Chandigarh, July 3
Confusion marred the declaration of the first cut-off list for the class XI admissions in city government schools today.

The lists left many parents confused over the allotment of seats, who claimed to have been allotted seats in the schools featuring last on the preference lists, while they were eligible for the top-category schools.

While the education department has, on its part, uploaded all lists on the website, it has proved to be nothing more than a list of jargons to many.

“How do I know that a less meritorious student has not made to the school where my child couldn’t make it. They have a list talking about tie 1 or tie 2, but what do these terms mean remains a mystery to us. Transparency has gone for a toss in this counseling,” said a parent.

While the lists left many parents confused over the allotment of seats, the UT education department seemed equally uncertain about various aspects.

While almost 40 per cent of the total seats are still lying vacant, the department is yet to work out the modalities of the second counselling if any.

The parents have been asked to block their allotted seats by submitting the fee by the next week. However, it yet to be decided whether it will be refundable in case any student opts out later.

“We will decide on second counselling only after the students submit fee for the allotted seats. It will give us a clear idea on the number of vacant seats. We have not decided anything about refunding fee in case any student wishes to switch schools,” said DEO Chanchal Singh.

Students arrested for looting  food delivery boys 
Ramanjit Singh Sidhu/TNS

Chandigarh, July 3
A gang of five engineering students, allegedly involved in looting home delivery boys of various food joints of food items and cash in the city, today landed in police net.

The police said the five students, including son of a Lehragaga (Sangrur)-based Akali leader, had looted two delivery boys of different eating joints in two consecutive days.

Additional SHO of the Sector 39 police station Inspector Hardit Singh said in the wake of the two incidents investigating teams of Sector 36 and 39 police stations developed sources and managed to track down one of the suspects in a private computer training centre today. His interrogation further led to the arrest of the four other miscreants.

The accused have been identified as Amanjot Singh, a resident of Ludhiana, Harmandeep Singh, a resident of Moga, Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Ferozpore, Vikramjit Singh of Lehragaga in Sangrur district and Amandeep Singh of Sangrur. The students were identified as Vikramjit Singh of PEC, Gurpreet Singh, doing MBA from regional centre of Punjabi University, Phase III, Mohali, Amanjot of Jetking Institute, Chandigarh, Amardeep Singh doing NET coaching and Harman, preparing for IELTS.

Inspector Hardit Singh said the miscreants, on July 1, had placed an order for eatables worth Rs 2,360 with Tehal Singh chicken corner in Sector 22. They had given their address of a house in Sector 37 for delivery. When the delivery boy reached at the given address, he found five youths standing outside the house. Two of the youths took food items from him and tried to slip away.

The boy got suspicious and followed them. The other three boys thrashed him and, in the process, the delivery boy lost a gold chain, he was wearing. The matter was reported to the police and a case of snatching was registered under Section 379 and 356 of the Indian Penal Code.

The police said a similar incident was reported from Sector 36 last night in which a delivery boy of Pizza hut was robbed of food items worth about Rs 2,900. A case was registered in this connection at the Sector 36 police station.

The police said the accused was produced before the victim, who identified them. One of the victims had told the police that the accused had a Skoda Car with them. The police is yet to recover the car. The accused will be produced before a local court tomorrow.

Chandigarh, July 3
Already drawing flak for encouraging “betting” on plots in Aerocity, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) has attracted criticism from consumer rights activists for allegedly adopting unfair trade practice while inviting applications against the housing project. The activists have also highlighted the role of financial institutions in adopting “monopolistic and restrictive trade practice” while financing the plots.

Instead of inviting applications from genuine plot seekers, GMADA has “circumvented” rules and regulations to allow maximum “betting” on its plots. It is clear that the government is itself turning into a property dealer, said Ajay Jagga, a lawyer, who today called a press conference to highlight the issue. “By not restricting one plot per family, GMADA is openly trying to mop up maximum funds and is going out of the way to protect banks,” he added.

Leading the activists, Jagga said he would write to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the Reserve Bank of India regarding the “unfair trade practices” being adopted by GMADA and banks. “Accepting blank cheques was illegal. While banks were charging more than 7 per cent interest per annum, GMADA was assuring 5.5 per cent rate of interest after the stipulated period. If refunds are delayed, GMADA and banks would still earn 2.2 per cent, which is arbitrary,” he said.

Comparing the housing scheme offered by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), he said to protect the rights of the consumers, the money should be refunded within 90 days from the date of closure of the scheme.

Chandigarh, July 3
After a day’s respite, the city again experienced sultry conditions today with the mercury rising by over six degrees from Thursday’s 30.2 degrees Celsius to 36.3 degrees.

