Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Nov 12: There has been a mushrooming growth of coaching centres, which have become a hub of illegal activities with no check by the government.
Government in October 2015 imposed a blanket ban on private tuitions by teachers serving in state government run schools, saying it amounts to "moral turpitude" and is a serious violation of service conduct rules''.
There has been a mushrooming growth of coaching centres over the years without any check on their activities. There are complaints that some commercial coaching centres are run by government employees in total contravention of Service Rules and departmental instructions. As per the department rules the coaching institutes should have heating/ cooling facilities, toilet and drinking water facilities besides the installation of CCTVs and safety devices. "These coaching centres have failed to put such facilities in place in coaching centres and have turned into money minting machines," sources said. Sources said that groups of miscreants are roaming haphazardly and creating nuisance outside coaching centres. A police official said that they receive complaints from the residents of several areas that some youth going to coaching centres had been creating nuisance. "The Sanatnagar, Hyderpora, and Baghat Barazulla are hub of coaching centres and many youth have been indulging in eve teasing," the official said.
Eve- teasing and street harassment incidents, despite being reported numerous times, remain nagging sore in the Valley. Lewd remarks greet young girls on the roads, in public transport and outside their school, college and University campus. 1233 cases of molestation were reported in 2016. They got escalated to 1361 cases in 2017.
According to the police data, the number of cases registered for eve teasing were 215 and 157 in 2015 and 2016, respectively. However, the number fell to 122 in 2017.
"Very few eve teasing incidents are being reported. The victims are not coming forward to lodge the complaint. It is because of conservative and patriarchal society, girls do not come forward and speak up," the official added. An official of State Women Commission said they receive such cases frequently from across the Valley especially Srinagar.
There are also reports from other universities, colleges where their faculty members are involved in private practice which is a brazen violation of the rules. "All these professors, assistant professors, get a monthly salary in the range between Rs 70,000 and 1,50,000. Few of them earn over a crore annually by teaching in coaching centres," a senior faculty member of the Kashmir University said. There are also many lectures of higher secondary schools who are involved in practice of private tuitions. |
