Living alone with hero's memory
By Sonoo Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 10 — While in the wake of the Kargil crisis, the nation is expressing its solidarity for its heroes and its martyrs, there are many martyrs of yesteryear whose families are left to remember their gallant sons, husband and brothers all by themselves.

One such forgotten family of the city is that of the Sandhus, that lost its only son, Lt Rajeev Sandhu, 11 years ago during action in Sri Lanka. The late Lieutenant Sandhu of 9 Assam Regiment which was part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was martyred on July 19, 1988, during action in Sri Lanka, at the young age of 21-and-a-half years. His father, Sqn Ldr Devinder Singh Sandhu (retd), and mother, Mrs Jai Kanta, former IPS officer, Punjab, both of whom donated their son's ex gratia money etc to the regiment, now live with the memories of their young son.

But the old couple, which has willed its entire property in the name of the Assam Regiment, swears by the regiment, which according to them, was the only one to keep alive the memory of their son.

Lieutenant Sandhu, who was commissioned on March 5, 1987, and sent to Sri Lanka the same year, was also the youngest officer to be ordained with the Mahavir Chakra (MVC). "After he was honoured with the MVC, nobody ever came to ask us as to how we were doing. Because we were financially sound we managed to pull through, but there was nobody to support us emotionally", said Sqn Ldr Sandhu, who was not even initially willing to spell out his rank in the Air Force, since he said that it was his son that he wanted to talk about. In fact, he was not even willing to talk about his wife, who had resigned after her last posting as SP, crime against women. Mrs Jai Kanta is also apparently the only SP of the Punjab cadre to get the President's Police medal for meritorious service.

The life of Lieutenant Sandhu's parents seems to revolve around their son's memories. In their house in Sector 45, the Sandhus have designed a kind of museum that houses everything that once belonged to their son. A product of St John's School, Sector 26, and DAV College, Sector 10, Lieutenant Sandhu was a keen sportsman. He was a junior national skating champion for seven years.

"The museum not only has his medals, uniform and photographs, but also his trophies and other memorabilia, which have been placed with the holy books of the world. My son's room has Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy Quran, the Gita and the Bible", informed a proud father.

Sqn Ldr Sandhu also informed that since his son was the highest decorated soldier of the 57th Mountain Division, an auditorium at Silichar, in Tripura, had been named after him. It was with a lump in his throat that he added, "The first time somebody ever remembered us here was when during the Gurdas Mann nite held recently, we were honoured. In my son's regimental centre at Shillong, a gymnasium and a park have been named after him".

Commenting on the Kargil issue, an emotional father said, "The kind of attention that a soldier and his family is getting today is commendable, but then tomorrow they should not be forgotten".

The family which marked Lieutenant Sandhu's martyrdom day every year with a visit to his regiment, was for the first time this year invited for his 11th martyrdom anniversary here in Chandi Mandir itself, since the Assam Regiment was in this peace sector. But now with the regiment shifting its base to the valley, the Sandhu family will pay its homages to their brave son in the Sector 34 Gurudwara on July 19.

Petrol price hike opposed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 10 — The hike in the prices of petrol and diesel due the imposition of a 5.5 per cent increase in the sales tax on petroleum products in Chandigarh was strongly opposed by the petroleum dealers, political parties and associations of industries and traders today.

The Chandigarh Administration has imposed a 5.5 per cent sales tax, thus bringing the rates of petrol and diesel in the city at par with those prevailing in Panchkula and SAS Nagar. In the case of diesel the rates are even more than those in SAS Nagar

The Chandigarh Petroleum Dealers Association said that the sales tax was neither in the interest of the citizens nor the petroleum trade. Chandigarh residents would be paying Re 1 a litre more on petrol and the only beneficiary would be the petroleum dealers of Panchkula and SAS Nagar.

The association alleged that by imposing 5.5 per cent hike in the sales tax, the Chandigarh Administration had shown that it was more in tune with businessmen of neighbouring states than with the residents of Chandigarh.

The association claimed that it was not consulted before the imposition of the hike.

A joint statement issued by the BJP President, Mr Dharampal Gupta, and a former MP, Mr Satya Pal Jain, said that the Administrator of Chandigarh had failed to protect the interests of the citizens. They claimed that they wrote a letter to the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, asking him to urge the Administration to withdraw the hike.

Mr Pawan Bansal, a former MP of the Congress, said that the levy would burden the people, ''What is particularly disappointing is that this step has been taken in response to a demand of the businessmen of Punjab and Haryana.'' In these two states the respective governments had hiked the rate of tax two years ago to make good their loss of revenue due to certain political decisions like free power supply to farmers.

Mr Bansal, while demanding the withdrawal of the levy, added that it was beyond reason that the Administration should increase tax unreasonably at the cost of its own people.

