Rohtak, June 1
At a time when most universities are upgrading their courses by introducing inter-disciplinary education in various science courses, Maharshi Dayanand University is all set to downgrading Masters degree programmes in six streams run by its Department of Biosciences.

This department has been running M.Sc courses in botany, zoology, genetics, environmental sciences, biotechnology and biochemistry for the past five years. Before that there were only two courses in animal and plant sciences. The number of streams was increased to encourage inter-disciplinary education.

It followed the model syllabi for these courses prepared by renowned scientists on behalf of the University Grants Commission. As such, special topics were included in the syllabi for all six courses to enable students to focus on their chosen specialised streams. This particularly benefited students of biotechnology and environmental sciences.

However, the departmental committee decided in April to introduce five common papers in the first year classes of all the six M.Sc courses. This is being done by removing around 30 specialised topics prescribed in the UGC’s model syllabi for these courses. Notably, this model is being followed by most universities in the country to maintain uniformity and quality in education.

Department sources said underutilisation of teachers was being touted as the reason behind restructuring of courses. This is despite the fact that the department has just 14 regular teachers and eight teachers working on a contractual basis. The contractual teachers are taking 24 periods a week. As per the norms, there should be at least 35 teachers in the department.

The shortage of teachers is evident also from the fact that MDU last year advertised 23 posts for this department. These included one post of professor, five posts of reader and 17 of lecturer.

In April, the Head of the Department also proposed a reduction in the number of seats in the department from 90 to 60. This was turned down by the authorities. Instead, the university directed that 10 per cent additional seats be created for NRIs and industry-sponsored candidates.

The sources said the reduction in seats was recommended because introducing common elements in the syllabi for six courses would have meant accommodating 90 students in each class whereas the lecture halls can at present accommodate just 60 students.

The department has won acclaim from the NAAC teams that visited MDU two years ago to decide the academic rating. The same year the UGC team sanctioned the maximum grants for the department because of its performance. The department also runs projects sanctioned by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research.

It attracts students from neighbouring and far-off states. There is a long waiting list of students for enrolment as Ph.D scholars.

Gurgaon, June 1
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s decision to allow a major section of officials to continue with the postings assigned to them by the preceding government in spite of their “dubious” record in the past five years has alarmed both the INLD and a faction in the Congress.

According to political analysts the move of the Chief Minister is a “master-stroke”, as it apparently kills many birds with one stone.

There is uneasiness in a wider section of the INLD, the arch-rival of the Congress, as the Chief Minister’s move has virtually “freezed” the officials who had become sympathisers of the party in the past five years of its rule. The paradox in the situation is that a good number of officials have been allowed to continue in spite of acts of omission and commission committed by them in the past five years.

There were speculations in wide-ranging quarters that given the clean image of the Chief Minister, the Congress government would at once go in for whole hog transfers. The large section in the INLD was banking on the large-scale stripping of the officers from their present postings on political grounds which would have further gravitated them towards the party.

The general feeling is that the Chief Minister has been able to send message that neither he was in favour of witch-hunting and politicising the officialdom, nor he was in a hurry as the supreme political executive boss of the state. Some of the officers that this correspondent spoke to also talked about the “decency and sanity” injected into governance by the Chief Minister.

The general feeling in the Congress circles is that Mr Hooda has been able to contain factionalism in his party by his “accommodating and courteous” mannerisms.

Those close to the Chief Minister say that Mr Hooda has taken a principled decision not to “trace” the officials merely on political grounds and their past, but tackle them professionally on the basis of their performance. Rather, he has made it known that he would appraise their performance after three months after the formation of his government. He has further made it known that his government would follow “reward and punishment” policy with regard to officers. During his recent public speech in Rewari, he said he was not in favour of changing the system and behaviour of the officers and not “change of faces”.

If sources close to the Chief Minister are to be relied upon, the government could strike against the erring officials in a big way any time after June 15. The Chief Minister is said to have already collected functional dossiers on the officers and would have also become familiar with the little details by then.

Chandigarh, June 1
The process of appointment of the Vice-Chancellors of three Haryana universities has been accelerated with the Governor, Dr A.R. Kidwai, today sending three names for induction as his nominees in the search committees to be constituted by the government for choosing the VCs.

Dr Kidwai nominated Prof G.P. Talwar, Director of the Talwar Research Foundation in New Delhi, as his nominee for the search committee to be constituted for choosing the VC of Kurukshetra University (KU). For the search committee for choosing the VC of Guru Jambheshwar University (GJU), Hisar, Dr Kidwai’s nominee is Prof Abad Ahmed, a former member of Delhi University’s Business Management faculty. Dr Kidwai chose Prof Ramesh Chandra, VC of Bundelkhand University of Jhansi, as his nominee for the search committee for selecting the VC of Ch Devi Lal University (CDU) at Sirsa.

