29082024-CT-01.qxd 8/28/2024 11:16 PM Page 1 c m y b Chandigarh tribune DENGUE CASES IN P'KULA DISTRICT REACH 99 NEW VOTERS CAN REGISTER TILL SEPTEMBER 2 INDIAN PARALYMPICS TEAM A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION Dept has not recorded any death, but sources said a woman died of dengue at a private hospital. P2 Individuals who have attained the age of 18, are not yet registered as voter can apply for registration. P2 Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana is extending his support to Indian team for Paris Paralympics. P4 » » WHAT’S ON CHANDIGARH INBRIEF IMMIGRATION AGENT BOOKED Chandigarh: The UT police have booked an immigration consultant for duping several people on the pretext of sending them abroad. Pankaj Kumar of Kurukshetra had reported that Kulbir Singh, who runs an office in Sector 17, allegedly duped him and others of Rs 69 lakh. A case has been registered at the Sector 17 police station and an investigation started. TNS FACEBOOK/CHANDIGARHTRIBUNE UT’s no to increasing height Move to replace working street lights irks councillors of village buildings to 45 ft Seven-year contract with EESL expiring next year Report to be put up at Administrator’s Advisory Council meet Tribune News Service APNI MANDI Chandigarh: Sectors Sectors 34 , 56 and Ram Darbar Mohali: Sector 76 Panchkula: Sector 5 Please send information about events in tricity at: whatson@tribunemail.com MAX 34°C | MIN 25°C YESTERDAY MAX 34.7°C | MIN 24.7°C SUNRISE FRIDAY 5.58 AM TWITTER/THETRIBUNECHD Dushyant Singh Pundir Play ‘Bulle Shah’: By Circle Arts Society, September 1, Main Auditorium, Tagore Theatre, Sector 18-B, 6:30 pm, entry free CSNA National Theatre Festival: By the Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi, Main Auditorium, Tagore Theatre; Sector 18-B, on till Aug 31, 6:30 pm India International Mega Trade Fair: Parade Ground; 11 am to 9 pm, on till September 2 PARTLY CLOUDY SUNSET THURSDAY 6.48 PM » THURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2024 | CHANDIGARH FORECAST Chandigarh, August 28 The UT Administration has turned down the proposal of the Municipal Corporation (MC) to increase the height for houses in villages up to 45 feet, in view of the restrictions outlined in the rural bylaws. This specification is part of the Action Taken Report to be presented in the UT Administrator’s Advisory Council meeting scheduled for September 30. During a meeting of the Advisory Council held on August 18 last year, Anup Gupta, then Mayor, stated that in villages, the height of houses should be fixed up to 45 feet because at present everyone is building houses according to their own requirement. This should be done keeping in view structural stability, he added. In the action taken report, the Estate Office has emphasised that the construction of buildings in village areas, now incorporated within the Municipal Corporation limits, is governed by the “Chandigarh Rural Inhabita- A street in Hallo Majra village of Chandigarh. TRIBUNE PHOTO: PRADEEP TEWARI tion (Area within Red Line of revenue estates, Abadi Areas) Construction and Reconstruction Building Bylaws of Villages (both within and outside Municipal Limits) falling in Union Territory of Chandigarh, 2017”. This legislation falls under the purview of the Municipal Corporation. During a meeting held on October 29, 2020, the MC General House had consid- Punjab Govt sends panel for post of civic body chief Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 28 The Punjab Government today sent a panel of three IAS officers to the UT Administration on inter-cadre deputation for the post of Commissioner, Municipal Corporation (MC). Punjab-cadre IAS officers Amit Kumar (2008 batch), Ramvir (2009 batch) and Girish Dayalan (2011 batch) are in the race for the post. Dayalan has served as the Deputy Commissioner, Mohali, during the Covid-19 period. The post fell vacant after three-year inter-cadre deputation period of incumbent Municipal Commissioner Anindita Mitra, IAS officer of Punjab cadre, ended on August 22. Yesterday, the Government had sent a panel of three IAS officers for the post of Finance Secretary. Punjab cadre IAS officers Basant Garg, Diprava Lakra and Daljit Singh Mangat are in the race for the post. Garg is on deputation with the Central Government and his tenure is likely to end on September 10. ered and approved the agenda regarding proposed amendment to the abovementioned bylaws with the change in height up to 45 feet. Further, it was approved that the proposal be sent to the Chief Architect, Department of Urban Planning, for a final approval and further consideration by the UT Administration for proposed amendments to the building bylaws. Thereafter, the matter was referred to the Urban Planning Department, vide letter dated November 26, 2020, and