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| Sunday,
June 10, 2001, Chandigarh, India
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CAMPUS ROUND-UP Chandigarh A peer team of the NAAC had visited the campus in April this year and met the Vice-Chancellor, the Steering Committee, the faculty, the administrative staff and the students. The team consisted of Prof K. Aludapillai, a former Vice-Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University, Dr S.P. Singh, Dr Buddhadeb Chaudhuri, Prof B.L. Barnes, and Prof Harish C. Narang, among others. The team has observed that the university has a well-stocked library with 6.18 lakh books and 649 periodicals, a network of 456 computers and the presence of more than 1200 PhD scholars. It has also noted that the university has over seven score academic programmes. In one interesting observation, the NAAC says that the drop-out rate in many undergraduate programmes is nearly 50 per cent,” perhaps due to migration to professional courses”. In post-graduate courses, the drop-out rate is nearly 45 per cent. The rate of success in undergraduate and post-graduate courses is 50 per cent and 60 per cent respectively. Nearly 23,600 degrees were awarded in 1998-99. The university offers more than 60 types of scholarships, fellowships and freeships to students. Nearly 1500 students received these benefits in the past two years. To encourage meritorious students, nearly 50 gold and silver medals are awarded every year. The NAAC has also commended the planning of the campus and the facilities available to the staff and the students. The NAAC has also commented that since there is provision for giving autonomy to affiliated colleges, some of these can be granted autonomy and allowed to make innovations in curriculum, evaluation and teaching. As an experimental measure, some faculties and departments of the university may be granted autonomy — academic, administrative and financial One interesting suggestion is that internal assessment, facilitating close interaction between the teacher and the taught, needs to be promoted. The faculty and the students may have different opinions about the standards on the campus but the NAAC report carries considerable weight.  |
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Confusion over MCA question paper duration Chandigarh, June 9 The question paper had three hours printed on it as the duration time of the exam but this caused a major confusion as the examination was scheduled to be two-hour long. Although at most of the eight centres of the examination, invigilators clarified that it was a mere printing mistake, at some centres, students claimed time beyond the scheduled two hours. This led to heated discussions in some of these centres. As if this was not enough, the students were in for another shock and anxious moments when they realised that the response sheet supplied with the questions booklet was incomplete. Thirty space boxes to mark the correct answers were missing from the response sheet. There were boxes for questions from 1 to 60, and from 91 to 100. For question 61 to 90 there was no space box to mark the answer. The examination branch taking a prompt decision, asked the candidates to mark answers in their respective question booklets which were then taken back from the candidates along with the response sheets. These questions will now be marked manually while the rest will be marked using computers, which is normally done in such objective type question tests. The examination was held for 30 seats in the MCA course in the university and another 30 at the PU’s extension in Faridkot. |
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No NSS activity on PU
campus Chandigarh, June 9 Each year, the PU annual report proudly announces itself as running the largest team of NSS volunteers in the region. With almost 18,000 volunteers and 320 teacher in charges working in its affiliated colleges, the NSS Directorate, Panjab University, has not been able to put together even a single unit on the campus which has almost 3,000 students. Mr C.L. Narang, who is Director, NSS, PU, has been looking after the activities of the NSS in the PU affiliated colleges for the last five years, says that he has been trying to revive the NSS on the campus but due to one reason or the other a unit could not be formed. “In any case, the PU unit of the NSS is the responsibility of the Dean Students Welfare (DSW), who is in charge of all student activities,” says Mr Narang. But DSW V.K. Bansal denies having anything to do with the NSS. “I have not come across any NSS related activity since I have been the DSW.” A similar denial has come from the former DSW, Mr R.S. Grewal. Mr Bansal also informs that the last NSS activity, with which he had been related to, took place in 1977 when he along with another person was the coordinator of NSS. And since then, unconfirmed sources state that there has been no one to coordinate the NSS activities on the campus. Sources also state that the NSS unit on the campus was never revived because the PU administration thought that the NSS will be misused by the various students’ political groups working on the campus as a platform for scoring over others and also creating trouble. Cases of fights among students, specially boys, leading to physical violence are not unknown in the 10-day camps organised under the NSS programmes in colleges. Some faculty members of the university are, however, of the opinion that not many students at the university-level are interested in the NSS kind of social work. But the students beg to differ. “The NSS is giving all of us an extra one per cent during the time of admissions, so why should there be no NSS unit in the university?” asks Akhilesh, a student of the university. Sources also inform that a unit of girl volunteers and another for boys might be formed from this session starting in July. A decision to this effect was taken at one of the meetings of the NSS Advisory Committee held in February this year says, Mr Narang. |
