Sirsa, June 1
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Chancellor of Chaudhary Devi Lal University (CDLU) and the state of Haryana to explain their stance on the alleged discrimination against CDLU by August 28, 2006.

The high court issued notices to the state and university authorities to file their reply on a petition filed in this regard by a group of prominent local residents, who are members of “Shiksha Bachao Abhiyan”.

In the petition, it has been pointed out that of the 302 sanctioned posts for CDLU, only 35 had been filled. There is no regular Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and Controller of Examinations at the university. Besides, the petitioners have alleged step-motherly treatment with CDLU.

The “Shiksha Bachao Abhiyan”, which comprises a former chairman of the Haryana Public Service Commission, a retired Inspector-General of Police, the president of the District Bar Association and other prominent figures, including litterateurs, journalists and social activists, has been pursuing the matter for a long time, but to no avail.

Advocate Jagdish Chopra, the convener the body, who is a former chairman of a District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, told The Tribune yesterday that they had also sought an appointment with the President and Vice-President of India regarding the matter.

Alleging that the very survival of the university was at stake due to financial constraints, Mr Chopra pointed out that while a demand for approximately Rs 27 crore had been made by the CDLU authorities for the 2005-06 session, it got merely Rs 2 crore.

“Even of the said amount, Rs 1.50 crore were diverted to Government National College, leaving merely Rs 50 lakh at the disposal of the university,” he said, adding that in 2005, an amount of Rs 8.72 crore was diverted to other universities.

The convener of the “abhiyan” pointed out that while regular Vice-Chancellors were appointed in all other universities of the state well in time, the CDLU was yet to have one. He said due to lack of political will to run the university, it was being forced to die a slow death. “Initially, 77 non-teaching employees of various universities and government departments had joined CDLU on deputation, but due to uncertain future and lack of facilities, more than 40 left the university and rejoined their parent departments,” he maintained.

While 70 of 105 sanctioned teaching posts remain vacant, not even a single post of non-teaching employees has been filled on a regular basis. Thirty-one employees, all on deputation, are looking after the work supposed to be done by 197 staff members.

Moreover, all affiliated colleges of five districts, including Bhiwani, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa, were disaffiliated from CDLU in March, 2005. Even the Government National Postgraduate College, Sirsa, which was earlier made university college, was re-affiliated to Kurukshetra University.

The “Shiksha Bachao Abhiyan” has demanded that a regular Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and Controller of Examinations be appointed at the earliest, besides filling of vacant posts of faculty members and non-teaching employees and making provision for adequate funds for the university.

The notices were issued to the respondents after a Division Bench of the high court comprising the acting Chief Justice, Mr H.S. Bedi, and Mr Justice R.S. Randhawa, admitted the plea for hearing.

Chandigarh, June 1
After Tamil Nadu and now Punjab, Haryana proposes to remit loans amounting to Rs 3500 crore, extended to farmers’ cooperatives.

The Haryana Government has sought a copy of the policy made by the Karunanidhi-led government in Tamil Nadu for study and the implementation of the model in Haryana. This was revealed by the Finance Minister, Haryana, Mr Birender Singh, on the sidelines of the State-Level Bankers Committee Meeting (SLBC) for Haryana.

He said though it was a political decision to remit the loans advanced to farmers in Tamil Nadu and Punjab, Haryana was considering the option because of the poor economic condition of farmers in the state.

“The size of land holdings is shrinking and farmers are falling in the debt trap, which is leading to farmers’ suicides. Thus, we have to look beyond economics,” he said.

The Finance Minister also highlighted the importance of opening accounts for farmers without seeking collaterals. This will ensure that they do not fall in the trap of private money lenders and commission agents, he added.

Earlier, while addressing the 96th meeting of the SLBC, the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Punjab National Bank, Mr S.C. Gupta, called upon bankers to increase financing to Self-Help Groups for uprooting poverty in Haryana. It was pointed out that banks had disbursed loans of Rs 2130 crore to agriculture sector, during the year from March 2005 - March 2006.

It was pointed out that banks disbursed total loans of Rs 10448 crore in Haryana during the last fiscal.

Mr S.C. Gupta said Haryana had emerged as one of the most progressive states of the country with an impressive trail of achievements in every sphere of activity, be it Agriculture, Industry or Transport, the progress has been phenomenal.” Haryana is an investor-friendly state and offers a rich reservoir of skilled, motivated and relatively low-cost manpower. At the same time, the State Government is also aware about the power requirements of various components of the economy and thus setting up new projects for more power generation”.

He said bankers in the state of Haryana were playing on pro-active role and putting in all possible efforts to boost credit flow to the Agriculture Sector. “Thrust has already been laid on promoting horticulture and organic inputs. The National Horticulture Board, the Agriculture Department and the Animal Husbandry Department as well as NABARD, all are playing an important role on this count.,” he said.

Kurukshetra, June 1
The district police has arrested three persons for allegedly planning a dacoity. One country made pistol and two live cartridges have been seized from their possession, while on their indication, a stolen car and three motor cycles have been recovered.

Confirming this here today, the district police chief, Mr Sanjay Kumar, said the police got a tip-off that five persons at a deserted house near HUDA, Sector 3-4, were planning to loot a petrol station and were possessing weapons.

Mr Kumar said that a police party cordoned off the house constructed at a deserted place and succeeded in arresting three persons, while two others escaped under the cover of darkness. The arrested persons were identified as Shiv Kumar, a resident of Chakarvarti Mohalla, Thanesar, Balwinder, alias Billu, a resident of Saraswati Colony, near Jhansa road, Thanesar and Sunil, alias Leela, a resident of Vishvkarma Colony, Thanesar. 

Fatehabad, June 1
The Haryana Government will soon fill 2700 posts of Gram Sachiv, lying vacant in Haryana. The government will also appoint 100 Junior Engineers in the Panchayat and Development Department soon. This was stated by Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Haryana, Mr Dharamveer Singh, who holds the charge of Panchayat and Development Department besides Public Relations.

Addressing mediapersons at the local PWD Rest House, Mr Dharamveer said the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government believed in planned development of villages. He said the government had made a provision of Rs 130 crore under the local area development (LAD) scheme for all round development of schools. Besides a sum of Rs 40 lakh had been provided for construction of stadiums in villages, Rs 20 crore for construction of chopals for backward classes and Rs 60 crore for repair of schools in the state. He said the previous government remained oblivious to the need for repair of schools and as a result, most of the schools in the villages were in bad shape.

Urging the elected representatives of the panchayati raj organisations to exercise their rights, Mr Dharamveer said they should not indulge in petty politics but concentrate on the development of their villages.

Addressing the convention, the local MLA, Mr Dura Ram, demanded that the sarpanches should also be paid an honorarium in line with the one being paid to Zila Parishad members. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr O.P. Langayan informed about the development activities taken in the district during the past one year.

Earlier, addressing mediapersons, Mr Dharamveer took a dig at the Opposition, particularly the INLD, for criticising the government for signing an MoU with Reliance and agreements concerning purchase of power. He said the present government was working with a vision of long time development, but the INLD was crying hoarse only to deviate the attention of public from the CBI investigation against its leaders.