Jalandhar, January 22
Beware now if you plan to fudge a Punjab Technical University (PTU) document as you are most likely to be caught. The university has introduced hidden technical changes in the paper used for making answering sheets, detail marks cards (DMC) and other certificates, which make these unique and easily verifiable.

Though bars used on the borders in the answer sheets may look normal when seen with a naked eye, these have micro lettering “PTUPTU” printed all along, which can be detected using a microscopic hand lens.

Similarly, the rules in the DMCs and other certificates too have micro lettering. Since the DMC is one of the most commonly fudged documents, the university has introduced another change to check its authenticity. The certificate bears an invisible logo of the university which can be detected only under ultra violet light.

For easy sorting of papers, the university has introduced another modification in the answer sheets according to which the rules and the printed matter would come in different colours for various papers. Besides, these would now come with an optical magnetic resonance (OMR) sheet on the preface and would help in accelerating the process of checking and result preparation.

Earlier, the university was following the procedure of coding and decoding for checking answer sheets to maintain secrecy. But for the December examination, the OMR sheets have been used to reduce the extra burden on university staff.

The examiners and second examiners have been asked to fill the total marks in the sheets, which would be further fed in computers for preparation of lists and compilation of results.

Explaining the advantages of the new system, examination dean Dr N.P. Singh said the whole exercise was to make the examination system foolproof. “We also plan to speed up the delivery process of results. For this, all colleges have been given an online code system through which they would feed the marks of internal assessment and we would get them instantaneously at PTU. These would be further added up with external marks already fed using OMR sheets. In addition to it, we also plan to post results of the December semester on our official website,” he said.

The dean said he was also planning to introduce bar coding on OMR sheets used with answer sheets which would be automatically scanned for roll numbers, names and other details of the examinee.

The dean added that the table marking system introduced last year too had helped in reducing variability in the evaluation of papers. “The university has a head examiner who is of the rank of HoD for each department in a college for a particular set of papers. A team of examiners sits under him and checks the papers,” he explained. The university is also following a unique code system for question papers and preparation of gazettes.

Jalandhar, January 22
The body of a five-year-old boy was recovered near the Bashirpura railway track here today. The highly mutilated body is about 10-day old and has been reduced to a mere skeleton making its identification difficult, according to the police.

Though no case has been registered so far, the body has been sent to the civil hospital for a post-mortem examination and will be kept there for next three days for possible identification. GRP SHO Manjit Singh said a case would be registered only after the post-mortem examination of the body.

Residents informed the district police about the body lying near the rail track which later handed it over to the general railway police (GRP).

While the police suspects the hand of a “tantrik”, the exact cause of the death could not be ascertained as the boy’s body could have been dumped near the rail track after killing him or stray dogs could have dragged the body towards the track, added the SHO.

Manjit Singh said a tantrik’s hand was suspected behind the murder and mutilation of the boy’s body but the possibility of the body having been thrown near the track after killing the boy could not be ruled out.

The reproductive organs were found missing from the body, he added. Superintendent of police (city-I) Surinder Kumar Kalia, however, told The Tribune that there was no report of a missing boy of around five years of age from Bashirpura or nearby localities.

An ATM card issued in the name of Madhu Sharma has been found lying near the body, the SHO said.

Jalandhar, January 22
The district police succeeded in nabbing another accused in the high-profile kidnapping case of city youth Gagan Mahendru, alias Micky, who was later released after paying Rs 1 crore as ransom. Two of the total eight accused are still absconding.

SSP Arpit Shukla stated that Harpreet Singh, alias Happy, of Malsian was nabbed in Nakodar. As much as Rs 3.5 lakh, a part of the ransom, was recovered from his possession. Besides, the police also recovered the City Honda car used for kidnapping Gagan. The police has already caught five accused, including kingpin Sukhmeet Singh, alias Deputy, a Congress councillor from Ward 26, and recovered Rs 56.65 lakh, which was a part of the ransom paid. The revolver of kidnapped youth Micky and four mobile phones were also recovered from the arrested persons. — TNS