Chandigarh, July 3
If youngsters drinking in the open in front of liquor vends is any indication, the police appears to be miles away from its efforts of showing “zero tolerance” to drunken driving and drinking at public places in the city, which leads to rising number of incidents of lawlessness.

Every other day, incidents of road rage, hooliganism and ruckus by boozers, including girls, are reported. Though cases are not registered in every incident, these are indicators of increasing lawlessness in the city.

Though traffic officials are patting their back by claiming to have booked 226 violators till June 22 this year, against just 27 during the entire last year, the figure appears dwarf against the number of drinking places and liquor vends that have dotted the city. 

Contrary to what the statistics show as per rough estimates, thousands of boozers hit the city roads during late night hours against a few violators caught on the wrong side of the law.

Sources in the excise department said there were over 200 liquor vends in the city, excluding bars, restaurants, hotels and clubs. “If put together, all these  drinking places, including discothèques, the number will exceed 300 easily”, these said.

“One can witness long lines of vehicles parked outside every liquor vend and tavern in the city. One can imagine the number of drunken drivers on roads, if we take only 10 drivers per place took to wheels after consuming liquor”, quips Vikramjit Singh, a government employee, pointing toward the alarming proportion of the menace.

Another concerned resident adds, it is not the authorised drinking places only, but a large number of boozers prefer to drink in their vehicles and have their favourites hangouts in the city, where they get snacks of their choice. The vehicles of these tipplers start making a beeline at these places and they hit the roads after getting drinks at nights with beat box policemen turning a blind eye to their activities.

The drinking at public places continues unabated and one can witness the glaring violations outside a liquor vend in Sector 34 in front of petrol station.

The place is littered with empty beer and liquor bottles by 11 pm and rag pickers made money by taking away a cartload of bottles from there.

The traffic police said it set up pickets across the city in three sub-divisions on weekends to curb the drunken driving. The nakas were put up on roads near popular drinking places, pubs, discothèques and clubs in the city.

HS Doon, UT SP (Traffic), said they had been setting up special nakas and were conducting drives to curb the menace.

The number of violators caught this year had increased manifold than the previous year.

He added that they changed places and kept on identifying the places to set up nakas to catch tipsy drivers. 

Chandigarh, July 3
Probe into the Nari Niketan rape case by the police has confirmed that the victim was being raped by main accused, Bhupinder Singh and Jamuna Kumar, for quite sometime and her sexual exploitation continued even at the Government Institute for Mentally Retarded Children (GMIRC), the school where she was attending classes after being shifted to Aashray.

The police findings, which may put to rest the speculations about the time when the victim became pregnant, reveal that she was raped even on the day of Holi (March 11), 48 hours before she was shifted to Aashray from Nari Niketan.

According to a senior police official privy to the investigations, interrogation of the accused and the evidence collected from Nari Niketan has revealed that the mentally-challenged victim was raped by the suspects in the “mathri” room and a bathroom near the security guard’s room. The ‘matthi’ room got its name as “mathri” (the flaky Rajasthani snack) used to be made in this room some time ago.

Besides the main accused, a sweeperess, Kamla, and an attendant, Maya, are also in the police custody.

What is intriguing is that while the Nari Niketan authorities had initially claimed that the “matthi” room was not in use and was always kept locked. Investigations have led to the conclusion that the girl had been raped there. This puts a question mark on the role of those at helm of the institute.

Though officials are tight lipped about the other details of the case they said one of the suspects was using condoms while committing the crime.

In a shocking revelation that also exposes the security lapse at GMIRC, the victim was rape there too. “The suspect used to take her to the bathroom and rape her,” said an officer. He, however, refused to either confirm or deny if Kamla had helped the suspects even at GMIRC.

The victim, in her statement to the police and The Tribune, had alleged that Kamla used to take her to the bathroom where Bhupinder used to rape her. 

Mohali, July 3
After a gap of nine years, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), erstwhile PUDA, is coming up with an urban estate within Mohali’s master plan area.

Last time, the authority had floated the controversial sectors 78 to 80 housing scheme. But this time, the interests of the landowners is being watched as the evacuee are being offered Rs 1.50 crore per acre or the land pooling scheme wherein the beneficiaries get 930 sq yard residential plot and 121 sq yard commercial site.

