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Hooda govt doing well, says Bhajan Lal
Need to change education system at primary level: CM
MD varsity centre to come up at Mirpur
A self-help group worth emulating
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Dowry case against two govt officials
Councillors ask Selja to replace MC chief
3 killed in separate
mishaps
No deaths due to malaria
Ask Chatha to submit report soon, govt told
Sand destroys cane crops
Haryana to set up 300 ‘delivery huts’
Farmers demand regular power, water supply
BJP demands special girdawri
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Hooda govt doing well, says Bhajan Lal
Chandigarh, August 28 Mr Bhajan Lal’s remark came in response to a question at a joint press conference addressed by the former Chief Minister and the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, at the party office. The press conference was convened to welcome the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill. Mr Hooda, who did most of the talking, said the UPA Chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, deserved credit for piloting the Bill, which would go a long way in tackling the problem of rural unemployment. Congratulating the two leaders, Mr Hooda said the Haryana Assembly would ratify the Bill during its next session. He said the Bill would infuse a sense of self-esteem among the rural youth as the main purpose of the Bill was to provide them employment. Mr Hooda said the joint press conference had been convened to show that both the organisation and the government were one in appreciating the Bill. Initially the programme would be implemented in 200 “poorest of the poor districts” of the country. Later, it would be extended to the entire country. No district of Haryana and Punjab would be covered in the first phase. Mr Hooda said when implemented in the state, Haryana would pay Rs 90 as the minimum wages under this scheme. The state government would bear 10 per cent of the expenditure, while the rest would be borne by the Centre. When asked about the party candidate for the Rohtak Lok Sabha byelection, Mr Hooda said it would be decided by the high command. He repeated the same answer when asked when and who would be made the President of the Haryana Congress. |
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Need to change education system at primary level: CM
Chandigarh, August 28 Mr Hooda was speaking at the silver jubilee celebrations of the journal, “Teachers’ Movement”, organised by the All-India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations at DAV College here. Responding to a suggestion by some of the speakers that the prevailing education system should be changed and a question at which level it should be changed, Mr Hooda stressed the primary level would be an appropriate point for the desired change because it was at this stage that the foundation of the students was laid. However, he added the teaching fraternity should also change its attitude as neither the government alone nor teachers could bring about any change. While pointing out that about two lakh persons commuted to Gurgaon daily to work for business process outsourcing (BPO), Mr Hooda said the present government had taken a number of steps to bring about a qualitative change in the education system so as to enable the youth of Haryana to compete at the international level. He said apart from increasing by 50 per cent the budget for the promotion of education in the state, the government had also identified 2000 acres to set up an education city of international standard, which would not be developed as a university. Mr Pawan Bansal, MP, also stressed the need for a change in the education system and added that the budget on education should be increased. The expenditure on education was not even 3 per cent of the GDP. He said the Government must ensure that the educational institutes in the private sector did not exploit the people. Mayor of Chandigarh Anu Chatrath also stressed the need for a change in the education system. Earlier, delivering the keynote address, the general secretary of the World Teachers Union, Prof Mrinmoy Bhattacharya, regretted the teachers had not been able to unify their movement. The vice-president of the federation, Prof James Williams, also stressed the need for checking commercialisation of education. Others who spoke included Prof H.S. Mehta and Dr Gopal Krishan. |
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Vacant posts in varsities to be filled: Hooda
Chandigarh, August 28 The Chief Minister was speaking at the silver jubilee celebrations of the Journal Teachers Movement organised by the All-India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations at DAV College, Sector 10, here today. Mr Hooda said the budget for the promotion of education during the current financial year in the state, would be increased. The Government had also identified 2000 acres of land to set up an education city of international standard. He made it clear that this education city, named after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi would not be developed as a university, but as an education city, which aimed to produce outstanding students in next four to five years. This education city would not only benefit the people of Haryana, but of the entire nation. The Chief Minister stressed that the change in the education system should be made at the level of primary education and the teachers should also serve society with the same missionary zeal with which they had served it during the freedom struggle of the country. While responding to the suggestion made by some of the speakers that the prevailing education system should be changed, Mr Hooda emphasised that the primary level would be an appropriate point for the desired change because it was at this stage that we lay stress on building the character of students. However, he added that the teaching fraternity should also change its attitude as neither the government alone or teachers or any individual could bring any change. While pointing out that about two lakh persons commute to Gurgaon daily to work for the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Mr Hooda said the present government had taken a number of steps to bring about a qualitative change in the education system so as to enable the youth of Haryana to compete at the international level. The Member Parliament, Mr Pawan Bansal, also emphasised the need for a change in the education system and aid the budget on education should be increased. The expenditure by the government on education was not even three per cent of the GDP and only five per cent of it was being spent on higher education. He said the government must ensure that the educational institutes in the private sector did not exploit the people. |
