Non-Payment of salary to teachers

Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 3:09 PM                                            5th & 6th PAY COMMISSIONS                                 
HC Issues contempt notice to private schools    
The Delhi High Court today issued contempt notice to a private school, Rukmini Devi Jaipuria School, Rajpur Road for not paying salary and arrears to its teachers as per the 5th & 6th Pay Commissions.

Hearing a contempt petition filed by the aggrieved teachers through advocate, Ashok Agarwal, a single bench comprising Justice Rajiv Shakdher directed the school to reply to the contempt notices by 14 December 2012.

The contempt petition has been filed against the school for disobeying the earlier court order dated 11/052012 in which a Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw had directed the erring school to pay the salary as well as arrears with effect from 1/1/1996.

The Delhi High Court had held that the teachers of unaided private schools are entitled to same pay and emoluments as those of government schools. Rejecting an appeal by a private school, a bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw upheld the single judge's order directing Rukmini Devi Jaipuria School, Rajpura Road, to pay arrears of salary to its teachers with effect from January one, 1996.

Directing the school to pay the arrears in four weeks, the bench also imposed a cost of Rs 30,000 on it.

The court dismissed the school's argument that the pay commission recommendations are only applicable to the government-aided schools and not to private schools.

The court accepted the contention of Ashok Agarwal, the counsel for the teachers, that it's a travesty of justice that the teachers are denied their lawful salary without any justification.

The court also held that the employees of all unaided recognised private schools are entitled to benefits of pay and emoluments from January 1, 1996, the date the fifth pay commission recommendations became applicable and the schools cannot deny or delay the same on the ground that it could not recover fee from the students.

Only recently, the Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee for Review of School Fee had found as many as 143 Delhi Unaided Private Schools which claimed to have increased the fee consequent to the order of the Directorate of Education dated 11/2/2009 but have not implemented the recommendations of Sixth Pay Commission.

Ashok Agarwal, Advocate
M-09811101923
21.09.2012

Delhi High Court on Students Postcards

Reveal Shocking State in Govt. and MCD Schools

Delhi High Court (A.K. Sikri ACJ & Rajeev Sahai Enlaw J) today expressed great displeasure over the state of affairs going on in Government and MCD schools wherein students are mercilessly beaten up by teachers, teachers remain absent for lectures and a dismal state of infrastructure prevails.
Taking cognizance of the petition by Advocate Ashok Agarwal, based on 181 post-cards written by the students of Delhi government and M.C.D. schools in Madanpur Khadar to the Delhi High Court Chief Justice, and taking notice of the moving contents of the petition, the Division Bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajeev Sahai Endlaw issued notices to the Government of NCT of Delhi and M.C.D directing them to file their response within 4 weeks.

The school-children had written moving post-cards narrating the conditions in these schools, on issues ranging from corporal punishment to infrastructure and quality of teaching. Students had written that they are consistently abused and beaten up with fists, kicks, flinging shoes, sandals and canes. Some teachers fling shoes towards students for pointing out the teacher’s mistakes. Others are beaten up with shoe-blows for using teachers’ toilets, while students’ toilets are in an unusable state. Some teachers play Cricket in school instead of teaching. 140-150 students are made to accommodate in one classroom having not more than 20-30 benches. Classrooms have broken ceilings through which rainwater comes and collects in the classrooms and walls give electric shocks.

“In the absence of conducive environment in the schools, the constitutional guarantee of quality education shall remain elusive”, argued Advocate Ashok Agarwal.

Next date of hearing is 07.11.2012.

Ashok Agarwal, Advocate
19 September 2012
M-09811101923

9th Ophthalmic Quiz Organized at CMC

1st prize winner-Pushkar Dhir, Samson Charan

Ludhiana, 15th September, 2012 (Shalu Arora and Rector Kathuria) The Department of Ophthalmology, Christian Medical College and Hospital successfully organized the 9th Ophthalmic Quiz for undergraduate medical students in the hospital auditorium. The Chief Guest for the occasion was Dr.A.G.Thomas, Director, CMC & Hospital. He encouraged the participating teams and appreciated the efforts of the department in making this academic venture a much awaited annual feature of the institution.
Among the 30 Undergraduate teams, 4 teams had qualified for the quiz following the preliminary round. Dr.Nitin Batra and Dr.Gurvinder conducted the final.   1st prize winner- PUSHKAR DHIR, SAMSON CHARAN &   2nd prize winner- JIBI JOHN, ANKITA RAISINGHANI (Batch of 2007 and 2009) won the champions trophy.

