The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

PU students council team assumes office
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 7
The newly elected office-bearers of the Panjab University Campus Students Council assumed office following a formal ceremony of swearing in here today.

Prof K.N. Pathak, Vice-Chancellor, presided over the function where Malwinder Singh Kang (president), Satender Pratap Dahiya (general secretary) and Vivek Chauhan (joint secretary) assumed the office. Kanika Sachdev (vice-president) came after the VC had left.

The council has urged the university to conduct the re-apear examination for students of the honours stream in science courses at the earliest, extend canteen facilities to the University Institute of Engineering and Technology, five-day schedule, and construction of new hostels for boys and girls.

The council has pointed out a matter which deserves adequate concern by the university for promotion of sport. A press release said, “The athletes in the cross-country team were unable to go because of paucity of funds being pointed out as the reason by the university.” Kang said the university should look into the matter immediately.

In a late development, Kang said the cross-country athletes left on their own expenses. However, the university has assured to look into the matter and arrange the refund.

Bhagyatara award for Dr K.N. Ganesh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 7
Dr K.N. Ganesh, Deputy Director in the Division of Organic Chemistry at the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, was awarded the first Bhagyatara national award at a ceremony at Panjab University here today.

The Bhagyatara national award has been instituted by Prof M.K.Jain, an alumnus of the university, currently settled in the USA. The award, instituted in memory of his parents, consists of Rs 50,000, a memento and a citation.

The Bhagyatara foundation has also announced a scholarship to Shruti, a girl student who stood first in the CET examination and enrolled in the honours school at the University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The function was presided over by Prof K.N. Pathak, Vice-Chancellor, and was also attended by Prof Jain. Prof S.K. Kulkarni, convener of the foundation, welcomed the guests.

Dr Ganesh delivered an oration titled “Making drugs out of DNA: design, synthesis and evaluation of novel DNA and PNA analogues”. Describing the emergence of new biology and its implications in the development of drugs, he dwelt on antisense oligonucleotides as specific drugs for messenger RNA.

Dr Ganesh said these protein targets were the cause of several diseases, particularly hereditary diseases, and if target drugs were designed to block these DNA fragments, they could halt further production of proteins responsible for the propagation of diseases. This new technology called “antisense” drug technology can be used for treating diseases like cancer, diabetes and others.

Scientists’ conference from today
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 7
The three-day 68th annual meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences (Bangalore) will start at Panjab University tomorrow onwards. The unique high-level scientific conference will be back in North India after a gap of 23 years.

This was announced by Dr K Kasturirangan, Chairman of the Space Commission, and the Secretary in the Department of Space, while addressing a press conference here today. The meeting would feature a series of lectures on fields of mathematics, chemical, earth, life, medical and engineering sciences.

There would be two specific symposia out of which the first one would be on ‘Quantum computing and quantum information’ which was an attempt to explore new paradigms in computer logic at the atomic and the molecular level, so that eventually a new supercomputer of the size of one's fingernail might be developed. The second symposium would be on ‘from mantle to monsoon and other climactic changes’ exploring how the Himalayas influenced the monsoon and other climactic changes.

Dr Kasturirangan said the academy conference would also explore the interfaces between the sciences and arts as well take science to a common man through two public lectures including ‘Rasa Sidhanta and its social significance’ by Prof Mohan Maharishi from the host university and ‘Artless innocents and ivory towers sophisticates...’ by Prof M.S. Raghunathan from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.

Dr Kasturirangan said the conference would be attended by over 200 fellows as well as other scientists from various agencies like ISRO, DST, CSIR, DAE and DRDO, among others.

Professor Kasturirangan said the effort of the academy was to reach out to the teachers and students in the largest possible numbers so as to update their knowledge in the concerned fields.

The academy was founded by Prof Sir C.V.Raman, the first Asian Nobel laureate in 1937, with the aim of promoting the progress and upholding the cause of science both in pure and applied branches. Today the academy has 824 fellows and 43 honorary fellows.

Sir Raman outlined the scientific activities of the academy under three heads namely: “Meetings for discussions of research papers; Symposia on special subjects; and Publication of proceedings”. The founder president held the office till 1970. The ‘towering’ personalities who held the office since include Prof T.S. Sadasivan, Prof M.G.K. Menon, Prof S. Dhawan, Prof N..Kumar and Prof C.N.R. Rao, besides others.

The academy currently has 11 publications on its list. Prof Bal Krishan, highlighting the activities in the arena of publications, said all research journals of the academy published since 1937 would be available on websites tomorrow after a formal inauguration by Dr Kasturirangan. The activity of compilation consisted more than 2.5 lakh pages.

Prof K.N. Pathak, Vice Chancellor, welcomed the guests.