It is learnt that the state government had already finalised its nominees for the three search committees. For KU, the members of the search committee chosen by the government are Prof T.N. Kapur and Gen O.P. Kaushik (retd) Mr R.P. Hooda, Director of a Delhi-based institute, and Mr R.S. Dhankar, VC of Maharshi Dayanand University of Rohtak, have been chosen by the government as members of the search committee for recommending candidates for appointment as VC of CDU. Mr H.P. Dikshit of Indira Gandhi National Open University and Mr D.P. Chattopadhyay of Jadavpur University are the government’s nominees for the search committee for choosing the VC of GJU.

Earlier, the state government had asked the VCs of these universities to step down as the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, wanted to do away with the previous government’s controversial policy on the appointment of VCs.

Mr Vishnu Bhagwan, who was a Principal Secretary to Mr Om Prakash Chautala during the latter’s tenure as the Chief Minister, was appointed VC of GJU. Mr A.K. Chawla, a teacher at a Jind college, was appointed VC of the university at Kurukshetra.

For CDU, the Chautala-led government appointed Mr R.P. Dahiya as VC. But Mr Dahiya, a member of the faculty of the Delhi IIT, found it difficult to continue and quit before the completion of his term. The INLD government then suggested the name of Dr K.C. Bangar, a close aide of Mr Chautala and former Chairman of the Haryana Public Service Commission, for appointment as VC of CDU. The proposal was turned down by the Governor because of procedural imperfections.

The present state government had given Mr Vishnu Bhagwan additional charge of VC of CDU. But soon after he was asked to resign. Following Mr Bhagwan’s and Mr Chawla’s resignations on April 5, the Commissioners of the respective divisions were asked to discharge the duties of the VCs of these universities.

One reason for the delay in the appointment of full-time VCs of KU, GJU and CDU is said to be the unavailability of the Governor, who had gone abroad on a personal visit. Now that the Governor has finally chosen his nominees, the search committees will be notified. Each committee will recommend the names of three persons for consideration for appointment as VC of the university concerned. The Chief Minister will then go through the committee’s recommendations and select one from among the three for appointment as VC.

Panipat, May 31
The Haryana unit of the Indian Red Cross Society has decided to adopt a novel way to make the state addiction-free in the days to come. It will take the help of drug anonymous persons to encourage drug addicts to give up the bad habit.

This has been stated by recently appointed state secretary of the Red Cross Society, Dr Subash Chander Bhardwaj, while talking to The Tribune here yesterday. He said the drug anonymous persons could play a vital role in motivating the drug addicts to give up drugs by telling their own experience.

Dr Bhardwaj said the concept has already prevalent in certain states, but this would be the first time in Haryana when the help of drug anonymous would be taken to make the state addiction free.

The state secretary of the Red Cross said two of the total 19 districts of the state, Hisar and Yamunanagar, were chosen as model districts for the implementation of this scheme. While this concept would be started in these two districts from next week, it would come into force in other districts from July 1, he added.

Dr Bhardwaj said he had already asked all 19 Red Cross centres of the state to prepare lists of those persons who had given up drugs at the earliest. After getting the lists, these persons would be trained for counselling, he said, adding they would be provided suitable money.

Panipat, June 1
Some policemen allegedly abused and beat a youth of Mastana chowk here around midnight yesterday. His fault: he could not see in time their signal to stop at a naka due to darkness and stopped his motor cycle a few metres away.

The Panipat Superintendent of Police (SP), Mr Anil Kumar, has asked Deputy Superintendent of Police Headquarters, Mr SR Nehra to look into the matter and submit the report at the earliest.

Mr Sanjiv Arora (24), running a shop at Bhimgoda Mandir Bazar, told The Tribune that he had gone to Delhi for some work yesterday and returned at Panipat bus stand at 11 pm. He took his motor cycle from the scooter stand and started for his house.

On the way, policemen under the supervision of Sub-Inspector of City police division, Mr Ram Narayan, had laid a naka at Salarganj Gate. He said they signalled him to stop his motor cycle but due to darkness he could not see their signal in time and stopped his vehicle a few metres away from the naka.

Mr Arora alleged that seemingly annoyed over this, the policemen used abusive language against him. They also slapped him repeatedly and beat him with blows and lathis on his face, back and other parts of the body, he alleged.

He was not allowed to go to home for more than an hour and also challaned for not wearing a helmet though he was wearing it while driving, he added.

His family members and some shopkeepers of the area went to the city police division in an effort to get justice.

However, they were not allegedly heard properly.

On the other hand, the SHO of the police division, Inspector Mr Jai Bhagwan, said that no one had contacted him in this matter. He said that he had asked about the incident from the SI Mr. Ram Narayan, who denied that Sanjiv had been beaten.

