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PU Finance Board meeting defers pension scheme
Chandigarh, November 17 Today, the BoF decided to urge the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to hasten the process of granting permission for its implementation, making no significant headway in this regard. At the meeting of the BoF, held at the office of the Vice-Chancellor, here today, all that was decided was that since correspondence with the ministry was on with regard to the pension scheme, the university would implore the ministry to give its decision soon. Sources said though the university authorities were keen to have a definite time-frame within which the permission letter was expected, the representative from the MHRD said since the corpus money had to come from the Ministry of Finance and not from the MHRD, he could not make a commitment on a date of permission. Under the modified PU Pension Scheme 1991, as proposed by the university, the university would contribute Rs 10 crore towards the pension corpus from the increased earnings for 10 years. This has been communicated to the MHRD and their response in the matter is awaited. This scheme, in its present form, was unacceptable to the employees who were resenting the five per cent contribution towards the corpus. However, sources said that once the approval of the MHRD was received by the university, the share of the employees in the corpus would be brought down from five per cent to two per cent. The item pertaining to the promotion of the Executive Engineer (Maintenance) to Superintending Engineer (SE), was turned down by the BoF. The non-teaching employees had staged a protest yesterday demanding that the item be withdrawn. The employees had claimed that the Executive Engineer in question was allegedly involved in a cement scam which was under enquiry and that promoting him without adjusting the advance due on him would set a wrong precedent. Among the items passed by the BoF was the budget allocation for the construction of extensions of a girls’ hostel, installation of two new lifts in the Administrative Block, additional provision of Rs 30 lakh for medical assistance to employees, an additional Rs 40 lakh was sanctioned for water and electricity bills, the tentative deficit of 2005-06 was passed by the members along with seed money of Rs 2.12 crore for the dental institute.
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PU employees go on half-day mass casual leave
Chandigarh, November 17 While most of the departments wore a deserted look and the rooms of the teaching faculty remained locked throughout the day, students coming to the Administrative Block of the university, too, had to return without being attended to. Meanwhile, on the call of the Joint Action Committee (teaching and non-teaching), all non-teaching employees of university assembled in front of the Vice-Chancellor’s office and sat on a dharna while the meeting of the Board of Finance was in progress. Various speakers from teaching and non-teaching employees exhorted the staff to launch a struggle for the immediate implementation of pension which was long overdue. The speakers said while the pension scheme was available to employees of other universities in the region, those working in Panjab University were being discriminated against on the pretext of financial crunch. Among those who addressed the rally were Dr Ronki Ram (President, PUTA), Mr Dharam Pal, (President, Non-teaching Employees Federation), Prof P.P. Arya, Prof P.K. Mittal, Mr Jasbir Singh, Prof Anirudh Joshi, Prof Jai Prakash Sharma and Prof R.K. Sharma. The item on the Board of Finance agenda pertains to seeking permission from the Central Government to allow the university to transfer adequate amount from its savings every year towards pension fund as a welfare measure for the employees. The employees appealed to the representatives of the Centre as well as the state government to approve the pension.
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Payment to faculty above 60: PU, admin
disagree
Chandigarh, November 17 While Syndics and Senators on the BoF as also the Vice-Chancellor favoured the creation of a separate head to pay salaries to professors who were continuing to work after retirement, the representatives of the Chandigarh Administration opposed the idea. They justified their opposition on grounds that as and when the court gave its decision in the on-going case of enhancing the retirement age of university teachers from 60 to 62 years, the university could go in for a fresh appeal. However, the university authorities reasoned that the payment would have to be made since the superannuated staff were carrying on teaching work as usual. It was also highlighted that these teachers had not been paid for over a year. Finally, it was resolved that a separate head be created for this year while it should be done away with before the beginning of the next financial year. This is the first time that such a problem has arisen since no directions have been received from the court nearly for a year as was being done in the past after every six months.
