Draw for Sec 52 LIG/EWS flats held
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — The Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) today held the draw of lots for the registration and allocation of floors to the eligible applicants for the EWS/LIG Housing Scheme, 1998, in Sector 52 on the premises of the board here.

Meanwhile, Mr A.K. Bishnoi, Sub Judge (First Class), today reportedly rejected the writ petition of the ineligible applicants, who had moved the court for restraining the board from holding the draw of lots, for "technical reasons".

Braving a rather sultry weather, hundreds of applicants started converging on the board premises to witness the draw of lots in the morning. The draw of lots for the EWS was held first to be followed by the LIG category.

According to information, against a total number of 24,754 applications received in the LIG scheme, 19,862 were declared eligible in various categories such as the Scheduled Castes (SC), defence personnel, Other Backward Classes (OBCs), retired/retiring persons (RRPs), physically handicapped, CHB employees, oustees of Chandigarh and the occupants of Type 13 accommodation, besides the general category.

As many as 208 houses were allocated in the general category out of the 15,471 eligible applicants. In the SC category, 45 flats were allocated against 1,447 eligible candidates.

While 18 houses were allocated to defence personnel against 1709 eligible applicants, 18 houses were allocated against a total of 262 eligible applicants in the OBC category. Of the 657 RRP applicants, 18 were allotted the houses.

In the physically handicapped category, four houses were allotted against 111 applicants. The same number of dwelling units were allocated to CHB employees as against 19 eligible applicants.

However, nine oustees of Chandigarh were more lucky with each getting a flat. Similarly, 13 houses were allotted to the occupants of Type 13 accommodation as against 177 eligible applicants.

In the the EWS scheme, 5,998 applications were found in order out of the 10,065 applications for 144 houses. In the SC category only 18 persons could get houses out of total 617 eligible applicants. In the defence category, out of 274 applicants, seven were allocated houses.

In the OBC class, seven houses were allotted out of a total of 123 eligible applicants. Similarly, seven of the 105 eligible persons under the RRP category could get the flats. Under the physically handicapped category, only one person was lucky enough to own a dwelling unit out of 30-odd applicants.

Under the general category, of the 4,849 applicants, 97 were allocated houses.

The draw of lots, which was supervised by the board Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Mahavir Singh, and the Chief Engineer, Mr S.K. Jain, passed peacefully.

In may be recalled that the ineligible applicants had threatened to stage a dharna if they were not given time to file their objections. It is learnt that the board authorities had put up a provisional list of the ineligible applicants, who had represented to the board, contending that they were not given enough time for filing objections. Their names were also included in the draw of lots.

11 PSEB employees sacked
Fraud in matric exam detected
By Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Aug 16 — A startling revelation about the involvement of certain employees of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) in helping candidates appearing in matriculation examinations on the basis of forged documents over the years has come to light. In some cases, the candidates had even secured government jobs.

In one such case, the wife of an employee of the board secured a job as a clerk with the board after sitting for the matriculation examination allegedly on the basis of forged documents.

At least 11 board employees, including persons on a contractual basis and daily wage workers have been dismissed from job.

In a case detected this year, Ram Lok Singh, Senior Assistant of the board got his wife, Darshani Devi, employed as a clerk in the board. Investigations by board officials revealed that Darshani Devi in her original matriculation exams passed in 1980 had secured a second division. To improve her division, her husband made her sit in the board exam from Sangrur on the basis of forged documents. Details and photograph of another woman by the same name were used to make his wife sit for the matriculation exams in 1984. The couple has recently been dismissed from service.

In another revealing case, two senior assistants of the board, Gurpal Singh and Gurcharan Singh Bhullar, were found involved in getting a woman passed in matriculation exams in 1993 on the basis of which she had secured a central government job. The fraud came to light when her marks sheet was sent for verification to the board.

The Vice-Chairman of the PSEB, Dr Gurdev Singh Sidhu, said investigations revealed that the application form of the candidate, Surinder Kaur, had been filled by the two board employees — a fact confirmed by a hand writing expert.

The involvement of Gurpal Singh and G.S.Bhullar, who were dismissed from service in June last year, had also been found in some other cases. Dr Sidhu said the cases were detected as part of a year-long drive launched to detect the cases of candidates appearing in the board examinations on basis of forged documents.

It may be pertinent to mention that last year, at least 31 cases of candidates appearing in matriculation exams on the basis of forged documents had been unearthed by the Controller of Examinations. The candidates had been accused of adopting unfair means in the exams.

