The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDUCATION

From Colleges
‘Ehsaas’ of cross-border warmth
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, February 29
It was a heart-warming experience yesterday at Ehsass-2004, fifth inter-college cultural festival at the PCTE, when the team from SZABIST, Islamabad, came onto the stage waving Indian and Pakistani national flags to deliver a message of brotherhood and unity.

In all, 30 teams from Haryana, New Delhi and Punjab participated in the festival. One delegation comprising Mr Aamir Iftikhar, Mr Shahid Ali Haider and Mr Bukhari of the National College of Business Administration and Economics, Lahore, also attended the festival. It expressed the hope for long-term relations between the two countries.

Mr Charanjit Singh Atwal, a former Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha and former vice-chairman of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, inaugurated the festival in the morning and released a souvenir of Ehsaas-2004.

“The two countries should look forward to developing cordial relations. We would like to have greater participation and more exchange of delegations across the border in future,” the chief guest remarked while inaugurating the function.

The Government College for Boys, Ludhiana, won the overall trophy by winning the first prize in the portfolio management game, group dance and choreography; second prize in duet song, dance and “turn coat”; and the third prize in face painting.

In the fashion show, the first prize was bagged by GNIMT, Ludhiana; second KIMT, Ludhiana, and the third GGNIMT. In group dance, the Government College for Boys, Ludhiana, bagged the first prize, Lovely Institute, Phagwara, second and GGNIMT, Ludhiana, third. In choreography GCB, Ludhiana, stood first, APJ second and CMTR, Kharar, third.

Omer Ghaur and Farhad Saleem of SZABIST, Islamabad, bagged the first prize in duet acting and Sikandar of SZABIST stood first in flower arrangement. Fahid Ali Raza of SZABIST won the third prize in “turn coat”.

Dinkar Bhardwaj and Kirti Bhalla of GNDEC, Ludhiana, stood first in the quiz, Rishu Dhawan and Shivinder Singh of Rayat Institute, Ropar, second and Mohit Tewari and Pardeep Mehta of SUSCET, Mohali, third. Saranjeet of IMS, Ludhiana, won the mehndi competition. Hemant and Navraj of the Lovely Institute of Phagwara won the duet song contest. In “sell it,” Lovely Institute, Phagwara, was first, GNDEC, Ludhiana, second and CMTR, Kharar, third.

Wing Commander H.S.Gill (retd.), chairman, said, there were nearly 4000 visitors at the festival. Such festivals gave a common platform to the students from the different region to interact and exhibit their skills, he added.

Retires

Dr S.K. Battish, head of the Department of Zoology and Fisheries, Punjab Agricultural University, retired on Saturday after 33 years of service. He introduced several new courses in the department and developed new research fields of limnology and carcinology. De Battish has nearly 80 publications to his credit.

Lecture

As part of a series of lectures, Lajpat Rai DAV College, Jagraon, invited Col Ravinder Brar (retd), along with Mr Charanjit Singh, Ms Ranju Singh and Ms Pooja Danwal, of the WWES, to deliver an extension lecture and hold a workshop on “Educational opportunities and employment avenues abroad”.

Annual function

The annual prize distribution function of SCD Government College was held here on Sunday. Mr Harnam Dass Johar, Minister for Higher Education and Languages, gave away the prizes to students in various fields. Principal Indra Bhatia introduced the staff to the minister, who released the college magazine “Satluj.”

Surjit Pattar

The Punjabi Sahitya Sabha of Kamla Lohtia SD College organised a face-to-face programme with noted Punjabi poet Surjit Pattar here on Friday. He recited some of his poems and ghazals and took questions from students. Dr Kehar Singh, Professor in the Department of Punjabi, Panjab University, spoke on “Globalisation and Punjabi culture”.

Declamation

Twelve teams with two contestants each participated in the Ram Lal Bhasin Inter-College Declamation Contest organised at SDP College on Friday. The students spoke on “Should there be beauty contests?” “Life is what we make it”, “Uniform Civil Code for national integration”, “Responsibility of media in democracy” and “India in the emerging world order”.

