EDUCATION

Syndicate clears students’ home 
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 14 — The Panjab University Syndicate has cleared the proposal for the construction of a students’ home at Andretta near Palampur in Himachal Pradesh.

Andretta is better known as the workplace of eminent painter, late Sobha Singh.

The resolution bears the signatures of Gopal Krishan Chatrath, Dr V.K.Bansal, Mr Paramjit Singh, Dr Raghuvir Singh, Ms Nirmal Kaur, Mr Satish Sharma, Prof Charanjit Chawla, Mr H.R.Gandhar, Dr Deepak Manmohan and Mr H.S Deol.

The resolution is primarily a move introduced by Dr Deepak Man-mohan, Dean, College Develop-ment.

Working hours: Working hours of the Administrative block of Panjab University will be from 7 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. from May 15 to July 1, a press release said here on Sunday.

This will be for six days in a week. The change will also apply for the construction office and the Directorate of Sports.

With effect from July 3, university administration offices, including the construction and the directorate of sports, will revert to a five, day week as usual.

Kids’ workshop from May 22
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, May 14 — The third annual workshop which begins at the Sector 6 Hansraj Public School from May 22, promises to be an exciting affair, open to children of all age groups.

Headstart, the workshop, will feature a creative-arts programme, including plays, music, structured games, speech and voice exercises, besides art and craft activities children in the age group of 4 to 6. Art, cartooning and design workshop, Studio 2000, will be open to children in the age group of 12 to 15.

Designed exclusively for children in the 7 to 9 age group, Bachon Ka Pitara, will be a story-telling and toy-making workshop. It will also involve art and a craft activities, mask-making, puppets, theatre, music and mime. Children will get an opportunity to practice culinary skills and learn housekeeping tips. A picnic and a tour of a local hotel will also be organised.

A trip to a village and trekking expedition to Churdhar will also be organised from June 12 to 14. The workshop will also include Big Byte, a certificate course in computers for children in the age group of 11 to 15. Career counselling will also be introduced for children this year.

Function: Three-year-old kids of Toddlers' World Preparatory School, Sector 10, gave a remarkable performance at a function held in Tagore Theatre. In the play Cinderella, the actors — Ayushi Arora (Cinderella), Suneet Thakur (Prince), Kavya Atray (stepmother), Mallika and Nikita (stepsisters) — displayed confidence beyond their age.

Awarded: Eight-year-old Vaishali Dhiman, a Class III student of Jainendra Public School, Sector 1, was awarded a cash prize of Rs 1,500 by Mr R.S. Chaudhary, Deputy Chaiman of the Planning Board, for her outstanding performance in cultural activities.

A computer-savvy school puts an end to ‘talk-and-chalk days’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 14—The desire to have computer-savvy students initiated the project of a computer lab in Kailash Bahl DAV Centenary Public School, Sector 7, which has come up with a state-of-art lab at the premises and is working out the technicalities of having its own website.

Speaking of the project, Mrs Madhu Bahl, principal of the school, said that educating the children on the ocean of information at their disposal was a dream which was transformed into a reality with great effort. “I personally visited computer labs in schools and institutes and put the best ideas of each one in my lab,’’ she adds.

Set up very aesthetically, the lab has ergonomically designed computer furniture and lots of colour in the form of pictures dealing with the uses of computers, its dos and don’ts besides its latest versions.

The lab is equipped with high configuration pentium computers, each with a coloured monitor, CD ROMs and amplified multimedia kits. In addition to this, there are specially designed posters on computers.

In the adjoining hall where audio-visual aids are used, sessions using multimedia projection system is used to give the children a theatre-like feel during theory classes. Mrs Bahl informed that this had been done to avoid total reliance on ``talk-and-chalk’’ method and towards making computer learning more effective. For the purpose one multimedia computer has been connected to the projector for full-screen projection of computer commands.

