Shimla, August 20
The Congress today staged a walkout in protest against the failure of the government to give a satisfactory reply to the large number of vacant posts in schools in tribal and backward areas and give any assurance on re-employing the sacked PTA teachers in view of the high court verdict.

The issue was raised by senior Congress leader Kaul Singh through a private member resolution calling for an effective policy to bring qualitative improvement in education.

He said the number of vacancies of teachers had increased as the government effected promotions without making adequate fresh recruitments. Schools in remote areas were the worst-hit as the Congress policy of not relieving a teacher unless substitute was made available had been given a go by, he said.

He urged the government to make institution-specific appointments to ameliorate the situation.

Not only that, the PTA teachers, which produced better results than regular teachers, were sacked. He wanted a specific reply whether or not the sacked teachers would be taken back in view of the high court verdict which quashed the report of the committee set for the purpose and ruled that the norms could not be applied retrospectively.

Replying to the debate, Education Minister ID Dhiman maintained that promotions were essential as 800 posts of principals and 650 of headmasters were vacant. In all, about 8,000 promotions of various categories were effected and as many as 3,389 new appointments were also made. He pointed out that the previous Congress regime cancelled the entrance for JBT thrice as a result of which no batches were admitted for four years. A large number of vacancies existed as it opened schools without providing teachers, building and other required infrastructure.

The present government had increased the education budget to Rs 597 crore, an increase of 142 per cent. It was also considering taking action against non-performing teachers and the proposal was to withhold increments of teachers who gave poor results for three consecutive years, he added.

The detailed reply did not satisfy the Congress members, who insisted on a definite reply to their specific questions. Kaul Singh refused to withdraw his resolution and the entire opposition walked out from the House, raising slogans against the government.

Dharamsala, August 20
With the byelections for Jawali and Rohru and assembly constituencies that have fallen vacant after the election of Rajan Sushant and Virbhadra Singh to Parliament in sight, the state government has offered bonanza for employees of the state.

On Independence Day Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal announced the implementation of the fifth pay commission recommendations for regular employees of the state on the Punjab pattern with effect from September, 2009. The Himachal government had earlier surpassed Punjab in giving 20 per cent interim relief to its employees.

The chief minister also announced 6 per cent dearness allowance to its employees to be paid in cash from January, 2009.

The teachers of various aided and government colleges in the state were also among the beneficiary categories. Dhumal has announced the implementation of UGC pay scales of all eligible college and university teachers with effect from September 1, 2008. The implementation of UGC-recommended pay scales would provide major financial benefit to the teaching community.

The state government will also regularise the services of all contractual and daily wagers who have completed eight years of service till March 31, 2009. The move would benefit hundreds of employees working in various government departments, universities, colleges and corporations.

The allowance of Home Guards in the state has been increased from Rs 150 per day to Rs 170 per day. This would mean an increase of Rs 600 in the salaries of Home Guards in the state.

The honorarium for watchmen of village panchayats has been increased from Rs 800 to Rs 1000. The dearness allowance of temple staff in the state has also been increased by 10 per cent.

For other categories the state government also announced financial benefits for dependents of freedom fighters. The ‘samman rashi’ for freedom fighters or their widows has been increased from Rs 2000 to Rs 4000 per month. The honorarium for unmarried daughters of freedom fighters has also been hiked to Rs 3000 per month.

The state government also announced various development projects for Kangra district. The projects included Rs 23 crore for bringing up 45 deep tubewells in the Jawali area of Kangra district. The Janamashtmi function of the Nurpur area would be of district level from next year. The chief minister also announced Rs 50 lakh for development of the stadium of the Fatehpur area. He also announced Rs 270 crore for three double-lane major tunnels of the state. The Uttrala-Holi tunnel would connect Kangra with Chamba district and open a new road connecting tribal areas.

Shimla, August 20
The Himachal government will put the legal framework in place to help regulate functioning of private institutions, particularly the fee structure, shortly.

