PU students boycott classes
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — The second year students of various departments of Panjab University boycotted classwork in protest against the fee hike here today. In spite of the call for a strike, many students had come to attend their classes, which were discontinued following an appeal from the activists of various student bodies.

Activists of the Panjab University Students Union, the Haryana Students Union, the National Students Union of India, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Students Federation of India went to different departments raising slogans against the hike and in favour of students’ unity.

In each class, the protesters explained the percentage in hike in detail to the students and appealed to them to come forward and join hands for the cause. After listening to student leaders, students marched out with the activists and joined them in raising slogans against the authorities.

Subsequently, members of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) comprising members from all organisations addressed the students gathered at the Student Centre to mobilise support. A play on the issue of fee hike was also staged by the students from the Department of Indian Theatre. In the evening, plays were staged in the hostels of the campus to garner support.

At a meeting held in the evening with the Dean Student Welfare (DSW), Prof VK Bansal, the issue of fee hike was discussed at length. The DSW contended that the fee under various heads was considered and the suggestions of students’ organisations taken note of. “The proposed cuts under various heads will be put before the Vice-Chancellor and he might call a meeting of the local Syndics and decide the issue,’’ he added.

Meanwhile, the indefinite fast by four activists — Munish Anand, Bhupinder Singh, Hari Singh and Anil Kundu — continued at the Student Centre.

While Munish Anand has been on fast for four days, the fast by Bhupinder Singh and Hari Singh completed three days. Anil Kundu joined the team yesterday.

The JAC is also demanding a clarification from the university authorities on the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India regarding the misappropriation of funds. The committee has condemned the university security for calling policemen to the campus with the “intention of suppressing a peaceful democratic movement at the behest of the Vice-Chancellor’’.

The Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) are staging a dharna outside the Vice-Chancellor office to press for the release of the president of the organisation, DPS Randhawa, who has been remanded to police custody. The other issues are lowering of fee hike and giving provisional admission to students of the honours school of the university.

The fee hike was initially proposed by the sub-committee constituted by the Syndicate for the purpose. After the students raised their voices against the “massive’’ hike and sat on an indefinite fast, the proposed hike was referred back to the sub-committee for reconsideration and students were assured that the hike would not be more than 25 per cent.

The sub-committee submitted the revised proposal of fee hike to the Vice-Chancellor. In anticipation of the approval of the Syndicate, the Vice-Chancellor circulated the new fee structure to the affiliated colleges and departments of the university. Again, the students forced the closure of the fee counter to register their protest. Finally, the implementation of the proposed hike was deferred till the meeting of the Syndicate scheduled for July 30 where the revised fee structure got the nod of the Syndics and the protests by students’ bodies began.

Hizbul militant held in city
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — The police here today arrested a militant belonging to the Hizbul Mujahideen faction who had earlier surrendered before the Army in Jammu and Kashmir in 1998 and was at present plying a rehri in the city.

Tall and slightly built, 46-year-old Ghulam Mohammad is a resident of Dardpura village in Kupwara district. He has received training in the use of weapons and explosives from one of the training camps in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

According to Mr C S R Reddy, SSP, the arrest was made on the basis of a secret information that a militant had sneaked into the city about 20 days ago. Accordingly, the (SHO) East, was directed to assemble a team and nab the terrorist. A team, headed by SI Dilsher Singh Chandel, in charge of the Bapu Dham police post, was detailed to carry out the task.

Mr Chandel said they had been on the lookout for the past 20 days and had also conducted raids at some of the suspected hideouts in Sector 26 and elsewhere. A large number of Kashmiri migrants are living in the rain basera in Bapu Dham Colony and they had also been asked to furnish the details of newcomers.

Today when they were on a patrol in the Timber market at about 1.30 p.m., they spotted a Kashmiri who started running when he saw a police party approaching him. They chased and caught him after a few yards.

During initial interrogation, he disclosed that he was a resident of Dardpura village and had been part of an active 20 strong group of Hizbul militants headed by Salahudin while Hairis Hamid was the second in command.

He said he had received training along with 2,500 others, at a training camp in PoK. He had been trained in the use of various types of weapons besides handling explosive devices. He had surrendered before the Army in 1998 and had turned in two AK-47 rifles.

Although he has not admitted to killing anyone, the police believes that he could be a hardcore militant who had sought shelter in the city owing to the pressure mounted by the security forces in the state.

