Sunday, September 12, 1999
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N E W S Sunday, September 12, 1999 |
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weather spotlighttoday's calendar |
Water
tariff hike likely in winter CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — A huge gap between expenditure and receipts notwithstanding, the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) has been ducking the issue of the revision of water tariff for the past over three years. The issue of water tariff revision, which had gained importance following the advice of the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, to the civic body to revise water rates before the case of the revised plan for the fourth phase of the water augmentation scheme at Kajauli was considered, had been taken up only half-heartedly by the corporation. This, coupled with the letter from the Chandigarh Administration to the Mayor, Mr Kewal Krishan Addiwal, recently urging the corporation to raise resources through taxes, had brought to focus the revision in the water tariff. According to corporation sources, the issue had been taken up at the Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) at least twice at the instance of officials. Since it was an unpopular decision with wider political dimensions, the ruling BJP-SAD alliance was fighting shy of bringing it to the House. The sources informed that the water tariff revision, which was last effected in 1994, was inevitable since the civic body had a huge deficit on the operation and maintenance cost and the receipts. On the other hand, the power tariff had been revised thrice since then, the sources added. Currently, the major part of the water needs of the city was being met from pumping water from Kajauli village in Ropar district. About 60 million gallons per day (MGD) of water was being pumped to the city against gravity from the Bhakra Main Canal, about 27 km from Sector 39, involving a huge operation and maintenance cost. The sources conceded that the MCC had no option but to revise the water tariff and impose other taxes as the Budget deficit was increasing in the absence of the imposition of new taxes. As the elections were over and the water position has improved, the MCC was likely to effect the revision this winter. The revision in the
water tariff was also likely to cut down the wastage
since there was a tendency among the residents to waste
the precious commodity as it was cheaply available, said
the sources, adding that winter might be the ideal period
for revision of rates since at that time there was not
any shortage of water.
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Another
jawan lays down life CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — After Havaldar Bikram Singh of 8 Sikh, who laid down his life during the capture Tiger Hill in the Kargil conflict, it was the turn of his cousin to bring glory to the sleepy village of Kubaheri, 20 km from here. The mortal remains of Sepoy Sukhpreet Singh of 5 Sikh were today consigned to the flames with full state and military honours at his native village. He is the 13th gallant soldier of Ropar district to have laid down is life for the motherland. The brave 21-year-old jawan made the supreme sacrifice while foiling an infiltration bid in the Chhamb sector of Jammu on September 9. As many as three infiltrators were killed by his party and a large quantity of ammunition, three AK 47s and 10 kg of RDX recovered from them. Havaldar Bikram Singh, 8 Sikh, was killed during the capture of Tiger Hill on July 6 in Operation Vijay. Hundreds of people from nearby areas assembled at his house to pay their last respects to the gallant soldier. Many had been waiting since morning and slogans of "Shaheed Sukhpreet Singh Amar rahe", "Pakistan Murdabad" and "ISI Murdabad" rent the air as the body was brought to his house in the afternoon. A large number of civil and military officers, besides functionaries from the district and local administration were present on the occasion. Many people could be seen sobbing at the loss of young lives in the low intensity war in Jammu and Kashmir. "How many body bags would arrive to their grieving parents and relatives before a solution to the problem is found ?" remarked an elderly person standing near the house of the deceased. While trying to come to terms with the tragedy, two deaths in the same family in a span of one-and-a-half months, villagers were proud that one of their sons had fallen while protecting the borders of the motherland. Women were consoling the aged mother and two younger sisters of the deceased. The father and a younger brother were also inconsolable. The body was taken to the cremation ground in a procession followed by the villagers. At the cremation ground, an Army contingent reversed arms and fired a volley of shots. The buglers sounded the last post and the pyre was lit by Gurinderjeet Singh, 14-year-old brother of the deceased. The Deputy Commissioner, Ropar, Mr Kulbir Singh Sidhu, while consoling the father of the deceased, said the state government would provide assistance to the aggrieved family on the pattern of Kargil heroes. Wreaths were laid on behalf of the Chief of the Army Staff by Brig T.S. Thakur, the Western Army Commander by Col Surjit Singh, the DC, the local MLA, Mr Ravi Inder Singh, Mr G. S. Bhullar, SSP, Ropar, the Deputy Director, Sainik Welfare, Maj Pishora Singh, a former minister, Mr J.S. Kang, and the SDM, Kharar, Mr A.S. Dhindsa. Wreaths were also laid
by Col Pratap Datta, CO, 322 AD Regiment, on behalf of
his unit, besides other public figures and villagers. |
Overbridge
