Randhawa is SOPU candidate again
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — The Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) today became the first party to announce its candidate for the post of the president of the Panjab University Students' Council and the rest of the panel which will contest the PU elections. SOPU, and its alliance partner, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), have jointly fielded candidates for various posts.

The combine, which met at Students' Centre today announced that it was renominating Dayal Pratap Randhawa 'D.P', a postgraduate student of the Department of Education, for the post of the president. Randhawa was President of the PU Students' Council for the year 1998-99 and was also runners-up in the 1997 university polls. In 1997, he was defeated by a narrow margin of votes by the winning candidate, Munish Anand.

Aarti Singh, an M.Sc I student of the Department of Physics will be the candidate for the post of the vice-president and Davesh Moudgil, a postgraduate student of the Department of Urdu, for the post of the joint secretary.

Addressing a press conference, Randhawa listed out achievements of the council in the past year. He said the alliance would try to capitalise on its organisational ability and the work done in the past year.

The alliance, in its manifesto, will stress on implementation of policy decisions taken last year like establishment of the Dean Placement Cell for providing jobs to the campus students. The appointment of Dr S.K. Bijlani as Adviser of the Placement Cell for one year showed some positive results, he said.

He said they would also urge the authorities to write to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MoHRD) to sanction the required grants for the construction of two more hostels, one each for boys and girls. Keeping in view the problems being faced by the university in the absence of proper financial grants, they would also take up the matter with the Centre.

They would also strive to get more powers for the students' council by seeking representation of one of its nominees in the Senate and the Syndicate. They would also propose that the term of the council, normally till May 31, should be extended till the date of the next elections was announced. He said short duration of the term and the absence of the Dean Students Welfare (DSW) for nearly two months sabotaged efforts put in to solve some problems.

Objections have been raised by members of the opposing alliance on his candidature as he has been charged of a non-bailable offence. He said as per the university rules, only those held guilty could not contest. He said he had so far not been held guilty, neither by the law nor by the university. He said even the Punjab and Haryana High Court had rejected the writ petition challenging his contesting the elections, last year.

He said his opponents were trying to create confusion as they were not sure of their victory. He said both major parties had been in the council so it should be left to students to decide whom do they would vote for.

The All-India Sikh Students Federation (Bhuma) in a press conference at Students' Centre said it would support the presidential candidate of the PUSU-HSA-NSUI alliance, Bhupinder Singh 'Bhupi'. The federation also demanded elections to student bodies in Punjab colleges. The HSA Chairman, Chand Singh Madaan, the NSUI President, H.S. Lucky, and former PUSU President, Binder Singh, have also welcomed the decision of the AISSF to support their presidential candidate.

The HSA camp continues to press the university authorities to intervene in the elections and make clear the meaning of the word 'accused' in the calendar. It said if a person on bail was considered not accused and eligible to contest then why should the university have an age limit for all candidates. It had yesterday given a representation to the Syndics, but it was not taken up.

Campaigning remained low profile on the campus. A former General Secretary of the SOPU said campaigning was likely to pick up from tomorrow. A top ABVP office-bearer said there would be more concentrated campaigning ahead. PUSU posters can be seen prominently displayed outside most girls hostels on the campus.

Dead man allotted land
Haryana kanungo arrested
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — A person who died 50 years ago has been allotted eight acres of land by the Haryana Land Rehabilitation Department.

The city police has arrested Rajinder Krishan, a kanungo of the department, for allotting the land to Kapur Singh, who has been dead since 1949. This follows a complaint filed by the department after it was detected that one of the relatives of the deceased had claimed compensation in the form of land for the second time.

According to police sources, the deceased had migrated to Haryana during Partition and was allotted 16 acres of land at Hijrawan Khurd village. The then state agriculture minister had passed directions that the claims of the displaced person would be entertained at half the valuation of the land allotted. So, the persons who got 16 acres elsewhere would get only eight acres in this particular area.

This was protested by the allottees and a case was filed in the courts. Over the years, the case was tried before the high court which ruled that this was a discriminatory policy and that all concerned be adequately compensated.

