EDUCATION

GCTA hails decision on DA merger
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, February 7
The Government College Teachers Association (GCTA) has hailed the decision of Capt Amarinder, Chief Minister, Punjab, to merge 50 per cent DA with the basic pay. Stating this in a press note, Prof Bhag Singh Sandhu, president, and Jaipal Singh, general secretary, welcomed the decision of the government to raise the retirement age to 60 years for Punjab Government employees. They urged the CM to raise the retirement age for government college lecturers to 62 years as per the UGC notification.

The members expressed regret over superfluous objection by Finance Department officials on the issue for relaxation in refresher courses up to December 31, 2004. The college lecturers doing refresher courses after December 31,2000 were being unjustifiably denied higher scales from their due dates as they were not at fault because there was lack of infrastructure for such courses at that time. They said that while the UGC had extended the relaxation till the end of his year, the Finance Department was denying it, thus leading to resentment and frustration in colleges. The Punjab Government has given feeder grade benefit as per the UGC guidelines to all its employees under assured career progression and 4, 9 and 14 scheme, but again the Finance Department was raising frivolous objections.

Both the leaders welcomed the statement of Mr Jaswant Singh on mergering of 50 per cent DA with the basic pay. However, they urged the Prime Minister to honour the agreement reached between AIFUCTO and the HRD Minister on September 5,1998, pertaining to ensuring third promotion to college lecturers, implementation of career advancement scheme w.e.f. April 1, 1996, instead of July 27, 1998.

ABVP executive meet begins

Ludhiana, February 7
The three-day state executive council meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad began today at Jagroan. Atleast 40 executive members from all over the state, including north zone organising secretary Ramesh Pappa are participating in the meeting. State unit secretary of the ABVP Sushil Sharma said the meeting would analyse the educational, social , economic and political scenario of the state. He said although the government took the decision to withdraw fee hikes, yet colleges were charging increased amount. It was a very serious matter and the council would discuss the issue to chalk out an action plan. OC

Wetland Day celebrated
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 7
A quiz contest marked Wetland Day celebrations in Government High School, Salem Tabri, here today. Mr Varinder Sharma, district science supervisor, was the chief guest. He was welcomed by Mr Ranjit Singh, headmaster of the school, Pushpa Rani and Ritu stood first and Pardeep Kumar and Gurpreet Singh were placed second. Vikas, Neelam and Babita recited poems on Wetlands. The quiz was conducted by Mr Sukhdev and Mr Devinder Gupta, both science masters.

COURTS

Lok Adalats cheer up many
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, February 7
For Sohan Singh it was quite incredible. For six years he had been making rounds of the courts without any results. Today he walked out a relieved man after his case was disposed off in a Lok Adalat held here today.

It was also a happy day for the widow of a rickshaw-puller, Salochana Devi of Khanna. His husband had died two years ago in an accident. She had filed the petition seeking compensation. She got a compensation of Rs 2.5lakh. Sudarshan Kaur received an compensation of Rs 1.2 lakh on account of the accidental death of her 62-year-old husband. Both the cases were settled with the efforts of presiding officer of a Bench, Mr Inderjit Kaushik and co-operation of Mr Kuldeep Raj, senior official of the Oriental Insurance Company.

The District Legal Services Authority had organised the Lok Adalats under the supervision of its Chairman, Mr Baldev Singh(District and Sessions Judge). As many as 164 cases were settled involving an amount of over Rs 26 lakh.

Fourteen Benches were constituted for the smooth running of the Lok Adalats. Maximum cases were settled in the lok-adalat headed by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Arunvir Vashisht.

The Member Secretary of the District Legal Services Authority, Mr J.S.Chauhan (Civil Judge Senior Division) settled 17 cases out of 34 placed before their Bench, involving an amount of Rs over Rs 4.47 lakh. Giving details, the Assistant District Attorney, Mr Arving Markan, said the Lok Adalat headed by Ms Anshul Berry, Additional Civil Judge, Senior Division settled 38 cases out of 50 placed before it.