Chandigarh, July 14
The ongoing investigation by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in sale of drugs in the city has unearthed a rather dangerous nexus between peddlers and officials of not only the Chandigarh and Punjab police but also of the CBI.

The investigations, initiated following the arrest of the city’s high society peddler, Harpal Singh alias Raju, an M.Phil student of Panjabi University, have revealed that there are about 30 major drug pushers active in the tricity. While at least 14 UT and Punjab police officials are allegedly giving them “protection”, names of four CBI personnel have also come up during the investigations.

Admitting this, NCB director Saji Mohan said, “We have informed the senior officials of the UT and the Punjab Police about the involvement of their personnel in this racket”. Refusing to go into the details of the investigations, Mohan said Harpal’s arrest was part of a major operation, “Mission Tricity”, launched by the bureau to crack down on major drug supply sources.

Indicating possibilities of more such crackdowns, Mohan said though so far no action was being initiated against the drug abusers, they had warned the parents of youngsters who were on the list of Harpal’s regular customers. However, he added if they didn’t mend their ways, they might face action.

Incidentally, UT SSP S S Srivastva said he had so far not received any intimation from the bureau. “We’ll look into it as when it comes”, he added.

Meanwhile, NCB sources say there are some senior officials involved in the racket. The call details of Harpal’s phone had revealed that besides others, he was in touchwith at least one DSP and two SIs of the Punjab Police.

Chandigarh, July 14
There has been an alarming increase in the number of HIV positive cases and AIDS patients in Chandigarh. The disease has claimed three lives till June this year compared with 13 deaths in 2007 in all.

According to data available with the State AIDS Control Society (SACS), in 2005 there were 41 confirmed AIDS patients in the city. The number of full-blown cases increased to 45 in 2006 and 53 in 2007. There has been a 17 per cent rise in such cases with 21patients confirmed with AIDS till June this year.

The city has registered an increase of 30 per cent of HIV cases (from 95 in 2006 to 124 in 2007).The other cases are from the neighbouring states of Himachal, Punjab and Haryana. These HIV positive cases turn into full-blown AIDS cases in subsequent years. The full-blown AIDS cases resulted in one death in 2006, 13 in 2007 and three till June this year.

"We are witnessing an increasing rise in HIV positive cases that are tested at the PGI, the GMCH and the General Hospital here," says Dr Vaneeta Gupta, project director of the State AIDS Control Society (SACS).

On the rise in HIV positive cases, Dr Vaneeta said of the total patients, 57 per cent were men, 39.3 per cent women and 3.8 per cent children. She said the number of cases had been on the rise.

According to local NGOs, those infected are mostly middle and lower middle-class housewives whose husbands work in other cities. Health official say these men are carriers of the disease. SACS officials blame the educated middle class, who migrates to cities in search of jobs, for the spread of the disease. Gupta said, increasing awareness about the disease was one of the reasons for more patients coming forward for treatment.

Experts say, the human immuno deficiency virus (HIV) causes AIDS. This virus harms the immune system, which protects a person against infections. With weakened immunity, people with HIV /AIDS can suffer from opportunistic infections (OIs).

If the test result is positive, it means you are infected with HIV and you could pass it on to others. It does not mean that you have AIDS or that you will get it. AIDS is the last stage of the HIV infection.

Symptoms

Tiredness

Rapid weight loss

Frequent low-grade fever

Swollen lymph nodes

Night sweat

Cough and short of breath

Protection

Use condoms to prevent HIV

Use disposable syringes and needles

Stick to one-partner sex

Treatment STDs without delay 

Chandigarh, July 14
P. K. Sharma, secretary, municipal corporation, today submitted his report to the commissioner recommending registration of a criminal case against the contractor for detaining and causing obstruction in the official duties of Xen, electricity, last week.

Besides, he also recommended a slew of measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the corporation in future.

