Jhajjar, October 24
It may sound unbelievable, but it is true. During the past 12 years, the Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) administration awarded lakhs of degrees of various distance education courses which were not recognised by the Distance Education Council (DEC), which is the central body for upholding standards and providing recognition to distance education programmes.

This revelation came to light when several alumni of the MDU approached university officers after being sacked by their employers. These persons had joined service with various professional and educational groups, but they were later sacked as their degrees were found unrecognised.

The university officials were also surprised to hear the allegations of the sacked employees. The sacked MDU alumni told the university officials that their employers had sought information regarding the recognition of their degrees under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. In response to this, it was disclosed that the distance education courses run by the university were not recognised.

According to information, the MDU administration had started distance education programmes in 1988 and there was no need of getting recognition from any authority at that time. However, in 1995 the DEC was established by the government in order to coordinate and maintain the standards of distance education in the country.

Thereafter, the recognition of the DEC for all distance education courses was made compulsory for all universities, but the MDU administration did not pay any heed to get its distance education programmes recognised for years. During that period, the MDU gradually started several new courses without getting recognition from the DEC.

The sources said the MDU administration initiated the process of getting its distance education programmes recognised only after reports of the university’s alumni being sacked from their jobs due to unrecognised degrees were received.

After 13 years of enforcement of the rule of getting distance education courses recognised, the MDU administration ultimately succeeded in getting its courses recognised from the DEC recently.

According to an official letter No. DEC/MDU/RTK/HAR/2008/ VOL-II, the DEC has accorded post facto approval to the MDU for programmes offered through distance mode with effect from March 1 to the academic year 2006-07 on the recommendation of a DEC expert committee. The letter also maintained that it was the responsibility of the university to follow the norms prescribed by the regulatory bodies concerned or seek their recognition for professional/ technical programmes as per the requirements. Getting approval of the statutory apex body concerned for relevant programmes would be the sole responsibility of the university.

The following are the distance education courses which have got post facto approval from the DEC: BA, BCom, BBA, BLib, BCA, BEd, MA (Hindi, English, history, economics, Sanskrit, public administration and political science), MCom, MSc (math), MSc (com science), MEd, LLM, Master’s degree in global business management, MCA, MBA, MLib, PG diploma in labour laws, labour welfare and personnel management, APGDCA, APGDIT and prabhakar.

Faridabad, October 24
The Congress in the state prefers to continue with its wait and watch policy while its opponents are in the midst of giving shape to their electoral strategy for the coming parliamentary elections.

According to sources, the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) would field former Chief Minister and its stalwart Bhajan Lal as its nominee for the Karnal parliamentary seat.

Though the party had given a thought to some other parliamentary seats for its stalwart, but it appeared to have identified Karnal on the basis of its calculation that two members from the Brahmin caste will be in the fray, as both the Congress and the BJP-INLD will field members from the Brahmin caste as their nominees.

Although the party leaders are not ready to talk much on the issue, senior leaders of the organisation said there were about two and a half lakh votes of Punjabis and over 80,000 votes of Brahmins in Karnal. Moreover, Bhajan Lal had already represented the constituency in the past.

The HJC (BL) appears to be all set to field its president Kuldeep Bishnoi from the Hisar parliamentary constituency. Besides, the party is nursing high hopes in Gurgaon and Bhiwani.

However, at present, the party is galvanising support for its December 2 rally in Bhiwani.

Sources said as the INLD had already forged an alliance with the BJP and the BSP leadership was playing hard to get, a majority of the members of the working committee of the HJC (BL) at a meeting recently in the national capital made out a strong case for the organisation to go all alone in the election.

Meanwhile, the BJP-INLD is also making efforts to make the November 1 Sonepat rally a success. The rally will be addressed by BJP’s Prime Minister designate L.K. Advani and party president Rajnath Singh.

Sources said the BJP-INLD would fine-tune their joint strategy for the coming parliamentary elections only after the rally.

On the other hand, the Congress leaders appear to be smug. A senior leader of the Congress said it was for the others to get their acts together after they were rejected by the people in the past. According to him, the party’s USP in Haryana was the developmental works done by the Congress government in the state. Also, the party was banking on the “decent” image of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Chandigarh, October 24
Doctors, if you are employed in government hospitals in Haryana, but remain absent from your place of posting, better watch. A group of four big sisters is keeping a watch on you.

This was the indication available at a joint press conference addressed by health minister Kartar Devi; parliamentary secretary, health, Krishna Pandit; secretary, health, Anuradha Gupta; and director-general, health services, Dr Avinash Sharma here today.

They said a mechanism had been put in place to improve the performance of the doctors as well as to make them accountable to their patients and the department. Now, periodic patient audit would be conducted to find out how many patients a doctor attended in the outdoor department, how many patients were treated as indoor patients, how many surgeries were conducted and so on.

They said about 800 doctors would be recruited by mid-December as part of the “continuous and ongoing recruitment process” by a departmental committee.

Gupta said 620 posts of doctor, including 500 posts of specialists in various fields, were advertised, against which 1,700 applications had been received. Even for the post of a specialist, over 700 applications had been received.

The department had also decided to take effective steps to minimise the expenditure a patient had to incur from while getting indoor treatment. It had also decided to bear all expenses for the treatment of haemophilia children as well as their education up to Class 10 in government schools.

To attract doctors to public service, the government had approved in principal a hike in their pay scales besides granting them 25 per cent of the basic pay as the non-practicing allowance (NPA). Doctors with postgraduate degree would be given six advance increments and diploma holders would get four advance increments.