the proposal to increase the height was not approval by the Chief Architect, UT. The Department of Urban Planning reviewed the matter and has not proposed to increase the height to 45 feet in view of the restrictions on continued on page 2 Sandeep Rana Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 28 The Municipal Corporation’s decision to replace all LED street lights, installed about six years ago by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a public sector undertaking, under a Rs 48 crore contract that included a seven-year maintenance agreement, has met with criticism by councillors. They said replacing the lights, which are still in a working condition, is illogical. The MC decision would result in a significant expenditure, which is unnecessary. AAP councillor Hardeep Singh said, “The previous agency’s maintenance contract is getting over but that does not mean that all working lights should be removed. The maintenance contract can be given to some other agency. Otherwise, it will lead to a waste of public money.” BJP councillor Saurabh Joshi said: “I think removing the LED lights that are working fine makes no sense. Either the MC or some other agency may take over the maintenance job from the EESL.” Sharing the plan, MC Chief Non-functional street lights on the Sector 27-28 road on Wednesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: NITIN MITTAL Engineer NP Sharma said, “The seven-year maintenance contract of the EESL is expiring next year. We slapped penalties on the firm several times for deficiency in service. Since there are no plans to extend its tenure, we have prepared an RFP (request for proposal) for putting up new street lights under the PPP model.” “In the first phase, new lights will be put up on 50 per cent poles. The old lights will be installed at some other locations in the city,” added Sharma. Under the contract, the EESL had also replaced the traditional street lights with LED ones. Residents have been com- Enforcement staff shifted, duty hrs changed Sandeep Rana Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 28 A day after councillors accused the city Municipal Corporation of corruption with regard to rampant encroachments by unauthorised street vendors, the enforcement wing’s staff were shifted within the department and their work hours were changed. The duty timings have been changed from 11 am-7am to 12 noon-8 pm. However, some councillors feel the duty hours should have been till 10 pm as the most unregistered street vendors operate till Councillors feel action not enough NO CHECK ON VENDORS Leave alone removing illegal vendors from markets across the city, the enforcement wing has failed to remove street vendors even from Sector 17, which has been declared a no-vending zone by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. then. They also feel the transfers should be done to other wings of the MC rather than inter-department. While welcoming the move, BJP councillor Saurabh Joshi, whose ward’s Sector 15 already has the largest number of registered street vendors besides unregistered ones, said, “We are happy that the City NSUI president calls candidate selection a ‘Tughlaqi farmaan’ quits , 2 arrested with three pistols Tribune News Service Mohali, August 28 A Ferozepur native, Akashdeep (22), and a juvenile have been arrested with three countrymade pistols near the Bhagomajra toll plaza. The SP (Investigation), Jyoti Yadav, said the two belonged to a dera near Amritsar and had bought the pistols from Meerut for Rs 66,000. They were nabbed by the CIA staff of Kharar yesterday. Efforts were on to nab the main accused who provided money for buying the pistols, the police said. CYSS fields Prince for post of president Alleges names decided by Delhi leadership without roping in local cadre Deputy Commissioner-cumMC Commissioner has acted right after his first House meeting. However, we will have to wait for 15 minutes to see the execution of the orders on the ground. Besides, the duty hours have been extended only by an hour, which is too less. It should have been extended till 10 pm.” Another councillor said, “The staff will wind up at 7 pm on the plea that seized goods have to be kept at the MC store as per the existing practice. Also, many of them have been posted in the enforcement wing for the past many years and should be shifted to other departments. It has been done in the past as well.” Leave alone removing illegal vendors from markets across the city, the enforcement wing has failed to remove street vendors even from Sector 17, which has been declared a no-vending zone by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. plaining about non-functional street lights and poor complaint redress system all these years. Last November, the MC had taken note of “poor