Campus Jottings

Protest against new farm policy

STUDENTS OF Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University are on a warpath these days, not against the university administration but against the new agriculture policy announced by the State Government recently.

The aspiring agriculture officers are peeved with the draft which, according to them, would dwindle the employment potential in the sector and would be detrimental to the interests of farmers. Their exasperation has resulted in disruption of the academic schedule as students have taken to boycotting classes, following it up with other agitational programmes like burning certificates.

"It would only encourage corporate farming thus ruining the lives of smaller farmers, who constitute a majority apart from literally freezing Government jobs, feels Mr. Malla Reddy, a representative of the student organisation. "Small farmers have already been affected as there is a severe lack of agricultural officers in the rural areas. Hundreds of posts have been lying vacant for the past few years and the new policy has put an end to hopes of students to get into them," points out a student.

Students argue that the existing staff themselves are meagre to serve the farming community. According to them, Maharashtra has 25,000 staff members with the Agricultural Department and Kerala, which is much smaller in several aspects, has 4,000 employees whereas our State has just around 3,000 employees. "How can the Government justify strengthening agriculture with such meagre human resources?" they ask.

OU staff up in arms

TAKING A cue from students, Osmania University employees too are up in arms against the administration, the reason being the stoppage of some facilities, which they earned after a long fight with the Government.

Though the agitation is now confined to just demonstrations, the employees are not hesitant to further intensify it with a strike if the administration doesn't heed to their demands. The employees accuse the authorities of scrapping several facilities in the name of dearth of funds.

It's not just conceding their demands but the employees are annoyed with the way the university deals with them. The medical assistance scheme, which facilitates a grant of Rs.50,000 for serious diseases, has been stopped. The reason cited is lack of funds. But Mr. Madhukar of the Osmania University NGOs Association says rather than rejecting the scheme, the university should have informed the employees, who would have taken it up with the Government.

The fate of several other schemes too is similar. Reduction of education loan and alleged attempts to hand over the Model High School of the university to private persons have caused a heartburn among the employees.

However, bowing to the pressures, the university has constituted a committee to look into the demands.

Vice-Chancellor for U.S.

UNPERTURBED BY the developments in the university, the Osmania University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. D.C. Reddy, has left for the United States to explore the possibilities of having joint programmes with the institutions of excellence there.

Prof. Reddy would also formally launch the Osmania University Alumni Association (OUAA) at the American Telugu Association (ATA) meeting there in the first week of July. The formation of OUAA is likely to boost the efforts to get financial benefits to colleges from the burgeoning successful Osmanians in the United States.

Visits to the Michigan University and a meeting with Dr. Raj Reddy, of Carnegie Mellon University for starting MSIT here are also on the agenda.

R. RAVIKANTH REDDY

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