1. Ram Navami Death Toll Rises to 3
At least two persons died and an unspecified number, including cops, was injured on Monday as the administration struggled to quell violence left in the wake of Ram Navami processions across the state.
Monday’s deaths in Raniganj and Kakinara followed one in Purulia on Sunday, the three deaths capping two days of violence unprecedented during Ram Navami in Bengal.
Raniganj in West Burdwan, Kakinara in North 24-Parganas (where, besides the death, a bust of India’s first Union education minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, was pulled down) and Kandi in Murshidabad were Monday’s three flashpoints, which prompted curfew in Raniganj, sealing off of the affected areas in Kakinara, police crackdown at several other places and suo motu FIRs against BJP leaders in West Midnapore and Birbhum. The local administration at several places reached out to people, organising peace meetings, as cops patrolled streets to bring back order.
(Source: Times Of India)
2. West Bengal Students Fare Poorly In Higher Classes: NCERT
Students of classes V and VIII in West Bengal schools fared poorly vis-à-vis states like Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra in terms of performance in mathematics, languages, science and social science, reveals the 2017 National Achievement Survey.
The ‘State Learning Report’, released on Monday, was conducted by NCERT for students of classes III, V and VIII, and teachers of government and government-aided schools. The findings are based on a test conducted for students and a questionnaire given to teachers. As many as 30,000 students in Bengal took the exam from 22 districts, said a senior NCERT official.
The report paints a dismal picture for Bengal, especially as students move up the classes. And shockingly, only 47% teachers are aware of curriculum goals, it says.
While in Class III, 71% students could answer mathematics and environmental science questions correctly, in languages the percentage was 75%. But the performance gradually deteriorated in higher classes. In Class V, 48% students answered mathematics questions correctly, followed by 54% in EVS and 56% in languages.
(Source: Times Of India)
3. Hasin Jahan Gets Open Tickets to Meet Injured Mohammad Shami
India pacer Mohammad Shami’s wife Hasin Jahan has bought two open tickets to Delhi for her and their daughter to visit the injured cricketer against whom she had brought allegations of infidelity, domestic violence, attempt to murder and marital rape earlier this month.
Jahan’s lawyer Zakir Hussain told TOI on Monday evening that she had bought the tickets on Sunday evening after learning that Shami had met with an accident. However, she had been unable to fly till Monday night since she was unaware of where he had been put up. “Neither Shami nor his family members were taking her calls. We have learnt that he started from a friend’s house in Dehradun late on Monday evening for Delhi. We, however, don’t know where he will stay in Delhi. Hence, Hasin was unable to fly till Monday. But the motherdaughter duo will reach Delhi the moment she has a confirmation about Shami’s whereabouts,” said Hussain.
(Source: Times Of India)
4. West Bengal Prods Varsities On UGC Rankings
The state higher education department, enthused by the University Grants Commission’s granting of grade-I autonomy to Jadavpur University, is pushing other state-run universities to apply for graded autonomy and has sought reports on their preparedness to apply for it.
At a meeting of vice-chancellors convened by the government on Tuesday, the first such meeting after almost six months, varsity heads will have to inform education minister Partha Chatterjee the measures they have adopted to follow UGC guidelines and apply for graded autonomy. The higher education department will also have to be updated about the progress of framing new syllabi and implement a choice-based credit system in the undergraduate curriculum.
“VCs will have to tell us what measures they are adopting to bag the graded autonomous status like JU,” said a senior higher education department official.
Heads of some universities, though, are apprehensive that the gradation that encourages self-reliance in funding may mean the gradual end of central and, possibly, state funds in future.
(Source: Times Of India)
5. Moral Policing Rap On NUJS
A statutory review commission set up by the Chief Justice of India for the National University of Jurisdical Sciences (NUJS) has got the institute to shut down CCTV surveillance in classrooms and asked the authorities to ensure there is no "moral policing" in the name of security.
The commission's 56-page report recommends, among other things, that guards and other members of the security staff should not have "unrestricted access" to CCTV footage.
"Rules on movement (of students) in and out of the campus curfew are seen as irrational and selectively applied....Moral policing by security guards should be prohibited. Gender sensitisation of guards and wardens should be carried out," states the report, submitted last October but made available to the students only this Saturday.
Metro had reported last August about female students of the Salt Lake law school complaining to vice-chancellor P Ishwara Bhat that they were being "hounded and harassed" by a section of male employees.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Train Food 'Lost' In Tech Glitch
A Calcuttan returning home from Hyderabad on Falaknuma Express ordered food near Balasore but didn't get it even after the train reached Howrah.
Atanu Santra, 44, had boarded the train at Secunderabad on Saturday evening. He had ordered a masala dosa around 11am on Sunday through a train food app when the train was nearing Balasore.
Five hours and more than 230km later, Santra got off at Howrah but the dosa never arrived.
The order was supposed to be delivered in Balasore where the train was scheduled to reach in a while.
After placing the order, Santra received a confirmation call and message from the vendor.
"The caller said an online payment would fetch me a discount of Rs 15. I refused and opted for cash on delivery," Santra, a CID officer posted at Bhabani Bhavan, said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. Security Promise Unfulfilled, Parents Allege
Parents of the Regent Park school where a four-year-old had allegedly been sexually assaulted by two teachers last November have said the management has not yet implemented their demands related to the security of their wards.
The parents allege:
• The buses of the girls' school that ferry students still do not have CCTV cameras
• The buses are still not fitted with GPS devices
• The students on the buses are still not accompanied by female attendants
The issues came up on Sunday at the first meeting of an association of the parents of the schools' students. The association was registered last week.
The school authorities were unavailable for comments. Repeated calls to the cellphone number of one of the senior officials of the school went unanswered.
(Source: The Telegraph)
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