An inquiry was entrusted to the secretary after Tarlochan Singh, a contractor, locked Xen Surinder Singh Kandhola and SDO AK Dadwal, who has been placed under suspension following a corruption case registered against him by the CBI on a complaint lodged by Tarlochan Singh on May 30.

Confirming the development, Sharma told The Tribune that he had submitted his report after taking statements of both the parties and eyewitnesses present on the occasion. He said Tarlochan Singh was found guilty of detaining a Class I officer (Xen Kandhola) in his office, thus preventing the officer from discharging his official duty.

Sharma added that he had recommended that the contractor should be debarred from the corporation and the chief engineer would look into the recommendation to initiate further action.

About Dadwal, the secretary said he had recommended that Dadwal’s headquarter should be shifted to Manimajra. Besides, the secretary, on the basis of the statement recorded, found that the allegation of Tarlochan Singh that Dadwal threatened to kill him was untrue. Similarly, the allegation of Dadwal that Tarlochan Singh hurled a chair at him, injuring his shoulder, was also unfounded.

About the measures to avoid such incidents, Sharma suggested that outsiders should be allowed to visit the officials during the visiting hours. Besides, there should be a system to keep a record of the persons entering into the office and their purpose of visit.

Despite repeated attempts the commissioner could not be approached for his comments on the report.

Chandigarh, July 14
Over 100 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers today conducted a protest rally against the move of the Chandigarh education department to forfeit the salary during the summer vacations’ period and imposition of a new contract.

The rally started from Nehru Park, Sector-22 and culminated at Sector 17 plaza. Arvind Rana, president, SSA Teacher Welfare Association, told that the decision of the education department is against the Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution and orders of Supreme Court with reference to case of Rattan Lal and others vs. States of Haryana and others.

“These 1985 Supreme Court orders clearly state that the ad hoc teachers should be paid salary and allowances for the period of summer vacation in all circumstances, provided they are engaged under the signed contract during that period,” he said.

Rajesh Sharma, an SSA teacher, resented the new contract having harsh conditions. “The salary for the vacation period is denied in the new contract. The department is withdrawing the contract which had already been signed in March”.

Another teacher, preferring anonymity, told that they were entitled for the same benefits like transfer and assessment policies applicable for regular teachers and provision of social security, PF/ESI and medical remunerations, but all these were denied in the new contract.

Jeet Singh Somal and Shavinder Singh, chairman and president, respectively, of UT Teacher Welfare Association also supported their cause.

Chandigarh, July 14
Four months old Anchal lost her life today, not because of any life-threatening disease or incurable ailment but dehydration.

Her parents alleged that she died due to the negligence of GMCH-32 doctors. According to information, she was referred to GMCH-32 after severe dehydration. She was admitted here two days back, said family members.

According to eyewitnesses, the entire floor turned into a battlefield with parents constantly screaming at the doctors in anguish.

According to health officials of GMCH-32, the baby girl was on artificial respiratory system since her arrival.

Chances of survival were slim, said the doctor in the emergency. “We tried our level best but she did not respond, and we lost her,” added the doctor. 

Chandigarh, July 14
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is now developing an air-launched version of the Nag anti-tank missile. The user trials of the convectional ground-launched version of this missile are expected to be over this year.

According to Dr Avinash Chander, director of DRDO’s Advanced Systems Laboratory, which is responsible for testing and evaluation of missiles and its systems, the indigenously developed Dhruv advanced light helicopter has been chosen as the primary launch platform for Nag’s air-launched version.

Though the air-launched version is being developed keeping in mind the technical parameters required for integration with the Dhruv, other helicopters like the Mi-35 gunship could also be an option at a later stage. This would require certain modifications to the interface once the missile’s operational parameters and performance have been validated.

Dr Chander, who was here recently for a seminar, said that the air-launched version would have a longer range than the ground launched version presently undergoing trials. The present version has a range of about 4 km.

Nag, one of the weapons under development as part of DRDO’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, was first test-fired 18 years ago. The DRDO has spent about Rs 300 crore on this missile. It has since been facing teething problems, especially with the seeker of its guidance unit.