Of the 11 persons dismissed from job by the board authorities, four were permanent employees, five on a contractual basis while the remaining two daily wage workers.

Restrictions on ISD planned
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — After being flooded with frauds on account of non-payment of telephone bills arising out of misuse of international subscriber dialling (ISD) facility, the local Telecom Department is proposing a series of stringent steps to curb this loss of revenue and nab the cheats.

This will include screening of applicants before allowing ISD facility. Getting police cases registered against the cheats is also on the cards. At the moment the department only disconnects the phone due to unpaid bills. This is hardly a deterrent for the person who gets a phone installed with an intention to misuse the ISD or STD facility, said sources.

At present the department is faced with a unique problem. Telephone bills running into several lakhs are lying unpaid as cheats use a loophole in the prevailing system to use ISD and STD facility and then not pay up. The modus operandi is very simple.

A subscriber can apply for a phone connection by paying Rs 3,000. He can also apply for ISD and STD on it. Once the phone is installed the cheats run up bills running into several lakhs and then get the phone shifted to some other address or just sell it off.

In certain cases the names of the applicants were found to be fake while others have been known to shift residences. In certain cases phones brought from unsuspecting subscribers have been misused by STD PCO operators while the person who owns the phone is facing the music.

Once a phone is installed, the first bill does not reach the subscriber before four months. So it gives even more time to the person who intentionally wants to misuse it. The Principal General Manager Telecom (PGMT) , Mr Prithipal Singh says: '' Even if we stop giving ISD facility on an application submitted by the subscriber it will not harass anyone.'' A proper need based screening can be carried out for those desiring the ISD and STD facility, he added.

Besides this the virtual calling card (VCC) that can be bought and used as and when desired is always there. The card can be bought in various denominations and the secret number inside the card can be used as a code to dial STD or ISD numbers from any phone that does not have the facility. This will mean genuine users can use the card while their applications are screened. Even those who do not get the facility can use the card, say the authorities.

The department is also planning to file police cases against the cheats. Collecting a sort of security money from those desiring ISD and STD facility will not help as the amount of the bill within the first two or three months may be much higher than the security amount. A system like the one used in the developed world where the ISD facility is jammed after it crosses a certain limit.

Even the first bills may be speeded up to mop up revenue and identify those who use the facility more frequently.

Hundreds of phones cut
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — Hundreds of telephones functioning in Mani Majra and Mansa Devi on level `55' exchange were cut by the department for alleged non-payment of dues. In reality , subscribers says, the bills were never received thus no payments could have been made.

A subscriber said that he had not received a bill in the past four months and he claimed to have called the department several times asking for the bill.

NGOs fail to pay building rent
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — The Karuna Sadan building in Sector 11 which houses about a dozen non-government organisations (NGOs) has reportedly not been able to claim any rent from these NGOs for the past couple of years.

This building was meant to act as a sarai to serve the needs of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research and General Hospital, Sector 16. But in 1996, the building was given to the Chandigarh Red Cross Society, which further rented out the unoccupied floors and rooms to some NGOs.

Since both the Secretary and the Joint Secretary of the Chandigarh Red Cross have been appointed only recently, they did not seem to have much information on the same.

Sources inform that the rent of the room, depending on the area of the room and the nature of the work of the NGO, concerned varies from a "nominal sum" of Rs 400 to about Rs 800.

Most of the NGOs said they did not pay because the others were also not paying up. But some did mention that their financial conditions did not permit them to pay the rents.

Another interesting fact is that though some NGOs have almost one whole block allotted to them, others function from only two or even one room. "The basis of the allotting the number of rooms has never been made clear to us", said a member of an NGO here.

The building also has some rooms, which though allotted to NGOs, are always found to be locked.

Reportedly, the Red Cross Society has issued notices regarding the rent of these rooms, but the same are still pending. In fact, the annual general meeting (AGM) of the society, which according to its constitution is to be held once every year, was held in August last year, but sources state that till date there has been no notice of the next AGM.

Sources claim that even the managing body meetings, slated to be held every quarter, have not been held.

Kirtan held to honour martyrs
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — The members of the International Kirtan Council held a kirtan durbar to honour the families of Kargil martyrs at the Sector 34 gurdwara here this evening.

The programme, held under the aegis of the management committee of the gurdwara, was attended by eminent ragis like Bhai Harbans Singh (Jagadhri), Bhai Harjinder Singh (Srinagar), Bhai Balwinder Singh Rangila, Sant Anup Singh (Una), Sant Niranjan Singh (Jawaddi Kalan), Bhai Devinder Singh Sodhi and Bhai Gurcharan Singh Rasia.

