EDUCATION

College teachers stage protest
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 30
In response to a call given by the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU), teachers of various affiliated colleges in the district today went on strike and staged a rally in Chattar Singh Park here in protest against the “callous” attitude of the state government towards their demands.

Addressing the rally, Prof R.S. Brar and Dr Jagwant Singh, president and general secretary, respectively, PCCTU, flayed the government for its anti-teacher policies.

They said despite an assurance by Ms Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Deputy Chief Minister, that a dialogue with the PCCTU would start soon, it had failed to evoke any response from the government.

“It appears that the culture of dialogue and negotiations has no place in the government’s mind,” said the leaders.

Prof Parminder Singh, secretary, Prof V.K. Bhardwaj, district president, Prof Kuldip Singh and Prof Baldeep Singh, among others, addressed the gathering. Prof Brar said the executive committee would court arrest in Chandigarh if the government failed to start dialogue with the PCCTU.

The next rally will be held at Barnala and Bathinda on December 4.

Their demands include the merger of 50 per cent DA in the basic salary, HRA to rural colleges, parity with DPEs and librarians, full and regular 95 per cent grant, implementation of the pension and gratuity scheme and implementation of the recommendations of the Johl committee report.

Doraha: Members of the local unit of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union also participated in a rally held in Ludhiana.

From Schools 
Sahibpreet, Aakriti excel in declamation
Tribune Reporters

Ludhiana, November 30
An inter-school declamation contest was organised by the Ludhiana Sahodaya School Complex at Green Land Senior Secondary Public School here today. As many as 15 schools affiliated to the CBSE participated in the contest.

Every school was represented by two students. The participants spoke on two different topics. Sahibpreet Kaur of Guru Nanak Public School, Sarabha Nagar, bagged the first prize for her topic ‘A noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions characterise the great.’

The second prize went to Aakriti Kundra of Sacred Heart, Sarabha Nagar, who spoke on ‘Modern children — the burdened lot’. The third prize was bagged by Prabhpal Kaur of Green Land Senior Secondary Public School. She spoke on ‘The small courtesies sweeten life, the greater enable it.’ Guru Nanak Public School was declared the overall champion.

Ms Babita Kaler, Joint Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, was the chief guest. She gave away prizes to the winners.

Mandi Gobindgarh
Annual function: Annual prize distribution function of Government Girls Secondary School was organised on the school premises here on Tuesday. The chief guest, Mr Sandeep Hans, SDM, Amloh, lighted the traditional lamp. The cultural programme began with a qawwali ‘Deeva Mere Watan Da Balda Sada Rahey’, thereafter the students presented skits, group dances, solo dance, folk songs and giddha .

The chief guest, Mr Sandeep Hans, honoured the meritorious students with medals.

NCC Day celebrated at GNN College
Our Correspondent

Doraha, November 30
The NCC Day was celebrated by cadets of colleges and surrounding schools at Guru Nanak National College here today. The cadets gave an excellent show of solidarity and national strength by taking out a parade march around the college. Mr Jaswant Singh Gill, college Principal and chief guest on the occasion, exhorted the cadets to strive for the welfare of their nation and work with the feeling of unity and oneness for their brethren.

NCC officers, Lt Sukhwinder Singh Virk and Lt Satvir Singh, too educated the cadets to develop in them the qualities of sacrifice, solidarity, fellow-feeling, oneness and communal harmony so that they would make the common man aware of his sacred and moral responsibilities towards the motherland.

Various speakers, who shared their valuable thoughts with the cadets, asked them to be strong-willed personalities so that no intruder could interfere with the moral strength of the people. The development of communal solidarity, they stressed is the need of the hour.

Contests for special kids
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 30
Various non-government organisations (NGOs) in Ludhiana have joined hands this year to create awareness about the problems of the physically challenged. As part of the programme, a week-long programme has been chalked out by these NGOs.

Titled “Yeh Subah Hummaray Naam” has been enacted to provide the children with various disabilities to show their talent. Various competitions, including drawing, colouring, dancing and singing, were organised today.

According to Dr Gurmeet Miglani, coordinator of the programme, such competitions boost the confidence of the children with some handicaps. Each participant was given a prize to appreciate their talent.

Eleven students from Ashirwad, 14 from Ek Prayas, 16 from Vocational Rehabilitation Centre and 15 from deaf and dumb school participated in the drawing and colouring competition. Their work was also displayed for public viewing. A cultural programme was also presented by students.

COURTS

Court disallows closure of Jindal murder case
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 30
After several twists and turns over the past four years, the sensational murder case of an iron broker, Vipin Jindal, has been reopened with a local court refusing to accept an FIR cancellation report filed by the police and also setting aside the orders of a lower court accepting the cancellation.

According to the orders of the Additional Sessions Judge, Mr Sukhdarshan Singh, passed on November 23, the cancellation report filed by the police and upheld by a local court was not maintainable and amounted to gross error in law. The Judge directed the lower court to take cognisance under Section 302, IPC, in the case against the accused, Narinder Kapoor.

The court upheld that even if the family members do not believe that the charges against the accused are true, the law can take its course on a complaint filed by even a person unrelated to the victim. The court has also set aside the theory of suicide propounded by the prosecution. It has laid importance on the value of the dying declarations, especially before a neutral person.

The alleged murder of Vipin Jindal took place on August 29, 2000. He had made a dying declaration that one Narinder Kapoor, an iron merchant, had forced him to consume a poisonous tablet. The statement was recorded by Dr N. Sridhar Rao of DMC Hospital.

However, the local police had not registered an FIR despite the dying declaration. One of the victim’s close friends, Mr Ram Kumar moved the Punjab State Human Rights Commission.

