Shimla, September 19
The CPM has demanded the resignation of chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBSE) Chaman Lal Gupta in view of his alleged role in the fraud certificates issued from the Dharamsala-based institute.

The party has also demanded a judicial inquiry into the scam as everyday new facts about the murky happenings in the board are coming to light. The printing of question papers, books and practical books must also be brought under the purview of the investigations as serious charges of corruption are being levelled in the printing process as well.

Member of the secretariat Tikender Panwar said the silence of the state BJP government over this issue had revealed its attitude and the effort was on to allow the guilty to go scot-free.

It seemed as if the state was in the grip of an education mafia with strong political links in the highest echelons. The mafia had already proven its strength during the CPMT (combined pre-medial entrance test) scandal which revealed how easy it was to access the question papers of such examinations.

He said the successive tenures of Chaman Lal Gupta had been full of controversies. At a school in Nadaun, girls had been stripped naked by members of the anti-copying flying squad during checking in examination hall. His office functioned more like a BJP platform rather than the chairperson of the board. He had been a long time president of the ABVP and ardent supporter of the commercialisation and privatisation of education in the state.

The people must be warned against the twin dangers of the BJP and its prime ideologue's theory in the field of education, he added. 

Shimla, September 19
The state government has decided not to replace junior basic training (JBT) teachers with elementary education teachers (EETs) as it does not fit in well in the proposed plan for restructuring of the Education Department.

The government has already set up a committee under the chairmanship of director of higher education to work out detailed modalities for the restructuring exercise to bring the entire school education under one director-general of education. There will be two directors under him, one looking after Classes VI to XII, while the other will be in charge of primary education. An independent directorate will be set up to take care of higher education, which needs focus in view of opening of a large number of professional colleges, private universities and other institutions in the private sector.

Unlike some other state which has split the school education into elementary (Class I to VIII) and senior secondary (Class IX to XII) levels, the proposal is to separate primary education by setting up an independent directorate. The main reason for this is that the primary education set up is already separate, whereas middle, high and senior schools are intricately linked as teachers from lower levels are promoted upwards. More so, because schools are constantly upgraded from primary to middle to high and finally to senior secondary level and they mostly continue functioning on the same premises.

Trained graduate teachers (TGTs) teaching Classes VI to VIII cannot be split into elementary (up to Class VIII) and higher education as Class VI to VII require subject-specific teachers.

The JBT teachers are general teachers engaged for teaching up to class V. In such a situation the system of EETs cannot be introduced in the state. Further, there is no clarity on the issue even in the National Council for Teachers’ Education. The existing BEd qualification is being considered more suitable for subject-specific teachers. In fact, some states have revamped the BEd course and made it a more comprehensive two-year course.

With over one-lakh employees on rolls, the Education Department has indeed become rather “unwieldy” and rather difficult to administer. It has been pre-occupied with transfers and has no time for academics, research training and regulatory functions. The government has opened the floodgates for private universities and other educational institutions of higher education without any regulatory mechanism in place.

Mandi, September 19
Rs 300-crore Doodh Ganga Yojna, which the government had modified in August this year, received a good response from farmers. The farmers were coming forward for buying new breed of cows, setting up organic dairy farms, storage, processing or chilling units in the state by taking soft loans under the plan.

The government launched the scheme in December 2009, but received a poor response as only 2,000 farmers availed the scheme till August. According to sources, the Milkfed could only utilise Rs 35 crore out of the Rs 300-crore yojna last year.

That forced the government to bring changes in the yojna on August 15 this year for the benefit of the farmers. So far it has offered 25 per cent subsidies for general category farmers and 33 per cent for reserved categories instead of waving 50 per cent interest on loans.

Milkfed chairman Mohan Joshi said they had received a good response for the new Doodh Ganga scheme from farmers. "We have received more than 5,000 applications from Mandi district alone and the story is no different from other parts of the state," he added.

Joshi said they had utilised Rs 35 crore last year and remaining Rs 265 crore was being utilised under the modified scheme this year.

"The farmers can avail loans ranging from Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 4.8 lakh for new cows and setting up another animal husbandry venture. Unemployed villagers are coming forward to take its benefits," he added.