to be built at Bhankharpur DERA BASSI, Sept 11 — a railway overbridge on the Ambala-Kalka National Highway-22 at railway crossing in Bhankharpur is proposed to be built in two years. The project aims to relieve traffic congestion on this section of the road. The project will be undertaken under the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) scheme which is the first work of its kind in Punjab. The agreement to construct a railway overbridge was signed by the Government of India,Government of Punjab and RS Builders, a Ludhiana-based group, in Delhi on Wednesday.The bridge will be constructed over the railway crossing on the highway at Bhankharpur on BOT because of the paucity of funds with the government. It will come up within a period of two years and its concession period is of seven years, five months and 25 days. The Ministry of Surface Transport (MOST) has approved the construction work to RS Builders.The construction work on the bypass road will start on coming Monday. According to sources, the overbridge about 2 km long, will come up at a cost of Rs 35.73 crore."It will be of 49.6 m with approaches of 1.5 km on both sides of it having two lanes of carriage way 7.5 m each with a provision of 1.2 m central verge. The service lane will be provided on both sides to facilitate the local users". The drawing and design of the ROB, submitted by the entrepreneur,would be finalised by the Punjab Public Works Department and the railway department,after proper checking. According to Mr Mohinder Singh, Secretary, Punjab Public Works Department, in BOT system, the entrepreneur will finance this project as a whole and will charge toll tax on the road users to recover the cost of the railway overbridge. This is the first ever project in the state approved by the Government of India to build ROB as per BOT system on the National Highway near Dera Bassi. The department had also received a sum of Rs 75 lakh as performance security from the builders. The Punjab government have also considered five more projects to construct such bridges at Ropar, Kurali, Morinda and High Level bridges on Sutlej and Beas rivers at Machhiwara and Mukerian roads, said Mr Mohinder Singh. Earlier,the construction of the bridge was allotted to the Transport Corporation of India Infrastructure Ltd., a Jaipur- based company which could not continue the work and the department had to forfeit Rs 25 lakh deposited as bank guarantee. The department then invited a bid for the construction in December, 1998,and finally the construction work was allotted at lowest cost to the RS Builders on June 16 this year. Mr K. S. Bhinder,
Subdivisional Officer, PWD, said during the construction,
a proper diversion would be provided via Dera
Bassi-Mubarikpur and Mubarikpur to Bhankharpur to ease
the traffic. The existing road, Dera Bassi to Mubarikpur
and Mubarikpur to Bhankharpur would first be brought to
MOST standards before start of the project.
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Poll
boycotted to vent ire MASOL (Ropar), Sept 11 — It is hard to imagine the medieval-like conditions in which inhabitants of this remote and inaccessible village are being forced to live with. The "battle" for womenfolk of the village to fetch water for daily chores starts at 4 a.m everyday as they have to tread a long distance to get water. Villagers dread the day when one of their fellows falls ill seriously as the patient has to be carried on a cot to the nearest hospital in Pinjore in Haryana, located at a distance of 12 km from this place. When the seasonal rivulet, passing adjacent to the village swells, they have to wait for the waters to recede. This is not all. There are electrical gadgets in the village, but no power supply to run them. Power supply comes, but occasionally and for short durations. Tired to living a life full of hardships, 55 families — who had the resources — have moved out of the village to other places. At least 100 families still reside in the village. Having become sick of hearing false promises of politicians and state government officials for over several years, this time villagers have made a firm resolve to boycott the elections. On September 5, just eight votes were polled in the village. Rest of the voters — nearly 331 — boycotted the elections. Women of the village supported the decision of their menfolk in abstaining from voting as they are the worst sufferers of lack of development. On hearing the plight of the villagers a Tribune team travelled all the way to this god-damn place. It took three hours of gruelling journey on foot through seasonal rivulet, traversing its way through the Shivalik hills to reach this village, falling under the Kharar subdivision of Ropar district. On entering the village an old man with wrinkled face, Mr Ujagar Singh, who happens to be a panch of the village panchayat, greets us with folded hands. Hearing that we had come from a newspaper to highlight the plight of the villages, he starts narrating the hardships being faced by them. "They (politicians) come only during elections, make promises and then never show their face. Be it the Assembly elections or the Parliamentary elections we are always taken for a ride", laments Mr Kashmira Singh. He says the member of Parliament from the area had assured them of a road to the village from Kiratpur village, falling in Haryana. Another villager, Mr Pakhar Singh (50), says providing a road from Kiratpur, located on the Nalagarh-Pinjore highway, would be easy as compared to providing a road from Nayagoan side in Punjab. He says the village is located at a distance of nearly 10 km from the nearest motorable road in Punjab. There is no source of income for the villagers, who have small land holdings — a maximum of four "bighas" per family. Mr Pakhar Singh an aged resident of the village says: "No one in the village is literate. No one from our village is given a government job. We have been living in miserable conditions for the past several years". Having small land holdings, most of the villagers make ropes from 'babbar' grass or work as daily wage earners in the area to keep their hearths burning. The battle for securing drinking water is utmost on the minds of the villagers, who complain that the drinking water supply line coming from Karor and Tanda, which had snapped four months ago had not been repaired so far. Each year when the seasonal rivulet passing through the village swells the water supply line breaks at different points. The other source of drinking water — now being used by the villagers — is unfit for human consumption, but they are forced to drink it. An SDO had visited the village four years ago to hold discussions with the village panchayat on having a water tank. "We were ready to provide land for the water tank but the official never visited us again," laments Mr Ujagar Singh, panch of the village panchayat. Children of the village have to go to a neighbouring school at Charnia village in Haryana. Though a primary school exists in the village residents prefer to send their wards to neighbouring schools in Haryana as after passing the primary level the students have to go to Nayagoan for higher education, which is 10 km away. Propelled by the
indifference of the authorities, at least 30 families of
the village have moved to other places in the past few
years. |
Punjab
cops replace SSB men SAS NAGAR, Sept 11 — The personnel of the Special Services Bureau (SSB) deputed at collection-cum-counting centre in Shivalik Public School in Phase VI here have been replaced with Punjab police personnel. The SSB personnel were withdrawn due to their requirement somewhere else. According to sources, at least 20 Punjab police personnel headed by an inspector have been given the charge of guarding the four strong rooms where the ballot boxes have been stored. Already, four personnel of the Punjab police — an inspector, a sub-inspector (SI) and two assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) had earlier been put on duty along with the SSB personnel. A staff of around 100
employees, including counting supervisors and counting
officers — would be deputed on counting duty. Four
persons — a counting supervisor and three counting
officers — would be on each of the 15 counting
tables. The other staff to be deployed on duty would be
persons engaged in bringing ballot boxes from strong
rooms to the counting tables and mixing the ballot
papers. |
Engineers'
Day on September 15 CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — The birth anniversary of Sir Visvesvaraya, the only engineer to the awarded the Bharat Ratna, will be celebrated as Engineers' Day on September 15. According a press note,
the major achievements of the engineering wizard included
preparing the flood control and drainage system for
Hyderabad city and suggesting its replanning on modern
lines, execution of the Krishana Raj Sagar reservoir and
introducing major industries in Mysore state like the
iron and steel works at Bhadravati thus providing
employment to thousands of persons. |
Blood cell
labs envisaged CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — A two-day continuous medical education (CME) programme on transfusion medicine, organised by the Department of Blood Transfusion and Immunohaematology, Post-graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), began here today. Specialists in the field of transfusion medicine and blood bank officers of the northern region participated in the CME to discuss transfusion service in the country. Various aspects like AIDS, hepatitis, ways to achieve safe transfusion, promotion of blood programme in the country and transfusion medicine in the 21st century were also covered. Inaugurated by Dr B.K. Sharma, Director, PGI, the CME began with a guest lecture by Dr Zarin Bharucha from Mumbai who said that our country is still in the past as far as transfusion advancements were concerned. She said blood banks had now been changed into blood centres, because the name indicated that these were places where blood was to be deposited and nothing else. "By the end of the 21st century, even the concept of blood centres would change and blood cell processing laboratories would come up", Dr Zarin added. Earlier while talking to TNS, on the issue of AIDS, she said that she did not want to comment on the government directive which said that an HIV positive patient should not be told about the same, but added that with just a single test carried out by most blood banks in the country, even the medical fraternity could not be sure of this fact. "What also needs to be addressed is the issue of how to inform the patient that he is HIV positive. For this, counselling and psychological help would be required," Dr Zarin added. The CME also included a lecture on the recent developments in the management of haemophilia by Dr S. Jain, an overview on thalassaemia by Dr V.P. Choudhary, quality control in blood banking by Dr R.N. Prasad and recent trends in pre-transfusion testing by Dr S.K. Agnihotri. Tomorrow's programme
would include lectures on steps towards achieving safe
blood transfusion, post-transfusion hepatitis and
transfusion transmitted HIV infection. |
Reproductive
