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Cabinet Reshuffle
Chandigarh, June 5 At that time some had thought that Hooda was adopting the proverbial stick and carrot policy before the crucial
byelections. By promising the reshuffle, the Chief Minister was dangling a carrot before the MLAs hopeful of getting a ministerial berth to work for the party in all sincerity, while issuing a veiled threat to those in the Cabinet not to take their position for granted. But, when after the Congress victory in two of the three byelections, Hooda reiterated his intention to reshuffle the Cabinet, it was felt that he is keen to give a new look to his Cabinet, many members of which were either absent from the campaign or, at the best, were lukewarm. The question being hotly debated in the corridors of
power is the future of Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan, who has been caught
between the loyalty to the party which made him number two in the Cabinet and to his father Bhajan Lal and brother Kuldeep Bishnoi, who have launched their own party to take on the Congress and Hooda. On one hand Chander Mohan did not quit the Congress to join hands with Bhajan Lal and Bishnoi, on the other he assiduously avoided campaigning in the three Assembly constituencies, Adampur, Indri and
Gohana. While one can understand his absence from Adampur from where his father was contesting, it will be difficult for him to defend his non-participation in the campaigning for the Congress in Indri and
Gohana. For record sake, he is not in India. But he did not put up even a token presence in the two constituencies before he flew out of the country three days before the electioneering came to an end. Many in the Congress feel despite all protestation to the contrary, Chander Mohan’s sympathies are with Bishnoi’s political outfit, Haryana Janhit Congress (BL). Under these circumstances, it would not be political prudent to keep him in the Cabinet, particularly when the Lok Sabha elections are less than a year away. These Congressmen paint a scenario of his possible defection to the HJC on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections, which would cause embarrassment to the Congress. To avoid such a possibility, these Congressmen say, Chander Mohan should be dropped when Hooda reshuffles his Cabinet. However, there is another view. According to this school of thought, since Chander Mohan has done nothing on record, which can be construed as his support to the HJC, directly or indirectly, any action against him at this stage will be seen as injustice towards a “loyal” party man. According to a third view, Chander Mohan should be stripped of the tag of deputy chief minister, which was given to him by the Congress high command to placate a sulking Bhajan Lal after Hooda piped the septuagenarian leader to the post of
the Chief Minister. In any case, a decision on Chander Mohan will be taken by Hooda only after taking clearance from the high command. Though it is a Chief Minister’s prerogative to reshuffle his Cabinet, a Congress Chief Minister’s prerogative has limitations.
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Admission row: MDU’s image takes a beating
Rohtak, June 5 The matter has further eroded the credibility of the university, which has remained in the news mostly for wrong reasons. It all began when the MDU conducted the entrance test for MD/MS/PG diploma courses on February 24. The declaration of results of the entrance examination caused a furore. Many candidates, who had appeared in the test, alleged that the test papers were leaked to certain candidates. These students, including the present and former students of the local PGIMS, launched a series of protests over the matter. The issue assumed serious proportions with students openly alleging that certain university officials had “sold” the paper to some candidates. There were allegations of huge cash transactions having taken place as part of the shady “deals”. In the beginning, the MDU authorities refuted the allegations and maintained that the entrance test had been conducted in a fair manner. However, the students continued their agitation and their protest was fully backed by the media. Eventually, the MDU administration was forced to constitute a fact-finding inquiry committee to look into the allegations. The committee, which comprised senior faculty members of the MDU as well as the PGIMS, expressed doubts over the emergence of a particular trend in the answers of certain candidates and test results and demanded probe by competent authorities. Following this, the matter was handed over to the Haryana Vigilance Bureau. Meanwhile, several affected candidates moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which directed the bureau to expedite the investigations and submit its report. They indicted two MDU officials and an intern at the local PGIMS, besides more than a dozen successful candidates. The then controller of examinations at MDU, Sukhbir Singh, was among those indicted by the bureau. He was later shifted to some other department. Meanwhile, the state authorities authorised the local PGIMS to conduct a fresh entrance test, which was held on May 25. The results of re-examination vindicated the stance of protesting students.
