Chandigarh, October 19
After long-drawn sessions of arguments spread over two years, discussions, controversies and unceremonious stripping of the charge of former Education Secretary Ram Niwas, the UT Education Department and private schools have reached a consensus on the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act from the forthcoming academic session.

At a meeting held between education secretary VK Singh and representatives of private schools, it was decided that, while the education department would upload its child-mapping results within a week, schools, on their behalf, will reserve 25 per cent of their seats for children belonging to disadvantaged groups.

The AG office has communicated a monthly reimbursement of Rs 1,163 per child, which will be given to these schools. Schools have not yet been informed and their feedback will be taken before a formal decision in this regard.

A decision is also awaited on the age criteria for the admission of the deserving children. Principals of some of the minority institutions said they were not covered under the RTE Act. The Education Secretary said, “These institutions had gone to the court, however, there is no stay order.”

Nursery admission streamlined Thousands of parents are bound to heave a sigh of relief as the UT government and private schools will now have a common date for admissions for the nursery class. The schools who will be displaying list of selected candidates between January 10 to January 15 will give a minimum of 10 days time to deposit fee. The move will give parents enough time to make final choice and avoid submitting and losing fee in multiple schools. The schools will submit the details of age criteria being followed in their respective schools as a pre-hand exercise.

It was reassuring to see a proactive approach by the Education Department with the Education Secretary along with the DPI and DEO addressing concerns of most of us engaged with the task of imparting education that is relevant to the new millennium child. One hopes that the effort to make it inclusive, incorporating views of school principals, echoing sentiments of parents and keeping in mind the needs of children, this approach will only get strengthened. Meetings and government orders are all very well but they ultimately have to translate into ground-level action. We have to move very fast to remodel our education system, our admission procedures, our curricula and examination criteria to what the world is following. We can no longer afford to be complacent in our own safe cocoon. Atul Khanna, director, Strawberry Fields School

The dark clouds which shadowed education scenario have now cleared. The UT had promised to fulfill all its responsibilities as demanded by the RTE and we shall proceed with reserving the seats from this year. HS Mamik, president, Independent School Association We are not foes but stakeholders driven by the common goal of educated students. We have had long discussions and worked out a middle path. The RTE is on for 2012-13. VK Singh, Education Secretary

Chandigarh, October 19
Panjab University (PU) has banned all faculty recruitments till the finalising of the academic performance index (API) formula for the screening of the campus recruitments.

The index, reflective of a faculty’s academic, extracurricular, research and organisational skills, and notified by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in 2010, is one of the key criteria for the recruitment and promotion of the faculty members.

The ban comes in the wake of recent complaints of discrepancy in the calculation of the API. There are different voices quoting different marks for different skills. The discrepancy in many cases has allegedly led to the selection of certain candidates after the overlooking of recommendations of pre-screening committees who had rejected particular candidates.

The issue had rocked the recent Senate, where many senators along with the Panjab University Teachers Association(PUTA) president, opposed the ongoing interviews in different departments, which were being conducted in anticipation of the finalisation of the API scores. As a fellow put it “the pre-screening and its rejection followed by screening and its selection had led to total chaos in the university functioning”.

The university adopted the UGC formula. The adoption has witnessed severe criticism from PUTA, which claimed that the UGC had dished out a template only which needed to be modified to suit the requirements of each department specifically.

“The API score formula dished by the UGC was just a pointer to guide us in developing an independent version to suit our academic requirements. A person in a science department can always be ranked for his research, but in music is known by his performances. So API had to be worked out differently. We already have committee meant for the same, which will soon be working out the formula. We had finalised one but it was rejected by the PU,” said PUTA president Akshay Kumar.

Chandigarh, October 19
The crime branch of the Chandigarh police has arrested two persons, including a jeweller, for their links with snatchers in a case of receiving stolen property.

The police arrested 28-year-old Om Pal Singh, who used to snatch chains from women and a jeweller Basu Verma, who used to receive the stolen property. With their arrest, the police has worked out 17 cases reported in the city this year, out of which 15 are of chain snatching, one of fake number and one of vehicle theft.

DSP Satbir Singh said the two arrested, along with another absconding accused Vicky, met in Burail jail in May this year as all three of them have a criminal past. The three then hatched a plan to snatch chains and make a quick buck once they are out on bail.

