Ahmedabad: In a bid to im-prove the quality of education,the state government will besuggesting creation of a Hig-her Education Council in sta-tes for improvement in the aca-demic and administrativefunctions of the universities,apart from giving them grea-ter academic autonomy.This is among the numero-us recommendations thestate government plans tosend to the central centralgovernment which hassought suggestions fromthe states for its New Educa-tion Policy.

Further, the state govern-ment is likely to recommendthat the powers of the Univer-sity Grant Commission (UGC)be given to the state HigherEducation Council. The coun-cil will have similar powersbut the UGC will be the maincontrolling authority.

The state government islikely to recommend that theuniversities be given grantsbased on their performancewith the active participationand partnership of their alum-ni association and the collegesaffiliated to them.

There is also a proposal torecommend that central edu-cation institutes be given theresponsibility of mentoringstate educational institutes forimprovement in quality. Thestate has cited the example ofIIT-Gandhinagar which ismentoring IITRAM.

Government documents inthis regard indicate that thestate wants exchange of facul-ty, research projects betweenuniversities and central educa-tion establishments. The stategovernment wants central in-

stitutes or its mem-bers to be given representationon the board of studies of stateuniversities. This, accordingto officials, will improve quali-ty of education and upgradesyllabuses.

The Gujarat governmentalso tried to push its CommonUniversity Bill idea in the na-tional policy by suggestingthat 80% of the syllabus shouldbe uniform for all universitiesin the state and the remaining20% should be decided on thebasis of the local needs of theuniversity.

Bharat.Yagnik@timesgroup.com

New edu policy: Gujarat forUGC-like body in all states

TIMES CITYTHE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2015

JAN DHAN SHIKSHA LAUNCHED IN STATE TO TEACH SCHOOL KIDS ABOUT BANKING | 6

PARSI GLITTERATI, INCLUDING RATAN TATA, CYRUSPOONAWALA, TO GATHER FOR IRANSHAH UTSAV | 4

Ahmedabad: It was in 2012that Metrolink Express forGandhinagar and Ahmedabad(MEGA) had proposed a 76-kmlong and Rs 20,000 crore worthof metro rail project for Ah-medabad and Gandhinagarjust before the assembly elec-tions that year. A few monthslater, the project met a dead endwhen the executive chairmanof MEGA, Sanjay Gupta, hadto step down following allega-tions of Rs 300 crore worth ofirregularities. Clearly, it was abig blow for the state govern-ment and the metro dreams ofthe cities. By September 2013,when the state governmenthad appointed a new vice-cha-irman and chairman for ME-GA, the governing body hadbloated to around 250-odd staff.

It took the new board al-

most a year-and-a-half to clearthe mess that MEGA was tang-led in, causing enormous dela-ys in the project.

The new MEGA board hadto end contracts of employeesand contractors engaged in ci-vic work and finally decided toreduce the staff to just 90 peo-ple. “We replaced some of thekey posts with professionaland government officers formaintaining transparency asit was paramount for us. We ap-pointed a principal accountantgeneral from CAG as our direc-tor finance. We have an officerfrom Delhi metro rail corpora-tion who is our new director

technical, another directorwho handles systems is fromBangalore metro, and we havefour chief engineers from wes-tern railways,” says MD ME-GA I P Gautam. He furtheradds, “My predecessor wantedto run a consultancy likeDMRC which we felt was not fe-asible at that stage,” Gautamadded.

In December last year, Gup-ta was arrested after the inves-tigating agency, CID (crime),alleged that he, as the executi-ve chairman of MEGA, had pa-id Rs 147 crore for filling landmeasuring 20 lakh cubic metreat Bhat Koteshwar-Motera

area for constructing a castingyard and a depot.

Sources in MEGA claimthat Gupta was actually ma-king a riverfront by reclaimingland at the site for a hospitalityproject. The CID alleged thatonly 9.42 lakh cubic metreearth filling was done whilethe cost of 11 lakh cubic metre,worth Rs 113 crore, was alleged-ly pocketed by Gupta.

