Techno Edn in Orissa in total disarray; BPUT forces Pvt. Eng. Colleges to convert ‘No Mark’ to ‘More Marks’

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The private Engineering Colleges in Orissa, with their well knit unity and dense solidarity, have such a strong nexus with the vice-chancellor of the BP University of Technology that, students who fail to fetch the pass marks in semester exams are being helped to pass out with distinction in special examinations. There are instances – and we in these pages have exposed such instances with evidences – that students having failed to clear their papers in regular semesters had passed in all the backlog papers with high marks in the special examination conducted by the University in single sittings.

special exam_BPUT copy
This has so much ruined the standard of techno education in Orissa that many of the so-called engineering degree holders from BPUT are not able to get any employment. The issue has rocked the State Assembly several times, but the State has not dared to promulgate a standard.

It has rendered Orissa techno degrees bereft of credibility and because of this, better students do no more prefer the State’s private engineering colleges. As a result, as against 44189 seats, only 17,947 students have taken admission this year leaving 26,947 seats vacant. Out of 102 private colleges, only 23 colleges have got at best 50 students each whereas a college has got no student when five colleges have less than 10. The trend is settled with 29% engineering seats lying vacant in 2009 with the vacancy rising to 50% in 2010 and to 60% in 2011.

But BPUT does not bother. Its VC and material members are gained over by private colleges that have taken money against guaranteed degrees to whosoever gets admission. Many of these students that have paid undisclosed heavy amounts against assured degrees have not thought it necessary to appear in semester examinations. Therefore they have not fetched any internal mark and therefore the colleges are not able to indicate what marks they have got. The BPUT is now forcing the colleges to amend their report and send them marks against students that have got no marks due to non-appearance in examinations.

In repeating its demand, as for example, in a notice on January 24, 2013, it has communicated the VC’s instruction that results would be blocked of the colleges, which do not sumbit internal marks by today (January 29, 2013). We prefer to quote the contents of the Notice below:

It has been observed by the undersigned that many colleges have not responded to the notice given earlier for providing internal marks of 4th Sem Examination (B.Tech / B.Pharm / MCA) both for students appearing regular as well as well as back papers. They are hereby informed to comply it immediately within 29/01/2013 through online entry (refer to the format / scheme prepared for same), without which the university shall be forced to block the results of the students of the respective institution. Please treat this most urgent and of highest priority.

We find that the colleges have already and timely submitted the internal marks. So why this notice and reminders thereof? This is because, the colleges have sent zero marks against students who have not appeared in examinations. But the vice chancellor is not willing to accept ‘zero’ as a number. His message is clear, that forces the Principals (as reporting officers) to give marks to even to students that have not appeared in semester examinations.

Many Principals are baffled, The College managements are forcing them to comply with the instruction of the VC and give ‘more marks’ against ‘no marks’ to students that have obtained ‘zero’ in concerned semester.

They fear, what would happen if a CBI or that sort of authority conducts an inquiry into award of marks to ‘future engineers’ despite their absence in examination. It is they, who will be held responsible for converting ‘zero’ to high value numbers, if and when an inquiry is conducted into how marks of high numbers could be awarded in absence of any examination appeared by the students.

Who would answer?
Will the Government wake up and examine this issue?

Filed under: administration, Animadversion, Editorials, education, law and order, news, orissa, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Replacement of R with D is a wrong against Oriya Language

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

D and R_ situational use
Replacement of R by D in the English spelling of Orissa’s name and language by a law is a wrong that adversely affects its archaic uniqueness.

After consistent stress in these pages of ORISSA MATTERS on necessity of preservation of classicism of Oriya language, a section of Oriya authors and scholars have started speaking for recognition of Oriya as a classical language.

The Government of India has recognized Telugu as a classical language in 2008. But Linguistic Survey of India has recognized Oriya as a richer language than Telugu. To quote it, “The Oriya language can boast of a rich vocabulary in which respect neither Bengali nor Hindi nor Telugu can vie with it. The richness of the vocabulary is the index by which the vastness of a vernacular can be gauged” (Vol.IV).

“Oriya has preserved a great many archaic features in both grammar and pronunciation” has said famous linguist Prof. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee in I.H.Q. Vol.XXIII, 1947.p.337.

Replacement of R by D has ruined this “archaic feature”.

As Chatterjee has noted, Oriya is an ancient language of India that has “preserved a great many archaic features” and, as Linguistic Survey of India has determined, it is so vast in vocabulary that Telugu cannot vie with it.

If Telugu became a classical language in 2008, why Oriya is left behind?

This is because, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, whose mother tongue is not Oriya and who has no knowledge about the “high antiquity” quality of Oriya language, which is the cardinal condition for recognition of a language as classical, had by then started playing the mischief against this quality of the language.

Instead of demanding for recognition of Oriya language as a classical language of India, Naveen had made his followers in the Assembly adopt a Resolution on 28th August, 2008 to change the name of Orissa to Odisha oblivious of how adversely that was to affect the “high antiquity” quality of Oriya language. So, instead of Oriya language, Telugu earned the status of classical language.

Naveen, who has killed the soul of Orissa by forcing its people into displacement to handover their lands and living environment to the non-Oriya – even foreign – industrial houses, was in dire need of something to show the people that he is not anti-Oriya. The alteration of Orissa’s name was contrived to help him in this regard. On this mischievous measure metamorphosing into a law with supportive constitutional amendment, Naveen was so relaxed that official holiday was declared to celebrate it as a victory and the entire administrative machinery was misused to project him as the greatest epitome of Oriya nationalism by squandering away, on the occasion, the State exchequer in propaganda and fireworks.

