IT Chandigarh

Many accidents and casualties later, the Municipal Council is yet to sit up and take measures to check the stray cattle menace in Panchkula. The civic body now claims that it is planning to take up the matter in a big way. Our correspondent reports

Chandigarh: AK Bakshi, a resident of Sector 15, Panchkula, blames the municipal council for his 25-year-old son’s death three years ago. Lalit Bakshi died after his motorcycle was hit by a stray cow on the Sector 7-8 dividing road.

Nothing has changed in these three years. The cattle menace has claimed many more lives in the city, while several people have sustained serious injuries in accidents caused by the stray cows and buffaloes.

The number of stray animals is increasing with each passing day, but the MC seems to be sleeping over the issue.

“The MC has crores of rupees, but it has failed to do anything about the menace that needs an immediate attention. After my son’s death, I approached the authorities several times to check the cattle menace so that others do not meet the same fate, but I met with disappointment every time,” said Bakshi.

He said though the problem is rampant in every sector, it is more pronounced near vegetable markets and sectors that share their boundaries with villages.

(more…)

Chandigarh: The MLAs and MPs of various parties supporting the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will meet in Chandigarh on July 8 to discuss their strategy for the Presidential election. Leaders from Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and J&K are expected to attend the meeting. Senior BJP leader and former MP Satya Pal Jain said this in a press conference on Wednesday where former cricketer and MP Navjot Singh Sidhu was also present.

Jain said J&K National Panthers Party chief Prof Bhim Singh has extended support in favour of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as the Presidential candidate. Jain said special committees have been formed in each state for proper monitoring of the election. The committee will comprise the BJP president from each state, party’s in charge of individual states, leader of the party in the state Assembly, chief whip and others.

“The central leadership of the party has appointed some MPs as observers for different states. Navjot Singh Sidhu will be the observer for Punjab, Kishan Singh Sangwan for Haryana, while Prem Kumar Dhumal and Suresh Bhardwaj will look after Himachal,” said Jain.

He added that the July 8 meeting, which has been called to support Shekhawat, will be addressed by former Union Minister Arun Shourie and BJP chief spokesperson Vijay Kumar Goyal.

Jain said a meeting of senior BJP leaders along with NDA partners will be held in Delhi on July 17.

Source: Express News Service

Chandigarh: City police late on Wednesday swung into action against the rising menace of liquor consumption at public places in the city. A police team conducted raids at two eating joints across the city.

Eighteen people were booked on charges of consuming liqour at public places. Five vehicles were also impounded.

The places targeted were Degchi in Sector 8 and Birdie’s food joint in Sector 17.

Managers of both the joints, Lokesh Chauhan of Degchi and Aney Kumar of Birdie’s, besides three waiters, were booked. The raids started around 9.45 pm, and continued for more than an hour.

Later, speaking to mediapersons, acting Senior Superintendent of Police Dinesh Bhatt, on whose orders the raids were conducted, said it would be ensured that supervisory officers and Station House Officers (SHO) concerned take stern actions to curb liquor consumption at public places.

The city police has been drawing a lot of flak for the past few months for not taking any action against liqour consumption at public places.

A police official said there has been growing complaints against eating joints for encouraging liqour consumption. The joints provided free snacks on consumption of liquor.

Source: Express News Service

Chandigarh: UT Home Secretary Krishna Mohan issued fresh orders on Wednesday regarding distribution of work among Chandigarh Administration officials. As per the new orders, Raji P Shrivastava, Special Secretary, Finance, will look after the work of Health and Medical Education in the capacity of Special Secretary, in addition to her own duties, relieving Vivek Atray of the charge of Joint Secretary, Health and Medical Education. She will also look after the issues relating to child and women development.

Bhupinder Singh, Joint Secretary, Home, will look after the work of Joint Secretary, Local Government, in addition to his own duties, relieving Raji P Shrivastava.

Vivek Atray, Director, Public Relations, will look after the work of Joint Secretary, Technical Education, and Director, Technical Education, in addition to his own duties, relieving S K Setia of these charges.

Manjit Singh Brar, PCS, Director, Information Technology, will look after the work of Finance-1 Branch in the Union Territory Secretariat in the capacity of Joint Secretary, Finance, in addition to his own duties relieving Raji. P. Shrivastava, Special Secretary Finance of this charge.

S.K . Setia, Director Public Instructions (S) will look after the work of Joint Secretary Housing, in addition to his own duties, relieving Raji P Shrivastava of this charge.

Source: Express News Service

Officials work overtime; 900 reserved category seats filled

Chandigarh: Admissions to class XI in government schools across the city began today.Nearly 1,200 applicants arrived at GMSSS-23in the reserved category.Admission for the students in the general category will begin on Thursday.

The admission rush resulted in officials from the the education department working overtime to accommodate the students. Nearly 900 seats were filled up till 7 pm in the nine senior secondary schools. Nearly 106 seats in vocational courses under the defense category were also filled.

For the purpose of managing the show, education department had deployed as many as 70 teachers and announcements were made through the public address system at the GMSSS, Sector 23.

With the UT Education Department announcing that three high schools in Behlana, Khuda Lahora and Maloya villages will be converted into senior secondary schools and more seats will be available for students seeking admission. The subjects offered by these schools include English, Political Science, Economics, History, Sociology, Hindi, Punjabi and Physical Education.