But during this time, Kapur Singh, a bachelor, died and the matter lay dormant till 1986 when Fatehabad resident Ashok Kumar allegedly in connivance with Rajinder Krishan got the land allotted to him. Ashok is said to be close to the then state agriculture minister, the sources added.

After some years, the son of one of the brothers of the deceased also got land allotted to himself on the basis that his uncle had died issueless and that his part of the land was being tilled by him.

The fraudulent deal would not have been detected, but for an application by Darshana, a niece-in-law of the deceased, who demanded compensation on behalf of Kapur Singh. The officials processing the case got suspicious and checked their records. They were shocked to find that the compensation in this case was being given for the third time!

The police was accordingly informed and during investigations by the Special Crimes Cell, it was found that Ashok Kumar had connived with the kanungo to get the land allotted by presenting an old man posing as Kapur Singh before the officials.

While Rajinder Krishan, who was about to retire, has been suspended and his pensionery benefits stopped by the department, the police is on the lookout for Ashok Kumar. A case under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, and 120-B of the IPC has been registered at the Sector 17 police station.

Hi-tech lighting plan for city buildings
By Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — Some of the important landmarks and government buildings in the City Beautiful are going to be included in the list of a few select buildings of historic importance in the country which are illuminated with the soothing and ultra-modern facade lighting system.

Though a few historic monuments in the country such as 'Qutab Minar', Red Fort and the Taj have already been beautified with the help of the system, considered to be the latest in the array of lighting equipment in the world which adorned even the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Chandigarh buildings will be the first ones in this part of the country to have such a lighting arrangement.

According to senior UT Engineering Department officials, the main objective behind installing such a costly lighting system is to improve the look of important buildings during night time.During the initial phase, the department is contemplating to install such lights for illuminating the Assembly Hall, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the open hand monument and the geometrical hill. "We are also considering the same lighting system for the Beant Singh Memorial, coming up in Sector 42," said a senior electricity department official, who added that the work on the project would be started early next year and completed by March.

The facade lighting system has been selected for its qualities such as invisibility of source of light, which is of diffusing nature and is cost effective. " It has some distinctive properties.it lights up the whole building uniformly.the light , which is pointed at the building from a far away place is anti-glare and does not create irritation in the eyes of the onlooker," said an official of the department.He said imported lamps used in the indigenous system were highly efficient as well as cost effective.

With a view to get proper know-how and technology for the project the UT Engineering Department is currently busy consulting some professional companies. "We have even got prepared different sketches of the buildings and have identified points and angles where lights would be most effective with the help of a computer," said a technocrat of the department, who added that the illumination of buildings with the facade lighting would increase the beauty of these manifold.

"Though elsewhere, normally historic monuments have been decorated with such a system, but since this is a comparatively new city, we have thought to give a facelift to important buildings to convert these into places of tourist interest," he said.

According to an initial estimate, the department will need at least 250 lights, each of which will cost about Rs 2000-3000.

Kidnapping accused held
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — The city police today arrested Baljinder Singh Sangha, one of the co-accused in the kidnapping of a former student who had come to appear for admission to an MA course in Panjab University.

According to police sources, the former chairman of Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU), Baljinder Sangha, was arrested last night after he was intercepted at one of the nakas put up in the university in connection with the forthcoming elections. He has been booked for rioting, assaulting, kidnapping and criminal intimidation and remanded to judicial custody by the duty magistrate, Mrs Paramvir Nijjar, for 14 days. A case has been registered under Sections 147, 148, 149, 323, 364, 382 and 342 of the IPC.

Jaswant Singh, who had come for admission to the university on July 29 was allegedly kidnapped by supporters of SOPU. They had also reportedly attacked him and his friend and later drove him away. While Ajay Pal Singh and Gurpartap were arrested then, a case had been registered against the outgoing president of the campus students' council D.P.S. Randhawa, Bhupinder Beniwal, Baljinder Sangha and others. Jaswant Singh is a supporter of the Panjab University Students Union (PUSU).

Meanwhile, the SHO of the Sector 11 police station, Mr Vijay Kumar, supervised the drive launched to round up outsiders and the identity cards of various students roaming around in the campus were checked all through the day.

Talent search contests
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — More than 100 students of arts, science and commerce groups took part in a music talent search contest organised by the Government College for Girls, Sector 11, yesterday.