management of street lighting service”, following which the Chief Engineer had sought a report from the electricity wing of the civic body on the overall performance of EESL. MC officials said there was no improvement in the functioning of the company despite penalties. Denying all these findings, the EESL had earlier claimed complaints registered through both EESL and MC toll-free numbers and portals were attended to within the continued on page 2 Tribune News Service PU COUNCIL POLL Akashdeep Virk Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 28 In a dramatic turn of events, the city NSUI’s recently appointed president Sikander Boora resigned today during an event held to announce the candidates for the Panjab University Campus Student Council elections to be held on September 5. He alleged that the decision on picking candidates was a “Tughlaqi farmaan” as the the latter were decided by the party high command and the local cadre was not roped in for discussion regarding the same. After the Chandigarh Congress president HS Lucky announced that Rahul Nain from Department of Laws would be the presidential candidate and Archit Garg would contest the post of vice-president, Boora resigned immediately during the press conference held in City NSUI president Sikander Boora leaves a press conference at Congress Bhawan. RAVI KUMAR Congress Bhawan, Sector 35. Boora was nominated the Chandigarh NSUI president two weeks ago replacing councillor Sachin Galav, who is contesting the Youth Congress elections. Boora, a student of Women Studies in PU, has never fought elections himself but actively worked in poll campaigns for NSUI candidates, including Jatinder Singh, who was elected council president last year. “The party would have decided on someone who had a history of working for student welfare. Till yesterday, there were a lot of names from the campus NSUI who have tirelessly worked for the betterment of the party. But the party finalised those candidates who were not involved at ground zero on the campus. As Chandigarh NSUI unit president, I do not agree with this decision. We were not even asked about this,” said Boora. Reacting to Boora’s resignation, city Congress president HS Lucky said it was just an emotional outburst by Boora. “We are sure that we will be able to win him back after discussions with him,” continued on page 2 c m y b Chandigarh, August 28 The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) student body, the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), today declared Prince Chaudhary its presidential candidate. The student body has decided to only field a candidate, i.e. for the presidential position. Addressing the media, CYSS in-charge Manjinder Lalpura announced the name of Prince, saying that he is a well-known and wellliked student of the university. Lalpura expressed confidence that the party would secure a significant victory in the election. Prince said his main agenda was student welfare and announced that he, along with other members, would soon release their complete manifesto to ensure that students are informed about the issues at the university and the solutions their party plans to implement. Presidential candidate of ABVP Arpita Malik addresses a gathering on the PU campus. RAVI KUMAR ABVP contesting all 4 seats Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 28 The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is set to contest all four seats of the Panjab University Campus Students Council. The party today announced its panel for the polls scheduled for September 5 during a gathering at the Student Centre. The BJP’s wing, which released an additional manifesto with a focus on issues of women on the campus, has fielded a girl, Arpita Malik, enrolled in UILS, as its presidential candidate. Abhishek ARPITA CANDIDATE FOR TOP POST The ABVP’s presidential candidate, Arpita Malik is the daughter of PU Senate member and Principal of Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45, Neeru Malik and PU Deputy Director, Sports, Rakesh Malik. Arpita is enrolled in the UILS. Kapoor, a former Department of Laws student and now pursuing Masters in Defence and Strategic Studies, is the ABVP’s pick for the post of vice-president. Arav Kumar Singh, the youngest candidate in the panel, is from the UIET. Jasvinder Rana, a student from Department of Laws, has been fielded on the post of joint secretary. Arpita claimed that while some stereotypes were wrongly attached with the party, in reality, it is the only organisation which gives a platform to woman faces in the university. “I am here because of you all while many other parties have been influencing elections through muscle power and money,” she said. ABVP’s north zone organising secretary Gaurav Attri was also present during the announcement.