Confirming this, Chief Administrator, GMADA, VP Singh, said it would premature to reveal the project details.

The proposed urban estate, comprising residential, commercial and institutional sites was being planned somewhere in 1,000 acre being acquired for mix-land use along the 200 ft wide road proposed to connect the proposed international airport with the Zirakpur-Patiala and the Chandigarh-Kharar highways. The project land falls in Bakarpur, Kishanpura, Matran and Chachu Majra villages.

Though the exact land being included in the urban estate was not clear, sources said a clear picture would emerge after the landowners come out with the option of opting for the land pooling. Though about 2,000 residential and commercial sites had been carved out the mix land use belt, at least 50 per cent of these would be exhausted if the landowners go for the land pooling.

The allotment price was Rs 10,000 per sq yard, provided the scheme is floated during the current financial year. GMADA officials said the allotment would be done by draw of lots to allow plot seekers to try their luck. The town-planning department has proposed a 30 metre green buffer between the road and commercial belt along the main road. The residential area would be behind the commercial belt, as is in the existing urban estate.

From the architectural point of view, the stakeholders in the commercial sites would be allowed a height of up to 120 mt and the access between the villages would be through underpasses. The land use has been planned keeping in mind the nature of activity that would come around an airport. 

Chandigarh, July 3
There is nothing to cheer for residents of the city as far as the Railway Budget is concerned. Barring the Dibrugarh Express, which has been converted from a special train to a regular one no major announcement, has been made in the Budget. This train has directly been linked between Chandigarh and Yamuna Nagar.

However, the residents can look forward to a spruced up railway station. This station along with 50 others has been selected for being upgraded to international standards. Even the residents of Kalka can look forward to a spacious station with a proposal to expand it further. New station is likely to be constructed and modern signaling installed for which Rs 5 crore has already been sanctioned.

While the Budget presented by Mamata Banerjee seems to be soft towards the economically weaker sections with an “Izzat” scheme launched for them.

The only train among 67 ones sanctioned from Chandigarh this time is 0534 Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Special Express that might run on a weekly basis. It was started as a holiday special in September 2008. The train was to be discontinued from June 30. However, due to the good response it has been regularised.

While a few proposals announced in the last year’s Budget still hangs fire. Escalator is yet to be installed at the Ambala railway station. Sources, however, revealed that this proposal had already being sanctioned and the contract given.

For the convenience of the commuters, the railway ministry had come out with a proposal to allow reservation through mobiles last year. This was sold as a value-added service but it is yet to take off. The proposal of installing an automatic ticket vending machine is yet to see the light of day.

Disclosing this Divisional Railway Manager, H.K. Jaggi, said: “The proposal of automatic vending machines is in its first phase and have started in Mumbai but is yet to start here.”

There was a proposal to start the sale of the railway tickets through post offices. A post office in Panchkula has already started selling tickets and five more stations will be doing the same soon.

There was a proposal to start on-board cleaning of the mail and express trains. This has been launched at the Ambala railway station. The two trains- Himachal Express and Nauchandi Express- are cleaned at the station while it is yet to be implemented at other stations, which come under this division.

Chandigarh, July 3
The Chandigarh Police today rounded up at least 40 members of the National Federation of Blinds (NFB) who were taking out a protest march to the Punjab Assembly, seeking jobs under 1 per cent quota fixed for them.

The police had made security arrangements in advance to prevent the protesters from moving out of Sector 34. The police teams, equipped with water cannons, cordoned off the protesters.

The agitators, however, tried to break the cordon and had a minor scuffled with the cops. The police overpowered the visually impaired, bundled them up in their buses and took them to the Sector 34 police station.

Talking to TNS, one of the protesters, Pawan Kumar, a resident of Batala, said he had done his graduation in instrumental and masters in vocal and had been looking for a job. His father had died eight years back and his mother was a diabetic.

His two sisters were suffering from asthma and one out of his four brothers was physically challenged and others make their living by pulling rickshaws.

He added if the government gave him job, he would be able to earn bread and butter for his family and could also pursue his PhD in music.

