Chandigarh, May 31
Sounds strange but it is a fact that the municipal corporation (MC) which is spending around Rs 10 crore annually on the laying of new water pipelines in the city has no provision to check the damaged underground pipelines or leakages in them.

While the city residents have been facing water shortage problem for a long time, the authorities are not sure whether the problem is due to water wastage by the public or any major leakages in underground pipelines.

If officials are to be believed, the city has adequate supply of 88 MGD water in routine, and 14 teams have been specially constituted by the authorities to keep a check on the water misuse in the city during the morning-hour supply. Still there is little improvement in the water supply.

Last year, a report was prepared by the public health department by "guess work" that the existing pipelines in old sectors, including 18, 19, 20, 22 and 23, had to be replaced, as the distribution lines had already worn out and outlived their guaranteed period, and this frequently led to leakage and breakage, causing loss of precious water.

Sources in the department said as per the report prepared by the officials of the department all these pipelines were laid in 1950s or 1960s and as there was no instrument available to keep a routine check on leakage or bursting of the pipelines. Surprisingly, there is no survey conducted by the department about the points where there could be a major leakage in the underground pipelines. Officials said if any leakage was visible on the surface, the department could repair it and about underground pipelines they were clueless. Officials said as a majority of the pipelines were now covered under roads due to widening and laying of paver blocks, the department was helpless in keeping any manual monitoring of underground water leakages.

Confirming this fact, MC Superintending Engineer RC Diwan said there was no instrument available with the department to check the leakage or damage of the underground pipelines in the city. He said despite a number of measures taken by the department in the summer season, the residents were still facing the problem of low pressure. However, there was no noticeable major leakage in the underground pipelines, he claimed. Officials said a majority of the pipelines were now covered under roads due to the widening and laying of paver blocks due to which the department was helpless in keeping any manual monitoring of under ground water leakage.

Sources in the department said they had insufficient staff for monitoring the leakage of pipelines in the city. A senior official said earlier around 30 field staff personnel were deployed as patrolling staff by the public health department for monitoring the leakage of pipelines. In summers, special teams work in three shifts to supervise the water supply in the city and patrolling for damage or leakages. Even there were keymen, who control the water pressure in the morning and ensure that the full pressure supply was available in all the areas across the city.

Out of around 2,000 regular employees, now only 250 haVE been left to supervise THE water supply in the city and the department has to depend on the contractors for every petty work of repair or damage of pipelines.

Chandigarh, May 31
Residents of southern sectors have been facing power cuts mostly at night. To make matters worse, complaint centres rarely respond to their calls at late-night hours, giving them sleepless nights.

On Wednesday night, there was a power cut of six to eight hours in Sectors from Sector 40 to 46 and in Sector 52. According to information, the cut was imposed at midnight and the power supply was restored at 6.30 am on Thursday morning.

The story of the cut did not end there only. On Thursday morning again, a power cut was imposed from 10 am to 11.30 pm.

Poonam Negi, a B.com II year student and a resident of Sector 45, said due to these cuts, they were spending sleepless nights. She questioned when they were paying power tariff equal to the residents of northern sectors, why the authorities were giving step-motherly treatment to southern sector residents.

Aditya Sharma, a resident of Sector 44, said during power cuts, he had made a number of calls to the complaint centre, but the number was busy every time. He suggested that employees at the complaint centres should attend the calls of the harassed consumers.

On this issue UT Adviser KK Sharma said the administration was committed to providing regular power supply to the city residents. On the issue of power cuts in southern sectors, he said there were no scheduled cuts, but only the overloading problem, he added.

He added that the UT Administration couldn’t withdraw more power from the northern grid, as these days the Central Electricity Regulatory commission slapped heavy penalties on the states who were overdrawing power from the northern grid. He added that there was no shortage of power with the UT Administration.

Sources added that one of the reasons for the breakdown in power supply lines was that consumers do not come forward to declare their actual loads. Last year, only 5,000 consumers had approached the electricity department to declare their actual electricity load.

Panchkula, May 31
Thursday proved to be the hottest day of the season in the tricity region, as the mercury touched a new high of 45.1 degrees Celsius.

Though the region has been under the grip of heat wave conditions for several days, with mercury virtually settling above the 42 degree Celsius-mark, a sudden surge in temperature was experienced today in the afternoon. People in the tricity region of Chandigarh preferred to remain in the cool environs of their homes rather than venture outdoors.

