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Make English must from class I: Knowledge panel
Split HC verdict embarrasses TN govt
70 lakh take holy dip at Sangam
religious warmth beats climatic chill |
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Bihar MLAs to catwalk for khadi
Few takers for Nitish’s women empowerment raaga?
Sariska- A tiger reserve, but no tiger
DSGMC poll held; results
on Jan 16
Raids at Best Bakery, Zaheera kin held
Roads dug up, rallies held in Nandigram
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Make English must from class I: Knowledge panel
New Delhi, January 14 English should be introduced from the beginning, along with the first language (either the mother tongue or the regional language) of the child, the commission has said in its first annual report submitted to the Prime Minister. Stress should be on using the language without disproportionate emphasis on grammar and rules, the commission has said. English should not be treated as a stand-alone or an add-on subject, but be integrated into the school curriculum. “Those who do not know English well enough find it exceedingly difficult to compete for a place in premier educational institutions. This disadvantage is accentuated further in the world of work, not only in professional occupations, but also in white-collar jobs overall,” the commission has said. According to the panel, English has been a part of the education system for more than a century, yet it remains beyond the reach of most of young people. The available information suggests that lower and middle income groups spend a large proportion of their modest income on sending their children to relatively expensive English-medium schools. But there are a very large number of people who simply do not have the resources for such an investment, and the outcome is exclusion. According to the commission, though nine states (of which six are in the North-East) and three Union Territories have already introduced English as a compulsory subject from class I and as many as 12 states and three Union Territories have made it a compulsory subject at different stages, the implementation of these decisions is slow and the quality of English teaching not good enough. The panel has suggested that to meet the requirement for English teachers, graduates with high proficiency in English and good communication skills should be inducted without requiring a formal teacher training. The commission has also recommended that language learning should not be separated from content learning. English should be used to teach some non-language, content subject, starting from third standard. The choice of subject for this purpose can be left to schools, depending upon the proficiency of teachers and availability of material, it has said. The commission is a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister. It has been mandated to guide and direct reforms, focusing on certain key areas such as education, science and technology, agriculture, industry, e-governance etc.
— UNI
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Split HC verdict embarrasses TN govt
Chennai, January 14 In his verdict, Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya said the Constitution had banned entertainment of public interest litigation petitions in election-related matters but a judge on the same bench -- Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla -- ordered fresh polls in 99 wards besides directing the State Election Commission to cancel election certificates issued to elected candidates. The bench then referred the matter to Chief Justice A.P. Shah, who is in the process of appointing a single judge to look into the matter. Justice Mukhopadhaya ruled that mere allegations of misconduct cannot stop the SEC from declaring the entire election process null and void. "Only when the (relevant) authority arrives at a substantial satisfaction can action be taken to cancel the poll or to order a re-poll," Justice Mukhopadhaya said. "The failure of the SEC to exercise its powers cannot be a ground to declare the total election as ab initio void," he ruled. No authority could interfere in the poll process because there was a ban against it stipulated in Article 243ZG of the Constitution and Supreme Court orders, the judge pointed out. After the process was over, such a power could be exercised only under Rule 118 to 126 of the Tamil Nadu Town Panchayats, Third Grade Municipalities, Municipalities and Corporation (Election) Rules 2006, the judge said. Justice Mukhopadhaya held that it was impossible for the courts to determine free and fair election, and added that the court was unable to give any definite finding on merits while dismissing the petitions. On the contrary, Justice Ibrahim Kalifulla said that a separate order was necessary and wrote on record that he disagreed with the orders passed by Justice Mukhopadhaya. "In a democratic set-up, holding of elections in a free and fair manner assumes great importance," Justice Kalifulla said. He pointed out that the Supreme Court had cautioned against successful candidates who had resorted to foul methods. "I am convinced that this is an extreme and extraordinary situation warranting an extraordinary remedy in view of its magnitude. It would be wholly inappropriate if fresh elections were not ordered in a majority of the wards," Justice Kalifulla added.
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70 lakh take holy dip at Sangam
Allahabad, January 14 Chants of “Har Har Mahadev” rant the air as pilgrims,
including ash-smeared sadhus, took the dip at the Sangam, the confluence
the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, to wash away their
sins. A steady stream of people started flocking the 30 ghats since
morning to take a dip in chilly waters as the police, para-troopers and
NSG commandos kept vigil. With deployment of over 10,000 security
personnel and quick response teams, the bathing passed off peacefully
with no reports of any untoward incident. Twelve persons were arrested
for lifting luggage of pilgrims, Divisional Commissioner (Allahabad)
R.N. Tripathi said. Men, women, saffron-robed sadhus and old and young
jostled with each other for space at the bathing ghats. King Bhagirath,
an ancestor of Lord Rama, is believed to have brought the Ganga on the
earth on this day, which is celebrated as Makar Sankranti, when the sun
enters the Tropic of Capricorn. — PTI
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Bihar MLAs to catwalk for khadi
Patna, January 14 Renuka Art has reportedly approached over a dozen young legislators to walk the ramp at the Kalidas Rangalaya here on January 30, the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Darbhanga MLA Sanjay Surabag says he had been approached to take part. BJP’s youngest legislator from Patna, Mr Nitish Navin’s name also figures in the list. Apart from designer attires, the MLAs would also be trained to sashay down the ramp and a special workshop for the MLAs is proposed. Some MLAs are reported to have taken the lead in practising! Talking to The Tribune, Mr Nitin Navin said that Renuka Art approached him with the unique idea. "The basic aim is to popularise khadi among the youth, which is why they have chosen young MLAs to model" he said. However, the youngest minister in the Nitish Cabinet, the JD(U) MLA Mr Nitish Mishra has not received an invitation for the same. Another MLA said that khadi in North India was mostly identified with politicians, which is why it could never become a dress of the masses here.
