20062025-CT-01.qxd 6/20/2025 12:35 AM Page 1 c m y b Chandigarh tribune ENGG COLLEGE STUDENTS BAG ~61 LAKH PACKAGE PU STUDENTS ALLEGE BID TO CURB RIGHT TO PROTEST BRAD PITT TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW FILM F1, LOOK Three students from PEC circuital branches bag highest package from multinational company. P3 The controversial clause is part of the university’s 2025 Handbook of Information. P3 Actor talked about his latest look at the New York City premiere of his new movie F1. P4 » » PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 34°C | MIN 27°C YESTERDAY MAX 36.9°C | MIN 27.5°C SUNSET FRIDAY 7.27 PM SUNRISE SATURDAY 5.22 AM » FRIDAY | 20 JUNE 2025 | CHANDIGARH FORECAST /THETRIBUNECHD FACEBOOK/CHANDIGARHTRIBUNE 12 acres freed as UT razes Adarsh Colony City Beautiful’s last slum Shahpur Colony to be removed next, eviction notices served on its occupants HC disposes of dwellers’ petition Tribune News Service WHAT’S ON APNI MANDI Chandigarh: Sectors 24 and 46 Panchkula: Sector 20 Mohali: Sector 68 and Phase 5 Please send information about events in tricity at: whatson@tribunemail.com INBRIEF VISA SEEKERS DUPED OF ~15L Chandigarh: Jodh Singh, a resident of Gho village, Pathankot, has lodged a complaint with the police, alleging that Anubhav Garg and others from World Walk Immigration, Sector 17, cheated him and others out of Rs 15.96 lakh under the pretext of providing work visa. The police booked immigration firm owner Anubhav Garg. The Sector 17 police have registered an FIR under Sections 318(4), 61(2) of the BNS and 24 of the Immigration Act. TNS Chandigarh, June 19 The UT Administration today carried out an eviction and demolition drive at the Adarsh Colony slum, located between Sector 53 and 54, reclaiming approximately 12 acres of prime government land. The operation commenced in the early hours of the morning, ensuring minimal disruption to public life. Police personnel were deployed at the colony to maintain law and order and facilitate the safe and smooth execution of the drive. The action, which was a part of the larger crackdown on illegal encroachments, has left city with only one slum — the Shahpur Colony. According to officials, notices have also been issued to illegal occupants in Shahpur Colony in Sector 38 West and they have been asked to vacate the land at the earliest. Speaking about the operation, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Nishant Kumar Yadav said, “The proactive initiative is part of a larger antiencroachment campaign aimed at reclaiming government land and safeguarding public spaces from illegal occupations.” Ram Niwas Paswan, 78, who had been living in the colony Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service Children collect their belongings after the demolition drive at Adarsh Colony in Chandigarh on Thursday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: PRADEEP TEWARI SLUM-FREE CITY ON HORIZON ■ Notably, City Beautiful is well on its way to become the first slumfree city of the country. Up next after the demolition of the Adrash Colony, shanties will be next removed from the last slum of the city — Shahpur Colony. ■ Earlier on May 6, the Administration had removed nearly 2,500 structures at the for the past decade or so, said the Administration should have provided the residents with shelter at an alternative Janta Colony in Sector 25 and reclaimed around 10 acres of government land worth Rs 350 crore. The largest slum in the city, it was home to over 10,000 people. The land has been earmarked for a dispensary, primary school, community centre and a shopping area. site before carrying out the demolition drive, which has left with him nowhere to go. Echoing the sentiment, Ram In a hat-trick, city tops national school education grading index Scores 703 points with strong performance on governance, infra parameters FILE PHOTO Tribune News Service Chandigarh, June 19 The city has scored a hat-trick by topping the country in the Performance Grading Index (PGI) report, which evaluates the status of school education across states and UTs, for the third consecutive year. The Union Ministry of Education released the report for 2023-24, with Chandigarh topping the list. The UT had also achieved the feat in 202223 and 2021-22. Chandigarh scored 703 points, achieving Prachesta1, reflecting its strong performance in governance and infrastructure in PGI 2.0 — a benchmarking tool aligned with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Sharing details, Education Secretary Prerna Puri told The Tribune that the PGI 2.0 result will propel Chandigarh towards undertaking multipronged interventions to achieve optimal education outcomes, further improve quality and motivate schools to adopt best practices. “The PGI helped Chandigarh to identify specific interventions required to make transformational changes in school education,” Puri said, ■ Similarly, teams had on April 23 demolished nearly 1,000 jhuggis in Sanjay Colony, Industrial Area, Phase I, and reclaimed 6 acres of government land worth Rs 250 crore. ■ Of the 19 major slums in the city, the UT Administration has demolished 18 and reclaimed over 500 acres of land in total. Piyari, 58, said her husband died nearly four years ago in an accident and she had been raising her three children on Minor boy killed in accident Fatehgarh Sahib, June 19 A minor boy was killed and two persons were seriously injured when an auto was hit by a truck, which was on the wrong side, on the Sirhind road this morning. Six-year-old Mohammad Wahid died while his grandmother Reena (42) and Mohammad Sadiq (40) were injured. They were taken to Fatehgarh Sahib Civil Hospital. The truck driver fled the scene. A case has been registered on a statement of Mohammad Mustafa, the grandfather of the deceased. — TNS her own. “I work at houses in the nearby sectors,” she said not sure where she would house her children who are also enrolled in a government school in the city. The DC, meanwhile, said the administration had served multiple notices and warnings to unauthorised occupants in the recent past, providing ample opportunity for voluntary compliance, he said, adding that despite previous notices, several structures Continued on page 2 Chandigarh, June 19 The Punjab and Haryana High