Trying hard to get SC certificates
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 8 — Mr Ashok Kumar, a resident of Burail village, is a harassed man. He has been trying hard for the past over one month to get the Scheduled Caste (SC) certificates for two of his children issued from the Estate Office.

Despite fulfilling all conditions, the certificates of his daughter, Babli Rani, and son, Karmjit Singh, had not been issued even after several visits to the branch concerned of the Estate Office, Mr Ashok Kumar alleged. He had duly attached various proofs, including stamp paper, his and his father's residential addresses and ration card with the form.

Every time he visited the branch concerned, he was told to get the form attested again, though it had already been attested by Mr Satpal Gupta, a former sarpanch and Chairman of the Chandigarh Panchayat Parishad. Even attaching a statement of the bank account of his father, Mr Bhakhtawar, dating back to 1961, did not help.

Mr Ashok Kumar wondered why the SC certificates, which were needed by the children to avail themselves of various benefits like scholarships etc, were being delayed, even when they had been issued to him and his two sons.

The case of Mr Jai Pal and his son, Om Parkash, was no different. Though they had completed all formalities and attached the SC certificate of Mr Jai Pal's mother, Mrs Bunti, with the form, they were yet to get the certificates.

Mr Jai Pal alleged that the branch concerned had even raised objections on the discharge certificate of his father, Mr Fatta Ram, a war-medal winner, which was issued in 1943. If the discharge certificate coupled with the attestation were not enough as the proof of the residence then what else could be a proof, he asked,

Meanwhile, Mr Satpal Gupta, while demanding shifting the official concerned of the Estate Office somewhere else, urged the Chandigarh Administration to post an SC employee in his place. Such an employee would be in a better position to understand the problems being faced by the SC community, he added.

Cutting cost of house building
By Mukul Bansal
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 8 — The cost of building a house can be brought down by 30 to 40 per cent if the claims of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) are to be accepted. This can be achieved by using the low-cost material and other technologies, perfected and tested by HUDCO.

Now HUDCO has broken new ground by entering the market with its scheme to fund house building activities by individuals. So far, it had limited its operation to financing institutional housing. In the past 28 years since its inception, HUDCO has made its contribution to the construction of about 80 lakh dwelling units through the public, private, joint, cooperative, corporate and community sectors.

HUDCO’s home loan scheme for individuals known as HUDCO Niwas is designed to provide loans to all segments of individuals for the construction, purchase, improvement or upgradation of houses or flats. It offers loans ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 15 lakh at 11.5 per cent to 15.5 per cent interest, which is below the existing market slabs, especially in the low value loans segment. Thirty per cent of the funding is for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and 25 per cent for the Low Income Group (LIG). LIG loans carry an interest of 12 per cent to 13 per cent depending on the repayment period, and EWS loans are available at 9 per cent interest.

The individual builder will have reason to be more enthused about the cost-cutting proven technology than the funding scheme for which he can also go to other financial institutions. The HUDCO technologies have been incorporated in the specifications and the schedule of rates of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD).

Mr V. Suresh, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of HUDCO, lists promotion of cost-effective building material and technology as one of its objectives for the next century. It will use its country-wide network of 557 building centres to promote house-building activity. It plans to set up one model building centre in each state to develop and disseminate appropriate building material and technologies suitable to that area. HUDCO’s low-cost technology becomes more relevant when viewed in the light of the rising cost of construction which is increasing at a rate 50 per cent above the rate of inflation. Moreover, the dwindling natural resources used in house-building also necessitate the use of alternative material, Mr Suresh points out.

The cost-effective innovations devised by HUDCO include brick arch foundation, pre-cast concrete blocks, fly ash based light weight aerated concrete walling and roofing blocks, pyramidal brick roof, precast brick panels, precast RCC door and window frames, PVC doors, window frames, shutters and partition panels and several other sustainable technologies.

The Government has also come forward with incentives. It has given 100 per cent exemption from excise duty to wood-free particle boards and fibre boards made from agro-based material. Blocks and bricks containing more than 25 per cent fly ash and ready mix concrete have also been exempted from excise duty.

