12072022-CT-01.qxd 7/12/2022 1:25 AM Page 1 c m y b Chandigarh TRIBUNE TUESDAY | 12 JULY 2022 | CHANDIGARH HOUSING BOARD SPEEDS UP DISPOSAL OF APPLICATIONS PAGE 3 CHB to rely on documents submitted by applicants unless there is any doubt about their authenticity. FORECAST GENERALLY CLOUDY TRICITY COVID REPORT CHD P’KULA MOHALI POSITIVE 94,443 45,468 97,242 RECOVERED 92,907 44,934 95,811 NEW CASES 34 13 22 ACTIVE 371 119 274 CHANGE — 83 12 DEATHS 1,165 415 1,157 NEW 0 0 0 AIR QUALITY INDEX MP Kirron Kher says the centres in Sector 20 and 30 are strategically located to serve the citizens. MAX 35°C | MIN 26°C | YESTERDAY MAX 36.1°C | MIN 26.4°C SUNSET TUESDAY 7:27 PM PAGE 3 LEASE ROW: BALBIR SIDHU PROTESTS AT GAUSHALA Ex-Health Minister stages a protest outside Bal Gopal Gaushala in Balongi over cancellation of its lease. SUNRISE WEDNESDAY 5:30 AM TWITTER/THETRIBUNECHD FACEBOOK/CHANDIGARHTRIBUNE 2 ‘termite-infested’ heritage trees to be axed in city, UT gets into action Dushyant Singh Pundir Tribune News Service CHANDIGARH 67 PANCHKULA 35 MOHALI 45 401-500 301-400 201-300 101-200 51-100 0-50 PAGE 3 KIRRON OPENS COMMUNITY CENTRES IN SECTOR 20, 30 SEVERE VERY POOR POOR MODERATE SATISFACTORY GOOD INBRIEF SARABJIT KAUR NEW MOHALI SDM Mohali:Sarabjit Kaur assumed charge as Mohali SDM on Monday. Earlier, she was serving as the Deputy Director, Water Resources Department, Punjab. Sarabjit has been an international athlete. She represented India in the 1998 Half Marathon. She has replaced Harbans Singh, who has been transferred as the SDM, Dasuya. TNS 2 HURT IN MISHAP Mohali: A speeding car rammed into a motorcycle near the Phase 9-10 light point, critically injuring the rider and pillion rider, a woman, around 11 pm on Monday. Eyewitnesses said the car driver, who was allegedly in an inebriated condition, was driving on the wrong side. TNS Chandigarh, July 11 It took a student’s life to find that two heritage trees in the city have outlived their life and are “heavily infested” with termites. The heritage trees standing tall in the heart of the city, Sector 19 and 23, for more than a century will now be axed, as recommended by a committee formed by the administration. On the morning of July 8, a 250-year-old heritage peepal tree split and fell on students at Carmel Convent School, Sector 9-B. The incident claimed the life of 16-year-old Heerakshi. Eighteen students and one bus attendant were injured. The bus attendant is battling for life at the PGI. The peepal tree was also heavily “infested with termites” which had weakened the trunk of the tree. Environmentalist LR Budaniya said trees should be treated with termiticide at least once a year. Subsequent to the incident, the administration directed its team to do an extensive survey of all “dead and dry trees” and trees posing danger to human life and property. According to an order issued by the UT Administration on December 21, 2017, it had notified 31 trees as “Heritage Trees”, as there was a danger of losing such major trees due to various reasons and the need was felt to pro- 1,634 DEAD/DRY TREES AXED IN CITY IN 5 YEARS 180 trees for which permission given to cut or remove in the past two months TERMITE THE ROOT CAUSE Former students of Carmel Convent School, Sector 9, have a look at the place where the incident happened; and (below) people attend the prayer ceremony of Heerakshi. MANOJ MAHAJAN/NITIN MITTAL FACING AXE Termite makes a tree hollow. The weakened trunk cannot withstand the weight of the tree. Eventually, the tree dies. During storms and heavy rain, heavy branches may come off as the trunk is hollow. WHAT ADMN SAYS ❝ MANGO TREE 150-year-old; at Vatika School for Deaf & Dumb Children, Sector 19-B tect these, educate the community on the importance of the heritage trees and protecting the city’s tree wealth. Adviser to the Administrator Dharam Pal said the remaining 30 heritage trees had been thoroughly verified by the committee comprising officers from the Engineering Department, horticulture wing of the Municipal Corpo- PEEPAL TREE 150-year-old; at the