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Spare the rod and the child
blooms Chandigarh, June 9 What followed could be difficult to describe in words. All one could mention was that the one-hour-long production, Daante Raho, was all about sarcasm put across in subtle yet potent tones. And coming from untutored children, the theatre activity was more than just convincing. Each participant appeared to be absolutely confident of his or her dialogue which was meant to denounce the use of rod to ‘reform children’. The confidence flowed from the fact that the play was conceived, designed and directed by kids themselves. It was the result of a theatre workshop titled ‘’theatre of joy’ conducted by G.S. Chani and Harleen Kohli at Guru Harkishen Model School, Sector 38. Daante Raho was performed today to mark the conclusion of the workshop which brought in its lap a world of experience for the little ones. The play featured Asha Sarin, Anuradha Bhasin, Ashok Sarin, Richa, Tanushri, Abhimanyu, Sagat Singh, Saahil Khanna, Salonee Khanna, Ratika, Dhriti, Mehak, Aprajita, Satyajit Singh, Ripudaman, Karanvir, Aprajita Singh, Harleen Kohli and Chani himself. The script was complimented by hilarious dialogues, also written by the students themselves. Speaking to the young performers revealed a lot more about their talent. The youngest one in the group today was Sahil Sareen, who struck an instant rapport with the audience with his natural style. He did not appear inhibited at all. Later it became known that he had worked with Chani in two telefilms earlier — Sehar and Bashira (where he played the lead role). Richa Sareen, a student of Sacred Heart, was also applauded by the gathering for her performance. She has also featured earlier in Sehar. Rest of the children were equally talented. Talking about the way they went about producing the play, Salonee said, ‘‘We were asked to scold each other for fun sake. While we, as groups, did that as an exercise, we though that the theme of common choice was rebuking.’’ From there, the children started working on the script. They improvised a lot during the workshop and were also assisted in their efforts by their parents. Today, three parents also formed a part of the performing troupe. After a number of interactive sessions during theatre of joy, the participants got ready with a play which, in a variety of ways, denounced the practice of recrimination by the more powerful ones. The entire process involved demystification of the problem for the participants. When the genesis was clear, the production was ready. Today’s play was the first performance. The children would hold other shows of this play in the days to come. |
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Disability no
deterrent Chandigarh, June 9 Daughter of an Army officer, Col Bahadur Singh, presently posted at Chandi Mandir, Amrita’s parents were unaware of her disability till she passed the age when a child begins to speak. Their apprehensions arose when she did not respond to any noise or speech and showed no any signs of speaking. A series of medical tests in various hospitals revealed that antibiotics and strong medicines administered to treat ear infection and severe bronco-pneumonia had adversely affected her nervous system, thereby impairing her hearing. Her parents took her to Mumbai and enrolled her in the Central School for the Deaf, where teachers perfected her in the art of lip reading and speech therapy, besides other subjects. Her class teacher, who had studied and also taught in Boston, USA, was primarily responsible for her development. Thereafter, at the age of nine, she was rehabilitated to St Anne’s, in South Mumbai. Since she was three years behind her age mates, Amrita twice accelerated promotions, in classes III and VII. She passed class X from Army School, Chandi Mandir, securing first division. Thereafter, she took up fine arts, psychology and home science in GMSSS, Sector 16. “Rehabilitation in such cases is possible. There are a large number of cases which do not get treated or rehabilitated because parents or guardians are not aware of facilities available,” Colonel Bahadur Singh said. Because Amrita had to be kept in Mumbai, her father repeatedly opted for hard field postings so that the family could retain accommodation in Mumbai. A firm believer in hard work and full of grit and determination, Amrita attributes her success to all her teachers and friends, especially her elder sister Novita and younger brother Tejeshwar, besides her parents. Amrita is keen to join the Arts College, Chandigarh, and later pursue her studies in National Institute of Design. Presently she is preparing for the BFA entrance test at Bama Academy. |
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Theatre workshop concludes Chandigarh, June 9 The workshop concluded with a musical play “Harry and his magic lamp” enacted by the kids. “We wanted to make kids familiar to music, dance and theatre,” said Niti, in charge of the camp. The students were also taught meditation through music. Aerobics, group discussion and improvisation of day to day life were the main highlights of the workshop. “Mirror exercises”, how to emote with facial expressions without moving hands or feet, were enjoyed by the kids. Body language was also a part of the theatre workshop. In second and third week, the children were taught to enact a play which was to be presented on the concluding day of the camp. |
