Chandigarh Diary
Train fares go north
With the summer holiday rush setting in and the Chandigarh International Airport closed for runway expansion till May 31, trains are the most preferred mode of transport to reach Delhi. But dynamic pricing system is turning out to be aheadache. Travellers are being forced to shell out extra money. Against the normal one-way fare of J600 for a Shatabdi Express train ticket, one is forced to pay J915 for the chair car class and J1,300 for the executive chair car class, which generally costs J1,000. The price hike is because of the dynamic pricing system, under which base fares jump by 10 per cent for every 10 per cent of seats booked in Shatabdi, with a cap of 50 per cent hike in the original fare. The surging price may continue
till the end of this month.
Feedback system to evaluate teachers
The University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences will be the first department to start online feedback system for teachers in the state. Students will now on rate a teacher on a 5-point scale ranging from
strongly disagree to strongly agree, without the fear of being identified. The five questions are whether a teacher completes syllabus on time, has subject knowledge, communicates clearly and inspires, is punctualand comes well prepared or not. There are six questions related to exams, course content and books recommended for the syllabus. At present, in the other departments, students are asked to fill the form manually which is not yielding honest feedback.
E-way bill system comes into effect
E-way bill system has been be implemented in Chandigarh from Friday, as the Union government has made e-way bills mandatory for the movement of goods exceeding the value of J50,000 within the city. A notification in this regard was issued recently. Now a buyer purchasing goods worth over J50,000 will be required to procure an e-way bill from the vendor. It will not be applicable in case goods are transported on conveyances such as rehri or rickshaw, but necessary if goods are sent on motor vehicles. The Excise Department said action would be taken against those violating the GST rules.
Strict rules on property transfer
The Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has decided not to transfer properties on the basis of the general power of attorney (GPA) and the special power of attorney (SPA). From now on, the Board will return all applications submitted before January 10 when a ban on such transfers was imposed. The decision in this regard was taken during a recent meeting of the Board of CHB Directors. More than 1,000 cases pending in the Tatkal scheme has now been put on hold.
Tackling plagiarism
Panjab University is all set to adopt a plagiarism policy for journals which are prepared by its research promotion cell. Authors will be asked to either put the reference material in the form of a quote or write it entirely in their own words. The author will have to explicitly cite the source, including the specific page number in the case of a quote or a point. All the submitted manuscripts for publication will be checked for plagiarism after submission and before starting review. The policy states if plagiarism is more than 50 per cent, then the manuscript will be rejected promptly. Also, the author will be red-listed and will be barred from serving on the editorial board of PU journal.