Chandigarh, May 13
The cash-for-job scam in the Railways has apparently created differences between former Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal's and his nephew (sister's son) Vijay Singla's families.

Bansal, who visited his hometown Chandigarh on Saturday night after railgate, spent nearly 38 hours in the city before leaving for Delhi on Monday at 10 am, but nobody from both the families met each other.

Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla is in judicial custody for allegedly taking Rs 90 lakh as bribe on May 3 for helping Railway Board member Mahesh Kumar get a promotion.

Bansal and Singla reside in Sector 28-A. While Bansal's family resides in house No. 64, Singla's family lives hardly at a distance of 200 metres from Bansal's house in house Nos. 105 and 106 in the same sector.

On Sunday, when Bansal showed his political strength by meeting Congress leaders at his Sector 28 residence, his friends, relatives and supporters had also turned up. However, nobody from Singla's family turned up to meet Bansal.

Before Singla's arrest, members of both families used to visit each other's residence frequently.

Requesting anonymity, a close family member of Bansal said there were no differences between the two families. However, in the present situation, nobody wanted to create another controversy and give a chance to the opposition to draw political mileage. That was why members of both families did not meet each other.

Panchkula, May 13
Six persons, including two women, barged into the house of a businessman at Sector 4 here and took away gold and silver items, goods and cash after overpowering the occupants of the house tonight.

The incident occurred at around 10.15 pm at house number 147, belonging to local businessman Rajiv Garg, who was away for dinner along with his friend. His 17-year-old son Anirudh Garg, his accountant Parveen and servant Reena were present in the house at the time of the incident.

According to the police, a girl, who was in her early twenties, rang the doorbell and asked Anirudh to call his father Rajiv Garg as she wanted to meet him urgently. While she was talking to Anirudh, five of her accomplices, including another woman, barged into the house, brandishing knives. The second woman had covered her face with a cloth.

After looting jewellery, goods and Rs 20,000 from the house, the robbers tied up the trio with a dupatta and locked them in a washroom and fled.

The incident came to light when a relative of the Gargs came to the house to meet them and found something “amiss”.

He called up Rajiv Garg and later the police.

Panchkula Deputy Commissioner Ashwin Shanvi and Assistant Commissioner KK Hooda reached the spot.

“We have flashed messages regarding the incident to all police stations, including those in the neighbouring states,” said the police officer.

A case has been registered at the Sector 5 police station.

Chandigarh , May 13
A CBI court today acquitted five accused — three bank officials, an advocate and a former secretary of a housing society — in a multi-crore bank scam.

The court acquitted five accused — three Punjab National Bank officials (the then Chief Manager, SN Mahajan, Senior Manager RK Chaba and Manager Shashi Bhushan Gupta), advocate Mahinder Singh and Geeta Ram Thakur, former secretary of the Bishanpura Cooperative House Building Society in Zirakpur.

The CBI had registered a case against the prime accused, Sandeep Sharma and Thakur, under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) 420, (cheating) and 467, 468 and 471 (related to forgery) of the IPC, besides the PC Act on July 12, 2008. It was alleged that between August 2006 and March 2007, Shubham Hospital and Diagnostic Centre sought loans from four banks.

While these accused have been acquitted after the prosecution failed to prove the charges, the main accused in the case, Sandeep Sharma, a partner of Shubham Hospital and Diagnostic Centre in Sector 20, Panchkula, was declared a proclaimed offender.

According to the prosecution, Sandeep had managed to secure a loan of over Rs 2 crore from the PNB on documents related to 23 flats in various societies of Panchkula. Investigations revealed that the papers of the flats were forged and the PNB had sanctioned the loan without verifying the documents.

Geeta Ram Thakur, the authorised signatory as secretary of the Bishanpura Cooperative House Building Society in Zirakpur, had signed the agreements with the bank on Sandeep's request, the CBI had said.

Mohali, May 13
The Mohali police seems to have "lost sight" of noted Punjabi singer Preet Brar, wanted in a case of theft, criminal intimidation and trespass even though he can be seen roaming freely and holding press briefings in the town.

Brar, along with nearly 20 unidentified persons, was booked under Sections 380, 447, 452, 506, 148 and 149 of the IPC at the Kharar police station on April 16 on a complaint of Pawan Taneja, a resident of Kharar. Taneja alleged that Brar, along with his accomplices, broke open the locks of his house and took away items worth Rs 15 lakh, including gold jewellery, cash, a refrigerator, television and a computer from his house.

