EDUCATION

A.S. College alumni to meet on Nov 24
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, November 20
The A.S. College Alumni Association, Khanna, will hold its 4th annual conference in the college on November 24. Giving this information, Mr Boota Singh, Additional Commissioner, Income Tax, and president of the association, said the association was formed in 1997 with a view to provide common platform to the old students of the college and to enable them to contribute towards the development of their Alma Mater.

Mr Kanhaya Lal Badeja, an eminent industrialist and philanthropist of Mandi Gobindgarh, will be the chief guest and Mr A.R. Sharma, president, Punjab Solvent Extractors Association, will preside over the function.

The association will confer ‘outstanding alumnus’ award upon Mr M.M. Bhalla, District and Sessions Judge, Chandigarh, Principal Tarsem Bahia and Mr Harmeet Singh for their outstanding contribution to their respective fields. Mr Vinod Vashisht and Dr Inderjeet Singh will also be honoured for putting in excellent work for the association.

According to Mr Boota Singh, with the assistance from the alumni association, an Alumni Career Guidance Centre has been started in the college at a cost of Rs 6 lakh.

Among other projects undertaken by the association were plantation of 1,800 saplings in and around the college campus, the construction of a bus shelter in front of the college, renovation of college auditorium at an expenditure of Rs 2 lakh and providing 220 chairs for the auditorium at an additional cost of Rs 60,000 and providing scholarships to students of A.S. College, A.S. College for Women and A.S. Senior Secondary School, he added.

Award for PAU student
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 20
Mr Antarpreet Singh, M.Tech students of College of Agricultural Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), has been awarded Innovation Potential of Students Project Award, 2001 by the Indian National Academy of Engineering for his B.Tech project on Design and Development of Soil Openers for reduced tillage seed-cum-fertiliser drills.

The student carried out his research work under the supervision of Dr D.S. Wadhwa, Professor of Agriculture Engineering, Department of farm Power and Machinery.

The project work was carried out in liaison with National Agro Industries, Ludhiana. This award would be conferred on him at National Aerospace Laboratories Auditorium, Bangalore, on December 28. 

Govt Model School inaugurated
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, November 20
The first completed block of Government Senior Model School, Dholewal, was inaugurated by Mr Tota Singh, the Education Minister. The total cost of the school project runs to Rs 3 crore. For the newly-completed block, Mr Tota Singh had given a grant of Rs 5 lakh whereas Lala Lajpat Rai, MP, had also given a grant of Rs 5 lakh from his discretionary fund. The PTA (Parents Teachers Association ) had pooled in another one-and-a-half lakh rupees.

After the inauguration, Mr Tota Singh, addressing the guests said, “Some government teachers have been given promotion on the basis of good results. The promotion of about 1,000 government school teachers had been withheld as their results had been far from satisfactory.

They have been given a year’s time to improve the results and then only will they be eligible for the promotion. Mass cheating during annual examinations has been taken care of by giving five sets of question papers to the students. This has been a very effective step to check mass copying.”

He further said that in every circle, two Model Schools will be started for those students who get more than 60 per cent marks. To enable them to study without causing their parents financial stress, these students would be given scholarships on regular basis.

The Minister for Technical Education, Mr Jagdish Garcha, attended the bhog ceremony of Akhand Path before the inaugural function. The DEO, Ms Usha Sidhu, the DEO (Primary School), Ms Parkash Kaur, were also present on the occasion. The president and vice-president, Jatedar Hira Singh and Didar Singh, urged the parents and people of neighbourhood to contribute generously as there was acute shortage of funds.

CULTURE

Niladari’s sitar vadan a feast for the ears
Asha Ahuja

Ludhiana, November 20
The century-old assembly hall of Christian Medical College reverberated with divine notes of sitar played by the young sitar maestro, Niladari Kumar, under the auspices of SPIC MACAY last evening.

The college choir sang a hymn to invoke God’s blessings. Later Niladari Kumar gave a captivating performance. He took to sitar at the early age of four and gave his first performance at Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, at the age of six.

Before starting his recital, he told the medicos that he would play simple music which could be enjoyed by them even if they were not initiated in classical music. He told the students about the genesis of sitar. He said Aamir Khusro invented a three-string instrument called ‘Seh’ and later on it developed into a 20-string instrument. Out of these seven are main strings and 13 are sympathetic strings whose purpose is to create resonance. The name ‘changed to sitar’ over the years.

Niladari started with the raaga Jhinjhoti. He was accompanied on tabla by Sandeep Das, a pupil of the well known tabla maestre, Krishan Maharaj. Both of them played with competence. Niladari’s hand moved up and down on strings of the Sitar like a flash and created a music that was a feast for everyone’s ears. The scintillating music held the audience to their seats. The young duo played in perfect harmony and unison.

Later he performed a bandish which he had learnt from his grandfather, Pandit Mangal Chander Dass at the age of 14. Niladri told the students that the music of his grandfather’s time was amazing in its simplicity. “The piece that I am going to play has both musical and rhythmic intricacies and amazing melody,” said Niladari.

The rhythmic rise and fall of notes created by magical fingers of Niladri produced an out of the world melody.

HEALTH

Rally by health employees
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, November 20
The Punjab Health Department Subordinate Offices Clerical Association held a rally at the Civil Surgeon’s Office here today to protest against direct recruitment of kin of the Health Minister and the Chairman of the Service Selection Board.

Mr Sukhwinder Singh, president of the association, in a press note, said state-level rallies were staged at the offices of Civil Surgeons against these recruitment. He alleged that the Health Department was responsible for the non-working at various civil hospitals and the common man was suffering due to the rallies and dharnas.

The employees threatened that if these recruitments were not cancelled at the earliest, health employees would resort to an agitation from November 22. They alleged that the two persons concerned had been recruited out of turn and persons with over 15 years of experience had been neglected by the department.