To strengthen the health services in rural and difficult areas, the department planned to give special incentives to doctors under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Doctors with MBBS qualification serving in rural primary health centres (PHC) and community health centres (CHCs) would get a monthly incentive of Rs 5,000. Those posted in Morni and Mewat would receive a monthly incentive of Rs 10,000. Doctors with diploma or postgraduate qualification posted in rural CHCs would get a monthly incentive of Rs 15,000. Doctors with diploma or postgraduate qualification would get a monthly incentive of Rs 25,000 if posted in Mewat and Morni.

Besides doctors, the strength of paramedical staff had also been increased, as a result of which the state would soon have one of the best doctor-nurse ratio in the country.

The government had decided that all new constructions would be as per the Indian Public Health Standards. For the development of health infrastructure in urban areas, HUDA had been asked to construct polyclinics for every three to four sectors in place of dispensaries in each sector of urban estates being developed by it. HUDA had agreed to share the construction cost of additional wings of 100-bedded general hospitals in Jind and Ambala Cantt. It had also agreed to provide land and construct a 50-bedded hospital at Nuh in Mewat.

To save the patients from being fleeced, civil surgeons would immediately put in place standardised cost packages in respect of each type of indoor treatment given in the government hospitals. The package would give details of the required articles and medicines along with their suggested cost.

Panipat, October 24
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here today said the state government had decided to increase the number of seats in engineering institutions of the state to 1 lakh. The number of seats had already been increased up to 80,000 from 23,000 three years ago, he added.

The Chief Minister was addressing a convocation function of the local Arya College. He claimed that the Indian youth had established themselves in the world on the basis of their education. The state government had accorded priority to provide quality education to the youth of the state and this year was being observed as the education year, he said.

He said Haryana had become one of the leading states in the country to promote education. The government had been spending over Rs 585 crore to extend various educational benefits, including scholarships, to students of primary level. Besides opening a science and technology university in Murthal and a women university in Khanpur Kalan, the government had initiated the process of setting up of Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Rai, in which 25 per cent of the seats would be reserved for residents of Haryana, he said.

The CM said 5 per cent students from the state would get full fee concession, 10 per cent would get 50 per cent concession and 5 per cent more would be given fee concession of 25 per cent.

The CM also distributed prizes among the outstanding students of the college. He inaugurated a Yagyashala and Lala Jai Bhagwan Dass Bhawan Dass Bhawan on the college campus. He announced a grant of Rs 21 lakh for the construction of an auditorium in the college.

Earlier, the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of an old age home in Sector 12.

Karnal, October 24
Panic gripped Jarnail Colony here today after a bomb-like object was spotted by an electrician while he was installing lights atop the roof of a private hospital.

The electrician, Jasbir Singh, said the object, weighing about 500 gm, was fixed with a watch using a red tape and was lying on a water tank. Suspecting it to be a bomb, he threw it on to the adjacent open ground.

He immediately informed Dr Praveen Garg, owner of the hospital, who reported the matter to the police.

The incident was reported around 3.20 pm. However, the police, a bomb disposal squad and a dog squad, reached after one hour. A large number of people had gathered near the spot by then.

When the object was opened, it was found that it was not a bomb but a stone and someone had played mischief to create a scare. The police confirmed that it was not a bomb, adding that it would try to find out as to who played the mischief. 

Fatehabad, October 24
A clerk of the municipal committee, Barwala, has been found to be the chief architect of the murder of Vijay Sharma, the slain secretary of the committee.

Sharma was shot dead by some unidentified assailants near the local Ambedkar Chowk while he was going towards his residence on foot after returning from Barwala on October 3. The police recovered a motorcycle from near the place where Sharma was shot dead.

The police today arrested Mohinder, a clerk in the municipal committee, claiming that he is the mastermind behind the murder.

The police, that had been working on various theories, including the possible involvement of some local residents whose property had been demolished during a demolition drive carried out by Sharma, stumbled upon Mohinder after it learnt that he had recently drawn a sum of Rs 2.60 lakh from the municipal committee on the basis of bogus bills and the slain secretary had been pressuring him to deposit the money back in the office account.

“We used the latest information and technology to reach to the bottom of the case and were successful in nailing Mohinder on the basis of some concrete evidence gathered during the investigation,” SP Saurabh Singh told The Tribune.

Mohinder has told the police that Vijay Sharma had threatened him that he would report the matter to the police in case he did not deposit the money immediately.

The accused has revealed to the police that as he did not have the money to return, he consulted his cousin Jai Singh, a Jind resident, who promised to get rid of Sharma with the help of a friend Wazir, also from Jind.

“On the fateful day, Jai Singh and Wazir came to Barwala and as soon as Vijay Sharma left for Fatehabad in a bus, they followed him on a motorcycle and a car. Sharma disembarked from the bus and caught a jeep at Barwala, but the accused could not find an opportunity to kill him due to rush of people.

They followed the jeep to Fatehabad and then Jai Singh and Wazir accosted Sharma near Ambedkar Park where Jai Singh shot him from point-blank range, killing him on the spot.

Yamunanagar, October 24
The police today booked 24 persons for allegedly committing a fraud worth several lakhs with the State Bank of Patiala by submitting fake documents to get car loans.

The case was registered under Sections 406, 420 and 120-B of the IPC against them following a complaint by B.R. Gupta, branch manager of the bank here.

Police sources said after conducting an inquiry, bank officials found that 24 persons, including the proprietor of Kanav Moters, had hatched a conspiracy and obtained loans from the bank by submitting fake address and other documents.

“The fraud was detected after the persons failed to repay the loans and on inquiry it was found that the addresses submitted by them were fake,” said SHO of the city police station Piara Singh here.