IT Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: How important is analysing the octogenarian status of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to get a new vision and agenda for the Indian leadership?

A lot, apparently. That seemed to be the feeling at an interactive session on ‘The Changing Face of Indian Leadership: New Agenda, New Vision’ organized by Young Indians, an NGO, at CII headquarters here on Friday. The CM’s lack of technological knowledge was another topic that took centre stage. That should come as no surprise, given the speaker was Sukhpal Singh Khaira, Congress MLA from Bholath.

His audience were students, who were probably talking to a politician for the first time. He said, “Badal can’t operate internet, doesn’t know a bit about e-mails and his thought process is obsolete.”

He compared the CM with Rajiv Gandhi, who was eulogized for bringing a revolution in the country’s politics and telecommunications sector and so on. One fact, which was conveniently glossed over in this harangue on age, youth and efficiency was that our present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is 75 and gets plenty of respect all over.

Sunil Jakhar, MLA from Abohar, too utilized the occasion to throw barbs on SAD-BJP’s culture of “freebies”, which he said had burdened the state exchequer in a big way.
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CHANDIGARH: Imagine a classic scene straight out of a Punjabi film of the ’70s- two tall, burly, brash, ‘ Putt Jattan de’ , the typical spoilt, rich, bad guys trying to kidnap a heroine and then ending up with a black eye and a bloodied
nose after a sound beating by the hero!

Cut to the present day Punjab - The villains have grown up into mature, not-so-young men and are once again together, and once again on a stage, but this time acting out a different role altogether.

Meet BJP’s Punjab chief, Prof Rajinder Bhandari and SAD’s MLA from Qadian, Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal, once aspiring film actors and now partners in power, at the helms of affairs in Punjab.

Both are quite open talking about this little known aspect of their very public lives, “Why, if Sidhu (Navjot Singh) can act all over the media, what is wrong in our doing it,” Bhandari asks, revealing that he would love to act once again, if offered a good role. Lodhinangal is even more forthcoming, “Once bitten by the acting bug, you can’t throw this bug out of your system, so easily. I would love to act once again,” he says.
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CHANDIGARH: Coming to the rescue of hapless villagers in Punjab, who are virtually drinking poison in the name of water, the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued a notice of motion to the state for January 22, on Friday.

The court did this while treating a report published on December 18 in the TOI as a public interest litigation (PIL).

Expressing anguish over the horrific state of affairs shown through the TOI report based on a PGIMER, Chandigarh, inquiry spanning two years, the division bench, comprising chief justice Vijender Jain and justice Mahesh Grover, sought Punjab’s reply on the issue.

The report had caught the high court’s attention on December 18 itself. The division bench, comprising justices KS Garewal and Daya Chaudhary, had termed the contents of the report as “frightening” reflection on the scenario prevailing in Punjab’s villages.

Justices Garewal and Chaudhary, made a quick note of the points of concern as highlighted in the report and referred the matter to the chief justice requesting him to examine the contents of the report and treat it as a PIL.

The PGIMER team of experts had probed the effects of industrial waste and pesticides on human health in 25 Punjab villages located near five open drains.
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SHO suspended

Mohali: SHO of Phase XI Rajpal Singh has been suspended for dereliction of duty in the investigation of a case. According to SAS NagarSSP R.S. Khatrea, the SHO was asked to report to the police lines.

Sources added that Rajpal Singh was investigating an alleged firing that took place near the Mohali Club some days back. Rajpal Singh, a complainant in the case, is said to have interrogated some persons as part of these investigations. Sources added that the whole incident was concocted and never took place.

“During this investigation, dereliction of duty on part of the SHO has come to my notice. He has been suspended,” said the SSP.

Source: TNS

Chandigarh: The Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed Air Deccan to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation to an SAS Nagar-based couple for causing harassment by delaying refund of ticket fare.

Parminder Gill and his wife Sukhwinder Gill had moved the consumer forum alleging that Air Deccan took a lot of time to refund the ticket fare after the cancellation of flight.

The couple had booked two tickets of Air Deccan to fly to Jammu from Chandigarh in February 2007, but the flight was cancelled. Following which, Parminder demanded refund of Rs 7,960 spent by him. The payment, however, was delayed by the airline.