After a three-year legal battle, the commission ordered the registration of a case in December last year. The police, however, recommended the cancellation of the case as the investigation had claimed that the accused was innocent. The inquiry officer, however, had not even taken a statement of Dr Rao, before whom the dying declaration was made. 

SPORTS

Venue shifted for primary school games
Anil Datt

Ludhiana, November 30
Caring two hoots for the providing best facilities to the budding sportspersons, the Punjab Education Department today unceremomously shifted the venue of the State Primary Schools Sports Meet from Guru Nanak Stadium to a ‘rugged’ ground at Government Senior Secondary School for Girls at Gill village, about 12 km from here.

Instead of giving a chance to perform on the best possible infrastructure available in the city, the participants, numbering around 700, were taken to a different place where they were made to clean and prepare the ground before the start of the competitions.

This was done on the second day of the meet when Mr Harnam Dass Johar, Education Minister, Punjab, inaugurated the tournament on Monday and had announced that the state government had chalked out a comprehensive plan to provide sports infrastructure at the primary level. The government would spend Rs 2 crore for the purpose, Mr Johar had said.

Today the participants were asked to reach Gill village on their own where they were forced to ‘prepare’ the venue for the meet. Young boys and girls were seen cutting the wild grass in the ground at Gill prior to their participation in the meet. There was no proper arrangement for the girls to change their clothes. They had to do the same in the ground itself by making makeshift rooms with the help of bed sheets.

Peeved at it, the players staged a dharna at the Ludhiana-Malerkotla road for sometime to register their protest. Ms Harvinder Kaur, District Education Officer (Primary), met the players and promised to take the measures to hold the meet at Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana, from Wednesday.

When asked, Ms Harvinder Kaur, District Education Officer (Primary), told Ludhiana Tribune that they had to shift the venue to Gill village as the scheduled venue, Guru Nanak Stadium, was occupied by the participants who were taking part there in the Golden Jubilee Punjab Schools Inter-District Athletics Meet.

She further said the department had arranged the transportation to carry the players and officials from Gill to Guru Nanak Stadium where the meet would be held from December 1 onwards. 

Maninder, Harpreet declared best athletes
Our sports Reporter

Ludhiana, November 30
Maninder Singh of Ludhiana and Harpreet Singh of Gurdaspur shared the honours as they were declared best athletes jointly in the u-17 years group in the Golden Jubilee Punjab Schools Inter-District Athletics Meet which concluded at Guru Nanak Stadium here today. In the girl's section, Ramandeep Kaur of Sangrur was named the best athlete.

In the u-19 section, this honour was shared by Malkit Singh of Ludhiana and Rajinder Kumar from Sports School, Jalandhar. Mandeep Kaur of Kairon Wing was adjudged the best athlete among the girl participants.

Mr Yash Pal Mehra, District Education Officer, gave away prizes to the winners.

Results: (Girls)- javelin throw (u-17) — Ramandeep Kaur of Sangrur 1, Pushpinder Kaur of Sangrur 2 and Ramanjot Kaur of Fategarh Sahib 3; 400m (u-14) — Pardeep Kaur of Hoshiarpur 1, Sapinder Kaur of Fatehgarh Sahib 2 and Hardeep Kaur of Moga 3; 400m (u-17) — Rajpreet Kaur Saini of Jalandhar 1, Rajveer Kaur of Sangrur 2 and Amandeep Kaur of Bathinda 3.

400m (u-19) — Mandeep Kaur of Kairon Wing 1, Narinder Kaur of Patiala 2 and Amandeep Kaur of Kairon Wing 3; 200m (u-19) — Mandeep Kaur of Kairon Wing 1, Rupiner Kaur of Gurdaspur 2 and Gurleen Kaur of Ludhiana 3; 200m (u-17) — Jaspreet Kauir of Sangrur 1, Rajwinder Kaur of Patiala 2 and Rajpreet Kaur Saini of Jalandhar 3; 200m (u-14) — Harpal Kaur of Sangrur 1, Jasdeep Kaur of Sangur 2and Pardeep Kaur of Hoshairpur 3.

400m hurdles (u-19) — Amandeep Kaur of Kairon Wing 1, Mandeep Kaur of Nawanshahr 2 and Kamaljeet Kaur of Kairon Wing 3; 100m hurdles (u-19) — Sumanpreet Kaur of Sangrur 1, Paramjit Kaur of Sangrur 2 and Kamaljit Kaur of Kairon Wing 3; 100m hurdles (u-17) — Sandeep Ghuman of Jalandhar 1, Pooja Sharma of Sangrur 2 and Harjit Kaur of Muktsar.

(Boys) pole vault (u-17) — Pardeep Singh of Ludhiana 1, Balwant Singh of Gurdaspur 2 and Naminder Singh of Hoshiarpur 3; 400m (u-14) — Karmabir Singh of Gurdaspur 2 and Dharm Pal of Faridkot 2 and Baldev Singh of Amritsar 3; 400m (u-17) — Gurver Singh of Amritsar 1, Harjinder Singh of Patiala 2 and Karamjit Singh of Gurdaspur 3; 400m (u-19) — Navjit Singh of Amritsar 1, Gurpreet Singh of Sports Centre, Jalandhar 2, Amandeep Singh of Sports Centre, Jalandhar 3.

200m (u-19) — Rajinder Kumar of Jalanadhar 1, Baljit Singh fo Mansa 2 and Gurpreet Singh of Jalandhar 3; 200m (u-17) — Maninder Singh of Ludhiana 1, Gurbir Singh of Amritsar 2 and Parveen Kumar of Jalandhar 3; 400m hurdles (u-19) — Parminder of Amritsar 1, Prem Singh of Jalandhar 2 and Mukhtiar Singh of Hoshiarpur 3.