Mr Reddy said a message of his arrest has been flashed to other places and a police party was expected to arrive tomorrow. Since he has not committed a crime in the city he has been arrested under Section 109 Cr. P.C and will be produced in court tomorrow. A team of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has also interrogated him.

MCC proposes, administration disposes
By Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — The Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) are on a collision course again.

With the Administration revoking a major decision of the corporation regularising "illegal" constructions in Pocket Nos 2 and 11 in Mani Majra, the issue threatens to snowball into a major controversy about the jurisdictions of the Administration and the civic body.

In a strongly-worded letter to the civic body, the Local Government Department, said: "The regularisation of such unauthorised constructions, if permitted, would encourage further encroachments/illegal colonisation. By passing the said resolution, the MCC has exceeded the powers conferred on it under the provisions of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, as extended to the UT, Chandigarh, by the Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (Extension of Chandigarh), Act,1994.”

The civic body at one of its meetings on February 1 this year had taken the decision regarding the "use of area in these pockets" subject to certain conditions. Under the plan, the MCC was to take the initial development works in the pockets such as the laying of roads, sewerage lines and water supply lines.. And no new constructions were to be allowed in the acquired land under any circumstances.

In fact, the resolution of the civic body had laid certain conditions for the regularisation of the structures. The owners of the structures would have to pay premium of the land at the existing market rates on the day of the assessment and pay the development charges and penalties.

Only those structures were to be regularised which did not come in the final planning of the area. The remaining structures would be demolished and the owners allotted alternative sites in the planned area at market rates, the resolution said.

Meanwhile, according to the Residents' Welfare Association, Gobindpura (Pocket No 2), in 1989 the Chandigarh Administration had acquired some land under Pocket No 2 in which the land beneath houses/courtyards was exempted from acquisition. Subsequently, the notification was withdrawn. The residents of over 130 houses then approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

However, the erstwhile Notified Area Committee (NAC) at one of its meetings on September 18, 1990, assured the residents that they would be considered residents of Gobindpura provided they withdrew the writ petition from the court which they did.

Thereafter, the NAC also continued with its promises that the houses would be regularised after charging the developmental charges. In the meantime, the NAC issued no-objection certificates (NOCs) to the residents and they were provided with power connections and sewerage lines were also laid.

Ultimately a high-level committee under the chairmanship of the UT Finance Secretary was formed which submitted its report in 1995 and reportedly supported submissions of the association. Nothing worked out and the last year the Administration reportedly sent the case to the civic body as in the meantime the elected set-up came into being.

The civic body passed the February 2 resolution on the recommendation of the Finance and Contract Committee.

The resolution further said that as regards those structures being used for commercial purposes unauthorisedly on residential area, they would be regularised on payment of commercial rates of the land as per the assessment on the day of assessment.

Similarly, the structures falling on the commercial area in the plan would also be charged commercial rates for the land as per assessment made by the corporation.

Final list of candidates by Aug 21
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — The final list of candidates contesting from the Chandigarh parliamentary constituency in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections will be put up on August 21, the last date for withdrawal of candidature. A formal notification to this effect will be issued on August 11.

According to the election schedule, the last date for filing nominations is August 18, while the scrutiny of nominations will take place on August 19. However, as per the revised schedule, polling will take place on September 5 and counting of votes will take place on October 6.

Meanwhile, the awareness centre set up by the Election Department in Sector 17 with a view to introducing the general public to electronic voting machine (EVM) and its usage is yet to attract attention. The centre which became functional in the Sector 17 Townhall building yesterday has only a few passersby and visitors to public offices stopping over to see the video film on EVMs.

The centre has made a provision for showing a 12-minute video film on the procedure of casting the vote through EVMs this time, both in Hindi and Punjabi. Besides this, people are free to use the machine and get answers to their queries, if any. The film is being shown every half an hour from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm by rotation in both languages. People are more keen on using the machine in person than seeing the video clip.

The seating capacity of the centre is approximately 50 persons and not more than 200 persons can be covered under this campaign in the eight-hour duration. Sources reveal that there is need to set up more such centres in other areas to cover more voters. They stressed the need to publicise these centres so that majority of the 6.43 lakh odd voters in the city have an easy access to it.

Officials however, say that arrangements have already been made to telecast the film on Siti Cable at regular intervals for the benefit of the general public. Mobile vans will be used to spread awareness among jhuggi dwellers.

With just a month to go for the elections to begin, authorities are yet to put up hoardings and other publicity material to create public awareness about using these machines. The need to create an awareness is important since these are being used for the first time.