entrance to Government Nursery, Sector 23-C ration and the Forest Department, for their health, strength and vulnerability to uprooting. The committee has also recommended the pruning of three heritage In order to avert any untoward incident, the administration will remove all dead/dry trees, which are posing a danger to life and property, within a week. ❞ Dharam Pal, ADVISER trees, including the one at Sukhna Lake. “In order to avert any untoward incident, the administration will remove all dead/dry trees, continued on page 3 Saarth Singla, along with his parents, flashes the victory sign at his home in Sector 50, Chandigarh, on Monday. PHOTO: VICKY Saarth Singla tops city in JEE-Main Tribune News Service PERCENTILE Chandigarh, July 11 A resident of Sector 50, Saarth Singla, has topped Chandigarh in JEE-Main (2022) by securing 99.9984363 percentile. Saarth started preparing for the exam in 2020. “Daily practice is very important in the preparation of this exam. You have to maintain a pace and consistency while studying. You have to ensure that there is no backlog so that nothing is left out during the preparation,” he said. He is a keen learner. He attributed his achievement in the exam to his speed and accuracy. He wants to pursue computer science at IITBombay and is now preparing for the JEE-Advanced exam. He completed his schooling from Government 99.99 SUCCESS MANTRA: Speed and accuracy AIM: To pursue computer science at IIT-Bombay ensure ❝You have tobacklog so that there is no that nothing is left out during the preparation. ❞ Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 32. His father, Sanjeev Singla, is an advocate at the Punjab and Haryana High Court and mother Deepika Singla is a homemaker. Around 19 students from Chandigarh have scored above 99.90 percentile and 84 got 99 percentile. Two students have scored 99.99 percentile. Waste collectors go on strike Out on bail, 25-year-old youth again nabbed for bicycle theft 3 killed as truck rams into stationary vehicle Dera Bassi, July 11 Three persons were killed and one was injured when a truck rammed into a stationary mini-truck near Jawaharpur village here this morning. The truck, coming from the Ambala side, rammed into the other vehicle around 3 am. The injured were rushed to the local civil hospital where the doctors declared both drivers, Pradeep, a native of Uttarakhand, and Hitesh Kapoor, a resident of Karnal, dead on arrival. Two injured were referred to the Government Medical College and Hospital-32, Chandigarh, where the conductor of the mini-truck, Ganesh, a resident of Rohtak, succumbed. According to eyewitnesses, a tyre of the mini-truck got punctured and Hitesh, along with the conductor, was replacing it when the accident happened. The person undergoing treatment at the GMCH-32 was travelling by the mini-truck. The traffic on the AmbalaChandigarh highway had remained disrupted for a long time. The police got the road cleared. — TNS Tribune News Service MANOJ MAHAJAN The damaged truck that rammed into the stationary mini-truck (bottom) near Jawaharpur village, Dera Bassi, on Monday. NITIN MITTAL Chandigarh, July 11 Residents had a tough time as door-to-door garbage collectors went on strike today to press for their demands. Garbage was seen dumped in the open in some areas. Though waste-lifting vehicles were seen moving in several sectors, the workers did not collect waste. Many vehicles were seen parked on the roadside or in the common parking area. “Garbage collectors are on strike, but many of them are roaming in their vehicles. How come they are permitted to use the government vehicles on a non-working day?” wondered RK Garg, president of a senior citizens’ association. Hitesh Puri, chairman of the Chandigarh Resident Associations Welfare Federation (CRAWFED), said, “Residents from different sectors complained the garbage was not lifted today. The authorities must do something as it will have an impact on the Door-to-door garbage collectors strike work in Chandigarh. WORKERS’ GRIEVANCES ■ MC does not honour the MoU ■ ~2L not