Chandigarh, November 14
Girl students hugely outnumbered boys in the prize distribution ceremony of toppers held at the residence of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here today.

Of the 26 students of middle, secondary and senior secondary level awarded today, only eight were boys. Hooda came to the function about an hour late. He gave away the prizes to the bright boys and girls of the state. M.L. Tayal, principal secretary to the Chief Minister, was also present.

Hooda gave gold and silver medals and Kalpana Chawla awards to students who attained first and second positions in the final examinations of middle, secondary (matric) and senior secondary examinations in 2006 and 2007. He also gave trophies to 42 government and recognised private schools for their performance.

Besides Hooda, two others who spoke at the function were Mangeram Gupta, education minister, and Sharda Rathore, parliamentary secretary, who is attached with the education minister.

The Chief Minister spoke about Jawaharlal Nehru who, he said, got visibly excited whenever he was in the company of children. That many educated Indians were now doing exceedingly well in various professions and India was expected to emerge as a great economic power in the near future was largely due to the strong foundation of education laid by Nehru and his contemporaries, Hooda said.

He said the semester system introduced by the present government had led to improved performances by students in various exams.

Mangeram Gupta, while addressing the gathering, said he was concerned about the poor performance of students of government schools. He said instead of spending time for securing postings in the stations of their choice, teachers should focus on their work. The government would reward competent teachers by offering them the stations of their choice, Gupta said.

Meanwhile, the state government launched a statewide fortnight-long drive on Wednesday against child labour to mark Children’s Day.
During the drive, staff of the Labour Department will make inspections, conduct raids and rescue operations as well as launch intensive awareness campaigns and organise sensitisation workshops for various sections of society against child labour.
According to an official spokesman, district magistrates will spearhead and supervise this campaign.

KARNAL: The Haryana government has enforced a complete ban on employing child labour in the state and violation of this ban will attract a fine of up to Rs 20,000 and imprisonment of up to one year.

This was stated by state archaeology minister Meena Mandal on the occasion of Children’s Day at Nissing, about 25 km from here.

Mandal appealed to businessmen not to employ children below the age of 14. Instead they should guide their parents to get them educated.

She disclosed that the government had opened 137 integrated child development projects in the state, including 18 projects for slum areas. She added that 6,150 women committees had been constituted to take care of the children in rural areas. As many as 207 buildings of anganwadi centres would be constructed by the end of current financial year, she added.

SIRSA: Commissioner, Hisar range, P.C. Bidhan has urged non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to play a vital role in ending child labour.

Addressing a gathering at a function organised to celebrate Children’s Day at Bal Bhawan here, he said the government was serious about eliminating child labour.

However, there was need for NGOs to come forward to root out child labour, he added.

FATEHABAD: Maharaja Aggarsen School, Fatehabad, was adjudged the overall winner in various competitions organised at the local Bal Bhawan on the occasion of Children’s Day. Rama Krishna School got the second position.

In the science exhibition, Maharaja Aggarsen School was adjudged first, Bal Vatika School second and Government Senior Secondary School third.

A myriad of activities like fancy dress, mehndi, clay modelling, drawing, handwriting, baby health show, song and dance competitions were held on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, deputy commissioner O.P. Sheoran urged people to provide good education to their children.

He also urged people to desist from discriminating between boys and girls and said it was not only contrary to nature but also against law.

Kala Sheoran, chairperson of the District Child Welfare Society, Fatehabad, Usha Dahiya, president of the Divya Jyoti Institute for Special Children, and Ishwar Singh Dahiya, Yogesh Mehta and Tilak Raj, SDMs of Fatehabad, Ratia and Tohana, respectively, besides a large number of prominent persons of the town were present on the occasion.

YAMUNANAGAR: The government will add 207 anganwadis under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) during the current financial year. Besides, “mahila shakti sadans” will also come up in all villages in a phased manner which will help in women empowerment.

Asha Hooda, vice-president of the Haryana Child Welfare Council and wife of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, said this while speaking at a state-level Children’s Day function held at MLN College here to honour meritorious students and children associated with Bal Bhawans for their outstanding performance in extracurricular activities.

Students from all over the state were honoured during the function. She said there were scores of children who were not getting education due to the poor financial condition of their parents and social organisations like should share the responsibility of educating such children.

Earlier, Asha Hooda visited Bal Kunj at Chhachhrouli and interacted with the inmates. She also inaugurated two playgrounds there. She also visited an exhibition put up by the District Red Cross Society. She also gave trousseaus to five needy girls for their marriage.

