No high-rises in Sector 2-5: High Court

In an order aimed at preserving Chandigarh's architectural ethos, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that multi-storey apartments or additional covered area will not only be an"assault" on the city's character and heritage, but will also put hard-to-sustain pressure on the northern sectors: from Sector 2 to Sector 5.

The Bench, comprising Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, has directed status quo on a property in Sector 4 where "multiple flats" were to come up.

Taking up the matter, the Bench has ruled: "The Sectors from 2 to 5 are prime sectors of Chandigarh. Often, as a misnomer in common parlance, they are called posh or elite sectors of Chandigarh.

"The reason is simple to find. These sectors have an unhindered landscape of Shivalik Hill as background. Le Corbusier had a vision of a clear skyline and landscape for Chandigarh. Therefore, the first block of Sectors 2, 3, 4 and 5 contain big plots of four and eight kanals, and also low construction.

"In the second block of Sectors from 7 to 11, third block of sectors from 12 to 19; and thereafter fourth and fifth block onwards, as the number of sectors increase, the density of population also increases".

Expressing understanding of the city's character and culture, the judges have observed: "Sectors 2, 3, 4 and 5 have been planned for less population limited to about 1,000 for each sector. It is for this reason that these are the only sectors not to be further divided into sub-sectors A, B, C and D as other sectors have been".

Substantiating their point of view, the judges have quoted the UNESCO World Heritage Centre website on urban and architectural work of Le Corbusier in Chandigarh and have also quoted from "Architectural Review" by Antoniou Jim.

In their detailed order, they have added: "Le Corbusier had built Chandigarh as planned city marvel and had a vision and a concept. He had taken into consideration various factors; landscape, skyline and self sustained natural ecology.

Therefore, if multi-storey apartments or more covered area is permitted, not only will it assault the character and heritage of the city, rather Sectors 2,3, 4 and 5 will not be able to sustain pressure of increased population, if multiple apartments are allowed to mushroom in these sectors".

Referring to the case in hand, the judges have said the house in dispute is situated in Sector 4. The petitioner claims to be the owner of 50 per cent of the house and in possession of a part of the plot measuring 3,948 square yards, which is not partitioned.

The Judges have added:"We fail to understand as to how the plot could have been sub-divided and on that basis permission could have been given for construction by the Chandigarh administration".

The case will now come up for further hearing on February 27.

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Om Puri keen to buy property in Mohali

Guess who is looking at the hottest properties in and around Mohali these days? Bollywood star Om Puri. Here for the shooting of film "Singh is King" Om Puri visited "Mohali Hills" today the integrated township being developed by Emaar-MGF.

"I have been looking for place to buy here for some time. I was told of this place by a local family friend who has brought me here today. I have yet to make a final decision," said the star adding that he would be visiting other colonies also.

Om Puri took a round of the area and inquired about other details. On an unannounced trip, Om Puri took the sale office staff of the company by surprise.

Puri had taken time off from the shooting of the Vipul Shah film. The other stars of the film, including Katrina Kaif, Akshay Kumar and Neha Dhupia are also in town for the shoot. "Om Puri is playing the role of a Sikh man named Rangeela. He is also busy with a Hollywood film Charlie Wilson War which is expected to release soon. He is playing Zia-ul-Haque in the film," said friends close to the actor.

Om Puri's Punjabi film "Yaariyaan" is also releasing on January 21. "He is playing an NRI settled in Canada. The film also has Gurdas Mann, Bhumika Chawla and Gulshan Grover," said friends.

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Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) - 32 gets nod for rehab dept

There is good news for thousands of patients reporting for treatment at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, for a variety of illnesses, including stroke, spinal cord injuries, heart surgery, sports injuries and spinal disorders.

Over five years after the proposal for setting up the state-of-the-art department of physical medicine and rehabilitation was first mooted, the GMCH is set to get the department with the administration today approving it.

The setting up of the department will go a long way in restoring the patients to fullest possible level of physical, mental, social and economic independence, the GMCH director-principal, Dr Raj Bahadur, said here.

In fact, the department will bring various specialists together so that the main aim of restoring the patient to his highest level of daily function and improve his quality of life could be achieved. Currently, these rehabilitation services are being provided in an incoherent manner by physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, psychiatrists, physicians and orthopaedic surgeons.

At the initiative of Dr RK Srivastava, director-general health services (DGHS), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare recently okayed four such departments at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer), Puducherry, Lady Hardinge Hospital, New Delhi, King George Medical Centre, Lucknow, besides the GMCH.

Sources said due to the efforts of the Chandigarh Administration, the ministry had agreed to provide financial support to procure equipment and provide salary to the faculty and staff till the GMCH was able to create its own posts.

The proposal to set up the department was first mooted in 2003 and the Health Ministry reportedly sanctioned an amount of Rs 21 lakh for this purpose. However, in the wake of the absence of any follow-up action, the proposal failed to take off.

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Cops drag feet on filing cases

Directions on free registration of cases by the IGP notwithstanding, the Chandigarh Police continues to mislead complainants to avoid registering cases in cognizable offences, apparently to keep the crime rate low.