The computer syllabus has been revised to give it a professional touch. Besides the usual, the user-friendly packages, it includes the latest computer languages. Also, Internet connection has been provided to enable students to surf the various sites related to the subjects being taught in school and e-mail to friends. The school will organise a variety of summer courses during the vacation period.

COURTS

Forum orders payment of compensation
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, May 14 — The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum ordered the Commercial Officer, Department of Telecom of the township, to pay Rs 5000 as compensation for mental agony and cost of proceedings for deficient service to Mr HK Sinha, a resident of Sector 12.

The complaint states that a telephone number was transferred in his name under third party rules of the department in January, 1997, after depositing the fee. Following this, he requested the department to install the telephone at his residence but later wanted the same at his factory in the Industrial Area of the township. However, even after furnishing the inter-city shifting form, his telephone was not installed even after a lapse of two years.

Upon notice, the department filed a written statement where it stated that the telephone was for domestic purposes and the complainant should have applied for commercial use. It was added that on completing the required formalities, the advise not for shifting the telephone had already been issued to the SDO concerned for execution.

Also, the Forum asked for the complete record maintained by the department in this case, which it failed to do. Further, the bench observed that the department was supposed to shift the telephone within seven days but it took them eight months instead.

CHANDIGARH CALLING

Hike in ST leads to panic buying

THE unanimity among states over the enhancement of sales tax on all types of vehicles from May 15 led to panic buying of cars, scooters and even light vehicles in the city during the three days of the past week. Some of those who did not have ready money approached banks and financial institutions, raised loans and rushed to dealers to buy vehicles of their choice to save levy of enhanced sales tax from Monday.

No wonder the past week was a very busy one both for bankers and car dealers.

The minimum saving on buying cars at the prevailing lower sales tax ranges from Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000 depending upon the price of a model. Similarly, the minimum saving of sales tax on a scooter is Rs 2,000.

The enhancement of sales tax has, however, dampened the spirits of those who could not arrange the money in time.

Dealers feel that there will not be many buyers of vehicles in the coming couple of months. It will take the public some time to reconcile with the hike in the sales tax.

Tagore anniversary: The 139th birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Tagore was celebrated by the Bangia Sanskritik Sammilani at Banga Bhavan, Sector 35-C, on Monday last with great enthusiasm and religious fervour.

Besides presentation of various forms of Rabindra sangeet by the artistes, an audio cassette of Bengali songs “Tomar binai goan chhilo...” written by Tagore and sung by K.L. Saigal and Pankaj Malik was released and distributed. The cassette has been produced by the Indian Recording Company, Calcutta on the initiative of the Environment Society of India (ESI).

Mrs Swati Roy, a music teacher who has trained a number of kids on K.L. Saigal’s songs (both Hindi and Bengali), said that next year a large number of children will participate in the K.L. Saigal commemoration functions.

Dancing truck: Have you seen dancing horses or mules perform at a rural sports festival ? They are trained to dance to the beat of the drum by lifting their forelimbs. It needs immaculate training and practice before such horses and mules are taken to shows. In Rajasthan and some parts of Majha belt in Punjab, there are some who still train dancing horses and mules.

The other day, Chandigarh witnessed a truck’s dance. The venue was Dakshin Marg outside the Sector 29-D Iron and Steel Market. This heavy vehicle had its front wheels up in the air and the rear wheel doing the balancing.

But there was no one in the drivers’ seat. The truck continued in this posture for several hours. The truck was overloaded with steel railings and girders. The load, tilting towards the tail, was too heavy for the vehicle to maintain its balance. After being driven for a few yards, its front wheels went up in the air and both the driver and the cleaner had to jump out to safety. Since the incident took place late in the evening, the vehicle was put back on all its six wheels only next morning after it was unloaded.

The picture was taken by Manoj Mahajan with front wheels still in the air.

Democracy at work: How do children learn how democracy works in the country ? The Sector 41-B Ajit Karam Singh International Public School decided to do this by giving the children a practical demonstration.

