Chandigarh, May 10
There was complete silence at Pawan Kumar Bansal’s residence Sector 28 A after his resignation. All his family members, including his wife and sons, were with him in Delhi.

Only two-three policemen were deployed outside the MP’s house. Some Congress leaders came to meet Bansal at his residence in the evening, but returned after finding the house locked.

On the other side, it was a celebration time for BJP leaders, including the party’s state president Sanjay Tandon, former MPs Satya Pal Jain and Harmohan Dhawan. The cellphones of the BJP leaders kept on ringing.

Former MP and all-India in charge of the BJP legal and legislative cell Satya Pal Jain was busy in giving interviews to news channels. He said Bansal should have resigned on May 3 itself when his nephew was caught accepting a bribe. He said had Bansal been sacked at that time itself, the investigations in this case would have been at a much-advanced stage today.

BJP president Sanjay Tandon said: “Bansal resignation from the cabinet is not sufficient, he should also resign as an MP. The CBI should take strict action against him.”

Chandigarh, May 10
Six questions in the biology section carrying 24 marks were ambiguous in the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) held on Sunday across the country for the admission to the MBBS and BDS courses.

In question number 102 of the Z booklet, asking role of lenticels in plants, both transpiration and gaseous exchange are the correct options.

Several prominent books, including Plant physiology by Robert M Devlin, Physiology by Dr HN Srivastva and Plant botany by AC Datta clearly mention the role of lenticels in transpiration and gaseous exchange.

Had the examiner mentioned the major role of lenticels, the answer would have been definitely exchange of gases, but with this question, both are options are correct, said Dr Arvind Goyal, a city-based PMT trainer.

More than one option has been found correct in others questions too.

For instance, question number 134, asking the role of P-Wave in the standard ECG of a normal person has two options —Beginning of systole and contraction of both the atria — as correct answers.

Dr Jagmohan, director, department of cardiology, Fortis Hospital, Mohali, said that while the contraction of both the atria is the major function of the P-wave, beginning of systole is not a wrong answer. Those students who have higher knowledge from an ordinary lot will definitely be at the loosing end seeing the other option. “The problem in the paper setting is that scientific method is not followed in choosing the questions that result in lot of ambiguity, as seen in this paper,” he said.

Three options – intra-specific competitions, inter-specific competition and competition — within closely related species is found correct in another question related to theory of organic evolution by Darwin.

A student, Rajat Verma, said the question was confusing since there is no difference between inter-specific and closely related species.

According to organic evolution by Dr Veer Bala Rastogi and Mohan P Arora both intra-specific, inter-specific competition play a role in organic evolution as postulated by Darwin.

All the options in another question regarding the detection of foetus abnormalities by amniocentesis were found correct.

Dr Bhavneet Goyal, a PMT trainer, said most of the students had answered jaundice as the right answer, but it can also be detected through this technique. The other options, including down syndrome, kleinfelter syndrome and sex of the foetus are other major uses of this technique,” he said.

Dr Rashmi Bagga, professor of gynaecology at the PGI, Chandigarh, also supported the fact that the question had an ambiguity since jaundice could also be detected with this technique.

Students were confused in another question relating to the legal methods of birth control. Experts said that had the examiner asked the method for preventing conception then option of abstaining from coitus would have been a correct choice. But here the question was left open, leading to confusion among students. A book “Practice of fertility control” by SK Chaudhary mentioned that worldwide induced abortion was the third most common means of fertility control, said experts.

A lot of difference of opinion in the different textbooks was found for another question asking association between hermit crab and sea anemone. It had four options including commensalisms, symbiosis, ectoparasitism and amensalism. But according to Eugene P Odum’s Fundamentals of ecology, this association is called proto-cooperation. But according to elementary biology by KN Bhatia, this association is considered commensalisms by many, mutualism by a few and proto-cooperation by others. Tata McGraw’s elements of ecology by MC Dash, it is an example of commensalisms. 

Q no 102: Lenticels are involved in

A. Foord transport

B. Photosynthesis

C. Trasnpiration

D. Ganeous exchange

Two of the given options C & D are correct

Q no 71: Which of the following cannot be detected in a developing foetus by Amniocentesis?

A. Down syndrome

B. Jaundice

C. Klinefelter syndrome

D. Sex of foetus

None of these options is correct, as all these conditions can be detected by amniocentesis.

