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Of
humouring NAAC members and college ratings Three
held for getting jobs on fake certificates Arrangements
for annual exams reviewed
Female
foeticide behind crime against women, says NGO HMT to
manufacture high-speed tractors |
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‘Rath’
for Hooda being readied in Delhi An ostentatious chariot (rath) with a seven-layer fiber-glass roof is being fabricated in Delhi for the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, to all 90 Assembly constituencies in Haryana before the Lok Sabha elections.
Marriage
party looted of Rs 1 lakh at gunpoint Members of a marriage party were looted of Rs 1 lakh at gunpoint at Barara around 2 am today. The marriage party was returning from Barara to Zaffarpur in six vehicles when it was forced to stop near Binjalpur village. Overloaded
feeders to be renovated Bijli Suvidha Kendras at all headquarters in Haryana will now work like call centres and attend to the complaints of consumers. Major-Gen B.S. Rathee (retd), Chairman of the Haryana Power and Distributor Corporation said here today. House
tax exemption to freedom fighters The Haryana Government has exempted freedom fighters from payment of house tax on the pattern of ex-servicemen. 
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Of humouring NAAC members and college ratings Rohtak, January 16 Inquiries by The Tribune reveal that most institutions have been arranging stay of team members in the best hotels of their towns. The teams are being provided with air fares and air-conditioned limousines for travel to and from Delhi — the airport nearest Haryana. During a NAAC team’s visit to a college in a nearby town recently, the members were lodged in a Haryana Tourism Complex and the chairperson occupied the costliest VIP suite at the cost of the institution concerned. This is despite the fact that the town has two universities both of which have adequate decent accommodation available in their respective faculty houses where NAAC teams were put up on earlier visits. In another instance, a particular kind of fish, some other delicacies and fancy Australian fruits were transported in taxis from Delhi daily till the team stayed. The demand came from the team itself. The recent addition to the hospitality protocol is expensive mementoes and other gifts. Recently a girls’ college management presented silver replicas of a chariot to every team member leaving the management poorer by several thousand rupees. In another instance, the gift to one of the team members did not fit in his suitcase. He asked for a suitcase of a particular brand in which he could carry the gift. The suitcase was bought post-haste. This team member, a retired vice-Chancellor, also asked for a basketful of unseasonal fruits and five kilos of sweets for use during his return journey. This kind of hospitality is defeating the very purpose of inspections and accreditation of colleges. No wonder then that the only college with A rating on the latest list of accredited colleges in Haryana does not even have proper play grounds on its otherwise impressive campus. Significantly, the NAAC inspection guidelines for the institutions lay great emphasis on infrastructural facilities including both outdoor and indoor games. These anomalies in ratings are on the one hand causing heartburning among different institutions and on the other fuelling a race to oblige team members to get higher ratings. This has left government colleges in a quandary. While private managements can foot the bills from their own funds, there is no way a government college can do so. Significantly, most government colleges in Haryana have been accorded comparatively lower ratings. The private colleges are also spending significant amounts on sprucing up the institutions days before the teams arrive. Fresh coats of paint and installation of fancy new fixtures including air conditioners in many cases have become a standard practice. Teachers are directed to wear best dresses to impress the teams. Many college principals The Tribune spoke to admitted that the whole process of accreditation has been defeated. But, they said even the universities in the region have been going through this rigmarole to get higher ratings since the funding from the University Grants Commission depended largely on the ratings. Besides, a higher rating gives the institutions concerned a higher status which has great publicity value these days when educational institutions are competing to attract students. |
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Three held for getting jobs on fake certificates Jind, January 16 Satbir Singh of Ramla in Rewari district and Raj Kumar of Dadri town had got jobs as DPE in the Education Department by submitting bogus Scheduled Caste certificates. Cases have also been registered against them. Mr Rajpal Singh said the police had also registered a case against Santosh Kumar, Pawan Kumar and Surender Kumar, residents of Bhiwani, for preparing fake registration certificates of two jeeps. Surender Kumar is a clerk in the office of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Bhiwani. He said that jeeps were stolen from Hisar and the fake registration certificates of these jeeps were prepared in connivance with Surender Kumar. The police has arrested Santosh Kumar. |
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Arrangements for
annual exams reviewed Karnal, January 16 Mr Rakesh Gupta, Secretary of the board, had come here today to hold a meeting with the officials of the district administration to review the arrangements for the coming annual examinations. He said five control rooms had been established in the state to monitor the smooth conduct of school examinations. The state had been divided into 174 sectors and the control rooms had been set up at Kurukshetra, Fatehabad, Gurgaon, Rohtak and Bhiwani. The board has decided to print computerised photographs of students on admit cards, signature charts and even certificate. Photographed I-cards would also be issued to teachers/supervisory staff engaged in examination duty. To facilitate the students the board has decided to declare the results of Class X and XII at least two weeks ahead of the CBSE results. For the rest of the classes, the results would be declared within 40 days, he said. He said a helpline would soon be constituted in this regard.