The results: Running trophy: Ms Rachna Sharma and Vibhuti Bhalla of Arya College for Women; first: Ms Rachna Sharma of Arya College for Women; second: Ms Tripati Sethi of Malwa College of Education for Women; third: Paramjit Singh of BCM College of Education; consolation prize: Shelly Goyal of SDP College for Women.

A grade for SCD College

“Eighty years old SCD College, Ludhiana, has been accredited with Grade-A by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bangalore, an autonomous body. The college, which got the accreditation last month, was the only one in the district to have received it,” said Ms Indra Bhatia, Principal of the college.

SAMRALA
Function

Students of Ludhiana College of Engineering and Technology, 13km from here, will organise Anahad-2004 at the college on March 3, according to the Principal. Mr Mohinder Singh Kay Pee, Minister of Technical Education and Industrial Training, will be the chief guest.

Johar asks colleges to get NAAC rating
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, February 29
Mr Harnam Das Johar, Higher Education Minister, has asked principals of government and private colleges to submit their cases to the National Accreditation Assessment Committee (NAAC) at the earliest so that they could the accreditation, which was essential for their rating.

The minister was presiding over a meeting of principals of 23 district colleges at the Government College for Women to review the infrastructure and other facilities here yesterday.

He said the University Grants Commission had fixed certain norms regarding the quality of buildings and other infrastructure. The NAAC would rate colleges according to these norms.

Regarding the financial crunch faced by private colleges, Mr Johar said the government would release the backlog of 95 per cent grant in aid soon. The process of filling the vacant posts of lecturer in government colleges had already been started and all would be shortly filled, he added.

He asked the colleges to adopt particular sports instead of organising many and produce sportspersons of excellence. He said earlier Rs 50,000 had been released to each college for sports and an additional like amount would be released soon. The minister said stress should be given on starting science and commerce classes.

Ms Nisha Sard, DPI, Colleges, said the case for pay fixation of the principles of government colleges would be disposed of at the earliest.

Meenu Gupta’s tips on English
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, February 29
“Undergraduate students repeat common errors in spellings, sentence construction, mixing of tenses, over and under usage of definite articles and in the use of prepositions and infinitives. Undergraduate students are brilliant but they lag behind in the usage of English as they are not well-taught in schools. In order to help them I have written a book, “Teaching and Learning of English — Some Observations”, said Ms Meenu Gupta. She has been teaching English to undergraduates from 1998 at SCD Government College. After compiling the errors she has written in a very simple way as to how to avoid the mistakes.

Mr Bhupinder Parihar of the Postgraduate Department of English of the same college says about the book that “the strength of the monograph lies in its stress on deconditioning and subverting earlier notions about English and its usage.”

She says, “The students are taught grammar by rules in schools whereas English grammar is a transformational and generative language. One has to learn its correct usage and that comes through practice alone.

Ms Meenu Gupta has been selected twice in the PPSC examination and is awaiting appointment. She has written another book on Modern Indian English Poetry — Post Colonial Contexts. In this book she has written on three poets Kamala Das, Ramanujam and Nissim Ezekiel.

Gurnam Singh remembered
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, February 29
A commemoration function on the 105th birth anniversary of Justice Gurnam Singh, founder of Guru Nanak Girls College and former Chief Minister of Punjab, was organised on the campus yesterday.

Minister for Transport Tej Parkash Singh said Justice Gurnam Singh played a major role in the creation of the Punjabi-speaking state and also founded Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and many other educational institutions.

Mr Gurcharan Singh Galib and Mr Gurinder Singh Atwal, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, also spoke on the occasion.

Mr Gurbir Singh, president the college and a son of Justice Gurnam Singh, said students should follow the principles of Guru Nanak Dev, in whose memory the college was found.

Music students of the college entertained the audience. The Principal, Dr Charanjit Mahal, thanked the guests.

Among the students honoured on the occasion were Shaminder Kaur, Gaganpreet Kaur, Mandeen Benipal, Amandeep, Ameet Rama, Sakshi Chopra, Gurvinder Kaur, Jimandeep, Rajwant Kaur, Harkiran Kaur, Amandeep Kaur, and Onkardeep Kaur.