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School owners charge money to arrange copying!
Deepender Hooda to launch health offensive
Atomic projects ‘needed to meet power demands’
Sampat Singh vs Ram Prakash over new excise policy
No steps taken to check sale of peacock feathers
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Dowry demand: panchayat to boycott groom’s father
Luxury cars lying unused
Speaker’s advice to farmers
Justice Mittal inspects courts
10-year term in rape case
3 in Vigilance net for theft
Four held on charge of
planning dacoity
Lock house from inside to
check theft: SP
Shifting of anaj mandi sought
Parliamentary Secy visits hospital
Computer fee abolished
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School owners charge money to arrange copying!
Hisar, April 11 All sorts of unfair practices, including mass copying with teachers openly dictating the answers, impersonation cases and provision of separate rooms for “special” students are being adopted by the school owners. The school authorities charge hefty amounts from students or their parents for getting them passed in the exams. The copying “facilities” are provided to students in accordance with the amount paid by them. Since thousands of students are appearing in these exams at nearly 20 centres set up in the district, the school owners or “exam contractors” are making lots of money. The system is thriving due to the lack of effective check on the conduct of open school exams. The NOS authorities had recently written to the Deputy Commissioners, asking them to ensure the smooth and fair conduct of these exams. However, the constitution of flying squads or any such arrangement to check copying in these exams is not mandatory. In fact, everything is managed by the “exam contractors”, who even guarantee success in the exams in return for money. The Subdivisional Magistrate, Dr Amit Aggarwal, who was directed by the Deputy Commissioner to take necessary steps in this regard, was shocked on seeing the situation at examination centres. “I did have an impression that copying was there at NOS exam centres, but the way in which mass copying was openly going on at most of the centres was shocking,” Dr Aggarwal said while talking to The Tribune here today. “More than 50 per cent students taking the exams were dependent on copying alone, for which they had paid heavy amounts to the school owners,” he asserted. He revealed that at several centres where the flying squad did not allow copying, the parents of students gheraoed the schools and demanded their money back as “the promise made to them had not been fulfilled”. “Some school owners even returned the money charged to arrange copying to the parents of students,” the SDM said, adding that even teachers were found dictating answers to the candidates while the exam was in progress. The flying squad also carried out
video recording of the unfair practices at the exam centres. “Barring the two centres located in the cantonment area, irregularities were noticed at most of the other centres in the district,” said Mr Rajiv Lamba, a flying squad member. Another startling revelation made by the officials concerned was that a sizeable number of candidates appearing in the exams was of those from other states, mostly Rajasthan. This, despite the fact that the NOS sets up exam centres in all district headquarters. However, due to lack of specific provisions in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) regarding the matter, proper police cases cannot be registered. Moreover, due to the limited staff available for the purpose, a strict vigil cannot be maintained at all centres. Though the practice of mass copying and use of other unfair means in the NOS exams has been brought down to a great extent due to the frequent raids at exam centres, yet a lot more needs to be done to rid the exams of the menace. |
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Deepender Hooda to launch health offensive
Rohtak, April 11 Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda told The Tribune on the telephone from Delhi today that since the camp was apolitical and purely a public service exercise, it attracted all sections of the society cutting across party lines. On the basis of feedback he had received, he was planning more such camps to cover the entire state. The modalities would be worked out soon. He said the Jhajjar camp received overwhelming response and 15000 patients were treated free of cost by doctors from super-speciality hospitals like Escorts Heart Hospital, Jaipur Golden Hospital, Sunflag Hospital and Bhagwan Mahavir Viklang Sewa Sansthan, internationally known for its Jaipur Foot artificial limb. More than 500 hearing aids, 200 tricycles and 75 wheelchairs were given to the needy. As many as 76 persons received artificial limbs. Likewise, several persons who were singled out for heart surgery at the Escorts Hospital Delhi were sanctioned funds for the same out of the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Meanwhile, Sewa founder Deepender Hooda said several non-resident Indians from several European countries and the USA had contacted him on email offering their help including funds and equipment for future camps. Besides, several other super-speciality hospitals in the country had also contacted him offering their services for similar camps. He said an eye hospital had offered to launch a programme in