It is a shame that the supporters of the “alteration” who feel “proud” over the change of the English spelling of Orissa and Oriya to Odisha and Odia, in the name of Oriya nationalism, are not ashamed of the very fact that their mother tongue has lost its primacy as the official language in Orissa in the administration of Naveen Patnaik, even though the State’s Official Language Act 1954 that had made use of Oriya language compulsory in official works, is 15 years senior to Official Language Act framed by the Union Government for India and their motherland is also the first amongst all the States of India to have been formed as a province on the basis of its language.

However, it is to be noted that some of my friends are of the opinion that the letter constituting the crux of my discussion has no two situational shapes; but the two shapes are of two different letters acting as two different phonemes.

The set of Oriya alphabets depicted by old Oriya dictionaries, given below, is capable of making the position clear.
oriya alphabets

The greatest ever encyclopedic lexicon of Oriya language, ‘Purnnachandra Ordia Bhashakosha’, in distinguishing the two different situational uses of the concerned letter says, it is “the 13th consonant and the third letter of the “Ta’ series (cerebral), corresponding to the‘d’ sound. When it occurs at the beginning of Oria words it is pronounced as in day and when at the end or middle of a word, it is pronounced as rd in hird”.D We find ‘rd’ evolving into ‘r’ in writings of the leaders of Utkal Sammilani to whom we owe resurrection of our motherland that was deliberately and diplomatically divided into four separate limbs by the British because of its fear for the “disposition” of the inhabitants of this brave land, which, its area authorities were sure, “will always present formidable obstacles to suppression either by military or police” (Report of W. Forrester to Robert Ker, Dt. 9.9.1918).

The Law to change Orissa to Odisha and Oriya to Odia is a legal mischief to do away with this distinction and hence is a bad law that no Oriya, who loves the richness of his ancient vocabulary and respects the “high antiquity” quality of his beloved mother tongue, can ever obey.

For us, it would continue to be a matter of pride to disobey the Law that replaces R with D in international spelling of the names of our motherland and language: Orissa and Oriya.

Filed under: administration, Animadversion, art & culture, Editorials, education, history, news, orissa, oriya, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

A Comment from an esteemed visitor and my Reply

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

I have received a comment on my continuing opposition to change of the English spelling of my motherland and mother tongue from an esteemed reader Sri Deba Prasad Parija. I could have replied to him on the dashboard itself. But, as I feel that it would be better if the debate continues, I deem it proper to post my reply on the major area of my page. So, here it is.

Sri Parija has written:

So we should change our pronunciation as the foreigners pronounce? If not then what wrong to correct the mispronunciation. I am sorry to tell some time we try to show our knowledge. Why we bother how Britishers call us, we have got them out and now time to correct our names. You may accept or not but 99.999999…%Odia has approved it even before the Bill was passed. Bande Utkal Janani.

My reply is:

Dear Sri Parija,
Thanks for the time given to the article.

You have perhaps not gone into the articles linked to this article and therefore, wrongfully attributed Orissa or Oriya to pronunciation by foreigners.

D and R_ situational use

From “Ordia” as in Purnachandra Bhashakosha to “Oriya” as developed by founding fathers of our resurrected State, our own pronunciation of D used in second and onward position in an Oriya word has evolved into the shape of this transliteration, when Oriya had attracted foreigners’ attention and our founding fathers – Kulabruddha Madhusudan Das et al – had the need to project Orissa before the foreign community.

Orissa and Oriya are the names in which our founding fathers had decided our motherland and mother tongue to be mentioned in English.

And, their decision was based on their pride in the archaic uniqueness of our language, that they had wanted the world to know.

The Kera-Oriya Naveen Patnaik, who, despite being in power for so many years, has not learned our language as yet, and his sycophants in the cabinet and the Assembly, and packs of habitual order carriers in bureaucracy and fellows in Parliament that do not know anything of the uniqueness of Oriya language have played this mischief against our mother tongue and heritage.

If, according to you, “99.999999…% of our people has approved” this mischief, it is necessary for history to take that so many people have been reduced to such pusillanimous condition within a decade of demoralizing misrule, that they – recognized from the times of the Epics to the British time as the bravest people in India – have lost their courage to go against the whimsical and capricious decisions of the Government.

But had the spelling change been ever subjected to plebiscite? Where from you got the statistics that 99.999999…% of our people have approved the spelling change “even before the Bill was passed”? Be honest. Be honest in contributing to living history, if you can.

In all my articles on this subject in these pages I have shown the distinction of D that forms the crux of this issue. For ready reference, I am placing this picture –

D in 2 different forms
Mark the two shapes of the single Oriya alphabet.

The archaic magnificence of Oriya language lies in this alphabet. When the letter is used in the first position of a word the first shape is used as in DARA.

D in the beginning of a wordD in the middleWhen the letter is used after the first alphabet in a word, its second shape with the dot underneath is used as in MADAKA.

D in 2 different use
To understand the distinction, mark the word DABADABA. Here the word has 2 uses of D. There is no dot under D, which is used at the beginning of the word. But there is a dot under D which is used as the third letter in the word.

The uniqueness of Oriya language lies in this. The single alphabet D appears in two forms: D in the first position of a word and D with dot underneath in subsequent positions. Therefore, the alphabet in second position has a dot underneath as in the name of our motherland and in the name of our mother tongue.D with dot underneath in our state namedot underneath as in the name of our mother tongue

This deference in situational shape of the single alphabet D, had given birth to use of R in place of D in the second or any later position in a word, as our founding fathers had preferred to show the world our distinction.

