EDUCATION

Will the committee of no suggestion deliver today?
Chitleen K. Sethi
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh September 2
The committee constituted by the PU Vice-Chancellor to suggest ways of making the departments of humanities and social sciences centres of excellence in teaching and research has not made a single suggestion in the past six months.

The committee has been meeting regularly after its first meeting on March 5, but has not reached a conclusion so far on what is to be suggested. In the first meeting, the committee had decided to ask the departments for comments on which of these could be made into a centre of excellence in research. The committee had received replies from 12 departments that were compiled and listed.

However, it was not clear how excellence would be defined, cultivated and assessed. In spite of several meetings, nothing definite seems to have come out.

The committee’s task was simpler than defining excellence and presenting papers on the question, but its members ended up doing this in subcommittees that were constituted later. The committee had simply been asked to review teaching and research standards in the departments and suggest how things could be improved. However, the committee ended up trying to quantify excellence using established criteria of the UGC and the NAAC. A PU head of the department who is part of the committee, said, “Instead of trying to set its own norms of excellence, the committee seems to have got stuck in following the UGC and the NAAC, even though these bodies have already named PU one of the top 10 universities of the country.”

Though sources also said a member of the committee had never attended even one of its meeting, many regular members said meetings were being held in a rather systematic manner. They said spheres and indicators of excellence had been laid down at the first few meetings.

Another meeting of the committee is to be held tomorrow and many department heads of the PU say that the committee has potential to improve the quality of education and research in the departments.

COURTS

‘Legal service means quick trials’
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, September 1
“Millions of persons in India are deprived of access to court due to the cost of litigation and a lack of awareness about their rights. The legal service authorities in India can play a vital role in generating legal awareness among the weaker sections of society,” the Chief Justice of India, Mr Adarsh Sein Anand, said this at the inauguration of a counselling centre in Library Hall of the High Court Bar Association in the Punjab and Haryana High Court here today.

Mr Anand said, “The Legal Service Authorities Act of 1987 has provided ‘lok adalats’ with a statutory base and permanent ‘lok adalats’ have also been set up throughout the country. These courts have settled a number of cases amicably.”

He said every Chief Judicial Magistrate had started visiting jails to decide in cases of petty offences, which had helped the system wind up thousands of cases. “No effort is being made to speed up the proceedings in cases of pensioners and senior citizens,” he said

Mr Anand also cited facts and figure related to the institution, disposal and pending of cases of the past 10 years in subordinate courts and the High Court to show that judicial officials were working hard in spite of constraints. “In some states, even independent stenos are not there in courts. A number of vacancies of subordinate judiciary are vacant, but the Executive is not taking steps to fill these vacancies,” he said.

The Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mr Arun B. Saharya, said the objective of establishing the counselling centre was to achieve an amicable settlement of disputes without unnecessary litigation. “Some cases or marital discord have been identified for beginning the proceedings of the centre on the High Court premises. This course would help parties review and restore their mutual relationship,” he said.

Regarding the achievements of the legal service authorities, Mr Saharya said the service had helped in the settlement of cases even at pre-litigative stage. He said, “In the past one year, awards to the tune of Rs 14.12 crore have been given in Haryana and in Punjab this figure has gone upto Rs 40.28 crore.”

Mr N.K Sodhi, Chairman of the High Court Legal Service Committee, said two permanent ‘lok adalats’ that had been up in 1998 on the High Court premises had settled a number of cases that had been pending for a long time.

CULTURE

Experts discuss Atmajit’s play
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 2
A discussion on the contents of writer-director Atmajit’s play, Main taan ikk sarangi haan, which was staged in the city about a fortnight ago, was held at the Punjab Kala Bhavan, Sector 16, here today.

Those who took part in the discussion included, Dr Sukhdev Singh Sirsa, Sardar Gursharan Singh, Gulzar Singh Sandhu, Shabdish, N.S. Rattan, Dr Kuldip Puri, Harvinder Singh and Dr Sahib Singh. The deliberation, which went on for over about three hours, was presided over by Dr Prem Singh.

The main paper came from Dr Sukhdev Singh Sirsa, who spoke about the various levels of portrayal in Atmajit’s play. He said that the script had the power of poignant portrayal of women’s plight in a predominantly man’s world. “Keeping heterogenous relationships is just one of the manifestations of frustration which male dominance begets,” he suggested. The urge to break free is impending all the time, but social taboos keep the woman from doing so. Dr Sirsa talked about how the feeling of being stifled all the time leads to mental hang-ups among women. He also saw the play in the backdrop of economy which plays a very important role in determining relationships in the society.

Sardar Gursharan Singh was, however, seemingly irked over the manner in which the playwright had gone about “glorifying certain “unnatural” ties. In his opinion, any attempt at lauding any such ties would only lead to causing moral chaos in the society. “As a theatre man, one should take care not to stamp such tendencies lest the society should get a lead. He has all the right to make a point, but, as conscience keeper of the society, he is obliged to strike a balance, he said.

Gulzar Singh Sandhu was for imbibing the element of simplicity in the script. He said, “Atmajit’s play operates at various levels and hence weaves a complicated scenario. The play can also make a point by being simple in approach and by operating on singular level”.

Shabdish was not satisfied with the characters which, he said, did no justice to the folklore employed by the writer to put his theme across. “The characters did not help the story,” he said. As for N.S. Rattan, the title of the play was not too well-suited. “It’s more of a nomenclature,” he said, adding that the title is misleading as it does not convey the real meaning of sarangi. “One cannot make out if the sarangi is to be used as a metaphor alone or is it to be used in some other sense,” he said. Dr Sahib Singh said the male should not have been shown to be villainous in entire play. “There should have been some kind of a poise,” he said.

However, female speakers spoke in favour of the script and its treatment.

Winding up the discussion which blended the positive parts of Atmajit’s play with the negative vibes it must have left, was Atmajit himself. He stated that his play might not have got a big audience, but viewership was not an essential yardstick of success of the a play.