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MD varsity centre to come up at Mirpur
Rewari, August 28 The university, which is now giving final touches to the construction plan of the centre, will soon start the construction work with a preliminary fund of about Rs 5 crore. It will seek additional funds from the state government for the centre. A civil writ petition, filed by the elders of Mirpur panchayat in the Punjab and Haryana High Court over the shifting of the site of centre, has already been withdrawn. The petitioners had sought an injunction to the state government against shifting the site from Mirpur village to a place on the Rewari-Jhajjar road. The High Court Bench comprising Mr Chief Justice D. K. Jain and Mr Justice Hemant Gupta allowed to withdraw the writ petition following the decision of the authorities concerned to construct the centre at its original site. Mr Bhajan Lal had laid the foundation stone of the centre on June 4, 1995, at Mirpur village. A 100-acre piece of land was donated by the panchayat for it. A sum of about Rs 72 lakh, provided in two instalments by the state government, was spent on building the boundary wall and internal roads at the site. However, the matter got bogged down in a row over the vulnerability of the site to floods and it being far off from Rewari city. The decision to start the construction work at the Mirpur site was taken at a high-level meeting held recently in Chandigarh . It was chaired by the Irrigation and Revenue Minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav. Captain Yadav said today that a sum of Rs 10 lakh had been provided to the Irrigation Department to take steps to reduce flood risk to the site. Besides, wide roads would be laid to connect the village with the National Highway No. 8 near Dharuhera and Rewari city, he added. The university has been directed to prepare academic plans to start full-fledged Master’s Degree in Business Administration and LLB classes, two-year master computer application programme and an engineering college at the centre, the minister said.
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A self-help group worth emulating
Fatehabad, August 28 Women, working in the group, told this correspondent that before joining the self-help group they had never gone to the bus stand of Fatehabad but now they go to National capital to sell their products during exhibitions. They said the demand of durries, manufactured by their group, was increasing and their products adorned almost every handicraft mela organised in any town of the country. The Women said the increase in the demand had raised their income too and they felt empowered now because heads of their families now treated women as useful members of the family. A woman member of the group revealed that she had in mind to do something creative, but could not dare to take any step. But when 10 women collectively took the decision to do it, success came instantly. Now, they feel they should have started earlier. Self-help group members told this reporter that they procured raw material for their projects from Ludhiana, Panipat and Delhi. They utilised time to prepare “durries” and added that a member could prepare a “durry” in five to seven days. Each “durry” fetched a woman a profit ranging between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. The best part of the project was that they did not have to go out from their homes for making “durries”. Now, they did not have to go out for sales because their “durries” were always in demand. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr O. P. Langyaan, told this correspondent that the district administration was encouraging women to prepare self-help groups to ameliorate their economic condition. He said the administration facilitated loans to the groups and also provided subsidies. He revealed that so far 214 self-help groups had been set up in the district out of which 107 had been provided loans. These groups had been engaged in activities like manufacture of shoes, soap, candles, biscuits, almirahs, stationery and other activities like poultry farming and dairy units.
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Dowry case against two govt officials
Bhiwani, August 28 The victim had filed an affidavit in the court in this connection. According to reports, Rajesh, a resident of Tikan Kalan village, under Charkhi Dadri jurisdiction, alleged in her affidavit that she was married in 1998 and her husband was working as an auditor in the Finance Department. The father-in-law is an assistant secretary in the Irrigation Department. The family had been living at Chandigarh for the past many years, the affidavit said. Rajesh had two children. She alleged that despite giving sufficient dowry in the marriage, the in-laws had been asking her to bring more dowry. She went on to say that her in-laws and the husband would beat her up and threatened her with dire consequences if the demand for dowry was not fulfilled. On the direction of the court, the police has
registered a case under Sections 498-A, 406, 506 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the husband, the mother-in-law and the father-in-law. |
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Councillors ask Selja to replace MC chief Ambala, August 28 The councillors who met Ms Selja, include Sudhir Jaiswal, Mahesh Goel, Roop Chand, Vikas Bhateja, Ria Raatra, Dimple Mittal, Nisha Parmar and Nisha Goel. The Congress has the strength of 13 councillors in the 31-member House of the council. The councillors demanded the replacement of Ms Sharma. They alleged that the development works in their wards had slowed down for which they had to face the annoyance of the people. They blamed MS Sharma of having a dictatorial attitude. They alleged that the MC chief was ignoring them. The minister asked the local MLA, Mr Davender Bansal, to redress their grievances so that all the councillor of the party remained united. Later, Mr Bansal summoned a meeting of the Congress councillors to settle the matter amicably, but the matter could not be resolved as the most of the councillors were adamant on their stand. According to sources, the Union minister took a serious view of the councillors’ taking the matter to the media. She advised the councillors to restrain themselves for making it a public issue. Meanwhile, Ms Neelam Sharma refuted the allegations of the councillors and said the matter would be resolved soon.
