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December 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India
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Seven arrested for illegal mining Panchkula, December 22 The police received a tip off about illegal mining of sand, boulders and gravel from the Ghaggar riverbed. They raided the riverbed near Devi Nagar village around 2 am today and recovered a JCB machine and three tippers (HR- 37- 5057) , (HR-15-1139) and (HR- 37-3257). A car (HR-03D-3157) was also impounded. Drivers of the tippers, when questioned by the police, said that they were employed by a contractor Sher Singh , for mining sand, gravel and boulders from the riverbed and carrying them to the Golf Course. These employees of Sher Singh — Vijay Kumar, Vinod, Mahenra Singh and Ram Kishen — were arrested and booked under Sections 379 of IPC by Sector 5 police station. In yet another drive against these illegal sand miners in Sector 23, the police arrested three persons — Kishore Kumar, Ganga Ram and Deep Kumar — and impounded seven tippers and one JCB for filling the sand and gravel into the tippers. Police sources said that these persons were the employees of contractor Avinash Arora, who had been given a valid licence for mining in Sector 27 and Sector 28. However, the contractor had reportedly asked his employees to begin illegal mining in Sector 23 and bring the sand and gravel to Sector 28. A case under Section 379 of IPC has been registered in this regard by the Chandi Mandir police. |
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School building sites to remain vacant Panchkula, December 22 It is learnt that as in the case of government dispensaries in the township, HUDA authorities have decided to construct the school buildings only after the Education Department asks them to do so and is ready to open these here. Earlier, too, a similar decision had been taken for the construction of government dispensaries, which were constructed at a huge cost, but have been lying unutilised. In the past couple of years, HUDA has reportedly suffered losses by constructing school buildings and government dispensaries at a considerable cost. But neither the Education Department nor Health Department has been able to take over these buildings because of shortage of staff and other infrastructure. When contacted, the Administrator of HUDA, Mr. Aroon Kumar Gupta, agreed that they had decided not to go ahead with the construction of school buildings till demanded by the Education Department. Sources also inform that most of the residents prefer private schools affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) as compared to government schools affiliated to the state education board. Thus, besides the existing government schools in the township, the Education Department is also reluctant to open more schools here. It may be noted that initially the government had been constructing school buildings in Sectors 4, 6, 7 and 8, but some of them were given on lease to private schools, allegedly after the Education Department failed to take over these buildings. Both in case of Sector 4 and in Sector 8, the buildings were later taken over by private school managements. However, there has now been a rising demand for setting up government schools in most of the sectors, because of the increasing fee structure in private schools. The Indian Citizen’s Forum, Panchkula, has demanded that the government set up atleast eight government model schools here for the benefit of the residents. Mr S.K. Nayyar, president of the association, said that government model schools were needed to suit the needs of middle income group. Meanwhile, the government had originally also made a provision of land for privately run primary schools in all sectors during its master plan of the township. However, these schools have now upgraded to the middle or higher school status. Thus they have violated HUDA by-laws, but no action has been initiated against them. |
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Golf Club elections Chandigarh, December 22 The polling took place between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. During the day a festive
atmosphere prevailed with members playing rounds of golf and enjoying lunch. Counting of votes will start tomorrow at 9 a.m. Mr Tegbir (Gogi) Sibia and Mr Ravi Sandhu are contesting for the post of president while 21 members are contending for 11 seats of the executive body. |
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1-yr RI for city resident Chandigarh, December 22 The complainant, Rana Mohindra Papers Limited, had alleged that three cheques worth Rs 9,59,776.40, issued by the accused, had bounced in 1994. |
