March 14, 1981

Last December, the United States General Services Administration decided it was time to get serious about Dial-a-Joke. By its reckoning, employees of various Government agencies at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan were spending so much time ringing up Dial-a-Joke - and 25 other New York Telephone Company Dial-It Services lines that offer everything from recorded horoscopes to betting results - that it was adding up to $3,000 a month to the Federal Government's local phone bill. The unauthorized, so-called ''junk calls'' appear to be proliferating, at private concerns as well as at government agencies, and employers concerned about trimming operating budgets say their phone bills are being driven up as a result. The telephone company says it received 299 million calls on its various Dial-It lines during l980, an increase of 34 million over l979. In l979, the last year for which revenue figures are available, the company earned $18 million from such calls.

Libya agreed today to receive the prisoners to be released by Pakistan at the demand of three hijackers who are holding more than 100 passengers and crew members aboard a Pakistani airliner here. The hijackers said yesterday that they would free their hostages after they had received notification that 55 prisoners held in Pakistani jails had arrived in Libya. The hijackers also asked to be flown to Libya, and this demand was accepted as well. A Pakistani diplomat at the airport told reporters early this evening that 49 prisoners who had been held in four different provinces in Pakistan were being gathered in Karachi and would be leaving Pakistani airspace ''in the direction of Libya.'' (A plane carrying the prisoners left Karachi for Syria Saturday, Reuters reported from Karachi.)

With his bride-to-be looking on, Prince Charles of Britain was thrown from his horse yesterday in an amateur steeplechase race at Sandown Park.

After an angry political wrangle, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted 8 to 6 yesterday to pave the way for a probable July 1 fare increase. Board members shouted at each other across a conference table before they reached their decision. And, bowing to demands from Conrail constituencies for greater attention to their plight, the board also established a separate division to begin planning for a change in the commuter line's management. A board member from Rockland County, John McAlevey, called the move the first step toward an M.T.A. takeover of Conrail's passenger service in the region.

A Reagan Administration proposal could sharply reduce the amount of Federal education grants for about 1.5 million college students in the next school year. If approved by Congress, the proposal would defer, at least for this year, the use of a cost-of-living factor for adjusting the socalled ''discretionary family income'' that is the basis for determining the amount of a grant. ''Discretionary family income'' is the amount of money a family has left after paying essential living costs, such as housing, food and medical expenses. The amount of a Federal grant to a needy college student is based on how much discretionary income the family has available to contribute to that student's education.