IT Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: The district magistrate has asked the city residents not to employ any domestic servant, helper without submitting particulars of servant/helper to the station house officer concerned.

In an order issued on Friday, the district magistrate said that antecedents of domestic servant/helper/maid servant should be verified in the pubic interest.

This order will be applicable to all the landlords, tenants and those running commercial establishments. In another order, the DM has asked the persons seeking employment in modest non-formal trades or services like plying of rickshaw, rehris, auto-rickshaws, dhobi, cobblers or providing contract labour to provide their particulars along with their photographs of passport size to the local police to enable identification or verification.

The employees and other residents of Chandigarh, who engage contract labour or labourers on daily wages and landlords/owners and managers of paying guest accommodation has also been asked to provide the details of their labour and paying guests to the SHO concerned. These orders shall be effective up to September 27.

Source: The Times of India News Service

MOHALI: A 27-year-old woman committed suicide by immolating herself at her parent’s house in Phase XI, here on Friday. The deceased has been identified as Anuradha. A suicide note, which was found from her bedroom, names her husband and in-laws — who used to harass her for dowry — responsible for the extreme step she resorted to.

Anuradha married Vikas, who runs a confectionery shop in Amritsar, seven years ago and has two sons.

Her father Chaman Lal told mediapersons that her in-laws used to harass her ever since her marriage. “She was residing with me since past one week because her husband tortured her everyday and left her with no option but to leave his house,” said Lal.

Police said the incident took place in the morning when Anuradha’s father went to attend his office. She was alone in the house when she poured kerosene and set herself on fire. Hearing her cries her neighbours rushed into her house and tried to douse the flames. Police was informed and a party immediately reached the spot.

They rushed Anuradha to a nearby hospital where she breathed her last.Police have registered a case against her in laws and sent parties to Amritsar to arrest them.

Source: The Times of India News Service

PANCHKULA: An angry mob torched two PCR vehicles and damaged a fire tender here when cops failed to reach an accident spot on time. Around 7.30 pm, a speeding Scorpio killed a 15-year-old girl Ramrati who was working as a domestic help in the city. The incident happened near the traffic park at Sector 12.

The vehicle also injured a retired officer of animal husbandry department Manoj Gaur. The incident led to traffic congestion that resulted in another accident in which a car hit two two-wheelers, injuring a delivery boy of Anupam Sweets and two others.

According to one eyewitness, police were informed immediately after the accident, but the first PCR took more than an hour to reach the spot. Worse, the cops, who were allegedly drunk, misbehaved with the people who had gathered at the spot.

This led the crowd to smash the windows of the PCR and set the vehicle on fire. Later, the second PCR that reached the spot also met with the same fate and a fire tender that reached there was damaged. Even DSP Abhay Rao, who reached the spot, failed to control the situation and SP Balbir Singh was asked to come to the spot with three additional police teams.
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CHANDIGARH: Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park has decided to start zoo education programmes in higher education institutes and colleges across the state and in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula.

Besides giving a permanent place to animal lovers and creating a new section of young animal lovers, the move is targeted to utilise services and knowledge of animal lovers for zoo visitors.

“We have the go-ahead from authorities as zoo education programme is one of the project suggested by central zoo authority of India (CZAI) this year. Under this programme we would organise special orientation programmes for students as well as animal lovers. Rest it is upto them as to how they want to be associated with us,” Dharminder Sharma, field director of Chhatbir Zoo said.

We are very clear that animal lovers need not necessarily be from Punjab. They could be from anywhere because idea is to share knowledgeand expertise of those involved with wildlife, Sharma added.

Source: Tribune News Service

Chandigarh: As part of the IAF’s platinum jubilee commemorations, personnel from 25 Squadron (Himalayan Eagles) based at Air Force Station, Chandigarh, are undertaking a trekking expedition from Padam to Lamayaru, situated near Leh in the Ladakh region.

The 12-member team will cover the route of 125 km in 12 days.

Their daredevilry in the air would be put to test on the ground as the trek would pass through the treacherous mountainous terrains wherein the personnel would negotiate rapids and passes up to a general elevation of 16,000 feet above sea level.

25 Squadron routinely flies in men and material in support of the Ladakh region with its IL-76 and AN-32 aircraft and this is the terrain that this unit flies over everyday.

Besides adventure, the objective of team is to educate the general population about various environmental issues such as global warming, water scarcity and the like.

Source: Tribune News Service

Chandigarh: At a time when mobility on the battlefield is of essence, the Army’s transport fleet seems to be inadequate. Thirty-five years after it was launched, the Army’s vehicle modernisation and restructuring project remains incomplete.

