EDUCATION

Set of 5 nursery school books for Rs 850!
By Deepkamal Kaur

LUDHIANA, Jan 22 — Parents be prepared in case you are planning to admit your child in a nursery school. The exorbitant fee and donations apart, the cost of books is proving to be too dear. A nursery school in Civil Lines here, which is now entering its second session, is selling a set of five books of the nursery class for Rs 850.

All the five books in the set have been published by a UK company. The books are sold by network marketing and the Principal of the school is probably a distributor for the company. It may be mentioned here that all the distributors of the company avail a commission of 18 per cent for the total sales.

The Play and Learn series of the books includes themes like shapes, ABC, picture dictionary, printing and making new things. The printing book comes with sponges in three shapes and specifies the dip and dab technique with which the kids can make different patterns including animals, birds and flowers. Making is the second activity book of the series which gives various crafty ideas for the kids.

No doubt the books are colourful, hard bound, with glazed pages and offer some bright ideas for the kids, but the parents of the children feel that they are too costly and the school authorities should have looked for a relatively less expensive alternative.

The parents of the kids, who have recently taken admission in the school, said that the two activity books including those on printing and making were not at all required as the children would not be able to learn the procedure of making things from the books. They said that the Principal of the school should have kept such books in its reference stock from where the teachers could take ideas from time to time.

The parents also said that 21-page books on shapes, dictionary and ABC did not have very good contents and that the illustrations were the only attraction. They alleged that since books with better content, more volume and equally good illustrations were available in the market, the Principal might be minting huge amount of money out of the process. The parents said that every little thing in the school, including a single page the admission form, was very expensive in the school.

The instructors of the school, however, claim that school Principal was trying out novel ideas for introducing better education facilities for the students. Regarding the books, they said that these were very attractive and that the kids would be automatically drawn to them. Learning would be fun, rather than being a burden on them, they said. 

41 participate in paper-reading contest
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Jan 22 — Forty-one students of New Senior Secondary School, Sarabha Nagar, participated in a paper-reading contest organised on the eve of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s birthday, here today.

The participants were divided into two groups. Group ‘A’ had students from classes IX and X and group ‘B’ consisted of contestants from classes XI and XII. Participants highlighted the achievements and sacrifices made by Netaji. They spoke on his lifestyle and the path shown by him for development of a feeling of nationalism in citizens.

In group A, Ambika of Class X clinched the first prize, Swati of Class X was declared second and the third prize went to Inderjeet Kaur of Class IX. In group B, Nitika of Class XI stood first, Vishal Jain of Class XII was declared second and Gaurav of Class XII stood third.

Ms Vibha Bajaj and Ms Harman Sharma, both teachers of the school, pronounced the judgement. Mr H.C. Gupta, principal of the school, gave away prizes to students.

COURTS

Phone subscriber granted relief
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Jan 22 — The District Consumers Disputes Redressal Forum directed the Telephone Department to pay Rs 2,000 as compensation for deficiency in service to Mr Kulwant Singh, a resident of Partap Nagar.

Mr Kulwant Singh, the complainant, received a bill of Rs 1,979 on September 9, 1999. The representative of the complainant, Mr S.S. Sarna, alleged that the bill was unjustified as the bill was higher than the previous bills. He wrote two letters to the Telephone Department regarding the bill but to no avail. The complainant alleged that the department did not add the arrears of the bill in the November, 1999 bill cycle which was paid by him.

After hearing both counsel and the complainant the forum observed that the grievance of the complainant was that his telephone was made CNP illegally on December 10, 1999. It was admitted by the opposite party even in the reply that the telephone was made CNP on the said date.

The opposite party said that the connection was restored on the said date after verification regarding the payment of the provisional bill for Rs 1,000. It appeared that the arrears of some other telephone were shown against the disputed telephone and the telephone was disconnected on that score.

The letter produced by the opposite party showed that the department intimated the complainant that his complaint regarding excess billing had been investigated and the amount was due and as such he should deposit the amount up to January 15, 2000, failing which telephone would be disconnected. This showed that the department completed the investigation on January 5, 2000, and asked the complainant to deposit the amount of the bill.

The forum ruled out that it was not understandable as to how the telephone of complainant was made CNP. The forum said that there was no justification for disconnecting the telephone. The forum held that the complainant had to unnecessarily suffer inconvenience, and directed the department to pay compensation.

CULTURE

Malerkotla singer captures hearts
By Asha Ahuja

LUDHIANA, Jan 22 — Ghazal singer, Anwar Khan, from Malerkotla, grandson of the famous Rehmat Quawal, rendered soulful ghazals at a function organised by Winner India on occasion of lucky draw of coupons for the sales promotion of Red Fort tea and Sartaaj tea. Many prizes like gold chains, cycles, Hero Honda, ceiling fans etc. were reserved for distributors, consumers and dealers for lucky coupon holders. The function was well attended.

Anwar Khan, who trained under his grandfather, Rehmat Quawal, said, “People have forgotten what quawwali was. Earlier the people of Punjab were very fond of quawwali and Malerkotla being in Punjab, my grandfather, Rehmat Quawal was always busy singing for various functions. But the golden days of quawwali are over, so I have switched over to singing ghazals. On the audience’s request, I do sing quawwalis, but only an appreciative audience can enjoy them. Pop music has temporarily pushed back our traditional songs, but I am sure that ghazals with meaningful lyrics are making a comeback. The era ghazal is going to dawn soon. My greatest moment was when I met Mehndi Hassan at Haathras. He blessed me and advised me to do riaz regularly. Ghulam Ali also inspires me.” Nonetheless Anwar Khan does not want his son to take to singing as a profession, but as a hobby, for he feels life is tough for a singer. He wants his son to become a doctor.

He regaled the audience at Diwali Puruskar Mahhotsav attended by 50 dealers and organised by Bhambi Trading Company. He entertained the mehfil by singing ‘Tum hi tum ho mere har nafaj mein, mere har nafaz mein yeh haqiquat hai dhokha nahin hai’. On persistent requests by the audience, he rendered a famous gazal ‘Chupke chupke raat din ansoo bahana yaad hai’ by Ghulam Ali.

The names of the winners of the lucky draw would appear in the newspapers and the winners could claim their prizes within 90 days.