Jalandhar, May 18
The delay in the examination schedule of Punjab Technical University by 18 days has resulted in a problem for many students of its affiliated colleges.

The situation has become murky especially for those who are to appear for their final semester examination and have to comply with joining schedule given to them by the private companies that have already hired them for jobs.

The postponement of the schedule has also put the career of other students at stake who are trying for MBA and MCA admissions in other universities. “Since the examination schedule has been put off, the results are also bound to get late. The other universities do not sometimes accommodate or block the seats of such students even if they have a good rank in entrance tests. They demand a copy of the result first to meet the selection criterion,” said a management lecturer of a local college.

A director of a Ludhiana-based college revealed that the delayed result schedule had caused a lot of inconvenience to some foreign students who would now have to get their flights cancelled and re-booked to go back home.

“Many students had got advanced bookings done under rare, economical schemes available earlier. But now many rue that they would have to spend double the fare charges to take the same flights,” he elaborated.

Another college principal disclosed that a serving army colonel who had taken admission in a PTU course had received letter for taking over as Brigadier. “He had a fixed time period for his study leave. When earlier the exams had been postponed, he had applied for a 10 days’ extension. Again the papers have been put off for eight days and he would again have to write to the defence authorities for yet another extension period depending on the date sheet which might be a tedious problem”, he discussed.

The placement in charge with a local hotel management college revealed that many of its final year students had been placed with McDonald’s. “Their HR heads had been pressing for an early joining but we insisted that the students would not be free before May 25. Now since the examination will begin on May 28, they would not be able to join before the third week of June (depending on the date-sheet). We are worried whether the company will bear with the problem”, he said.

Amritsar, May 18
Life has virtually become hell for the residents of several localities on the Majitha road in the city as they have been getting drinking water contaminated with sewage for the past one month.

Thanks to the overflowing and choked sewerage and subsequent failure of civic authorities to initiate any corrective measure on pretext of their preoccupation with the election duties, the lives of hundreds of residents have been put in danger. The areas, which are affected by the problem includes Guru Nanak Nagar, Jagdambe Colony and Shastri Nagar.

Ravinder Kumar, a resident of Guru Nanak Nagar, said the residents of the area had given a number of complaints to the civic authorities but it failed to take any step even as a month had elapsed. Another resident said last year also they had to face the same problem and a number of cases of cholera and several water borne diseases were reported in these areas.

The problem has now spread to Rajinder Nagar, Gopal Nagar and Kashmir Avenue areas. Even various educational institutions in these localities have asked the children to bring drinking water from their homes as water in school taps has also been contaminated. Karan Kumar of Jagdambe colony said the foul smell emanating from the water in the corporation taps was unbearable and could not even be used for washing purposes leave aside drinking.

The women folk said they had informed about the problem to the leaders also who visited the areas during recently held parliamentary elections who assured them to solve the problem once the elections were over.

Tilak Raj, SDO, Municipal Corporation, said he has received the complaint only today and had sent a junior engineer to look into the problem. He said as per the information received, the sewage has been cleared and breakage or leakage of pipe is also being looked into.

Nawanshahr, May 18
With the launch of 3G services by Jalandhar Telecom General Manager Rajiv Kumar, Nawanshahr has become lightening fast today. The town is the seventh in the state to get the latest mobile technology. Earlier, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Bathinda, Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Mansa had been provided with the 3G technology to the BSNL customers.

DGM (Mobile) Gautam Lal made a video call to GMT Rajiv Kumar for formally inaugurating the 3G service in the town. The demo of the video call, mobile broadband and live TV channels on the mobile phones, was given to the guests.

Rajiv Kumar said a sum of Rs 273 crore was being spent on providing 3G technology to the BSNL customers in 23 towns in Punjab. “The main advantage of the 3G service would be to those customers who require high speed data transfer through their mobile phones. Besides, the facility of video calls and video conferencing and the 3G technology would provide telephone channels on mobile handset. The 3G users would always remain connected even on online while on the move,” said the GMT, adding that the speed of 3G download would be 20 times faster than the normal 2G network.

