The Canadian Parvasi - Issue 107

The International News Weekly India
August 16, 2019 | Toronto 08
Mega discounts as
nursing seats go
begging in Punjab
Continued from page 01
Why no takers for the
course? College owners
say Punjab has, in recent
years, witnessed unprecedented
migration of
youth to Canada and Australia
after these countries
eased immigration
norms. Nursing is losing
sheen, as did engineering
a few years ago, and the
colleges have been staring
at existential crisis,
they say. During the first
round of counselling for
BSc nursing on August 9,
Baba Farid University
of Health Sciences
(BFUHS), the nodal
agency for admissions to
all colleges in the state,
could only fill 906 of the
5,500 seats.
The university received
2,725 applications
Continued from page 01
He added, “No doubt this was a Supreme
Court order and we have to accept
it. But before it came to this stage, it
should have been taken care of. As many
as 30 per cent of Punjabis are from this
community.”
On hooliganism that they indulged
in, he said, “When such things happen,
the youth will do whatever comes to
them. Bache tan bache hi ne, chahe jinna
vi samjhalo. (Kids will remain kids.
However hard you may try to counsel
them).”
The CM also announced to lead a delegation
of the Ravidasia community to
meet the Prime Minister for resolution
of the crisis triggered by the demolition
of their historic temple. The CM, who
met Sants and leaders of the community
at Punjab Armed Police today, acceded
to their request to lead them for
a personal meeting with the Prime Minister
to seek the latter’s intervention in
and 1,100 of the students
cleared the test. While
78 private colleges could
only secure 499 admissions,
nine institutes, including
six in the government
sector, admitted 407
students.
With admissions lacking,
most of the private
institutes have been
struggling to even pay
outstanding dues to the
university. The BFUHS
last week put 96 of these
colleges on notice citing
“deficiencies” on account
of inadequate faculty
or poor infrastructure.
When almost all seats
are vacant, how can new
faculty be recruited or
infrastructure improved,
asks an institute owner,
worried about the loan he
took to open the college,
much of which remains
unpaid.
Desperate to fill more
seats, the BFUHS has invited
students from any
part of the country (they
must have appeared in
10+2 medical exam) to
seek admission in Punjab.
Not only BSc, MSc
seats, too, have been going
abegging. Twentyeight
nursing colleges
in Punjab offer 535 MSc
seats, but only 350 applicants
took the entrance
test and 141 cleared it.
HC Rawat, BFUHS
Dean (Exam) of Nursing,
said they are hopeful of
filling 500 more seats in
the next round of counselling.
Punjab Medical
Education Minister OP
Soni did not respond to
repeated calls.
No FIR against Dalit protesters: CM
the case. During the meeting, the Chief
Minister also promised to look into the
demand of the leaders for withdrawal
of the five cases against members of the
community for the 2009 violence in Jalandharduring
protests against firing at
the head of Dera Sachkhand Ballan and
his close associate in Vienna.
The community was represented by
25 Sants, including Shri Guru Ravidas
Sadhu Sampardai Society President
Sant Kulwant Ram, Vice-President Sant
Gurdip Giri, Chairman Sant Mohinder
Pal, General Secretary Sant Nirmal
Singh as well as Dera Sachkhand Ballan
Sant Lekhraj.
‘They were emotionally disturbed’
There has to be a basis to register a
case. The Dalits were emotionally disturbed.
It was their 500-year-old temple
which was demolished. It could have
been a church or a mosque too. It was all
reactionary. —Capt Amarinder Singh,
Chief Minister
Ravi Shastri retained as
Team India head coach
Mumbai : The Kapil Devlead
Cricket Advisory (CAC)
on Friday retained Ravi
Shastri as the head coach of
the Indian cricket team till
2021. The former Indian all
rounder was chosen from a
panel of six short-listed candidates.
Though the committee
members claimed that Shastri
was chosen amidst tough
competition from other
short-listed candidates, the
decision was on expected
lines and had the backing of
captain Virat Kohli.
Shastri has been reappointed
for a two-year period,
ending with the 2021
T20 World Cup in India.
This will be Shastri's fourth
stint with the national team,
having served briefly as the
Cricket Manager (2007 tour
of Bangladesh), Team Director
(2014-2016) and head
coach (2017-2019).
Shastri pipped former
India teammates Robin
Singh and Lalchand Rajput
along with former New Zealand
coach Mike Hesson and
Australian Tom Moody to
the post. Former West Indies
and Afghanistan coach
Phil Simmons pulled out of
the race, citing personal reasons.
"Number three was
Tom Moody, number two
was Mike Hesson. Number
one is Ravi Shastri as all of
you were expecting... (But)
It was a very close race,"
said Kapil at the press conference
to announce the decision
here.
Once Kohli openly
backed Shastri's candidature
at the pre-departure
media conference before the
West Indies tour, it was expected
that the former India
captain would be a favourite
to retain the position. The
committee members also
stated that Shastri’s `connect’
with the Indian team
members also weighed in
his favour.
“Basically, being a current
coach and knowing the
boys well and their problems
and he are well versed
with the system. The others
had to start from a scratch,”
added another committee
member, Anshuman Gaekwad
Among all the candidates,
Shastri's record was
unmatched as the team
reached the No.1 ranking
in Test matches under his
guidance and won a series
in Australia for the first
time in 71 years. On the
flip-side, India twice lost in
the World Cup semi-finals
(2015 and 2019) with him at
the helm but that doesn't
seem to have a bearing on
the decision taken by the
Dev-led committee that also
comprised Shantha Rangaswamy
and Anshuman Gaekwad.
Since he came back
in July, 2017 replacing Anil
Kumble, whose differences
with Kohli came out in the
open, Shastri's coaching record
has been phenomenal.
India have won 13 out
of 21 Tests, 43 out of 60 ODIs
and 25 T20 Internationals
out of 36 on his watch.