EDUCATION

Non-teaching Employees’ Federation
stir from October 3
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 22
The Non-teaching Employees’ Federation affiliated to the non-teaching employees of universities, education boards and colleges today announced the beginning of its struggle against the governmental interference in the administrative matters of the universities.

At a meeting of the federation held at the office of the PAU Employees Union here today, it was decided to wage a war against governmental interference in universities in contravention of the Supreme Court ruling on the matter. Apart from interference, there are other demands and decisions which have not been implemented so far. The meeting, which was chaired by Mr Malkit Singh was attended by union leaders from other universities including Mr D.P. Maur and Mr Amritpal (PAU), Mr Sukhminder Randhawa and Mr Amarjit Singh (GNDU, Amritsar) , Mr. Malkit Singh, and Mr Gursharan Singh (Panjabi University, Patiala), and Mr D.P. Sharma and Mr O.P. Sharma (Panjab University, Chandigarh).

Mr Amarjit Singh, general secretary of the federation, said according to the programme chalked out at today’s meeting, a 10-day notice will be served after which offices of the Deputy Controller, Local Audit, of all universities in Punjab, would be closed for one day on October 3. From October 4 to October 11, dharnas would be staged outside the offices of Vice-Chancellors.

If the agitation programme fails to achieve its objective, another meeting of the federation would be held on October 12 at Punjabi University, Patiala , in order to intensify the stir. The federation leaders opined that if they were made to undergo a long-drawn struggle, then the responsibility for any losses caused to students, farmers, scientists and the general public would be of the state government.

Unions call off dharna
Our Correspondent

Amloh, September 22
Teachers unions, class IV employees and SC/BC employees have called off their proposed dharna on September 26 in front of the office of the District Education Officer (DEO), Fatehgarh Sahib, after successful talks were held on Friday with Mr Harbhajan Singh Bhullar, DEO.

Mr Balbir Singh Ghuman, district president, Government Teachers Union (Gandhri Group), in a press note here today said a notice for a dharna was given to the DEO on August 7, for the acceptance of 14 demands following which, the meeting of the joint front of the unions, was called on September 21.

It was agreed in the meeting that the general provident fund (GPF) slips of teachers lying in DPI office would be brought in this office as GPF account was now maintained at the district-level w.e.f. 1998, sports fund and science grant for science fairs would be given to the head of schools, and teachers getting JST grade would be given benefits of proficiency step-up. The transfer of Mr Chhatarpal Singh, a teacher at Kotla Bajwara Senior Secondary School, will be recommended to the higher authorities. The unions had been agitating for their demands for the past two months.

Painting contest for deaf kids
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 22
The Asian Club, Ludhiana, organised a painting contest for the students of the School for the Deaf, Rajpura road, here today.

Topics given to the students included ‘world peace’, ‘cross-border terrorism’ and ‘terrorist attack in the US’. Using their imagination on the sheets, while some students painted the scene of devastation of the World Trade Center towers, others painted cartoons of Osama bin Laden. Neelu Kamal was declared first, followed by Harpinder Kaur and Sandeep Kumar. Noni Arora, Gurpreet Kaur and Usha Rani were given consolation prizes.

Besides, a cultural programme was also organised by the students of the school in which Neetu, Amandeep and Rajkiran presented a group dance ‘sohna lagda’ and ‘dhol jagiro da’. Navjit and Renu presented a skit on illiteracy.

Mr Chandra Shekhar, IG, was the chief guest. Mr Ravinandan Sharma, Director, Rajindra Model School, compered the programme. Mr Pramod Ban, SP (city-2), Ms Suvarsha Kalra, Principal of the school, and Ms Usha Sidhu, District Education Officer, were also present on the occasion.

Story-telling contest
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 22
Tiny tots of Sanatan Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School, Civil Lines, participated in a story telling contest held here on Saturday. Tiny tots narrated interesting moral stories. Among nursery class kids, Himanshi was declared first and Tanya got the second prize. 

Vaishali and Twinkle were declared first and second among KG kids. Among Class III children, Anjali was given first prize and Gagandeep was declared second. Priya was declared the best story teller among Class IV children. Ms Manju Puri and Ms Amanjeet Kaur, teachers, pronounced the judgement.