Q no. 91: One of the legal methods of birth control is

A. By having coitus at the time of day break

B. By a premature ejaculation during coitus

C. Abortion by taking an appropriate medicine

D. By abstaining from coitus from day 10 to 17 of menstrual cycle

Two of the given options C & D are correct.

Q no. 62: A sedentary sea anemone gets attached to the shell lining of hermit crab. The association is

A. Commensalism

B. Amensalism

C. Ectoparasitism

D. Symbiosis

This is an ambiguous question, some authors consider it to be symbiosis, while some others consider it to be commensalism.

Q no. 134: In the standard ECG of a normal person, the P-wave represents the

A. Beginning of the systole

B. End of systole

C. Contraction of both the atria

D. Initiation of the ventricular contraction

Both A and C are correct 

Chandigarh, May 10
Residents of Indira Colony near Mani Majra staged a protest in front of Government Middle School against a JBT teacher for giving corporal punishment to two students of Class VI.

The incident took place on Wednesday when schoolteacher Sandeep Kumar beat up Ankit Kumar and Ashish Kumar with sticks for not learning their lesson properly.

Ankit’s father Rakesh, a daily wage earner, said he was shocked when he saw his son crying. He had injury marks on his back, said Rakesh. “We visited the school next day but no one heard us,” he claimed. Residents of the colony and members of the Chandigarh Youth Congress demanded stern action against the schoolteacher.

The teacher confessed to beating up the students and gave in writing to parents that he would not repeat the act in future. He said his action was not intentional. The students were not serious in the class for past two weeks.

School head Sunita Seth said the teacher was at fault for beating up the students. “The teacher has sought an apology and has given in writing that he will not repeat the act. The parents have also not sought any action against him.” Youth Congress member Yadvinder Mehta said the teacher was doing well in the school. “That’s why we did not demand any action against him,” he said.

DEO Ram Kumar Sharma also visited the school in the evening to take stock of the situation. DPI (S) Upkar Singh said the DEO had been asked to submit a report. 

Chandigarh, May 10
A city-based industrialist today bought the ‘0001’ number of the CH 01AT series for Rs 9.10 lakh at an auction conducted by the Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA).

Raman Mittal, executive director of International Tractors Ltd, bought the vanity number for his customised Mercedes Benz S Class sedan that he gifted to his grandfather LD Mittal on the latter’s 80th birthday.

Though Mittal was not present at the auction, his representative said the car had been bought last month.

During the previous auction for ‘0001’ in the CH01 S series, the number was bought for Rs 8 lakh by Sukhvinder Singh, a realtor for his Range Rover SUV.

Mahavir Kaushik, Registering and Licensing Authority, said during the day-long auction, ‘0004’ and ‘0005’ and ‘0009’ went for Rs 4 lakh, Rs 3.51 lakh and Rs 3.73 lakh, respectively.

In today’s auction, 41 numbers were auctioned. The RLA earned a revenue of Rs 38,67,100. The RLA will auction the remaining numbers later.

“As compared the last two auctions when the vanity numbers went for Rs 26 lakh and Rs 17 lakh, this time the highest bid was low,” said an RLA official.

Other vanity numbers which attracted bids above Rs 1 lakh include 0015 (Rs 1.05 lakh), 0055 (Rs 1.21 lakh), 0111 (Rs 1.17 lakh), 0786 (Rs 1.25 lakh) and ‘1000’ (Rs 1.90). 

Chandigarh, May 10 
With the exit of the Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, all the major projects of the region which were lying in cold storage will again be again back to square one. In fact, the fate of the fresh proposals especially for the Chandigarh which were announced after a decade would also be in the doldrums.

Interestingly, officials of the Ambala division who were on their toes for the past seven months to speed-up the face lifting of the Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali railway stations were clueless about their completion today. A senior official stated that even though the list of the proposals mooted by the Railway Minister during his visits to the tri-city stations were lengthy, funds were not sanctioned for a majority of them till date. Resultantly, no deadline could be fixed for the completion of these projects by the railway authorities. 

Accepting that if the Railway Minister resigned the completion of the projects mooted and approved in the Budget for the region would solely depend on his predecessor, the official said.

