Chandigarh, May 14
With polling out of the way and results to be out this weekend, MLAs, hopeful of securing a ministerial berth in the last year of the five-year Congress rule, are now eyeing the cabinet expansion.

Announced mid-way through the campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the proposed expansion has become the proverbial dangling carrot for aspirants seeking to secure Cabinet rank before the state goes to polls in February next year.

Besides, the announcement assumes significance because Urban Bodies Minister AC Chaudhary put in his papers over the “injustice meted out to the Punjabis” in ticket distribution. Further, Finance Minister Birender Singh is unhappy since his claim over the Sonepat seat was overlooked and it remains to be seen if he continues to carry on as minister under Hooda’s leadership.

While there has been a vacancy in the Cabinet since the Haryana government assumed power in 2005, another vacancy was created when former Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan was stripped off his portfolio and position for remaining “absent from work without information”.

However, it is up to the MLAs to bite the bait since this in not the first time that Hooda has thrown up this issue.

In April last year, for the first time, the government indicated that a reshuffle and possible expansion was on the cards. This was essentially a warning to non-performers and detractors within the party to be wary.

However, this was shelved in the name of a byelection at three Assembly seats and the government maintained that the idea had not been dropped but only pushed forward. The Chief Minister, too, kept emphasising on a Cabinet expansion at his press conferences. However, even after the declaration of results, nothing moved in the government and the MLAs were left high and dry.

Again, in December, after the exit of Chander Mohan, Congress circles and the government were abuzz with a possible expansion plan. This, too, died a slow death and nothing came of the proposal.

Now, again the priority will be the making of a Congress-led government at the Centre. In these circumstances, how the Haryana government will accommodate a Cabinet expansion remains to be seen.

Hisar, May 14
Political realignments are likely to take place across all political parties in Haryana as a prelude to the state Assembly elections due early next year.

There are several factors that will bring about realignments. The 2010 Assembly elections will be held on the basis of the delimitation of constituencies.

Many sitting legislators who have lost their constituencies in this exercise will be looking for alternatives, which are bound to come only by way of encroaching on others’ political territories.

The results of the Lok Sabha polls will give the politicians a fair idea of the changed voting trends in different constituencies caused by demographic changes.

Depending on the emerging demographic patterns and the availability of candidates in different constituencies among different parties, the intending contenders will finalise which political outfit suit them best.

The political parties will also have a relook at their strategies. The stillborn INLD-BJP poll alliance will force the think tanks of these parties to assess whether this relationship can continue till and after the Assembly polls.

On its part, the INLD has no choice. It can only seek to continue the alliance or go it all alone in the Assembly elections.

However, the BJP has a choice in the Haryana Janhit Party (BL) with which it had flirted briefly before deciding in the favour of the INLD. A lot will depend on how Kuldeep Bishnoi’s party fares in the Lok Sabha polls.

In the Congress, infighting and the delimitation process had bugged several sitting legislators who were engaged in turf wars even during campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections. Besides, many of the ticket hopefuls inducted in the party during the Lok Sabha election campaign to boost its chances may prove a headache in the months to come.

The party will thus have a difficult time choosing the right candidates under the changed circumstances. Those spurned will move to other parties. The INLD will also more or less face similar problems.

The Congress will face an additional problem. Several senior party leaders, who had almost rebelled during the Lok Sabha polls, will pose fresh challenges to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

There is nothing unusual about this as such pressures in the months before the Assembly polls are a routine in the Congress. Nevertheless, there will be realignments within the Congress too.

The BSP will seek to strengthen its position during the run up to the polls. Depending on its share of votes in different Assembly segments in the parliamentary poll, it will attract new faces from other parties.

Haryanavis are in for no holds barred battles for political survival beginning with the declaration of results of the Lok Sabha polls.

Dabwali (Sirsa), May 14
Due to the indifferent attitude of the authorities, the students of Government Girls Senior Secondary School here have been studying under a constant threat to their lives due to the dilapidated condition of the school building.

A portion of the ceiling of the school corridor has fallen on two or three occasions in the last 15 days and on both occasions, girls had a narrow escape.

The parents of the students locked the building recently after a portion of the ceiling again caved in.

The parents maintained that they would not allow their daughters to go to the school till the building was repaired.

However, they later opened the locks, when the school principal Inderjit Sangwan agreed to run the school in two shifts.

