Teachers plan protest rally on June 5
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 3
The Anti-Privatisation Teachers Front comprising 28 bodies of teachers and representing nearly one lakh government teachers will hold a demonstration in Bathinda on June 5, the assembly segment of Punjab Finance Minister Surinder Singla. They would be protesting against the proposed privatisation of schools and the policy of contractual recruitment of teachers.

Stating this here today, the state president of the Government Primary Teachers Association and state committee member of the Teachers Front, Mr Piara Singh Dhillon, said members expressed reservation over the working of the Education Reforms Committee set up under the presidentship of Minister for Higher Education Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. Since the Education Department was allegedly providing misleading information to the committee, the teachers did not expect much from the report, which is to be submitted on June 15, he said.

The meeting also decided that 15 buses carrying teachers from Ludhiana, Jagraon, Sawaddi, Sidhwan Bet, Sudhar, Dehlon, Pakhowal, Malaud, Khanna, Samrala and Machhiwara would leave for Bathinda on Sunday.

Among the participants at the meeting were functionaries of various teachers’ organisations, including Mr Charan Singh Sarabha, Mr Baldev Krishan Moudgil, Mr Darshan Singh Rakba, Mr Sher Singh Dhandari, Mr Dhanna Singh Sawaddi, Mr Jasmel Singh, Mr Sikander Singh Malaud, Mr Bachittar Singh Barnala, Mr Karnail Singh, Mr Jagdish Singh Jassal, Mr Gurmel Singh and Mr Gurwinder Singh.

Mr Jaswinder Singh Sidhu, state president of the association, said in a press note here today that the teachers would burn the effigy of Ms Bhattal at Lehragaga on June 12.

JAC warns govt against polytechnic privatisation
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 3
The joint action committee (JAC) of Punjab Government Polytechnic Employees has cautioned the state government against any attempt to privatise government polytechnic at Khunimajra along with several other technical institutions as per a decision taken in July 2003.

In a joint statement here today, Mr Gurbakhshish Singh, convener, Mr Jasvir Singh, secretary, and Mr Sukhwinder Singh, district president of JAC, said at a meeting held with the Punjab Minister of Technical Education in July 2003, in which the principal secretary and Director of the department were also present, an assurance was given with regards to halting of privatisation of technical institutions and further that JAC would be taken in to confidence if any more steps were to be taken in this regard. However, the department had backtracked from its promise and the process of the privatisation of Polytechnic at Khunimajra had been initiated.

Sounding a warning, JAC functionaries threatened to launch a mass agitation if the government did not scrap its July 2003 decision.

The JAC leaders also extended support to girl students of the ITI at Ghumar Mandi here and urged the government to dispense justice to the agitating students.

Grewal takes over as officiating Principal of GNN College
Our Correspondent

Doraha, June 3
Prof. Jagdev Singh Grewal, Head of the Postgraduate Department of Punjabi, took the charge as officiating Principal of Guru Nanak National College, Doraha, today. Speaking at the first staff meeting after taking the charge, Professor Grewal said, “We shall work for the academic, cultural and administrative growth of the institution and asked the staff members to work as a team to achieve college goals.”

Talking about the new academic session and future admissions, he said, “With growing competition we should try to promote goodwill of our institution among rural students and motivate them to continue with their higher studies.” He also talked about the commendable results and appreciated the efforts of the staff and students in this regard.

Prof M.S. Bhandari, who has been appointed staff secretary, said he would work for the promotion of the interests of the staff members and help the new head of the institution.

Prof Balwant Singh Pangali, general secretary, college management committee, congratulated the officiating principal and assured every possible support from the side of the management.

From Schools 
Summer workshops at BVM School
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 3
Two KVM Senior Secondary School students Pankaj Sharma and Tanica Jain have secured 751st and 1914th positions in the CBSE (PMT), 2005. The school Principal, Mr S.C. Saxena, congratulated the students on their meritorious performance.

Guru Nanak School: Five students of GNPS, Arshdeep Singh, Maheep Singh, Kavneet Kaur, Amanjot Kaur and Harmeet Singh, have cleared the CBSE (PMT) 2005, according to a press note issued by the school.

As many as 17 students of GNPS had also cleared the AIEEE securing between 238th and 1294th ranks. The successful students are Japneet K. Chhatwal, Angad Randhawa, Rishneet Singh, Japjeev Singh, Mandeep K. Khatra, Gurpartap S. Sandhu, Sukhpinder Singh, Gaganpreet Singh, Gagandeep Singh Ubhi, Karan Sandhu, Gurchetan Singh, Harkirat Singh Bansal, Avneet Singh, Hashneet Kaur, Harkirat Kaur, Simrandeep Singh and Chamanpreet Kaur.

BCM: Dilraj Singh and Kidar, both students of BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, have cleared the AIEEE - 2005 securing 75th and 99th ranks, respectively. Other students of the school who have been successful included Akhil Jain, Sumeet Kaul, Bhanu Marwaha, Sandeep Sidhu, Jaspreet, Sugandha, Deepak, Jatin Loomba and Harsimran.

BVM School: To develop thinking faculty and provide opportunities to nurture the hidden talents in a child, BVM School has organised various summer workshops. According to a press note, on the third day of these hobby classes, students of “statue-making workshop” learnt the techniques, tools and material used in it.

In the bhangra workshop, the students learnt single tadi, double tadi, ghoda chaal, chutki, jhumar, mahiya, zindva and open bhangra. To increase the interest and understanding of students of the subject, the workshop of model making have also been introduced.