Face lifting of tri-city stations The face lifting of the city railway station was being undertaken on war footing by the department, as Bansal had been personally visiting the station to monitor its progress. The proposals which are in the pipeline includes, food plaza, four accelerators, multi-level parking, road widening of the approach road to the city station and a lift especially for the physically challenged and the senior citizens. The proposal of the two more yards (stabling line) had been proposed by the authorities, which were basically to be used for the cleaning of the train after their journey. The suggestion of adding more yards had been made keeping in view of the future expansion plans to introduce more trains from the city station for which more space would be required at the station.

Panchkula: As per the proposal, the construction of Platform Number 6, eight rooms on the Panchkula side of the station in which waiting rooms and administrative staff would be accommodated was in the pipeline. The proposal mooted for four rooms, which were to be used as waiting rooms, two each for general category and first-class commuters. In the other four rooms administrative staff of the Railways, including Deputy Station Superintendent and ticketing staff were to be accommodated. 

Mohali: Recently after inspecting the station, Bansal proposed to open a food plaza, improve the parking lot and better connectivity for passengers. Buses to Mohali city and Chandigarh were announced. The directions were given to the officials to conduct a survey to monitor the feasibility of the projects mooted and prepare a report for their implementation. 

Chandigarh, May 10
After City MP Pawan Kumar Bansal today stepped down as the Union Railway Minister, the city Congress leaders still maintained that Bansal was a ‘clean’ and ‘honest’ politician who had contributed a lot to the development of the City Beautiful.

The president of Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee, BB Behl, said that Bansal always took interest in the development of the city. With today’s development, the city had become headless. The Congress workers would always stand by him, Behl added.

Rahul Bhandari: Punjab cadre IAS

Rahul Bhandari, a 1997-batch Punjab cadre IAS officer, has been with former minister Pawan Kumar Bansal since June 2009, when Bansal was given responsibilities of important portfolios. Bhandari, who is considered to be a close confidant of Bansal, was also in touch with the Railways bribery case accused Vijay Singla and Ajay Garg. The CBI had even questioned Rahul Bhandari. Now, after Bansal’s resignation, Rahul Bhandari, is likely to come back to his parent cadre in Punjab.

Vitul Kumar: Uttar Pradesh Cadre IPS

Vitul Kumar, a 1993 batch IPS of Uttar Pradesh-cadre, is Bansal’s elder sister’s son-in-law. He was with the minister since 2011. Earlier, he was Regional Passport Officer (RPO) in Chandigarh. Vitul Kumar's older brother Jagdeep Goyal too served as Bansal's OSD in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in 2009. Sources said that he would try to remain on deputation at the Centre.

Mahesh Aggarwal: Tamil Nadu Cadre IPS

Mahesh Aggarwal, a 1994 batch IPS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, is presently working as DIG (CBI) in the Chandigarh office. Recently, BJP leaders had alleged that the information regarding the CBI raids at Vijay Bansal’s residence in Chandigarh was “leaked” by him. But Aggarwal had denied such allegations and had stated that he was not close to Bansal. Sources said that Aggarwal’s deputation period here in Chandigarh was coming to end on August 18, 2013. 

Panchkula, May 10
As per the orders of the Haryana State Election Commission, Ward Numbers 13 and 20 have been reserved for Backward Classes in the Panchkula Municipal Corporation Election on June 2, 2013.

While giving this information, the Returning Officer-cum- Sub Divisional Magistrate, Panchkula RK Singh, said that Ward Nos. 1 and 7 were reserved for Scheduled Caste and Ward No.11 was reserved for Schedule Caste (woman). Similarly, Ward Nos. 3, 6, 10, 15, 16 and 17 were reserved for women and Ward Nos. 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 14, 18 and 19 were for the General Category.

Singh said that the nomination papers were invited from candidates of all the 20 wards in the Municipal Corporation, Panchkula. The nomination papers will be presented between May 16 and May 21 between 11 am to 3 pm.

Assistant Returning Officers have also been appointed to accept the nomination papers. Manita Malik, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Kalka, will accept the nomination papers of candidates from Ward No. 1, 2 and 3 in her office.

Similarily, RK Sharma, BDPO, Pinjore, will accept the nomination papers of the candidates of Ward Nos 4, 5 and 6 in his office at Pinjore. The candidates of Ward Nos. 7, 8 and 9 can submit their nomination papers to Satish Kumar Singla, Tehsildar, Kalka, at the office of Naib Tehsildar, Mini Secretariat, Sector 1 Panchkula.

