Chandigarh, January 22
The unexpected repatriation of yet another Director Public Instructions (Schools) PK Sharma has left the UT Education Department stranded at the crucial juncture.

The repatriation has driven the final nail in the coffin of the Right to Education Act (RTE), which was scheduled to be implemented from this academic session. Due to the ongoing tiff between private schools and education department, implementation of the Act seems to be heading nowhere if one goes by the track record of the department.

The exit of the DPI has resulted in shelving of corresponding endeavours initiated by him. The move comes as a setback to the implementation of the RTE Act as the department was in the process of resolving the issue with private schools. Sharma was the key man who not only initiated the process for the implementations of the Act, but was also giving final shape to the draft rules.

“The post seems to have become jinxed. We had four DPIs in last three years. After Setia, none of them stayed for too long and by the time any DPI got the hang of affairs, he was removed or repatriated. The inconsistency has created several problems but we will face the biggest blow in terms of the RTE Act. We already are facing trouble with schools and have been acting as per the plan of PK Sharma. If a new official comes in, he will take time to settle down and deal with issues with a new perspective. So, the implementation of the Act seems to be distant dream,” said an education department official.

The news of PK Sharma’s repatriation has even perturbed private schools as HS Mamik, president of the Independent School Association, said, “It’s a surprise. Every time a new official comes it means starting from scratch. He raises same issues and we have to repeat our perspective time and again. This is obviously going to hit RTE plans because we had reached a certain level of understanding with him. But it will be back to square one for us now.”

While UT high ups and PK Sharma insist that the repatriation is the outcome of latter’s request, sources in the education department hold the ongoing tiff with private schools over the implementation of the RTE Act and admission procedures as the key reason for the same. Terming city private schools as “touch me not’, UT officials feel that PK Sharma, like some of his predecessors, paid for biting off more than he could chew.

Chandigarh, January 22
The UT administration’s repatriation orders for DPI (Schools) PK Sharma, a Haryana Civil Services (HCS) officer - at a time when the department is caught in a catch-22 situation over the implementation of the RTE Act - has raised many an eyebrow. The officer was repatriated on Saturday, a holiday.

Sources claim he has been asked to hand over the charge on Monday, while it is yet to be decided as to whom he will hand over the charge to.

Though Sharma maintains he had sought his repatriation on January 21, a day before he completed his four-year tenure with the UT administration, questions are being raised over the administration’s failure to seek his extension at such a critical juncture.

Sources claim the administration did not seek his extension in spite of facing a crunch of state civil officers from Punjab and Haryana.

As a standard procedure, the UT administration is supposed to initiate the process of seeking extension for any officer or a fresh panel of officers as a replacement months in advance.

The UT is already awaiting a panel of officers from Punjab for the post of Additional

Deputy Commissioner. PS Shergill, former ADC, was relieved from his post over a week ago after he completed his tenure.

In fact, the UT education department has a history of unceremonious exits of its DPIs (School) in the recent past.

Prior to this, Samwartak Singh was repatriated unceremoniously after the recruitment scam in UT education department rocked the administration. He was repatriated immediately to his parent state, Haryana, after his name figured in the inquiry by the CBI. In fact, the administration had recommended his repatriation.

His predecessor, too, SK Setia, another Haryana cadre officer, was repatriated after he ran into trouble with private schools over an attempt to rejig the fee structure.

What aggravated his woes were several overambitious projects that, though announced amid much fanfare, failed to take off for lack of approval from the authorities.

However, the UT administration did try to retain Setia after his tenure was over by seeking his extension from his parent state but Haryana declined the UT’s request.

Panchkula, January 22
About 2,000 apartments built for the economically weaker sections (EWS) of the population in the city are now proving to be a white elephant for the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) with the engineering wing demanding Rs 78 lakh to maintain them.

The flats, constructed in Abhaypur village in Sector 21 for inhabitants of various slums including Azad colony, Rajeev colony and Buddanpur and those in Ramgarh two years ago were never allotted to the beneficiaries. The flats are now in a state of disrepair due to lack of maintenance. Children living in the locality around the flats frequently indulge in breaking windowpanes.

The cost of maintaining the flats also includes wages of the security guards engaged. Despite repeated attempts estate officer Awhwani Kumar was not available for comments on the matter.

It is may be mentioning here these apartments were built as part of HUDA’s Aashiyana scheme floated under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Rural Renewal Mission for rehabilitation of slumdwellers. Under the scheme about 7,294 flats are proposed to be built for the poor living in Azad colony, slums in Ramgarh, Sector 21 and nearby areas. So far 2,072 flats have been constructed and the HUDA had invited applications from families for rehabilitation in flats that have two rooms, a kitchen and a toilet. The central government gave Rs 65 crore for construction of these flats while HUDA provided land free of cost land.

Even though HUDA officials claimed to have received about 2,000 applications in August last year and were hoping to allot the flats by December, nothing has been done so far. Sources said slumdwellers were not evincing any interest in applying for these flats as they had been demanding plots measuring at least one ‘marla’ (30.25 square yards). However, the officials were reluctant to allot such plots keeping in view the huge cost of land in the city’s periphery.

Under the agreement the building contractors were to maintain these flats constructed at five locations in Panchkula for one year (defect liability period) and were supposed to bear all expenses. However, as the district administration and HUDA have failed to allot these flats to the slum dwellers the latter is liable to maintain them after the expiry of the defect liability period. The engineering wing was spending about Rs 1 lakh every month on maintaining the flats.

Even though the division office has returned the estimates of the engineering wing to the circle office, the engineers were of the view that whenever the district administration or HUDA decided to hand over the flats to people they would have to be in proper condition. However, it was not clear how much time the authorities would take to allot these flats.

Chandigarh, January 22
One should always be prepared to face a trying situation and give a fight till the end, says 24-year-old Mona Sharma as she recalls the incident when she apprehended a snatcher who had attempted to snatch her purse in November 2010.

Being awarded with commendation certificate on the eve of Republic Day, Mona confessed that the award came as a pleasant surprise to her. She works with a Sector 34-based immigration company.

When she was walking along a deserted road in Sector 33 on November 19, 2010, a youth riding a bike tried to pull her purse. “I noticed him pulling my purse. I held it tightly and struggled for over five minutes to get it back,” she said.

Mona suffered injuries as the snatcher dragged her along when she was trying to regain her purse. “When I caught hold of his shirt, he fell on the ground.

I raised the alarm the moment he fell and passers-by came to my rescue and nabbed him,” she said. The snatcher was later identified as Parminder Singh, a resident of Mohali. His further interrogation led to the recovery of purses, which he had snatched in other incidents.

“It all happened in a spur of a moment. I learnt from this incident that people should take precautions regarding their safety. The police cannot be present everywhere. It’s so easy to blame cops when incidents like these can be avoided by alertness,” she said. 

Home Guard volunteer to be honoured A Home Guard volunteer with the Chandigarh Police, Puran Singh, will also be awarded with a commendation certificate for bravery on the eve of Republic Day. His prompt action had saved many lives and averted a major tragedy in November 2010. The constable was deployed on a level crossing near Mani Majra when he noticed a passenger train coming its way and the level crossing gates still open. A number of vehicles were crossing the track as usual. Acting swiftly, Puran rushed towards the gateman room where he noticed gateman Pala Ram in an inebriated state and was not in position to close the gates. Puran himself closed the gates and save many precious lives.

Chandigarh, Januaary 22
Over 20,000 beneficiaries of the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) in the region will have to wait for some more time to avail themselves of the medical facilities at Fortis Hospital, in spite of the latter being empanelled for the services, as the authorities have locked horns over the charges for various treatments.

According to sources, Fortis Hospital was empanelled by the CGHS to provide treatment to its beneficiaries — central government employees and pensioners and their dependents — over a month ago, but the cost of treatment could not been finalised as yet.

Sources in the hospital say they have not signed the memorandum of understanding with the CGHS, as the rates being offered are “too low” and “unrealistic”.

On the contrary, CGHS officials claim the rates are “as per the rules” and Fortis will have to agree to them.

This stand-off may, however, be detrimental to the interest of those CGHS beneficiaries who have been looking to receive treatment at the private hospital.

Sources in Fortis say the CGHS has offered them old rates, which are almost 50 per cent of what are being paid by the CGHS to other super-speciality hospitals in Delhi.

“For a peripheral nerve surgery, the CGHS has offered us the old rate of Rs 14,000, whereas they are paying Rs 70,000 to hospitals like ours in Delhi,” claims a Fortis official, adding that the rate is even below Rs 16,000 being paid to Non-national Accreditation Board hospitals.

Similarly, the rate being offered for excision of brain tumour (supratentorial) is Rs 40,000 and for coronary balloon angioplasty Rs 85,000, in contrast to Rs 1.1 lakh and Rs 97,120, respectively, being paid to other super-speciality hospitals, the official claims.