Eight candidates who cleared the entrance test did not appear in the re-test conducted by the PGIMS. Others who appeared in the test failed to obtain good scores. Vigilance officials, who were perhaps waiting for the result of the fresh test, registered an FIR against indicted persons soon after the re-test result was declared. While the key university officials have been booked and investigations are on, the MDU has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the pre-medical test (PMT). In view of the given circumstances, the MDU authorities now face a challenging task of conducting the PMT in a fair and smooth manner. Whether the MDU authorities are able to restore the trust of the people, especially of the wannabe medicos and their parents, in the university and examination system remains to be seen.
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Fatehabad lacks good educational facilities
Fatehabad, June 5 He shifted with his family to
Hisar. Both Kataria and Batra are progressive farmers who could afford to make a second home for the sake of their children. But there are people who cannot afford this luxury. Their children have to be content with whatever education is available in this educationally backward district. "I feel bad when I look at my daughter who is in the ninth class now. She has been scoring over 90 per cent in her examinations and aspires to become a doctor. But due to my profession, I cannot think of leaving this town at this age. I cannot leave her alone at an alien town too," rues K. C. Mehta, a leading advocate. The recent announcement by the local Manohar Memorial (MM) College regarding the starting of some new courses and classes has been well-received by the local people. It may sound strange but it is true that till the local college got permission to start MA (English), M. Com, B Sc in medical, non-medical, biotechnology and computer streams, besides some courses like fashion designing and functional English from the coming season, there was no provision of teaching these subjects in this district. D. K. Kaushik, principal of the local M M College, says that the college authorities have received permission for these courses and admission would start from the coming session. Though the announcement has come as a relief for the district starved of good education facilities, this is far from enough. Even today, there is hardly any provision of teaching science at the senior secondary level in the district. People, who want to prepare their children for competitive examinations, find it difficult to trust government schools for obvious reasons. The condition of private schools is no better. Barring a few exceptions, most of the private schools affiliated to the CBSE, have been admitting students at the senior secondary level as proxy students, who actually get education in Chandigarh, Delhi or some other cities. Those who can afford have employed private tutors.
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Inside Babudom
Chandigarh, June 5 First, history was created when an IAS officer, who had been superannuated by the state government on the advice of the Union government, not only attended the office but also disposed off certain files after his retirement. Director, Industries,
D.R. Dhingra, who reached the age of superannuation on May 31, represented to the government that his date of birth in the official record was wrong and it should have been May 6, 1952, instead of May 6, 1948. He submitted several documents, including the corrected matriculation certificate issued by Panjab University, in support of his contention. However, the Union government turned down his plea on May 27. Subsequently, the state government issued his retirement orders. However, Dhingra attended the office on June 4 after the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) stayed the union government's order rejecting his plea for correction of his date of birth on June 3. The state government later asked him not to attend the office till it is able to seek the advice of the Union government on the CAT order. Another incident relates to an officer who went on foreign training but never reached there, and has now returned back to occupy his old post after several weeks (of being missing or absent, only he can
tell). As far as the government is concerned, Harbaksh Singh, secretary, archeology and museums, went on a foreign training a few weeks ago. The charge of his post was given to another officer. A few days ago, Harbaksh Singh, an
MBBS, suddenly joined duty though his training period is still not complete. The chief secretary is yet to ask him, and he is yet to inform his superiors what he was during all these weeks. Harbaksh Singh, who occupied the high-profile post of managing director of the Haryana State Industries Development Corporation
(HSIDC) for the major part of the tenure of Om Prakash Chautala as Chief Minister, has often found himself on the wrong side of the Congress government. Earlier, he was placed under suspension for not attending an important meeting convened by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh
Hooda. However, he was reinstated within a few days after he apologised to Hooda and told him that he could not attend the meeting because he was attending to his niece who was suffering from cancer. His colleagues say the brilliant officer does not find his present assignments engrossing enough to hold his interest, particularly after being the MD of the HSIDC for so many years. The others, however, find more than a grain of truth in what Chautala says: "Under the Congress government, the bureaucracy has become fearless." Meanwhile, the post of home secretary of Chandigarh seems to have been caught in a caste conflict between the scheduled castes and the backward classes. A Dalit organisation has now written to the Union government opposing the posting of Ram
Niwas, who belongs to a backward class, as the home secretary of Chandigarh, though his name has been recommended by the Union Territory Administrator and cleared by the ministry of home affairs.