Among others to criticised the move were Mr Sandeep Singh and Mr Subhash Chawla, General Secretaries of the Congress. Mr Chawla claimed that a similar proposal to hike taxes was scuttled four years ago by Mr Pawan Bansal.

The Chandigarh Youth Congress alleged that the officers in Chandigarh were on deputation from Punjab or Haryana and they never bother to safeguard the interest of Chandigarh residents.

The President of the Federation of Small Scale Industries, Mr Yash Pal Mahajan, while expressing shock at the anti-industry attitude of the Administration, said that the hike would hit the local industry that was already passing through a period of recession. He demanded immediate withdrawal of the hike.

The President of the local unit of the Samajwadi Janata Party, Mr Devinder Singh Babla, demanded a CBI inquiry into the hike, alleging that this was the handiwork of certain Punjab officials in connivance with Punjab petroleum dealers.

The Traders Association of Sector 17-A and 17-B, the Chandigarh Pradesh Samata Party, the Samajwadi Party and the NSUI also criticised the move. The NSUI demanded that the student community be given a fixed quota of petrol at subsidised rates.

Akademis to move in Sec 34 library
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 10 — It was in 1995 that an apex body of the Chandigarh Arts Council for the promotion of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Lalit Kala Akademi and the Sahitya Akademi was set up. But the three akademis, which function as independent bodies and receive financial assistance of Rs 1.2 lakh from the council, have been functioning without an office all these years.

Though the same year, a set of rooms for the akademis was allotted in the Sector 34 Central State Library, they were not taken up by any of these akademis. Efforts to furnish the rooms also started the same year but since reportedly the chairpersons of the akademis preferred to work from their own respective offices or premises, work at the building apparently came to a standstill.

And though, as per sources, a grant of Rs 50,000 was asked to be released for setting up the offices in 1996, since there was little interest from the akademis not much headway has been made in this respect. Even today, the rooms for the akademis need to be furnished and electricity to be provided.

Said Mr Prem Singh, a reputed artist of the region and Principal of the Government College of Arts, Sector 10, "One wing in the Sector 34 library building has been built to house the Chandigarh akademis, but since chairpersons have always felt it convenient to work from either the Department of Fine Arts or even the College of Architecture, there has not been much interest in occupying that building. But if the rooms in the Sector 34 building are ready by now, then I do not see why the akademis cannot shift there."

The three new chairmen of the city akademis have all shown interest in functioning from the new building.

Theatre person Neelam Mann Singh and former Chairperson of the Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi, said: "The offices, whose keys were handed over to us did not have electricity or telephones, so it was easier for me to function from my residence."

The Chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi, Chandigarh, Mr Shiv Singh, while expressing his desire to shift said, "when the new akademis were set up recently, we were all taken to see the building in Sector 34 where our offices would be set up. After our councils are formed, we will move into this office."

Though the akademis are willing to make use of the office space, surprisingly none are asking for any office staff or additional facilities, besides the meagre amount of Rs 1.2 lakh available with each of the akademis for the year. "Why not?", asked a senior artist of the city who also added, "Simply because this relates to art and culture? By not asking for facilities, the akademis are in fact not acting responsible enough. The status of the akademis would also rise once the city also gets to see that these function in a professional manner".

In fact, the Punjab Arts Council in the city does not only have office space at its disposal but also is given facilities like office peons, telephones and TA/DA. "Why do we need office staff, besides maybe a chowkidar?", queried Mr G.S. Chani, Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

His akademi contends that the annual grant-in-aid is meagre and plans to generate it own resources, including asking for funds from the North Zone Cultrual Centre (NZCC), Patiala.

Mrs Mann added, "The post of the Chairperson is an honorary one, but when one is organising an event on a large scale, it is some times painful to beg for things like conveyance to pick up the artistes. When I was organising one such event, not only was I using my own home, but also my telephones, my fax, my car, everything".

Cyber cafes getting popular
By A Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, July 10 — The times are changing and so are the means of communication. Internet, the modern and one of the cheapest ways to communicate, not only helps one to remain in touch with old friends but also helps to form new ones. It guides you in almost anything on this land. It gets you admissions in the institutions of your choice , fills forms for you and also helps you in finding a job.

Nowadays so many things are on the net , and cyber cafes are coming up to keep these connected. This concept has come from the West. It helps in using the Internet whenever one needs information or just pass time by either chatting with strangers or long-time friends. It reveals nothing about you — your identity, your personality, except that you are smart enough to use the Internet .

Mr SS Grewal , a local cyber cafe owner , who started the trend of cyber cafes in the city, in October 1998, says that more and more people are looking up to this media as it is helpful in covering vast grounds of knowledge, which is not possible with others mediums . His clients include young college students, school goers, housewives and working people from different spheres of life.

They come in for E-mails, looking for admissions, jobs and at times simply to surf. The clientele, has increased from 15-20 a day in the beginning to 50 -60 a day now.

