IT Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: Punjab may soon witness hundreds of air-conditioned buses on its highways if the government implements its plan of replacing ordinary passenger buses with air-conditioned ones.

Under the proposed new transport policy, the government would substantially slash taxes on air-conditioned buses in a bid to phase out ordinary buses on long routes.

And passengers would have to pay marginally more for the comfort of air-conditioned travel than travel by ordinary buses though at present, fare for the AC bus is two and a half times that of the ordinary buses.

According to a detailed note prepared by the department, existing irrational tax structure in the state has failed to attract investment by private players in AC buses.

At present, the state road tax (SRT) on AC buses is three times the SRT on ordinary buses and the net result is that of the 42 AC buses that have been issued permit, only 12 are of state transport undertakings— Punjab Roadways and Pepsu Road Transport Corporation, while 10 others are not on the road and all of these together generate Rs 96 lakh per annum as tax revenue for the state.

Most of the AC buses running in Punjab have taken permit as tourist buses to ply from one point to another, say from Mohali to Amritsar.

Though these tourist buses operate like stage carriage for all practical purposes, these pay taxes as tourist buses causing immense loss to the state exchequer.
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Mohali: The municipal library will start functioning from Silvi Park in Phase X from July 23 after three weeks.

The municipal council has taken over charge of the library from Browser, which ran it for the last more than two years. A sum of Rs 2 lakh had been set aside by the civic body for making necessary purchases.

To begin with, only magazines and newspapers would be made available at the library. Books will be added at later.

Executive officer J.S. Thind said the council planned to have a lower membership fee as compared to Browser, which was charging between Rs 300 to Rs 2,000.

The decision to run the library was taken by the council at a meeting held on June 27 after Browser refused to give free membership to municipal councillors and the staff of the civic body. QBrowser was running the library since October 2004. The civic body had provided the required infrastructure for the same.

Source: Tribune News Service

Chandigarh: The relevance is in believing in one’s roots and Dr Pankaj Mala Sharma is certain of it.

In a paper she authored with two other experts, Dr Sharma, reader, department of music, and dean, faculty of design and fine art at Panjab University, has explained the significance of the Vedas in the prevention of AIDS.

The study, ‘Principles of Marriage and Reproductive Health during the Vedic Period: Relevance to Prevention of AIDS’, has been accepted as a poster presentation at the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) to be held at Colombo in August.

“The concepts described in the Vedas have a scientific foundation and the interpretations make it methodically applicable in the prevention of HIV/AIDS,” explains Dr Sharma.

The study refers to the status of women, reproductive health and marital life in the context of prevention of the disease. It also talks about the protection and health of women as integral features.

However, when questioned about the relevance of all this in today’s world, Dr Sharma admitted that while it was not easy to put these principles into practice, “the remedy lies in following it, even if just part of it”.
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Chandigarh: Chandigarh Cricket Association (Affiliated to Haryana Cricket Association) has selected following players who will participate in the upcoming Haryana Inter-District Pataudi Trophy.

CCA team will play their first match against Rohtak on July 22 at Lally Stadium, Rohtak.

The selected players are required to assemble at Govt. Genior Secondary School, Sector -19, Chandigarh, at 7 am tomorrow.

Team: Vipul Chadha, Amaya (wicketkeeper), Amandeep Sonkar, Sumit Kundu, Harkishan Kali, Micheal Vishal, Rocky Ratra, Sansar Bali, Sandeep Bhattacharya, Mansoor Ali Khan, Ajay Sikka, Shakun Verma, Arjun Puri, Karan Kherwal, Amit Sonkar, Yuvraj Anand, Vikas Chauhan, AP Singh (wicketkeeper).

Source: Express News Service

Chandigarh: The Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, organised the Commonwealth Moot Court Competition 2007 (national and South Asian rounds) on its Patiala campus on Friday.

Over fifteen teams from all over the country participated in the event. Teams from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka took part in the South Asian rounds. The winner teams of the national rounds and South Asian rounds will be selected for the final rounds of Commonwealth Moot to be held at Nairobi (Kenya) from September 9 to 13 this year.

Punjab Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh inaugurated the competition. Addressing the law students, he said, law is not an absolute science; it is subject to different perceptions, interpretations and applications. He also guided the students that money is important but they should not forget their obligations towards society. He said that lawyers fight for justice and not for some procedural judgment.

He said the judiciary in recent years has grown prominent because of non-performing executive. He said when he was a student, court craft as a subject was introduced only in Delhi University. He said students should utilise the opportunities as more and more such competitions are being organised to learn skills of advocacy.

Source: Express News Service

Chandigarh: Over 500 advocates of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association have signed a requisition demanding an emergency meeting to discuss an issue concerning the conduct of the Judges of the High Court.

