On August 16, the authorities have fixed another meeting with all student parties to decide on the fine for violators during the coming elections. 

Chandigarh, August 11
Following directions from the Centre to do away with affidavits and to promote self-attestation of documents for citizen services, the UT Administration has decided to implement the orders with immediate effect for 217 services.

The implementation of the orders will save citizens the unnecessary hassle in various offices.

UT Finance-cum-Education Secretary Sarvjit Singh said, “With the implementation of the orders, the time of citizens, which was earlier wasted in running to the notary to get an affidavit on a Rs 50 stamp paper to avail of a public service or hunt for a gazetted officer to get photocopies for academic certificates attested, will now be saved. It will benefit and simplify delivery of services to the citizens.”

The Centre’s directive followed the abolition of affidavits by Punjab earlier under its administrative reforms programme.

According to the new orders, to avail of citizen services in Annexure A, instead of an affidavit, now its contents will be taken in the form of a declaration on a plain paper. All offices will designate officials to receive the application from the applicant along with a self-attested copy of any of the documents — Aadhaar card, ration card, passport, driving licence, voter ID-card or employer certificate.

Ajay Jagga, advocate, Punjab and Haryana High Court, said, “The era of self-certification should begin immediately in the UT Administration to benefit the common man, as ordered by the PMO.”

Chandigarh, August 11
In yet another incident today, a head constable with the UT traffic police, Om Prakash, was injured when he tried to stop a speeding motorcyclist, who was without a helmet, in Sector 34.

The motorcyclist, Rahul Kumar, and his sister, who was riding pillion, also received injuries and are taking treatment from the GMCH, Sector 32. Om Prakash received severe head injuries and has also been admitted to the GMCH.

The incident occurred when Rahul was coming from a private coaching institute along with his sister and the head constable signalled him to stop near the Sector 34 market around 5 pm. The police said Rahul hit the policeman and then fell on the road as he lost balance while fleeing. The three injured were taken to the GMCH in a police Gypsy.

The police said motorcyclist Rahul was still unfit for recording his statement and his family members were informed about the incident.

Yesterday, too, a Mohali resident, Aftab Singh Gill, had dragged a constable, Devinder Singh, to almost 1 km on the bonnet of his car near the Sector 9 roundabout. He was arrested.

Chandigarh, August 11
The Education Department plans to reinstate two students who were allegedly involved in the Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, brawl incident.

Sources said the decision was under consideration as the accused were students of Class XII, which was crucial for them for their future. An official said the department would go by the final investigation report.

Police officials said since the victim had not identified the accused students, there had been no progress in the case.

Earlier, the accused students, along with their classmates, had held protests on the school campus and in Sector 17, demanding their reinstatement.

The incident had occurred on July 17 when the victim, a Class X student, was returning home after the school hours. He was allegedly thrashed by his seniors in the market.

Following the incident, the school authorities had expelled the two accused students. However, after the parents of the accused approached the Education Department and assured that they would submit an undertaking that such an incident would not recur, the department decided to consider reinstating the students.

The victim’s father, Divender Singh, alleged that the department was reinstating the students without conducting a fair probe.

DPI (S) Kamlesh Kumar refused to comment on the matter and passed the buck to District Education Officer Ram Kumar.

Repeated attempts to contact the DEO turned futile as he remained uncommunicative. 

Panchkula, August 11
The cries of the maggot-infested victim, who is yet to be identified and has been confined to a corner of the emergency (surgery OPD) on a trolley at the PGI, can be heard in the hospital.

The victim lies on a trolley at the PGI on Monday. A Tribune photograph

What to talk of sending some help, the Panchkula administration did not even bother to locate the family members of the victim.

The victim, lying near a storeroom at the hospital, had tears in his eyes. He kept mum when this reporter tried to interact with him regarding the whereabouts of his family. Initially, he kept crying while lying down, and then got up in an effort to ease his pain.

Asked why the victim was lying “uncared for”, a PGI official said, “The doctors concerned are attending to the patient. The dressing of his neck, which was badly infected by maggots, is being done by ENT specialists. The fact is that the PGI is overburdened.”

He said, “There is an NGO at the PGI that has six attendants, but we are flooded with such patients. The Panchkula administration should send someone for his care or make efforts to identify him.”

Even as other patients had attendants taking care of their needs, the victim kept looking helplessly towards the floor.

Asked what efforts had been made to locate the family members of the victim, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Jagtar Singh said, “We will send someone tomorrow to the PGI so that his family members can be traced. His photograph will also be sent to various police stations in the state.”

