Wednesday, April 21, 1999
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N E W S Wednesday, April 21, 1999 |
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| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
Driest
April in decade CHANDIGARH, April 20 — With the sun being unusually hot for the month of April, meteorologists have observed that this has been the driest April in Chandigarh during this decade. This comes close on the heels of the observation that this year the onset of summer has been the hottest ever recorded in Chandigarh. Though no special reason has been assigned for the happening that has virtually speeded up the summer, the city has so far received only 50 per cent of the rain than what it should have under normal circumstances. From January 1 till today there should have been 130 mm, or 13 cm , of rain, according to figures of the meteorological office. This year, till today, the city has had only 63 mm, or just a shade less than 6.5 cm, of rain. Most of the rain occurred in the month of January when it rained almost 48 mm. Thus, since February 1, or in the past 79 days, the city experienced only 15 mm of rain. Under normal conditions rain during this period should have been about 82 mm. During the first 10 days of April, The Tribune had carried a story on how this year had been the hottest onset of summer. With the sun shining down mercilessly, the only hope of a cooling effect was the rains that have so far failed. The heat is due to lack of rain. However, no special reason can be assigned for the lack of rainfall, said Mr Subhash Chander Bhan, Director at the local meteorological office. These are just annual variations. It is just that the variation was more this year, met officials said. In 1997 the rain during this period was 75 mm. The lowest recorded rainfall has been in 1988. Then it had rained only 50 mm from January 1 to April 20. It may be recollected that the same year the north-western plains experienced a very heavy monsoon and it resulted in flooding of vast areas also. As rain has eluded the
city the day-time temperature touched 40 degrees Celsius
on April 10. After that the mercury has been touching 38
or 39 degrees fairly regularly. |
Undertrials
may get ‘baptised’ today CHANDIGARH, April 20 — A special “baptism” ceremony inside Central Jail, Burail, is likely to be organised tomorrow after the District and Sessions Judge today allowed an application by two undertrial prisoners for permission to “baptism”. The jail authorities have reportedly approached Sant Pritpal Singh and the management of Gurdwara Gursagar Sahib, near Sukhna Lake here, to conduct the special ceremony inside the jail tomorrow. Any undertrial prisoner lodged in the jail can become an “amritdhari Sikh”. The Chandigarh Administration has already notified exemption order permitting a 6-inch “kirpan” with the maximum blade size of three inches to be carried all the time by any “amritdhari Sikh” lodged in jail. They are, however, not allowed to use the “kirpans” as a weapon of offence. The jail authorities hope that all the eight undertrial prisoners, who have been on fast, will break their fast now. It may be perhaps for the first time that such a ceremony is being permitted inside Central Jail. Paramjit Singh and Jagtar Singh Tara, main accused in the Beant Singh assassination case, were the first to start fast on April 5. Subsequently, they were joined by six others — Balwant Singh, Jaspal Singh Dhillon, Baghel Singh, Balwinder Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Baljit Singh — demanding permission to “baptise”. While their earlier application for permission was denied by the District and Sessions Judge, they decided to continue with their agitation. At times, they were removed to hospital for medical care and attention. It was the intervention of the Punjab Education Minister, Mr Tota Singh, and a few other prominent Akali leaders and SGPC members that the jail authorities and the Chandigarh Administration decided to notify the exemption order for a solution to this problem. After yesterday’s
notification and today’s court order, the way was
paved for organising a special ceremony inside the jail
to enable all those undertrial prisoners who want
themselves to be “baptised” to attend the
ceremony. The “kirpans” and other things
required, including all five “kakas”, would be
provided to the undertrials inside the jail. |
Police
recruitment exercise CHANDIGARH, April 20 — The Chandigarh Police today started a four-day exercise to carry out a physical examination of candidates who had applied for 14 posts of Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI). Today it was the turn of women and ex-servicemen candidates. Tomorrow the test will be for OBC, and SC\ST candidates. On April 22 and 23, general category candidates will take the tests that are being conducted at the police lines in Sector 26. Approximately 2200 candidates had applied for 14 posts. These recruitments are
to be followed by recruitment of constables on April 27.