Nag has an imaging infra-red sensor-based seeker in its nose. This seeker conjures up an image of the target vis-à-vis its surroundings. The missile homes on to this image instead of just the infrared or heat signature of a target as in convectional seekers. The problems with this seeker, Dr Chander claimed, have been addressed.

According to recent reports, the Army has placed an order for 433 Nag missiles along with 13 Namica launch vehicles, which are based upon the BMP-tracked combat vehicles in service with its mechanised formations. Each Namica launcher can carry 12 missiles.

Chandigarh, July 14
A special lecture was organised by the Canadian Studies Centre, Panjab University, on “Canada-India Research Partnerships in the Field of Justice, Public Safety and Human Rights” by Prof Yvon Dandurand, associate vice-president, Research and Graduate Studies, University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.

The lecture was held on the 40th anniversary celebrations of Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI) on July 14, 2008, at ICSSR Complex, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Prof B. S. Ghuman, dean, Faculty of Arts and coordinator, Canadian Studies Centre, welcomed the delegation from the UFV and said Panjab University was fully prepared to reap the benefits of globalisation. In addition to signing of the MoUs with other foreign universities, Panjab University has also signed MoUs with three Canadian universities.

As a part of the implementation of the MoU, the Canadian Studies Centre was set up at Panjab University in June 2005. While delivering the lecture, Dandurand, said there was a huge potential for research partnerships between India and Canada in the field of Justice, Public Safety and Human Rights. He emphasised that future lay in building expertise across nations, cultures and disciplines.

He said there was commonality between India and Canada on many fronts due to their institutional similarities; both were signatories to same international treaties and thus there was a huge possibility of conducting collaborative research. Other members of the delegation included Prof Satwinder Bains, director, Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies; Prof D.J. Sandhu, chair on Canada India Business, Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies and Research; Vivienne Chin and S. Parm Bains. Akshat Mehta from the Department of Public Administration conducted the proceedings and proposed the vote of thanks.

Chandigarh, July 14
A week-long workshop on Mining Safety: EU Asia Coal Mining Industry Collaborations began at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) in association with United Kingdom’s Venture East Consulting Limited (VEC) today.

The project, being held under Asia Invest II programme of the European Commission, aims to improve health and safety standards and the management system in the coal mining industry in India.

It will equip selected Indian coal mining companies with adequate, sufficient and updated skills, knowledge and information for improved productivity and environment concerns. The project will address the urgent need pertaining to the safety and health of mine workers working under hazardous conditions. This project will provide technical assistance, transfer of know-how of best practices especially in Europe through strategic alliance and international collaboration.

We hadn't heard much from Hasselblad since their last release - the H3DII-39 (a 39-megapixel camera) - but we know the big guns here relax a while, and so here they are.

The high-end digital camera manufacturer announced another industry-leading DSLR. How many megapixels you think your digital camera should have? 10, 20… 30? Perhaps none would have thought beyond, breaking the bounds, Hasselblad has gone past the figures and announced a new 50-megapixel high-end digital camera, the H3DII-50, world’s largest sensor camera.

Following the success of the Hasselblad H3DII-39, the market's most advanced DSLR, Hasselblad wanted to take its H camera system even further. With the release of the H3DII-50, new Kodak 50-megapixel sensor, twice the size of the largest 35mm DSLR sensor available, the high-end digital camera manufacturer has succeeded in doing that, just best.

Christian Poulsen, Hasselblad chief executive officer, was caught explaining: " Having huge amounts of megapixels does not help your photography much if you are not using a camera system that can reap the benefits of these resolutions ". A statement highlighting upon just why one needs the perfect brand backing to thrive.

The H3DII-50 has been specially designed to meet the most exacting demands of high-end commercial photographers who require the ultimate in both image quality and performance. The unique resolution and optical quality of the H-system lens line, combined with the digital lens correction and UltraFocus accuracy, Hasselblad’s H3DII-50 hits the pinnacle with regards to accurate capture and recording of image detail.