He said that Kanwar Daman Singh, BDPO, Raipur Rani, would accept the nomination papers of candidates of Ward Nos. 10, 11 and 12 in Room number 1 Ground Floor, Mini Secretariat, Sec-1, Panchkula.

The candidates of Ward Nos. 13, 14 and 15 will submit their nomination papers to Kapil Sharma, District Development and Panchayat Officer, Panchkula, at the Mini Secretariat office, Sector 1, Panchkula.

Ashwani Gambhir, Tehsildar, Panchkula, will accept the nomination papers of Ward Nos 16 and 17 in the office of Tehsildar, Mini Secretariat, Sector1, Panchkula.

Similarly, Mohinder Singh, Deputy CEO, Zila Parishad, Panchkula, will accept the nomination papers of Ward Nos 18, 19 and 20 in the Office of the Deputy CEO, Zila Parishad, Mini Secretariat, Sector1, Panchkula.

Fatehgarh Sahib. May.10
MK Sobti, President, Indian Medical Association (IMA), Punjab, said that IMA would oppose the Clinical Establishment Bill which is going to be implemented by the Government, as it would only increase the cost of health care. He expressed his views while addressing a meeting of district unit of IMA members here.

He said that doctors were already covered under 43 acts like PC PNDT Act 1994, MTP Act 1971, Biomedical Waste and Handling Rules, Drugs and cosmetics Act 1930, Consumer Protection Act and many more. He added it would also encourage quackery, as services of the qualified doctors would become more expensive and the average person would avoid approaching them.

He said that the act would also promote corruption, since there were many grey areas which could be misused by implementing it.

Sobti said that this bill had many such clauses which would force the closure of small to medium-level hospitals, catering to primary and secondary-level health needs of a common man. Speaking on this occasion Dr KS Sohal, president, IMA, Sirhind-Fatehgarh Sahib, cautioned that the act to be formed would not help the poor, but would help only the private insurance-corporate hospital nexus. Thereafter, Dr OPS Kande, Memder PMC, Dr MK Banal, President IMA, Mandi Gobindgarh, Dr Vikas Kaushal, Secretary IMA, Mandi Gobindgarh, Dr Amanpreet, Secretary IMA, Sirhind, and doctors from other branches discussed the bill in detail.

Fatehgarh Sahib, May 10
Additional Deputy Commissioner (D) conducted surprise raids on the veterinary hospitals and primary health centres, falling in Khamano and Bassi Pathana sub-divisions of the district and found that Dr Ravinder Singh, a veterinary doctor from Sanghol was absent from duty for the last three days. Besides, a manager of primary health centre was also found absent.

The raid was conducted on the directions of Arun Sekhri, Deputy Commissioner. The Deputy Commissioner said that the residents had complained that this doctor was very irregular. Sekhri further added that he deputed ADC to conduct raids in the entire district to ensure the presence and punctuality of doctors and other government officials.

He said that the case had been sent to the higher authorities for taking disciplinary action against the erring officials.

Earlier the DC held a meeting with the officials and employees of the District Administration. He directed the police and district officials to curb crime against women and children. He directed them to implement the public oriented government sponsored schemes at the grass root level, so that the real beneficiaries would take benefit of these schemes. He stressed on the transparency and punctuality in the working.

Chandigarh, May 10
Residents will have relief from the hot weather in the next two days. The Met Department forecast has said that there will be a thunderstorm with light rain in the next 24 hours.

With the mercury soaring, the residents preferred to remain indoors. The Met Department said that there was a possibility of little shower accompanied by dust storm in the next two days.The mercury on Friday shot up to 41.6 degrees Celsius, which is four degree above the normal. With hot winds blowing across the city, the minimum temperature recorded today was 23.4 degree Celsius, which is one degree below the normal.

Met officials have forecast that the weather would be partly cloudy and there will be moderate thundershowers in the coming days. The weather was pleasant this evening.The forecast further said that maximum temperature would be 40 degree Celsius on Saturday and minimum 26 degrees Celsius on Sunday.

Chandigarh, May 10
A constable with the Punjab police was allegedly threatened at gunpoint on the road dividing Sectors 4 and 9 this afternoon.

