Sirsa/Fatehabad, April 1
Confusion persists over the guidelines under the Right to Education Act, even as the admission process is in full swing in Haryana schools.

In the absence of any guidelines and a mechanism to enforce the provisions of the Act, managements of private schools have been flouting rules with impunity. Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal had recently said that the state government had implemented the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act throughout the state.

She had said that under the Act, managements of all private and aided CBSE schools would give admission to at least 25 per cent students from the economically weaker sections (EWS). The Act bars the schools from conducting an entrance test for admissions up to Class VIII.

However, in Sirsa and Fatehabad several school owners and principals are not even aware of the guidelines. “I had to shell out Rs 25,000 as donation, besides the usual funds and fee for admission of my son in a leading school of the town,” said a trader of Sirsa. He clarified that mere donation was no guarantee for admission as the children had to first clear the school entrance test.

Similarly, a private school in Fatehabad has been conducting a test for students seeking admission in Class V, VI, VII and VIII.Anuja Mehta, principal, Daffodils Public School, Fatehabad, said their school had no official word on the new directions and had, hence, gone ahead with the entrance test for classes under eighth standard.

The tests had now been discontinued, she claimed. There is a lot of confusion over the guidelines on free admission to children from EWS families.

“We have not received a single application from children falling under the EWS category, despite advertisements in papers,” explained Sunita Madan, principal of the DAV Centenary Public School, Fatehabad. When contacted, Surina Rajan, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, School Education, said any entrance test up to Class VIII was banned under the RTE, which is in force in Haryana.

She said strict action would be taken against the schools conducting admission tests.

The Haryana Government had not issued any notification regarding admission of EWS students in private schools, she said.

Chandigarh, April 1
Turning a new leaf in Haryana’s academic history, the state has confirmed the services of as many as 373 principals. Nothing less than 511 headmasters also stand confirmed.

The information was furnished to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on a bunch of two petitions filed in public interest by Ramesh Malik and Narender Kumar against the state of Haryana and other respondents.

Taking up the matter, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Augustine George Masih asserted that: “In view of the stand taken by the state, we are of the view that both the writ petitions should be disposed of by directing that the confirmation process in respect of masters and C&V teachers, along with lecturers, headmasters and principals, in respect of whom confirmation orders are yet to be passed, shall be completed by the respondent state, after due verification, within a period of four months.

In both the petitions placed before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Augustine George Masih, the court’s intervention was sought on “the confirmation of teachers, lecturers, headmasters and principals in different schools” following the completion of their probation period “long back”.

The Bench observed that: “Coincidentally the petitioners in both the cases also seek their own confirmation in service on the grounds that they are similarly situated to a large number of persons on whose behalf the present public interest litigations have been filed.”

The Bench added that: “Though an element of personal interest is evident insofar as the petitioners themselves are concerned. However, having regard to the larger issue involved and also the stand taken by the state in the reply filed in the court, we are of the view that the personal interest of the petitioners should not come in the way of adjudication of the writ petitions.”

Referring to the reply, the Bench asserted that: “In the reply filed by the Assistant Director, office of the Director, School Education, Haryana, it has been stated that by order February 10, 2011, the services of 373 principals have been confirmed and by another order dated January 24, 2011, similar confirmations have been made with respect to 511 headmasters.

“In the reply, the respondents have also stated that by order dated April 21, 2009, confirmation order with respect to 6,410 lecturers have been issued and the process of confirmation of masters and C&V teachers is under active consideration of the department and necessary orders will be issued shortly.”

Hathin (Palwal), April 1
A “vikas rally” organised by the Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Jaleb Khan (Independent), who represents this constituency, proved to be a damp squib with one-fourth of the audience making a hasty exit following the announcement that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the star speaker and chief guest, would not attend the rally. Khan is one of the seven Independents supporting the Congress government.

The security personnel in mufti and the organisers had a hard time persuading the audience, especially women, to remain till the rally was over. The presence of the president of the Haryana Congress, Phool Chand Maulana, and minister Randeep Singh Surejewal failed to placate the public. Surjewala accepted most of the people’s demands articulated by Khan, including a bypass, a sports stadium, a 20-bed hospital, a fire station, a housing board colony and a sales counter for seeds and fertilisers.

