Eight primary schools to come up in four Naxal-hit districts

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Government has given permission to open eight primary schools in four Naxal- affected districts of the state, official sources said.
 
The schools will be opened in 2012-13 in Narayanpur, Rajnandgaon, Bastar and Kanker districts under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Centre's flagship programme for universalisation of elementary education, they said.
 
Several school buildings in Naxal-hit areas have been destroyed by the extremists. This has affected the education of school-going children, the sources added. 

Three AICTE experts among six arrested by CBI for bribery

Raipur:  Six persons, including three experts associated with the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), have been arrested by CBI in a bribery case.
    
The trio Sanjay Soni, Manoj Kumar Kushwaha and Rajesh Kumar Singh, who were on an AICTE experts panel, have been charged with entering into a conspiracy with private educational institutions for giving a favourable report to them in return for money, a CBI spokesperson said.
    
Ravinder Vishwakarma, Sandeep Khullar and Sushil Chandrakar who represent different educational institutions have also been arrested for giving bribe to them, he said.     

The arrested accused were produced yesterday in the Court of Special Judge for CBI cases, Raipur and were remanded to Police custody till May 11, 2012.
    
Further investigation of the case is on, he said.
    
Soni is Associate Professor (Applied Mechanics) at Bhopal's Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Kushwaha an Associate Professor of the same subject at SVS College of Engineering & Technology, Ferozepur (Punjab) while Singh is Deputy Director (Architecture), Military Engineering Services, Delhi.
    
Vishwakarma and Khullar are representatives of Sri Sai Shanti Shikshan Samity, Bhilai, while Chandrakar is from Bharti College of Engineering & Technology, Durg (Chhattisgarh).
    
"It was alleged that an expert committee of Central Region of AICTE, Bhopal were camping in a hotel at Durg for the purpose of conducting annual inspection of private educational (technical) institutions in Chhattisgarh.
   
"They entered into a criminal conspiracy with the owners or representatives of the educational institutions and had allegedly received or were to receive illegal gratification from such private persons for giving favourable report," he said.
    
Following information, a trap was laid by CBI when the representatives or officials of two educational institutions delivered bribe amount to AICTE experts in the hotel.
    
"During search of the said room, a cash of Rs 11.71 lakh and 12 gold coins weighing 100 grams (8x10gms + 4x5gms) were recovered and seized from their possession. The three experts of AICTE and three bribe givers representing the educational
institutions were arrested," it said.
    
Searches were also conducted at the residential premises of accused persons of AICTE at Bhopal, Meerut and Firozpur.
    
"During the search of the residences of the accused from Bhopal, Rs 10 lakh cash; 27 sale deeds or power of attorney in respect of the property; 42 pass books of bank & post offices and three keys appearing to be of bank lockers were recovered," the release said.

Chhattisgarh govt initiates measures to check copying in board exams

Raipur: In a bid to check copying in the secondary and higher-secondary board examinations scheduled next month, Chhattisgarh government has decided to set up squads at district level for carrying out inspections.

Chhattisgarh Board of Secondary Education has intimated all the district collectors, assistant commissioners to tribal development departments and education officers about the squads.

The secondary and higher secondary board examinations for Class 10 and Class 12 will be held between March 1 and March 29.

A circular by the state board has said that a nodal officer of the rank of joint collector or deputy collector will be appointed and he will report to the concerned district collector.

In total, seven squads will be formed to monitor the examination process at the zonal level. Among other measures being mulled are shifting the flying squad working in a particular zone after every three days during the course of examination.

Janjgir Champa district is notorious for instances of copying, both individual and mass copying. In 2008, a Class XII student had topped the merit list but it later came to light that he achieved the fete by copying.

The state government had charged 18 persons, including principal and teachers of the child's school in this connection.