Alleging police inaction, Taneja claimed that Brar had been roaming freely in the town and had even visited the police headquarters at Phase 1 where his wife was a computer operator in the office of the Superintendent of Police.

Brar held a press conference at the Mohali Press Club at Phase IV at 1 pm yesterday, in which he termed the allegations against him as false and baseless. He reportedly left the conference midway. “This (holding of a press conference openly) shows that the police is in no mood to arrest him,” said Taneja.

Mohali Superintendent of Police (City) Swarndeep Singh said, “There are certain important aspects in the case which are being looked into during the investigation. The police is on the job.”

Brar, against whom the court of the Additional Sessions Judge, Faridkot, had issued non-bailable warrants on November 5, 2012, in a fraud case, had recently released his music album "Rise of Jatt".

Brar had started his singing career in 1994 with "Tere Bina Jia Nahi Lagda" and his popular albums include “Khand Missri”, “Nachdi Nachdi Aa”, “Tere Jahi Kuri”, “Ek Tere Karke” and “Petrol 2”. He has also acted in a Punjabi film, “Kaun Kise Da Beli”.

Chandigarh, May 13
In the absence of regular inspection by the estate committee, the contractor running the patient canteen in the New OPD Block of the PGI is selling unpacked beverages, including fruit juices and shakes, in violation of the norms.

While the sale of unpacked drinks and cut fruit is banned at the institute in view of the risk it poses, the contractor can be seen selling these items freely.

The canteen contract categorically states that unpacked food items, especially drinks, cannot be sold on the premises. Yet, patients and attendants continue to demand these items and the contractor freely sells these items.

The canteen contractor has allegedly been fleecing patients and attendants by selling meals at double the price prescribed by the PGI authorities. The cost of a meal has been prescribed by the PGI at Rs 15. However, the canteen contractor charges Rs 30 per meal.

Besides, sanitation is a big concern at the canteen. Employees of the canteen rarely clear the litter on the floor. Sources said the contractor did not hire adequate number of workers for cleaning the tables and the floor in the canteen to save expenses.

Officials said the responsibility of cleaning the canteen lay with the contractor.

“We have a dedicated committee which checks such violations. The team inspects canteens on a regular basis. We take immediate action in case we receive any complaint about violations,” said Manju Wadwalkar, PGI spokesperson.

The contractor of the canteen said, “Patients should look for cleaner table or area in the canteen for sitting. Why do they choose to sit on a dirty table?” Two chemist shops located opposite the food counters have occupied a considerable portion of the canteen (around five tables) to run their business.

Chandigarh, May 13
It seems that senior citizens have lost sympathy and preference of doctors and other staff at the PGIMER. Going by the experiences of two senior citizens who visited the PGIMER’s New OPD Block over the past week, there is rarely any practice in place at the institute that could differentiate the senior citizens from other patients and support them.

While there is a separate counter for senior citizens for registration at the ground floor of the New OPD Block, other common patients occupy the space pushing the elderly patients away.

Further, there is no system for separate consultation of senior citizens in the OPDs and their OPD cards or case files are often mixed up with those of other patients, leaving no possibility of preference for the elderly in treatment.

Amarnath Singh (name changed), a 70-year-old patient from Panchkula, who visited the OPD for his check-up last week, had to wait for four hours before finally entering the doctor’s room. Even after reaching inside, he had to wait as his OPD card was placed below the case files of a few other patients.

“There should be some mechanism for differentiating the OPD card or files of senior citizens from those other patients. For instance, at the command hospital, the OPD cards of senior citizens bear a different text colour, making it convenient for the consultants to prefer them over others,” Singh said.

Another patient, Shivram Sharma (85), a retired government official from Sector 23, said: “I have been visiting the New OPD for my treatment for the past three months. As I live alone in the city, I never have any attendant with me at the OPD. To get my registration done, I have to stand in a long queue. Though the counter mentions that it is supposed to be exclusively for senior citizens, many patients make a beeline at the counter, defeating the whole purpose of bringing some relief to elders like me”.

Officials, on the other hand, said an effective system was in place for ensuring convenience to senior citizens.