The change that the Kera-Oriya Naveen Patnaik has brought out in English spelling of the name of our motherland and mother tongue is against the archaic magnificence and classical distinction of our language over and above being an offense against our founding fathers.

The concerned law is a bad law and needs rejection with utmost contempt by everybody to whom Oriya’s linguistic beauty and archaic magnificence are matters of pride.
Kind Regards,
Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Filed under: administration, Animadversion, art & culture, Editorials, education, history, news, orissa, oriya, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Orissa shall not become Odisha

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

I appreciate the deep love for the motherland that I mark in some of my friends when they appeal me to adopt Odisha in place of Orissa, specifically as the constitution has been amended to this effect and accordingly to change the name of orissamatters.com to odishamatters.com. Sri Pramod Chandra Pattanaik, my nephew, a highly patriotic intellectual and a retired IAS officer, whom I love and rely upon, represents this class of friends. I therefore, think it proper to post my views again in the matter.

A margin note in our Home page declares as to why shall we not adopt ‘Odisha’ in place of Orissa. There is a link therein that finally spells out as to why we will not change the English spelling of the name of our motherland and mother tongue despite the constitutional amendment. If any law asks a child to change the spelling of the name of his/her mother, it is proper to ignore that law; we maintain.

When Orissa’s Kera Oriya Chief Minister initiated this mischief, I had appealed him and his ministers not to adopt the proposal in the Cabinet as it would go against archaic uniqueness of Oriya language and damage its classical character. Stage by stage, in every stage, ORISSA MATTERS had argued as to why the proposed change was unnecessary, unwanted, uncalled for and injurious to uniqueness of Oriya language.

In the final stage, when the Parliament was to finally take up the issue, we, as a sentinel of Orissa, had also elaborated as to why this proposal should be rejected. But as the stupid politicians have no real concern for the motherland, the Constitution got amended. As my reaction thereto has been linked to the margin note on our Main page, I think, our views before its adoption, may help my friends getting the crux of the issue.

In answering as to why Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, whose aversion to Oriya is so deep that despite being in power for so many years he has not learned the language, is so very adamant to change the spelling of its name, I had, on June 11, 2008, written,

“Perhaps, after pushing Orissa into the labyrinth of chaos, he is in very much want of ways to hoodwink the people. So, he wants to create a confusing aura of Oriya nationalism in the guise of spelling of the name of the State and to use it as a camouflage to get people off their guard during elections that are not far away.

But why some others, specifically amongst e-mailers, are raising the chorus for change of Orissa into Odisha?

Perhaps, they may change on perusal of this posting or on further research at their respective levels. But if one is unable to understand the intricacies of Oriya language, it would be better for him or she to appreciate that motherland Orissa has many names like Odra, Udra, Uddiyana, Oddiyana, Utkal, Kalinga, Kosala, Tosala, Orissa, Udisa, Udishya etc. Call in any of these names, only she will thereby be addressed. There is no necessity to change or drop any of them.

Lord Vishu has a thousand names. So also Devi Durga. So also many of major Deities. So also mother Earth. If we have the liberty to call any of them in any of their names, we should have no problem in retaining every name of our motherland including Orissa.

What is that to us if Bombay became Mumbai or Calcutta became Kolkata or Madras became Chennai? Why should we belittle ourselves to be affected by that? Our motherland has many names with glowing history of heritage behind all of them. We have a place of pride under the Sun as an ancient nation of matchless creative people who are second to none in uprightness and valour.

If we have any reason to feel dejected and want to be extricated from that, we are not to imitate name changers of Bombay or Calcutta or Madras; we are to reject the name changers of Orissa, who have contrived this mischief to divert public attention from the damage they have done to this splendid soil”.

The entire article may be perused here.

Read with the article linked to the margin note in the home page of ORISSA MATTERS, this article, I believe, may make the background of why we continue to write Orissa and Oriya instead of Odisha and Odia clear to my friends.

I repeat, if any law is created to force a child to change the spelling of the name of his/her mother, that law deserves to be disobeyed with utmost contempt.

Filed under: administration, art & culture, education, history, media, news, orissa, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Ceiling on Private Property Essential for Realization of Freedom Dreams: Subhas Chandra Pattanayak while addressing RRVM Annual Day

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Ajaya K Mohapatra

By A.K.Mohapatra

s.c.pattanayakEminent journalist Subhas Chandra Pattanayak repeated his old demand for creation of Law to put a ceiling on private wealth to save India from breaking down in inevitable war against socio-economic inequality.

He was speaking as the chief speaker on the occasion of the annual function of Radhanath Rath Vigyan Mahavidyalaya and observation of 116th birthday of the late lamented leader and journalist, at Khuntuni of Athgarh, his birthplace, on 6 December 2012.

Recalling Dr. Rath’s role in freedom movement, he said that the freedom fighters had only one dream. That dream was emancipation of people from the labyrinth of political, social and economic subjugation. That dream can be realized to a greater extent if ceiling on private wealth is promulgated, he said.

IMG_1872

The Khuntuni College having been named after Dr. Rath, Sri Pattanayak recalled him in context of education.

Quoting from Rath’s address, as education minister of Orissa, to the 1952National Conference of Educationist, Pattanayak showed how he had stressed upon “radical treatment” of the education system to make it relevant to the people in the grassroots.