He assured the parents that the students would not be made to sit in seven rooms of the school, which are in dilapidated condition.

“As many as 1,000 girls are on the rolls of the school and they are studying under constant danger of its ceiling falling on them,” said Pawan Bansal, kin of a student.

The parents demanded that the school building should be declared as unsafe and a new building should be constructed immediately.

The principal said seven rooms of the school were in bad shape and he had written to the authorities on several occasions.

He said the school had now been started in two shifts and the students would not be made to sit in dilapidated rooms.

Rohtak, May 14
The existence and spread of Parthenium Hysterophoprus, better known as congress grass, is an issue which attracts the attention of the authorities every year, especially during the rainy season. But, no method could be devised regarding its control on a permanent basis.

Even as funds were allocated and the district authorities were directed to take action to contain this problem, the end result has been negligible, thanks to the indifferent attitude of the authorities, who have failed to devise any strategy to tackle the problem.

While this menace has become rampant, covering all open spaces and even eating into the valuable agricultural tracts, the authorities seem to be looking the other way. Parthenium has been classified as one of the world’s 10 worst weeds posing serious threat to the mankind.

For Anil Kumar Beri, an educated and progressive farmer, the issue of solving the problem of the Congress weed is a mission.

He spends a lot of time and energy in devising and implementing scientific and biological methods to keep a check on the growth.

Though his initiative has hardly any impact on the officials and experts of the agriculture department, Beri has been involved in promoting the production of a little known beetle to control the menace.

Describing the process as the biological control of Parthenium, he says the presence and inhabiting of the beetle, known as Zygogramma Bicolorata, is effective in checking the growth of the weed.

This fact, he claims, has been established with an experiment conducted by him at his farm here. He says he had released a few hundred beetles in his farm about six months back and found that the growth of the grass got affected adversely due to the beetle harping on it and destroying its flowers on a regular basis.

Beri, a graduate in agriculture science, is satisfied with the results, and feels that efforts on a large scale are required.

He says he has submitted proposals and presented the work on various occasions, including meetings with the experts of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, but the response has been far from encouraging.

According to Beri, the concept and formula of developing the beetle and promoting its growth is not being explored despite his efforts. He says the most suitable method of containing the growth of the obnoxious weed is through the biological method as it hardly has any negative fall out, besides being inexpensive. The traditional methods include use of pesticides or cutting down the growth.

He says the government should launch an extensive drive. Nearly 80 per cent of the open area in and around the town has been infested with the congress grass.

Ratia (Fatehabad), May 14
Despite a series of meetings between the parents and the management of the Akal Academy, a CBSE school run by the Kalgidhar Society of Baru Sahib (Himachal Pradesh), the issue of reopening of the school could not be resolved.

The school management has closed down the school indefinitely after its principal Indu Sharma and two other staff members, teacher Monika and assistant Rustam, were arrested by the police for “negligence” after a student, who was found ill in the school bus, died during treatment.

The police had taken this action after the kin of the child as well as some local residents ransacked the school building and held protests seeking action against the school authorities.

While the parents of the children studying in this school have been pressurising the management to reopen the school to avoid the loss of studies to their children, the school management has refused to open till all issues were resolved and those who ransacked the school on May 8 were arrested.

Though the police had registered cases for criminal trespass, hurting religious sentiments, rioting and criminal intimidation against 28 persons in connection with the ransacking of the Akal Academy, no arrest has been made so far.

The cases have been registered under Sections 148, 149, 295, 295-A, 452, 341 and 506 of the IPC.

Karamjit Singh, assistant manager of the academy, had filed a complaint to the police in this regard.

He had accused these persons of ransacking the school and disrupting a religious programme being held in the school in the memory of its student Rajdeep, whose death had sparked the protests.

Rajdeep was found unwell in the school bus and died the next day in a hospital in Hisar. The police had arrested the school principal and two other staff members after a protest.

The school authorities had denied any negligence on their part and maintained that the child was alright, when he was in the school and whatever happened to him during his journey back home was not under their control.

They claimed that the school buses did not belong to the academy and were hired and managed by the parents themselves.

The management of the school has taken a stand in the favour of principal Indu Sharma and refused to suspend her on the demand of the protesters.

“We would rather close down the academy for ever than removing our principal on the illegitimate demand of some persons, who were trying settle old scores,” said Jaivinder Singh, chief manager of the academy.

