Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer. Tathya.in also has a report on this.
… The NIT’s alumni, who are placed in high and respectable places, have raised serious concern over the nomination of the chairman of its Board of Governors. The names recommended by the authorities for the post do not go well with the alumni, who are concerned about the future of the NIT.
The name of a Congress leader of little standing has been recommended by the Government for the top post, revealed Sandip Das Verma, a leading non-resident Oriya (NRO) and an alumnus of NIT. According to sources, Pramod Pradhan, who belongs to the Congress from Rourkela, has been recommended by the Government for the post of chairman along with two other persons.
The sources said three names such as Drona Rath, CMD of MECON and an alumnus of NIT, BN Singh, Managing Director of Rourkela Steel Plant and Pramod Pradhan have been recommended to the President of India. One these names will be picked up for the post.
In his reaction, Das Verma has raised serious doubts over the Government’s sincerity in raising the status of the NIT by recommending the name of a little-known politician for the top post of the premier institution. The NIT’s Board now has two eminent engineers, who are Padmashree and one of them NR Mohanty could have been recommended for the Chairman’s post, said a leading industrialist.
The immediate past chairman was Dr Banshidhar Panda, a top industrialist of the State. Biju Patnaik was also once the chairman of the NIT Board.
October 4th, 2007
Author : Chitta Baral
Appeal to the readers: Please write to the CMO at cmo@ori.nic.in with cc to Industry Secretary indsec@ori.nic.in.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer. Tathya.in also reports on this.
It now seems abundantly clear that Orissa is going to miss an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) for the second time. While one after another State is receiving the green signal from the Centre for an IIT, Orissa continues to lag behind.
The Centre on Tuesday announced that it would open a Central university and an IIT in Himachal Pradesh. "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told me to announce a Central university and an IIT," said Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram at Shimla. The announcements come ahead of the Assembly elections in that State due in February next.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said opening up of a Central university and an Institute of Technology (IIT) would boost the educational standards in his hill State.
Earlier, in the last week of August, Virbhadra Singh had presented a memorandum to set up a Central university and an IIT in Himachal Pradesh to the Minister of Human Resource Development and the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister had announced on August 15 that there would be eight new IITs in the country.
After Manmohan Singh’s announcement, at least Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana approached him to set up IITs in their respective States. Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is yet to finalise whether to ask for up-gradation of an existing engineering college to an IIT or to go in for a new IIT, said sources.
… Unless the Orissa Government takes an early decision, the State will miss the IIT bus once again, said an IITian. And this would seal the fate of the State so far receiving a new Institute of Technology (IIT) in future, he added.
October 4th, 2007
Author : Chitta Baral
Following are excerpts from a New Indian Express report.
… the Orissa High Court on Monday directed the State Government to initiate fresh centralised counselling for filling up the seats in the different professional colleges and complete the entire exercise in two weeks.
The single-judge bench of Justice AS Naidu, however, asked the Government and the JEE authorities to declare the total number of seats available in different colleges first and within three days. Students already taken admission would be allowed to exercise their option to switch to available seats of their choice in preferred colleges first and they have to be fixed by JEE in three days after declaration of total seats and this should be followed by the fresh counselling.
The ruling came in response to a batch of writ petitions filed by different college bodies and the Orissa Private Engineering College Association praying for initiation of steps to fill up the seats in the institutions. They submitted that while counselling was on the AICTE granted approval for establishment of new colleges with a combined intake capacity of 240 in each discipline and enhanced seats in different old colleges.
As per norms, 30 percent of the seats were to be filled up by management and AIEEE qualified students by equal share. The rest was to be filled up by JEE qualified students. But despite assurances, the authorities have taken no steps towards filling up the added and enhanced seats.
The petitioners had submitted that AICTE approval was for two years only and the colleges would sustain huge financial loss along with loss of image topped by threat of withdrawal of approval by AICTE during scrutiny. The State Government had earlier and even last year allowed admissions way into October in some institutes but this time it is unyielding, they alleged.
Considering the submissions, the Court observed that discrimination was writ large in the action of authorities and debarred them from taking a different stand this year while allowing admissions to enhanced seats last year.
So as to not cause any prejudice to the students who had already taken admission in different colleges, Justice Naidu said they should be given the chance first to exercise options in seeking switches to colleges or disciplines of their choice.
October 2nd, 2007
Author : Chitta Baral
Dear all:
I was told that the CM’s office has not sent a letter to the PM after the announcement of 5 more new IITs were made. This while, other states have staked their claim. He was supposed to have sent a letter a month back, but apparently he has not sent it.
