The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

FROM THE COLLEGES
Annual function of college hostel
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 25
A cultural programme marked the annual hostel function of Government College, Sector 46, which was held on its hostel premises in Sector 15, here today. Parminder Singh, mesmerised the audience with his songs.

Congratulating hostel residents on their achievements, the Principal of the college, Mr S.C. Nijhawa, advised them to imbibe qualities of self-confidence, hard work and humility.

About 50 hostel residents were awarded prizes and certificates for their performance in hostel activities. Upkar Singh, president of the Students’ Council, was declared ‘Best Resident’ while Anmol Rattan was awarded the Amandeep Memorial Running Trophy.

Earlier, the chief warden, Prof Sahib Singh welcomed the chief guest and other guests of honour. The warden of the hostel, Prof Bikram Rana, read out the annual report highlighting the achievements of the hostel residents in academics, NSS activities blood donation and the PU Zonal Youth Festival. On the occasion, a request for a hostel on the college premises was also made.

Tech Fest

The students of the Department of Professional Studies of Government College, Sector 11, will organise a one-day Tech Fest on the college premises on Tuesday.

The programme will include a technical case study, a predefined software development contest, an on-the-spot website development contest, a technical quiz followed by a prize distribution function.

Victory hailed

The Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union has hailed the victory of the Congress-CPI alliance in the Punjab Assembly elections and urged the alliance to ensure justice to aggrieved teachers and managements of private colleges.

In a press note issued here today, the president of the union, Mr K.B.S. Sodhi, said the education policies of the SAD-BJP government had threatened the survival of 172 non-government-aided and unaided colleges of the state.

They expressed a hope that the new government would live up to its assurances made in the election manifesto.

Award for J.P. Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 25
The Independent School Federation of India conferred the honours award on the principal of St Kabir's Public School, Sector 26, Mr J.P. Singh, for his contribution in the field of quality education, at a function held in Delhi on February 23.

The award was presented to Mr J.P. Singh by the Chief Minister of New Delhi, Ms Sheila Dixit. Mr J.P. Singh believes that constant change and progress was necessary for the improvement and development of any institution.

Honoured: A fine arts master of the Government Senior Secondary School for Boys, Sector 20, Mr Sanjeev Arora, was awarded the first and second prizes in different categories of the Competition Master library related competitions-2001, at a function held yesterday.

Competing in the teacher category, he was awarded the first prize for cartoon making and collage making and the second prize in the bookmark making contest. He has been participating in the contests since 1997 and winning prizes every year.

Puppets come to life
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 25
Students of the Sector 44 St Joseph’s High School watched a colourful puppet show with Rajasthani folk for background music, on the school premises here today.

The puppet show proved a novel break for the children and they watched the performance spellbound.

In attires of vibrant hues, eight puppets danced “untiringly” for cheering children. The puppeteers kept rotating the puppet characters on stage.

Children were fascinated the most by the puppet snake dance. A horse galloping from one end of the stage to the other with the rider waving to the audience also captivated them. ‘Main Nikla Gadi Leke’ was played in the background.

The other interesting items included a puppet Rajasthani girl dancing to the tune of ‘Nimbooda, Nimbooda’ and a puppet Daler Mehndi swaying to the tune of his popular numbers.

COURTS

HIGH COURT
Computers for courts
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 25
Society has moved from bullock-carts to Balenos but we are still unwilling to dispense with the wretched old typewriters which create more noise and reduce the output — observed Mr Justice Jawahar Lal Gupta and Mr Justice N.K. Sud of the Punjab and Haryana High Court before directing the state of Haryana to provide computers in all the district and subordinate courts, including the labour courts.

Allowing a petition filed by the President of the Haryana Civil Judges Association, Mr M.M. Dhonchak, the Bench directed the High Court Registrar to provide a plan to the state government for the computerisation of the courts within a month of receiving a copy of the order. The Judges further directed that the state government, within four months of receiving the plan, would provide computers in all the district and subordinate courts.

In their petition, the association had earlier claimed that their request to the state of Haryana and the Secretary of the Law and Judicial Reforms Department for providing computers and other accessories, including UPS and printers, had fallen on deaf ears. As a result, they were filing the petition for foregrounding the “high handedness and arbitrary inaction” of the respondents in not installing the computers, counsel for the association had claimed. The same, he had further added, was necessary for improving the quality of work and increasing the efficiency.

Giving details of the Association, he had added that the members had been striving hard, and had put in a lot of effort, for creating a dedicated work culture and for ensuring effective functioning of the judiciary at a lower level.

Act challenged

Mr Justice Jawahar Lal Gupta and Mr Justice N.K. Sud of the High Court on Monday admitted a petition filed by General Secretary of Mahila Congress Kusam Sharma challenging the 79th Amendment Act. Claiming to be aggrieved by the Act, the petitioner had stated that she was keen on contesting elections from Phagwara Assembly constituency but people belonging to the general category had been debarred from contesting the polls.