While it appears to be a case of road rage, the UT police has lodged a daily diary report at the Sector 3 police station about the incident and have begun investigations.

The incident occurred at around noon when constable Sukhchain Singh who is posted with the 13 Battalion in the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) was going towards Sector 26 in his Ford Fiesta car.

The constable was in civvies.

He reported to the police that an Endeavour car brushed past his vehicle and the occupant of the car hurled abuses at him.

The occupant then flashed a pistol towards him and sped away.

The constable then called the police control room and reported the incident.

The police has lodged a daily diary report. Constable Sukhchain Singh is the gunman of a witness in the Beant Singh murder case.

Chemists protest at Sector 17, Chandigarh. Tribune photos: Manoj Mahajan

Chandigarh, May 10
The nationwide bandh called by the All-India organisation of chemists and druggists today got a mixed response from the chemists of the city. On one hand, 70 chemists staged a protest by shutting down their shops against the unjustified government policies and its impact on the fraternity, while on the other, there were a number of chemists in the city who did not participate in the protest and ran their business as usual.

Around 7.5 lakh chemists across India were on strike today, contending that the new drug policy of the Central Government would reduce their profits and cause inconvenience to them. During a visit to major hospitals in the city, it was found that there was heavy rush on the medicine shops as a few shops were opened today. The attendants of patients were seen running from pillar to post to get medicines. In fact, for routine medicines, the residents were going to chemist shops at Sectors 16 and 32 hospitals or at the PGI.

As per reports, around 7.5 lakh chemists across the country were on strike today, contending that the new drug policy of the Central Government would reduce their profits and cause inconvenience in their business. Chemists have made four demands, and if these were met, they would call off the strike.

The demands include no reduction in trade margins as proposed in the new drug policy, not making it mandatory for a chemist to have a qualified pharmacist at the shop while selling medicines, chemists not to be held responsible for errors of manufacturers and no foreign direct investment in the pharma trade.

The Chandigarh Chemist Association, President, Khem Gupta, said that the representatives of the chemist association met the UT Administrator and submitted their memorandum. He said that they had been told by the officials that their memorandum would be sent to the UT administration officials for consideration.

Chandigarh, May 10
The teachers’ transfer policy is gathering dust in the UT. Last year, the policy approved by Education Secretary VK Singh laid down specific guidelines for the transfer of teachers, school heads and non-teaching staff in government schools here.

As per the policy, school heads were to be transferred after five years of stay and teachers after 10 years of stay. Despite the fact that there are several school heads and teachers working beyond this prescribed period, the department has not yet made any attempt to transfer them as per the recent policy decision.

The UT District Education Office has not even kept any data of the total number of government teachers continuously working in government schools for 10 years and more.

This came to the fore when The Tribune filed an RTI with the DEO office asking it to furnish the exact data of how many government teachers are staying for 10 years and beyond in government schools.

In its reply, CPIO-cum-District Education Officer Ram Kumar Sharma Ram Kumar Sharma did not furnish the required information, rather asked to obtain the information directly from the schools concerned. The Tribune tried to contact the DEO, but no response was sought.

On the contrary, many in the city are demanding proper implementation of the policy.

Vinod Sharma, president of the Government Teachers’ Union, said the transfer policy was approved with a purpose. Therefore, there was a need to follow it in its true spirit and overstaying teachers and heads should be transferred at the earliest.

Swarn Singh Kamboj, president of the UT Cadre Educational Employees Union, said there were several school heads and teachers, especially on deputation from other states, who had been staying in schools for years now because of their clout. They should be immediately transferred.

Education Secretary VK Singh could not be contacted on this issue.

Chandigarh, May 10
A special workshop was organised by Chandigarh State AIDS Control Society jointly with State Legal Service Authority to spread awareness about the HIV/AIDS today, at Chandigarh Judicial Academy, Sector-43, Chandigarh. The participants were lawyers, Para Legal volunteers, NGOs.

Chandigarh State AIDS Control Society, project director Dr Kavita Chawan said that Chandigarh State AIDS Control Society was conducting various awareness programmes in schools and colleges to sensitise youth about HIV/AIDS prevention and how injecting drug use and needle sharing could lead to the risk of transmitting HIV Infection and prevention of HIV infections and its prevention method.