Sonepat, November 14
Even as talented students in various fields were given prizes by the district administration at a Bal Diwas function here today, there was nothing new in the routine life of hundreds of street children and child labourers living in different localities of the town, who toiled all day to earn a living. Most of them do not even know about Children’s Day.

Raju (11) of the local Sunder Sanwari Basti moves out every morning to pick rags knowing well that he has to earn to arrange for medicines for his ailing mother. Similarly, 13-year-old Razia of the local Idgah Colony whose mother is sick and father a drunkard, has no other option but to pick rags and many a time she has to bear with eve teasing.

Similarly, Sakina (10), Ramjan (12), Sabina (15) and Ashlam (11) of Idgah Colony and Kavita (12), Raki (10) and Billu (9) of Sunder Sanwari Basti leave their places in the morning in search of work.

Social activist Lila Bahadur says there are around 15,000 street children and child labourers in the district and the benefits of various child welfare schemes are not reaching the deserving children. 

Bhiwani, November 14
Two youths were caught hold of by RSS activists while they were allegedly distributing books related to Christianity and persuading a trader for conversion.

The duo was thrashed and later taken in a procession. The literature they were distributing was burnt.

The youths were propagating Christianity near the church at Naya Bazar and went to a shop where they showed their literature to the shopkeeper, Raj Kumar. The shopkeeper was an RSS activist and caught hold of them. Later, he informed other RSS activists about the incident. The youths were allegedly thrashed and taken in procession through city roads.

The police tried to take away the youths, but was prevented from doing so by the crowd. They were later taken to Housing Board Colony, where they stay on rent, and reportedly forced to raise pro-Hindu slogans. The police later searched the house and recovered huge publicity material related to Christianity. The RSS activists burnt these books. DSP Samunder Singh tried to pacify the activists.

The youths said they were Christians and pursuing their studies at a Christian school in Ambala. They claimed that they were in Bhiwani in connection with their practicals and not for conversion.

Bhiwani, November 14
Farmers of Badhra, Loharu area of this district have decided to be face to face on the issue of power supply with the state government.

In a joint meeting of the Kisan Sabha and the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh Kisan Sangharsh Samiti held at the Jui village today, farmers announced to give arrest on large scale on November 23 if their demand was not accepted.

Demanding 12-hour-uninterrupted 3-phase power supply during sowing season, they also said an indefinite dharna program would be followed if the state government did not move by the arrest.

The meeting presided over by an aged farmer Jaimal Singh Jui, also constituted a joint kisan manch.

Working president of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti Bansi Lal Sheoran said the meeting also constituted the Taalmel Committee, which would contact farmers’s organisations and invite them for the mahapanchayat being held on November 19.

The meeting also formed 5-point demand charter, including 12-hours uninterrupted power supply during sowing season, to provide canal water till tail end, revenue patwari furnish his work at his office and farmers be given receipt immediately, farmers would not form queue for seed and fertilisers, Swaminathan report on agriculture be implemented, profitable rate for crops to farmers and corruption spread in market committee be stopped.

He said the farmers of the Mahendergarh and Bhiwani districts would start ‘jail bharo’ movement from November 23 if their demands were not met by November 22.

Kisan Sangharsh Samiti president Amar Singh Badhra, Kisan Sabha president Sher Singh, working president of Kisan Sangharsh Samiti Bansi Lal Jui, BKU ex-district president Kamal Singh Mandhi, power house Badhra president Shish Ram, Mandhi power house president Ved Prakash and several others were present in the meeting.

Rohtak, November 14
Naveen Kumar, a parking lot contractor of a warehouse company godown, was killed and two others were injured in a fight in Hasangarh village in the district today. The injured have been hospitalised and the police has registered a case in this regard.

Rohtak SSP Hanif Qureshi told The Tribune that the suspects had been identified and police parties sent to nab them. “Two persons have been rounded up in this connection and are being interrogated,” he added.

According to police sources, there were two parking sites at a godown of the Indo-Aryan warehousing firm in Hasangarh. The contract of one of the parking lots was with Naveen Kumar of Bhainswan village, near Rohtak, while that of the other was with Rakesh of Hamidpur in Delhi.

There was an altercation between Rakesh and Naveen over the parking of a truck today. Following this, Rakesh allegedly called his supporters from Delhi. In the clash, Naveen was shot at. He succumbed to his injuries while he was being taken to the PGIMS hospital in Rohtak.