The minimum temperature also rose to 28.3 degrees Celsius compared to 25.4 degrees recorded yesterday. Met officials have forecast partly cloudy sky and light showers in the city tomorrow.

“On Saturday, humidity level was high. It oscillated between 80 and 40 per cent as the sun played hide and seek throughout the day,” said a senior Met official. He said light rains are expected in the city tomorrow. The official added that the maximum and minimum temperature on Sunday would be around 37 degrees Celsius and 28 degrees, respectively.

Pre-monsoon showers on Thursday had brought down the temperature by over 8 degrees C to 30.2 degrees C.

He, however, said the much-awaited monsoon is expected to hit the region by the second week of July. According to the Met department, rainfall during June in central states, including Madhya Pradesh was 20 per cent below the long period average. Also, the cumulative seasonal rainfall for the country as a whole during the season up to July 1 has been 16 per cent below the long period average. It was reported that sowing of paddy in the region has been delayed due to deficient rainfall up to June-end.

"Today, the weather was relatively hotter. We just hope there will be rains on Sunday so that we can enjoy the weekend. I have planned to go out with my family,” said Rajan Singla, a software professional.

Rupali, a student, said she was surprised to see the temperature rising again. "I am hoping for some rains tomorrow so that the weather remains cool. I am planning to meet my friends,'' she said.

“Due to low pressure areas over Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the city witnessed a change of weather conditions,” said a Met official.

Zirakpur, July 3
The company undertaking maintenance of the Ambala-Chandigarh highway today removed illegal sewage lines connected to storm water RCC drains.

However, the team had a tough time conducting the drive, as many residents raised objections.

According to GMR sources, a prior notice was given to the encroachers to remove the illegal connections and also asked them to lay down 1-km long pipe to open the closed drain. But the residents have done nothing so far, sources claimed.

The GMR sources also stated that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) had asked the Mohali Administration to instruct the Zirakpur Municipal Council authorities concerned to disconnect illegal drain and sewage lines connected to storm water RCC drains on the national highways.

In May, this matter was discussed at a meeting along with the local administration at SDM office. In which, the NHAI stated that a team from GMR company had inspected the sites in the Zirakpur and found that the waste water lines from the colonies had been connected to the drains meant for draining the national highway storm water. An official alleged that when the team had tried to remove the drains, the elected representative of the area stopped them.

Meanwhile, GMR official stated that the illegal drains had been removed to avoid water-logging problem on the highway. More illegal drains would be removed in the coming days, official added.

Chandigarh, July 3
In this era of information technology, the telegraph wing of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited seems to be living in ancient times.

A telegram from Chennai took eight days to reach Chandigarh despite both cities having one of the best communication systems in the country.

Interestingly, the telegraph authorities at Chandigarh’s Sector 17, after receiving the telegram from Chennai, took four days to deliver it to Vinod Kohli, a resident of Sector 44, at hardly a distance of 4 km from the telegraph office.

According to Kohli, he was to attend a meeting at Chennai on July 3 and the organisers had sent a message regarding it to him at on June 26 at 2.41 pm through a phonogram. The phonogram was received by the Chandigarh office of the BSNL at 9.49 am on July 29. However, the telegraph personnel took a good 24 hours to notice it and put a stamp, dated June 30. Things failed to move fast even after that, and ultimately the message was delivered to him on July 3 at 10.30 am. It is another matter that the meeting at Chennai had already been started by that time, said Kohli.

Telecom General Manager Naresh Sharma said he would look into the matter after it was brought to his notice.

Chandigarh, July 3
Taking cognisance of the apprehensions expressed by the Panjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) on the latest regulations issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the PU Vice-Chancellor today assured PUTA representatives that the interests of the teachers would be taken care of and the career advancement scheme (CAS) promotions would not suffer on account of the new regulations.

Earlier PUTA at its emergency meeting held yesterday had questioned the adoption of the UGC regulations on the issue of CAS promotions of those who became eligible after December 31, 2008 and had been interviewed and selected.

The PU VC informed that the university has already approached the UGC and has sought clarification on CAS cases pending for approval of the Syndicate. In response to the request of PUTA members for expediting the clearance of pending promotion cases, the VC told a committee for this purpose has already been constituted under the chairmanship of Dean University Instructions.

It was assured that the teachers, who had become eligible for the promotion under CAS after December 31, 2008, would not suffer under the new regulations.

The VC further assured the members of the teachers’ union that no candidates, who have been interviewed and selected under CAS, would be re-interviewed. In case, any such candidate does not meet new requirements for promotion, he would be asked to meet them without undergoing the entire process of promotions all over again.

Mohali, July 3
Even as the admission process to Class XI in the Government College here draws to a close, only 5 per cent seats have been filled in the medical stream and 17 per cent in the non-medical stream till today.