Advocate Karan Bhardwaj sensitized people on legal rights of HIV positive and said that it was important for all of us to provide care, support to people living with HIV/AIDS.

Mohali, May 10
In order to understand the importance of the tourism industry in the country’s GDP, a guest lecture was organised by the University Institute of Hotel Management, Gharuan.

Students of hotel management and airlines tourism management of Chandigarh University attended the lecture delivered by professor Lianna Beglaryan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Addressing the students, Lianna said the tourism industry had contributed enormously in the flourishing graph of India's economy by attracting a huge number of both foreign and domestic tourists.

The tourism industry in India witnessed a stupendous growth in 2012. The World Travel and Tourism Council calculated that tourism generated $121 billion or 6.4% of the nation's GDP in 2012. Discussing the employment generated by Tourism sector, Lianna said the Indian Tourism Industry was responsible for 39.3 million jobs, 7.9% of its total employment.

Dr RSBawa, vice-chancellor, Chandigarh University, said the employment opportunities for the students of tourism was tremendous. He said the students of the 2013 batch of BSc airlines tourism and hospitality management at UIHM, Gharuan, had been placed with top tourism management companies. — OC

Chandigarh, May 10
Arrive Safe, an NGO on Road Safety, and the Chandigarh traffic police organised The Long Short Walk on the road dividing the PGIMER, Sector 12, and Panjab University, Sector 14.

In order to give the message on road safety, a volunteer enacted the role of Lord Rama and helped patients and senior citizens cross the road.

This is a message to the decision makes to make necessary modifications to the road infrastructure near the premier hospital and the university so that the speed of the vehicles is reduced and the area is made pedestrian friendly. Besides, it also served as a reminder to vehicle users to respect pedestrians and allow them to cross the road safely.

“Normally, we attribute road crashes to “God’s will”, whereas we ourselves are responsible for these road crashes due to engineering faults and driving carelessly i.e. over speeding, not wearing seat belts or helmets,” said Harman Sidhu, president of the Arrive Safe.

The Long Short Walk is being organised globally for pedestrian rights on the second UN global Road Safety Week.

Chandigarh, May 10
Within minutes after a youth on a motorcycle pulled a gold chain from a woman at the dividing road of Sectors 40 and 41 , alert action by passersby helped nab the snatcher.

Shelly, who is a counsellor, was returning to her Sector 41 residence from the market and was walking down, when a youth came from the rear side on a bike and pulled off her gold chain.

The woman raised an alarm and two youths who were nearby then chased the snatcher and held him.

The police was then called and the accused was handed over to it.

The police said the accused was a drug addict and was not revealing his identity and they were interrogating him.

A case has been registered at the Sector 39 police station and the probe is on.

Chandigarh, May 10
In a bid to end the tradition of PU-affiliated colleges applying for the affiliation of courses in the mid of the academic session, Panjab University probably for the first time is going to decide on the affiliation to various subjects in colleges prior the academic session.

The Syndicate will discuss cases of affiliation or extension in affiliation of colleges at a meeting scheduled for May 15.

Earlier, the colleges after admitting students to a particular course used to apply for the extension of affiliation. Even though the colleges didn’t complete all mandatory requirements, the university used to extend the temporary affiliation granted to the particular course keeping in view the future of students already studying in the colleges.

One of the senior Syndicate members said the university was going to tighten the noose around the colleges, following which all affiliations and extension of temporary affiliation cases for the academic session 2013 had been brought in the Syndicate so that the colleges only after getting the affiliation in the required subject admit students.

“The colleges, which are already running courses on the basis of temporary affiliations, if fail to get extension in affiliation will not be permitted to make fresh admissions,” said a Syndic.

RPS Josh, another Syndic, said the colleges played with the future of students by admitting them to the course without getting it affiliated, following which it was necessary to make the colleges run the course only after getting an approval.

Another issue that would be tabled before the Syndicate is the proposal made by the Director-Principal of the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, that professors of all departments of the college be made an ex-officio member of the Medical Sciences similar to the professors of PU who are allowed to be ex-officio members of the concerned faculty under the Regulation 4.1 of PU calendar volume I.

Chandigarh, May 10
Several parents of students studying in St Anne’s Convent School in Sector 32 gathered in front of a shop in Sector 20 today evening and raised objections against the school’s authoritative decision to force the students to buy tracksuits from a particular shop here.

