EDUCATION

Academic Council poll today
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17
Elections to the Academic Council of Panjab University are to be held tomorrow.

The council has 15 seats for teachers and 15 for college principals. It also has five Senators and professors of teaching departments on the campus as members.

Six contestants in the teachers’ constituency are of Chandigarh. The Senate has already chosen its five members. The principals’ section has only ten candidates, who are naturally going to be elected unopposed. In the teachers’ category, there are 17 candidates. Principals of respective colleges will be presiding officers.

The Academic Council is one of the top bodies that monitors academic activities on the campus and colleges affiliated to the PU. However, the council has had minimal activity and only a few meetings over the past few years. A candidate said efforts would be made to revive the importance of the body. The ballot boxes will reach the university on Saturday and the results will be declared on January 21.

Heavy participation in school board function
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17
The state-level cultural competition of the Punjab School Education Board saw a huge participation at Bal Bhavan in Sector 23 here yesterday. The three-day competition took off with a contest being held in four categories: vaar singing, kavishri, poetry and shabad singing.

After a fair competition between the teams, which had come from all over the state to take part, the following were the winners in different categories (in order of merit):

Vaar singing: Adarsh Senior Secondary School, Khatkad Kalan, Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Amritsar and Robin Model High School, Dhuri.

Kavishri: Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana, Ramgarhia Senior Secondary School, Millerganj, Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Amritsar.

Poems: Central Public High School, Ghuman, Gurdaspur, Jeevanjyoti Public School, Amritsar, Government Senior Secondary School, Sarabha.

Shabad: Shining Star Senior Secondary School, Jalandhar, Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Ropar and Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Amritsar.

The Jathedar of Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib, Prof Manjit Singh, was the chief guest. The contests will go on till January 18.

Engineering courses results today
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17
Panjab University will declare results of certain engineering courses tomorrow, an official press release said here today. The examination were conducted during November-December 2001.

The results likely to be declared tomorrow include: BE(Mechanical) fifth semester, BE(Mech) seventh semester, ME (Mett) seventh semester and BE(Electrical) fifth semester. Copies of the result gazette will be available at the enquiry counter on all working days.

Stress on ‘adopting’ libraries and reading books
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17
‘Adopting’ of libraries and reading books was described as the key to success at the inter-school extempore speech competition on books and libraries organised at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 23, here today.

Advising students to become “library-minded”, the Principal of the school, Mr Shiv Kumar Sharma, said that in-depth study of various subjects armed students with the knowledge need to succeed in life.

The extempore speech contest, the fifth in the series of events organised for schools and colleges by the Chandigarh Librarians Association, saw participation of as many as 15 city schools.

These inter-school and inter-college contests are being organised with the objective of making students aware of the necessity of reading books for improved thinking and better understanding.

COURTS

Baby-sale case dismissed
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17
The alleged baby-sale case culminated today with Mr Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel of the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruling that the petitioner — a Ropar district resident — had no locus standi to seek custody of the child she was claiming to be hers.

In her petition, Ramanjit Kaur had earlier claimed that the ultrasound reports prior to the delivery had revealed that she was carrying twins, but soon after the delivery at the PGI she was informed about the birth of a girl. Enquiries from the staff had, however, revealed that the boy born to her had been sold off.

Taking up the petition filed by her, the High Court had, subsequently, directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to look into the matter. A DNA test was conducted, but the boy, the petitioner was claiming to be hers, was not found to be her offspring.

After going through the evidence and listening to the arguments, Mr Justice Goel observed: “I am of the view that once the petitioner has not been found to be the child’s mother, she has no locus standi to seek his custody. The petition, therefore, deserves to be dismissed.”

CULTURE

Jacob presents awards to four artistes
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17
The Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi honoured four promoters of art during its third annual award presentation function held at Tagore Theatre today.

The winners of this year’s awards in the categories of theatre, folk dance, folk singing and comedy were Sardar Gursharan Singh, Baba Pokhar Singh, Gurmeet Bawa and Bhagwant Mann, respectively. The awards, comprising a citation, a shawl, Rs 11,000 and a sketch of the winning artiste by Rahi Mohinder Singh, were presented by the Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Lieut-Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd).

While three award winners are known to this part of the region, Baba Pokhar was introduced for the first time by the Akademi today. The man, who came to India after the partition, is credited with elevating the Punjabi jhoomer from a small-time folk dance practised in villages to a reputed folk dance form which is now presented even during international festivals. Unfortunately Baba Pokhar could not attend the function because of a paralytic attack today, but his son Kulwant Singh was there to represent his father.

The Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi’s secretary general, Prof Rajpal Singh, introduced the award winners to the audience. With his elegant yet powerful command over Punjabi he kept the audience interest alive throughout the function. His special mention of Punjabi comedian Bhagwant Mann was applauded by the audience. He introduced Mann very gracefully saying, “This is the man who has restored our pride in the language. The Punjabis are known for their humour, but they could not somehow preserve this heritage. In the recent times there have been artistes who have reduced Punjabi comedy to a level of mockery. But now, with Bhagwant Mann taking over charge, the richness of this tradition stands protected.” Later during the show Bhagwant Mann earned the worth of his reward when he threw the audience into splits by presenting satires on elections and some other items.

On the same lines, Gurmeet Bawa also wove a melodious web with her voice. She continued the “hek” for almost half a minute when she rendered Punjabi folk songs like Jugni and Malki Keema in her rustic voice. She was accompanied by Balwinder Mast, who not only familiarised the audience with the sweetness of Punjabi ‘tumbi’ by playing the same while Gurmeet sang, but also sang folk tunes with her.

Present during the function was Mr R.T. Jindal, Director of the North Zone Cultural Centre, as the guest of honour and Ms Harjinder Kaur, president of the Akademi.

‘Mahamari’ staged
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, January 17
Violence, right from raging war to subtle violence in everyday life was the theme of the play “Mahamari” which was staged by Navchetna, the newly formed cultural wing Critique, the Students Discussion Forum of Panjab University in English Auditorium on the University campus here this evening.

The story unfolds with a casual conversation struck by three characters from different nations. The plot opens at an international airport where Indian boy Shekhar meets a Serbinan national Alexi coming from New York, then moves onto a bar scenario where the third character Mustafa, a Bosnian Muslim, joins them over a drink. Though the theme that revolves around topics like war, school violence and pollution has nothing new to offer, it is the ending that hangs in a question that what sort of world we are going to leave for our children is something to take home to.

Adapted from a short story written by Dr Harjinder Singh popularly known as Laltu, the play was directed by Ashish Alexender who also played the role of Shekhar. Sukhchain Singh played the character of Alexi and Shamsher Singh did the role of Mustafa. The simple sets and background music by Priyanka complemented the storyline.

The play was preceded by a kavi sammelan that featured well-known poets like Teji Grover from MCM DAV College, Sector 36, Dr Harjinder Singh Laltu from Department of Chemistry, PU, Dr Satyapal Sehgal from Department of Hindi, PU. Mr Lars Anderson, a Swedish novelist, who is in India in connection with the Indo-Swedish translation project, also recited a few poems composed by pioneer and contemporary poets from Sweden.