Four vehicles stolen
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 28 — Two scooters, a trailor-truck and a car have been stolen from the city in separate incidents.

A truck (HR-51-GA-0483) driven by Rameshwar of Ajmer district in Rajasthan was impounded by the police.

But as the police was checking the documents of the vehicle the driver of the truck sped off with the truck. The police has registered a case of theft under Section 379 of the IPC.

A scooter (HR-03-A-9348) owned by Pawan Kumar was stolen when parked at a petrol pump on the Chandigarh — Panchkula road. A scooter (CH-01-Q-8320) owned by M.S. Sandhu of Sector 47 was stolen from Sector 46.

A car (CH-01-E-7045) owned by Mr Sandeep Puri of Sector 40 was stolen from his residence.

Arrested: A person has been arrested for allegedly stealing a car (PCA-4774) on March 18. Surjit Singh alias Lovely of Ferozepore was nabbed. He has been booked under sections 379 , 420, 467 and 468 of the IPC.

Nabbed: Hirde Ram of Burail village was nabbed while carrying 12 bottles of whisky in an unauthorised manner from near the roundabout at Sectors 18, 19, 20 and 21. A case has been registered.

PANCHKULA

Injured: Two persons were injured in two separate road accidents in the district in the past 48 hours.

According to the information available Tarsem Lal, a resident of Khodawali village, was injured after being hit by a truck driven by Hem Raj, a resident of Shimla. The truck involved in the accident has been taken into custody by the police.

In another case Mohinder Kaur, a local resident was seriously injured after being hit by a scooter driven by Mohinder Singh on the Zirakpur — Kalka national highway near Old Panchkula on Tuesday.

LALRU

Illicit liquor: The police has arrested, Jagmal Singh, a resident of Khanpur in district Karnal, for possessing illicit liquor.

In a press statement, Mr H.S. Bhullar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, said that one suspect has been nabbed by the police during a nakaah on the Lalru-Ambala highway while his other companions fled from the spot. The suspects were on their way to Karnal in a Maruti car (HR-09-0022).

The police has recovered 1250 pouches of country made liquor from their possession and has impounded the vehicle used in the crime. A case under the Excise Act has been registered against them.

Uncertainty in PU over Deans’ appointment
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 28 — Uncertainty prevails over the appointment of three deans in Panjab University — Dean Student Welfare, Dean Foreign Students and Dean Alumni Relations. These three posts were occupied by Dr R.S. Grewal, Dr R.C. Sobti and Dr Ramesh K. Kakkar respectively, who had, on the instructions of the Vice Chancellor handed over the charge to Dean. University Instruction on March 31.

These appointments were to be finalised in the Syndicate meeting on March 17, but following objections by certain members, a seven member committee was constituted to look into the selections. The faculty members thought that a decision would be taken before the proposed meeting of the Syndicate on April 24, but to their dismay nothing happened. The committee, which met on April 19 under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof M.M. Puri could not come to a decision when members raised objections regarding alleged favouritism and irregularities by the former Dean Student Welfare, Dr R.S Grewal in the elections to a particular students’ body. During the meeting, a three member sub-committee under the chairmanship of Dr V.K Bansal was constituted, with Mr Rajinder Deepa and Mr Ashok Goyal as other members.

The sub-committee, which met on April 23, also could not reach any decision. However, they decided to submit the report regarding the allegations.

The Vice-Chancellor was in his office at 5.30 pm, but the members failed to turn up. The members when contacted said, they did not receive any formal invitation or notice in this regard. Mr Chaudhary attributed this to a communication gap. The Vice-Chancellor was out of station for 3 to 4 days and a meeting to decide this issue would be called as soon as he returned, he said.

In the absence of a regular DSW, the payment of a number of bills was pending and no concrete steps being taken to process these While the charge of DSW was with the DUI, Prof B.S. Ghuman, Chairman, Department of Public Administration was assigned the job of looking after the day-to-day work. But he was not able to do much as the financial powers were vested with the DUI.

Questions were also being raised as to who would sign the contracts for mess and canteen contractors, white-washing and other maintenance works, if the appointment of the DSW was not finalised soon. According to reliable sources, the appointments were likely to be made by the first week of June.

Flaws in question paper: The students of MA part-I (Department of English) have in a letter written to the Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, highlighted the irregularities/flaws in the paper setting of paper I (Literature and Criticism).

They have pointed out that there was a mistake in the instructions mentioned under the heading ‘Note’. According to that “we were required to attempt one question from Section C instead of two.”

They have alleged that question II of Section B was out of syllabus in which they were asked to attempt the question by giving suitable illustrations from the text — Canterbury Tales. “The text is not part of the syllabus of Paper-I”, they said. The students have demanded a re-examination of the paper concerned in accordance with the syllabus.

Clash of dates: Dr Jagwant Singh, member, faculty of Commerce and Business Management, has in a letter written to the Vice-Chancellor pointed out the clash of dates of B Com I examinations with the CA foundation examinations.

He has demanded that the B Com paper of May 5 be preponed to May 4 and that of May 7 to May 6 and the paper of May 11 to May 13.

The MFC I and II examinations to be held between May 3 and 11 should be postponed to any date after May 12. This would facilitate the students to appear in the CA foundation examination students of B. Com III to appear in CA intermediate examination, and the MFC students to appear in the CA foundation final examination.

The faculty of Commerce and Business Management had earlier suggested that the date sheet should be worked in such a way that the MFC examinations should be held between May 15 and 30 and B Com exams should finish by May 1.

Pay scales: The Chandigarh Council of Panjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union in its annual meeting has passed a resolution resenting the non-issuance of notification of UGC pay scales by the UT Administration.

