The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

PU Syndicate to take up fee concession issue
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 8
The issue of grant of concession to wards of employees of affiliated colleges who are seeking admission to various courses under the non-resident Indian (NRI) quota or NRI-sponsored seats is expected to be taken up afresh at the Panjab University Syndicate meeting, scheduled to be held on March 15.

According to sources, a resolution in this regard is being moved in the syndicate by at least three Senate members. They are seeking a concession of 50 per cent in the fees for professional courses. The Syndicate agenda is in the process of being finalised.

The proposal for fee concession for wards of college employees was moved in the wake of the Panjab University initiating a scheme for similar concession for wards of its employees.

The scheme for grant of 50 per cent concession to wards of university employees seeking admission under the NRI quota or for NRI-sponsored seats was implemented in 1999, when wards of a few top university officials were reported to be seeking admission to the courses concerned.

The scheme was discontinued the following year, but members of the Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) had demanded that it be restored. A committee set up to look into the matter by the Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University, Prof K.N. Pathak, had recommended that the scheme be re-introduced.

Since the scheme was re-introduced for university employees, the matter has been raised repeatedly in the Syndicate that the benefits under the scheme be extended to employees of affiliated colleges.

1,200 take part in YPS meet
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, March 8
It was a real test of endurance and stamina for more than 1,200 students of Yadavindra Public School, SAS Nagar, when they participated in the Inter-House Cross Country races this morning. Stating this, Mr Harish Dhillon, Principal of the school, said every year these kind of long distance races were organised.

He said the children from all five houses — Tagore, Nalagarh, Aitchison, Patiala and Ranjit — were divided in eight groups, according to their respective class. The distance covered by children of group A was nearly five-and-a-half kilometres, while children of groups C and E had to cover three-and-a-half kilometres. The group H had to run one-and-a-half kilometres.

The contestants passed through the area near the Punjab School Education Board building, the Burail jail road side in Chandigarh and after covering the marble market area entered the school grounds where they finally finished the race. For each route, marshals alongwith a pilot vehicle was provided.

Abhideep of Tagore House won the Milkha Singh trophy.

The house trophy in the junior school section went to Patiala House. In the senior school section, the overall trophy went to Ranjit House followed by Patiala House at second place while Tagore House was adjudged third.

Results: Abhideep (Tagore) 1, Mohit (Aitchison) 2, Gursimran (Nalagarh) 3. Group B: Harinder (Patiala) 1, Hemant (Nalagarh) 2, Alam (Aitchison) 3. Group C: Navtej (Patiala) 1, Gurjinder (Nalagarh) 2, Jaskirat (Tagore) 3. Group D: Harmandeep Kaur Brar (Ranjit House) 1, Vasundhara 2, Ravinderpreet (Patiala) 3.

Junior school: Group F: Kabir (Nalagarh) 1, Ankit (Nalagarh) 2, Kanwar Suraj (Nalagarh) 3. Group G: Suraj (Patiala) 1, Arshdeep (Patiala) 2, Mantash (Aitchison) 3. Group H: Agampreet (Patiala) 1, Neelam (Nalagarh) 2, Samya (Aitchison) 3.

Burail Club surge: The university club in the women section while the Burail club in the men section surged in the Chandigarh Senior State kabaddi championship here at the Sports Complex, Sector 42, on Saturday. Four teams in the women section, while five in the men section were taking part in this meet.

Results: University club b Government College of Education Club, Sector 20, (32-21); Coaching Centre-42 b Vicotry club-21( 40-18); Coaching centre-42 b University club 63-41.

Men: Burail club b Government College of Education Club (35-10); Chandigarh Police got a walk over from Kajheri Club; Coaching Centre-42 b Burail club (48-34). The finals will take place on Sunday at 2 pm at the Sports Complex, Sector 42.