The police refused to register a case on a complaint by an eye surgeon for one reason or the other regarding the theft of his bag containing medical equipment over Rs 80,000 by two cheats.

The tricksters, both minor boys, distracted the complainant's driver by knocking at his car window and when he came out, one of them reportedly decamped with the bag.

The modus operandi is peculiar to a gang of children who were active in the city a year ago. The gang was never busted. Dr Jawahar Luthra who works with Chandigarh Medical Centre, Sector 17, at 10.30 am yesterday went to the Advance Eye Centre at the PGI. His driver dropped him outside the building and went to park the vehicle. As the driver was locking the car, a boy aged 10 knocked at the car window . He stopped the boy from doing so, but the latter refused to budge.

At this the driver came out to shoo away the boy.The boy fled and the driver returned only to find the bag in the car missing. The bag contained expensive medical equipment, including a retinoscope, worth over Rs 80,000.

Dr Luthra went to the PGI police post to lodge a complaint where the officer on duty told him that they would register a case only on being told them who the miscreants were. The policeman recorded a daily diary report (DDR). He told him that the DDR could be converted into an FIR later.

When asked, the SHO of the Sector 11 police station, Inspector Ramesh Chand Sharma, said he was not aware of the matter. In October last, a purse of Manju Wadwalker, PRO at the PGI, was stolen from her car in Sector 15. The police then too had lodged a DDR, not a case.

Sources said a member of the gang was caught in 2006 red-handed. He hailed from Orissa. The police arrested the gang members but they were released after six months.

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Now on, no less Green - Projects told to grow trees

In a departure from the practice of "overlooking" norms for development, the Chandigarh administration has decided to go tough while granting permission for felling trees to make way for development projects.

The message is clear. Any agency undertaking development projects, be it a government agency or a private builder, will be asked to adhere to guidelines to save trees.A number of full-grown trees coming in the way of important projects like Prideasia were at the risk of being axed. It is, however, not clear whether or not the orders apply to felling of trees in the Industrial Area for widening roads under the conversion policy.

The value of a single tree in terms of its impact on ecology is accessed at Rs 2 lakh per year.

Sources said the fresh initiative to save the maximum of trees had been taken at the level of the adviser, Pradip Mehra, who recently inspected sites where permission to axe trees had been given. The applicants have been asked to explore the possibility of planting trees in lieu of felled trees. In case of Parsavnath housing project, where 400 trees were to be cut , the developer has been asked to submit a plantation programme.

PHL: Rain can’t rein in spirits

Spectators at the hockey stadium here could not have bargained for a more exciting game of hockey than what was played between the Chandigarh Dynamos and the Bangalore Hi-Fliers during the second final of the Premier Hockey League.

Though, rain continued throughout the match, hockey lovers stayed put clutching umbrellas. As soon as the teams entered the ground, the crowd broke into an applause. A section of spectators had arrived with painted faces and colourful banners adding a zing to the atmosphere. The stadium was kept alive with 'Chandigarh ki balle balle, baki sare thalle thalle' followed by 'Ek do teen char, Chandigarh ko karo bahar'. "Ignoring the rain, I came from Panchkula to see Chandigarh Dynamos clinch the trophy, but now I have to wait for another two days", said Komal Chawla.

Among the crowd were K.P.S. Gill, UT Administrator Gen S.F. Rodrigues (retd) and Punjabi comedian Bhagwant Mann. The stadium was under tight security. Police commandos were deputed all around the stadium and had a tough time handling the surging crowd. As usual, there was a traffic snarl outside the stadium.

According to sources, Gen Rodrigues was not happy with Chandigarh Dynamos objecting to the decision of umpires. During the match, You Hyo Sik and Ajay Kumar of Bandalore Hi-Fliers were injured badly.

They belled the CAT - Vineet Saini, with 100 percentile, has raised the bar

Vineet Saini, working as a software engineer with Infosys at the IT park here has scored 100 percentile in the CAT, the result of which was declared today.

Group discussions and interviews will be conducted from February onwards and the final results will be declared in April.

Vineet said: "Persistence and discipline are the key to success. I believe that more is expected from those who expect more." With his achievement among over two lakh candidates, he has set new standards for CAT across the country.

About 12,500 candidates took the exam in Chandigarh. This year, for the first time, the seventh IIM will be taking its first batch of students at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Management, Shillong.

So far, close to 50 candidates from Chandigarh have reported percentiles of 98.5 plus. Due to heavy traffic on the website, the exact status of IIM calls is still not clear.

Harpreet scored 99.98 percentile to grab the second place in Chandigarh. An alumnus of PEC, Harpreet completed his engineering in 2005 in electronics. He owes his success not only to diligence, but also to his faculty at Triniti-center for learning, Chandigarh, where he took coaching.

Madhusudan Aggarwal, also of PEC, has scored 99.95 percentile. He said, "It was tough balancing college studies with the preparation for CAT, but where there is a will, there is a way."