Then the shopkeepers brought the matter to the SP’s notice who asked the DSP to look into the matter. The DSP said he would prepare the report after talking to the parties concerned at the earliest.

Panchkula, June 1
The poor recovery of dues from allottees of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) at Kaithal, Sonepat and Panchkula has come under the scanner. The money is meant to be collected towards the development charges of released land, enhanced compensation, new sale of land/ auction of property and extension fees.

Well placed sources in HUDA inform that as compared to the other urban estates in the state, recoveries affected by the respective Estate Offices from these cities have been poor. While the recoveries at Bhiwani, Rewari, Bahadurgarh, Ambala, Panipat and Sirsa have been over 100 per cent till March, 2005, the recovery of dues in Faridabad, Rohtak, Jagadhri, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Hisar and Jind is over 85 per cent.

In comparison, the recovery made by the Panchkula Estate Office is the lowest at 70. 97 per cent, followed by Kaithal which had a recovery of 73. 28 per cent, and Sonepat with 78.24 per cent. During a meeting of all circles of HUDA held recently under the chairmanship of the Chief Administrator, HUDA, the latter expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of these three Estate Offices.

Concerned over the poor show, all 17 Estate Officers in the state have now been asked to make personal efforts to recover the dues. Show cause notices for land acquisition will be issued to land owners who are not paying the development charges. In case of allottees not paying the extension fees, the Estate Offices have been directed to initiate resumption proceedings. The officers have also been asked to introduce a system of monitoring so that timely and short-term notices are sent to defaulting allottees regularly.

Officials say the recovery under enhanced compensation and new sale of commercial property at Panchkula was found to be very low. Since just one auction of commercial property and draw of lots for only one group housing scheme each was held during the last fiscal year, recovery by the Panchkula Estate Office was low. The Estate Office has now been asked to issue notices to all defaulters and hold auctions regularly. While one auction was held last month, yielding over Rs 3.75 crore, another auction of commercial property at Panchkula is slated in June.

In Kaithal, the Estate Office has reportedly been unable to put up a good show in recovery towards development charges of released land, enhanced compensation and extension fees, though the sale of commercial property has yielded good results. The Sonepat Estate Office, too, has been pulled up for failing to affect good recovery under all the heads. 

Karnal, June 1
Malaria seems to be on a comeback trail in Karnal district, particularly in the areas adjoining the Yamuna on the Haryana-Uttar Pradesh inter-state border. More than 500 cases of malaria have been detected in the district during the current year. However, no death has been reported as the health authorities claim to have given timely treatment to all those suffering from the disease.

Last year more than 25 deaths were reported due to acute viral infections, suspected dengue and encephalitis in the district. At least, 2,500 cases of malaria were also detected last year.

The District Malaria Officer, Karnal, Dr D.P. Goel, told The Tribune that the health authorities had launched a special campaign in the district for the past few weeks to diagnose those suffering from malaria. As many as 55,000 blood samples were collected, he said. Out of these, 500 cases of malaria had been confirmed, he added.

He said the campaign was still going on as a preventive measure. Answering a question, he said blood samples of old patients were also being clinically tested.

Dr Goel said the Gharaunda block of the district was the worst-affected area. Last year, more than 2,000 cases of malaria were reported from this area alone. In the current year, as many as 410 cases of malaria had been confirmed from the Gharaunda block alone.

Meanwhile, when contacted, Dr O.P. Mittal Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Karnal district said a special policy to take preventive measures like fogging, spray of insecticides and launching a cleanliness drive during the current year was under discussion at the Directorate level at Chandigarh and hopefully it would be announced shortly.

On the other hand, sources in the Health Department revealed that a high-efficiency fogging machine allocated to the health authorities of the district was lying unused for the past five years after it had developed a snag. The then CMO had requested the Directorate of Health to sanction Rs 5 lakh to get it repaired but the request was turned down. Repeated requests were also made in this regard but in vain.

Dr Mittal while admitting this said he had also sent a request to grant the said amount recently so that the fogging machine could get repaired before the onset of monsoon. He said the Health Department here had 10 small fogging machines in working condition but they were not enough to cover the disease-prone areas. Last year too, the high-efficiency fogging machine was hired from the headquarters of the Haryana Armed Police, Madhuban, he added.

Karnal, June 1
The contractor/supplier of the anganwari nutritional diets- energy alpahar and kheel channa took back the rejected supply this morning even as test report of the samples taken were awaited.

The Department of Woman and Child Development maintains that according to the terms of the contract once the supply was rejected the contractor/supplier had to replace in seven days of taking back the rejected supply so that the beneficiaries did not suffer.