“We have a special counter for the elderly. Also, we have a special stamp to be imprinted over the OPD cards of those aged above 70. But, we cannot follow the practice for those aged less than 70, given the fact that the rush at the OPD Block remains too high,” said PGI’s official spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar.

Chandigarh, May 13
The Chandigarh Social Welfare Board has nothing to show in its performance report even after the completion of six months of its tenure, due to the delay in the issuance of the notification of the board by the UT Administration. The Administration, in fact, has also failed to finalise the names of two of its representatives in the board for the past five months. The appointment of new chairperson, Kamlesh, who was appointed by the board in November, last year, is yet to be notified too.

Chairperson Kamlesh said she would bring up the issue of the lackadaisical attitude adopted by the Chandigarh Administration at the Central Social Welfare Board meeting on May 15. She said recently the Central Government had approved the names of two board members in order to commence its working. However, in the absence of a notification by the UT Administration, she had failed to hold any meeting of the board, she said.

UT Social Welfare Department director Rajesh Jopal said the decision to constitute the board was pending with the higher authorities. He said the board would be notified after the proposed members get the approval. The chairperson was planning to call a meeting of the board, but none of the decisions taken by the board could be approved till it was notified, he said.

Records of the board revealed that during the last tenure of three years, under the ex-chairperson Lalit Joshi, the board could not hold a single meeting as it was not notified. Even after the expiry of its tenure, no fresh panel for the appointment of a new chairperson was sent to the central board for its consideration. Sources said three reminders were sent to the Administration for recommending the panel. Finally, the central board appointed the chairperson at its own end. Sources said a number of reminders were also sent to the Administration for notifying the board and chairperson, but no action was taken by the UT authorities.

As per norms, in addition to the chairperson, the members of the board include four social workers, of which two are appointed by the Centre and two by the UT Administration. The board also comprises of four ex-officio members: Directors of Social Welfare; Public Instruction and Technical Education; Schools; and Health Departments.

Chandigarh, May 13
Traders in Sector 17 today objected to the drive of the Municipal Corporation for disconnecting water connection for not paying water bills.

The MC team disconnected 29 water connections today in Sector 17.

JPS Kalra, general secretary, Sector 17 Traders’ Association, said they were not against the drive, but the authorities should not disconnect the water connections of those who were regularly paying water bills.

Giving an example, he said the MC team disconnected the water connection of the entire building if there was only one defaulter out of the five connections.

“The MC team is totally harassing the innocent traders in the name of the drive. There should be some justification in the disconnection of water connections,” Kalra said.

RC Diwan, superintending engineer of MC’s public and health wing, said they were disconnecting water connections as per the water bylaws. As per the bylaws, there was only one direct connection in the building, which was with the owner and not with tenants. The owners were not paying the water bill, therefore they disconnected the supply.

Chandigarh, May 13
In a joint operation, the Estate Office, the Municipal Corporation and the Market Committee today carried out a day-long anti-encroachment drive at the Sector 26 Vegetable and Grain Market here. The enforcement staff accompanied by JCB and police personnel removed encroachments from the market.

The drive was carried out after a case regarding encroachment was taken up by the Punjab and Haryana High Court following a writ petition. The administration has to file its reply on May 17.

Officials supervising the operation said all temporary encroachments were cleared in the day-long operation. Tehsildar Amarinder Singh said all rehri and pehri wallas were also cleared. Tin sheds of workers engaged by the grain market were spared as they had been relocated by the administration.

Recently, the Estate Office and the MC had carried out a drive to remove jhuggis from the mandi.

Bhim Sen, president of the market, said the shopkeepers went on a strike after the enforcement staff started removing encroachments from the concrete platforms in front of the shops. Assistant Estate officer Rahul Gupta had to intervene to control the tempers of the shopkeepers.

To find a permanent solution to the problem, Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Shayin had called a meeting of all departments concerned to draw a framework to ensure smooth traffic in the mandi.

Chandigarh, May 13
After the last month’s fire incident, it was found that the record room of the Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA) was filled with learning license files. The files have been lying in the record room for the past ten years.

RLA officials said, “Though the learner’s license is valid for six months, the record has been kept for years and there are no clear instructions regarding its disposal.”

As per the standard procedure, the entire record should be digitalised so that unnecessary papers and files are disposed off.

