Yamunanagar, March 3
Government Primary School, Rukali village, Chhachhrouli, has a total of 14 students. They get Rs 2.80 a day as budget for fuel to cook midday meal whereas cost of cattle dung cake is Rs 1 per cake, firewood is Rs 5 a kg and one kg of coal is available for Rs 22 in market.

Cooking midday meal on fuel purchase for Rs 2.80 a day is ‘impossible’ for head teachers of schools.

Midday meal is provided to students up to primary classes in government schools under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

As per sources in the Haryana education department, only 20 paise had been sanctioned per child per day for fuel.

Similarly, just 20 paise had been sanctioned per student per day to purchase potato and 35 paise for green vegetables.

If a school has 50 students, the money allotted to purchase fuel is Rs 10 and to purchase potato is Rs 10, whereas cost of potato was between Rs 5 and Rs 8 per kg.

Sources admitted that head teachers were facing an acute problem in procuring firewood or dung cakes to run the school kitchen.

Sources revealed that in several schools, the responsibility of procuring fuel has been delegated to the midday meal cook.

It had also been seen that children bring firewood or dung cakes to schools so that hearth of school kitchen could be made ready for the meal. Cooks could be seen collecting dung from the village so that the same could be sun baked to make cakes.

Umesh Sharma, in charge of Primary Schools Centre of Chhachhrouli block, admitted that the amount sanctioned for fuel was too meagre and hence cooking had become a challenge.

As per the menu, bakli should be provided to children once in a week. The government provided 60 gm wheat, 30 gm gram, 10 gm groundnuts and 2 gm refined oil per student.

The school had to purchase the remaining ingredients for making bakli - potato, coriander leaves and green chili - themselves and for this 20 paise was paid per student.

Similarly, the government gave only 35 paise to purchase green vegetables (20 gm per student) for cooking vegetable rice and did not pay for turmeric powder and chili.

All schools had been facing shortage of funds to cook the midday meal but the problem in schools with lesser number of children was more acute, said sources.

The government had earlier planned to provide gas stoves and LPG cylinders to schools to cook the meal but the same was shelved after the alleged scam in purchase of these things was reported at several places.

No senior official was available for comments.

Fatehabad, March 3
The All-India Kisan Sabha today organised demonstration in front of the mini-secretariat demanding activation of debt conciliation boards set up by the government last year.

The sabha also demanded compensation for farmers whose crops were damaged by frost, the purchase of farmers’ produce by government agencies alone and crop insurance by taking 1 acre as a unit.

Sabha activists, Krishan Swaroop Gorakhpuria, Ram Swaroop Dhani Gopal and Rajesh Mahiya, addressed the sabha workers.

They alleged that the government had been deliberately ignoring the organisation of meetings of the debt conciliation boards, although one year had passed since their constitution.

The sabha submitted a memorandum to the additional deputy commissioner.

SIRSA: Activists of the All-India Kisan Sabha on Monday organised demonstrations at Ellenabad and Nathusari Chopta in the district in favour of their demand of activation of debt conciliation boards.

Later, they submitted a memorandum to the SDM Ellenabad and the tehsildar.

SONEPAT: A large number of activists, including farmers, under the banner of the Haryana Kisan Sabha on Monday staged a dharna at the mint-secretariat here in support of their demands.

Led by state vice-president of the sabha S.N. Solanki, they handed over a memorandum to the additional deputy commissioner, which was addressed to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for acceptance of their demands.

Solanki said their demands included regular meeting of the district debt conciliation boards, interest on loans to farmers be reduced to 4 per cent and compensation to farmers for frost-hit crops.

He said the sabha would stage a protest at Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Chandigarh, on March 12.

Faridabad, March 3
A local court today framed charges against the parliamentary secretary of Haryana Vidhan Sabha and Congress MLA from Ballabgarh, Sharda Rathore, and nine others in connection with a mass violent agitation on July 9, 2001.

Rathore, after the court’s proceedings, stated that the agitation was of political nature and was part of political struggle against the then INLD government.

The matter was taken to the court by the then government. The Congress government would withdraw the case considering the fact that the case was of political nature, she added.

The charges, which were framed against the accused, included blocking the highway, manhandling government employees and obstructing them in discharging their official duties.

A large number of people from Ballabgarh took part in the agitation, in which the NH-2 in Ballabgarh was blocked for about 10 hours. The agitators had allegedly staged a violent demonstration outside the office of the local unit of the electricity department and manhandled employees.

The agitation was one of the biggest in the political history of not only of Ballabgarh, but the entire Faridabad district.

The agitation was against the electricity department, which had forcibly replaced the manual electric meters with electronic ones. The public had protested against the government’s move to replace the old meters.

Chandigarh, March 3
Haryana’s former finance minister, Prof Sampat Singh, is not at all impressed with the Rs 60,000 crore debt-relief package announced in the budget speech by finance minister P. Chidambaram. He believes that the “much-publicised propaganda budget” presents inflated figures and is not based on any survey or facts.

Addressing a press conference at the Indian National Lok Dal office in Sector 3 here, Sampat Singh said the figures of “overdue” loans had not been collected from any bank and the speech made no clear mention of the number of beneficiaries and what amount was involved.

“Also, they have projected the Indian farmer in very poor light and made him merely an object of pity by portraying him like a beggar. It is this farmer who has made India self-reliant. His contribution cannot be overlooked,” he said.