The following were the results of the various competitions:

Bhajan/Shabad: BA (I) — Jaswinder (1), Neelam (2) and Gurpreet (3), and MA(I) — Rupinder (1) and Deepinder (2)

Ghazal/geet: BA (I) — Ashima (1), Kanwalroop (2) and Kamal (3), and MA (I) — Nitika (1st).

Folk Song : BA I Suman ( 1st), Nandika (2nd), Roobal (3rd), and MA (I) — Seema (1), Jyoti (2) and Pooja (3).

Classical instrumental: BA (I) — Poonam Mongia (1), Parul Sharma (2), Nidhi (3), and MA (I) — Nitika (1).

Light instrumental: Nidhi (1), Parul and Poonam (2).

Non-music film songs: Somi Dev (1), Sunita and Pooja (2) and Zahira (3).

Western songs: Stuti of B. Com-I (1), Achi (2) and Ruby (3).

Folk songs: Charu (1), Arti (2) and Supinder of BSc (3).

The college principal, Mrs Vijay Lakshmi, presided over the function.

Similarly, quiz, debate, creative writing and poem recitation contests were held as part of various literary events on the second day of the talent hunt contests at DAV College, Sector 10, yesterday.

The team of Aditya Singh Chandel and Kunal Sharma won the first prize, while that of Sudeep and Dinker Vashisht won the second prize in the quiz contest.

In essay writing, Gaurav Sood won the first prize, Amit Gupta and Satyaprakash Maurya jointly won the second prize.

Mannu Devgan and Gaurav Sood won the first and second prize, respectively, in the short story writing contest.

While Rohit Verma won the first position in poem composition, Manu Sharma won the second position.

The team of Manu Sharma and Guramandeep Singh won the first prize in debate, while the team of Ravi Mohan Bisht, Sujoy Bhatia and Sachin Garg won the second prize.

In the poem recitation contest, Aditya Singh Chandel won the first prize, Ritesh Mujral, Mukesh and Chandandeep shared the second prize.

Vikas, Candy win titles
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — Vikas Mittal and Candy Brar were crowned Mister and Miss North India, respectively, in a fashion contest organised by the Fashion Revealers at the Press Club here today.

The first runners up in the boys' category was Rajan Gulati while the second runners-up position was bagged by Vicky Khanna. In the grl's category Khushboo Khochar and Naina Rana were the first and the second runners-up, respectively.

The final contest was divided into four rounds with the first two being preliminary. The boy's category had 35 participants while the girls' category had 20.

The first round comprised of the Indian traditional clothes. The subsequent consisted casual wear.

In the first question round the boys were asked what they thought were the highlights of the city. Few answers said that girls and the "gehri" route made the city unique.

In the sub-titles round of girls Navneet won the best costume round. Naina Rana was crowned for the best hair. Other titles went to Mani Nanda for best skin; best body to Sapna; best eyes to Gurmeet; best model to Sapna; miss photogenic to Jhotsana; miss cat walk to Raveena; best smile to Neha and most talented to Satvinder.

In the boys' category Devinder Sandhu was chosen as the best model. Best physique title was won by Arun Sharma; personality by Mitter Bains; costume by Dinkum; wardrobe by Pankaj Bhatia and most talented by Mukesh.

The show witnessed instances of power failure to facilitate co-ordination of sound and music on stage couple of times. The police had also to intervene to stop minor altercation case.

The final question answer round in the girls' category was the highlight of the show. It featured questions like should cricketers go in for modelling and what if the eve teaser was good looking.

Mr Abhijeet Chaterjee, President of the Press Club and Mr Charanjit Ahuja, General Secretary, gave away the prizes.

Lifestyle-related diseases on rise
From Our Correspondent

PANCHKULA, Sept 19 — there has been a significant rise in the number of patients suffering from diseases connected with the lifestyle patterns of individuals .

Informing this, the chief medical officer (CMO), Dr H.C. Nagpal, said that over the years there had been between 25 and 30 per cent rise in the number of cases of hypertension, diabetes and cardiac diseases in the district. he feared that the problem, if not checked in time, could possibly become a daunting task in the next 10 years .

