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May 5, 2003, Chandigarh, India
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Punjab to spend 50 crore on medical colleges Phillaur, May 4 When asked about the infamous kidney racket and pitiable condition of kidney patients after the racket was unearthed, the minister said, the state government would make arrangements for kidney transplantations in medical colleges . He assured that the medical college and hospital at Jalandhar would have arrangements for kidney transplants, and other major surgeries. He added that the institute, would be completed by the end of this year. When asked about the condition of government medical colleges in Punjab, Ch Santokh Singh admitted that these were in bad shape, but added that the state government had made a comprehensive plan for the overall improvement of medical colleges. He said Rs 50 crore would be spent on the medical colleges. When asked about staff shortage in medical colleges, he said the Departmental Promotion Committee would meet on May 6, 7 and 8 to consider promotions and shortage of staff. He claimed that stipend for PG students has been restored and Rs 8.4 crore released for it. Earlier, the minister attended the installation ceremony of Mr Ekam Ram Momi, chairman and Mr Nirmal Singh Johal, vice-chairman of the local Panchayat Samiti. Addressing a gathering on the occasion, he claimed that Phillaur town would be made gateway of Doaba and a grant of Rs 1 crore had been provided for the development of the town. He announced that the state government would conduct elections of panchayats and cooperative sectors in the next four months. The government would implement a rural water supply scheme of Rs. 415 crore with the help of World Bank. At least three villages would be made pilot villages. SDM Sandeep Hans also addressed the function. |
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MP refutes Johar’s remarks on courses Ludhiana, May 4 He said he had given Rs 1 crore from his fund for the starting of the courses, out of which Rs 75 lakh had been released. Reacting to the claim, he said the minister was making a futile effort to project himself as the initiator of the courses and as such smacks of self-glorification. “It conforms to the Congress culture of basking in the glory of others. During my long political career and association with education, it is my conviction that when politics enters education, it degenerates the system. I take it as a social responsibility and that is why I have never spoken about my contribution to these fields and prefer to keep low profile,” he stressed. The MP pointed out that the statement of the minister was totally baseless, untrue and misplaced. Firstly, the library is a wing of Panjab University, Chandigarh, which is an autonomous body. It is governed by the Senate and syndicate of the university with the Vice-Chancellor as its administrative head. Mr Johar was simply a member of the senate in his capacity as the state Minister for Higher Education. He had absolutely no direct role in the administration of the university despite his being the Minister for Higher Education. Moreover, the announcements made by him were the decisions which were taken by the Syndicate and the Senate when he was neither the state minister nor a member of the Senate, he added. He clarified that the issue of establishing the Panjab University Regional Centre at Ludhiana was a long-standing demand of the city and had been time and again raised by local Senators in general and Prof Rajinder Bhandari in particular during the various university meetings. The demand could not be fulfilled because of the paucity of funds. “When I became a member of the Senate, I took up the issue with the Vice-Chancellor who constituted a committee in this regard to whom I assured a liberal grant from the funds at my disposal. When the issue came up for discussion in a meeting of the Senate on September 9, 2002, I welcomed the move and stressed that though it was a bit late but Ludhiana is a central place of Punjab and such a step should have been taken earlier,” he said. Lala Lajpat Rai said he urged that a law college should be started at the Regional Centre, for which he would give Rs 1 crore from his fund. The money, so given, would be spent entirely in the Regional Centre at Ludhiana. The law college to be started there, must be different from the other law colleges. The law course should be started at the centre from the next academic session. The estimate of expenditure should be given to him so that funds from his quota could be earmarked. “I also emphasised that specialities in laws are increasing day by day and if care is taken on this aspect from the beginning, the impact of the centre would be good and people at large would come forward to help it financially. He said land would also be allotted by the Punjab Government in due course of time. An independent and good administrator should be appointed to manage the functioning of the centre,” he added. The MP said the Senate finally resolved to establish a regional centre in Ludhiana with LLB as the main course. He pointed out that Rs 75 lakh for the construction of the building to house the proposed law college at the PU Regional Centre on the campus of the PU Extension Library was released on February 24. He said he had contributed liberally from his MP Local Area Development Fund to a large number of educational institutions, both schools and colleges, including Govt College for Boys,