Another protester Davinder Singh, who has done his plus two and is sitting on a dharna for the past over 400 days, said his father had suffered three heart attacks. He said he could serve as a clerk and help his family only if the state government provides him his right.

The police took the delegation of the protesters to the to the Punjab Chief Minister’s office. The OSD of the CM met the delegations and fixed their meeting with the CM for August 4.

Rajesh Mohan, general secretary of the NFB, said they wanted the CM to direct officials of the Social Security Department to prepare an agenda for the meeting. He added that Punjab Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla assured the delegation that she would take up the matter with the CM.

The police later released the protesters. 

Chandigarh, July 3
The Mayor-Commissioner impasse may have ended, but resentment is brewing among a section of municipal councillors over the administration’s decision to give Chandermukhi Sharma the centre stage, with his role as the head of the committee to smoothen the functioning of the MC.

The genesis of this resentment perhaps has links to the longstanding differences between the Raj Bhawan and MP Pawan Kumar Bansal group as it’s the latter’s loyalist who do not seem too happy with the constitution of the committee, which was reportedly formed with the go-ahead from the Raj Bhawan.

Though the councillors are not willing to come on record, they had approached Secretary, Local Bodies, Ram Niwas today and urged him to rethink on this arrangement.

Interestingly, Chandermukhi remarked that it was a verbal order of the administration only to form such a committee and he was unaware about its fate as of now.

When contacted, Ram Niwas said the committee still existed and had not been disbanded as was being claimed by certain councillors. However, Ram Niwas was at loss of words when asked what role the committee would play if everything was hunky-dory between the Mayor and the Commissioner after his intervention today.

Notwithstanding Ram Niwas’ claims, a senior councillor admitted that the committee would further dwarf Kamlesh, whose powers were already under question vis-à-vis the Mayor. “How can a councillor decide on what sort of relations the Mayor and the Commissioner should enjoy? What would Kamlesh be doing if Chandermukhi was charting out the path of her conduct and negotiating between her and the topmost official of the MC?” questioned a councillor.

“Isn’t is ridiculous, the same Chandermukhi, who instigated other councillors to walkout of the House while protesting the Commissioner’s remarks challenging the authority of the Mayor, has now got a self-styled committee formed to work under him,” remarked the councillors, adding that by heading such a committee, Chandermukhi would literally overshadow the Mayor, who otherwise occupies the top position in the House by the law.

When contacted, Kamlesh refused to comment on this controversy and said the issue of the formation of the committee was the job of the administration. “They have formed it, so let them decide. As far as I am concerned, the matter with Commissioner is settled,” she said.

For the first time in the history of Chandigarh MC since its inception, the UT administration, in an attempt to ease the tension between the elected representative and the top official of the corporation, had constituted a special committee headed by councillor Chandermukhi Sharma yesterday. The committee was reportedly entrusted the task of reviewing and discussing the development works and corporation’s functioning.

Chandigarh, July 3
Pensioners from Punjab staged a rally demanding implementation of the revised pension scales on the basis of the sixth Pay Commission at Sector 17 here today.

Senior citizens from across the state lambasted the state government for allegedly violating human rights by depriving them of the old age benefits. They said they had been finding it hard to meet their medical expenses.

The Punjab government had constituted the fifth Pay Commission on December 20, which had submitted its report on April 20, 2009.

The commission had recommended that the revised pension scales should be given to the pensioners from January 1, 2006. Surprisingly, even as the state government had implemented a part of the pay commission’s recommendation for employees, following a notification, but did nothing to provide any relief to the pensioners.

Members of the Punjab Government Pensioners Association, Punjab State Pensioners Mahasang and Punjab State Pensioners Confederation organised a rally under the aegis of the Punjab Government Pensioners Joint Front.

They claimed that despite the fact that they had prior announced their programme, the government had made no move to provide any respite to them.

Mohali, July 3
The Citizens’ Welfare and Development Forum has urged the Director, Local Government, Punjab, to get 14 tubewells sunk in Mohali.

In a letter addressed to the official, president of the forum, Albel Singh Shyan said 14 additional tubewells for various parts of the town were cleared by the municipal council, but were not being sunk as the approval was not given by the authorities concerned. He said that these tubewells should be sunk as residents were facing shortage of water.