Once they were released from jail, the three initially stole bikes and Vicky and Ompal began snatching gold chains. Basu Verma, who runs a jewellery shop by the name Kiran Jewelers at Jagatpura, facilitated them in selling these snatched chains. After snatching the gold chain, the two snatchers immediately used to contact jeweller Basu Verma on mobile phone which they had kept separately for this purpose and used to never make general calls from these phones.

The police said all the gang members have a tainted past and were earlier arrested by the Crime Branch in vehicle thefts, dacoity, robbery, snatching and receiving of stolen property. All three have cases registered against them in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and UP.

During the interrogation of the accused, it was revealed that they are active in the area of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula and snatched more than 30 gold chains from the tricity in year 2011 since June.

COMMUNITY

2 more down with dengue
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 19
With two new cases, including a 16-year-old child, of dengue being confirmed today, the total number of people affected from the disease has gone up to 29, since September.

As per the data collected by the UT health department, 16-year-old child, son of a PGI staff member, and a male from Sector 35 were diagnosed with dengue.

While the child has been admitted to the PGI, the other patient is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Sector 33.

Experts say the symptoms include sudden high fever, rash, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, and muscle and joint pain.

Nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite are also common symptoms.

With dengue hemorrhagic fever, blood vessels start to leak causing bleeding from the nose, mouth, and gums. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is fatal in around 5 per cent of cases.

They said symptoms appeared four to six days after the mosquito bite. An infected person cannot spread the infection to other persons but can be a source of dengue virus for mosquitoes for about six days.

Chandigarh, October 19
The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, while upholding the order of the District Consumer forum, has directed IITT JEE to refund Rs 27,000 to a Mani Majra resident for not providing coaching to his son, thereby spoiling his one year and affecting his career.

The commission comprising its president Justice Sham Sunder and members Neena Sandhu and Jagroop Singh Mahal observed: “The opposite party had retained the amount with it but surprisingly no interest was allowed thereon. It is not understood as to what more lenient order the opposite party wanted if it was simply asked to return the amount received by it towards fee and was only asked to pay a meager amount of Rs 2,500 towards litigation costs.

The complainant, Ashok Singh, had complained that his son had opted for two years panther (+1) course with the opposite party, which was providing coaching for admission to various professional courses like AIEEE, JEE, AT-I and II exams, for covering syllabus of XI, XII along with comprehensive guidance for engineering, especially ITT/JEE and SAT I-II.

He paid Rs 1,000 as registration fee and test fee for admission and scholarship and the institute offered a scholarship concession of Rs 10,000 as he had performed well in the test. A sum of Rs 27,000 was deposited as tuition fee for the course out of Rs 53,000.

It was alleged that the opposite party hired the services of temporary teachers to impart education. It was further alleged that most of the faculty, including Kapil and Pardeep Mehra, left the institute and in spite of repeated requests made by the parents, regular teachers were not appointed by the opposite party. The complainant further said when his father went to deposit the fee, the opposite party refused to accept the same and declared to close the institute.

He along with other students approached the institute to refund the fee, but to no effect. The institute subsequently circulated a letter wherein he was informed that his name was going to be struck off from the institute due to non-payment of the fee. The counsel for the opposite party argued that the complainant had voluntarily stopped attending the classes in the first session and had not deposited the fee for the second session.

He, therefore, was not entitled to get a refund and the order passed by the district forum, being contrary to facts, should to be set aside. He further blamed the students for the shutdown of the institute, as they had not deposited the fee.

Chandigarh, October 19
Taking strong exception to the delay in the filing of reply interrogatories in the infamous Suman case, the UT State Consumer Commission has imposed costs on Dr Chander Mohan, Director, Health and Family Welfare, Chandigarh.

When the case came up for hearing today before the commission, the counsel for the GMSH, Sector 16, again prayed for time to file an affidavit on behalf of Dr Mohan Pankaj Chandgothia. At this, the counsel for Suman’s family pointed out that this was the third consecutive time and over two months since the Director had failed to file a reply.

Taking a serious note of the delay, the commission imposed costs of Rs 300 and directed the filing of answers by way of affidavit on behalf of Dr Mohan and Dr Navdeep latest by November 11.

