The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Ponmudi criticises Anna varsity ban on cellular phone

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 02, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Ponmudi criticises Anna varsity ban on cellular phone

Vani Doraisamy

K. Ponmudi

CHENNAI: Minister for Higher Education K. Ponmudi on Thursday criticised the mobile phone ban imposed by Anna University and called upon authorities to treat students liberally.

Minutes after Vice-Chancellor D. Viswanathan said in a seminar on `War for Talent', organised by the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Employers' Federation of Southern India and Avalon Consulting, that the academic performance of the university students had increased by 25 per cent after the cell phone ban was imposed in September last year, the Minister came on stage to say, "I have a difference of opinion on this."

He said: "Even in the State Assembly, we are unable to curb use of cell phones. Restrictions are needed but some liberalisation is needed too. If you impose too many restrictions on youngsters, they will be inclined to rebel."

"No rethink"

University sources, however, indicated that the authorities were not inclined to do a rethink on the ban as "it had received overwhelming appreciation from parents."

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor said the un-employability crisis facing engineering graduates was mostly because they tended to neglect communication skills, apart from losing focus in academics. He, however, did not elaborate on what the 25 per cent increase in performance meant in qualitative terms.

Ever since it was imposed, the ban has sparked furious debates in the public domain with arguments ranging all the way from whether engineering graduates should be denied the benefits of technological innovations to the menace caused by mobile phones in lecture halls and examination centres.

Students upbeat

The Minister joining issue with the Vice-Chancellor seems to have gone done well with the students.

An engineering aspirant who attended the seminar said: "He [Mr. Ponmudi] has given voice to our feelings. When we protested [against the ban], we were ridiculed by the authorities. Now, the criticism has come from the Ministerial level."

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