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FILM REVIEW ‘Aamdani Atthanni Khurcha Rupaiya’ (Nirman and KC, Panchkula) is a lacklustre presentation, which has a dragging storyline of a middle class setting in a metropolitan. Govinda is a big crowd attraction but the direction of K Raghvendra Rao has failed to leave any impression. Chandrachur Singh and Johny lever look misfits in poorly drafted roles. Similarly, the roles of Juhi Chawla and Tabu fail to leave any lasting impression. Rao who has over 90 directorial ventures to his credit has attempted to show “how women can change the world and make it a better place to live in”. The story is set in a downtown locality where the wives of Chandrachur, Lever and a third friend are always counting the salary in the beginning of the month. The doorbells are always ringing with people to whom the money has to be returned, including the landlord, the milkman, the grocer and others. But the husbands are not bothered. They would not even allow their wives to tread outside their homes to work. Govinda comes to the locality with his wife Juhi Chawla and a kid. He always helps his wife with cooking and washing clothes. Meanwhile, the Chandrachur gang is rendered jobless. The wives take up jobs but the husbands cannot digest the changed roles. The wives are forced to leave their homes and take residence at Govinda’s home. The dialogues are poorly drafted, as are the settings. There is a strong element of dragging in the scenes which hardly the moves the story, lending little hope for audience interest. There is hardly any commendable performance worth a mention. The film is a Padmalaya Telefilms and Krishna presentation. The film also features Vinay Anand, Isha Kopikar, Mink and Shakti Kapoor. Anwar Khan has written the dialogues, Srinivasa is the cinematographer; and B.H.Tharun has done the choreography. |
Stork chick succumbs to injuries Chhat Bir, December 22 Sources in the zoo revealed that the chick had sustained injuries in a fight with some other birds in an enclosure where it was released after being captured from the zoo lake. The bird was kept in the zoo hospital for treatment where it died off this afternoon. The bird was reportedly buried this evening without any post-mortem examination being conducted. According to sources, the zoo authorities had captured the bird from the lake and it was to be exhibited for the visitors. Meanwhile, an adult male blackbuck was injured in a fight with other male bucks in Deer Safari of the park, here today. Sources in zoo said that in the fight the animal reportedly got its right foreleg fractured besides other injuries on the body. The animal was given treatment by the zoo veterinary staff. The zoo authorities said that the injured animal would be segregated from other animals of the safari and would be shifted to a cage till it recovered. The zoo Director, Mr R. K. Luna, when contacted on telephone, refused to comment on the issue. In a similar incident two Royal Bengal tigers had also sustained injuries in a fight in an enclosure of the zoo on Thursday. Routine fights among the zoo inhabitants often leads to their deaths. The problem aggravates in mating seasons only. |
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Stress on making Hindi popular Chandigarh, December 22 On the occasion, Shivalika Chandigarh, a magazine published by the TOLIC was released. Presiding over the function, the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax and Chairman of the TOLIC, Mr J.S. Ahluwalia, said that common words of other languages should be added to Hindi language to make it popular. Prizes were distributed to the heads of those offices where maximum work was done in Hindi during 2000-2001. Result: Production\Training\ Research Institute — 1st - Dr R.S. Verma, Director, Central Forensic Science Lab; 2nd - Dr Amit Ghosh, Director, IMTECH; 3rd - Dr. R.P. Bajpai, Director, CSIO and Special prize - Dr S. Krishnamurti, Principal, Technical Teachers Training Institute; Government Offices (Small) — 1st - Ms Madhu Dalela, Regional Deputy Director, Song and Drama Division; 2nd - Mr Ashok Kumar, Deputy Chief Information Officer, Press Information Bureau; 3rd - Mr Mulakh Raj, Deputy Director, Commercial Audit and Consolation - Dr R.C. Singla, Regional Director, Save Grain Campaign; Government Offices (Big) — 1st - Mr S.K. Mittal, Additional Commissioner of Income Tax; 2nd - Ms Mahau Chatterji, Principal Accountant General (Punjab), 3rd - Mr V.K. Sharma, Commissioner - I, Custom and Central Excise and Consolations - Director, AIR and Brig. K.S. Khatri, Director, Survey of India; Corporations and Undertakings — 1st - Mr T.S. Sahni, Chief Regional Manager, Hindustan Petroleum, 2nd - Mr A.K Dass, Regional Manager, Oriental Insurance Company; 3rd - Mr Krishan Kumar Sobti, Regional Manager - I, National Insurance Company and Consolation - Mr Bikramjit Sharma, National Cooperative Development Corporation. |
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250 participate
in knitting contest Chandigarh, December 22 Students from class V to class XI participated and knitted creative and innovative patterns out of the material provided to them. Some of the students had made plain simple patterns, others had made colourful patterns by using two or three colours of yarn. Students from over 500 schools nationwide are participating in this contest. During the event TV star Renuka Shahane launched the new ‘’Jungle collection’’ for the knit pack range of ‘Aao