He announced that in the past more than six years of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda rule, the government had spent Rs 2,208 crore on development projects.

Earlier, the minister laid the foundation stone of a mini-secretariat and a 3.5 km-long Hathin-Manpur road. The people of Mewat honoured the Chief Minister with “Mewat Rattan”. A momento to this effect was received by Surjewala.

Jind, April 1
Angry at the opening of a liquor sub-vend, women residents of Rajgarh village today set afire several cartons of liquor and damaged the vend.

Residents of Devrarh also put a lock on the liquor vend in their village and imposed a penalty of Rs 21,000 on the resident who had rented out space for the vend.

Declaring that no liquor vend or its branch would be allowed in or around the village, the women residents of Rajgarh attacked the sub-vend even as the salesman slipped away.

They brought several cartons of liquors out on the road and set these on fire. They said the sub-vend had been opened despite opposition from the villagers. This is the first protest its kind in the district in the new financial period.

The Excise Department had recently sold liquor vends to individual parties by inviting tenders and had reaped a good profit on the enhanced reserve price.

The residents of Devrarh locked the vend on the first day of its opening, despite police intervention.

They claimed that the village panchayat had resolved against opening of the vend.

It had announced a financial penalty on anyone cooperating in the opening of the vend in and around the village, claimed a resident.

He said because of the opening of vends, the crime graph in villages had gone up sharply.

Sirsa:Villagers today blocked traffic on the Ellenabad road near Mangala village against the opening of a liquor vend at the village bus stand, saying this would affect their wards who daily travelled by bus to reach schools and colleges.

Officials of the Excise Department assured the villagers that they would shift the vend outside the village. At Tohana in Fatehabad, residents blocked traffic on Ratia Road against choked sewers.

They alleged that repeated requests to the authorities had failed to make any difference.

Chandigarh, April 1
Acting on a petition filed by Haryana Principal Chief Conservator of Forests-cum-OSD (Rules) Kishan Lal Manhas, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the operation of a Central Administrative Tribunal order, quashing his selection.

The directions were issued by the Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice TPS Mann while issuing a notice of motion to the state of Haryana and other respondents.

Seeking setting aside of the CAT’s March 21 order on an application filed by DN Taneja, Manhas added that the tribunal had stepped into the shoes of a punishing authority after “completely misreading the relevant provisions of law and the factual aspect”.

A challenge has also been thrown to the directions to consider and promote Taneja to the post, even though “he was not even within the zone of consideration and whose candidature has in fact been rejected by the Departmental Promotion Committee.

The petitioner, through counsel DS Patwalia, has asserted that he is the senior most Indian Forest Service officer in the rank of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests.

On the other hand, Taneja, who retired in September last, was two places junior to him. He added that the Tribunal allowed the application filed by Taneja and quashed the order of selection of the petitioner. Aggrieved by the order dated March 21, the petitioner approached the court for the redressal of his grievance, Patwalia added.

Yamunanagar, April 1
At least 150 Punjabi teachers will be appointed soon, said the Director of the Haryana Punjabi Sahityak Academy, Dr SR Moudgil, at a seminar on “Punjabi language and culture in Haryana” at Guru Nanak Girls College, Santpura, here today.

The seminar is sponsored by the Higher Education Commission.

Dr Moudgil said the government had instituted six more awards for Punjabi writers and the Punjabi Bhawan Sahitya Academy in Panchkula was working tirelessly for the growth of Punjabi language and culture. He said Punjabi was spoken in every nook and corner of the world by people of various communities and not by the Sikh community alone.

Addressing the gathering, Sant Karamjeet Singh said Punjabi was essential for the knowledge of Gurbani and Sikh history. But modernity was taking its toll with young Punjabis showing scant respect for their language.

College principal Dr Varinder Gandhi said the seminar would help give a new direction to Punjabi language and culture.

Chandigarh, April 1
The provisional data of Census 2011 regarding the dismal state of sex ratio in Haryana has shocked the state government.

Health Minister Rao Narender Singh said here today that it was a matter of deep concern that the sex ratio had not improved in the state. He has ordered a review of the policies and programmes that had failed to yield the desired results. The government would continue to monitor and further strengthen the policies that had helped in improving the child sex ratio, he said.

