Chandigarh, November 17
Sambhang Theatre Group, a cultural wing of the Swami Ram Tirath Educational, Cultural Society, organised the 17th one-act play festival ‘Natyotsav-2007’ today at MCM DAV College for Women, Sector 36.

The festival was organised in the memory of Prabhat Gupta, a young theatre artiste who sacrificed his life to save the life of a child in 1987.

About 250 young artistes from 12 different schools of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh participated. Prof Naval Kishore, dean, student welfare, PU, was the chief guest.

The plays depicted inner conflicts of a modern man as also social problems.

The Sambhang award of cultural heritage was conferred upon Dr Manisha for her efforts in upkeeping cultural heritage.

The running trophy and first prize was bagged by students of Kundan Vidya Mandir, Sector 46, for the play titled ‘www.’

Chandigarh, November 17
The director of Monash University, Malaysia, is keen to have a tie-up with Panjab University for working together in various fields, particularly pharmacology, biotechnology and neurosciences. Professor Ishwar Prahar, director, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Malaysia, an offshore campus of Monash University, was in the city to hold the discussions with the university officials here today. The work being carried out in the university on science was excellent and the tie-up between both educational institutes of repute would be fruitful, said Dr Prahar, an alumnus of Panjab University.

“My ancestors from Banga in Punjab had settled at Malaysia and I am from the third generation after the family settled in Malaysia,” said Dr Parhar informing about his roots in the country. Dr Parhar, who is also the director of Brain Research Institute of the university, said, “We are working on mood disorders and reproduction-related abnormalities as well.” 

Chandigarh, November 17
An interactive session on ‘Impact of Internet’ was organised at Carmel Convent School, Sector 9-B, with a view to create awareness among for parents and students about the cyber safety measures. The session highlighted the vulnerability of children and importance of parental supervision while children surf the Internet. It was organised in association with the Cyber Security Research Centre (CSRC), Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. Divya Bansal, associate coordinator, CSRC, gave a power point presentation on the hazards of chatting and blogging. Dr Rashmi Mehta talked about how to supervise children while they are on the net.

SCIENCE EXHIBITION: Tyre Garden prepared by students of Class V-A was adjudged the best in Group-I (Classes I to V) while the project on vegetative propagation by Class VII-A was declared the finest in Group-II (Classes VI to XI) during the science exhibition held at Mount Carmel School, Sector 47-B, today. Around 450 students of Classes I to XI participated.

Chandigarh, November 17
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum-II today directed a petitioner to pay Rs 10,000 for filing a frivolous and concocted case.

Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Sector 44, had claimed that he had purchased LG refrigerator from a local shop here on March 6, 2002 and it failed to give cooling right from day one.

The respondents claimed that Rajesh had not purchased the refrigerator from them and no complaint was ever received from him.

They further pointed out that the warranty card of the refrigerator was half-filled.

The forum said: “The complainant made his first complaint to the opposite party (LG Electronics) on December 29, 2005 i.e. three and half years after the purchase.

This means that the refrigerator was working during the first three and half years and it started giving problem only after that period.”

“Therefore there is clear cut contradiction in the statements made by the complainant, which has adverse implications against him.”