Chandigarh, January 15
Hundreds of teachers working in the aided colleges of Chandigarh today ceased work and assembled in front of the office of DPI (Colleges), Punjab Sector-17, here, today.

The protesting teachers burnt the copies of the amendments made in the Security of Service Act-1974 by the Punjab Legislative Assembly on December 24, 2007. The call for the protest was given by Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU).

The agitated teaching and non-teaching employees of the aided colleges of Chandigarh also burnt the copies of the Panjab University letter dated September 20, 2007.

The employees wanted Panjab University authorities to penalise the erring colleges as per rules particularly when they have failed to implement the provisions of the PU calendar regarding deduction of provident fund on gross salary and encashment of earned leave.

Prof. Rakesh Mehta, president, Chandigarh District Council of Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU), said “We have been forced to adopt this method of protest because PU authorities could not implement the spirit of its Calendar as well as the spirit of the letter. No penalties have been imposed on the erring colleges”.

Prof. Anil Sarwal, vice-president of the PCCTU said, “PCCTU should have been consulted before the amendments. It is unfortunate that the government of Punjab has ignored a democratically elected representative organisation of the teachers working in the aided colleges of Punjab. Such unilateral decisions of the Punjab government can never be accepted”.

Dr. Jagwant Singh former general secretary of PCCTU said “Deep anguish among the teaching and non-teaching employees of the aided colleges due to the amendments made in the security of the Service Act has led to this form of protest. Punjab government should understand the degree of resentment and stop the notification of the amendments”.

Rupinder Chatha, secretary, Chandigarh District Council, Prof P.S. Gill, executive member of PCCTU, Prof. N.P. Manocha, Fellow PU, Dr. Dinesh Talwar, Fellow, PU, Rakhi J. Singh, secretary, Dev Samaj College Teachers’ Union-45 and Uma Joshi, president, MCM DAV College Teachers’ Union assured the agitating teaching and non-teaching employees that struggle will continue till demands are met.

Chandigarh, January 15
Adding another feather to its cap, the Panjab University is all set to host the first-ever ‘Punjabi world conference’ at its campus during the second week of March this year.

A high-powered committee, constituted under the chairmanship of Dr Deepak Manmohan Singh, had its third deliberation today. According to the organising secretary of the conference, Dr Jaspal Kang, 700 delegates from as many as 12 countries including UK, USA, Norway, Holland, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy and Pakistan, in addition to India, would be attending the conference.

Dr Deepak informed that during the conference Punjabi historians of repute, social scientists, economists, educationists, scientists, technical experts, journalists and filmmakers would deliberate on various issues pertaining to Punjabis.

Those present in today’s meeting included, head of hindi department Prof Neerja Sood, head of public administration department Prof B S Ghuman, head of political science department Dr Raunki Ram, Punjabi literate Dr Labh Singh Kheeva, PUTA secretary Dr Manjit Singh, head of persian department Dr Madhukar Arya, secretary of the conference Prof Gurpal Sandhu and Akshay Kumar, Prof in department of English, and head of French department Dr Cecilia were present.

Dr Kang said the main theme of the conference would be Punjabi identity at the global level. There will be four sub-topics - multi-cultural society and Punjabi issues, cultural and language problems of NRI Punjabis, Punjabis on margins and ‘who will be responsible for Punjabi identity’. 

Chandigarh, January 15
A day before the 57th annual convocation of Panjab University where the chancellor and the vice-president of India is scheduled to preside, the university has failed to get its act together.

In fact, mismanagement and chaos ruled the university gymnasium hall, the venue of the convocation, today with over 150 Ph.D scholars and about 500 other students facing harassment.

The students who are due to get their degrees at the convocation came today to the university for a rehearsal as per the scheduled time of 10 am. But to the utter surprise of everyone there were hardly any arrangements for the rehearsal in place. So much that it took the authorities around two and a half hours to actually begin the dummy run.

The students most of them from far-off places like Pathankot, Delhi, Shimla, Haryana and others had to face the harassment. Jyoti, a resident of Pathankot who came to receive her Ph.D degree said, “The letter sent to us read that rehearsals will being sharp at 10 and anyone coming late will not be allowed. I started at 4 in the morning without my breakfast only to find nothing here”.

“The authorities should have taken care of the earmarking the seat numbers beforehand to avoid the delay and confusion”, said another postgraduate student from Naraingarh.

When confronted about the delay and inconvenience caused to the students, an assistant registrar who was the in-charge of the arrangements said callously that ‘we are doing it’.

Meanwhile, for most part of the day, there was power cut in most of the departments of Panjab University. There was no power from 9 am to 3 pm, which only added to the chaos outside. “Hardly any teaching took place today inside the classrooms and outside, there were policeman conducting the security drill”, complained a student.

Chandigarh, January 15
The NSS wing of Government College, Sector 11, here, organised an AIDS/HIV awareness event at Government Senior Secondary School, Khuda Lahora, the village adopted by the wing. A special highlight of the program was a telefilm, ‘Jagate Raho’ by Dr V.K. Kaushik, shown to the students. In addition, a number of faculty members of the college associated with the NSS wing also shared their views with students regarding preventative measures to be taken, role of the youth, and medical assistance offered by the Government and NGOs to Aids patients. College principal, Dr A.L. Gauba, appreciated the efforts of the teachers in educating the prevention of HIV/AIDS. The NSS in charges, Dr Vinod Vijay and Dr Gopal Sahi said conduct of such events would go a long way in achieving the objectives.