Dr.S.M. Bhatti, Principal CMC, was the guest of honor and presented a special Award for 100% attendance to George Koshy (Batch of 2009). Rohit Theodore (Batch of 2009) presented an interesting talk titled ‘Hall of Fame’, which gave a brief history of legendary Ophthalmologists.

DD Jain Memorial College for Women

MP Manish Tiwari inaugurated the Computer Lab

On September 14, 2012, Mr. Manish Tiwari, Member Parliament inaugurated the Computer Lab constructed in Devki Devi Jain Memorial College for Women, Ludhiana with the contribution of Rs.5,00,000/- sanctioned by Sh. Tiwari. He was accompanied by Sh. Pawan Deewan, District President of Congress, Mrs. Pinky Bansal, Councilor, Sh. Sham Sunder Malhotra & Sh. Jasbir Chadda, Ex-Councilors. Mrs. Punam Sareen, Officiating Principal welcomed the honourable guests and gave a brief account of the achievements of the institution. Samaj Rattan Sh. Hira Lal Jain expressed his gratitude to Mr. Tiwari for taking keen interest in the empowerment of women through the medium of education. Sh. Manish Tiwari in his address asked the young students to join the work force of the country after the completion of their studies to speed up the economic growth of the nation. He also assured that there will be no dearth of funds in providing the infrastructure to improve the quality of education. 
Sh. Kedar Nath, President of college Managing Committee, Sh. Raj Kumar Jain & Sh. Shanti Saroop Jain, Sr. Vice Presidents, Sh. Sheetal Kumar Jain, Vice President, Sh. Bipin Jain Secretary, Sh. Surinder Kumar Jain, Manager, Sh. Arvind Kumar Jain, Joint Secretary, Sh. Shiv Desh Bandhu Gupta, Sh. Amrit Lal Jain, Sh. Prem Kumar Jain & Sh. Rajiv Jain thanked Mr. Tiwari and reiterated that they have high hopes from young and charismatic leader like Mr. Tiwari who can lead the country to great heights. 

Dr Joginder Dayal critisised the Punjab Government

This is making mockery of the medical education

Dr Joginder Dayal Member Central Executive Committee Communist Party of India (CPI) has critisised the decision of cabinet Punjab Government to allow the Private Medical Colleges to admit the NRI candidates on their own will. The Baba Farid University of Health Sciences was took conduct this admission. According to a press note issued by Dr Arun Mitra Astt. Secretary CPI Distt. Ludhiana It appears that the government has connived with the Private Medical Colleges. It is unfortunate that both central and the state government have taken their hands off.  Health care and medical education and left it to the private institution to sell.  He demanded that the decision of the Punjab government revoked and the admission should conducted by the Baba Farid University of Health Science. It is a known fact to everyone that most of their private medical colleges are charging hefty amounts as under hand money for the admission in both under graduate and post graduate courses. This amount some subject is more than one crore. This is making mockery of the medical education and health care. According to Indian constitution the reservation has to be given only to those who come from socially, economically educationally and culturally backward back ground. But it is the economically well off section who is being given benefits. 

International Literacy Day -2012 Function

Vice President Confers National Literacy Award

The Vice President, Shri Mohd. Hamid Ansari addressing during the interaction with students of Integral University, in Lucknow on September 08, 2012. (PIB Photo)

The Vice President, Shri Mohd. Hamid Ansari and his wife Smt. Salma Ansari being received by the Governor of Uttarakhand, Shri B.L. Joshi and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Shri Akhilesh Yadav, at Amausi airport, Lucknow on September 08, 2012.(PIB)