Built on the H3DII-39 and has a 36 x 48mm Kodak sensor, which is twice the size of other DSLR sensors, the new H3DII-50 DSLR camera features 3-inch display and 50-megapixel CCD sensor from Kodak that is able to generate 300MB files at 1fps. The result is better, richer colours and quick flush technology to enable faster capture and lower power consumption, resulting in longer battery life.

The Hasselblad H3DII-50 camera will hit the shelves from October 2008 at a whopping price tag of $37,000 excluding tax. I feel the camera would be required more at studios than for personal use, yet I cannot help calling it the bank-breaking gadget.

If you have an e-mail account, you must be receiving a lot of spam messages, a majority of which would not come to your mail boxes as on the basis of your instruction, the Internet service provider (ISP) must have redirected such mail to the ‘spam box’ automatically.

You are not an exception in this regard. Microsoft founder Bill Gates receives four million e-mails per year, most of them spam. He may get a reprieve or respite as he has opted for voluntary retirement from active participation in his company.

E-mail spam, also known as "bulk e-mail" or "junk e-mail," is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email. Spam frustrate, confuse, and annoy e-mail users. Spam has slowly but exponentially grown from over 30 billion per day in June 2005 to 100 billion emails per day as of June 2007.

Way back in 1978, an e-mail advertising a powerful new computer system was sent by an energetic marketing man named Gary Thuerk to 600 addresses in the US. When he pushed the SEND button, he became the father of email ‘spam’.

Interestingly, about 80 per cent of all spam is sent by fewer than 200 spammers. The cost of spam is borne mostly by the recipient. E-mail addresses are collected from chatrooms, websites, newsgroups, and viruses which harvest users' address books, and are sold to other spammers. Much of spam is sent to invalid e-mail addresses.

The word “spam”, in relation to unwanted e-mail, should not be spelled with all capitals as such spelling used in this sense might infringe on the rights of the legal copyright owner of the SPAM® brand.

Spamvertised sites: Many spam e-mails contain URLs to a website or websites. According to a report, "only five countries are hosting 99.68% of the global spammer websites", of which the foremost is China, hosting 73.58% of all web sites referred to within spam.

Advance fee fraud spam such as the Nigerian "419" scam may be sent by a single individual from a cyber cafe in a developing country. Organised "spam gangs" operating from Russia or eastern Europe share many features in common with other forms of organised crime.

Phishing: Spam is also a medium for fraudsters to scam users to enter personal information on fake web sites using e-mail forged to look like it is from a bank or other organisation such as PayPal. This is known as phishing.

Origin of spam: Due to the international nature of spam, the spammer, the hijacked spam-sending computer, the spamvertised server, and the user target of the spam are all often located in different countries. In fact, spam is one of globalisation’s true success stories. Servers can operate from anywhere.

Using Webmail services: A common practice of spammers is to create accounts on free webmail services, such as Hotmail or Gmail, to send spam or to receive e-mailed responses from potential customers. In an effort to cut down on this abuse, many of these services have adopted a system called the captcha: users attempting to create a new account are presented with a graphic of a word, which uses a strange font, on a difficult-to-read background.

Humans are able to read these graphics, and are required to enter the word to complete the application for a new account while computers are unable to get accurate readings of the words using standard OCR (optical character recognition) techniques. Captcha is an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing Test” named after Alan Turing, considered the father of modern computer science.

Spammers have, however, found a means of circumventing this measure. Reportedly, they have set up sites offering free pornography; to get access to such a site, a user displays a graphic from one of these webmail sites and must enter the word. Once the bot has successfully created the account, the user gains access to the pornographic material. Furthermore, standard image processing techniques work well against many captchas.

