EDUCATION

‘No short-cuts to success’
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, July 11 — City boys and girls have proved their mettle by topping in various entrance exams. What took them to the top? As part of the continuing series we ask another topper the secret of his success.

“There are no short-cuts to success,” says Karan Singal. “For a competitive exam like IIT-JEE, a person needs to make up his mind and should not get bogged down by the hurdles in the way,” he adds.

After joining FIIT-JEE weekend course in class XII, he came to know where he stood and how he should proceed.

The industrious boy, reached at the top by sheer hard work. “I used to commute by train every Friday night and reach Delhi on Saturday morning. After attending two days of classes, I used to leave Delhi on Sunday evening, reaching back to Ludhiana at about 3 am, on Monday morning to attend school” admits Karan.

Karan has qualified many competitive exams. He stood 63rd in CET, 97th in PEC, 509th in IIT-JEE and 807th in Roorkee. According to Karan, it was tough, but hardwork payed.

Conducive atmosphere at home helped him to study with deep concentration. He owes his success to his father, Mr. Nand Gopal Singal. He still remembers all the favours, his father has done to him. “He always kept the railway reservation ready for me and used to receive me at the station every week. He did not impose any restrictions on me, but reminded me about my targets” he adds.

He also attributes his success to his school, which helped him a lot. Last, but not least he thanks God and all others who blessed him.

Karan is looking forward to complete his dream of becoming a research scholar in computers in IIT — Guwahati. To all the fellow competitors and juniors he advises, “Make commitments to yourself if you really want to succeed.”

Private colleges dupe candidates
From Surbhi Bhalla

LUDHIANA, July 11 — Some private colleges in and around Ludhiana appear to have found a new way of making easy money.

This is done by simply issuing an advertisement in newspapers and seeking applications for various jobs with a demand draft for not less than Rs 100 as the application fee. The fee depends upon the nature of job for which applications are sought. Whether the vacancies exist or not, hardly matters. But nobody is in a position to challenge this practice, since the managements of these colleges have a valid excuse of not finding “the suitable candidate”.

Recently, a local private college issued an advertisement in newspapers, seeking applications for the post of lecturer in Commerce. The required qualifications mentioned were Masters in Commerce with UGC/NET qualified for the regular post. After a number of candidates applied and deposited a fee of Rs 100 each, the college issued another advertisement for the same post. Now, the qualification demanded was Ph.D in Commerce. The second advertisement did not mention anything about those applicants who had applied in response to the previous advertisement.

Surprisingly, the college management invited all the candidates for the interview, including those who had applied in response to the first advertisement. Some of the candidates told Ludhiana Tribune that no Ph.D candidate had applied and none of them was selected. They alleged, the interview was an eyewash as the management did not want to fill the post, but had only planned to dupe the unemployed youths by extorting an application fee of Rs 100 from each of them.

One candidate said, the college management could have taken some candidates with NET qualification when the Ph.D candidate was not available. However, if they did not mean it, why did the management call about 50 candidates for the interview, from different parts of the state, spending their precious time and money.

They also questioned the decision of the management not to select any candidate without Ph.D.

They pointed out that the UGC norms clearly spell out that Ph.D is not essential qualification for lecturership. Even if it were so, why did they call non-Ph.D candidates for the interview, they asked. Private colleges dupe candidates.