"The farmers can set up the dairy products' outlets selling fresh products in the markets for tourists or locals," he added.

He said the Animal Husbandry Department was under the Chief Minister and he had directed the department to procure good milch cattle from the authorised animal farms in Karnal or parts of Punjab.

New Delhi, September 19
The Supreme Court has imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on a professor from Himachal Pradesh University for seeking divorce on the allegation that his wife, a lecturer for plus two students, had subjected him to cruelty by refusing to have sex on the first night, thereby giving rise to the suspicion that she was suffering from venereal disease.

A Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly dismissed the professor’s appeal observing that though the couple had been living separately for nearly 20 years, divorce could not be granted either on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage or due to cruelty on the part of the wife.

The court accepted the contention of counsel Anil Nag, appearing for the wife, that there was no provision in law for granting divorce citing irretrievable breakdown as a reason. Further, for breakdown of the matrimony, there should be equal culpability on the part of both husband and wife.

The Bench, which passed the order on September 16, agreed with the findings of the HP High Court that the husband had failed to provide evidence to show that his wife refused to have sex with him on the first night because she was suffering from venereal disease. In fact, she was not subjected to any medical examination at his instance after the marriage in December 1989.

The husband had contended that refusal to have sex on the wedding night amounted to cruelty. He had also alleged that the woman’s brothers had kidnapped him and thrashed him at her instance.

The trial court had granted divorce ruling that the wife was cruel as she filed a false case of harassment for dowry against the husband, a resident of Shimla. The HC, however, maintained that since he himself had levelled “scurrilous, false and baseless” allegations against his wife, he could not be granted divorce.

“The allegations made by the husband and not proved by him are so demeaning that all of them are not being repeated in this judgment,” the HC had noted in May 2005.

The Centre has, meanwhile, sought to amend the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 to allow divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage. A Bill to this effect is under the consideration of a Parliamentary Standing Committee.

Hamirpur, September 19
The cancellation of public tender by the chief engineer of the Hamirpur Public Works Department following complaints of bullying of an outside contractor by local contractors here has once again exposed the menace of pooling system and strong-arm tactics of the contractors of grabbing bids through manipulation.

A contractor from Delhi-based firm, PRG Private Limited, who came here to submit bids for about Rs 30-crore work for the proposed Bhareti-Mahdi road under the Dharampur area, was not allegedly allowed to submit the bids at PWD chief engineer Sonam Negi’s office by local contractors.

Negi, taking cognisance of the complaint of Santosh Pant of PRG, cancelled the tender process and recalled the tender for this work.

Pant, in his complaint, alleged: “I was not allowed to participate in the tender process and my tender papers were snatched after manhandling by some contractors. I reported the matter to the police as well.”

In their effort to pooling government contractors through manipulation to grab contracts at higher rates, the use of strong-arm tactics by the local contractors is becoming quite common. It is not for the first time that local contractors have stopped an outsider from participating in the tender process. Similarly, a contractor from Panchkula was bullied and his papers were snatched some time back in the office of HPSEB Superintending Engineer Mattan Sidh.

Sonam Negi said: “Though the contractor had complained, he was stopped from participating in the tender process and his papers snatched but I had asked him to submit papers in the box while no tender was put in the box.”

“Since rates quoted by him for the work had become public after allegation of snatching of tender papers, we have recalled the tender,” Negi added. 

Shimla, September 19
Some persons made an unsuccessful attempt to commit burglary at the Sanjauli branch of Punjab National Bank last night.

The burglars broke open two locks to enter the premises but apparently failed to enter the strong room where cash was kept. They first disconnected power supply to ensure that the closed-circuit TV cameras and other security gadgets installed on the bank premises were made non-functional. Still suspecting that their images might have been captured in the camera, they took away the recording machine.

Superintendent of Police R.M. Sharma said about 45 persons had been rounded up on suspicion and they would be produce before the court tomorrow. The modus operandi was similar to that of a local gang in Krishna Nagar.

In another case, jewellery and valuable, besides Rs 20,000, were stolen from a flat in Goyal Apartments. The details of items stolen and their value could not be ascertained as the owner was out of station.

The theft was noticed by chowkidar this morning, who found the main door of the flat open and household goods scattered on the floor.