TIMES CITYTHE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2014

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Ahmedabad: Finally, after a longthree-month wait, students weregranted admission to various engi-neering institutes across Gujarat ac-cording to their marks. Mechanicalengineering ruled the roost onceagain, with the highest number ofstudents opting for this stream. Thesecond most sought-after engineer-ing stream was Computers followedby Information CommunicationTechnology, Electrical and Civil engi-neering

The delay in conducting the firstround of admissions was because thepercentile calculation method was

first taken to Gujarat high court andthen to the Supreme Court. Finally, af-ter the matter was resolved, mockround results were declared on July11 and on Monday the first merit listwas declared. A total of 63,536 stu-dents participated in the mock round,of this 60,710 filled in their choices.

In the first round of admissions,more than 53,026 students were allot-ted seats by the Admission Commit-tee for Professional Courses. The sec-ond round of admissions will be heldbetween July 26 and 29. Followingthis, a fresh round of choice-fillingwill be carried out and then admis-sions.

ACPC had 61,714 seats in variousengineering colleges across the state,of which 8,505 seats remain vacant.Empty-seat syndrome has startedworrying college administrations noend.

Mechinical IsFavourite Again,

Computers IsNext Top Choice

HIGH ON MERIT

DAIICT, Gandhinagar | 123

PDPU, Gandhinagar | 89

DDIT, Nadiad | 68

Birla Vishakarma Mahavidyalay, Vallabh Vidyanagar | 63

Number opting for computers spikes

Computers has emerged the second most-favoured course. This was clear in the choice-filling round as

the number of applicants has increased from last year. Ironically, college administrations seem to have got it wrong this time, as seats in Computer, IT and EC streams have been decreased.

FAVOURITESMost Sought After Engg Courses And No. Of Top Rankers

Mechanical | 350

Computer | 163

Information Communication Technology | 109

Electrical | 81

Civil | 43

Top Colleges/ Course Closing MeritInstitutes (For open category) Number

Nirma Mechanical 213

Computer 267

IT 425

Civil 1,376

DAIICT BTech (Hons) ICT 30

PDPU Mechanical 651

Petroleum 473

Civil 2,513

LD Mechanical 641

Engineering Computer 949

IT 2,177

Civil 2,382

MSU Mechanical 385

Computer 586

Civil 2,089

HOT PICKSPreferred Branches and Students’ Choice-Filling

Mechanical | 9,10,007

Civil | 7,29,196

Electronics & Communication | 5,10,688

Computer | 4,11,612

IT | 1,86,000

BEST BRAINS VACANT SPOTSPreferred Colleges/Institutes And No. Of Top Rankers

Nirma | 181

MSU (Technology), Vadodara | 160

LD Engineering College, Ahmedabad | 158

Electronics & Communication| 2,358

Electrical | 2,166

Mechanical | 1,721Computer | 927 Civil | 460IT | 343

Courses And No. Of Empty Seats

ENGINEERING AFFINITIES

Engineering admissions begin

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: Two senior citi-zens, Mukesh Shah and JigarShah, live alone as they were be-ing neglected by their children.They have now joined hands tolaunch a website — bagbanin-dia.hpage.in — to bring togeth-er parents who had been aban-doned by their children andhelp them stand on their ownfeet. The name of the website re-calls the Hindi film, ‘Baghban’,starring Amitabh Bachchanand Hema Malini, in which aman and his wife are forced toleave their home as they feel un-wanted by their sons. Bachchanis the disillusioned father whomakes it big as the author of abook based on his life.

“The website wants to bringtogether those who have beenleft by their children or otherfamily members. We will offerinterested people membership

for a nominal yearly fee andhelp neglected seniors earn aliving and live with pride in thesunset of their lives," said JigarShah, the brain behind the por-tal. He lives alone in his smallshop in Lal Darwaja after hissons said they could not affordhis expenses.