being given to family in case of worker’s death ■ Societies running own system ■ Salaries released late Swachhta drive. We will raise this issue with the MC.” Some residents feel the traditional system of lifting garbage through carts and fee collected by the workers was better than the present arrangement. “The earlier system was much better. Why the MC got unnecessarily involved in door-to-door collection?” asked Balaraj Singh continued on page 3 Chandigarh, July 11 The police have arrested a 25year-old youth on the charge of stealing 13 costly bicycles in the city. The suspect, Vikas, a resident of Sector 28, is out on bail in a case of theft of 12 cycles registered this year. A fresh case under section 379 and 411 of the IPC has been registered against him. Gurdeep Singh of Sector 29 had complained to the police about the theft of his bicycle from the Sector 29 market. During investigation, Vikas was arrested on July 10 and Gurdeep’s bicycle was recovered from his possession. During further investigation, 12 more costly bicycles stolen by him were recovered 13 costly cycles recovered from him The cycles recovered from the suspect in Chandigarh. from Sector 7, 8, 18 and 35. The suspect gave the bicycles to his friends claiming those to be his own. He was produced before a court that sent him to judicial MC to pick flowers from religious places, make ‘dhoop’ Sandeep Rana UJJAIN CONNECTION Tribune News Service Chandigarh, July 11 Soon, flowers and garlands offered at religious places will be turned into ‘dhoop’ (incense). Going the organic way, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation is planning to pick offered flowers and garlands from temples using its vehicles and process these to create incense. “The process will start soon. We will also try to get in touch with industries to sell them the dhoop produced from these flowers. With this, flowers will get proper disposal,” said MC Commissioner Anin- ■ Idea came during a tour of Ujjain, where waste was being processed. ■ MC will pick flowers, garlands from religious places and process these to make ‘dhoop’. TO BE SOLD TO INDUSTRIES in ❝Wewillgetselltouchwith industries and them ‘dhoop’ produced from these flowers. A flower shop outside a temple in Sector 19. PRADEEP TEWARI dita Mitra, adding that they learnt it during the last study tour of Ujjain. According to information, at some temples in Ujjain, organic waste such c m y b as flower, leaves and coconut shells used for puja are fed into a waste converter to make manure out of these. Besides, the MC here has Anindita Mitra, MC COMMISSIONER started collecting and processing coconut shells and is generating refuse derived fuel (RDF). It is generally used to produce electricity. The corpo- ration is further on its way to start converting crushed coconut fibres into ropes. Since June, when the project began, the civic body has collected more than 29 metric tonne (MT) of coconut shells. Of this, 9 MT has been fed into the coconut crusher at the municipal solid waste processing plant in Sector 25. The city generates about 550 metric tonne of total waste daily. At present, the MC claims they are processing 150 metric tonne of waste per day. But, since it could not upgrade the waste processing plant, the solid waste management is yet to achieve its goal. custody. Vikas was earlier arrested in a theft case by the Industrial Area police in April 2022 and at that time, 12 costly bicycles were recovered from his possession. UT sees 34 cases CHANDIGARH: The city witnessed 34 fresh Covid cases on Monday, taking the active caseload to 371. While there was no fresh fatality, 34 patients recovered.—TNS 22 +ve in Mohali MOHALI: The district reported 22 cases of Covid in the past 24 hours, taking the number of cases to 97,242. Thirtyfour patients were cured of the disease. No fatality was reported. — TNS 13 taken ill in P’kula PANCHKULA: Fresh 13 cases of Covid surfaced in the past 24 hours, taking the number of positive cases to 45,468 in the district. There are 119 active cases with the death toll of 415. —TNS