Since independence, the basic objective of most of the health programmes has been to prevent the spread of contagious and infectious diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, small pox, leprosy, etc in the country. However, hardly any attention has been given to prevent the spread of lifestyle-related diseases. Statistics indicate a steady decline in the cases of infectious diseases and a steady rise in the number of patients of circulatory diseases.

In 1985, the national mortality rate per one lakh people in the case of infectious diseases was 850 which may decline to 450 deaths by the year 2000. On the contrary, the number of cases of circulatory deaths in 1985 was 250 and may rise to about 550 by the year 2000.

As per the available figures, there are around five crore cases of hypertension nationwide. In Panchkula district, the number of such cases over the years has risen to 15 per cent. The district has witnessed a 12 per cent increase in the number of cases related to heart diseases.

The district health department would soon launch an awareness drive in the area so that the the problem could be checked.

The drive would be aimed at identifying individuals with markedly elevated risk factors.

Symposium on contact lenses
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — A national symposium on ''Vision correction alternatives and contact lenses'' will be held by the Department of Ophthalmology, PGIMER, on September 25 and 26 to address the emerging new technologies to get rid of glasses and appropriate application of newer contact lenses.

In a press release issued yesterday, Dr Jagjit S. Saini, coordinator of the symposium, said that with nearly 250 million people in India wearing glasses, the symposium would focus on the issue of pros and cons of various alternatives to correct refractive errors and provide spectacle-free good vision.

The national symposium would be inaugurated by Dr B.K. Sharma, Director, PGI, as a fore-runner to the soon-to-be-launched advanced care facilities at the PGI which had already been approved by the Government of India.

Site for mosque demanded
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Sept 19 — The Anjuman Falah-e-daarain has urged the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) to issue the allotment letter for the site of a mosque in Phase XI.

The President of the Anjuman Falah-e-daarain, Mr Abdul Aziz, said the Muslim population of the township and the neighbouring areas had to face a lot of problem as they had no place to offer prayers and observe other religious activities.

He said that in spite of the township having a Muslim population of over 13,000, no site for a mosque had been allotted to the community. In 1989, PUDA had earmarked an acre of land in Phase XI for a mosque but the allotment letter for the same had not been given so far. As a stop-gap arrangement, temporary sheds had been erected at the site to allow the devotees to offer prayers.

He also urged PUDA not to change land use as feared by members of the community.

303 donate blood
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, Sept 19 — As many as 303 persons, including 114 women, donated blood at a blood donation camp organised by the Sant Nirankari Mandal here yesterday.

Inaugurating the camp, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Vivek Joshi, admired the self-motivation in the camp.

A team of doctors from the PGI, under the supervision of Prof S.K. Agnihotri, Head of the Department of Blood Transfusion, conducted the camp.

Blood donation camp held
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — As many as 74 persons donated blood at a blood donation camp held at the Sri Sathya Sai Old Age Home, Sector 30-B, here today.

The camp was organised by the local unit of the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation.

According to Dr R.S. Prasad, State Co-ordinator, Haryana and Chandigarh, the camp was part of Annual Global Blood Donation Day, being observed by Sai organisations.

Navaratra fair from October 10
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, Sept 19 — The Navratra fair will be held at the Shri Mata Mansa Devi Shrine here from October 10 to 19.

The Financial Commissioner and Secretary, Local Government, Haryana, Mr M.K. Miglani, yesterday reviewed the arrangements for the fair at a meeting of the shrine board held in the temple complex.

Mr Miglani said the police parties and Home Guards would be deployed to ward off anti-social elements. Executive Magistrates would be put on duty round-the-clock to supervise law and order arrangements.

He told the board meeting that elaborate arrangements were being made to provide various amenities to the pilgrims visiting the shrine during the fair.

The board’s Chief Administrator, Mr Vivek Joshi, apprised the meeting of various steps being taken for the facility of the pilgrims.

Magician has kids spellbound
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — The Go Bananas Kids Club today held a magic show for its members.

Pradeep, a popular city-based magician, enthralled the little ones with his tricks for almost an hour in the morning. Nearly 45 kids were spellbound at the end of the show.