Recruitments for both categories of police personnel had
been postponed several times during the past three
months. |
Engineers'
meet from April 25 CHANDIGARH, April 20 — A large number of top engineers and scientists are expected to participate in the two-day 13th Indian Engineering Congress on 'Information Technology for Sustainable Competitiveness' to be organised by the local chapter of the Institution of Engineers on April 25. According to Mr G.S. Bachhal, Chairman of the organising committee, more than 400 delegates have already confirmed their participation. The Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh, Lieut-Gen (retd) B.K.N. Chhibber will inaugurate the congress at Tagore Theatre. Mr Charan Dass Shorewala, Finance Minister of Haryana, will preside. Mr Bachhal said the
theme of the congress was about the new technologies
related to information technology. Modern technologies
and their applications in various fields will be
discussed. Nearly 100 authors will present their findings
and forecasts at the conference. |
Workshop
on afforestation CHANDIGARH, April 20 — A workshop on “Improved moisture regimes through afforestation and eco development” was jointly organised by the Haryana Forest Department and the Agricultural Finance Corporation New Delhi, here today. In his inaugural address, Mr Jagdish Yadav, Haryana Forest Minister, expressed concern over the falling water table, which might affect about 6 lakh of tubewells in different parts of the state. He said the problem was severe, particularly due to wrong irrigation practices, which had contributed to lowering of water table in sweet water zone and its rising in salt affected areas of the state. He said about 3,75,000 hectares of land in the state was waterlogged and another 4,20,000 hectares was facing the danger of being waterlogged soon. He suggested that as the sub surface drainage was very costly, the forest department should involve people in the process of lowering water table in the salt-affected waterlogged areas. Dr S.M. Seth, Director
of the National Institute of Hydrology, said the forest
management plans and systems should concentrate more on
diversity of forests and wildlife. Mr Banarasi Dass,
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests also spoke. |
Police
meet begins today CHANDIGARH, April 20 — Preparations have been completed for the five-day 42nd All-India Police Duty Meet to be hosted by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at the basic training centre, Bhanu, from tomorrow. The meet will be inaugurated by Mr Mahabir Prasad, Governor of Haryana at 9. 30 a.m. Mr N.K. Mishra, ADIG, said policemen from all over the country would take part in the event. A police welfare seminar would also be held during the course of the meet. The ITBP were the overall champions during the last meet held here in 1996. The Prime Minister Medal for saving lives would be awarded to the recipient at the investiture ceremony of the meet. He said police organisations and para military forces would compete in their professional spheres to prove their supremacy. In addition, the participants would tone up their skills in various fields like police photography, computer awareness, shooting and the dog squad. He said professional
innovation and excellence on part of the police is
essential for effective law enforcement and keeping
internal security in the present scenario characterised
by threats of terrorism, militancy, communalism and mafia
operations. |
Australia
beckons students CHANDIGARH, April 20 — At an exhibition here today, 24 universities of Australia, represented by their faculty members, gave free counselling about regarding various courses available in their universities. "I want to send both my sons abroad for studying, and would like them to settle there as well. Financially this might prove to be a slight strain on my pocket, but then I think it would be worth it. For now my sons can study in Australia, and then migrate either to the USA or the UK", said Sqd Ldr S. S. Samundari, who was seeking information on higher studies in Australia. The exhibition also explained the entry procedures, along with the living costs, in the country to the anxious parents, accompanying their enthusiastic wards. According to the organisers, the majority of Indians prefer to go to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide in Australia. For Sonia Harjani and her friend Komal, both students of commercial arts, the exhibition proved to be an eye-opener in which they got all the kinds of details they were looking for in order to "move out of India". Said Sonia, "I would ultimately want to go to the USA and going via Australia seems to be just right". Added Komal, "In India not only does immense competition exist, but also a great deal of pull. And degrees seem to be a total waste here, so why not go where education is really respected". Anamika, a post-graduate
in economics, who also has a job, with which she is not
satisfied said, "I guess I might get better
prospects of both work and job in Australia. This
exhibition does make this sound quite simple, but let's
see how simple the whole process actually is". |
Administration
order to officers CHANDIGARH, April 20 — The Chandigarh Administration has directed all officers to remain available in their offices to the general public on all working days, except Wednesdays, between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. The officers have also been asked not to fix any function, meeting or visit to site during this time. In the event of their
being on tour or on leave, the next junior officer should
be deputed for the purpose and should remain available to
the general public during the appointed hour. |
3
teenagers held for stealing cars CHANDIGARH, April 20 — Three teenagers, who used to steal cars for joyride and break into roadside booths of milk products to steal icecream and other goodies, were arrested by the police today. The trio — Rinku of Sector 18, Kansal of Sector 27 and Shankar of Sector 7, Panchkula — were produced in court today and remanded to police custody till April 23. A total of 18 cases of car theft for joyride and taking out stereos and batteries, among other accessories, have come to light. The teenagers used to steal a car, drive it around till the petrol lasted before dumping the car and taking out the accessories. All three are sons of migrants and they had been to school till classes IX and X Kansal was the leader of the gang. The three, according to sources, were so mischievous that they used to throw eggs and icecream at people out on a morning walk. A case was reported in
Sector 10 around 15 days ago when three youngsters rubbed
icecream on the face of a woman who was out on a walk.
Similiar cases of theft of eggs and icecream have been
reported in certain other sectors of the city. |
Badal to
open PR men's conference today CHANDIGARH, April 20 — The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, will inaugurate tomorrow a conference of public relations and advertising professionals, business communicators and mediamen from across the country here tomorrow. The main topic for discussion at the three-day conference will be "Image India — PR strategies". The conference is being organised by the Public Relations Society of India. ONGC Chairman B.C.Bora and Punjab and Sind Bank Chairman S.S. Kohli, apart from society President N.D.Rajpal, will be the speakers at the conference. Mr Marjorie Anderson, Executive Director of Public Relations , Institute of Australia, will present a paper on the PR education. The organisers of the
conference said that as the country stepped into the new
millennium, the image management through effective
communication was the key challenge and opportunity
before the PR practitioners. |
8 injured
in road mishaps CHANDIGARH, April 20 — Eight persons were injured in five separate road accidents in the city since last night. A family travelling in Maruti van was injured when it was hit by a truck on the road dividing sectors 45 and 46. The injured include Charanjeet Singh, Yashhodra and Geeta. Two men, Surinder Singh and Diljeet Singh, travelling on a scooter were hit by a vehicle in Sector 21 last night. Rakesh Kumar of Sector 41 was injured when his scooter skidded in the same sector. An unidentified scooterist was injured when he was hit by an Ambassador car near the roundabout of sectors 9, 10, 16 and 17. Bittu of Kumhar colony
was injured when he was hit by a car in Sector 24. Daya
Singh of Kansal village was buried under a mound of earth
in Kaimbwalla village, north of Sukhna Lake. |
SNIPPETS Rally
by super bazar workers Two
city lensmen awarded Ravneet
wins paper reading contest AG
office holds cultural function 300
students get fee remission National
record by city athlete UT
junior basketball from May 1 'Enrol
employees under EPF' Communal
harmony function Protest
against rent hike planned Poor
water supply criticised |
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