Chandigarh, November 18
Beating teams from 13 other schools, Smt Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane, has won the Second National Aerospace Olympiad organised here by the Chandigarh Chapter of Aeronautical Society.

Saint Thomas Residential School, Thiruvanantpuram came second, followed by Mahadevi Birla Girls Senior Secondary School, Kolkata.

The participating teams, comprising five students each were required to give a 10-minute presentation each on the scientific, technical and logistic aspect of launching a satellite in geo-stationary orbit. The presentation was followed by a question and answer session on the topic.

The teams were judged on their performance in eight categories, which included intelligence tests, general knowledge and aviation-related awareness, poster making competition and a cultural programme presented by them over the past three days.

The judges for the event were V.P. Sandlas, former project director SLV-3 and ex-director of DRDO’s Defence Electronics Applications Laboratory, Dehradun, Manjit Singh a retired ISRO scientist, professor Rajkumar Pant from IIT Mumbai and Wg Cdr D.P. Sabharwal (retd), director Aero Academy.

Vice-chancellor of Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, professor Vijay Gupta was the chief guest at the concluding function and gave away the prizes.

Chandigarh, November 18
As many as 12,500 students from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh converged on the city to take the common admission test (CAT) for admissions to the country’s leading management institutes. The test was conducted at 10 centres in the city.

Conducted jointly by the six IIMs, the CAT is recognised by more than 100 institutes all over the country. From this year, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Management, Shillong, which is the seventh IIM of the country, will also admit students on the basis of the exam scores.

The exam, however, did not see any major change this year. According to Hirdesh Madan, head (north), Bulls eye, most of the students initially found the paper easier than the previous year’s. However, when they started solving, they realised that their perception was wrong.

There was mixed response as far as pattern of the paper was concerned. "The maths part was easier but in data interpretation (DI), immense application was required," said Ankur Garg, a final-year student of electronics at PEC. Amit Arora, who took CAT after his MBBS, found DI to be easier than the mathematics section.

Another examinee Parneet said the DI was moderate and the overall pattern was same as the last year’s. “The verbal section posed a challenge with a wide variety of questions on reading comprehension, para jumbles, grammar and short paragraphs, which consumed a lot of time,” said another student. The number of questions, however, remained the same, he added.

The result will be declared in the first week of January and the admissions would be made on the basis of the marks obtained in the test as also in the group discussion (GD) and interview to be conducted by the IIMs and other management institutes from February onwards.

Chandigarh, November 18
A talk show on radio journalism was organised at MCM DAV College for Women. RJ Pankaj from 92.7 Big FM was the guest speaker. The show was followed by an interactive session with the students of BA functional English and mass communication. The students also displayed their talent through a skit and mimicry. At the end, a student recited a hilarious poem.

RESULTS: The results of a state-level inter-college essay-writing competition on national integration and communal harmony, held at GC-46 on November 1, were declared yesterday. Sherein Bansal of BA I (GCG-11) bagged the first position while Gurpreet Kaur of BA III and Pankaj Kumar Jha of BA I, both from GC-46, won the second and third prizes, respectively. The cash prizes will be awarded on the Republic Day function. 

Chandigarh, November 18
The consumer courts formulated to provide speedy redressal to the consumer disputes are moving on the right track.

The consumer court in Chandigarh seems to be the only consumer court in the country which is close to achieving the objective of Consumer Protection Act “to provide speedy and simple redressal to consumer disputes.”

The figures released by the National Commission pointed out the disposal percentage with regard to the district forums is 97.38 which is way above the national average of 73.35 per cent. On the direction of the National Commission, the UT State Commission headed by K.C Gupta, transferred hundreds of old cases from Haryana and Punjab Commission to ensure speedy disposal that shows the success of the forum.

Though the disposal rate of cases is high at the consumer forums but the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act direct the forums to dispose cases within three months while most of the cases take longer time. In 1995, the provision regarding the speedy disposal was sought to be strictly implemented. Irked by the disposal of cases taking more than three months Pankaj Chandgothia, an advocate, filed a revision petition against the order of the district forum whereby notice in a complaint was issued for 45 days hence.

The advocate argued that if the first date was put off by 45 days then it would be impossible to decide the entire case in three months.

The state commission headed by Justice J.B Garg observed such provisions were meant to be observed in the breach.

The observation was made at a time when the consumer court was bogged down by shortage of time and lack of infrastructure.

As per clause 3(A) of the Consumer Protection Act - “Every complainant shall be heard as expeditiously as possible and endeavour shall be made to decide on the complaint within a period of three months from the date of receipt of notice by the opposite party where the complaint does not require analysis or testing of commodities and within five months, if it requires analysis or testing of commodities.”

It was further specified in the Act that in the event of a complaint being disposed of after the period so specified, the district forum should record in writing, the reasons for the same at the time of disposing of the said complaint.

Also, to keep a track on adjournments that tend to delay the disposal of cases the Consumer Protection Act has provisions - If a case is adjourned the reasons for it are to be recorded and the cost of adjournment if asked by the opposite party shall not be less than Rs 500 per adjournment. If any adjournment is granted without awarding costs, the order sheet shall mention the reasons for it.

Chandigarh, November 18
A local court today remanded all three accused involved in the murder of 17-year-old Jawahar of Colony Number 4, last night, to one day of police custody.

The police said the remand was sought to recover weapon used by the accused in the assault. He said the complainant had named two others persons, Sagar and Sham Lal, suspected to be involved the incident. Both suspects are at large and their role in the incident was being investigated.

About the post-mortem, the police said it would be conducted tomorrow at the Sector 16 Government Multi Speciality Hospital (GMSH). The victim was declared brought dead last night by the doctors at the Sector 32 Government Medical College and Hospital and the body was shifted to the GMSH for post-mortem.

The condition of Jawahar’s brothers Panna Lal and Survesh, is stated to be stable.

The police arrested two brothers, Guddu and Shanker, along with their father Panwasi, for assaulting the victims. Some old feud was cited as a reason behind the assault.

Meanwhile, late tonight the police arrested Sagar, another accused in the case. The police also reportedly recovered the weapon, an iron rod used in the assault. 

Panchkula, November 18
The Gandharv Mahavidyalya and Nad Brahm organised a classical vocal recital by Dewas-based young maestro. Bhuvnesh Mukul Komkali at their complex here today. The annual programme was dedicated to the acclaimed guru Pandit Ram Chander Dutt.

Specialised in Khyal, young Bhuvnesh, maintained the family tradition of brilliance during his performance. Opening up with a brief alaap of the evening raga Puriya Dhaneshari, he presented a composition ‘Bal gyi jot’ in slow tempo which later melted into fast tempo. Bhuvnesh later bared the melody of raga Shudh Shyam through two compositions before doling out melodious bhajans of saint Kabir. A set of accomplished musicians Vinay Mishra on harmonium, Mayank Bedekar on tabla and Deepak Kalra embellished the recital. Dr Arvind Sharma honoured the artistes.

Later talking to The Tribune, Bhuvnesh, blessed as being the progeny of the classical music wizards, maintained it was inspiring but equally challenging. “People pin high hopes and one always remains under pressure striving hard to be worthy of the family reputation. My father Mukul Shivputra and aunt Kalpini Komkali had carved a niche for themselves and I have no option than to follow suit,” he added.