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Students get prizes worth 10 lakh Chandigarh, June 9 As many as 1,410 secured first rank where as 1,400 students got the participation certificate. The All-India Talent Search Examination was conducted in five different states,including Punjab, Himachal, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh early this year. In total 3,261 students participated in the All-India Talent Search Examination out of which 461 students qualified by scoring 65 per cent and above marks. Prizes worth Rs 10 lakh were given to students in addition to a special award of Rs 200 per month for two years to all qualified students . In addition the first 1000 rank holders would be given coaching for engineering and medical streams without any tuition fee. These examinations are conducted by the Vision Academy every year to motivate talented children educationally and financially. The prizes were given away by the chief guest, Mr D K Gupta. |
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Training camp for students Chandigarh, June 9 The director of the CMC said a new course called ‘headstart’ Class X students was being launched. He added that the CMC was also launching a scholarship scheme for class XII students, along with Brittanica Encyclopaedia. |
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National child award for
local boy Chandigarh June 9 The 16-year-old
Gunjit, a student of Saint Johns, is also a winner of the All-India Bournvita Quiz Contest 1999. He has also topped in various regional and national-level declamation contests and essay competitions 1997. |
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HC sets aside Estate Officer’s
orders Chandigarh, June 9 Pronouncing the orders on a petition filed by Mr Surjit Singh against the UT Administration, the Estate Officer and another respondent, the Bench, comprising Mr Justice Jawahar Lal Gupta and Ms Justice Bakhshish Kaur, also directed: “The case is remanded back to the Estate Officer for a fresh decision in accordance with law. The needful shall be done within three months of receiving a copy of the order”. The Judges observed: “Counsel for the respondents very fairly states that the impugned order may be set aside and the matter may be remitted to the Estate Officer for a fresh decision in accordance with law. As the petitioner’s prayer for the restoration of site has been rejected without assigning any reason, the respondents have rightly chosen to reconsider the matter”. In his petition, Mr Surjit Singh had earlier sought directions for quashing the orders passed by the respondents rejecting the application for retransfer of the SCO 161-62 in Sector 8. His counsel had stated that the lease was initially cancelled by the Estate Officer as the petitioner could not pay the installment. His application for retransfer was also rejected by the Officer. The appeal and revision applications were subsequently, dismissed.
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DISTRICT COURT Chandigarh, June 9 The statement of three witnesses had already been recorded in the court. Parveshbir Kaur had alleged that her husband Jasjit Singh, father-in-law Surjit Singh and mother-in-law Surjit Kaur harrassed her for dowry. The complainant had filed case against Surjit Singh Barnala and his other family members under Sections 406, 420 and 498A of the Indian Penal Code. Police remand Bail plea dismissed |
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Lok Adalat held in Panchkula Chandigarh, June 9 Mr
R.S. Virk, Member Secretary of the Haryana State Legal Services Authority, inaugurated the Lok Adalat in which cases relating to motor accident claims, summaries, civil and IPC cases were taken up in the court of an Additional District and Sessions Judge, JMIC and Civil Judge
(JD). Dr S.K. Kapoor, Additional District and Sessions Judge-cum-Chairman of the District Legal Services Authority, Panchkula, said 14 cases of motor accident claims were disposed of in which Rs 12,90,500 was awarded as compensation, 75 summary cases were also settled and Rs 8,300 was recovered from the defaulters. He said six civil cases and one IPC case was also settled by Mr Pushpinder Kumar, CJ
(ZT).
99 cases settled Panchkula, June 9 Dr
S.K. Kapoor, Additional District and Sessions Judge-cum-Chairman of the District Legal Service Authority, Panchkula, said 14 cases of motor accident claims were disposed of, in which Rs 12,90,500 was awarded as compensation. Six civil and one criminal case were also settled. |
Innovator of fusion
music Chandigarh, June 9 The show, which started after a prolonged delay, failed to attract much audience except for a few mediapersons and a handful of visitors. It was Pt Majumdar’s second visit to the town after a gap of seven years. Pt Ranendranath Majumdar, popularly known as Ronu Majumdar, has become synonymous with the bansuri and needs no introduction to the music lovers in India and abroad.His latest album Dhyana — a unique combination of Vedic chants along with alaap jod — has catapulted him to the heights of fame. Pt Majumdar, who was born in Varanasi, belongs to the Maihar Gharana of music learning under guidance of his father Dr Bhanu Majumdar, late Pt Laxman Prasad Jaipurwale and later under Pt Vijay Raghav Rao. Pt Majumdar’s range of achievement includes innumerable performances at the world’s most prestigious venues like The Kremlin in Moscow and the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels. A major innovator of fusion music, Pt Majumdar has composed several hit albums, including A Traveller's Tale, Koi Akela Kahan and the musical track for the Hollywood film ‘ Primary Colours’. His other albums Heart to Heart, Reverie, Jugalbandi Series, Meditation in Brindavan and Song of Nature have been acclaimed worldwide. Pt Majumdar has also recorded a few albums with artistes of international repute, including Fascinoma with Ry Cooder and John Hassles, In Search of Life with Christian Seiferd, Ethereal Rhythms and Mysticism on Wood Wind.For his dedication to music, Pt Majumdar has been awarded with prestigious ‘Aditya Vikram Birla Award’ for 1999. |
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