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Poll: SC code to be followed, says PU counsel
Chandigarh, October 11 During the last hearing on September 13, the counsel had apprised the court that Panjab University would keep the holding of the elections in abeyance till the court examined the petition on the issue. Earlier a PIL was filed by the Burning Brains Society, a social organisation, seeking the quashing of the norms framed by the PU, Chandigarh, for holding elections to the PU Campus Student Council and seeking meticulous implementation of the interim directions issued by the Supreme Court (based on recommendations by the Lingdoh committee). In the PIL, the petitioner society had alleged that the PU had approved a document "Constitution of students organisations for the teaching departments of the university for holding of elections to the Punjab University campus student council” and by modifying the directions dated September 22, 2005, issued by the SC. The petition submitted that it had permitted non-serious student who did not have requisite attendance as prescribed by the university. The petition also alleged that it permitted the professional leader who wanted to contest for posts of office-bearers and executive members time and again, by giving them an opportunity to be elected once for each of the posts of office-bearers and twice for the post of executive member whereas the SC had directed that a candidate shall have one opportunity to contest for the post of office-bearer and two opportunity to contest for the post of executive member. Counsel for petitioner H.C. Arora had earlier opposed and submitted that PU had violated various directions given by the Supreme Court while the PU counsel had argued that authorities had only modified those directions in the impugned document.The Bench disposed of the petition without further orders.
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Leaders in spot
Chandigarh, October 11 Also, a candidate shall have one opportunity to contest for the post of office-bearer. The university’s assurance to follow the Lyngdoh code comes as a blow to presidential candidates Abhishek Puri, PUSU, and Harpreet Multani, SOPU. Criminal cases have been filed against both. Harpreet Singh Multani said: “ I will contest elections as I don’t fall in the category. I have been given a clean chit in the FIR lodged against me. I have not been charge-sheeted.” Abhishek Puri said: “ If I am ineligible to contest the election, we will come up with a another candidate. Our sole demand is that election should be held as soon as possible.” Meanwhile, the Indian National Students Organisation (INSO) has demanded announcement of the elections in all educational institutions of Chandigarh.
— TNS
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Big retail is fine with UT
Chandigarh,October 11 A senior official said legally the state could not bar any corporate from doing business in the state. With Chandigarh emerging a major industrial, commercial and entertainment hub in the wake of the IT park and other mega projects, big retail players have already set up shop here. Reliance Fresh, Choupal and Subhiksha are some of the big retailers creating ripples in the retail market. The Chandigarh Beopar Mandal (CBM),the representative body of the city traders, also seems reconciled to the entry of major retailers. “The administration should come up with a plan to help traders, who form the backbone of the business in the city,” mandal president Charanjiv Singh said.
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Wages after 15 years bring cheer to HMT staff
Chandigarh, October 11 For the last 15 years, employees of HMT Limited, Pinjore, have been living from hand to mouth, with arrears running into lakhs not paid since 1992. This unit once dominated the industrial scene in the region and spawned hundreds of ancillary units in the neighbouring areas of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, including Panchkula. HMT watches was a brand of reputation. Gurdass, president of the HMT Karmik Sangh, said : “With unpaid arrears and low salary ,we are finding it hard to support our families. The houses in the HMT colony, Pinjore, are in a deplorable condition”, he said He said many had opted for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS). But they had not been their paid arrears. A former president of the HMT Officers association said with no revision of pay scales and pending arrears, life had been hard for the employees. With production losses and falling profits, the financial condition of the unit was not healthy. The overall drop in the domestic sale of tractors, stiff competition from private players and salaries eating up almost 70 per cent of the budget of this unit had hit the firm.