Mukesh Shah, 60, who wasalso left alone by his industrial-ist son and daughter-in-law (sheis a software engineer) has gath-ered courage to open a farsanshop named, ‘Bagban India’.

Mukesh told TOI that theywere a happy family. He and hisson ran a PVC factory in Dhol-ka. “My wife had cancer. Shewanted to see her son married.My son was going steady with agirl. We hurriedly got themmarried three years back. After10 days of their marriage, mywife passed away. That was the

toughest time of my life,” hesaid. Jigar is a close friend ofMukesh’s and has been assist-ing him. He said Mukesh has ahabit of having tea early in themorning. “That caused differ-ences between him and hisdaughter-in-law. The situationbecame so bad that Mukesh hadto move from his flat in the poshNavrangpura area,” said Jigar.

Rendered penniless, Mu-kesh worked at a religious insti-tution near Bagodara as a man-ager-cum-mess controller, saidJigesh. “But the institution wasin no position to pay anyone. Itprovided him with food andshelter. Later, when the numberof pilgrims fell, the mess founditself in the red and Mukeshhad to look elsewhere for a live-lihood,” he said.

Mukesh came to Ahmeda-bad and told his friend, Jigar,about his plight. It was Jigarwho gave him the idea of open-ing a farsan shop and Mukeshagreed. “We took a house onrent for business in Bopal areaof the city. Now we will sell notonly farsan but make washingpowder, soaps and other house-hold items too,” said Jigar.

(Names changed to protectidentity)

Real-life Baghbanheroes go online

2 Men LaunchWebsite That GivesNeglected Parents

A LivelihoodBaghban India Society For SeniorCitizens’ office in Ahmedabad

Yogesh Chawda

Ahmedabad:The city has reg-istered a decrease in malariacases till July 19 when com-pared to the same period lastyear. The health department ofthe Ahmedabad MunicipalCorporation (AMC) has regis-tered 2,932 falciparum casesand 7,035 malaria cases tilldate. The department claimscases of chikunguniya havehalved against last year’s 24cases for the same January-to-July period.

In the month of July, the de-partment checked 618 con-struction sites and 555 schoolsfor mosquito breeding sites.Also, the ratio of the waterbond diseases has also comedown this year. Last year tillJuly 19 the AMC had registerd4,707 cases of vomiting, 2497 ofjaundice, 1075 of typhoid and149 of cholera This year therewere 3817 vomiting, 1933 jaun-dice, 815 typhoid and 62 choleraacses. The mobile court of thehealth department has collect-ed fined Rs 9.9 lakh and resolv-ed 2263 complaints of health.

Fewer malariacases this year

Ahmedabad: The state government appoint-ed former additional chief secretary Bal-want Singh as the new chief informationcommissioner of Gujarat Information Com-mission (GIC). Singh will replace incumbentchief D Rajgopalan who will retire on Friday.

Singh has been serving as informationcommissioner at GIC from January 2012 andwas appointed to the commission along withV S Gadhvi in the same year. Singh has servedas additional chief secreatry home, addition-al chief secretary general administration de-partment (GAD), and was later appointed in-formation commissioner in 2012. He has alsoserved as principal secretary port and fisher-ies, and managing director of both GNFC andGSFC.

Rajagopalan’s appointment as chief in-formation commissioner came at a timewhen the GIC saw thousands of unresolvedRTI cases piling up with the commissionsoon after end of the state’s first chief RNDas’ term came to an end in July 2011. Rajgo-palan is being credited with holding specialcamps in every district, which he personallyattended, to resolve RTI disputes. He is alsocredited with the tabling of the first GIC re-port in the state assembly reporting the num-ber of pending RTI applications in variousdepartments in the state.

“The backlog at GIC were so large that a

case took two and a half years to come forhearing at the commission. This has beenbrought to eight months now,” says a seniorofficial at GIC. Rajgopalan also implementedthe GIC case tracking system on the web andis shortly going to introduce an SMS-basedcomplaint tracking system. “In Rajgopalan’stenure, the GIC also put in place a video con-ferencing facility at commission by way ofwhich the an applicant may not need to travelto Gandhinagar for a hearing but only ap-proach the district head offices where videoconferencing is available. This project will beshortly launched,” adds the senior GIC offi-cial.

