Schools without teachers
SHIMLA, Sept 4 — A large number of schools in Himachal Pradesh have been left without teachers by the BJP-HVC government of Mr P.K. Dhumal, which has ‘indiscriminately’ been ordering their transfer ever since it came to power about six months ago.

ABVP seeks setting up of education panel
SHIMLA, Sept 4 — Mr Mohinder Pandey, general secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, has urged the Centre to set up an autonomous authority in the form of a national education foundation to free education administration from bureaucratic control.

Five timber smugglers held

Private bus owners' plea to govt

Tohra sees no crisis in Sikh clergy
From Our Correspondent

PAONTA SAHIB (Nahan), Sept 4 — On the commencement of the tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa in the historical gurdwara here, the SGPC chief, Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, today said the ongoing crisis in the Sikh clergy would be resolved "at the earliest".

Talking to The Tribune, the SGPC president said though this was a purely religious function and had nothing to do with politics, he wanted to make it clear that the Sikh clergy was not in any "crisis", as suggested by a section of the media.

I have personally spoken to all jathedars. There are no differences. They all have agreed to follow a line of consensus," he maintained.

Mr Badal, on the controversy, said: "It is a religious matter. I would not like to comment. It does have political ramifications. Mr Tohra is dealing with the matter". Several Akali MPs, however, were not very optimistic of the outcome of the talks between Mr Tohra and the three jathedars.

"Bhai Ranjit Singh is a stubborn person. He does not like to give in. The Akal Takht is the supreme seat. The other two jathedars are also adamant in their views about rules and regulations. Let us see what happens," an MP said on condition of anonymity.

Large-scale transfers: schools
without teachers
From S.P.Sharma
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 4 — A large number of schools in Himachal Pradesh have been left without teachers by the BJP-HVC government of Mr P.K. Dhumal, which has ‘indiscriminately’ been ordering their transfer ever since it came to power about six months ago.

A chaotic situation prevails in the Education Department as the officers are not in a position to deploy teachers in the schools, which have virtually become non-functional due to a shortage of staff.

Students in many such schools have not been able to cover their courses.

The situation is worse’ particularly in the districts of Chamba, Kinnaur, Sirmour, Lahaul-Spiti and the interior areas of Shimla. A hue and cry is being made in these areas over the shortage of teachers.

There was a spate of transfers of teachers from these areas as soon as the present government came to power. Most of these transfers were ordered without providing substitutes in the schools concerned.

It is learnt that transfers of teachers are continuing despite a ban in this regard having been imposed by the government. The transfer proposals are being cleared by the Chief Minister himself.

Reports have been received that certain schools are being run by P-T instructors. Hardly any school in the interior area is left with science and maths teachers.

Sources said at least 9186 posts of various categories of teachers were lying vacant, causing a big shortfall of manpower. As many as 4013 posts of teachers were vacant in the schools which were opened during the last year.

It is being said that indiscriminate transfers of teachers has compounded the problem as already 1954 posts of school lecturer, 1769 of trained graduate teacher and 1720 of craft teacher were lying vacant. Seventythree posts of lecturer were also vacant in 15 new colleges.

Steps to fill these vacant posts were being taken at a snail’s pace.

Mr Harsh Mahajan, who represents the Chamba constituency in the Assembly, said 624 posts of teacher of various categories were lying vacant in the district. The high schools at Trala and Kaur and the middle schools at Thalla and Tagi were without any teacher.

The government had transferred even some ad hoc teachers whose appointment was against a specific vacancy in particular schools.

The sources said 201 posts of lecturer were lying vacant in various senior secondary schools in Chamba district. Besides, 178 posts of trained graduate teacher (arts) and 21 of TGTs in science were also lying vacant.

Another legislator, Mr Singhi Ram, said 238 posts of teacher in 61 schools in the Rampur subdivision had fallen vacant due to the recent transfers.

About 87 senior secondary and high schools were functioning without principals and headmasters.

As many as 169 of the 419 posts of teacher in senior secondary, high and middle schools in the Chopal sub-division of Shimla district were vacant.

The government is bound to fail in making the primary education compulsory as 3670 posts of teacher in the Primary Education Department have not been filled.

Many of the primary schools opened under the scheme of ‘700 schools a year’ were without staff. Hundred primary schools had not yet started functioning because of want of teachers.

Mr. Harshwardhan Chauhan, who represents the far-flung Shillai segment of Sirmour in the Assembly, pointed out that 123 posts of trained graduate teacher were lying vacant in the district. Many schools had become non-functional without any teachers.

He said 34 posts were vacant in 12 high and middle schools in Shillai.

It is learnt that 93 posts of teacher have yet to be filled in the primary schools in the Chopal subdivision.

Mystery over drying up of 'sheesham' trees
From Bijender Sharma

JWALAMUKHI: Nearly 1200 sheesham or tali trees, as commonly known, have dried up over the past two years in Dehra sub-division of Kangra district. Highly placed sources in the Forest Department revealed that this year itself over 900 trees had dried up.

Though the problem has been persisting during these years, the exact reason for the mass destruction of trees along the 35 km Kangra-Jwalamukhi highway is not known. The authorities here attribute it to water-logging of fields.

A survey of the area revealed that a large number of trees on either side of the highway had dried up. What is more alarming is that those along the Jwalamukhi-Ranital stretch of road have been destroyed on a large scale.

Interestingly, it is only sheesham which is affected in this belt. As sheesham is a costly wood, its destruction on a mass scale has led to apprehensions among residents, who suspect the hand of the timber mafia.

When contacted, Divisional Forest Officer S.R. Badiala categorically ruled this out. He, however, agreed that the destruction had been mostly reported from the Dehra Gopipur area.