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60-year-old killed by five youths
Chandigarh, October 11 Ranbir Singh, a dairy farmer in Dadu Majra Colony, was taken to the Sector 16 Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, where he was declared “brought dead” at around 2 am. No visible injury marks were found on his body, said the police. The accused, who were caught on the spot by passers-by, were given a thrashing before being handed over to the police. The incident took place at 1.30 am. Ranbir Singh was grazing his cattle along the road. His buffaloes came onto the road and blocked the way of the cyclists, who were on their way back home to Burail village. They confronted Ranbir Singh. An argument ensued and the accused hurled blows on Ranbir Singh, following which he collapsed. SHO Rajesh Shukla said Ranbir Singh’s sons, Ram Singh and Sham Singh, who were grazing cattlenearby, told the police that they saw their father arguing with some strangers and being beaten up by them. They rushed to his help, but their father had collapsed by then. They raised an alarm and people assembled there and the accused were caught. The accused, all in the age group of 22-28, are Rajinder Singh, Mahaveer, Kishore, Rajinder Singh and Satish. They were taken for a medical examination and it was found that they had consumed alcohol. They were produced before a local court, which remanded them to judicial custody. Ranbir Singh was a diabetic.
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Sector 34 goes sans power, phones
Chandigarh, October 11 A JCB machine, engaged to dig earth during the night, damaged the cables. The residents complained that the power supply was cut off. They also called up the electricity department to repair the damaged cables. It may take a few more days before the telephone connections were made functional. Incidentally, the area is represented by the mayor, Harjinder Kaur. A similar problem has been witnessed in other sectors.
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Misuse penalty irks tenants
Chandigarh, October 11 The tenants have been enjoying the legal possession of property since the past almost 25 years. Suddenly, the administration, in connivance with certain influential landlords, has issued this "regressive rule" to targets tenants. The amount of penalty imposed clearly shows that the intention is to get these legally occupied plots/premises vacated immediately as no tenant can afford to pay this penalty, alleged Amit Jain of the Chandigarh Industrial Area Tenants Association. The tenants have a valid rent agreement with the landlords which clearly states the purpose for which the premises are being rented out.
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Dua to deliver lecture on Kairon
Chandigarh, October 11 H.K.Dua, Editor-in-Chief, The Tribune Group of Publications, will deliver the lecture while it will be chaired by T.K.A. Nair, principal secretary to the Prime Minister of India at Bhargava Auditorium. Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, minister of food and civil supplies, consumer affairs and IT, Punjab, will be the guest of honour. Rashpal Malhotra, director-general, CRRID, will give the introductory remarks. Addressing mediapersons, Dr Amod Gupta, sub-dean and chairman, Public Relations Committee, said the PGI had been the result of tremendous foresight of Sardar Partap Singh Kairon, who entrusted Dr Tulsi Das, the first director of the PGI, the task who, with the help of professor Santokh Singh Anand and professor P.N. Chhuttani, laid its foundation.
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‘Calligraphy is beyond letters’
Chandigarh, October 11 In town at the Government College of Art, Sector 10, with his team of six calligraphers from Mumbai, Palav says: “I was an average student. One day, my teacher in Class VIII told me to write a thought on the blackboard everyday. Initially, I wasn’t interested, but gradually I realised each thought has a message which is read by all and I started inventing ways to present it”. Twentyfive years in the art, this calligrapher from JJ School of Art, feels calligraphy is not just confined to alphabets. “ It exists beyond that. It’s a spontaneous way of expressing one’s thoughts by way of form and shapes... it can just be anything”. From corporate logos to wedding cards, Palav has literally taken the art to places. No wonder, ‘Urja’ his collection of t-shirts with calligraphy was an instant hit in Mumbai’s Shoppers Stop. So were his mugs and the calligraphic body art (on Yana Gupta). Calligraphy for interior decoration in architecture is a fad among people. To popularise the art, Palav tied up with designer Hemant Divedi for a fashion show. Five minutes is all it takes for this man with magic fingers to create a formal or informal calligraphy and so it was for designing the logo of Shah Rukh Khan starrer ‘Ashoka’ and ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’. What inspires him is music, dance and achievers, says the man who did calligraphy for Sunita Rao’s poem ‘ Udaan’ and Pt Jasraj’s album ‘Om’. “ I want to bring forth calligraphy not only as an art form but an expressive medium where letters in all their nakedness become alive, vibrating, pulsating, giving a canvas, space to your thoughts, a meaning to the sounds, “ he explains. He has started using calligraphy as a therapy. “It has the power to transform and create a personality.” As regards the future of the art, Palav says: “ The art is commercially viable. With rich Indian scripts, why turn to Chinese or Japanese scripts,” Palav, who likes to express in Devanagri, says. “ Space attracts me to this art. And every paper is a new paper with a different stroke each time”, he signs off
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Car theft: SMS will alert you
Chandigarh, October 11 The company claims that the instrument will intimate the vehicle’s owner by sending SMS on his mobile phone and three other mobile numbers fed into its system in case it is being stolen. The instrument will also help in tracking the vehicle through all mobile service providers about the location of the vehicles. The company claims that the Delhi police has worked out two cases of vehicles thefts with the help of the system. The instrument, with a size of a walkman, costs around Rs 9,000. A customer has to get a sim card of a mobile service provider. When asked about the efficiency of the system in area where jammers are installed, the representatives admitted that the system did not work in such area, where normal mobile phone failed to work. The SSP S.S Srivastva said, “It is a useful instrument and will help in checking vehicle thefts”.
