IT Chandigarh

Chandigarh, Sep 20 : Leader of Opposition in Punjab assembly Rajinder Kaur Bhattal today assailed the state Government for the proposed hike in the power tariff saying that with this increase, public would have to bear the brunt of fiscal mismanagement of the Badal Government.
In a statement issued here today, Ms Bhattal described as ”unfair” the increase in power tariff by 8.4 per cent, 12 per cent and 7 per cent for domestic, agriculture and other consumers respectively, and expressed apprehension that it would lead to flight of industry from the State.

Already, because of exemptions and other benefits in the neighbouring States, big business houses had shifted their units to Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress leader said.

She urged the State Government to desist from taking steps which ultimately contributed to inflation, as the people were already hard pressed because of spiraling prices of essential commodities.
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Chandigarh: The Punjab Government has notified the new external development charges (EDC), conversion changes of land and license fee which is now 25 to 75 per cent less than the previous rates.
These changes have been made keeping in mind the concerns and sentiments of the common man and the estate market, Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Mr Arun Goel stated here today.

Committed to develop and provide world class infrastructure all around, the state government has partially modified the policies and reduced the charges/fee and rationalized minimum area requirement for setting up residential/commercial colonies, he said.

He revealed that the new policy provides space for participation and working and looks after the interests of the small, medium and large scale colonizers and promoters. He said the notified charges will be applicable to areas falling under the statutory or non-statutory master plan limits and to the areas falling beyond these limits in the state of Punjab.

The new policy also provides for grant of Change of Land Use (CLU) on verification of ownership from Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM). The cases would be processed extremely fast, Mr Goel assured.
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Chandigarh: MRF of Chennai routed ITC of Delhi by 107 runs in their maiden appearance and collected five points, including one bonus, in 14th All India JP Atray Memorial Cricket Tournament at the DAV Senior Secondary School ground in Sector 8 here today.

Batting first after winning the toss, MRF posted 287 run for 8 in 50 overs. Openers Daniel Manohar and Swapnil contributed 71 runs for the opening wicket before the latter (30, 5×4s, 1 x6) was snapped by wicket keeper Pradeep Chawla of the bowling of Kuldip.

Skipper Venu Gopal Rao joined Manohar and were associated in a 86-run stand for the second wicket. Daniel Manohar was stumped by wicketkeeper Pradeep Chawla of the bowling of Deepak Sharma for a well made 64 runs of 80 balls inclusive 9 fours and a six.

Deepak Sharma also accounted for Venu Gopal (50, 3×4s, 1×6). The other notable contributors were Saurav Tiwari (45), 1×4s, 3×6s) and Sushil (37 not out, 6×4s). For ITC, Deepak Sharma (2 for 53), Abhishek Sharma (2 for 54) and Ashish Malhotra (2 for 43) were the main wicket takers for ITC.

In reply, ITC were bundled out for 180 runs in 36.5 overs. Vishal Tyagi (33), Pradeep Chowla (27), Praveen Gupta (27) were the main contributors for ITC. Chandran (2 for 23), Shrikant (2 for 25) and Ashish Kapoor (2 for 33) were the main wicket-takers for MRF. Test star Venu Gopal Rao was declared man of the match.
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Chandigarh: Leader of Opposition in Punjab assembly Rajinder Kaur Bhattal today assailed the state Government for the proposed hike in the power tariff saying that with this increase, public would have to bear the brunt of fiscal mismanagement of the Badal Government.

In a statement issued here today, Ms Bhattal described as ”unfair” the increase in power tarrif by 8.4 per cent, 12 per cent and 7 per cent for domestic, agriculture and other consumers respectively, and expressed apprehension that it would lead to flight of industry from the State.

Already, because of exemptions and other benefits in the neighbouring States, big business houses had shifted their units to Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress leader said.

She urged the State Government to desist from taking steps which ultimately contributed to inflation, as the people were already hard pressed because of spiraling prices of essential commodities.

“Farmers of the State were already under debt and many had committed suicide, they would be directly and indirectly affected by the increase in power tariff, ” she said adding that in order to meet the revenue deficit in the Punjab State Electricity Board, the government should explore other steps to plug the loopholes like revenue and transmission losses.
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Chandigarh: The Punjab Government has constituted Noise Pollution Control Cells (NPCC) in every district to check the violation of Noise Control Act.

Stating this in the meeting held under the Chairmanship of Mr M P Singh, IAS Secretary Science and Technology Punjab, said that A D C (General) of the districts concerned would be in-charge of such cell who would take concrete steps coordinating with government officials and NGOs.

It was also decided that keeping in view of the Diwali festival, NPCCS would launch an awareness campaign at grassroots level with the help of printed and electronic media, to educate the public against the harmful affects of noise pollution.

Mr M P Singh also said that school children would also be inspired by these cells to celebrate the festivals free of crackers so that clean and noise free environment could be maintained.

