The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

PCCTU backs Arya College union demands
Shivani Bhakoo

Ludhiana, July 21
The Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU) have extended support to the ongoing agitation of Arya College Teachers’ Union (ACTU) and demanded immediate withdrawal of transfer orders of one of the female lecturer by the college principal Dr S.M.Sharma.

The agitating teachers, on the second day of their strike, today protested against the alleged victimization of Prof Ms Anuradha Dhiman, Senior Lecturer, Post Graduate Department of History and member of executive of ACTU.

The members of the PCCTU led by the state president Mr R.S.Brar held a meeting with the members of ACTU today and resolved that the agitation would continue till the demands of the latter were met. Mr A.K.Malhotra, secretary, ACTU, demanded unconditional and immediate withdrawal of transfer orders of Prof Dhiman to the Girls Wing of the college.

He asked the Principal to stop harassing, maltreating and humiliating female lecturers of the college. He also demanded an enquiry by the state government into various financial irregularities committed by principal.

“Not only this, a CBI inquiry be conducted to find out the truth regarding PhD degree obtained by the principal from Uttranchal just before his appointment as Principal of the college”, said Mr Malhotra.

It may be mentioned here that about a dozen teachers of Arya College raised slogans and held a protest here yesterday against principal’s orders to transfer Prof Dhiman to the Girls Wing.

According to sources, in absence of any history teacher in Girls Wing of Arya College, the principal had asked Prof Dhiman to take three of her periods in girls wing and one period at Arya College. “But the teacher refused to obey these orders”, said one of the faculty members on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Principal Dr Sharma, when contacted, said he had to arrange some teacher in the Girls wing as their studies were suffering." Both the buildings are nearby and it is a branch of the college only.

Earlier also we used to make such arrangements but nobody objected. Some of the faculty members, in order to settle their own scores, were trying to twist the issue to provoke other teachers. But teachers should not indulge in such protests when things could be sorted out amicably. We have a strength of 56 faculty members and only a handful, who had some ulterior motives, had protested”, alleged Dr Sharma.

Professor reinstated
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 21
The Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University, Dr K.S. Aulakh, has ordered reinstatement of Dr S.K. Jand, Professor of Bacteriology-cum-head of the department of Veterinary Microbiology and Controller of Examination, College of Veterinary Sciences as he has admitted his fault in preparing the marksheets of the annual examination of Public Health Veterinary.

He was placed under suspension three days ago after discrepancies were detected in the compilation of the marksheets and he had failed to check it as Controller of Examination. The Punjab Agricultural University Teachers Association (PAUTA) played a crucial role in the reinstatement of Dr Jand.

The official order issued by the Registrar, Dr V.K. Sharma stated that Dr S.K. Jand was suspended by the Vice-Chancellor due to major discrepancies on the award list. Dr S.K. Jand stated that because of having too much work load he could not properly scrutinise the results and these were forwarded as submitted by external examiner.

The weightage of the paper was 10 per cent whereas the examiners’ list indicated the award out of 20 which was forwarded as such during the process. He stated that this was a mistake due to oversight. He further stated that as controller of Examination, he owned the responsibility of this unintentional mistake and requested for reconsideration of his suspension.

The Vice-Chancellor, after considering the request of Dr S.K. Jand and after taking a lenient view, has ordered that his one increment should be stopped as he himself proposed that punishment which should be inflicted upon him. The Vice-Chancellor further ordered that henceforth he would not be appointed as Controller of Examination.’

Ad hoc lecturers’ plea to govt
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 21
Over 300 ad hoc lecturers working in government colleges in all the districts of Punjab have demanded that their services should be regularised. Members of the Government Part-Time Lecturer Association said since they had been working for the past more than eight years and had the qualification, their services be confirmed.

Mr Inderpal Singh, lecturer at Government College, Karamsar, Rara Sahib, said there were about 50 government colleges in the state and ad hoc lecturers were working in almost every district. “We are as good as permanent lecturers. The work load is the same and we fulfill all necessary qualifications as permanent employees. Some of us are working more than permanent teachers. We have an experience of over eight-nine years. In case, the government does not consider our demand, we will be left in the lurch”, he said.

He said a delegation of lecturers had met Rajinder Kaur Bhattal recently in this connection. “She assured us that our demand would be considered”, he said.

PTA chief given farewell
Our Correspondent

Amloh, July 21
General session of parent-teachers association (PTA) of Government Secondary School (Boys) Amloh organised a farewell party to Mr Harbans Lal Pajni, who extended his cooperation as PTA chief for a long time to the school which made big strides during his tenure.

The session was chaired by Mr Zora Singh Gill, principal of the school. A new committee was elected as under: President — Mr Ram Saran Sood, vice president — Mr Bal Karishan, secretary — Mr Zora Singh Gill, principal finance secretary — Numberdar Kulwant Singh Baina, executive member — Ms Jaswant Kaur, Mr Baldev Sedha, Mr Sukhwinder Singh and Mr Avinash Kumar Bansal.

Students celebrate Teej
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 21
Swiss International Public School (SIPS) was today decorated with flowers, swings, earthen pots, rangoli, phullkari, dupattas and bangles to celebrate Teej. A village scene was depicted to explain the importance of Sawan in rural life to the children.

The girls turned up in ethnic dresses. They were wearing traditional jewellery whereas the boys wore colourful kurtas with matching turbans. They danced to the tunes of “megha re megha”.

