The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDUCATION

Teachers urge govt not to quash appointments
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 20
A special meeting of Government College Selected Lecturers Association (GCSLA) was held at Punjabi Bhavan yesterday. About 200 lecturers attended the meeting. The convener of the association, Mr Shailendra Singh, requested the government not to quash their appointments. He said that they were suffering from mental torture and economic hardships due to delay in their appointments. The association has urged the government not to delay their appointments as they were selected on the basis of merit.

Mr Shailendra said that many among them were Ph.D holders and have excellent academic records. Some were gold medallists. Speaking on the occasion, Ms Geetanjali said that she was selected because she was a gold medallist in Economics and holds an M.Phil degree. Another candidate, Mr Paramjit Singh, said that he was a double post graduate and Ph.D and has six years of teaching experience. Mr Shailendra said the criteria for their selection was different from the one in case of DSPs or PCS. During their interview, Sidhu was not in the panel. So an inference that they had bribed their way through could not be drawn .

Making a plea to the government, the association brought to light certain cases for whom it was the last chance to get selected because of limitations of age. “The government has advertised the posts after eight years and for several students it was the last chance to apply. Now they may not be able to apply if the selections are done again,” Geetanjali said.

The convener, Mr Shailendra Singh, said a delegation of their Association would present a memorandum to Capt Amarinder Singh and try to have a meeting with the Education Minister, Mr Khushal Behl and Member of Parliament, Preneet Kaur for redressing of their complaints.

The GCSLA reiterated that since most of the lecturers belonged to middle class families it was impossible for them to give hefty bribes. Moreover, the posts of lecturers are not ‘lucrative’ in the sense that one cannot earn ‘crores of rupees’, the association leaders asserted.

The selected lectures were stressing on the point that their academic record should be examined before the government takes any final decision.

It is noteworthy that selection for the post of lecturers was done by the order of Punjab and Haryana High Court. They said that hundreds of posts are still lying vacant in government colleges. Moreover, students were suffering due to lack of teachers.

PAU library likely to get special status from ICAR
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 20
The library of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) is likely to be soon declared as the regional library of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Giving this information, Mr S.C. Uppal, Librarian of PAU, said the university had already sent a proposal in this regard to the ICAR, which was now considering various aspects for the tie-up. He said it was being decided that the council would make the PAU library open to all agricultural scientists from Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and other parts of the northern region. In return, it would allow a grant to the tune of Rs 60 to 70 lakh to the university annually.

Mr Uppal further informed that the collaboration would be part of a scheme under the National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP), which is funded by the World Bank. He said that the grant offered to the university would be utilised for the purchase of various core journals, costly books, dissertations and other documents.

The library had already been inspected by an ICAR team last month. The team had checked a variety of reading material available in the library. Mr Uppal said Dr V.P. Chopra, chairman of the team, had found the infrastructure, reading material and its working quite satisfactory.

To further improve its working, Mr Uppal said that a complete database of the entire research work, which has been done by the university students during MSc or PhD courses for the past three decades, was being compiled in the computer section. He said that through a computer system in the library, students would be able to find the relevant research material from keywords of the topic or name of the student. The students would then be able to read the abstract and if they feel the need to go into further details, they would be able to get a call number from which they would easily be able to find the location of that thesis in the library.

Besides, a CD tower has also been set up in the computer section in which 14 CDs can be installed at a time. The library has a collection of hundreds of CDs, which contain research work and studies on different topics conducted the world over. The access to these CDs is free of cost. From here, students are even allowed to copy the material in their floppies and then go through them at home or in computer section of their departments. The students can take computer printouts of this material at a subsidised cost of Re 1 per page. Mr Uppal said that he was getting a very good response to this new scheme.

In the library, a new textbook section is also being set up in which thousands of textbooks based on agriculture, agricultural engineering, home science, veterinary sciences and basic sciences have been kept. The books are never issued to the students who are instead told to read the topics or get relevant pages xeroxed from within the library.

Mr Uppal said that the next step would be to improve the Internet facilities within the library. He said efforts were being made to improve the speed of Net access and slash the charges.

14 centres for JET exam
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 20
The Punjab State Board of Technical Education has set up 14 centres for conducting the Joint Entrance Test on May 26 for admission to various polytechnic courses.