Using other people's computers: Early on, spammers discovered that if they sent large quantities of spam directly from their ISP accounts, recipients would complain and ISPs would shut their accounts down. Thus, one of the basic techniques of sending spam has become to send it from someone else's computer and network connection. By doing this, spammers protect themselves in several ways: they hide their tracks, get others' systems to do most of the work of delivering messages and direct the efforts of investigators towards the other systems rather than the spammers themselves.

Many spam-filtering techniques work by searching for patterns in the headers or bodies of messages. For instance, a user may decide that all e-mail they receive with the word Viagra” in the subject line is spam, and instruct their mail programme to automatically delete all such messages. To defeat such filters, spammers intentionally misspell commonly filtered words or insert other characters, as V1agra; Via'gra; Vi@graa; vi*gra. One mathematically minded blogger says that there are 600,426,974,379,824,381,952 ways to spell Viagra.

The principle of this method is to leave the word readable to humans (who can easily recognise the intended word for such misspellings), but not likely to be recognised by a literal computer programme. This is only somewhat effective because modern filter patterns have been designed to recognise blacklisted terms in the various iterations of misspelling.

Other filters target the actual obfuscation methods; such as the non-standard use of punctuation or numerals into unusual places, for example: within in a word.

In 2006, spammers began to take advantage of the fact that computers can’t see and buried their messages in images. Most filters look for words and phrases or Internet address information. A picture contains so much more data that it is hard for the computer to find the message embedded in all the noise.

Humans who click on the message have no trouble seeing it though. This can be foiled by not permitting an e-mail-programme to load images.

anilM@instablogs.com <mailto:anilM@instablogs.com>

Chandigarh, July 14
The Pranami faith that originated around 300 years ago in Jamnagar, spreading all over Gujarat, then the entire country, Nepal and other countries as well, still has a long way to go to make its presence felt in a big way.

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, with a vision to spread awareness about the Pranami faith, 80-year-old Dr Rajkumar Arora has taken upon himself the task of doing English translation of ‘Kuljiam Saroop’, scripture of the Pranami faith. The book is a collection of 14 books with 18,756 verses.

Dr Arora is a MA (History), Panjab University, MA, ancient Indian history and culture, BHU, and PhD from Panjab University. A dedicated follower of the Pranami faith, Dr Arora has already translated two books, out of 14 books.

The recent book, “Khilvat” (meaning dialogue in solitude) contains around 1,074 verses. On asking how much time did “Khilvat” take, Dr Arora replies, “I used to translate 12 to 14 verses in a day. It was a very sensitive job because it’s not just about literally translating the text. One has to be careful in choosing the right word, which delivers the essence of what the writer wanted to convey in the first place.”

Today, the Pranami Dharma has over five million adherents, who are known to respect each other as friends with Pranam - salutations - irrespective of difference of age or youth.

Dr Arora adds, “My efforts are just the beginning. Although my age and health are sizeable barriers, I will keep contributing till my last breath. In the long history of Pranami religion, this translation in English is the first attempt of its kind by anyone. I hope that “Khilvat” is appreciated by both Indian and western scholars. My works envision a future where the teachings and the learning of the faith are known and understood by every common man.

Explaining the origins of the Parnami faith, Dr Arora said, “The foundation of the faith was laid by Shri Devchandraji in the 17th century AD. His disciple, Mahamati Prannath, was responsible for further expounding his Guru's teachings and spreading it.

“The basis of this faith lies in Hinduism - its basic concepts and teachings originate from the Bhagavad Gita(which is considered to be the last of the Vedic scriptures and contains a summary of the Vedas, Puranas and the Upanishads). But the unique thing about its teachings is that 300 years ago, this book contained detailed and authoritative discussions of concepts and ideas contained in the Koran (which is considered to be the last of the Semitic scriptures).

The concept of unity of religions and universality of religious teachings is covered very beautifully in it. In fact, Mahamati Prannath never intended to start a separate faith,” he added.

Mohali, July 14
Officials of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) today clarified that the authority was in no way responsible for the negligence that had led to the death of a five-year-old boy, Arjun, due to a snakebite in Phase XI yesterday.

