Chandigarh, April 7
Is it “Panjab University” or “Panjab Unibersity”!

This question is troubling hundreds of PU students as the university has been found using two fonts while issuing the degrees and detailed mark sheet (DMS).

The use of Linkon font on degrees and DMSs has led to confusion, as the letter ‘v’ in ‘University’ appears like ‘b’. The practice has been continuing for the past many years and certificates are distributed to lakhs of students every year. Students are surprised to find that while in some degrees and DMSs, it’s written “Panjab University”, in others, it appears “Panjab Unibersity”.

An MA student at the PU said when he read the DMS, he realised the fact and contacted the university for rectification. However, he was told by some officials that the word had been correctly printed. “I checked with my friends and found that the word University in mark-sheets appeared different. I even checked the degree provided to me after graduation, which also had the same error that led to the confusion,” the student said.

The university has been getting queries from many students over the spelling in their certificates. There were cases in which students had problem in applying for courses abroad due to spelling confusion.

PU officials said the degrees and mark-sheets get printed in two printing presses, who have been using both ‘Linkon’ and ‘Old English’ as the fonts that leads to confusion of the letter ‘v’.

“The letter ‘v’ appears like ‘b’ on the certificates in which Linkon font has been used, officials said.

PU Controller Examination AK Bhandari said to end the confusion, the university had now decided to replace the Linkon font on degrees and DMSs with “Old English Font” from this session. “The degrees and the DMSs which the students would be getting now will have only Old English Font,” said Bhandari.

Chandigarh, April 7
Vehicles, tyres and charcoal worth lakhs of rupees were gutted in a major fire near the junkyard of the ITBP station near Hallomajra late this evening. The fire department received the call at 9:04 pm. Till this report was filed, four fire tenders had been sent to the spot. ITBP jawans also assisted the fire officials to control the fire. Officials of the fire department said the reason of the fire had yet to be found.

Due to a major traffic jam on the Ambala highway because of an accident at the Hallomajra light point, fire tenders had to struggle a lot to reach the spot. Surprisingly, three PCRs were placed on the accident spot, but the traffic was not cleared by the police for the fire tenders which were stuck in the jam.

Chandigarh, April 7
Stiff competition for increasing television rating point (TRP) of channels or circulation of publications these days has ended up producing a product which is sensational for public but factually incorrect in terms of news. This was stated by Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of Indian Express, while delivering a talk on ‘Media a watchdog or blood hound’ at the PGI in a Saturday talk forum of doctors.

Raj Chengappa, Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune, who chaired the session, said that there was a sea change in the method of covering stories by mediapersons. Considering it as a matter of concern, he said that trends had begun where the reporters filed their reports without checking facts.

Terming newspapers as the mirror of the society, Shekhar Gupta said that commercialisation of publications had changed the facet of the media. However, the organisations had to restructure the system by deciding as to how and when the watchdog had to act and in which manner.

Raising a query on the role of the media, he referred to a number of recent instances, in which the mediapersons had misinterpreted facts to present sensational news. He said such stories were affecting the credibility of mediapersons. Taking serious note of the fact that there were some loopholes in the Indian system, he said there were no set norms for the freedom of speech for mediapersons resultantly, the press also had to tread carefully while covering important issues.

He said it was distressing that the Supreme Court had constituted a committee to discuss the limitations of the media and that recently, such objections were again coming up before the court.

Chandigarh, April 7
The three-day function organised to mark the 25th anniversary celebrations of the IAF’s 126 Helicopter Flight (HF) concluded here today with the Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Transport and Helicopters), Air Vice-Marshal VM Khanna releasing a silver jubilee coffee table book on the unit.

Christened “The Feather Weights”, 126 HF was raised at Chandigarh on May 15, 1986 with Wg Cdr BK Sharma as its first commanding officer. It is the IAF’s smallest unit, but operates the world’s largest and heaviest helicopter, the Mi-26, which can carry loads up to 20 tonnes.

A number of events, including a social evening with airmen and non-combatants of the unit and their families, a social get-together for serving and retired unit officers and a cultural performance were organised by the unit, which were attended by a large number of people.

Presently commanded by Gp Capt Jang Veer Singh Guron, the unit’s helicopters have logged about 8,000 flying hours ferrying 13,559 tonnes of load. 126 HF has the unique distinction of operating the world’s heaviest helicopter in the world’s highest and coldest battlefield -- the Siachen Glacier. It was also actively involved in the 1999 Kargil conflict, wherein it performed numerous missions by day and night. It has been awarded seven Chief of Air Staff’s and 19 Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief’s commendations.

The Feather Weights were instrumental in making advance landing grounds at Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) in Ladakh and Vijaynagar in Arunachal Pradesh operational for transport aircraft by airlifting heavy machinery and construction material. It now undertakes regular air maintenance sorties to DBO, the world’s highest airstrip. It has also been closely associated with various projects of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Besides military operations, the unit has undertaken relief operations during natural calamities and in aid to civil authorities. 

Chandigarh, April 7
The students of Centre for Social Works at Panjab University celebrated the World Health Day with the children of migrant labourers. They were shown documentaries on health and hygiene on the occasion. As a part of their week-long campaign, the students went to the south campus of the university in Sector 25 and showed documentary to the migrant workers highlighting the ways to remain healthy.

Assistant Professor Gaurav Gaur said, apart from screening the documentary, the labourer were also told about the importance of washing hands and drinking clean water. The students initiated a week-long activity by cycling from their houses to campus-another way to stay healthy.

Preety Rawat, fourth-semester student, said they had also planned to distribute medicinal plants in various teaching departments of university. “Due to holidays falling this weekend we could not distribute the plants in all the departments. So we will be continuing the campaign,” she said. 

Chandigarh, April 7
Although the promotion case of Professor BB Goyal is yet get an approval from the Senate, the university acting on repeated requests made by the professor to clear his pending promotion case has constituted a time-bound committee to look into the issue. The case was also tabled before the recent Senate meeting, however no decision was taken.

Official sources said that the committee headed by BS Brar, Dean University Instruction (DUI), that would also have Registrar AK Bhandari as one of the member would be taking up the issue and submitting its report to the Vice -Chancellor.

The sources said that the committee would be re-examining Goyal’s case and present its observation.

It was during 1998, Goyal, while acting as an examiner, is alleged to have awarded 42 marks during re-evaluation as against 0 marks awarded originally to a candidate who except for writing the words ‘Radha Swami’ had not attempted even a single question in B.Com II year exam following which an enquiry was held that indicted him of serious misconduct and failing to maintain integrity.

On the basis of the enquiry conducted, the Senate in 2001 imposed punishment on Goyal and stopped his five increments and debarred him from assignment of any remunerative university work.

Although he was promoted as a reader in 2001 and associate professor in 2006, he was supposed to be promoted as professor in 2009, in 2011 his promotion was cleared by the Syndicate, however, few members objected to it and a committee was formed to look into the case, which on January 7, this year gave its report that Goyal should be promoted as a professor with effect from January 1 2009.

Although Goyal was communicated that he had been promoted as a professor, however, the university is yet to decided on the date and year from which his promotion will become effective. The issue was brought up in the Senate but was not taken up by the House as some members objected stating that they needed time to go through the report of the committee.