225 students donate blood
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, March 8
The Institute of Engineering and Technology, Bhaddal, today celebrated International Women’s Day by organising a blood donation camp and a paper-reading contest. In all 225 units of blood were donated by students at the camp, which was organised by the NSS unit of the institute.

The chief guest, Ms Seema Jain, Deputy Commissioner, Ropar, appreciated the sincere efforts made by women Sarpanches for the development of these villages. Ms Roopa Saini, Deputy Director, Physical Education, was the guest of honour.

In the paper-reading contest, students from 21 colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh spoke on ‘Woman in the 22nd century’, ‘Woman who dare the dream’, ‘Housewives’ and ‘Representatives of the society”.

Results: Harleen Kaur (Chandigarh Engineering College, Landaran) 1, Nidhi Pathak (GGS College of Modern Technology, Kharar) 2, Rekha (RIMA, Pabhat) and Kapil Bansal (GGS College of Pharmacy, Sector 26) 3, Mehak (IET Bhaddal) got a consolation prize.

The woman sarpanches of nearby villages also participated in the function. Ms Kulwant Kaur, a social worker, and Er Gurcharan Singh also spoke on the occasion.

Principal Prof I.K Kataria said there was a need to change the orientation of society without which empowerment of woman could not be achieved. He said the institute was running free training classes in cutting and tailoring for poor girls of nearby villages. The institute was also coming up with a plan of impart training in food preservation techniques, he said.

Nine caught cheating during examination
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, March 8
As many as nine students appearing for their English compartment examination of class XII under the Haryana School Education Board were caught cheating during the examination held yesterday.

According to information, three students were caught cheating at a vocational training institute in the Industrial Area while six students were caught cheating at Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 7. They were caught by a flying squad of the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mr S.K. Goel, and the City Magistrate, Ms Savita Mallik.

Three arrested: The police has arrested Jai Kumar and Deha on charges of fighting near the Abheypur bus stop in an inebriated condition. They have been booked under the Excise Act. In another case, the police arrested Sarwan from near the BEL factory in the Industrial Area on charges of drinking at a public place.

Booked for duping: The police has booked two brothers, Devinder Singh and Ravinder Singh, and their two other women family members on charges of duping Sewa Singh of over Rs 5 lakh on the pretext of sending him to the USA.

The complainant, a resident of Bhurewala village, has alleged that the accused had promised to get him a US visa. They took the money and put him on a flight to Bangkok. He was kept in confinement by agents of the accused in Bangkok for two days before being deported by the Thai police to India.

City teachers to visit Europe, USA
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, March 8
Two city teachers, Mr Ravinder Talwar, Principal of DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8 and Dr Vikas Kohli, a teacher from the same school, have been selected to take part in a series of seminars on environment awareness and AIDS across the Europe and the USA from May 14.

This 28-day long programme is being organised by the Human and Environment Development Forum in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and the Lions International.

COURTS

HIGH COURT
Land acquisition: hearing tomorrow
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 8
A bunch of writ petitions challenging a notification issued by the Chandigarh Administration expressing intention to acquire 29.07 acres in the revenue estate of Mani Majra “for developing residential complex” will come up for further hearing before a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday.

Seeking the quashing of the notification, Mr Gagandeep Kang and seven others, in one such petition, alleged that the mandatory provisions of the Land Acquisition Act had not been complied with. Giving details, Mr Kang and others claimed that the “substance of the notification” had to be displayed at a convenient place in the locality as per the provisions of Section 4 of the Act. The same was, however, not done. The petitioners, as a result, never came to know about the issuance of the notification, counsel for the petitioners submitted.

Moreover, the petitioners were unable to locate the two daily newspapers in which the notification was required to be published. The petitioners came to know about the intention to acquire land only in January 1990. The petition, against the UT Administration and the Land Acquisition Collector for Mani Majra Notified Area Committee, will now be taken up by Mr Justice S.S. Nijjar and Mr Justice Hemant Gupta of the High Court on March 10.

