Amritsar, September 25
In order to bring in transparency in the examination system, Guru Nanak Dev University would allow its candidates to see their answer sheets of various semester courses from the coming mid-semester examinations going to be held in December this year.

Announcing this, Vice-Chancellor A.S. Brar claimed that this would perhaps be for the first time in the country that any university was allowing its students to see their answer booklets to remove any doubts and take a look at performance themselves.

He said the responsibilities would be fixed on the heads of various departments in this regard.

He said the university was going to increase the strength of its students in various professional and MSc courses. The university was going to recruit more teachers in computers and electronics in order to meet the shortage in various regional campuses.

Meanwhile, mincing no words, he warned the students of the Gurdaspur campus, who had gone to strike in protest against lack of basic facilities like water coolers, water and electricity, that indiscipline would not be tolerated on the campus.

He said all their genuine demands had already been accepted by the university and sanction had been granted to provide every facility on the (Gurdaspur) campus.

Steps being taken by the university include providing sewage treatment plants which would help in treating sewage that would be reused for agricultural purposes. He said more computers were being provided with the Internet facility there.

He said the university would construct an overhead reservoir with a deep borewell to provide round-the-clock water supply to students.

He said he had deputed the Dean Academic Affairs and the Dean Student Welfare to talk to students there and sort out the matter on September 29 when students come for the examinations.

Jalandhar, September 25
The police arrested a person for smuggling 1.800 kg of heroin worth Rs 9 crore in the international market from the Transport Nagar area, near here, this morning.

SP (City-I) G.S. Toor claimed that Balwant Singh, a resident of Naushera Dhal village on the Indo-Pak border in Tarn Taran district, was nabbed by a police party when he was carrying the contraband.

Acting on a tip-off, a police party led by Rajesh Kumar, SHO of Division No 1 police station, nabbed the man in Transport Nagar. The suspect was heading towards Maqsudan on foot after getting down from a bus on the Jalandhar-Amritsar highway.

Toor claimed that the man was to sell the drug in the city on retail basis. He, however, refused to give further details in this respect.

Talking to The Tribune, Toor said this was the fourth arrest in a week. Interestingly, all the suspects were linked with Kazi Mandi, adjacent to the local railway station.

Earlier, the police had arrested three persons, including a teenager girl for carrying drugs.

Paranjit Singh with 10 gm, Balwinder Singh with 70 gm and Lachami with 12 gm of narcotics were arrested, he claimed.

Further investigation into the case of Balwant Singh was on. The police apprehends some major clues in the drug trade from across the border.

A case under the NDPS Act has been registered against Balwant Singh.

It may be recalled that the Counter-Intelligence (CI), Jalandhar Zone, on June 5 had arrested three persons for smuggling 4 kg of heroin worth over Rs 20 crore in the international market.

The CI had unearthed an international drug mafia operating in the region. The CI had claimed that drug mafia kingpin Rupinder Singh, alias Robb Sidhu, was active in the region and had collected heroin and other drugs in bulk for transporting them to Vancouver in Canada.

Gurdaspur, September 25
The FCI Executive Staff Union has decided to organise a march from its head office to the official residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on September 30 to lodge a protest against the denial of acceptance of their demands by the authorities concerned.

Megh Raj, state secretary, FCI Executive Staff Union, Punjab, in a press note issued here said the union’s protests by holding lunch-hour demonstrations at its district, regional and zonal-level offices countrywide could not bring any relief to the agitating employees and hence the union and its allied associations had decided to hold a protest march from the FCI head office in New Delhi to the office of the Prime Minister.

A memorandum, written in blood of employees, would be submitted to the Prime Minister in connection with the delay being caused in accepting their long-pending demands by the authorities concerned.

He said their main demands included wage revision due from January, 2007, limit enhancement in PLI bonus and stopping 24-hour loading/unloading operations.

Batala, September 25
Yuva Sadbhavna Divas was celebrated at the RR Bawa DAV College for Girls here on Thursday. Shakti Khullar, member of the local managing committee, was the chief guest. College Principal Ajay Sareen exhorted the students to perform their duties efficiently.

Students of the Music Department of the college gave a performance of folk songs.