Chandigarh, June 8
Panjab University will be starting 10 new inter-disciplinary and trans- disciplinary courses from the forthcoming session to commemorate its diamond jubilee year.

The new courses will be started under the aegis of three centres: Centre for Emerging Areas in Science and Technology, Centre for Emerging Areas in Social Sciences and the Institute of Educational Technology and Vocational Education.

Addressing mediapersons during a press conference here today, PU Vice-Chancellor Prof RC Sobti said the courses being offered in these centres will be run by highly qualified and experienced faculty.

The Centre for Emerging Areas in Social Sciences will offer 25 seats in MA in Police Administration, 25 seats in MA in Social Work and another 25 seats in MA in Human Rights and Duties.

Any BA with at least 45 per cent marks and any MA in a Social Science discipline is eligible to take admission in these courses. For masters in social sciences the students, however, has to be a Masters in Sociology.

The university will follow a semester system for these courses. Open category students will pay Rs 20,000 per annum as fee while nominated students will pay Rs 30,000 per annum and NRI/Industry sponsored students will pay US dollars equivalent to Rs 75,000 per annum.

The Centre for Emerging Areas in Science and Technology will offer 12 seats in MSc in System Biology and Bioinformatics, 12 seats in MSc Medical Physics, 12 seats in Nuclear Medicine, 15 seats in MBA Biotechnology, 18 seats in M Tech Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and 20 seats in Masters in Public Health.

The fee for open candidates in all these courses other than Masters in Public Health is Rs 30,000 per annum. The Public Health course will cost a student in the open category Rs 20,000 while a nominated student will pay Rs 30,000 per annum.

The Institute of Educational Technology and Vocational Education will offer a four-year integrated course in BA honours. There are a hundred seats in the course, 15 of which are reserved for NRI/Industry sponsored candidates. The eligibility is 10+2 and the fee is Rs 20000 per annum for an open category and Rs 1,25,000 for NRI candidates.

The application forms for these courses are available and the last date for submission of forms is June 29.

Chandigarh, June 8
The Chandigarh education department today served a show cause notice to Bhavan Vidyalaya, Sector 27, here, on account of not maintaining the school records properly. The department has given 15-days time to the school to clarify its position.

This notice came after a team of education department officials submitted inspection report few days back. “We inspected the school few days back and found flaws in its working. They have been given 15 days to reply back that why should we not cancel their recognition and also recommend the CBSE to disaffiliate the school,” informed a team member.

The report, submitted to DPI (S) S.K. Setia, stated that the principal had neither marked her attendance nor had she submitted any leave application for the second half on May 15. Columns of May 16 and 17 were also found to be blank.

On May 17, it was observed that in the commerce section of Class XII, out of 39 students, no student was shown present in the attendance register while only seven students were marked absent that, too, with pencil.

In the medical and non-medical sections of Class XII, 21 students were found to be absent out of 36. The education department officials stated that after enquiring into the matter, they came to know that these students had gone to get private coaching.

According to the department, also an officer from the estate office, who went to inspect the school, has found building law violation.

The school has also been found running coaching classes without permission.

Meanwhile, the team also inspected a few government schools. In GMSSS-38 (west), the team observed that there were no ample ceasefire arrangements and chowkidaar of the school was not in proper uniform. In GSSS-Maloya, it was found that the school was running up to Class X only.

The post of clerk and librarian had been lying vacant for a long time in GMSSS-8. In GMHS-25, the teacher-pupil ratio (TPR) came out to be approximately 1:60 against the ideal 1:40.

There were 48 teachers to teach 3000 students. In GHS, Dadu Majra, playground was found to be insufficient.

In GSSS-37, there were no proper arrangement for chowkidaars and in GPS, Maloya, the main gate of the school was not in proper condition.

Chandigarh, June 8
City government colleges are facing an acute shortage of prospectus at a time when admissions are round the corner.

This, thanks to a faulty binding machine of the printing agency to which the responsibility of printing a common prospectus for city government colleges had been entrusted, sources say.

Students seeking admission to various government colleges in the city were inconvenienced for the second day today due to unavailability of the common admission forms.

The sale of forms was to begin on June 7 morning. However, due to the snag in the machine, students could get the forms only yesterday afternoon.

This left both students and their parents high and dry, as some of them had come from far off places. Consequently, many of them had to return empty-handed.

Many of them who turned up today in the hope of getting the forms had to return disappointed too.

While admission forms at the Government College for Girls, Sector 11, and Government College for Men, Sector 10, finished before afternoon, only 50 forms arrived around 1.30 pm at Government College of Commerce, Sector 19, as against the demand for 600.

These were sold out within half an hour of arrival from GCG-11, which has been given the responsibility of printing and publishing the common prospectus this year.

At Government College for Girls-42, around 100 forms arrived in the morning which exhausted minutes after their arrival.

