Bathinda, May 19
Taking a step towards restraining students from copying content from e-resources and publishing it as their own in their theses/dissertations, the Central University of Punjab (CUP) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre, Ahmedabad.

The MoU was signed as a part of the E-Resource Awareness Programme organised on the University’s city campus in order to initiate a discussion on the advantage and reliability of e-resources in the procurement of information and knowledge for academic purposes.

Shodhganga, a programme initiated by the INFLIBNET to provide a platform for research students to deposit their Ph.D. theses and make it available to the entire academic community through open access, also has the ability to capture, index, store, disseminate and preserve the works submitted by the researchers.

The MoU will now enable the University faculty members and students to have an open access to research publications from across all the universities that have signed similar MoUs with the INFLIBNET. Apart from easy availability of research material, the step will also check the nuisance of plagiarism in research and academic publications.

Proper software tools are now available to detect and deter plagiarism. The increased visibility of theses and dissertations on open access repositories would further act as a deterrent to plagiarism.

In his welcome address, the vice-chancellor of the CUP, Prof Jai Rup Singh, said, “The information available on the internet in the form of e-database, e-books and e-journals, is tremendous. While this information empowers us, it also poses a risk of being copied for various research works. It is better for the university authorities to check in the beginning than realising later that the content of the research work has been copied.”

“This MoU will enable us to access what other universities were doing and help us in avoiding repetitions and plagiarism in various academic works. It will also allow us to host dissertations and theses of the CUP on the Shodhganga. Besides, we can optimally utilise the e-material available by knowing about the different e-resources, development of these resources, webliography of e-resources and open access journals,” the VC added.

“In our attempt to spread quality education, e-resources are going to play an instrumental role. Our aim behind the signing of the MoU is to initiate a check on plagiarism and promote authentic research,” he added.

The chief guest on the occasion, Dr RK Chadha, Joint Secretary, Parliament of India, said, “We are living in very exciting times and a society which can be called knowledge society. In this society, information is of prime importance. With the signing of this MoU, a new culture of information sharing is going to evolve.”

Dr Jagdish Arora, director, INFLIBNET Centre, dwelled upon how plagiarism could be intentional or accidental. “If a research scholar forgets to give citations at the end of its academic work, it may also amount to plagiarism. And in this age of technology, the authenticity of information is of utmost importance.”

“Before the CUP, as many as 57 universities from across India had signed MoUs with us and uploaded more than 3,350 theses on the Shodhganga. The faculty and students of all these universities have open access to more than 7,500 e-journals,” Dr Arora added.

International publishers like Wiley-Blackwell, Science Direct, Taylor and Francis, SpringerLink, Project Muse and J-Gate Custom Content for Consortium also gave their presentations on the best ways of accessing and using the available e-resources.

The presentations were followed by an interactive feedback session, during which the resource persons addressed the queries and observations of the faculty, students and visiting participants. aProf PS Ramana, Dean (Students Welfare), proposed the vote of thanks. 

Bathinda, May 19
The District Consumer Forum has penalised the GGS College of Education for fleecing students.

The Forum directed the college principal to reimburse `10,500 charged extra from a student as the annual fee for the course. The Forum directed the college to reimburse the extra fees charged, within the next 45 days or it would have to pay the amount along with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum.

Further, the college has also been slapped with a fine of `5,000 per student.

More than six students from the institute had approached the Consumer Forum and filed a petition on December 7, 2011. The case was decided on May 12.

Students Sarabjit Sharma, Rajvir Singh, Bharpur Singh, Harkirat Singh, Hardeep Singh and Ravinderjit Kaur said the Punjab Government had fixed `40,000 as annual fees to be charged by the private B.Ed unaided colleges being run in the state. But as per the instructions of the federation of private colleges, the institute charged `50,500. Many other colleges even charged `65,000.

The petitioner students said the students of the institutes of Punjab, which had charged extra fees, raised their voice against the fleecing but no one heard them. The Forum also noticed that the college concerned had charged more fees than it had stated in its prospectus.

Bathinda, May 19
Medicines worth lakhs of rupees were gutted in fire that broke out at the Jawahar Medical Store in the local Hospital Bazar this morning.

The owner of the store learnt about the mishap from an employee of a nearby shop. When the owner, Ram Vijay, reached the shop at around 5 am, the firemen with three fire tenders were trying to douse the flames.

Speaking to TNS, Ram Vijay said he had no idea about the damage in terms of money. He said the medicines and other material in the shop were not insured.

The store owner said it seemed that a minor fire broke out in the night which spread all over by the morning. He said the packing of the medicines was inflammable. He said it took more than three hours for the firemen to extinguish the fire.

Officials of the Kotwali Police Station reached the spot and inquired about the cause of fire. The police officials said they were still investigating if there was any mischief.