Mr Siddharth, who is working with another cyber cafe in the city, says he has a clientele of 25-30 persons a day, which includes people of age 12 and above.

Mr Ankur Sood goes to cyber cafes to check E-mails and finds it quite interesting to use these cafes even for collecting general information.

Mr Anuj Singla and his friend Mr Ashwini Sharma had been to the cyber cafe once and that too to check their law results and feel they will have to go there quite often to give any comments on it.

Ms Megha, a medical student, finds it good that a new thing has come up in the city and is of the view that these cafes should increase their timings to late nights too.

Mr Chetan Grewal , a usual visitor to cyber cafes for seven-eight months now, feels these are good but expensive. He likes to surf on the net and finds it quite informative.

Ms Sumati ,who has very recently shifted to the city, finds it a better way of communicating with her friends abroad as compared to letters.

Keerat, an 11-year-old, goes to cyber cafes to gather inormation about the World Wrestling Federation(WWF) and Navdeep, Keerat’s elder brother, visits these to chat on the net but finds it costly to pay a regular visit.

Ms Diamond, a student , finds it a good way togather information about different courses offered by universities around the globe and finds it a very reasonable means of communication.

Special grant for animal welfare bodies
By Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 10 — To encourage different animal welfare organisations (AWOs) in the country to make use of non-conventional energy resources and to enable them to be self-reliant in the field of energy by using cowdung and urine, the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) has decided to extend a special financial grant to all such organisations.

The board, by chalking out a special programme of grant, is planning to make the non-conventional sources of energy such as cowdung and urine popular among animal organisations for the preparation of fertilisers, pesticides, medicines, biogas and even electricity so that these could at least attain self-reliance in their local needs of power and cooking gas, as was being done by a number of such organisations in Gujarat and Maharashtra, which like their counterparts in the northern part of the country have a large number of animals with them.

According to sources in the board, the board has taken a decision to give a special assistance to the tune of Rs 1 lakh to any such organisation which decides to undertake the programme chalked out by the former. The only condition slapped by the board for this purpose is that the organisation desirous of getting money should be registered with the board.

In a letter circulated among members of the board, Mrs Saraswathy Ramaraj, the Secretary of the board, said the grant could be extended to any such organisation in four equal instalments of Rs 25000, which after adopting the programme, could conduct a camp for imparting training for cowdung and urine utilisation. During the 15-day camp to be organised by an AWO, a minimum of 15 persons should be trained, the letter said.

To implement the programme effectively and to create awareness among people running animal organisations as how to apply for the grant, the board has directed its members to do the same and to identify the AWOs who were eligible for availing the grant from the board.

At present, there are about 450 animal welfare organisations in the country which are registered with the board. The members, hailing from different parts of the country, have also been asked to carry out a formal inspection of such organisations and to certify whether the non-conventional energy utilisation programme was being carried out by the respective organisations falling in their area or not and if yes whether 75 per cent of the available cowdung or urine was being used by it for the purpose.

The board has asked the members to carry out such inspections before July 17, the date fixed for next meeting of the executive committee of the board at Chennai. During the inspection, the members will have to take into consideration the average number of cattle at the shed during the past one year, the approximate quantity of fertilizer, pesticides, medicines, biogas or electricity produced during the current financial year.

According to Mr Jasbir Ralhan, Executive Member of the board and president of the local unit of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty against Animals (SPCA), the programme has been envisaged by the board taking into view the availability of cowdung and urine in large quantity due to the presence of large number of animals. But in the absence of any programme to utilise cowdung and urine, such products were being wasted. On the other hand the effective implementation of such programmes, not the wastage could be stopped, but huge cost incurred on electricity, fertilisers and medicines could be saved, which will go far in the way of making such organisations self reliant, he added. “Such utilisation programmes were already underway Gujarat and Maharashtra, where almost all animal welfare organisations have adopted the method and were making its use in an effective manner,” he added.

He further said that the local unit of the SPCA, which at present had about 50 animals at its Daddu Majra rehabilitation centre would be the first in the northern region to adopt the scheme. “The only but temporary obstacle is that we don’t have sufficient land and our case for grant of 4 kanals of land adjoining the centre is pending with the administration and once that is cleared the first thing we will do is to start utilisation of cowdung for making biogas at the centre”.

Music runs in Mika's blood
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, July 10 — "I am good at one thing, and that is singing, because music is in my blood. So let me do it." This is from a brash-looking 24-year-old Mika Singh who shot into fame after his video 'Sawan Mein lag Gayi Aag', sung in an earthy nasal tone, hit our television screens.

Mika, younger brother of Daler Mehndi, and the youngest of the six brothers of a music family, was in the city today in connection with his concerts to be held in six cities of North India in aid of soldiers fighting at Kargil.