The Vice President of India, Shri M Hamid Ansari has said that literacy is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means of social and economic development. It is one of the most important parameters for gauging, in conjunction with other social parameters, the development of a society.  Addressing   after conferring “ National Literacy Awards” at a function  to mark International Literacy Day- 2012 organised by the National Literacy Mission Authority in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) today, he expressed his concern that we have the largest number of non-literates in the world. Our literacy rate of 74 percent, achieved in the last decade, is much below the world average of 84 per cent and is in sharp contrast to what has been achieved by some Asian countries like China, Iran, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
He said that we consoled ourselves with the fact that our national literacy rate at the time of independence was a little over 12 percent and that significant progress has been made since with the literacy rate going up to 52 in 1991, 65 in 2001 and 74 in 2011. It is also evident that the vast treasures of knowledge dispensed by our sages and scholars down the ages emanated from a very narrow base in numerical terms.  
Shri Ansari opined that the Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and Minorities together constitute 44 per cent of our population. The socio-economic development of women largely depends upon their literacy level. Literacy of women thus plays a critical role in their empowerment. The Saakshar Bharat programme, therefore, gives special emphasis on women literacy.  It is to be noted that while the male literacy rate has increased from 75 to 82.14 per cent during the last decade, the female literacy rate in the same period has increased from 53.67 to 65.46 percent.  This has reduced the gender gap from 21 to 16 percent. 
Applauding the efforts the ‘Saakshar Bharat programme’, he said that this programme  is being implemented in 372 out of 410 eligible districts spread across 25 States and one Union Territory. Adult Education Centres have been set up in one lakh Gram Panchayats and around 570 lakh non literates have been identified through door to door survey. Literacy classes have started functioning in 16 lakh Centres covering around 174 lakh learners. Out of these, around 144 lakh learners have been certified as literates in the assessment tests conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling.
The Vice President said that development of Adult Education in India depends upon the adaptability of the literacy mission to the emerging changes in all segments of the economy.  Instead of functioning as a transient agent, the mission needs to take shape of a regular and permanent mechanism. Such mechanism is to be established and continued not only at the level of various administrative authorities, but also at the levels of the civil society organizations, social partners, private sector, community and adult learners’ and educators’ organizations. The success of the programme would also largely depend upon how effectively it is implemented by the Local Self-Government bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions.  
Following is the text of the Vice President’ address :
“I am happy to be here today, in the historic city of Lucknow, to participate in this function to mark the International Literacy Day 2012, organized by the National Literacy Mission Authority. It is an important event in our calendar, an occasion for rejoicing for the work done, as also for introspection about the distance still to be traversed. Needless to say, literacy is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means of social and economic development. It is one of the most important parameters for gauging, in conjunction with other social parameters, the development of a society.  
Allow me to mention a disturbing fact. We have the largest number of non-literates in the world. Our literacy rate of 74 percent, achieved in the last decade, is much below the world average of 84 per cent and is in sharp contrast to what has been achieved by some Asian countries like China, Iran, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. We console ourselves with the fact that our national literacy rate at the time of independence was a little over 12 percent and that significant progress has been made since with the literacy rate going up to 52 in 1991, 65 in 2001 and 74 in 2011. It is also evident that the vast treasures of knowledge dispensed by our sages and scholars down the ages emanated from a very narrow base in numerical terms.  
The paradox is that within our own country, uneven progress in the promotion of literacy has been made and wide disparities are noticeable. Thus Kerala has almost 100 percent literacy. Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram have made remarkable progress. On the other hand, some other states record well below the national average. When this is viewed in conjunction with other social indicators like infant mortality and life expectancy, the linkage between literacy and quality of life become evident.
This audience is well aware of the steps taken in the past decade to promote literacy in all age groups in our population. The Constitution (Eighty sixth) Amendment of 2002 and the Right to Education Act of 2009 address the problem at the base of the age pyramid. For those in the higher age groups - 15 to 34 and 35 to 59, together constituting about 67 percent of the population, and particularly its weaker and disadvantaged segments - specific initiatives were required to address the prevalence of non-literates.
