Amritsar, November 26
Untimely and avoidable death of Jaspreet has once again brought out the highly risky driving of autorickshaws in ferrying schoolchildren in focus. The eight-year old girl of Nangali Batha area was crushed by a tractor-trailer after she fell down from an autorickshaw yesterday.

She was heading home after the closure of the school when the incident occurred.

Though on the complaint of Hira Lal, father of the deceased, the police registered a case against drivers of both the vehicles involved in the accident, it is yet to be seen if the authorities come out with a reliable mechanism to end the hazard of overloading of vehicles.

Overloading of autorickshaws ferrying schoolchildren endangered their lives.

According to the District Transport Office records, there are around 9,342 officially registered rickshaws in the city.

Meanwhile, there are around 25,000 autorickshaws operating in the city in illegal manner.

All of these - generally overloaded - autorickshaws are driven by underage, inexperienced drivers, many of whom do not have licences.

That the school transport in the city needs to be overhauled is the writing on the wall, yet the authorities concerned have turned their back.

The safety of schoolchildren apparently seems to be the last thing on the mind of the administration, police, school authorities and parents as well.

The Supreme Court guidelines, applicable in all parts of the country, have stipulated the speed limit of school buses at 40 km per hour, but drivers hardly stick to it.

However, most of the city schools do not provide bus transportation services to their students, forcing parents to rely on pick-up vans and autorickshaws.

Autorickshaws, employed by the schools to ferry children, are in a hurry as they, after dropping kids at the school, have to pick up passengers.

Amritsar, November 26
“Concrete steps are being initiated to observe whether Punjabi language, our mother-tongue, is being taught up to the matriculation level in Punjab’s schools and colleges or not because there is an urgent need to make this language well-liked by the youth,” opined Punjab Education and Language Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan, during the Punjabi Week-2010, which concluded at SR Government College here today.

Students of Sarup Rani Government College play traditional instruments during the Punjabi Week-2010 in Amritsar on Friday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

The Punjab Government, through its Language Wing, has been organising various programmes and granting cash prizes to honour the authors in languages, other than Punjabi, too.

During today’s function, eight authors were given award of Rs 5,000 each under various categories.

Under the Punjabi category, Dr Baldev S. Cheema was presented with Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir Award in poetry for his creation “Sachmuch” and under the critics category, Dr Attar Singh Puruskaar for “Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jagat and Prasaar”.

However, under the same group, Ashok Charan Alamgeer got Nanak Singh Award in the novel/stories category for his book “Mitti-Mitti Maha Katha”. Jaswant Deed received Gurbaksh Singh Award under the essay category for his book “Dharti Hor Pare”.

Sulakhan Sarhadi was given Bhai Veer Singh Award under the biography category for “Sultaan Bahu ka Asal Kalaam” and Dr Manjeet Kaur was given Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha Award under the grammar and language category for “Punjabi Bhasha: Varton Ate Bantar”.

Dr Harpal Singh Pannu was given MS Randhawa Award under the Gyan Sahitya category for “Gautam Ton Taaski Tak” and Sukhdev Maadpuri got Teja Singh Award under the editing category for “Shawa Ni Bambiha Bole”.

Under the Hindi category, Usha R. Sharma received Sadarshan Award under the novel/Stories group for “Hashiye Par Bindu”. Dr Vireder Krishan Walia received Indenath Madaan Award under the critics/editing category for “Aageh Ke Upnayaason Me Patar Paatar Prikalpana” and Sukriti Bhatnagar got Baal Sahitya Award for “Madhur Madhur Hanste Rehna”.

Under the Urdu Category, Kundan Lal Kundan got Sahir Ludhianvi Award for “Rubayat Ve Mahiye Aur Mahiye Ki Hayiyat” and Abid Ali Khan received Rajinder Singh Bedi Award under the novel/stories/drama category.

Meanwhile, the Language Wing also presented best printing awards to publishers for the year 2009.

In Punjabi, Lokgeet Prakashak, Sirhind won the prize for book named “Kaalipari”.

In Hindi, Vishwash Publications, Mohali, was chosen for “Talaash Zindgi Ke Khandron Me” and in Urdu, Janaab Abid Ali Khan of Malerkotla won tht award for “Koshish”.

Amritsar, November 26
Sri Guru Harkrishan Senior Secondary School organised an inter-class English play competition in which budding actors from the primary section participated.

Amritsar, November 26
Khalsa College organised a two-day workshop on “Internet and its applications” under the Faculty Development Programme (UGC-CPE) on November 25 and 26. As many as 138 teachers attended the workshop.

Dr Gurvinder Singh from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of Guru Nanak Dev University addressed the teachers in the inaugural session. He expressed his views on the importance of Internet in various fields like education, medicine, industry, information technology, e-commerce, image processing and bio-technology.

Principal Dr Daljit Singh welcomed the chief guest, Dr Gurvinder Singh. He opined that the knowledge of Internet is the basic need for every teacher today as it gives them the latest information. He assured the teachers that he would try to provide them laptops at subsidised rates.

