‘Release grants to colleges’
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 11
Demanding quick release of pending grants to aided colleges, the newly elected members of the Punjab and Chandigarh Teachers’ Union held their first meeting with the Education Minister and Education Secretary yesterday.

Stating this, Prof K.B.S. Sodhi, former president of the union who also accompanied the new members, said members demanded that the 95 per cent salary grant December, 2001 to February, 2002, which amounted to Rs 16.2 crore, be released to them at the earliest. The members were told that the previous grant from would be released soon while the grant for the months from March to May was ready and the colleges could collect their drafts from the DPI.

The union members also demanded that arrears to the tune of Rs 21.35 crore due for the period from January 1996 to December 1998 also be released to the colleges.

They said in case the colleges do not get regular grants and the amount of such grants is not revised in the forthcoming budget, several colleges would be forced to shut down. They also demanded that higher education be given due importance and new schemes and policies be devised to promote it.

Children get creative ideas
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 11
‘Learning for Fun’ — a 12-day summer camp for children in the age-group of 7 to 12 began here yesterday. The Punjab Agricultural University Department of Human Development is its organiser.

At the camp, children are learning various creative ideas for making crafty items out of cotton, leaves, paper, cloth and the other such material available at home. While yesterday, they prepared snowmen, the kids were busy preparing lampshades today. They will also learn origami, puppetry and the art of hospitality.

Dr I.J.S. Jaswal, Head of the Department, said, tomorrow, the kids would be taught how to arrange birthday parties, decorate rooms and make innovative invitation cards. He said the response to the camp had been tremendous, but the admissions had to be stopped as the number of participants had reached the upper limit of 30.

He said, at the conclusion of the camp on June 21, an exhibition of items made by the participants would be held.

Dental education course
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 11
The district unit of the Indian Dental Association organised a continuing dental education course here last evening in collaboration with Haraeus Kulzer.

Dr T.P.Singh, president of the district unit of the IDA, said that more than 53 dental surgeons of the city attended the course. Dr Vimal Sikri, a renowned endodontist taught the latest innovative techniques of doing root canal treatment, using state-of-the-art audio- visual aids like LCD projector and later demonstrated the latest way of doing the RCT with rotary instruments and special files.

Dr Singh said that with the advent of new instruments, doctors would be able to do the RCT in a few minutes and in few sittings which was earlier not possible manually. He also elaborated that the RCT was the most commonly done procedure now-a-days and was the only way by which severely injected and badly broken teeth could be saved with predictable success.

Dr Jairath, honorary secretary of the IDA, promised to hold more continuing dental education courses in the coming days to update the doctors on the latest changing trends of advancements in dentistry.

Entrance test dates clash
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 11
The candidates appearing for the pre-medical entrance tests for admissions to the MBBS and BDS courses in different medical colleges are a worried lot as the dates clash.

The candidates informed that the Baba Farid University for Medical Sciences as well as Guru Ram Das College of Medical Sciences, Amritsar, were conducting their tests on July 21. They demanded that either of the institutes should alter their schedule so that it became convenient for them to appear for both the tests. 

COURTS

Forum penalises soft drink company
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 11
In a significant order, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed the Coca Cola Company to pay Rs 5,000 on account of unfair trade practice and deficient services to Mr Rajnish Kumar, a resident of Mali Ganj.

According to the complaint, the company had advertised in various newspapers that they had floated a scheme known as ‘Coca Cola kismat crown main ab jeeto chappar phaad ke’. The complainant, Mr Rajnish Kumar stated before the forum that as per the scheme, a person who drink Coca Cola had a chance to win various prizes including cash prize of Rs 5, Rs 100, Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 1,00,000 or 300ml Coca Cola drink or Coca Cola double shagun crown which doubled the cash prize.

Mr Rajnish Kumar disclosed that he was the regular consumer of Coca Cola and he found two crowns of Rs 5 each , one crown of Rs 100 and three double shagun crowns. He further disclosed that as per the scheme, he approached a local distributor of the company, Raghav Traders, Bhadaur House, and demanded the cash prize for which he was entitled for. But the distributor postponed the matter on one pretext or the other and failed to make the payment of the cash prize, he added.

The consumer said he approached the company official on the company’s factory premises at 185, G.T. Road, Ludhiana, on May 21, 2001, with a hope to get his cash prize. But the company officials agreed to pay Rs 100 cash prize which amounted to Rs 200 against double shagun crown, but refused to encash two crowns of Rs 5 each, he added.

The complainant stated that after pursuing the matter with the help of some pamphlets and advertisement of the company, ultimately, the company officials agreed to give discount of Rs 5 against 1.5 liters per bottle and not the cash prize of Rs 5. He alleged that the consumer suffered a lot of mental torture pain due to the behaviour of company officials. He demanded from the forum that the company should be directed to pay cash prize as per the scheme and to pay Rs 10,000 on account of compensation for harassment.

The company pleaded that the compliant was false and frivolous and was liable to be dismissed. The respondent admitted the floating of the scheme and it also admitted that the complainant had two crowns each of Rs 5 and one crown of Rs 100. However, it was denied that the complainant visited the factory and contacted Udaibir Singh for redemption of Rs 100 crown along with double shagum crowns and he paid Rs 200.

The respondent stated that as per the advertisement for Rs 5 crown, the complainant was told to get encashed the same or get the same adjusted from the retailer or the distributor as per the scheme. It was further stated that according to the advertisement, the cash prize was to be paid only in case of the prizes of Rs 100 and above by the company as such the payment of the same was made. While the other prizes were to be collected from retailer.

The respondent stated that the complainant was paid Rs 200 cash prize to consumer without any delay, but the payment of Rs 5 crown was to be made by the retailers. The company further stated that there was no deficiency in services and the complaint was liable to be dismissed.

The forum observed that the company had floated the said scheme and the consumer had got crowns of cash prizes. The forum further observed that there was no mention in the scheme that the crowns of Rs 5 were to be got encashed from the retailer or dealer only.

The forum stated that the opposite party was not justified in asking the consumer to approach the retailer for redemption of the crowns of denomination of Rs 5. The forum further stated that when the consumer approached the company directly, it should have made the payment and it was not supposed to exploit the winners of the scheme. .

The forum held that the there was clear unfair trade practice on the part of the company.

SI gets bail in graft case
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 11
Mr V.B. Handa, Sessions Judge, Ludhiana, today granted bail to sub-inspector Chaman Parkash in a graft case. The judge ordered to release him on furnishing surety bonds of Rs 10,000.

Sub Inspector was posted as in charge of the Sherpur police chowki, when he was booked under the prevention of Corruption Act. He remained in custody for more than a week after his arrest.

The SI was caught allegedly for taking a bribe of Rs 10,000 from an industrialist during the raid conducted by Mr Nau Nihal Singh, SP, City (I), on June 3.