Brave kids braving the chill
Deepkamal Kaur

Ludhiana, January 4
With most of the local government primary schools having dark, dingy and unsafe buildings, kids studying here are forced to study in foggy and chilly conditions. Sitting on the dewy grass or bare pucca verandahs in the absence of furniture and mattresses, most of these students find it difficult to attend classes in the open.

Under such conditions, attendance in most schools usually falls short as parents know the conditions in which their children have to study. Teachers say many students fall sick during this time of the year and remain absent for at least a week.

The conditions of most government primary schools of the city are pathetic, with a few of them being completely unsafe. These include those at Dholewal Chowk and on Cinema Road.

While secondary wings of the schools are well constructed and lakhs of rupees have been being spent on these, buildings of primary wings are in a dilapidated condition. Students arrive in foggy mornings, sit in the open and pray for a sunny day.

The headmaster of the school at Cinema Road said he had recently received a cheque for Rs 1 lakh, but since he was without sufficient staff, he could not manage construction at this point of time. He claimed that he along with another teacher were responsible for attending to five classes at a time as the third teacher had gone on long leave. He added that some repair work might be pursued after a month.

At Government Primary School, Bharat Nagar, classrooms are adequate, but due to lack of proper light in rooms, teachers are forced to take classes in the open.

Mattresses donated to the school fall short of length and most students sit on the ground. While some children sit on bricks, others use thick polythene bags to combat the cold.

Teachers say the rooms get cold as roof sheds are made of tin and there is no way for sunlight. They say they have collected some gunny bags and will stitch these into mattresses for children.

At Government Primary School, Sarabha Nagar, there are two rooms for five classes. While one room is equipped with benches and teachers have sufficient numbers of chairs, students of Classes I, II and III sit on the cold floor of the other room to attend classes.

It’s admission time folks!
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, January 4
With the availability of admission forms in most schools, the process of admission has started here. Different schools have set different age limits, dates for registration and interviews and criteria for admission of children.

While parents can be seen queuing up in schools to gather information regarding admission and procure forms, non-teaching staff of schools seems busy. At some schools, single-page admission forms are being given out, while authorities of other schools are giving out a colour prospectus for between Rs 10 and Rs 200.

The age limit at different schools varies. Some schools are admitting children in pre-nursery classes, while others are taking admission for nursery and KG classes. At DAV Public School, age for admission in nursery should be between 2 years 6 months and 3 years 3 months on March 31. Minimum age for admission to Sacred Heart Convent Senior Secondary School is 3 years 3 months. For Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School age should be between 2years 9 months and 3 years 9 months. For Kundan Vidya Mandir age should be between 3 years 6 months and 4 years 6 months. For Guru Nanak Public School age should be between 3 years and 4 years.

At DAV Public School, admission forms for nursery classes are being given out since yesterday and the process will continue till January 10. Four or five counters have been set to facilitate the process and senior section students have been deputed for the purpose. At Sacred Heart Convent Senior Secondary School, forms will be available on January 10. At Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, forms will be available on January 10 and 11.At Tagore Public School, forms will be available from January 4. At Greenland Day Boarding School, forms will be available till March- end and admission will continue till that time.

Interviews in most schools will be held by January-end or mid-February. At Sacred Heart Convent Senior Secondary School, interviews will be conducted from January 21 to 26. At Tagore Public School, interviews are scheduled for February 10 and tentative dates for Kundan Vidya Mandir are February 14 and 15. At Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, registration will be held from February 14 to 15. At DAV Public School and Guru Nanak Public School, dates for interviews have not been finalised yet.

Criteria for admission to various schools have been set differently. Ms I.Kumar, Principal, of Kundan Vidya Mandir, says children and parents will be interviewed separately. Children will be adjudged on the basis of their knowledge of colours, observation and confidence. Questions from a syllabus is being given out at the school during registration.

Parents will be adjudged on the basis of their keenness, viewpoints on various issues, importance given to education and concern for the child. The interview of children will carry a weightage of 60 per cent and that of parents 40 per cent.

BSNL directed to issue revised bill
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, January 4
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed Bharat Sancahar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to issue the revised bill of 2,016 calls instead of 8,947 calls for the period from November 1, 1999 to December 31, 2000, to Mr Manminder Pal Singh, proprietor of Bharat Scientific Dyers, Focal Point, Ludhiana. The forum has also directed BSNL to pay Rs 500 as cost of litigation to the consumer and to give 10 days time to him to pay the revised bill.

According to the complaint, the consumer had received a bill of Rs 42,814 on September 18, 2000. The representative of the complainant, Mr S.D. Nagpal stated before the forum that he was shocked to get the bill for such a huge amount and wrote a letter on October 12, 2000, to BSNL for investigating the matter.

Mr Nagpal disclosed that in reply to his letter, he was asked to wait for some time to know the details of the bill. After that BSNL intimated consumer through a letter that after carefully examining the case, a rebate of 25,000 calls had been granted and the balance amount of Rs 11,315 was payable by him by April 12, 2001.

Mr Nagpal pointed out that the consumer never got the bill of more than the amount of Rs 800, but all of a sudden, a demand of Rs 42,814 was raised by BSNL without proper investigation. It was alleged that there was clear deficiency in services on the part of respondent for issuing such a huge bill to consumer without proper investigation.

The forum stated that BSNL had issued the revised bill to consumer for 8,947 calls while the consumer should be charged for 2016 calls , even after adding 25 per cent more calls to 1,613 calls. The forum held that the respondent had not given proper relief to the consumer

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