Dr Amit Chabra from Guru Nanak Dev University spoke on “How to Google”. He explained various searching techniques that can be helpful in saving time while getting the maximum information. He also spoke on “Safe searching techniques” to avoid misuse of Internet by children.

The lecturers were followed by practical session in the Computer Science Department. Dr H.P. Gupta, coordinator of the workshop, gave the participants the details of the workshop. In the end, Dr Taminder Singh Bhatia, secretary of the workshop, expressed his gratitude to the resource persons.

Amritsar, November 26
Emphasising “human values in education”, Prof C.L. Khetarpal, Director, Centre for Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, has advocated that education should be based on pattern which has got direct relevance to the societal requirements.“We have given directions to institutes of higher education accordingly,” he said while delivering a lecture on “Development of science and education in relevance of teachings of Guru Nanak Dev” during the 41st foundation day celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev University here.

Prof Khetarpal opined that higher education in India needed a revamp and research work should be encouraged to execute new discoveries. “All is not well with the higher education in India. The mass brain drain is the biggest challenge being faced by various universities as our talent is moving overseas. It is a fact that no Asian university till date has produced any Nobel Laureate and to overcome this fact, encouragement to research in universities should be the endeavour,” he said and reiterated that the contribution of Indians to the development worldwide could not be ignored. “At least 12 per cent of scientists in America are Indians, 36 per cent of NASA employees are Indians, 34 per cent of Microsoft employees are Indians, 28 per cent of IBM employees are Indians, 17 per cent of Intel employees are Indians and 13 per cent of Xerox employees are Indians. This implies their capabilities but the need of the hour is to utilise those qualities in the interest of nation building,” he said.

Dr Surjit Patar said, “Guru Nanak Dev contradicted many social evils and exhorted the people to adopt goodness of all traditions prevailing in other religions. There are many social evils prevailing in our society and human values are degrading, but everybody should contribute their share to control it up to some extends.”

While talking about the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev, Dr Satinder Noor said Guru Nanak Dev wanted to bring a cultural revolution and that was why a revolution was emerged in his philosophy and thought. Prof A.S. Brar said Guru Nanak Dev University was committed to spread the message of Guru Nanak Dev. He said the university had created its identity due to its achievements in the field of academics, sports and culture.

“The degradation of moral values is the biggest challenge for us which could only be controlled through the teachings of Guru Nanak,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor honoured Prof Khetarpal, Dr Patar and Dr Noor with mementos and sets of university publications.

Meanwhile, Prof Khetarpal, Dr Patar, Dr Noor and Prof Brar also awarded trophies to the winners of painting and folklore competitions which were organised to mark the foundation day.

He also inaugurated an exhibition of rare books and manuscripts arranged at Bhai Gurdas Library of the university while the folklore exhibition was also organised by the colleges at Sangat Hall in Guru Nanak Bhavan. The painting exhibition was also displayed on the premises of Guru Nanak Bhavan.

A hockey match between Panjab University and GND University was organised in the hockey stadium.

Amritsar, November 26
The Postgraduate Department of Economics of DAV College, Amritsar, organised the second lecture of a series of lectures on Indian economy.

Dr Sukhpal Singh, an eminent scholar from Punjab Agricultural University, delivered a lecture on “Agrarian crisis in Punjab”. The first lecture of the series was delivered by Prof H.S. Walia on “India shining - some pointers towards reality”.

While inaugurating discussion on today’s lecture, Principal K.N. Kaul highlighted the importance of agriculture in the Indian economy. He said that agriculture sector still contributed a significant proportion in national production and employment.

Dr Sukhpal Singh focused on the pitiable condition of small farmers in Punjab, caught in the vicious circle of indebtedness, which was the main cause of increasing incidence of suicides among them. He added that as small holdings were not viable, a good proportion of small farmers was being pushed out of the agriculture sector and consequently a number of farmers with small holdings had decreased from five lakh to three lakh since 1991.

He added that 90 per cent of the farmers of Punjab were under debt - the proportion was even more in the cotton belt. The total debt amounted to Rs 35,000 crore which came to about Rs 3.5 lakh per household.

The irony was that of the total borrowings, 38 per cent came from commission agents at exorbitant interest rates or economic cost. This was despite the fact that the government claimed a wide network of banking/financial institutions in rural areas.

The growing indebtedness was leading to increasing incidence of suicides. Citing the example of the ditricts of Bathinda and Sangrur, he said 2,890 cases of suicide had been reported in the last nine years, which was three times higher than all-India average.

To ameliorate the plight of small farmers, Dr Sukhpal suggested that co-operative system should be developed to provide machinery, land and other fixed assets to the small farmers. The existing system of subsidies should be changed as in the existing system only 2.5 per cent of the subsidies reached the small farmers.

The disscussion on the paper was initiated by Prof H.S. Walia, Prof S.K. Bhalla and Prof G.S. Sekhon. Prof Walia pointed out that India’s impressive growth story may not sustain over a long period if fruits of growth did not trickle down to the masses or poorest of the poor. He added that it was clear from the lecture that small farmers were being squeezed to favour miniscule proportion of rich farmers, thus perpetuating inequalities.