Punjab govt launches scholarship scheme for students

 Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh
Badal today launched a scholarship scheme for poor meritorious
students of government schools.
Students securing 80 per cent and more marks would get Rs
30,000 per annum, he said, distributing the Dr Hargobind
Khurana Scholarship to students here today.
He said the state was making all efforts to ensure poor
students get quality education so as to bridge the gap with
their convent-educated peers.
The Chief Minister said his government would open six
'Special Schools' across the state in which meritorious
students would also be provided free boarding facilities.
Terming hard work as the key to success, he said he was
happy to note that students from rural areas, mainly girls,
were securing more than 90 per cent marks.
He said since day one, the SAD-BJP alliance government
has given priority to develop the infrastructure of health and
education sectors in the state. The opening of nine new
universities and 19 colleges was a step in this direction.
Badal also pointed out the initiative to distribute 1.72
lakh bicycles to girl students under 'Mai Bhago Istri Vidya
Scheme' enabling them to go to school from far flung areas.

Campus violence makes Teachers Day gloomy in West Bengal

     Kolkata, Sep 5   Recent incidents of violence on
professors and principals of educational institutions in West
Bengal has marred this year's Teachers Day celebrations here.
     Educationists and eminent professors in the state feel
there is an urgent need to stop criminalisation of student
politics, which has led to a situation where teachers are
being assaulted by students.
     For the last few years, incidents of brutal assault on
teachers, professors and principals of schools and colleges
have been reported from various parts of the state.
     Recently, the principal and two teachers of a college in
north Dinajpur were brutally beaten up allegedly by student
activists, after a local Trinamool Congress leader's wife was
caught cheating during exam.
     The allegation, however, was denied by Trinamool, which
in turn accused the principal, wife of a former Left Front
minister, of playing dirty politics.
     The incident came close on heels of the attack on the
principal of a college in North 24 Parganas, where SFI
activists allegedly attacked the principal of the college with
iron rods and assaulted him brutally. The allegation was
denied by SFI, student's wing of CPI(M).
     Eminent educationists and even political leaders feel
criminalisation of students politics need to be stopped.
     "It is the the criminalisation of student politics that
is leading to such a situation. Earlier also there have been
student politics but now that have graduated into measures
where teachers and principals are being beaten and are forced
to promote a student who has failed," vice chancellor of
Jadavpur University Siddhartha Dutta told PTI.
     Dutta's views were echoed by educationist Sunanda Sanyal
who felt that political parties should not be allowed to
interfere in the functioning of schools and colleges.
     "There is an urgent need to stop criminalisation of
politics. Political parties for their own interest use
students. This should stop as it destroys their future," he
said.
     Recommendations of Lyndyog Commission regarding students
elections should be immediately implemented in educational
institutions, Sanyal demanded.
     The importance of students politics can be gauged from
the fact that both former Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee and incumbent Mamata Banerjee started off as
student leaders.
     Governor M K Narayanan, who is also the chancellor of the
state universities, had recently said "the students who beat
the teacher should be beaten up," a comment which has sparked
off controversy.
     Educationist Pabitra Sarkar blamed the Mamata Banerjee
government saying Trinamool regime's tendency to downplay
those incidents has acted as a catalyst in encouraging the
rowdy students.
     "There is an identity crisis between this ruling party
and government. The ruling party has to take action against
the culprits irrespective of party colour," he said.
     However, both Trinamool and opposition CPI(M) agreed on
the fact that strict action should be taken against the
students who assault teachers.
     "This tendency is a kind of decadent culture which has
gripped educational institutions. Those who attack teachers
can't have any political identity and action should be taken
against them irrespective of political identity," Trinamool
Congress MP Saugata Ray said.
     "This tendency should not be treated as a political
problem but as a law and order problem and strict action,
irrespective of political identity, should be taken," CPI(M)
central committee member Shyamal Chakraborty said.
      The Vice chancellor of Bengal Engineering and Science
University, Ajay Ray felt that there is an urgent need for
integration of thought among the students and the teachers in
order to respect each others views and thoughts.