Meanwhile, a Rajya Sabha MP and a former chairman of the National Commission
for Minorities Tarlochan Singh has criticised the role of the police in arresting the
school staff.

Tarlochan Singh termed the police action as highhandedness and said the police had no reason to harass and humiliate young women “without any reason”.

Gurgaon, May 14
NIFT-trained professional Sarang Singla made her debut in the field of art with her solo exhibition of paintings organised here recently.

The theme of the exhibition was “Straight Forward”, which was explained by the artist thus: “The title signified the expression of original thoughts straight from the heart and free from any kind of influence.”

As many as 30 panels were displayed during the exhibition. The artist’s works presented a spectacle comprising a blend of vibrant colours, distinctly different in style and theme.

Art lovers, who visited the exhibition, admired Sarang’s creations, especially “Blossom”, “Oxygen”, “Shloka”, “Eclipse” and “Bondage”.

Her other paintings, including “Maestro”, “Doe-ray-me” and “Recess”, etc., also caught the attention of many visitors.

Sarang, a postgraduate from NIFT, Mumbai, is a designer and a fashion illustrator by profession. While at Mumbai, she took a dip in theatre arts to explore the wider aspects of creativity.

Later, she worked with an MNC in Gurgaon for a few years, but eventually decided to quit her job and devote herself to the field of her passion.

“Fine art has always been my passion since my early days and I hope to take my skills in the art of painting to great heights,” observes the artist.

Jhajjar, May 14
In view of the directives of the state government, Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak, has decided to introduce computer education in undergraduate (UG) courses in its affiliated colleges from the coming academic session in order to keep pace with the communication revolution, besides equipping the college students with skills in information technology (IT) and computers.

The move has been approved by the executive council of the university in its meeting held recently under the chairmanship of its vice-chancellor Ramphal Hooda.

According to information, there will be three levels in the paper of computer education in which level I will be for UG first year and it will be called certificate course in computer education.

The second year course (level-II) will be described as diploma course in computer
education and the third year (level III) will be named as advanced diploma in
computer course.

The level-I will focus on the fundamentals of computers and presentation software and computer communication.

The level II will lay emphasis on spreadsheet, DBMS and desktop publishing and the level-III will concentrate on programming in C language and web designing. The computer courses will have both theoretical and practical components.

Notably, the government had taken up the introduction of computer education in UG courses on a priority.

The financial commissioner & principal secretary to the government had listed out various priorities of the state government and providing quality computer education was one of the priorities.

Accordingly, the vice-chancellor had convened a meeting of all deans of faculties and heads of departments of the university on the issues on March 3.

It was decided to follow the Kurukshetra University pattern regarding the syllabi and the scheme of examination of computer course at the UG level as this would facilitate the uniformity of syllabi in both the universities.

Prof Nasib Singh Gill, head of the computer science and applications department, says the computer education is absolutely essential in the present era.

Keeping the job scenario in mind, the MDU graduates will be in a better position after getting computer education during their graduation.

“The decision is a progressive one and will help the undergraduate students to acquire knowledge and skills in computer education. It will also increase their chances of employability in the present competitive times,” Gill maintained.

Faridabad, May 14
The rift within the Congress, which came to the fore while campaigning in the Faridabad parliamentary constituency, appears to have widened further.

A number of senior members of the Congress have started demanding resignation of the state Local Bodies Minister AC Chaudhary, chairman of the Haryana Administrative Reforms Commission Karan Dalal, and party MLA Mahender Pratap.

In fact, organising secretary of the state Congress Gulshan Bagga, in a letter to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and other partu functionaries, has demanded the expulsion of the above leaders.

He has also demanded that Chaudhary must be stripped off his ministerial assignment before annulling his primary membership of the party.

Bagga has alleged that the three rebels did not support the Congress nominee and instead campaigned for the nominees of other political parties.

According to him, Chaudhary, his son and other loyalists in the party tried to influence the vote bank of the Congress in the favour of Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) candidate Chander Bhatia. Mahender Pratap also worked in the favour of Bhatia, he added.

With regard to Dalal, the letter pointed out that he tried to influence the Congress voters in the favour of BJP nominee Ramchander Bainda.

Bagga said any delay in taking punitive action against the three rebels and their associates in the party would send a wrong signal.

