Chandigarh, June 8
The state government has abolished the division of the scheduled castes population in the state in two categories for the purpose of filling government vacancies as well as admissions to educational institutions and other areas in which the reservation policy is applicable.

The state government, in an instruction issued today to the staff selection commission, directors and secretaries of departments and the universities of the state, has said that the categorisation of the scheduled castes in the state in A and B blocks would stand abolished.

Earlier, there was a High Court order asking the Haryana government to treat the scheduled castes in the state as a single category. The state government tried to get a stay from the Supreme Court on the High Court order. The stay was not forthcoming even as contempt petitions were filed in the High Court by representatives of various organisations complaining against the state government for not implementing the court order.

Finally, the state government issued the necessary instruction today.

The Dalits in the state were split in two categories in 1994 when Congress party was in power in state and Bhajan Lal was the Chief Minister. While the B block primarily consists of the Chamars, the non-Chamars including Dhanaks, Valmikis were made part of the A block. The division was brought about on the alleged ground that Chamars in Haryana were more advanced than other Dalit communities. If the scheduled castes in Haryana were not divided in two categories, the Chamars would corner all the opportunities thrown up by the policy of reservation, it was argued.

The Haryana Pradesh Chamar Sangharsh Samiti, headed by Gaje Singh Muwal, had played a key role in bringing about the abolition in the division of the Dalit population of Haryana in two categories. Besides petitioning the High Court for treating the Dalits as a single category, Muwal also organised demonstrations in Delhi to air his organisation’s demand.

The Valmikis and other communities, who were part of the A block, also had gone to the court for retention of the system of division of the Dalits as two categories. However, their efforts failed to bear fruit.

Karnal, June 8
Under an ambitious plan, the state government will provide power connections to more than 4 lakh BPL families in four districts free of cost.

A spokesman for the UHBVN said here today that 15,861 BPL families would be benefited by the plan in Karnal district alone.

The state authorities have chosen Karnal, Rohtak, Sonepat and Panipat districts to be covered under the plan.

Fatehabad, June 8
Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala said today that the newly set up third front of non-Congress and non-BJP parties would play an important role in the coming presidential election, adding that neither the UPA nor the NDA would be in a position to get its candidate elected without the support of the front.

Talking to mediapersons at a petrol station of former MLA Swatantar Bala Chaudhary here, Chautala said leaders of the front would meet at Chennai soon to discus their strategy for the presidential election.

People of the country are disillusioned with both the Congress and the BJP and the third front will provide viable alternative to these parties.

The conditions today were similar to those prevailing during 1977 and 1987 when the Janata Party and the Janata Dal were formed, respectively.

The relations between the Congress and the Left parties were of political compulsions and once the third front emerged stronger in the next parliamentary elections, the Left parties would be left with no option but to support it, the former Chief Minister said.

Mid-term Lok Sabha poll could happen anytime after the presidential election as the Left parties were not going to support the “anti-people” UPA government for long, Chautala claimed. Later, he toured more than 12 villages of the Fatehabad Assembly constituency as part of his mass contact programme. 

Fatehabad, June 8
A team of doctors today visited the Community Health Centre, Bhuna, to enquire after the three children who were taken ill after they were administered measles vaccine at an anganwadi centre in Dehman village in this district.

The children, Renu (10 months), Seetu (11 months) and Kalpana (10 months), are still suffering from recurrent convulsions. However, civil surgeon J. K. Bishnoi maintained that the kids did not fell ill due to the vaccine.

The expiry date of the vaccine, as marked on the vials, was June, 2007.

Earlier, the parents of the children had to take them back to home when doctors at the Bhuna centre referred them to the PGI, Rohtak. The parents said they were unable to bear the cost their kids’ treatment at Rohtak.

District health officer Naresh Goyal said the children were examined by two paediatricians and they were progressing well now.

He maintained that 40 children were administered injections of the measles vaccine on the same day and all other children were fine.

Karnal, June 8
The two Nepali residents died while three others were taken seriously ill after they ‘mistakenly’ consumed poisonous food at a village near Assandh this morning.

Sachin and Shivdutt, who had come to Maanpura village in Karnal in search for job, breathed their last at an Ambala hospital.

Their hosts, including Sudesh, Shankar and 10-year-old Sandeep, fell seriously ill after consuming the poisonous halwa.

The three were working and staying at a poultry farm in the village.

Police sources said preliminary investigations revealed that certain poisonous substance was mistakenly used as suji in the preparation of halwa.

Meanwhile, the police took the food samples to verify the nature of the poison.

Yamunanagar, June 8
Women volunteers chosen from various non-government agencies to carry out different developmental activities under the self-help groups, the Haryana Government has decided to follow the Kerala model to train them so that they could become economically self-reliant.

This was stated by union minister of state for urban development and poverty alleviation Kumari Seilja here today while presiding over a meeting of districts vigilance and monitoring committee at the civil secretariat.

She said special efforts would be made to make women self-reliant by providing them chances to earn through self-help groups and they would be trained to make toys, paper, file cover, mats and other items. Various government departments will purchase these items. They will also be provided booths in the shopping complexes developed by various municipalities of the district.

The minister said survey of people living below the poverty line should be done and no one beneficiary should be left out.

Selja also constituted three special committees consisting of two government officials and three representatives of elected bodies to oversee the work under taken so far under the Haryali Yojana, MPLD scheme.

Yamunanagar, June 8
The elementary education department will provide additional Edusat equipment to primary schools with the strength of more than 300 students.