health workshop opens PARWANOO Sept 12 — A two-day conference-cum-workshop on ‘‘Enhancing male involvement in reproductive and sexual health’’, organised by the Population Council in collaboration with the Survival for Women and Children (SWACH) Foundation, a non-government organisation (NGO), began here today at Timber Heights. The workshop, aimed at introducing the concept of male involvement in reproductive health and to get acquainted with the state’s activities and the constraints in working with men was attended by officials from the Departments of Health and Family Welfare and various NGOs of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh. The workshop also deliberated on issues of social commitment for family planning, political will for implementing such programmes and the involvement of government health workers and NGOs. The inaugural session, chaired by Dr Joginder Singh, Director Health Services, Chandigarh, and Dr Sarla Malhotra, Head, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, had the NGOs presenting cases of good practices that show positive outcomes when men are involved in reproductive and child health.The workshop was co-ordinated by Dr Meena H Singh, Acting Director, SWACH. The Deepak Charitable Trust and CASP-Plan, both NGOs from New Delhi, discussed their work and said that reproductive health indicators like women's presence at antenatal clinics, care during post-pregnancy improved significantly when women's husbands and other male members of the family were sensitised to and included in the reproductive health programmes. This session was wrapped up by Ms Pooja S Passi, Project Director, Piya Sharma Charitable Trust, Panchkula. At the end of the session, Ms Saraswati Raju, a social worker, identified four areas-- maternal health, breast feeding, family planning and sexually transmitted diseases — needed discuss for enhancing male participation. The participants also
addressed the issues of gender inequalities,
sex-education at school level, the restricted reach of
the NGOs and the government programmes being limited only
to condom use and vasectomy. |
Workshop
for teachers CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — A day-long teachers' re-orientation workshop was organised at Kailash Bahl DAV Centenary Public School,Sector7 B,here,today. Prof A.K.Sawhney,general secretary of the Parent Teacher Association of India, conducted the workshop.While the topic of discussion during the first session was "Functions of the school'', the "Psychology of children'' was discussed in the second session. The focus of discussion during both sessions was on the day-to-day problems of teachers in the class rooms with the slow learners and also the exceptionally bright learners. Prof Sawhney familiarised the teachers with various problems of children—educational,emotional, behavioural,and their possible solutions. The individual problems of a child and collective problem of the whole class were discussed in the interactive session. After each session,Prof
Sawhney answered questions of teachers related to child
psychology, education pattern, child counselling and
co-curricular activities. |
Workshop
on dyslexia held PANCHKULA, Sept 11 — A workshop on dyslexia, a latent handicap subduing a child's performance, was organised at Bhavan Vidyalaya in Sector 15 here today. About sixty teachers of the school attended the workshop. Ms Bharti Kapoor, an educationist, conducted it. The workshop revealed vital statistics of the World Health Organisation, which indicated that 10 to 12 per cent of children suffered from this problem worldwide. The objective of the programme was to inform the teachers about causes which retarded performance of a child despite high intelligence quotient. Ms Sashi Banerjee, principal of the school, said there was need to develop adequate 'resource room' to tackle problems of 'under achievers'. The seminar focused on the need to evolve a cordial environment for understanding and identifying dyslexia for healthy development of children. Many children, mostly
during childhood, are confronted with chronic
psychological errors in reading, writing, spellings and
listening. Some causes of this ailment are family
turbulence, cultural disparities, fear and overload on
children in schools. Surveys conducted by certain
non-government organisations indicate that in Kerala, the
country's most literate state, over 20 per cent of
children suffer from dyslexia. |
MFC-I, II
students a harassed lot CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — Students of MFC Part I and II of the Department of Correspondence Studies in Panjab University are a harassed lot as they have till date not been given a special chance to appear for those papers in which they either had re-appear or fail results in the examination held in April last year. Students said that certain syndics had taken up the issue of giving the MFC Part I and II students a special chance to clear their papers in April 1999. However, it was not considered, as revealed by the minutes of a meeting. When the affected students later met the Vice-Chancellor, Prof M.M. Puri in May, he assured them that he would issue the necessary directions, subject to the approval of the Syndicate. Students, who blame the Controller of Examinations, Dr Sodhi Ram, for his indifferent attitude, have alleged that he has not considered their repeated requests till now. Even after the matter was taken up in the last syndicate meeting on August 30 and also approved, the Controller has once again not issued any instructions for depositing the forms or announcing the examination dates. The Controller, Dr Sodhi
Ram, when contacted, said that he would soon take a
decision on this issue. |
Course
