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| Thursday, October 19, 2000, Chandigarh, India |
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Ensure 66 pc attendance, PU tells colleges CHANDIGARH,
Oct 18 — Panjab University has asked affiliated colleges to ensure a minimum attendance of 66 per cent in an academic year for each student to appear in the examinations. The norm is part of the university schedule yet the university seems to remind the colleges ‘constantly’, which clearly reflect chinks in the carrying out of the condition. The number of lectures required does not match the requirements for all candidates. Those starting their classes from the regular schedule have a specified number of lectures planned. In case of candidates with results later, the condition applies from the day he gets his card. This is often in February or March. The affected party also includes candidates who applied for re-evaluation. Even the hopeful candidates for an improvement in results cannot be ‘mentally and psychologically’ expected to be fulfilling the condition in large numbers. Principal P.S. Sangha, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26, said the intention of the circular was clearly intended as an improvement suggestion. There were, however, certain aspects in college life which made matching the requirements difficult. “Take for example the ongoing campaign for student elections. Classrooms are in disarray. In addition, there are festivals and ‘special days’, he said. It is obligatory for colleges to give information certifying that a candidate had fulfilled his condition of minimal classroom attendance before giving the roll numbers for the annual university examination. Principal R.C. Jeevan, DAV College, said the college had clearly taken a strong step to ensure classroom attendance. “However, I do not refuse teachers for taking the matter lightly and even forwarding information of not deserving students having attended required classes”. Mr Jeevan said “ensuring attendance was a practice in the past. In my college I as a principal ensured teachers provided attendance chart of classes on a daily basis”. Major D.P. Singh, Principal, Government College, Sector 46, said the well-intended circular could best be said as one with “theoretical considerations more than practical. There was no denial in the fact that several colleges charged “fine” to compensate for the required lectures to match the requirements. Office-bearers of students’ bodies and the authorities needed to put their heads together into the issue to ensure improvement, a teacher said. Their had been a noticeable fall in routine classes gradually over the past years, which also needed a serious look. |
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PU poll: security steps discussed CHANDIGARH, Oct 18 — The Chandigarh police today assured the Panjab University authorities of full corporation during the forthcoming elections to the students' body. A meeting to discuss the steps required for ensuring law and order in the campus was held between UT Assistant Superintendent of Police Sagarpreet Hooda and the Vice-Chancellor. The ASP also held another meeting with the Dean of University Instructions. Confirming the holding of meetings with the university authorities, the ASP, when contacted, said security arrangements on the campus before and during the poll, besides other election-related issued, were discussed. The ASP, according to sources, will be meeting the student organisations and the candidates tomorrow and released a list of do's and don'ts. Raids are also expected to be conducted tonight. Earlier, in a letter, DUI Mr Ashok Sahni had requested UT Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to prohibit the entry of outsiders in the campus for maintaining law and order during the elections. He had also asked the IGP to ensure that all the students entering the campus carry identity cards. Legal action, he had urged, should be taken against the violators. The Dean has also asked the police to safeguard against defacement of walls and the use of loud speakers, besides restricting campaigning in the boys' and girls' hostels till 11 p.m. and 9 p.m., respectively. |
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New twist to election drama CHANDIGARH, Oct 18 — The already charged atmosphere of Panjab University, during the ongoing campaign for elections to the Student Council, today, took an exciting turn with a group furnishing a result sheet according to which the rival group presidential candidate could not have completed a course in the university as he claimed. The matriculation result of the ICSE board of a leading local school shows Bhupinder Beniwal, a SOPU candidate, to have failed in the matriculation examination in 1992. If he repeated the class, Beniwal would have completed class XII in 1995. This would mean he graduated in 1998. He joined the Law Department in PU, where he should not have finished the course as yet. Beniwal, however, is currently enrolled as a student of the Department for Gandhian Studies, following the completion of his Law degree. The rival group demanded a probe into the issue. Beniwal, talking to The Tribune, said he was earlier a local student. However, he had to shift back home in Haryana ‘ due to personal problems’. “I did my matriculation from the Haryana Board in 1991. Count the years and you’ll see that my academic growth is justified according to the norms”, he said. “I was advised that I should re-appear in the matriculation exam once again from an alternate place to secure higher marks in matriculation. This was an attempt in securing an admission in some leading professional college without malafide intentions. The records clearly show that I have a sound academic record, so this should not be made an election issue. I, as a candidate, am more important and a clean perusal of records shows that I qualify for elections. I do not mind coming in the open and respond to questions if any on this issue”, Beniwal added. The rival group members said even if the original card showed him to have passed in 1991, he has passed wrong information to the board where he re-appeared, which needed to be studied. |
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Manifesto released by PUSU-ABVP-HSA CHANDIGARH,
Oct 18 — The Panjab University Students Union, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Haryana Students Association has drawn a chart of activities intended for the Panjab University elections. The manifesto released today includes to set up a placement cell, install a computer and Internet facilities and grant UGC scholarships.
