Chandigarh, July 23
Activists of the Nationalist Congress Party, Chandigarh unit, staged a dharna in front of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, today. They were demanding that the school authorities should take steps to make the school building disabled friendly.

Party president Gurbachan Singh said majority of the schools in the city did not provide ramp in the buildings due to which the physically challenged students find it difficult to reach their classrooms situated on upper stories. The disabled even cannot enter the toilets on their wheelchairs as the doors were not wide enough.

Director public instructions (schools) S.K. Setia said the engineering department was in the process of providing ramps and other facilities for the disabled students in schools and other educational institutions.

However, it would take some more time to complete the work as there are more than 500 institutions where one or more modifications, including ramps, widening of doors and interconnectivity between different blocks of building, required, added Setia.

John Traxler, reader from Wolverhampton University, UK, speaks at an international workshop held by the CGC, Landran, on Monday. —A Tribune photograph

Chandigarh
STRIKE: A two-period strike was called at MCM DAV College, Sector 36, by the MCM DAV College Teachers’ Union and the Non-Teaching Employees Union, here on Monday. The protest was held to press for various demands of the employees, including deducting provident fund on total salary and encashment of earned leave. The agitation has been going on for some time now, but it has not yielded results.

RESULTS: Dayanand College of Communication and Management declared the results of its postgraduate diploma courses. According to S.M. Sharma, the principal, girls have performed better than the boys.

ADMISSIONS: The details for admissions to the two-year NTT course at Raja Ram Mohan Roy Institute of Vocational Studies, Sector 27-D, is as follows: Last date for submission of forms - August 17, date of entrance test at GGSSS-23 - August 19, results of the entrance test - August 22 and date of the interview - August 23 and 24.

CONFERENCE: The mechanical engineering department of Punjab Engineering College will organise a two-day all-India conference on from October 5. Over 40 experts are expected to attend the conference. More details can be obtained from the following website: http: www.pec.ac.in.

TOPPED: Six students of DAV College, Sector 10, have bagged top positions in the MSc (zoology) 1st year examination conducted by Panjab University in April 2007. The toppers are: Divya Sharma, Shashi Raparia, Amrit Pal Dhillon, Jasbir Kaur, Madhu Singla, and Puja Thakur. Garima Ghai of MSc (zoology) 2nd year also topped the university.

Dera Bassi

VANMOHATSAV: Deepmala Public School organised a function on the occasion of ‘vanmahotsav’, here on Sunday. SDM Sohan Lal Bhumbak, who was the chief guest, began the programme by planting a sapling. Principal Anita Mittal and senior citizen P.D. Mittal honoured the SDM. A speech competition was also conducted on the occasion.

Mohali

WORKSHOP: An international workshop on mobile technologies was held by the Chandigarh Group of Colleges, here on Monday. John Traxler, reader in mobile technology from Wolverhampton University, UK, played host at the workshop. Traxler said the workshop aimed at giving an insight on how hand-held computers could be used in classroom teaching.

PLACEMENTS: All engineering students of the second batch of Guru Gobind Singh College of Modern Technology, Kharar, got placements with renowned companies. A total of 23 companies visited the college to recruit fresh graduates. Forty students from the management stream have also been placed.

FUNCTION: The inaugural function of the new academic session of National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) was held at the institute’s Convention Centre, here on Monday. Professor Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, an eminent clinical pharmacologist, was the chief guest. The function was presided over by Dr A.R. Kidwai, governor of Haryana. Thirty-seven students were selected for doctoral studies and 138 for postgraduate programmes. Over 400 persons attended the function. — TNS

Chandigarh, July 23
The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Mahesh Grover today dismissed a bunch of petitions challenging the construction of proposed Hansi-Butana canal by the state of Haryana.

The Bench pronounced in the open court that the canal was proposed to be constructed by Haryana to take water to parched areas of the state, which was sought to be stonewalled by a spate of writ petitions.

Importantly, the court observed that it was important to unmask the petitioners who had donned the cloak of public interest to raise such issues, which had only laid bare the fangs, which do not belong to innocent face of the farmer but to someone else.

The court further observed that Phul Singh and others Vs state of Haryana became the fountainhead petition from which other petitions flowed. In this petition, Phul Singh had sought directions to the respondents not to take the proposed canal from Azimgarh village in Kaithal to Aanta village in Jind and through the Ramgarh Roh village in Kurukshetra.

The principle challenge to the canal was that scheme for digging canal had not been published in accordance with the law and its path had not been finalised through proper survey. Also, that no public notice had been issued to the persons likely to be affected adversely.

“What seemed to be a petition of a simple concern of small landowners regarding acquisition of their lands has suddenly threatened to turn into a multi-headed problem, which encroaches upon the rights of the states and sharing of waters by those states,” the Bench pronounced.

The court observed that it was a settled law that state could acquire land for public purposes. The notification by Haryana showing its intent to acquire the land on emergent basis could not be tinkered with lightly.

The Bench also observed that the court was not in a position to evaluate the contentions as far as technical feasibility of the project was concerned.

The court also said that Haryana had produced a letter dated, September 1,2006, by which necessary clearance had been granted to the project by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, subject to various conditions.

The court pronounced that “We are also of the view that petitioners, who have already been accepted the compensation, have no right to maintain their challenge any more as they have consciously acquiesced to the process of acquisition”.