The Third World ….Institute of Technology.

How often do you find a college so variant of a college, an engineering college rather?

Well, some might say ‘rarely’. But, the fact is ‘more often than not’. Yes, as a matter of fact.

Welcome to ‘Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College’. The JGEC. The JGEC with its share of

shabby buildings, unruly crowd(read students),horrible canteen food, terrible hostels, insanitary

washrooms, mooing cows, oh! the beautiful pastures , bawdy loners, skimmed internet fanatics ,

scourge faculty and geeky losers . Over a decade, this facade. We stand now here at JGEC!

But suddenly there is a breath of fresh air. If recent acclaims are to be believed we are resurgent,

somewhat recurrent.We are a progressive culture. And, this institute of ours is no exception. The World Bank

much impressed by the proceedings is up with huge funds. Big bucks indeed! All they want is to

improve the technical education scenario. And, oblivious of the logistics and developments at the root level the funds are flowing in. They, the authorities claim to have started various infrastructure improvement and college development projects. Going by their verbatim, ‘ College would be a deemed university by-2012’. But is it? Are they serious? Do we see even an iota of their highlighted endeavour?

Well, the answers to these are obvious. A big fat ‘No’.

Now, coming to why is the administration falling short of keeping its promises. There isn’t a static

state so far the activities are concerned. But the approach isn’t a holistic one.

All we see is a lethargic facelift for the sake of development. The roads are being broadened , walls

whitewashed and fields fenced ( remember those are the pastures for the mooing cows, so may

be they need some kind of protection! ). The honourable decision making body takes pleasure in

doing that. And they smirk oozing with complacency .But, is this really a necessary step? Don’t we

need to prioritize mending the lacklusture image of our college? Or, simply sort out the dearth of

faculty and logistics at par national standards if not international. So why not work keeping pace

with times. Something that the administration just doesn’t seem to understand.

It is always easier said than done. But we need to take vital steps to ensure that we aren’t left

behind as ‘The third world IIT’. We will then see the JGEC, the JGEC with its share of shabby

buildings, unruly crowd(read students),horrible canteen food, terrible hostels, insanitary

washrooms, mooing cows, beautiful pastures and swampy puddles , bawdy loners, skimmed

internet fanatics ,scourge faculty and geeky losers but also with mighty standards.

Standards that would speak volumes .So, don’t let the authorities shrug, just wipe off the smugness!