IT Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: When Deepinder Singh, a Sector 32 resident, was informed that his mobile handset can’t be repaired he filed a complaint in the consumer forum.

Accepting Deepinder’s complaint, the forum instructed Three Vee Communications, Chandigarh, to get the mobile handset replaced with a new one from Nokia India Private Limited, New Delhi. The forum also observed that Deepinder was harassed at every channel after the purchase of the product, so it awarded him Rs 2,100 as compensation and Rs 1,100 as cost.

“The opposite parties were carrying out service in a negligent and deficient manner thereby causing harassment to the customer, and non-repairing of the mobile handset during the warranty period surely amounts to deficiency in services,” the consumer forum observed.

Deepinder in his complaint stated that his son purchased a Nokia 6600 mobile set, which was insured on May 20, 2004 by paying Rs 19,600 from Three Vee Communications, Chandigarh.

He alleged that within few months the handset started giving problem. The set was repaired once by Nokia care centre, but Deepinder alleged that the handset again started giving problem. And when he approached the care centre again, the officials informed him that the set is not repairable. Deepinder moved consumer forum seeking refund of the amount he spent on the purchase of mobile set.
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CHANDIGARH: A 45-year-old chief engineer working for Baddi-based unit of Vardhman Textiles was robbed and poisoned in a Haryana Roadway bus on Friday night.

The deceased Omit Ghosh, a native of Lucknow, was coming from Delhi to Chandigarh in the bus.

The conductor and driver of the bus found Ghosh in an unconscious state in the bus and they rushed him to Government Multispeciality Hospital Sector 16, where he succumbed to death. The cops found it difficult to identify Ghosh initially as his luggage and documents were missing.

The body was identified only when the textile unit’s chief security officer Narinder Kohali came to Chandigarh in search of Ghosh.

The chief security officer informed police that Ghosh went to Mumbai on personal work and came back to Delhi by air on July 12. From ISBT, Delhi, he made a call to his wife in Lucknow to inform her that he would reach Chandigarh on July 14, added Kohali.

However, on Friday night when his wife tried to contact him on his mobile, there was no response and she made inquiry at his workplace. The police said preliminary investigation revealed that Ghosh was given some poisonous substance and robbed of his belongings, including his purse and suitcase. A case under sections 328, 379 and 304 of IPC was registered at Sector 17 police station.

Source: The Times of India

PANCHKULA: On Sunday as many as 15 patients faced difficulty to get an X-ray done at the General Hospital, Sector 6, due to disruption in the electricity supply.

As the hospital did not have a standby power arrangement the patients were forced to wait or go elsewhere for an x-ray.

Six-year old Vivek had sustained an injury on his hand but he could not get it x-rayed as there was a power outage. His worried father, Raman, said as getting the x-ray conducted there was not possible, there was no option but to wait for the power supply to resume. “I’m not able to go in for private treatment as my financial condition is not good,” he said. Charges for an x-ray test in a hospital are nominal at Rs 45, while in private labs it costs about Rs 100, he added.

Official sources said there is no backup arrangement here for the x-ray machine if there is disruption in the power supply. The machine becomes paralysed when the power goes off or in case of any fault in the supply. As the machine consumes a heavy amount of electricity, a generator is not capable of providing the power during disruption, explained doctors. A mechanic hired by the hospital staff said there was a problem in the main switch which would take time to fix but would be functional only in evening.

When contacted Dr VK Bansal, SMO, General Hospital, Sector 6, said there was some problem in the main switch but it had now been solved. As far as alternate power arrangements were concerned, there were generators but they could not bear the extra load of the x-ray machine, he added.
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CHANDIGARH: Obesity is not an American concern altogether. It’s eating up productive Indians too, especially school-going kids, and we have been doing little to curb the problem from ballooning.

The UT education department had made a good beginning by banning colas and junk food in schools some time back, and is now taking the initiative further by introducing obesity related awareness campaigns in schools.