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Few takers for Nitish’s women empowerment
raaga?
Patna, January 14 While Mr Kumar highly favoured women empowerment and his government’s recent move to reserve 50 per cent vacant posts of teachers across the state for women at a programme at his official residence, the Bharatiya Purush Parishad assembled at a youth hostel. Talking to the media, one of the organisers of the gathering, Mr Sushil Kumar Singh, alleged husbands were being tortured by their wives and implicated, particularly under section 498 of the IPC related to dowry cheating. The Bharatiya Purush Parishad also demanded withdrawal of the recent domestic violence act, which they claimed mainly aimed at dividing the family, and was being misused.
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Sariska- A tiger reserve, but no tiger
Chennai, January 14 Ms Gabriel was here last week to attend a four-day conference on Asia for Animals, 2007, which concluded on Friday. Talking to The Tribune about wildlife and its protection in Asia and particularly India, she said, "Take the case of Sariska (Sariska Tiger Reserve Park in Rajasthan) which is meant to be a tiger reserve, but there are no tigers there. This means the authorities concerned failed to take any action while poaching went on for years. For obvious reasons, they turned a blind eye." Born in China, Ms Gabriel now works at the IFAW office in the USA. She said the Indian laws concerning wildlife and animals were far advanced as compared to China, but were not enforced properly. She said wildlife protection agencies in India lacked basic equipment. "The forest rangers do not even have proper boots, flashlights, raincoats, least to speak of firearms to prevent poaching." Talking in general about Asia, Ms Gabriel, a former journalist, said the problem of poaching wildlife in China had acquired dangerous proportions as there was a sudden demand for wildlife products like tiger skins, claws and ivory following the opening up of the economy. She said, "Though the penalties are very high in China, but there is hardly any enforcement of laws meant for the protection of wildlife and that gives an opportunity to the nouveau-riche to stimulate illegal trade in wildlife products. "After drug trafficking, smuggling of wildlife is the second largest trade in the world as it fetches huge returns and the punishment is very low." Ms Gabriel said poaching of Panda, which is the national animal of China, attracts capital punishment there but it was rarely enforced. "In India, at least you have anti-cruelty law, but in China no such law exists," she added. Comparing the tiger population in India with China, she said the tiger population in China was hardly 50 and that too it was not known whether their habitat was in China or in the bordering areas with Russia and Myanmar. During her deliberation at the conference, Ms Gabriel tried to mobilise opinion against "tiger farming", which in fact was leading to more demand of "tiger products and was far more expensive than tiger poaching". She pointed out that according to traditional Chinese medicine, body parts of tigers, bears and rhinos were used for various ailments, but alternative medicines were available and the use of animal body parts were not backed by science. Arguing strongly against "tiger farming", which was being widely practised in China, she told the conference that allowing tiger farming for legal trade was in fact stimulating and promoting poaching and illegal trade. Quoting a World Bank economist, she said poaching a wild tiger in India costs at most between $20 and $40 while the poachers and middlemen make a profit of maximum $100 from each tiger killed. "In contrast, estimates suggest that the cost of maintaining a domestic bred tiger in captivity is between $3000 to $10,000, depending on the scale of farming and location," she pointed out. Though real statistics were not available, approximately 15 to 20 per cent of Indian tigers were killed for their bones, skins, teeth and claws each year for the Chinese market. Ms Gabriel told the conference that the price put on a tiger bred in captivity was $40,000 and asked, "Just think how many people would literally kill a tiger for that $ 40,000 - in the 13 tiger range countries in Asia." Apart from tiger products, she said Chinese love ivory and India being close to the country, a large quantity of ivory was smuggled to China.
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DSGMC poll held; results
on Jan 16
New Delhi, January 14 The 48-seat committee is at present headed by SAD’s Paramjit Singh Sarna. Polls to the committee are supposed to be held every four years, but over the past decade, they have not been held regularly.
— UNI
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Raids at Best Bakery, Zaheera kin held
Ahmedabad, January 14 The police said the raid was conducted after they got a tip- off that Heena Sheikh, sister-in-law of Zaheera, the prime witness in the Best Bakery case, had allegedly stocked liquor on the
premises. The Panigate area police seized some beer and liquor bottles and arrested Heena on prohibition charges. The Best Bakery, owned by Zaheera's father, was occupied by her brother Nafitullah and his wife Heena though the business was not revived after the March 1, 2002 incident.
— PTI
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Roads dug up, rallies held in Nandigram
Nandigram, January 14 The Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), spearheading the protest against acquisition of farmland for a Special Economic Zone here in East Midnapore district, declined to abide by the decisions taken at yesterday’s peace meeting. Sheikh Sufiyan, convener of the BUPC, said the CPM had given the charge of looking into the Nandigram affair to its district secretaries Tarun Roy and Dipak Sarkar and the agitators were objecting to the inclusion of the two. Roy and Sarkar, Sufiyan alleged, were behind a number of killings earlier in the district.
— PTI
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Cop shoots colleague Hat-trick
of twins
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In video: Thousands throng the Ganges on Makar Sankranti.