Meanwhile, in a fresh disclosure, Dr Kirti Sood, one of the guilty doctors, in her affidavit has disclosed that as per the records of the Blood Bank, there were three patients, not two, with the name of Suman on the fateful day of December 16 at GMSH.

They were: Suman, wife of Kedarnath; Suman, wife of Desraj (complainant); and Suman, wife of Shankar.

She has also stated that she is in the process of challenging the SDM’s inquiry report, which held her guilty of negligence. She has also said: “No disciplinary action has been taken against me on the basis of the findings of the inquiry committee”.

Chandgothia said the statement was in direct contradiction of the affidavit filed by Dr Chander Mohan, Director, who has said that action has been taken against all three doctors held guilty by the SDM’s report.

Chandigarh, October 19
The Chandigarh Sweets Shop Association today dissociated itself from unscrupulous unlicensed manufacturers of sweets, preparing sweets under insanitary conditions.

Saying that the association was “totally against” such “illegal” sweet manufacturers, the association demanded raids by inspectors throughout the year to spread awareness about hygienic conditions in sweets shops.

The association urged the people to buy hygienic sweets from those manufacturers who were licensed by the administration.

Meanwhile, the UT administration today requested the general public to lodge their complaint against unlicensed manufacturers of sweets preparing sweets under insanitary conditions at telephone Nos. 102, 2782457, 26459204, 26459205, 2768255 and 2768263 of Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16.

Chandigarh, October 19
Leaving behind a three-year-old girl and a two-month-old girl, a couple attempted suicide by hanging themselves at their residence at Behlana village last night.

While 24-year-old Rinky was declared brought dead at the hospital, her husband 26-year-old Sudhir is battling for life.

The police said the two took the step in a fit of rage after a fight. Rinky pulled out a rope and hung herself from the ceiling fan.

Seeing his wife take the extreme step, her husband Sudhir lowered his wife’s body and hung himself.

The police took the two to a hospital, where Sudhir is in a critical state.

Police station-31 SHO Jaspal Singh said the recovery of love letters from their residence suggested that they had a love marriage.

The couple’s children have been handed over to their grandparents.

The police said the couple had an argument over a minor issue and took the step in a fit of rage.

Panchkula, October 19
As part of its investigation into the kidnapping of Panchkula-based realtor Deepak Rai Sagar, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recorded the statement of Sagar’s son Sameer Sagar today. Besides, the family members also provided details of Sagar’s meetings on the day of his disappearance (June 1, 2009).

On October 5, following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the CBI had registered a fresh FIR under murder and kidnapping charges. The Sagar family had moved the High Court as the Panchkula police had failed to solve the case.

Sources said the CBI had also collected the details of Deepak Rai Sagar’s bank transactions that the Panchkula police had gathered during its investigation.

A well-known name in the realty business, 54-year-old Sagar went missing on June 1, 2009. He was in his black Skoda car at the time of his disappearance.

Sagar had left his office in Sector 11 in a car to meet his friend Vinay at Maheshpur village in Panchkula. Vinay had told the police that Sagar visited his house around 7.15 pm. He reportedly stayed there till 9 pm. After that, he went towards his house at Kendriya Vihar in Sector 14, Panchkula, but failed to reach there.

The police had initially taken intensive measures to trace the businessman and had even announced a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh for anyone providing information about his whereabouts.

Panchkula, October 19
A team of Drug Controller Department led by Panchkula drug officer Puja Chaudhary raided the hookah bars in Sector 9 and 10 here today.

Chaudhary seized the samples of tobacco containing nicotine also.It was around 2 pm that the drug control officer reached Cupa Mocha, in Sector 9. As soon as the officials reached the outlet a number of youths puffing hookahs in the small cabins left the premises in a hurry. The team, however, left the place after seizing the samples of tobacco reportedly with the markings of nicotine as one of the ingredients in it.

Following this, the team collected the samples from The Nawab Shisha Hub in Sector 10.

“Nicotine is a drug and its use without having a licence form Drug Controller under Drugs and Cosmetics Act is an offence,” said deputy state drug controller GL Singhal. The department has asked the two outlets to present the record of purchase and sale of nicotine, he added.

Zirakpur, October 19
The Mohali Excise and Taxation Department today conducted raids at various shops in Zirakpur and Baltana and checked their sale-tax bills.