Six women court arrest on helmet issue
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — While the local unit of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) has withdrawn its ongoing agitation on the issue of compulsory wearing of helmets by both women drivers and pillion riders of two-wheelers, the Sikh Nari Manch and other organisations have decided to continue their protest till the orders are formally withdrawn.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) in a Press note maintained that the agitation has been withdrawn as the Administration has accepted all its demands.

Mr N.S. Minhas, Secretary-General of the unit, said that the Administration had also decided to withdraw the cases registered under Section 188 of the Cr P C for violation of prohibitory orders and discharged the arrested agitators.

Mr Minhas further said that the agitation has been suspended till the decision by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the issue.

Meanwhile, six members of the Sikh Nari Manch and other Sikh organisations — Ms Narinder Kaur, Ms Harbans Kaur, Ms Parminder Kaur, Ms Surjeet Kaur and Ms Swaran Kaur — courted arrest outside the Punjab and Haryana High Court where they raised slogans against the helmet order for some time.

Earlier, the protestors assembled at the Sector 19 gurdwara and took out a procession which moved through Sectors 19 and 18 before reaching Sector 17. “The agitation will continue till a permanent solution to this problem is found, “Mrs Harjinder Kaur, President of the Sikh Nari Manch, announced while addressing a rally of the protestors at the Matka Chowk. She said that relay hunger strike would also continue.

HUDA drive in low gear
From Our Correspondent

PANCHKULA, Aug 5 — The third day of the HUDA drive to remove hoardings in different sectors of the township passed away without much activity.

During the first two days, HUDA had removed 100 hoardings. Todays slackness however, raised doubts about the final success of the drive .

The drive was initiated on the directive of the Haryana Government to heads of various departments to enforce the order of the High Court in this regard. Although most of the hoardings, signboards and neon signs have been removed by the enforcement wing, there are apprehensions that things would be back to “normal” once the drive slackens .

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had ordered all hoardings within 15 feet from the edge of the main roads to be removed. Several hoardings and signboards of companies still remain in place, in violation of the High Court’s order .

The drive was started in residential areas of Sector 15 facing the main road where unauthorised commercial activity in residential houses is common. There still are many hoardings and signboards on the roads dividing sectors 7-8, 10-11, 8-17 and 6-7. The hoardings and signboards on road dividers indicating the locations of shops and other institutions are also there .

The High Court had also issued orders to the authorities concerned to remove all articles placed by the shopkeepers and occupants of various houses within 15 feet of the main roads. Violations of this order are still seen, particularly on the road dividing sectors 10 and 15. Although many hoardings and signboards in these areas have been removed yet there was no effort by the authorities yesterday to remove the articles placed by shopkeepers up to the edges of the main road .

Many shopkeepers whose hoardings and signboards were removed were not issued any challan chits which has made it difficult for them to claim their hoardings, said one of the shopkeepers of Sector 15 .

Workshop on environment
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — The Punjab State Council for Science and Technology in collaboration with the Environmental Monitoring Instruments Division, CSIO, Sector 30, today organised a one-day workshop on the theme, 'Keep our Environment Clean and Green'.

The workshop-cum-seminar, sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, was organised in CSIO Lecture Hall as part of National Environment Awareness Campaign (NEAC), 1999-2000.

About 70 representatives of NGOs, academicians, environmentalists, scientists, technologists and educationists took part in the workshop today. It was inaugurated by Dr R.P. Bajpai, Acting Director, CSIO.

A lecture-cum-demonstration on environmental pollution monitoring and control instruments was delivered by Mr Basudeo Prasad, Deputy Director and Head of Environmental Monitoring Instruments Division, CSIO.

Mr T. Venugopal, Director, Environment, Pujab State Council for Science and Technology said the workshop also gave the representative of various NGOs an insight into the programmes related to environment that were being run by the government. The workshop also educated the NGOs on how to apply to the government for funds to work in the field of environment.

Mr Venugopal said most of these NGOs used to hold painting competitions, seminars and workshops to generate awareness about environmental problems. The workshop held today was also working towards motivating NGOs to work in field-related activities like collecting samples of water in villages.

The workshop, which is an annual affair for the non-government organisations (NGOs) working in the field of environment, is aimed towards not only making the NGOs aware of the environmental problems but also the working of the NEAC.