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Farm technocrats want director to go
Chandigarh, October 11 Besides demanding removal of B.S. Sidhu, the protesters also insisted that the appointment for the post should be made from among joint directors of agriculture (administrative wing), restoration of professional pay parity with veterinary doctors, filling of 1,000 posts of agriculture technocrats in the state departments of agriculture, horticulture, soil conservation and animal husbandry, conveyance and telephone allowances, clearance of eight to 16-year time-scale cases and other pending demands. Dr G.S. Gill, chairman of AGTAC, Dr R.P.S. Aulakh, general secretary AGTAC, said instead of strengthening the agriculture extension services and providing more financial assistance to these services in the light of the globalisation of agriculture and squeezing of national food stocks, the government was treating these services with indifference and was not paying due attention. Threatening the anti-agriculture lobby in the department, the agitating technocrats stated they would further intensify their stir, in which they would involve students and farmers, if the state government fails to address their genuine demands.
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Sector 25 protest venue a hellish place, rue protesters
Chandigarh, October 11 Over 11 months have elapsed since the authorities shifted the venue for holding protests and rallies from the Matka Chowk, the erstwhile Boat Club on November 3 last year, not much have been done to improve the condition of earmarked land. Tippers could be seen unloading malba in the area to fill trenches. The administration has raised a wall, constructed a drinking water point, but has made no arrangement for toilets at the place so far. The protesters rue that they have to go to fields in the nearby jungle area to relieve themselves. The poor state of basic amenities and danger to their lives due to reptiles and venomous insects, which are a common sight, here are driving protesters away from this dharna venue. During a visit to the venue for rallies, the Tribune team found tents of protesting special police officers (SPO) recruited during the days of militancy in Punjab and selected by the Punjab Armed Police for the posts of home guards jawan, but had not yet been given appointment letters. Other protesters were the members of the coordination committee of the UT and Government Employees and Workers Union who were demanding the regularisation of daily wage workers. They had been sitting on a dharna continuously for months together here. They told The Tribune that by earmarking this hostile place for protests the government had indirectly suppressed their right to protest. SPO Kuldeep Singh of Bathinda told this correspondent that the place was a living hell. “Snakes, rats, venomous insects are a routine here. Rats destroy our ration and during night the residents of nearby colonies leave their cattle for grazing in the area. The cattle barge into our tents and have razed them many a time. We have to deploy one member every night to goad away the animals. So far we have lost seven tents to the intruding animals,” he rued. About the police, a protester said cops consume liquor during night and were of no help to them. Dhan Singh from the electricity department and joint secretary of the UT and Government Employees and Workers Union said the proximity of the Matka Chowk as a venue for protests to Sector 17 was an added advantage. They could buy things for their use, but now they had to go to far off places to make purchases. He added that officials from the department concerned visit the protesters, but no one comes here to hear their grievances. The Matka Chowk had been the favourite site of protesters due to its proximity to the seats of power ie. the Punjab and Haryana Civil Secretariat and the UT Secretariat. Around 350 rallies were held in 2005 alone while 385 rallies were organised in 2006 in the city and a majority of them were held at the Matka Chowk.