Giving this information, Ms Harvinder Kaur Toor, Principal, Satguru Ram Singh Government Polytechnic for Women, who is also the district controller of examination, said nearly 3,500 students from Ludhiana would be appearing for the test. The various centres for examination this year would include two centres each at the Government Polytechnic for Women, Rishi Nagar; Government Institute of Textile Chemistry and Knitting Technology, Rishi Nagar; Government College for Women; and SD Government College, besides one each at Arya College for Boys; Arya College for Women; Atam Public School; Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women, Model Town; Guru Nanak Polytechnic, Gill Road; Central Tool Room; and Research and Development Centre.

Ms Toor said 240 students would be taking their examination at each centre. The examination would be held from 9 am to 3 pm for which there would be three sections.

COURTS

Bank penalised for deficiency in services
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 20
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed Punjab National Bank (PNB) to pay Rs 1,000 on account of deficiency in services to Mr Anil Kumar Kundra, a resident of Guru Nanak Pura, Civil Lines. The forum has also directed the PNB to pay Rs 400 as the cost of litigation to the consumer.

According to the complaint, the consumer was a government employee and had been depositing PPF amount in his account in the State Bank of India (SBI), Civil Lines branch. The consumer stated before the forum that he used to contribute to his PPF account in order to get relief in income tax.

In order to discharge his income tax liability, he issued a cheque of Rs 10,000 on February 2, 200,1 for credit to the PPF account (20222). He further informed that he had to deposit the said amount in his PPF account by February 7, 2001, in cash, for making sure that the account was regular and there might not be any inconvenience during the financial year 2001. After that, he instructed the SBI and PNB Civil Lines branch for stopping the payment of the cheque to avoid double payment, he added.

The consumer alleged that there was clear deficiency in services, as despite issuing instructions for not clearing the cheque, it was cleared. He further alleged that there gross negligence on part of the respondents as they failed to perform duty as per the set procedure.

The PNB pleaded before the forum that there was bonafide mistake on its part in passing the cheque and that the act did not amount to deficiency in services. The respondent maintained that the cheque was presented by it for payment and as per rules, processing of the cheque was done quickly.

The PNB clarified that the cheque was honoured by it. It might have been a case of oversight due to heavy rush of work and shortage of time. Moreover, there was no malafide intention. The respondent prayed for dismissal of the complaint against it.

The SBI pleaded that the cheque was presented to the PNB through clearing house on February 5, 2001. The respondent stated that the said cheque was inadvertently delivered to wrong branch of the PNB, instead of drawee bank branch. The cheque was received unpaid on February 6, 2001, with the memo “not drawn on us”.

The SBI explained that the PNB again presented the cheque for payment on February 9, 2001, which was encashed and credited to the account of the complainant on February 10, 2001. The respondent said that there was no instruction to its knowledge regarding stoppage of the payment as such there was no deficiency in services and the complaint was liable to be dismissed.

The forum observed that it was not disputed that the instructions regarding the stoppage of payment was issued by the consumer. The forum further observed that the PNB not only cleared the cheque even after the instruction of stoppage of payment, but it also sent cheque to wrong branch.

The forum held that there was clear deficiency in services. However, there was no deficiency on part of the SBI as the cheque was cleared by the PNB and it was also sent to wrong branch by the PNB, the forum added.

Writings inspired by common man’s idiom
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 20
Sirjandhara, literary organisation, organised a programme with the collaboration of Punjabi Sahitya Akademi at Punjabi Bhavan recently. The programme was chaired by Dr S. Tarsem, President, Kendriya Punjabi Lekhak Sabha.

Mr Ajaib Chitarkar, winner of Shiromani Sahit Award; Karni Singh Aujla and Kulwant Singh Lotey were among the luminaries present.

Mr Kulwant Jagraon, General Secretary of Sirjandhara, introduced the poet and spoke about his literary achievements in the field of Punjabi poetry, specially his works. Dr S. Tarsem and Mr Ajaib Chitrkar released the maiden book of the poet, ‘Hanjuan Di Sangat’.

Dr Kulwinder Kaur, while presenting a paper on the book, said that Mr Tuhanewala was basically a lyricist. His lyrics are melodious and have been sung by noted TV artists. In his poetry, he has given the true picture of our culture and society in simple words.

Prof M.S. Cheema, Ms Gurcharan Kochar, Mr Mukhtiar Mittal, also praised his book and style of writing. Dr S. Tarsem appreciated the efforts of Sirjandhara in promoting literary works of new writers and congratulated the author on publication of his maiden book.

Mr Karni Singh Aujla, President Sirjandhara, gave details about literary activities of Sirjandhara to the audience. He said that the poetry of Mr Tuhanewala was the poetry of common man.