New Delhi, April 10
Concerned over increased terrorist activities in Afghanistan, India and Kabul today agreed on a collective fight against the menace in which Pakistan could also join.

India also extended another $ 50 million (approx Rs 225 crore) assistance to the conflict-torn country for reconstruction projects. It takes the total assistance sanctioned so far to Afghanistan to $ 650 million. The announcement came following talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai. New Delhi also offered another $ 50 million as “line of credit”.

The 90-minute talks covered a whole range of bilateral and regional issues, including ways to strengthen cooperation for fighting terrorism and boosting stability in the region.

The two countries also signed three memoranda of understanding (MOUs) on cooperation in the fields of education, rural development and standardisation in the presence of Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr Karzai.

Significantly, Mr Karzai and other Afghan leaders have in the past accused Pakistan of promoting terrorism across the Pak-Afghan border.

With Pakistan continuing to deny transit facility to Indian goods destined for Afghanistan, Mr Karzai proposed that India should set up production facilities in his country for catering to the host nation and Central Asia.

However, both leaders expressed hope that the transit facility for Indian goods would materialise soon as it would benefit all three countries and the region as a whole.

The two leaders held restricted talks which were followed by nearly 30 minutes of one-on-one and then 45-minute delegation-level talks.

The MoU on education was signed by Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh and Afghan Acting Minister for Higher Education Suraiya. The pact on rural development was signed by Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Afghan Minister for Rural Development and Rehabilitation Mohd Hanif Atmar.

The MoU on standardisation was signed by Director-General of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Swayam Prakash Sharma and Afghanistan Charge d’ Affairs Abdul Hai Khurasani.

On security concerns regarding the Zaranj-Delaram road near Herat, which is being constructed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) as a transit route to Central Asia, Dr Manmohan Singh said there were indeed “some security concerns”.

However, the Afghan authorities and the Afghan President assured that terrorists would not be allowed to interfere in the construction.

Mumbai, April 10
The government’s proposal to bring nearly half the number of seats in the IITs under quotas has been strongly opposed by the faculty and students of IIT, Powai.

“Though reservations for OBCs are welcome, there is a lot of complexity in reserving seats in the IITs,” says former faculty member and social commentator Dr Ram Punyani.

According to Dr Punyani, the IITs are still grappling with the 27 per cent quotas reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students some years ago.

Under the existing quota system, SC and ST students with 2/3rd the marks scored by the candidates on the bottom of the general list are eligible for selection. In other words, a reserved category student with 44 per cent marks ranks equal to a regular student with 66 per cent marks at the bottom of the general list.

Rather than dilute the quality of instruction at IIT, the reserved category students are put through a year of preparatory coaching before being formally inducted into the academic system.

“As it is, these students are one whole year behind the general category students,” says Dr Punyani. Despite the preparatory classes, often the reserved category students still struggle to remain on par with the general category students, say faculty members.

“Many of the students fail courses and accumulate backlogs that need to be cleared up on time to get a degree,” says a senior professor. The courses at the IIT are so gruelling that even toppers are known to burn out and leave without a degree.

Though most of them do catch up in the seven years’ time they have to earn a degree, quite a few students in the reserved category leave mid-way, say sources here.

Faculty members and students alike speak about the tremendous psychological pressure caused by the merit-based environment at the IITs. “There is tremendous pressure to perform and one sees students of similar backgrounds sticking together. This sometimes results in blurring the line between prejudices against reserved category and academically backward students,”
says another professor.

Faculty members at IIT, Powai, are concerned about the infrastructure upgrades needed to accommodate more reservation. “We will see a larger number of students with backlogs in need of additional coaching. The system is not geared to handle this. So either I lower my standards or increase the number of better-qualified faculty,” says a don.

“Should the proposal for reservation come through, nearly half the entrants at the IITs would have to undergo a year’s preparatory course,” he adds. This would entail additional infrastructure and the induction of more faculty members.

“After all, a single year’s preparatory course is not enough to make up for 12 years of poor education,” he adds.

Meanwhile, the IIT, Powai, administration is considering other alternatives. This includes setting up a sub-facility at Goa to cater to students from the southern parts of India. Industrial houses and alumni are said to be backing this move.

Among those who back the move to increase reservation include Bhalchandra Mungekar, former vice-chancellor of Mumbai University and a Dalit himself. “Merit is a social construct and a function of one’s environment,” he notes.

Meanwhile, students at IIT, Powai, are taking their protests against reservation online. A petition posted on petitiononline.com two days ago is now among the top ten online petitions on the site. So far nearly 3700 people have signed the petition, which will be submitted to President Kalam.

New Delhi, April 10
With the quota controversy hotting up again, the tussle between merit and quota has become more fierce.

