties and Academic Council on the issue of proposed alternative system of internal assessment in colleges as received from the Director Higher Education, UT.

Chandigarh, August 13
Student organisations at Panjab University have made a complaint against the NSUI for holding a late-night meeting on Monday outside the Law Department, which was being addressed by NSUI leader Brinder Dhillon.

The NSUI was holding a meeting, along with around 100 supporters, around 10 pm outside the Law Department, following which the opposition parties made a complaint to the Dean Student Welfare (DSW) at the same time.

PU security staff was sent to the spot and party members were asked to leave.

Student leaders have complained that Brinder Dhillon is not the student of the university, and he should not be allowed for campaigning or holding meetings on the campus.

Brinder Dhillon said he had appeared for the fourth semester compartment exams in April this year, and his result was awaited. As soon as the result was declared, he would take admission to the fifth semester.

“After clearing the exams, I will be eligible to take admission to the next semester,” he said.

DSW Navdeep Goyal said he had warned the NSUI leaders that no gathering in the open during night would be allowed, that too with the involvement of outsiders.

Chandigarh, August 13
NSUI members today submitted a memorandum to the Dean Student Welfare (DSW) regarding the allocation of rooms to girl students in the sports hostel till the completion of girls’ hostel No. 9.

NSUI president Manoj Lubana said this would lessen the long waiting list of girls seeking hostel accommodation in the university.

“The construction of girls’ hostel No. 9 is under progress. It will take a few months to get completed. We, therefore, want that those girls should be allotted rooms in the sports hostel,” he said.

NSUI leaders said in 2010 also the sports hostel was allotted to girl students when girls’ hostel No. 8 was under construction.

There is a waiting list of over 700 girl students who have applied for hostel seats on the university campus.

The PU authorities have assured the students of looking into their demands.