bune’. The contest was organised by Vardhaman Spinning and General Mills Limited, Ludhiana. The Executive Director, Vardhaman Spinning and General Mills Limited said , ‘’The main aim behind the contest is to generate awareness among the younger generation about the benefits of hand knitting. The main objective is to promote hand knitting among younger generation.’’ ‘’The participating students have been divided into six categories on the basis of their classes. The winning students were awarded a certificate of appreciation. The official brand ambassador of
Vardhaman, Ms Shahane, said, “It is great to see the way young hands knitted on the spot and created extensively beautiful patterns . Its wonderful to see the young generation accepting the age-old tradition of the country and carrying it forward in the twentyfirst century.’’ The zonal rounds of the contest are in progress across all 18 zones and will complete till
February 2002. The final process evaluation process will be held in March 2002 and then the final winners will be announced. The winners for the state of Punjab and Haryana will be announced separately. The first prize winner in each category will get a cash prize of Rs 5100 followed by Rs 3100 and Rs 2100 for the second and third winners. |
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Brigadier Dulat is DSOI Vice-Chairman Chandigarh December 22 The three elected executive members of the committee are Brig Harwant Singh, Gp Capt H S Chimni and Lt-Col B S Dhillon. Cdr R P S Josen has been elected as a member of the committee. Those elected as members of various sub-committees of the managing committee are Lt-Col M S Narula, Sqdn Ldr S S Walia, Capt Amarjit Kumar, Lt-Col Amrik Singh and Lt-Col I S Khera. There are five sub-committee having three members each, the other two being ex-officio and nominated members. About 750 members, including serving as well as retired members cast their votes. The general body meeting of the institute was also held today, which was addressed by the GOC-in-C, Western Command, Lt-Gen Surjit Singh. The Major General Artillery, Western Command, Maj-Gen A K Vasudev has been nominated as the Chairman of the Managing Committee. In addition to the elected members, ex-officio members of the committee include a representative of the Air Force Station Chandigarh, Chief Engineer Chandigarh Zone, Commander Western Command TA Group, Deputy Director General NCC and Director Punjab Ex-servicemen Corporation. Meanwhile, Chief of Staff, Western Command, Lt-Gen H S Kanwar, has been appointed as the ex-officio president of the institute’s governing body. Among the ex-officio members of the governing body are Station Commander Chandimandir, AOC 12 Wing, Deputy Judge Advocate General Western Command, Chief Engineer Chandigarh Zone and Secretary Rajya Sainik Board. The Brigadier Administration, Western Command is the member secretary of the body. |
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YOUNG
VOICE Handball is not just her game. It is her passion. What else would explain the fact that she has participated in at least 15 significant handball tournaments not just at the district level but also at the national and international levels. Mandeep may appear to be shy but all her shyness takes the form of strength in the field. The 20-year-old is riding high since last year and she has all the reasons for this. She played for the Indian team at the second South Asian handball championship held in Bangladesh, where India got the first position. Among other tournaments were the All-India tournament held at Kurukshetra where the team won the second prize and the National Games in
Ludhiana. Mandeep has a conditioning schedule everyday in the morning from 6 to 9. In the evening she has two hours of warming-up and one hour of game. She started the game when she was 13. A final year student of Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College in Sector 26, she is currently training under Ravinder Singh Bawa of
DAV, Sector 8. TNS |
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READERS WRITE We, senior citizens of Mahesh Nagar, Govind Nagar, Green Park and the area up to Vikaspuri of Ambala Cantonment, would like to bring to your kind attention that the Central Bank of India has been depriving us of the benefit of incentive/additional interest announced by the Finance Ministry/Reserve Bank of India from June 1, 2001 on fixed deposits. The old pensioners are worst affected because on short-term deposits, the interest rate of all banks, including the Central Bank of India is always less than long-term deposits. In case of allowing incentive/additional interest, the procedure has been reversed with the result that we get less interest on long term and more on short-term. I would like to enlighten the authorities that the State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of India are allowing 1 per cent