Radhanath RathIn those formative days of Indian democracy, as the Education Minister of Orissa, Dr. Rath had rightly cautioned the country that, “There is something inherently defective with the system and it needs an immediate and radical treatment”. His warnings gone unheeded to, the present system of Indian education is preparing students to serve the multinational corporations and foreigners, not the people in the national grassroots. As a result of this, the real India is left in the lurch with the poor parents, who mortgage themselves or even sell away whatever little property they possess to impart modern education to their children, finding their educated children distanced from them in most of the cases, Pattanayak said.

This is killing India. Indian education has no national approach, no national agenda, no national commitment, no national standard and no national oneness. The seed of this syndrome was sown in the Constitution by the rich class comprising the majority in the Constituent Assembly, Pattanayak pointed out.

Dwelling on the debates of the Constituent Assembly, Pattanayak recalled how Laxminarayan Sahu of Orissa had described the Draft Constitution as “altogether useless and worthless”, as the ideals on which it was framed had “no manifest relation to the fundamental spirit of India”. This had prodded Dr. Ambedkar to confess in the Constituent Assembly that unless the socio-economic inequality inherent in the Constitution is removed by the very first Parliament to be created on adoption of the Draft, “those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously build up”.

It is sad and alarming that, instead of removing the inequality, post-independence governments, specifically the governments that have stood on Manmohan Singh’s economic policy, have helped the avaricious community to grab India’s maximum wealth leaving the grassroots perish under slow starvation, thriving on distress sale of their labor and whatever they possess including , sadly often, their offspring. Citing UNESCO reports that 46% of Indian children below 3 are too small for their age, 47% underweight and 16% wasted, Pattanayak juxtaposed this wretchedness of majority of Indians with concentration of around 70% of India’s wealth in the hands of only 7,730 Indians located by the global leaders in providing intelligence on ultra high net worth (UHNW) individuals such as Wealth-X. Concentration of immense portion of this pocketed wealth in the hands of only 109 families shows how the freedom dreams are shattered by the wrong economic policies of the governments run by the compradors. Indian democracy has been converted into plutocracy, he said.

The most aggressive architect of this conversion, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has not only reduced India to a threatened land of nuclear hazards in order to provide a bonanza to American nuke traders, but also has subjected the country to pernicious SEZ designs and FDI in multi-brand retails. When the country is thus perishing, new attempts to divert public attention from the wrong economic policy are being made through campaigners against corruption and through use of mass media against active left that wants to save India from economy of inequality, Pattanayak said.

Mass media under corporate control is hiding the reality that the country is drowned under corruption, because corruption is the method that the rich has invented to use to stay safe and to become richer. Hence, he said, corruption cannot end unless the country is saved from the accumulators of wealth.

Therefore, it is essential that wealth accumulation be subjected to ceiling, so that the the mad motivation for accumulation of unlimited wealth would dwindle and the excess wealth above the ceiling could be retrieved from the black coffers for realization of the dreams that had drafted people like Dr. Rath into fight for freedom, he pointed out.

prof. mohapatraChief Guest Prof. Pradipta Mohapatra of Ravenshaw University eulogized Dr. Rath by recalling his compassionate conduct in relief operations. Relinquishing political life to devote full time to the newspaper Samaja founded by his mentor Pt. Gopabandhu Das was a rare quality that others should imbibe, he said.

Ms. N.DasGuest of Honor Ms. Nebedita Das, S.F.O. of Athgarh Sub-Division held that education in any stream of knowledge in any environment may be achieved if aptitude for learning is cultivated amongst the students.

b.b.pradhanOne of the founders of the College, eminent political figure of the locality, Sri Bipin Bihari Pradhan strongly disapproved the mad rush for technical education even though in absence of universal standard in curriculum thereof, the certificate holders in majority are not meriting the job they aspire for. The education system needs drastic correction, he said, while advising the students to adhere to discipline and sense of responsibility, as was personified by Dr. Radhanath Rath.

IMG_1875Sarapanch of Khuntuni Gram Panchayat Sri Kailash Chandra Das recalled Dr. Rath’s contributions to freedom movement and post-independence development of Athgarh. He was just like a guardian of the people, he recalled.

IMG_1878The function, commenced with garlanding the statue of Dr. Rath, was presided over by the Principal of the College’s junior branch Prof. Rabi Narayan Das.

Felicitations to victorious students

There were cultural and athletic competition amongst the students in both the senior (+3) and Junior (+2) wings of the College to mark its annual day. The winners were felicitated with prizes.

Culture Prizes bagged by +3 students

Kabita Swain, Subhashree Beura and Manaswini Sahoo got the first, second and third prize respectively in Oriya essay competition. Similarly in Song competition the three top prizes went to Chinmayee Pradhan, Birendra Mohanty and Banita Mallik. In one-act-play, Sumitra Nayak bagged the first prize whereas the second and third prizes went to Birendra Kumar Mohanty and Saraswati Jena. When in debate competition, Sumitra Nayak and Birendra Mohanty bagged the first prize jointly, Manaswini Sahoo got the 2nd prize and Dipak Kumar Jena as well as Bishnupriya Behera jointly obtained the third prize.

Culture Prizes bagged by +2 students

Madhusmita Jena, Mamata Jena and Sunyabasi Behera bagged the first, second and third prizes respectively in song; in the same order, Paresh Kumar Raut, Madhusmita Jena and Sunyabasi Behera bagged prizes in Oriya debate; Prasanta Lenka, Priyanka Priyadarshini and Priyanka Das got first, second and third prizes in Oriya essay whereas Subrat Kumar Swain and Nihar Ranjan Mohapatra got the first and second prizes in quiz competition, with the third prize jointly offered to Manoj Kumar Jena and Prasanjit Lenka.