Haryana for making chosen villages cataract free. Similar programmes had been conducted in Tamil Nadu and the experiment had proved a big success. Mr Hooda said he had a long meeting last evening with renowned heart surgeon Dr Naresh Trehan who was involved in several philanthropic exercises throughout the country and discussed with him how Sewa could tie up with him for its future camps. In the next camp to be held at Gohana in May several more medical specialities would be added. Meanwhile, he said Sewa had also decided to organise education melas in several districts in July at the beginning of the new academic session. The idea behind these melas was to provide career counselling to freshers, honouring meritorious students and their parents and encouraging students to take up science and mathematics which were the key to the job market in the future. He said he was holding discussions with several social service organisations to devise ways for making health camps a regular feature in Haryana “We will have to find a public-private platform which could make this dream a success”, he added. He welcomed the Chief Minister’s gesture to extend the scope of health camps to the entire state saying Sewa would offer its full cooperation to the government in every possible way. |
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Atomic projects ‘needed to meet power demands’
Panipat, April 11 Addressing a media conference here this evening, Mr Singh claimed that since Punjab had failed to get the project, Capt Amarinder was upset for his failure and raking up the issue. Dismissing media reports, he claimed that, in fact, Capt Amarinder Singh was trying hard to get an atomic power project for his state. At a function held on April 6 at Jalandhar, the Punjab Chief Minister had reportedly talked against any such project in Punjab due to its strategic position as it was near the Indo-Pak border. He had showed his reservation against any such issue citing the greater threat perception to the state and country due to its location. On the announcement of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to consider the proposal of installing a project at Kumaharia in Fatehabad district, he said Punjab had failed to convince the Prime Minister over the issue. He dismissed the claims that there was any risk factor involved in such projects. Even if situated near populated area, nowhere from the world any mishap had been reported from such a project, adding further that atomic energy-based projects were better than gas or coal based projects. |
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Sampat Singh vs Ram Prakash over new excise policy
Chandigarh, April 11 Prof Sampat Singh, Finance Minister in the Chautala Government, said here today that the Haryana Government’s excise policy had failed to achieve its four stated purposes — breaking of the monopoly over the trade liquor; transparency in allotment of vends, providing employment and increasing revenue. He alleged that the government had bungled in the allotment of country liquor vends and had not maintained transparency. He alleged that after the draw of lots for allotment of vends, the government gave about 1300 unallotted vends to its favourites after reducing the licence fee in an “underhand manner”. He said no public notice was given for these unallotted vends before allotment. He said by reducing the licence fee by 33 per cent to 52 per cent, a loss of Rs 160 crore was caused to the state revenue. The INLD leader said a CBI inquiry should be ordered to fix the responsibility for this loss. He said the government itself had admitted the bungling by readvertising the earlier unallotted vends, numbering about 1,000, now. New applications should have been invited for the unallotted vends instead of allotting them through negotiations. He said these vends were given to the big contractors, creating their monopoly. Dr Ram Prakash, on the other hand, said there was need for a CBI inquiry into the manner in which the Chautala Government facilitated the creation of a monopoly in the liquor trade at the cost of local small contractors. He said Prof Sampat Singh should answer why there was negligible increase during the entire tenure of the Chautala Government, while the Hooda Government registered an increase of about 17 per cent, more than the accumulated increase of five years of the previous government. He said what Prof Sampat Singh was describing as “bungling” was, in fact, the proof of the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s commitment to maintain transparency. The unallotted country liquor vends were given at reduced price because there were no applicants for them and the rules provided that such vends could be given through negotiations. |
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No steps taken to check sale of peacock feathers
