No honking in hospitals
The Chandigarh traffic police have started issuing penalising motorists found using their horns unnecessarily inside hospital premises. Challans are being issued to motorists inside the PGI campus, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), and the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH) Section 190 (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 says any person who drives or causes or allows to be driven in any public place a motor vehicle, which violates the standards prescribed in relation to road safety, control of noise and air-pollution, shall be punishable.
Sikh women exempted from helmets
Sikh women have been exempted from wearing helmets in the city while driving or riding pillion on a two-wheeler. The Chandigarh Administration has issued a notification making it optional for them to wear a helmet. The notification was issued a month after the Union Government sent an advisory to the Chandigarh Administration asking it to follow the notification issued by the Delhi Government giving them exemption from sporting the protective headgear. The notification stated that it shall be optional for Sikh women to wear the protective headgear while driving or riding pillion on a two-wheeler in Chandigarh. Besides them, the administration is also granting exemptions to people from helmets if they provide proper and valid medical reasons for the exemption.
Four new markets
The Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) will develop four markets in sectors 88, 89, 95 and 96 of the city. The authority will develop six commercial pockets in these sectors at a cost of J39.32 crore. The projects will be ready in next six months after which, the sites will be allotted. The work on the development of these four markets will start next month. These sectors were developed along the airport road but the markets were not developed yet.
‘No weddings at Rock Garden’
A petition has been filed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, by one Ram Kumar Garg seeking directions for restraining the Chandigarh Administration and others from permitting weddings at Phase III of the iconic Rock Garden. The petitioner’s counsel HC Arora contended that the Capitol Complex, including the Rock Garden, in Sector 1 had been declared a silence zone vide a notification issued by the administration dated January 19, 2005. Weddings at the tourist attraction hinder entry for visitors. The administration had earlier banned such weddings.
Trader agitation
Traders in Sector 17 have decided to start an agitation next week for implementing the Chandigarh Administration’s decision to make the sector a no-vending zone. Members of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Sector 17 said roughly 150 traders decided to launch the protest. The traders say they are forced to protest in order to protect the Sector 17 market from further damage as it has already lost its business due to vendors who have swarmed the heart of the city.