Athletic Prizes

The students of the +2 wing participated in in athletic competitions exclusively.

The girls who won in order of first/ second/ third, were: Sonali Senapati, Shanti Hesa and Alladi Murmu (100 Mtr Race); Sonali Senapati, Santi Hesa and Alladi Murmu (200 Mtr Race); Sonali senapati, Monalisa Das and Swapnarani Rana (400 Mtr Race); Alladi Murmu, Shanti Hesa and Tanushree Mohanty (Long Jump); Sonali Senapati, Tulasi Laguri and Geetanjali Behera (Javelin Throw); Gitanjali Behera, Alladi Murmu and Priyanka Das (Putting the Shot) and, Geetanjali Behera, Priyanka Das and Santi Hesa (Discus Throw).

Sonali Senapati was felicitated as the Champion amongst the girls.

The boys who won in the same order were: Debashish Jena, Shashikant Pradhan and Sangram Keshari Rana (100 Mtr Race); Shashikant Pradhan, Sangram Keshari Rana and Jitendra Behera (200 Mtr Race); Jagabandhu Swain, Sangram Keshari Rana and Rakesh Kumar Lenka (400 Mtr Race); Jagabandhu Swain, Abhaya Sethy and Debashish Jena (Long Jump); Manoj Kumar Kandi, Subrat Swain and Abhay sethy (High Jump); Abhay Sethy, Banesh Naik and Alok Mohan Swain (Javelin Throw); Jagabandhu Swain, Sumanta Sethy and Prasanjit Lenka (Putting the Shot); Jagabandhu Swain, Swapnesh Parida and Abhay Sethy (Discus Throw).

Jagabandhu Swain was felicitated as the champion amongst the boys.

Attention Warranted

Athgarh MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain was praised in the function by local participants, specifically the Sarpanch, for his contributions to foundation and functioning of the College. But, sadly it was marked that, though the College is named after Dr. Radhanath Rath, neither the family members of Rath nor The Samaja he served and developed till his death, have made any contribution to the College. Even Gopabandhu Sahitya Mandira, which has published various compilations of literary and journalistic works of Dr. Rath, has not yet come forward to help the college Library with any of its books.

For the people of Khuntuni and the adjoining areas, as Sri Bipin Bihari Pradhan precisely put it, the College is the epitome of their aspirations, the object of their pride and prestige. They are determined to build it up as major College by their own strength.

It was deeply felt that the State Government should extend all possible and permissible assistance to this College, keeping in view the special provisions of the terms and condition of the State-Merger, specifically as, belonging to an Ex-State, the area is inherently backward.

IMG_1877mmWhen Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty had welcomed the guests, Principal of the senior branch Prof. Shashi Bhusan Mishra brought the event to a close after proposing the vote of thanks.

Filed under: art & culture, education, news, orissa, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Racketeering by Mandarins goes on in the Name of Public Interest: An Example

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The Courts have time and again stripped Naveen Patnaik’s government layer by layer over land acquisition for private companies to the extent of killing people, as in Kalinga Nagar, in the name of public interest.

But the syndrome has gone so deep that, behind back of Naveen Patnaik, Secretary level Officers are also working as racketeers.

I would put one instance on records here for the Government to counter if the suspicion is baseless.

On 16th last month, the Principal Secretary to the Government in the department of Tourism and Culture, has issued Office Order No. II.C-55/2011/2258/TC that renders an existing Rule, legally in force, inconsequential. The minister seems to have been misled by the bureaucracy in this mischief.

The mischief relates to the recruitment of teachers for the Government College of Music at Bhubaneswar styled Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya.

The recruitment is controlled by the Orissa Culture Services (Method of Recruitment and Condition of Services) Rules 2006, made and promulgated by the State Governor under Article 309 of the Constitution of India.

The Governor has not amended the Rules; but the executive Government has arbitrarily tampered with the stipulation of the Recruitment Clause to facilitate entry of some legally ineligible persons into service.

Rule 16 ( c ) is the Recruitment Clause, which stipulates that a candidate, in order to be eligible to compete at the examination for direct recruitment, “shall not be under 21 years and above 32 years of age”.

The preamble of Rule16 has made it a “must”.

But the Office Order in question has tampered with the last age limit by making it 37 years in place of 32, which is absolutely arbitrary and illegal.

The said Rule has a proviso that allows upper age relaxation by five years “for SC and ST candidates, candidates belonging to the category of ex-servicemen, physically handicapped persons, women candidates and backward class candidates as may be prescribed by Government from time to time”. This Proviso has no applicability at all to General Category candidates. But the executive has tampered with this proviso to extend its applicability to over-aged candidates of General Category.

The executive has shrewdly used Rule 24 to carry out this mischief.

Rule 24 belongs to the miscellaneous chapter of the Rules 2006. It says, “If the state Government are of the opinion that it is necessary or expedient to do so in the public interest, they may, by an order and in consultation with the Commission (The Orissa Public Service Commission) relax any of the provisions of these Rules in respect of any class or category of person in public interest”.

OPSC: A sanctuary of retired officers

In normal conditions, the Commission should not have concurred this illegal relaxation. But, Naveen Patnaik Government has vitiated the impartiality of OPSC (the Commission) by reducing it to a sanctuary of retired government servants who are, under intoxication of continuance in salary fetching jobs after retirement, are apparently not unwilling to oblige the government in such nefarious deeds. So, on 17 August 2012, the OPSC, has, in letter No. 6120, concurred the government proposal to do away with the rider to Rule 16 ( c ).

