Boom time for Internet users
By Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 29 — Internet users in the city and adjoining townships are in for boom time. Private internet service providers have virtually swamped subscribers with free usage time, 24-hour helplines, delivery of software packages at the doorstep, a professional approach, fast download and connecting speeds and "off-the-shelf" connections.

All this has happened in the past one month or so. This has brought about a sea change in the way internet subscribers are handled by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The private companies claim that they have been registering between 50 and 100 users a day. This has forced a change in the outlook of the DoT, which clears connections the same day of receiving applications.

There are four internet service providers in the city. These are the local unit of the DoT, Satyam Online, Glide Internet Services and I-Ninety One Interconnect Limited.

Officials of Satyam Online claim that the company is one of the biggest private internet service providers in the country, with operations in 26 other cities and 80,000 subscribers. They claim to have 500 connections in one week of the launch in Chandigarh.

A user registered here will be able to use the same connection is other cities. Free usage time of upto 200 hours and provision to start up by buying a CD from the company or its retailers is the real advantage, they claim. These free hours can be used only between 11 pm and 7 am.

The Managing Director of Glide Internet, Mr Dheeraj Garg , says "We are offering free demonstrations. Our connectivity is the fastest and our fast download time will determine the economy of using the hours and usage of telephone lines. We have direct connectivity between Chandigarh and the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) international gateway at Mumbai." Mr Garg claims that he has 1,200 connections within in a month of the launch.

Mr Umesh Pahwa of Satyam Online claims that the company has connectivity with five international gateways across the country and offers 2 mega bytes per second (MBPS) of bandwidth. The Principal General Manager, Telecom, Mr Prithipal Singh, says "The DoT system has 4 MBPS bandwidth. The bandwidth facilitates download speed.

Mr Sandeep Sharma, Director of Glide, that has 1024 kilo bytes per second (KBPS) of bandwidth, debunks this theory. He says this 2 or 4 MBPS is not for city users alone. "Our bandwidth, that works out to be more than 1 MBPS, is entirely for the city user, while theirs is for the entire region," he says.

Operators of Glide claim to have the fastest connectivity from a user to the web at 56.6 KBPS. Their rivals say this is a far-fetched claim. Mr Prithipal Singh says this is not possible with the present status of lines. Sources say such speeds or higher speeds are possible only on ISDN connections. Mr Sharma of Glide claims, "We are getting the 'handshake' at a speed close to 50 KBPS."

Satyam operators claim that their system is also capable of supporting 56 KBPS connectivity but DoT lines do not permit anything beyond 33 KBPS. Sources in the business say a telephone line from a telephone exchange to a person's home or office cannot handle more than 19.6 KBPS due to various reasons.

On competition to DoT from private providers, Mr Prithpal Singh says these price reductions are gimmicks in which the department cannot indulge in but has to go by policy. Mr Rakesh Prabhakar, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of I-Ninety One Interconnect claims to have a bandwidth of 8 MBPS. "At the moment all this is being used for the city but we will provide services to other users in Punjab on a portion of this bandwidth," he adds.

Whatever may be the final outcome, the subscriber is getting a choice and he can check out the services before subscribing to them. Slashing of internet rates is the hottest topic among 'net addicts' and 'net surfers'.

Controversy over PUTA's demand
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 29 — The demand of the Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) for allocation of seats in the Senate previously meant for teachers and principals of Haryana to teachers of the campus has generated a controversy.

The Association of Principals of Non-Governmental Colleges in a press release here yesterday said that four seats each for the principals and teachers of Haryana should be given to the college teachers. In case the university teachers were demanding more seats, the case should be taken up separately. College teachers largely remained under represented in the Senate.

Mr P.S.Sangha, Principal of Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26, said that as the teacher union of the campus had representation of teachers on Senate through nomination, it must also be carried out for the principal office-bearers of the colleges

Dr Rabinder Nath Sharma, a syndic, said:"One does not find any legitimacy and genuineness in the demand of university teachers". The teachers working in the colleges were not opposed to give more representation to the university teachers but not at the cost of the seats meant for colleges teachers and principals, he added.