Students, academics, intelligentsia and the civil society are divided on whether the country needs quota system and if merit has become redundant in the face of reservation.

Slamming the notion that quotas affect the quality of the educational institution, Planning Commission Member Dr Bhalchandra Mungekar said, “I totally justify the reservation for OBCs, in view of the current social injustice. This will create more access to education to students from the other backward classes,” he said.

“I don’t think one is born with merit. It is created by situations (economic, social and educational) and the Constitution allows the government to take measures to provide for the socially and educationally backward classes. And if you have the socially and educationally backward amounting to 50 per cent of the population, a reservation like this is justified,” he said.

The rationale put forward by pro-reservationist notwithstanding, scepticism about the productiveness of the sop is widespread. The Indian Medical Association, for instance, has strongly opposed the move.

“Technical education has to be competition based, if the government has to do something for the OBCs, it should provide them free education. Besides, 49.5 per cent reservation is actually much more, sometimes OBC students take the examinations as general category students, then their numbers goes up on the whole,” said Dr Vinay Aggrawal, Honorary General Secretary of the IMA.

Also expressing reservation on the quota issue is Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati, who has demanded more seats for the general category students. The reservation, she said would lead to a confrontation between the OBCs and the upper castes.

President of the Centre for Policy Research and Member of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) Bhanu Pratap Mehta has regretted the decision to implement the reservation policy that affects not only the IIT aspirants, but even those hoping to make it to IIMs or even Central universities like Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University will have to face tough competition for the too few seats.

In IITs, where the seats for the general quota could become less by over 1,000, the issue is simmering. However, it has yet to come to a boiling point. “We still have not received any directive from the ministry, but for an issue like this we have our own mechanism of discussion. The issue will be debated and discussed in the Senate, the IIT Council and the advisory board and if there is some conclusion, we will put it before the ministry,” said, IIT Delhi Registrar Rajinder Singh.

The reservation policy having an adverse effect on the quality and prestige of higher education institutions has also become a talking point. Some academicians and industry captains fear that “quality would be diluted” and “the reputation of the IITs and the IIMs will be at stake”.

But those in favour of the reservation refute this assumption. “To assume that the quality of institutions will be affected is to presume that everyone else in India is dumb…that only the upper castes have intellect,” said Prof Jayati Ghosh, a member of the National Knowledge Commission.

New Delhi, April 10
After the end of week-long strike of over two lakh employees of the SBI employees last night, thousands of customers thronged at the branches creating chaos at some places though employees had come early in the morning.

The All-India SBI Officers' Federation vice-president, Mr T.N. Goel, said, "Our service branches will remain open till 12 tonight to clear the cheques. We hope that within a day or two the backlog will be cleared."

He, however, added that officers of the SBI had not got any benefit from the settlement between the government and trade unions as they would continue to get pension equivalent to 40 per cent of the last drawn salary.

Despite his claims, however, chaos prevailed at many branches and ATMs here as people made a beeline to withdraw cash and carry out other transactions as work resumed after a week-long strike.

Many branches and ATMs were struggling to provide services due to lack of full network connectivity and inadequate staff, leaving many customers fuming.

Likewise, kiosks installed in branches were standing dull as internet connectivity was down.

The All-India SBI Staff Federation vice-president, Mr V.K. Gupta, said the employees would do everything to restore the damage caused to SBI's image and inconvenience caused to customers due to the strike by providing good services.

Given that the SBI handles 19 per cent of deposits and 30 per cent of customers in the banking industry, it would take some time for the bank to restore normalcy.

The strike was called off on Sunday following a settlement between the employees and bank management on higher pension.

The SBI Chairman, Mr A.K. Purwar, admitted that the loss to the bank due to strike was in hundreds of crore.

Meanwhile, Exporters' body FIEO has welcomed the agreement. — TNS

Lucknow, April 10
Fresh tension erupted in the riot-hit Aligarh town this morning after the body of an “unidentified” youth buried yesterday, was found to be that of the son of BJP MLA Devkinandan Kori.

The police had earlier buried the body of Triloki, alias Vicky, 25, terming it as “unidentified”. He was killed in the police firing on April 8 in the curfew-bound Sasnigate area.

The body was exhumed this morning and was handed over to his father, Devkinandan Kori, BJP MLA from Sasni in the nearby Mahamayanagar (Hathras) district.

State Principal Secretary (Home) S.K. Agarwal and DGP Bua Singh admitted the administrational lapse in identifying the body.

Meanwhile, the curfew imposed in parts of Aligarh after Thursday’s communal flare-up continued for the fifth day today.

In view of the sensitive situation, the district administration has banned the entry of political leaders into Aligarh.

A compensation of Rs 5 lakh each has been announced to the kin of the deceased by the state government. An additional Rs 2.5 lakh compensation was announced by the Centre. — UNI