Of the three classes of vintage vehicles planned to be replaced, 42 per cent of utility trucks (1-2.5 ton) and 24 per cent of jeeps and jongas are still to be replaced with new-generation vehicles

“A delay of three decades in the implementation of the restructuring decision resulted in the Army carrying on with vehicles that were not only fuel inefficient but also did not match the changed tactical concepts, and weapons and equipment profile,” the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) has observed in its latest report.

The CAG report has revealed that the Army was holding about 32,000 unservicable vehicles during 2003-06, resulting in unnecessary inventory carrying cost and loss of disposal value due to prolonged storage. Also, the Army continued to hold almost 21,000 old generation vehicles in its fleet.

Based upon an Army Headquarters study of 1971, the government had in 1972 accepted the need to restructure the Army’s transport fleet to match changing requirements. It took more than two decades for the Army to decide the modalities of its implementation. “Such abnormal delay affected the restructuring and modernisation of the fleet,” CAG observed. It was only in 1997 that the ministry approved detailed authorisation of vehicles for various units.
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Chandigarh: A resident from the city has made it to the world of medical profession by getting admission in MBBS even after suffering from cerebral palsy.

The Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Chandigarh, has admitted Neha Bhutt on the concluding day of counselling for admissions after the medical board constituted at the institute to look in the matter delivered its decision in the favour of candidate here today.

This is the first case in the country that a candidate with cerebral palsy has got admission in the course, claimed the hospital authorities.

Neha, passed her matriculation exams with 92 per cent marks while in plus 2 she scored 75 per cent marks with science subjects from Ajit Karam Singh International Public School at Sector 41, Chandigarh., said her mother Bubbly who works at All India Radio, Chandigarh. RL Bhutt , Neha’s father, is an employee with the State Bank of India in the city.

We have not come across any other example like this in the country where a person suffering from this disease could get admission in MBBS, informed Dr Harsh Mohan, medical Superintendent, GMCH. Cerebral palsy occurs at the time of birth. It can affect the baby in various forms, including mental retardation, said Dr Harsh Mohan.

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Chandigarh: UT Administration has ruled out chances of an outbreak of avian flu in Chandigarh. While intensifying patrolling of the 60,000 strong poultry population in the city in the wake of an outbreak in a village in Manipur, the administration today categorically stated there was no reason to fear and that it was fully prepared to handle any emergency.

“We can set up control rooms within seconds,” said director, animal husbandry, Raji P. Shrivastava.

The department has, meanwhile, instructed owners of both commercial and backyard poultry farms to be extra vigilant and report abnormal deaths in the population immediately. Wildlife department, UT, has also instructed its forest guards to keep tabs on the domestic aquatic population in Sukhna Lake and look out for birds showing symptoms.

Meanwhile, sources in Animal Husbandry Department, while trying to allay fears of an outbreak in Chandigarh, said the states adjacent to Manipur were more vulnerable than those located far off. “In any case, the outbreak in Manipur, as confirmed now, happened in the backyard poultry farm population, which is less risky than the outbreak in commercial poultry population. The reason is that it is easy to manage and monitor locally-maintained poultry as in case of backyard farms. This poultry feeds local markets and can, therefore, be better managed. Commercial farms, however, send the poultry out to other areas, enhancing the possibility of outbreak in other areas,” said a senior technical hand.
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Chandigarh: City residents are in the grip of viral fever these days. For, hundreds of patients have been visiting hospitals with viral attack.

Doctors say the fever erupts in the humid weather every year, but this year the cases are slightly on the higher side.

Government hospitals in Sectors 35 and 16 confirm the arrival of at least 50 cases of viral fever each day.

The Community Hospital, Sector 22, is registering at least 25 cases every day, says Dr Naresh Sharma.

A survey of private practitioners paints a similar picture, as a large number of patients have been visiting them with fever.

They are in addition to scores of others who visit chemists for dose of self-medication, confirm chemists.
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Chandigarh: Prof Vijay Gupta, Director of Punjab Engineering College, has tendered his resignation. He has submitted his papers to the home secretary, seeking to be relieved of the charge by August-end.

Professor Gupta announced that he was quitting during a faculty meeting here this evening, which lasted less than 10 minutes.” It is time to move on. I have offers from at least two leading institutes of the country, about which I will not like to disclose at the moment,” he said.

Professor Gupta did his B.Tech from the IIT in Delhi and PhD from the University of Minnesota. His areas of specialisation are education technology, aerospace engineering and fluid mechanics. He has written at least 10 books on engineering design methods, heat and mass transfer and bicycles.

He attempted a number of administrative and teaching reforms, some of which landed him in controversies during his brief two-year stint. The chairman of the PEC, Chandermohan, who is out of the country, will call a special meeting of the PEC board of governors to start the process of appointing a new director.

Source: TNS