P V Narasimha Rao was most misunderstood !

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said that former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao was the most misunderstood person in the political history of India and he himself was responsible for it.

Delivering a memorial lecture on ‘P V in Perspective’ at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), he said that despite P V holding several key posts during his public life spanning 60 years, not much was known about him to the general public.

He said P V had both good and bad endeavours as a politician and Prime Minister and he must be, also like any other political leader, understood as a common human being.

Jairam Ramesh said that P V had contributed to the country significantly during his tenure as a Prime Minister but he had committed a few mistakes, which haunt him even today. His significant contributions to the country were economic reforms or liberalisation of market, starting political process in Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and in Punjab besides formulating a foreign policy with ‘Look East’ component, he said. These policies have been followed by his successor Prime Ministers from I K Gujral, Deve Gowda, Manmohan Singh and even Narendra Modi, he said.

However, Jairam opined that P V’s biggest mistake was December 6, 1992, when Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished and he failed as a Prime Minister. “India could not come out of that catastrophic event even today,” he said.

Similarly, P V embroiled several leaders from different political parties and also his fellow party colleagues in various court cases that alienated him within the party as well, said Jairam Ramesh. Jairam said that he mentioned these historic events in his book on P V and said Indians must learn to evaluate their leaders on true basis rather than portraying them as saints.

He said P V had the remarkable quality of evaluating people and it was he who had appointed Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister in his Cabinet. He appreciated P V’s courage and resolution while running the minority government for five years.

He said, “Narasimha Rao was at his best in political management and I stand testimony to it. He not only managed the Opposition but also handled the forces within the party.” Jairam also complimented P V’s personal capabilities and said that he was the most scholarly, erudite and multilingual personality to enter public life.

Jairam recalled his experiences with P V Narasimha Rao during June, July and August of 1991 and said those three months had made remarkable contributions for the betterment of the country.

Senior journalist A Krishna Rao, who translated Jairam’s book, appreciated the efforts of Jairam for coming up with a book on Narasimha Rao and said P V did not get his due recognition in India’s political history. He said though he brought several reforms in governance, no one remembered him in that capacity.

Exposed !

Finally, the cat is out of the bag. The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, which had denied affiliation to 174 private engineering colleges on the grounds that they had failed to fulfill the prescribed norms, now stands exposed for its blatant favouritism.

The university authorities on Thursday evening uploaded on their website the inspection reports of the fact finding committee on various deficiencies detected in the engineering colleges in fulfilling the norms prescribed by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The inspection was conducted by the fact finding committee comprised of experts from BITS, Osmania University and other technical institution. The deficiencies include lack of adequate built-up area in the premises, violation of master plan specifications for construction of buildings, shortage of qualified staff, non-compliance of faculty-student ratio and payment of salaries to faculty as per AICTE pay scales.

"Inspection reports on private engineering colleges uploaded on varsity website; several colleges which got affiliation found to have violated AICTE norms"

Surprisingly, such deficiencies are found even in 125 private engineering colleges that were given affiliation by the University during 2014-15. It clearly showed that the university had blatantly favoured these select engineering colleges and deliberately disaffiliated 174 others, which too had similar deficiencies. Ironically, 46 of these 125 engineering colleges could not secure any admissions in the preceding year. And some of them have even written to the AICTE recently, offering to surrender several courses and seats which could not be filled up during the 2014-15 counselling.

It may be mentioned that METRO INDIA has carried a series of reports exposing this blatant favouritism of the JNTU-H in discriminating against several engineering colleges and favouring a select number of colleges, ostensibly under political and monetary pressures. Meanwhile, managements of disaffiliated engineering colleges have alleged that they were deliberately targeted by the University. Interestingly, the university has uploaded the details of inspection report when the next inspection is scheduled to commence in the first week of May. The report clearly shows that several colleges that were allowed to function were not up to the mark as per the norms.

Telangana Engineering and Professional Colleges Management Association chairman N Goutham Rao said that the JNTU-H wanted to close down all the colleges that were disaffiliated by it in the past. “Several other colleges with same deficiencies have been allowed to function while 174 colleges were disaffiliated on the same grounds. We were able to get the permission from Supreme Court but could not take up admissions last year.” If a yardstick of proper infrastructure, appropriate student-teacher ratio and others is used it should be used for equally for all, he said. He said that several of the 125 colleges that were allowed to function previous year by JNTUH were even worse than the colleges listed under disaffiliated.

An office bearer of an engineering college said the entire drama of disaffiliating the colleges on the pretext of having poor standards was created only to reduce the number of engineering colleges to reduce the burden of fee reimbursement scheme. He said many of the so-called top colleges or high standard 125 colleges take Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh per seat per annum, while the disaffiliated colleges charged only Rs 35,000.
In wake of the report that is uploaded on website of JNTUH, he asked how the colleges taking lesser fee could maintain the standards when the colleges that charged hefty fee failed to do so.