The hall of the gurdwara was packed to capacity well before the three-hour session began at about 7 p.m. Long queues of devotees could be seen awaiting their turn to pay obeisance. A separate counter had been put up for the reception of the families of the martyrs.

Mr Rangila, spokesperson of the council, said they had collected Rs 8 lakh for the welfare of the families of the martyrs of the region by organising kirtan darbars in various parts of Mumbai on August 7 to 9. A sum of Rs 10, 000 would be given to each family. Several families from the metropolis are in the city for the occasion.

He said such a venture had been undertaken by them for the first time as it was felt that the sacrifice of the brave men should be highlighted in every nook and corner of the country.

Every family would, besides the money, be presented with a siropa.

Those families, who could not make it today, would be honoured at another function to be held soon, he added.

Triangular contest for PUTA President
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — There will be a triangular contest for the post of the president of Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA), the elections to the executive committee of which will be held on August 25. The three contestants are Mr. P.P. Arya of University Business School, Mr S.C. Kaushal of Botany department and Mr Sahib Singh Bhayana of Directorate of Correspondence studies.

Six candidates are contesting for the post of vice-president of PUTA. The candidates are Mr K.P. Singh (Physics), Mr Fateh Singh Nandel (Biophysics), Mr R.K. Kohli and Mr S.K. Kaushal (Botany), Mr K.K. Sud (Correspondence Studies) and Mr S.K. Gupta (Evening Studies).

The contestants for the post of secretary are Mr Harjinder Singh (Chemistry), Mr Ravi Mahajan (Correspondence Studies) and Mr Tankeshwar Kumar (Physics).

The contestants for the post of joint secretary are Mr D.R. Sharma (Sanskrit), Mr D.V. Rai (Biophysics), Mr Keshav Malhotra (Evening Studies) and Mr Swinder Singh (Correspondence Studies).

The candidates who are contesting for four posts of members of the Executive, Group 1 (Arts and Languages) are Mr Akshay Kumar (English), Mr Ashwani Sharma (RRC), Mr D.R. Sharma (Sanskrit), Ms Kiran Preet Kaur (Sociology), Mr M. Shakeel Khan (Urdu), Mr Ronki Ram (Political Science), Mr S.K. Deveshwar (Punjabi) and Mr Satya Pal Gautam (Philosophy).

The contestants for four posts of Members of the Executive, Group 2 (Science and Mathematics) are Mr Amar Nath Gill (Statistics), Mr K.P. Singh (Physics), Mr M.P. Sharma (Botany), Ms Promila Pathak (Botany), Mr Sukesh Sharma (Biochemistry), Mr Surinder K. Sharma (Chemistry) and Mr Virender Kumar Walia ( Zoology).

The contestants for three posts of Members of the Executive, Group 3 (Other departments) are Mr Ajay Garg (University Business School), Mr D.S. Toor (Physical Education), Mr Keshav Agnihotri (USIC), Ms Ranvir Kaur (Laws), Ms Ranju Bansal (UIPS), Mr V.K. Rattan and Mr V.S. Chauhan (Chemical Engineering).

Mr S.K. Tandon and Mr Sudhir Kumar will contest for the post of Member of the Executive (Evening Studies). Mr K.K. Sud, Mr Swinder Singh and Mr Ujjagar Singh Sehgal will contest for the post of member of the Executive (Correspondence Studies).

Meanwhile, the nomination papers filed by Mr S.K. Gupta for the post of President and Mr raj Pal Sharma for the post of Vice-President were found invalid as they had not been proposed and seconded properly.

In a release issued here today, Mr Satya P. Gautam, president, PUTA, specified that withdrawal by candidates would be received till 5 p.m. tomorrow. The revised lists would be put up a day later.

MA-I general category seats filled
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — All the seats in the general category, for admissions to MA Part-I courses of seven departments in Panjab University, were filled during the first counselling held here today. The students in the waiting list were considered on merit basis for the vacant seats in these departments.

According to figures available at the end of the first counselling, a total of 442 seats, both in the general and reserved categories, of the total 483 seats in nine social sciences departments have been filled.

While the general category seats in economics (61), geography (22), history (25), philosophy (19), psychology (22), public administration (30) and sociology(33) have been filled, two seats each are vacant in the Departments of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology and Political Science which have a total of 17 and 33 seats, respectively. However, one or more seats in the reserved category are vacant in almost all these departments.