The president of Bathinda Wholesale Chemists Association, Darshan Singh, said he had called an emergency meeting of the members of the association and advised the chemist shop owners to get an insurance cover for their shops. He also advised the shopkeepers to get their workers, who tour various districts and nearby states to sell or purchase medicines, insured too. 

Bathinda, May 19
Anubhav Singla, a student of the Sharp Brains Institute of Rampura Phul, has been selected for a ten-day tour to Japan.

The Japan government will bear the expense of his visit.

The director of the Sharp Brains, Ranjiv Goyal, said Anubhav had been selected under exchange of students and youth programme between the governments of India and Japan.

Anubhav is the only student from Bathinda amongst 80 selected from all over the country for the tour.

During visit to Japan, the Indian delegates would see the country's culture, tradition, knowledge, lifestyle, eating habits, art etc.

Bathinda, May 19
Under the revised national TB Control Programme (RNTCP), a three-day training programme for the medical officers about “Programmatic management of drug resistant TB” was organised on the premises of the office of the Civil Surgeon here.

The training programme, in which 20 medical officers from the local Civil Hospital and 13 designated microscopy centres (DMC) of the district took part, culminated yesterday.

The training was imparted to the medical officers by two resource persons, district TB officer Dr Ashok Monga (who had got national-level training at Delhi) and a medical officer Dr Simarjeet Mann (who had got state-level training at Patiala).

The Bathinda Civil Surgeon, Dr Ajay Sahni, who had inaugurated the programme, spoke about the role of surgery in multi drug resistant (MDR) TB cases.

Dr Ashok Monga and Dr Simarjeet Mann trained the participants on the identification of suspected MDR TB cases, laboratory diagnosis of MDR TB cases, treatment of MDR and extensively drug resistant cases, adverse reactions of second line anti-TB drugs, being used in the MDR and extensively drug resistant TB cases, and their management. The trainees were also told about the reporting and recording methods of the cases.

Talking to Bathinda Tribune, Dr Ashok Monga said the training programmes for the programmatic management of drug resistant TB were being held in eight districts of the state, including Bathinda, Faridkot, Mansa, Kapurthala, Barnala and Muktsar.

He added that such programmes had been earlier held in five districts, including Ludhiana, Amritsar and Patiala.

Dr Monga further added that the process of programmatic management of drug resistant TB would be completed in entire Punjab in a couple of months.

He said while earlier the MDR TB patients had to buy the expensive drugs from markets, but with the introduction of this programme, these patients would get the medicines free of cost from the government hospitals.

He also added that the medicines would be given to the patient for two years and he or she would have to come everyday to take the medicine from the hospital.

Before the introduction of this programme, there was no provision for treating MDR TB cases free of cost at the government hospitals in the state.

Bathinda, May 19
Starting the academic session 2012-13, the DAV College, Bathinda will be offering two new courses as part of its bouquet of post-graduate programme.

Students from the Malwa region will now be able to take up M.Com and MA (English) at the college.

Speaking to Tribune News Service, principal of the college, Dr JS Anand, elaborated on the decision of starting the courses, and said, “The existing trend in the field of education is inclining towards commerce. Aiming to empower the students of the Malwa region for the job market, we decided to offer commerce as part of our post-graduate programmes.”

“English language is a fast-spreading language and the most-commercially viable language as well. English is also a language that has multiple uses, apart from its apparently pure academic use. By offering post-graduation in the language, we aim to enhance the knowledge of the language in the region. Also, since the college is centrally-located in the city, the students will not have to travel far and wide to study the language,” Dr Anand added.

Talking about the requiement of faculty for starting the two courses, he added, “At the outset, the college doesn’t need to make any fresh recruitment to teach the students who will take up these courses in the academic session 2012-13. 

As and when Punjabi University, to which the college is affiliated, will express the need of hiring more teachers, the college would do so.”

The college will offer 30 seats each for both the courses. 

Bathinda, May 19
The Punjabi University, Patiala is holding a special examination of Environment Studies for the students of BA (Part 3).

According to the information uploaded on its website, the University had declared that it will conduct the special examination on the subject for all those students who are interested in appearing for the exam but have not done so till now.

The interested students, pursuing final year graduation studies under the annual system, have been asked to submit the examination form and examination fee with the superintendent, examination branch, by May 24.

The circular also clearly mentions that any form submitted after May 24 will not be accepted. The special exam for Environment Studies will be conducted on May 28.

Bathinda, May 19
Police has booked two persons for allegedly selling stolen vehicles. The accused have been identified as Jagsir Singh of Bathinda and Tillu of Nai Basti.

Police officials said the duo used to prepare fake documents of the stolen vehicles and sell them in several districts. A motorcycle worth `30,000 has been recovered from their possession.

A case under Sections 379, 411, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC has been registered against them at Canal Colony police station.