Guidance on environmental activities under NEAC 1999-2000 was provided by Mr N.S. Tiwana and Ms Pushpinder Kaur of Punjab State Council for Science and Technology.

NIS to train Indian Railways employees
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — Indian Railways, in its endeavour to improve its customer services, will have 1,00,000 of its employees trained by NIS School of Marketing during next five years, says Ms Vijayalakshmi Vishwanathan, head of marketing services of NIS Sparta. A special institute has been set up for this purpose.

Talking to Chandigarh Tribune here this morning, Ms Vishwanathan said the NIS had introduced a post-graduate diploma in communication and marketing in Chandigarh also. This three-year programme, which included one-year internship, prepared students to take up challenging careers immediately after their college studies.

The programme was so designed that students, along with completing their graduation courses, completed their post-graduate diploma also. She said under the present scheme, any student who had completed class XII could join this diploma.

The students have to attend classes on alternate days, three times a week, for one hour and a half each. The time for classes is flexible. He can attend classes anytime between 7.30 am and 8.30 pm. Against a normal time schedule of two years, most of the students prefer to complete it in three years as they want free time for examinations and other holidays.

Once they complete their normal college course, they have a choice, either to get placement straightway or go for one-year internship. Each candidate, on completion of the diploma, has more than one choice of permanent placement. There is 100 per cent placement.

She said of the 107 students admitted to the course so far, the percentage of girls was unexpectedly low here. It was about 10 per cent against the national average of 25 to 30 per cent. At present, the NIS has 58 centres all over the country.

Ms Vishwanathan said the institute had highly qualified trained faculty. The minimum requirement was an MBA degree with a minimum of five years of field experience, she said.

Asked about the fee structure, she said the total fees charged from a student for the three-year course was about Rs 53,000. Compared to other institutions offering the same course, she said since the NIS promised 100 per cent placement and its curriculum was a blend of American and British systems of management, it had more acceptability than any other course.

‘96 pc city units in non-agri works’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 —More than 96 per cent of the 39,845 enterprises in the Union Territory of Chandigarh are engaged in non-agricultural activities. This has been brought out by the fourth economic census conducted in Chandigarh from April 23 to May 22 this year.

The census further showed that of the total enterprises, 2793 constituting 7.01 per cent, are located in the rural areas. The growth rate of enterprises in rural areas between 1990 and 1998 has been in the negative, showing a fall of 5.98 per cent per annum whereas in urban areas it has shown a growth of 3.22 per cent during the said period.

The census further revealed that of the total enterprises, 31.18 per cent are without premises, 78.95 per cent are without power, 97.93 per cent are perennial and 95.14 per cent are under private ownership.

The total number of persons working in such enterprises is 215300 out of which 5429 are working in rural areas.Of the total workers, 212313 are working in non-agricultural enterprises.The growth rate of workers in rural is minus 4.79 per cent , compared to 0.93 per cent in urban areas during the period 1990-98.

There are 15067 establishment enterprises with at least one hired worker having 170821 hired workers on their rolls.The census further showed that reduction in the number of workers and enterprises in rural areas is attributed to the fact that the four villages— Badheri, Buterla, Burail and Attawa — have been merged with the Municipal Corporation and thus form a part of the urban area.

‘No genuine NGO’ for children
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — CRY (Child Relief and You), a non-government organisation (NGO) that essentially raises funds for helping deprived children in the fields of education, income generation, vocational training and health care, is yet to reach out to the children of the city, or for that matter even of Punjab and Haryana.

"We have still not managed to identify a 'genuine' NGO in this region, working towards the development of children at the grassroots level, for which resources could be mobilised", said Ms Praveen Sharma, Senior Executive- Communications, CRY.

In the city recently, Ms Sharma informed that CRY was a link organisation to help those people who wished to work for social causes and had the resources to do so, but did not know where to begin. As a funding organisation, CRY evaluates the profiles and budgets of the NGOs concerned and provides funds only on a quarterly basis after receiving and scrutinising quarterly returns.

There are nearly 50 registered NGOs operating in the city today, with only about 15 receiving or even applying for grants from the Chandigarh Social Welfare Advisory Board. In fact, a majority of these organisations are working as family and marriage counselling centres. And not one of these is working with CRY, or even networking with it.

Incidentally, CRY does not have any scheme whatsoever for the children of the Kargil soldiers, "but we will certainly not hesitate to support any organisation which will come up with a scheme pertaining to this", said Ms Sharma. This NGO, in fact, does not run its own projects but partners "dedicated" individuals and organisations involved in providing relief and assuaging the needs of the child--- physical, emotional, health or educational.

