Pragativadi reports that the central government has sent a proposal asking which university in the state it wants to be recommended as a central university. Following are some excerpts from that report.
The Centre has yet again proposed the state government to identify one of the universities of the state to be accorded with Central University status.
A letter from the Union HRD ministry to the state government has assured that the Centre would provide cent percent financial assistance for converting any one of the state universities into a Central University. …
Meanwhile, the state higher education department, that has received the recent letter from the HRD ministry, is reviewing its consideration it had taken earlier. Sources in the official circles however, said that the state government is in a fix to recommend the name of the university to obtain central varsity status.
My initial take on this is that the state government pick one of its current university, but say in the letter that in view of the necessity of a central university in KBK, the picked university will have to have branch campuses across KBK and thus will need adequate funding for that. The long term goal then would be to convert the KBK branch campuses to a separate central university at an appropriate time in the future.
June 21st, 2007
Update: The IIT JEE 2008 counseling brochure is at http://www.jee.iitb.ac.in/CBrochure.pdf.
The 2007 IIT JEE Counseling brochure is available at http://www.jee.iitb.ac.in/2007/CBJEE_2007.pdf. Using it one can get a rough idea of ones chances based on their JEE rank. I wish and hope BPUT will create such a counseling brochure for Orissa JEE with prior year’s information.
June 20th, 2007
As per a report in Times of India, Ganjam district has the maximum number of out-of-school students in Orissa. It has 63,546 out of school students. The state govt. should pay special attention to Ganjam in this regard.
June 20th, 2007
The higher education department of the government of Orissa is preparing a vision document which will be placed in the assembly. This is reported in several parts in New Indian Express (part1, part2, part3) and other papers. Following are some of the salient points; some of them are being debated and others have been decided.
- student evaluation of teachers
- higher fees in autonomous colleges
- common entrance tests for admission to autonomous colleges
- replacing pass/fail with grades
- introduction of career oriented courses
- all colleges subject to NAAC rating
- fundamental knowledge of computers for all students
- self financing courses on foreign languages
- placement cells in colleges
June 20th, 2007
Orissatv.com in its report on this topic (video) also does not mince words. Following are some excerpts from their article.
After IIT and National Institute of Science, Orissa has been deprived of another reputed institute. This time it is the Tribal University. The Centre has decided to shift it to Madhya Pradesh. Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik has termed it as yet another example of the Centre’s step-motherly attitude towards the state. … Time and again the state government had alleged center’s negligence towards the state. But there has been no perceptible change in centre’s attitude, rather it is worsening day by day.
June 19th, 2007
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
Pioneer and Tathya.in don’t mince words when they have articles with headlines “Arjun hijacks plans for KBK varsity” and “Arjun hijacks Naveen’s plans.” With permission from the author I am including the full Pioneer article below.
[If you are outraged by this you may write to various people (PM etc.; Orissa MPs; national editors; accredited media in Delhi) and send a fax to Mr. Chandrasekhar Sahu ( Personal Secy: 09868501233 off: 011-23792469,23792470 Fax 011-23061695), the sole central minister from Orissa. May be he has a spine and he will take the letters to the PM and do a dharana there.]
Arjun hijacks plans for KBK varisty
Braja Kishore Mishra | Bhubaneswar
… Union Cabinet gives nod for setting up institution in MP
Union Minister for Human Resources and Development Arjun Singh has once again humiliated Orissa by hijacking its original plan to set up a Central Tribal University in the KBK region comprising the State’s undivided districts of Koaraput, Balangir and Kalahandi.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while meeting the Minister in 2005 October (typo corrected), had mooted the idea of setting up a KBK central university. It was based on the theory of empowerment of tribals with higher education.
Patnaik had pleaded with the Central authorities that the concentration of tribals is the highest in KBK and their uplift hinged on education. He had pointed out that the literacy rate among the people of this region was much below 50 per cent.
He had argued that setting up a Central University in the region would go a long way in encouraging higher education among the tribal population. The university could also set up specialised centres for tribal development-related studies, as tribal development is one of the biggest challenges facing the country today.
While Arjun Singh had promised Patnaik in clear terms that his HRD Ministry would positively consider the proposal, the result is now otherwise. The Union Cabinet on Friday gave its approval for establishment of the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University at Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh with Central Government funding.
It also approved introduction of the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University Bill, 2007 in Parliament. This will ensure establishment of a teaching and affiliating university for facilitating and promoting avenues of higher education and research facilities for the tribal population of the country.
Apart from affiliating the colleges, the university has the power to establish such number of its own regional centres in tribal areas as it may deem fit.
There will be at least one school in every regional centre to serve as a model school for the schools of the region, wherefrom the tribal students would be expected to join the local colleges, the off-campuses or the university. The objectives of the university include promoting studies and research in tribal art, culture, tradition, language, custom, medicinal systems, forest based economic activities, including special studies in the flora and fauna, and advancements in technologies relating to natural resources of the tribal areas.
Now, it is abundantly clear that Singh not only hijacked Patnaik’s idea but also saw to it that Orissa would never get a Central University in the KBK region on the lines of huge tribal concentration. Since the UPA is at the helm of affairs at the Centre, Singh is playing havoc with Orissa and the State is losing one after another national institutions to other States. While Minister of State of HRD MA Fatmi had announced a proposal to set up an IIT in Orissa, it was later shifted to Andhra Pradesh by Singh, on political considerations, said sources.
June 17th, 2007