Balwant Singh is new CIC

TRANSPARENCY CUSTODIAN: Balwant Singh

TOI

Ahmedabad: Pakistan may adoptsome concepts implemented in theSabarmati riverfront project forits ambitious Ravi Riverfront Ur-ban Development (RRFUD) pro-ject, said members of the high-lev-el delegation of the LahoreDevelopment Authority (LDA) onMonday. The team led by the LDAcommissioner made a detailedtechnical inspection of the 11-kmriverfront stretch.

The main aspects of the Sabar-mati project that LDA officialslooked into include the intercep-tor drainage lines being installedto divert domestic sewage and pre-vent it from draining into the river.The other aspects are the floodmonitoring system of the river,and the recent project for tertiarytreating of domestic sewage afterwhich the treated waste will be al-lowed to flow into the river. The Pa-kistan team was particularly in-terested in the project for tertiarytreating of domestic sewage be-cause it studied it keenly.

Yet another issue that the dele-gation studied keenly was theslum rehabilitation being carriedout during the riverfront project.

“The Ravi riverfront is 40-km-long and four times the size of Sa-barmati riverfront. The core ob-jectives of the over $11 billion pro-ject is to revive the relationshipbetween Lahore city and river Ra-vi through urban development; ar-rest the city’s growth towards theleft bank of the river; and ensuretreatment of sewage before it isdischarged into the river for rais-ing the groundwater table. We arelooking at a wide range of urbanrenewal and new urban planningregulations for the Ravi river-front. We are also inviting inves-tors, encouraging PPP model andcreating job opportunities,” said

LDA commissioner Rashid Lan-grial.

The delegation included Lan-grial, LDA director general AhadCheema, LDA's strategic policyunit chief Moazzam Sipra andMustafa Kamal Chaudhry who is atechnical consultant on urban in-frastructure projects.

In the morning, Shiv Sena pro-testors reached the Shahibaugstretch of the Sabarmati river-front and shouted slogans againstthe visit of Pakistani officials. Butthe protestors were detained bythe city police to prevent any unto-ward incident. They were later re-leased. In the AMC, the BJP was adivided body with some office-bearers supporting the visit whilesome counsellors were staunchlyopposed to any relations with theneighbouring country.

Senior AMC officials claimedthat the four-member Pakistanteam was given a detailed present-ation at the Usmanpura AMC of-fice on the new development con-trol regulations for the Sabarmatiriverfront, and the sewage diver-sion and flood control mechanisminstalled for the riverfront.

Pak team studies riverfrontfor Lahore’s Ravi project

Shiv Sena Members Protest Against Delegation

The Pakistani delegation, comprising Lahore Commissioner Rashid MehmoodLangrial and Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director-general Ahad KhanCheema at the Sabarmati Riverfront on Monday

Yogesh Chawda

Sarfaraz.Shaikh@timesgroup.com

Ahmedabad: The ‘dial a tree’program of Ahmedabad Mu-nicipal Corporation (AMC)has caught the imagination of38,000 Amdavadis who haveshot off SMSes to AMC to planttrees in their locality. AMC hasplanted 5,400 trees in the lastthree days after it receivedSMSes from various areas.

Deputy municipal com-missioner Siddharth Khatritold TOI, “The city has a greencover of 4.6% of the city’s areainstead of 15% which is global-ly accepted. We found that thegreen cover in Ahmedabad ismostly restricted to AMC’splots, gardens, institutionalarea, and army cantonment.Public areas have much lowertree counts.”