Panchkula, October 19
The inter-caste love marriage between 29-year-old Praveen and 21-year-old Sonia finally ended up in the registration of an FIR against Praveen by Sonia and her family members.

On October 14, Sonia, who had spent 10 days in a protection home for runaway couples in Panchkula police lines in Sector 26, with Praveen, had informed the Panchkula court that she no longer wished to stay with her husband and was ready to return to her parents.

On Wednesday, Praveen’s family members had reached the Panchkula court to get the order’s copy in which the court had allowed the request of Sonia and Praveen to withdraw their protection application.

Family members said that they would show the order’s copy to the Kurukshetra police where an FIR was registered against Praveen. They said that Praveen had not kidnapped the girl and both had tied the knot with eachother’s consent.

Praveen, an agriculturist and resident of Kurukshetra, and Sonia, a teacher and resident of Karnal, had approached the Panchkula district court for protection on October 4. Acting on their plea for protection, the court had directed the police to provide full protection to the couple in a protection home for runaway couples in Panchkula.

The couple were in a relationship for the past many years. Before marrying each other, both had told their respective parents about their desire to get married. But their families did not agree. Thereafter, the couple ran away and started staying in Panchkula. It was on October 3 that the couple tied the knot in Shiv Temple in Surajpur village, Panchkula.

Praveen’s counsel MS Bitta said that they had come to know about the registration of the case. He added that they were yet to check the sections under which an FIR was registered.

Chandigarh, October 19
The second day of ‘Avishkaar’, the innovative tech fest of the UIET PU, was marked by robo-wars and junkyard wars.

While on the one hand, student invented robots pitted against each other in an arena with the ‘best destructor’ winning the contest, on the other stood not-so-beautiful yet eco-friendly robots made from the junkyard.

The fest commenced with the event “Kaushalam”. It invited plans by students to innovate new technologies that are both practical and economical.

The event saw participation of 15 teams with their plans.

This event was followed by “Apaatkalin”, event on disaster management requiring the students to present plans to make the existing infrastructure more secure using the most economical ways.

The next event to follow was “strategise”. This event saw the participation from different colleges presenting their plans to make the university greener and more environment friendly.

“Shakti” was the most innovative event of the fest. It included running of a vehicle engine using alternative fuels like bio-fuels. The purpose of the event is to focus on the use of alternative fuels to cut back the dependence on non-renewable and environment degrading fuels like petrol and diesel.

Chandigarh, October 19
With just a couple of days left for the Common Admission Test (CAT), to be held from October 22 to November 18 for the 3,000 MBA seats at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) among other prestigious institutions, students are all jittery over the changed pattern.

The CAT paper will have only two sections instead of three. Till last year, the paper was divided into quantitative ability, verbal ability, and data interpretation and logical reasoning. This year onwards, the first section will focus on quantitative ability and data interpretation and the second on verbal ability and logical reasoning.

In addition, the two sections will now have to be tackled sequentially with separate time limits, unlike earlier when students could divide their time between the sections as per their priority.

The total time for the test has been increased from 135 minutes to 140 minutes, and 70 minutes each have been fixed for the two sections.

Over 10,000 students from the tricity and its periphery have registered for the test as compared to the national figure of 2,05,000. Every student has been allotted a different slot as per his preference.

“The pattern has brought in many changes. Time management will be the key this year but a student will not have to bother about dividing time between the sections. A student will have to be good in both sections as even if you complete one section before time you won’t be able to start the next section before the stipulated time. Practice is the only mantra as more the students practise, the faster they can deal with questions.

Chandigarh, October 19
Prakriti, the environment society of Postgraduate Government College for Girls, Sector 11, organised a two-day awareness campaign on the safe and pollution-free Diwali by holding a slogan-writing competition, lectures and an anti-cracker rally on Wednesday.

The resource person, Tejinder Kaur, vice-chairperson, Desh Bhagat Group of Colleges, in her keynote address to the students and faculty members underlined the alarming rise of pollution and created awareness about the hazardous effects of air and noise pollution arising out of bursting of firecrackers. She also spoke about the significance of the medicinal plants.

She also donated saplings of medicinal plants like neem, sukhchain, aswgandha to the faculty members and students as part of her resolution to donate one lakh plants this year.

The faculty and students of the college also took a pledge to celebrate a safe and pollution-free Diwali by not bursting crackers and thereby protecting the environment.