DIMT: The All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has notified that only those candidates will be admitted to the MBA/MCA courses from this session, who take MAT/CAT or MET, conducted by the designated Central or state agencies.

To provide proper guidance to candidates, the Doraha Institute of Management Technology (DIMT) has constituted an admission cell. Dr R S Gupta, Director, DIMT, in a press note issued here, said the admission cell would provide career counselling to the prospective candidates for admission to the various courses in different universities and colleges. The cell will also impart admission guidance to the students for the approaching entrance examination MET to be held in June/July, 2005, by Punjabi University, Patiala.

Camp at Spring Dale: A 15-day summer camp got under way at Spring Dale Senior Secondary School here which will aim at improving health consciousness, personality grooming, enhancement of knowledge and vocabulary of the children. The camp will also focus on several other subjects like spoken English, sports, including kho-kho, volleyball, handball, basketball, cricket, athletics, music (vocal and instrumental), computers, dances like bhangra, giddha, yoga, karate, fine arts.

The camp was inaugurated by Ms Avinash Kaur Walia, Director and founder Principal of the school.

Rajindra School: To create awareness among students about clean and pollution-free environment, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) observed an “environment day” at Rajindra Model Public Senior Secondary School in Haibowal here. Mr Ramesh Joshi, member, PPCB was the chief guest while Mr Pawan Kumar Garg, Superintending Engineer, presided over the function.

PAU admissions for MBA after CAT results
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 3
Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today announced that it will admit students for its MBA programme on the basis of CAT results. Dr S.K. Singla, professor-cum-head, Department of Business Management, said the students would have to apply separately for admission to masters in business administration (MBA) by filling admission form of PAU apart from the CAT application form.

The exam of CAT will be conducted by IIMS on November 20. Students will have to begin the process in August when the university would make prospectus and application forms available, Dr Singla said.

Richa is 10th in Class XII
Our Correspondent

School honours 3 toppers

Amloh, June 3
A function was organised by Indian Public School, Mallowal, near here yesterday to honour students who got first three positions at Sikh Missionary College, Ludhiana. Mr Ravinder Singh Khalsa, member, SGPC, presided. The college had organised classes to impart religious education and on completion an examination was conducted. OC

Toppers to be honoured

Ludhiana, June 3
Congratulating Sunila Kumari of BCM School, Jamalpur, and Prabhjot Kaur of Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Bharat Nagar, who stood first in humanities and vocational stream, respectively, of the plus two examination conducted by the PSEB, the DC, Mr Anurag Verma, announced that both students would be honoured at a district-level Independence Day function this year. TNS

Students honoured

Mandi Gobindgarh, June 4
The management, the principal and teachers of Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, Jalalpur, Mandi Gobindgarh congratulated parents and students of the school for excellent performance in matric and plus two CBSE examinations held in March, 2005, at a function organised at the school yesterday. OC

SPORTS

Summer cricket coaching clinic
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, June 3
The annual summer cricket coaching clinic will be organised by the Nursery of Cricket, here at Punjab Agricultural University ground from June 6 to 26. According to Mr A.S. Nagra, former captain of PAU cricket team and organiser of the this clinic, apart from the training in physical exercises and lectures on yoga, the budding players would be told about the importance of fitness and role of diet.

Mr Nagra said lectures on fast bowling techniques and result oriented batting tracks would be delivered during the course of the clinic by a panel of experts. Each and every aspect of the game would be discussed with the trainees which will be recorded and shown to them in order to improve their performance, he said.

Punjab cagers tumble at last hurdle
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, June 3
Holders Punjab went down fighting 57-64 to Chhattisgarh in the final of the 56th Junior National Basketball Championship held at Pondicherry, recently. With this, the Punjab lads tumbled at the last hurdle. Punjab had been the champions for the past five years. Thus, Punjab had to be content with the silver medal.

Punjab cagers, on their way to the final, had defeated Uttar Pradesh 92-61 in the semifinal while Chhattisgarh beat Jharkhand 100-65. The members of the Punjab team who returned yesterday, were accorded a warm reception at Guru Nanak Stadium. The office-bearers of the Punjab Basketball Association were present there to receive the players.

ADMINISTRATION

Two shops sealed amid protests
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 3
A joint team of the district administration and the police today sealed two shops in books market belonging to the Zila Parishad after tenants had not been able to pay the rent for the past many months.

Led by Duty Magistrate Navdeep Singh Sidhu, a team of administrative officials and the police locked the shops given on rent to Mr Madan Lal and Mr Ashok Kumar respectively amid massive protests by shopkeepers of the area.

The team, however, could not throw the goods of the shopkeepers outside following the protest. They left the spot after asking the shopkeepers to pay the dues by tomorrow morning.

Sources said the two shopkeepers owed of Rs 1.12 lakh as rent to the Zila Parishad but they had not cleared the dues. The case was in the court of a local SDM where the shopkeepers were told to pay the rent otherwise the possession of shops was ordered to be in favour of the Zila Parishad.

When the team visited the busy books market, the agitated shopkeepers did not allow it to vacate the shops and take possession. The shopkeepers claimed that they had already despatched a draft of Rs 40,000 to the legal owner of the shops yesterday but it was yet to be received.

Amid raising of slogans and resistance offered by the shopkeepers, the Duty Magistrate decided to seal the shops with the goods of the shopkeepers inside. The team left with the direction that as and when rent would be deposited and dues cleared, the shops would be reopened.

Mr Manmohan Singh, president of the area shopkeepers association, said they did not allow the squad to vacate the shops. He added that the squad then took a lenient view and left after locking these.