Jalandhar, May 29
Innumerable candidates appearing for the entrance test for the MBA and MCA courses of Guru Nanak Dev University, Punjab Technical University and Punjabi University are a harried lot.

The Amritsar university, which is conducting the entrance test this year, has set up seven centres from where the forms can be bought from June 4 and submitted by June 10.

The centres have been set up on the GND varsity campuses at Amritsar, Jalandhar, Gurdaspur and Ludhiana, government colleges in Mohali and Bathinda and Punjabi University, Patiala.

Because of the university official specifications regarding the forms, the students in other districts are facing a number of problems.

The candidates from other districts and even states, having no other option, have to visit the centres quite a few times for getting the forms, depositing it and then appearing for the test.

Perturbed over the restriction laid down by the university, the managements of affiliated colleges said their admission was bound to be affected.

“During the last academic session the same policy was adopted as a result of which the affiliated institutes had to face a lower turnout of candidates. We even protested against the decision but to no avail,” they said.

“While every year the forms for the entrance test are sold through banks, having branches in every district of the state as well as in other parts of the country, the university is doing it through its own campuses this time. Since access to the forms is limited, the number of applicants is bound to remain low,” said a college director on the condition of anonymity.

The main problem arises for those candidates who are staying outside Punjab as no centre for purchase and submission of forms has been set up outside the state. These students, having a 15 per cent quota, have to travel to one of the centres to follow the procedure.

The other problem, which the candidates are facing, is the time period limit between the purchase and submission of the forms. Applicants said that the time period should have been of at least a fortnight.

“Further the late fee for submission of forms, including Rs 1,000 until June 13 and Rs 2,000 until June 15, is also very high,” said the candidates.

Meanwhile, test co-coordinator M.D. Singh said during the last academic session the same procedure was followed. When asked as to why the procedure had not been rectified despite objections raised last year, Singh said the university had no time as the entrance test was already being conducted quite late.

Jalandhar, May 29
District police has claimed to have busted a fake currency racket with the arrest of three members of a five-member gang.

Fake currency worth Rs 1.15 lakh has also been recovered from them. SSP Arpit Shukla said CIA in charge inspector, Ravinder Pal Singh Sandhu, received secret information on Monday about the movement of some criminals involved in circulation of fake currency. Subsequently, the police succeeded in nabbing three members of the gang, Rajesh a resident of Sham Chaurasi, Hoshiarpur, Ajit Singh, a resident of Jaitewali and Shashi Pal, a resident of Dakoha, on Tuesday while travelling in an Indica car.

Their search led to the recovery of fake currency worth Rs 1.15 lakh in denomination of 1000 and 500.

The remaining two members of the gang have been identified as Bhushan of Shahkot and Sat Pal Singh of Amritsar and efforts were on to arrest them, the press note added.

While the arrested persons revealed that they used to take fake currency notes from Sat Pal Singh and sell it for half the denomination of the currency notes.

An FIR under sections 420, 489 ABC of IPC was registered at the Maqsoodan police station. 

Jalandhar, May 29
Vigilance Bureau nabbed Gurdev Singh, patwari of halqa Gudan, tehsil Sultanpur Lodhi in Kapurthala.

He was caught red handed while accepting bribe of Rs 5,000 from a resident of Ferozepur district.

In a press-note issued here today, Dilbagh Singh Gill, VB SSP, stated that a VB team led by Tarsem Singh, DSP Kapurthala, nabbed him following a complaint from Harwinder Singh of Manomachi village in Ferozepur district.

The complainant alleged that the accused had demanded Rs 10,000 as bribe for entering mutation of his ancestral property but later agreed at Rs 5,000. An FIR has also been lodged under the Prevention of Corruption Act at VB police station in Jalandhar. — TNS