Is swearing-in a celebration?
This has reference to the report ‘For 18-min ceremony, Govt hired 134 cars at over Rs 72 lakh’ (Herald June 3, 2022). Mind-boggling, should one say, the amount of money, time and effort that was spent on an 18-minute swearing-in function? Swearing-in functions have become some sort of a grand mela, a fun fair event in recent times, moving from the lawns of the Raj Bhavan to public stadiums.
I mean, is a swearing-in function a celebration? Those who are being sworn in as legislators or MPs have been elected by the people, they have not won a war, that they need to celebrate their victory. It is a democratic process. They have been elected as representatives to look after the welfare of the citizens. They have been elected to govern, not to rule. They need to understand that India is a Democracy, not a kingdom.
They need to get down to the task of serving the people who have elected them. Such extravagant swearing-in functions most stop. This is sheer waste, rather, misuse of public money. As your report rightly puts it, an ‘impermissible criminal waste of public funds’, when this money for be used for the social welfare schemes. Yes, we can spend the money, time and efforts in much better ways. And, this holds good for all state governments and Parliament as well.
Melville X. D’Souza, Mumbai
UGC & publication of research papers
Presently it is mandated that prior to submission and award of thesis an PhD scholar has to publish at least 1 first author paper in a peer-review journal and present his/her findings at 2 seminars. This is the best way for the students to publicise their work and get feedbacks from peers.
In Goa University 2 papers are recommended and this is a good step as these help in the students’ career. Now, in its own wisdom the University Grants Commission (UGC) plans to scrap this rule. The reasons given by UGC to do away with the publications is that students are using unfair means to publish their articles, publish in predatory journals where papers get accepted on payment of fees and with hardly any review. The UGC wants the higher education institutions to device their own rules and regulations concerning the submission of thesis. This will create havoc as there would be no pan-India uniformity or set criteria. Instead of cracking the whip on the students who are involved in malpractices, with or without the knowledge of their guides, thousands of others would suffer.
The so-called drawbacks are not new and the UGC and most organisations and universities already have checks and balances, plagiarism tests and a list of recommended journals for publications. Therefore, it will not be advisable to scrap the publication of 1 paper, which is no big deal. When the students apply for teaching or research jobs there is always an insistence on the number of publications in high impact journals. This is more so when they apply for positions abroad. A Junior Research Fellow gets a stipend of Rs.31k per month for 24 months and a Senior Research Fellow 35k per month for 36 to 48 months. The stipend works around to between Rs 20 (5 years) to 24 lakh (6 years), as it takes 5 to 6 years to complete and submit a thesis.
At the end of the tenure the students may be financially well-off but academically poor. The learned professors and policy makers in the UGC and government should not take the easy route to do away with an existing robust system but should find ways to strengthen it. As it is said, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem
Teething problems of electric buses
It is learnt that commuters travelling in an electric bus operated by the Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) along the Dodamarg route were left stranded on Thursday when the power steering of the bus jammed. Commuters were forced to alight from the vehicle at Porvorim in the middle of their journey. It is understood that this is the third electric vehicle (EV) operated by KTC that faced a breakdown in recent days.
The battery reportedly went off due to software error. The driver had to keep the generator off for a while before starting the vehicle. It took 30 minutes to restart the vehicle by which time the stranded commuters had already found alternative transport.
The electric bus is one solution for cities to abandon fossil fuel dependency and may, in a few years, be the most cost-efficient public transport. Breakdown of the buses can cause great inconvenience to the commuters. They could reach late for work or some could fail to keep an appointment or even miss the flight, train or connecting bus. Waiting for an alternative source of transport when a bus breaks down can also be very frustrating.
The Goa government is in the process of acquiring 100 EV buses and in due course could ultimately replace all diesel-operated ones belonging to KTC. However the EV buses seem to have some teething problems. All the issues need to be settled so that these buses become a reliable mode of public transport.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