He said the work for laying an independent supply line for Mohali from Kajuali waterworks should also be expedited.

He further said Mohali needed 23 million gallons a day (mgd) of water, but was getting only 13 mgd. The gap between the demand and supply could only be filled by augmenting Phase V pipeline from Kajauli, but this would take at least four to five years as it was a big project. Till then, the council would have to sink tubewells to meet the shortage.

He said estimates for sinking 14 new tubewells were cleared by the council some time ago, but nothing was done to sink these tubewells.

He said that a deputation of the forum had met the council president Rajinder Singh Rana in April.

Mohali, July 3
A number of plot holders have accused the authorities concerned of harassment in getting the conveyance deed of their properties registered.

They are not being included in the special waiver given by the Punjab government to allow the registration of conveyance deeds at the allotment price.

The affected allottees lament that the Mohali district administration was following two sets of rules while handling cases of registration of conveyance deeds. While those who have applied after March 2, 2009, are being allowed to register their documents at the allotment price, those who applied earlier are being harassed, they alleged.

Explaining the confusion, Lt Gen Bachittar Singh (retd), one of the affected allottees, said that going by the letter of the revenue department issued on June 3, 2008, wherein the allottee had been allowed to deposit the stamp duty at the allotment price, he deposited Rs 20,400 as stamp duty and Rs 2,550 as registration fee.

By the time, the allottee got NOC from GMADA and applied for registration of the conveyance deed with the district collector, the revenue department withdrew the waiver on June 26, 2008.

Following this, the district collector decided not to register the conveyance deeds and asked the allottee to deposit Rs 3,79,600 as stamp duty and Rs 7,450 as registration fee. The allottee appealed against it stating that he should not suffer due to confusion of the revenue department.

Passing the order, the district collector impounded the conveyance deed and asked the allottee to deposit the remaining stamp duty.

“If the government can again give a special waiver, the allottees, who applied as per the order issued on June 3, 2008, should also be treated on the same plank,” said another affected person.

There are many such cases where the allottees were suffering due to lack of coordination between different departments of the state government. 

Chandigarh, July 3
The Chandigarh Administration has decided to construct a hydrotherapy pool and activity centre for the disabled children. The proposed centre will be set up within the Prayaas complex, Sector 38 B, here, at a cost of Rs. 3 crore.

UT Home Secretary Ram Niwas said the initiative had been taken to create a place where children with special needs could socialise with others along with learning practical skills in a fun and creative environment. The facilities related to the treatment and entertainment would be made available for them at one place.

He said the hydrotherapy pool would make physiotherapy much more effective for those suffering from disabilities caused by numerous neurological or orthopaedic diseases like cerebral palsy, stroke, encephalitis, bone and joint injuries and infections, spinal cord defects and many other similar diseases.

The activity centre would serve as a recreation-cum-daycare centre for handicapped children, along with providing nurturing environment to them where they could feel safe, happy and had fun, added Niwas.

“Such children will be engaged in constructive activities and hobbies like music, painting, dance, drama and cookery and trained in different crafts and arts which may become their means of earning later on,” said Ram Niwas.

For others, the centre would serve as a place for supervised day care, providing relief to parents going to work, while their children were cared for in a pleasant environment, added Niwas.

Chandigarh, July 3
Reacting to the rail Budget, a section of city residents are happy to know that the fare of tickets has not increased.

Pleased to hear that the women will be employed as cops, Ankita Wadhwa from Delhi said, “It will create employment opportunities for the women. Now, women travelling will feel more comfortable if dealt by lady cops.”

Saurabh Goel, working with the Infosys, said, “I am happy for all those belonging to economically weaker section, who can now travel 100 km after spending Rs 25. The proposal of having women cops at the station is also a good idea.”

A commuter, Arun Jaiswal, said, “The Budget is satisfactory, but I am completely against appointing people on contract, as they are not paid well and do not even have job security.”

CS Nijjer, working as an audit officer in AG Punjab office, showing satisfaction to knowing that there was no increase in the fare, said, “The prices have not been increased and some relief will be given on surcharge is a good news. The tatkal booking service will not be misused now, as the bookings will be done only two days before.”