Corruption,Huge Governing

Body WereMEGA Hurdles

The Metro corridor podium being cast at Apparel park in Vastral

Starting troubles delayedAhmedabad metro’s arrival

MAESTRO’S MOVESTOI

Kathak exponent Pandit Birju Maharaj performed on the last day of Suvarna Parva, three-day Kathakextravaganza, at Tagore Hall on Sunday. The event marks 50 years of city-based Kadamb Centre forDance and Music.

Ahmedabad: A team of threeJapanese students from Ja-pan Advanced Institute of Sci-ence and Technology (JAIST)will attend India Ki Khoj pro-gramme at IITGN, along with12 students from California In-stitute of Technology (Cal-tech) and 16 students ofIITGN. This is the fourth edi-tion of the ten-day long pro-gramme at the Institute ofTechnology Gandhinagar(IITGN), that helps foreignstudents learn about Indianhistory and culture. The pro-gramme will begin on Mon-day. India Ki Khoj was firststarted in 2011. TNN

Japanesestudents learn

about India

Ahmedabad: The Rs1.08-cro-re cash van robbery saga en-ded in high drama for the citycrime branch on Sunday.Cops intercepted a call madeby Ravikumar Chaudhary,the driver of the cash van andmain accused in the case, andarrested him from Rakhialearly in the morning.

Ravi claimed there had be-en infighting between the ac-cused and two of the accusedMohammed Noman and Ra-fik Sama, both history-shee-ters, had attacked him andanother accused Rajan Mar-vadi at a farmhouse near Bo-tad. Ravi claims he gave themthe slip, while the other three

decamped with the cash. Copsare however reluctant to buyhis version of the events, whi-le cash and the other three ac-cused remain untraced.

Police officials believe in-juries on both hands of Raviseem to be self-inflicted. “Theinjuries look like scratchesmade with a blade or with athorn. This may be ploy to di-vert police attention to enableother accused flee with cash.Or the story might turn out be

completely different,” said asenior crime branch official.Cops have also seized a pistoland three live cartridges fromRavi.

“Ravi says the quarrelover money started whenthey were barely 25 km fromthe ATM centre. They rea-ched the farmhouse which be-longs to one Ghanshyam. In adrunken stupour, Noman at-tacked him and Rajan with aknife. According to Ravi hemanaged to escape and sur-rendered before the police asfeared for his life,” said a cri-me branch official.

"Our main concern is tofind Rajan. Ravi says he wasgrievously injured in the scuf-fle,” said K N Patel, AssistantCommissioner of Police (cri-me branch).

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (crime branch) DeepanBhadran said: “Ravi had ta-ken his passport along to fleeabroad. We suspect he hadplans to ditch the other threeafter robbery, and slip out of

the country. But as we had al-ready issued a lookout noticeat airports, he could not.”

Ravi, the cash van driverof CMS securities, had fledwith the van containingRs1.08 crore from Narodawhen two engineers and a gu-ard had gone to put cash at anICICI bank ATM on Fridayevening.

Cash van robbery: Driver arrested,money and other accused missing

Cops FindLoose Ends InRavi’s Story Of

Infighting

Ahmedabad crime branch accuseRavichandra Chodhary in cashvan robbery on Sunday

Yogesh Chawda

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: A first-of-its-kind dance concert was heldon Sunday morning at Kar-navati Club. Hundreds of re-sidents danced to the direc-tions of master trainers ofworld famous dance-basedworkouts such as MasalaBhangra, Zumba, BOKWAand others.

Workout experts such astrainer in Piloxing from USJordan Ballard; trainer infitness Fx from UK RichardScrivener; Creator of masa-la bhangra from US SarinaJain, and creator of BOK-WA Fitness from US, PaulMavi.

Indian fitness experts in-cluded Zumba trainer Suc-heta Pal; folk fitness creatorAshwin Pandey; and yogatrainer Payal Gidwani gavehealth tips to Amdavadis.

Dr Aalap Shah, directorof ATP Fitness which hadorganised the event, saidthey had organized the fit-ness convention-2015 in thehope that it will serve as aplatform for discussion andinformation on the subject.