In the last month fire, it had been noticed that files had been dumped closely in the dusky room and no space is there to move through the steel racks. Due to shortage of space, files were littered over the floor as usual and it was nearly impossible to enter the dark and dingy room. The record room is located in the common basement of the MC building.

About 10 years ago, a large part of the RLA record was damaged in a major fire. Ever since the incident, the record of the learners license has been kept as officials felt the hard copy of the documents is vital in case of any verification of the old record.

RLA, Mahavir Kaushik, said there was a huge pile up of files of temporary licenses. “Initially, the department had decided to dispose off the record, but then it was though that the record was relevant and could be disposed off only after adopting the set procedure,” he said.

Recently, the MC had issued notice to the RLA for violating fire safety rules. The RLA has been asked to make proper arrangements to keep important documents safe. In the notice, the Fire Department had mentioned that the fire fighting equipments of the RLA were out of order and the equipments were also not properly installed in the building.

Chandigarh, May 13
With the shifting of the record of commercial vehicles from the Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA) to the State Transport Authority (STA), the latter has started preparing a list of defaulters in respect of road tax and fitness certificate.

Balbir Singh Dhol, State Transport Secretary, said with over 6,000 commercial vehicles registered in the city, the entire record of such vehicles was being updated so that the defaulting amount against any of the owner does not go unnoticed. As per the record, there were 800 school buses, 200 tourist and contract carriage buses, 4,000 three-wheelers, 600 taxis and 400 small transport vehicles are registered with the STA.

In past, it has been seen that there were defaulters in respect of taxes, fitness certificates, permits, insurance, registration certificate and pollution certificates. The issue was discussed at a review meeting regarding functioning of the STA.

The STA said, “All the operators/transporters of commercial vehicles have been advised to get complete all the formalities in all respects on account of their vehicles. In case of surprise check, the vehicles found without any of the documents will be impounded and the permit will be cancelled. A heavy fine will also be imposed as per the Motor Vehicle Act.”

As a special case, all the defaulters have been given a fortnight to deposit the taxes failing which general public/operators would be personally responsible for any harassment carried out to them especially at the time of surprise check. These vehicles can also be taken in possession from their stands to impound centre. 

Chandigarh, May 13
Statements of two youths, who were witness to the accident case in which 35-year-old Shramila was crushed under a CTU bus, were recorded today.

The statements were recorded as part of the ongoing inquiry in which the police negligence was alleged in the case.

Ravit and Akash, who were present at the spot, had claimed that the woman's body kept lying on the road for almost two hours before she was shifted to the General Hospital, Sector 16, Chandigarh. The woman was declared dead on arrival by doctors. The two have alleged negligence on part of the police in shifting the victim to the hospital.

The youngsters had submitted a written complaint to the Chandigarh Police and had demanded action against the SHO for not taking woman to the hospital on time and even manhandling them at the spot.

The police records reveal that the driver himself had called the police after the accident. The inquiry is being conducted by UT SP Arun Kampani. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had also taken sue motto notice of the incident on Friday. The court had given 10 days time to the Chandigarh Police for explaining what compensation it intended to offer to the kin of the deceased.

Kampani recorded the statements of the two youths and other eye witnesses to get to the reality of the incident. The SP is expected to complete the inquiry within a week's time.

Chandigarh, May 13
Holding the low-floor bus responsible for the accident that killed a scooterist, Sharmila, near the GMSH, Sector 16, last week, the CTU Workers’ Union organised a condolence meeting in the memory of the victim near the accident spot today.

Accompanied by road safety activist Harman Sidhu, the CTU Workers Union pointed out that a number of low-floor buses were responsible for road accidents in the city.

Recalling the past accidents, Ranjit Singh, general secretary of the union, said despite repeated requests to the Chandigarh Administration not to go for low-floor buses, the administration was interested in going for such buses.

Chandigarh, May 13
The Chandigarh Administration has appointed a contractor for managing the car parking at the Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT), Sector 43.

During the resumed hearing of a PIL filed by advocate HC Arora, an affidavit was filed before Acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain by Chandigarh Transport Undertaking director PP Singh Phoolka. He said the UT Administration appointed the contractor on April 11 for managing the car parking for one year.

In the petition filed in public interest, the petitioner submitted that the parking arrangements were virtually non-existent at the ISBT, Sector 43, Chandigarh, for the past about three months. There was no contractor at the parking place and cars parked there were prone to thefts.

