YEH MERA INDIA

Toilets given to schools that do not need them

Bangalore: “Our school has three toilets. But the Education Department is giving us money to build three more, which we don’t want,” said Putte Gowda, a member of the School Development and Monitoring Committee from K.R. Nagar, pointing the mismatch between school’s needs and the facilities thrust upon the school by the authorities. He was one of the several SDMC members who spoke to an event organized here by Civic and Karnataka Child Rights Observatory to review the SDMC functioning. Political interference in the functioning of SDMCs figured in the discussion.

Revenue & police competing for top corruption honours
Mumbai: You may think it’s the Police and the Municipal Corporation officials that are most corrupt.


But if statistics complied by the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) are to be believed, it’s the Revenue department that saw the most cases of corruption in 2011, while the Police department followed a close second. A total of 105 cases of corruption were registered by the ACB concerning officials, from the Revenue department, and 129 persons were trapped and arrested.

In the same period, 103 cases were registered by the ACB from the Police department, where 126 cops were arrested. “Several important offices like that of the Collector part of the Revenue department. Whether you want to make a change in your land record or get your caste certificate it’s the Revenue department that you have to deal with.” “Right from the Talathi to the Tehsildar to the Collector, it’s the Revenue department that deals with the people and so there is more scope of demanding bribes,” said a former bureaucrat. Municipal Corporations and Councils follow with 32 trap cases and 51 arrests. The ACB registered a total of 479 trap cases in 2011 and arrested 631 officials, including class IV officials and private persons.

Interestingly, low profile department like Ground Water Surveys, Film, Stage and Cultural Development Annabhau Sathe Backward Class Development Board and the Department of Prisons also saw corruption cases.

Apart from the trap cases and arrests, the ACB registered 24 cases of Disproportionate Assets (DPA) and 82 cases of criminal misconduct. However in spite of registering cases, several cases are pending with the government and various authorities for sanction to prosecute those accused. According to statistics available with the ACB, over 200 such graft cases are waiting for prosecution sanction and most of these involve politicians and top bureaucrats.

The oldest case awaiting prosecution dates back to 2001. 22 proposals for open inquiry involving Class I and II officers are pending with the government in Mumbai alone, while the statewide figure stands at 45. Apart from these cases, 154 proposals are pending for sanction orders from ‘competent authorities’.

The figure for proposals awaiting sanction orders from the government involving class I and II officers stands at 85.

TMC diktat: No teaching jobs for CPM activists

Kolkata: Taking their crackdown on CPM sympathisers a step further, student wing of the Trinamool Congress, the Chhatra Parishad (TMCCP), said professors in colleges across West Bengal should desert the Left parties to continue teaching.

Addressing a rally in support of Arabul Islam, the Trinamool legislator accused of assaulting a lady teacher of Bhangar College, TMCCP state president Shankudeb Panda said: “If you want to teach in colleges you will have to leave the CPM. Under the pretext of teaching in colleges you will work for political organisations. We won’t allow this,” Panda said.

Alleging the colleges in the state are breeding grounds for CPM cadre, Panda said TMC is committed to “depoliticise” education in Bengal. “If you want to do politics, go and do it, no need to teach,” he said.

Reacting to the diktat, state education minister Bratya Basu said: “I have no information on this. I will have to find out”. Basu however clarified that it is not the party’s policy.

Despite Basu’s befuddled reaction, it was apparent that both Panda and Islam had the party’s support. “Many professors are working for CPM in the name of teaching. Time has come to think about it,” said Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee.


Besides, the TMC has sought academic audit of professors in colleges across West Bengal, starting from Jadhavpur University, a known CPM bastion.

Demanding that the audit should be initiated in seven days, the Chhatra Parishad urged the education minister to focus on scrutinising Phd dissertations.

CPM member Md Selim, taking a potshot at Banerjee who claimed to have a Phd from East Georgia University (it was later found that no such university exists) said: “Their top leader started her political career with a fake doctorate degree, and many of the leaders followed suit. It is natural they would suspect foul play behind every Phd degree.”

There are 14 state universities and about 420 government and government – aided colleges in West Bengal.

Why we cannot produce employable students....

Mysore: A mere 4.49 per cent of candidates passed the Karnataka State Entrance Test (K-SET) conducted by the University of Mysore in October last.

Of the 40,093 who appeared for the test, only 1,838 cleared it to get eligibility for lectureship. No one cleared the test in mathematical science.

Vice-Chancellor V.G. Talawar told presspersons that 53,181 candidates had applied for the test and 40,903 wrote it. A total of 13,343 candidates passed in Paper I and II. Among these, 1,838 candidates, including 1,194 male candidates (64.96 per cent) and 644 women candidates (35.04 per cent), passed in Paper III.

The results have been uploaded on the website-http:/kset.uni-mysore.ac.in

The question paper pattern for all three papers was per the UGC-NET pattern.

The test was held to determine the eligibility for lectureship in universities, colleges and institutions of higher education in Karnataka.

The university is the nodal agency of the State government for conducting the test.

The test was conducted in 26 subjects at 11 centres across the State.

Of 1,038 candidates who wrote the test in mathematical science, no one cleared it. The result was poor in physical science, life science, chemical science, commerce, economics, computer science and library science.

The number of candidates who passed in physical science and chemical science was two and four respectively. In Kannada, 448 candidates of the 5,949 passed the test and 171 of 3,991 candidates in history got the eligibility.

Expressing concern over poor results in subjects which have scope for employment, he said: “Evaluators told us that the performance of candidates was poor in subjects such as physical science and life science. The syllabus for the test was from pre-university to postgraduation level.”

Panel: Prof. Talawar said the committee appointed by UGC to supervise the K-SET, had expressed appreciation over the manner in which it was conducted, and the result was better compared to the average result of UGC-NET. “The pass percentage of UGC-NET hovers around 3 to 3.5 per cent,” he said.

Admitting a delay in the K-SET results, Prof. Talawar said: “It took time to get subject experts (professors) for evaluating the answer scripts because we had to select experts in Kannada as the test was also conducted in Kannada medium. We did not take experts who had prepared the K-SET question paper, for evaluation”.

He said each paper was evaluated by two experts. The services of over 400 experts, including those from other State, was sought to evaluate the scripts.

Prof. Talawar said a decision had been taken to conduct K-SET once a year.

C. Srikantappa, coordinator, UGC-SET Centre, University of Mysore said 2.5 percent candidates had passed in K-SET conducted by Kuvempu University in 2005.
Teachers were not employable.