1. Primary School Teachers Plan to Gherao Gujarat Assembly Today
The Gujarat State Primary Teachers’ Association has given a call for a gherao of the state Assembly on Friday to press for their demands.
The teachers have been protesting against the state government’s decision to include the probation period of five years of a bal guru (which is now known as vidyasahayak), under a scheme introduced in 1997, in service records. A vidyasahayak is regularised after a probation period of five years.
According to the teachers, their 21 years of service period are counted only as 16 years due to the 5-year-probation. They said that this affects their seniority, promotion, salary and other retirement benefits. The government’s decision has affected over 1 lakh teachers.
(Source: The Indian Express)
2. Fire Guts 15 Shanties Near Chandola Lake
Even before summer sets in two major incidents of fire were reported in Ahmedabad on Thursday. This included an incident where a major fire engulfed over 15 shanties in slum area besides Chandola lake in Narol area of Ahmedabad.
The another incident occurred in Vanch village in the outskirts of city where in a fire broke out in fire-crackers factory located on a farm land. The first incident of Chandola lake occurred on Thursday afternoon when fire suddenly broke out in a shanty near a Dargah (shrine).
A team of 30 personnel of Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Service (AFES) rushed there with eight fire tenders and doused the fire in around one and half hour. Articles worth Rs lakhs were gutted into fire, said a fire official
(Source: The Times of India)
3. 6 Years On, Ground Work on Dholera Airport Yet to Start
Six years after it was instituted for developing an international airport at Dholera, about 100 km from Ahmedabad, the Dholera International Airport Company Ltd (DIACL) is yet to begin work on the ground. This was stated in the company’s sixth annual report, which was tabled in the Assembly during the ongoing Budget Session.
The state government had proposed to develop an international airport close to Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) for serving the logistic requirement of the special investment region, besides handling the extra traffic of existing Ahmedabad airport in future.
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. Mega Placement Camps: With 15% Students Selected for Job, Gujarat Govt Claims ‘Achievement’
Of the 35,000-odd students who took part in the state government’s mega placement drive, only 15 per cent of them were finally selected. According to government sources, 5,121 students of technical and non-technical colleges were selected by 1,290 companies in 24 camps organised across a 15-day schedule that began in January.
Even among the students who had registered for the placements, less than half turned up at the camps, the sources added. The placement drive failed to generate interest among the over 1.25 lakh students who would be graduating from 514 government and grant-in-aid colleges this academic year ending in June as only over 50 per cent students (74,000) had registered themselves for the drive. Initially, only 60,000 students expressed willingness to sit for placement interviews.
(Source: The Indian Express)
5. Three Booked for Raping 35-Year-Old Woman in Surat
Police booked three persons in Mahidharpura police station on Wednesday, 20 February, for allegedly raping a 35-year-old woman from Navapur of Maharashtra. In her complaint the survivor alleged that she was raped multiple times since May 2018 by the accused after developing friendship with changed names and religious identities.
Police booked Rahul alias Wasim Karim Shaikh, a resident of Mithikhadi in Limbayat, his friend Babu alias Aftab Shaikh and Nausad Saiyed. Police are questioning few persons who are suspected to be involved in the crime.
Police are questioning those individuals who have matching identities as described by the complainant
(Source: The Times of India)
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