Arjun had died due to a suspected snakebite while he was playing in an empty plot where his father had an ironing hut. The residents later caught three snakes from the overgrowth.

Executive engineer, horticulture, H.S. Dhaliwal said he had visited the site this morning after the news of the child’s death appeared in newspapers.

“The boy lived in the plot where there is a PWD tube-well and they are responsible for the overgrowth of weeds there,” he said

Dhaliwal added that the area which the residents were complaining about at the rear of their houses lining the road was with the municipal council.

“The road berms within the older sectors of Mohali have been handed over to the council for maintenance years ago and they should be asked about the overgrowth in that area,” said Dhaliwal.

Mohali, July 14
Six computerised inter-state check posts will be set up in Mohali district sites for which are being identified by a five-member committee. The six sites will be located around Kharar or Balongi, Zirakpur, Lalru, Mohali, Mullanpur and Lakhnour and were likely to be finalised by this week-end.

It is learnt that these check posts will be set up on the PPP mode and will be used for the collection of all types of taxes instead of having different check posts for different kinds of taxes.

Deputy commissioner Rahul Bhandari said in accordance with the directions of special principal secretary to the chief minister and managing director, Punjab Infrastructure Development Board Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu a committee comprising additional deputy commissioner, SDM , DTO , a representative of the Excise and Taxation Department and one representative of the PWD was formed who would be finalising the sites for the check posts.

According to sources, a meeting of the committee was held at the level of the SDM here today and it was decided to involve the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority in the selection of sites as the availability of land had to be considered. 

Panchkula, July 14
The bodies of Devi Ram (70) and his son Dilip Ram (24), who were washed away in the Kwach khud near Baraotiwala on Saturday evening, were recovered today.

According to Satnam, younger brother of Dilip, his father left home in Sector 15 on Saturday morning for Baddi where Deep worked in the Cadbury factory. Both headed for Chaangar village.

Dilip was engaged to a girl there and the date of their marriage was to be finalised by the elders. They stopped for a while at Ramsehar to visit relatives. The family originally belongs to Ramsehar.

As the current in the Kwach khud was strong, the relatives asked the two to postpone the visit to Chaangar, but they remained adamant. The bodies were cremated here after postmortem.

Chandigarh, July 14
If the allegations of commercial plot owners of Ram Darbar are to be believed, the UT police has failed to curb the increasing incidents of theft in the area.

According to sources, almost a dozen incidents of theft have been reported during the past two months, with thieves decamping with goods worth lakhs.

Though the owners have lodged a number of police complaints, demanding proper security, nothing has been done to curb the increasing incidents.

The owners alleged that the police was blatantly refusing to provide adequate security to man the area.

On condition of anonymity, cops said, “We can’t do anything about it. The owners themselves have to arrange for the security guards for their plots.”

On June 6, the thieves fled with goods worth Rs 4 lakh by breaking the locks of two plots, while a few days later, the miscreants again struck at another two plots and managed to steal copper and electric wire.

The SHO, Sector 31 police station, Bhupinder Singh, denied that there was any increase in the incidents of theft. 

Talking to TNS, Doon said, “I will first study the system of the traffic here in the city and will work accordingly.”

Chandigarh, July 14
President of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee B.B. Bahl today appointed office-bearers in addition to already appointed ones.

Amandeep Basur, Balwant Singh Negiand Pardeep Bansal have been appointed vice-presidents of the District Congress Committee (Urban-I) while Ajay Joshi and Ashwani Kaushal have been appointed as general secretaries and Naresh Kumar as secretary.

Similarly, for the District Congress Committee (Urban-II), Jai Pal Chaudary and Ramesh Tayal have been appointed as vice-presidents, Davinde Mohan Sharma and Darshan Lal as general secretaries and Rattan Chand and Nand Singh as secretaries.

Besides this, Sukhbir Singh has been appointed as vice-president of the District Congress Committee (Rural).