According to AMC’s owntree survey in 2012, the city has6.18 lakh trees spread acrossits 464 square km area. Ofthese, more than 4.5 lakh treesare located on AMC plots, gar-dens and campuses. The sec-ond largest tree density is inthe army cantonment. Only1.25 lakh trees are located inother parts of the city or on pri-vate land. Khatri adds, “Thetree plantation program ismostly to encourage planta-tion in private residentialproperties and societies sothat people take ownership ofthese trees.”

38,000 in city send SMS for tree

ARTIFICIAL GREEN COVER

Ashwin Sadhu

Ahmedabad: Weather offi-cials have said that whilesome light to moderate rainswere expected in south Guja-rat, the weather is expected toremain only cloudy on Tues-day.

City recorded a maxi-mum temperature of 35.9 de-grees, three degrees abovenormal while the state capi-tal Gandhinagar recorded 35

degrees celsius.Senior meteorologist at

India Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) Gujarat, Mano-

rama Mohanty, said thatthere was no rain in the cityon Monday and no rain wasexpected on Tuesday. “Thereis a system developing. Weare tracking it and will be

able to forecast soon if it willgive us rains,” said Mohanty.It needs mention that thestate has so far got 153.33mmrain which is only 19. 24% ofthe average seasonal rainfall.Abdasa in Kutch is the onlyplace in Gujarat which hasnot had any rains recorded.

Twenty talukas in ninedistricts got rainfall in thepast 24 hours with Kapradain Valsad getting 63mm ofrain.

No rain expected today

Ahmedabad: Indian Institute ofTechnology Gandhinagar (IIT-Gn)welcomed its 2014-18 batch ofBTech students and kicked off theinstitute’s five-week-longfoundation programme, toimmerse the 142 students intovarious activities covering themessuch as ethics, social awareness,creativity, sports and teamwork.The batch comprises of studentsfrom 19 states of the country. Thenumber of students from Gujaratincreased from 17 last year to 21this year. While the largestnumber was from Maharashtrawith 33 students. TNN

21 from state joinIIT-Gn’s 2014-18BTech batch

Gandhinagar:The state governmentinformed the assembly that the no aspiringstudent will be left without admission to aBachelor of Science course. The governmentalso announced that admissions would becomplete by July 27 and the session willbegin from July 31.

The minister of state for higher andtechnical education Vasuben Trivedi saidthat despite the delay in admissions, therewill be any loss to the students’ education asthe government has made it clear toUniversities that the semester will be of 110days. “We have asked universities to have110 working days per semester from the dayof the commencement of the semester,” Shesaid. TNN

No aspirant will be leftwithout a science collegeseat, says ministerGandhinagar:The debate over

budgetary allocation in theeducation sector in the assemblyon Monday saw the Congressbringing out flaws in the systemwhile the government defendedits policy. Congress MLA fromAbdasa, Shaktisinh Gohil,demanded an end to the practiceof fixed pay to teachers, accusingthe government of exploitation bypaying them a paltry sum of Rs5,300 as fixed wages. He criticizedthe government for taking thematter to Supreme Court evenafter Gujarat high court termed itexploitation and directed thegovernment to give full pay toteachers. TNN

‘Stop paying fixedwages to teachers’

Gandhinagar:GujaratCongress on Monday objected tothe visit of the Pakistandelegation to Ahmedabad to seethe riverfront project. Leader ofopposition (LOP) ShankarsinhVaghela and former LOPShaktisinh Gohil criticized theBJP-led state government in theassembly for hosting thePakistan delegation when thereis disturbance on the border.

Vaghela said, “Earlier, the BJPalleged that the Congress-ledUnion government was feedingKasab biriyani. They forgot thatthey hosted Pakistan soon afterthe Kargil war. Moreover, theymade big noise after Pakistanarmy beheaded an Indian soldierbut now they are in power andnumber of attacks by Pakistan onIndian border has increased. Evenwhen Pakistan is provoking, thestate and the Union governmentsare hosting them again.’’ TNN

Cong objects togroup’s visit

DRY FORECAST

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

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Paul.John@timesgroup.com