The Chandigarh Meteorological Department has predicted that heat wave conditions would continue in the region. The sky would be mainly clear and the maximum temperature on Friday would hover around 45 degrees Celsius, while there would be an increase of two notches in the minimum temperature on Saturday, which would be around 29 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature was 45.1 degrees Celsius 6 degrees above normal and the minimum temperature was recorded at 27.6 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, the holy city of Amritsar emerged as the hottest place in the region with the mercury touching 47.6 degrees Celsius followed by Ludhiana and Patiala at 46.3 and 46.2 degrees Celsius. In Haryana, Hisar and Rohtak recorded 46.7 degrees Celsius, followed by Rohtak and Narnaul, with 46.7 and 46.3 degrees Celsius.

The weather office has predicted duststorm/thunderstorm with light rain at isolated places in Haryana and Punjab during the next 48 hours. Thunder squalls with wind speed exceeding 45 km per hour may also occur at isolated places in these two states during the same period. 

Chandigarh, May 31
Even as the nationwide bandh call by the NDA against the petrol hike attracted a mixed response here, commuters travelling by public transport buses and trains were put to a lot of harassment.

SAD-BJP workers agitate during bandh in Mohali on Thursday. Tribune photo: Parvesh Chauhan

With the inter-state bus service from the Sector 43 ISBT to various parts of Punjab literally crippled, commuters complained of undue harassment, as there was utter confusion over the running of buses.

Commuters travelling from different parts of Punjab to Chandigarh also faced harassment, as buses did not ply throughout the day. However, the local bus service by the CTU was running normally.

In response to the bandh call, shops in most of the markets remained closed till afternoon. Barring a few preventive arrests, including that of BJP leaders Satya Pal Jain and Harmohan Dhawan and other BJP leaders, no untoward incident was reported in the city as 1500-strong force of the Chandigarh Police remained on toes to check any incident of violence or arson.

At the Chandigarh railway station, BJP leaders, led by Ramvir Bhatti , General Secretary of the local BJP unit, blocked the Chandigarh-Ambala railway track for two hours at Mauli Jagran.

As a result, the Himalayan Queen, Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi, Chandigarh-Mumbai express and a local passenger train were delayed by over an hour. Passengers on board the trains remained stranded in the train in the sweltering heat. Finally, the bandh was lifted when the police reinforcement of the railway police reached the spot.

Earlier in the day, the police took BJP leaders, Satya Pal Jain and Harmohan Dhawan, into preventive custody outside their house, as they were about join the party workers as part of the nationwide bandh call.

Shops and business establishments remained closed. The wholesale market in Sector 26, except medicine, remained shut. Business at the city's wholesale markets too remained closed in support of the bandh call.

Mohali

The call for the “Bharat bandh” given by the BJP and its allies to protest against the hike in the petrol price received a mixed response here today.

The day was marked by agitators blocking traffic, and shops and other commercial establishments remaining closed. Activists disrupted traffic at Landran, in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office and at the Phase VII traffic light point. Banks functioned normally and the transport system was also not hit by the bandh call.

Around midday most of the shops were seen closed in Phases II, VII , the rehri market in Phase III B 1 and the areas wore a deserted look . However, in Phases V , rehri market of Phase IV, Phase I, the position was just the opposite where most shopkeepers were seen doing their business normally. In Phase III B 2, about 50 per cent of the shops were seen closed.

It is learnt that SAD-BJP activists went to various markets to get the shops closed.Traffic was blocked at the Phase VII light point for less than an hour by supporters of Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, former Union Minister. At the Landran chowk, a protest was organised by SGPC member Paramjit Kaur and youth Akali leader Ashwani Kumar in which sarpanches and others participated. Traffic was blocked for about two hours and slogans raised against the Union Government.

Another protest was organised by the president of the Mohali unit of the SAD Jaswant Singh Bhullar outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner. Sukhwinder Singh Goldy, president of the district unit of the BJP, also organized a protest march. All the protesters demanded withdrawal in the hike of petrol prices.

Panchkula

The call for a day-long bandh in protest against the recent steep hike of Rs 7.50 in the petrol prices had no impact in the district today.

All the main shops, business establishments, banks, educational institutions and government offices functioned as usual. Even the kiryana shops remained open and did brisk business, today being the last day of the month.