Students are now being made to realise that obesity is a disease. “Making children aware of the dangers of obesity is our duty, and we are earnestly doing that. We organise regular lectures on healthy living for students besides encouraging them to alter their lifestyle. We are now also going to introduce yoga in all government schools to fight obesity,” said DPI (schools) SK Setia. Government schools are also trying to involve students in more number of activities to keep them busy.

City-based psychologist Reena Kaul said young boys and girls, especially between 14 and 22, are most concerned about their physical appearance, so obesity is having a negative effect on them. “Whoever says he or she is not a little vain when it comes to looks is lying, no matter at what age that person is. I have handled so many cases wherein a boy or a girl suffers from acute depression due to physical defects, and obesity tops the list,” she said.

Understanding this fact, the education department also plans to rope in psychologists to deal with the problem.
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Chandigarh, July 15
It’s been over nine months since a five-year-old girl was sexually abused in Sector 41. The local police is still struggling to identify the culprit.

The little girl was molested a few yards from a religious congregation on the night of September 25.

The police washed its hands of the case as “untraced” on June 23 this year. During the nine months’ of investigation, the police failed to prepare a sketch of the culprit. The police in its case file mentioned that the girl was too young to be able to give a description of the culprit. She had failed to identify the place of the crime. Lack of cooperation on the part of the public was cited as another reason for the case going untraced.

The incident came to light late in the night, when her mother went looking for her. To her horror, she saw her daughter being escorted by some unknown children as she cried bitterly in pain. She took her home and found the girl bleeding profusely. She narrated the incident to her mother and was rushed to hospital in semi-conscious condition.

The only child of her parents, the girl was reportedly whisked away by a miscreant in a red shirt and sporting spectacles. He left her crying in pain after molesting her. The police registered a case of attempt to rape under Sections 376 and 511 of the IPC.
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Chandigarh: Omit Ghosh, chief manager of Baddi-based wing of Vardhman Textiles, died after being drugged in a bus on the Delhi-Chandigarh route on Friday night. He was in his fifties.

The bus driver and conductor found him lying unconscious in the bus and reported the matter to the police. He was admitted to the Sector 16 Government Multi Speciality Hospital, where he died on Saturday.

In charge of the Sector 17 ISBT police post sub-inspector Pargat Singh said a police team visited five showrooms in Ambala, where the victim’s credit card was used, in an attempt to get clues about the robbers. The police has also quizzed the driver and the conductors of the Haryana roadways bus.

This is the fourth incident of the kind on this route. The police said no document was found on the person of the deceased which could help in establishing his identity. The security officer of the textile unit, Narinder Kohli, came to the police station inquiring about Ghosh. The police gave him description of an unidentified man who had died due to poisoning. The officer then identified the victim as Ghosh.

Ghosh hailed from Lucknow and is survived by his wife and daughter. He lived alone in Baddi.

Kohli told the police that Ghosh was coming from Mumbai. He rang up his wife informing her that he would reach Chandigarh on Saturday. His wife tried to contact him on the phone but failed. She then called up his office, following which the office began searching for him.

SHO of the Sector 17 police station inspector Kulwant Singh Pannu said Ghosh was given some poisonous substance. A case has been registered.

Source: Tribune News Service

After LifeCell, Reliance Life Sciences to enter market as stem cell banking picks up

Chandigarh: The jury is still out on whether stem cell banking should be done by private players. The raging debate, however, is not deterring city residents from banking their children’s stem cells.

The daughter of a senior Punjab official and son of a bottling giant, for instance, are among those who have given their children this unusual ‘gift’.

Young professionals in their 20s, too, have fallen hook, line and sinker for stem cell banking.

When a doctor suggested Rajit Kakkar to opt for cord cell banking before the delivery of his second child, the owner of Silver City, Mohali agreed immediately. His son Aryaman (7) was a leukemia patient. “The doctors suggested that stem cells from the umbilical cord would help in the future treatment if required,” said Kakkar.

His five-month-old daughter Rishaaya is healthy, but Kakkar is assured that in case of any future problems, Rishaaya or Aryaman can fall back on the stored stem cells.

Kakkar is one of the 180 clients in the tricity to have taken advantage of the stem cell banking collection facility at Panchkula.