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Nature lover on the wilderness trail
Chandigarh, October 11 “In all those years, we organised 989 local women into 95 credit groups, asking them to compulsorily save Re 1 a day. By 2006, they had collected Rs 9 lakh and generated income worth Rs 23 lakh by engaging in organic food production and apricot oil packaging. That was just one part of our activity, the major part being protection of 750 sq km of virgin forest area in Kullu,” said Pandey, a former director of the park. Pandey was at Government Museum here today to discuss the genesis and growth of the park - the only one in the world, besides the one in Pakistan, which has some population of the Western Tragopan. Locally called jujjurana, the bird is highly endangered and was recently declared the state bird of Himachal Pradesh. Behind the state government’s change of heart were years of campaigning by Pandey and his team, which rooted for the jujjurana as the state bird and the snow leopard as the state animal. “Earlier, the monal was our state bird, but we took the plea that it was the state bird of Uttarakhand and the national bird of Nepal. Similarly, the musk deer was the state animal of Uttarakhand. We promoted the jujjurana and the snow leopard on grounds of their rarity,” said Pandey, who along with Payson Stevens, the American earth scientist instrumental in promoting the park abroad, today presented a film on the park’s many riches. Nestled between the Pin Valley National Park, the Rupi-Bhawa Wildlife sanctuary and the Kanawar Wildlife Sanctuary, the park is also home to the sources of four major rivers - the Sanjh, Jivanal, Tirthan and Parvati. At great heights inside the park, protected by natural ridges on three sides, reside blue sheep, snow leopards, Himalayan brown bears, Himalayan Tahrs and musk deer. “This is the best time to visit the park. There are many chances of sightings,” said Pandey, who along with the Friends of Great Himalayan National Park, a group of nature lovers, including Payson, still raises funds for the park’s preservation and for the physical and financial well being of the affected populations.
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14 injured in truck collision
Zirakpur, October 11 The labourers had been picked from Chandigarh railway station and were being taken to Rajpura for some labour work. Two people sustained serious injuries and have been admitted to PGI, Chandigarh, while 12 others are admitted at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Sector 32. Those admitted at PGI have been identified as Ram Janak Yadav and Ram Nand Yadav.
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Jewellery worth Rs 4 lakh stolen
Chandigarh, October 11 A case of theft has been registered in this regard. Car theft Gurpal Singh of Mohali has reported to the police alleging that his Maruti car (CH-01-N-0970) was stolen from Sector 9 on Tuesday. A case of theft has been registered at the Sector 3 police station.
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Norms being flouted
Chandigarh, October 11 The case in point is a testimony to the fact as over a week has been lapsed since Manju Wadwalker, the PRO of the PGI, has lodged a complaint regarding theft of her bag from her car in Sector 15. However, cops has not bothered to inform her about the action taken on her complaint. Talking to TNS, Manju of Sector 15 rued that the police officials at the Sector 11 police station had taken her complaint and told her to go. She was not informed till date whether a case has been registered or the police only recorded a daily diary report (DDR) entry and finished off with the matter. No one has approached her for any assistance or to apprise her about the action being taken. As per the rules, the police should immediately register a case and hand over the copy of FIR to the complainant. Narrating the incident, Wadwalker stated that on October 3, she went to the Sector 15 apni mandi and left her bag in her car. She came back after 20 minutes and found her vehicle unlocked and the bag missing. The bag was containing Rs 4,000, jewellery, important documents, including driving licence, Punjab National Bank (PNB) ATM card and credit cards. On the other hand, the SHO of the Sector 11 Ramesh Chand maintained that Wadwalker had written in her complaint that she lost her purse. Hence, a DDR was recorded. However, he added that he would get the matter investigated and do the necessary action to work out the matter.
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11 sub dealers summoned
Mohali, October 11 The trade certificates of the sub dealers who had managed to get these documents by manipulation will be cancelled. DTO Balbir Singh said here today that many sub dealers had approached him for trade certificates but were refused because rules were clear that a dealer authorised by a manufacturer also could get such a document. These sub dealers then approached higher authorities but failed to get trade certificates as they did not meet the norms. He said a 15-day notice was given to sub dealers to get themselves declared as dealers by manufacturers. Twentyfour dealers were able to show the documents stating they were the main dealers.
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