Ambala/Yamunanagar, August 29
With almost half the 2013-14 academic session gone by, students of government schools are still waiting for the free books to be given to them. The delay has not only hit the studies, but has also reduced these schools to a mere formality.

Though efforts are being made by the schools to tide over the difficult times by making available books from their old students, the number is fairly inadequate. Consequently, while three or four students share one book in some schools, in others, studies are confined to copying down whatever the teachers write on the blackboards.

A visit to various schools in the two districts revealed that most of the students whiled away their learning time and studies have hardly made any headway. In Ambala’s Khuda Kalan government school, the students sat learning tables as a teacher watched over two classes huddled in a classroom.

Vishakha, a Class VII student, said, “ We come to school, note down whatever the teacher writes on the blackboard and go back. We do not even get any homework because many of the students do not have books.”

Chandan, another student, said, “I have done nothing. The teacher had sent me to the market to buy tomatoes and garlic for the mid-day meal. We just sit here and learn on our own.”

In Mithapur village of the same district,students of all classes found “relaxing” in the corridors with no teacher to watch over them. Some students were playing in classrooms while others “enjoyed” outside and no teacher was in sight. It was only after a while that the teachers emerged from a room in another part of the building and could give no substantive reason for leaving the students unattended.

In Yamunanagar’s Samleri village, Surinder Singh, a teacher, said the lack of books was a major problem for them. “Though we have borrowed books from students promoted to the next class, we have been repeatedly asked by the parents as to when the books will come. We have no answers. Without books, teaching is double the effort. We have to write everything on the blackboard and a lot of time gets wasted,” he explained.

“We are not following the syllabus but teaching whatever students can easily comprehend without books,” a teacher at a government school in Kail said.

Similar situation prevails in government schools at Mithapur, Bhil Chhapar and Sadhupur.

Amadalpur (Yamunanagar), August 29
Pathetic sanitation conditions coupled with carelessness of residents, who get water from pipes passing through septic tanks, have resulted in the outbreak of diarrhoea in this village with more than 150 cases reporting over the past four days.

The administration dispatched rapid response health teams to the village which started attending to the patients, besides distributing medicines to those affected by the disease.

The authorities have disconnected the supply of contaminated water and efforts are afoot to curb the disease which has caused dysentery among several residents.

The administration maintained that chorine tables were being distributed among the residents for whom the danger of falling sick was far from being over.

The Deputy Commissioner has directed a team of doctors to remain stationed in the area and give medical treatment to those who are suffering from gastroenteritis, but have not been admitted to any hospital.

Some people were rushed to the trauma care center at the Civil Hospital at the district headquarters and other private and government hospitals where their condition was stated to be stable. The doctors said most of the patients were responding well to the treatment and were out of danger.

Deepak Kumar, a local resident, said they had no idea that contaminated water was being consumed by their families and before they could realise, almost all families residing in the village had got affected. He said the cases of gastroenteritis were being reported from the locality for the last four days, but during the last two days the situation got critical and more cases were reported.

Chandigarh, August 29
Health Department officials, Mayors and Zila Parishad will meet in the city tomorrow to find ways to prevent vector-borne diseases. The meeting, to be chaired by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, will review all issues relating to the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases. The meeting was earlier scheduled for August 27.

As per official figures, the state saw 16,231 cases of malaria up to August, 2012, as against only 7,397 cases this year. However, dengue cases have gone up from eight in 2012 to 25 this year.

The meeting will review the prevention and availability of treatment for malaria, dengue, Japanese Encephalitis, chikungunva etc. The Health Department has decided to involve the Local Urban Bodies Department and HUDA etc.

It has been repeatedly discussed that piggeries be moved out of residential areas but the government is in a fix as there is no regulation available as of now to do so.

The meeting is also likely to take up the issue of vacancies lying in various wings of the Health Department. Hooda is also expected to review the reports of hundreds of people falling ill due to diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases.

Gurgaon, August 29
Justice (retd) Vijender Jain, Chairman of the Haryana Human Rights Commission (HHRC), has stated that the commission’s website is likely to be completed by September 9.

After completion of the website, the aggrieved persons would be able to file their complaints online. Till then, the complainants can send their complaints on e-mail address hhrc-haryana@nic.in.

He said the HHRC had disposed of 204 of 709 complaints received by it directly or through the NHRC during the past seven months.

He said nearly 6,000 complaints relating to Haryana were pending with the NHRC, adding that these would be transferred to the HHRC in phases.

The HHRC Chairman was interacting with newsmen on the sidelines of a seminar organised to sensitise revenue officials towards human rights of residents.