The Departments of Psychology and Economics had 60 to 65 per cent admissions in the first round on August 12, while the other departments had about 50 per cent.

Prof K.C Kaistha, the co-coordinator for the Joint Admission Cell, said that the admissions to 41 seats, which still remain vacant, mostly in the reserved category and few others which fall vacant subsequently because of students changing a department or joining some other course of study would be filled during the second counselling on August 20. Some students are likely to move out once the B.Ed result is declared. However, the seats which still remain vacant in the reserved category after August 20 would be thrown open to the ones in the general category on August 30, the last date for admissions to these courses. He disclosed that a few seats in the general category would fall vacant when the names of a few students who do not fulfil the stipulated condition of attending 33 per cent lectures during the first ten days i.e. till August 26 would be struck off after giving them a chance to offer explanation.

Nearly 100 students who were admitted today had no problems in paying the fees as a special counter to deposit fees for these departments was set up in Arts Block-IV, the venue for admissions, in addition to the main counter in the Administrative Block.

Meanwhile, resentment prevails among a section of students who because of some reason or the other could not attend the interviews held on July 28 and 29 and subsequently the special third chance on August 7. Of the total 3,068 candidates who had applied for admissions to these nine courses, only 2,000 odd candidates had appeared for interviews, it is learnt. Prof Kaistha, when contacted, said that since these students did not inform the cell about their inability to come for the interview on a particular date, they should not blame the authorities concerned. However, he has asked them to contact the Dean, University Instruction, and urge him to give them a special chance so that their year is not wasted.

The SOPU president, Mr Dayal Pratap Singh Randhawa, has in a memorandum submitted to Prof Kaistha pointed out that certain students who could not appear for the first interview because of their interview dates for SSB etc clashing with the dates of interviews should be considered before August 20, the date of second counselling for admissions to the vacant seats.

2 more file papers
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — Two more nominations were filed for the lone Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat on the sixth day today, taking the total number of nominations filed so far to three.

Col Harsharan Singh Sandhu (retd) of the Rashtriya Raksha Dal filed his nomination papers today. Another candidate to enter the contest was Mrs Gurvinder Kaur, an Independent. Earlier, Mr Mata Ram Dhiman of the Bahujan Samaj Party had filed his nomination papers.

August 18 is the last date for filing nomination papers. Scrutiny will be held on August 19 while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is August 21. Polling will take place on September 5.

Two CRPF men honoured
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — Two CRPF personnel were felicitated at a special function held at the Group Centre, CRPF Camp, Pinjore, this evening.

Mr J.P. Verma, Additional Director-General, North-West Zone, awarded Director-General's Commendation Letter and Disc to Mr Dharam Chand, Assistant Commandant (now Deputy Commandant), 35th Bn, and Constable (now Lance Naik) Toophan Singh, 20th Bn, for their meritorious service.

While the former had captured two militants in Assam the latter had saved the life of his company commander during counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir last year.

Mrs Kashu Devi, widow of driver Kalu Ram of 4th Bn, was presented a cheque for Rs 5.5 lakh as an ex-gratia payment after her husband died in an encounter with ULFA terrorists in Golpara district in Assam in October,1997.

SNIPPETS

College session inaugurated
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — Bharaitya Vidya Bhavan's Dayanand College of Communication and Management inaugurated its 15th session today, for the year 1999-2000.

The inauguration function was presided over by Mr R.S. Mann, Chief Secretary of Punjab.

Speaking on the occasion, the Principal of the college, Col D.S. Cheema (retd), stressed the need for students to convert the knowledge they acquire in colleges into wisdom.

Col Cheema also said that focus today needed to be on the character of a person.

Mr Mann also spoke on the occasion and congratulated students on being admitted to a prestigious institution.

Mr R.K. Saboo, noted industrialist, President of the Rotary International and Chairman of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chandigarh Kendra, welcomed the chief guest.

A vote of thanks was presented by Mr Chandra Mohan, Vice-Chairman of the Kendra.

19 students honoured
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, Aug 16 — The welfare association of Sector 12-A celebrated Independence Day by honouring meritorious students of the sector. Nineteen students of Class X and those with 80 per cent and above marks at the plus-two level were given gifts and mementoes.

A cultural programme was also organised on the occasion. Dr Sardar Anjum was the chief guest at the function. In his address, he encouraged students to achieve greater academic excellence and become patriotic citizens with positive thinking.