The executive had proposed and the OPSC has agreed to misuse Rule 24 to destroy the condition of eligibility to compete at the examination for direct recruitment laid down under the Proviso to Rule 16 ( c ). For this mischief, they have misinterpreted the words “Any of the provisions of these Rules” as “proviso to any of these Rules”. Either the Commission is hoodwinked by the executive in accepting this misinterpretation of law or is a willing party in hoodwinking the public by accepting “Proviso” as “Provision”. Either way, the Rule is raped to help undisclosed general category candidates to bag the posts of lecturers in the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, where the scope of employment is limited and the numbers of qualified candidates for the limited posts are massive. Job fixing in such situations, as grapevines transmit, is stimulated by greasing of palms that veers from Rs. 8 lakhs to Rs.18 lakhs per candidate corresponding to salaries that a Lecturer, after recruitment, would be drawing in a period of one to two years. Though this is not acceptable to us, it is not rejected by many, specifically as the climate is known for scams and scandals involving government officials from night watchmen to Chief Secretaries, from Panchayat Word Members to Chief of Political Government that the State has the bad luck to bear with.

Proviso Vis-à-vis Provision

When Rule 24 authorizes the Government in extraordinary situations to relax any of the provisions of these Rules, the executive has not relaxed the provision laid down under Rule 16 ( c ). The said Rule says, “He or she (the candidate for a faculty position) shall not be under 21 years and above 32 years”. The executive, with the power vested in it by Rule 24, could have caused the relaxation by changing this provision and that could have been legal. But it has not touched this provision. It has changed the Proviso for which it has no power. The preamble of Rule 16 is remarkable. It stipulates that, “A candidate in order to be eligible to compete at the examination for direct recruitment must satisfy the following conditions” one of which is laid down under Sub-Rule ( c ), with a rider that relaxation in the age limit can only be granted in case of candidates earmarked therein. So, adherence to the proviso is a “must” for the authorities conducting the recruitment.

Provisions of the Rules can be changed under authority of Rule 24; but no ‘Proviso’ to any ‘Provision’ can be changed.

‘Provision’ and ‘Proviso’ are not the same.

‘Provision’ is a Clause whereas ‘Proviso’ is a “must” condition that the Clause is bound by.
As for example: Section 276 of Indian Succession Act 1925 allows transfer of property of a father to his daughter by way of a Will when it is his self-acquired property. This is the ‘Provision’ in the Act. But when the Will has a rider that his daughter can get his property, provided that she marries the man he has chosen for her, it is a ‘Proviso’ which is a ‘must’ for implementation of the ‘Provision’ in the Act.

So, when Rule 24 of the Orissa Culture Services (Method of Recruitment and Condition of Services) Rules 2006 has the mischief to permit the executive to relax the ‘Provision” at Rule 16 ( c ), it has no force to permit the executive to tamper with the ‘Proviso’ to Rule 16 ( c ).

The ‘Proviso’ to Rule 16 ( c ) could have been amended only by the Governor who has framed and promulgated the said Rules under article 309.

It is not that the mandarins do not know this. There is reason to suspect that knowingly they have misinterpreted Rule 24 to help some undisclosed over-aged person (s) of general category by killing the spirit of relaxation provided for SC ST, women, ex-servicemen and physically handicapped persons.

Had this not been so, the relaxation could not have been required; as sufficient numbers of eligible candidates with requisite qualifications had already applied for the jobs in response to Notice issued by the OPSC.

In inviting applications against available vacancies, the OPSC in its advertisement No.5 of 2012-13 dated 14 August 2012 had spelt out the eligibility criteria. The two basis components of the criteria were ‘Educational Qualification’ and ‘Age’. When a Master’s Degree in the relevant subject with at least 55 % marks from a recognized University/Educational Institution formed the first component, the second component was ‘Age’ below 32 years and above 21 on the 1st January 2012, with the rider that the upper age limit is relaxable by five years for candidates belonging to categories of SC, ST, S.E.B.C., Women, Ex-servicemen and by 10 years for physically handicapped students. There was no dearth of candidates who fulfilled all the criteria.

But the executive has noted that the relaxation in age limit was necessary due to “non-availability of the required numbers of the eligible candidates within the aforesaid age limit” to fill up the vacancies.

Was there any examination basing on which the OPSC has determined that no eligible candidate was available? No.

Had the OPSC or the government fixed a minimum number of applicants for the vacant posts? No.

How then “non-availability of candidates” was located?

The Government must answer it and explain its position, if racketeers in administration have not contrived this statement to fix the recruitment.

It is better for Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to look into this matter as it may help him know how Rules are being raped by his mandarins to please the objects of their nepotism/favoritism or to satisfy their personal/collective greed/avarice, all in the guise of public interest.

Filed under: administration, Animadversion, Editorials, education, Employees' Issues, news, orissa, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Cry Parenthood, Cry! Cry Over the Crime in Tolerating the Criminals, Who, Despite in Power, Never Bother to Keep Our Future Safe

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

At least ten pre-school kids are severely injured with seven of them dead as a wall of a 70 years old dilapidated structure collapsed on them at a time they were going to have their mid-day meals in an Anganvadi center in Nayagarh district, this July 9. The bereaved families are offered with Rs.1 lakh each from the Chief Minister’s relief fund.

The question is: if the Pipili gang rape victim is given posthumous cash grant of Rs. 10 lakhs, why the tribals killed by Tata hired government bullets at Kalinga Nagar were offered Rs. 5 lakhs each and the kids who died in the death trap laid down by the negligent government at Suansia Sahi U.P.School of Ranapur Block in Nayagarh District on July 9 are given only Rs. 1 lakh each?

