NSUI, PUCSC leaders on strike

Chandigarh: Karanvir Singh, vice-president of the Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC), and Nishant Maini, district president of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), sat on indefinite hunger strike on Monday as students are being detained over short attendance. The hunger strike started at 4 pm and till the filing of the copy it was going on. The bone of contention is that this time, the PU is not waiving attendance on account of participation in Aghaaz, an annual cultural event organised by the Students' Council. "Council events are for all around development of students. Why the authorities are denying students of attendance for participation in cultural events?" asked Karanvir Singh. "Earlier, many students used to tide off their shortage through Aghaaz participation. But now, they have given all powers to the chairperson who can provide attendance for 30 lectures. Last year, besides 30 lecturers, students used to get attendance on account of Aghaaz also," said Maini.

Lecture on Kashmir issue

Samvaad, a forum of teachers of Panjab University, organised a lecture on "Status of UN Resolutions on Kashmir". Pradeep Kumar, who is the recipient of the project from Parliament, was the speaker. Pradeep said the UN resolved that Pakistan should vacate whole territory of PoK to hold free and fair plebiscite. It was also resolved that India would maintain minimum force in J&K to maintain law and order. He said unfortunately from 1957 onwards, the UN stopped asking Pakistan to vacate PoK. "As in 2009, J&K dispute was removed from the UN list, the resolutions of 1948 has no value in 2017. For PoK's inclusion in India, we need social integration, political will and strong diplomacy, and then military," he said. 

PU faculty gets research project

Dr Avneet Saini, Assistant Professor at the Department of Biophysics, Panjab University, has been awarded a research project worth Rs 60 lakh by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Dr Praveen Rishi, Dean, Faculty of Science and Professor at the Department of Microbiology; and Dr Neha Singla, DST INSPIRE faculty at the Department of Biophysics, are co-investigators in the project. The team will carry out advanced research to design and validate novel peptides against pathogenic microbes. Dr Saini has been working at the Department of Biophysics since 2010.

60 examined at eye camp

The Department of Physics and the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Committee, Panjab University, in collaboration with the Bharat Vikas Parishad, Chandigarh, organised a free eye check-up camp, here on Monday. Prof Navdeep Goyal, chairperson, Department of Physics, said the camp was held with the idea of reaching out to faculty and staff of the PU with a preventive approach to any kind of eye problems. Prof Seema Kapoor, coordinator, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, said the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Committee was planning to organise more such camps in the PU and its adopted villages.

Computer course launched

The Department of Life Long Learning and Extension (DLLLE), Panjab University, launched a three-month course in Basics in Computer Applications. Chairperson Dr Prabha Vig said the main objective of the course was to enhance and learn the skills of computer applications by equipping them with course content such as; MS Word, MS Window, MS-Excel, PPT, sending of mails etc. She said today's society was knowledge-based society and India was on the way to become knowledge hub for the whole world. TNS