Jalandhar, September 23
Trying to tone down the ongoing student-teacher feud at Dr B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT), the authorities today decided to suspend the teaching work on the campus till October 4.

The students started leaving the hostel after the announcement. No classes were held today for the third consecutive day. A total lull prevailed on the campus as even the offices in the administrative block remained closed.

Dr A.L. Sangal, registrar, NIT, said the campus had been closed till October 1. “Since the next three days are also holidays, it will remain closed till October 4. The teachers, however, have been asked not to leave the station as they could be called any moment,” he said.

The registrar added that a committee had been constituted to resolve the issue. “Both sides will be given a proper hearing before passing any decision. The demand of the students to immediately terminate the assistant professor who had allegedly slapped a student’s brother is quite unfair. We have set procedures that need to be duly followed. The students’ demand of allowing them to leave the hostel after 11 pm is also unjustifiable as there are some norms that have to be adhered to.

“The teachers too have been much annoyed and have declined to do the honorary anti-ragging duties in the night. They too need to be pacified. We hope that the situation will normalise soon. By then, we also expect Dr Moin Uddin, director, back on the campus from his leave,” he added.

Gurdaspur, September 23
Hundreds of students of the regional campus of Guru Nanak Dev University today boycotted their classes and held a rally in the campus for hours together to lodge their protest against the “step-motherly treatment” given to them by the campus authorities.

The students, who have been fed up with the maltreatment meted out to them in all fields, have also decided to continue their strike till all their demands are accepted.

A cross section of students alleged that though the campus authorities had taken electricity generator charges from them but the generator was never put to use for running the fans when their classes were on.

They added students had been reduced to slaves as the campus authorities had not even tried to remove unsanitary conditions prevailing in the campus premises. Not only this, they were being served ‘below normal quality’ food in the canteen and hostel mess, they further claimed.

The students said they were not being allowed to take medical leave. “We were made to consume that water unfit for human consumption. No water coolers had been installed in the campus despite the fact that strength of students was around one thousand. Pawan Kumar, head, Regional Campus, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Jalandhar, September 23
A function on ‘Hindi Diwas’ was organised in Doaba College Jalandhar to discus major ancient and historical developments, which influenced development of today’s Hindi and to uphold the relevance of Hindi as national language.

While addressing students, Health and Family Welfare Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla, said, “Two hundred years of slavery rendered our minds occupied with thoughts, lifestyle and culture of Britishers. Most of the educated Indians feel proud to live and talk like Britishers. All these ‘days celebrations’ are of no importance until we apply our traditions and language in our own routine.”

Dr Om Awasthi, former HoD of Hindi at GND University, said approximately 45 per cent people of India speak Hindi and its sub-dialects. The government is not serious to initiate campaigns to develop and implement Hindi as per needs.

Alok Sondhi, President of College Executive Committee, Ravi Mittal and Narinder Sehgal, eminent industrialists of the city, were also present.

Jalandhar, September 23
The District Language Committee has expressed disappointment on the “gross violation” of the Punjabi Language Act in the district.

The committee has also asked for corrections where errors, mistakes or misuse of Punjabi language have taken place.

The committee members in a meeting chaired by committee chairman S.S. Phillaur, claimed that the hoardings and notice boards have been dotting various places with full of mistakes and errors throughout the district.

They pointed out that signboards listing names of villages, cities, towns and other important land marks along the main and village link roads have been wrongly spelt.

Even vernacular newspapers and private TV channels have been ‘breaking the leg’ of Punjabi language by wrong spellings, they said. Moreover, the radio stations were also making announcements by using wrong Punjabi, they claimed.

District Education Officer Joginder Das was not aware of the fact whether the private, public and government aided schools had made Punjabi language compulsory and if yes then up to which standard.

Pannu asked the DEO to prepare a list of schools which have been violating the guidelines of affiliation with the school education board. He also asked the committee members to take up the issue with the authorities concerned who had erected signboard and hoarding with language errors.

Interestingly, all the committee members who were to take part in the meeting could not join the meeting on time. Deputy Commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu was seen directing the District Public Relations Officer to make phone calls to every member and ‘request’ them to attend the meeting.

Jalandhar, September 23
The Punjab government plans to build 7,337 housing units at a cost of Rs 135 crore to rehabilitate slum dwellers in different urban areas in the state.

Stating this in a press release, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said here today that the houses would be ready for allotment within the next 24 months.

As many as 755 dwelling units would be constructed at a cost of Rs 42.40 crore to rehabilitate dwellers of 22 slum clusters in Jalandhar itself and 720 units would be built at Rajpura. Similarly, 320 residential units were being raised at Amritsar at a cost of Rs 5.79 crore for residents of three slum areas, the press releases said.

Hoshiarpur, September 23
Following a protest by Hoshiarpur MP Santosh Chowdhary against the proposed laying of foundation stones by Punjab Chief Parliamentary Secretary Des Raj Dhugga for improvement and strengthening of the Ragwal-Garhdiwala to Tanda and from Mehangorwal-Hariana to Sikri roads under the Prime Minister’s Rural Road Scheme (PMRRS), the Public Works Department (PWD) cancelled the ceremonies on Monday.

Claiming this, Santosh said the PWD had arranged two functions for the purpose in which people of the area had also been invited to witness the laying of foundation stones. After her objections, the proposed laying of foundation stones by Dhugga was cancelled. The funds for the works were being provided by the Union Government under the PMRRS and Punjab ministers, chief parliamentary secretaries and MLAs of the SAD-BJP government had no right to lay the foundation stones or inaugurate them. Only an MP was eligible for the purpose.

She pointed out that to gain cheap popularity, another Chief Parliamentary Secretary had wrongly laid the foundation stone of a road at Nasrala being constructed under the PMRRS.

Condemning the ongoing policies of the SAD-BJP government due to which people of Punjab were suffering, she said it had failed miserably on all fronts.