Stating this while replying to the debate of private member resolution moved by Suresh Bharadwaj in this regard, Education Minister ID Dhiman said the Educational Institutions (Regulation) Act would be suitably amended to effectively regulate the fee structure and if need be, a new legislation would be enacted.

He said in a recent judgement, the apex court had ruled that the government could regulate the fee structure of private institutions and now it would be possible to enact a law for the purpose.

He said there were 2,081 private schools in the state out of which 1,892 were affiliated to the State Board of School Education, 164 to the CBSE and 25 to the ICSE.

Sending children to private schools had become a craze and even teachers of government schools sent their wards to these institutions even though they charged a higher fee. The existing Act laid down that the fee-structure should not be exploitative but it had no specific provisions for effectively regulating it, he said.

Earlier, initiating the debate, Bharadwaj stressed the need of setting up a regulatory body for private educational institutions on the pattern of the Electricity Regulatory Commission and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. He said this year private schools in Shimla hiked the fee by 40 per cent in one go. Further, private institutions took the fee in advance and also compelled students to buy books and uniform, which changed every now and then, from a particular shop.

Sports fee was being charged by schools which did not have a playground and building fund was being charged even though they did not have an inch of land for undertaking any further construction.

He said it was a matter of concern that people were preferring private schools to the government schools which had highly paid teachers. He suggested that the government should set up model schools to reverse the trend.

Mandi, August 20
The controversial Sundernagar cement plant, proposed to be set up by Harish Chandra Cement Private Limited, has come under a cloud as the plant is set to spell doom for the underground water and scores of irrigation and public health schemes in the area. The company has kept the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department in the dark about the exact location of the mining and plant sites and has yet to seek its no objection certificate (NOC).

What came as a shock for the IPH and residents, who are already up in arms against the plant, is that the company had managed to start the land acquisition process for the plant, but it is yet to get the mandatory NOC from the IPH. The plant needs three tube wells to be drilled at the site.

Raising ire of the residents against the proposed cement plant is the fact the recurring spells of drought and deficient rains have made farmers more dependent upon the underground water in the region. The cement plant will hit the last nail in their coffin, they feared.

The NOC will come after the central underground water board and the UWDA teams inspect the site and send its recommendation, sources revealed.

IPH, superintending engineer, Ashwani Gupta said the company had not specified the plant sites to the department and had not deposited Rs 22 lakh per tube well with the department for inspection. “We will not give NOC until inspection team recommended the permission,” he asserted.

Hamirpur, August 20
Though women rights commission and courts have issued specific directions not to depute women staff on night duty, two women peons have been deployed as night watchmen at Government Senior Secondary School for Girls at Hamirpur for the past many months.

This is being done by school principal Yudhvir Singh Pathania despite having two male peons in the school and one of them is having a specific duty of night watchman.

Both women peons are supposed to do the night duty of keeping a vigil at the school while one has been posted as a peon and other as an attendant in the school.

This practice is going on for quite sometime and even higher authorities in the Education Department have failed to take notice of this practice.

It is notable that few courts and women and human rights commissions have issued directions to all government departments and private institutions to avoid deploying women staff on night duties.

Interestingly, in this case the principal of the school is well aware about the guidelines of not deploying women staff on night duty but justifies this by taking an alibi that this is being done in few other offices of the Education Department.

Since both employees in this case are unaware about the guidelines of putting women employees on night duty, they are performing the duty.

The principal said, “We have two male peons one for general duty and other as night watchman, but we are putting women peons on night duty to compensate male staff for leave. He agreed that though this is violation of directions, this practice is going on in many other offices too.”

Deputy Director of higher education Sudesh Bala said, “Women staff could be deployed occasionally on night duty when male staff is sick or on long leave but this practice cannot be carried in a routine manner and I will inquire into this matter.”

Shimla, August 20
Elections to student bodies at Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) and 97 affiliated colleges will be held tomorrow with the police and district administration making elaborate arrangements to ensure that the polls are conducted peacefully.

