In brief

Kin of drowned boys get ex gratia relief
The state government has awarded Rs three lakh ex gratia to the next of kin of the three teenaged boys,who had drowned in a seasonal rivulet in Ranimajra village near Chandigarh on July 7. Morinda SAD MLA Ujjagar Singh Badali presented the cheques to parents of Sanjay Kumar (15),Depp Singh (16),both cousins,and Navneet Sagar (10) at the office of Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) in Kharar. In the presence of the SDM,MLA assured Rajeev Kumar Gupta the aggrieved families of all possible help and support from the government in future. No action,however,has been taken against people who indulged in illegal mining,which had left around 20-feet-deep pits in the river bed,where the three youths had drowned while playing.

Mohali-Kharar NH-21 blocked for 9 hours
The busy stretch of Mohali-Kharar National Highway-21 remained blocked for almost nine hours — 10 am to 7 pm— on Monday. Traffic heading from Mohali towards Kharar was badly disrupted at Kharar bus stand chowk,leaving a 2-km-long queue of stranded vehicles. The disruption was caused due to the work of laying overhead high tension electricity wires across the bridge over Jayanti Ki Rao seasonal rivulet in Khanpur. As the traffic heading from Mohali towards Kharar and that coming from Ropar and Ludhiana was diverted towards narrow Civil Hospital Road,the vehicles coming from Mohali were caught in a massive traffic jam. The mismanagement and failure of the Traffic Police personnel to properly divert the traffic resulted in total chaos,following which several vehicles were also damaged.

Greenfield School celebrates environment week
Environment week was celebrated in Greenfield Smart School,Mohali on Monday. Teachers helped the tiny tots in planting saplings. The students were informed about the importance of plants. Activities like plantation and rainbow colouring were held on the occasion. They were also taken for a nature walk in a near-by garden. Children enjoyed the visit with refreshments which was given to the them. They promised never to destroy the beauty of nature.

CET counselling held at PU
The CET counselling for B Sc Honours and B Pharma was conducted at Panjab University auditorium today. As per the counselling schedule,counselling for the reserved category and NRI category will be undertaken on July 19 and 20 while for open category for the same courses was completed on Saturday and Sunday. Counselling under open category for BALLB (Hons) integrated course would be conducted on July 22.

Trinamool Cong appoints new office-bearers
The city unit of Trinamool Congress has announced the names of some office-bearers of District II. A meeting was held in this regard in Sector 47 under the chairmanship of president of the city unit,Shambu Banerjee,on Monday. The office-bearers include Arun Sharma as president,Rajesh Singh as vice-president,Uma Shanker as general secretary,Aditya,Vinod,Vikas,Pravenn Kumar as secretaries,Sonu Kumar as advisor and Rakesh Kumar as cashier.

Tenants demand action against cops
A delegation of the Chandigarh Industrial Area Tenants Association met Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources,Pawan Kumar Bansal,on Monday and handed over a memorandum of their demands. The delegation demanded action against the police officers who had cane-charged them,as they held a protest against the Administration’s policies.

Polythene ban drive conducted
A drive to enforce the ban on polythene bags was conducted in the South Sub Division. During the course of the checking,polythene bags weighing 62 kgs were seized from the Sector 34 market and Apni Mandi in Sector-46. The drive was conducted by the enforcement staff comprising of Sanitary Inspectors of Health Department.

Dr Jagwant Singh new PCCTU chief
Dr Jagwant Singh of GGDSD College,Chandigarh,was elected the president of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU),which concluded the final phase of its elections at DAV College,Jalandhar. As many as 413 out of 446 delegates from 160 colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh caste their votes. The panel put up by Dr Jagwant Singh swept the polls with big margins.

Dr Jagwant Singh of GGDSD College,Chandigarh,was elected president with a margin of 271-141 votes,he defeated Kamal Kapoor of S D College,Hoshiarpur. H S Walia of DAV College,Amritsar,got 258 votes against 150 votes of Dr P S Gill of SGGS College,Chandigarh,and was re-elected as the general secretary.

Prof Vinay Sofat was re-elected finance secretary. Prof V K Bhardwaj of Arya College,Ludhiana,was elected vice president. Prof H S Atwal of Lyalpur Khalsa College was elected Secretary (GNDU); Prof Avtar Singh,Khalsa College,Anandpur Sahib,was elected Secretary ( Punjabi University area). Jitender Sharma of D M College,Moga won the seat of Secretary Panjab University area.

PU holds orientation for Hindi students
The department of Hindi,Panjab University,organised an orientation programme for their first semester students on Monday. The programme was attended by faculty members,non-teaching staff,PhD scholars and senior students.

The function kicked off with comments of Dr Ashok Kumar and Dr Gurmeet Singh,in which they exhorted students to scale new heights.

Later on,Dr Satyapal Sehgal,chairperson of the department,in a powerpoint presentation,put forward the history,present and future of the department before the gathering. He told how the department travelled from Lahore to Jalandhar to Chandigarh.

He informed the audience that the first thesis of the department was written by Dr Inder Nath Madan,titled,Modern Hindi Literature. He also said legendary scholar Acharya Hazari Prasad Dwiwedi joined the department and took it to heights.

“It was in his time that noted laureates and writers were produced by the department,including Mohan Rakesh,Bhishma Sahani,Dr Ramesh Kuntal Megh,Dr Ganpati Chandra Gupta,Ravinder Kaliya,Dr Virendra Mehandiratta ,Dr Sushma Bedi and so on,” he said. Sehgal also introduced the teaching and non-teaching staff to new students and explained different courses being taught by the department and the academic calender. The event was conducted by Dr Baijnath Prasad,in-charge of Hindi Sahitya Parishad.

Services of 13 ousted Mohali teachers restored
The week-long protest of the Punjab Education Workers’ Teachers’ Union today proved fruitful with the restoration of the services of its 13 members,who were dismissed recently. Up in arms against their ouster,the union had launched indefinite protest with its members sitting on fast-unto-death outside the office of District Education Officer (DEO) Elementary in Phase II here.

On the directive of the state government,the DEO (Elementary) Surjeet Kaur this evening handed over a written assurance to restore the services of 13 teachers with immediate effect.

However,the reinstated teachers will be required to improve their performance within next three months,after which their performance will be reviewed again,on the basis of which their services will be retained. The services of 13 teachers were discontinued after the their respective schools had scored less than 35 per cent results in the recent tests.

The reinstated teachers include Baljeet Kaur,Baljeet Kaur-II,Beant Kaur,Meena Rani,Devinder Kaur,Paramjeet Kaur,Sarabjeet Kaur,Asha Rani,Darshan Singh,Avtar Singh,Balkar Singh,Devinder Singh and Pawan Kumar.