Sources say the CGHS has divided hospitals into three categories — National Accreditation Board hospitals (NABH), non-NABH and super-speciality hospitals — and fixed their rates accordingly.

While the new rates have come into effect from August, 2010, Fortis has been given rates under the non-NABH category.

CGHS joint director Dr SC Anand says: “We can offer them Delhi rates only after an approval from the union ministry of health and family welfare.”

He hopes the issue will be resolved soon and a decision will be taken in the interest of the beneficiaries.

The region’s beneficiaries, some of whom have been visiting hospitals in the NCR to receive treatment, hope that they will soon be able to avail themselves of the services of the super-speciality hospital.

Chandigarh, January 22
“Climatic conditions worldwide have affected the concentration of medicinal herbs in various parts of the country,” said Dr VP Kamboj, former director, CDRI, Lucknow, in an interview to The Tribune. He was in city to deliver the Vishwa Nath Memorial Lecture on “India: a hotbed of biodiversity” at a three-day “National Seminar-cum-Workshop on Exploring New Vistas in Biodiversity Research for Sustainable Development” at the Panjab University’s Zoology Department.

Dr Kamboj added that for both health and agricultural reasons biodiversity was crucial. “We need to preserve and protect bio-diversity since 85 per cent of medicinal plants are found in nature,” he said.

He expounded the various facets of the rich biodiversity of India, its use in economic growth of the country and how we should safeguard against its over exploitation.

In his inaugural address, stressing on the conservation of biodiversity, Prof R Ramamurthy, former Vice-Chancellor, SV University, Tirupati dwelled at length on its changing patterns with respect to climate change, habitat destruction and degradation of eco systems. He said over exploitation of natural resources by mankind is the major source of ecological imbalance.

Earlier, RC Sobti PU Vice-Chancellor highlighted that the root of modern sciences lies in the basic sciences. On this occasion, Prof R Ramamurthy was honoured with the distinguished Zoologist award.

Prof Kambadur Muralidhar from the University of Delhi, an eminent educationist of India was presented with the first GP Sharma Oration Award. In his oration award lecture “Pituitary lactogenic hormones and angiogenesis” he presented findings from his four-decade long research experience about the applications of lactogenic hormones from buffalo, and its potential anticancer properties. Twelve experts will deliver talks on specialised topics of research in biodiversity and sustainable development over next two days of seminar. A workshop is also a part of the proceedings wherein participants will be exposed to different methodologies adopted for research in this field.

Meanwhile, Panjab University VC announced inception of the Young Scientist Award for innovative research in the name of Prof Satija, carrying an incentive of Rs 20,000 per year.

Chandigarh, January 22
Three maestros of performing arts, including Pandit Yashpaul, Dr Atamjit and Ustad Harbhajan Singh, have been chosen for the prestigious Sangeet Natak Award for 2010 from the region. The awards carrying a citation, memento, shawl and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh will be presented to each of them by the President of India at a national-level function to be held shortly. In all, 38 maestros will get the coveted awards for excellence in their respective realms of art besides two fellowships to classical vocalist Girija Devi and danseur Nataraj Ramakrishna. Here is the brief detail of awardees from Punjab and Chandigarh.

Pandit Yashpaul "Sagun Piya" will get the award for his contribution in the Hindustani classical music. He is an innovatory genius-performing artiste of International eminence since 1952. Holding allegiance to Agra Gharana, he had received training from acclaimed gurus, including late Ustad Vilayat Hussain Khan Saheb. A proponent of the guru-shishya tradition, artistic values, purity of the ragas and compositions, he emulates his mentors but with his individualistic aesthetic approach, insight and creative ability. Decorated with Sangeet Sumeru Award, Punjab State Award and the Punjab Sangeet Natak Academy Award, the former principal of MCM DAV College and chairman of Panjab University Music Department, Pandit Yashpaul is one of the finest vocalists of his generation propagating classical vocal music in the region.

Dr Atamjit will be awarded for for his contribution to playwriting in Punajbi. An acclaimed academician, actor, playwright, author and theatre director, Dr Atamjit is a blend of many fine traits. Credit with quality work in performing arts, especially theatre, and authoring over 30 publications and editing 25 books

He has given new dimensions to Punjabi theatre. On invitation from Canada and other countries, he had staged his plays there grooming and training their actors. Recipient of many prestigious honours, including national honour of Sahitya Academy besides Punjab Sahit and Punjab Sangeet Natak Academy awards, Dr Atamjit feels recognition of his contribution has inspired him to scale new horizons of meaningful theatre and literature.

