AGRICULTURE

Satellite plant clinics set up
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 22
Punjab Agricultural University has established satellite plant clinics at Gurdaspur and Sangrur at a cost of Rs 32 lakh received from the World Bank under the National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP).

Dr Jaspinder Singh Kolar, Director of Extension Education, said that the satellite plant clinics would strengthen the main plant clinic at the PAU campus. He said that the third clinic would also start functioning from Ropar soon. He further said that the samples of diseased and pest-infested plants brought to PAU used to dry up during transit and it was difficult for the scientists to diagnose the diseases correctly. With the opening of the satellite clinics, the transit period would be reduced and the process would become more convenient and economical for the farmers, said Dr Kolar.

EDUCATION

PAU Website gets a new look
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 22
After remaining untouched for four consecutive years, the official Website of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has now been updated to provide the latest information to the students, faculty, pass outs and even farmers.

With admission process on in the university, the Website, www.pau.edu, which contains all the relevant information regarding the process of admission has become a useful source of information for the aspirants to various courses. The site provides complete details regarding admission to various graduate and postgraduate programmes, criteria for eligibility, process of admission, last date of application, schedule for various entrance tests to be conducted from next month and even the fee for these tests.

The site has now also become informative for all those who are seeking job opportunities for teaching and non-teaching posts on the campus. It gives details of the names of the posts, last date of application, qualification as well as pay scales for each post. These include those for steno-typists, clerks, registrar, accounts officer, poultry manager, floriculturist, entomologist, agronomist, ornithologist, district extension specialists for vegetables, soil science, plant pathology and veterinary science, professors of genetics, animal breeding and veterinary clinics, associate professors of mechanical engineering, and assistant professors of epidemiology, veterinary science, veterinary surgery, business management, home science, gynaecology and several other fields.

The site has also become informative for the farmers as it gives timely advice to the farmers engaged in cultivation of paddy, sugarcane, mushrooms, fruit crops and cotton, preventive measures to be taken against control of infection, pests and weeds and various training courses being organised by the university authorities for the farmers from time to time. Even the news regarding various workshops and programmes organised on the campus is posted on the site.

Crackdown on teachers not justified: PCCTU
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 22
Vigilance Bureau officials raided 35 places in the city on May 15 and arrested four teachers for giving tuitions. The teachers were, however, released on bail on May 18. But the incident has sent shock waves in the teaching community.

The teaching community has resented these arrests. In a letter to the Education Minister, Mr Khushhal Behl, Mr K. B. S. Sodhi, president, Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU), has said although the evil of private tuitions ought to be eradicated, the regular flow of grants to colleges must be ensured as well. Teachers must have a sense of economic and social security.

According to him, any crackdown on teachers giving tuitions without regularising grants to colleges and implementing the pension scheme will be viewed as an act of highhandedness.

Arresting teachers who give tuitions or stopping grant-in-aid to the institution for which these teachers work are not the only ways of eradicating this evil. There are many other ways of checking this evil and yet carrying society, students and majority of teachers along. But unfortunately leaders of teachers were not consulted on the issue.

Mr Sodhi has urged Mr Behl not to link tuition issue with grant-in-aid as it smacks of mischief and ulterior motive. He has requested Mr Behl to withdraw letter No 9/91/2001-6 Edu 1/3046, dated 18.02.02, that says that if any teacher of a college is found giving tuitions, the grant-in-aid to that college will be stopped.

Mr Sodhi has further said that the issuance of this letter has created many problems for non-government colleges of the state. No one should be allowed to use this letter as a means to victimise teachers, he says.

PCTE achieves 100 pc placements for students
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 22
The Punjab College of Technical Education (PCTE) has achieved 100 per cent placements for its MBA students who passed out this year.

Giving this information in a press note, Dr K. N. S. Kang, Director of the college, said that in all 23 companies offered jobs to the students of which 13 companies visited the college for campus interviews. He said that the placement cell of the college had worked actively in maintaining contacts with various organisations based in Punjab, New Delhi, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. He said the students were also competitive enough in having achieved seven positions in the university out of the top 10.

Dr Kang said that the placement cell of the college was now planning to establish contacts with banks, production units, telecom and software companies abroad to provide overseas placements to the students.