Names of the honoured students are as follows: Class XII — Geetika Nijhawan, Shilpa, Deepti Gupta, Rohit Singla, Kamal Aggarwal and Deepshikha. Class X — Vivek Gupta, Shweta Jambh, Deepti Uppal, Ashish Attri, Piyush Garg, Neha Jain, Sonia Sahni, Chhavi Jindal, Shiwani Mehta, Mahesh Jyoti, Rishab Kapila, Inderpal Chadha and Nitin Gupta.

Security set-up reviewed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — A meeting of senior officers of the Administration was held to review the security set-up during polling for the lone Chandigarh parliamentary seat here today.

The meeting was presided over by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr M Ramshekhar, and attended by Mr C. S. R Reddy, SSP, Mr Baldev Singh, SP, and Mr Ashish Kundra, Joint Chief Electoral Officer.

The discussions were held on the steps to be taken to ensure that the staff on election duty could exercise their franchise without any problems. The SSP said that security had been augmented with the arrival of four companies of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

Chautala's move hailed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — A special congregation held at the Sector 8 gurdwara Patshahi 10 today unanimously hailed the decision of the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, in naming Kurukshetra University as Sri Guru Gobind Singh University to mark the tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa.

Major rift brewing in Congress
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — A major rift in the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee (CTCC) is in the offing as a large number of office-bearers and activists owing allegiance to its former chief, Mr Venod Sharma, have threatened to resign from the party and put up their own candidate in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. They are protesting against the grant of party ticket to Mr Pawan Bansal.

The rebels are headed by Mr Gurbachan Singh, a General Secretary of the CTCC, who after resigning from the party tomorrow, is expected to file his nomination papers for the lone Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat on August 18 as a candidate of the Nationalist Congress Party, headed by Mr Sharad Pawar.

The resignation of Mr Gurbachan Singh along with 18 Block Presidents and some other senior party leaders and workers would be a major setback to the official Congress nominee, Mr Pawan Bansal.

Sources close to Mr Gurbachan Singh held that the party leadership had failed to honour its own resolutions and given the ticket to a candidate who had lost two consecutive elections from here.

Mr Gurbachan Singh, the sources said, had been campaigning in colonies and villages, which are his stronghold, for the past few days. Several other senior party workers opposed to Mr Pawan Bansal are expected to leave the party along with Mr Gurbachan Singh tomorrow.

Sharma spells out priorities
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — Mr Krishan lal Sharma, Senior Vice-President, Bharatiya Janata Party, and a candidate for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, said here today that he would work for restoration of the post of Chief Commissioner of Chandigarh.

Mr Sharma, who interacted with some newsmen, admitted that some of the problems facing the city were because the local administration was not responsive to the aspirations and expectations of the people. There was no proper system to monitor the spending of huge grants sanctioned by the Union Government to various union territories.

Talking about the chances of the National Democratic Alliance in the ensuing elections, he said that it would win a minimum of 300 seats, including more than 200 by the BJP alone.

The BJP, he said, never wanted Kargil to be made an election issue. But it was the Congress which was forcing it to do so.

He reiterated that in the present day political scenario,, coalition governments had come to stay. A purse of Rs 11,000 was presented at a meeting held at Darua village where workers of both the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal were present.

Last evening he addressed a meeting of the faculty of Panjab University where he said that he was aware of the problems of the city and its residents.

Meanwhile, the Khalsa Conference has decided to field Mr Gurnam Singh Sidhu as its candidate for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat. Mr Sidhu said that he would work for the merger of Chandigarh with Punjab.

Sikhs discuss helmet stir tomorrow
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 16 — The Sikh Nari Manch and other Sikh organisations have decided to hold a meeting at the Sector 22 gurdwara on August 18 at 3 p.m. to decide the line of action on the helmet agitation, Mrs Harjinder Kaur, President of the manch, announced today.

She said that the meeting had been convened to consider the appeal made by Giani Kirpal Singh, Jathedar of Takht Shri Damdama Sahib, and Mata Joginder Kaur, to suspend the ongoing agitation in the wake of the whole-hearted support by the SGPC chief, Bibi Jagir Kaur.

She further said that the Sikh bodies had shown their faith and gratitude to Bibi Jagir Kaur when she came all the way to the Sector 19 gurdwara and took the responsibility of handling the anti-helmet agitation in the Supreme Court to take it to logical conclusions so as to restore the religious sanctity of the Sikhs.