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H A R Y A N A |  |
 Sunday, August 23, 1998 |
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Hope for fish farmers |
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 They use their own register PANCHKULA, Aug 22 — Barred from signing the official register by the Director, Higher Education, Haryana, as many as 38 striking teachers, including the officiating Principal of Government College here, have started marking their presence on a separate register. |
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DC's order on canal water
for farmers Threat
to launch agitation Municipal
limit to be extended Students'
protest |
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Hope for fish farmers HISAR, Aug 22 — Scientists here at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University have raised hopes for the areas rocked with brackish underground water. They have identified some species of fish which grow well in brackish water and could make pisciculture gainful. According to Dr Kuldeep Singh Dhindsa, Dean of the College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, Indian major carp as well as common carp can be easily and profitably cultured in brackish waters with salinity below, 7.0 parts per thousand (PPT). Giving details of the magnitude of the problem of brackish water he said that about 60 per cent of the area in Haryana has moderately to highly brackish underground waters. Moreover, inefficient utilisation of surface water resources by the farmers in the arid and semi-arid canal irrigated areas of central and south western Haryana had resulted in the rapid rise of water table and soil salinity. Dr Dhindsa said that the studies conducted here in the Zoology Department have revealed that these fish species could be successfully raised in brackish water logged and poor productivity areas. He said that further studies were being conducted under a Rs 32 lakh project sanctioned by the State Department of Fisheries to develop technology for the culture of high salt tolerant fish species. Dr S.K. Garg, who is working on the project, told that Indian major carp as well as common carp perform well in moderately saline water. However, in highly saline waters (salinity 7.0 PPT and above) the growth of these species gets repressed. He said that studies were on to develop technology to use these waters for the culture of mullets, milkfish and shrimps. Research at the university here has led to the identification of a strain of yeast which is fast formenting and tolerant to heat. The alcohol industry in the warmer parts was in the look out of such strain of yeast since long. Till now the distilleries had been using saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast to produce alcohol from sugarcane molasses. Besides taking more fermentation time, it needed low temperature to be maintained for its growth, which increased the running costs. The isolation of new yeast strain for ethanol production is the outcome of studies conducted by Dr Dalal Singh, a Senior Microbiologist at CCSHAU and Prof Roger Marchant of University of Ulster, Northern Ireland under a European Commission-funded research project, revealed Dr Kuldeep Singh Dhindsa, Dean, Collegae of Basic Sciences and Humanities, here today. Enumerating features of the new yeast strain, Kluyveromyces marxianus IMB3, he said it completes fermentation in comparatively shorter duration that too without extensive cooling of the fermenter. It will benefit alcohol industry particularly in warmer parts like India, Africa and South East Asia where ethanol production from sugarcane molasses is considerably hampered by higher temperature in hot seasons, he added. Dr Dhindsa said the production of fuel ethanol through this yeast would be also economically viable due to reduced running costs for maintaining growth temperature, less risk of contamination, increased rate of productivity and the ease with which the product might be recovered. In India, 60 lakh tonnes of molasses is generated every year which is processed at about 250 distilleries to produce nearly 2 billion litre of alcohol. The new yeast strain would be a boon for this industry, he said. According to Dr Dalel Singh, the Principal Investigator, the new yeast strain had been successfully tested at the Modinagar Distillery. It produced 7.3 per cent alcohol in 16 hours, whereas the commonly used yeast, saccharomyces cerevisiae produced same per cent of alcohol in 26 hours without cooling of the fermenter. Dr Singh added that
tracing out of some new bacter-ial strains which have
high potential to reduce the pollution load of digested
mollases spent wash effluent, had been another
achievement under the EC-funded project. These bacterial
strains had been found to decolourise the digested spent
wash to the tune of 30-40 per cent and reduce the
chemical oxygen demand (COD) load upto 42 per cent. |
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They use their own register PANCHKULA, Aug 22 — Barred from signing the official register by the Director, Higher Education, Haryana, as many as 38 striking teachers, including the officiating Principal of Government College here, have started marking their presence on a separate register. Until an order sent by the DHE was circulated among the faculty members today, all striking teachers had been signing the official register. The circular directs all teachers to take classes according to their time-table and says that no leave of any kind would be sanctioned. It clearly disallows striking teachers to sign on the official register. The president of the Government College Teachers Association, Mr J.S. Virk, told The Tribune today that the separate register of the association would certify the presence of the striking staff-members in the college. He said the association was merely executing a resolution passed by representatives of Haryana GCTAs at a meeting held in Rohtak on Wednesday. "The aforesaid communication from the DHE had reached other colleges and anticipating the same, a resolution was passed to maintain a separate register in all 53 government colleges in Haryana," Mr Virk said. He said although the striking teachers marked their presence today on arrival, they could not mark their presence after college hours, "Since our presence is confirmed only after we have signed twice on the official register, we would be treated as absent today," he said. Asked how the belated circular would affect striking teachers who had been signing on the register till yesterday, the Director, Higher Education, Haryana, Mr S.K. Saxena, said. "There might have been a postal delay." Mr Saxena said he was confident that the circular would act as an "effective deterrent. Asked whether the government would consider punitive action against the teachers if they did not return to work, the DHE said, "One cannot rule out the possibility of harsh measures but it has to be decided by the government at the highest level. Those defying ESMA must realise that there is no exception for education." The officiating Principal of the college, Mr B.K. Verma said he was on strike not in his temporary