Mohali, July 8
The Punjab School Education Board plans to put on hold the proposal of barring students from appearing in the matriculation and senior secondary classes as private candidates.

Had the school board gone at ahead with the proposal, it would have affected nearly 1.35 lakh students. There was general consensus in the board to give the green light to the proposal and implement it from the current session keeping in line with the national policy on education. But the move has been put on hold at least for a year.

Under the new proposal, students who were unable to appear as regular candidates in the examinations would have the option to clear matriculation and senior secondary examinations through the board’s open school system.

Prof Harbans Sing Sidhu, Chairman, said the new proposal was not being implemented this year as the board was not happy with the functioning of open schools.

This year only 20,000 students had appeared through the open school. Even then various discrepancies were noticed at various stages. Examinations forms were not dealt in a proper way. In some cases forms were accepted even when the required fees had not been deposited by students appearing through the open school. Work related to carrying forward previous credit had also not been done in a proper way. If a number of students could not be handled in a proper way by the board, what would happen when the number of students appearing though the open school crossed the 1 lakh figure.

The Board had debarred 769 students from appearing in the matriculation examination through the open school in March this year because they had submitted the examinations forms without depositing the required fee.

In some cases tampering with the date of birth and other records was noticed while in other cases students had failed to provide proper proof of eligibility for appearing in the examination.

The Chairman said he wanted to be clear about everything before implementing the new proposal. He said there was a possibility that the centres running open schools turned into teaching shops if students, who were unable to appear as regular candidates, were allowed to appear through the open school, defeating the very purpose for which the new scheme of things was to be implemented.

Most of the education boards in the country were not allowing students to appear privately in the examinations. Only some states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttaranchal and some areas in the North-East were allowing students to appear in the two examinations as private candidates.

Chandigarh, July 8
The students of Geology Department at Panjab University had not imagined that this year would be their golden year. For the first time, the department has been included in the list of prestigious universities, even IITs where all important players in the field of oil and gas exploration come hunting for talent. Naturally the study goals and objectives of the Department of Geology have been refined, thereby creating job opportunities for its students.

The first batch of M.Sc. (final year) students of the department underwent interviews on July 1 for selections by reputed geologists. Interviewing them were experts from the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Earlier, a research student of the same department had already initiated her career under the Directorate as a part of three-month training programme. Three students of M.Sc. second year have been selected for admission to two-year Masters Course in Hydro-informatics and Water Management in Europe through Edu France.

Being supported by the European Commission, Edu France scholarships are considered very prestigious and are among the first generation of academic programmes and scholarships which the European Commission has opened for the third world countries.

Besides selections for EC study programmes, another group of students from the Department recently participated in ONGC-based workshop titled “Professional-Students Interface: A step towards Securing Energy for India”. Many students of the Department were even lauded for their presentations during the workshop.

This is likely to be followed by their involvement in future exploratory programmes with the ONGC. Further, many research students underwent training in upcoming focal areas of Remote Sensing and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (Dehradun) and the Geographical Survey of India at Hyderabad.

These fields provide employment worth several hundred crores in India with large employment gains in the near future. said Prof R.Y. Singh, Chairman of the Department.

Chandigarh, July 8
The tussle between a senior leader of the CTCC, Mr Bhupinder Singh Badheri, and the former Deputy Commissioner, Mr Arun Kumar, reached a flashpoint today with the former filing a criminal complaint against the bureaucrat.

In his complaint before the Duty Magistrate, Mr R.K. Mehta, the Congress leader alleged that the Deputy Commissioner, who also held the charge of the Director Panchayat, got published a “defamatory” news-item against him in a section of the Press on January 27 this year.

Seeking action against the former Deputy Commissioner and other persons under Sections 501(B), 502(B), 504 and 505 of the IPC for defaming him, the complaint alleged that the Deputy Commissioner “hatched a conspiracy” to remove Mr Badheri from the post of the Chairman of the Market Committee.

Mr Badheri claimed that he had also written a letter to the UT Administration regarding allegations in the news-item against him. Though he had demanded a CBI inquiry into the allegations, yet the administration had failed to order such a probe, he alleged.

A notice was also issued to his wife and he was threatened with the registration of a false complaint. Even his close associates, such as DCC president, Mr Pawan Sharma, was also hounded by the Chandigarh Administration for submitting a false affidavit to secure a flat in a housing society.

It may be recalled that during the tug-of-war between the local MP, Mr Pawan Bansal, and Mr Arun Kumar, there were allegations that Mr Sharma and Mr Badheri were being victimised by the administration.

Mr Bansal had accused Mr Arun Kumar of being partisan towards the Congressmen. On the other hand, Mr Arun Kumar had denied the charges and gone on record saying that the Administration was following the rule book.

Chandigarh, July 8
The lyrical and romantic element in poetry and music found the highest expression in the repertoire of ghazals rendered by invincible maestro Vinod Sehgal at a special cultural programme held at Bhargava Auditorium today to commemorate the Foundation day of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research(PGI).

The foremost disciple of ghazal king Jagjit Singh, revitalised the potent poetic content of Mirza Ghalib’s classic qalaam “Hain aur bhi duniyan mein sukhanvar bahut achhe, kehte hain ke Ghalib ka hai andaaz-e-byan aur…” with his mellifluous spell that gave a majestic start to his musical soiree largely attended by art lovers from the medical fraternity.

The audience clapped in “laya” and “taal” at the culmination of every couplet. Paying a tribute to the memory of a Bollywood lyricist Prem Bartbartani from the city, Sehgal presented his ghazal “Gham ne hasne na diya, zarf ne rone na diya”. He doled out the first song from film “Ravana” under the music direction of Jagjit Singh ‘Ishaq se gehra koi na darya…’ popular Punjabi hits from his films and albums like ‘Kurti satt rang di’.

The “Maachis” song ‘Chhod aaye ham ...’ provided the grand finale. Vinod Sehgal, a ghazal and playback singer of over 56 films, TV serials and albums brought the moods and passions in full play throughout the concert. Articulating rhythm on the tabla, was globe-trotting Avirbhav Verma along with Suresh Naik on the dholak, Tilak Raj, Goldie Singh on the guitar and Nindi on the synthesiser.

Earlier, noted folk and devotional singer Sarabjit Bhasin, back after a series of performances in the UK, the USA and Mascot presented a ghazal and a few Punjabi songs immortalised by the legendary Surinder Kaur. The programme, compered by Dr Mhammad Rafi, concluded with a Rajasthani musical folklore ‘Terra taali’ presented by Durgadevi.

The chief guest, Dr K.K. Talwar, Director, PGI, felicitated artistes at Bhargava Auditorium in Chandigarh on Thursday.