Meanwhile, a violent clash broke out between the supporters of Naveen and Rakesh in which two persons received serious injuries. The two injured persons, Krishan and Manu, have been admitted to the PGIMS hospital.

The police has registered a case and rounded up two persons for interrogation. One of the vehicles, allegedly belonging to the assailants, a Swift car, was found at the scene of the crime.

Chandigarh, November 14
The Haryana Government today clarified that the state board of school education would continue to conduct examination of Sanskrit and it would not be conducted by schools, as reported in a section of the Press recently.

This clarification came when a delegation of Sanskrit teachers called on Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, here today and drew his attention towards a Press report in this regard.

It was decided to include ‘Shashtri’ as a qualifying degree for the selection for the post of Sanskrit teacher. Regarding the demand of sanctioning of posts of Sanskrit lecturers in Senior Secondary Schools, it was clarified that wherever more than 10 students would be willing to study Sanskrit as a subject in Class-XI and subsequently in Class XII, the school would become eligible for creation of post of the Sanskrit lecturer.

Regarding the request of the Sanskrit teachers for promotion to the post of headmaster, the CM directed the Education Department to promote eligible Sanskrit teachers to the post of headmaster before December 31.

It was further decided that Sanskrit teachers would henceforth be eligible to become superintendent in the board’s examination and would also be eligible to officiate as in charge headmaster, if they were the senior most in the school. It was also decided to increase honorarium paid to the language guest teachers to Rs 70 per period as in the case of other teachers.

Yamunanagar, November 14
Students of Arriyanawala Government Primary School in Bilaspur block here attended their classes in the open as the head teacher of the school had locked the classrooms. The children did not get the mid-day meal today.

The head teacher is facing allegations of misappropriation of funds of scholarship. The teacher had disappeared after the allegations yesterday.

Like other days, the students reached the school but found the classrooms locked. The only guest teacher at the school took classes in the open. Sources said villagers had threatened Ram Sharan, the teacher concerned, not to come to the school. The classrooms and the office could not be opened as the keys were with Ram Sharan.

The ration of mid-day meal was locked in a room and resultantly the children had to return home without the meal today.

It was not yet clear if the locks would be opened tomorrow or not. No senior official of the education department was available for comments.

The panchayat samiti had locked the primary school of Mukarampur in Jagadhri block after complaints of irregularities in the mid-day meal scheme. Classes were not held for a few days. However, the school had started functioning from Monday. 

Karnal, November 14
By the year 2020 the domestic demand for milk and milk products in India is likely to reach nearly 170 mt and the target can be achieved provided the current level of growth is maintained, said Dr Mangala Rai, secretary, department of agriculture and education, and director- general, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Delhi.

Dr Rai was addressing nearly 600 delegates who are here to attend a four-day international conference on traditional dairy foods (ICTDF), which started today. It is being organised by the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) under the auspices of the Dairy Technology Society of India (DTSI).

He said dairying had played a prominent role in bringing about socio-economic transformation and strengthening India’s rural economy. The Indian dairy industry was growing at a rapid pace.

Dr Rai remarked that the growth rate of milk production in India was about 4 per cent as compared to 1.1 per cent in the rest of the world. He added that about 16 per cent of the world’s milk was produced in India, and the growth rate was four times the global rate. The role of traditional milk products was considerable in the Indian dairy scenario, the value of these being around Rs 1 lakh crore annually. One of the outstanding features of these products was their enormous export potential, which when realised could greatly benefit Indian dairy farmers.

Dr Rai said the deliberations of this international conference would focus on all relevant issues and come out with recommendations that would further guide researchers and the dairy industry for making concerted efforts to modernise technologies, including the better packaging of Indian dairy products.

Dr K. M. Bujarbaruah, deputy director-general (animal sciences), ICAR, who was the guest of honour at the function, said that packaging would be a key issue in determining the commercial success of traditional products.

He added the commercialisation of certain traditional dairy products like long-life paneer and herbal ghee and value-added improvement in other dairy products like dahi, lassi and ghee had been the outcome of the efforts made by NDRI scientists.

Dr Ram P. Aneja, former managing director, National Dairy Development Board, Anand, Gujarat, and ex officio additional secretary, government of India, said India had come a long way in the dairy sector in the past 30 years. Milk production had quadrupled and the amount of milk processed had gone up from 2 million tonnes to 20 million tonnes. He added that this had helped farmers get a stable price and that in turn increased milk production and rural incomes.

