Yogesh Avasthi

The hi-tech appeal of country’s first four-lane expressway is a thing of the past. With glow signboards missing and cyclists obstructing traffic, cruising on the highway at 100kmph is fraught with danger   Yogesh Avasthi Posted On Saturday, July 30, 2011 he 93.3-km Vadodara-Ahmedabad Expressway, inaugurated in 2003 as part of the Golden Quadrilateral project, was rated as one of the best expressways in the country once. The motorway was built to reduce the travel time between the two cities from 2.5 hours on National Highway 8 to about an hour. But today, it’s almost impossible to reach Vadodara at 100 kmph speed – the maximum speed limit allowed on the stretch – in an hour, without hurting yourself or knocking someone down. http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/2/2011073020110730025857513acd1f3b/EXPRESSWAY-IT-IS.html  ...

A law banning manual scavenging was enacted in 1993. Yet, at Ahmedabad Rly Station, workers are spotted picking up plastic bags and paper cups along with human waste Yogesh Avasthi Posted On Thursday, July 28, 2011 ( http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/2/2011072820110728033653853293a70fb/WR-indifference-soils-sanitation-workers’-lives.html ) Despite a long-standing ban on manual scavenging, safai workers at Ahmedabad Railway Station are still engaged in this inhuman work. The Kalupur station is vying to become a world-class terminal and Western Railway authorities are spending crores to keep the place spic-and-span all day, every day. Yet a look at the accompanying photographs will make you wonder how much of this is spent on the workers’ personal protective gear. A law banning manual scavenging was enacted in 1993. Still, at the station, workers are spotted picking up plastic bags and paper cups along with human waste. Around 110 trains pass through the station daily. Every d...

Union Ministry of HRD conducting mammoth study as India embarks on building knowledge-based society Yogesh Avasthi Posted On Wednesday, July 27, 2011 ( http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/20110727201107270244024516e82a0ed/National-higher-edn-survey-begins-from-Guj-.html ) The national survey of higher education by the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development kicked off from Gujarat with the nodal officers from 38 universities and institutes being briefed on the project and its execution at Gandhinagar on Tuesday. A five-member team from the ministry told the university on the information that they need to gather from their organisations and how to go about the process. The compilation of the reports from across the country will be put on a website in about three months. Shailesh Bhavsar, the state nodal officer in the Commissionerate of Higher Education, said the survey will be completed in Gujarat in the next 30 days. The MHRD has involved in the project National Universit...

Colleges affiliated to Gujarat University will soon introduce biometric attendance system to keep a track of hours put in by professors and discourage students from bunking lectures Yogesh Avasthi Posted On Sunday, July 17, 2011 ( http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/2/20110717201107172316357067719f285/Slam-bunk.html ) Students and professors of colleges affiliated to Gujarat University will now have to think twice before they decide to bunk lectures. The university is planning to implement the biometric attendance system in its colleges to keep a tab on their attendance records. The GU is taking the issue of attendance quite seriously since it usually leads to skirmishes between the professors and students during university exams. At present, students mark their attendance on a piece of paper which is circulated in the classroom. This goes to the professor conducting the lecture who sends it to the administration department. But this system does not check proxy-filling. However,...

Gujarat Technological University forms local academic expert committee to gather data on infrastructure, facilities and staff strength at colleges; gives them six months to fulfil requirements Yogesh Avasthi Posted On Wednesday, July 13, 2011 ( http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/201107132011071302490146b4354663/GTU-cracks-down-on-colleges-with-poor-facilities.html ) Tightening its grip over colleges with inadequate facilities, Gujarat Technological University (GTU) has formed a local academic expert committee which has been visiting affiliated colleges across the state to prepare a report on their infrastructure, facilities and staff strength. To make the report comprehensive, the committee has prepared a 20-page form to collect data. “The data analysis has thrown up some shocking findings. Now, the colleges have been given six months’ time to fulfil the requirements which are mandatory according to AICTE norms. If the colleges do not comply with the guidelines, they will not...

A day after Mirror Test Drive revealed that station guestrooms were being rented out as couple rooms, Ahmedabad Railway Division instituted an inquiry Yogesh Avasthi Posted On Friday, July 08, 2011 ( http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/2/201107082011070803222629aa6995d2/Rlys-sees-red-suspends-3-transfers-12.html Heads were sent rolling a day after Mirror Test Drive revealed how railway employees were renting out the station guestrooms meant for passengers to couples seeking privacy. Shocked by the goings-on at Vishram Gruh on Ahmedabad railway station premises, senior railway officials instituted an inquiry on Thursday morning. Three tainted employees were immediately suspended and 12 transferred to other departments. Higher officials of Ahmedabad Railway Division and Western Railway were supervising the inquiry, sources said. New staff was appointed to overlook the administration of Vishram Gruh, sources told Mirror. During the sting conducted on July 1 and July 6, four Mirror ...

Teacher of the class I student of Islamic School in Shahpur also made her clean the toilet bowls. The female teacher was arrested after parents filed an FIR Yogesh Avasthi and Zahid Qureshi Posted On Tuesday, July 05, 2011 ( http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/2/201107052011070502564034a840bdc0/Sixyrold-girl-paraded-naked-for-bad-writing.html ) A six-year-old student of Islamic School in Shahpur Mill Compound was allegedly paraded naked by her class teacher because her handwriting was not good enough. She was later locked up in a washroom and made to clean the toilet bowls. Outraged parents of the class I student, who came to know about the incident from her classmate, confronted school trustee Iqbal Patel. However, Patel vehemently denied such an incident had taken place at school. The girl’s parents filed an FIR with Shahpur police following which the teacher was arrested on Monday evening. Incidentally, in January, parents had accused the all-girls school of forcing their ch...

The plots on which Ahmedabad’s Calorx Teachers’ University and Vadodara’s Navrachana University run their B Ed institutes have been rented out to them by individuals. This is in violation of National Council for Teacher Education’s norms Yogesh.Avasthi Posted On Saturday, July 02, 2011 ( http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/2/2011070220110702025509792ad253921/NCTE-Serves-notice-on-two-Pvt-Varsities.html _ The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has served show cause notices on two private universities in the state for not adhering to its regulations. Ahmedabad’s Calorx Teachers’ University (CTU) and Navrachana University (NU) in Vadodara have been given 30 days to reply to the notices pertaining to ownership of land. Both the universities run integrated BEd courses recognised by NCTE. Incidentally, the state government sends students from tribal areas and economically backward communities to CTU for training. In a meeting conducted in the first week of May, the western...