Ludhiana, January 2
The Punjab Education Minister, Mr Harnam Dass Johar, today announced a grant of Rs 4 lakh for the District Bar Association (DBA).

Addressing the legal fraternity at a function organised on the occasion of New Year at the District Courts Complex here, Mr Johar stressed the need to uplift moral standards among lawyers.

Mr Johar said he was proud of being a member of the District Bar Association. He stressed that after elections, all the lawyers should join hands for the welfare of members of the Bar at large.

The President of the SGPC, Mr Avtar Singh Makkar, Mr Charanjit Singh Atwal, Deputy Speaker, the Mayor, Mr Nahar Singh Gill, the Sessions Judge, Mr Harbans Lal, Mr S P Bangarh, Additional Sessions Judge, also greeted the lawyers and shared their views.

Earlier, they were accorded a warm welcome by the president of the District Bar Association, Mr Naval Kishore Chibber, secretary Rajneesh Gupta, vice-president Sunil Dutt, Mr Harish Rai Dhanda, and Mr Harish Narang.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Naval Kishore Chibber, the newly elected president of the DBA, said he would fulfil the promises made during the elections. He appealed to the judiciary to give due recognition to young lawyers to encourage them. He promised to get construction of the Yadwindra Lawyers' Chambers Complex completed within 15 months.

Mr Harish Rai Dhanda, member, Bar Council, urged the Bar president to provide 232 chambers in the complex at a cost not more than Rs 1 lakh each. "The Bench is a reflection of the Bar. There is dire need to raise the standards," he said.

Several senior lawyers, including Mr K K Jain, Mr Dewan Jagdish Chander, Mr Vijay Gupta, Mr Yashpal Ghai, and Mr Parminder Mehta were honoured on the occasion.

The Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sangeet Pal Singh, lawyers Amarjeet Singh Arora, Virendra Khara, Vijay Mehra, Vishal Dua, and Vikram Grover shared jokes, poems, and songs with the audience.

The Additional Sessions Judges, Mr Sanjeev Berry, Mr B S Sodhi, Mr Roshan Lal Ahuja, Mr Satvinder Singh, the CJM, Mr K S Cheema, Civil Judge, Senior Division, Mr S S Dhaliwal, Additional Civil Judge, Senior Division, Mr Tarsem Mangla, all magistrates, former Bar presidents Balwinder Goel, K R Sikri, Hemant Kalia, P D Sharma, A A Pathak, District Attorney, also attended the meeting. 

Ludhiana, January 2
Parkash Ustav of Guru Gobind Singh was celebrated by staff and students of Blooming Dale Nursery School, with fervour today. Kanth bani competitions were held and prizes were given to the participants. Students recited shabads and poems.

Barjinder Kaur, Principal, threw light on the life of Guru Nanak Sahib.

In this relation, nagar kirtan was also organised by Gurdwara Singh Sabha yesterday.

Ludhiana, January 2
Welcome to the world of e-tutoring or KPO (knowledge process outsourcing). A tutor, Rakesh, working with “STEPS” division of Top Careers & You in Ludhiana explains the concept of “area and volume” to Emily, a IV grader, studying in California. Another tutor, Atul, prepares animated caricatures on power point presentations and explains these to Shreya, a IIIrd grader, residing in New York. Amazing! Isn’t it?

This is new-age tutoring, or in other words e-tutoring. India, with its force of academics and experts in maths and science, is at the forefront of this new-age tutoring concept.

“STEPS”, with presence in 11 locations in Punjab, is one such entity. The group has tiedup with a couple of American e-tutoring providers who have bagged tutoring contracts from various schools in the US.

The concept of e-tutoring is new and picking up. US President George W. Bush’s “No-Child-Left-Behind” Act has been instrumental in giving the online educational business a boost. The plan facilitates direct linking between students and private educational service entities within the US. As schools and private service entities are hardpressed to generate resources, a concerted effort has begun to outsource educational and tutoring services to centers outside the US.

“STEPS” has understood the value of the Internet as a tool to reach out to students across India and abroad. Its copyright-protected study material is available electronically and can be downloaded by students, directly from the Internet. In fact, its content has witnessed an increasing interest from students in the US, West Asia, and South-East Asian countries.

The objective of the e- tutoring model is to improve the grade of an average American student and also make outsourcing a major force.

Ludhiana, January 2
A ten-day special camp concluded on the premises of SCD Government College, Ludhiana. The camp was organised under the supervision of programme officers of the NSS unit of the college, Dr Rajinder Jain, Dr Rajdeep Singh Gill and Dr Santosh Bhardwaj. This camp was attended by 100 boys and 55 girl volunteers.

Distinguished guest speakers were invited to deliver lectures on various topics. These guest speakers included Prof Rajinder Jain, Prof Raj Kumar Miglani, Dr Balwant Singh, Mr S.R. Mittal, Dr Ramesh Inder Bal, Prof Dharam Singh, Mr Parminder Singh Nargi, and Madam Usha. They delivered lectures on various topics, such as disaster management, stress management, objectives of NSS, healthy living, yoga, civil defence and first aid.

Besides these persons, Prof Inderjeet Singh, Prof Gopal Krishan, Prof Harpreet Singh, Mr Kamal Kishore and Prof Rupinder Singh also guided the volunteers.

Dr Darshan Singh Gill, Principal SCD Government College, presided over the function and awarded certificates and mementos to the volunteers.

The volunteers presented songs, poems, dance, skit and play on the occasion.

The head volunteers, Naresh Bhardwaj, Sandeep Pahwa, Johri Kumar, Rohit, Abha Gupta, Manisha Sharma and Pooja Bajaj also worked with zeal in the camp.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, January 2
Mr Ram Sarup Sharma and his wife Rakhsha Rani are proud grandparents of Sanjiv Kumar who won the Aawaj Punjab Dee Award instituted by mh1 TV channel. They say that the cultural legacy that their grandson had presented before music lovers should be transmitted to future generations also.

Talking to Ludhiana Tribune, Ram Sarup and Rakhsha said the Almighty had showered blessings over the family.

As many as 32,000 persons had participated in the first round held in July. They claimed that Sanjiv had inherited music from his ancestors and had been inspired by his teachers.

“The announcement did not surprise us as we believed that Sanjiv had an advantage as he had the backing of a musical background over four generations,” Mr Sharma said.

After completing his earlier education from a public school at Banga and Amardeep College, Mukandpur, Sanjiv studied music at Delhi University.

He was awarded a postgraduate degree in the subject and a Sangeet Shiromani degree.

Ludhiana, January 2
Members of the Lodhi Club had a ball last night when Harbhajan Mann made the evening come alive. The club celebrated New Year yesterday. The nite titled “Harbhajan Live” came alive when Harbhajan arrived on the stage dressed in all white. He made the chilly evening warm with his songs.

He started by singing “sade sajna da husan kamaal hai”.

He sang popular numbers on the demand of the members.

His perennial song “galla goriya te vich toye” made the crowd go wild. His popularity was so great that there were long queues of people outside the club enjoying his songs, notwithstanding the cold.

Present on the occasion were Mr Anurag Verma, Deputy Commissioner, and his wife, , SDM Prem Chand, SP Kuldip Singh, club president K.L. Chabbra and secretary S.S. Bedi.