The requisition reads as, “Majority of Hon’ble Judges of this High Court are honest, well behaved and polite with few exceptions and these few spoil the relations between the Bar and the Bench. Some of the Hon’ble Judges do not behave well in the Court and even go to the extent of saying ‘shut up’. Not only this, they keep on threatening the lawyers with contempt during the court proceedings often”. The requisition prepared by Advocate Tahar Singh further states that junior lawyers get afraid due to this. Expressing resentment over the seniors, the letter further states that even seniors did not dare to point out to the Judges to mend their behavior rather apologized on the behalf of the juniors. “Lawyers are the officers of the Court. Hon’ble Judges and lawyers must respect each other, so that the cordial relations are maintained between the Bar and the Bench”, the requisition further reads.

Tahar has further appealed that an emergency meeting of the House be convened within seven days of the submission of this requisition as per the Rules.

Source: Express News Service

Chandigarh: The State Transport Authority (STA) has decided to phase out all non-AC buses and replace them with AC ones. This comes in line with the ambitious plans of the administration in trying to create transport options for residents so that they shift from private vehicles to public transport.

To promote tourism in Chandigarh, STA has also decided to waive the composite fee being imposed on All India Tourist Vehicles coming from outside of UT. The buses and motor cabs were charged Rs 12,000 and Rs 3,000 for 3 months (quarter year). From now onwards, no composite fee would be imposed on such vehicles. The administration has also decided to increase the All India Tourist Permits for AC buses to 50, from the existing 25 permits. The applications for the same would be invited through public advertisement.

The decisions were formally taken at the 133 rd meeting of the STA body under the Chairmanship of UT Home Secretary, Krishna Mohan, today.

Rate of penalty being imposed for late passing/permit renewal on commercial vehicles has been increased. For auto rickshaws, it has been increased to Rs 50 from the existing Rs 20. For LMVs, it has been increased from Rs 80 to Rs 100 and for MTV/HTV, it has been increased from Rs 150 to Rs 200.

The meeting was held to form a committee consisting of Director Tourism, Secretary/STA and Addl Secretary/STA, Chandigarh to oversee the draw of lots.

All India Tourist Permits are to be allotted against 8 vacant tourist permits. As per applications invited by STA, 33 applicants have been found eligible. Draw of lots will be taken out for these 8 permits from 33 applicants by forming a Screening Committee.
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SAS Nagar, July 20: The Municipal Employees’ Union of Kharar staged a sit-in protest on Friday outside the meeting hall of Municipal Council (MC) while the monthly meeting of the council was in progress.

General secretary of the union Avtar Rana entered the meeting hall and thretened to start a fast unto death if he would not get justice in the ongoing inquiry against him in a bribery case.

The meeting was to discuss an agenda item today regading the compliant against Rana.

He said the inquiry against him should have been completed in three-months time, but even after one year, he is being unnessesarily harassed. However, the complainant in the bribery case, a sanitation employee, Balbir Kaur, was also present at the meeting and alleged that Rana had taken Rs 2,000 from her to clear the paper work for her son to find a job on compassionate grounds.

Vice-president of Kharar MC Jai Bhagwan Singla said Rana is a controversial employee, who has earlier faced charges of the same nature on four different occasions.

He said the case pending against him would be finalised immediately.
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SAS Nagar: After giving clean chit to Sunil, the woman present at Inderpal’s house, Zirakpur police today cleared Jyoti and her husband (a resident of Jalandhar) after rigorous interrogation. Now police are concentrating their lead on the third woman Rajni (resident of Panchkula) who was very close to the deceased and according to police sources, Inderpal used to introduce her as his wife at many places.

According to the information, police are checking all contacts of Rajni and she has been questioned twice by the Zirakpur police. Sources say Inderpal’s family guru advised him to keep away from Rajni as she was the wife of his nephew who died due to heavy alcohol consumption a few months back. Also, Inderpal wanted to marry his son to Rajni’s daughter, both of whom are presently in Australia.

According to information, the police are also working on the cell phone details of the deceased, but they are not ready to disclose these details during the course of investigation. A senior police official said that different police teams have been formed for this case but nothing concrete has been found till date regarding the murder.

DSP, Derabassi, Gursharan Singh Grewal said he has received the list of mobile phones Inderpal owned and from tomorrow they would start investigating further.

Source: Express News Service

Chandigarh: In order to further empower the women representative of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), first state-level Women Empowerment Conference will be organised at Bhiwani on April 24 next. A decision in this regard has been taken in the first core committee meeting held here today under the chairmanship of Kartar Devi, Health Minister, Haryana, who is also the Chairperson of the State level Core Committee. In her address, Kartar Devi said that in order to empower the women representatives of PRIs, it was necessary to make them aware of their rights. This awareness drive would be started from block level and for that NGOs’ involvement would be ensured. Haryana Minister of State for Forest and Tourism Kiran Chaudhry and convener of the Core Committee said that the number of women panches in Bhiwani district is 1,919, which is the highest among the total 25,573 women panches of panchayats in the state.

She said that Mewat district is in second position having 1558 women panches. She stressed that women representatives of panchayats should be made aware of their rights so that they might work with more efficiency.

Source: Express News Service