The Red Cross Society, that takes care of such victims, maintained that the victim should be above 60 and only then he could be kept at the old-age home. Otherwise, there is no other place with the Panchkula administration where such destitutes can be looked after.

NGOs make enquiries

Calls offering help to the victim were received by this reporter. Apart from two NGOs, a researcher, who is a faculty member of Chitkara University, Rajpura campus, also called up to know about the victim’s condition. They said they would visit him.

The case

On Saturday, it was after Chandigarh Tribune called up the Chief Medical Officer of Panchkula that an ambulance was sent for the victim, who was crying in pain on the Mansa Devi Dwar road. Help reached him after one hour and 55 minutes. Owing to his critical condition, he was referred to the PGI from the General Hospital, Sector 6.

Chandigarh, August 11
The UT is again looking for a fresh design for bus queue shelters in the city. After adopting three different designs over the years, with the latest ones (stainless steel structure) costing around Rs 13 lakh each, the UT is now scouring for a better design for another 80 bus queue shelters to come up in different parts of the city.

“Lakhs have been spent on constructing bus queue shelters but still the UT has not been able to standardise the design. Every time the officials change, the design is changed. But the amenities do not improve,” said an official in the UT Engineering Department.

Only two years ago, the department had spent Rs 7.80 crore on constructing 60 ultra-modern bus queue shelters made of stainless steel.

Now, the UT Transport Department has been given the responsibility of shelters on run, operate and maintenance basis.

In the past, the UT failed to maintain bus queue shelters made of bricks and 79 of them have now been identified to be demolished as bricks have started falling off them. “The brick structures have been there for 20 years and many were lying unused,” admitted another UT official.

After the brick type structure, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation had built pre-fabricated structure designs on built, operate and transfer (BOT) basis in 2002 but the mechanism did not work.

The Chandigarh Transport Undertaking has a fleet of 200 buses on local routes that cover 47,000 km every day and ferry around 2 lakh passengers.

Missing bus timetable

Not to miss, the UT, while switching from one design to another, has failed to put up a passenger-friendly timetable about the frequency of the bus service at any of the bus queue shelters.

However, UT officials claim that unscrupulous elements often damage and tear boards displaying timetable charts at bus queue shelters.

Chandigarh, August 11
Ten doctors, who were recruited under the AYUSH programme and now have been brought under the Rashtriya Bal Swathya Karykram (RBSK) project, are a harassed lot.

These doctors, who specialise in ayurvedic medicine and homeopathy, were brought under the RBSK along with nearly 18 MBBS and BDS doctors. However, they are not being paid on a par with the latter.

Also, the ayurvedic medicine and homeopathy doctors are not under direct contact of the UT Health Department, unlike the MBBS and BDS doctors, who perform the same duties, sources said.

The MBBS and BDS doctors were recruited under the school health programme and shifted to the RBSK scheme, which was launched in November, 2013. These doctors are paid a salary of Rs 35,000 per month and entitled to benefits such as a casual leave per month and EPF.

The ayurvedic and homeopathic doctors, on the other hand, are being managed by a private contractor (who runs security services also) and denied the facility of EPF and leave. They are paid Rs 15,000 a month. “In case of an urgent casual leave, our pay is deducted,” said one of the doctors requesting anonymity. 

Chandigarh August 11
More than two months after a woman constable with the UT police went missing, the Chandigarh Police have transferred the investigation of the case to the Panipat police as she was last seen in the Haryana city.

The decision was taken to transfer the case to the Haryana Police after the local police could not find a single clue to the case here.

Reeta, who was posted with the Chandigarh Police Control Room, went missing on June 7. She was last seen in Panipat.

Earlier, the family of the missing constable had protested outside the police headquarters demanding that the case be transferred to the Haryana Police as the the Chandigarh Police were unable to trace their daughter.

The local police had also taken permission for conducting a narco analysis test on the Chandigarh Police constable Ravinder in connection with the missing woman case. The police have questioned Ravinder several times but he has all along been claiming that he was not aware of her whereabouts.

The police have explored all the angels to the case, including the role of her parents in her mysterious disappearance. 

Mohali, August 11
To streamline the management of garbage and check violations at the town’s unauthorised dumping yard,Sector 74, here, a high-profile committee, consisting four senior officials of different departments, has been formed on directions of the National Green Tribunal, New Delhi.

Two members of the committee are from Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), one member is from Mohali Municipal Corporation (MMC) and one member is from Punjab Housing and Urban Development.

