Odisha
Lecturer suspended for poll violation
A TEACHER OF A government-aided higher education institution was placed under suspension for violating the Election Commission of India’s model code of conduct by campaigning for a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party candidate in the Pattamundai assembly segment of the Kendrapara district. Sridhar Behera, a lecturer of Pattamundai Women’s College, allegedly canvassed for the ruling BJD.
The allegation was probed by an inquiry committee constituted by the district Election Commission office. The committee found corroborative evidence supporting the charge following which Behera was suspended, district collector Nitin Bhanudas Jawale informed media personnel in Kendrapara on April 9. Earlier in the week, a junior clerk of a government-run high school was also suspended on similar charges.
Arunachal Pradesh
University curriculums upgradation plea
ADDRESSING FACULTY AND students of the North East Regional Institute of Science & Technology and the Rajiv Gandhi University in Itanagar on April 26, D.P. Agrawal, chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said the curriculums of universities in the country need upgradation because they have not been revised “for more than a decade”. Moreover Agrawal advocated vocationalisation of the education system to enhance skills of students to earn livelihoods, while urging the state government to ensure optimum utilisation of resources to provide quality education.
“Imparting quality education is the biggest challenge before us today. We must focus on nurturing and developing our education system for a better Arunachal and India,” he said.
Punjab
ADR Lok Sabha candidates profiles
OF THE 253 candidates contesting the 16th Lok Sabha elections in Punjab state, barely 50 percent have passed their class X board exam with only 32 percent having graduated. According to the Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 68 candidates failed to clear class X while 62 have. According to the report, nine contestants are illiterate.
A total of 80 candidates testing the electoral waters in Punjab are graduates, graduate professionals and/or postgraduates, says an ADR press note issued in Chandigarh on April 27. Prominent among them are Congress candidate Partap Singh Bajwa; Patiala Congress nominee Preneet Kaur, and BJP’s actor-politician Vinod Khanna (Gurdaspur).
Among 21 graduate professionals are the BJP’s Arun Jaitley (a law graduate of Delhi University), contesting the Amritsar seat, and the Aam Aadmi Party’s H.S. Phoolka (law graduate of Panjab University) contesting from Ludhiana. Only 29 candidates are postgraduates, notable among whom are Congress candidate Ambika Soni, who has a postgrad diploma from the University of Havana (Cuba), and AAP’s Amritsar contestant, eye surgeon Dr. Daljit Singh.
Maharashtra
Reduce defence spend call
DURING A DISCUSSION with Maharashtra governor K. Sankaranarayana and political leaders of the state on April 3, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias Sanchez called upon developing nations including India, to slash defence expenditure to release resources for investment in education and health.
“The world is spending $175 trillion (Rs.1035,000,000 crore) on arms and ammunition. Poor countries of the world don’t need to spend that much. India is one of the world’s biggest importers of arms and ammunition. It should cut military spending,” he said.
Sanchez, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1987 for his efforts to promote peace in Central America, is currently in India under the Distinguished Visitors Programme of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, under the Union ministry of external affairs.
Sanchez, who was president of Costa Rica between 1986-90 and again between 2006-10, informed the governor that he had introduced the Arms Trade Treaty in the United Nations in 2009, but thus far only 11 nation states of the required 50 have ratified it.
Tamil Nadu
Educationists in electoral fray
OVER A DOZEN promoters, shareholders and heads of professional (medical and engineering) colleges are candidates in the 16th Lok Sabha elections which were completed in Tamil Nadu on April 24. The state has over 500 engineering colleges with an estimated 10 percent promoted by politicians cutting across party lines.
Among prominent educationists from Tamil Nadu in the electoral fray are T.R. Pachamuthu, founder of Indiya Jananayaka Katchi (IJK) party and head of the SRM Group of Institutions from the Perambalur constituency, and Pudhiya Needhi Katchi (New Justice Party) president A. C. Shanmugam, founder of the Dr. MGR Educational and Research Institute. A former MP and MLA contesting the Vellore constituency in alliance with the BJP, Shanmugam is returning to the electoral arena after a gap of three decades.
Paromita Sengupta with bureau inputs