10,000 forms submitted for 8,000 plus 1 seats
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, June 27
The last date of submission of forms for centralised admission of class XI witnessed a huge rush to the venue for the purpose — Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 23, here today. According to sources, about 1,000 forms were collected today, taking the total number submitted in the past six days to more than 10,000. There are 8,000 seats in various government senior secondary schools of the city.

Students and parents started pouring in at about 9 am, braving the rains and continued till late afternoon. Quite a few students were seen buying forms and filling them on the spot.

“The last date for form submission was extended for two days keeping in view that the Haryana School Education Board Class X results was declared on June 25,” said Mr Bahadur Singh, Project Officer for distribution and submission of forms.

Sensing the inconvenience caused to students of far-flung areas of Haryana and Punjab due the late declaration of results, the authorities have decided to take up a lenient stance. “Though today is the last official date for form submission, we will make an exception for those who are coming from outside,” said Mr Bahadur Singh. As a majority of these students could not submit complete forms, the authorities decided to simply register such candidates’ forms which will be submitted later in the completed format — duly attested and supported with necessary documents.

Though a team of 50 teachers and computer operators worked in co-ordination to make the process smooth and tidy, the day did see a few minor hiccups as a few students from the Haryana Open Board whose result have not been declared yet sought a further extension in the last date.

The admission process for all the four streams — arts, commerce, science and vocational — will start from July 2. One new feature which is going to be added to the admission procedure this year is that the students having compartment will also be given admission along with the other students. The admission for such candidates start from July 14.

Like previous years, this year too the Government Model Senior Secondary Schools of Sectors 35 and 16 are being given priority by most of the meritorious students. Both these schools get the cream of students and have the highest cut-off marks which went up to as high as 85 per cent last year.

PU results
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 27
Panjab University has declared the results of Gyani examination conducted in April this year, an official press note said here today. Enquiries can be made at the enquiry counter of the university on all working days.

The university will declare the results of the MA-I (English) examination tomorrow, an official press note said here today.

A clarification

It has been brought to our notice that the report headlined “50 pc posts lying vacant in PEC” (The Tribune, June 27) gives an erroneous impression that 50 per cent teaching posts in the Punjab Engineering College are vacant. The report, of course, mentions that an interim arrangement has been made by appointing 40 teachers on contractual basis. This means that only 17 vacancies exist in the college out of the total sanctioned strength of 158 posts.

COURTS

4-day police remand for cheats
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 27
In the case of a Delhi-based businessman, Harbhajan Singh, who has been arrested along with property dealers while fraudulently trying to sell a four-kanal house in Sector 10 to a local businessman, Mr Jaspal Singh, investigations by the city police today revealed that the original owner of the house, Major Som Nath (retd), lived in Noida.

A team of officials from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the city police today left for Delhi to record the statement of the original owner and to ascertain the source of the forged documents prepared by the cheats.

The EOW of the city police has yesterday registered a case on a complaint lodged by Mr Jaspal Singh, a resident of Sector 30. Three persons, Harbhajan Singh, a retired cashier from Punjab National Bank (PNB) from Delhi, Swaran Singh and Prem Singh, both property dealers, were today remanded in four-day police custody by the UT Duty Magistrate, Mr Phalit Sharma.

Sources said Harbhajan Singh, who had posed as Major Som Nath, had prepared a forged letter of the Union Minister of State for Home.

In the letter, signed by the first PA to the minister, the Inspector General of Police, Chandigarh, had been asked to help Major Som Nath in getting the house vacated. The cheats showed the letter to Mr Jaspal Singh to win over his trust. A fake attestation report of Harbhajan Singh being a retired Army Major was got prepared from a notary at Delhi. Even a fake identity card of Major Som Nath was prepared by the cheats. Investigations by the police reveal that the prime suspect in the entire plot was Prem Singh, who got all the papers prepared.

The cheats on showing the identity card, attestation report and the letter of the Union Minister of State for Home, got a no objection certificate (NOC) from the Estate Office. On the basis of the NOC, the deal to sell the plot was about to be executed when the fraud was detected. The police team which left for Delhi this evening would also seek the help of the Union Ministry in verifying the documents seized from the cheats.

During interrogation by the police, the cheats revealed that to ensure that the entire plan was foolproof, a rented accommodation in the name of Major Som Nath was taken in Rohni (Delhi). Mr Jaspal Singh, did visit Rohini but on finding the name plate of Major Som Nath, returned satisfied. They revealed that they had chose Harbhajan Singh as he was an outsider and fitted in the role of Major Som Nath.

The police has recovered an identity card of a Punjab Police constable from Swaran Singh.

Investigations by the police have revealed that the house (No 300 in Sector 10) was allotted to Major Som Nath in 1954.

Though the owner rarely visited the house, a number of people kept on calling Mr Vijay Singh, the tenant, claiming that they had the ownership documents of the house.

The father of the tenant had moved into the two-room accommodation in 1967. As there was no photo of Major Som Nath on the ownership documents in the Estate Office, the cheats managed to prepare a fake ex serviceman I- card with the photo of Harbhajan Singh on it. 

CULTURE

RadioBuzz to launch broadcasting academy
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 27
RadioBuzz that has spiced up the radio scene in Chandigarh with its first broadcast on Chandigarh FM last November, is now launching the region’s first TakeOne Academy of Broadcasting (TAB).

The TAB shall provide training in professional broadcasting, which is, in a way, a part of its backward integration to scout talented trained voices for its growing radio production work, informed Charanjit Singh, executive director of the academy and RadioBuzz. He said RadioBuzz had already produced nearly 300 programmes since its launch in November, 2002, and its web radio has logged in more than 11,000 listening hours on the Internet streaming, 24-hour music and Chandigarh specific information.

He informed that another thrust is in the offing on the radio front in the next six months with the setting up of 100 additional FM stations in mini-metros. A US-trained radio jockey Hardeep S. Chandpuri, who is also the Creative Director of RadioBuzz and Director of the academy, said he returned from the USA not only to be a part of the radio revival movement in this region, but also to share his experiences and train the voices for broadcasting.

The first batch shall commence in the first week of July and shall comprise various modules including voice culture, speech development, scriptwriting for radio programmes and commercials and technical production.

Kathak workshop concludes
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 27
The kathak workshop organised by the Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Pearls Performing Arts Society concluded today with a programme showcasing kathak sequences learnt by participants during five days of the workshop. The workshop was conducted by guru Rajendra Gangani who shares the credit of popularising the Jaipur form of kathak.

In the final programme, the participants’ performance began with guru vandana (Dhara gagan), followed by items reflecting basic footwork. The technical part of Jaipur kathak featured in the pure dance sequences that followed like thaat, aamad, tukra, chakradar tukra, paran and tihai. In the end the 15 participants danced to the tunes of a bhajan — Komal kaliyaan bani karen.