Dear Readers:
I hope many of you are enraged and disgusted by this repeated injustice meted out to Orissa by the MHRD; especially now it seems that the MHRD has orchestrated hijacking of a good, sensible and extremely relevant idea proposed by our chief minister: the idea of tribal central university in the KBK region with the goal of catering to the 50% tribal population in that area and 38% tribal population across Orissa.
Often many have blamed the Orissa government for not taking timely initiatives or not coming up with innovative ideas, but this time it took the initiative, it suggested a great idea, followed up on it regularly, but the end result is same; the idea gets implemented in the home state of the minister of HRD Mr. Arjun Singh.
We must convey our displeasure, disgust, deep disappointment and anger to the central government. Please fax a letter to the PMO (fax numbers: 011-2301-8668, 2301-5470, 2301-5603, 2301-8939 ) and also fax a copy of that letter to the CMO (0674-2400100 ) and Mr. Chandrasekhar Sahu (011-23061695), the sole central minister from Orissa. After that we must follow-up with the CMO (cmo@ori.nic.in) by email and Mr. Sahu by phone (Personal Secy: 09868501233 off: 011-23792469, 23792470) and tell them to take our faxes and meet the PM and the national press with all our faxes and do a dharana until the two immediate injustices of moving an IIT in Orissa after it was announced and stealing the idea of a tribal university proposed for the KBK area are corrected. Following are some pointers and points which may help in writing your letter. I am making it short so that its easier for you to draft the letter.
Continue Reading June 18th, 2007
Balasore and Baripada people are earnestly pursuing govt. medical colleges in their areas through various means including district level dharanas and meetings, dharanas in Bhubaneswar, signature campaign and lobbying the government through their MLAs. They are doing it in the right way. A similar approach led them to success in both locations being able to land individual universities (North Orissa University in Baripada and Fakirmohan University in Balsore). Following are excerpts from two articles in the Daily Pioneer.
Continue Reading June 6th, 2007
Financial Express probes the efficacy of big spending of UPA in last three years in primary education in the hinterland of the country.Â
It says the Orissa state government has created an online database of all the 98 lakh children between the 1-14 years age group.
It continues on saying that the Orissa state government wants to use Sarva Sikhya Abhiyan to enroll all children between 6-14 years of age in schools but this attempt, many say, has failed. But nothing is hunky dory. To make matters worse, students enroll and drop out after obtaining scholarships, a problem which is acute in districts like Kalahandi. Moreover, attendance is as low as 30 to 50% in most schools and the school dropout rate is as high as 50%, according to various estimates.
The government must choose alternative way like establishing primary school in every village which has more than 250 populations in hinterland such as KBK (where many villages are located in deep forest).Â
May 30th, 2007
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are CBSE board schools set up by the MHRD across India. As per their website their objective is:
* to provide good quality modern education to the talented children predominently from the rural areas, without regard to their family’s socio-economic condition.
* to ensure that all students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas attain a reasonable level of competence in three languages as envisaged in the Three Language Formula.
* to serve, in each district, as focal points for improvements in quality of school education in general through sharing of experiences and facilities.
In Orissa currently there are several such schools with the school in Cuttack as the nodal school.
Continue Reading May 22nd, 2007
Samaja reports that the Orissa government has handed over 25 acres of land to Balaji Trust for establishing a private medical college in Balangir. Earlier the Orissa government had signed an mou with them.
April 26th, 2007
Dear Friends:
Its time to convey to the Orissa government that they need to look out for all of Orissa and not just BBSR/CTC/Puri areas.
Following is a draft letter that one can send to the CM (cmo at ori.nic.in) about developing higher education and medical opportunities outside of the BBSR/CTC/Puri area. This is a draft. Please make changes to your liking.
If I missed your favorite location, please add them in your letter.
best regards
Chitta
Continue Reading April 11th, 2007
A press release mentions that the UPA government has opened 72 Ekalavya Vidyalayas in tribal areas across India. 10 of those are in Orissa. Each is constructed using an one time allocation of 250 lakhs towards school building, hostels, teachers’ quarters, library, laboratory etc. An annual grant of 30 lakhs is then given to run the school.
March 14th, 2007
Tathya.in has an article titled “Kalahandi Crying for Center of Higher Learning” which reports on Dr. Digambara Patra’s concerns. Following are some paragraphs from Dr. Patra’s recent mail to a newsgroup.
… Instead of looking at 30 districts, first the state government should focus on 13 undivided districts as there are still imbalances (I had made a table earlier on this
Continue Reading February 8th, 2007
In separate news 9 more poytechnics will be established in various districts of Orissa during the 11th plan and 7 more Ekalabya vidyalas (residential schools in tribal regions) will be established with classes from VI-XII and XI-XII will be added to the exisiting three Ekalabya Vidyalayas.
Eight of the ITIs are reported to be established in the districts of Kalahandi, Koraput, Kandhamala, Nabarangpur, Boudh, Ganjam, Sambalpur and Balasore.
Continue Reading February 8th, 2007
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