While the facility set up by LifeCell — a stem cell bank situated in Chennai — is doing well, new entrant Reliance Life Sciences, that has a stem cell bank in Mumbai, is all set to give it a stiff competition.
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CEO of Wakf Board blows whistle on scam of leasing property in connivance with pvt parties

Chandigarh: Close on the heels of Wakf controversies in Mumbai and Punjab, a major scam involving leasing out of Wakf properties in Haryana’s prime town of Gurgaon, in connivance with private parties, has come to light. Mohammad Shayin, a state IAS officer and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Board, who blew the whistle, has been transferred since. However, he has sent a detailed report to the state Home Department, exposing the scam threadbare.

Shayin, while putting the record straight by submitting a detailed report to the state government, has asked for stern action against those who had been treating Wakf properties as their personal property to mint huge sums of money in the form of illegal gratification. The report has leveled serious allegations on the conduct of its chairman, Hamid Hussain, a former MLA from the state. Hamid Hussain, when contacted by The Indian Express, denied the charges.

The Board had leased out prime land measuring 900 square yards at Garhi Harsru in Gurgaon at throwaway prices, where land prices have sky-rocketed, especially after the Haryana Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation allotted 1,400 acres to the Mukesh Ambani Reliance Industries Limited for its Rs 40,000-crore Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The plot had been leased out to M/s Gateway Distri Parks Ltd. in lieu of lease money of Rs 5,000 per month from January 1, 2005. Ironically, the leasing of this property led to demolition of a mosque on this land and against a grant of Rs 1,000 to its Imam. The Board, even after receiving a complaint in this regard, could not act because the chairman of the board, at his own level, had issued an NOC for commercial exploitation of the land. Shayin, in his report, had apprehended that money had exchanged hands.

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Chandigarh: Seats under management quota in private colleges affiliated to Panjab University would now be filled on merit. A resolution to this effect was passed at the PU Senate meeting held on Saturday. It was proposed by Senator Ajay Pal Singh.

The resolution stated that admissions should be through a Common Entrance Test and single window admission mode. Once the regular counselling is over, colleges must advertise the number of management quota seats elaborating on the criteria of admissions. The application should then be received at the Joint Counselling Committee, which would thereafter prepare a merit list of students falling in that category.

The resolution further said the state government had laid down a fixed fee structure for management quota seats, and that the university must ensure that the requisite fee is charged from the students. The reforms are possible if the management quota admissions are brought under the Joint Counselling Committee.

It was observed in the meeting that the Punjab government notification and regulations of B Ed Joint Counselling Committee were flouted during admissions to management quota seats by B Ed colleges.

The committee had laid down that colleges would fill the management quota seats only after regular counselling ends.

Source: News Sulekha.com

Chandigarh: While a one-time package on lines of Maharashtra appears to be a distant dream, the state government, citing rural suicides as a reason, is seeking the Center’s nod for bringing more districts under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

The state government has requested the Union Ministry of Rural Development to extend the scheme in this financial year to five more districts with high below poverty line and SC population and reported high incidents of suicides.

The SAD-BJP combine, which is conducting a survey on the total number of suicides in the state, wants to maximize the advantage for suicide-hit families by enlarging the scope of UPA’s scheme, said a source.

Soon after the SAD-BJP government took over the reins of the state, the Union ministry, on March 29, had extended the scheme to three districts— Amritsar, Jalandhar and Nawanshahr. The scheme, which was launched in Punjab on February 2 last year, was so far implemented only in Hoshiarpur district.

Under the scheme, an adult rural household can demand at least 100 days of guaranteed wage in a financial year if he is willing to work as an unskilled labour. Cost of a 100 per cent unskilled wage component is borne by the Central government whereas the state government bears 25 per cent of the material component, including the wage of skilled and semi-skilled workers.

Eventually in the next five years, the scheme will be extended to all the districts in Punjab as per the national policy. “The programme in the new three districts will begin in about a month’s time,” said a senior SAD leader.

Source: News Suleklha.com