Chandigarh, August 13
Activists of Punjab University Students’ Union (PUSU), under the leadership of their president Abhishek Puri, staged a protest in the front of the administrative block this afternoon. The protest was to bring to the notice of the authorities, the problems faced by the students of the law department.

According to Puri, there are 10 students in LLB first year, who are finding it difficult to take admission to the third semester because their results from the December exam have still not been declared.

The problem lies with the law faculty having made clerical mistakes in marking the internal assessment, after which, wrong assessment had been forwarded to the administrative block. A committee was also constituted to look into the matter and the authorities agreed to correct the mistakes. However, classes for the third semester have begun since the end of July but the results of the affected students have still not been declared and they are unable to get admission in the third semester.

“These students will also have to pay late fee for no fault of theirs in order to get admissions when the results are declared,” he added.

Puri also said some students of the regional centre at Ludhiana, who wanted to migrate here, were facing problems as they had not received their DMCs. 

Chandigarh, August 13
A primary school, running from the premises of a rural health centre at Colony No 5, here, brings to the fore, a grim picture of the much-hyped nationwide campaign of Universal Elementary Education (UEE) under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan programme.

The situation arose following the closure of Government Primary School of the area some time back. The colony dwellers said the school became defunct because of lack of proper sanitation facilities. Thereafter, an initiative was taken several times to hold classes in the adjoining temple which never materialised.

Unwilling to send their children anywhere else, the inhabitants of the area decided to run a school from any available place.

Functioning under a temporary shed, this school is the result of the initiative taken by Brig M.L. Kataria (retd), and caters to about 125-odd students from classes nursery to V.

These underprivileged students do not even have the fundamental provision of free textbooks from the SSA.

To add to their woes, there are just two teachers in the school - one of them is Class-XII passed and the other has appeared for Class XII this year.

The teachers revealed that nobody wants to work here and they have generated the school’s basic requirements like benches, water, sanitation, blackboard and other infrastructure, out of their own resources.

To improve the condition, an initiative was taken by the administration in August 2006, by forming a registered body under the name of Chandigarh Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan Mission Society.

The administration had also conducted a training programme of community leaders of the area under the aegis of the National Institute of Administrative Research, a central government body.

The members of the body, on condition of anonymity, disclosed that all plans for bringing the underprivileged children into the main stream, discussed there, remained only on paper.

Thereafter, a 22-member Village Education Committee (VEC) was formed. But till date, they are not sure about the role they have to play.

Brahmjit Kalia, former DEO, Chandigarh, and now co-ordinator, SSA project, has something else to say. “It is a sheer lie that they are not being included in the decision-making policies. Their councillor had been called several times but he hardly attended one or two meetings. They are most welcome to come to us and discuss their problems and requirements.”

On the other hand, councillor Ram Sumer Mauriya claimed that he had never been called, except for the meeting held a month ago. “I apprised them about our problems and urged them to build pre-fabricated structure here only, as these children, somehow, can manage to come here. But nothing has been done so far.”

Panchkula, August 13
The results of Class X compartment examination held from July 20-27, 2007, were declared today.

All the schools located in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali can collect their result and marksheets from the CBSE Regional Office, Sector 5. The marksheets and results sheet of all the schools located outside Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali would be despatched by speed post.

The result of Kendriya Vidayalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas came out to be 69.74 pc and 54.63 pc, respectively, whereas the government and independent schools’ result was 63.17 pc and 66.19 pc, respectively. — TNS

COURTS

Spurious milk

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Mahesh Grover, issued notice to the Centre, Haryana, Punjab and the UT administration over a PIL seeking a check on sale of spurious desi ghee and milk items.

Petitioner Jagmohan Bhatti sought directions to respondents to take effective steps for checking and preventing the sale of spurious desi ghee, milk and milk-items made of adulterated milk or synthetic milk.

The petitioner averred that these products were proving to be a health hazard. He submitted that sweet shops, dhabas, etc., should also be restrained from selling such spurious products.

Chandigarh, August 13
It was a physical rendition of unheard voices. Mallika Sarabhai’s ‘Unsuni’ is a passionate theatrical, which attempts to make each one of us acknowledge the ‘others’.

In a dramatic performance filled with music and bursting with the hurt and anger caused by injustice of simply being ignored or remaining ‘unheard’, the 70-minute ‘Unsuni’ came alive at the Department of Indian Theatre, Panjab University, today.

Based on bureaucrat-author turned activist Harsh Mander’s ‘Unheard Voices’, this theatrical presentation moves, provokes and makes the audience celebrate as each voice finds a path through struggle, towards courage and ultimately triumph of being heard, of finding a hand reaching out and of making an impression in the conscience of the audience.

The play draws from the real-life stories of five people in the book through monologues. Drawing from an ensemble cast that acts as voices through the play, the performances move and touch the soul.

The first monologue is about a protagonist who ran away from home after he overheard his parents call him a ‘mistake’. “Will you like to be someone’s mistake?” he asks.

Adhivasi Jagtu’s haplessness, caught in the struggle to free his illegally acquired land from the moneylender, is essayed through his son’s fight that continues long after his father dies of heartbreak and alcohol.

Manual scavenger Narayani’s impassioned speech at a Dalit conference makes the privileged, educated, respectable people of our society shoulder the blame of “pushing our brothers and sisters into this life of picking up human waste with bare hands.”

In another monologue, lepers find hope in an SDM who extends a non-judgemental hand of hope, but it is Mallika Sarabhai’s rendition of a Muslim woman wrecked by the violence of communal riots that leaves a gnawing unease in the hearts of those in the audience.

Presented by Darpana and a grant by the Netherlands Embassy, ‘Unsuni’ is a must-see that will be staged at the Department of Indian Theatre tomorrow as well at 3 pm and 7 pm, respectively.

A movement of change now, Unsuni’s script is being offered by Sarabhai to anyone who wishes to use it to become a voice of change as the play becomes a national movement of volunteerism started by her troupe.