This was the purpose of the National Literacy Mission with its objective of imparting functional literacy to all persons in the age group 15 to 35, defined as acquiring the skill of reading, writing and arithmetic and the ability to apply them to one’s daily life and thereby ameliorate their condition by participating in the process of development.  
Experience showed the need for further refinement and sharper focusing. Three years ago, on this day, the Saakshar Bharat, the new variant of National Literacy Mission, was launched by the Government.  The prime focus of the Mission is to establish a fully literate society through improved quality and standard of Adult Education and Literacy.
The purpose of the Mission is to impart functional literacy to 70 million adults in the age group of 15 years and above focusing mainly on women, SCs, STs, Minorities and other disadvantaged groups of the society in rural areas.  The Programme is being implemented in the Mission Mode with institutional framework at national, state, district, block and Gram Panchayat levels. The institution of Adult Education Centre at the Gram Panchayat level is the backbone of the Programme.
The rationale of this emphasis is evident. Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and Minorities together constitute 44 per cent of our population. The socio-economic development of women largely depends upon their literacy level. Literacy of women thus plays a critical role in their empowerment. The Saakshar Bharat programme, therefore, gives special emphasis on women literacy.  It is to be noted that while the male literacy rate has increased from 75 to 82.14 per cent during the last decade, the female literacy rate in the same period has increased from 53.67 to 65.46 percent.  This has reduced the gender gap from 21 to 16 percent. 
I am happy to learn that the Saakshar Bharat programme is being implemented in 372 out of 410 eligible districts spread across 25 States and one Union Territory. Adult Education Centres have been set up in one lakh Gram Panchayats and around 570 lakh non literates have been identified through door to door survey. Literacy classes have started functioning in 16 lakh Centres covering around 174 lakh learners. Out of these, around 144 lakh learners have been certified as literates in the assessment tests conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling.
While quantitative data makes impressive reading, some questions do need to be asked about the quality of literacy imparted. How do we ensure it? If stagnation and quality deficit in educational outputs remain a fact of life, how do we ensure that it will bring forth capacity building and eventual employability?  Since this programme is in a mission mode, how do we ensure continuity once the mission is concluded? 
To take this initiative further, we need to gear up the machinery at all levels i.e. National Literacy Mission Authority, State Literacy Mission Authorities, Lok Shiksha Samities in Districts, Blocks and Gram Panchayats.  The implementation structure needs to be consolidated and strengthened with involvement of not only the Government Authorities but also eminent organisations in the Non-Government and Private Sector.
Furthermore, development of Adult Education in India depends upon the adaptability of the literacy mission to the emerging changes in all segments of the economy.  Instead of functioning as a transient agent, the mission needs to take shape of a regular and permanent mechanism. Such mechanism is to be established and continued not only at the level of various administrative authorities, but also at the levels of the civil society organizations, social partners, private sector, community and adult learners’ and educators’ organizations. 
The success of the programme would also largely depend upon how effectively it is implemented by the Local Self-Government bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions.  
Finally, we need to create more public awareness and public opinion in favour of our battle against illiteracy. It is the tyranny of circumstances rather than free choice that makes a person non-literate. It is the duty of society to change the conditions in which illiteracy prospers. 
Let us not forget that literacy today, with a focus on quality, is essential for social, economic and cultural development of our people and towards the creation of a knowledge society. I urge every citizen to take up this challenge and contribute to free India from the clutches of illiteracy.”  (PIB)  08-September-2012 15:35 IST      ***** 

To mark the teachers’ day

An interactive session at the New Public High School 

To mark the teachers’ day, the Bharat Jan Gyan Vigyan Jatha (BJGVJ) held an interactive session at the New Public High School, Ghumar Mandi, Ludhiana to create awareness regarding promotion of healthy environment. Dr Arun Mitra, General Secretary BJGVJ along with Sh.M.S.Bhatia and Sh.Sohan Singh attended the function. Mrs.B Rai Dhanda and Sh.Sukhdev Singh Jhajj – Principal welcomed the guests. The students were called upon to developed environment friendly habits in the form of conservation of water and maintain hygiene. Environment has to be kept clean for good health.

PM's Message on Teachers Day

Teachers are true nation builders. A teacher or a 'Guru' is revered in our society for mentoring our children, building their character and preparing them to face larger challenges of life. On Teachers' Day, we remember and honour one of our greatest leaders and teachers, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. His work, dedication and wisdom continue to inspire us generation after generation. On this auspicious day, I greet all teachers across the country. (PIB) 05-September-2012 11:9 IST

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