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| Monday,
March 26, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Governor
sore at dilution of varsity bodies’ powers 40 colleges to be computerised Haryana to improve its libraries Procurement worries persist TB cases on the rise in Panipat |
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Maxicab operators hold procession CM ‘misleading’ masses on Tehelka PM must quit, says VP Award for promotion of communal harmony Traffic
police on challaning spree Court summons
SP, SHO Smart cards NGOs set up crisis
management panel Police modernisation Gang of women thieves busted Newly wed dies in mishap
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Governor
sore at dilution of varsity bodies’ powers Kurukshetra, March 25 Enquiries made by The Tribune show that the Governor has asked his Secretary to work in this direction along with members of the panel. However, the names of the members of the panel have not been disclosed so far. Enquiries further show that the Governor, who is also the Chancellor of the universities in Haryana, is upset over the distribution of powers and functioning of various varsity bodies. For instance, the Governor has taken umbrage over why the powers of the court of Kurukshetra University have been slowly diluted and it has been converted merely into “a talking body.” A meeting of the Court of Kurukshetra University has been fixed for March 30. It is learnt that the Governor was not taken into confidence when the meeting of the Court was fixed. The Chancellor is reported to have made it known that the meeting could not be fixed without taking him into confidence as he happened to be the Chairman of the Court. The Governor is learnt to have further pointed out that while bodies equivalent to the Kurukshetra University Court in other states enjoyed all powers, the powers of the Kurukshetra University Court had been diluted slowly. Babu Parmanand is reported to be of the view that all bodies which have been created under different statutes of various universities should enjoy all powers and functions provided therein. However, at present, this is not the case in some universities. For instance, Kurukshetra University is still dogged by a controversy over delegation of powers to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor by the Vice-Chancellor. The Governor has made it clear that the Pro-Vice-Chancellor should be given powers and functions as per the statutes of the university. But so far, nothing concrete has emerged in this respect. The second important issue which is causing concern to the Governor is the appointment of Registrars in universities. The Governor had written to all state universities — MDU, Rohtak, GJU, Hisar, and Kurukshetra University — that their Registrars should be appointed as per norms laid by the UGC. The UGC norms stipulate that a person appointed to the post of Registrar should have 15 years of experience in the senior scale. The Governor has learnt that in some of the varsities, the Registrars did not fulfil these qualifications. It is learnt that at one time, Babu Parmanand had submitted a panel of names to the Haryana Government from amongst the IAS cadre to be appointed as Registrar of Kurukshetra University. But this did not find favour with the State Government. At present, all three appointees as Registrars i.e. Mr Devender Singh, Dr Preet Singh and Dr Hawa Singh of the GJU, Hisar, MDU, Rohtak, and Kurukshetra University, respectively, are nominees of the Chautala Government. Enquiries show that following the letter from the Governor, MDU has changed the Registrar. The Governor is reported to be upset that the State Government has not agreed to his recommendations so far. As per the KU Act, 1986, Clause 22-B(1), “The Registrar shall be appointed by the Chancellor on the advice of the Government”. It is being pointed out that although the Chancellor considers the advice of the government while appointing a Registrar of the varsity, yet it is not “binding on him to appoint a Registrar of the choice of the government”. Babu Parmanand is reported to have maintained that the appointment of Registrars was the “prerogative” of the Chancellor only. The matter relating to the appointment of Registrars was also raised at the meeting of the Vice-Chancellors of the Haryana universities by the Governor over a fortnight ago. It is learnt that the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, is well aware of the feelings of the Governor in this respect. However, certain influential Registrars are reported to be pulling political strings to remain in the saddle. Enquiries further show that the Governor has so far not approved the appointments of the present Registrars of the GJU and Kurukshetra University. |
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40 colleges to be computerised Chandigarh, March 25 While 40 of the 57 government colleges of the state will be computerised in the first phase of networking to enable the directorate to establish an interface with them, the remaining colleges will be taken up under the project subsequently. “A number of issues like availability of staff in the education department, grant-in-aid to the 96 non-government colleges are all linked to the student-teacher ratio. If we can directly access such information, it will be to the benefit of the department,’’ the Director, Higher Education, Ms Anuradha Gupta, said. Explaining the bottlenecks in the present manual system, she said in the absence of a consolidated computerised data, it was not possible to know the details about the service of government employees, leading, sometimes, to court cases. Details on the number of staff members employed in a particular college and the student ratio in comparison could solve the recurring problem of staff shortage if this information is computerised. The scheme has been approved following a special allocation of over Rs 50 lakh from the Finance Department, the head office to get Rs 18.86 lakh and the computerisation in 40 colleges costing Rs 36.80 lakh. The advantages of computerisation right from quicker decision-making to early disposal of college-related problems clearly outweigh the sole problem of training hands in handling information at the head office and college level. “We have already found a solution to this with HATRON helping us in the matter. They have been entrusted with the entire task of networking and training the existing staff. Also, we have already sent the requirements of additional staff needed to manage the work,’’ Ms Gupta added. |