Special attention would be paid to Jhajjar and Mahendragarh districts. Jhajjar district has fared the worst with only 774 girls per 1000 boys, while Mahendragarh has 778 girls. The over- all sex ratio in the state stands at 830 girls per 1000 boys, up by 11 points over the 2001 census.

The minister said Haryana was one of the nine states in the country where the child sex ratio in the 0-six age group had shown an increasing trend.

He said the PNDT Act would be implemented more effectively and stern action taken against diagnostic centres and doctors carrying out female foeticide. He sought the cooperation of all segments of society to support the efforts of the government for further improving the child sex ratio in Haryana.

He appealed to social organisations to make the general public aware of the consequences of the skewed sex ratio.

Panipat, April 1
The Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) is gearing up to meet the power demand this summer.

Sanjeev Kaushal, Managing Director, HPGCL, in a statement said that “preventive maintenance and planned overhauling” of the generating units was being carried out to ensure peak performance to meet the increase in demand during the paddy season.

He said the 210 MW Unit-5 of the thermal plant in Panipat was being overhauled. The 110 MW Unit-3 of the Panipat plant had already been shut down since March 28 for “preventive maintenance and residual life assessment.” The latter was a mandatory preparatory activity for the proposed renovation and modernisation (R&M) of the unit, he said.

He said the renovation and modernisation of this unit along with Unit 4 was proposed to be carried out with World Bank assistance. The 15-day preventive maintenance of 250 MW Units 7 and 8 of the Panipat plant was proposed to be completed by May-end.

The technical snag in the 300 MW Unit-2 of the DCRTPP in Yamunanagar, had been rectified by engineers and would commence generation within a day or two.

The two units at RGTPP, Khedar, of 600 MW capacity each were under forced closure since March 9 due to non-availability of coal because of the protesting Jats blocking rail traffic in Hisar. Now, with the likely resumption of coal supply to RGTPP, Khedar, from Orissa’s Mahanadi Coal Fields, the units would resume generating power.

Bhiwani, April 1
Justice AN Jindal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court conducted a surprise inspection of different courts in the city today. He directed judicial officers to settle pending cases at the earliest.

District Judge Anita Chaudhary and Deputy Commissioner CR Rana received Justice Jindal at the PWD Rest House. SP Ashwin Shainvi, Addtional Sessions Judges RK Saini, NK Mittal, MM Dhonchak, Satish Ahlawat, Naresh Kumar and Chander Shekhar, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sangeeta Rai Sachdeva, Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajesh Kumar Bhankar, Sub-Judges Shashi Chauhan, Hemant Yadav, Shikha Yadav and Balwant Singh, Special Judicial Magistrate Prehlad Singh Jangra, SDM Shiv Prasad Sharma, District Bar Association president Pawan Garg and advocates Avinash Sardana and BB Jain were among those present at the rest house.

Chandigarh, April 1
The Haryana Government has transferred two IPS officers and one HPS officer with immediate effect.

Ranbir Singh Sharma, awaiting posting orders, has been appointed as IG/PTC, Sunaria, Rohtak. Raghbir Singh, DIG/PTC, Sunaria, goes as DIG/SCRB, Madhuban, vice SK Jain. Kuldeep Singh, Additional SP, RTC, Sunaria, has been appointed as DCP, Crime, Faridabad, against a vacant post. Posting orders of SK Jain will be issued later.

Bhiwani, April 1
A cleaner of a Delhi-based company was asphyxiated while cleaning a manhole here today.

Six workers of the company, hired by the municipal authorities, began cleaning city manholes today. Two of them, Ravi and Veeru, stepped into a manhole near Jogiwala Temple on the Loharu road and fell unconscious after inhaling toxic gases.

They were pulled out by fellow workers. Ravi, 21, died later while Veeru was rescued by doctors of the Government Hospital here. He is under medical observation.

The police has registered a case in this regard.

Kurukshetra, April 1
State Food Supply and Co-operation Minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha inaugurated a three-day Chaitra Chaudas fair on the premises of Bal Bhawan, Pehowa, 25 km from here, today.

Chatha urged the people to keep their “tirthas” neat and clean. The pilgrims visiting Pehowa were seen performing “Pind Daan” and “Jal Tarpan” for “salvation of their departed souls” on the banks of the Saraswati Tirtha.