The petitioner stated his colleague had sent a notice dated January 30 to the Deputy Commissioner and the Chandigarh Senior Superintendent of Police demanding appropriate arrangements for the security of cars at the ISBT-43. However, the respondents failed to do the needful so far.

Mohali, May 13
A farmer of Pharonjia village near Mullanpur alleged police inaction in the case of his alleged kidnapping by some persons for grabbing his land.

Narinder Singh alleged that he was kidnapped by certain persons, who were in property business in the area, on November 16, 2012. "They had kept me in captivity for around six months during which these persons had taken my signatures on property documents by giving me sedatives and sold out my two acre land, worth crores of rupees, and an 8-marla plot, to a private company," said Narinder Singh. He said that the company had issued three cheques of Rs 78 lakh each in his name which was deposited in a fake bank account opened by his alleged kidnappers, whose names have been given in the police complaint. He also alleged that he was made to sign a false complaint against his own family members by these persons on whom a case was registered. Narinder Singh alleged that despite giving complaint to the police and SDM, Kharar, in this connection, no action has been taken so far.Mohali SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, on the issue, said: "After verification of facts we will register a case."

Zirakpur, May 13
Some goods, including plastic drums and junk, got damaged when a fire broke out around 3.10 pm at a store of Anmol Enterprises at Phabhat village here this afternoon. It took about an hour to control the fire, which also engulfed neighbouring premises also.

As many as three fire tenders, 2 from Dera Bassi and one from Mohali, were pressed into service to douse the flames. — TNS

Chandigarh, May 13
All the colleges in the city have applied for accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Board (NAAC) following the directions of the Union Ministry for Human Resource and Development.

While two of the 13 colleges had acquired the NAAC accreditation last year, others had not applied for it until it was made mandatory in January this year. These two colleges included Dev Samaj College, Sector 36, and Goswami Ganesh Dutta Sanatan Dharma College (SD College), Sector 32.

The new methodology of assessment and accreditation, under the NAAC, an autonomous body created by the University Grants Commission (UCG), was introduced in 2007 but a majority of the city colleges are yet to get re-accredited.

“All the colleges have now applied for the NAAC accreditation. All the colleges will be inspected and accredited by the end of this year. A college will become eligible to avail full grant from the UGC if it gets a NAAC ranking,” said PS Gill, co-president of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU).

The NAAC now assesses an institution and rates it on the CGPA score based on which the institutes get a grade from A, B, C or D. It has been set up to help all participating institutions assess their performance and set parameters. The NAAC accreditation is important for a college to avail grants under schemes introduced by the UGC, including potential for excellence and innovative programme for colleges.

Some of these colleges which have applied for accreditation include DAV College, Sector 10; Dev Samaj College, Sector 45B; Government College, Sector 11; Government College, Sector 46; Home Science College, Sector 10; Government College for Girls, Sector 42; Government College for Girls, Sector 11; Government College of Education, Sector 20; Guru Gobind Singh College for Women, Sector 26; Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26; and MCM DAV College for Women, Sector 36.

After the completion of five-year tenure of accreditation, the colleges may seek re-accreditation. The colleges are assessed on the basis of seven principles. 

Chandigarh, May 13
Stating that to be an economic and military superpower, India needs to develop indigenous state-of-the-art technologies in all scientific fields and industrial sectors, Dr Manjit Singh, Director Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory, said that the 1998 nuclear tests at Pokharan gave the country the strength and capability to tackle external threats.

Delivering the Technology Day lecture at the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation here today, he said that it was on May 11, 1998 that the first composite indigenous aircraft, Hansa-3, was tested flown at Bangalore, the successful test firing of Trishul anti-aircraft missile took place in Orissa and the the three successful nuclear tests were carried out at Pokhran. Technology Day is observed by the country’s scientific community every year to commemorate the nuclear tests.

Dr Manjit stressed upon the importance of involving young researchers in the new projects. He also listed out various areas where TBRL, a Defence Research and Development Organisation establishment and CSIO, a laboratory under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, could collaborate for developing technologies for defence applications.

Scientists from TBRL, which had a major role in the nuclear tests, have won two team awards this year in the areas of development of special explosives and multi EFP warheads which have been successfully converted from technology stage to product realisation.