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Neem your way to bank
Chandigarh, June 5 Given the large number of neem trees growing in the district, the Mewat Development Agency (MDA) has decided to market its much-in-demand fruit to pharma companies in lieu of monetary gains. The MDA officials are visiting villages to encourage the residents to gather fruits from the trees and sell it to them at Rs 400 per quintal. The idea is not only to engage them lucratively, but also to put an end to the wastage of the neem fruit which is in great demand. “Since the time I joined as the chief executive officer of the MDA a couple of months back, I have visited nearly 70 villages. The large number of neem trees and its fruit strewn on village roads was the most striking feature in the villages. After some spade work, we found that there was a market for neem fruit which was growing in plenty but going waste,” says the CEO, MDA, Attar Singh Ahlawat. This prompted him to draft a scheme wherein the trees could become a source of income for the villagers. The MDA got in touch with various agencies like the National Dairy and Development Production Board and buyers from Haryana and Uttrakhand to work out the sale and purchase programme. In its appeal to the villagers, the MDA has asked them to collect the fruit from anywhere they want to and inform it of the same. The agency will procure the fruit from the village and transport it to the buyer. The villagers will be given their payment before the fruit is collected. “We are tying up with the agencies and the buyers directly and are in the process of framing a policy for the same. We will pass on this fruit at Rs 450 per quintal, charging Rs 50 as transportation and project management cost. The villagers will only have to collect the fruit. We will take over the payment disbursal, procurement and marketing after that,” he said, optimistic about the project which will be launched on an experimental basis. Maintaining that the salinity of water in the Mewat belt is conducive for the growth of neem trees, the CEO added this project could serve as incentive for plantation of more trees which would favourably impact the district’s ecology.
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Teachers to be spared from mid-day meal duty
Yamunanagar, June 5 This job will now be handed over to Sakshar Mahila Samuh (SMS) or self-help groups formed out of SMS. As of now, school head teachers are responsible for mid-day meal, right from buying grocery, cooking and serving.
Cooks have been provided at the school. The decision to free teachers from the duty is significant, as a teacher has to spend a good amount of his or her each day during the school time on mid-day meal. Besides, there had been numerous complaints of irregularities in the mid-day meal scheme, including sub- standard grocery, its shortage and wastage. The idea behind involving SMS is not only to improve the quality of the meal and check wastage of food material, but to improve the academics also. “The duty of teachers will now be only teaching and looking after the other school affairs,” said additional deputy commissioner and chairman of the district, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Narinder Singh. He said SMSs were being identified and they would be given the responsibility of mid-day meals once the schools re-open after summer vacation. On an average, Rs 2.25 lakh are spent each day in the district on mid-day meal. Women, after being associated with the mid-day meal, will also be able to enhance their income. The cooks are paid Rs 1,000 a month. The administration is also in the process of clubbing cooking of meal of schools and anganwaris wherever it is feasible. This will save on fuel. In several cases, children were asked to bring cattle dung cakes and fire wood on their own so that the school hearth could be made functional. Efforts were also on to provide schools with LPG cylinders and stoves.
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IOC’s Panipat refinery in for major expansion
Panipat, June 5 The commissioning of some major projects is likely to convert the Panipat refinery into an advanced refinery of the nation. The IOC is implementing projects worth Rs 50,000 crore at its major refineries located at various places in the country. The Panipat refinery has bagged a deserving share of projects approved by the corporation.