However, a member of the committee headed by Additional Deputy Commissioner of Karnal Sanjiv Verma set-up by the District Magistrate of Karnal to check the quantity and quality of the diets was of the view that the Child and Woman Development Department was trying to hush-up the multi-million scam unearthed here last week by allowing the contractor/supplier to take back the supply without waiting for reports of the samples.

The committee after a physical verification of nutritional diets meant for distribution among children and pregnant/lactating women through the anganwari centres had not only rejected the supply of diets to the beneficiaries but also recommended action against the contractor/supplier for the flaws detected and the officials concerned for poor upkeep of the bags containing diets.

Mr Shyamal Mishra, District Magistrate, Karnal, said that he had already written to the Department of Women and Child Development to take action as per recommendations of the committee. It was now up to the department to take any action, he added.

Meanwhile, Mrs Rajni Pasricha, Programme Officer of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Karnal district said that children and pregnant lactating women were suffering due to lack of supply, therefore, it was essential to get the supply replaced with a fresh supply. Everything has been done under guidelines by the Union Government, she said.

No action has been taken against the contractor/supplier till date. State Government did not seem to be interested in this matter as no minister or the senior official had asked the district administration to furnish a report on this serious matter.

Barthal (Karnal), June 1
Fifty Gaderia families settled in this village near block headquarters of Nilokheri for the past 50 years might have to migrate from here following discrimination against them by the upper caste people of the village.

The district administration seems to be a mute spectator to this issue. Representatives of Gaderias of the village recently met District Magistrate Shyamal Mishra for help but till date the issue was not addressed by the administration.

Caste discrimination is widely prevalent in the area that pioneered community development after independence by setting up the first community development centre at Nilokheri in 1952.

The Haryana Institute of Rural Development (HIRD) that educates panchayati raj representatives to giving up social evils also has its headquarters at Nilokheri.

As per details available, six brothers of this community were first settled by the administration on panchayat land more than 50 years back. Later, many other families shifted here. Presently there are 50 Gaderia families settled in the village. With rise in prices of land, a few people of upper castes tried to grab that land. Problem began in 1979 when the then sarpanch of the village got the land under their possession registered in the name of cooperative credit and service society. The society manager tried to dislodge them from their houses on many occasions.

Jai Singh an old man of the community said that a former DM of Karnal RS Doon had promised to get them out of the preview of the society but nothing was done in this regard.

Problem again began soon after the panchayat elections four weeks back when a person of the upper caste illegally acquired an open space belonging to the panchayat in front of their houses blocking a channel of drainage of their houses, alleged Jai Singh.

Former sarpanch of the village Balbir Singh said that people settled on panchayat land for the past 50 years should be granted proprietary rights of houses. “Sarkaar ne Indira awaas yojana bhi to shuru ki hai, in garib logon ko alag se paise dene ki bajae yahin rehne dena chahiye”, he said.

Mr Om Prakash, sarpanch of the village was not available in the village.

Karnal, June 1
Five police personnel, including two ASIs, have been placed under suspension by the Superintendent of Police, Mrs Bharti Arora, on the charge of negligence in duty today.

As per the details available, ASI Dharam Pal and two constables, Navdeep and Ranbir, were found absent from duty during a checking exercise conducted by their senior officials last night. They were deputed in the Civil Hospital on duty and were found absent.

In another case, ASI Dilbagh Singh and Head Constable Dayanand posted on PCR duty were also found absent from duty on the route allocated to them for a routine patrol last night, said a senior police official. Separate departmental inquiries had been initiated against all of them. Mr Jagat Singh Hooda, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Assandh, had been asked to conduct a departmental inquiry against ASI Dharam Pal, constables Navdeep and Ranbir, while Mr Ram Swaroop Godara, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), would conduct a departmental inquiry against ASI Dilbagh Singh and Head Constable Dayanand.

Panipat, June 1
In a major breakthrough, the district police has succeeded in nabbing hardcore UP criminal Sanjay Gujjar of Rudedi village falling under Gangoh police division in Saharanpur district. He had been lodged in Muzaffarnagar jail, but escaped from there some time back.

According to police sources, he had crossed over to Haryana after escaping from the jail and had been active in several criminal activities. The Chandni Bagh police arrested him on a tip-off.

A number of stolen items, including a gas cylinder and a television set, were recovered from his possession.

The Chandni Bagh police also succeeded in arresting another absconder, Suresh of Moi Hooda village falling under Gohana in Sonepat district. He was wanted by the police in a criminal case.

Kurukshetra, June 1
The Kurukshetra Development Board (KDB) will renovate Kapil Muni Tirth Sarovar at Kalayat in Kaithal district at a cost of Rs 88 lakh during the current financial year.

Stating this here yesterday, a spokesman for the KDB said the ancient sarovar, which was a symbol of faith and source of eternal peace for countless people, would be desilted and beautified to make it a tourist spot.