What appears to have got the goat of Bagga is the statement of Chaudhary made after polling in the state in which he had expressed fidelity to the Congress. He also praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Bagga said Chaudhary was indulging in double standards and was trying to mislead the party leadership.

Earlier, Chaudhary had tendered his resignation from the state Cabinet to Sonia Gandhi immediately after the names of the party nominees were announced on ground that the Punjabis were ignored.

Panipat, May 14
A large number of doctors from in and around the city assembled here recently to attend a one-day workshop on laparoscopic surgeries in which a group of experts from across the nation performed 10 operations using dissection equipment like harmonic scalpel.

The workshop was conducted by Dr Renu Gupta, a pioneer in laparoscopic gynae surgery in the state, who stated that the harmonic scalpel could be used to perform total laparoscopic hysterectomy, radical laparoscopic hysterectomy, laparoscopic myomectomy, laparoscopic hernia repair and laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

She said patients undergoing laparoscopic surgeries stood to benefit from this technique, as harmonic scalpel surgeries involved no cuts, minimal blood loss and also enable the patient to recover early.

“Those undergoing operation using this technique could return to the normal activities of life in around one week’s time,” the doctor said.

“Harmonic scalpel is a cutting instrument used during surgical procedures to simultaneously cut and coagulate tissue. The instrument can cut through thicker tissue and offer greater precision.

“It is also considered to be the best possible treatment for patients suffering from excessive uterine bleeding, fibroids uterus and early stages of cervical carcinoma.

“Harmonic scalpel has been already been accepted all over the world as the instrument of choice for removal of uterus and is being fast adopted by gynecologists all over the world,” Dr Renu said.

During the workshop, a group of experts from across the country performed operations. The experts included Dr Hafeez Rehman from Kochi, Prof. RK Karwasra from Rohtak, Dr Parveen Bhatia from Delhi, along with Dr Renu Gupta.

The workshop was organised under the chairmanship of Dr Pawan Gupta, an urologist and pioneer of flexible ureterorenoscopy in India at Women Diseases Clinic that runs from the premises of RP Stone Clinic.

Kurukshetra, May 14
To commemorate the scientific and technological advancements in the country, the Kurukshetra Panorama and Science Centre, Kurukshetra, celebrated the National Technology Day by conducting various educational activities and programmes for school students at the centre here recently.

According to project coordinator Dr Raj Mehrotra, the objective of conducting such programmes was to bring the best of science to the students and encourage them to interact with the invited scientist and share information.

“These events were also aimed at creating and enhancing scientific awareness while at the same time imparting science education in interesting way,” says Dr Mehrotra.

While delivering a lecture on Indian Achievements on Science and Technology, chief guest Prof SK Chakrawarti, Department of Applied Physics, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, informed about various achievements of India in the different fields of science and technology.

He said after the Independence India had progressed a lot in science and technology. The latest achievement was the successful launching of Mission Chandrayan and by 2020 we might be able to send a manned mission to the moon to unfurl our National Flag.

Education officer Pramod Jain said educational activities like open-house quiz and slogan-writing contest in three categories were organised. More than 550 students and teachers drawn from 26 schools participated in the programme. Results:

Open-house quiz competition: Prajwal, Rohit, Meenu, Lalit Kundu, Rachit, Yuvraj, Anukaran, Abhinav, Aseem, Vikramjeet Singh, Ashutosh, Varun Dheeman, Vipin, Neeraj and Rahul were declared the winners.

Slogan-writing contest (Class V to VI):

1. Disha Devgan, SD Girls Sr. Sec. School, Kurukshetra.

2. Khushi, Green Fields Public, Kurukshetra.

3. Saakshi, SMB Gita Primary School, Kurukshetra.

Consolation prize:

I. Ritvik Khurana, DPS, Panipat.

II. Sudiksha Yadav, Seth Tek Chand Memorial Public School, Kurukshetra.

III. Navdeep Kaur, Smt. Kesari Devi Lohiya Public School, Lohar Majra.

Slogan-writing contest (Class VII to VIII):

1. Vandana Arya, SD Kanya Sr. Sec. School, Sunderpur.

2. Yuvaan, DPS, Panipat.

3. Minal, DAV Public School, Kurukshetra.

Consolation prize:

I. Shubham Muraal, Maharana Pratap Public School, Kurukshetra.

II. Hiteshwar, Geeta Niketan Residential Public School, Kurukshetra.

Slogan-writing contest (Class IX to X):