GCW, several government schools, Arya College, KCW, MTS College, Malwa Khalsa College for Education, Ramgarhia Girls College, KLSD College, Sacred Heart Convent School and a large number of other aided/unaided but recognised colleges and schools. |
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20-year-old develops new way of finding cube root Jagraon, May 4 Yashpaul says: “we can find the cube root of any rational number, positive or negative, by this method up to infinite number of decimal places.” The method has been certified as original and practicable by Head of the Mathematics Department of the college Neeru Arora and counter attested by the Director of the college. While it is difficult to say how for the new method would be practicable, yet it is considered to be a great achievement for a student belonging to this part of the state without much outside exposure. Yashpaul has studied throughout in a government school and is now studying in a government college. He remained topper in the school with mathematics being his main scoring subject. Although having got good merit in plus two, he did not sit for the entrance test for engineering, since he knew that he could not afford the expenses. He was discouraged from the beginning only, as the application forms would cost no less than Rs 500, which he could not afford. Ultimately he decided to continue with B.Sc. with mathematics as one of his main subjects. Yashpaul comes from an average middle class family. His father, Mr Manohar Lal Chugh, is working as a clerk in the Punjab State Electricity Board. He fondly remembers Mr Suknandan Gupta, who taught him mathematics in school. Mr Gupta would also give him extra time after school hours without charging anything. He plans to pursue mathematics at postgraduate and doctorate level. |
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Bir
Devinder wants debate on education Ludhiana, May 4 He was speaking at a meeting of the Punjab Educationists’ Forum for Peace and Development held here last evening. The proceedings of the meeting were released here to the Press by Prof K.B.S. Sodhi, convener of the Ludhiana chapter of the forum. Coming down heavily on bureaucrats for “squandering away public money on their foreign jaunts and tours within the country on the pretext of attending official meetings” he accused them of ruining the state economically. He alleged that bureaucrats had provided incorrect information to ministers, leading to flawed educational policies. He recommended 100 per cent grant-in-aid to all the colleges of the state. Earlier initiating a debate on the funding of higher education, Principal Tarsem Bahia, state convener of the forum, demanded rationalisation of fees and funds for ensuring admission of
meritorious students from weaker sections. He recommended that whereas the admissions should be made on merit, the fees of students should be based on their financial status. Those who participated in discussion included Principal Manjit Singh Khattra, Prof Bawa Singh, Principal Chander Mohini, Principal B.D. Budhiraja, Principal J.S. Gill, Principal Dilwar Singh, Prof Khushwinder Singh, Prof Kuldip Singh, Prof V.K. Bhardwaj, Prof Avtar Jyoti Ghai and Prof Prithipal Singh Sohi. In his presidential address, Prof Prithipal Singh Kapur, a former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, demanded the drafting of a comprehensive educational policy for Punjab, keeping in view the regional needs, academic standards and economic status of the people of the state. Principal Gurdip Singh welcomed the guests and Principal Inderpal Singh Hans proposed a vote of thanks. The other eminent educationists present at the meeting included Principal Madanjit Kaur Sahota, Principal Harmeet Kaur, Principal Anup Kaur Bansal, Principal Varinder Kaur Thind, Principal J.S. Brar, Principal B.S. Cheema, Prof S.S. Sangha and Prof Satish Sharma. Mr Bir Devinder Singh also released a book by Prof K.B.S. Sodhi titled “Bharti Nobel Puraskar Vijeta” in Punjabi. The book is an anthology of biographic essays carrying life history and achievements of eight Nobel laureates from India from 1901 to 2001. |
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Workshop
begins Ludhiana, May 4 The 16-class workshop will teach students how to take up modelling as a career and how to present themselves in the advertisements on TV. It will also teach them how to participate in fashion shows, music videos and development of attitude, confidence building, art of communication. |
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HAMARA