Shops in the Sector 7 market opened at the usual time in the morning. However, when the workers of BJP and Haryana Janhit Congress led by District Presidents of BJP and HJC Kanwarsain Singla and Shashi Sharma arrived at the site, shopkeepers lowered the shutters of their shops. But as soon as the protesters moved to other sectors including sector 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12-A etc, the shopkeepers again opened their shops.

Chandigarh, May 31
For the second time, former UT DPI (Schools) Samwartak Singh was today questioned by the Delhi branch of the CBI in connection with the teachers recruitment scam. In a significant development, the Haryana cadre officer has named three former UT officials who were involved in the scam, sources said. A co-accused conduit in the case, Jolly, along with Samwartak, was questioned by the CBI at the Delhi office today.

The development assumes significance as till now only Samwartak’s name had cropped up in the scam. Moreover, the CBI also went through certain documents that were seized from the former DPI’s residence in Sector 23 last Sunday during a raid.

Sources in the CBI confirmed that glaring loopholes in selection process had been revealed during Samwartak’s questioning.

Samwartak was questioned extensively for over four hours in relation to the scam. On May 27, the CBI had registered a case against Hardev and Jolly and ‘unknown’ civil servants in connection with the scam.

The scam had rocked the Education Department in 2009 when the department initiated the process of recruitment of 536 teachers for different government schools. It was alleged that Jolly and Hardev had approached one of the candidates with an assured job in lieu of Rs 4.5 lakh. The UT police had registered a case at the Industrial Area police station and arrested them.

Further inquiries had revealed that Jolly was constantly in touch with Samwartak and hundreds of calls had been exchanged between them.

However, investigating the matter, the Chandigarh police had let off Samwartak and filed a charge sheet in the court only against Jolly and Hardev.

While transferring the case to the Delhi branch of the CBI, the High Court had stated that several high-ups were involved in the case and the impartiality of the investigation had seriously been compromised.

Chandigarh, May 31
Tall claims of the UT Administration about providing birth and death registration in one week's time have fallen flat as the authorities are now providing these documents after one month's time. However, those who apply through e-sampark centres get these certificates after two months' time.

According to the information, the computer systems at the birth and death registration wing at Sector 17 have not been working properly for the past 10 days. Owing to some technical problems, the employees are facing problems in printing these certificates. Moreover, senior officials do not bother to get the systems repaired. Sources revealed that more than 3,000 applications are pending with the department.

Sunder Singh, who had come to the office to collect the certificate of the son of his relatives, said earlier the authorities had told them that they would issue the certificate within 10 days but 20 days have passed since he had applied for registration and he has not been issued the certificate.

Sources added that recently the UT Administration had reduced the registration fees from Rs 21 to Rs 7 but it has failed to improve the service. Earlier, the department used to send SMS alerts to applicants but the service has been discontinued for the past many months. Earlier, the authorities used to deliver registration documents within three or five days.

The sources added that it was not about the delay in issuing certificates but the record related to 1989-90 is also not available with the department.

Despite repeated attempts, Harsh Vardhan, Additional District Registrar (Birth and Death), was not available for his comments.

Chandigarh, May 31
The axiom, 'old wine in new bottle', suits the newly elected councillors because they take up those old issues on the floor of the General House which were raised earlier by former councillors but no action has been taken on them till date. A classic example of which is the issue of upgrade of the information technology department of the corporation.

Councillor of the BJP Arun Sood raised an issue at the recent House meeting that in this age of technology when all the councillors had been issued laptops by the authorities, they should also install a projector in the House so that the area councillors could give their presentation on the problems which the residents face in their areas. He also suggested installation of a video-conferencing system in the committee room and the house as it would help the officials and councillors to confer with any other MC in the country for taking suggestions on any issue.

Complaining that the corporation website has not been updated for a long time by the department concerned, he suggested a person should be deployed exclusively to update the website regularly.

Reacting to it, MC Commissioner VP Singh said by the next meeting information will be given to the councillors as to what steps the authority plans to update the IT department.

It may be mentioned that at the previous House meeting, former nominated councillor Pallav Mukherjee had made similar suggestions and assurances were given to him by the officers that they would implement her suggestions.