Uma Shankar Gupta, Municipal Commissioner, Mohali, said MMC executive engineer Naresh Dutta would be nodal officer of the committee. “The PPCB secretary Babu Ram and executive engineer SS Matharu are the other members. The Punjab Housing and Urban Development authorities have to finalise the name of the official as member of the committee”, said Gupta.

As per the orders of the NGT, a member of the Mohali Industries and Commerce Association (MICA), the plaintiff in the case, would also attend the meetings of the committee.

Meanwhile, the administrative authorities have decided to review the prevailing conditions at the dumping yard every evening.

“I or any other senior official would check the prevailing conditions and the progress of work at the dumping yard every evening. We are putting soil on the garbage, developing green belt and removing the violations of Management of Solid Waste Rules 2000 at the site,” said Gupta, who surveyed the yard today morning.

Gupta admitted that the progress work was very slow at the site. “Certainly, all was not well at the site. Necessary directions have been issued to the officials and deadlines have been set in this direction. From today onwards, I or any senior official would start checking the progress work here,” said Gupta.

Mohali, August 11
A labourer got electrocuted at an under-construction house in Sector 82, here today. The victim has been identified as Raksheshwar Paswan (45), a resident of Sarsa, Bihar.

According to SHO, Sohana police station, Satwant Singh, the victim was working at the site when he came in contact with a livewire there. “The victim died on the spot. He was taken to Civil Hospital in Phase VI where he was declared brought dead,” said inspector Satwant Singh adding that the police had initiated 
an inquest into the proceedings under Section 174, CrPC. 

Chandigarh, August 11
North Zone Cultural Centre (NZCC), Patiala, organised a seminar on ‘Significant role of Patiala Gharana in the enrichment of Hindustani Classical Music’ at Kalagram here today.

The seminar discussion was followed by scintillating renditions of Ustad Mazhar and Jawaad Ali Khan of Patiala Gharana and Pt Kaivalyakumar of Kirana Gharana.

During the seminar, Ustad Jawaad Ali Khan said Patiala Gharana was an amalgamation of four gharanas and was originated during the era of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh.

He added, “Historians have quoted many wrong facts about the origin and history of the Gharana. The Gharana is only 150 years old and not 600 years as believed and quoted by many historians.”

Meanwhile, Dr Arun Mishra from Jalandhar said, “The Patiala Gharana has immensely contributed in the Hindustani music promotion as well as the film industry. It is practiced even across the border in Pakistan.”

Moreover Dr Harwinder Sharma while highlighting the significance of the Gharana and its traditions said, “Today the institutes are not able to produce great musicians like before as the tradition to pass on the heritage of classical music is not practiced the way it use to be.”

Chandigarh, August 11
Pracheen Kala Kendra organised its 202nd Baithak Programme featuring Dipankar Roy Choudhury’s guitar recital today at Bhaskar Rao Indoor Auditorium of the Kendra.

Dipanker Roy Choudhury opened his concert with Raga ‘Jhinjhoti’. The reposefully rendered alap, jod followed by jhala brought out the inner depth of the raga, hence touching listener’s heart. His inherent musicality took wings while he played the next composition in drut teen taal in Raga Charukeshi amidst thunderous applause.

The epitome of his rendition was Gayaki aang, melodious self composed ghazals.

Renowned tabla player Debasish Adhikary provided admirable accompaniment on tabla to the artiste. 

Mohali, August 11
Opposition leaders have got an issue to criticise Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s decision of choosing Bathinda over Mohali for presiding over the Independence Day function.

Taking a dig at the development, Congress senior leader and Mohali MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu said Sukhbir had been attending the Independence Day (ID) function in the town for the past few years. “The reason behind his change of decision is quite obvious,” Sidhu said.

He added that the story behind the Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, attending the state-level Independence Day function at Patiala is no different.

“Taking advantage of the national festival, both father-son duo wanted to woo the voters of the areas of Patiala and Bathinda,” Sidhu said, while adding that it was a known fact that Parkash Singh Badal had done nothing for Patiala so far.

Notably, this time, Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia will be the chief guest at the function and will unfurl the National Flag at Government College in Phase VI.

Meanwhile, the district administrative authorities claimed to have made all arrangements for the forthcoming function.

Mohali Deputy Commissioner Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu said the march past by Mohali Police, NCC cadets, tableaux of different departments and cultural programme would mark the function.

