70 participate in rangoli contest
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, December 26
Students of SMD Senior Secondary School, New Shivaji Nagar, participated in a rangoli contest held here today.

Nearly 70 students from Classes VI to X participated in the contest. The students used saw dust, water colours, flowers, coconut, pulses and other materials to adorn their rangoli patterns. The participants were divided into three groups. Among contestants from senior group, the team comprising Lovely Kataria and Ginni of Class X stood first. Ruchi Mittal and Rani of Class X stood second. Third prize went to Leenu Tandon and Sarika of Class X.

In junior group, Varsha of Class VIII stood first, Neha Rani of Class VI was declared second and Rinki of Class VI stood third. In boys’ group, Karan and Vishal Batta of Class VIII won the first prize, Abhineet of Class VI was declared second and Pawan of Class VI stood third.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Mr K.R. Bhatt, founder of the school. Ms Jyoti Gupta, teacher, organised the contest. Mr M.M. Bhatt, manager, gave prizes to the students.

Closing of unrecognised courses sought
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, December 26
Public Cause, a forum for common problems, has demanded the closing of franchisee business for imparting unrecognised technical courses of the university at various private institutes.

Stating this in a press note, Mr Pawan Aggarwal, legal adviser of Public Cause, blamed Punjab Technical University and Punjabi University for imparting such courses through franchisees. He demanded that the courses be banned because they were not recognised by the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), a statutory authority in the field of technical education established by an act of Parliament in 1987.

Mr Aggarwal said that the universities were trying to commercialise education by charging an exorbitant fee. He urged the UGC and other authorities to look into the matter and save time, money and career of thousands of students.

PCCTU district chief honoured
Our Correspondent

Doraha, December 26
The principal and staff of the local Guru Nanak National College organised a party to celebrate the release of Prof Kuldip Singh, district president of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union, who is a political science lecturer in the GNNC, from Burail Jail where he had been lodged from December 4 to 18 for the common cause of teachers, students and college managements.

Thanking all of them for their cooperation, Prof Kuldeep Singh said, “As all of our demands have not been fulfilled, we’ll have to recharge our energies to fight for the pending demands. Only then will we be able to achieve the desirable results.