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House disruption hits education reforms
Azhar’s son critical after mishap
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India to have one more satellite launch site
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House disruption hits education reforms
New Delhi, September 11 Among those pending are some very significant ones including the Bill to set up educational tribunals for out-of-court redress of educational disputes; another to amend the 2007 National Institutes of Technology (NIT) Bill to strengthen these premier technical institutions and grant national status to five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Mohali, Kolkata, Bhopal, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram to enable them to confer degrees; another to amend the RTE Act to include disabled children in the definition of the disadvantaged. The non-passage of the NIT Bill means IISERs can’t award degrees as they are not governed by an Act of Parliament. The move endangers the future of students of IISERs Kolkata and Pune which started functioning in 2006. Picture this: in the 26-day monsoon session, only one Bill — The National Council for Teacher Education Amendment 2010 (of the seven listed for consideration) — was passed by both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. This Bill empowers the NCTE to lay down uniform teachers’ qualifications for schools across India in the wake of the RTE Act. That apart, even the most urgent Bill replacing ordinance listed in this session — The Indian Institute of Since the Bill remains pending, the ordinance may lapse, forcing the HRD Ministry to find new way to safeguard students’ interests. Sadly, the Bill got stuck in the RS after Congress’ JD Seelam objected to the absence of a quota policy for faculty in institutes of national importance. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s explanation that reservations existed only for students failed to calm frayed tempers of socialists, who quickly jumped on to the quota bandwagon and junked the Bill. A similar fate awaited the Educational Tribunals Bill 2010 which the LS had passed on August 27 last year. Even this Bill had been thwarted in the RS by Sibal’s colleague Keshav Rao, who had wanted Sibal to honour parliamentary committee recommendations. A year on, the Rajya Sabha failed to take up the legislation even though the ministry had incorporated some parliamentary panel suggestions.
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Azhar’s son critical after mishap
Hyderabad, September 11 Budding cricketer Aiyazuddin, who is 19, suffered a serious head injury when the 1,000 cc Suzuki motorcycle he was riding with his relative Ajmal-ur-Rehman, skidded off the road on the city’s outskirts. Both were rushed to Apollo Hospital where Ajmal was declared dead. He was son of former Congress Rajya Sabha MP late Khalil-ur-Rehman. The mishap occurred around 9 am near Puppalguda toll gate on the Outer Ring Road where riding two-wheelers is prohibited. The police stated that Aiyazuddin was riding
the bike at a very high speed and lost control over the vehicle. Aiyazuddin, Azhar’s youngest son, played for the Hyderabad under-19 cricket team. The police said the two youngsters were proceeding towards the Gachibowli area when the bike skidded. The duo was believed to be racing on the six-lane road since early morning. Chief surgeon at Apollo Hospital, Dr Mahesh Joshi, said the injured were brought to the hospital shortly after 9 am. “Both had gone into a state of cardiac arrest. Despite our best efforts, we could not revive Ajmal. Aiyazuddin has suffered serious injuries on his head, chest and abdomen and is at present undergoing surgery. His condition is critical. We are trying our best to resuscitate him,” he said. “The helmet that Aiyazuddin was probably wearing was totally crushed. Tyre marks at the accident spot indicate that the bike skidded and hit the road divider at a very high speed,” a police official said. Azharuddin, who is presently in England, is rushing back.
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Army contention on age of Chief fallacious: MoD
New Delhi, September 11 “Both on facts and in substance, it cannot be stated that there were no anomalies in the records and it is completely fallacious to state that there was ‘only one omission’ in one branch,” the Defence Ministry said in documents obtained through RTI. It has been contended that the issue pertaining to confusion over Gen Singh’s date of birth is due to the Military Secretary branch, which, on the basis of his UPSC form for entry into the National Defence Academy (NDA), has recorded May 10, 1950 as his date of birth. The ministry said an earlier RTI reply, in which the Legal Adviser (Defence) had accepted Army Chief’s age to be May 10, 1951, had to be “abrogated” as Army’s Adjutant General’s branch “had not provided full facts” before the officer. The Defence Ministry said it had been stated by the Attorney General that the amendment of the date of birth was not “legally tenable” and the issue could not be reopened at this stage on any basis whatsoever.
— PTI
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Derek O’Brien’s tweet on Mamata earns her both praise & ridicule
Shortly after he introduced the Land Acquisition Bill in the Lok Sabha last week, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh publicly acknowledged that there are two people who deserve credit for the proposed legislation: Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Trinamool Congress spokesperson and a recent Rajya Sabha entrant Derek O’Brien promptly flashed this on social messaging site Twitter. In no time, the site was inundated with messages with the Congress leader and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee coming in for both praise and ridicule. While some tweets screamed: “Mamata Banerjee …accepted … But why Rahul Gandhi”, there was another lot which denounced the West Bengal Chief Minister. These tweets wondered why Mamata was being praised, considering she was responsible for the international humiliation India suffered after she vetoed the Teesta river water sharing agreement which India and Bangladesh were to ink during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka. For the record, Ramesh travelled especially to Kolkata to get Mamata’s nod on the Bill while Rahul Gandhi has been pushing for this legislation with an eye on next year’s UP Assembly elections.
When Jagan changed his tune!
Holding the Congress responsible for the CBI and IT raids conducted against his firms, YSR Congress Party president YS Jaganmohan Reddy came to Delhi last week with the specific purpose of enlisting the support of the BJP, which had been quite receptive to his overtures. Unfortunately for Jagan, the situation had undergone a sea change by the time he landed in Delhi. The Reddy brothers of Bellary, who were a formidable power centre in the Karnataka government, had been arrested and an embarrassed BJP leadership was keen to distance itself from the disgraced mining czars. Since Jagan’s links with the Bellary brothers are well known, the BJP leadership promptly withdrew its hand of friendship to the Andhra MP and refused to grant him an audience despite his best efforts. Left to fend for himself, Jagan promptly changed his tune. He was last heard saying that though he did not wish to return to the Congress, he was willing to join the
UPA.
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India to have one more satellite launch site
New Delhi, September 11 At a meeting held by the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary TKA Nair here to review performance of the Department of Space, it was decided that a feasibility study would be conducted for a new site, sources said. The decision to find a new site was taken after the meeting was told that ISRO has only two satellite launch pads, both of which are affected during the cyclone season, the sources said. The two launch pads are located at Sriharikota High Altitude Range (SHAR). At present, the Department of Space is leasing transponders and using foreign launch vehicles to meet the needs.— PTI
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The country’s education reform agenda has been hit hard by the continued disruption of parliamentary proceedings. At the end of the monsoon session — the eight session of the 15th Lok Sabha that commenced in June 2009 — as many as 13 Bills of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) were pending at various stages.
Hyderabad, September 11
