 |
|
| Tuesday,
February 4, 2003, Chandigarh, India
|
|
||||
Science students may have a subject less Chandigarh, February 3 The committee said students of the science stream were already exposed to all aspects of environment education and the university could, at best, make necessary additions to the existing syllabi to make it more associated with the environment concerns. The recommendation is significant because the PU degree-course syllabi are already “heavy”, going by the number of subjects in each course. The exemption has been sought for the courses of the PU departments of chemistry, physics, mathematics, botany and zoology. While most of the universities have been adhering to the University Grants Commission guidelines of having only three elective subjects and one half-subject, as the state requires, Panjab University asks each student to take up at least three subjects along with English (compulsory) and Punjabi or History of Punjab. To this, the university has added the compulsory subject of environment studies. The university had introduced the subject after an observation of the Supreme Court calling for introducing a paper in environment studies at the undergraduate level. The PU was probably the only university in the entire country to introduce the subject. However, after the introduction, there were certain teething problems in running the course. At one stage, the university even had to cancel the examination results. The following year, the university decided to organise only lectures and no examination to allow students to qualify. Even now, a section of the academic staff says that, instead of conducting an examination, the university should organise only lectures. The aim is to make students more aware of the environment concerns, which should be understood, as the court says. Students of the humanities group should be educated about the scientific concerns on environment, and students of the science stream should also be informed about the societal concerns related to the issue. The members of the committee that made the recommendation included Prof S.M. Handa, Mr A.S. Dua, Prof Charanjit Chawla and Prof Akhtar Mehmood. Though the matter will require clearance from the university Senate for future implementation, it is being said that the issue needs greater deliberation on whether the course is merely a formality or there is a wider aim to make students actually participate in matters related to environment concerns. However, there was a difference of opinion on the issue. Another opinion was that the subject be retained with necessary alterations to make the exercise more fruitful. |
|
Scientific
journalism needs fillip: experts Chandigarh, February 3 This was stated by Dr Harsh K. Gupta, Secretary in the Department of Ocean Development, in his inaugural address at the national seminar on “India in the Antarctic: challenges and opportunities in the 21st century” at the ICSSR Complex, in Panjab University here today. The seminar is being organised by the Department of Study of Geopolitics, Political Science and the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Goa. Dr Gupta highlighted several environmental concerns which needed immediate attention. One among them was the rising water levels. The temperatures at the periphery of the Antarctica region had gone up by 2.5 degrees while the core of the area was becoming more cold. Dr P.C. Pandey, director of the National Centre for Antarctic Ocean Research, gave an overview of the Indian expeditions in the Antarctic region. He said the seminar was a unique opportunity to have an interface between the scientific community and experts from the field of geopolitics which widened the scope of deliberations. The inaugural session commenced with a two-minute silence in the memory of the seven astronauts who died in the Columbia space shuttle tragedy. Prof
K.N. Pathak, Vice-Chancellor, praised the centre for its contribution the study of the Indian Ocean region recently. He urged the participants to deliberate on the constitution of a core group at the university level represented by experts of various departments which could act as a nucleus in defining the Indian Antarctic programme. Dr Sanjay
Chaturvedi, Chairperson and co-convener of the seminar, proposed the vote of thanks. Dr Niloy
Khare, programme director, conducted the proceedings. |
|
Police remand for
N.K. Garg Burglary bid at Garg’s house Three burglars made an attempt to break into the Sector 40 house of the chartered accountant this morning. While one of the thieves, Anil Chauhan, was caught, two others escaped. Chandigarh, February 3 The police sought custody of the accused to recover incriminating documents and forge stamps. The police also pleaded that the accused be also taken to Delhi to recover it. |
||
|
Gas agency told to pay Rs 69,500 to resident Chandigarh, February 3 The complainant, Mr C.L Sharma, had alleged that the gas agency had supplied him a defective gas cylinder which had a leaking outlet pin. Due to the callous and careless approach of the gas agency on September 29, 1998, there was an explosion of the LPG gas cylinder in his house. Giving details about the incident, the complainant stated that the moment he removed the cylinder plastic cap, the LPG gas gushed out of the cylinder. He removed the LPG cylinder from his kitchen to the backyard of his house. The gas continued leaking. Within minutes the cylinder was empty. In the meantime, the gas had spread all over and also in the rooms of his house. The complainant’s son Sanjeev Sharma immediately informed the Fire Brigade at Sector 17, which reached the site, and switched off electric meters as a precautionary measure. The complainant also alerted his neighbours. Despite all this, a blast took place in the presence of the Fire Brigade officials and flames engulfed the interior of his house. The complainant sustained burn injuries on his legs and the left arm, his daughter on her left arm and his wife on her foot. The complainant further stated that after getting information, the police reached the site and the injured were taken to hospital. The complainant alleged his household goods including a cooler, a fridge and clothes were burnt. The matter was reported to the police. The court directed the gas agency to pay a compensation with nine per cent interest to Mr Sharma, for supplying the defective cylinder which caused damage to his household goods. |
Leaf from history
This came to the notice of the Chandigarh authorities in March 1960, when they received a request from one Bakhtawar Singh, the erstwhile pujari of the shrine requesting a grant of land in the resettlement colony to enable them to construct a shrine to Guga. The Estate Officer informed that no more compensation was possible because the pujari had already been compensated for the cost of the material of the original shrine. Compensation for land had been taken by Ramnath on whose land the shrine stood,” writes Dr Rajivlochan in his book on Chandigarh. The Superintending Engineer of the PWD, however reported that the original shrine was still standing at what was going to be the campus of the PGI. The SDO was asked to get the shrine demolished. The orders were passed downwards. But, as it turned out, no demolition was done. In the hurly burly of construction that was going on at Chandigarh, few noticed that the SE’s order had not been implemented. In the meantime, the pujari, Bakhtawar Singh, came back and again began to care for the original Guga Marhi at erstwhile Shahzadpur. As the PGI campus came to be constructed, it was deemed advisable to leave a small piece of land to the temple, which even today attracts worshippers of all castes from neighbouring sectors as also those who come to seek solace from doctors at the PGI.
|
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
THERE is this funny thing about memories. Some last, some don’t. Some we try to retain, and yet forget; others remain, which we seek to obliterate. When Chandigarh was coming up and the landmass first acquired, 17 villages were completely swept clean of all the structures that stood upon them so that new constructions, based on new designs, underpinned by new ideas, could take place. Over 20,000 people were thus displaced. Orders were given to raze their houses, cut down their trees, fill up the ponds and demolish their shrines so that their fields and pastures could be paved over. Some structures, however, withstood the vagaries of an imposed modernity and their keepers forced the architects of the new times to let them be. Shahzadpur Village, now occupied by most of PGI and Sector 11, like almost every other village, had a worshipping place for a favourite deity, usually the mother goddess and also a special shrine, normally frequented by the untouchables of the village. On the south-western corner of this village were the kutcha huts of the village servants. Beyond them, across the dirt track to Kharar lay the village pond. This was later filled up and a shopping complex for the PGI constructed in the depression. Next to the pond, at its southern end, was a small shrine to Guga Zahir Pir called Guga Marhi. A Valmiki, Baba Prem Das, looked after the shrine for many years and earned much goodwill for the numerous acts of kindness that he performed. A Brahmin Ramnath, one of the major landlords of the village, had allowed the construction of the shrine on part of his land. “Apparently, the shrine was popular enough that even the engineering staff engaged to demolish it did not do so even after Shahzadpur had been abandoned and its residents shifted to village Haripur, now being engulfed by Sector 4 Panchkula.