The title of Master Sawan was given to Gobind and Miss Saawan was given to Sift. Sahibjyot. Jasnoor, Gurasses, Asses Sodhi, Arjune, Satvik, Jasmine, Ishpreet, Bableen, Kriti, Tanmeet, Lipica were also given prizes for being best dressed.

At the end, children were served maal pua and kheer.

Pensioner helps poor students
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 21
The under privileged section of the society finds it difficult to send their children to school as the successive governments have failed to provide free of cost education. So the poor parents either find it very hard to support their children even in preliminary education or withdraw their children from schools.

But thanks to good samaritions, who reach out to them for help. One such person, Mr Sher Singh, has preferred to donate money out of his pension to needy students.

He has paid fees and helped buy some students books and shoes worth Rs 4,900.

SPORTS

Green Land School paddlers shine
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, July 21
Hosts Green Land Senior Secondary School, GT Road, began their campaign on strong foot, winning both the matches in the Ludhiana Sahodya School Complex Table Tennis Tournament 2005-06 which began here today.

In the boys (u-19 years), Green Land Senior Secondary School, G T Road, Jalandhar byepass recorded a comfortable 3-0 win over GPS, Gobindgarh.

In the first encounter, Sahil of Green Land School drubbed Harish 2-0 while Manpreet outclassed Amit 2-0 to make it two-nil. In the third game, Ankush of Green Land School outplayed Mehak of Gobindgarh in a similar fashion 2-0 to help his team to wrap it up 3-0.

In the boys section (u-17 years), Green Land School came out triumphant 3-0 against GPS, Gobindgarh. Dharminder beat Bhawan 2-0; Abhijit beat Nikhil 2-0 and Sumit defeated Ishaan 2-0.

Other results: Boys (u-19): DAV Public School, Ludhiana, beat BCM School, Shastri Nagar, Ludhiana 3-0 (Rohit b Nikhil 2-0, Parul b Ankit 2-0 and Akshay b Manipal 2-0); BCM School, Chandigarh Road, Ludhiana beat Nankana Sahib Public School, Samrala 3-1 (Taranjit b Tanroop 2-0, Varun b Loveneet 2-0, Kawalpreet lost to Jagdeep 1-2 and Taranjit b Jagdeep 2-0); Bhartiya Vidya Mandir School, Kitchlu Nagar, Ludhiana beat GGN Senior Secondary School, Rose Garden, Ludhiana 3-0 (Karamveer b Nipun 2-0, Ashpreet b Satveer 2-0 and Chirag b Rajdeep 2-0).

Boys (u-17): GNIPS School, Ludhiana beat BCM School, Shastri Nagar, Ludhiana 3-2 (Japnam b Abhinav 2-1, Japjot lost to Nitish 0-2, Amritpal lost to Deepanshu 0-2, Japjot b Abhinav 2-1 and Japnam b Nitish 2-0); GGN School Rose Garden, Ludhiana beat BCM School, Chandigarh Road, Ludhiana 3-2 (Dilpreet b Manveeer 2-0, Harmohanpal lost to Himanshu 0-2, Gursimranpal b Manish 2-1, Dilpreet lost to Himanshu 0-2 and Harmohanpal b Manveer 2-1); Alpine International Public School, Ludhiana beat Tagore Public School, Ludhiana 3-0 (Kashish b Hargurnad 2-0, Mayank b Loveneer 2-0 and Mitesh b Harkirat 2-0); KVM School, Ludhiana beat DAV School, Phillaur 3-0 (Sahil b Sahil 2-0, Ishaan b Simardeep 2-0 and Kamal b Naman 2-0).

Girls (u-17 years): Alpine International Public School, Ludhiana beat GGN School, Rose Garden, Ludhiana 3-0 (Shruti b Arshdeep 2-1, Sakshi b Ravneet 2-0 and Samriti b Ishdeep 2-0); DAV Public School, Ludhiana beat BCM School, Shastri Nagar, Ludhiana 3-0 (Namrata b Kunika 2-0, Ridhima b Ashima 2-0 and Rukhsar b Rashmeet 2-0).

ADMINISTRATION

DC asks officers to prepare for I-Day celebrations
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 21
The district administration has directed officers of all departments concerned to make necessary preparations relating to their department for holding the Independence Day function on August 15 at Government College for Boys.

Mr Anurag Verma, Deputy Commissioner, gave these directions at a meeting of the district heads of all departments concerned held under his chairmanship at Mini Secretariat late last evening.

The Deputy Commissioner asked the municipal authorities to ensure the proper cleanliness of the ground and all roads leading to the venue. He asked Mr Mandeep Singh Sandhu, SP(Headquaters), to hold rehearsal of the parade comprising the Punjab police, Home Guards, NCC (Boys and Girls), Air Wing, Scouts and Guides and ex- servicemen from August 9 onwards at the venue of the function to ensure the excellent coordination among the different contingents.

In the meeting a committee headed by Mr Kuldeep Singh, District Transport Officer, Mr Yash Pal Mehra, DEO (S), and Mr Darshan Singh, District Public Relations Officer, has been constituted to select the cultural items and to hold the joint rehearsal of the selected cultural teams from the educational institutions in the city.

The Principals of the college colleges has been asked to depute NCC cadets with the officers of the NCC units, so that, they could properly train them for the final rehearsals of march past. Mr Verma said bands of the Punjab police and Bostal Jail would also participate in the march past. He asked the Secretary of the District Red Cross Society to prepare the list of needy women and handicapped persons for presenting sewing machines and tricycles. He said special enclosure would be earmarked for the freedom fighters and their families.