Ms Sharma also added that though for most people CRY was synonymous mainly with greeting cards — which it uses as a major part of its fund raising drive — "but this NGO is also involved with other fund raising drives. Under one of our schemes called direct project funding, we ask the big corporate houses to make contributions", she said.

There also exists a scheme called 'Adopt a Project Scheme', under which a project can be identified, which could be supported entirely or partly, in collaboration with CRY.

Anita first in poster contest
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — Anita of Government Model High School, Sector 29, has stood first in a poster-making contest on “Growing population will eat India” organised by the population education development cell of the State Institute of Education here.

The second place was secured by Harkanwal of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, while Atul Vikas of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 32, stood third in the contest which saw 35 participants from 18 government schools.

The Director of SIE, Dr HC Sharma, presided over the prize distribution function. In his address, he said India needs to check the growth of population on a war-footing. He said the posters were an effective medium of disseminating the message of controlling population.

Erratic power supply irks villagers
From Our Correspondent

MULLANPUR-GARIBDASS, Aug 5 — Residents of Mullanpur-Garibdass village have been facing frequent failure of power supply for the past several days.

The villagers complained that the supply had remained suspended for more than five hours a day.

Certain pockets of the village had been getting low voltage for several days. The erratic power situation had also affected the water supply in the area. Most of the residents did not have rural water supply connections, and relied on their own water lifting pumps.

The villagers further complained that the telephone service in the area was far from satisfactory. The telephone of a local branch of a nationalised bank had been dead for a fortnight, said Mr Arvind Puri. Persons desirous to contact the bank rang up his shop, he said.

Despite several complaints to the officials concerned, nothing had been done, residents said.

SNIPPETS

Prohibitory order passed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — The District Magistrate, Mr M. Ramsekhar, has in an order passed today, prohibited commercial establishments and shopkeepers engaged in restaurants, pubs, wine shops, discos and clubs and vendors selling goods by the roadside and other public places from carrying out their operations between 11.30 pm and 4.30 am. These orders will remain in force for 60 days from August 6 to October 4.

Survey of disabled planned
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — The Social Welfare Department of the Chandigarh Administration proposes to conduct a survey to ascertain the number and other details in respect of persons with disabilities who are permanent residents of Chandigarh. This information is required for proper formulation of schemes for the welfare of disabled persons.

A spokesman of the department revealed that the person with various disabilities are required to fill up the proforma by September 15 and submit it in their office. The proforma is available, free of cost, with the Municipal councillors, Sarpanches, NGOs and in the offices of the Regional Employment Officer and Director, Social Welfare.

Hiroshima Day rally
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, August 5 — Students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Sector 25, will organise a rally to observe Hiroshima day in the memory of those who lost their lives in the atomic bomb of 1945. A talk will be delivered on the theme in the assembly in which the importance of global peace will be highlighted.

Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector 23-A, and the Children’s Alliance for Protection of the Environment will hold a cycle rally to observe the day. A painting contest will also be held and 54 saplings will be planted on the school campus.

Contest to mark week
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — As part of the breast feeding week, the Chandigarh chapter of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, in collaboration with Home Science College, Sector 10, will organise a slogan, poster and paper-reading contest for senior school girls on August 7.

The topic of the contest will be “Breast feeding — the adolescent viewpoint”. Prof O.N. Bhakoo, former Head of the Department of Paediatrics of the PGI, will preside over the function.

The chapter has been organising various activities since August 1 with a view to rekindle the dwindling interest in breast feeding.

Solar eclipse quiz contest results
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — A state-level quiz competition on the total solar eclipse was organised today by the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology under the aegis of the National Council for Science and Technology Communication, DST, Government of India, at the State Institute of Science Education (SISE), Punjab, Chandigarh.

There were 16 winners at the district-level who participated at the state-level quiz competition.

The winners of the state-level competition were Mandeep Kaur, GGSSS, Sirhind Mandi (1); Deepak Goel, DAV Public School, Patiala (2); Avinash Kaur, S.D. High School, Malout (3).

Prizes were given away by Mrs S. Dhingra, Director, SISE, Punjab.

Tribune employee bereaved
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — Kamla Devi, mother of Mr Harish Lakhanpal, Advertisement Executive with The Tribune group of newspapers, died here today after a prolonged illness. She was 75. Her cremation was largely attended.