Jalandhar, January 17
The Punjab Technical University authorities have proposed that the chances of reappear to students failing in a subject be reduced to half.

As per the new recommendation of the examination branch officers put up in the agenda of the academic council meeting to be held on January 21, the students who flunk in an odd semester examination will be allowed to appear a year later in the next odd semester. Those who fail in a subject in an even semester will reappear for the paper in the next even semester, it has been proposed.

But, if a candidate is placed under reappear in the last semester of the course, he will be provided a chance to pass the reappear in the immediate next odd semester, so that he does not lose one year to complete his course. The proposal, however, is subject to approval by the council and subsequently the board of governors (BoG,) which may then put its final stamp.

Dean, examination, Dr N.P. Singh explains, “Currently, a student who gets enrolled in any course gets double the time of duration of the course to complete his course. As per the rule, a B.Tech student gets eight years to complete the four-year course unlike the sessions before 2004 when he used to get six years for the same. In eight years, a student who fails in a subject in the first semester gets 15 chances to clear it, which is far too high as compared to the pattern in other universities.”

“The new rule will help us to be more efficient and accurate for we otherwise get burdened with getting 1,440 different sets of question papers printed. Even the students would be at ease for they hardly get any time to appear for the supplementary examination,” said a middle-rung officer from the branch while providing a logic for the same.

“A student who got enrolled in August, 2008, is currently appearing for examination. Since we need at least 45 days to prepare the result, we cannot deliver it before the first week of March, 2009. If a student is dissatisfied with the result, he gets three weeks to apply for his re-evaluation. We again need some weeks for re-evaluation. By the time we present the re-evaluation result, the student has only a few days to prepare himself for the reappear of the same subject,” he said.

The dean even stressed that a special chance for reappear examination on a fast-track method could also be given to the students for some specific subject in case the pass percentage in it was too low.

In a yet another proposal, the university officials have suggested plans to carry out online counselling for academic session 2009-10 for admissions to engineering, pharmacy and architecture courses.

The job is being entrusted to NIC, a union government organisation. The counselling is proposed to be done simultaneously at different locations of Punjab with headquarters on the PTU campus on the Jalandhar-Kapurthala road.

Amritsar, January 17
The second Punjab Film Festival held at a private school here today, proved a damp squib for want of viewers, administrative and stage-setting shortcomings.

Chief guests Gulzar Singh Ranike, animal and husbandry minister, famous singer Gurmmet Bawa and actor Guggu Gill arrived before the recipients of awards.

Although the function was nearly two hours behind schedule, it failed to connect to the audience present with performers.

Protocols were broken and stage etiquettes defied as chief guests went up and down the stage - escort-free.

All efforts were made to keep the chief guest minister (Ranike) in a pleasant mood by allowing his son to hand over prizes to some of the artists while his grandson was given a chance to show his dancing talent on the stage.

Mohan Bhakdi was given the Prithvi Raj Kapoor life time achievement award in the second Punjab Film Festival held here today.

Other winners for the various categories were Gaurav Trehan (director), JS Cheema, TP Arshi (producer), Nirmal Rishi, Gurkirat and Kartar Cheema (actor), Japji Khehra and Harpreet Hanjra (actress), K Deep, Feroze Khan and Tarlochan Singh (male playback singer), Rani Randeep (female playback singer), Surinder Sharma, Surinder Farishta alias Ghule Shah and Sukhwinder Sukhi (comedians), Chand Gorayawle Preet Mohinder (lyricist), HS Singh Khukki (music), Lakhwinder Wadali (emerging singer).

Jalandhar, January 17
The Jeevan Astha scheme of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has proved to be a money- spinner with Rs 10,000 crore having been collected in just 40 days.

The 45-day scheme, which closes on January 21, has been launched in view of the meltdown in the Indian market and with a view to providing assured returns to the investors who have been hit by the meltdown.

It has been a hit with the people so much so that even eminent Bollywood personalities like Akshay Kumar, Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan and even master-blaster Sachin Tendulkar opting for the scheme by investing crores.

Senior divisional manager Girish Kumar revealed that Sachin alone had invested Rs 18 crore in the scheme. “The scheme promises assured profits, is tax-free and comes with a risk cover for the investors,” he added.

The lock-in period is 10 years and comes with a 10 per cent assured return. In case of those who want to go in for the five-year policy, the returns would be 9 per cent. Besides this, there would be some additional financial benefits in the form of what the management describes as “loyalty addition”.

The LIC was witnessing an unprecedented rush and one of the investors from Jalandhar had invested Rs 5.50 crore. The scheme had so far grossed over Rs 40 crore in Jalandhar division alone, he said.

Phagwara, January 17
Member of the district consumer disputes redressal forum Surinder Mittal was granted bail by a court here today. Granting him bail, the court directed him to deposit his passport. The police arrested him on January 9 on the allegations of cruelty to his wife, breach of trust and voluntarily causing hurt.

Soon after his release, he alleged in a hurriedly called press conference that the allegations levelled on him in the FIR were totally baseless. He claimed that he had been wrongly framed in the case at the behest of the Kapurthala district police chief, who is his close relative and with whom Mittal had strained relations.

The district police claimed that the FIR was registered after thoroughly investigating the complaints received by his estranged wife Pooja Mittal on September 20 last year in which she alleged that she had been beaten up by her husband and her dowry misappropriated. Mittal said the investigation of the case registered against him had been taken away from the Kapurthala police by Punjab DGP N.P.S. Aulakh. The DGP had directed Jalandhar DIG Narinderpal Singh to get the matter investigated by the Jalandhar police, he added. — TNS

Nawanshahr, January 17
The Rahon police has registered a case under sections 376, 363 and 366 of the IPC against Gurdev Singh of Bharta Khurd village for allegedly raping a mentally challenged minor girl of the same village.

The parents of the victim came to know about the alleged immoral act of the youth when they took the girl to a doctor for treatment. The doctor after examination told them that their daughter was pregnant.

The matter was reported to the police and on the identification by the victim, the police has registered a case against Gurdev Singh.

However, Gurdev Singh, while denying the allegations of sexual exploitation of the minor girl, said he was ready for the DNA test, said the SHO, Shamsher Singh.

Hoshiarpur, January 17
“I am a loyal soldier of the BJP and am strictly following all the decisions of the party high command to maintain discipline in the party.”

This was stated by Avinash Rai Khanna, MP from Hoshiarpur, here this afternoon.

Commenting on the announcement of the candidature of D.S. Cheema by the SAD from the newly formed general category parliamentary constituency Anandpur Sahib, Khanna said he would leave no stone unturned to ensure the victory of not only his party candidates but also the nominees of its alliance partner.

The status of the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat has been changed to a reserve segment after the recent delimitation of all the Lok Sabha constituencies in the country. Presently Avinash Rai Khanna is representing Hoshiarpur.

With this change, he had been trying to get the Hoshiarpur reserved constituency exchanged with the newly formed Anandpur Sahib seat between BJP and the SAD. But all of his efforts proved futile with the SAD finally declaring its candidate for Anandpur Sahib.

As per the alliance between the SAD and the BJP, the latter is contesting from Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur whereas the former is fielding its candidates from the remaining seats in the state. The BJP has already declared the candidature of Vinod Khanna (sitting MP for Gurdaspur) and present MP Navjot Singh Sidhu for the Amritsar seat.

The candidate for the Hoshiarpur segment is yet to be decided.

According to party sources, state BJP general secretary Vijay Sampla and leading local social worker Dr Raj Kumar have been seeking the party ticket from Hoshiarpur (reserve).