College principal Inderjit Kaur said: “After we sold 100 forms, we asked for 50 more, as many of the parents had come from places as far as Delhi and Saharanpur. For the convenience of local students, we have put the prospectus on our college’s website. Although we have asked for 3,000 forms, we hope that the sale will be smoothed out Monday onwards.”

However, GCG-11 principal Promila Kaushal said: “The sale of prospectus went without any hiccup today. GCM-10 and GCG-11 ran out of the prospectus for around an hour but these were replenished within no time.”

She maintained that the problem had been sorted out and in the coming days, forms would be readily available.

Deputy director, public instructions (colleges), Pahlad Aggarwal was unavailable for comments.

Chandigarh, June 8
The new session is yet to commence at Panjab University, but students’ organisations have already begun defacing the campus.

Posters of potential student leaders have sprung up at various places. This is being done to strike a rapport with the freshers who would be coming to the campus a few weeks from now and increase their chances of securing votes in the students’ election.

While these students’ organisations have started their campaign for the next elections and are on a spree to deface the university campus, the PU authorities appear to be unperturbed by the development since no action has so far been initiated in this regard.

Students have gone all out pasting their posters on trees around the students’ centre. As of today there is only one organisation which is pasting posters here, but in case the authorities do not initiate an action, it is likely to lead to a poster-war on the campus.

Interestingly, the university has recently adopted the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations regarding conduct of student elections and according to these recommendations no one is permitted to spoil the campus by pasting posters over walls or trees. However despite this, defacement of the campus is going on unabated.

The PU authorities have identified several places on the campus in this regard.

A student, Ankush Deep, said “Instead of disfiguring the campus, the students’ organisations should work to address students’ issues.”

Student leaders Harpreet Multani of Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) and Abhishek Puri of Panjab University Students Union (PUSU) said that students should be provided with notice boards outside every department where such posters can be pasted

When contacted vice-chancellor R.C Sobti said “In a friendly way, we are trying to stop the students’ organisations from vandalising the campus. But in case, it is required we will adopt some other possible way also”.

Chandigarh, June 8
Spreading the message of healthy environment, around 50 NSS volunteers of Government Model Senior Secondary, School 32, carried out a cleanliness drive at Faida village, near Sector 48, today.

School principal Anil Sharma interacted with villagers and generated awareness among them about the Sarv Shishka Abhiyan and child abuse.

“Sexual perversion and abuses are witnessed among the lower strata of society as they are more vulnerable to this.

The only way to curbing the menace is to educate them about this problem,” he said.

The one-day camp concluded with the message of clean and healthy environment and the need to protect children through “education for all”.

Meanwhile, a one-day seminar on memory improving techniques was organised at the school today.

Around 100 students of Class X participated in the seminar.

Karan Bai of Brahmakumari Mission, Sector 33, delivered a lecture on improving concentration to achieve better examination result and gave practical demonstration on the topic.

Chandigarh, June 8
She speaks of finding “internal joy” in dance and city-based Puneet Jewandah is not just spouting words here. This 19-year old is gearing up to conduct her first dance workshop in the city at the Chandigarh Institute of Performing Arts (CIPA), Sector 11.

Dance is pretty much everything that Puneet has thought of since she was a three-year old and was spotted twisting and turning to music on the television by her sister.

The next logical step for her parents was to nurture her interest and at the age of six she started to learn Kathak followed by Bharatnatyam under Suchitra Mitra from the age of 13 years.

However, her workshop has dance of a very different kind.

It all started when Puneet began to take Shiamak Davar’s modern dance classes in the city three years ago. Not only was a passion ignited, she was also one of only six youngsters chosen from Chandigarh to participate in the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games at Melbourne last year in March which was choreographed by Shiamak himself.

Puneet came back smitten by the energy, the verve and the bonds that dance fosters. After completing her 12th class from Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, she went to New York in April 2006, to further hone her skills.

Ballet, contemporary dance, lyrical dance (think Celine Dion, she suggests, with controlled and flowing movements) and Street and Latin Jazz were some of the dances she dabbled in. “The one thing I realised was that dance has the ability to bring a smile on one’s face whether one knows how to move or nor,” smiles Puneet.

And it was this joyous ability of the craft that has her enthused. “I saw several choreographed shows while I was there. The clarity of movement in each posture and the passion was inspiring,” she avers.

Of course, she has to go back to studying soon, but right now its time for a break to follow dreams. “I want to do this while I have the flexibility and the desire to learn new things,” she professes.

For this choreographer-in-waiting, (her idea of the ideal profession) bliss would mean bringing together all that she has learnt and knitting together dance performances with a difference. Until then, the workshop it is, one through which she hopes to infuse some street jazz into the city (incidentally a first in Chandigarh). “I know it will be enjoyed because it is so similar to the matkas and jhatkas we are all so familiar with,” she laughs.

The 15-day workshop begins on June 10 and will be for 8-year olds and above.