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VCs for changes in education system
Jalandhar, November 23
The Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of 36 universities from across the northern region today stressed on the need to make suitable changes in the education system to give a spark to innovative skills and communication abilities in the students, rather than merely imparting bookish knowledge to students and helping them pass examinations.

Abolition of Child Labour Week
Seven children rescued
Jalandhar, November 23
As many as seven children were rescued by the labour department in raids carried across the district today by labour officials.

ASI arrested for graft
Kapurthala, November 23
The Kapurthala police arrested an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), posted at the Kala Sanghia police post, for his involvement in a corruption case. A case under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against the ASI Sarabjit Singh on the complaint of Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Sidhwan Dona village, on November 2.

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	VCs for changes in education system Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, November 23 The Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of 36 universities from across the northern region today stressed on the need to make suitable changes in the education system to give a spark to innovative skills and communication abilities in the students, rather than merely imparting bookish knowledge to students and helping them pass examinations. The VCs were attending a two-day meeting of the North Zone Association of Indian Universities, which began at Lovely Professional University here. The VCs had a collective opinion on the issue that the teachers should be creative enough to help further propagate the art of innovative thinking rather than just following the examination-centric system. Vice-Chancellor of the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala, Prof Paramjit Singh Jaswal suggested that there was a need to include at least 20 per cent of syllabus from humanities in the technical courses, which could partly help in improving the thinking. Vice-Chancellor of Chitkara University Prof RS Grewal gave his presentation in which he mentioned that while the TV was considered an idiot box in yesteryears, the use of audio-visual technology was being considered to be the best means of imparting education. "The children these days are tech-geeks. They love playing with virtual gadgets. They will comprehend everything which we convey to them using hi-end tech projects. In fact their pace of understanding concepts would even be faster on this front than their teachers when we would teach them using such tools," he pointed out. He said the knowledge on each subject had expanded so much that the size of books had been increasing each year. "It has become a Herculean task for the teachers to decide as to which topics to delete and which ones to add while finalising syllabus," he added. The VCs emphasised on the need to prepare PhD students for future faculty jobs. On these lines, they mooted a proposal that the best and brightest students be attracted to PhD programmes by offering good fellowships per month. The VCs also explored possibilities of mutual collaborations between universities to facilitate joint research, faculty development programmes, joint conferences, workshops and joint research project proposals. The other important issues dealt with today were "Inbreeding issues in academia" and "Shortage of quality faculty at Indian universities and how to overcome this problem". Two other sessions on "Academia-industry interface" and "Globalisation" will be held tomorrow. The conference commenced with welcome by AIU president Prof SN Puri and LPU Pro-Chancellor Rashmi Mittal. Two-day meet VCs of 36 varsities for improving innovative skills and communication abilities in students
	Abolition of Child Labour Week Seven children rescued Aparna Banerji/TNS Jalandhar, November 23 As many as seven children were rescued by the labour department in raids carried across the district today by labour officials. Raids were conducted in Goraya and across Jalandhar on the second day of the Abolition of Child Labour Week. Like on Thursday, three teams were appointed to carry out the job on Friday. While some of the children rescued today were also found pursuing hazardous occupations, unlike yesterday, the labour department chose to keep mum on how many children were found involved in hazardous works. When asked why, just like yesterday, there was a huge difference between the number of raids and the number of rescued children, labour-cum-conciliation officer Sukhjinder Singh said, “Since the word about the ongoing week has spread, some establishments have grown cautious about the raids. Probably that is why there is nothing amiss to be found in many of these establishments that our teams visit.” “Although, we are doing much better than other districts, there are some districts in Punjab, where not a single child has been rescued during the raids,” Sukhjinder Singh added. Commenting on whether all the children found were below 14 years of age, Singh said, the children were rescued based on this assumption, but their actual age would be determined only after medical tests tomorrow. None of the children rescued today were bonded labourers and the parents of all the children are residents of the district, said Sukhjinder Singh. NGO submits complaint to Police Commissioner Activists of the NGO Bachpan Bhachao Andolan today submitted a complaint to the Jalandhar Police Commissioner Gaurav Yadav on the issue of laxity in the follow up process after the rescue of these children and no registration of FIRs against offenders found to be employing child labourers. In its letter to the Police Commissioner, the NGO said while the District Taskforce Committee had conducted many raids for the release of child labourers as per the Punjab Action Plan formulated by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, there was lack of aggressive follow up procedures after the release/rescue of these children. A copy of the complaint has also been forwarded to Chief Secretary, Punjab; Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar; Labour Commissioner, Punjab and National Commission for Protection of Human Rights, Delhi.
	ASI arrested for graft Kapurthala, November 23 The Kapurthala police arrested an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), posted at the Kala Sanghia police post, for his involvement in a corruption case. A case under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against the ASI Sarabjit Singh on the complaint of Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Sidhwan Dona village, on November 2. Pawanjit Singh, SHO, Sadar police station, said acting on Sukhwinder Singh’a complaint, the district police chief had marked an inquiry to the Superintendent of Police (detective) BS Dhillon in the case. Investigating the case, the SP (D) found the ASI guilty and submitted his report to SSP Indervir Singh. The accused was subsequently arrested by the police from his place of posting. The SHO said in the complaint (affidavit) to the SSP, Sukhwinder Singh had claimed that a vehicle driven by his son Davinder Singh knocked down a Kapurthala resident, Lambhar Singh, a couple of days back. Though the issue was settled and a compromise was reached, but the ASI booked his son by registering a case under Sections 279 and 337 of the IPC, Sukhwinder had alleged. The ASI had demanded Rs 50,000 to hush up the case, he had further alleged in his complaint. The ASI was remanded to one-day police custody by a local court, the SHO informed. — TNS
	Tejaswi elected Kapurthala dist BJP chief Our Correspondent Phagwara, November 23 Senior BJP leader of the town and former Phagwara Improvement Trust Chairman Tejaswi Bhardwaj, a loyalist of BJP Rajya Sabha member Avinash Rai Khanna, was today elected president of the district unit of the BJP. Party leader Balbir Chand Kapila announced the unanimous election of Bhardwaj to the post of president of the district unit of the BJP. Six candidates - former councillor Sarita Sood, Rajiv Pahwa, Jagdish Sharma, Mahesh Maria, Purshotam Passi and Tejaswi Bhardwaj had filed their nominations for the post of the Kapurthala district chief of the BJP, but Bhardwaj was elected unanimously.