Jalandhar, November 4
Punjab Technical University (PTU) today cancelled the papers of three B.Tech students after their award sheets were found to have been amended to pass them.

The case, which came to light a few days back, is said to have been the handiwork of the staff of the university.

Dean (examination) Dr N.P. Singh confirmed the action and said an inquiry in this regard had been marked to Dr R.P. Singh, dean (distance education), by the acting vice-chancellor Tejinder Kaur.

All three students are boys. While two of them are from the Baba Bhag Singh Institute of Engineering and Technology, the other one is from Dera Bassi engineering college. All four students had passed the eight semesters but had pending reappear examination which they wanted to get cleared. A few marks were added in the mathematics reappear examination during the reprint of the sheets.

The dean (examination) revealed that the incident came to light when a parent, an advocate, from Ambala called up asking about the reappear result of his son.

“He asked for one subject but as per our records, he had appeared in two re-appear examinations. We cross checked and re-crosschecked to find certain anomalies in the award sheets,” he pointed out. Some smart employees of the university were behind the whole episode. “Our system is otherwise foolproof because we scan the OMR sheets to prepare the award lists. The soft copies were erased from the computer by tempering with it. A reprint was taken. We found certain deviations in it from the normal pattern. The fonts were different and cutting patterns were also slightly changed,” he said, adding that the suspicious employees had been asked to surrender themselves before they got indicted in the inquiry.

Meanwhile, a decision on finalising the name of Punjab Technical University vice-chancellor is likely to be taken in a meeting of the search committee to be conducted by the chief secretary in Chandigarh on November 11. Three-four names have been doing the rounds.

The university has been functioning without a regular VC since the past nearly five months. The charge of the VC had been given to Tejinder Kaur, principal secretary, technical education, ever since.

Jalandhar, November 4
The district consumer disputes redressal forum this morning ordered the issuing of bailable warrants against LIC for a sum of Rs 5,000, returnable on or before November 26.

As the counsel for LIC appeared and took an undertaking to deposit the amount of an accidental claim to a woman on November 6, the orders were slightly changed.

President A K Sharma said the bailable warrants would not be issued till November 6.

The state commission has already dismissed the appeals filed by the LIC against an order of the district forum regarding payment of claims to Sansarpur-based Unita Bansal whose husband died on the railway track near the PAP flyover here more than seven years back. An appeal in the national commission has also reportedly been dismissed.

Bansal’s husband had insured his life for a sum of Rs 3 lakh with accident benefit on July 8, 2001 and another for a sum of Rs 2 lakh on July 18, 2001. He died just a few days later on July 28, 2001. He already had a policy of Rs 50,000 in 1996 which had lapsed and was revived on October 14, 1999.

In their appeal, the LIC officials had claimed that deceased Sushil Kumar had an annual income of Rs 70,000 per annum and he could not have afforded so many life insurance policies by making the payment of such a huge amount as premium.

They pleaded that Sushil Kumar’s death had not occurred by accident but it was a case of suicide while alleging that there was an intention of fraud on the part of the insured.

The commission, however, found that the LIC officials could not produce any documents to prove that the deceased had committed suicide. It also observed that Sushil was already insured in 1996 and from the fact that he had taken two policies a few days before his death, it could not be presumed that he had secured his policies with an intention to commit a fraud.

Dismissing the three appeals of the LIC with costs of Rs 5,000 each, the commission also disposed off the appeals filed by Unita for enhancement of the rate of interest of  6 per cent awarded by the  forum. “We do not find the interest rate to be extremely low.

The respondent, however, would be entitled to all the benefits as per the insurance policies which Sushil Kumar was holding at the time of death,” the commission ruled. 

Amritsar, November 4
Special Narcotics Cell (SNC) and Counter Intelligence (CI) Department, Amritsar, in a joint operation, recovered 4 kilogram of opium and arrested notorious inter-state opium smuggler, Harbhajan Lal of Jaintipur village falling under Amritsar rural police district here.

