Chandigarh, September 12
The Chandigarh education department today served a show-cause notice to Moti Ram Arya Senior Secondary School, Sector 27, Chandigarh, regarding withdrawal of permanent recognition because of various discrepancies found in its functioning.

The department has given a week’s time to the school to clarify their position. “They have been given a time of seven days to reply why we should not cancel their permanent recognition granted upto high level. If they fail to reply back within the stipulated time, they will lose their recognition permanently”, said DPI (S).

The inspection committee of the education department had conducted the inspection of the school on July 21 and found various discrepancies prevailing in the school functioning.

The report submitted to DPI (S) S.K. Setia, stated that the school did not obtain the mandatory approval of the managing committee who looks after all the affairs of the school.

It was observed by the committee that the management of the school is running a separate school named JBFMP School within its own campus for which no permission from the estate office or education department had ever been obtained.

The school was found to be having various building flaws for which they could not produce the ‘building completion certificate’ or ‘fire safety certificate’.

According to norms, it is mandatory on the part of the school authorities to obtain certificate from the estate officer, Chandigarh, that there is no violation in the building as per the building plan.

The other serious lapses, which came to the limelight, included insufficient reserve funds, which should have been equal to six months’ staff salary. Also, the school was not paying the salary and dearness allowances (DA) at par with those of the teachers working in local government schools. The school authorities were not maintaining account books, service books and personal files of the staff properly.

Discrepancies

• Did not obtain approval of the managing committee
• Running a separate school within its campus without permission
• Numerous building flaws detected
• Insufficient reserve funds
• No account books, service books and personal files of the staff
• Salary of staff not on a par with others

Chandigarh, September 12
In the second round of court arrests, 21 teachers including six women were arrested and sent to judicial remand upto September 14 on the call of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU) in protest of their long-pending demands.

The teachers, working in the colleges affiliated to PU from districts of Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Moga, Muktsar, and Ferozpur, participated in the protest rally held in front of the office of the DPI (Punjab), Sector 17, today.

The office-bearers of the union met after the court arrest and it was unanimously decided to cease work in all colleges across Punjab and Chandigarh after the second period on September 13 and 14. Prof S.S. Hundal, president of PCCTU, cautioned the government to accept their ‘just’ demands regarding pension and gratuity else the PCCTU will continue its agitation and weekly programme of court arrest.

Prof Anil Sarwal, vice-president of the union, said under such circumstances, the government would be held responsible for the loss of study of the students.

He informed that the Non-teaching Employees’ Union and Principals’ Federation had extended their full support to the ongoing agitation.

Gurdial Singh, president of the Non-teaching Employees’ Union said their union has decided to participate in all the action programmes.

On September 19 and 26, the union will hold protest rallies and court arrests if the government does not resolve their long-pending demands by then.

Chandigarh, September 12
There is bonanza in store for the contractual teachers appointed by the UT education department under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan.

The department has increased their pay scale from April 1 and they would be entitled to claim the arrears accordingly. However, the contractual teachers under the regular programme would continue to get the old pay packets.

Confirming the decision, DPI (Secondary) S.K. Setia said: “We have revised the pay scales of only those contractual teachers who are working under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan. But the other contractual teachers would get their existing pay scales.”

There is a minimum increase of Rs 500 for volunteer teachers, Rs 1500 in case of TGT and volunteer teachers, whereas the maximum increase was Rs 3,000 for consultants.

The consultants, who were getting Rs 12,000 earlier, would now get Rs 15,000 per month. The superintendents and the senior assistants would now get Rs 10,000 and Rs 8,000, respectively.

The NTT/JBT teachers would get Rs 8,000 per month, whereas the TGTs’ salary has been increased to Rs 9,500 per month. The volunteer teachers’ pay packet has been increased to Rs 1,500 per month.

The cluster resource persons/coordinators and assistant coordinators would now get Rs 9,500 and 10,000, respectively, per month. — TNS

Chandigarh, September 12
The date for the student council elections at Panjab University may still be shrouded in ambiguity but the spirit of electioneering was in full swing on campus today.

