Karnal, January 17
The University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman, Prof Sukhadeo Thorat, today expressed concern over the fact that only 140 of the 431 universities were accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and 58 per cent of the posts of teacher were lying vacant in state universities.

Addressing the seventh convocation of the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), a deemed university, here, he said the situation was distressing as these state universities accounted for 90 per cent of the enrolment of students in higher education.

Emphasising the need for quality education and increasing enrolment in the higher education sector, Thorat exhorted the universities to strive for NAAC accreditation and take steps for increasing the enrolment to 22 per cent in the 12th Plan.

He said it was a disturbing scenario that in spite of the fact that the number of universities had increased from 20 to 431 during the period 1950-2008, the number of colleges had multiplied from 500 to 20,677, the strength of teachers had increased from 15,000 to 5.05 lakh and the enrolment of students went up from 1 lakh to 116.12 lakh, the gross enrolment index was only 13 per cent compared to a world average of 22 per cent.

At present, the enrolment was 13 per cent, which would go up to 15 per cent during the 11th Plan while a target to achieve 22 per enrolment had been fixed for the 12th Plan period, he added.

Maintaining that higher education received a boost during the 11th Plan, the UGC Chairman said 30 new central universities, 30 medical and engineering colleges, eight IITs, 20 NITs and seven IIMs were proposed to be opened during the plan period.

Presiding over the convocation, Dr Mangala Rai, Union Agriculture Research and Education Secretary and Director-General, Indian Council of Agriculture Research, highlighted the outcome of the green, white and blue revolutions, which made India self-sufficient in food.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr AK Srivastava, Director of the NDRI, said 408 students, who had completed the Bachelor of Technology (Dairy Technology), the Master’s degree in Dairying and the Doctor of Philosophy during 2005-08 were conferred degrees at the convocation. These included 79 girls and 14 foreign students (seven for PhD and seven for Master’s degree) and 12 Gold Medal/Director’s Medal winners.

Karnal, January 17
The University Grants Commission Chairman, Prof Sukhadeo Thorat, today made a strong plea to the states to implement the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and said there should be no hitch in granting revised scales to university and college teachers when the Union government had already agreed to bear 80 per cent of the burden. In fact, the onus of implementing the revised pay scales was on the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, he added.

When his attention was drawn to the fact that several states had not raised the retiring age of teachers even to 62, recommended by the last pay commission, whereas the retiring age recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission was 65 years, Thorat said the ministry had been apprised of this.

Sharing concern over a spurt in new BEd colleges in the past few years, Thorat said though it was not within the domain of the UGC, there should be no compromise on the quality of teachers’ education.

Disapproving of contract appointments in colleges and universities, the UGC Chairman said the universities and colleges should appoint regular teachers and pay them as per the UGC guidelines.

The contract appointments should be made in extreme cases, that too for a short period, he asserted.

The UGC Chairman also ruled out the appointment of regulators to oversee the functioning of educational institutions and said regulatory bodies like the UGC, the National Council for Teacher Education and the All India Council for Technical Education already existed to perform these functions.

Sirsa, January 17
The impact of global meltdown on print and electronic media and the role of electronic media during the live telecast of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks were deliberated at length during the national executive meeting of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) held in Surkhab Complex here today.

Inaugurating the two-day meeting, Haryana Governor AR Kidwai said media could play a constructive role in discouraging forces that aim to reap vested benefits by propagating casteism and religious bigotry.

He said the manner in which the economic growth was being witnessed despite the global slowdown, India was set to be among the developed nations by 2020 and one among the three top nations by 2045. He urged mediapersons to work with the added responsibility so that policies and issues that could take India forward could get better coverage.

Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh said a responsible media could play a vital role in bringing transparency in public life.

Industries Minister, Haryana, Lachhman Dass Arora said the present government had taken several steps for the welfare of journalists.

OSD to the Haryana Chief Minister KV Singh welcomed journalists to Sirsa town while media coordinator Sanjay Arora read a message of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in which he said the government had implemented a new media policy and awards had been announced for outstanding journalists.

President of the NUJ PK Roy said global meltdown had come as a new challenge before the media industry. He said questions had been raised over the live coverage of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks by electronic media, which was believed to have helped the perpetrators sitting outside the country.

President of the Haryana Union of Journalists Sanjay Rathi and district president Baljit Singh of the union were also present on the occasion.

The Governor later inaugurated the new mechanical block of Chaudhary Devi Lal Memorial Engineering College in Panniwala Mota in the district.

Vice-chancellor of Chaudhary Devi Lal University KC Bhardwaj, Deputy Commissioner SK Goyal and SP Subhash Yadav were also present on the occasion.

Gurgaon, January 17
Expressing concern over the number of accidents taking place on the expressway, Deputy Commissioner Deepti Umashankar has written to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to ensure the safety of road users.

The letter addressed to the project director of the NHAI stated that the district administration had observed that the rate of accidents on NH-8 had increased due to non-adherence to road safety measures. The letter stated that DS Construction Company had not been adhering to the concession agreement, in which it had been prescribed that safety and traffic management would be attended to satisfactorily to ensure the safety of road users throughout the concession period.

As per the concession agreement, the concessionaire shall operate and maintain the project highway during the concession period so as to permit safe, smooth and uninterrupted traffic during normal operating conditions.

Further, as per schedule W, slow-moving vehicles like scooters, motorcycles, cycles, rickshaws, animal and tractor-drawn vehicles are barred from plying on the main carriage way, but the concessionaire and the NHAI were unable to control those barred vehicles properly which are the major cause of accidents.