Ustad Harbhajan Singh Namdhari is being honoured for Gurbani kirtan. Recognising his exceptional talent, Sri Satguru Jagjit Singhji undertook the of training him in Gurbani sangeet. His talent was nurtured by prominent gurus and Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. He has inspired Gurbani aspirants, taught kirtan, classical music and performed in Thailand, Kenya, Canada, the US and the UK. As the prominent exponents of Gurbani Kirtan parampara and the senior most among the Namdhari community, he stands tall among his contemporaries. 

Chandigarh, January 22
Jammu’s amateur theatre group staged a play “Gair Zaroori Log” in Hindustani on the sixth day of TFT fest at Tagore theatre here today.

Chandigarh, January 22
The security staff on the Panjab University campus was today caught napping once again when youths wielding sticks engaged in a violent clash a few kilometres away from the administrative block and the vice chancellor’s office. They later drove away in their vehicles, all bearing Punjab registration numbers, without being intercepted by the security guards, indicating the vehicles were not being frisked at the campus gates.

By the time the youths fled in their recklessly driven cars, two security men pedalled to the scene on their bicycles. The incident created a scare among several students who were passing by on their way to their hostels.

The youths entered into the brawl when their speeding vehicles, a silver Tata Indica (registration no: PB65 E0714) and a white Mahindra Scorpio (number not identified) met with an accident in front of the chemistry department canteen. The boys continued to argue with each other for a few minutes before one of them began beating another with a stick. Later, one of the youths donning a red cap took out a bat and bashed up the other.

In another incident of rash driving that occurred on the PU south campus only a day ago, a final year student was seen racing his yellow car in the UIET parking lot, scaring the department students who ran to the sides of the parking area. His car, along with two other motorcycles that were also racing each other, fled from the campus.

Chandigarh, January 22
Studying in colleges affiliated to Panjab University may cost students dear from the forthcoming academic session.

PU’s decision to implement the semester system from July 2011 in more than 179 affiliated colleges has evoked concern among principals who said extra expenditure, staff and infrastructure would be required to conduct examination of two semesters each year.

Presently, the annual system of examination is being followed, under which two internal exams are conducted by colleges, while the final exam is conducted by PU.

Now with just six months left for the commencement of a new academic session, bottlenecks in executing the semester system need to be sorted out. These include marking assessment twice a year for college students, conducting semester and internal exams by colleges, fulfilling condition of 90 teaching days per semester and drafting syllabi.

Ironically, the PU authorities have already announced that there would not be any fee hike for university students this year.

While a section of college principals believe that drafting syllabi for bachelors in arts and sciences flawlessly may require time, others have welcomed the decision of the university.

Assessment of students, which was earlier done once a year, would now be done twice and consume more time, said certain principals. Certain other principals opined that working out modalities to implement the system was a time consuming process.

“Issues related to finance and infrastructure need to be worked out. It is not a one-day job to implement the semester system. Issues involving sports events, youth festivals, internal exams and assessment will have to be resolved,” said Dr JS Raghu, principal, Postgraduate Government College, Sector 11.

On the other hand, certain other college principals believed that the semester system would ensure consistency.

“We are rather late in implementing the semester system in colleges. Several foreign universities have already executed this format in the form of tri-semester exams,” said AC Vaid, principal, GGDSD College, Sector 32.

I was not present at the meeting held in PU on Friday. But I think that the semester system will bring more consistency in studies. It is a positive move and our college is prepared to implement it from the next academic session.”

— Dr Meera Modi, principal, Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45

“The whole system is at an initial stage. Various issues need to be sorted out before implementing the system. BCom curriculum is ready, but syllabi for others need to be prepared.”

— Dr JS Raghu, principal, Postgraduate Government College, Sector 11

“There are teething problems in any task initially. If we are required to implement the semester system, we will work out the modalities and do it as efficiently as possible.”

— Achla Dogra, principal, Postgraduate Government College for Girls, Sector 11

“We are prepared to implement the semester system to maintain international academic standards. Foreign universities are already following the semester system as tri-semester. At college level, we will make all arrangements and conduct exams internally without hiking the fee, but if the university raises the fee, things will not be in our hand.”

— AC Vaid, principal, GGDSD College, Sector 32 D