The department has asked for details from the district elementary education officer (DEEO) of the state regarding the number of such schools.

According to sources, the department would be providing additional sets so that children could get maximum benefit.

It was observed that students were not getting the full benefits of the scheme in schools where the strength of students was high.

Two hour live programme is shown to students through Edusat. The students of first, third and fifth classes were taught Hindi, mathematics and English through Edusat for two hours daily, said sources. Students were also taught etiquettes under the programme. However, it was observed that in some schools, rooms where the systems were installed got overcrowded.

Khanpur Kalan (Sonepat), June 8
The Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidalaya (BPSMV), the first women university in the region will aim at providing special skill sets to its girl students by integrating value addition to its courses. A special team of educators are working on the integration of feminist perspectives in the university curriculum.

The objective of the university, as envisaged in its vision document, is to open new vistas for eager learners, many of whom may face interruption in education, by providing for them flexibility in pursuing higher studies.

According to vice-chancellor Anuradha Gupta, every student that passes out of the university will have to undergo 60 or 150 credit hours (about 30 hours a semester) in spoken English and communication skills. This will prepare them for thousands of jobs in the BPO, KPO and LPO industry. The university is collaborating with Cambridge University to provide each student with certification (business English certification or teaching knowledge test) after an examination in addition to the university degrees or diplomas.

For students who join this year, this will an integral part of the curriculum, while those students who are already studying at any of the seven institutions of the university, the BPSMV will allow them to do these courses as an add on. The authorities of Jawahar Lal Nehru University School for Languages, New Delhi, and Dr. Prabhu, a linguist from Chennai, are setting up language labs at the university.

The university that aims at emerging as a resource building centre for women, will also be introducing specialised language courses in Spanish, French, Korean, Chinese and Russian with the objective that the students, who will number about 20,000 at its full strength, are ready for any national or international job.

The existing campus, sprawling over 185 acres, has a proposal to acquire another 300 acres so as to enable the university offer modern infrastructure. NABARD has sanctioned Rs 12 crore for building a 25-km road from the National Highway No. 1 to Khanpur Kalan, reducing distance of the university from New Delhi substantially.

Registrar Sumedha Kataria said the faculty for all the proposed professional courses and the existing ones was being selected from the best available in the respective fields. This includes teachers working at some of the best institutions in the country and abroad. The university, that is shortly expecting recognition from the University Grants Commission (UGC), will recruit 10 professors, 20 readers and 40 lecturers during the current academic session. To improve availability of water, Rs 15 crore has been sanctioned to build water works. The sanitation system and housing, kitchen, etc, will be the focus areas during the first year of the university. No new courses are being added at present, except those in spoken English and communication skills.

However, after the university breaks away from MDU, Rohtak, next year, several courses will be added with the aim of developing special skills among women.

Ambala, June 8
Union minister Kumari Selja today said that it was the moral duty of the society to help the backward and physically challenged become independent.

Kumari Selja was addressing a gathering at Ambala Cantt under the Swaran Jayanti Gramin Rozgar Yojana. She gave away bicycles, sewing machines, cycle rickshaws and carts among 349 persons living below the poverty line.

She said with the help of Zila Parishad members, the beneficiaries had been identified so that they could start working and become independent. She said that a number of welfare measures had been undertaken for the benefit of persons living below the poverty line. She observed that many people living in far-off places were not able to benefit from scuh schemes.So, efforts must be made to generate awareness about the welfare schemes.

Kumari Selja said that the previous government tried to garner votes of the poor and after coming to power, the previous government had subjugated the poor. She said that under the previous government, the pink ration cards were taken by financially well-off persons while the deserving persons had to run from pillar to post without any help.

She stated that to check irregularities, the government had again started a survey of those living below the poverty line and only the truly deserving persons would be given the pink ration cards.

Among others, Naraingarh MLA Ram Kishen, Zila Parishad chairman Brahmpal Rana, Naib Singh Saini, DC RP Bharadwaj, SP Amitabh Dhillon, SDM Mukesh Ahuja were present.

Ambala , June 8
The Northern Zone Insurance Employees Association, Karnal division, organised a convention here yesterday in which several resolutions were made and problems of LIC employees were highlighted.

Later talking to mediapersons, general secretary of the Association Anil Bhatnagar said the government intended to increase capital of FDI from 26 per cent to 49 per cent in the insurance sector to generate additional capital for better technical knowhow, but no foreign insurance partner had brought any new technicalknow how till date. He said those companies were selling products of the LIC with slight modification.

Bhatnagar said that LIC investment in the social sector had exceeded Rs 50,000 crore.

He said the private insurance companies were concentrating only on unit- linked business which was not insurance but a business in speculative market.

He said that LIC and GIC were facing acute shortage of employees and wage revision was also due. He said that AIIEA which represented 85 per cent of the total working force of the LIC had still not been given recognition by the LIC management. — OC

Ambala, June 8
Two Ambala gangsters came to blows in the court lockup here today when they were brought to a court from the Central Jail. According to information, the Ambala police had brought Rakesh alias Bobby, a gangster lodged in the Ambala Central Jail, to a local court. At the same time, the Karnal police brought another gangster, Nishan Singh, from the Karnal jail to the same venue. Both the gangsters belong to Ambala and are wanted in several criminal cases.

Both the gangsters, who are heads of rival gangs, were put in the same lockup. After some altercation, the two gangsters got at each other’s throats. The police immediately came into action and pulled out Rakesh from the lockup.

Later, the gangsters were produced in court and sent back to jail. It could not be ascertained whether the police registered any case in this regard or not.