With car rallies being the latest norm for expressing strength and solidarity, SOPU held its second such rally today in a boisterous show of might as hundreds of cars and motorcycles and a huge band of followers criss-crossed on campus.

What was interesting was the number of girls who came out in support of the rally, driving cars, shouting slogans and adding to the bonhomie of the event.

While good cheer prevailed amongst the supporters, the rally was not without its share of problems. Traffic jams on campus and noise pollution caused by revving bikes and shouting supporters disturbed the classes.

The rally was flagged off from outside hostel No. 3 by Harpreet Singh Multani, president, SOPU, and after taking a round of the entire campus, the members of the organisation gathered at the students’ centre where they were addressed by D.P. Randhawa (founder president, SOPU), Dalvir Singh Goldy, Gurveer Brar (chairman, SOPU) and Multani.

Simultaneously, INSO held a protest in front of the department of laws against the high migration fees and the lack of a caretaker in the computer room due to which it was locked up and students could not access it. Representatives met chairman of the department Prof Shashi K. Sharma who told them that he had written to the university authorities on August 9 seeking permission to appoint a person in the computer room and he would do so as soon as he received a word from them.

With regard to the migration fees, since those were within the ambit of university rules, he could do nothing to change that. The representatives also brought his attention to notices on the notice board being put in a haphazard manner so that the ones underneath the new ones pasted could not be read. The department took note of this.

Meanwhile, PUSU went about doing its share of work quietly, putting forward demands on behalf of the student community with regard to hostel accommodation.

PUSU president Abhishek Puri met dean, students’ welfare (DSW), Dr Naval Kishore, and put forward several demands which stated that students who have finished their post-graduation and are preparing for UGC/NET examination, should be provided hostel accommodation as per the university rules.

It also asked that those students who have done their post-graduation and are now pursuing their second degree must also be provided hostel accommodation.The DSW assured full co-operation. Puri also submitted a memorandum regarding these demands to the VC.

Chandigarh, September 12
The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) representatives today participated in the case hearing of the 48 student leaders booked under Sections 107, 150 of the CrPC by the Chandigarh police.

According to NSUI, the investigating officers of Sector 11 and 3 police stations also attended the court under its directions to substantiate the allegations levelled against the students. The police had earlier proposed a heavy amount of Rs 2 lakh as surety for each student.

Nitin Goyal, president, appeared before the court on behalf of the students to plead their case. He pointed out that the police was unnecessarily harassing the students by repeatedly booking them under various sections without any cause. Most of the students had no previous criminal record of any sort, neither there was any complaint filed against them.

Goyal argued that the police had booked the students in the wake of forthcoming students’ council elections, while in fact the election dates were yet to be announced. He said even if the elections were approaching, this was not a justifiable cause to book the students.

Goyal termed the case as an act to crush the student leadership. It was also argued that the students had to miss their classes to attend the court causing loss to their studies. Moreover, it was said the outstation students did not have enough money to pay the sureties.

After hearing the arguments and after recording the statements of both police officials, the SDM discharged all the students from the case without any surety bonds being furnished.

Chandigarh, September 12
The fine arts department of MCM DAV College, Sector 36, organised a workshop for the students of the college in collaboration with Pidilite Industries Ltd. It was a two-day workshop on ‘Landscape Painting in Watercolours’. Rakesh Sen, expert in fine arts from Lucknow, gave demonstrations on watercolour and oil pastel landscape paintings. Sen talked on the scope of fine arts and gave tips to girls on different ways of paintings.

PEC fest: Punjab Engineering College set out on its voyage to make PECfest4 a success, with the release of its marketing brochure today. The ceremony witnessed a huge participation by the faculty members and a massive crowd of enthusiastic PECobians. PECfest4-Mind, Body, Four is slated to hit the region on November 2-4.

Freshers’ party: The senior students of postgraduate departments of Government College for Girls, Sector 11, welcomed the freshers of their departments today. 