The school decided to organise elections of Head Boy and Head Girl the way Assembly or Parliamentary elections are held.

Each student from class VI to X went and cast his vote at one polling booth or the other. Then there was counting of votes and official declaration of results. The students after the elections were perhaps wiser and educated about how the system works in the country.

“Achievements”: At a recent press conference, the Managing Director of the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO), Mr Satish Chandra, was at pains to explain various development works undertaken by the corporation and the increase in profit of various wings.

The mediapersons were handed over an 11-page handout listing the “achievements” of the corporation, which runs two prestigious hotels — having best of the infrastructure and average services.

Even as Mr Chandra conceded that certain services like that of waiters leave much to be desired, a close look at the handout showed there was nothing to cheer about as far as the profit of the corporation was concerned.

The turnover of CITCO showed an increase of Rs 16 crore from Rs 152 crore to Rs 168 crore in 1999-2000 compared to the previous year. The profit — and that too before depreciation — was only Rs 4.37 crore as against Rs 3.58 crore last year. Not a big profit for the blue-eyed corporation of the Chandigarh Administration, if the huge turnover was taken into consideration!

Lucky haul: Killing two birds with one stone is a feat few can achieve. And when it comes from the police department, it is indeed commendable. The Panchkula police managed to lay its hands on 1846 pouches of country-made liquor during a routine drive to challan cars supporting sunfilms without permission.

Speaking about the incident, Mr Amitabh Singh Dhillon, ASP, said that the car in question was flagged down at one of the check points for use of sun films. However, instead of coming to a stop it raced ahead which aroused the suspicion of the police personnel. After giving it a chase, they finally nabbed the culprit in Old Panchkula only to discover that he was carrying illicit liquor following which a case was registered against him, besides challaning him for use of sunfilms.

Helping hand: For a family of Chandigarh, a recent trip to Indonesia and Singapore turned out to be a nightmare. However, officials of the Indian High Commission at Singapore came to their rescue. Mr G.S. Soni of Sector 34 and his family along with his brother had gone to Indonesia in March. While coming back they stayed at Singapore for one day. Tragedy struck when they lost their passports, tickets and travellers cheques in the hotel. They were left in the lurch as American Express refused to give money in lieu of TCs and Air India did not allow them to board the plane. The Sonis went from pillar to post but nobody helped. Penniless and harassed, they went to the Indian High Commission.

The officials there not only gave money from their own pocket but also made sure that the family reached back home without any difficulty. Mr S. Chandrashekhar, Second Secretary and Mr A.C. Dutta, Assistant Consular Officer, extended every possible help. “We were overwhelmed by the treatment we got” said Mr Soni. They could never imagine that they would be treated so nicely. “We are proud to be Indians,” says a grateful Mr Soni.

Traffic camp: A two-day traffic awareness camp and an exhibition on road safety for bus drivers was held at the ISBT in Sector 17 on Saturday and Sunday.

Mr Alok Kumar, ASP, Traffic, while delivering the keynote address said the although the rate of fatal accidents in the city was low as compared to Delhi, yet there was a great need to lower it further. In the past year, there were 456 accidents, out of which 129 were fatal. As many as 137 persons were killed and 409 were injured. In fact, a metropolis like Mumbai was the best managed city in the country and had the lowest road fatality rate.

He said the police would organise such camps in the future to promote road safety and awareness. He stressed the need for regular medical and vision tests for drivers by the transport authorities.

Other speakers highlighted the need to avoid overtaking from the wrong side, not giving right side indicator to fast running vehicles, using of high pressure horns and not driving while wearing rubber slippers.

The number of accidents involving buses was on the rise and figures for the past four months reveal that there had been 37 accidents involving the buses of Punjab, Haryana, PRTC and other privately managed roadways so far.

The participants were given literature free of cost on the occasion.

— Sentinel