EDUCATION

Crescendo opened
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, March 1 — Crescendo, a three-day inter-university cultural festival, was inaugurated at Gujranwala Guru Nanak Institute of Management and Technology (GGNIMT), Civil Lines, here today. The cultural festival was inaugurated by Dr H.S. Gurm, Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Technical University (PTU). Students of more than 10 management and technology institutes affiliated with the PTU and Panjab University participated in the several contests organised today.

In rangoli, students of eight institutes participated. Solo dance performances were given by the students of six colleges. For case presentation contest, only three colleges turned up. Teams from six colleges participated in the one-act play contest. The students of Punjab College of Technical Education presented a one-act play University ke heejre. In ulti ganga, the students of Guru Tegbahadur National Institute of Management and Technology, Dakha, presented a situation where the roles of bride and groom are swaped. The students of the Institute of Management Studies at Guru Nanak Girls’ College presented a play, Dukh da bhagidar kaun. They play highlighted the miseries of Gujarat quake victims. Seven colleges took part in the quiz contest.

COURTS

Improvement Trust fined Rs 5,000
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, March 1 — The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed the Improvement Trust, Ludhiana, to pay Rs 5,000 in addition to cost of litigation to Mr Jaisi Ram on account of deficiency in service.

The forum further directed the trust to allot the plot which the complainant had got in a scheme of the trust in three months of the receipt of the order and if the alternative plot is not available in the scheme then the plot of the same size at the same price be allotted in some other equally developed scheme.

Mr Jaisi Ram, a resident of Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh, applied for a 125 square yard plot in the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar scheme in Ludhiana on November 11, 1982, and paid Rs 950. The draw of the scheme was held on September, 1999, in which he got the plot number 711-G. The complainant alleged that he visited the opposite party several times and requested to issue the allotment letter but it did not issued the letter.

The trust stated before the forum that the complaint was bad for non-jointer of the parties as the Department of Local Bodies was the necessary party as the possession of the plot in question and the layout scheme had to be got revised by the government under section 43 of the Punjab Town Improvement Act. The trust pleaded that there was no deficiency in service since the approval of allotment of alternate plots had to be given by the department concerned. The trust admitted that the complainant had applied for the plot and was successful in the draw. The respondent further stated that they can not deliver the possession or issue the allotment letter of the alternative plots unless the approval is received from the government.

The forum observed that if the trust was to change the layout plan then it should not have held the draw. The forum further stated: “The trust held the draw in September, 1999, and no alternative plot has been given to the complainant till the date which is clear deficiency in service on the part of the trust.”