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3 killed in separate
mishaps
Sonepat, August 28 According to a report, Tumnath, a resident of Bihar, was hit by a Haryana Roadways bus of Kaithal depot while he was crossing the G.T. Road near the Nathupur village, about 20 km from here, last night. He died on the spot. The police has sent the body for a post-mortem examination. A case has also been registered against the driver of the bus. A motorcyclist was killed when he was hit by a jeep on the Kharkhauda-Gohana road near the Farmana village, about 20 km from here, yesterday. The deceased was identified as, Rajnish, whereas the injured as, Manoj, who was immediately hospitalised for treatment. Both youths were going to Bhainswal Kalan village. The driver of the jeep, however, fled leaving the jeep at the spot. The police has impounded the vehicle. The body of the victim was sent for a post-mortem examination. Meanwhile, a woman, Heero Devi, wife of Mr Daya Ram, succumbed to injuries she received in the road accident at the PGIMS at Rohtak last night. The condition of her husband was stated to be out of danger. Both were going on a bicycle to the community health centre at Bad Malik village when a truck hit the cycle.
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No deaths due to malaria
Chandigarh, August 28 A spokesman for the Health Department denied a news item published in a section of the Press on alleged malaria deaths in Karnal and Sonepat districts. The spokesman said high-level medical teams were constituted in these districts and they had reported that there had been no incident of death due to malaria. He said 13,840 malaria cases had been detected in the state till August 23, out of which 10,743 cases had been reported from the districts of Karnal, Panipat and Sonepat. As many as 2785 medicine distribution counters have been set up in these districts and 6.44 lakh chloroquin tablets have been distributed to 1.81 lakh persons affected by high fever. He said intensive fogging operation and spray of malathion was going on in the districts of Karnal, Panipat and Sonepat. As many as 22 spray teams - 10 in Karnal, seven in Panipat and five in Sonepat - had been constituted for spraying malathion. The spokesman said house to house survey was being done to identify malaria cases and providing the affected persons with chloroquin tablets. Publicity campaign had also been launched by the Health Department to acquaint people about the precautions to be taken for checking the spread of the disease. He said steps were also being taken to breed gambuzia fish for arresting the spread of malaria carrying mosquitoes in water.
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Ask Chatha to submit report soon, govt told
Kurukshetra, August 28 Stating this here today, the HSGPC, general secretary, Mr Didar Singh Nalvi, said the conference felt that the Haryana Government and the Haryana Congress Committee were not giving the importance to this matter. In fact, the Bill for setting up of the HSGPC should have been passed immediately after the adoption of Section 72 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, by Parliament as this issue was linked with the establishment of Punjabi Suba and Haryana, The conference clarified that this was a religious matter and involved no financial, administrative, legal, political or social problems. It was alleged that this issue had been given political overtones by the Akalis in Punjab. However, the Haryana Government should understand their political designs and should not allow the Akalis of Punjab to exploit the Sikhs of Haryana. Mr Nalvi said the conference unanimously resolved to request the SGPC, Amritsar, and Akali parties in Punjab to give recognition to the HSGPC and to hand over the management of gurdwaras in Haryana to the elected representatives of the Sikhs from Haryana. In another resolution, the conference requested the government to issue a gazette notification declaring the Punjabi language as the second language of Haryana and also offer employment opportunities to the unemployed Punjabi teachers of Haryana as hundreds of Punjabi language teachers were not getting employment in the educational institutions because of non acceptance of Punjabi language as the second language by Haryana. The speakers and Sikh youths, allegedly expressed resentment over denying them employment opportunities to various posts at Miri Piri Medical College, Shahabad Markanda, and such discriminatory policy towards the youths was highly deplorable. The copies of the resolutions were also submitted to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Mr Harmohinder Singh Chatha, chairman, eight-member Chatha panel, Mr T.K. Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, Kurukshetra, and the manager, Gurdwara Sixth Paatshahi, Kurukshetra, for forwarding to their higher authorities for due consideration. |
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Sand destroys cane crops
Laakar (Yamunanagar), August 28 Villages situated along the Yamuna are prone to floods. Land owners of the area, meanwhile, have rejected the idea of being moved to safer places. However, farm labourers are in favour of moving away. The farmers are demanding that the special girdwari announced for the area should be done at the earliest so that they could be compensated for their loss. Farmers are also demanding that their loans should be waived keeping in view the destruction to the crops and land by the floods. Farmers are also demanding electricity connections for tubewells so that the affected land could be again made fit for plantation of cane. Agricultural land in Laakar, Nawajpura, Belgarh, Kanewala and few other villages is buried under sand. Farmers of the village are worried as they could not plant cane and rice for at least four years. The sand has already affected standing cane crop over 2,500 to 3,000 acres, said sources in the district agriculture department. Sarpanch of Laakar village Sunehra Singh said the agricultural land in the village and also that in the surrounding villages had been covered under tonnes and tonnes of sand and that the land had been rendered unfit for sugarcane