Apparently his office can not decide which one of the options to pursue: upgrade Burla (300 crores); IIT KGP campus in BBSR (800 crores); greenfield IIT 1000-4000 crores.
I can not believe that they are that indecisive.
Please send a short email immediately to the CM cmo@ori.nic.in withh cc to Industry Secretary indsec@ori.nic.in and urge them that the CM must send a letter to the PM on a new IIT followed by a vision document.
best regards
Chitta
========================================================
Follow-up to this: I had made the above appeal by email to certain groups. In response, many of you sent the mail on this. Thank you very much. I am being told that the emails have made the cmo office take notice. See the mention in http://tathya.in/story.asp?sno=1235
My purpose of writing this is to convey that your emails are not thrown away without reading. They are being read and not thrown away. How else a journalist will get hold of them and write about it?
I hope they will take action soon.
Please participate in such email writing, if the cause resonates with you.
best regards
Chitta
October 1st, 2007
Author : Chitta Baral
Following is the article on this at Tathya.in.
Leading Non Resident Oriyas (NROs) have requested Naveen Patnaik to claim for a Green field Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Orissa.
Mandarins in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) are busy in sorting out a number of e-mails that flooded from various parts of the Globe.
All most all the e-mail senders have raised serious concern over the indecision over demanding an IIT for the state, when the Prime Minister announced that there will be 8 IITs in the country.
While addressing the nation on 15 August Dr.Man Mohan Singh announced that five more IITs will be established in addition to the newly proposed three IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.
While other states have already staked their claims for IIT including Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Orissa is yet to ask for the same.
“Unless we do the same, we will lose out”, lamented ….
“The Chief Minister must immediately send a letter to the Prime Minister followed up by a vision document”, said …
Joining the issue Priya Ranjan Mahapatra, President of the Orissa Society of Americas (OSA), New York chapter said in the past Orissa has made several different proposals to the Centre.
The proposals including upgrading University College of Engineering (UCE) Burla to an IIT with a budget of about Rs. 300 crores, an IIT Khragpur campus in Bhubaneswar of a budget about Rs.800 crores and a new Greenfield IIT having a budget of Rs. 2000-4000 crores were demanded earlier.
But now we must demand for a Greenfield IIT, said Mr.Mahapatra.
Priyadarshan Patra, Secretary OSA has echoed in the same line and asked Mr.Patnaik to stake the claim immediately in an e-mail.
Dr.Patra has written to the Chief Minister reminding to push the Greenfield IIT in Orissa as that involves the largest amount of investment.
Professor Gopal Mohanty from Canada has also sent an e-mail to the CM and has advised him to act decisively over the issue.
The list is unending, said a senior official in the CMO.
Expressing concern over the issue, leading NRO Dhirendra Kar has ringed up Members of Parliament, the top mandarins of the CMO and state secretariat to act immediately over the issue.
Mr.Kar said that we just have to make sure that the Greenfield location is not exactly in Bhubaneswar but about 100 km away from it in South Orissa.
So that later we can ask for an IIT Kharagpur extension centre at Bhubaneswar, said Mr.Kar.
October 1st, 2007
Author : Chitta Baral
UPDATE: Please go to http://minorityaffairs.gov.in/newsite/schemes/scholarships/scholarships.htm for the detailed and up to date information. If you don’t find some information there you need to send mail to the people at http://minorityaffairs.gov.in/newsite/schemes/schemes_email.asp or contact the people at http://minorityaffairs.gov.in/newsite/main/contact_us.asp for information. Posting a comment to this blog does not help.
Form for Students
Forms for State/UT Govts
List of Institutions eligible for full reimbursement
Merit-cum-Means Scholarship Scheme for Minority Communities Students
Objective:
The objective of the Scheme is to provide financial assistance to the poor and meritorious students belonging to minority communities to enable them to pursue professional and technical courses.
Scope:
These scholarships are available for studies in India only and will be awarded through an Agency designated by the State Government/UT Administration for this purpose.