Maintaining that the finance minister had failed to specify if this waiver was for crops, agriculture or agriculture and allied activities, Sampat Singh said it was still unclear whether it was meant for short, medium or long-term loans.

“From the publicity this relief package is getting, an ordinary farmer thinks his loan has been written off whereas that is not the case.

The finance minister has used ‘overdue’ as a magic word, implying thereby that only the amount overdue to the bank has been waived and not the entire loan. This means that the default amount of the loan, which should have reached the bank, will not have to be paid now,” he stated.

This, he remarked, totalled only 10 per cent of the loan amount which should have been in the bank. “The recovery of loans by banks is nearly 89-90 per cent. So, the government is only paying that remaining 10 per cent which comes to a negligible amount.

Farmers took a loan of Rs 16,834 crore from all banks before the last financial year ended. On December 31 last year, the due amount was Rs 4474.99 crore of which 90 per cent was recovered.

According to the announcement, the government will only pay the remaining Rs 448 crore which is overdue. If the FM brings in the non-performing assets, the total waiver will come down to merely Rs 12 crore,” he explained.

He suggested the adoption of Dr Swaminathan’s report on agriculture in toto to really benefit the farmer.

Chandigarh, March 3
The Haryana State Election Commission has released the programme for holding byelections to the municipal committee, Cheeka and Hodal, and the municipal council, Karnal.

The commission has decided to use EVMs in the byelections.The date on which the notice will be published by the returning officer for inviting nominations is March 7. Nomination papers will have to be presented between March 14 and March 18.

The nomination papers will be scrutinised on March 19 and the last date for the withdrawal of candidature will be March 20.

Symbols will be allotted to the contesting candidates on March 20. The list of contesting candidates will be posted on March 20. Polling will be held on March 30.The votes polled will be counted immediately after the polling closes, at the polling station itself. The election results will be declared immediately.

The model code of conduct in respect of the byelections will come into force from March 3.

Rohtak, March 3
MD/MS/MDS/PG diploma candidates alleging irregularities in the entrance examination for these courses today got a shot in the arm with senior medical functionaries backing their cause.

An emergency general body meeting of the Haryana State Medical Teachers Association (HSMTA) was held to discuss the issue here.

After the meeting, the association demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter and added that that further implementation of the results of the said exam should be kept in abeyance while the probe was in progress.

“From the facts brought to our knowledge by the affected candidates, it seems there is sufficient evidence indicating alleged irregularities in the said exam,” said Prof R.S.Dahiya, president of the HSMTA, in a statement released after the meeting.

“In view of the seriousness, sensitivity and gravity of the matter, the association strongly demands that an independent and impartial inquiry by the CBI be conducted into the matter to bring the facts to light,” the statement maintained.

Apart from the HSMTA, the HCMS doctors’ association as well as the Residents Doctors Association (RDA) of the PGIMS here have also supported the stir of the affected PG aspirants.

The RDA has even given an ultimatum till March 7 to the state government, following which its members have threatened to go on strike.

Meanwhile, the core committee of the agitating present and former MBBS students, under the banner of Doctors for Justice, today told a news conference that medical students from all over the state would stage a protest at the local residence of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in case their demand was not met.

Jind, March 3
Lack of adequate health and medical facilities in the rural areas has resulted in rampant growth of quacks. This was visible in a special raid conducted by officials of the Health Department in some parts of the district today.

Majority of quacks managed to give a slip to the team. However, the team was able to detect a private hospital run by a doctor whose credentials have been found to be doubtful.

The team seized a large number of drugs and papers from the hospital located in Nagura village of the district. It is claimed that the doctor who was operating from here had been a quack and an investigation had been launched to establish it officially.

The deputy CMO visited several places to nab the quacks, but it is reported that except one place, the team found the suspected premises locked and doctors operating these unavailable.

The matter had also surfaced in the meeting of the District Grievances and Redressal Committee meeting a couple of months back, in which a case of an eight-year-old boy getting harmful reaction after being treated by one of the quacks in Dheola village about two and a half months ago.

It is reported that one of the lower limb of the boy became weak and was affected with polio like symptoms after he was given an injection for fever. The team found that the hospital raided today had been in possession of several super specialty drugs prescribed normally by highly qualified physicians. The doctor in question could not produce proper documents.

Panipat, March 3
Scores of patients at the Bhim Sain Sachhar Civil Hospital remained “victims” of celebrations of a hospital staff member throughout the day as the hospital authorities seem to have allowed turning the silence zone into a “marriage palace”.

In continuation of the highly objectionable practice, a class IV employee of the hospital today played loud music at the staff colony, adjoining the emergency ward, to solemnise a marriage in the family.

Interestingly, the authorities acted only after The Tribune questioned the authorisation of the function in the silence zone.

Expressing shock over the incident, deputy commissioner Mahender Kumar said he would look into the matter. He also directed the SDM to enquire how playing of loud music was permitted on the hospital premises.

The patients and hospital staff criticised the authorities for “allowing” the use of premises for private functions. A senior doctor said the ongoing trend was highly objectionable and the authorities should take steps to check it. The hospital staff said stern action should be taken against those creating nuisance on the hospital premises.

Inquiries revealed that the work of putting up shamianas outside the emergency ward of the hospital began last night but the authorities failed to take notice of it.

Earlier, The Tribune had highlighted the plight of patients after they had to spend a sleepless night as a marriage function was held adjacent to the emergency ward of the same hospital. Meanwhile, CMO Suresh Goel regretted the incident and assured that in future no such programme would be allowed on the premises.