Ludhiana, May 19
The teaching faculty has condemned the manner in which the Higher Education Department was ‘restructuring and rationalising’ the education system.

The decision to surrender 151 posts of lecturers out of total 2024 posts has evoked condemnation by the teaching fraternity. They feel that government was reducing the teacher’s strength in such times when there was an immediate need to recruit more teachers.

The coming academic session in the government colleges will be a period of great difficulty as many colleges are being asked to admit lesser number of students in various subjects and a few subjects are not to be offered at all in certain colleges.

Prof Jaipal Singh, president, Punjab Government College Teachers Association (PGCTA) said decision of reducing the posts at the recently held meeting of Council of Ministers was irrational. He said in this period of spectrum, more courses needed to be started in colleges.

“The Higher Education Department has already suffered in the recent past. Such decisions will further deteriorate the quality of education. Unless and until sufficient teachers will be there, how can one expect a standardised education system?”, he questioned.

Prof Jaipal said more courses should be introduced on state-finance basis and not on self-finance basis. He said the Education Minister should intervene immediately and take some action.

The teaching community also criticised the transfer policies of the present government. There was a lot of speculation and unrest amongst the teachers over being transferred to new places in the coming academic session. Hardeep Singh Tej of Government Bikram College of Commerce, Patiala, and general secretary of PGDCA said it was seen that whenever teachers were transferred against their wishes, they took a long time to get adjusted with the new environment, thus the ultimate sufferers were the students.

Ludhiana, May 19
Youngsters are the stars of the future-India and it is the responsibility of society to shape them as per the requirements of 21st century. The different organs of society, including parents, educationists, politicians and policy makers have to play pro-active role to shape the destiny of our young generation to make them good citizens of India. These views were expressed by S.P. Oswal, chairman and managing director of the Vardhman Group of Industries here yesterday.

He was addressing students of SCD Government College, Ludhiana, and other government colleges in a ‘Capability Enhancement’ training programme organised at the Vardhman Training and Development Centre (VTDC).

Oswal expressed his anguish against today’s parents for providing luxury items like cars, mobile phones etc to the youngsters which was ruining the life of these students. He cited his own example that his father did not allow him scooter when he was a student at Panjab University, Chandigarh. He used to go to University by-cycle or rickshaw.

He said present political leadership was not giving right direction to the young generation and exploiting them for their own means and motives. He urged the political leadership of the country to be sincere in chalking out the human resource development policies.

While commenting upon the language barriers, he said unfortunately English was given priority in society but good thoughts had no concern with language.

As many as fifty students from SCD Government College, Government College Hoshiarpur and ASSM College Mukandpur have been selected for this programme.

The programme will conclude on June 9. In this house-training programme, students from socially underprivileged sections of society, who got first division in their graduation, have been selected.

They are being given training on various aspects like English writing and speaking, building of traits and necessary supervisory and executive training for business organisations. 

Ludhiana, May 19
The eighth annual convocation of BCM College of Education, Chandigarh road, was held in the college campus today. One-seventy-nine students were awarded B.Ed degrees on this occasion. Prof R.C.Sobti, vice-chancellor of Panjab University, Chandigarh, presented degrees to the students.

Out of 179, 176 students were placed in first division, while 28 students figured in the university merit list.

Shivani Vij stood first securing maximum aggregate marks, second position was bagged by Gurvinder Kaur, while the third position was secured by Ramandeep Kaur.

Dr Khusvinder Kumar, principal of the college, presented the college annual report.

Dr Sobti also inaugurated the computerised college library and released a student handbook titled ‘Educational Psychology: Classroom Connections’, Authored by Kuldip Kaur, lecturer of the same college.

Dr Sobti congratulated the degree holders and said, “We must introspect ourselves how to arrange a passage from school education to college education and from college education to the university education.”

O.P.Munjal, chairman of Hero Cycles, was the guest of honour on the function. The prizes were distributed among 35 students who attained first and second positions in the university examinations.

In the sports category, Harneet Kaur and Varinder Kaur were honoured for wining a gold medal in the Panjab University inter-college badminton tournament.

Ludhiana, May 19
Procter and Gamble, in partnership with Child Rights and You (CRY), has launched Shiksha-2007 Project for the third year.