There have been doubts whether the authorities concerned will approve building plans based on HUDCO’s low-cost technology. According to Mr P. S. Khurana, Regional Chief of HUDCO, Chandigarh, when the authorities approve a building plan, they ask for a structural stability certificate from the engineers concerned. The structure should be safe. That is what they are concerned with. As long as the structure is safe, the approving authorities should not have any problem.

A 10 by 8 ft room with a toilet and a small pantry would cost about Rs 30,000 with the new material whereas with the conventional material it would require not less than Rs 50,000.

Yet HUDCO does not insist on the use of its cost-effective and environment-friendly building material and technology by those who obtain loans from HUDCO. Mr Khurana says, “We do not insist on the use of our technology. But we provide free counselling on the selection of cost-effective and environment -friendly building material and technology only if an individual asks for it.”

But HUDCO Niwas has some features that distinguish it from other individual housing loan schemes. Interest on loans will be calculated on monthly rest basis by reducing the principal every month against the annual rest method adopted by other institutions in which the principal is reduced at the end of the year. The last two instalments will be waived for those who repay all the instalments on schedule. In addition, all borrowers will get personal accident insurance to cover the loan amount, and an insurance for the property in the event of fire or natural calamities, equivalent to twice the loan amount or the cost of the house or flat, whichever is less.

Private contractors or architects generally show lack of interest in HUDCO’s technology. There also have been suggestions that HUDCO should have its panel of architects and contractors willing to take up assignments. According to Mr Khurana, this facility is available through HUDCO’s building centres. As far as the lack of interest in HUDCO technology among private contractors or architects is concerned, he says, “Whenever you want to achieve cost-efficiency, you have to have an optimum design for which strict supervision is required (on the part of architects, engineers or contractors). The tendency is to leave the job to the lower-level functionaries. Secondly, acceptability (for a new technology) is generally low. One builds a house once in a lifetime. Therefore, people want to play safe by relying on conventional technology. Moreover, the margin of profit (in employing HUDCO technology) may also be low.”

The present housing shortage in the country has been estimated at 33 million units. The government had focussed sharply on a ‘Housing for all’ policy, and launched a ‘Two million national housing programme.’ Under the national housing policy, HUDCO acts as a facilitator.

Villages to get pollution-free water
From Our Correspondent

MANAULI (SAS Nagar), June 8 — Residents of Manauli and other adjoining villages will soon get pollution-free water as the district authorities today said a rural water supply system would be set up.

The drinking water was severely affected with time due to flowing of sewers of Chandigarh and SAS Nagar to more than 12 villages. The project of starting the water supply was pending for the several years as previous tests conducted by the authorities did not give clearance, declaring it unfit for human consumption. this was disclosed by Mr Khushi Ram, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Ropar district.

At the first open hearing of public grievances in the area, villagers complained of their problems. Mr Khushi Ram said the district administration had directed the officers concerned regarding the issues highlighted by the local residents.

a village representative from the area complained of the indifferent attitude of district authorities. A problem highlighted by most of the panchayats was of poor roads.

In one such case, the sarpanch of Saini Majra said despite numerous complaints to the authorities regarding maintenance of village road, nothing had been done so far. The ADC admitted that conditions in the villages were poor after travelling through Manauli-Saneta road to reach the venue. He said the bridge at Mauli-Baidwan village would be completed within four months.

Villagers further complained of delay of old-age pension. The district authorities announced that the backlog would be cleared in the next 10 days. The Additional Deputy Commissioner announced allocation of funds for various development activities.

Complaints relating to personal problems were also heard by Mr B.S. Randhawa, SP, SAS Nagar. The ADC (Development), Ropar, Mr Jagwant Singh, and the SDM, SAS Nagar, Mr O.P. Popli, were also present, besides officers of various state departments.

Where government schools do better
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 8 — A comparative analysis of the top five Government Model Schools and private educational institutions reveal a superior performance by the students of the latter in the All-India Secondary School Examination, the results of which were declared yesterday.

Even as the Government Model Schools in the city have recorded the highest pass percentage of 84.61 this year, none of the model schools have 100 per cent results. Of the total 2,014 students who appeared from the model schools, 1,704 passed. In the case of private schools, 3,310 passed out of the total 4,247 students who appeared for the examination.