According to sources, only three students had taken admission in the medical stream against 60 seats.

The position in the non-medical stream was slightly better with 10 students having taken admission. The seats for the non-medical stream, too, are 60.

College teachers alleged that some Class X students of the Punjab School Education Board had still not been provided detail marks cards (DMCs), which proved as a hindrance in taking admission to Class XI. They said that some students had provided computer printouts of the board result, on the basis of which they were admitted to the college.

The admission process started on June 10 and had to go on till June 22. The date of admission was reportedly extended to July 4, though the college authorities had not received any official intimation in this regard. Since July 4 falls on a Sunday, the college will admit the students even on July 5 after which the admission would be granted only by paying a late fee.

Chandigarh, July 3
Leaving many a student, surprised, the UT education department has admitted more students than the total number of science seats in various renowned government schools.

While the average number of extra admissions stand at four in many schools, in GMSSS, Sector 16, the department has admitted 290 students, while the total number of seats stands at 275. Similarly in GMSSS, Sector 35, 286 students have been admitted for 275 seats.

District Education Officer Chanchal Singh has justified the admissions as buffer to ensure that seats are full.

“We have admitted 10 percent extra students. Just in case somebody doesn’t submit the fee by the due date, the seat can be offered to buffer candidates,” he said. The situation seems quite unlikely in case of the two renowned schools, which top the preference list of hundreds of students. Moreover the need of this buffer system seems quite surprising in the wake of tested options like waiting list or second counselling.

The DEO has also failed to clarify if these buffer students do not make it to allotted schools, what will be their fate? Will they have to even give up on the second best options because their names don’t figure in the first list ?

Chandigarh, July 3
In a sheer display of the failure of the UT education department’s Class XI online counselling, several boys were allotted seats in the city’s all girls schools.

The first cut-off lists came as shock to many city boys, who found their names listed under the schools like Government Girls Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 18 or Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector 20.

The hassled students immediately rushed to the UT education department, which got into a rectification mode and ended up scrapping their names from the lists this evening

The move seemed to have complicated the situation further, as the students were clueless about their new allotted seats though officials claimed otherwise.

“It happened by mistake. The moment it was brought to our notice we rectified the folly and allotted new seats to these students,” claimed UT District Education Officer Chanchal Singh.

The claim, however, left many wondering how could the adjustments be made without changing the merit lists of other schools which would mean re-allottment of seats to many candidates.

DOEACC Additional Director VK Jain has, meanwhile, held the students responsible for the goof up.

Chandigarh, July 3
It has been 10 years since the management, curriculum and teaching methodology at Panjab University’s coveted University Business School were last revised.

Teachers’ resistance to change in teaching pattern has proved detrimental in updating the syllabi in the past, say officials.

UBS alumni, on the other hand, claimed that there was a dire need of monitoring the syllabi in accordance with the latest industrial needs. The same holds true for several other departments at Panjab University.

Acknowledging the need to update teaching patterns and curriculum to meet the needs of present times, UBS chairperson Dinesh K Gupta said the department was gearing up to overhaul its syllabi and introduce new teaching methodology.

“In a massive drive at the UBS, the teachers are now preparing a revised industry-oriented version of their syllabus that is likely to be implemented from the session 2011-2012,” he added.

The first draft of the syllabi will be studied and approved by illustrious alumni of the department, who are at top positions in corporate firms and are entrepreneurs. The approved syllabi will then be forwarded to the board of studies for sanction.

“Unless the academics keep pace with what is happening in the industry, there cannot be any growth. How much are the department professors updated about new industrial needs is the most crucial question,” said UBS alumni Anurag Aggarwal, senior vice-president, Mohali Industries Association.

“Every three years, the management syllabus must be revised. MBA has been more than oversold. Students think that an MBA degree is a sure shot entry to a minimum Rs 5-lakh package, which is an illusion,” said Vipin Dewan, director, CMTR. 

In keeping with present times

After 10 years, UBS faculty members are now preparing a revised industry-oriented version of the syllabi, likely to be implemented from the session 2011-2012. The first draft of the syllabi will be approved by alumni and then forwarded to the board of studies for a final nod.

Chandigarh, July 3
With various city private colleges declaring their first cut off lists, Bachelors in Business Administration (BBA) has emerged as the most sought-after course. Having a flattering high merit, the course had an all time high number of applications with over 15 applicants per seat.

According to colleges’ authorities, the course is the most sought-after option for the non-science students and it’s the large number of applicants, which has lead to this tremendous rise in the cut offs.

Next to figure on the preference list is Bachelors in Computer Applications (BCA), where the cut offs has gone up by almost 4 per cent as compared to the last year.