Replying to a question, Justice Jain said that the HHRC had equal powers as the NHRC.

Claiming that this was for the first time in the country that revenue officials were being sensitised about human rights, he said the next sensitisation programme would be organised for officials of the Education and Health Departments as these departments were also directly related to public. 

Panchkula, August 29
The local special CBI court today issued non-bailable warrants against former Haryana Transport Minister OP Jain, his personal assistant Rajinder Kumar Sharma and former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Zile Ram Sharma in abetment-to-suicide case of Karam Singh, a former sarpanch of Kambopura in Karnal.

Special CBI Judge Atul Marya directed the police to present the accused on October 3, the next date of hearing.

The police had filed the challan in the court on August 8 which issued a summons to the accused to appear before the court on August 14. Jain applied for anticipatory bail on August 13 but none of them had appeared before the court on the due date following which the court had set August 29 as the next date of hearing.

On August 21, Jain’s application for anticipatory bail was rejected. The trio did not turn up to attend the court proceedings today following which the court issued the warrants against them

The victim sarpanch had lodged complaints of forgery and cheating against Jain and Zile Ram before his mysterious death on June 7, 2011. Karam Singh had accused Jain and Zile Ram of duping him and his relatives of around Rs 13 lakh with the promise of providing government jobs to his kin.

Kaithal, August 29
Some assailants entered a house and slit the throats of two women in broad daylight here today. One of the victims, Beero Devi (84), died on the spot while the other injured Pushpa (53) was rushed to a multi-speciality hospital and later referred to the PGI, Chandigarh.

SP Kuldeep Singh Yadav and a team of forensic experts reached the spot.

According to information, the incident took place around 4 pm in Bodan Mohalla. Ashok Kumar alias Sat Prakash, commission agent in old Anaj Mandi, received a call from his wife, who informed him that some criminals had killed his mother. Ashok rushed to his house and a number of shopkeepers also followed him.

He found his mother with her throat slit in a pool of blood. He entered the bedroom and found his wife unconscious with slit throat. The police was informed and Pushpa was rushed to the hospital.

The motive of the criminals could not be known. It seemed that the second victim was targeted by the assailants when she contacted her husband on the mobile informing him about the presence of criminals in the house.

The SP said the police had been alerted in the district and teams had been set up to nab the criminals. 

Hisar, August 29
Around 250 seats, mostly in postgraduate courses, at Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology here, are lying vacant even after the completion of counselling. The university is mulling an open counselling session to attract students to fill vacant seats.

Interaction with the faculty revealed that bright students seemed to be losing interest in the university for various reasons, including poor academic atmosphere and lack of security on the campus. The murder of two girl students on the campus last year had vitiated the atmosphere on the campus.

The tussle between teaching and non-teaching staff due to the lax administration was another factor. Sources pointed out that research and teaching skills of faculty were not being promoted. Prof DR Chaudhary pointed out in a recent newspaper article the mess in Haryana universities, leading to a fall in teaching standards.

The Registrar, Dr RS Jaglan, dismissed the charge of fall in standards. He claimed that the university was among the best universities in the state and had been given grade A by the NAAC.

Hisar, August 29
The Deputy Commissioner has assured the residents of Mirchpur village of shifting the unit of the CRPF out of the Government Boys High School compound in the village.

Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik visited the village today, following complaints by villagers that the presence of the forces was disturbing the academic atmosphere of the school.

The school management committee (SMC) of the village told him that the personnel had been occupying several rooms in the new block of the building. This had caused inconvenience as the students had to sit out in the open due to paucity of rooms. The computer rooms and laboratories too remained in the possession of the CRPF and as a result, students were unable to use the facilities.

School principal Swaroop Singh said the strength of the students had also gone down in a couple of years due to the disturbance as a number of concerned parents had pulled their wards out of the school.

Chander Prakash, a member of the Sarv Jatia Peace Committee, said the Deputy Commissioner had assured that the unit would be shifted out of the school compound within a fortnight.

Chandigarh, August 29
The police has sought information on NGOs with names resembling government organisations, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court was informed today.

The Bench was told that the Haryana Additional Director-General of Police, Crimes, has requested the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Financial Commissioner and the Principal Secretary, Education Department, to send information on the functioning of societies or institutions with names similar to those of government institutions.

This was disclosed by Ashwin Shenvi, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Panchkula, in an affidavit. It was further stated in the affidavit that in one such case in Hisar, an FIR has been registered for cheating and other offences on a complaint received from the Director-General of Agriculture. Four persons have been arrested and a challan presented before a Magistrate.