The parents alleged that the set of a tracksuit was expensive from the market. The school asked the students to buy full sleeve and double-layered tracksuits, which was extremely difficult for children to wear in summer.

“The price of the tracksuit is another matter, but what is the rationality behind forcing the students to buy tracksuit meant for winter amid 42-43 degree temperature,” questioned a parent in front of the shop.

He along with other parents demanded that the school roll back the decision and allow the parents to buy it from any shop in Chandigarh.

Another parent said the shopkeeper was selling the tracksuit for Rs 750 per set, whereas it was easily available in the range of Rs 250-Rs 300 elsewhere in the market.

“When I asked the shopkeeper whether I can buy it from anywhere else, he replied that it is available in his shop only,” he said.

The parents alleged that there was definitely a nexus between the school and the shopkeeper. “The Education Department must intervene in the matter and check it thoroughly,” they said.

“We just got a verbal message that the students should be in tracksuits from tomorrow’s PT session. The decision should be rolled back,” they said.

School officials could not be contacted on this issue.

Chandigarh, May 10
Panjab University is planning to reserve 5 per cent seats in each course in the university and its affiliated colleges for Kashmiri migrants from the coming academic session. The issue will be taken up in the Syndicate meeting to be held on May 15.

A letter from the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resources and Development, sent to PU in March this year recommending relaxation and reservation in each course is expected to be adopted by the university from the coming academic session.

The government has recommended relaxation in cut-off percentage up to 10 per cent subject to minimum eligibility requirement, increase in intake capacity up to 5 per cent course wise, reservation of at least one seat in merit quota in technical and professional institutes and waiving off the domicile requirements for admission.

A Syndicate member said: “The letter sent by the government is not clear, therefore, it calls for a discussion and clarification before adopting the letter”.

Chandigarh, May 10
Intensifying their protest further, several expelled guest faculty and contractual teachers were found standing at the Sector 16-17 roundabout near Shivalik Hotel with banners to highlight their issues.

Around 100 guest faculty teachers and 13 contractual teachers were relieved from their jobs after the recent promotion of permanent government teachers as lecturers.

Since then, these teachers are continuously staging the protest to demand their reemployment in the department.

A teacher said it was a gross injustice with them to give them relieving order all of a sudden with no prior notice.

Another relieved teacher said: “We were given an assurance that we will be reemployed soon, but we have not heard anything from the Education Department so far”.

Meanwhile, several guest faculty teachers, too, had filed the petition at the Chandigarh Administrative Tribunal, in which the court has now summed Education Secretary VK Singh on this issue.

A senior official of the department said they were trying to adjust them despite the fact that most of them did not have required eligibility for the required posts.

Chandigarh, May 10
The Government of India has proposed to set up 200 new community colleges in the next academic session. Punjab has to set up 4 community colleges, out of which 2 will be set up in the ambit of polytechnics and 2 as general degree colleges with a view to improving employability of liberal art graduates. The Governing Board and the Board of Studies of these colleges would have the representatives of industry and business.

This was stated by Ravneet Kaur, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Punjab, in her presidential remarks during a participatory dissemination workshop on “Canadian Model of Community Colleges: Lessons for Higher Education Policy in India” organised today by the Department of Public Administration, Panjab University, and Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies, University of Fraser Valley, Canada, at the ICSSR North-Western Regional Centre, PU.

Professor BS Ghuman, workshop coordinator, while introducing the theme, said the mandate of community colleges was twofold. First, equipping students with skills and credentials aligned to the job market and reskilling displaced work force. Second, enabling students through the mechanism of associate degree for higher education.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Arun Grover, in his inaugural address, said community colleges should be considered mainline, but alternate route to higher education by people who were intelligent but lack affordability.

“Before implementing the community college model, issues pertaining to regulation and administration should be amicably resolved,” he said.

Scot Slessor, Canadian Consul General, in his keynote address, opined that community colleges helped in bridging gap between skills formed and skills required in the industry as in these colleges, emphasis was on applied learning and research.

“Community colleges offer wide-ranging courses in video game design, golf management, aviation, broadcasting, journalism, business management, culinary arts, wine making and fashion designing. These courses offer wide career opportunities as in Canada, 90 per cent of the graduates get job within six months of graduating from community colleges and also 93 per cent of the employers of these graduates are satisfied,” he said.