Chandigarh, April 26
The University Grants Commission (UGC) in its second reminder under the head “most urgent” has asked the Chandigarh administration to submit its action-taken report on findings of the inquiry committee constituted by the commission on allegations against Punjab Engineering College director.

The commission in its reminder on April 16 had sought the report within 15 days to be submitted to the ministry of human resource and development.

The central vigilance commission has also written to the SC\ST\OBC Officers Welfare Association saying “your letter has been forwarded to the All-India Council for Technical Education for necessary action”.

A senior official of the administration said: “We are in the final stages of finalising the report. I can only say that there is nothing concrete against the PEC director. Since the college is in the nascent stage, following its conversion to a deemed university, there are certain technicalities that need to be straightened out. We shall forward the reply within this week.”

The UGC committee had visited the PEC campus last year following complaints from the SC/ST association of faculty members.

The UGC report had indicted Prof Vijay Gupta, director, for irregularities in promotions and recommended the cancellation of all promotions carried out by him.

The report was submitted to the Chandigarh administration for necessary action. The report was forwarded to PEC chairman Chandra Mohan for his comments, who forwarded the comments of the PEC director on the UGC.

In his reply, the PEC director termed the UGC report “shoddy”, “biased”, “unfair” and “conducted with a preconceived notion to give an adverse report against the institute”.

Sources added that the voluminous reply by the PEC director to the UGC report, attacking both the manner in which the inquiry was conducted and its findings, rebutting them point for point, is still under consideration of UT technical education director S.K. Sethia.

Chandigarh, April 26
A small piece of Panjab University’s ‘heritage’ is being moved. No archaeological legacy this, but a nostalgic one that is causing many a wistful and evocative paeans to be sung! Indeed as the stone benches perched around the Students Centre are removed to make way for bright green metallic ones, many former students are horrified at the ‘history’ lost.

A stroll around the centre yesterday showed lots of digging and repair work happening with the stone benches dug up and sitting upside down and being used as footrests and to perch plates of food on.

While the bulk of the current students were nonchalant about these changes, sitting happily in droves on the brightly painted metallic benches, the older lot were vociferous about the change.

“I am very upset,” said Raman Kalia who spent five years “hanging around” in the university doing his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Chemistry and who is currently working with the UB Group in Bangalore. “The Stu-C is a melting pot which defines the very fabric of the university. I realise one needs to liven it up but not by removing something that has been a part of so much in every student’s life,” he said.

The memories go back to a time when cell phones and emails did not exist. “We met people from other departments here. It is here that friends were made, notes were exchanged and romances brewed and bit the dust,” smiles Gurpreet Singh, a former student now working in Malaysia who is currently visiting his family here.

While the fate of the benches raises much dust, dean student welfare, Dr Naval Kishore, said they are not being thrown away. They are simply being moved to other spots in the university. “Seating here was practically non-existent with the number of students increasing every year. This is simply to make more space for them,” he says.

Indeed, youngsters here are still going about their daily business, irrespective of whether they are sitting on- stone or metal.

Sania Sharma (final year, MSc botany) said while she understands the brouhaha these uprooted benches are creating, associated as they are with old and cherished memories, she believes what students now need is space to sit and yes, a backrest for the “beleaguered back” which the metallic ones provide.

Students of Swami Ram Tirtha School during their oath-taking ceremony in Mohali on Thursday. — A Tribune photograph

Mohali
CEREMONY: Swami Ram Tirtha Public High School, Phase IV, Mohali, held an oath-taking ceremony on Thursday in which head boy Sachin Bhatt and head girl Benu Chopra were administered oath. The captains and vice-captains of the four houses - Jupiter, Mars, Pluto and Venus - also took oath. Director Sujata Sharma and principal Kiran Bhandari encouraged the students to inculcate leadership qualities in them. — TNS

CONTESTS: To inculcate a sense of competition, build stage confidence and encourage hidden talent in children, Doon School, here, organised various inter-house competitions, including declamation in Hindi, mono acting competition and poetry recitation in English. Students displayed good preparation, remarkable confidence and their mono acting skills. — TNS

BAISAKHI MONTH: Spring Valley Public School, Phase XI, is celebrating Baisakhi month with its tiny tots. Staff and students of the school came in colourful Punjabi traditional dresses and with a short introduction to the Khalsa foundation danced to the beats of Punjabi music. Sweets were distributed. Ravinder Kaur, principal of the school, said, “We celebrate all Indian festivals with this fervour.” Inderjit Bhutar, the chairperson of the school, said, “We wanted to start the new session with a lot of activity and fun so we started it with an “ardas” to the almighty.” — TNS

EARTH DAY: Students of Genius Public School, Sector 69, here, celebrated Earth Day with gaiety and fervor. Students of Classes IV to VII participated in a slogan-writing competition. Besides students of Classes I to VII participated in English and Hindi calligraphy competitions. Principal of the school delivered a talk on how to tackle issues like soil conservation, deforestation and global warming by planting more and more trees. — TNS

Panchkula
PUPPET SHOW: An educative puppet workshop was organised by CEVA officials for the students of The British School, Sector 8, here on Thursday. This theatre workshop was meant to teach students various concepts in an easy manner. The teachers also learned a new technique of teaching number skills to the children. Director Sanjay Sethi assured such innovative programmes in the school in the future. — TNS

Chandigarh, April 26
There is a staggering backlog of 2.5 crore cases in Indian courts and almost 6 per cent of the population of the country is embroiled in one form of litigation or the other. The percentage is higher for the states of Punjab and Haryana where almost 10 per cent of the population is involved in litigation.

The number of cases pending in Punjab and Haryana High Court is around 2.6 lakh and old cases (the cases in the court for the past two years and more) awaiting orders are 1.7 lakh. The number of pending cases in the subordinate courts, under the high court’s jurisdiction, is around 11.8 lakh.

These and many more interesting facts have been compiled in a report prepared by Ashwinie Kumar Bansal, governing council member of the International Council for Alternate Dispute Resolution (ICADR). The report brings to light some grim and often-discussed facts regarding the poor judicial strength and the huge number of pending cases in the country’s courts.

According to the report, the total number of new cases coming to the high courts in the country in 2006 was 16 lakh out of which 15 lakh cases were disposed of. Incidentally, the high courts have increased their annual disposal rate by 50 per cent over a period of past eight years.

Importantly, the total backlog, including civil and criminal cases, in subordinate courts across the country has increased from 204 lakh at the end of 1999 to 257 lakh at the end of 2005, though it reduced to 249 lakh in 2006.

The institution of civil cases in the high courts was hovering around 11 lakh in 2006 as against the disposal of 10 lakh cases. But importantly, the institution of criminal cases in the high courts in the year 2006 was 5 lakh as against disposal of 6 lakh cases. This means that more cases were disposed of than those being instituted.

Another interesting fact highlighted in the report is that in India, the ratio is 13.5 judges per million people as compared to 135-150 judges per million in advanced countries.

But the advocate-people ratio is healthy with there being 8.47 lakh advocates in the country. It implies that there is one advocate for 1,200 Indians.

CULTURE

Mohiniattam recital today
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26
SPIC MACAY, which completed 30 years in the field of art and culture promotion, will organise a special fare for dance lovers on the occasion of World Dance Day tomorrow.

As part of India-wide celebrations kicked off from Delhi two months ago, SPIC MACAY will feature a special mohiniattam performance by renowned exponent Deepti Omchery Bhalla. The event will take place at Punjab Engineering College auditorium at 5.30 pm.