Chandigarh, July 14
Around 1,264 students with compartment cases were admitted to Class XI today, which was the last day of counselling for admission. The counselling was held at GMSSS-10.

A heavy rush was witnessed at the fee counters from early morning till the evening. The students were seen making a last ditch effort to seek admission in any government school which had a vacant seat.

All seats have been filled for the general category in the science and commerce stream. However, some seats in the humanities stream are still vacant in the schools that fall in the rural areas - Karsan, Khuda Lahora, Khuda Alisher, Maloya, Behlana, Raipur Khurd, Sarangpur and Kaimbwala.

A few seats are also vacant in the vocational stream in GMSSS-37, 40, 47, 32 and GSSS-45. The Chandigarh education department has announced that there will be another counselling session on July 18 for students seeking admission under the sports category. 

Chandigarh, July 14
On the 99th day of the continuous agitation for the central university status for Panjab University, a large number of teachers and students from the departments of political science, philosophy, UIET, library science and sociology sat on the relay fast.

G.K. Chatrath, fellow, Panjab University, and many other senior teachers from the campus visited the site of the dharna.

Though Prof B.S. Brar, department of political science, welcomed the support of the Punjab government in granting central university status to PU, he expressed his dismay over the sluggish pace at which the file was moving at the level of governments. “The whole lot of efforts would go waste the letter from the HRD ministry is not replied promptly by the government of Punjab,” rued Prof. Brar.

“Now, since the Union Government has already agreed to grant Central University status to Panjab University, as per the announcement of the Chief Minister, Punjab, there is no reason to delay the letter of concurrence by the state government,” said Prof Sebastian, department of philosophy.

Meanwhile, PUTA executive committee had decided to hold an emergency general body meeting (GBM) of the teachers on July 21 at 11.30 am in the auditorium of the department of evening studies. In today’s meeting, the committee passed a resolution of thanks to the students, teachers and employees who endured rough weather and continued agitation against all odds.

In another resolution, the unstinted support from the media to save PU from the financial crisis was put on record. During the discussion the members suggested 
that since most of the admissions to different departments would be over during the current week, it is time to join hands with the students and intensify 
the stir. However, the mode of future agitation would be finally 
decided in the GBM on July 21.

Chandigarh, July 14
University Institute of Fashion Technology and Vocational Development (UIFTVD), Panjab University, has invited fresh applications for admission to the first semester of the five-year integrated BSc and MSc.

Application forms can be downloaded from the university website www.puchd.ac.in or obtained from State Bank of India, extension counter, Sector 14, Chandigarh, on payment. Last date for submission of application forms is July 23, 2008. Aptitude test and interview/ counselling will be held on July 24 from 10 am onwards. Merit list of candidates will be declared on July 25.

Admission fees will be deposited by July 28 as per the schedule of admission/ late admission already approved. All the students of Class XII who have scored 50 per cent marks in any stream are eligible to apply for this course, according to Dr Sween, coordinator of UIFTVD, PU.

DIPLOMA: The last date of submission of forms is July 21, according to Dr V.K. Singh, reader in Tibetan, department of Chinese and Tibetan, PU. This course was introduced from 2007-08 session keeping in view the need of a large Tibetan/Buddhist population in the vicinity of Chandigarh and adjacent states.

It is a part-time course. Any candidate having graduation degree is eligible to join the course. The course can be pursued along with a regular course like MA, MSc, MPhil or PhD.

Chandigarh, July 14
The Swift Fundamental Research and Education Society (SFRES), promoted by the Ind-Swift Pharmaceutical Group, has established the Swift School of Pharmacy and Swift School of Nursing at Rajpura, near here.

Announcing this at a press conference held here today, Dr Gopal Munjal, president of the society, and managing director of Ind-Swift group, said, “Our objective is to provide education construing to the industry demand for fully trained and skilled professionals.

There is wide gap in the demand and supply of skilled manpower, especially in the pharma sector, which has over 500 units in north.”