capacity but as a lecturer. The striking teachers said the state government's decision to invoke ESMA to prohibit strikes by teaching and non-teaching staff of both government and private affiliated schools and colleges as well as universities was not justified. "Do the authorities think that education ceases to be an essential service during vacations?", a staff member asked. Professor Ram Singh, zonal secretary of the All-India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations and a lecturer at Government College, Kalka, said the demands include revision of pay-scales announced by the HRD Ministry, promotion avenue for lecturers beyond the selection grade lecturer, creation of posts of readers and professors in colleges. He added that the teachers are also demanding that raising the retirement age to 62 should be made mandatory for all state governments and cent per cent grant be given by the Centre for disbursement to state governments. Mr Kulwant Singh, president of the Haryana Government College Teachers Association, said the striking teachers would ensure that the loss of teaching hours is compensated. "We will surrender our vacations in October and December and hold classes to cover the syllabus. We are confident that students will attend these extra classes." About eight teachers who are not participating in the strike said they had been holding classes and about 25 to 30 per cent of the total number of students attend their lectures everyday. "Initially, the college wore a deserted look but now students have started attending classes, they said. They said they were prepared to repeat lectures in the interest of the students. They said they could not be talked into joining the agitation. They said the attendance of girls was better than that of boys. Samer Chibber, a student of B.Com (second year), said classes of Personnel Management and Statistics, attract good attendance. He said some students are coming even to attend one period. The officiating Principal
of the college said the attendance was very poor. He
said, "I don't think teaching should come under
ESMA. Unlike the medical profession, denial of this
service is not a matter of life and death." |
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Action illegal, says Bhajan Lal CHANDIGARH, Aug 22 — The former Chief Minister of Haryana, Mr Bhajan Lal, has alleged that the termination of two office-bearers of the HSEB Engineers Association, Mr R.L. Chhokar and Mr R.S. Bhatti, is the outcome of "political vendetta and vindictiveness'' of the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal. Mr Bhajan Lal said here today that Mr Bansi Lal was annoyed with Mr Chhokar because his wife, who is not a government servant, had campaigned for him (Mr Bhajan Lal) during the 1998 parliamentary elections which he contested as the Congress candidate from Karnal. He said the termination of the two engineers who were trade unionists was not only undemocratic but illegal also, because they had been exonerated by the enquiry officer. The show-cause notice issued by the HSEB to the enquiry officer further proved the mala fide of the government which wanted a doctored report from the enquiry officer. This, he said, showed that the HVP-BJP Government was anti-working class. Mr Bhajan Lal said Mr
Bansi Lal should not repeat Emergency excesses because it
had been proved time and again that people were supreme
in a democratic set-up and they would not forgive
dictatorial rulers. |
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DC's order on canal water for
farmers FATEHABAD, Aug 22 — The Deputy Commissioner, Mr K.S. Yadav, has directed officials of the Irrigation Department to ensure that canal water reached tail ends of distributaries. Addressing a specially convened meeting of officials of Irrigation, Power and Public Health Department in his office today, Mr Yadav said the administration would take strong notice of the officials found negligent in performing their duties. The meeting was called after a deputation of farmers of Bhattu Sotal, Ahlisadar, Bhodia Khera and Hinjrawan Kalan villages met him and complained that canal water failed to reach their fields situated at the tail end of the distribution. They alleged that not only that they were facing shortage of water for irrigation, even drinking water was not being supplied in sufficient quantity. The farmers alleged that crops were withering as power too was in short supply in villages. The DC taking strong notice of complaints ordered officials of the three departments to ensure proper supply of power and water to the villages. He asked them to check theft of power and canal water. He said the administration
would provide necessary police help to the officials. He
warned that those who indulged in power and water theft
would be dealt with a firm hand. |
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Threat to launch agitation ROHTAK, Aug 22 — Resident doctors of the Pandit B.D. Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) here have threatened to launch agitation if their demands regarding the release of arrears of the revised pay scales were not met soon. In a letter to the Commissioner and Secretary, Health, the Resident Doctors Association (RDA) has expressed its serious concern over the 'unusual' delay by the authorities so far. It said while the association called off its agitation on March 26 on an assurance that the arrears would be released soon besides considering other demands, the inaction on the part of the government had only widespread resentment among the junior doctors. According to Dr Inder Mohan Rustagi and Dr J.B. Jatain, president and general secretary, respectively, of the association, the arrears were to be given from January 1, 1996, but the authorities had been adopting dilly-dallying attitude on the issue. They claimed while arrears
of employees of other departments had already been
released there was no reason holding back payments of the
junior doctors. They said the association would be forced
to revive its agitation if no action was immediately
taken on the issue. |
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Municipal limit to be extended AMBALA, Aug 22 — The boundary limit of the Municipal Council, Ambala City, would be extended by 2 km. This was disclosed by Mr Nirmal Vij, President of the council, here today. He said the decision to extend the limit had been taken by the councillors to check theft of octroi by some transporters who had been operating from Sena Nagar. The proposal was to extend the limit up to the IAF Station. The councillors had also resolved to sell some plots of land in the town in order to meet funds for development. The earlier administrative order to impose penalty on late payment would be amended to avoid litigation.
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Students' protest AMBALA, Aug 22 — About 400 admission seekers for the course in diploma in pharmacy protested again further postponement of the admission process here toady. The applicants had
gathered at Government Polytechnic for Women in the City
area in the morning. |
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