Chand Singh Madaan, Chairman of the HSA, at a press conference said that the panel had carried out a study into all fields to have specific plan of
action. Surat Negi, chairman, ABVP, said that the All-Himachal Students Association
(AHSA) had decided to support the panel. This was, however, refuted by Bhupinder Singh, media in charge of the
SOPU, who said that there were AHSA members who did not approve the decision. Some of the major areas for action in the academics field included: a university-level forum for placement in the Department of Chemical Engineering; industry — university interface; entrance and annual examination results on Internet; time-bound declaration of results; provision of scholarships; and rooms for research scholars in departments. Other areas also carry a detailed agenda. The SOPU also held a brief press briefing along with the
SFI. A former secretary of SFI in Shimla said that the SFI had larger national interests but agreed with the SOPU on local issues. The campus looked colourful with posters flying in the air and even on walls in certain places. This was against the earlier proposals of the parties to refrain from the poster pasting. The SOPU colours outdid the rivals. It is also learnt that the university has disallowed Bhupinder Singh
‘Bhuppi’, a Department of History student, to contest elections at this name. His name clashed with the PUSU-ABVP-HSA front candidate, who complained to the authorities. The main stress for today’s schedule were classroom visits and concluded with big rallies in the evening. |
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School board staff election today SAS NAGAR, Oct 18 — Nearly 1425 employees of the Punjab School Education Board will exercise their franchise in the elections to the employees union of the board tomorrow. Additional police force apart from the security staff of the board would be present on the occasion to prevent any untoward incident. The two-day campaigning by the candidates ended today. Each of the group in the fray were given 25 minutes each to address the employees from a common platform. A total of eight polling booths, including the booths at Jalandhar and Sangrur, have been set up. Mr Parveen Kumar and Mr Gurjinder Singh, who have been appointed as election commissioners by the board authorities for smooth conduct of elections, said all preparations had been made. For the employees posted at different district text book depots, one polling booth each has been set up at the Jalandhar zone and Sangrur zone. The polling will begin at 10 a.m and end at 1 p.m. The counting will start at 2 p.m and the results will be out by 5
p.m. Mr Parveen Singh said of 57 candidates were in the fray for different post of office-bearers of the union. Apart from the panel of consensus candidates declared yesterday, candidates of three different groups — the Dhillon group, the Brar group and Rano group, a split group of the Brar group, also filed their nomination papers today. |
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School board decision to hit students SAS NAGAR,
Oct 18 — A practice of the Punjab School Education Board allowing the students appearing in the matriculation examination to consider the marks of additional language while adding to the total marks has been discontinued. Now marks of six main subjects will only be considered while making the merit list. The decision of the board would hit hundreds of students from the urban areas who mostly took Sanskrit as an additional language to improve their ranking in the merit list. The students took refuge under a rule of the board which said the marks of the six best subjects of a candidate, who also opted for an additional language, would be considered in calculating the total marks. Sources in the board said the new guidelines approved at a recent meeting of the board had been recommended by the Rules and Regulation Committee of the board after several representation against the older practise of the board were received from the students appearing from the rural areas. The rural students lamented that while the rule benefited the urban students they suffered for being rated low in the merit list. Officials of the board said in the matriculation examination the students had to take six subjects — Hindi, English, Punjabi, Maths, Science and Social Science. The additional languages which the students could opt from were Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Nepali, Tibetan, German, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, Malyalam, Urdia, Assamese, Kanad, Portuguese, Russian and French. Besides, the board has also decided to fill the promotional posts in the academic stream from among the candidates who had masters degree or and Ph D in the subject concerned. The board will compile a Punjabi to Punjabi dictionary for its student, said the Chairman of the board, Dr Kehar Singh, adding that a committee had been set up in this regard. In another significant decision the board has decided to recognise the employees’ union of the board subject to certain terms and conditions. The Chairman of the board had given entrusted by the members of the board to work out the modalities in this regard. |