Number of scholarship:
Every year 20000 scholarships will be distributed among the students of minority communities throughout the country. Based on the state-wise population of these communities, the distribution of scholarship will be as under:
State-wise distribution of scholarships: See http://minorityaffairs.gov.in/newsite/schemes/scholarships/scheme_details.htm
For Orissa: 81 for Muslims, 95 for Christians, 2 for Sikhs, and 1 for Buddhists. (total 179)
Conditions for Scholarship:
i) Financial assistance will be given to pursue degree and/or post graduate level technical and professional courses from a recognized institution. Maintenance allowance will be credited to the student’s account. The course fee will be paid by the State Department directly to the institute concerned.
ii) Students who get admission to a college to pursue technical/professional courses, on the basis of a competitive examination will be eligible for the scholarship.
iii) Students who get admission in technical/professional courses without facing any competitive examination will also be eligible for scholarship. However, such students should have not less than 50% marks at higher secondary/graduation level. Selection of these students will be done strictly on merit basis.
iv) Continuation of the scholarship in subsequent years will depend on successful completion of the course during the preceding year.
v) A scholarship holder under this scheme will not avail any other scholarship/stipend for pursuing the course.
vi) The annual income of the beneficiary/parent or guardian of beneficiary should not exceed Rs.2.50 lakh from all sources.
vii) The state department will advertise the scheme every year latest by 31st March and receive the application through the concerned institutions.
viii) After scrutinizing the applications, the state department will prepare a consolidated budget for all eligible students and send an application in the prescribed pro-forma for release of fund from the Ministry of Minority Affairs for distribution of scholarship giving the details of each students viz. name, permanent address, telephone number, annual course fee, name & address of institute, whether hostler or day-scholar, etc.
ix) The application for release of fund from the state department must be received in the Ministry by 30th of September every year.
x) The state department will maintain separate bank account and records relating to the funds received from the Ministry and they will be subjected to inspection by the officers of the Ministry or any other agency designated by the Ministry.
xi) The fund for distribution of scholarship in subsequent year will be released after receiving the utilization certificate for the previous year. Annual inspection by the officers of the Ministry or any other agencies designated by the Ministry will also be carried out.
xii) 30% scholarship will be reserved for girls of each minority community in a state which is transferable to male student of that community in case of non-availability of female candidate in that community in the concerned state.
xiii) If the target for distribution of scholarship to a particular minority community in a state/UT is not fulfilled, it will be distributed among the same minority community of other States/UTs strictly in accordance with the merit.
xiv) A student residing in a particular State/UT will be entitled for scholarship under the quota of that State/UT only irrespective of his place of study.
xv) The number of scholarship has been fixed state-wise on the basis of minority population of the states/UTs. Within the state-wise allocations, the applications from reputed institutions will be exhausted first. The list of such institutions will be made available by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
xvi) The scheme will be evaluated at regular intervals and the cost of the evaluation will be borne by the Ministry of Minority Affairs under the provision of the scheme. An additional provision of 3% of the total budget will be made to meet the administrative and allied costs viz. expenditure on monitoring of the scheme, impact study, evaluation study, purchase of office equipments, engaging of contract employees, if necessary and other expenditure to run the cell etc. This will be shared between the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India and the State Governments/UT Administration.
Rate of Scholarship:
The rate of scholarship will be as under:
|
Sl.No.
|
Type of Financial Assistance
|
Rate for hostler
|
Rate for Day Scholar
|
|
1.
|
Maintenance Allowance (For 10 months only)
|
Rs.10,000/-per annum
( Rs.1000 p.m.)
|
Rs.5,000/- per annum.
( Rs.500 p.m.)
|
|
2.
|
Course Fee*
|
Rs.20,000/- per annum or Actual whichever is less
|
Rs.20,000/- per annum or Actual whichever is less
|
|
Total
|
|
Rs.30,000/-
|
Rs.25,000/-
|
* Full course fee will be reimbursed for eligible institutions listed at Annexure-III
Payment:
i) Maintenance allowance is payable from 1st April or from the month of admission, whichever is later, to the month in which the examinations are completed, (including maintenance allowance during holidays) maximum twice a year, provided that if the scholar secures admission after the 20th day of a month, the amount will be paid from the month following the month of admission.
ii) In case of renewal of scholarships awarded in the previous years, maintenance allowance will be paid from the month following the month upto which scholarship was paid in the previous year, if the course of study is continuous.
iii) The Government of the State/Union Territory Administration, to which they belong, in accordance with the procedure laid down by them in this regard, will pay the scholarship money to the selected students.
iv) Scholarship will not be paid for the period of internship/housemanship in the M.B.B.S. course or for a practical training in other course if the student is in receipt of some remuneration during the internship period or some allowance/stipend during the practical training in other course.