I am a student of Class 12 of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, Chandigarh, and I wish to make the general public and the authorities concerned aware of the ignorance of rules and regulations during the judgement of the poster-making competition which was held on the eve of World Organ Donation Day. According to the rules and regulations put up by PGI's Hepatology Department, participants were expected to make a poster of a minimum size of 75x50 cm, using their original ideas and were not allowed to refer to Internet or electronic media for creating the poster. But I am sorry to say that the above mentioned rules were not at all abided by many, including the winners as well. Even the first prize winner, Prof DS Kapoor, sent a printed poster along with another poster. Now, this can't be ignored. Were there no eligible contestants present who could have won the competition? No doubt, there were many. Also as the competition was open to all, contestants belonging to different age groups were seen participating vigorously. Now, how can the organisers expect a small child to be equally competent to a professional artist? The organisers should have made separate groups so that the competition could have been fair. This revealed the poor planning by the organisers. I also took part in the competition but did not win any prize. Still, I do not wish to say that I should have won the competition as there were many who were more deserving and had created wonderful works of art. But I am disappointed by the way the results have come out.

EDUCATION

University of Western Sydney, PU sign MoU
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 11
The University of Western Sydney (UWS), Australia, Vice-Chancellor Prof Barney Glover today said the UWS and Panjab University, Chandigarh, would be benefited with the signing of an MoU as there were a number of areas of mutual interests and both universities had similar strengths. Both the universities signed a memorandum of understanding today and would set up a subcommittee to follow it up.

Prof Glover, who was speaking to mediapersons after signing the MoU with the PU, said the PU and the UWS had strengths in areas like faculties of medicine, humanities, social sciences and science.

He said the UWS had entered into an agreement with the PU for mutual support and collaborations in research, education and teaching. The PU and the UWS would set up a subcommittee to follow it up, he said.

Prof Glover said the UWS was a multicultural university having strong connection with Indian Diaspora. Both universities share common values. Replying to a media query, the UWS Vice-Chancellor said the PU had many attractions, which made them to explore the collaboration with this leading university of India.

He also appreciated the PU for its academic, research and other achievements.

“We will encourage students to study in India, he said.

PU Vice-Chancellor Prof Grover said the UWS had 10 per cent international students, whereas the PU had just one per cent international students.

4 PUSU activists held outside college
Were allegedly creating nuisance under the garb of hunger strike
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 11
The UT Police today arrested four PUSU activists, who were on a hunger strike, under the preventive measures. Later, one of the activists managed to flee from a hospital.

High drama was witnessed when the police party entered the venue and apprehended four students outside DAV College, Sector 10, here.

Three of the PUSU activists, Gurbaksh Singh, Gur Lal and Midda, were taken to the Sector 3 Police Station, while Gurdeep, another activist, was taken to the GMSH-16, from where he managed to flee.

The police said reports were received that these youths were creating problem and nuisance under the garb of the hunger strike.

Moreover, the principal of DAV-10 has also forwarded an adverse report against these four activists to the police.

The activists - Gurbaksh, Gur Lal and Midda - will be produced in the court of the local Sub Divisional Magistrate.

Chandigarh, August 11
Fight to take credit for raising issues concerning students is on among student parties at Panjab University.

Members of the Panjab University Students Union (PUSU) today sat on an indefinite strike for not giving special chance to science students, which was given every year. Addressing the agitating students, PUSU president Sahejpal Sidhu said the authorities were playing with the career of so many students by not giving them special chance. The students have not been promoted to the next session in the absence of special chance. Therefore, they demanded special chance for these students.

After half an hour, NSUI party leader Satinder Singh, former president of the council, sat on an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Vice-Chancellor’s office, along with various student representatives of sciences departments.

The reason for the agitation was that the students who are in BSc and MSc final year have not been given an opportunity to clear their exams by providing them a special chance.

Both parties gave a memorandum to PU Vice-Chancellor AK Grover and Dean Student Welfare (DSW) Navdeep Goyal. The DSW formed a committee, which would give its decision by August 18.

INSO members also sat on a hunger strike over shortage of space in the Environment Studies Department and no canteen facility in the Botany Department. In a meeting with the DSW, both the issues were resolved and they withdrew their strike. — TNS

Chandigarh, August 11
An education campaign was organised by the Chandigarh Police at St John’s High School to educate and create awareness among children about the risks and threats involved with the use and misuse of cyberspace today.

Manpreet Singh, zonal legal head of ICICI Bank, and a cyber expert, was the resource person for the event.

During the seminar, the students were made aware of various dangers associated with cyberspace. The resource person, during his address, told the students to deal with their everyday surroundings cautiously as one doesn’t know when and where a trap is being laid.

Meanwhile, principal Kavita Das said with the advancing world, Internet and technology were becoming more easily accessible with little information about them, thus leading to vulnerability and risks related to cyber crime.