The IOC is augmenting the refinery capacity from 12 to 15 million metric tonnes per annum or
MMTPA. This would enable the refinery to produce more petrochemical products, thus adding to the profits of the corporation. The capacity was augmented to 12 MMTPA in June 2006 at a cost of Rs. 4,165 crore. The second expansion of capacity is expected to cost over Rs 5,000 crore. Another quality improvement project has been approved for the Panipat refinery that would ensure better quality of petrochemical projects. Besides, work on the much talked about naphtha cracker project is also in full swing and is likely to be completed by next year with a cost of Rs 12,000 crore. This would produce raw material for polymers. The much awaited gas pipeline from Panipat to Jalandhar has almost been completed with the pipeline reaching Suchi Pind in Jalandhar, where it has a bottling plant. This project would not only reduce the transportation charges but also the risk involved in transporting LPG through other means. The pipeline has been laid over 275 km and a cost of Rs 185 crore was incurred on it. Besides, a 130 km long pipeline is also being laid from Dadri to Panipat which would be the first gas pipeline of corporation in this area. The corporation sources said with the commissioning of the said projects, Panipat refinery would be in a position to meet international standards.
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Economics made easy
Chandigarh, June 5 A large number of students find it difficult to relate with statistics and diagrams.
To overcome this challenge, a Panchkula-based teacher couple, Sanjeev Sahrawat and Preet Bal, have taken up the use of multimedia presentations to unfold the basics of economics to the students in such a manner that it ensures concept clarity and life-long learning. Sanjeev, a Masters in economics as well as a law graduate, says it is very important to have multi-sensory learning as it increases the span of attention of the child as well as ensures optimum concept clarity. The step-by-step unfolding of the subject matter of economics, especially the tables and diagrams, helps the students in learning more effectively and increases their retention of the content. Preet Bal, who is also a Masters in economics and Masters in education with specialisation in guidance and counselling, says the aim of teaching is to help each child attain his best. The presentation not only creates an everlasting memory in the minds of the pupils, it also gives them exposure to a technology which has entered almost every profession and thus prepares them well in advance for the coveted B-schools. The use of technology in teaching economics yielded good results this year when 41 students of the Sahrawats secured above 90 per cent marks, with 28 students getting over 95 per cent marks in the CBSE XII examination this year. Five students scored 98 out of 100 marks, the highest score in economics this year.
The Sahrawats are not obsessed with technology alone. They are not oblivious of their social responsibilities also. Every year they take at least 5 per cent of their students on the merit-cum-need basis to ensure that no child should be deprived of quality education just for the lack of financial resources.
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Citizens’ Grievances
I am an employee of DAV Public School, Kakrala, Samana. I had applied for the transfer of my pension fund from Karnal to Chandigarh on August 22, 2007, vide letter number HR/KL/5945/13/6284/Account Sec 3.
I was sent NSSN form number 20000498894 which was filled by me and sent to the employee provident office, Karnal in the first week of September 2007. The money has not been transferred till date. My new account number is 20309/161. Ashwani Kumar,
Karnal Duped by Maruti dealer
I bought a Zen Estilo VXi 2008 model from Karnal Motors at Kurukshetra on March 28. It was found later on that I was given a model of September, 2007. I believe if a model of previous year is being sold to the customer, it is brought to the knowledge of the customer and his/her consent is taken. I asked the head office on April 5, 2008, to take the necessary action and replace the car (tracking number: HT20080405-0000001188). Despite my repeated requests, the agency failed to get back to me. In fact, I tried contacting people at the Maruti headquarters too. I am surprised at the callous and indifferent attitude adopted by the company as no action has been taken till date. Indra
Handa, Kurukshetra Readers, write in Send in write-ups, not exceeding 200 words, to Haryana Plus, The Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh. E-mail:
adalat@tribunemail.com.
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Movie of the week
RGV’s keenly awaited film ‘Sarkar Raj’ will see a release today at Liberty-Rohtak, Everest-Rewari, Sun City-Hissar, Fun-Cinema-Ambala City, Fun Cinema-Panipat, DTCC-Gurgaon, SRS Omaxe-Gurgaon, DTMM-Gurgaon, PVR MGF-Gurgaon, PVR Europa-Gurgaon, PVR Sahara-Gurgaon, PVR Mall-Gurgaon, PVR Crown Plaza-Faridabad, SRS Shubham Mall-Faridabad, SRS Multiplex-Faridabad, SRS Pristine Mall-Faridabad, INOX-Faridabad, Pyramid Saimira-Faridabad, Movie time City Mall-Faridabad. Special Attraction:
High political drama, background score and Ram Gopal Varma’s direction. — Dharam Pal
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