Swift School shall be offering a four-year degree programme in B.Pharm., which has been approved by All-India Council of Technical Education and the government of Punjab, and is affiliated to Punjab Technical University.

“The state-of-the-art campus is centrally air conditioned and is fully equipped with labs, smart class rooms, library and hostel facilities and has provision for 60 seats in which students from medical and non-medical streams can take admission after plus-two,” said Dr Rachna Kumaria, director, Swift School of Pharmacy.

COURTS

HC stays operation of order passed by CAT
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 14
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the operation of an order passed by the Chandigarh-Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) allocating Haryana cadre to 1993-batch IAS officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre, Dheeraj Gupta.

The Bench, comprising Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Ajay Tewari, also issued notice of motion to the respondents for September 1, while taking up a petition filed by the Union of India. Dheeraj Gupta had made it to the civil services in 1992. He had secured 12th rank in the all-India merit list after passing the examination under the general category.

He had opted for allocation of his home cadre of Haryana. But, the Union government submitted that Gupta was not entitled for home cadre, keeping in view the vacancies in Haryana state. As such, he was allocated the J&K cadre.

The IAS officer had initially moved the Principal Bench of the CAT in Delhi. It had, however, transferred the petition to CAT, Chandigarh.

In his orders, CAT vice-chairman had ruled: “I am of the view that the applicant has a strong case for allocation to Haryana cadre. I, therefore, strike down allocation of the applicant to the J&K cadre and direct (Centre) to allocate him to Haryana cadre.”

The order further reads: “Since it was a case of wrong allocation of the cadre, applicant would continue to have his original seniority in the all-India list even after his allocation to Haryana.”The CAT Chandigarh had also directed the authorities concerned to implement these orders within three months.

Harassment in buses

The high court Division Bench of Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Mahesh Grover today issued notice of motion for July 21, to the Chandigarh Administration on a petition highlighting the harassment and difficulties faced by passengers commuting by integrated air-conditioned private buses from district headquarters in Punjab to Chandigarh.

In the petition filed in public interest, petitioner P.K. Dutta and five others had contended that these buses were presently dropping the passengers at the adjoining Punjab township of Mohali. This was because the buses were not allowed to enter the Union Territory of Chandigarh for dropping or picking up passengers, since their registration documents, permits etc. were not duly countersigned by the Chandigarh Administration.

The petitioners from Ferozepore, Muktsar, Bathinda and other places, had added that directions should be issued to the Chandigarh Administration to immediately validate the operation of these private AC buses.

GMADA gets notice

The high court today issued notice of motion to the chief administrator of Greater Mohali Area Development Agency (GMADA) and others on a petition filed by Mohali-based Janata Land Developers through managing director Kulwant Singh.

He was seeking refund of over Rs.1.60 crore, which had been paid by the petitioner company by way of bank guarantee and external development charges, along with its application for grant of licence towards the setting up a residential colony under the Punjab Apartment Act. The petitioner also prayed for restraining GMADA from recovering the alleged dues of Rs 121.56 lakh on account of external development charges, licence fee, change of land use etc.

Chandigarh, July 14
A monetary compensation may not be the answer to the woes of a 22-year-old MBA aspirant, who, thanks to the callous attitude of the postal department, missed appearing in the Management Aptitude Test. The consumer court’s order in his case today has vindicated his stand.

On November 14 last year, three days before the last date for the submission of the MAT form, Munish Kumar sent his documents via speed post to New Delhi. The letter never reached on time and was delivered on November 26. As a result Munish failed to appear in the test.

In its order today, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum not only directed the General Post Office, Sector 17, to pay double the amount of the speed post charges of Rs 56 but also ordered payment of Rs 2,000 for harassment and Rs 1,500 towards costs of litigation.

In his petition Munish had alleged that on inquiries he found that the speed post was sent on November 20. Alleging deficiency in service by the postal department due to which he couldn't appear for the test as he was not issued the roll number, Munish filed a complaint with the forum.