Dr Girish Sahni, Director, CSIO said that the challenge before scientists is to convert scientific research into patents and products useful to the society. He said that CSIO had the right environment to grow such talent which can make this possible. He also stressed upon the importance of partnership and collaboration.

Earlier in his address at TBRL, Prof Arun Grover, Vice Chancellor of Panjab University highlighted the contributions of several pioneering scientists in establishing organised scientific and industrial research in India. He also spoke at length on the possible applications of zero- magnetisation materials, which is one of the present challenges before scientists.

On the occasion, lpsita Biswas gave an oration on 'Establishing test methodology and protocol for ballistic evaluation of body armour”, where she described the methods that have been established in TBRL to simulate the processes. Another lecture on 'Cloud computing was given by Sh. Balvir Kumar on this occasion. 

Chandigarh, May 13
The Education Department has called an immediate meeting of cluster heads and DEOs tomorrow to discuss the issue of school uniform.

The meeting is to be chaired by DPI (s) Upkar Singh. The meeting is being called because several schools have not received any response from the uniform suppliers even after placing the tender notice for four times. Most of the schools have now bluntly refused to purse this matter further and asked the department to intervene in this matter and solve the fiasco. Many even blamed stringent technicalities for the delayed free school uniform benefits to over one lakh students in Chandigarh. Officials said that amid this situation, the department does not have many options left, except revising the existing framework on uniform issue to enable the schools to comfortably buy the school uniforms in future. Upkar Singh, DPI (s), said that he would not comment on whether any kind of revision in the policy matter was possible but tomorrow’s meeting has been called to get the status report as how many schools placed their orders and how many failed to do so. “All the cluster heads has been asked to place their report of their respective schools followed by which discussion will be held for the possible action,” he said. As per the information, it was in March this year that the Education Department had entrusted the responsibilities to government schools to buy their own school uniforms as per their requirement. But the policy miserable failed mainly due to unfavorable guidelines.

Chandigarh, May 13
The Education Department is introducing vocational courses for Class XI students in three more senior secondary schools from the new session starting from July.

Students of GSSS-Manimajra will now be able to pursue health care and beauty course.

The course is already running in five other government schools, including GMSSS-8, GMSSS-20 B, GMSSS-37, GMSSS-40 and GMSSS-47.

An official said, “The aim is to widen the reach of skill development courses so that maximum students get benefit from it and they can further purse their career in these areas.”

Further, the department has decided to introduce IT vocation courses at GMSSS-Sarangpur. It will be the seventh school in city to have Information Technology course, which gets lot of response from students every year.

GSSS-Khuda Alisher will have special vocational course on electrical technology, which is running in other schools, GMSSS-23 and GSSS-45. “These courses have been introduced considering their future employability and interest of the students,” said a department official.

The department is also planning to introduce pre-metric vocational courses for Class IX and Class X in Chandigarh government schools. Officials said that the issue would soon be discussed in the coming meeting of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) at the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The plan to introduce vocational courses at pre-metric level is part of the National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF) that has been introduced by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to strengthen the developing skills and competencies among students from Class IX onwards.

The department has proposed to introduce retail, security, information technology and automobile technology in the Phase-I of this scheme. It is currently offering as many as 22 skills based on vocational courses at Class XI and Class XII level to strengthen the core skills of the students.

Chandigarh, May 13
The Board of Studies, Panjab University (PU), has decided not to re-conduct the Punjabi exam for BA final year students.

The Punjabi compulsory examination question paper of BA final year held last month turned out to be similar to the paper conducted in 2012. The students were left surprised to see the question papers as they had already seen the questions in previous year's sample papers.

Earlier, the question paper of BA/ BSc second year mathematics examination was also found to be similar to the one held in 2012.

The University had first cancelled the exam and re-scheduled it for May 11. However, following an uproar created by the students, a special syndicate meeting was called last week and it was decided that the exam will not be re-conducted.

In another case, students of BCom were left surprised upon finding a fully theoretical format for Cost Accounting question paper, on April 10. The original format of the paper was supposed to carry 50 per cent practical and 50 per cent theoretical questions.

The exam season this year was full of goof-ups and mistakes reflecting the lackadaisical approach of the examining authorities.

The series of goof-ups has hit the reputation of the University badly this year.