Sailing in the same boat is the issue of recruitment of ex-servicemen in various departments of the corporation. Nominated councillor DS Sandhu raised questions over the issue and inquired as to how many ex-servicemen had been recruited in various wings of the corporation? Have the authorities followed the instruction of the government of India while recruiting ex-servicemen in the corporation?

Mohali, May 31
There was a 50 per cent drop in the bid for vehicle registration number 0001 here today as compared to that in the last auction held about three months ago. The bid for 0001 in the “R” series netted Rs 4.70 lakh at the auction held by office of the district transport authority. At the last auction number 0001 in the “Q” series went for Rs 9.50 lakh. The reserve price for this number at both auctions was Rs 50,000.

At today’s auction, the number was bought by Gurinder Singh of Mauli Baidwan village for his car.

The number 0007 in the “R” fetched Rs 1.70 lakh against the reserve price of Rs 10,000. The numbers 0041 and 0095 in “R” series were sold for Rs 1. 76 lakh and Rs 1.40 lakh, respectively. The reserve price in both the cases was Rs 3,000. DTO Karan Singh said the average bid amount for 0001 was about the same as in previous auctions. It just happened to be a high figure of Rs 9.50 lakh at the last auction. — OC

Chandigarh, May 31
The last of the 1971 Indo-Pak war veterans, Lt-Gen SR Ghosh, General Officer Commanding in Chief, Western Command and Colonel of the Brigade of Guards, was given a ceremonial send-off as he bade farewell to arms after about 40 years of service.

Lt-Gen Sanjeev Chachra, a Rajput Regiment officer and at present serving as Military Secretary at the Army Headquarters, is scheduled to take over the reins of the Western Command tomorrow.

After the solemn wreath-laying ceremony at the Veer Smriti war memorial at Chandimandir, where he paid floral tributes to the martyrs, General Ghosh remarked in the visitors’ book: “As the last veteran of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, I hang up my uniform and pay my solemn gratefulness to our brave soldiers who laid down their lives for our tomorrow”.

A guard of honour was also presented to the outgoing general by a contingent from 2 Dogra. The formation commanders and senior officers from Western Command were present on the occasion.

Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of the ceremony, General Ghosh said the controversies dodging the outgoing Army Chief, Gen VK Singh, did not have any effect on the training and morale of the Army. The issues, he said, were the Chief’s personal matter and the Army as a whole was not involved. Stating that the new Army Chief, Gen Bikram Singh, is highly professional and competent, General Ghosh said there had been instances of complaints being made by vested interests to stall promotions at the senior level.

An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, General Ghosh was commissioned into the Brigade of Guards on November 14, 1971. He immediately participated in the Indo-Pakistan war at the Jammu and Kashmir sector. He has commanded an infantry brigade on the Line of Control and the Mathura-based Strike Corps. He has also served as the Defence Attaché at Washington. 

Chandigarh, May 31
“My seniors are busy owing to bandh call today, and we cannot lodge any report right now” were the words of an ASI posted at the Sector-22 police post when he was informed about a laptop theft in his area in the morning.

The UT police, which has been making tall claims of ‘quick and easy’ registration of FIRs, was caught napping today as this correspondent had a trying time while lodging a complaint of laptop theft. With a heavy posse of police force deployed on various spots in view of the bandh call, policing was severely affected in the city.

Till evening, no FIR or even DDR had been lodged even though the matter was also brought to the notice of the senior officers. Moreover, the police personnel tried their best to persuade the complainant in lodging a report of his laptop being ‘misplaced’ rather than stolen.

After the routine morning walk, this correspondent returned to his residence only to find his laptop having been stolen. After searching all over his house, he soon realised that the laptop he had left lying on the sofa had been stolen.

On reaching the Sector-22 police post, ASI Gurcharan Singh, who was on duty initially, shot a volley of questions to this correspondent regarding the laptop. After asking about the brand, internet connection, colour and make, the officer on duty was quick to reply that a report cannot be lodged at that time.

“Look Bhaisabh, our senior in charge has been busy handling the rally of Bharat Bhand by a political party since morning. He will come back by the evening. So, you also come in the evening. We will look into it," said the ASI.

When asked about the reason for the delay, he said, “We need to bring certain issues to our senior’s knowledge”.

The correspondent rang ASP (central) Desraj Singh up and informing him about the laptop theft. The ASP was also asked if the presence of a police post in charge was mandatory while lodging a theft report.