Exam dates The Secretary of Haryana School Education Board, Mr Rakesh Gupta announced here today that the annual board examinations of primary/middle level classes for the current academic session would commence from February 16. The annual examinations of high and higher secondary classes would be conducted on alternate days from March 12 and March 13, respectively. |
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Female foeticide behind crime against Faridabad, January 16 The incident of rape of a minor
Dalit girl from Uttaranchal here has vindicated claims of certain NGOs on girl trafficking. According to Shakti Vahini, an NGO, the Karnal incident had been the 24th case in the past two to three years. The NGO helped recover at least six girls in the state in the past six months alone. The NGO claimed that while the Mewat region of the state could have 5000 girls brought here from West Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand in the few years for forced marriages. The prices paid for the girls ranged between Rs 400 to Rs 30,000. The NGO has filed a PIL in the Apex Court had demanded an awareness drive and sensitisation of the police and tough measures against the persons involved in such rackets. It has demanded a special cell of women police officers and social bodies to provide counselling to the victims to ensure their rehabilitation. It has written to the Punjab government for steps to check such incidents. The NGO believes that main reason behind the growing number of such cases could be the declining number of girls compared to boys. |
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HMT to manufacture high-speed tractors Chandigarh, January 16 According to a company statement, an agreement has been signed with the Trantor. HMT had recently refurbished its product range with additional features and offered tractors from 25 HP to 75 HP. The 65 HP tractors, recently launched, have been well accepted in the market. It is also available with an airconditioned cabin. The Trantor has been involved in the agriculture research for the past 30 years in countries like Zambia, Nigeria, Yemen, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the USA, Australia, South Africa, besides Britain and India to develop tractors. HMT has also launched earthmoving machine and is planning to enter the market in a big way. |
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‘Rath’
for Hooda being readied in Delhi Chandigarh, January 16 Mr Hooda has already announced a series of public rallies in different parts of Haryana beginning February 5. The “rath” is likely to be presented to Mr Hooda at one of these public rallies before he starts his extensive tour programme covering all 90 Assembly segments. The proposed ‘rath’ will carry life-sized pictures of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Mr Hooda. Mr Hooda has planned rallies at Narnaul (February 5), Pilokhana (Jind — February 7), Kharkhauda (Sonepat — February 14), Israna (Panipat — February 15), Punahama (Mewat — February 17) and Palwal (Faridabad — February 18) in the first phase of the programme. The “rath” is expected to be fabricated by the second week of February. The use of a “rath” for electioneering will be something unique for Haryana where Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala had taken the lead by trying to visit every gram panchayat and Assembly segment during his massive public contact programme. Though Mr Bhajan Lal also started a similar programme of visiting every Assembly segment sometime ago, the foggy weather forced him to abandon it. |
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Marriage party looted of Rs 1 lakh at gunpoint Ambala, January 16 A tree trunk had
been kept on the road, seeing which some car occupants tried to remove
it. Six youths who had covered their faces with mufflers accosted
them. Three of the youths were armed with pistols while two others had
sharp-edged weapons with them. They demanded that the jewellery, cash
and expensive items being carried by the marriage party be handed over
to them. Members of the marriage party handed over their expensive
items, including mobile phones, to the youths. After threatening them
with dire consequences, the looters escaped. Members of the marriage
party informed the police, which rushed to the spot. Police teams were
formed to trace the looters. Members of the marriage party affected
included Sushil, Amar Nath, Sher Singh, Baldev Singh, Rakesh, Babloo,
Mamta, Rishu Garg and Vipul. The bride and the groom were not part of
the marriage party, which was returning after the completion of the
marriage ceremony. Similar incidents had taken place in areas
neighbouring Ambala district earlier. In an incident at Naraingarh,
the vehicles were forced to stop and the passengers were looted at
gunpoint. A police officer said the incident at Naraingarh was similar
to those at other places, including Solan, Nalagarh, Raipur Rani, Kala
Amb and Sadhaura. The Superintendent of Police, Ambala, Mr Mohammad
Akil, said the gang involved in the looting of a marriage party near
Barara had been identified. He summoned an emergency meeting of senior
police officers in the camp office late this evening to finalise the
strategy to arrest those involved in the crime. Later talking to
Chandigarh Tribune, he said the police had identified the gang
involved in the crime. He said this gang had earlier committed such
crimes in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Uttaranchal. It was an
inter-state gang operating in the northern region for the past several
months, he added. Asked whether members of the gang belonged to Uttar
Pradesh or Haryana, he declined to reply to the question. Mr Akil
said three police partiers had been sent to different places,
including Uttar Pradesh, in search of the accused. |
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Overloaded feeders to be renovated Chandigarh, January 16 The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) and the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) had decided to renovate the entire system of 900 11 KV over-loaded feeders. As many as 600 such over-loaded and lengthier feeders would be bifurcated to reduce their load and length. Old and weak conductors of over 300 other feeders would be replaced with new conductors of a larger capacity. In had also been decided to rehabilitate all 11 KV feeders having more than a 200 amp load. Additional transformers would also be installed to improve voltage. |
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House tax exemption to freedom fighters Chandigarh, January 16 Mr Subhash Goyal, Minister of State for Urban Development, said all buildings and land owned by those freedom fighters or families of deceased freedom fighters who did not have any other residential house in the state and were occupying it themselves would be eligible for this exemption. Those freedom fighters who were getting pension of Rs 1,275 per month or less could rent out a portion of their house. |
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Panipat refinery to be expanded Panipat, January 16 Mr Bhardwaj said the expansion was
necessitated due to the growing demand for petroleum products. Inaugurating the function, the Haryana Transport Minister, Mr Ashok Kumar Arora, stressed the need to save oil and gas every day. |
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UHBVN cash centres to work on holidays Chandigarh, January 16 This decision has been taken to enable consumers to pay their dues even on holidays. |
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