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| Thursday,
April 4, 2002, Chandigarh, India
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Farmers rue meagre MSP increase Ludhiana, April 3 Mr Ajit Singh Leha of Barewal village rued the declaration of the MSP by the Union Government. An ex-serviceman, Mr Leha said that the meagre increase in the MSP had sent shock waves amongst the farming community which was pinning its hopes on wheat, the major cash crop. He said he had been even using his pension money in his land. “I was expecting good profits this year as I had produced a very good crop. But this price is not going to return even the cost of production, what to talk of profits.” All other inputs were increasing in thousands while the MSP had gone up by Rs 10. Mr Upinder Singh Grewal of Jhande village said his whole family was working day and night in his 12-acre land besides putting in other inputs including seeds, fertilisers and pesticides. He said crops were bringing him nothing and he and his family were depending on the small dairy farm he had. “While inflation is rising and prices of all consumer goods have skyrocketed, the price of agricultural produce is almost static. Now the government has made a mockery of our produce.” The cost of all agricultural inputs and labour has increased manifold. Stating that labour had become very costly for them, he said, “I think this is no more a paying profession. We should better take up some other jobs.” Mr Pritam Singh, a farmer of Sudhar village, was critical of the meagre increase in the MSP. He said that despite suffering from many problems like substandard seeds, fertilisers and putting in expensive pesticides, the government had not thought about the condition of farmers. Venting his ire against the government, Mr Singh said the government would not survive for long if it continued with such policies. “It has tried to make us swallow the bitter pill by announcing the MSP as Rs 620.” Mr Ranjit Singh of Chotti Lalton village said, “The fertiliser that cost us Rs 750 last year cost us Rs 850 this year. And at the same time the MSP has been raised by only Rs 10. Is this just? Or they are trying to make a fool of us? They should have at least raised it by Rs 50.” |
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Dr Chahal on ICAR panel Ludhiana, April 3 The other members of the team are Dr
B.B. Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Narinder Dev University of Agricultural Research,
Faizabad; Dr Ambika Singh, former ADG, ICAR; Dr J.N. Sachin, former director of the Indian Institute of Pulses Research,
Kanpur; and Dr Krishnaiah, former director of DRR. |
Pressure tactics pave way for admission Ludhiana, April 3 It all started in mid-March when the son of a senior district official was denied admission in Class XI in Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, Sarabha Nagar, for the reason that he had scored just 44 per cent marks in matriculation examination. For seeking admission to the school, the said official and the ward visited the school authorities many times, but were not entertained by the latter. When the officer realised that she could not make the school authorities fall in line, she resorted to arm-twisting tactics. A survey team of the local Health Department, led by Dr R.C.Garg, raided the canteen of the school to get some samples. A news-item regarding the matter was also published in a local daily on March 22 in which the department had levelled allegations that they did not receive cooperation from the school authorities. The officer, when contacted, maintained that it was just a coincidence that when she was in the school with her ward, the team of Health Department conducted a survey raid. She said, “I did not instruct them to raid the school. When I was coming back, I saw the survey team conducting the raid at the school canteen. There was no particular motive behind the raid and these survey raids are routine to keep a vigil on the quality of the eatables”. One of the senior health officials said that only one particular school had been targeted by the department. He said, “The department has not taken samples from any other school in the city”. Sister Helima, principal of the school, when contacted, however said that she was not present at the time of raids but admitted that the ward of the officer had been granted admission to the school today. Another school teacher said the school administration had to succumb to the pressure tactics of the official even when the ward was not eligible for admission. |
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New academic session begins Ludhiana, April 3 Carrying new school bags, new
Tiffin boxes, new books and dressed in new uniforms, the kids were excited as they went to their new classes, met friends after a 15-day gap and shared holiday experiences. Somewhat nervous to meet their new class-teachers, the kids kept making assumptions about their attitudes. Ms Divya Khullar, who has her daughter in Class II at Sacred Heart Convent Senior Secondary School, Sarabha Nagar, said, “In the morning when my daughter was about to leave, she made several assumptions about the looks and style of her new class-teacher. But when she came back, she was much thrilled at her response towards the kids. She said that her madam was sweet-looking and jolly.” For the students of DAV Public School, BRS Nagar, and BCM Arya Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar, it was the second day. While yesterday, the teachers took the introduction of the students and apprised them of their time-table, teaching work resumed today. At Kundan Vidya Mandir, Civil Lines, staff of the school resumed work yesterday and Ms I. Kumar, Principal, held a meeting with the teachers. The teachers discussed their results with their head and were asked to give suggestions for improvement in the new academic session.
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Teachers’ body for revival of
council Ludhiana, April 3 Prof K B S Sodhi, president, PCCTU, deplored the “callousness” and “indifference” shown by education minister Khushal
Behl, . His (Prof Sodhi’s ) visits to the minister on March 13, March 15 and March 21 in Civil Secretariat at Chandigarh , followed by delegations of non-government college teachers had failed to draw his attention to their problems. He said the salary grant for December 2001, January and February 2002 might even lapse. Serious financial crisis would result in some colleges as there would be no funds to pay salaries, he added. He said regularisation and reconstitution of the State Council of Higher Education could help in understanding of their problems and their solution. It was in April 2001 that the last meeting of the council was held in which only three items of the total 13 items on the agenda were discussed.