on all fixed deposits of any duration — long or short term. Why can’t the Central Bank of India do the same so as to help pensioners? Why do they penalise old pensioners? Suffice it to mention that even the normal rate of interest of the Central Bank of India is less than the State Bank of Patiala. I would like to add that for my fixed deposit of the period prior to June 1, 2000, even this small incentive of half per cent and 3/4 per cent has been denied to me from June 1, 2001 onwards. I trust the Central Bank authorities will look into this problem of old pensioners and take suitable steps to mitigate their hardship. DEWAN Teachers’ woes The teachers of private schools in Chandigarh are an exploited lot. They work very hard but get very poor salary. The Chandigarh Administration’s Education Department has hardly done anything to mitigate the sufferings of the teachers working in these schools. Consider the plight of Mrs Sethi, for instance. She is a state awardee and retired as a teacher in a private school in Chandigarh. Having served the school for 25 years, all she got towards her settlement dues were a few thousands of rupees. Before retirement, she did not get any increment for ten consecutive years, implying that she had to work on a fixed salary for ten years. The private managements of these schools exploit the teachers to such an extent that they do not sanction even dearness allowance to the staff. Now Mrs Sethi gets a paltry Rs 400 towards her monthly pension. This is surprising because the school managements do not lag behind in effecting hikes every year in admission fee, tuition fee, development fund, building fund, miscellaneous fund and so on. Usually, these schools effect a 30-40 per cent hike in fee every year on some pretext or the other. They also make it a point to get the parents buy books from the school stores where books are sold at exorbitant rates compared with those available in the open market. In government service, even a class IV employee gets annual increment and dearness allowance hike from time to time. These increases account for nearly 10-15 per cent of the total monthly salary. On retirement, he also gets leave encashment, gratuity and other benefits. This is followed by a reasonable monthly pension which is certainly 4-5 times of what Mrs Sethi gets now. It is unfortunate that despite several representations by the teachers and parents’ associations, the Chandigarh Administration has done little to prevent exploitation of these teachers by the managements of private schools. It is time the authorities woke up to give a better deal to the teachers. A. P. BHARDWAJ |
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Consumer day seminar Chandigarh, December 22 |
Man succumbs to injuries Chandigarh, December 22 Injured:
A cyclist was admitted to the PGI after he was hit by an unknown Swaraj Mazda near the Airport Chowk. He is in an unconscious state and is yet to be identified. The police has registered a case. Held: A Palsora couple has been arrested by the police on charges of trespassing and theft. A resident of the same colony, Kuldip Kaur, has alleged that the accused, identified as Gulzar Singh and Harjinder Kaur, trespassed into her house and stole her gold ring, besides threatening her. The police has registered a case. Stolen: Panchkula resident Kishan Singla has reported that two diamond bangles, valued at about Rs 75,000 have been stolen from his jewellery shop in Mani Majra. The police has registered a case. Scooter stolen: The manager of a bank in Sector 22, Kuldip Sharma reported that his scooter (HR-29-J-0081) has been stolen from outside his office. The police has registered a case. Complaint lodged: An SDO with the UT Electricity Department, Deepak Bansal, has lodged a complaint against the owner of a Sector 22 house who was reportedly consuming electricity through illegal means. The police has registered a case.
PANCHKULA Four
held: The local police has arrested four persons on charges of gambling at a public place in Surajpur village — Lal Man, Sauraj, Sohan Pal and Nigaas. A sum of Rs 350 has been seized and they have been booked under Sections 13, 3 and 67 of the Gambling Act. In another incident three more persons — Sheesh Pal, Rampal and Meghnath were arrested from Burj Kotian village and a sum of Rs 350 was seized from them. Arrested: Mohan Lal and Rattan Lal were arrested in two separate incidents under various Sections of the Excise Act. While 36 pouches of liquor were seized from Mohan Lal, the latter was arrested for drinking at a public place. They have been booked under Sections 61, 1 and 14 of Excise Act. Recovered: The police has recovered a few blankets stolen from the house of Mr Nand Kishore in Sector 19. These had been stolen by Surendra Kumar who was arrested by the police a few days ago. Car recovered:
The police has recovered a car ( PB-07B- 8144) parked on a road side, which was stolen from the parking of Hot Million’s fast food joint here on December 18.
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