State Local Bodies Department has been directed to install hoardings at public places for the safety of patients, aged and others from destructive effects of noise pollution. They could seek police help in the effective implementation this regard, he added.
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Chandigarh: The Punjab Cabinet today approved the City Transport Project on the pattern of Indore City Transport Services Limited (ICLTS) for the three major cities of Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana.

This service would run on Public-Private Partnership ( PPP ) mode. It would enable the commuters to benefit from good quality city buses besides reducing in traffic congestion and pollution in the cities.

The local government department would be the nodal agency for implementing the project.

This decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet held here this evening. The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

The Cabinet also approved the rationalisation of the taxes and reforms in the State Transport Department to make public transport sector viable and competitive. This step is aimed at providing efficient and affordable transport to the public and for reducing road congestion, air pollution and road accidents.
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Chandigarh: Haryana on Thursday became the first Indian state to invite bids for public projects through a transparent, new process of e-tenders.

Chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda formally launched the new system of inviting and assessing bids in Chandigarh for 15 works worth Rs 266 crores pertaining to the Prime Minister’s Rural Roads project.

The chief minister said that the new system, which has inbuilt transparency and is free of the usual bureaucratic delays, will shortly be extended to all departments of the Haryana government.

The state administration plans to initially invite e-tenders for projects worth Rs 1,000 crores in the public works department.

The new system will invite interested players to make bids and continuously track the status of the tendering process on the Internet. PWD secretary K.K. Jalan said not only could bids be made from anywhere but the system also ensures complete secrecy.

Source: in.news.yahoo

It was my first visit to Varanasi. Sitting in a shop in busy Nichhi Bagh, I was drawn to a funeral procession. Headed by a band playing a religious tune, it had six persons with shaven heads and long, flowing chotis, bearing a corpse on their shoulders. Another 50-odd people followed, chanting, ‘Ram nam satya hai.’

Having lived in Chandigarh all my life, this was an unusual experience for me. Seven funeral processions passed by that shop within half an hour. Aghast, I turned to the shopkeeper, “Pandeji, isn’t the death rate terribly high in Varanasi?” Pande smiled, “All these bodies are not from Varanasi alone. This road leads to a cremation ground which has great significance for all Hindus in the vicinity. It is believed that if you are cremated here, you land directly in heaven.”

“But, Pandeji,” I replied, “what point is it to bring dead bodies over such long distances for the last rites when we know that it is only our good deeds that lead us to heaven.” The inconvenient truth seemed to disturb Pandeji. He shot me a quizzical look and said, “It’s a matter of belief. But I believe that while living in this workaday world, many times we do things that are against the tenets of our faith. Given this, a balance has to be struck so that while living our lives under these pressures we don’t lose sight of our final goal of salvation as enshrined in our shastras.”

He went on, “Holy men in all religions have addressed this issue by creating special ways to dispose of the dead, by categorising a few rivers and mountains as holy, and observing certain rituals for certain occasions. People patronise shrines and darghas in difficult, far-flung regions. People will have to make time to visit them in a spirit of penance.”

He then asked me that if I were to reach the 25th floor of a skyscraper which has stairs on one side and a lift, on the other, what would I have opted for. “Naturally a lift,” I said. “Exactly,” replied Pandeji. “Consider these as lifts to a much-cherished heaven.”

I came back convinced that the long tilak on Pande’s forehead was not for nothing.

Source: in.news.yahoo

Chandigarh: Over 300 senior citizens participated in a brisk walk competition organised by the Chandigarh police in collaboration with the Chandigarh Senior Citizens Association at Sukhna Lake this morning. The UT IGP, S.K. Jain, flagged off the competition which included five events for men and women.

The winners are:

Men: (60-65 years): 1 KC Bagga, 2 B.S. Sandhu, 3 Kashmira Singh Sidhu; (above 65-70 years): 1 Jagdish Tyagi, 2 P.L.Vadhera, 3 K.K. Sharma

Women: (60-65 years): 1B.K. Chanchal, 2 Sumita Pannu, 3 Dimple; (above 65-70 years): 1Usha Sharma, 2 Dr Nirmal Bhatia, 3 Rajinder Sodhi; Professional category: 1 G.S. Virdi, 2 M.L. Chitkara, 3 Gurdev Singh.

Consolation prize: Jatinder Marwaha.

Source: TNS

Chandigarh: The revised building plan of a multiplex being opened by the DLF in the IT park have not been approved by the Chandigarh administration.

Reason, the promoters have not been able to amend the revised building plans as per the requirement. The issue had come up for discussion during a meeting of the special project approval committee.

Recently, the union ministry of forest and environment had objected to the opening of the multiplex instead of a multy-utility block. The administration had allotted 12.5 acres to DLF for setting up built spaces for IT companies, including 20 per cent of the allotted area for setting up multi-utility services.

However, the revised plan was found deficit in many ways. Some of the facilities were provided in the basement against building bylaws and facilities for running water harvesting and solar heating system were not shown in the drawings. In connection with a multiplex proposed by the owners of KC theatre, an official said after reviewing the design, a committee of the administration had made suggestions which were conveyed to the owners by the chief architect.
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