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Haryana to improve its libraries Chandigarh, March 25 Besides, the state government, in a separate initiative to modernise and technically upgrade the public libraries, has approved a project of Rs 75 lakh to convert the District Library at Karnal into a cyber library, the first of its kind in the country in the government sector. Of the 24 public libraries, there is one state library, 11 district libraries and 12 subdivisional libraries. The Director of Higher Education, Mrs Anuradha Gupta, heads the Directorate of Public Libraries. When contacted, she said the Finance Commission had recommended a one-time grant of Rs 4.8 crore for the upgradation of all 24 public libraries in Haryana. The commission had also recommended that the state may convert the one-time grant into a corpus, invest it and use the returns for the purchase of books and periodicals every year on a sustainable basis. “We have decided to create a corpus. The minimum annual return from an investment of Rs 4.8 crore would be more than Rs 50 lakh a year. We will get a matching grant from Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation in Kolkata. Thus we will have more than a crore of rupees available to us annually for the purchase of books and periodicals,” Mrs Gupta said. At present, the libraries are facing paucity of funds. The annual spending of Rs 4 lakh for books and periodicals is but peanuts. Not many opt for public libraries because of their inability to add to their collection of books. The libraries are unable to subscribe to most of the popular journals, periodicals and even newspapers because of financial constraints. Compared to Haryana’s annual allocation of Rs 4 lakh, which includes a Rs 2 lakh matching grant from Raja Rammohan Roy Foundation, for the purchase of books and periodicals, Himachal Pradesh, though a much smaller state, spends Rs 10 lakh annually on the purchase of books and periodicals for its state libraries. Punjab, unfortunately, does not have a Directorate of Public Libraries. The issue came up for discussion during a call attention motion during the current Vidhan Sabha session where it was pointed out that the State Public Libraries Act was in the final stages of approval. Mrs Gupta said good and modern libraries were a necessity to improve the literacy rate and promoting the reading habits among
neo-literate and the educated segments of society. Since books were becoming costly, it was very difficult for individuals to build and maintain personal collections. As such the role of public libraries had assumed even greater significance. She said the money would be used to strengthen the concept of electronic libraries. “We propose to set up seven cyber libraries in the state from amongst the existing public libraries. These libraries will have cyber cafes. The state government has made a special allocation for this purpose.” She said in the District Library, Karnal, the existing cubicle would be converted into cyber cafes. The work on the project was expected to start next month and would be executed through Hartron, the approved nodal agency for the state. Mrs Gupta said after installation of computers, internet facilities for web surfing and other cyber activities would be made available at nominal charges. “We also propose to computerise various other library operations such as cataloguing and issuing of books, besides developing an integrated system in all district libraries in the first phase, which subsequently would be linked with the headquarters in the second phase. The seven libraries to be computerised are those at Gurgaon, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jind, Narnaul, Sirsa and Karnal,” she added. |
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Procurement worries persist Faridabad, March 25 Mr Ved Prakash Vidrohi, president of the Haryana unit of the Janata Dal (United), in a statement here yesterday, said the hike of Rs 30 in the MSP of wheat was not enough. State and Union government agencies should ensure a proper procurement procedure and payment of MSP to farmers in the mandis. Although the MSP of wheat last year was Rs 580 per quintal, farmers had to sold their crop at lower rates due to delay in lifting of the produce from the mandis. He claimed the farmers had in the past been forced to run from pillar to post in order to sell their produce on the MSP. He said due to non-procurement of all produce by government agencies, the hapless farmers had been forced to sell at very low rates to private buyers. The JD(U) leader asked the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the state government to ensure proper storage facilities in view of the fact that a majority of godowns were already full and there was hardly any space to accommodate fresh arrivals in the mandis. The state Congress party has also expressed unhappiness over the new MSP. Describing it inadequate, a spokesman of the party said the state government had let the farmers down during the last kharif procurement season as farmers were forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices. He said the farmers were likely to face numerous hurdles in the mandis due to the “wrong” policies of the state government. Similar views have been expressed by some farmer welfare organisations, including the Bharatiya Kisan Union. An activist of the BKU said the hike of Rs 30 was ‘minimal’ and unacceptable and it did not cover the cost incurred by the farmers. |
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TB cases on the rise in Panipat Panipat, March 25 More than 1,500 patients are receiving treatment at the local Civil and ESI hospitals. The alarming situation here can be gauged from the fact that of the total patients coming to hospital for treatment, about 20 per cent are found to be suffering from TB and 90 per cent of the TB patients are industrial labourers. Also due to lack of awareness among the patients for treatment, the disease is spreading among other people working along with them. There are no proper treatment facilities for TB patients in the district. There is neither any TB hospital nor any proper arrangement for such patients in other government hospitals. Expressing serious concern over the increase in number of TB patients, particularly workers in handloom and spinning mill units, the labour union leaders have pointed out that despite the fact that Panipat has achieved a distinction for handloom products in the world due to the efforts of mill workers, yet no proper attention is being given to save them from falling victim to this disease. |