Praveen Kumar Sinha, SSP, SNC and Makhan Singh, AIG, CI in a joint press release said the accused was nabbed from the Sultanwind area after a tip off, where he was waiting for a party for a consignment to be delivered.

A case under sections 18/25/29/61/85 of the NDPS Act was registered at the Sultanwind police station in this regard.

According to preliminary investigations, Harbhajan had close links with some notorious inter state opium smugglers. He procured the consignment of opium from Rajasthan and M.P. and retailed the same in and around Amritsar.

Investigations are being conducted on different lines to bring the complete network and nexus of the Indian and Pak smugglers to light, they added.

Meanwhile, the SNC also seized one kilogram smack and apprehended two smugglers identified as Yudhvir Singh, alias Jodha of Bharhiwal and Bhola Singh, alias Bhola of Sultanwind.

The two accused were nabbed from Chamrang Road near the telephone exchange.

A case under sections 21/29/61/85 of the NDPS Act was registered at the B Division police station.

Jodha was supplying drugs in and around Amritsar.

Investigations are being conducted to unearth the network of these inter state and local smugglers. 

Jalandhar/Kapurthala, November 4
In their statewide protest, journalists submitted memoranda to deputy commissioners in Jalandhar and Kapurthala today to register their resentment against the arrest of NDTV reporter Ashwini Malhotra.

Journalists from print and electronic media gathered at Punjab Press Club here and proceeded towards the district administrative complex to submit a memorandum to DC Ajit Singh Pannu.

Meanwhile, demonstrations and protests against Malhotra’s arrest by journalists on the call given by the Chandigarh Press Club, Chandigarh, rocked the state today.

Majority of district headquarters witnessed sit-in dharnas with journalists wearing black badges in front of deputy commissioners’ offices. Apart from Jalandhar and Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Patiala, Amritsar, Bathinda, Mansa, Ropar, Faridkot and Ferozepore witnessed forceful demonstrations with thousands of journalists hitting the roads to demonstrate unity among the journalistic fraternity against the arrest of their colleague.

Earlier in the day, a high-level delegation of journalists in Chandigarh met the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who not only assured them full cooperation on his part to settle the contentious issue of Malhotra’s arrest, but also agreed to set up district and state-level advisory committees to probe complaints against journalists. — TNS

Patiala, November 4
While the visiting Central government team, which, was keeping a tab on the dengue situation in the state was learnt to have declared dengue as an ‘epidemic’, the Punjab Civil Medical Services Association (PCSMA) has sought intervention of the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and has urged him to direct health authorities to equip all state-run hospitals blood banks with platelet separators so as to save hundreds of serious dengue patients.

Meanwhile, dengue patients were undergoing a lot of inconvenience on account of overcrowding of referral hospitals that were allegedly refusing admission to lesser serious patients for shortage of beds.

The Tribune had highlighted the issue of dengue in its columns on Tuesday. The patron of the PCMS Association Dr. M.S. Randhawa, said the visiting national team, led by deputy director (vector borne diseases, Government of India) Dr Kalpana has expressed her dissatisfaction over poor awareness of people and insufficient preventive measures taken to contain dengue outbreak. On the other hand, deputy director (malaria, Punjab) Dr. Varinder Mohi, however, denied that the disease had been declared by the state government as an epidemic officially as yet.As per PCSMA, the estimated number of clinically diagnosed cases of the dengue could be as high as 25,000, because all patients do not undergo these tests that were only undertaken in case of complicated and serious patient due to the cost involved in these tests.

Elisa dengue anti-body titration test at a well-known Ludhiana hospital costs Rs 920 per sample, while the other rapid dengue detection kit test costs Rs 700 to the patient.

Out of 128 cases admitted and treated at local Rajendra Hospital special ward, created to treat dengue patients, a large number of them needed platelet infusion due to severity of symptoms.