The UT Education Department has decided that a fixed time/fixed cut-off percentage will be fixed on each day of admission from the next session. Admissions for the general category students will be conducted before the reserved category students next year, resulting in an increase in the number of seat as seats left unclaimed in the reserved category will be added to the general category.

Students from Punjab were denied admissions as they could not produce the original marksheet of class X and were carrying the attested photocopies of the results instead.

Broadband, emergency services offer some respite

Chandigarh: BSNL has been able to successfully restore its broadband services today. The broadband system, damaged in the fire that engulfed the BSNL Sector 17 exchange on Saturday was replaced by a new one and made operational by late afternoon. BSNL also managed to release the lease line for the Railway Reservation Booking Centre, ISBT, enabling booking after four days.

According to D R Paul, Principal General Manager Telecom, Chandigarh Circle, “We had taken the issue on priority basis and finished work regarding the reservation counter around 2 am today”. He added, “We started broadband services gradually for different exchanges one by one. Starting with Mani Majra, the Sector 34 exchange was providing services by 5.30 pm today”. However, he admitted customers residing in Sector 17 exchange could face problems in accessing the facility. “This is due to the large scale replacement of subscriber cables. But we take solace in the fact that broadband systems have been restored. Individual complaints would be looked into from tomorrow,” said Paul

BSNL has also been able to start various emergency services today. Apart from 100,101 and 102, various enquiries in the city have been lying dead. However, BSNL officials today claimed to have restored the Railway, Flight enquiry along with their Directory (197) and Fault (198) enquires. Paul claimed this to be one of the major achievements of the day.

Talking about resuming mobile and landline connections in the city, Paul maintained these were the result of burnt cables en route individual subscribers and not at the exchange. According to him, the Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) used for connecting one exchange with the other has been released, resuming connection between all the exchanges in the tricity.
(more…)

Chandigarh: The Central Board of Secondary Education has issued a circular directing affiliated schools to introduce Health Clubs.The proposed health clubs will educate the students on issues related to health and hygiene.

A manual regarding the functioning of these Health Clubs will be available in the schools by the first week of August.

These clubs will be started under a comprehensive health programme. A senior official from CBSE said, “The health club has been proposed as an improper life style is responsible for many diseases among the youngsters. These clubs will educate students and provide tips to follow a healthy routine.”.

The health club will organise many activities, including guest lectures for the students.These lectures will be related to mental, physical and psychological health and well-being. The schools will be required to file frequent reports on the clubs activites.

Source: cities.expressindia.com

Army to train Punjab Police for anti-insurgency and other operations

Chandigarh: The Indian Army will train Punjab Police personnel for anti-insurgency, anti-terrorist, internal security and other related operations to tackle untoward incidents in the future.

Sources said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has sent a written communication to the Punjab Police through the Punjab government stating that army personnel would train the state police personnel for operational purposes, and for that purpose the state police should contact the regional command and the sub-commanders of the army in their respective areas.

“A letter has been dispatched to all militancy-affected states and other states, including Punjab, which states that according to a decision taken at the Central-level, the Army will train armed and commando police battalions of state police forces for anti-insurgency, anti-terrorist and internal security operations and besides training them in other areas. We have got the letter and are now intimating the concerned units so that they can get in touch with the field commanders of the army in their respective areas to enable these training programmes to kick off,’’ said an officer.

Sources said that there are a total of 18 battalions of Punjab Armed Police (PAP) and Punjab Commandos in the state police. The training to be imparted by the army will be given to a company from each battalion. For this, a team of instructors from the army will train the policemen. Whether the training will be given to the men in khakhi in the army areas or at respective police units will be decided following a meeting between the respective companies of the police and army units.
(more…)

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has reserved orders over the writ petition seeking directions to Punjab Vigilance and Punjab Police to issue a four-day notice prior to arresting B.I.S. Chahal, former media adviser to former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh. While the defence counsel, senior advocate R.S. Cheema, accused the Punjab Police of circumventing the orders of the High Court by arresting Chahal in three “shaky” cases, Advocate General H.S. Mattewal questioned the very basis of the petition.

The arguments, which continued for more than two hours, have been reserved for orders by a Division Bench headed by Justice P. Sathasivam. It may be recalled that the vacation bench had allowed the petition filed by Chahal, seeking directions to Punjab Police to issue a four-day notice before arresting Chahal. On the other hand, the other petition allowed by Justice Uma Nath Singh issuing directions to the Punjab Vigilance to issue a four-day notice stood till July 4. Since the orders passed by Justice Uma Nath Singh lapsed today, the defence counsel had filed a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

Seeking the said directions to Punjab Police and Vigilance, the defence counsel started questioning as to whether there is an absolute bar over issuance of any such blanket type of exemption. “If the Court finds that in the given circumstances a petitioner can be granted such exemption, the Court has the right to do so,” Cheema argued. However, abiding by the Supreme Court judgments, which state that any blanket exemption should generally not be granted to an accused, Cheema said Chahal should be granted protection, for he was being “targeted by the present government due to political vendetta”.

Explaining the entire incident of Chahal’s return right from the start, Cheema explained the way in which Chahal was picked up by circumventing the High Court’s orders. “The harassment and torture of Chahal was pre-planned by the present government,” Cheema alleged.
(more…)