The company in a press note issued today said that it has committed a minimum of Rs 1 crore donation to Shiksha Project, which will be allocated to projects focused on enabling the child's right to education.

The project is a national consumer program run by P and G. Every time a consumer buys a large pack of company's products, a certain part of the price paid is contributed towards enabling children's right to education.

So far the company has contributed Rs 2.69 crore to support the education of 33,052 children. The Shiksha projects are working with the state education departments to re-look at existing education policies.

They are also creating awareness to build more schools with better infrastructure, and more basic amenities like water, electricity, health; enrolling more children into formal schools and promotion of retention in schools; and building all-round development of children.

Sumeet Vohra, marketing head, said: "As the economy grows at 8-10 per cent levels, we need to ensure that we lay down a strong foundation for this growth to continue and also to make it more inclusive. We are committed to the cause of development of children in need via its corporate cause P&G Live, Learn, Thrive and Shiksha is our response to the situation in India." 

Mandi Gobindgarh, May 19
Dalip Singh Pandhi, former minister and senior Akali leader, in a letter to the Chief Minister of Punjab has urged to revive three vacant posts of ETT teacher of Fatehgarh Sahib district. These posts were filled by Pendu Vikas, director, and Raj Kamal Choudhry, by transferring three teachers from Ludhiana.

Being a district cadre post, with this development the right of three trained teachers of this district for appointment will be jeopardised. Inter-district transfers against vacant posts should be ordered in mutual cases only.

Talking to the media here today, Pandhi said the director vide his order dated April 9, transferred Satveer Kaur, ETT teacher, Government Primary School, Jhingra Kalan (Ludhiana), to Jalalpur (Fatehgarh Sahib) while Ramanjeet Kaur has been transferred to Mianpur and Nirmal Kumari to Mehmoodpur.

Pandhi has alleged that Panchayati Teacher Recruitment Rules, 2006, provide no such powers of transfer to the director. As many as 47 posts of ETT teacher are lying vacant in this district.

The matter came to light yesterday at the time of requirement of teachers against 47 vacant posts by the Zila Parrishad. The officials said three posts had already been filled and the recruitment against 44 posts could be made.

The chairman of Zila Parishad, Pakhar Singh Salana, was kept in the dark about the posts filled through transfers, alleged Pandhi. He sought action against the officials concerned and allow the appointment of three teachers of this district by cancelling the transfer orders.

Ludhiana, May 19
The Punjab Government is making serious efforts to restructure the higher education system in the state as per the requirements of the 21st century and with in few months every government college in the state will have at least one computer lecturer to give basic computer training to the students.

While delivering the convocation address at the special convocation for the post-graduate students of SCD Government College, here, today, the DPI (Colleges), Punjab, Dr Kanwar Jit Singh, said in the years to come every government college of the state would be equipped with computer teaching facilities and the government was focusing on IT education in these colleges.

He said the restructuring of the teaching posts in the government colleges was over. The directorate of the colleges was encouraging the government colleges of the state to start new courses under the self-financing scheme and many government colleges in the state had already started working on these lines. He said that this move would prove helpful in improving the standard of education in the state. He urged the students to be prepared for facing the challenges of the next century.

Dr Kanwar Jit appreciated the efforts of the college for having industry institute liaison to provide practical training to the students.

The principal of the college, Dr Malkiat Singh, read the annual report of the college. He said that in the session 2005-06, the results of the post-graduate students was 98-100 per cent and the result of M.Com was 100 per cent and all students of M.Com got first division.

Dr Malkiat Singh also highlighted the achievements of the staff during the 2006-07.

Dr Kanwarjit Singh awarded 19 Rolls of Honour (nine in the academic field and 10 in sports). Seven students of the college were awarded with the Sahir Order of Merit, Abhay Oswal Gold Medal, S.K.Vashisht Medal, S.S Bhatia Medal and Dr Dharam Singh Gill Memorial Trophy and best speaker trophy.

Dr Malkiat Singh awarded post-graduate degrees to the 349 students for M.com, MA (economics, English, Punjabi, Hindi and geography) and M.Sc (mathematics).

