All not well with Elect Dept
By Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 11 —
‘‘Bull electrocuted’’ — July 20
‘‘Two children electrocuted’’ — Aug 8
‘‘Rickshaw-puller electrocuted’’ — Aug 11
These headlines in local newspapers during the past three weeks are an indication, that all is not well with the electricity operations circle of the Engineering Department of the Chandigarh Administration.

There are nearly 45,000 illegal ‘‘kundi connections’’ in and around city. Besides, there are hundreds of unauthorised constructions all over the city, which are not only in violation of the Periphery Control Order but also the building bylaws of the Administration. And a substantial percentage of these ‘‘unauthorised structures’’ are dangerously close to ‘‘high tension’’ and ‘‘low tension’’ power supply lines, power supply poles, electricity junction boxes and transmission towers.

These ‘‘illegalities’’ apart, there are hundreds of street light poles with loose electric wires or with the loose connections. A majority of these poles have broken power boxes with bunches of electric wires dangerously protruding out on streets and coming in the way of footpath users.

Also there are hundreds of places where underground power cables have been laid dangerously close to the surface, in grave violation of the laid down norms of burying them 3 to 4 ft below the surface of the road top or footpath top. Power junction boxes are broken at many places.

A quick survey of the power sub stations gives an equally disturbing picture. At least 10 of the substations, including those in sectors 18, 19, 26, Grain Market, Industrial Area and other places are leaking with batteries damaged. These sub stations are heavily encroached and the infrastructure needs immediate attention.

One wonders whether anybody from the department or the circle has ever visited these areas, taken notice of the multiplying number of death traps for lack of proper upkeep and maintenance.

Questions are now also being raised about the release of connections to slum dwellers without getting the mandatory test report or electric inspection report. More than 3,000 connections have already been released while another 8,000 applications are pending with the circle.

Besides these connections, the circle has received nearly 36,000 applications under the voluntary disclosure scheme from the consumers who wanted their load to be raised by improving the existing transmission network.

The monsoon has multiplied the problems for both the ground and supervisory staff of the circle. The workers maintain that they are heavily understaffed because of the increased workload.

Workers maintain that the release of regular connections to slum dwellers without proper electrical inspection report may pose serious safety problems at some later stage. The premises where connections are being given do not have proper earthing, safety bottle guard and other basic requirements. The material being used, they allege, is also substandard.

DC batteries in the substations are required to be in good condition so as to break the supply in case of any fault or breaking of a conductor anywhere. In case the system works, the chances of accidental deaths can be minimised.

Workers point out that some of the electrocution cases in colonies and unauthorised slums, which take place on account of “kundi connections” go unreported because of their “illegality”.

The UT Powermen Union maintains that for looking after 1,60,000 connections earlier, the circle had a staff strength of only 1776 against a sanctioned strength of 2192. With the number of connections going up to 1,79,000, the staff strength has dropped to 1560.

Another major reason given by workers has been the introduction of contractual system in preference to departmental works which were earlier carried out. If the cables are not laid at proper depth, it is because of the contractor system, blame the workers. Further, they maintain that the Superintending Engineer, Electricity Operations, who is also the Chief Electrical Inspector for Chandigarh, must conduct physical verification when and wherever necessary. But this was not done.

Others point out that there has been no mishap during the past some years, barring three recent major accidents. Not only that, major portions of southern sectors, especially 38, 39 and 40 and some of the villages and colonies had erratic power supply for seven to 10 days at the peak of summer because of burning of some transformer there. In some other areas, too, the power supply position deteriorated considerably this summer.

Long and unannounced power cuts appear all the more jarring after tall claims are made from time to time by the department that with the commissioning of a new substation, or a new grid, or laying of an underground cable connecting different substations.

Few takers for science subjects
By Poonam Batth
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 11 — The notion that only bright students take up science subjects is fast losing its appeal with less than 10 per cent students pursuing pure sciences at colleges after plus two. Interestingly, even at the national level the percentage of students interested in these sciences has dropped from 32 per cent in 1960 to 19 per cent in 1998.