The inspection reports were uploaded on the JNTU-H website at a time when the AICTE has accorded conditional permission to the engineering colleges to function recently. AICTE has asked the colleges to fulfill the necessary criteria and apply for inspection once again. Earlier the JNTUH officials have not published the inspection report of the permitted 125 colleges. When the dis affiliated college managements protested and sought the intervention of High Court, JNTUH officials agreed to make the report public. However, the 174 colleges have lost their one year and revenue. The managements of the disaffiliated colleges ask that if standards were the bench mark then how colleges with poor standards were allowed to function.

A Tale of Salary

Relief for Engineering Colleges

 In a big relief for 162 private engineering colleges in Telangana, that were disaffiliated by the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) and barred from admitting students in the current academic year, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has given them conditional permission to conduct admissions in 2015-16 academic year.

"Get conditional approval from AICTE to admit students in 2015-16"

In its latest order, the AICTE said the engineering colleges which could not admit students during 2014-15 due to their disaffiliation could conduct admissions for the coming academic year, provided they fulfill the mandatory norms and get the final nod from the JNTU-H. The AICTE directed the JNTU (H) to conduct fresh inspections to allow the barred colleges to get a chance to conduct admissions and to begin the exercise from April 20.

The AICTE has asked the engineering colleges to apply for the affiliation to JNTUH afresh before April 20 and to get ready for inspections. The order followed a representation made by Telangana Engineering and Professional College Management Association to the Centre. Association chairman N Goutham Rao said that a delegation of engineering college managements had given a representation on this issue to Human Resource Minister Smriti Irani and AICTE chairman giving a promise to fulfill the norms prescribed by ministry and the technical institution.

He said, “We were given permission to conduct admissions in the coming academic year and we have submitted an affidavit in the AICTE and HRD ministry to meet the norms.” The JNTU-H would submit a report to the AICTE and the State government after conducting an inspection of the engineering colleges. The colleges would then be permitted to take admissions for the academic year 2015-16.

JNTU-H Registrar N V Ramana Rao said the inspection of the colleges that were not allowed to participate in the EAMCET 2014 would be done in the first week of May 2015. He said only the report of the inspection would decide the fate of colleges that were given conditional permission. Interestingly, several engineering and pharmacy colleges have applied for reduction in the number of seats to the AICTE as they do not possess the required infrastructure. About 218 colleges out of total 315 have applied for cutting down the number of seats they were allotted. The number of seats that would be reduced in the coming academic year would be around 42,000. The EAMCET 2015 is scheduled to be held in the second week of May in Telangana and results would be declared in June.

New School Syllabus in Telangana

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has given his consent to bring radical changes in the school syllabus by giving due credence to Telangana history, art, culture and literature. The changes in the syllabus were advised by the experts committee set up by the State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) which suggested that chapters about the history of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh should be replaced with that of Telangana history, culture, architecture, art and literature.

With the CM’s consent, the text books of Class I to 10 would have the syllabus designed by the state authorities from the coming academic year 2015-16. The changed syllabus would have couplets and poems of native poets of Telangana besides historical, architectural and artistic parts of Telangana. The new syllabus proposed long ago, is awaiting CM’s nod for its implementation. 

However, after a recent meeting held at Secretariat attended by state government’s cultural advisor N V Ramana Chary, SCERT director S Jagannath Reddy and other officials from school education department, the proposals were discussed at length before sending them to the chief minister.

The history books would also include the history of Telangana dating back to the induction of Hyderabad State into the Indian Union and all the major events up to the formation of Telangana. History of movements during Nizam’s government, Hyderabad’s merger, first democratic government, agitations pertaining to Mulki rules, role of Osmania University students, 1969 Telangana movement, 1972 Jai Andhra movement would be included in the history. 

Interestingly, the syllabus of Social Studies also includes the details of State Government’s schemes pertaining to tanks and ponds (Mana Vuru Mana Cheruvu) and this aspect also occupy a significant space of the syllabus. Major breakthroughs during the Telangana movement were also made the part of syllabus. Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam criticized the TRS government and alleged that KCR was busy in incorporating his own history in the name of Telangana history. TDP spokesperson N Narsi Reddy said that almost 1,200 students have sacrificed their lives for the cause of Telangana.

Undermining students’ sacrifice and omission of the participation of poets, artists and other people’s version in Telangana history was shameful, he said. Reddy said that history would not forgive people who were indulging in praising the Chief Minister K Chandra Sekhar Rao while ignoring the actual martyrs of Telangana.

In Pursuit of Better Remuneration

The demand for enhancement of remuneration by evaluators of Intermediate and SSC examination papers is gaining strength for quite some time now. After the recent protest by Intermediate examination evaluators at a spot evaluation center in city, teachers too have also put forth their demands for enhancement of perks. In case of Intermediate paper, the authorities were able to quell the demand tentatively, but school teachers have already given their list of demands and asked the government to enhance their remuneration. 

