EDUCATION

COLLEGE ADMISSIONS
General pool seats in GCW filled
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 16
With over 2500 students seeking centralised admission in the BCom at 12 city colleges, the nodal agency at Khalsa College for Women continued to be abuzz with hectic activity.

All general category seats at Government College for Women, SCD Government College, Khalsa College for Women and Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Model Town, have been filled up, while four of the total 91 open seats were vacant at GGN Khalsa College, Civil Lines, five of 40 seats at Devki Devi Jain College for Women, 11 of 41 seats at SDP College for Women, 15 of 127 seats at Arya College, 25 of 82 seats at Guru Nanak Girls’ College, 27 of 41 seats at Ramgarhia Girls’ College, 73 of 82 seats at Kamla Lohtia Sanatan Dharam College and 80 of 82 seats at Master Tara Singh Memorial College for Women were lying vacant till this afternoon.

The cut off percentage at Khalsa College for Women was 75.6 and 69.11 for Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Model Town. Ms Harrinder Dhillon, Principal of the host college, said the reserved category seats of different colleges lying vacant would be made available in the open category by evening. These included 65 of 93 seats at Arya College, 25 of 29 seats at SDP College for Women, 21 of 29 seats at Ramgarhia Girls’ College, 53 of 58 seats at Master Tara Singh Memorial College for Women, 44 of 58 seats each at Kamla Lohtia Sanatan Dharam College and Guru Nanak Girls’ College and 49 of 61 seats at Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women. Similarly, 32 seats reserved for candidates from the Scheduled Castes at Khalsa College for Women and two seats for handicapped students at Government College for Women were converted into open category seats. All seats for reserved category students at SCD Government College have already been filled.

Primary teachers’ interview on July 23
Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, July 16
The District Education Officer and Chairman, Selection Committee Fatehgarh Sahib, said in a press note issued here today that interviews for the selection of primary teachers would start on July 23 at Mata Gujri Government Senior Secondary School, Fatehgarh Sahib.

The committee members have been informed about the interviews. Mr Bachittar Singh, DEO, said 500 interview letters had been issued on July 14. The rest of the letters are being issued in a day or so.

The list of 100 candidates, who have been invited for interview, will be put on the notice board of the school, three days before the date of the interview. The candidates who fail to get the interview letter by July 21 should contact the office of the DEO (Pry).

COURTS

Life term for murdering wife
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 16
The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mr A.K. Sharma, has convicted 28-year-old Sarabjit of Sekhewal village and sentenced him to rigorous life imprisonment, besides a fine of Rs 10,000, on the charge of murdering his wife Jasbir Kaur (27), by administering her some poisonous substance just eight months after their marriage.

Jasbir Kaur was pregnant at the time of her death. Her life was put to an end as she failed to fulfil the un-ending dowry demands of her in-laws.

Two elder brothers of Sarabjit, namely Ranjit Singh and Amrik Singh have also been sentenced to one-year imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 1,000 each, under Section 498-A of the IPC. Mother-in-law of the deceased had already been declared a proclaimed offender.

An FIR was lodged on September 25, 1997, at the Sadar police station under Sections 302, 304-B, 498-A and 314 of the IPC, on the statement of Mr Jaspal Singh, father of the deceased, where it was alleged that apart from a car several other valuable items were given to Jasbir Kaur at the time of her marriage which was solemnised on February 20, 1997, by spending about 7.5 lakh.

But the lust of dowry-seekers did not come to an end, regarding which we were informed by our daughter as she was being harassed and maltreated.

It was also alleged by Mr Jaspal Singh that on the fateful day of September 24, 1997, Jasbir called her mother at her in-laws residence and apprised that accused were demanding Rs 5 lakh.

On the same night, they received a telephonic call again and came to know that their daughter’s condition was serious. When we reached the DMC, none from the in-laws side was present there. The next morning she died of poisoning. The child in her womb also died.

Prosecution examined Dr Naveen Mittal of the DMC, who verified the writing of Jasbir Kaur who had made a remark in the patient’s file in his presence that “Mere ghar wale mainu maareya hai.”

JE sentenced in graft case
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 16
The Special Judge, Mr G.R. Banyal, has convicted Devinder Singh, Junior Engineer, PSEB and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for 18 months, besides, a fine of Rs 1,000 on the charges of receiving a bribe of Rs 1,000 from a consumer to change a damaged power cable.

An FIR was lodged against the accused on June 18,1998 by the Vigilance Bureau, Patiala, under the Prevention of Corruption Act, on the complaint of Mr Malkiat Singh, a sarpanch of Boothgarh Jattan village.

Mr Malkiat Singh had complained to the Vigilance Bureau that he had made an application to the SDO, PSEB; Kohara, on May 15,1998 for changing the damaged cable and when he contacted the junior engineer concerned, the latter demanded Rs 1,500 as bribe and ultimately agreed on Rs 1,000.

The matter was reported to Vigilance Bureau, which nabbed the accused while accepting the bribe.

However, the judge granted bail to the accused till August 6,2001, as the latter intended to file an appeal against conviction in the High Court.

CULTURE

‘Nachiketa Di Maut’, a comment on casteism
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 16
A seminar was organised yesterday by Punjabi Sahitya Academy on the book of short stories ‘Nachiketa Di Maut’ written by Ajmer Sidhu, a Punjabi short story writer. It was presided over by Jagjit Singh Anand, senior vice-president of Punjab Sahitya Academy and Chief Editor of Nawan Zamana, a Punjabi daily. The function was held at the Punjabi Bhavan.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Anand said casteism was a great evil and was eating into the vitals of the society. He congratulated the author for writing a beautiful story ‘Gurjan’ against casteism. Mr Anand said to eradicate the evil we must change our thought process and mind set about casteism.

The Chief Guest at the seminar, dramatist, Dr Atamjit Singh, said Sidhu had successfully explained the complexities of life in his stories. His stories were subtle have layer under and explained the human relationships with great insight, he said.

Dr Surjit Singh, a young critic, was of the opinion that these stories represent the revolutionary feelings of the modern man. These stories had touched the chords of human heart, he said.

Dr Sukhdev Singh Sirsa of Panjab University said the beauty of the stories was that the author had broken established traditions of literature.

Dr Gulzar Pandher also congratulated the writer. Mr Gurbhajan Gill, convener of the seminar, welcomed the writers who had come to participate in the seminar.

Rich tributes were paid to the noted Pakistani poets, Kateel Sifai and Salamat Ali, by all writers present at the seminar.

Dr Surjit Patar, Mr Inderjit Hassanpuri, Ms Urmila Anand, Sukhwinder Amrit, Biba Kulwant, Prof Surinder Kaur Bhattal, Mr Ajaib Chitarkar, Dr Parminder Singh, Ms Gurcharan Kaur Kochar, Mr Kulwant Jagraon, Principal Prem Singh Bajaj and Mr Jaswant Zafar were present at the function.