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Maxicab operators hold procession Kaithal, March 25 However, as no officer was available due to a holiday and the administration was hung due to the visit of the Chief Minister to Harsola village of the district, the protesters, in hundreds of vehicles, left for Harsola to meet the Chief Minister. There they met the Chief Minister and submitted a memorandum to him urging him to continue the policy of granting new permits for maxicabs and renewing the old permits.  |
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CM ‘misleading’ masses on Tehelka Rohtak, March 25 Mr Hooda was addressing corner meetings in the outer localities falling in the Kiloi Assembly segment today. The Congress leader said the “Lalkar rally” scheduled to be held at Panipat on April 8 was aimed to warn the government against its “anti-people” policies. He said the government’s decision to cancel the maxicab permits on March 31 would render thousands of youths jobless. He suggested that the government should focus its attention on the illegal plying of vehicles in place of the authorised
maxicabs. |
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PM must quit, says VP Sonepat, March 25 Talking to mediapersons at Gohana town, 35 km from here, yesterday, he also demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, on moral ground over Tehelka expose. The Prime Minister, he said, being the head of the government and was morally responsible for any act of commission and omission taking place in his government. Expressing concern over corruption in the higher echelons of politics, bureaucracy and the armed forces, he said those who vouch for patriotism had been found to be compromising on country’s security. The Tehelka expose, he said, had proved that they were taking the country for a ride. |
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Award for promotion of communal harmony Kurukshetra, March 25 Giving this information here yesterday, Mrs Jyoti Arora, Deputy Commissioner here, said the award would be given in three grades — for first grade Rs 1 lakh would be given, for the second Rs 50,000 and for the third Rs 25,000. She said the award would be declared every year on October 2, on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. She further disclosed that the Haryana Government had launched a number of ambitious schemes for welfare of people belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Vimukt and Tapriwas castes in the state. The government was providing a grant in aid up to Rs 10,000 for such people, she said. A grant of Rs 50,000 was being given for pavement of streets where more than 25 per cent people belonging to the Scheduled Castes reside, he said. Similarly, to motivate and encourage such panchayats which had contributed for welfare of such castes, including removing of untouchability, pavements of streets and helping in admission to children belonging to the these castes would be given a sum of Rs 5,000 as incentive money. |
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Traffic
police on challaning spree Faridabad, March 25 The drive has been intensified in view of the directive of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the increasing incidents of road mishaps in the district. The need and importance of the proper implementation of the rules has also increased in view of unprecedented hike in the number of vehicles and the fact that the busiest national highway passes through the district. The police has set up several checking points in the district for the purpose. The authorities have detected 1,007 cases of the violation of pollution norms in the month of January and February this year. This is perhaps the first time that such a large number of cases have been registered in this connection. Mr Ranbir Sharma, SSP, said the police had been taking action to implement the necessary guidelines. |
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Court summons
SP, SHO Fatehabad, March 25 Mr Harmej Singh had stated in the petition that some persons had attacked him with sharp-edged weapons and he had to be hospitalised in a serious condition. |
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Smart cards Chandigarh, March 25 Stating this, a state Transport Department spokesman said the department would computerise its various activities with a view to eliminating harassment of the general public. He said the entire state would be made a single zone for the purpose of interface between the Transport Department and the public. |
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NGOs set up crisis
management panel Sirsa, March 25 A member of the Panchnad and Secretary of the Lions Club, Sirsa, Dr Vinod Gupta will be the convener of the committee which will have as other members, representatives of different NGOs. |
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Police modernisation Chandigarh, March 25 Stating this here yesterday, Mr M.S. Malik, DGP, said out of the money, Rs 64.33 crore would be spent on modernising vehicles, Rs 2.11 crore on weapons, Rs 56.58 crore on equipment, Rs 2.40 crore on tentage (portable cabins) and Rs 95.85 crore on non-residential buildings. |
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Gang of women thieves busted Panipat, March 25 According to information, the GRP at Panipat was informed by the Karnal GRP that a gang of women thieves pretending as beggars was travelling in the New Delhi-bound Dadar Express and the gang had stolen Rs 60,000 from Mahadev Solvent Private Limited at Pipali Mandi in Kurukshetra. It is learnt the gang had reportedly reached at the company’s office at Pipali around noon yesterday. The members of the gang started begging from the officials and customers present on the occasion. While some members kept people busy with their prayers the rest opened the tool box of a scooter belonging to Jaipal, an employee of the company and removed Rs 60,000. After committing the theft, the gang members escaped. The gang members reportedly travelled by bus up to Karnal and from where they boarded Dadar Express. However, during search operation, they were arrested at Panipat. |
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Newly wed dies in mishap Kurukshetra, March 25 Sources said the woman who died was married only a few days back, and was going to her parents’ home.
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