EDUCATION

Scholarship amount earmarked in PU budget
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May, 28 — A collective comprehensive picture of career and academic promotion schemes through grants, stipends and scholarships in Panjab University will feature in the annual university budget.

The government has earmarked Rs 10,00,000 for scholarships during the session 2000-2001, the draft copy of the budget which will appear for final approval says. The Punjab government promises Rs 3,00,000 annually; Haryana assures Rs 1,50,000; Chandigarh Rs 1,50,000; and Himachal Pradesh will give Rs 1,50,000 for scholarships.

The list carries names of 37 scholarships. The Shivcharan Singh scholarship is for poor students in the physics honours school. The Panjab University Alumni Association Alberta Canada scholarship is for second year students of undergraduate classes in science and arts.

Panjab University has a special PU Soldiers Fund . This has two scholarships for sons and wards of servicemen. Among scholarships for the higher classes the Alfred Woolmer Scholarship is meant for M Phil or Ph D students who have a postgraduate degree in one of the Indian languages.

These scholarships , prizes for lectures, and gold and silver medals are listed under the special endowment fund.

Students of the journalism course under the Mass Communication stream qualify for the Tara Chand Gupta memorial scholarship. Justice G.R. Majithia’s name carries a poor students welfare award. Dr Prabha Chaudhry memorial scholarship is for academically brilliant MBBS candidates.

The university budget underlines 10 special lectures. These include the Jawahar Lal Nehru memorial lecture, Prof O.P.Vij endowment lecture in chemistry (bi-annually) and Dr Bawa Kartar Singh Memorial lectures among the prominent ones.

The budget also features 42 medals for academic excellence. The Shankar Dayal Sharma gold medal has been marked for character and academic excellence, besides achievements in social and extra-curricular activities. A student who tops in medicine course of MBBS qualifies for Dr P.N. Chhuttani gold medal.

A few other medals include the Rajiv Verma medal for history; the P. Sundaraya gold medal for a candidate taking Marxism as a subject in postgraduation political science and the Prabhat memorial gold medal for toppers in Indian theatre.

Important prizes include the Nikhil Bharat Bang Bhasha, Bank of India, Poona District Hindu Sabha and the Institute for Chartered Accountants among others.

Scholarships and prizes being awarded out of the Foundation for Higher Education and Research are 17.

Students visit garden, museum
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, May 28 — As part of a summer camp currently on in Satluj Public School, Sector 2, students were taken to the Garden of Fragrance in Sector 36, and the Chandigarh Museum in Chandigarh.

Following the visit, the students were given a talk on the importance of a healthy environment for good urban living. The students were led by the camp director, Mr Pritam Singh Serai.

Other recreational activity at the school includes dancing classes, swimming, painting, spoken English, art and craft and trekking among others.

CHANDIGARH CALLING

Hunt on for Jain's successor

WHO will be the new Home Secretary of Chandigarh? The Haryana Government has already sent a panel to the Chandigarh Administration with the names of Mr R.S. Gujral, Mr Krishan Mohan and Mrs Urvashi Gulati.

The administration is yet to make a recommendation to the Union Government about its choice. The previous Home Secretary, Mr N.K. Jain, had a short stint before the Home Ministry ordered his repatriation.

In fact, after Mr Jain proceeded on earned leave on March 21, the Commissioner of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, Mr M.P. Singh, was given the additional charge. Though the post has been traditionally held by Haryana cadre officers, there are a few exceptions when the position was held by Punjab cadre officers. The major deviation has been during the tenure of Mr Piyush Verma who held the charge of Home Secretary for a full term. He also became the Secretary, Engineering, a post which has been subsequently and in phases held by the Finance Secretary.

It may take some time before the selection process of the new Home Secretary is completed. The recommendation of the administration goes to the Home Secretary where after endorsement or fresh recommendation of a new name from the panel the file is taken to the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet. Finally it is cleared by the Prime Minister’s office. The process at times takes months.

Incidentally, the name of Mr R.S. Gujral has also gone to the Union Ministry of Finance for consideration for a top slot in Punjab and Sind Bank. Of the remaining two candidates, Mr Krishan Mohan had a long stint as Deputy Commissioner of Chandigarh.

Honesty his policy: A resident of Sector 18, Ms Asha Rani, was surprised to receive a phone call from the Sector 22 post office on May 6. The caller asked her to verify the amount she had collected from the post office during her visit the same morning.

The woman had visited the post office in the morning to encash her Kisan Vikas Patras (KVPs) valued at Rs 20,000. After the telephone call she opened her cupboard and found only Rs 5,000. The caller from the post office was Mr Rajpal, a Postal Assistant, who had completed the formalities in the morning. He handed Rs 5,000 to Ms Asha Rani asking her to count the cash while he went to fetch the remaining sum from the treasury branch. Being in a hurry, Ms Asha Rani left the post office and went back home without realising that her money was short and she had signed on papers to receive Rs 20,000.

At the post office Mr Rajpal returned to his seat after sometime to find that Ms Asha Rani had gone home carrying just 25 per cent of the sum she should have received. He rummaged through the records of the post office, found her address and called her up. The next day a grateful Ms Asha Rani turned up with a box of sweets at the post office to thank Mr Rajpal.

She has even written a letter to the Senior Post Master General praising the honesty of Mr Rajpal.