In another resolution they have appealed to the teaching community to involve itself with the examination work so that the results were declared well in time.While Dr Jagwant Singh of GGDSD College, Sector, 32 has been unanimously elected President, Dr L.S. K Kheeva of SGGS College has been elected secretary for the year 1999-2000.

MC House adjourned amid protests
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 28 — Amid protests by opposition councillors over the "wrong" recording of the minutes of the meetings of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC), the meeting of the civic body was adjourned today without transacting any business.

As soon as the meeting started, the BJP-SAD alliance members, including Mr Des Raj Tandon, Mr Gian Chand Gupta and Mr Mohinder Singh, were on their feet demanding that the minutes of the meetings held on March 30 should not be confirmed without voting on the issue.

Mr Gupta also tried to raise the issue of the postponement of the recruitment to various posts and the farewell party to former Adviser to the Administrator Jagdish Sagar. This was disallowed by Mr K.L. Sharma, Senior Deputy Mayor, who was in the Chair since it was not on the agenda.

Mr Tandon also alleged that for the past over four months hardly any agenda had been invited and the ruling group was running the House in the way it liked.

The alliance members' plea was strongly refuted by Mr Raghubir Lal Arora and Mr O.P. Goyal, both from the ruling group, who said the minutes of the last meeting could not be put to vote since they had already been passed by a majority of the House.

Meanwhile, the ruling group was in for a shock when the Senior Deputy Mayor and a senior member of the ruling group raised the issue of a letter reportedly written by the Mayor, Mr Kewal Krishan Addiwal, to the Commissioner urging him to put on hold the anti-encroachment drive against the rehriwalas and phariwalas. Mr Jain walked out of the House saying that he did not want to become party to the decisions inspired by politics.

The Congress councillors, Mr Raj Kumar Goyal, Mr Gurcharan Dass Kala and Ms Kamlesh, alleged that the Mayor had written the letter so that the Mr Satya Pal Jain could take political mileage out of this in the coming Lok Sabha poll.

When the House reassembled after the tea, the alliance members, while reiterating their demand, wanted that the minutes be recorded verbatim. They also demanded voting on the confirmation of the minutes of the last meeting.

Several members, including Mrs Saudamini Bambah (nominated) and Mr Goyal advocated that there was no need for voting. Following this the Chair ruled that minutes of the last meeting had been confirmed amidst protests by the opposition councillors.

Another issue which raised a lot of dust was the demand for a vigilance probe by the alliance and Congress members into the alleged irregularities in the purchase and consumption of bitumen.

The Chief Engineer, Mr Puranjit Singh, informed the House that the Executive Engineer (Horticulture) was conducting the inquiry and would submit his report by May 31. This was opposed by the alliance and Congress councillors who insisted on a vigilance probe.

Their demand was not acceded to the Mr Sharma who insisted that first the departmental inquiry should be completed. The vigilance inquiry could be held if there were shortcomings in the departmental probe.

The councillors belonging to the ruling group wanted the Opposition to bring a formal resolution demanding a vigilance probe at the next meeting of the civic body.

Seeing that no further business could be transacted, Mr Sharma adjourned the meeting after over two-and-a-half hours' fruitless discussion.

Poultry farmers at receiving end
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 28—Even as there has been no hike in the price of poultry products like broilers at the producers' level during the past one year, both the consumer and the poultry farmer are at the receiving end owing to manoeuvring of the price by middlemen and retailers in different parts of the city.

According to sources in the trade, though there was no fluctuation in the price of broiler at the producer level during the past one year, the middlemen are gobbling up a major share of the profit by selling the commodity at an enhanced retail price as compared to last year. As a result of this, if the farmers are being deprived of a 'justified' price, the consumer is forced to pay more for broilers in the retail market.

According to trade sources, if the consumers were getting broiler at a price of Rs 50 to Rs 55 per kg during last year, they can buy it these days by paying a higher price of Rs 75 per kg in the retail market. This is in spite of the fact that the farmers are still selling broiler at last year's price of Rs 22 per kg. Similarly, the retail price of leg and chest has gone up in the city from Rs 60 to Rs 85 to Rs 95 a kg during this period.

The sources said the hike was superficial and had been triggered off by certain middlemen just to add to their profits. Talking about the present price scenario, a trader revealed that the suppliers were getting live bird at a price of Rs 22 per kg from the farmers, which, after dressing is being sold to wholesalers at a price of Rs 35 per kg. The retailers, after getting broiler at a price between Rs 40 to Rs 45 per kg, sell it to the consumer for Rs 75 per kg. Interestingly enough, the commodity is selling at a much lower price of Rs 45 a kg in and Zirakpur.

According to Mr Bunty Khanna, a trader, besides consumers, the farmers are paying a heavy price due to the current situation and at the current price they are getting for the commodity they are loosing at least Rs 10 per bird, as the price of inputs such as feed and medicine has witnessed a considerable hike during this period. "If a kg of poultry feed was priced at Rs 6 last year, it is selling at Rs 8 a kg during this period," he added.

Even as egg prices have crashed during the past one year, the sufferers are again poultry farm owners, if the enhanced prices of inputs are taken into consideration.

According to traders, the retail price of eggs has come down from Rs 125 to Rs 110 per 100 eggs during the past one year. Similarly, the wholesale price of the commodity has come down from Rs 110 to Rs 97 per 100 eggs. "The poultry farmers are making distress sale of the commodity as they are selling eggs for Rs 97 per 100 eggs, which is not sufficient to meet the production cost which is Rs 105 per 100 eggs," said a poultry farmer, who said they earned a slight profit during last year, when the production cost was around Rs 95, while the sale price was Rs 110 per 100 eggs.