Among others, Gautam Lal, S.N. Bhagat (DGMs), Raj Kumar, Vijay Kumar (DETs) and Surjit Singh, SDO, Ankur spoke.

Jalandhar, May 18
Fighting a lone battle of ethnicity in the heartland of Punjab, Jaskaranpreet Kaur, a student of Class IV in a CBSE-affiliated school, has been denied entry in the school owing to her decision to wear “salwar-kameez” instead of a skirt. The issue raked up after the girl got baptised on Baiskahi recently and expressed her desire to wear the traditional Punjabi outfit.

The nine-year-old student of Guru Tegh Bahadur Public School, situated in Hazara village, near here, the girl has been facing denial to attend the school by the school management on her strong insistence to wear “salwar-kameez” as per the “Sikh rehat maryada.”

Talking to The Tribune, she said: “The school management virtually refused me to enter the school. Though my parents took up the issue with the school authorities, but they did not budge from their stand. It has been more than a month since I am sitting at home.”

Surinder Singh, father of the girl, maintained that his repeated attempts to meet the school management went in vain. “This is ridiculous. My daughter is facing humiliation at the hands of the so-called religious preachers. This issue has hampered the studies of my daughter. Under these circumstances I am forced to admit my daughter in some other reputed school,” he added.

Surprisingly, the school is being run in the name of preaching Sikh tenets to the students. Even the land for running the school has been given by none other than the Shiromani Committee. The incident has drawn flak from various Sikh organisations as the chairman of the school, Surjeet Singh Cheema, happens to be the member of the Dharam Pracharak committee.

National general secretary (Doaba zone) of the Shiromani Youth Akali Dal Ravinder Singh Laddi today met Deputy Commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu in this regard. “We have asked the DC to look into the matter and resolve the issue at the earliest,” he added.

When contacted, Cheema maintained that the school authorities had made it clear in prospectus that girl students till Class VII would have to wear skirts. “Above all, the parents of the girl have not approached me directly so far,” he added.

Amritsar, May 18
Shiromani Akali Dal senior vice-president and All-India Sikh Students Federation patron Bhai Manjit Singh said the SAD in collaboration with the SGPC, other Sikh organisations would hold a kirtan darbar and a dhadhi darbar to observe the 25th anniversary of Operation Bluestar here on June 6.

He announced the religious programmes after holding a joint meeting of the SAD, Damdami Taksal, AISSF, SAD youth wing and Sant Samaj here today. He said the programmes would be held under the supervision of Akal Takht. Among others, Bhai Ram Singh, head, Damdami Taksal, Karnail Singh Panjoli from the AISSF, Harinder Singh Dhillon from the youth wing of the SAD and heads of various groups of kar sewa from Sant Samaj participated in the meeting.

He said sthe religious programmes would be dedicated to Sant Jarnail Singh, Bhai Amrik Singh, Gen Subheg Singh, Baba Thara Singh and others.

He urged Akal Takht Jathedar, Giani Gurbachan Singh, and SGPC President Avtar Singh to observe the anniversary of the infamous operation at the international level. He said a comprehensive programme must be chalked out to hold a mammoth panthic gathering on the day and added that it would be a befitting tribute to martyrs of the panth.

Amritsar, May 18
The police has arrested a couple for allegedly stabbing their neighbour Surinder Singh (29) of Babe Da Dhaba to death. The police has registered a case under sections 302 and 34, IPC, at Civil Line police station here.

According to information, the deceased went to their house situated in Ranjit Avenue to take back his money. However, a dispute erupted between the two following which Sunita caught hold of Surinder while Subash Kumar stabbed him with a pair of scissors. He was rushed to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries today morning. The police has handed over the body to his family members after a post-mortem examination.