In case of Government Model Schools, GMSSS-16, which has secured the top position in the government schools category with 94.05 per cent has nine compartment cases while two students have failed. Of the total 185 students who appeared from the school, 138 secured first division. GMSSS-35, which is second has only 121 first division out of the total 192 students. In contrast, Bhavan Vidyalaya which has 100 per cent result has a total of 108 first divisions, out of the total 113 students who appeared for the examination. Similarly, Carmel Convent has 101 first division, out of the total 105 students. While the average pass percentage in case of the first five schools in the government school category is 92.5, it is 100 per cent in case of the private ones.

However, in terms of students who have more than 90 per cent and above marks, the five government schools score over their private counterparts. The data also shows that since the number of students who appeared from government schools is more, the number of first divisions is also more in their case. While the former have 14 students, the latter has only seven. But they also have a total of 34 compartment and 11 failure cases. The private schools with 100 per cent results have no such case.

Meanwhile, the Government Model Senior Secondary Schools which have shown a marked improvement over last year are GMSSS-10 — from 77.32 to 91.66 per cent— GMSSS-23, from 45.45 to 74.42 , GMHS-29, from 48 to 73.91 per cent, and GMHS-44 from 72.06 to 91.7 per cent. In fact, GMHS-44 has secured the third place in case of model schools in the city this year.

The other private schools which have 90 per cent and above results are Vivek High School, Sacred Heart, St Anne's, Guru Nanak Public School, Tribune Model School, Moti Ram Arya, Shivalik Public School, Ajit Karam Singh International and Maharishi Dayanand Adarsh Vidyalaya.

While scores of government schools have results below 50 per cent, only seven private schools have below 50 per cent results. The government schools in rural areas and colonies have the maximum schools with results below 50 per cent. Interestingly, out of the 10 government high schools in rural areas and colonies, only GHS-Sarangpur has a pass percentage of 66.6 .The rest all are below 50 per cent. The Sarangpur schools has improved its pass per cent from 4.76 to 66.6. All the three senior secondary schools in Dhanas, Sector 38 (West) and Karsan have below 30 per cent results .

In sharp contrast, all model schools have above 60 per cent results. The pass percentages of some model schools are comparable to the failure percentages of the ordinary schools.

The few schools, which were adopted by the Administration for improvement in results have shown an improvement of 7 per cent in their results this year, thanks to the extra efforts put in by the teachers and the concerned authorities.

The poor performance of ordinary government schools, both in urban and rural areas, can be attributed to the poor base of students in subjects like English and maths and lack of help at home in case of illiterate parents.

Rare heart surgery in private hospital
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 8 — For the first time a hospital in the private sector in Chandigarh has performed a surgery to close a hole in the heart of a four-year-old girl. The hospital in Sector 34, which started carrying out heart surgeries about six months ago, has now become the first hospital to carry out such a surgery in the private sector in Chandigarh.

The girl’s condition is commonly described as the “blue baby “ syndrome as such children turn blue due to impurities in the blood. The girl, Shalini, hailing from Bijnore in Uttar Pradesh, was operated upon on June 4 by a team of doctors led by Dr Virender Sarwal.

The girls’s father runs a small business and he came to Chandigarh on the advice of his relative. He had his daughter examined at a camp organised by Dr R.P. Singh of the Care Health Society. The girl used to turn blue as the impure blood mixed with the pure blood, Dr Sarwal said.

The symptoms were that she used to become breathless since birth, the doctor added. “When she was referred by the society at a camp, an echocardiography test revealed that she had a hole in her heart.

The condition is called “ventricular septal defect” in scientific terms, “Dr Sarwal said. It was decided to farry out surgery to correct the defect.

Even the artery supplying blood to the lungs had narrowed down from the usual 12 mm in diameter to 7 mm. During the surgery the artery was widened and the hole in the heart was closed with an artificial synthetic patch called a “goretex”. Slowly the “endothelium”, a covering of the heart will grow back over the patch.

The doctor said under normal circumstances the oxygen saturation level in the lungs should be 100 per cent. In her pre-operation days the level was just 65 per cent. It was 99 per cent after the operation and would soon be normal.

Initially she will be put on drugs to prevent clotting. The treatment cost the girl’s family around Rs 1.25 lakh.

The hospital is already on the list of recommended hospitals for cardiac treatment for Punjab Government employees.