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Teachers stage dharna CHANDIGARH,
Oct 18 — The Sector 17 Plaza was witness to more than a thousand college teachers sitting on dharna outside the office of the Director Public Instructions (colleges) Punjab here today. These teachers had arrived from different parts of the state in response to the “education bandh”
call given by the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union demanding the implementation of Pension and Gratuity Act passed by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. More than 5000 teachers working in the 165 non-government colleges of Punjab observed the bandh which was claimed to be complete all over the Punjab and in the seven non-government colleges of the city where no teaching took place today. The teaching staff sitting in dharna were drawn from the 17 districts of Punjab and UT (Chandigarh) including a large number of women who had come from places like Abohar, Gidderbaha, Muktsar, Jalalabad, Pathankot etc to attend the rally. Addressing the protesters, the PCCTU leader and General Secretary, Prof Charanajit Chawla, flayed the anti-constitutional role of the Punjab bureaucracy for not honoring the decisions of the Council of Ministers, the Governor of Punjab and Punjab Vidhan Sabha. The Pension-cum-Gratuity Act had been passed by the Punjab Assembly on January 3, 1996. It was adopted by the Punjab Assembly on 17 April, 1999 and notified on April 26, 1999. The Education Department had till date failed to release the pension payment orders to the retiree’s and this had resulted in a major constitutional and statutory crises according to Professor Chawla. Prof K.B.S. Sodhi, president of the union, addressing the rally, stated that the Education Department had violated an agreement signed between Mr R.S. Mann, chief secretary of the Joint Action Committee of the non-government affiliated colleges on April 10, 2000 with regard to release of Rs 4.20 crore for the 26-day strike period salary and the Rs 10.20 crore salary for the month of January and
February. Dr V.K. Tewari, Secretary, AIFUCTO also addressed the teachers and condemned the Punjab Government for not implementing the recommendations of the UGC. Prof N.P. Manocha, Prof J. S. Randhawa, Prof Prakash Singh and Prof Amrinder Pal Singh while addressing the rally, requested the Punjab Government to release HRA to the 48 rural colleges and UGC pay scales to the 25 unaided colleges.
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Uzbek puppets regale
city audience CHANDIGARH,
Oct 18 — Tonight when the puppetry artists from the land of Uzbekistan performed in the almost-jampacked hall of the local TTTI, Sector 26, auditorium, the audience more than responded to the call of cultural harmony which came wrapped up in the puppet concert staged here tonight. The show comprised four different plays, put forward with the help of puppets which were monitored by the puppet expert, Jahongir Moohtorov. The four plays, projected four separate themes and were based on the traditional folk legends of Uzbekistan. The backdrop of the stage was attractively done up with the help of the traditional embroidered rugs of Uzbekistan and the language used by the artists had a strong Muslim flavour, for the simple reason that Uzbekistan houses about 90 per cent Muslims. Accompanying Jahongir, were two other artists, Gayrat Yooldoshev and Jamol Mamarakhimov. All three artists are graduates from the Institute of Theatrical Art at Tashkent and have already staged a number of puppet shows such as Tamasha, Golden Chicken and Puppet Concerts. Today they were in town under the cultural exchange programme being pursued by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). They landed in India on October 12 and have already performed in Delhi and Mussorie. Informed Mr Narinder Singh, Liaison Officer accompanying the delegation which is headed by Mr Bakhtiyor Nazarov, said Chandigarh was the third city where the troupe was due to give its performance. The director of the delegation is accomplished in his own right. He was also art director of the Mithun Chakravarti starrer. Shikari, which was directed by Umesh Mehra.
The members of the troupe have been performing in USA, Kazakhastan and Russia through their theatre studio named Jizzakh Regional Tamasha Puppet Theatre Studio, which was formed in 1999. They also used traditional musical instruments — Diora and Karniya — during their performances. Said Mr Abduvohid Hodjaev, director of the play which was staged today, “All our artists are experts from the same institute and they have given innumerable performances.” |
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