Chandigarh, September 12
A district court today issued a notice to the chief secretaries of Haryana and Punjab and the home secretary, UT, for allegedly showing disrespect to the national emblem in an advertisement.

On August 18, Ram Kumar Singla filed a civil suit in the court of Atul Marya that the advertisement printed in an English daily on August 15 had the national emblem published at the bottom of the advertisement.

Singla stated that the emblem should not be used for professional and commercial purposes. It was further pointed out that the advertisement carried photographs of dignitaries on the top while the emblem was placed at the bottom.

The national emblem was displayed “disrespectfully” not for the first time but such advertisements had been printed time and again, he added.

Meanwhile, the court has adjourned the case till October 19.

Chandigarh, September 12
The contention of Ben Johnson that “It is the mission of comedy to depict contemporary life with moral intent not tell pleasing tales of fairies” found true illustration in the immaculate experimental musical theatre spectacle titled ‘Seedi dar Seedi urf Tukke pe Tukka’ presented by Rang Vidushak, Bhopal, and staged at Tagore theatre today.

Rajesh Joshi and playwright director Bansi Kaul had sculpted the play based on a Chinese folk legend “Three promotions in succession” to Indian milieu.

‘Seedi dar Seedi...’ a total theatre bonanza, is an uproarious delineation of the prevalent systems. The director had structured the costume drama in the nawabi splendour employing all elements of traditional ‘nautanki’ and street theatre of Madhya Pradesh. A strange admixture of plethora of guises and disguises, aerobics, dexterous dancing spells in perfect synchronisation generated a creative confrontation between the text and performance to generate laughter.

A success story of an illiterate spoiled but clever Tukku Dhakde, son of an affluent rich man becoming the king of an empire holds relevance even today. Uday Shahne playing the protagonist was a picture of confidence as also Harsh Daand, parveen Mahuwale. The set of accomplished actors were versatile enough to sing and dance also and played multiple roles with instantaneous shifting to portray other characters with consummate ease.

Chandigarh, September 12
At Rang Vidushak, Bansi Kaul celebrates the poetic pause that life is. It’s a collective celebration, where communities bury sorrows and spawn joys. Here, in this space, solo acts are not welcome. They are considered too individualistic to pursue.

“You appear alone on stage only when you lack either the time or the energy to direct a group. In my understanding, theatre was never meant to be solo, although it has now become so. Those who promote solo acts damage the very spirit of theatre, which is a collective art,” says Kaul, who started out as a student at the National School of Drama and went on to create a group that developed its own training styles.

Rang Vidushak is among the top five theatre groups in India and works on a unique philosophical stance.

“Vidushak was born when I felt the need of having my own theatre system, where I could groom actors my way and create productions around my philosophies,” said Kaul, who has worked on “laughter” as a metaphor for verbal protest. The poor have just one weapon to protest and that is laughter, he says, as he staged today in Chandigarh a production based on laughter.

At other times, Kaul does a lot of theatre for children, using their untutored responses to situations. Once he did a play on shoes, called “Rang Birange Jutey”, it was based on essays children wrote on shoes.

“Children are illogically logical. They are fun,” says Kaul who also does a lot of community theatre at Vidushak.

“We are brining together different forms. This is the only way we can prevent theatre from getting fractured. We reflect every culture in our productions - right from agrarian to urban,” says Kaul, who makes his living from another, very interesting job.

He is India’s Man Friday when it comes to visualising and conceiving mega shows like festivals of India abroad and sporting events like the Indo-Pak games. Recently Kaul designed the International Tourism Fair in Berlin. Earlier, he conceived most of the festivals of India in the former Soviet Union, Thialand, China and Sweden.

By Kaul’s admission, job is just a way of making money to feed theatre, which is his first love. That’s precisely why he spent a lot of time and energy researching India’s non-theatrical forms like street acrobats, akharas and baazigars and showing ways of their employment for theatre. The project was funded by Ford Foundation.