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Students make a beeline for
coaching centres IT’s peak time for the students who have just skipped out of the burden of secondary board examinations to prepare for the medical and engineering entrance tests. Only two months to go and it will decide their future. However, the mushrooming of a number of such coaching
institutes has left the students confused about making their choice. But due to very tough competition, they do not seem to be prepared to take any chance either and are always keen to ensure “the best” guidance. No doubt the schools and colleges are playing their role to educate students but there are a number of factors which demand better training to qualify to be doctors and engineers. In addition to the thorough knowledge of the theory taught in the school, the entrance examinations demand more objectivity. Diksha, a class XII student preparing for CET, feels without joining a coaching programme nobody can get a good rank. For this purpose, a number of tutorials have come up with special crash courses. Ekadhiken, Alpha tutorials, Aditya tutorials, Elite, Better Think Learning Systems, Institute of Advanced Studies are only a few of them. These institutes refine and fine tune the students’ knowledge by giving handy tips, shortcut methods and tips to guess in case of no alternatives. Ms Ravi Minhas, a faculty member in a coaching centre on the Phakhowal road claims that they try to provide the best training and conduct daily tests for the students preparing for the entrance examinations in comparison to other tutorials which take tests on the alternate days or twice a week. The fee charged by various coaching centres ranges any where between Rs 7500 to Rs 8000 for two months. A number of retired professors and teachers in collaboration with some academies and tutorials provide tuitions for individual subjects. Fee charges range between Rs 2000 to Rs 3500 for a crash course and Rs 5000 to Rs 7000 for a four-month course and each batch comprises of 30 to 40 students. Although such a high cost of education is a big burden for the parents, they have to spend such amount lest the results may be otherwise. This is other than the fee to be paid later on after the admission to the professional colleges. Some parents have been demanding that the fee structure for such courses should be regulated and the parents should not be held to ransom. “These professors are charging exorbitant fee trying to exploit the helplessness of the students who have no option”, said a worried parent, while adding, “they do not even pay the income tax”. Suruchi Arora |
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Verghese — the new
principal of CMC Ludhiana, April 3 Several of his write-ups have been published in national and international journals. He has contributed a chapter, pleuropulmonary Amoebiasis, to the General Thoracic Surgery by Thomas W. Shields in its 3rd, 4th and 5th editions. Dr Mohan Verghese was made Honorary. Fellow in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Texas, in February 1987. He was Senior Registrar, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Regional Cardiothoracic Centre, Freeman Hospital, New Castle Upon Tyne, under the supervision of Dr Hedley Brown, from October, 1989, to April, 1990. Dr Verghese obtained MCh (cardiothoracic Surgery) from the CMC, Vellore. He received Eticon Travel Fellowship in thoracic surgery for 1984-1985. Dr Mohan Verghese was awarded by the Association of Thoracic Surgeons of India. He is life member of the Indian Association of Cardiothoracic Surgeons , Asian Association, and the northern chapter of the Surgeons of India. |
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Forum directs ‘Big Bubble’ to pay Rs 2 lakh Ludhiana, April 3 The company has been penalised for not keeping its promise of sending the winners of a sales promotion scheme to USA and bearing three nights and four days stay there. The forum has also directed it to pay Rs 1,000 as cost of litigation to the consumer. According to the complaint, the company had launched a sales promotion scheme for promoting its chewing gum brand, “Big Bubble”. The top prize was a trip to USA. The complainant stated before the forum that for getting the top prize, the buyer had to collect the prize coupon inside the wrapper of the chewing gum, whose sum total must be 11. The consumer stated that he was allured by this sales promotion scheme and purchased the bubble gum. He further stated that he got four coupons bearing figures 6,2,2 and 1 whose sum total was 11 and according to the rule of the company he was entitled to the top prize. The consumer disclosed that he informed the company through a letter about the same on February, 12, 2001. But at the time of scrutiny of the coupons, the company found that the original wrapper had been tampered with. The consumer pleaded that he did not tamper with the wrapper and after rejection from the company, he even gave a legal notice, but to no avail. He alleged that there was clear deficiency on the part of the company and the respondent had adopted an unfair trade practice. The company pleaded that till the filing of this complaint before this forum, the consumer did not show the original wrapper for physical verification. The respondent further stated that the complainant had gone to the forum with tampered wrappers. The respondent explained, “As per the terms and conditions, in case of any dispute, jurisdiction was limited to New Delhi and the complainant while making the purchase, had submitted to the terms and conditions of the scheme, as such the cause of action if any arose, outside the jurisdiction of this forum.” The respondent clarified that the complaint was maintainable since the complainant was not a consumer. Because there was no complaint regarding the said product.” The company prayed that there was no deficiency in services and the complaint was liable to be dismissed. The forum observed that as per the scheme floated by the company, one prize of a free trip to USA, was to be given every week to a consumer on a first-come-first-serve basis. The forum further observed that as a matter of fact, the company had not produced any evidence that any prize was given to another consumer during the period of eight weeks for which the scheme remained operative. The forum stated, “The complainant is a residing in Ludhiana and he purchased a chewing gum of said brand from here only and as such part of cause of action arose at Ludhiana.” The forum further stated that the territorial jurisdiction of this forum at Ludhiana was not ousted and it had got jurisdiction to try the complaint. The forum said there was no evidence that the coupons had been tampered with. The forum remarked, “It is very common, that companies, in order to promote sales, launch such schemes and then do not give away the prizes. Unfair trade practices are being adopted by companies on a large scale.” The forum held that hence the consumer was entitled for a free trip for two to USA under the sales promotion scheme of the company.
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Life term for killing father-in-law Ludhiana, April 3 The accused armed with sharp-edged ‘meat cutter’ reached the shop of his father and attacked him.
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