Jalandhar, June 18
Good, the world is getting so small and NASA so near that everyone is almost in a mad scramble to send their kids there. But thanks to the US fever, ISRO seems like some long-lost-planet sinking into oblivion.

This might sound strange but the foreign crazy residents of Doaba have indeed made the prestigious ISRO seem like a far-off land. Private schools might have been sending their children to NASA every year but they have failed to arrange even a single visit to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), an institution which has pioneered in the field of space research experiments.

And with the passage of time, the annual NASA visits have actually become a prestige issue with almost all the private schools. Even the parents prefer getting their children admitted in the schools which assure a trip to NASA.

Though the school authorities maintain that the students are taken for a NASA visit after examining their academic and mental aptitude, the ultimate aim remains the same: To reach the foreign shores.

The Tribune spoke to a cross section of schools which have been sending kids to NASA in the past some time and found out that not even a single school has ever planned a visit to ISRO. While some termed a visit to ISRO as a distant dream, rest opted to remain mum on the issue.

City-based Delhi Public School (DPS), whose students recently returned from a trip to NASA, went to the extent of saying that a visit to ISRO was not in its itinerary. It might be noted that DPS has been twice to NASA in the past some time.

According to sources, a single 10-day visit to NASA costs approximately Rs 1 lakh per individual.

The task of sending students to NASA is being managed by a group of tour operators from Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana.

Even the projects of the students in a majority of cases are made by the teachers concerned.

On this issue, the Apeejay School authorities maintained, “We don’t prefer to change our teacher who has been supervising the students for so long in the making of projects of NASA.”

Although every second school in the city has been taking its students to NASA, whether it has helped them in enhancing their academic records is yet to be seen. And how much the students have actually benefited from the NASA trips is clear from the fact that not even a single student has been able to clear the IIT-JEE exams so far?

Many academicians are of the view that a trip to ISRO would probably be a better learning experience for these students as compared to a NASA trip which has little to do with their studies.

Whether ISRO ever comes within the reach of these schools, remains an unanswered query, a trip to NASA, though, is for sure!

Amritsar, June 18
Taking strong view of the indiscipline at a party meeting here late last evening, the district unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today warned that strict action would be taken against them for their weird behaviour.

Without making any reference to anyone, BJP district president Col Amrik Singh, while talking to The Tribune, said that it was the failure on the part of the party workers to recognise the services of cricketer-turned-MP Navjot Singh Sidhu. He urged them for introspection as to why the people in their wards and constituencies had not voted in favour of the party candidate during the recent Lok Sabha elections in which Sidhu defeated his close rival with a thin margin.

Sidhu and local MLA Anil Joshi were involved in an altercation at the meeting held yesterday over registration of a case against a party worker. Even various councillors had urged the party high command for the transfer of SSP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh as the latter had failed to remove the grievances of the party workers. The members had also raised questions over the style of functioning of Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla and Mayor Shwet Malik, and demanded their resignation from the posts.

Although the matter has been brought to the notice of the party high command, there seems to be no immediate reprieve for the BJP workers as the national executive of the party was also facing fissures among the senior leaders over the recent drubbing in the parliamentary elections.

According to reliable party sources, Sidhu and Joshi were sticking to their stands

Amritsar, June 18
Guru Nanak Dev University would hold an all-India entrance test on June 26 for admission to a four-year B.Tech (sugar and alcohol technology) course, while the aspirants could submit their application forms in the Department of Applied Chemical Sciences & Technology till June 19. Test coordinator Dr Raj Sukhwinder Singh Kaler said the candidates with at least 50 per cent marks in class XII (non-medical) were eligible to join the course.

The course is approved by the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi, he added.

He said the last date for the receipt of application forms was June 19, while an entrance test of two-hour duration would be held on June 26 which would include various topics of physics, chemistry and mathematics.

Dr Kaler said the university had only 16 seats in the course and it had a wide scope in the sugar industry, distillery, winery, brewery, confectionery and R&D laboratories.

Till date, the placement is 100 per cent. The reasons being the sugar mills are no longer producing sugar but they are collaborating with private players for cogeneration (electricity) and alcohol production which had increased the scope of more head counts in the sugar industry and the department would gain a lot from this because of its being the only department to have both sugar and alcohol in its curriculum. Moreover, sugar deficit in the current year would be around 10 lakh tonnes at the national level and 3.9 million tonnes at the global level and the position might deteriorate further. Therefore, sugar would be in demand. Further, sugarcane these days not only produced sugar but was also called energy crop as it supplied sugar, electricity, power and alcohol. The courses related to sugar and alcohol would be in demand in the years to come, he added