In their reply, Air Deccan maintained that the flight was cancelled due to unavoidable reasons and pointed out that the ticket fare had already been returned to the complainant.

The forum, headed by Jagroop Singh Mahal, observed, “Although the amount of the tickets has been refunded, yet the refund does not pay up for the harassment caused due to delay. Thus, Air Deccan is liable to pay compensation to the complainants for the harassment caused due to delay in the refund.”

Source: TNS

Mohali: The Bathinda police today took away Ramandeep Singh Kohli, a resident of Phase X, on production warrants for a cheating case registered against him there.The Mohali police had arrested Kohli two days back for allegedly firing in air outside the Mohali Club in Phase XI some day back.

According to the police, Ramandeep had gone to attend a wedding at the club with his driver Jatinder and friend Sarandeep. A woman was accompanying them. Before leaving the venue they allegedly fired in the air. The three were arrested on December 19 but the woman was reportedly let off.

According to the police, five cartridges and a revolver was recovered from Ramandeep following his arrest. Another revolver and five other cartridges were also recovered from him later, said the police.

Ramandep was living in a rented accommodation in Mohali.

Source: TNS

Chandigarh: For heart patients and potential heart patients it is time for “no cheers”.

Contrary to the popular perception that “two small drinks a day” are fine for your heart, eminent cardiologist and PGI director, Prof KK Talwar, today said there was no conclusive evidence of “beneficial” effects of alcohol on the human heart.

The two-drink theory is a hoax and may be part of the liquor companies’ strategy to push up their sales, Professor Talwar said in a talk on healthy heart during the course of a medical camp organised by the Chandigarh Press Club in association with the Gianwati-OP Jain Memorial Trust, Charkhi Dadri, here today.

Heart patients should at best avoid liquor, the doctor said, adding that occasional consumption of 45 ml of liquor (one-and-a-half small drinks) for persons prone to heart diseases could be recommended.

Blaming lifestyle diseases, including heart diseases, on wrong dietary habits, Professor Talwar, who is also head of the department of cardiology of the PGI, said balanced diet coupled with exercise could go a long way in preventing heart diseases.
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Replacing even functional streetlight poles

Chandigarh: Undertaking an ‘engineering activity’ that is aimed more at spending the allocated budget than to serve any purpose, the Chandigarh municipal corporation is changing all streetlight poles, including the functional ones, on Madhya Marg, Dakshin Marg and Jan Marg.

Public money running in lakhs is being spent on changing the streetlights merely for ‘aesthetic reasons’. On Dakshin Marg alone, at least 210 poles worth lakhs of rupees are being replaced. In the next few months, hundreds of streetlight poles across the city would be changed without anyone, including the elected councillors, questioning the waste of the public money.

The existing poles would be either be dumped in the MC store or sold as scrap. Sources did not even rule out the possibility of the old streetlights being passed off as new and fixed at some other places. There should be a full-fledged enquiry into the status of such streetlight poles which are dumped.

P.K. Mukherjee, chairman of the Electricity Committee, said he was not in favour of changing the poles. “What will aesthetics do if the underground electricity cable is damaged due to wrong procedure of laying the cable,” said Gagandeep, a resident of Sector 48.
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Chandigarh: The issue of the alleged exploitation of the HIV+ women undergoing anti-retroviral treatment at the PGI took a new turn today with the Chandigarh Police deciding to entrust the inquiry to a woman police official.

The police decision follows a formal written request by the PGI authorities to the police to probe matter thoroughly. “Given the sensitive nature of allegations, I have asked SSP Dinesh Bhatt to entrust the probe to a lady police official”, UT IGP SK Jain told The Tribune here.

While non-committal on any time-frame for the completion of the inquiry, Jain, however, added that it would be completed soon. Jain confirmed that the police had received two representations, one from the PGI and another from certain NGOs, for the conduct of the probe. Terming the allegations of physical abuse of the HIV-infected patients as serious, PGI director K.K. Talwar informed that inquiry had been entrusted to the police for a “fair and transparent” probe into the incident.

“It is a sensitive and human issue involving patient rights and the PGI wants that the truth should come so that such incidents were avoided in future”.

Talwar said, adding that the PGI’s internal inquiry would continue simultaneously.
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