The Deputy Commissioner has also highlighted the duty of concessionaire under clause 18.1 (operation and maintenance) and schedule L in which he has to ensure safety of road users.

Hisar, January 17
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced that enhanced compensation would be given to policemen dying in terror attacks.

Speaking as the chief guest at the passing out parade of the Haryana police (telecom) constables here, he said in case of death of a policeman in a terror attack, the government would give Rs 10 lakh to next of kin instead of Rs 7.5 lakh given at present.

Likewise, he said in case of serious injury to policemen, the compensation had been enhanced to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 3.5 lakh.

Hooda said the Haryana police was being gradually modernised to tackle and control crime. A modern forensic science laboratory had been established in Madhuban where DNA tests would also be conducted.

He said the process for recruitment of 60,000 constables was on and would be completed soon. The figure included 1,000 women constables.

He said five police public schools were functioning in the state and three more were under construction in Bhondsi, Bhiwani and Panipat. The government had also sanctioned construction of 2,300 new houses for policemen.

Hooda gave away letters of appointment as DSPs to three sportsmen - boxers Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar and wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt. He announced the promotion of another boxer Dinesh Kumar from Sub-Inspector to Inspector General of Police.

Haryana DGP Ranjiv Dalal and DIG (CID) Rajbir Deshwal were also present at the function.

Karnal, January 17
Production of C fore wheat and rice is the only way to combat the impact of climate change, as transgenic culture in agriculture will be the order of the day in the near future.

This was stated by the secretary of the Department of Agriculture Research and Education and director-general of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), Dr Mangala Rai, here today.

He pointed out that Bill Gates had recently given $ 11 million for study and research in C fore-related crop production, as these crops absorb carbon dioxide for production.

Stressing the need for diversification of agro-based products, Dr Rai said time had come for India to start large-scale export of value-added products. “We have more than 1,000 products which can earn foreign exchange and this potential should be fully exploited,” he added.

Citing example of milk, he said Buffalo milk fetched revenue of Rs 20 per litre in domestic market whereas mozzarella cheese, a bio-product of milk, fetched around 45 euros per kg in the international market.

“Exporting lipstick in place of red chilly, proteins in place of soybean and other bio-products of sugarcane will indeed be more beneficial and we must switch over from export of raw material to export of value-added products to give boost to the Indian economy,” he stressed.

Identifying floriculture as another foreign exchange earning venture, he said if proper storage and cargo facility was made available, this sector could prove to be a boon for the economy.

With a view to competing in the international arena in the research sector, around 475 scientists would be send to abroad for various courses while 1,000 scientists would be imparted expert training within the country itself, he added.

Stating that the ICAR with annual budget of Rs 12,500 crore had provided latest sophisticated equipments and aids to 95 centres in various parts of the country for catalytic support, linkages and new researches, Dr Rai said genes cloning, diagnostics, sensor-based research systems and bio-technology were the new upcoming fields in the agricultural sector.

Rohtak, January 17
The Haryana government had spent Rs 80 crore on the development of tourism in the state in the past three years as against an amount of Rs 40 crore used in 20 years till March 2005.

The state government has been trying its best to improve the tourism infrastructure to provide employment opportunities and to ensure more income from such a venture in the near future.

This was stated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda after inaugurating the convention centre at Tilyar Tourist Complex here last evening. The centre has been constructed at a cost of Rs 8 crore.

The tourism sector was significantly contributing towards making Haryana the number one state in the country, he added.

Hooda said Tilyar Tourist Complex of Rohtak was spread over 142 acres and setting up of a convention centre would facilitate holding ceremonies like weddings and other social functions. The seating capacity of this convention centre was 1,000 with ample parking facility on the premises.

Hisar, January 17
Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) founder Kuldeep Bishnoi yesterday embarked on his mass contact campaign from Sarangpur village near here. The campaign has been christened “Kuldeep Bishnoi chale chaupal ki ore”.

The first phase of the campaign will end on January 30 at Fatehabad. It will cover Hisar, Panchkula, Jind, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Ambala, Sirsa and Fatehabad districts.

Talking to mediapersons here before beginning his campaign, he said if his father Bhajan Lal desired, the party would field him as a candidate for any Lok Sabha seat of his choice in Haryana. He said Bhajan Lal was the party’s guiding force and his wishes would be honoured.

To a question, he said he attached no importance to recent desertions by party men. He said in this political system, people were free to choose their parties at any stage. He said such desertions would not affect the party.

The former MP said his party would soon launch an in-house party journal which would highlight the party activities as well as educate its members on political issues.

He criticised the Haryana government for withdrawing his security cover yesterday. 

Fatehabad, January 17
An expectant woman was allegedly raped at her parents’ home in Kulan village in this district by a youth residing in the neighbourhood on the night of Thursday.

The police has booked the youth, Sunil, under sections 376, 452 and 506. The medical examination of the victim has reportedly confirmed rape.

The 23-year-old victim, who is married in the nearby Diwana village, had come to her parents’ home in Kulan with her two-month-old baby on Thursday.

While her parents had gone to Gujarat for labour, her younger brother had gone to a neighbouring house to watch television on Thursday night, when the accused came and allegedly raped her.

The accused allegedly beat her up when she tried to resist and threatened her with dire consequences if she narrated the incident to anyone.

She informed her parents on the telephone in the morning on Friday and later revealed the incident to her uncle and aunt.

The kin took her to the police station, where the police took her for a medical examination after registering an FIR. The accused is at large.