plantation. A farmer of the village, Mr Baldev Singh, also said that they would not be able to cultivate the land for the next many years as it was impossible to remove the sand. He also rejected the idea of being moved to a safer place. Mr D.S. Malik, Deputy Director, Agriculture, Yamunanagar, admitted that the land buried under sand was not viable for plantation of cane for the next few years. He, however, said the farmers could plant vegetables and groundnuts in the area. |
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Haryana to set up 300 ‘delivery huts’
Panchkula, August 28 A sum of Rs 3 crore has been earmarked for setting up these delivery huts in rural areas. Officials say that Rs 1 lakh for each hut will be spent by district health authorities for buying equipment for civil works and for buying equipment for facilitating child birth. The health sub-centres and/or primary health centres (PHC), wherever Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife (ANM) stays at the centre, and those located within the phirni of a village, have been chosen to be converted into delivery huts. Senior officials inform TNS that depending on the population, nine to 25 huts are being set up in each district of Haryana. The first delivery hut was inaugurated by the Commissioner, Health, Ms Urvashi Gulati, at Jharsa in Gurgaon district last evening, after the building was renovated and furnished with delivery tables, autoclaves, sterilisers and other equipment. Officials say that all 300 huts will be operational within the next two months. The ANM’s in these delivery huts will be initially given Rs 10,000, which will be deposited in a bank. The savings account will be jointly operated by the ANM and a woman panch/ sarpanch, to ensure that there is no cash crunch for buying medicines or repair of equipment needed for safe delivery. All women who deliver their children in these huts will be given 100 tablets each of B complex, iron and calcium. With the state having a meagre 26 per cent institutional delivery percentage (deliveries in hospitals/ nursing homes), of which 16 per cent deliveries take place in government hospitals, this is being seen as a welcome step for improving maternal and child health care. Fearing expensive treatment, most people shy away from coming to hospitals for child birth, thus risking the life of the mother and the baby. Most babies in the state are delivered by unskilled dais and mid-wives, which has led to a high infant mortality rate (IMR) of 65 per cent in rural areas and 56 per cent in urban areas of Haryana. The MMR in the state is 300 deaths per 1 lakh population. Since maternal and child health are key indicators of development, the Health Department aims to bring down the MMR to 100 per 1 lakh population. This scheme has been introduced in order to ensure that more and more expectant mothers go in for institutional deliveries, under hygienic conditions. It may be mentioned that last year the state government had started free deliveries in government hospitals, including Caesarean cases. Patients are provided free medicines and there is no need to arrange for replacement of blood. The expectant mothers do not have to pay bed charges, while in the hospital. Fearing expensive treatment, most people shy away from coming to hospitals for child birth, thus risking the life of the mother and the baby. |
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Farmers demand regular power, water supply
Sonepat, August 28 Representatives of various farmer organisations said here today that farmers had already started ploughing fields for paddy and if it did not rain for one more week and the government fails to make arrangements for irrigation, then 50 per cent crops could be
damaged. Though farmers are striving hard to save the crop with the help of diesel-run tubewells, the high day temperature is likely to lead to
stunted growth and overall reduction in yield. Representatives of these organisations added that the crops of
bajra, maize, fodder and vegetables had also been affected by the dry spell and would not survive for more than a week. They held the state government responsible for mismanagement for shortage of power. They demanded power for a minimum of 12 hours daily. |
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BJP demands special girdawri
Bhiwani, August 28 The BJP leader said that malaria and jaundice had spread in Talu, Dhanana, Mundhal Kalan, Sukhpura, Jatai, Badesara, Mittathal, Ghuskani, Tigri, Tigrana, and Prem Nagar villages, but no medicines had been sprinkled in the villages despite demand by the party. Terming it as a matter of great concern, Mr Maan said that the government should take timely step to avert any epidemic. He demanded that free anti-malaria and anti-jaundice medicines be distributed among the villagers and the necessary steps taken to provide free medical aid. He said the Health Department should constitute its teams of medical staff and sent them to the affected villages. The BJP leader said that a sammelan would be organised to focus the problems of the farmers
in effective manner at Bapora village. |
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