Goonj 07 begins with a bang
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 16
‘Goonj 07’, the annual technical and cultural festival of the University Institute of Engineering and Technology, began in full sway at the university campus, here today. Goonj began with a blood donation camp organised by the public relation committee of UIET. Around 200 units of blood were collected.

A team of three doctors, along with 12 nurses and technicians from the rotary blood bank, led the camp. Provisions were made to intimate donors if their blood tests showed them to be suffering from any disease. Cultural events included ‘Script of Magi’, an on-the-spot script-writing based on seven great themes, which were youth centered and thought provoking. Technical events included “Vibrant Neuron-The Biotechnology Quiz,” “Pre-Developed Photoshop,” “Encryption Decryption," "Mechanical Crossword," "Assembly Language Programming," etc. A cultural night was held in the evening which included bhangra, giddha and western dance performances from the students. Rock band from Delhi CRIMSON enthralled the crowd.

The winners of the various contests include: Clipomania: Gautam Jindal and Vinamrata Khare; Rahul Jindal and Parandeep Sharma; On-the-spot software development: Team Id 80: Mayank Garg and Piyush Agarwal: Lovkesh Chauhan and Rajdeep Kaur; Amit Soni and Sachin Bansal; Assembly Language Programming: Himanshu Sharma, Varun Garg; Ayush Agarwal and Gaurav Kapoor; Basic Electronics Crosswords: Harsh Bansal; Crossword: Deepika Sood; Mechanical Crossword: Sameer Sharma; Basic Biotechnology: Ashish Sharma.

PU fee hike: Students to hold protest

Chandigarh, March 16
Members of the Panjab University Campus Students Council have stated that they will protest against the proposed 10 per cent hike in fee by Panjab University from the next session.

The university, in accordance with a pre-established rule, increases the fee of various regular courses it offers by 10 per cent each year.

Approval of the hike is sought from the syndicate and senate members each year. The syndicate members will meet on March 20 to approve the hike. However, students led by council president Dalveer Singh Goldy, today said they had held a meeting along with Students Organisation of Panjab University president Harpreet Singh Multani to plan a protest against the move. When contacted, PU vice-chancellor Prof R.C. Sobti said the increase in fee was an annual feature and that it was a routine item on the syndicate’s agenda.

Meanwhile, the BJYM today criticised the university’s proposed fee hike. It alleged that people were already reeling under price rise and the increase in fee would put an additional financial burden on them. — TNS

From Colleges
College employees protest
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 16
The MCM DAV college employees’ union, Sector 36, and DAV College employees union, Sector 10, held dharnas today at their respective colleges, in support of long pending demands of encashment of earned leave, deduction of provident fund from the total salary, pension, appointment of a bursar in the DAV College, and medical reimbursement.

More than 125 employees were present to show their resentment against the attitude of the DAV colleges managing committee.

Anil Sarwal, president of the DAV College teachers’ union, said those concerned have agreed to the demands of the employees and yet the management had not granted leave encashment benefits and other statutory dues to its employees.

S. S. Hundal, senator of the Panjab University, said the university had issued instructions to some colleges in Moga to grant the legitimate dues of the employees, failing which, they could face disaffiliation, non-approval of new teachers, and discontinuation of grants. He said he was surprised that the vice- chancellor had not taken any action.

R. K. Anand, secretary of the DAV College teachers union, called upon the management to follow the provisions of the university calendar and instructions of the DPI and encash the earned leave to the teachers, as well as deduct provident fund on total salary. He also demanded that a bursar be appointed at the DAV College so that there would be transparency in the use of college funds. Orientation course

The regional institute of English, Sector 32, in collaboration with the directorate of technical education, government of Haryana, will be organising a two-day orientation course in communication skills for 40 newly-recruited teachers of Government Polytechnics, Haryana, on March 17 and 18.The course aims at imparting communication skills to the teachers so that they can manage their classes well and make classroom teaching more effective.

PU Notes
‘Plurality vital for society’s growth’
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 16
The two-day national seminar on “Moral Goodness and Human Nature” concluded at the PU campus, here yesterday. Dr Kumar Neeraj Sachdev from BITS Pilani chaired the session. Dr S.R. Sharda and professor Nirbhai Singh from Patiala University presented their papers on “Moral Values, Peace and Co-existence” and “Moral Values and Human Nature,” respectively.

Lallan Singh Baghel, faculty, department of philosophy, made a presentation on “Marxist Critique of ‘Egalitarian Political Good’ of Rawls: A Critical Theory Perspective”. Baghel argued the different dimensions of democracy and its diverse characters in the form of individual rights on one hand, and collective common good, on the other.

In the valedictory address, professor Satya P. Gautam, chairperson, centre for philosophy, School of Social Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, emphasised the multiple dimensions of morality and its implications in the construction of a just society.