While the ASP denied any such rule, he assured the correspondent of a prompt action and asked him to visit the post again. The UT SSP, Naunihal Singh, was also informed of the issue.

“A report has to be lodged without any delay. The officer should have registered the complaint. If found genuine, I will inquire about the issue,” said Naunihal Singh.

After a few hours, ASI Gurcharan Singh called this correspondent up. In a disgruntled tone, the ASI asked him not to bother calling the seniors for this issue.

After a gap of an hour, the ASI landed at the correspondent’s house and noted down the complaint. “My seniors will arrive at 5.30 pm and will revert back,” was all he said.

Panchkula, May 31
Claims of the education department notwithstanding, the performance of schools in the district with regard to the matriculation examination continued to show a sliding trend as the pass percentage has gone down from 56.52 per cent to 55.81 per cent. The Haryana Board of School Education declared the results today.

According to information received here, the pass percentage for school including private and government was 56.52 per cent as compared to the board's 68.72. Last year, the board had recorded 68.72 per cent while it was 56.16 percent showing a decline of 12.56 per cent.

A senior officer on condition of anonymity blamed the poor results on the large number of vacancies in schools. Moreover, in the wake of the school board getting tough on the issue of copying, a large number of the students could not get pass marks.

However, the Deputy District Education Officer (DDEO), Sujara Rana, said the results in the district were satisfactory, as the overall results in the state have also shown a down ward trend.

A total of 4,221 students had appeared in the matric exams conducted by the Haryana Board of school education in March this year and only 2,356 students have cleared the board exam. In Panchkula/Pinjore block 1,844 candidates had appeared in the exams and 967 candidates passed out while in the Barwala block out of 1,144 candidates 594 candidates cleared the exam. Raipur Rani block topped in the district with 70.82 per cent as 590 students out of the total 833 cleared the exam. The schools in Morni block have shown better performance this year with 62.5 per cent against the 52.21 per cent recorded last year.

Neha, a Govt High School, Barwala, stood first in the district with 491 marks out of 500 while Aashish of Sarthak Govt Model Senior Secondary School (SGIMSSS), Sector 12 A, 482 marks bagged the second position. Saloni and Swati Kaushik (Both of SGIMSSS) Pratik of Kamal High School, Pinjore, jointly shared the third position by securing 485 marks.

Panchkula, May 31
Daughter of a farmer of a remote Rehod village in Barwala block of the Panchkula district Neha Sharma, who topped the district in the matriculation exams in the district with 98.2 per cent marks, wants to be a computer engineer.

Satisfied with the outcome of the results Neha said that her parents have fully supported her. She said that she never went for tuitions and listened carefully what the teachers taught her and revised the same at home. She said that the mantra for her success was regular studies at home for three to four hours. She said she would work hard during the next two years and would compete for IIT, AIEEE or JET competitive exams and take admission in a reputed engineering college of the region.

Elated over his daughter’s success Baldev Raj said that despite financial crunch they would wholeheartedly support his daughter. He said even though the farming had become a non-profitable trade these days but they would save every penny for their daughter to fulfill her dreams.

Mother, Kusum Lata, said that Neha, besides concentrating on her studies also helped her in domestic works. She said that their daughter had not only made the family members proud but also the residents in the village and their relatives as no one had secured the top position. 

Panchkula, May 31
Swati Kaushik of Sarthak Government Model Senior Secondary School (SGIMSSS) Sector 12A, who shared the third spot with her classmate Saloni security 97 per cent wants to become a chartered accountant.

Daughter of Bhagwan Kaushik, an assistant in the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd, Neha said that after graduating in commerce she would like to pursue the course of chartered accountancy. She said that she studied daily for three to fours hours at home and had taken tuitions just for about 7 to 8 months for clearing her doubts about the subjects. She said that she played kho kho and badminton and liked to watch television. — TNS

Chandigarh, May 31
The drug de-addiction and treatment centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh, organised an exhibition focusing on harms of tobacco on the occasion of World No-Tobacco Day today.

The objective of this campaign was to educate patients on the adverse impacts of tobacco on health, keeping in view the high prevalence of tobacco abuse in India.

The doctors of the centre explained the patients the harmful effects of smoking as well as chewing tobacco products. The students of the National Institute of Nursing

Education, PGIMER, prepared posters on the issue which were displayed at the centre.