Talking about the mela arrangements, mela administrator-cum-sub-divisional magistrate Baljeet Singh said elaborate arrangements had been made by the district administration for the facility of the pilgrims. To maintain law and order, the mela area had been divided into four sectors, each of which would be administered by a duty magistrate.

After cleaning the Saraswati Tirtha, fresh water was poured into it. Women personnel had been deployed on women ghats in addition to the deployment of 600 police constables in the mela area.

The Health Department took samples of the eatables so that good quality eatables could be made available to the pilgrims.

He said nakas had been erected on eight entry points, where vehicles entering the mela area were being intensively checked. The electricity department had ensured the regular supply of electricity to the mela area, where generating sets had been installed temporarily.

A local information centre had been established by the Information and Public Relations Department on the premises of Bal Bhawan, from where lost and found information would be relayed. The state government had granted special funds for the mela arrangements. The Haryana Roadways and the Punjab Roadways were plying special buses to ferry the pilgrims from various parts of Haryana and Punjab, he added.

Kurukshetra, April 1
The court of Dr Neelima Shangla, Additional Sessions Judge, Kurukshetra, in a judgment announced here yesterday, awarded three years of rigorous imprisonment to Sat Prakash, alias Pahari, son of Ram Sarup of Sadhu Mandi, Kurukshetra, under Section 409 of the IPC for breach of trust and misappropriating 895.53 quintals of rice worth Rs 21,76,000 provided to him by HAFED for custom milling.

A joint raiding party inspected the premises of Lachhman Dass Ram Sarup Rice Mill, Pipli, which is the sole proprietor concern of accused Sat Prakash and after physical verification of the stocks, it was found that 895.53 quintals of rice stock was less against 34,700 quintals paddy provided to him by HAFED for custom milling.

Accordingly, as per the directions of the DFSC, a criminal case under Sections 406 and 402 of the IPC was registered. However, he was ordered to be charge-sheeted under Section 409 of the IPC by the trial court vide order dated December 11, 2001. However, he was acquitted by the trial court.

After detailed hearing, the court of Dr Shangla awarded imprisonment to the accused along with a fine of Rs 50,000.

Sirsa: District and Sessions Judge Dr Shiv Sharma today sentenced a person to eight years of rigorous imprisonment for “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” under Section 304 (II) of the IPC. The accused, Suresh Kumar, had assaulted Balbir Singh following a dispute over Rs 500 on December 24, 2008, which led to his death.

Kumar had a dispute with the victim’s nephew, Dharampal, over Rs 500. When Balbir Singh went to solve the matter, the accused allegedly hit him with his foot. The victim later died in a hospital. The court has also imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 on the convict.

Kurukshetra, April 1
Giving the convocation address on the premises of Indira Gandhi National College, Ladwa (Dhanora), 20 km from here today, chief guest Birender Singh, MP, exhorted the degree holders to inculcate the spirit of discipline, diligence, sincerity and altruism to give life a meaningful orientation.

The MP said the youth accounted for a sizable segment of the population of the country and being a reservoir of tremendous energy, they could quicken the pace of the economic progress of the country. He urged them to develop communicative competence in English to secure lucrative and coveted posts in the globalised market.

Earlier, he inaugurated the newly constructed augmented science block. In her presidential address, Hisar MLA Savitri Jindal inspired the rural youth to put in sincere and consistent efforts to avail themselves of vast opportunities that have arisen in the wake of the liberalised and globalised economy.

Birender Singh announced a grant of Rs 75 lakh for the college and Rs 2.5 lakh for Dhanora village while Jindal donated Rs 1 lakh to the college and a water cooler to Government Middle School, Dhanora. As many as 275 degrees were conferred upon graduates and postgraduates and prizes were given to students for their outstanding academic achievements.

Sonepat, April 1
The police today claimed to have busted an interstate gang of tractor thieves by arresting three members of the gang along with a tractor, which was stolen from outside a hotel near Khewra village on January 7.

The arrested have been identified as Kurbaan Ali and two brothers Sajid and Murshlin of Chand Heri village in Uttar Pradesh.

According to a police spokesman, a special investigating team of the Sonepat police nabbed them when the accused were trying to sell a tractor stolen from Ahulana village on March 23. Tractor owner Ashok had lodged a complaint of theft in the Baroda police station. — OC