for air hostesses CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — Keeping in view the job prospects in domestic and international airlines, the Institute of Tourism and Future Management Trends (ITFT), Chandigarh, has started a three-month intensive training course for air hostesses, flight stewards and airlines ground and office staff. The course, commenced today with 37 students in its first batch. It will be conducted on weekends at the ITFT premises to provide an opportunity to those who are occupied during the week or are living outside the city. According to Dr Gulshan Sharma, Director of ITFT, teaching will be supplemented with compact discs and computer displays, where the configuration of the aircraft and various duties being undertaken by the airlines staff, including inflight management, will be shown to the trainees. The curriculum also covers basic ticketing for domestic and international airlines. The thrust of the
programme will be to develop personality, communication
skills and customer care and satisfaction. The course
will also cover the global scenario in the airlines
industry, besides basic knowledge of tourism and
hospitality industry. |
DAV
school wins play contest CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — The first Champa Mangatrai memorial inter-school play competition was held here today morning at the Young Women Christian Association (YWCA), Sector 11. The plays presented by various schools were based on literacy among girls and women and imagined scenes from the new millennium, which included robots and computers. The winning entry was that of DAV Higher Secondary School,Sector 8,who put up a skit titled 'Towards the 21st century',depicting man's determination to fight for peace, clean environment,communal harmony and honest governance. The second prize was won by St Stephen's School, Sector 45, and the third prize by Vivek Preparatory School, Sector 9. The panel of judges
included Mrs Leela Chatterjee, an educationist from
Delhi, Mrs Indu Sharma, a theatre and documentary
director and Mrs Poonam Singh, editor, 'Preet Lari'. |
SNIPPETS School computerises operations PANCHKULA, Sept 11 —Hansraj Public School here has fully computerised all its operations,facilitating the students to avail benefits of information technology. The computerisation will help in registration of students,making of report cards,marking attendance, and in accounts and lodging of complaints etc. a private network called 'Intranet' has also been launched. Access to this is provided through dial-up connections.This will help students and parents to access information on daily home work, circulars, newsletters,test results,holiday and exam schedule and notice board displays. Ms Rajni Thareja,principal of the school, said the facility would help students to surf the internet and in on-line discussions and value added messages service. The principal informed that these facilities would help cut costs and increase efficiency of the students. Petrol station gets digital tower CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — A state-of-the-art computerised digital tower for inflating tyres was installed at CITCO petrol station in Sector 9 here yesterday. An electronic weigh bridge was inaugurated at the sales depot in Industrial Area. The Home secretary, Mr N.K. Jain, visited the petrol station and the sales depot. He said the petrol station was among the first 25 retail outlets of M/s Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited in India. MES convention in city CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — The seventh half-yearly convention of the All-India MES Clerical Cadre and Group "D" Employees Association was inaugurated by Maj-Gen I.J.S. Dhillon, Chief Engineer of Western Command, here yesterday. Implementation of the assured career progression in a time-bound manner, creation of posts of administrative officer and record keeper in the GE's office and removal of the grievances on LTO postings at Delhi and Chandigarh areas were the main demands raised by the delegates, according to a press note. Delegation calls on Punjab
Minister CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — A deputation of the Punjab State Cooperative Boards, Corporations Workers\Employees Maha Sangh yesterday called on the Punjab Minister for Defence Services Welfare in connection with the demands of PESCO employees. The delegation brought to the notice of the Minister that the decision to close down the auto workshop at SAS Nagar, which had rendered 40 employees jobless, was unjustified and against the tenets of labour. The Minister assured the delegation that he would work for reactivating the workshop. Vinoba jayanti celebrated CHANDIGARH, Sept 11 — Vinoba jayanti was celebrated at the Gandhi Smarak Bhavan here today. Speaking at the function, the President of the Punjab Khadi Mandal, Mr Uday Chand, termed Vinoba Bhave as a revolutionary who wanted to bring about transformation in the world through his ideas. A former President of the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, said if the government had helped the Bhoodan movement, many socio-economic problems would have been solved. The manager of the bhavan, Mr Devraj Tyagi, stressed the need for disseminating knowledge about the literature of Vinoba Bhave. Collective spinning was the other highlight of the function. Strike call by dhobis CHANDIGARH, Sept 11—The Dhobi Welfare Society has given a strike call for September 15 in protest against the demolition of their structures by the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC). A press note issued here
today urged the authorities not to demolish their
structures since a survey had already been conducted by
the Estate Office. The dhobis will assemble at Labour
Chowk, Sector 20, on September 15 and take out a
procession, the press note added. |
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