EDUCATION

PU depts demand Rs 58 lakh more
By Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 — Far above expectations, the Panjab University budget recorded additional demands worth nearly 58 lakh from various departments during 2000-2001.

According to sources, the original estimates showed the additional sums well above a crore, which were revised. The university Board of Finance recommended Rs 57,97,900.

The university Senate cleared the revised totals. However, reliable sources said it was pointed out that fresh revisions be made for further economising the total expenditure on additional demands.

The Senate decision to clear the amount came expectedly at the time when the university was gearing up for a new financial year.

The items under the list feature a number of areas, mentioning expenditure not directly linked with the classroom teaching. These feature honorarium for the works department, central animal house, gazetting and amendment of regulation, advertisement, increase of legal cases, revision of calendar, uniforms, printing of question papers and secrecy work.

The list of expenditure items also features insurance, expenses like TA and certain other contingencies. Laboratory items feature commonly in most of the expenditure.

The sums underlined in the additional demands largely refer to contingency and maintenance charges for laboratory and research work.

A number of departments figure on the list of seekers of contingency funds, including the Chemical Engineering Department with Rs 2 lakh and the Central Instrumentation with Rs 50, 000.

The list also figures demanding additional grants for books and journals, including the Central Instrumentation Centre; AC Joshi Library; and research journals.

One major area which figures in the area of additional demands included stationery and papers because of enhanced rates. The departments included the Central Instrumentation Centre and Department of Correspondence Studies.

CET-2001 on May 27
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 — Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, is conducting the CET-2001 on May 27 for admission to the engineering and architecture courses in the colleges affiliated to it for the academic session 2001-02.

The question paper for the test would be objective type. For admission to the B.Pharmacy courses, the entrance test would be held along with the test for CET-2001, but with a separate paper of the subject concerned. 

History quiz organised
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 — The team of Government College Sector 46, won the inter-college quiz organised by the History Association of DAV College, Sector 10, here today.

The team of Tushara Shankar, Bhavna, Sudeshna Chatterjee and Supriya Singhal, Government College for Girls, Sector 42, won the second prize while Government College for Boys, Sector 11, won the third prize.

Ten teams from various colleges of the city participated in the quiz which was conducted by Prof A. K. Kakkar, Head, Department of History, DAV College. The quiz covered the ancient period of Indian history (up to 1000 AD).

Prof J. K. Sharma, former head of the Department of History, Panjab University, was the chief guest on the occasion. Prof Sharma, a renowned expert in ancient Indian history, congratulated the winners and gave away the prizes.

He also appreciated the efforts put in by the organisers and stressed that such competitions help in inculcating historical sense among the youth.

Annual day of school
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Jan 29 — The annual prize-distribution function of Sant Isher Singh Public School was held in Sector 70 here yesterday. Mr Y.P. Katyal, Joint Secretary of the CBSE, was the chief guest and Mr Kulwant Singh, President of the local civic body, presided over the function.

Mr Katyal stressed the need for quality education in schools. He also said schools should concentrate on personality development of students through co-curricular activities. Mr Kulwant Singh also spoke on the occasion. The programme began with a shabad kirtan. Many cultural items were also presented on the occasion.

Manipuri students leave for Jaipur
From Our Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 — A group of 20 Manipuri students representing the state on a 15-day excursion to Delhi, Chandigarh and Jaipur left for Jaipur from here today.

The school children, including 14 boys and six girls, were accompanied by three teachers to the city. They belong to various tribes, including Meitei, Pangal, Kuki and Naga. They belong to the districts of Chandel, Senapati, Bishanpur, Thoubal and Imphal.

The children met Major General J.B.S. Yadav. They visited Rock Garden, Sukhna Lake, Panjab University and other places in the city.

Out of the 20 students only two of them had travelled by train before hand and for the rest it was a maiden visit. Alet Haokip, from the border town of Moreh, and Farida Begum from Panegi felt that this was a dream-come-true experience for them.

The group while at Delhi met the Vice-Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Vijay Oberoi, and the Adjutant General, Lt Gen S.S. Grewal. They will be meeting the Vice President, Mr Krishnakant, on their way back.

The excursion was flagged off by General Officer Commanding, Major General Iqbal Singh, from Kangla Fort at Imphal on January 19. The excursion, organised by the Army, forms a apart of the ‘military civic action programme’ and is aimed at providing exposure to the students to the rich cultural heritage of the nation.

COURTS

HC directive on auctions
From Our Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 — A Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court comprising Mr Justice Jawahar Lal Gupta and Mr Justice N.K. Sud, today directed the UT Administration that it should first see the site before it is auctioned as this would avoid litigation and inconvenience.

The Bench ruled this while disposing of a petition filed by a city resident, Mr Bhupinder Singh, who petitioned in the High Court seeking directions to the Chandigarh Administration to hand over the physical possession of the residential plot No. 411, Sector 38-A, to the petitioner after getting the peepal tree removed from the site and also shifting of the electricity wires passing over the plot area alongwith pole. He also issued directions to the respondents for not recovering the instalments premium, ground rent and interest till the site is handed over with actual physical possession to the petitioner.

“Taking the totality of circumstances into consideration, we consider it appropriate to direct that instalments shall become due at the expiry of one year from the date of handing over of the possession viz, May 4, 2001, May 4, 2002, May, 2003 and this writ petition is allowed.