Other Conditions for the Award:
i) The scholarship is dependent on the satisfactory progress and conduct of the scholar. If it is reported by the Head of the Institution at any time that a scholar has by reasons of his/her own act of default failed to make satisfactory progress or has been guilty of misconduct such as resorting to or participating in strikes, irregularity in attendance without the permission of the authorities concerned etc., the authority sanctioning the scholarship may either cancel the scholarship or stop or withhold further payment for such period as it may think fit.
ii) If a student is found to have obtained a scholarship by false statement, his/her scholarship will be cancelled forthwith and the amount of the scholarship paid will be recovered, at the discretion of the concerned State Government. The student concerned will be blacklisted and debarred for scholarship in any scheme forever.
iii) A scholarship awarded may be cancelled if the scholar changes the subject of the course of study for which the scholarship was originally awarded or changes the Institution of study, without prior approval of the State Government. The Head of the Institution shall report such cases to them and stop payment of the scholarship money. The amount already paid may also be recovered at the discretion of the State Government.
iv) A scholar is liable to refund the scholarship amount at the discretion of the State Government, if during the course of the year, the studies for which the scholarship has been awarded, is discontinued by him/her.
v) The regulations can be changed at anytime at the discretion of the Government of India.
Procedure for Applying
i) An application for scholarship should comprise:
a) One copy of the application for scholarship in the prescribed form (separate application forms prescribed for ‘fresh’ and renewal of scholarship by the concerned States/UTs).
b) One copy of the passport size photograph with signatures of the student thereon (for fresh scholarship).
c) One attested copy of certificates, diploma, degree etc. in respect of all examinations passed.
d) An income declaration by the self-employed parents/guardians, stating definite income from all sources by way of an affidavit on non-judicial stamp paper. Employed parents/guardians are required to obtain income certificate from their employer and for any additional income from other sources, they would furnish declaration by way of an affidavit on non-judicial stamp paper.
e) Proof of permanent residence.
f) A receipt in acknowledgement of the scholarship in the previous year on the form attached to the application duly counter-signed by the Head of the Institution concerned, if the application was in receipt of a scholarship under this scheme in the preceding year.
g) The State department should satisfy itself that the student belongs to a particular minority community.
ii) Application complete in all respects shall be submitted to the Head of the Institution, being attended or last attended by the candidates and shall be addressed to an officer specified for this purpose by the Government of State/ Union Territory to which the student belongs, in accordance with the instructions issued by them from time to time.
Funding Pattern of the Scheme:
The Scheme will be implemented by the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations, which receive 100% central assistance from Government of India for the total expenditure under the scheme.
September 29th, 2007
Author : Chitta Baral
Following is the press release.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik met the Union Health Minister Shri A. Ramdoss today and impressed upon him to start work on the AIIMS Bhubaneswar campus without further delay. The Government of Orissa has already made available land to Government of India for this purpose. The Union Health Minister assured the CM that work would begin latest by January 2008.
Discussion was also held on wide ranging issues in the Health Sector. The Chief Minister requested the Union Health Minister for opening of a Paediatric Centre at Berhampur for treatment of children affected by HIV/ AIDS. He also pursued the request made by the State Government for installation of CD-4 machines in the 3 Medical Colleges at Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur for detection of HIV/ AIDS. The Chief Minister, Orissa requested the Union Health Minister to sanction state-of-the art machines such as Linear Accelerator for the Cancer Hospital at Cuttack. The Union Health Minister assured the CM that all support will be extended for this purpose.
The CM, Orissa pleaded for increase of intake capacity in Dental Surgery (BDS) from 20 to 50. He further suggested opening of MDS course for which necessary posts of doctors have been sanctioned by Government of Orissa. The Union Health Minister promised to consider the proposal favourably.
Discussions were also held for opening new Nursing Colleges in different parts of Orissa in PPP mode. Government of Orissa will take steps to open such colleges shortly.
In related news a Times of India report outlines the progress with respect to the AIIMS clone in Patna. The time line described in that report will most likely also hold for the one in Bhubaneswar.
The bidding for selection of consultant would be opened on October 3, 2007. "The project management committee had approved the expression of interest (EOI) for selection of project management consultants for construction of six AIIMS-like medical college and hospitals in the country," the affidavit stated.
The project management consultants would be selected by December, 2007, and detailed project report would be submitted by April-May, 2008. Civil construction of the hospital and medical college building may be started by early 2008 and completed by 2010. Simultaneously, the manpower requirement for the AIIMS-like institution is being assessed by a separate committee, the affidavit added.
September 29th, 2007
Author : Chitta Baral