A few of pictures of the most pathetic tragedy would suffice to show how the death trap for the kids was deliberately laid. The walls had cracked and the very old tin roof was perforated and rain water had made the room vulnerable to collapse any moment. There was running the Anganvadi center like they run in many places across the State.

The central government is paying and the state government has been receiving hundreds of crores of rupees for construction of Anganvadies and mini Anganvadies. Propaganda machineries are being fabulously fueled to project the plutocratic government as pro-people on the tract of these pre-school institutes in the misruled State.

Fellows with marked allegiance to the ruling party are shrewdly recruited as Anganvadi workers when funds allotted on records for mid-day meal of the kids in Anganvadies are being used to provide profits to arrangers and suppliers of food ingredients, sometimes provoking villagers to rain vociferous blames on the government for rampant misuse thereof.

Suspicion is galore that the entire funds are also being misappropriated at certain points where the ruling party persons are in opportunistic nexus with the local officials.

Out of a total 71,134 Anganvadies in Orissa, only 17, 554 centers have their own roofs, howsoever substandard they be, whereas 16,794 centers are operating in primary schools in their designated localities. Locations of the rest 36,786 Anganvadies are not known. Are they ghost centers? Who can say,’no’? If yes, where does the entire money meant for these 36,786 Anganvadi centers go? Only an in-depth investigation into their existence may reveal the reality. Till then, you are free to speculate.

To avoid speculations, which may go wild, the government should place before the public the records in details of all the 71,554 Anganvadies for social audit / public verification of which Angavadi is really working and which are ghosts. But, sadly, the portfolio belongs to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and no executive officer has the guts to reveal the details.

When the Chief Minister is holding the portfolio, the chilling extermination of the lives of at least seven kids under a collapsed wall of the Anganvadi center belonging to the second category noted above has exposed the monstrous mischief the state government has been playing with the kids, as priority in the program is not pre-school education; but satisfaction of the urge for political mileage and avarice of political supporters of the chief minister as well as of payola payers. Reference may be made to resignation of a minister under charges of supply to moth-eaten, rotten and poisonous pulses to Anganvadies in this government.

Now as in a particular place the mischief is again laid bare, the Chief Minister’s relief fund is used to silent the bereaved families. This is a very serious syndrome Orissa is being subjected to time and again. Yet again, there is no set principle for payment from the relief fund under disposal of a political executive, the Chief Minister.

The question is: who evaluates the cost of damage in such cases and decides the quantum of relief? What is the yardstick? And, why so slapdash decision in so questionable fashion in spending this fund for political skin-saving of a person under whose reign people are put in such death traps time and again?

May this attract the attention of the Supreme Court of India and may one hope, the Court would act to honor the extinguished dreams of the innocent kids, by inflicting exemplary punishment upon the wicked villein because of whose misrule, the system of Anganvadi killed our kids by forcing them to qualify for mid-day meal by running into the death trap laid in the dilapidated room of a primary school built 70 years ago and discernibly unsafe.

The villain in power is so ingenuous that attempts to hoodwink the people have started with dismissal of two Anganvadi workers and suspension of the primary school principal and engineering of shifting responsibility to the local officials by projecting them as fellows whose negligence to keep the school safe caused the deaths.

Somanath s/o Hadibandu Totai, Sachin s/o Basanta Kumar Roy, Chiku s/o Tuku Pandi, Ankita d/o Babuna Sahu, Sonali d/o Punia Pradhan, Alisha d/o Chandeswar Jena and Pradip s/o Sant Pradhan are not killed just by the collapse of a wall, they are killed by a misruling government.

Badal s/o Basanta Sahu, Gyana Ranjan and Dibya Ranjan sons of Ganesh Behera are in hospital beds under serious injuries not because of their fault, but because of misrule by a political executive.

They all are symbols of how our dreams for better days are being shattered by a preening person under whose maladministration priority of the State has been shifted from safeguarding the interests of native people to serve the interest of foreigners like the POSCO and inland capitalists like the Tatas.

Cry parenthood, cry. Cry over the crime in tolerating the criminals in power who do not bother to keep our future safe.

And, onlookers, look again at the pictures to see how dreams of our future are killed and decide your own course of action.

Let the action start with a demand for a CBI investigation into the Chief Minister’s relief fund and into how far the State has fulfilled its role in Anganvadi establishment.

Political acrobats need be shown the door and be given the punishment their crimes call for.

Filed under: actionscript, administration, Animadversion, Editorials, education, Health, law and order, news, orissa, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Mamata and Marx

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

West Bengal has changed its government. But it seems, it has changed from bad to worse, if at all the previous government was a bad government.

The State ruled for more than three decades by the left front has almost forgotten that before the left was chosen, it had been reduced to such a pathetic condition in the Congress regime that trains and other vehicles leaving Orissa for the then Calcutta were being searched for rice, if any, being transported secretly. The left front had ushered in an era of prosperity in every respect, particularly in agriculture, that has resulted in Orissa depending on West Bengal for many agro-products, in particular, potatoes.

Before emergence of the left front, health care in West bengal was so very dismal and the Doctors were so very disloyal to their profession that people, unable to meet the sky-high demands of the medical practitioners were dying without treatment in innumerable numbers. Naxalism owes it origin to aggressive protests against anarchy in health care. Left front was people’s choice against the era of anarchy in health care as well as addition of confusion thereto by bloody violence against physicians who ultimately had to treat the patients. Had the left front not taken over, it cannot be said to what low the State could have fallen. It was salvaged and put on a better track by the left front.