India’s 1st fitness concert held in city

Ahmedabad: The SpecialOperation Group (SOG) of citycrime branch arrested twobrothers, Mofizul Shaikh, 20and Shabudding Shaikh, 25, re-sidents of Murshidabad inWest Bengal, with fake curren-cy notes worth Rs 8 lakh. In aspan of 10 days this is the se-cond seizure of duplicate cur-rency by SOG. Top cops saidthat Rs 1.5 crore worth of dupli-cate notes have been pumpedinto Delhi, Gujarat and Maha-rashtra.

Earlier, SOG had arrestedBabu Mulla of Fatehwadi andMohammed Ishrar of UttarPradesh with a consignment of

Rs 10 lakh worth of fake cur-rency notes. “Mulla and Ishrarhad confessed that in Novem-ber they had pumped in Rs 15lakh worth of fake notes in Ah-medabad market alone. A we-ek later SOG officials nabbedthe kingpin Raees Syed fromUttar Pradesh,” said a crimebranch official.

Assistant commissioner ofpolice, SOG, BC Solanki arres-ted the brothers near AstodiaDarwaja on Sunday morning.SOG officials said, “During in-

terrogation the duo claimedthat they have been pumpingfake notes in Maharashtra, Gu-jarat and Delhi since the twoyears. ” Deputy commissionerof police, crime branch, Dee-pan Bhadran said: “The fakecurrency notes of Rs 1000 andRs 500 denomination are ofhigh quality and have beensent for forensic examination.We have also written to the go-vernment mint in Nashik forverification.”

An SOG official said, “Whi-le scrutinizing the bank acco-unt of Raees, we found Rs 92lakh was deposited in his acco-unt at different stages. Themasterminds of the racket pa-id him half the value of fakecurrency notes that were dis-bursed. Going by that, Rs 92lakh deposited in Raees’s acco-unt amounts to fake notesworth more than Rs 1.50 crore.”

Two nabbed with fakecurrency worth `̀ 8 lakh

Second SeizureWithin 10 Days

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: On Sunday, theGujarat Congress shot off aletter to chief minister Anan-diben Patel concerning fairrepresentation in the stan-ding committees of all the sixmunicipal corporations. Se-nior Congress councillors inAhmedabad have demandedat least one seat among the 12committees in the standingcommittee.

“In other municipal corpo-rations we have demanded atleast two to three seats in thestanding committees,” said asenior Congress leader.

This time around, after afair show in the civic bodyelections in rural areas theCongress is hopeful that itmay get a couple of seats onpro-rata basis, as BJP has lostmany seats in the district pan-chayats. BJP leaders are intalks with city Congress lea-ders to solve the issue. TNN

Cong wants sayin municipalcorporations

Ahmedabad: Many breastcancer survivors took out a ral-ly — named Pink Parade — inthe city on Sunday to spreadawareness about the deadly di-sease. The participants stres-sed on ‘self-examination’ for ti-mely detection and cure.

The para-de startedfrom SamvedHospital nearCommerceSix-roads andafter passingthrough Sta-

dium Circle and Ishwar Bhu-van, ended at the hospital.

Neera Shankar(48), a hou-sewife and a survivor, said thaton February 9 this year, she fo-und some deformity in her bre-asts during self-examination.She soon approached doctors

and found on June 13 that it wasa cancer tumor. “I was opera-ted on June 16, and since then Iam living a normal life,” Shan-kar said.

Shakuntala Maheswari(69), a businesswoman, was di-agnosed with breast cancer 15years back, but timely diagno-sis and proper treatment hel-ped her to defeat the deadly di-sease. “Today, our lifestyle issuch that every women is pro-

ne to breast cancer. I would sug-gest self-examination everymonth,” Maheswari said.

At the event, 11 survivorswere felicitated. Dr Nisha Jos-hi, assistant doctor at SamvedHospital, said that once the girlattains puberty she should doself-examination after comple-tion of menstruation period.Those in the age of menopau-se, should select one date everymonth for self-examination.

Breast cancer survivors adviseregular self-examination

Breast cancer awareness rally held in Ahmedabad on Sunday

Ahmedabad: Sarkhej RozaCrafts and Women’s Collecti-ve, a Sarkhej-based organiza-tion, launched an online plat-form for the women artisanspreparing crochet artwork in-spired from the Roza’s motifs.The inaugural functtion washeld at a city-based hotel onSunday evening. For the orga-nizers, it is culmination of two-year long process. So far, theartwork was available only inthe vicinity of Sarkhej Roza.

Bhavna Ramrakhiani, asocial worker associated withthe collective since its incep-tion, said that the idea startedwith Roza itself. “Over the ye-ars, one of the oldest monu-

ments of Ahmedabad hastransformed into a social cent-re. It was thus required to in-clude the community living inthe vicinity in the process andcultivate a sense of belong-

and met the group. Along withthe students, they started wor-king on crafts that could besustained, and can become asource of livelihood. The 10-day workshop on crochet pro-vided a firm foundation for theinitiative.

“It was a bit difficult for mewhen we started off, as I hadnever engaged in any traditio-nal craft. However, within sixmonths, I started making va-rious products including fas-hion accessories, home décorand embellishments,” reco-unts Nasreen Saiyad, one ofthe first girls to enrol for theproject.

Asiana Ajmeri, anothergirl associated with the pro-ject, said that it really encoura-ges them to learn that theirproducts would be used by per-sons beyond their area and Ah-medabad. “The art is inspiredby the Roza and thus it will car-ry its essence wherever it go-es,” she said.

ing,” she said.The project had started off

with a group of young womenin 2013 when Sheila Klein, anAmerican sculptor and instal-lation artist, was visiting NID

Sarkhej women to sell crochet onlineHold InauguralFunction At A

City Hotel

Sarkhej Roza Women Crafts Committee launched its line of productsmade by local women and launched its website at a city hotel onSunday in Ahmedabad. The projects, primarily made of crochet work,would provide livelihood to the local women, said organizers.

TOI

Ahmedabad:To reduce time ta-ken in litigation, the income tax(I-T) department has activated aPAN-based online system whichenables the taxman to access ca-ses on a click. For this, a databa-se of over 5 lakh appeals and 1.50 lakh judgements has beencreated.

The move will cut time in ap-peal and litigation managementin the department. Recently, thedepartment had launched a bu-siness application softwarewhich uses PAN to track all thetransactions and financial re-cords of an individual and enti-ty across the country.

This portal will enable I-T of-ficials to monitor appeal dates,check cause lists and undertakeresearch and analysis for streng-thening their cases..

I-T litigationtracking goes

onlineTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Siddhartha

Yogesh Chawda

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

The state government hassuggested that a Centre of

Excellence for higher educationbe set up on public-privatepartnership model in eachuniversity of the state. Thesecentres should havepartnership with the privatesector. Also, industry shouldprovide financial assistance toconnect industrial products,research amd their design withhigher education institutionsand universities.

Partnership withprivate sector

The state government hassuggested that there

should be an increase in the feestructure of the educationinstitutes. This has to bedecided on the basis of thecourse and the income of thefamily. Also, financial supportshould be obtained from alumniassociations. Apart from these,the universities should bepermitted to receive donationsfrom industrial houses and thecommunity for infrastructuredevelopment.

Financial support

According to crime branchsources Ravi first planned

the robbery with his friendNoman Rajput of Rakhial .Noman roped in his friend Rafikfrom Botad. Ravi also roped inhis friend, Rajan Marvadi, a fairprice shop owner, added apolice source. On Friday, Nomangot a silver sedan and followedRavi’s cash van right up to theATM at Naroda. Later, theyshifted the cash to the sedanand fled.

Noman and Rafikfollowed cash van

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Till recently Bhangra, a dance form of Punjab, was believed to besomething rustic. But Sarina Jain, an NRI based in US, gave it a

modern outlook by inventing an exercise form ‘Masala Bhangra’.Now, Masala Bhangara is familiar to people in more than 20countries. “I have been working on Masala Bhangara for 15 years,”Jain said. She said Indian singer Jasbir Jassi was so impressed byher Bhangara that he gifted it a musical tune and workout form.

Masala Bhangra for a good figure

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Live international Fitness concert at Karnavati Club in Ahmedabad on Sunday