The situation in the city colleges is an indication to this. The admission figures of the BSc courses of the last five years reveal that not only these subject have few takers but even the dropout rate is very high. In most cases, of the total students enrolled at the beginning of the session, only 50 to 55 per cent appear for the examinations and just about 25 to 30 per cent of them pass.

According to reports available, 10 to 25 per cent of the seats in the medical and non-medical streams go abegging every year in the colleges. Even this year, while students are being refused admissions to various arts courses, even failed students are being admitted ton the science courses. ''With more and more students opting for professional courses, pure sciences have suffered a setback,'' laments Prof S.P. Dhawan, a chemistry lecturer at Government College, Sector 11. He maintains that only those students who are unable to get admissions to the medical and engineering colleges opt for BSc courses. Most of the leftovers also prefer to move to the undergraduate honours or diploma courses. The final goal of even those who join BSc is to leave it midway when they get through the PMT and the CET. For instance, of the 260 students who took admission in BSc-I (non-medical) in 1998-1999, only 150 took the examination and of the 90 in medical, only 55 appeared for the examination. Professor Dhawan says even the NTSE scholarships, which were started to promote science education, have failed to lure the toppers who prefer to join the ITIs and medical colleges.

The Principal of DAV College, Sector 10, Mr Ramesh Jeewan, points out the declining percentage of BSc students. He rues that the college, particularly known for sciences, has hardly any takers for its BSc course. ''Earlier the college would admit students with a first division in BSc, but now we have opened our doors to even the failed students,'' he says. Contrary to this, most of the city colleges have admitted first divisioners to the arts stream.

The enrolment figures of DAV College show that of the 300 students, who joined the BSc (I) in 1996-97, only 94 reached the BSc (final year) in 1998-99. the maximum dropouts (135) were in the first year itself. This year also the college has admitted only 91 students to the medical stream and 159 to the non-medical stream even as it has the provision to admit 500-odd students in six sections. Even the GCM has admitted 238 students to the non-medical and 92 to the medical streams. The dropout rate is, however, much less in the girls colleges.

Principal Jeewan puts the blame on the parents who force them to join professional colleges for immediate gains and are not prepared to wait for three years to see their child settle into an alternative career. He fears that five years henceforth ''we may not have well qualified science lecturers to teach students, if the decline in the number of students continues''. He suggests that incentives in the form of scholarships should be introduced, both at the BSc and MSc levels for at least 50 per cent meritorious students. ''It is the need of the hour to strengthen classroom teaching and take a policy decision to restructure the syllabus in accordance with the latest requirements,'' he asserts.

Professor Dhawan stresses on the need to prevent this ''academic science disaster in time'' by changing the defective syllabus.

Expressing concern at this phenomenon, Prof Charanjit Chawla, a science lecturer at the local SGGS College, maintains that sciences have suffered in the wake of students with higher percentages preferring diploma courses in computers, hotel management and fashion technology. However, he is hopeful that students who are attracted by the MNCs and government agencies will revert to the basic sciences when they realise that the job potential of such courses is not as bright as it is portrayed.

The Principal of the college, Mr P.S. Sangha, reveals that the bright students of plus two courses are adjusted in various professional colleges which have mushroomed all over Punjab and Haryana, and the low merit students further produce poor results at the BSc level.

With a decline in the number of students in the science classes, comes the related problem of the workload of science teachers having gone considerably. The teachers, who were rendered redundant when most of the plus two classes were moved from colleges to schools, in many colleges have much lesser work now and are just taking eight to 10 periods a week even as they are required to take 24 periods.

MCC-run complex cries for care
By Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 11 — With the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) turning a blind eye towards its upkeep, the panchayat complex in Badheri village is dying a slow death.

The only complex in the villages of the Union Territory having 16 shops, a bank, a library and reading room, two dispensaries and a sewing centre is a picture of neglect today. And this is despite the fact that the corporation earns over Rs 30,000 per month by way of rent from the shops and the bank.

The complex was built under the Rajiv Yojana and inaugurated by the then Adviser to the Chandigarh Administrator, Mr Baleshwar Rai, in January, 1991. All went well with the complex till its transfer to the corporation over two years ago. Thereafter, it fell on bad days as the corporation meted out step-motherly treatment to the four villages incorporated in the civic body, including the complex, allege residents.

