Jalandhar, April 3
At a time when the Punjab government boasts of providing quality education and the Union government has implemented the Right to Education Act, 450 aided schools in Punjab are nearing collapse.

More than 3,500 posts of teacher are lying vacant in Punjab and about 800 in Jalandhar district alone, which has 53 schools. There have been no new recruitments in the schools since 2003 after the government decided to freeze vacancies.

Most of the schools have reportedly been running with one or two teachers and almost 50 per cent without heads.

“If appropriate steps are not taken and vacancies not filled, many of the schools will be forced to close down,” said N.N. Saini, general secretary of the Punjab Aided School Teachers and Other Employees Union.

Aided school employees have been complaining of step-motherly treatment by the government for the past two decades.

These school employees got the right to pension from February 2, 1987, after a long struggle, but the state government scrapped the benefit from June 1, 2003.

“Though the employees had deposited their share of the GPF as per law, around 100 of them died waiting for pension. Their families are living in pitiable condition even to this day,” said Gurcharan Singh Chahal, president of the union.

At present 2,462 retirees are still waiting for pension. In spite of the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s verdict that pension is not a bounty but a valuable right, the state government has not implemented the decision.

“Union leaders have met Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Education Minister Upinderjit Kaur a number of times, but to no avail. The government has failed to fulfil its poll promises even after completing three years in office,” added Saini.

The government has also not implemented the Fifth Pay Commission report in the case of employees of aided schools, while the same is in place for all other state boards and corporations.

“The Education Minister, at a meeting with the union, gave assurance to implement it very soon, but there have been no results as yet,” said Gurnam Singh, leader of the union.

He said despite the Finance Ministry’s nod, the government had neither increased their medical allowance nor given 5 per cent interim relief from November 1, 2006.

“The Akali-BJP government has completed three years in office but has refused to meet our genuine demands. We have no other option but to choose the path of war. A state-level meeting has been called for Sunday at Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara, Ludhiana, to chalk out the course of action,” Saini added.

Jalandhar, April 3
Punjab Technical University has plans to hold two mock drills for online counselling next month after the declaration of the CET results.

Vice-Chancellor Dr Rajneesh Arora said the idea was to train candidates for online choice filling prior to the actual schedule of counselling.

He said, “Last year, when we conducted online counselling for the first time, we felt that some students were making mistakes in choice filling. Many candidates had to face the consequences as the mistakes entered in the database are incorrigible. This happened despite the fact that we laid down guidelines for procedure in writing and demonstrated it stepwise on our official website. Many applicants made the mistake of filling only a few choices and landing nowhere.”

The VC said there were plans to conduct two mock exercises but owing to time constraints, there was the possibility that there could be just one. “After we are through with the CET results and before online counselling is to proceed, we will ask candidates to fill their choices of streams and colleges which they want to take admission in. On the basis of the preferences, we will even declare the results. This will also help the candidates to tentatively know about their chances of availing a seat,” he discussed.

When asked if the exercise would rather raise the expectations of the candidates in the event of fewer candidates participating in the mock exercise, he said, “We are in the process of making a provision for that. At the time of declaration of the results, we will warn the candidates giving a declaration that the results could vary later.”

Jalandhar, April 3
A serial based on the life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh will be telecast on DD National from April 13 on every Tuesday at 10 pm. Produced by Babbar Films Bombay and directed by Chitraarth and Sikander Bharti, it will be the first serial to be owned by Prasar Bharti.

At the pre-launch of the serial, Raj Babbar said he was impressed by the Maharaja, who was nothing less than a blessing bestowed upon the people of Punjab. “The more I read about him, my resolve to make a mega serial on his life became stronger. The serial begins when Nadir Shah raided India in 1739 and took away the Kohinoor Diamond. Maharaja took up the charge in 1792 and ruled till 1839.”

CEO of Prasar Bharti, B.S. Lalli said the serial was through till 1812 and the rest needs to be worked out. Best efforts had been put to ensure that none of the historical facts were compromised upon. The concept of the serial was taken from Jean Marie Lafont’s “Lord of the Five Rivers” and a committee comprising scholars like J.S. Garewal and Prof Darshan Singh in consultation with other Sikh intellectuals had carefully examined every aspect of the serial and provided guidance.

Ranjit Singh is an Indian icon, who respected the ethnic and religious diversity of the people and successfully forged a social, political and cultural fusion among them. He introduced certain innovative administrative measures in the political, economic and cultural spheres. His innovation could most spectacularly be seen in the military field where innovative measures were introduced with the help of French and Italian military officers, who had served under Napoleon.

“Punjab has been dotted with incidents of social and historical interests and the DD has taken up the responsibility of disseminating Indian culture, history and values among the people. This serial is being started in the same vein. If found viable, it will be translated into Punjabi and other languages as well,” added Lalli.

Jalandhar, April 3
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has condemned the Punjab School Education Board’s decision to change the status of Hindi language from a compulsory to optional subject.

Parishad leader Sunil Achilesh Rana warned the government of launching a nationwide struggle to protest against the decision of the education board.

He said some office-bearers of the board had taken this measure to fuel a linguistic debate in the state in order to serve their vested interests.

In a recently conducted meeting, the board has decided to make Hindi an optional subject till class X.

There is an option to choose between Hindi and German.

“It is disgusting to know that when Hindi is making its presence known the world-over, it is being demoted in Punjab.

“The board is demonstrating its narrowness by opting for such decisions.”

He said the organisation would soon meet the board chief and register its protest. “We have informed the politicians about this development. If needed, even students will take to streets to get the decision revoked,” he added. — TNS