Panchkula, April 11 An independent survey carried out by The Tribune reveals that even though the sale has been going on unchecked for the past several years, it has intensified during the past couple of years not only in the city, but also in other towns, especially religious places, in the region. Inquiries further reveal that tons of peacock feathers are being smuggled by certain ‘traders’ from Rajasthan to Agra in Uttar Pradesh and then sold to suppliers in the region. The suppliers further deport these feathers to Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir for sale among vendors and hawkers on retail basis. Since demand of peacock feathers is high in religious towns in Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir, therefore the traders have grabbed the local markets around religious institutions in these states. Highly placed sources disclosed that none of the state governments had taken any initiative to keep a check and investigate the arrival of peacock feathers in bulk to the region. As per the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, sale of naturally shed feathers is exempted while feathers being sold after killing the birds is a crime. The forest authorities of the areas concerned where peacock feathers are sold can inquire into the matter to know if the sellers was selling naturally shed feathers or killed the birds for it. Feather sellers told The Tribune that they purchased peacock feathers from Agra and Rajasthan in bulk and sold them in various religious places in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu Kashmir. The Conservator of Forest and Wildlife, Haryana, Mr RD
Jakati, was not available for comments till late in the evening. |
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Dowry demand: panchayat to boycott groom’s father
Sonepat, April 11 Zabir Hussain, father of Tahira Bano, today reiterated that he would not spare any efforts to get the dowry hungry convicted in the court of law. Though slightly perturbed over the incident, Tahira remarked that it was better that they were exposed before the marriage. Otherwise, I do not know what would have happened after the marriage,” Tahira said. |
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Luxury cars lying unused
Chandigarh, April 11 Skoda Octavia cars, costing about Rs 9 lakh each, are thus gathering dust in the garage. If Mr Dharam Bir and Rao Daan Singh stick to their decision of not using these cars, the Skodas will be put as reserves and given to ministers and parliamentary secretaries as replacements when their cars break down. Sixteen Skoda Supreme cars — costing more than Rs 18 lakh each — and seven Skoda Octavia cars were purchased by the state government recently for the ministers and parliamentary secretaries. Skoda Supreme cars have been given to the members of the Council of Ministers (barring the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister who use Mercedez cars) and to the Deputy Speaker, the
Lokayukt, the Chief Secretary, the Principal Secretary to the Chief
Minister(PSCM) and the DGP. The Octavias are meant for the Chief Parliamentary Secretary and the Parliamentary Secretaries. The previous INLD regime had procured Sonata cars in August, 2003, and these cars were initially provided to the ministers after the change of the government. These Sonatas, discarded by the ministers following the arrival of
Skodas, are up for grab now. The Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Board, Mr Ranjit Singh, has been given a Sonata. Another Sonata is being given to Mr
A.N. Mathur, a former Chief Secretary of Haryana, who has been made Chairman of the Finance Commission by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime. Two sets of cars were purchased for ministers during the Chautala regime. First, it was a fleet of Baleno and then Sonatas were purchased to replace the Baleno . The present government has also given sure enough indications of being fascinated with cars. The system of supplying luxury cars to key bureaucrats was started by the Chautala regime. Unfortunately this rather unwelcome practice too is being followed by the present state government. |
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Speaker’s advice to farmers
Jhajjar, April 11 Addressing a gathering at Chhotu Ram Dharamshala, Bahadurgarh, today, the Speaker of the Haryana Assembly, Dr Raghubir Singh Kadian, advised the farmers against selling their land to private individuals or builders. Cautioning the peasant community, Dr Kadian said agriculture land was not only a way to earn livelihood, but it also served the country by contributing foodgrain to its godowns. He stated big builders and realtors were luring the farmers in selling their land to make big bucks, but the farmers should behave intelligently. |
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Justice Mittal inspects courts
Bhiwani, April 11 He was addressing a function at the local Bar room after inspecting the local courts yesterday. The programme was organised by the Bar Association. The president of the association , Mr Rishipal Parmar , presented a memento to Mr Justice Mittal. District and Sessions Judge Ramendra Jain, Additional District Judges Venod Kumar Jain, Mr A K Verma, Mr Sandeep Garg, Mr Surender Kumar, Chief Judicial Magistrate V P Sirohi, Judicial officer Sanjay Sandhir, Mr Rajiv Goyal, Special Magistrate Prehlad Singh Jangra, Deputy Commissioner Sri Kant Walgad, and SP Saurabh Singh were among those present. |
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10-year term in rape case
Sonepat, April 11 According to a prosecution report, Vinod and his friend, Naresh Kumar of the same colony, allured and abducted a minor girl of the same colony on December 2, 2001, and sexually exploited her for about a month. |
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3 in Vigilance net for theft