According to him the drying up of sheesham was first noticed in 1986, when 656 trees perished. This was followed by 350 trees in 1997. Most of these trees were between 30 and 35 years old, which is far below their maturity age of 50 to 60 years.

It is expected that each of these trees would fetch not more than Rs 600 to the Forest Department as royalty. This would not have been the case if the trees were older. Interestingly, department officials have not yet approached any of the environment institutes in the region to get the matter investigated.

A senior forest official stated "Since the loss is very minor and this is hardly a complaint from any other part of the state, the possibility of investigation is remote."

He agreed that unless the department approached the Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute or the HP Agricultural University for investigation, the cause behind the destruction would be hard to establish.

Dropsy case reported from Baddi
From Our Correspondent

SOLAN, Sept 4 — A suspected case of adulterated mustard oil induced dropsy has been reported from the industrial township of Baddi in this district.

The acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Sareen, said medical authorities at Baddi had reported a the case of Sri Ram, a factory hand, who had gone to them complaining of severe swelling of his lower limbs on Thursday.

Dr Sareen, who rushed to Baddi immediately upon receipt of information, found symptoms of dropsy in Sri Ram. Inquiries revealed that he had been consuming double-filtered Dhara brand mustard oil for the past over 15 days.

The acting CMO immediately seized whatever quantity of the oil could be found from Sri Ram's tenement and the same was sent to the HP Government's Food & Drugs Testing Laboratary at Kandaghat for examination today.

This was the sixth case of dropsy reported from the district.

Meanwhile, the case of Sri Ram had put a question mark on the District Administration's ability to counter the dropsy menace. Enquiries made by TNS with the Director of Health Service, Dr Dhiman, revealed that virtually every sample — at least all the 11 samples of mustard oil collected by food inspectors in this district, had been processed as per the provisions of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act.

This Act had prescribed a series of mandatory tests which normally took up to 40 days per sample. The judiciary tended not to entertain any test reports which had not been carried out under the prescribed regimen. So the food inspectors and the testing laboratories insisted on carrying out all the tests. The Act did not provide for any emergencies like the present one created by mustard oil adulteration. However, Dr Dhiman maintained that tests for determining "arjuman" seed adulteration were carried on an unofficial basis when one sample of Dhara double filtered oil sent by Una health authorities was found adulterated.

Dr Dhiman, maintained that all district headquarters had been alerted regarding the adulteration of Dhara brand double filtered oil on August 29.

Interestingly not even a single sample of mustard oil sold loose in the market, had so far tested positive for the toxic "arjuman seed", oil, a well-informed source in the Health Department told this correspondent. The health authorities had gone hammer and tongs for the bulk packed, unlabelled mustard oil and had initially ingnored the established brands like Dhara.

Partly due to delay in transmitting reports on Dhara brand samples, and partly due to redtapism, this particular brand continued to be sold in mofussil areas, even well after August 29.

Also, the Food and Civil Supplies Department as well as the District Administration had failed to account for the sudden disappearance of mustard oil sold loose by traders. A trader said that "loose oil" sales accounted for at least 75 per cent of total sales of the commodity. Where had all those tonnes of oil gone? Would not it reappear in the market once, the pressure was off?

ABVP seeks setting up of education panel
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 4 — Mr Mohinder Pandey, general secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), has urged the Centre to set up an autonomous authority in the form of a national education foundation to free education administration from bureaucratic control and insulate this important sector from the instability of changing power politics.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said the absence of an effective organisational machinery had been mainly responsible for the failure of educational policies of successive governments. An autonomous body, vested with the power to guide, monitor and coordinate the implementation of policies, would go a long way in improving the administration of education.

Paucity of funds was another factor hampering the growth of the education sector. As against the normative 6 per cent of the GDP, only about 2 per cent to 3 per cent was being allocated for education.

Referring to self-financing institutions, which had virtually commercialised higher e ducation, he said there was an urgent need for a legislation to undo the 'anomaly' arising out of the Supreme Court verdict and evolve a policy to ensure that admissions were based on merit.

Drastic changes were required in the education policy to meet the requirements of the 21st century. The ABVP had already decided to start a national debate on the issue and it had planned five seminars to be held at Hyderabad (October 13-14), Lucknow (November 2 and 3), Guwahatti (January 30-31), Ahmedabad (February 6 and 7) and Chandigarh (February 19 and 20) to discuss all aspects of higher education.

However, the parishad wanted immediate action on some of the important recommendations of various commissions and committees. A memorandum containing 22 such recommendations had been submitted to the Human Resource Development Ministry.

Five timber smugglers held
From Tribune Reporters

BILASPUR, Sept 4 — The police has impounded a truck carrying 78 logs of Khair near Kainchi ka mode on the Naina Devi road.

The SP, Mr Anurag Garg, said here on Thursday that the driver of the truck Sandhaya Lal of Dholag village and Sant Ram, alias, Guddu, of Bhawain village were arrested under Section 379, IPC and Sections 41 and 42 of the Indian Forest Act.

MANDI: Three persons were arrested while trying to smuggle 150 logs of deodar near Sundernagar on Wednesday.

The arrested have been identified as Sobha Ram, Uttam Chand and Roop Lal.

Private bus owners' plea to govt
From Our Correspondent

KASAULI, Sept 4 — Resentment prevails among private bus owners of the district following the non-availability of flying squads and ticket-checkers on the Kalka-Shimla national highway.

Private transporters allege that government officials, excise and taxation, police and HRTC staff, in particular, do not purchase tickets and threaten to cancel bus permits when asked to do so.

Transporters have urged the government to deploy adequate checking staff.