Bar Association

Broken furniture, improper parking facility, no separate canteen for lawyers, absence of room for litigants — disturbed over the lack of certain basic amenities at the Punjab and Haryana High Court premises, the Bar Association has decided to file a writ petition in public interest. A resolution for moving the Court against the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents was recently passed during a meeting of the High Court Bar Association.

The petition would be filed through association Vice-President Sukhjinder Singh Behl.

DISTRICT COURTS
Order reserved on Bhattal’s plea
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, March 8
The UT Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mr Balbir Singh, today reserved an order on a plea moved by Mrs Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Punjab Agriculture Minister, for not allowing private counsel to appear on behalf of a complainant, Mr Balwant Singh Dhillon, in a case pertaining to alleged corruption and embezzlement of Rs 20 lakh registered against her. After hearing the arguments, the judge reserved the order till March 11.

Claiming that the private counsel had a right to appear on behalf of the complainant’s in the case, the complainant’s counsel, Mr P.N. Lekhi, a senior Supreme Court advocate, cited a number of judgements of the apex court before the judge. Mr Lekhi argued that the private counsel had a right to participate in the proceedings as the case involved embezzlement of public money by Mrs Bhattal. Mr Lekhi also opposed the plea moved by Mrs Bhattal to drop charges against her in the case.

On the other hand, counsel for Mrs Bhattal opposed the plea to allow the private counsel on behalf of the complainant and also cited a number of judgements in support of his claim.

Claiming that the complainant had no right to engage the private counsel in the case, counsel for Mrs Bhattal argued that since the cognisance of the matter was taken by the state, the complainant's counsel had no right to address the court.

Claiming that only a state lawyer was authorised to file reply and participate in the court proceedings on a plea moved by Mrs Bhattal to drop charges levelled against her, Mrs Bhattal’s counsel further argued that the permission to file a reply by the complainant’s counsel was contrary to the provisions of Criminal Procedure Code. Therefore, no permission be granted to a private lawyer, only a state lawyer authorised.

Earlier, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau had filed a challan against Mrs Bhattal in the court of the UT District and Sessions Judge, Mr H.S. Bhalla.

Three get 4-yr RI

Jaswant Singh, a city resident, along with two family members, was on Saturday sentenced to four years rigorous imprisonment by a local court for instigating his wife to commit suicide.

The three — Jaswant Singh, Kulwant Singh and Kuldeep Kaur — were convicted by the UT Additional District and Sessions Judge, who also fined the accused Rs 500 each.

As per the prosecution, the victim’s husband — Jaswant Singh — had illicit relations with his brother’s wife. The three accused used to harass the victim, Ajmer Kaur. As a result, she committed suicide by consuming poison. The UT police had booked the three under Sections 306 and 34 of the IPC on April 17, 2001.

CULTURE

Irshad group enthrals audience
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, March 8
A spiritual feeling engulfed the venue of Plaza Carnival in Sector 17 today as the Irshad Rehmat qawal group from Malerkotla presented an evening of rousing, rich qawalis based on Sufiana Kalaam and Bulle Shah’s ‘kafi’.

The group, led by Javed Irshad, started its performance with a composition called “Sanak ki mala”, later followed by Javed’s self-composed “Khuda Ki Tarif”. Moving onto Bulle Shah’s kafi and other Sufiana Kalaam, the group mesmerised the audience. The programme was concluded by a Punjabi Qawali” “Meto pini hai.”

Another major attraction of the carnival was a magic show by Col Asa Singh (retd), who with wit and swift hand movements performed tricks like converting sticks to flower, burning currency notes and then reviving them from ashes and some vanishing acts.

The Chief General Manager, Punjab Telecom Circle, Mr S.C. Chaudhry, gave away a Hero Honda motor cycle to Mr Gazendra Singh, a resident of Dadu Majra colony, for making prompt and regular bill payments. The carnival was organised by the Centre for Carnival Arts and sponsored by The Tribune and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited.