TIMES CITYTHE TIMES OF INDIA, CHENNAI FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2010 * 5

CMYK

Engg college ownersto discuss fee hike

D Suresh Kumar | TNN

Chennai: Owners of self-financ-ing engineering colleges in TamilNadu are scheduled to meet inChennai on Saturday to discussamong other things a proposal toseek an increase in the fee struc-ture for BE/BTech, MBA andMCA courses from the next aca-demic year 2010-11.

The Consortium of Self-Fi-nancing Professional, Arts andScience Colleges in Tamil Nadupresident, Jeppiaar, has called fora meeting of management repre-

sentatives of member-institutionsat the Sathyabhama University todeliberate on the proposed feestructure and the new norms fixedby the All India Council for Tech-nical Education for granting ap-proval to technical colleges, whichhave been stayed by the Madrashigh court.

Presently, engineering col-leges in the state are collectingRs 32,500 (non-accredited cours-es) and Rs 40,000 (accredited) asannual fees from students ad-mitted to BE/BTech programmesunder the government quota andRs 62,500 from those admitted un-der the management quota. This

fee structure was fixed by a com-mittee headed by retired Madrashigh court judge N V Balasubra-manian, which was appointed un-der directions from the supremecourt.

College owners, however, havebeen demanding a revision in thefee structure and arguing for anationwide uniform fee structureciting additional financial bur-den on them caused by the im-plementation of the sixth paycommission recommendations.With indications that a centralfee fixation committee headed byJustice Ranganath Mishra hasdecided to fix a uniform fee struc-ture of over Rs one lakh in met-ropolitan cities and around Rs88,000 in second tier cities, the en-gineering college managementshave been pressing that the com-mittee must submit its report tothe government early.

Recently, the Federation of As-sociation of Management of Un-aided Professional EducationalInstitutions in India (FAMPEI) ofwhich the Tamil Nadu consor-tium is a member, had also passeda resolution demanding a uni-form fee structure for BE/BTechcourses in the country. Repre-sentatives of colleges in as manyas eight states had demanded thatthe uniform fee should be Rs70,000 to Rs 80,000 per annum.

“Saturday’s meeting will alsodiscuss about the demand to re-vise the student-faculty ratio from1:15 to 1:20 and the faculty distri-bution ratio in colleges. Besides,issues related to the online sub-mission of application forms forextension of approval for collegesand increase in intake of studentsare on the agenda,” a source said.

Finished reading? Now,leave the book behind

Chennai Discovers Novel Way Of Passing Books AlongKamini Mathai | TNN

Chennai: It all happened two-and-a-half years ago when Raja PandianSP’s mother told him to get rid of thebooks piling up in the house. He de-cided that instead of lugging themall to the nearest second-hand shop,he would just leave them around forpeople to read. Railway stations, cof-fee shops, airports, bus stands — themoment he finished a book, Rajawould just leave it at the spot, withhis name on the book and a little noteinside saying ‘Read it, write yourname on it and pass it on’. “I’vepassed around more than 100 bookslike this in Kerala, Mumbai, everyplace I have travelled,” says Raja, amarketing professional withEzeeCloud Infoserve. He usuallyleaves quick-read novels around forothers to pick up.

While Raja has been doing this ofhis own accord, across the world,‘book crossing’ (leaving booksaround on subways, trains, coffeeshops, pubs, laundromats, bus sta-tions, etc) is becoming the rage.Chennai will soon have its first bookcrossing station at the Madras Ter-race House (MTH). Kaveri Lalchand,MTH’s curator, says, “We alreadyhave a shelf at MTH where peoplecan set sail a book — for every bookof theirs that they place on the shelf,they can take one home for free.”

In December 2009, the BritishCouncil launched a book crossingcontest, where they “released” 75

books from each of their centres.Once they finish reading the book,they pass the book to someone else.The next reader logs into the Coun-cil site and mentions the book’s se-rial number along with their nameand address. This goes on till the endof March, when the readers in thelongest chain receive a prize. “You’llbe amazed to know where all thebooks have travelled,” says Anirud-dh Kashyap, head of remote contentand delivery at the British Council.“Books from Chennai land in Lon-don, Kolkata and Kerala,” he adds.

Around the city, people are get-ting innovative with what they aredoing with the books they have fin-ished. The reasons vary — some doit to recycle, some to share knowl-edge, others to make room in shelves.

Like software professional DoraiThodla. A member of the ChennaiOpen Coffee Club (COCC), a venuefor “sharing ideas and experiences”,Thodla decided to extend thethoughts to books. “I have a goldmine of books. I made it a conditionthat people who receive these booksshould at least post a few paragraphsto start discussions,” says Thodla,who showed up at a COCC meetingwith two books that he handed out.

Then there’s Pavithra Yogesh,producer with a television channel,who has launched a ‘Rich Book PoorReader’ drive on a social networkingsite. “I thought I can bridge the gapbetween those who have books andthose who do not. So far I have col-lected 150 story books, academicbooks and self-help guides,” she says.

SCRIPTING A NEW STORYCirculating books after reading is fast catching up in Chennai

The meeting will be heldat the SathyabhamaUniversity to deliberateon the fee structure andthe new norms fixed byAICTE for grantingapproval to technicalcolleges, which werestayed by the HC

At the Madras Terrace House in the city,for every book you place on the shelf,you can take home one free

Donate them to a library. Take theexample of our chief minister, M Karunanidhi, who has donated1,000 rare books to the AnnaCentenary Library

Start a virtual book lending chain in the city

Go book crossing the next time youare travelling across the world

Set sail a book at the MadrasTerrace House (they do not acceptacademic books)

Gold jewels go missing: Nirmala, a resident of Basin Bridge, who was atMelmaruvathur with her family, returned to her home on Wednesday to find50 sovereigns of gold jewels missing. The police suspect her relative, towhom she gave the house key, to be behind the theft. Further probe is on. TNN

Swati Anand | TNN

Chennai:The Ramee mall com-ing up on Teynampet is set to shiftthe commercial hub of the cityto a new location. While the firstthree floors will be exclusive tothe mall, remaining floors will betaken by their hospitality part-ner. The property was mired incontroversy after the late Ma-gunta Subbarami Reddy, formerchairman of Balaji Group,bought the premises. The oldbuildings were razed to construct

a seven-star hotel. Reddy had tiedup with Oberoi and named thehotel ‘Magunta Oberoi’. After75% of the civil works were over,work came to a halt when Reddywas killed by Naxalites in 1995.The Balaji Group ran into finan-cial problems and the future ofthe project became uncertain.Oberoi walked out in 2000.

The Dubai-based RameeGroup, which operates 32 hotelsacross Gulf countries and India,picked up the property aroundtwo years ago.

Property was mired in controversy