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‘Annual Exuberance’ organised at Tagore Theatre
Mohali, November 17 The function began with the lighting of the lamp by the chief guest. The ceremony was followed by Saraswati Vandana and a classical dance. After the Saraswati Vandana a colourful
Haryanavi dance based on a folk song was presented. Next item was a “musical play” written by Bhavya and Bunny Sharma of class XII and performed by the students of the junior wing. A performance by tiny tots was appreciated by all guests. The play was based on Humanity. The parents were
spell bound to see their children performing. Next was a song presented by the students of junior classes A folk number presented by girls with their colourful lighted matkas and a typical Gujarati dandia presented the colourfulness of Indian culture. Then solo dance performed by Gaurav was enjoyed by all. The item, which was enjoyed the most, was the western medley followed by Punjabi fusion, which added life to the function. During the prize distribution ceremony, awards were given to the best students from every class and mementos was given to every participant. Prizes for best parents were also given. After the speech given by the chairman and chief guest the program was concluded by a performance on the national song Vande Mataram and all the participants were called upon the stage for the grand finale. Among the parents who were honoured on the occasion included Mr. Jaipal Pundir and Ms. Seema, Mr. Partap Singh, Ms. Babita, Mr. Mr. Mir Mohamed Garvad, Ms.Natasha, Mr K. Mathummi, Ms.Gracy, Mr Anil Kumar Gautam, Ms. Rajni, Mr Naveen Raj, Ms Poonam, Ms. Shobha, Mr Varinder Kumar, Ms Sunita, Mr Ravi Saluja and Ms. Anita Saluja. Among the students who were honoured on the occasion included Sagar, Angad Singh, Jaspreet Kaur, Neha, Bunny Sharma, Bhavya, Jaspreet Kaur, Jasmine, Bhawna and Sangam.
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Good response to board’s open school scheme
Mohali, November 17 According to its Chairman, Dr Harbans Singh Sidhu, the board has received 5,000 applications for admission to the course. The number is likely to go up once more and more students come to know about this scheme, he added. The minimum qualification to be eligible for admission to the open school for Class XII is matriculation and at least 16 years of age. ‘‘Those who have dropped Class XII or have not been able to pass their Class XI and Class XII as regular students are eligible to sit in this exam. We are also looking into the possibility of giving credit marks in those subjects in which the candidate has passed, in case he has failed to qualify Class XI or Class XII,’’ pointed out a board official. The syllabus of regular Class XII has been retained and examinations too would be held simultaneously. However, this year only arts and commerce streams would be offered to the
students. But once the system was streamlined, science subjects too could form the part of the course, added board official. Students of the open school would get the benefit of personal contact programmes that would be held at various study centres spread across the state. This facility is not available to candidates appearing privately for the Class XII examination of the board. Moreover, the open school student would pay less fee as compared to private candidate. Currently, the board is offering open schooling for matriculation to those above 18 years of age or a Class VIII pass-out above 14 years. This year over 21,000 students have enrolled in Class X open school.
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Tibetan students’ protest enters fourth day
Chandigarh, November 17 Forty students joined their Tibetan friends for one-day strike to show solidarity towards the cause. Ten Tibetan students continue to relay their hunger strike. The condition of two students - Tswang and Kalsang is said to be worsening as they have lost lot of weight. The highlight of the today’s fast was the overwhelming participation of the foreign students studying in various educational institutes. Foreigners carried a silent protest alongwith Tibetan students by attiring black ribbon. These students carried placards and posters depicting anti Chinese slogans. Students hailing from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Iraq, Iran, Kazhakistan, Japan, Korea, Maldives, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan assured to take up this issue to their respective embassies and government. Meanwhile the blood signature campaign the canvass with the signatures will be sent to the UN General Secretary, Mr Kofi Annan after the week-long protest.
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Mehak wins National Child
Award
Chandigarh, November 17 Mehak has won 74 medals in various skating competitions out of this 54 were gold medals. Mini maraton Kabaddi title
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Students seek provisional promotion
Chandigarh, November 17 In a memorandum submitted to the university authorities, they demanded that the students of the first year, who had 34 out of 48 credits, should be provisionally promoted to the next class. They also demanded that students of the third year, who had failed to clear their first year examination and had requisite credits for promotion, should be given a mercy chance in December this year or January next year while those promoted to the second and third year should be given a reappear chance around the same time. Lecture: The Department of Physics, Panjab University, will organize a lecture on “Recent Discoveries in Neutrino Physics” by a distinguished physicist of the country, Prof G. Rajasekaran, former Director, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, on November 18 in the Department of Physics.
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