Ludhiana, May 19
B.Tech pre-final year students of the Bhutta College of Engineering and Technology (BCET) organised a farewell party for outgoing final year students of electronics and communication engineering (ECE), computer science and engineering (CSE), mechanical engineering (ME) and electrical engineering (EE) branches here today.

Jagdish Singh Garcha, former minister, was the chief guest on the occasion.

The function began with a song by Pawandeep Kaur, a pre-final year student. Hemant from the same class presented histrionics, which kept-everyone spell-bound. Other students also presented cultural events. All final year students were honoured with mementos.

A large number of students participated in the Miss Farewell and Mr Farewell competitions for various branches.

Mandeep Kaur and Bhagatpreet Singh of ECE were declared Miss Farewell and Mr Farewell, respectively, whereas Chetan Pratap was declared Mr Farewell from the Mechanical Engineering Department.

Garcha gave away the prizes to the winners. Awards were also given to the outgoing students who excelled in academics and co-curricular activities.

The chief guest exhorted the students to work hard in order to achieve success in life. He said the institution was committed to providing quality education to the students.

Dr A. S. Bansal, director of BCET, said that some students had already been placed in the industry. He wished good luck to the students for a bright future in their professional life ahead. 

Ludhiana, May 19
The annual prize distribution function of Saraswati Schools comprising Saraswati Modern School, Civil Lines, Ludhiana, Saraswati Modern School, Pratap Singh Wala and St. John's Preparatory School was held at Nehru Sidhant Kendra here yesterday evening.

Major Singh Sandhu, the District Education Officer, Ludhiana, was the chief guest on the occasion. He was accorded a warm welcome by the management, staff and students of the schools.

In her message, the founder-cum-president of Saraswati Schools, Kamla Jain, asked the parents to give quality time to their children and work out their own time schedule for them without ignoring children. She asked the parents to nurture the children with love and care instead of merely financing them.

The function started with a devotional recital of Sant Kabir's verses. The tiny tots presented spectacular dances and songs from the states of Haryana and Rajasthan.

Neelambra Sharma, Principal of the Civil Lines branch of the school read out the annual report for the session 2006-07.

The chief guest gave away the prizes to meritorious students. In his address, the chief guest appreciated the performance of the students and threw light on the importance of education especially of girl child.

Ludhiana, May 19
Hindi and English poetry recitation competitions were held in both the branches of Kundan Vidya Mandir School here today. In the city branch, the competition was held for students of primary section. The poems chosen by the students were thought provoking. The function was presided over by the Headmistress of the school Namita Raj Singh. The results are as follows: English poetry recitation competition: Lamin Fatima- first; Muskan Gumber-second; Muskan Dhingra-third;Smaksha-consolation prize.

Hindi poetry recitation: Nakul-first; Anisha-second; Kanupriya-third; Jagnoor Singh-consolation prize.

Ludhiana, May 19
The suspended executive officer of the Improvement Trust Ludhiana, D. C. Garg, who is involved in the infamous City Centre Scam, has moved a regular bail application before the court.

Taking cognisance of the bail application, Special Judge Gurbir Singh today issued notice to the Vigilance Bureau for May 23. The arguments on the application would be heard on the next date.

Meanwhile, Sayeed Arshad Hussain Naqvi, general manager (marketing) of Today Homes Company, against whom the Vigilance Bureau has initiated proceedings for declaring him to be proclaimed offender, also moved the anticipatory bail application today.

Seeking bail, Garg claims to be innocent.

He was arrested on April 20. He has put the blame upon the former trust chairman Sibia for 'wrongdoings' in passing the City Centre project. He has specifically mentioned in his bail plea that he repeatedly informed his superior officers and the state government regarding the “illegalities” committed by Sibia, in clearing the project.

His bail application further says that on May 18, 2005 when the letter of intent was issued to M/s Today Homes, he had informed the deputy director, Local Bodies, that Sibia had proceeded in his own way, without the consent of the officials concerned.

But his bail application is silent about Rs 40 lakh, which the Vigilance Bureau had claimed to recover, at his behest from one of his friends, which he had allegedly received as gratification.

The anticipatory bail application filed by the former chairman of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust Paramjit Singh Sibia and regular bail application of suspended chief engineer Manmohan Singh has already been fixed for the same date for hearing arguments.