Memory is short, so goes the axiom. So, three continuous decades of relief from pre-left-front misrule has perhaps weakened the memory of the people of West Bengal about the difficulties from which the left front had saved the State.

A better-off community, eager for more comforts, aspires in individual level for more liberty in unhindered accumulation of personal properties. And, instead of political economy of socialism, political economy of opportunism allures it more.

Therefore, emergence of Mamata Banarjee in West Bengal is an outcome of emergence of a better-off environment in that State under the left front regime. And, is not surprising.

Once better-off, people of economically disadvantaged background, discard communism as that does not provide them with free opportunity to amass wealth to fulfill their avarice. West Bengal has developed this environment after being better-off under the left front.

The new environment has given birth to political economy of opportunism in the province.

And taking advantage of it, the opportunists have started a campaign to malign Marx whose ideology was a factor in salvaging the State from the labyrinth of the Congress misrule. They are conspiring to delete Marx from test books in order to create a future generation that shall stay glued to the political economy of opportunism, so that they shall not be threatened by renewal of collective commitment to social progress. Thus has started Mamata’s regime in West Bengal.

Once the left is gone out of power, the State has gone back into the same old environment of stark opportunism and, into the grips of pernicious exploiters.

Rampant occurrences of infant deaths in various hospitals of West Bengal remind us of what was happening in the days before left front had removed the Congress rule.

Instead of controlling infant mortality and punishing the persons responsible for so menacingly massive number of deaths of new borns in different hospitals, and even in medical college hospitals, which reflect just a part of what has happened to administration now, the government is spreading its scheme to discard Marx in text books, which speaks also of how it is trying to divert public attention from its failures and from corruption and disorder the State is being subjected to.

Filed under: administration, Editorials, education, history, news, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Misrule Galore: Girl Student Attempts Suicide under Frustration over Shifting of HSC Exam

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

This is a girl student of Chakradhar High School, Singiri Dahisahi. She had registered for High School Certificate Examination and her roll number was ACC003077. She is in a serious condition with 90% burn injury as she attempted to commit suicide by immolating herself under frustration over shifting of HSC examination to uncertain future after theft of questionpapers in all the subjects except MIL was known.

Doctors of S.C.B.medical College, Cuttack are trying to save her life as the Orissa Government failed to save the examination from the underworld.

HSC examination is the gateway to higher education. About 5 lakh students had registered themselves on payment of fees for the same. The Government could not keep the questionpapers secret and as their leakage spread, instead of conducting the examinations with the alternative sets of questionpapers – to keep which ready for use in such exigencies, fees are also collected from the students – the government stopped the examination and shifted it to a future day not yet decided, though it is just being aired that it may take tentatively three weeks to have the alternative sets printed.

One examination center covers many High Schools and as such are usually so distant from the home of majority of students that sufficient ahead of the date of examination, they arrange their accommodation, often with difficulty, in the place where the center is situated. Cancellation and shifting of the Examination has forced them to suffer the loss mentally, physically and financially.

Around five lakhs of students, dreams shattered, are subjected to this suffering.

Filed under: administration, education, law and order, news, orissa, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

BSE Malpractice Designed to Handover HSC Exam to Mafia: AIDSO

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Orissa Government is deliberately mismanaging High School Examinations to handover to the avaricious mafia the entire staewide gateway to higher education, alleges the Orissa State Council of All India Democratic Students’ Organisation.

The Board of Secondary Education has become a citadel of corruption in questionpaper setting, printing and leaking. From Crime Branch investigations to commissions of inquiry have acted eyewashes when the Board has remained incorrigible. Theft of questionpapers and manipulations in examination marks by Board officials to help children of powerful persons has remained its trademark, despite a minister in its charge, Bishnu Das, having quited cabinet on eviction a couple of years ago on exposure of this syndrome. The Board had executed all the despicable methods to help the son of the minister bag higher marks.

This year, theft of questionpapers was so deliberate and devastating and so widespread that the entire HSC Examination has been ruined, shrouding total uncerainty on the student community in pursuing higher education as this examination is the basic milestone one is bound to cross to proceed ahead.

Thousands of students have demonstrated today under the banner of AIDSO in front of the Orissa Assembly against this crime perpetrated on them by the State, that has deliberately stayed nonchallant on offenses of the Board. The state has pushed at least five lakh students to debacle by cancelling the examination after exposure of the theft and machanically shifting the exams to undecided future.

The AIDSO is emphatic in its suspicion that examination fund being of hundreds of lakhs of rupees, operators of private capital have been using the State Government to defame the examination system by repeated theft of questionpapers as the administration is busy in paving the way for the avaricious mafia to take over the Board, starting from examination management. This evil design must be thwarted, the organisattion has underlined in a statement issued after the demonstration.

It has demanded that the entire cost of examination shifted to the unscheduled future for no fault of the students community be borne by the government.

It has demanded stern penal action against the culprits including every person in control of the Board and its examinations.

It has demanded infrastructural development in Schools, specifically the High Schools to create strong academic environment that may diminish dependance of dull children of well-to-do persons on advance knowledge on questions and act a deterant to questionpaper theft.

It has demanded discarding of fee enhancement in the guise of improvement in exam system.

A delegate from the demonstration spot has handed over a charter of demands including these demands to the Minister of Mass Education and to the Chief Minister.

The organisation’s Sate unit President Akhsaya Das, Vice-Presidents Subas Nayak and Ganesh Tripathy and Secretary Shivashish Praharaj led the demonstration.

Filed under: actionscript, administration, education, law and order, news, orissa, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Next Page »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 225 other followers