In an exclusive interview to the TNS, he said that his rise to fame had nothing to do with the fact that he was Daler Mehndi's brother. "My talent has brought me where I am today. It was only after six months of the release of my album that people came to know that I was younger brother of Daler Mehndi. I am very proud to be his brother, but so is he. Who wouldn't be, after having such a handsome man and a good singer as his brother?" said a gold-chain-laden Mika, speaking like a true youngest sibling in a family.

Besides Daler Mehndi, Mika also gives credit to his father Ajmer Singh Chandan, a classical musician and a 'raagi', and his mother who had a vast knowledge of folk music. "All my compositions are based on classical ragas, so obviously, my music will be appreciated. I write my own lyrics, compose my own music and sometimes even play while singing. So, I am here to stay," he added.

He is someone who can sing anything from classical to reggae, rap, or even rock. So one is not surprised when he announces that he will not just like to be known only as a Punjabi singer, but as a "Punjabi lad, who can sing anything". In his second album, Mika also plans to include an English number, composed by him. "I think a good singer is the one who can sing any song," he added.

For many years, Mika perceived himself as a musician who played not only the guitar or the tabla, but also the harmonium and the keyboard. He said, "Lyrics these days are not so as important as good music. Evidences of this are the immensely popular numbers, 'Macarena' and Ricky Martin's music, which nobody can understand."

When asked about his intriguing style of singing, which is accompanied by not only a deep nasal voice but also his gypsy locks, he said, "My style is my very own, and that is how I am. I am fond of fast cars, Michael Jackson and R.D. Burman."

Along with Mika, another celebrity who was in the city today, was model Mehar Bhasin, who is the counterpart of Cindy Crawford as the Revlon Super Model. "I cannot see myself running around trees or doing other inane stuff, so movies is out for me," said Mehar, when asked about whether she would join movies after her successful stint in the world of modelling.

This MBA graduate has her hopes pinned on her export business as of now, and another project underway is a travel show for television. "There have been a lot of offers from films and television. But acting is out for me. I am only open to offers of shows for television where I am the anchor person," Mehar said.

On the modelling industry, she said, "Contrary to what it looks from outside, this business is not only about looking good. Modelling also means that one needs to know everything about make-up, about keeping fit and sometimes also about technical details like in a particular light, what kind of make-up and clothes would look good on one's body."

No wheat purchase by FCI this year also
By A. S. Prashar
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 10 — High prices which ruled in the open market in the grain mandis of the Union Territory of Chandigarh during the procurement season this year have prevented thelocal district office of the Food Corporation of India from buying even a single grain of wheat.

Although the whole region, comprising the wheat surplus states of Punjab and Haryana, was awash in the golden grain this year because of a bumper harvest, the prices in the grain market continued to rule height. As against the minimum support price of Rs 550 per quintal fixed by the Government of India, the prices in the market here varied between Rs 560 and Rs 575, touching a peak of Rs 676 per quintal.

“This did not call for any intervention on our part,” said Mr J.N. Negi, District Manager, FCI, Chandigarh, in a talk with TNS here today. “ The entire market arrivals were purchased by private traders and the millers based in Chandigarh and the neighbouring town of Panchkula.”

As a matter of fact, the FCI has not been making any wheat purchases in Chandigarh since last year. In 1979, the total market arrival in Chandigarh was 59,508 mt, of which the FCI procured 1748 mt. The rest of the arrivals were procured by private traders including flour millers, chakki owners and individuals. Last year, the market arrivals swelled to 70,967 mt but the FCI did not make any purchases. The entire stock was picked up by the private trade. It was the same story this year when the market arrivals rose even further to 1,91,126 mt but the FCI did not feel called upon to enter the market to make any purchases.

Chandigarh is perhaps the only place in this region otherwise known as “granary of India” which does not produce any foodgrains for its own consumption. This is despite the fact that Chandigarh with a population approaching the 10-lakh mark is a big consuming centre. The geography of the Union Territory of Chandigarh is such that there are no big farmlands in the area.

Chandigarh has half a dozen roller flour mills. Besides, there are about 40 atta chakkis. The city also has a large population of government employees who get loans from the government for the purchase of wheat. Almost the entire market arrivals are thus picked up by the private consumers. This in turn has led to a change in the functioning of the Chandigarh district office of the FCI.

Unlike in Punjab and Haryana where the FCI remains busy organising one of the biggest food procurement, storage and transport operations in this part of the world, its role is more or less supervisory in Chandigarh. “Our officials visit the mandi here every day during the procurement season to ensure that the farmers do not face any difficulty in disposing of his produce,” says Mr Negi.

Since the local office of the FCI does not have large stocks of procured grains, it has to depend on the neighbouring states to meet its requirements. Only recently, it was asked to supply 1000 metric tonnes of wheat to our jawans fighting in the Kargil sector. It secured the grain from Punjab.