Prof Charanjit Chawla said that the government notification in 1997 had clearly said that seats should be shifted to the college teachers and principals.The number of college teachers and principals had increased manifold and deserved representation in the Senate. The PUTA demand was "unfair", he added.

Performance of students to be monitored
Functioning of technical institutions reviewed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 29 — With a view to streamlining the functioning of the technical institutions functioning under the Directorate of Technical Education, UT, and to monitor the performance of students, certain directives have been issued to the heads of these institutions.

The Director, Technical Education, Dr S.K Aggarwal, at a meeting held recently with the Principals of Central Polytechnic, Sector 26; Industrial Training Institute, Sector 28; Central Crafts Institute for Women, Sector 11; and Government Polytechnic for Women, Sector 10, and discussed the dismal performance of students in the final year examinations of various courses during the past few years. Taking into account the findings of the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, Dr Aggarwal has issued stringent guidelines to be followed with immediate effect at the institution level.

He has directed the Principals of these institutions to ensure that students remain in the premises during full working hours and engage themselves in useful work in theory and practical classes. No student should be allowed to leave the institution before time without proper permission.

The Principals have also been asked to ensure the availability of teachers in their respective classes as per their scheduled time tables. The time tables should be fixed in such a way that the teachers remain in the institution for the whole day, as per the timings contained in the prospectus.

It was also decided that students who are getting scholarship/stipend but are not getting through in the final examination, should be asked to refund the scholarship and the stipend received by them at the time when they come for reappearing in the examination.

Dr Aggarwal has also asked the Principals to give teaching/other work in accordance with their post. Furthermore, the ACRs of teachers in future may be recorded on the basis of their achievement through the result of the students in the class. The proforma of the ACR can be amended, if needed, so that the result of each teacher is shown in the proforma and his performance is worked out.

The issue of filling all vacant teaching posts at the Industrial Training Institute and Government Central Crafts Institute for Women as per the latest notified recruitment rules.

The analysis had pointed out that the pass rate of students in certain discipline is low; inadequate industrial training during the course; inadequate in-house training for faculty in industry; and poor placement of students on passing out from institutions. Lack of clarity and career focus was also responsible for the poor standard of education in these institutes. The result figures of the ITIs reveal that performance of students in the non-engineering trades like stenography has really gone down. Students have also not fared well in subjects like mathematics and drawing.

However, keeping in view the threat of competitions from the new institutions in the organised and unorganised sector, it is important to give maximum industrial training to students and the faculty. They should be encouraged to undertake project works for industry and other public sector organisations. These industrial and commercial assignments will help utilise the infrastructure in technical and non-technical areas.

Dr Aggarwal plans to monitor the implementation of these guidelines by carrying out surprise checks from time to time. He is of the view that the standard of education has a direct bearing on the employability prospects of these institutions.

Fencing to reduce traffic congestion
From Our Correspondent

ZIRAKPUR, Sept 29 — The Buildings and Roads wing of the Punjab Public Works Department is installing a fence along the central verge of the road here.

The project, which will cost Rs 64 lakh, includes the construction of a bus layby. This is being done to reduce traffic congestion on this stretch of the highway and to prevent violation of traffic rules.

The department will turn nearly 1 km stretch of the highway at Zirakpur into four lanes. There will be provision for drainage of rain water. Rs 49.78 lakh will be spent on four-laning the stretch and constructing the bus layby.

To restrain heavy vehicles from crossing the central verge of this stretch of the highway, iron railings will be installed from Zirakpur traffic light point to the UT border at a cost of nearly Rs 14.26 lakh. According to the SDO, installation of the iron railings would be completed soon.

The Sub-Divisional Officer PWD (B and R), Mr K.S. Bhinder, said the central verge had been damaged by heavy vehicles, which crossed it from wherever they liked. This had made the area accident-prone. Two exit points for light vehicles would be left without railings on the central verge.

Mr Bhinder said the police had been informed several times about the traffic hazards on the national highway because of illegal parking of vehicles but no strict action had been taken in this regard.

The police had also been told about the unauthorised godowns along the highway in front of which heavy vehicles remained parked for days, which was the cause of the problem, added another department officer.