Mr Bhupinder Singh, former sarpanch of the village, during whose tenure the complex was completed, alleged that with the MCC withdrawing the chowkidar, the sweeper and the mali from the complex, its condition had gone from bad to worse over the past more than two years. The matter had been taken up with the corporation several times but nobody seemed to be bothered, he added.

Perhaps the biggest problem of offices insides the complex is that of electricity. All offices except the bank, which has it own generator set, function without electricity. The power supply was reportedly disconnected over a year ago following an outstanding bill for over Rs 85,000.

Since there was no separate meters for the offices and electricity was drawn through the streetlights, the bills were paid by the BDOs office before the transfer of the complex to the corporation. Now the corporation has reportedly failed to take up the matter with the Electricity Department though all assets and liabilities of the panchayat had been transferred to it.

As a Tribune team entered the complex, it had difficulty in locating various offices in the absence of any signboards. The team had to virtually wade through the stagnant water, which had become an ideal place for the breeding of mosquitoes, to reach the dispensary. The area around the dispensary had a thick growth of congress grass.

The well-stocked library and the reading room are virtually deserted as in the absence of electricity, not many persons visit them. Moreover, the generator set behind the bank is a source of noise pollution which distracts readers.

Meanwhile, Mr Bhupinder Singh alleged that in the absence of a chowkidar the premises had become a safe haven for anti-social elements. They drank in the open and created nuisance during night time.

In the absence of any check by the authorities, certain residents tie their cattle on the premises which adds to the insanitary conditions. Moreover, resident have broken the boundary wall from one side to throw garbage inside the complex.

The shopkeepers have opened doors to the rear side of the complex. One of the illegal concrete structures, which came up last year, has not been demolished by the authorities.

Since the complex has not been white-washed for long, the plaster has started coming off at a number of places due to dampness. Most of the windowpanes have been broken by the anti-social elements.

The stage at one end of the complex, which used to be a hub of cultural activity only about a couple of years ago, lies unused. The surface has started cracking up and the space specified for the audience has been overwhelmed by a wild vegetative growth.

Usefulness of courses unclear
By Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, Aug 11 — Picture of usefulness of the UGC-sponsored vocational courses in colleges of Panjab University remains unclear in the absence of any feedback on the employment front to the colleges branch since their inception.

The university is only informed by the colleges as to what courses they offer but response to the exact future of these students and the success rate in general is absent in the colleges branch of the university.

The number of colleges, which offer these courses during July, 1999, is 30 whereas the number of colleges affiliated to Panjab University is well over 100. Computer application is offered by 11 colleges, communications in English by six, office management by 13, biotechnology by two, advertisement and sales promotion by five, tax procedures and practices by four colleges and industrial micro-biology by only one college.

A senior functionary of the colleges branch in the university, when contacted, said by and large students joining these courses were the ones who looked for quick employment and were satisfied lower rank jobs.

The functionary also said that financial assistance from the UGC was an attractive financial bonus due to which certain colleges offered these courses. The UGC provides Rs 3 lakh for arts courses and Rs 9 lakh for science courses.

A proposal for detailed syllabi indicating, among other things, the distribution time between theory, practical and the on-job training has been worked out by the UGC.

Significantly, the proposal says that given the variety of educational and socio-economic situations and the autonomy, some modifications in the proposed course may be taken. It must, however, be ensured that the change leads to enrichment of the subject and not the dilution.

Interestingly, there is also a proposal for institutes proposing certain new courses, besides those proposed by the UGC, and explaining their local requirements.

To give additional value to the vocational subject proposed to be introduced every student will have to study compulsorily a course on entrepreneurial development. The step has been initiated for "a self-employed person".

The UGC expects required infrastructure and the core faculty of a few teachers to manage the courses as the assistance is limited. The scheme does not provide for appointment of teachers

The institutions are expected to raise resources for supporting the programme through levying developmental charges.

Officials stressed the need for coordination between information on the fate of students after they pass out and information on scope for improvement in the present courses. Colleges should have extensive data on the employment level to estimate the necessity of any course being offered.