-The authorities were able to quell the demand tentatively, but school teachers have already given their list of demands and asked the government to enhance their remuneration. Evaluation for the Intermediate examination papers has been going on whereas the spot evaluation for SSC examination papers would commence on Saturday at two major centers in the city.
-“We had called for a strike from April 2 to 6 but in vain and called off the strike in the larger interest of the students. However, we will continue to put forward our demands”

Evaluation for the intermediate examination papers has been going on whereas the spot evaluation for SSC examination papers would commence on April 11 at two major centers in the city. Private Lecturers Organization of Telangana (PLOT) president G Narasimha Reddy who is on a fast demanding enhancement of remuneration said that out of the total number of evaluators, about 80 per cent of them were private junior lecturers. He said that private lecturers have been working on meager allowances and perks for the evaluation. 

“We had called for a strike from April 2 to 6 but in vain and called off the strike in the larger interest of the students. However, we will continue to put forward our demands,” he informed. Reddy is on a hunger strike at Pragathi Mahavidyalaya campus where the spot evaluation is going on. The evaluation for Intermediate examination papers is being conducted at five different centers in the city. On the other hand teachers and teacher unions are also demanding that the perks must be enhanced. 

Teacher organizations argue that after the implementation of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), teachers would have to take more strain while correcting answer sheets. Telangana Teachers’ Federation president A Ramchandram said that since the examination pattern was new, evaluators must also be provided with increased remunerations accordingly. Evaluation for the SSC examination papers would commence from April 11 at two centers in city. One is at Secunderabad and one at Dilsukhnagar. 

At the same time, teachers have also demanded for early payment of evaluation remuneration unlike the usual practice. State Teachers’ Union state secretary Abdul Samad said that generally teachers don’t get their remuneration on time. He said, “authorities take our bank account numbers, but do not credit the remuneration on time. It takes some five to six months for remuneration to be credited into our account.” He said that TA should also be increased for teachers who come from long distances to the spot evaluation centers.

RTE Implementation in Abeyance

 Both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh continue to lag in implementing the Right to Education Act (RTE), despite its enactment five years back. Even basic requirements for the implementation of the Act have not been met by the two states during the past five years. When the state was not bifurcated, several teacher unions, education activists and student unions approached the state authorities to implement RTE, but they could not achieve any breakthrough.

The Act was intended at providing education to school drop-outs, students from poor families including SC, ST, minorities and other backward communities. As per the norms of the Act all the state governments were mandated to provide basic education to the children aged between 5 to 14 years. The law also mandated the private managements to allot 25 per cent of the seats for poor students.

Interestingly, the deadline for the proper implementation of the Act was March 31, 2015, in the moral book of the Act in the year 2010 when the RTE was enacted. However, so far the implementation of this Act is on the backburner in many aspects. Accordin to Right to Education Forum’s state convener Ch Murali Mohan, a survey conducted by the forum revealed that percentage of RTE implementation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is only 9 per cent. 

He said, “It is disgusting for both the states that such a meager per cent of implementation is recorded.” He said that as per the analysis of 2011 census analysis by the UNICEF, it was revealed that Hyderabad had highest number of child labors in the state. City has 80,000, Ranga Reddy district has 75,000 and Mahabubnagar district has about 68,000 child labours, he said. He criticised the Telangana government for not giving any importance to such an important act and said that one can file PIL against the state as the RTE was a mandatory compulsion on the state governments.

Telangana government instead, has been talking about KG to PG scheme for education but allocated only Rs 25 crores in the previous and current state budget, he said. Interestingly, the previous united AP governments have stonewalled the implementation by showing the deadline of March 31, 2015 and now Telangana government shirking its responsibility by saying that it does not have data and was new into the power.

It was learnt that the Telangana government had sought six months’ time from the Centre to implement the Act completely but there was no communication from the Centre has been reported in this regard.
He said Telangana government appeared to be not keen on this issue and argued that the number of teachers was more than students and needed rationalisation. 

PRTU president P Venkat Reddy said that the Telangana government utterly failed in the implementation of RTE in many aspects. The state government was failed especially in curbing the corrupt practices of collecting huge amounts as donation and capitation fees by private education institutions.

Facts and Figures
1.Right to Education Act was approved in Lok Sabha on July 2, 2009.
2.It was passed in Rajya Sabha on July 20, 2009.
3.It came into force from April 1, 2010.
4.RTE has completed its five years on April 1, 2015.
5.Moral book of act says that all the states would be having appropriate framework to implement RTE by March 31, 2015.
6.Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states lag behind in implementation with only 9 per cent.
7.A survey was done in 20 states with 50 government schools in each state shows that implementation of act was thrown to the winds.