1. Swati Beniwal, DPS, Panipat.

2. Shelly, Green Fields Public School, Kurukshetra.

3. Mandeep Kaur, DAV Public School, Kurukshetra.

Consolation prize

I. Hansdeep Kaur, Mahant Prabhat Puri Public School, Kurukshetra.

II. Divya, Police Vidya Mandir, Kurukshetra.

Chandigarh, May 14
The Haryana Rajya Sainik Board has decided to organise coaching classes for the children of ex-servicemen, serving soldiers, ex-para military forces, serving para-military forces, war widows and widows of ex-servicemen to prepare them for the written examination to be conducted by the Services Selection Board of the NDA scheduled to be held in August.

The coaching classes for the NDA entrance test will be organised from May 19 to July 3, 2009, and the age of the applicant should be between 16 years to 19 years on June 30, 2010.

The applicant should be 10+2 pass with 60 per cent marks and those who had appeared for the examination of 10+2 should be matric pass with 60 per cent marks. The children of the officer rank would have to pay a tuition fee of Rs 1,500, Rs 800 for the JCO rank and Rs 800 for the NCO rank.

The applicants of Rohtak, Sonipat, Jind, Jhajjar, Rewari, Mahedergarh, Gurgaon, Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad and Faridabad districts can send their handwritten applications to the secretary, District Sainik Board.

The applicants have to attach the copies of dependent certificate, education certificate, character certificate, discharge book, Haryana domicile certificate and passport size photo with the applications.

Chandigarh, May 14
Scientists of the Microbiology Department, Ch. Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, have developed new organic manure that will ensure proper growth of cotton plants even at high temperature of 45 degree to 48 degree Celsius. The new manure has been named as Aezotika HT-54.

Dr. RC Anand, scientist of the department, said with the evolution of this new manure the farmers of northern India would be able to keep their cotton crop safe even during the period of severe heat in May and June.

He said with the increase in temperature the bacteria responsible for plant growth died. However, with the use of Aezotika HT-54, such bacteria remained alive even at high temperatures.

Anand said seed treatment was the best among all methods of using organic manure. For seed treatment, sticky solution was prepared by mixing 50 gram gur into 250 ml water and cotton seeds were put into this solution.

Thereafter, organic manure was mixed with the seeds. The cotton seeds so treated should be kept in shade for half an hour before sowing, he added.

Rohtak, May 14
Dr Swarn Lata, a teacher and a postdoctoral fellow in the department of the public administration of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), has been invited to take part in the 21st IPSA World Congress to be held in Santiago, Chile.

The conference will be held from July 12 to 16, where experts from various countries will take part.

Dr Lata, who has been teaching in the department since 1983, is preparing a UGC- sponsored research project, titled “Role of NGOs in rural development in Haryana”.

At the World Congress, Dr Lata will be presenting her paper on “public-private partnership - bureaucracy and collaborative governance”, with special reference to “Gurgaon - A global city of Haryana state in India”. Earlier, she had visited Japan in 2006 to present a research paper.

Dr Lata told The Tribune that she had been the only woman teacher in the state, who had the opportunity to present her papers in five international events in the field of public administration.

She said she had been continuously in the research work for the past few decades. “While the first paper was published in 1978, 18 papers have been published on the matter concerning women, including a book, titled ‘Women Civil Servants’”.

She has attended around 25 national-level conferences, besides international meets on the subject.

In 2006, she presented a paper on bureaucracy in Fukoka, Japan, where she was the only participant from Haryana.

Producer: Anupam Mittal, Aditya Shastri

Director: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna D.K.

Music: Shamir Tandon, Ashu, Roshan Makado, Mahesh Shankar

Cast: Kunal Khemu, Cyrus Brocha, Boman Irani, Vinod Khanna, Mahesh Manjrekar, Simone Singh, Amit Mishra

The movie opens today at Fun-Ambala
City, Fun-Panipat, Fun-Karnal, Fame-
Panchkula, PVR MGF, PVR Ambi Mall, PVR Sahara, DT City Centre, DT Mega Mall (All Gurgaon), PVR Crown Plaza, SRS, SRS Pristine (All Faridabad), Sheila-Rohtak, OHM Cine Garden-Sirsa.

What to watch out for: A different comedy, direction plus lead stars performance.