According to the Director of the club, Mrs Anu Vala, "The club is a podium for the little ones to have a peep into various activities.'' The club has also organised workshops on casio playing, puppetry, clay modelling, fabric painting , field trips to The Tribune and milk factory and even a kung-fu demonstration.

The membership of the club is open to children in the age group of 3-14 years by paying an annual fee of Rs 700 and a monthly subscription of Rs 100. The club also provides transport facility to its members.

SNIPPETS

PUDA draw for plots in October
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Sept 19 — The Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) will hold a draw of lots for residential plots of different sizes in Sector 68 in the third week of October.

Under the housing scheme, floated on June 6 this year, as many as 3245 applications were received for 268 plots.

Brar on election tribunal
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — The chairperson of the Department of Political Science, Dr B.S. Brar, has been appointed one of the members of the election tribunal constituted by the Vice-Chancellor to look into the complaints in the forthcoming students poll.

He was appointed yesterday following Prof Pradeep Kumar's refusal to accept the membership of the tribunal.

The other two members of the tribunal are Prof S.K. Malik, Dean Foreign Students and chairperson of the Department of Mathematics, and Mr Bal Krishan of the Department of Laws.

Jain to campaign in Kangra
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — Mr Satya Pal Jain, a former MP from Chandigarh, will campaign for the party candidate in the Kangra parliamentary constituency. In a statement issued here today, Mr Jain said that he had been instructed to campaign in Kangra for the next four days.

Mr Jain said Mrs Sonia Gandhi would be defeated both in Bellary and Amethi.

12-hour power cut hits Mani Majra
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — Power supply in three mohallas of Mani Majra township remained cut off for 12 hours today.

According to residents, power supply of Mohall Mata Raj Kaur Gurdwara, Mohalla Bhara Mall Ka Kuaan and Jattan Mohalla remained off between 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Mr Satpal, a resident alleged that he had approached the SE and Xen concerned, but they took their time to restore the supply.

Trust to develop Mullanpur
From Our Correspondent

MULLANPUR GARIBDASS, Sept 19 — Mr Nathu Ram Puri has formed the Puri Foundation for India (PFI) for developmental activities. An NRE (non-resident emigrate) from the UK, Mr Puri today said the trust would aim at improving the living standard of people of his native village, Mullanpur.

The project includes a community and leisure centre to be built at a cost of Rs 1 crore in the village.

He said that love for his birthplace motivated him to raise the trust. In spite of it's proximity to Chandigarh, Mullanpur lags behind in all the developmental areas. There is no provision for holding functions. He will construct a rest for this purpose next year. The complex will also have a playground.

The multi-millionaire business tycoon has already contributed funds for the construction of a school at Mullanpur. He also established the Puri Trust for Shaheed Jawan Family, with a contribution of Rs 25 lakh.

The Command Hospital, Chandi Mandir, was provided a Rs 12-lakh pneumatic drill machine by him for the treatment of soldiers injured during Operation Vijay.

Traffic lights still non-functional
From Our Correspondent

KHARAR, Sept 19 — The traffic lights installed by the administration in April at the bus stand crossing here are yet to start functioning.

The lights were installed on National Highway No. 21 during the tercentenary celebrations probably to control the heavy rush of traffic on this accident-prone road where the Kharar-Banur road and Old Morinda Road join the main highway.

Aspects of leprosy discussed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 19 — A sophisticated new diagnostic method for leprosy came up for discussion at the conference organised by the Indian Organisation of Leperosylogists in the PGI here today.

The first session concentrated on microbiology and pathology of leprosy. As many as nine papers discussed at length the use of polymerare chain reaction in detection of the case. Other sessions dealt with growth characteristics of the leprosy bacillus and the pathological changes observed in this disease. One of the sessions dealt on the sociological and community aspects of the infection.

Dr Naik from Raigarh described the characteristics of the leprosy patients who came to a voluntary rural project in Maharashtra.

Dr Gongre from Wardha presented a paper on the study of integration of leprosy care with the primary health care set-up.

Dr Harvinder Kaur from New Delhi discussed the social problems faced by women suffering from leprosy. As many as 60 poster presentations were made, highlighting the clinical and research aspects of the disease.