Giving details in her petition filed against the Union of India, the Election Commission and Punjab Election Commissioner, besides other respondents, she had stated that Phagwara constituency had been declared reserved after the abolition of plural member constituency system. Her counsel had added that a particular constituency could not be allowed to remain reserved forever and ever and should be changed by rotation as it was depriving a large number of citizens from getting elected or voting in favour of the candidate of their choice.

Cover for drain

A Division Bench of the High Court on Wednesday directed counsel for Ludhiana’s Municipal Corporation to seek instructions for covering a drain connected to Buddha Nalah. The Bench also vacated its interim orders as the Corporation had already laid 75 per cent of the pipeline for carrying storm water into the drain which fell into the Buddha Nalah. Delivering the verdict, the Bench, comprising Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi and Ms Justice Bakhshish Kaur, observed that the directions for covering the drain were necessary as the photographs of the site made it evident that the open nalah was a great health hazard.

Complaints against lawyers
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 25
The disciplinary committee of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana today dismissed two complaints of professional misconduct against two lawyers, Mr Surinder Pal of Patiala and Mr N.S. Minhas, practising at the Sector 17 District Courts. The committee also slapped costs of Rs 5,000 on the complainants.

According to the honorary secretary of the council, both the complaints were found to be frivolous and misconceived.

Therefore, after considering the evidence on record, it came to the conclusion that the complainants unnecessarily dragged the advocates into litigation.

‘Barred’ for possessing fake degrees
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, February 25
The Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana has found as many as 30 applicants not eligible for council licence as their degrees were found to be fake by the respective universities during verification.

The Chairman of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, Mr Anmol Rattan Sidhu, said that the Bar had received communication from universities concerned that the degrees of their university sent by the Bar had been found to be forged.

Mr Sidhu added that after getting about 100 applications for licence, the council had sent the degrees to respective universities for verification. After getting information from the universities that about 30 candidates had procured the degrees through illegal means, the Bar has decided to take strict action against them.

Meanwhile, the Bar Council of India today extended the term of the Punjab and Haryana Council for the next six months, informed the Secretary of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, Mr C.M. Munjal. He added that the term of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana was going to expire in May this year.

In another development, in order to strictly implement provision of Bar Council of India rules, which prohibit the advocate from soliciting work through advertisement directly or indirectly, the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, today decided to depute advocates as local commissioners to visit district and lower courts in Punjab and Haryana on weekends to check violators.

The decision was taken by the subcommittee constituted by the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana at a meeting held in the District Courts Complex in Sector 17, informed the vice-chairman of the Bar Council of the Punjab and Haryana, Mr B.S. Suhag.

Beant case: 158th witness records statement
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, February 25
The statement of a witness who was working as a technician with the UT Secretariat was recorded before the UT District and Sessions Judge, Mr Justice H.S. Bhalla, in the Beant Singh assassination case here today. Surinder Singh, who was the 158th witness in the case, stated before the judge that he had got two security personnel, who were injured in the bomb blast on August 31, 1995, admitted to the hospital.

The witness further said when he came back from hospital at 7.30 pm, he was not allowed to enter the Secretariat. Later, he got the information that Beant Singh and Dr Anil Duggal, had died in the bomb blast.

CULTURE

‘North India has vast tourism potential’
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 25
The Director Public Relations of the Chandigarh Administration, Mr Vivek Atray, today inaugurated the Tour Executives Training Programme being jointly organised by the Department of Tourism of the Administration, CITCO, and the ITFT. Mr Atray said with the training programme a great need to have professional people to provide services to both domestic and international tourists and others would be fulfilled.

He said the northern Indian states which have vast tourism potential should be promoted as an integrated destination, adding that itineraries to cover important places of interest in all these states should be developed. Information technology, tourism, industry and business are inter related. With the development of one segment others also get promoted, Mr Atray added.

Earlier, Dr Gulshan Sharma, Director, ITFT, gave details of programme which is of two-month duration including 15 days practical training with CITCO. He said the training has been divided into 10 modules. These modules cover tourism products and services of Chandigarh, itinerary preparation which include planning, costing and marketing, customer care and guest management skills and social grooming such as being positive, courteous, polite, cultivation of skills, body language, manners and etiquettes. Detailed case studies on Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, J&K, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh will also be covered in the training programme.

The participants will also be exposed to basics of computer and Internet facilities at the ITFT. Dr Sharma informed that there were 97 applicants for this training programme out of which 16 have been shortlisted.

Mr Arvind Malhotra, General Manager, CITCO, also spoke on the occasion.