With over a lakh students expected to cast their votes to elect their representatives, voting and counting will take place tomorrow itself. A total of 2,724 students will cast their votes at the HPU where the fight is mainly between the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

“We have made elaborate arrangements with the help of the police to ensure that the polls are held peacefully as per recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee,” said Prof SK Gupta, Vice-Chancellor, HPU.

In the student elections held last year, the HPU had about 2,480 voters out of which about 1,800 had cast their votes. Other major colleges having over 3,000 voters include the ones at Dharamsala, Mandi and Hamirpur.

Though the run-up to the elections has so far been peaceful, the police is keeping its fingers crossed to ensure that the poll process concludes without any violence. The SFI and the ABVP have been entangled in violence on the campus in the recent past also.

Despite its best efforts, the ABVP failed to gain control over the HPU, considered as the SFI citadel, in the SCA election last year, despite the BJP assuming power in the state. The ABVP managed to wrest only one of the four seats from the SFI, which has managed to retain its hold over the HPU even as its base in some of the colleges in the districts has eroded over the years.

ABVP activists on the HPU panel includes Surinder, Krantiswarup, Nitu Negi and Praveen Ranta. The SFI has fielded Gaurav Thakur, Vinita Thakur, Kussum and Pappu Kumar for the four SCA posts.

The NSUI has fielded Virender Mokta, Girija, Ranjit Thakur and Lalita Sharma.

“Regular patrolling is being done on the HPU campus and the colleges by the police and special deployment has been done to ensure that the elections are held in a fair and smooth manner,” said RM Sharma, SP.

He added that surveillance would be maintained in the boys’ hostels to ensure that no outsiders were being allowed to stay during the night.

Voting will be held between 9.30 am to 2 pm, to be followed by counting.

Shimla, August 20
AIDS is emerging as a serious problem in the hill state with the number of HIV+ cases increasing at a disturbing rate in the past three years.

As many as 2,139 new cases have been detected over the period. The number of new cases detected in 2006-07 was 530, 590 in 2007-08 and 770 in 2008-09. During the current financial year, 249 cases had surfaced till July.

Health Minister Rajiv Bindal informed the Vidhan Sabha during the Question Hour that the state had a significant count of persons who lived away from their families and were thus susceptible to the disease. The number was likely to rise further as the government had opened more integrated counselling and testing centres. The number of such centres had gone up from 15 in 2006 to 44 in 2009.

With increased awareness, more and more and more persons were coming forward for test, he added.

Kangra with 593 new cases, Hamirpur with 400 and Shimla with 501, were the worst affected district from where maximum cases were being reported.

The government had also strengthened the treatment facilities. There was only one anti-retroviral treatment centre at Shimla as a result of which patients had to travel long distances to get treatment. The government had set up another centre at Hamirpur and the third was coming up at Tanda.

Emphasis is on creating awareness among the people about the spread of the disease and focus is on providing early treatment to sex-related diseases which made the patients vulnerable to HIV infection. Those visiting the centres for treatment are being given bus fare for to and for travel along with an attendant. Children, whose parents had succumbed to AIDS, are being given financial assistance for pursuing education and other necessities up to the age of 15 years. 

Hamirpur, August 20
The Rajiv Akshar Urja Diwas was observed here today to celebrate the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

A rally, flagged-off by ADM Vijay Chandan, was taken out on this occasion in which a large number of schoolchildren participated.

Later, a declamation contest was also held.

Addressing students on this occasion, Hamirpur DC Abhishek Jain exhorted them to understand the importance of energy and adopt every mean to conserve it.

He said with the rising demand of electricity, there was an urgent need to tap alternative sources of energy like solar power.

He also asked teachers to take students and show them power projects so that they knew how power was generated and understood its importance.

Jain said since there was a huge gap between consumption and generation of power, the state government had introduced CFL bulbs to conserve power.