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Saturday,
January 5, 2002, Chandigarh, India   
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Govt to trim engineering wings Policy on scavengers ‘needs’ review Project teachers’ retrenchment flayed DC’s order on village patrolling HIGH COURT |
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IG’s claim on crime Plea against soiled currency notes
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Govt to trim engineering wings Chandigarh, January 4 The state government, in a significant decision, has reportedly decided to abolish the posts lying vacant in the Irrigation Department. A proposal of the department regarding the abolition of the vacant posts was approved by the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, at a review meeting of the department in Chandigarh on Wednesday. Official sources said following this decision, about 4,500 posts, approximately 20 per cent of the total sanctioned strength of the department, would be abolished. The department was at present collecting feedback from its field offices regarding the number of vacant posts. Once the exact figure was available, the Finance Department would be informed which would then reduce the sanctioned strength. A majority of vacant posts are reportedly of categories such as superintendents, clerks and other class III and class IV posts. The department, it is learnt, also carried out an exercise regarding “rightsizing” the strength of technical personnel. The report is with the Chief Secretary, awaiting his approval. Earlier, the PWD (B & R) had carried out a similar exercise regarding engineers employed with it. It was suggested that the number of Sub-Divisional Engineers should be cut down to 192 from the existing 287, the strength of Executive Engineers from 89 to 69 and Superintendent Engineers from 19 to 17. Though the proposal was approved by the Cabinet, it has yet to be carried out by the government. The sources said the task of rightsizing the engineering departments would pick up momentum once a consultancy firm, hired by the government to advise it on how to go about the task of privatising key government sectors, would submit its report. They said the government, on October 25, assigned a consultancy firm, the job of developing an economic development vision document. The firm had been asked to prepare the document within six months. The firm had been asked to identify the areas in which the government should confine its exclusive initiatives and field of activities where the joint sector and private sector participation could be encouraged. The firm had been also asked for the identification of core areas which were prima-facie amenable to privatisation. The sources said the consultancy firm would not only incorporate road, power, IT, irrigation, etc, in the scope of its work, but also deal with education and other unconventional areas which would be treated as part of infrastructure. |
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Policy on scavengers ‘needs’ review Chandigarh, January 4 Ms Chandra, talking to newspersons after a meeting with senior officers of Haryana, said the government had confined the definition of scavengers to only those who were engaged in the manual work of removing night soil and filth. She said the Centre had clearly said the identification should not be done on the basis of caste alone. All those, irrespective of their caste, who were engaged in removing filth, should be identified as scavengers. The state had identified 36,362 scavengers as per a survey conducted in 1997-98. Ms Chandra said the number seemed to be on the lower side. Ms Chandra, who looks after a number of states, including Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttranchal, said this was her first visit to the state. She held a meeting with the officers as well as representatives of the Balmiki community at Panchkula. She said the representatives of the community confirmed that financial assistance was given by the state to genuine beneficiaries. She said the Union Government had sanctioned Rs 2.2 crore to rehabilitate the scavengers. The first step in this direction, should be to provide the scavengers with houses and then help them financially to make them self-dependent. Ms Chandra did not seem happy with the work of non-government organisations, which, she said, took hefty grants from the Central Government for the rehabilitation of the scavengers. But it was still to be seen how effective these organisations had been in achieving their aims. |
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Project teachers’ retrenchment flayed Faridabad, January 4 According to Mr Subhash Lamba, spokesman for the union, the state government has been doing exactly opposite of what it had promised in the last elections. Claiming that while the government had promised to provide employment to about 70,000 youths, he said over 10,000 employees of various departments had become jobless in past two years due to faulty policies of the government. He said while there was a shortage of teachers in government school, the removal of experienced teachers had no rationale and this step would only result in loss of studies in schools, besides creating unemployment. Providing details, he said about 1,700 Power Department employees, 300 Irrigation patwaris, over 1,000 employees of Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, 1,600 policemen and a large number of workers of various departments had lost their jobs in past few years. He said there was severe resentment among government staff over the policies of the government. |
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DC’s order on village patrolling Rohtak, January 4 Mr Malik said this order was passed keeping in view the need to take special security measures to protect railway tracks, canals, power lines, telephone lines, electricity transmission lines, bus stands, railway stations, water works and other government installations passing through the district. The order, he said, should remain in force till June 30. The District Magistrate yesterday directed house owners to inform to the nearest police station about full particulars of their tenants within seven days from the issuance of the order.
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HIGH COURT Chandigarh, January 4 Dr M.D. Sharma was booked by the Haryana police under the Prevention of Corruption Act, besides various other IPC sections after one Suresh Chand escaped. According to the prosecution, Suresh managed to get himself admitted to the general hospital by bribing the accused, though he was not suffering from eye ailment. After going through the documents and hearing counsel for the parties, Mr Justice Singhal observed: “I think anticipatory bail should not be allowed to the petitioner. He may, however, surrender before Bhiwani’s Special Judge on or before January 25 and apply for regular bail which shall be decided positively within two days”. |
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IG’s claim on crime Kurukshetra, January 4 Talking about peaceful conduct of big events in the Range during last year, Mr Ahlawat said the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, visited Kurukshetra in March last, about 25 lakh pilgrims had a holy dip at “Phalgu” fair in Kaithal district, “Kapaal Mochan” fair was held in Yamunanagar district, Haryana sports festival and “Geeta jayanti samaroh” were organised at Kurukshetra and no crime had been reported during the holding of the events. Mr Ahlawat said the Superintendents of Police had been asked to intensify the police patrolling, hold peace committee meetings, get “theekri pehraas” conducted on vital installations and ensure smooth road and rail traffics in their respective districts. In reply to a question, Mr Ahlawat said the private car owners using unauthorised red lights on their cars, would be punished whenever detected during checking by the police. He said the Haryana Police Department had been modernised by installing computers while police stations had been modernised with the addition of SLRs and AK-47 rifles to their armouries. |
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Plea against soiled currency notes Ambala, January 4 The chairman of the association, Dr N.C. Jain, said that a large number of members had said that the nationalised banks were not cooperating in the day-to-day dealing with the bank. Currency of the denominations of Rs 1,2 and 5 is not being given by the bank while making the payment. “In Ambala, there are a number of banks who are nominated as currency chests and are regularly receiving the new currency of every denomination ranging from Re 1 to Rs 1000 but they never issue to the customers,” he said. He demanded that the fake currency notes should be destroyed.
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PCO holders plan token strike Ambala, January 4 An emergency meeting of the association took place here under the presidentship of Mr Naresh Chadha. The association welcomed the announcement on the reduction in STD charges to half during peak hours from January 14 for the public but “resents the step-motherly treatment to PCO holders for not announcing any compensation to them while reducing the STD rates.”
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Immunisation camps for Haj pilgrims Chandigarh, January 4 |
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1 dies in mishap Yamunanagar, January 4 |
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R-Day state function at Gurgaon Chandigarh, January 4 |
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Vipin Kumar is police centre IG
Chandigarh, January 4
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Councillor offers
resignation Ambala, January 4 On laying of optical fibre, Mr Prasad alleged that there were large-scale irregularities. “With a sum of Rs 9.43 lakh, the roads which have been dug up in the area cannot be repaired. It is important to set up a high-powered committee to look into this issue,” he said.
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Haryana order on
identity cards Chandigarh, January 4
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Fine arts workshop postponed Kurukshetra, January 4 The workshop will now he held from February 1 to 3. |
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