Kehar Singh (60), who has been working as a potter at the railway station for last 40 years, said, “We just want the government to provide pension. If pension cannot be given to us, then some arrangement to provide jobs to our children should be made.”

Employed with the healthcare sector, Danveer Singh said, “The Budget has nothing much to offer to city residents. There must be some benefit to those who travel frequently.”

Chandigarh, July 3
What seemed to be the most obvious distraction at the Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 10, the venue of the Class XI admissions, was the litter outside the school caused by the promotional material of private institutes.

Form leaflets to brochures, handouts and flyers scattered all over the place outside the centre gave a sense of complete “who cares attitude.”

The two-day counselling drew a huge crowd at the centre with anxious parents and students queueing up to grab a seat in their preferred school and stream. In the process making it the most favourable spot for the private institutes to advertise their coaching classes.

While the focus of the education department officials was to carry out the counselling inside the school smoothly, outside the school it was a sloppy state.

Meanwhile, there were schoolchildren, spending their vacation earning pocket money by advertising private institutes, collecting data outside the school.

Chandigarh, July 3
More students opted for the science stream on the second day of the centralised admission counselling of Class XI, with 1,519 out of the total 3,218 seats available in all government schools getting filled in the past two days

Whereas, only 25 out of 4,875 seats available in the humanities stream were filled on the second day today.

Candidates who had score between 79 per cent and 85 per cent were called for counselling at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 10, the venue for admissions. Finally, 773 students were given admissions.

Official figures reveal that 1,699 seats are still lying vacant in the science stream in government schools except GMSSS-37 (cut off 82%), GMSSS-19 (cut off 80%) GMSSS-33 (cut off 81%), GMSSS- Modern Housing Complex (cut off 79.6%), GMSSS-35 (cut off 87.2%) and GMSSS-16 (cut off 86.2%), which has already closed admissions to the science stream.

Meanwhile, admissions also picked up in the commerce stream with two leading schools GMSSS-16 and GMSSS-35 closing admissions in the commerce stream at a cut off of 82.2% and 79.4% respectively.

Admissions to the humanities and vocational streams received poor response though officials were of the view that it might pick up in days to come.

In the commerce stream, 292 seats out of 1,560 seats were filled. Only 22 out of 1,972 seats available for the vocational courses in the government schools could be filled.

Meanwhile, a few anxious parents who were waiting with their children in a queue for submitting important documents complained that teachers on duty were allowing their kids and acquaintances inside the restricted area. Reportedly, a few parents also complained about three counters, which remained non- functional counter for some duration during the counselling leading to confusion. 

Chandigarh, July 3
In a set of decisions taken at a joint meeting of the department heads of Panjab University and Vice-Chancellor Prof R.C. Sobti held today, the attendance system of students and professors will go online from this session.

As per decision, aimed at making the attendance system more stringent, all professors and students will now mark their attendance, leave, etc, online on a daily basis.

Considering it to be the most apt way of dealing with irregularities, one of the department heads said: “Every year, students with short attendance come up to claim medical leave, and surprisingly, this year a large number of them produced certificates from the same doctor. Besides, several complaints have been levelled against professors for not attending classes. This step will play a major role to curb the menace all this and shall also make the system more transparent.”

To make things more convenient and transparent, the salary details and provident fund information of the professors will be available online

In another decision to streamline hostel admissions, the applicants will be required to submit the admission form to the respective department within three days from the date of start of the academic session.

The university will allocate seats to the departments individually, which in turn will be allotted to the admitted students by the chairperson of the respective department on merit basis as per the quota of seats allocated to them.

“The chairpersons while sending the forms for admissions in the hostels shall verify permanent as well as correspondence address of the student given in the form with the residential proof to be provided with the form,” said DSW Naval Kishore.

Other decisions approved in the meeting was formation of an anti-ragging committee, anti-ragging squads, monitoring cells at the hostel and teaching departments level.

According to Naval Kishore , posters exhibiting the law prohibiting ragging and punishments to those found guilty will be prominently displayed in the departments, hostels and other places. The students will have to furnish an undertaking, signed by their parents/guardians stating that they will not indulge in the ragging and abide by the punishment awarded if found guilty.

In a bid to beef up security, the sticker will only be allotted to those students whose vehicle’s registration is in their own name.