The affidavit added that an SIT headed by IPS officer Alok Kumar Roy, had been constituted for probing the duping of poor people by a Panchkula-based society by misrepresenting itself as a government institution. The society earlier registered as Sarv Saksharta Computer Education Abhiyan , has now changed its name to SSA Educational and Welfare Society. A PIL in the matter filed by HC Arora is scheduled for further hearing on September 27.

Chandigarh,August 29
The Haryana State Vigilance Bureau has recommended registration of criminal cases against three gazetted officers, seven non-gazetted officers and 10 other persons and departmental action against 11 gazetted officers and 13 non-gazetted officers, as they have been found guilty in the investigations conducted by it recently.

Stating this here today, a spokesman for the bureau said 18 officials were also caught red handed while accepting illegal gratification ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 45,000 recently. Criminal cases have been registered against them under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Gurgaon, August 29
In view of the massive loss of life and property due to the recent flash-floods and landslides in Uttarakhand, the Sports and Youth Affairs Department of Haryana has decided to train 4,000 youths in disaster management.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of senior officials of the Sports and Youth Affairs Department and Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) authorities here.

Amit Jha, Principal Secretary, said 1,000 youths in each of the four divisions of the state would be trained in disaster management. The training workshops at the divisional level would be organised jointly by the Department of Sports and Youth Affairs and HIPA.

Jha underlined the need for skilled and conscious manpower in disaster management at the community level.

HIPA Director-General RS Dalal emphasised on building a culture of safety from individual to the community level. He opined that the standard operating procedures (SOP) for rescue, relief and rehabilitation should be simplified and conveyed to the people.

Director-General of the state Department of Sports and Youth Affairs Sudhir Rajpal focused on building the capacity of the community along with all public-service utilities.

Bhiwani, August 29
A mother of six children allegedly killed her husband with the help of her paramour in Baliali village of Bhiwani district. The body of deceased Hoshiar Singh, 43, was recovered from a well outside the village.

The police has taken his wife Neelam and her paramour Sonu Sharma into custody on suspicion today after registering a case of murder on the complaint of the younger brother of the deceased.

He said Neelam told him that Hoshiar Singh was missing and suspected that he could have been killed and thrown into a well. The family searched for the body and found the body from a well.

He said Neelam was having illicit relations with Sonu. Hoshiar used to object the frequent visit of Sonu in the house and it seemed that they conspired to eliminate him.

The police had rounded up the wife and Sonu for questioning after registereing a case.

Karnal, August 29
The doctors, who were peeved at the conduct of the police in “doctor shootout” case at the Civil Hospital, Karnal, on Tuesday night, held a demonstration, demanding stringent action against the policeman who accompanied Sub-Inspector Kashmira Singh.

The doctors, who were dissatisfied with the police on delayed action taken against Kashmira Singh, in charge, Civil Hospital police post, who shot at a doctor on duty on his refusal to give a “tutored and cooked" medico-legal report, threatened to go on strike if action against the Sub-Inspector, accompanying Kashmira Singh, was not taken.

Kashmira Singh, who shot at Dr Nipun Kalra, was arrested yesterday and produced in the local court which remanded him to 14-days judicial custody.

They questioned that why the SI accompanying the accused allowed him to flee.

The doctors led by Dr Jyoti Gupta, president of the Karnal chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), and Dr Satbir, vice-president, Haryana Medical Service Association, met the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police and said if exemplary action was not taken against them, they would go on strike.

President, Hospital Karamchari Union, Raj Singh Mann also supported the doctors and said the employees would join them.

They demanded case of attempt to murder and dereliction of duty against SI Raj Kumar. The doctors further demanded setting up of Police Control Room and shifting of the police post outside the hospital.

Both policemen have been suspended and a departmental inquiry has been ordered against them, the police said.

Chandigarh, August 29
The Haryana Government has announced the launch of Volvo and Mercedes Benz service from Chandigarh to Hisar, Rohtak, Rewari and Yamunanagar from September 1.

Arun Kumar, Director-General, State Transport, said the service would start from Chandigarh around 5 pm for Hisar and reach its destination at 9.30 pm. It would pass through Ambala City, Kaithal, Narwana. The bus would start from Hisar at 5.30 am and reach Chandigarh at 10 am.

The luxury bus would start from Chandigarh for Rohtak at 5 pm and reach there at 9 pm. It would start from Rohtak at 6 am and reach Chandigarh around 10 am. The bus would start for Rewari at 10 pm and reach there at 5 am. From Rewari, the bus would start at 9 am and reach Chandigarh at 4 pm.

The fare of these buses would be 1.75 times the fare for a standard bus.