Trinamool Congress doesn't need Congress: Mamata

Kolkata, Buoyed by Trinamool Congress victory
in the Howrah Lok Sabha bye-election in West Bengal, Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee today said her party did not require
Congress and through their verdict, people have given a
message to go it alone.
"Congress requires us. We don't need Congress. The people
in Howrah have given the message that we should go alone. Our
victory reflected the mahajot (grand alliance) of people
against all immoral alliance. Our's was a solo fight. It
ushered in a new arithmetic, a new chapter," Banerjee told
reporters after TMC candidate Prasun Banerjee's victory.
In the bye-election to the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat, which
was vacated by Pranab Mukherjee, TMC did not field its
candidate, "but Congress had fielded its candidate in Howrah,"
she said.
Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit Mukherjee had won Jangipur
by a slender margin.
Coming to the bye-elections in other states, Banerjee
said, "Congress is zero everywhere. Left also has no
existence. If I understand politics, the bypoll result also
indicate that despite hobnobbing with Congress, Left will be
zero."
Banerjee said, "The Left will be left out. It cannot
survive by hobnobbing sometime with Congress and sometime with
BJP."
Congress had a pocket of influence at Sankrail, an
Assembly segment in the Howrah Lok Sabha seat, and voters
there switched loyalty to the CPI-M, she said.
Turning to the withdrawal of the BJP candidate in Howrah,
she said, two independent candidates supported by BJP were in
the fray. BJP's votes also went to the CPI-M, she claimed.
Referring to the TMC candidate's reduced victory margin in
Howrah, she argued that in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections there
was 77 per cent turnout of voters while in this bye-election
it was around 68 per cent.
Many voters, who worked outside the state, were absent on
the polling day while hot weather was not conducive, she said.
"Yet, we secured 46 per cent votes and our candidate won
by a margin of around 28,000 votes," she noted and said
Congress bagged 10 per cent votes.
She said that this bye-election should not be equated with
other elections; it had a different perspective.
"It was a tough fight for us. We were fighting alone. Lots
of canards were hurled against us, yet I maintained silence.
The people have given their reply".
"During the Left Front rule, the people could not exercise
their democratic rights. We won not through rigging, but
people have exercised their franchise freely," she asserted.
Asked if the Saradha chit fund scam had any impact on the
by-poll, she said, "Chit funds had flourished during the Left
Front rule even before our party was formed. Chit fund
companies appeared during Jyoti Bau's tenure and flourished
during the tenure of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee".
She expressed confidence that after the victory in Howrah,
TMC would do well in the coming panchayat election.

Mamata as a Painter

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee might be a crowd puller as a politician, but this time it's the painter in her that attracts people .
The city is currently hosting her painting exhibitions at the historic Townhall

  Banerjee's exhibition - 'A Dreamer's Creation' - has been hogging the limelight, getting regular visitors and buyers in the new year .   the nearly 250 exhibits by the Trinamool Congress supremo have been attracting a steady stream of visitors as well as buyers. "The average daily footfall is hovering arround 150-170 and a fair amount of the paintings have been sold," Shivaji Panja, the curator, said. But he refused to share sales details.

Banerjee has announced that the entire proceeds from the exhibition will be used to fund her party's campaign for the panchayat polls, slated to be held by the middle of the year. The exhibition opened Jan 2 and will continue till Jan 18.

 Describing her painting exhibition as a humble offering, Banerjee said: "The exhibits depict life in its various shades and colors. This is symbolised by colorful flowers, blossoms, mother and child, fantasy, animals and the rising sun. Flowers bring joy, hope and cheer. These emit positive vibes and energy."

While connoisseurs may express their dismay at the inconsistency, Banerjee's political rivals have been accusing her of extorting money in the name of selling paintings.

"Is she a Picasso or a (Leonardo) da Vinci, that her paintings should fetch crores of rupees? This is ridiculous. Why should people buy her drawings for such hefty prices so that she can meet her party's poll expenses? Why should industrialists buy them?" Communist party of India - Marxist leader Gautam Deb said.

"Banerjee should reveal the names of the buyers and the prices they are paying for the paintings. And we also need to keep a watch on whether they are getting any benefits from the government for buying these so-called paintings," Deb said.

India's first space weather reading centre in Kolkata

 A centre of excellence specialising
in reading space weather conditions to help air traffic on
polar routes would come up here by the middle of this year,
the first of its kind in the country.
"It will be a centre of excellence in space sciences.
The centrers main thrust will be on areas of space weather
especially weather in the solar system and gravitational
physics," its coordinator, scientist Dibyendu Nandi told reporter's 
here.
Besides air traffic on polar routes, the centre would
help in the functioning of GPS networks and mobile satellites
placed in space.
Nandi said coronal mass ejections (CME) and solar flares
were two kinds of storms originating from the sun which
exposed flights to immense amounts of radiation over polar
regions.
Several commercial flights from south Asia, Europe and
north America flew over the polar regions to cut short time
and distance.
  Nandi said if the weather in the solar system was not
good it would impact the functioning of satellites, which in
turn would have an adverse effect on the GPS system and mobile
networks.
The centre, approved by the Union HRD ministry, would
come up at the Indian Institute of Science, Education and
Research (IISER) campus. The ministry has sanctioned Rs four
crore for it. 
"If we have prior information about a storm
originating in the solar system or space, or any other changes
in space weather, we will inform the civil aviation department
about it so that they inform different airlines about the
hazards of flying in polar or high altitudes," Nandi said.
"We will also inform the telecommunication department
about changes in space weather so that they can safeguard
their satellites in space. If you are aware of a storm in
space then you can at least take safeguards which will in turn
increase the longevity of satellites," he said.
Nandi said the centre would offer its readings free
initially to the civil aviation and telecommunication
department and later commercially.
According to Nandi, one of the suspected reasons behind
the Chandrayan mission falling short of its expected lifespan
by one year was technical problems which arose from radiation
from storms originating in space.
"It is suspected that very high radiation in space due
to changes in space weather damaged Chandrayan and was one of
the main reasons behind the mission ending in 2009," he said.
The centre would also work in field of gravitational
physics in terms of analysing data, he added.
Nandi, also involved in India's first solar mission
'Aditya' slated to be launched in 2016, said the space weather
reading center would help analyse the data for it.
The centre would also offer PhD programs to students
interested in space sciences.