Dr Sushil Kumar, director, NDRI, said scientists, researchers, industrialists, policy makers, academicians, dairy food manufacturers, traditional food anthropologists and professionals working in the fields of dairy technology and food processing from Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Finland, France, India, the USA, Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Iraq, Nepal, Portugal, Sri Lanka and Sudan will deliberate on various issues relating to traditional dairy foods.

Sonepat, November 14
Owing to heavy arrivals of paddy in the new anaj mandi of Gohana and delay in the lifting of the purchased stock, authorities and commission agents were left with no option except to close the door of the mandi to new arrivals today.

Besides these problems, townsmen were also facing the problems of traffic jam caused by tractors-trollies, three-wheelers and trucks on the roads in the town. The traffic police was forced to divert the routes from the Gohana-Jind road to avoid vehicles entries in the town during the last two days.

Because of its location, the bulk of arrival of paddy in the district is in the Gohana Mandi.

According to official information, total arrival in different anaj mandis, including Sonepat, Gohana, Ganaur and Kharkhoda, has been up to 80,383 tonnes on November 12 and out of it; farmers brought 49,483 tonnes of paddy in the Gohana Mandi.

Interestingly, if the arrivals are taken in to account, Muchhal, a non-basmati variety, has become the first choice of the farmers. Out of total arrival of 80,383 tonnes, Muchhal included arrival of 63,642 tonnes, whereas grade-A arrival had been only 1,873 tonnes so far. The purchase rates of Muchhal variety have been ranging between Rs 1,706 to 2,340 per quintal after lifting of the ban on export of non-basmati rice. Secretary of the Market Committee, Gohana,said around 50,000 bags of paddy were lying in the mandi today, and most of these would be lifted by tomorrow.

Chandigarh, November 14
Continuing with the annual ritual of remembering Late Jodh Singh Chowdhury, a legend among the freedom fighters and a Tamar Patra awardee, a function will be organised at Ambala tomorrow. The function would mark the fourth death anniversary of Jodh Singh, who had died at the age of 101 on November 16, 2003.

Prior to his death, the freedom fighter lived in Ambala for 50 years since he moved from Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Kishanjit Singh, a son of the freedom fighter, said the function would be held at the Panchayat Bhawan, near Government Polytechnic, Ambala.

During the freedom struggle, Jodh Singh was arrested several times and remained behind bars for a period of more than 25 years. He was an eyewitness to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (1919) at Amritsar, where his cousin brother was killed in the firing. He then participated in the ‘Guru ka Morcha’ and the ‘Chabion ka Morcha.’

In 1938, a question was raised in the Punjab Legislative Assembly if the name of Jodh Singh had been entered in the police register at Kahuta. Sir Sikander Hayat-Khan had refused to reveal the names in the register.

He had five sons and two daughters. One of his sons Flight Lieut Panjrattan Singh was killed in an air crash in 1966.

Jind, November 14
The District Courts have sentenced a person to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him for murdering a resident and attempting a dacoity at gunpoint in the Urban Estate here in October 2005. Two other accused in the case are minors and their case has been referred to a juvenile court.

According to the prosecution, three persons - Anoop, Hari Singh and Karan Sharma - armed with revolvers and a knife, had entered the house of Raj Kumar in the Urban Estate here on October 29, 2005.

They took out their weapons and asked for cash and valuables. Ramesh, hailing from Nepal and working as a domestic help, tried to intervene, but was attacked with a knife, which resulted in his death later. The accused were arrested as family members raised the alarm.

The police had recovered two revolvers and a knife from the accused. The court, in its judgement today, sentenced Anoop, a resident of UP, to life term and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.

Kaithal, November 14
The police has arrested three proclaimed offenders. It has also arrested a man for possessing poppy husk and another one for possessing an illegal pistol.

Giving details, SSP Anil Kumar said here today that Satish Kumar of Pundri was arrested in an excise case in January 1997. However, after getting bail during the trial, he went underground and did not appear in court. He was declared a proclaimed offender. Another accused, Ramphal of Matour village, was arrested by the police for possessing 24 bottles of illicit liquor in August 1999. He got bail and went underground. He was declared a proclaimed offender in September 2007. He has been arrested by the police. Manoj Kumar of Jamba was arrested by the police in May 2005 in a theft case. After seeking bail, he did not appear in the court and was declared a proclaimed offender in July 2007. He has been arrested by the police.

The SSP said Satish Kumar of Keorak was arrested from near the Keorak village bus stand yesterday carrying a double-barrel loaded pistol.

Darshan Singh of Chaba village of Guhla subdivision was arrested yesterday with 10 kg of poppy husk.