Bhiwani, April 11 Stating this here yesterday, a spokesman of the bureau said that those arrested included Rajesh, Joni and Ashok, residents of Lakshmi Nagar, Dadri Gate here. He said a case had been registered under Sections 406, 409, 420, and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code at Hisar. |
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Four held on charge of
planning dacoity
Ambala, April 11 Superintendent of Police Rajbir Deswal today said five youths were planning the dacoity, out of which four were held while one fled. The incident took place at Bansal Bagh on the Nabipur road in Naraingarh. One revolver, one countrymade pistol, seven live cartridges and a scooter were recovered from them. Questioning of the youths revealed their involvement in different incidents in Kurukshetra, Karnal and Kaithal, besides Punjab. A police party was patrolling near the Laonto Chungi in Naraingarh last evening when they received a tipoff that five armed youths were planning a dacoity. The police encircled the area and told the youths to surrender, but a youth opened fire. The police nabbed Harbhajan Singh, alias Raju, and Ranjit Singh, alias Jeeta, of Shimlapuri village in Ludhiana, Ramesh Kumar, alias Meetha, of Abdullahpur basti in Ludhiana and Suraj, alias Mohan Singh, of Jujhar Nagar in Ludhiana while Sanjay from Uttar Pradesh fled. Mr Deswal said Harbhajan Singh had taken a house on rent at Jandli village, near Ambala City. The youths used to survey the area and meet at the rented
accommodation at Jandli. He said the youths admitted to have committed thefts in Naraingarh, Baldev Nagar, Mullana and Mahesh Nagar. |
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Lock house from inside to
check theft: SP
Ambala, April 11 Mr Rajbir Deswal said while leaving home, each room should be locked. The main gate should be locked from inside instead of outside as it would create problems for a person to assess the situation, a press note said. He said thikri-pehra in rural areas and chowkidars in colonies helped check thefts. While keeping a servant, background check must be carried out. There had been several instances where servants had decamped with household goods. Dr Deswal said chains should be used to lock coolers and air conditioners so that thieves could not gain entry into the house. In case if any suspicious looking person is spotted in a colony, police personnel must be immediately informed. He suggested that while travelling, eatables offered by others should be avoided as there had been several incidents of people being drugged while they were travelling. Some other suggestions included informing neighbours before leaving home, keeping a dog, putting up iron grills on windows, not keeping excess cash and jewellery at home, not wearing excess jewellery while going out, parking vehicles within compound, telling the newspaper hawker to stop giving newspaper before leaving home, collecting information about a driver or rickshaw-puller who takes the children and informing the nearest police station or chowki if leaving the house for a long period of time. |
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Shifting of anaj mandi sought
Ambala, April 11 In a memorandum addressed to Union Minister and Ambala MP, Kumari Selja, the council stated that the shifting of the anaj mandi has been pending for the last two decades. They said that anaj mandis have been constructed in Ambala City and Mullana. The memorandum pointed out that the anaj mandi is located in the heart of the town and during peak season, the flow of traffic is affected. The council also demanded that canal based water supply scheme should be speedily completed. They said that the project would prove beneficial to Ambala Sadar area and adjoining villages. |
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Parliamentary Secy visits hospital
Ambala, April 11 Dr Pandit visited different wards including the operation theatre, blood bank, x-ray room and drug store. She spoke to the doctors on duty and questioned them about the status of patients. She said that she would write to the government pointing out the need to fill posts and provide needed equipment. A patient showed her a prescription in which the medicine written had to be purchased from the market. Dr Krishna Pandit said that medicines should only be provided from the hospital. She said that she would look into this matter and find out why medicines were not available. She expressed her unhappiness over the functioning of the hospital. She said that the Haryana Government is giving top priority to health. She said that laxity on part of doctors and para-medical staff will not be tolerated. |
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Computer fee abolished
Yamunanagar, April 11 The government started computer education in 400 schools of the state but the scheme could not be popular among students as they were to pay a fee of Rs 80 per month. Their normal school fee was between Rs 15 and Rs 30. Sources in the Education Department said most of the students in government schools belong to poor families and hence, they were unable to pay a fee of Rs 80. Besides, fees charged by private schools for teaching computer were less than that of govt schools. |
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After being smuggled from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, feathers of the national bird -peacock- are being sold right under the nose of the Haryana Forest and Wildlife authorities in the city.