Court has paved the way for the Chandigarh Administration to utilise land in the Adarsh Colony area for developing public utility infrastructure in sync with the Chandigarh Master Plan. Disposing of a writ petition filed by the occupants, a Division Bench asserted the land was apparently under the unauthorised occupation and was “to be utilised for developing public utility infrastructure in alignment with the Chandigarh Master Plan”. The Bench of Justice Anil Kshetarpal and Justice Aman Chaudhary made it clear that the UT Administration’s action was “well within the four corners of law.” The court noted in the order that the petitioners were occupants on land owned by the Chandigarh Administration. They had earlier secured a partial civil court decree in 2016, which protected them from dispossession except in accordance with law and required authorities to consider their resettlement “keeping in view the objects of welfare State as well as scheme for resettlement of slum dwellers”. The Bench asserted the petitioners, in 2019 sought execution of the decree, but their plea was dismissed on July 18, 2023, with observation that the executing court could not traverse beyond the decree. It was, among other things, observed that the finance department—vested with policymaking power— was not a party to the suit. “The finance department, UT Chandigarh, is not a party in the present execution. Therefore, no direction can be issued to the Finance Department as prayed in the execution application. The objections are allowed and since the case of the decree holders is pending for consideration in the finance department, no useful purpose would be served by continuing with the present execution application,” the court had asserted. Continued on page 2 Youth shot at during club brawl Tribune News Service Mohali, June 19 The police have àrrested Aditya Vij, who runs a club at Bestech Mall here, and another person for firing a gunshot at a youth from Ganganagar after an altercation around 1 am on Thursday. The victim was admitted to a hospital in Sohana. The victim, Siddharth Delu and his friends had come to ‘The Skull’ club for partying around 11 pm. He had an altercation with the suspects over rowdy behaviour but the matter was resolved. However, a shoulder push flared up the tension, leading to a brawl. The police said during the heat of the moment, Aditya pulled out a pistol and fired a shot, injuring Sidharth. He was rushed to a private hospital in Sohana, where he is under treatment. After firing the gunshot, the suspect fled the spot. He was later nabbed along with his accomplice Tushar Gupta. Meanwhile, DSP (City-2) Harsimran Singh Bal said, “The suspects have been arrested and the weapon along with the bullet shell recovered from the spot. The incident has been captured on a CCTV camera. Further investigation into the matter is underway.” A case under Sections 115, 109, 351(3), 126 (2), 190, 191 of the BNS, and 25/27/54/59 of the Arms Act has been registered at the Phase 11 police station. The police said they were investigating whether the pistol was a licensed weapon. “The club had taken special permission to remain open till 3 am,” they added. PU takes forward leap after 5 yrs FUTURE PLANS OF UT ADMINISTRATION ■ Chandigarh aims to mark further improvement in the next PGI report to score well in learning outcomes and equity domains. Parakh Rashtriya Sarvekshan-2024 was held on December 4, 2024, for students of Classes 3, 6 and 9, the report of which will be released on July 2. divulging that PGI 2.0 was constructed based on 73 indicators from two categories containing six domains. Speaking about the initiatives undertaken by Department of School Education to improve domain-wise scores, UT Director School Education (DSE) Harsuhinder Pal Singh Brar said Chandi- ■ Chandigarh will also ensure pupil teacher ratio (PTR) as per the Right to Education (RTE) norms at primary and upper primary level in government schools with the Department of School Education completing recruitment process for regular appointment of 396 JBTs and 303 TGTs garh’s improvement of adjusted net enrolment ratio at secondary level soared from 76.41 per cent in 2021-22 to 106.8 per cent in 2023-24. He added that the net enrolment ratio at higher secondary level was also up from 56.87 per cent in 2021-22 to 71.2 per cent in 2023-24. “While maintaining the retention rate at 100 per cent at all levels in all three years, we introduced three years of preprimary cycle in all the government schools in 2023-24, which led to a higher participation rate in organised learning (one year before the official primary entry age),” he disclosed. Brar said ICT laboratories Continued on page 2 c m y b QS RankingsRegion’s private universities do well, CU placed 575th globally Deepankar Sharda Tribune News Service Chandigarh, June 19 After almost five years of stagnation, Panjab University (PU) improved its standing in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World Rankings to feature in the 901-950 bracket. Since 2021, the varsity had remained in the 1001-1200 range, even slipping into the 1201-1400 bracket once. The rankings methodology included research and discovery, measuring an institution’s research quality, vol- PANJAB UNIVERSITY’S UPWARD GRAPH INDICATOR Citations per faculty Sustainability International student ratio Faculty-student ratio Employment outcomes ume and its reputation in the academic community. Other indicators included employability and outcomes, learning experience, faculty-student ratio and global engagement, among others. Sustainability 2025 24.1 2.4 1.7 6.2 31.8 2026 43.5 50.9 3.2 10.3 39.6 has been also accounted for. Notably, PU showed improvement in all the parameters this year and recorded a huge jump—especially in citations per faculty and sustainability. The varsity improved to 9.4 points from 7.8 in academic reputation this year, 43.5 from 24.1 in citations per faculty, 39.6 from 31.8 in employment outcomes, 11.5 from 7.3 in employer reputation, 10.3 from 6.2 in faculty-student ratio, 33 from 30.9 in international research network and 50.9 from 2.4 in sustainability. “With a normalised citation score of 109.7 per faculty member (more than twice the global median of 52.0), the university demonstrated Continued on page 2