Ludhiana, October 7
Members of the Punjab Agricultural University Employees Union are an aggrieved lot as many of their long-pending demands have not been redressed.

Mr D.P. Maur, president of the outfit, said they had taken up the issues with the authorities many times but nothing concrete had been done. “Apart from assurances, we have received nothing.

The workload on the employees has increased manifold over the years but the posts which fall vacant at regular intervals have not been filled”, he added.

“This despite the fact that additional funds have been allocated to the university by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. While the regular working has put a strain on the functioning of the staff, they are further affected by the work carried out in various projects sanctioned by the ICAR to the university”.

Commenting on the demands of the employees, Mr Maur, said the decisions already taken by the university authorities regarding filling the posts of technical staff and other categories had not been implemented till date. “Similarly, posts which are to be filled on promotion have been lying vacant for a long time.

The decisions of the Board of Management to merge the left over categories into G-IV have not been implemented so far”, he pointed out.

Questioning the future of the pension scheme, he said due to non-recruitment of fresh staff the pension fund was being deducted from the salaries of the present staff.

This would not be sufficient for the release of pension to the employees in the future and would create financial hardships to them at a later stage.

Other demands of the union include non-implementation the decision of the Board of Management regarding laboratory attendants, payment of arrears as per decision of the high court to be paid to the junior scale stenographer are being delayed unnecessarily.

Mr Amritpal, general secretary, said the union had already sent a letter to the Vice-Chancellor for the implementation of the decisions.

Ludhiana, October 7
Students in local colleges are back in the classrooms after supplementary examinations and holidays and BA students have almost finished the course book prescribed for the General English course. The sub-standard syllabi and course content for English prescribed for BA Part I will have an adverse effect on the academic standard of students, say teachers who have been taking BA classes for the past several years.

The only book ‘Slice of Life’ prescribed for them carries 60 pages to be studied throughout the year. Whereas in their Plus II class, the students had studied two books, English Reader Book VI (140 pages) and Supplementary English Reader (90 pages). But the book prescribed for them in college is a very short book with scanty contents. Besides the text book, even the grammar and composition part has also been diluted . In Plus II the students had covered Parts of Speech , Transformation of Sentences, Change of Tenses, Voice, Narration, Preposition, Determiners besides precis writing, letter writing and paragraph writing.

On the other hand, BA Part I course content only carries Voice, Narration, Determiners, Modals & Non-Finites besides letter writing and paragraph writing.

‘In the 180 teaching days as recommended by the UGC during an academic year, the course content provided to them is too less. The teachers are expected to teach just one third of the page each day. This is definitely likely to lead to dilution of standards of English whereas the need of the hour is to strenghten the course and raise the standards of the course," says Prof K.B.S Sodhi, a retired English professor.

‘Another serious impropriety committed by the complier, is the inclusion of one of her letters as an essay, A Mother’s Letter to Her Son, in the anthology. Had she substituted with one of her letters as an essay ‘A Father’s Letters to his Daughter’, students would have benefitted by being introduced to the writing of great prose writer like Pandit Jawhar Lal Nehru. While preparing an anthology one should aim at including what is sublime and classical in literature", says another teacher.

The sparse course content is also likely to further careless and casual attitude among the students regarding the subject leading to absenteeism, feared the teachers.

Ludhiana, October 7
A science exhibition organised at Baba Isher Singh (N) Senior Secondary Public School concluded yesterday. Organised in collaboration with the NCERT, SISE, Punjab, and the District Science Supervisor, Mr Varinder Sharma, schools of Ludhiana East and West, Khanna, Jagraon, Payal, Raikot and Samrala participated in the exhibition. In all, 400 students and 150 teachers from 65 schools participated. The themes were agriculture, energy and its conservation, industrial development, educational technology and technology for health.

Ludhiana, October 7
Parents of students of Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College are happy over the resumption of academic work in the college and have heaved a sigh of relief to know that their wards would not have to miss a semester because of the recent striks in the college. The strike had started in the college on September 14 and the students had only returned to classrooms after September 27 and hence had missed a number of lectures. According to the orders passed by Bibi Jagir Kaur, the senior most teacher of the faculty would be the officiating Principal of the college till further orders. Ms Harkirat Kaur Grewal was made the officiating Principal as the senior most professor, Mr S.P Singh, is on leave till October 8. He would take charge after coming back.

Talking to Ludhiana Tribune, Ms Harkirat Grewal said she was happy as Head of Department of Computer Centre and IT in the college and would await her turn to become the Principal when the right time comes. She had obtained a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1965 from the same institution.

Bibi Jagir Kaur, President, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), has placed Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College (GNDEC) Principal, Dr R.P. Singh Sukerchakia and Dean (Academics) Dr J.N. Jha under suspension by issuing an order dated October 5.

Both of them will remain under suspension till the issuance of further orders in this regard, SGPC member and Nankana Sahib Education Trust Junior Vice-President Gurmail Singh Sangowal has been ordered to implement these orders and appoint the next seniormost professor as the Principal.

Confirming the suspension, Sangowal said Ms Harkirat Kaur Grewal had been appointed as the new Principal of the college. He added that since the next professor, after the suspended Principal, in the seniority list, head of Mechanical Department Dr S.P Singh, was on leave, Harkirat had been appointed as the new Principal. So some confusion prevailed. He said but when Mr S.P Singh joins, he would be the officiating Principal till further orders are issued.