SCHOOL Students of Ramgarhia Senior Secondary School, Millerganj, may not be excelling in academics, but they certainly have proved themselves in cultural activities, debates, science exhibitions and sports at the state as well as the national level. The bhangra team of the school won the first prize at the state-level function organised in Chandigarh recently. Nitesh Bensol, Class XII student, was adjudged the second best singer of the state at the same function. This year, the softball team of the school clinched the trophy in a state-level tournament. Three members of the team, Satish Kumar, Gurpreet and Inderjit, were chosen for the national team. Satish of Class XII was honoured as the best player at the national-level in a function organised in Chandigarh last week. Under the guidance of their sports in-charge, Mr Hardev Singh, the baseball team of the school also won the second prize at the state-level tournament and its three members, Hardish, Deepak and Amandeep, have been inducted in the national school team. Similarly, a team of the school also managed to get the second prize at the district-level throwball championship. The schoolboys have also been excelling in the field of science. Models prepared by the students with the able guidance of their science teacher, Mr Sohan Singh, have brought first prizes at the state-level competitions for 11 consecutive years. All these models have been exhibited during the North India Science Fair at the National Science Centre, New Delhi, or Jawahar Lal Nehru National Science Exhibitions for children held at different parts of India every year. The students also got the chance to participate in the 6th International Symposium on renewable energy workshop-cum-exhibition at Tata Research Institute, Delhi, a few years ago. Twice they have also been invited for the state-level Children’s Science Congress at Chandigarh. The school boys also participated in Intel’s Children Science Talent Discovery Fair held at Delhi three years ago. More than 125 boys of the school have enrolled themselves in the NSS programme. Many students have also joined the NCC and the scouts. The kirtan jatha of the school has won top prizes in several competitions held in the district and state. Besides, the school alongwith Aptech Education has started a computer course. The computer classes have been made compulsory for students from Classes VI to X. The school had also started some industry-based courses such as carpentry and mechanical engineering. The popularity of these courses was so much that from a primary school set up in 1945, it used to be called as ‘‘Ramgarhia Industrial School’’, It became a higher secondary school in the year 1986 when streams such as non-medical and humanities were started. When Class XI and Class XII students were admitted, it came out to be known as a senior secondary school. Being an aided school, teachers suffer due to the delay in the disbursement of the 95 per cent grant-in-aid from the state government. The teachers said the government must take measures to make sure that their salaries reached the school on time. Another problem of the school was that the school could not increase the fee which was as low as Rs 35 per month but due to increasing strength, they had to appoint new teachers under unaided posts for which the school’s council had to pay the salaries. With minimal fee charged from the students, the council seems to have restricted any new appointment forcing some of the classes to have more than 75 students in one section.
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Government grant-in-aid must be timely
Mr Raja Singh, principal of the school, said this while discussing a general problem faced by all schools. He said at times, the teachers did not get salaries for three months at a stretch and they find it hard to meet their domestic expenses. He asked, how could the government expect them to concentrate in their work? The Principal said the government had frozen any new aided post and the teachers had to be appointed at the school council’s expenditure to meet the requirements due to increasing strength. He said since the amount collected by the council by the way of fees was sufficient enough to meet the maintenance and renovation needs of the school, it was difficult for it to appoint any new teacher at its own expenses. Mr Raja Singh said the government must endeavour to either issue matching grants for improving the infrastructure of the school or cover all unaided posts of the teachers. He said it could even permit the council to increase the fee by-small margin to help it generate more amount to meet its costs. Speaking on the achievements of the school, the principal said the school focussed on overall development of the students. He said teachers of his school were talented enough to train the students for cultural activities, sports, model-making and other contests. Such activities, he said, improved their confidence, boosted their personality development and gave them a better exposure.
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Brain Teasers Government Senior Secondary School, Jagraon Bridge 1. What invention allows you to see through the thickest walls? 2. Why is Europe like a frying pan? 3. Where do geologists go for entertainment? 4. Why is 2004 a good year for kangaroos? 5. Why do we call money ‘bread’? 6. What kind of ship was Dracula the captain of? 7. Why does your car go so slow? 8. How did the inventor discover gunpowder? 9. How can you communicate with a fish? 10. What does the ocean say when it sees the coast? Answers key:
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The release of the quarterly grant-in-aid from the state government for giving salaries to teachers is usually delayed. The teachers who work with devotion to educate the students throughout the year also expect timely salaries for the efforts put in by them.