It is held that the petitioner shall not be liable to pay the instalments or ground rent or any other interest or extension fee on account of delay in handing over the possession to him. The first instalment shall fall due at the expiry of one year from the date of handing over the possession,” the Bench ruled.

“When a citizen purchases property from government or any of its instrumentlities, he is entitled to presume that the possession shall be delivered to him without delay or demure. In the present case, the respondents have themselves taken more than two years to remove the encumbrances and to deliver the possession, as a result, interest of the citizen and state have suffered,” the Bench ruled further.

GCM adjourned till Jan 31
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 — The general court martial trying Maj Maneesh Bhatnagar on charges of wilful disobedience was today adjourned till January 31 due to the unavailability of the witnesses sought by the defence.

Major Bhatnagar, while raising his plea seeking a bar on the trial, had contended that he wished to examine three witnesses in support of his plea. He had also demanded that certain documents, which he claimed to be vital for his defence, should be made available to him.

The court directed the prosecution to make the documents available to the defence, besides summoning the witnesses. The witnesses to be summoned include Col G. S. Ranawat, Commanding Officer of 503 ASC Battalion based near Leh, who, the accused officer claimed recorded the summary of evidence (SOE) on charges levelled against him before duplicate proceedings were initiated at N-area here. The proceedings relating to the SOE recorded by Colonel Ranawat, if any, are not known.

The other two witnesses sought by the defence are Maj S. Sebestian, who was also associated with the SOE proceedings, and Captain Shekhawat, who, the accused officer maintained, was an independent witness examined during the earlier SOE.

The documents being sought by Major Bhatnagar include the tentative charge sheet and summary of evidence recorded by Colonel Ranawat along with the directives of the appropriate authorities on these proceedings.

CULTURE

Focus on organic cultural practices
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 — The second day of the national training workshop on organic farming being organised by the Environment Society of India saw a rapid exchange of information between the experts and farmers from various parts of the country and people from the region.

The seminar being sponsored by the regional committee of CAPART was inaugurated yesterday. It focused on dissemination of knowledge regarding the various organic cultural practices being adopted in various parts of the country and how these could be locally adopted here. Agricultural experts from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab were participating in this seminar.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr K. Vijayalaxmi, research director of Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, Chennai, said each village had a large number of herbs and plants along with the crops that could be used for making herbal extracts, to be later used as biofertilisers. She said she was engaged in teaching farmers to use neem leaf extracts, nigundi extracts, seed extracts and garlic-ginger-chilli extracts, which had proved fruitful against various insect-pests during the field experiments.

Later, Ms Subhashini Sridhar, a research associate with the Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, spoke about the various insectpest infestations in paddy crop. She explained the cultural practices that could help in evading the various plant diseases.

Typifying the spirit of experimentation
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 — Painter Anjolie Ela Menon was in town today to deliver a lecture on art and her creative process on an invitation from the Government College of Art, Sector 10.

“A tree laden with fruit always bends low. I reflect my aspirations of the world through my works,” said the 1940-born painter. The spirit of experimentation always gave Anjolie an edge over others. “The idea of labour should be breaking new ground. I have always swum against the tide and done things which no one lays hands on. I have widely experimented with ideas, concepts and mediums, but the focus of all my perseverance has been on underlining individualism,” she said.

The slides she displayed today were about her journey as an artist. She worked on masterpieces like the Madonna of Merry Weather Road. Other works bared the solemn frontal quality of the protagonist. A whole set of portraits gave evidence of her sensibility. Yet another series, titled Windows, was a metaphor to woman’s life. As the artist herself admitted, “I was intrigued by the idea of reflecting fragments of the inside while travelling in the territories of the outside world at the same time. The concept, in a way, reflects how a woman yearns to break free while being connected to her interiors.”

Anjolie also embellished discarded furniture with profound images. She created a whole set of works with a major aesthetic appeal, including painted chairs, boxes and trunks. She was quite vocal about the use of computer in creation of images. Dismissing claims that such attempts marred the artistic quality, she said the artist’s job was to create the image. “The medium used does not really matter. The image is sacrosanct,” she stated.

When she passed out of JJ School of Arts, Bombay, the canvas of her life was itching for colour. Forty years on, her association with art continues to grow. The effervescent woman is famous in the world of Indian art for profundity at work and for inclination towards innovation. She has a history of sensibility in art to support her case. She has 40 meaningful shows to her credit. The unassuming painter has been awarded Padmashree in recognition of her artistic pursuits.

After a brief spell at JJ School of Arts, she took a degree in English literature from Delhi University. After solo exhibitions in Bombay and Delhi in the 1950s, she worked and studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1961 and 1962 on a French government scholarship. That was when she shared a studio with Fransisco Toledo in Paris.

Her career as a painter has been chequered and she has always been engaged in an endeavour to reflect in her works the concerns of various societies she has been a part of. Anjolie lived and worked in England, the USA, Germany and the erstwhile USSR. She represented India at the Algiers Biennale, the Sau Paulo Biennale and the three Trinnales held in New Delhi. Anjolie has been invited by the British Council, the US State Department and the French Ministry of Culture to confer with leading artists.

Most of Anjolie’s works are figurative, and even if defined images are missing, their presence is writ large on the canvas in the form of remnants. She has come a long way from her days in Paris of extensively painting priests, prophets, madonnas and brooding nudes. She struck upon Mutations, the 1996 exhibition in which she used computer-aided images to superimpose motifs taken from her earlier works. She produced non-figurative forms derived from Buddhist art in 1997.