Invited: A consultant surgeon in Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Dr Kuldip Singh who has devised a new method of tackling difficult gallbladder stone cases laparoscopically, has been invited to demonstrate and deliver a guest lecture in the Seventh World Congress of Laparo-Endoscopic Surgery. The conference will be held in Singapore from May 31 to June 4.

This is perhaps for the first time that a specialist in laparoscopic surgery from northern India has been invited as a guest speaker in the World Congress. Describing it as a dream come true, Dr Kuldip Singh said that finally west and developed countries had started recognising the excellence achieved by Indian doctors in various fields. Dr Kuldip Singh would not only be a speaker but would also chair a “free paper session” on laparoscopic gallbladder surgery.

In the beginning of laparoscopic surgery in 1991, these cases were not taken up for laparoscopic approach because of difficult dissection and fear of complications but Dr Kuldip Singh evolved a new method using blunt dissection with minimum expenditure. The results have been comparable and even better those at any other centre in the world.

Dr G.S. Dhillon: Chandigarh-based Dr G.S. Dhillon, a former Director of the Irrigation and Power Research Institute, Amritsar, has been honoured with Authors Award by the Hydro Review Worldwide (HRW) magazine of HCI Publications, Kansas City, USA, for his research paper “Innovations and advancement for hydro power”.

His work was published in the December, 1999, issue of the magazine. Based on the survey carried out by the magazine the paper was ranked number 1. The publication presented him a medallion and a plaque.

Corruption cartoons: For both Mr Sandeep Joshi of The Tribune group of newspapers and Mr Satwant Singh, a local cartoonist, a colloquium organised by the Bradlaugh International Centre on Corruption provided an opportunity to display their select cartoons on corruption in public life. Their cartoons were put up inside the conference hall.

Last time when the centre organised a similar exercise on terrorism, an exhibition of books, posters and cartoons was organised.

Bravery awards: The Indian Council of Child has invited nominations for bravery awards for 1999-2000. Children up to the age of 16 who have shown exemplary courage or have some meritorious deed to their credit between April, 1999, and March, 2000, are eligible for nomination.

The names of such children can be forwarded to the Child Welfare Council of Punjab at Karuna Sadan in Sector 11 here. Application forms can be obtained from Deputy Commissioners of all districts of Punjab and Chandigarh and completed forms must be submitted to the council latest by July 30. The council will subsequently forward the names of eligible children to the Indian Council of Child Welfare.

Novel cuisine: The five-day Sweet Home Course on multi-cuisine cooking organised by the Foodcraft Institute last week evoked tremendous response. Despite a fee of Rs 750, nearly a hundred persons signed up to learn exotic dishes, salads, snacks and desserts from China, Italy and Mexico.

Among the students were certain cookery experts of Chandigarh who run classes of their own, but for a much higher fee.

According to the Principal of the institute, Mr Alok Shivpuri, chefs are sent to various places to learn uncommon dishes from abroad, whenever a speciality hotel runs such workshops. This knowledge, coupled with their own expertise, is later imparted to Chandigarh’s people.

A course for school children in the 10-15 age group was also held, where they were taught how to make sponge cakes, pizzas and sandwiches.

Traffic lights: There was utter chaos at the intersection of Sectors 18 and 19 on Saturday as traffic lights developed a snag. At regular intervals, lights would bring traffic from all sides to a halt when all lights would turn red. The “red lights” would continue for more than a minute leaving the vehicle owners and drivers confused. After finding no “amber” or “green” light, some of them would start moving on their own leading to chaos.

Probably one of the relays in the automatic system had failed. A Police Inspector, who was also caught in this “traffic lights messup”, however, continued to cross the intersection without bothering about “red light”. This happened around 1.15 p.m. Half an hour later, the situation was the same. Interestingly, none from the Chandigarh Traffic “challaning” Police had come to control the traffic at this busy intersection. Road users complained that this “nightmare” continued throughout the day and none attended to this problem.

— Sentinel

CULTURE

Rhythm kick starts Eighth Melody 
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 28 — Today marked the beginning of a new chapter which will conclude with a lot of hidden talent getting exposure in due course of time. Not that projects of this kind, which aim at giving a platform to budding artists, have not been taken up earlier, but many such ventures have not seen the light of the day.

This one, however, seemed to be well conceptualised with renowned music director Uttam Singh of Dil to pagal hai fame blessing the promoters. The city-based group Sensations embarked upon this project long back, as informed by adviser to the group, Mr Inderdeep Singh. The Eighth Melody, as the series is called, will rope in talent from all over the country, with the inaugural sessions starting here today at the Tagore Theatre.

The organisers informed that singers will be free to sing in eight of the chosen regional languages, hence the named The Eighth Melody.

The show began with a synchronised round of fusion by Subhash Ghosh on classical guitar, Wavel Sharma on the flute, Mehmood Khan on tabla, Bawa on Spanish guitar and Gagandeep on the keyboard. The rendering was good in style and harmony and most of all, the artistes concentrated on Uttam Singh dhun’s revolving around Dil to pagal hai and kudiyon ko dale dana. Ghazal performance by local artiste Manisha was also impressive.

The sequence was interspersed with Uttam Singh singing two lines of the legendary Shiv Kumar Batalvi — Nikka nikka dil dukhda. The show progressed with Ganesh stuti being presented by students of Veena Tirth. Mr Gobind Singh Longowal, State Minister for Irrigation, Punjab, was the chief guest for the evening.