Reducing lecturers to PGT
A Government proposal for updating the higher education policy looks like old wine in a new bottle, even when the exercise was expected to solve a policy paralysis over last 45 years. The new policy that has been planned to be put in place will further jeopardise the system as apprehended by the learned scholars of the State. The Government, therefore, has been warned not to disturb the beehive. The concerned officials are mooting the idea of segregating the +2 stream from the composite colleges and put them under the Mass Education Department, but what about the lecturers with PhD and MPhil degreesIJ Will they be reduced to post graduate teachers (PGT) nowIJ The Government of Odisha on a flimsy ground has not granted the UGC scale to many eligible lecturers, not even to those who have cleared the OPSC test. The new policy should safeguard the status of higher degree holders so that they are not frustrated after being forced into a system against which several petitions have been made from various corners.
CM’s ever winning formula
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is a master of inventing formulas of electoral victory. When he saw the disappointing and grumbling faces of MlAs who have not been compensated either by ministerial position or as head of corporations, some of his close associates in the bureaucracy, thanks to their south Indian wit, helped him out with a brilliant idea of making them as members of district Planning Boards with Minister of State (MOS) rank. The ones who got the bonanza thought it wise as few crumbs of comfort are better than none. With this the first round of jigsaw puzzle was solved by revisiting the office of Profit Act. But what about empowering the restIJ And as for the district level bureaucrats they would not mind because of their unflinching loyalty to the ultimate authority, which has been proved in farmers’ suicide case, where the ruling party was given a clean chit. That is how the idea of satisfying one and all is integrated to Patnaik’s formula. If the hunger is limited to the red beacon on top of their cars, the surfeit of it might be dangerous both in its use and abuse.
No smoke without fire
High-rise buildings with compact space, often condemned as ‘match box rooms’, have become an urban housing culture. Builders barring a few do not go by promises they make for the aspiring house owners. If the building is ready in time, they drag on to hand over the houses on the pretext of delay in water and electric connections. More often than not, several such cases are reported in the print and the electronic media on a 24 X 7 basis. Customers undergo harrowing experiences to take possession of house even after paying the full and final amount to the builder. One such case has come to light in Sambalpur. The builder of a multi storey complex in Khetrajpur area of Sambalpur in connivance with the electrical department is charging four times more for giving electric connection. Prospective residents are made to suffer when they are asked to cough up Rs30 to Rs35,000 against the normal charge of not more than Rs8,000. The Chief Engineer plays it safe by some plea or the other. The game is on in the name of a senior official of Sambalpur origin posted in the PMO. This PMO connection dovetailed locally to power connection has now become the talk of the town, while residents are running from pillar to post to somehow fulfil their life time dream. The case in point allegedly being the ‘PMO connection’ should either be established or ruled out for public consumption because there cannot be smoke without fire.
Anybody’s guess!
If misutilising public money is worth the penny, then learn it from the Directors of the Rourkela Urban Cooperative Bank. The bank is running by the strength of shares bought by over 10,000 share holders and its recent Annual General Body meeting (AGM) had a footfall of not more than a double century digit. More is merrier they say, but here the reverse is true. Those present in this impromptu and surreptitious meeting were obviously miniscule in number but close to the corridors of power. “They are grumbling elements. Whether they attend the Annual General Body meeting or not is none of our business, so far as we fulfill the quorum,” said one of the directors. “We have fought election by spending lots of money and shall be happy if something is recovered by way of a hike in our perks including TA, DA, attendance fee et al, said another director of the bank. None of them bothers about nonpayment of dividend to the shareholders for past many years. When a liquor baron is at the helm of affairs backed by unscrupulous politicians, then the directors will no doubt feel themselves power-drunk. And in this State of affair what will happen to the pristine public utility banking service to which all of us vouchsafe, is anybody’s guess.
Tail piece: In the recent State co-operative bank election the eligible voters of Sundargarh were rounded up by a BJP mastermind and kept hostage in a star hotel of Bhubaneswar. As they were 29 in number all the votes should have gone in favour of BJP. But 14 out of 29 defied the whip. So guys! It’s time you recast the formula of keeping the voters tied to hotel rooms before they are enlarged for voting.
(The writer , a former PR Manager of SAIl in Rourkela Steel Plant, a former Vice-Chairman of PRSI, Orissa Chapter, is a functional Editorof English weekly ‘Kosal Horizon, email : baidyanathmishra123@rediffmail.com,Cell : 94370 83025)