He underlined three important assumptions about moral goodness and human nature. In the first, he articulated the notion of being human as primarily a normative notion and therefore has diverse responses and meaning given the context of culture, tradition, society and language. Secondly, he said we need to recognise the principles of pluralism and multiculturalism in order to make the society more egalitarian and dynamic in orientation. Third and the last, according to professor Gautam, we should not always be attached to the past. Prof Mahajan

The Centre for Adult, Continuing Education and Extension, Panjab University, held a function today to award certificates to their students of computer applications and computer hardware. As many as 45 learners received the certificates.

Professor V.K. Mahajan, honorary director, IAS Coaching Centre, Panjab University, distributed the certificates. ICCSR lecture

The ICSSR North-Western Regional Centre, Panjab University, Chandigarh organised a special lecture on “Exigency of Work and Action” by Swami Parthasarathy, eminent management exponent, at ICSSR Complex, PU on Wednesday. Parthasarathy began his speech with a poser regarding the significance of work, object of work, need of work, purpose of work and objectivity of work. He said all living things are a complex of body, mind and sense. This complex needs to work in order to sustain itself, regenerate itself and achieve higher purposes of existence. 

Poster-making contest

Chandigarh, March 16
Suvidha Sharma and Jaiswal of DAV SSS-8 won the first prize while Prerna and Swetabh bagged the second prize in the poster-making contest. The contest was organised by State Institute of Education as a part of its AIDS awareness seminar held at its premises in Sector 32, here today. As many as 26 teachers from 13 schools attended the seminar in which the resource persons, Jasmine and Hari Chand, enlightened the teachers about the growing problems of AIDS. TNS

40 students selected

Chandigarh, March 16 A joint campus placement drive was organised at the Shaheed Udham Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Tangori, here yesterday. Hundreds of students from various colleges participated in the drive. A written test was conducted yesterday. 40 students were selected, out of which 19 were from SUSCET, Tangori. A technical test will be conducted after 21 days. TNS

CHOCK-A-BLOCK: Hundreds of students queue up outside the Chandigarh Engineering College (CEC), Landran, for a joint placement drive in Mohali on Friday. More than 3,500 students from 50 colleges of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh took part in the drive held for the Satyam Computer Services. — Tribune photo by Vicky Gharu

COURTS

Transport official acquitted
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 16
A local court today acquitted Vinod Sharma, a suspended assistant secretary of the state transport authority (STA), who was arrested by the vigilance department on December 23, 2004 for allegedly submitting a forged degree. He was recently charge-sheeted by the administration for providing false information of being an ex-serviceman in a separate case. RTI Act

The Lawyers for Human Rights International (LHRI) has sought information about the status of the case of sexual harassment that had been filed by sub-inspector Paramjit Kaur against inspector Jagir Singh.

Both parties had reached a compromise, following an apology tendered by inspector Jagir Singh in the Lok Adalat. The sub-inspector Paramjit Kaur had gone on to file a civil case against members of the LHRI for defaming her in the case.

SPORTS

Beat the heat at PU pools
To remain open 14 hours a day
Akash Ghai
Tribune News Service

Giving this information, Dr D.S. Toor, advisor to director sports, PU, said, “The authorities have decided to give extra facilities to local swimmers and the decision to open the three pools - diving bowl, beginners’ pool and competitive pool - for 14 hours a day is a step in that direction. Any member can come at any time but with the prior sanction of authorities.” “This time we will not limit the membership. But definitely, to avoid any rush, we will allow 100 swimmers per hour in each pool,” added Dr Toor. The reason behind this decision was to cope with the expenses of the pool. According to him, the university has been spending over Rs 12 lakh on the repair of the ‘beginners’ and ‘competitive’ pools. There were leakage problems in the pools which made the maintenance cost too high. The repair work was on and, by the end of this month, it would be over, hoped Dr Toor. Last year, Rs 5 lakh were spent on the repair of diving bowl. The bowl was closed for the past 20 years. “After its repair, we found that the fault had been removed so we decided to repair these pools on the same pattern,” he said. “For the entire time, the pools will be supervised by one coach and one life saver. The vacant post of swimming coach will be filled very soon. With that, there will be two coaches and two life savers, who do their duty in shifts,” he said. The pools are expected to start functioning at these timings from April 1.

Carrom team announced
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 16
Anuj Kumar Sinha and Farheen will lead the Chandigarh men’s and women’s team, respectively, in the 36th Senior National and Inter-state Carrom Championship. The championship is scheduled to be held at Kolkata from March  19 to 24.

Other members:

Men: Neeraj Bharti, Mazhar Khan and Hassan

Women: Anjali Yadav, Kumari Kiran, Harshpreet, Kudrat and Anjali Taneja

Umeed Ali and Alka have been named as managers of the men’s and women’s team, respectively, while Mahesh Sekhri will be the coach.

Mahesh Sekhri has also been nominated by the All-India Carrom Federation as the technical director’ of the championship while Diwan Singh Aithani has been nominated as the assistant chief referee.