Heavy rush for JET forms
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 2
Following two days of closing of the State Bank of Patiala, Bharat Nagar branch, for public dealings, there was a heavy rush of students and their parents for buying and submitting of JET forms this morning.

Hundreds of students from the city as well as places as far as Mullanpur, Khanna, Doraha, Dakha and Raikot were seen standing in long queues extending till the middle of the road outside the bank at 10 am when the bank opened. Many of them from the city preferred to move back and come a little later, however, those from far off places had no other option but to stay back.

It took the bank staff almost more than two and half hours to clear the rush and almost the entire staff of the bank, including the chief manager and senior manager, were seen selling and submitting the JET forms.

The Bharat Nagar branch of the State Bank of Patiala is the only outlet for selling and submitting of forms for Ludhiana students. The bank is selling the forms from March 23 onwards and will continue to do so till April 6. However, due to closing of bank for public dealings on March 31 and April 1, over 650 students purchased the forms today and nearly 350 submitted them.

Mr Naresh Kumar, Assistant General Manager of the bank, said even though he was expecting the rush this morning but it was much beyond expectations. He said he was satisfied that his entire staff, including senior officers, had undertaken the responsibility and managed the situation well in time. His staff was also efficient enough to handle other customers of the bank also, he added. He said that even though the public dealings are closed in routine process after 4 pm, the JET forms would be sold till 6 pm for the next four days, he informed.

Mr Naresh Kumar, Assistant General Manager of the bank, said that even though he was expecting the rush this morning but it was much beyond expectations. He said he was satisfied that his entire staff, including senior officers, had undertaken the responsibility and managed the situation well in time. He said that his staff was also efficient enough to handle other customers of the bank also, he added. Even though the public dealings are closed in routine process after 4 pm, the JET forms would be sold till 6 pm for the next four days, he informed.

222 students get degrees 
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 2
The annual convocation of the GHG Harprakash College of Education for Women and the GHG Khalsa College for Women, Sidhwan Khurd, was held on the campus yesterday.

As many as 205 students of B.Ed and 17 students of M.Ed were conferred degrees by Dr K.N. Pathak, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University. Roll of honour was given to Rajni Bala of MEd for standing fifth in the PU examination. Principal Rajwant Kaur read the annual report.

Similarly, 158 students of BA, four of BSc, four of BBA and 29 of MA from the Khalsa College for Women were also conferred degrees. Principal Jaspal Kaur highlighted the achievements of the students.

Tiny tots celebrate Fool’s Day
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 2
Tiny tots of Lovely Lotus Play School, BRS Nagar, celebrated Fool’s Day here today on the first day of re-opening of the school.

The theme of the celebrations was “Let us all be fools so that ultimately we can be wise”. On the occasion, Manuj dressed himself in oversized clothes, Balihar wore frock with a pants, Sahibjot buttoned just one strap of her pants, Ghazal wore jacket front side wrong, Kuber put both his legs in one side of the pant and Anshul, wore tikka and earrings like girls.

Ms Harpreet Gill, Principal, said that the day was celebrated to make the kids understand that schooling was for having fun and teachers were not kill-joys. She said that the kids learnt several concepts from the experiments as they were able to tell that the clothes were big for them, boys wore pants and girls frocks and jacket was worn front-side open. She said that the kids were able to make out the mistakes and self-correct themselves. The whole experiment proved to be a great fun, she said.

7-year RI in rape case
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 2
The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr B.K. Mehta, has sentenced Raju (25) of Katani Kalan village to undergo seven years' rigorous imprisonment on the charges of abduction and raping a minor girl.

Delivering the verdict, Mr Mehta held that prosecution has proved beyond doubt that the accused abducted prosecutrix and sexually abused her.

According to prosecution, accused was working as a labourer in the house of the prosecutrix. On February 15, 1997, accused allured the 17-year-old girl and made her to roam about in the streets of the village. Ultimately, he took her to a deserted place and committed rape. On the very next day he was booked under Sections 363, 366 and 376 of the IPC at Sahnewal police station.

The accused pleaded not guilty and claimed that due to some enmity he was implicated by the father of the prosecutrix. Finding Rajinder Singh guilty, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on the accused.