COURTS

HIGH COURT
Man convicted under Opium Act acquitted
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 7
Coming down heavily on an Additional District and Sessions Judge for adopting an improper approach against the settled proposition of law, Mr Justice Viney Mittal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted a Mandi Dabwali resident convicted under the Opium Act.

Delivering the verdict, Mr Justice Mittal stated: “I find that major discrepancies have been noticed by the Additional Sessions Judge, but the same were brushed aside by merely observing that ‘these discrepancies are the natural outcome of truthful statements’. Not only this, the Additional Sessions Judge has also ignored another valid argument raised on the behalf of the petitioner. It was pointed out by his counsel that the chemical examiner’s report was silent about meconic acid in the sample and if no report was given about the acid’s presence, the substance could not be taken to be opium. The argument, although noticed by the Additional Sessions Judge, was brushed aside by merely observing that simply because the acid’s presence was not mentioned, it would not mean that the chemical examiner had given incorrect report”.

The Judge concluded: “It is apparent that the entire approach of the Additional Sessions Judge was improper and against the settled proposition of law. I have gone through the entire evidence on the record and I find that in view of the submissions raised by counsel, it cannot be suggested that the prosecution was able to prove the petitioner’s guilt beyond all reasonable doubts. Consequently, the revision petition is allowed after setting aside the judgement of the courts below. The petitioner is ordered to be acquitted of the charge”.

Complaint quashed

Quashing a complaint in a fertiliser case, Mr Justice Viney Mittal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that the same could not be filed against the manufacturing company’s president without arraying the company as a co-accused.

In a ruling, Mr Justice Mittal observed: “The present petition has been filed by petitioner R.K. Thukral for quashing the complaint under Sections 19 (i) and (a) of the Fertilizer Control Order of 1985, read with section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act of 1955. The sole ground upon which the quashing of the complaint has been claimed by the petitioner is that while filing the complaint, the manufacturing company has not been impleaded as a party.... I have perused the complaint and find that the company was not arrayed as a co-accused and therefore, in the absence of the company, the complaint could not be filed against the petitioner who is the president of the company.... The present petition is allowed and the complaint, besides all consequential proceedings against the petitioner, stand quashed”.

Lawyers to observe strike today
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, November 7
Members of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana have decided to abstain from attending Lok Adalat and any other related activities till November 9 following a call given by the Bar Council of India, informed the Chairman of the Bar Council Punjab and Haryana, Mr Anmol Rattan Sidhu.

Giving details he said that the Chairman of the Bar Council of India, Mr D.V. Subba Rao had informed that eight members of the National Action Committee will be observing a fast at New Delhi tomorrow. Mr Rao had further urged the members of the state bar councils to observe a day’s fast.

CULTURE

Sabhyacharak manch to honour 3
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, November 7
The Punj Dariya Sabhyacharak Manch, an SAS Nagar based cultural outfit, will honour Punjabi singer Harbhajan Shera, renowned folk musician Surmail Gurdip Singh and Ms Narinder Kaur, Controller (Examination) of Punjab School Education Board, for their contributions in their respective fields.

“The organisation has been working for the upliftment of Punjabi culture and by honouring the people who are doing their share of contribution in the field of education, art and culture from time to time, we plan to generate an awareness among the young generation which seems to be deviating from their roots,” said Mr Harinder Pal Singh, organising secretary of the function.

The award giving function will take place at Tagore Theatre in Sector 18 here tomorrow along with an evening of geets and ghazals which will present artistes like Raj Brar, Harbhajan Shera, Gurdeep, Manpreet Gullu among others. Mr Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa, Chairman, Youth Welfare and Sports Cell, will be the chief guest on the occasion.

NEW RELEASE
Now Mann on big screen

Punjabi pop singer Harbhajan Mann, who has become a hot favourite after the success of ‘Oye Hoye’, has played the lead role in Gulshan Kumar presents, Super Cassettes Industries Ltd, ‘Jee Aayan Nu’. This is his debut movie in which Priya Gill, Kimi, Kanwaljeet, Navneet Nishan, Daljit Kaur, Deep Dhillon and Vivek Shauq also stars. It has been produced by Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar. Manmohan Singh is the director. It opens at Jagat, Chandigarh, on Friday.

The film is said to be a typical love story with emotions and sentiments. It is about Indians who settled abroad and their problems in adopting Indian culture.

‘Jee Aayan Nu’, which is the first big-budget film in the history of Punjabi cinema, was made in a record time. The film is undoubtedly one of the most talked-about movies of 2002.

It has story by Baldev Gill, photography by Harmeet Singh, choreography by Vaibhavi Merchant, Gill Surjit (folk dance), art by R. Verman, editing by Keshav Naidu and sound by Narinder Singh. Babu Singh Mann has penned lyrics for music director Jai Dev Kumar. Babloo Chakravorty of ‘Dil Vil Pyar Vyar’ fame has come out with good background score. DP