Chandigarh, May 31
With class XII results out, the race to get admission in city colleges is all set to begin. Admission to various courses, particularly BCom which is the most sought after course, will witness much higher cut-offs this year due to a large number of students scoring above 90 per cent marks in class XII.

SD college being the first preference of the students opting for BCom, the cut-off is again expected to be the highest here.

Admission to BCom in the city colleges this year will also be centralised and there would be a common merit list for all the colleges. Also, admission to BCom in the evening department of PU that has 70 seats will be held through online centralised admissions.

There are over 2,000 seats in BCom courses in the city colleges.

The colleges have plenty of courses to offer to students passing out from medical and non-medical streams such as BSc medical/non-medical, BSc biotechnology,and BSc computer science.

The admissions to BSc courses in colleges are made purely on merit basis after the forms are filled. The colleges display their individual merit lists by the first-week of July.

Those who want to pursue their career in computer and information technology also have an option to make their dream come true by opting for Bachelors of Computer Application. Students who have passed-out from any stream in class XII can opt for the course which is available in all the city colleges. For admission in government colleges a joint counseling will be held. 

Chandigarh, May 31
CBSE’s ambitious idea of uploading OMR answer sheets of the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) online before declaration of results and doing away with any discrepancy in marking by seeking feed back from applicants has failed to click.

The fact that the board neither uploaded the answer key nor revealed the evaluation status of answers made the entire exercise useless.

“Its funny. They have put our answer sheets online showing the circles darkened by us. We have no answer keys and don’t even know whether our answer has been marked right or wrong. In such a situation how can we give a feed back or point out discrepancies? After tall promises the board came out with this ham job which is of no use to any of us,” said one of the applicants.

It was the IITs which devised the idea and put evaluated answer sheets online along with answer keys. The students knew how each of their answer had been marked and easily pointed out if there was any doubt or mistake. The exercise evoked a huge response and many students even got their ranks enhanced by pointing out evaluation follies which otherwise could have gone unreported.

“The CBSE was quick to copy IIT, but could not ensure the same efficiency. The idea was to do away with any mistake in marking and to ensure transparency, but the CBSE could not do so. How can a child give a feed back when he/she does not even know that their answer is correct or not. We all were disappointed as in the case of IIT we were able to work out scores and positions well in advance,” said Dr Sangeeta Khanna, director of a Sector 24 coaching centre. 

Chandigarh, May 31
After remaining under suspension for over one and half year, BC Josan joined back as the principal of DAV College today. The DAV management, in its last meeting held earlier this month, had revoked his suspension.

Giving him a clean chit in all financial and administrative matters, the management took the decision to revoke suspension. Josan had been suspended after being declared guilty of rampant academic and financial lapses in the college.

Soon after his suspension, the then PU Registrar, SS Bari, had revoked the same in the absence of Vice-Chancellor RC Sobti who on returning to the campus nullified Bari's orders. Following this, Josan moved the court against the nullification of the Registrar's orders.

The court offered him a short-term relief by asking him to continue as the administrative principal, while financial powers rested with the principal chosen by the management. It was in November last year following the directions of court, the Registrar asked the management to re-inquire the case.

Chandigarh, May 31
Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) has written to the PU Vice Chancellor highlighting how the centre for the evaluation of answer scripts has virtually become an arena of electioneering for the forthcoming Senate polls. PUTA wrote to the VC resenting the incident of a lady teacher allegedly humiliated by a Senator at the evaluation centre last week, demanding a probe into the matter.

PUTA, on a representation received by prof Nahar Singh about the unruly behaviour of a college teacher IS Sandhu, also a member of the Senate, mentioned how Sandhu allegedly humiliated Kamalpreet, a lecturer in Punjabi, in full public view without any provocation.

PUTA said that Sandhu charged upon the lady colleague in a very intimidating way.

PUTA has stated that in order to garner support and to get some kind of publicity, prospective candidates, most of whom are sitting Senators, indulge in all kind of activities which vitiate the sanctity of the evaluation process.

Prof Nahar Singh in his representation has pointed out that how the compulsions of electioneering have probably driven Sandhu to behave such a manner.

PUTA has demanded a probe to find out the facts and wants the university to review the centralised evaluation of the answer scripts, particularly in the election year. They have mentioned that in case the university gymnasium hall degenerates into a site of proxy electioneering, it is time the university starts thinking of a decentralised system of evaluation.