The National Service Scheme (NSS) members of Patna Women’s College on Friday participated in a rally organised by NSS, Patna University, to mark World Population Day.
Close to 50 volunteers participated in the rally, which was flagged off by Patna University vice-chancellor Y.C. Simhadri.
Students of botany, zoology and chemistry departments took part in it. The aim of the rally was to create awareness among the public regarding increasing population and the need to control it.
The student volunteers created a human chain near the college gate and held placards with a message to save the planet and its natural resources from extinction because of over-population.
NSS programme officers Ameeta Jaiswal and Pushpa Sinha accompanied the volunteers.
A student from the botany department, Rajni Kumari, said: “Illiteracy, lack of family planning and superstitions in remote villages are the root cause of population explosion. The challenge is not how to control population but to contemplate how to best use the human resources. Population will increase competition and complexity at work. We want to spread the message — a small family is a happy family.”
Lost opportunity
The premier colleges in Bihar have failed to reap the fruits of the University Grants Commission (UGC) scheme, under which the panel awards institutions a heritage status and provides them with funds for various development works.
The recently launched UGC scheme could have benefited only those colleges in the state, which are more than 100 years old.
Langat Singh College, a constituent unit of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarour, happens to be the only college in the state to have been awarded heritage status.
The TNB College in Bhagalpur had also applied for the status but it was denied the tag.
Sources said there are several colleges in the state, including Patna Training College (1908), Patna Law College (1909), Patna College (1863) and BN College (1889), that met the criteria set by the UGC on granting institutions the heritage tag .
Patna University tops the list of maximum number of colleges that qualify for the heritage status, but none of the PU colleges applied for the tag.
Sources said some of the institutions under the university have been declared heritage sites by the state government and the government is providing funds to those institutions for carrying out various development works.
Had PU colleges taken benefits of the UGC scheme, their condition would have been better, sources said.
Under the UGC scheme, colleges can receive grants up to Rs 8-10 crore per annum.
Digital décor
Students of Cimage College created websites and developed Android applications as part of the Digital India Week celebrations at the institution on July 6.
Krishna Kunal, a student who developed an application based on the chief minister’s janata durbar, won the first prize. Shakti Sharan and group, who created an application on Bihar tourism, grabbed the second spot.
Cimage College director Neeraj Agrawal said students also created websites and applications on themes such as land records, secret corruption control, emergency disaster communication platform, online FIR, e-janata durbar and online doctors.
“We have decided to share the Android applications website created by our students with the information technology department of the state government,” said Agrawal.
The dean, Akhileshwar Prasad, praised the students and their work.
Faryal Rumi and Shuchismita Chakraborty
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