Hisar, February 8
Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology here is in the midst of a financial crisis forcing the administration to consider making some expenses out of the Corpus Fund, which is exclusively meant for ensuring timely payment of salaries and pension.

This has triggered a debate over the university's financial management and the state government's ability to provide ample budgetary support to the state's premier technical university.

GJU Teachers Association (GJUTA) chief Rajesh Lohchab said the situation was alarming as the Corpus Fund was essentially meant for ensuring the payment of salaries and pension in the case of unforeseen financial exigencies.

He said the situation reflected the complete apathy of the university authorities and the state government towards higher education. Unplanned expenditure by the university and lack of adequate financial support by the government were mainly responsible for the crisis.

Lohchab urged the state government to provide the necessary funds to the university immediately to help it tide over the financial difficulties lest teaching and research work should be adversely affected.

Tohana (Fatehabad), February 8
The Bharat Vikas Parishad (BVP) has so far been able to motivate over 100 persons for donating their eyes under a drive launched seven years back.

More people have been coming forward to volunteer for this noble cause through efforts of the BVP office-bearers.

"There is always a "Life ...Beyond Life" has always been a motto of the eye donation drive being carried out by the BVP, Tohana," said Kush Bhargava, Organiser, Eye Donation Movement and a member of the state governing body of the Bharat Vikas Parishad.

This all started in 2003 and since then the BVP has never looked back, he added. The BVP started its drive with a public awareness movement through a booklet named "Sankalp", which contained entire information regarding eye donation.

Motivational drives were carried through man-to-man contacts, meetings with various organisations, government offices, educational institutes etc.

"All this paid rich dividends and people started coming forward pledging there eyes after death," said Bhargava.

The BVP has constituted a trained team of members, who always are at the standby mode to collect eyes from the deceased's house.

After collection, the eyes are sent to the nearest Eye Bank where proper arrangements are done to implant the corneas to two corneal blind persons.

The members then go to the bhog ceremonies of the donor to honour the family members of the deceased on behalf of the recipients and motivate the congregation present there.

Since 2003, not only have hundreds of people pledged there eyes, the BVP also has so far completed 102 successful eye donations," claimed Kush Bhargava.

The most remarkable feature of this entire campaign has been the donation of eyes by six-month-old Sonam, whose parents donated her eyes after the child's death in October, 2007.

The BVP has also organised some camps to identify corneal blind people of the region.

The Tohana branch of the BVP is the only NGO in nearby districts, which has been carrying out this movement single-handedly, claimed Bhargava.

In a society where few come forward for a social cause, the eye donation movement of the BVP has been very successful as more and more people have been coming forward to donate their eyes. 

Panipat, February 8
Craftswomen from Panipat have managed to carve out a reputation for themselves at the Surajkund crafts mela through their artifacts.

Phulkaris and jute bags made by local artisans are a hit with visitors for impressive work done on them. These women had been working in self-help groups promoted by the district Forest Department.

Local jute bags, recognised even at the international level, are on display in the mela for the second consecutive time

More than 400 craftspersons from India, 31 artisans from other countries and hundreds of folk artists from rural areas of the country are participating in the mela.

Sirsa, February 8
When Aamir Khan showed the innovative idea of conducting a woman's delivery by a vacuum cleaner in his latest movie 3-Idiots, he may not have been aware that a Haryana doctor was more innovative to save a mother and a child more than 30 years back.

A local resident, Dr Vijay Parkash Goyal, was a block medical officer at Jatusarana village in Rewari district and his feat was published in The Tribune dated May 5, 1977, under the heading "Doctor's ingenuity saves mother and child" and also in some other publications, including the UNICEF journal.

The incident occurred in Guraora village in Rewari, where a 22-year-old woman gave birth to an almost respiration less child on April 19 that year.

Dr Goyal tried all conventional methods, like patting the child, applying hot and cold water and giving mouth-to-mouth respiration to revive the baby.

The baby needed oxygen but the oxygen cylinder at Dr Goyal's health centre was sans flow tubes and manometer.

An idea flashed his mind and he sent for two empty polythene bags.

The outlet of the cylinder was encased in a bag and was sealed with the help of candle flame. An intravenous infusion set was applied to the other end of the polythene bag and its tip was put in the nostrils of the baby.

Artificial respiration was provided to the child through the IV set by pumping oxygen into it by applying and reducing pressure on the polythene bag.

The process worked and the baby was revived.

The mother was emitting a lot of froth from her mouth and had a massive pulmonary edema. No suction machine was available at the health centre.

Goyal filled a water bottle with alcohol and passed the oxygen being provided to the woman through it. This pooled the pulmonary fluid in the peripheral parts of the woman and she, too, was saved.

It is another matter that Dr Goyal invited the wrath of his superiors after news of his ingenuity was published in newspapers as they thought he had brought bad name to the Health Department by showing that health centres lacked basic facilities.

Dr Vijay Parkash Goyal has been since then doing innovations and has invented a cheap spirometer for testing lungs capacity and also designed a feeding bottle for kids in the eighties.

More recently, he invented a technique to make intravenous procedures cheaper, precise and fast. The technique, invented in 2008, is an improvement on more than 100-year-old technique, which is expensive and cumbersome.

The old technique requires presence of two to three persons while giving an intravenous infusion while only one doctor or paramedical staffer is sufficient to inject intravenous solution to a patient.

Dr Goyal was invited to attend the fourth Inventors of India Workshop at the IIM, Ahmedabad, from November 28 to November 30, 2008, where 60 inventors and innovators from the country participated.

Named "Vijay - Tushar technique (Tushar is son of Dr V.P. Goyal and has helped his father invent the technique) of intravenous infusion and vein-puncture", the innovation seeks to convert the three-tier steps of intravenous infusion into one step where the doctor can simply order a vein puncture bag instead of the present practice of asking for an intravenous set, a canula, adhesive tape, a tourniquet to find prominent vein and a spirit swab.

Chandigarh, February 8
The Haryana government during the past 100 days has released 2,444 acres of 1,952 farmers under its policy of releasing of excess land mortgaged by the loanee farmers with the cooperative banks in excess of one and a half times of the amount of loan at collector rates.

Stating this here recently, a spokesman for the Cooperative Department said the scheme of releasing of excess land was implemented in the state in December 2009.

The Haryana State Cooperative Agriculture Rural Development Bank had advanced loans amounting to Rs 124.49 crore to the needy farmers during the period. He said in the larger interest of the farmers, the state government had also implemented a policy of bearing 75 per cent cost of loading and unloading of sugarcane and bringing it from the sugarcane centres to the mill gates.

Under the policy, the farmers bringing sugarcane directly to the mill gate would be paid an extra amount equal to the 75 per cent cost of transportation of such sugarcane. A decision had also been taken to share the seasonal profits by the mills with the farmers leading to end the problem of reduction in sugarcane areas, he added.

Hisar, February 8
A daylong divisional-level workshop to improve professional skills of officials of the state Public Relations Department was organised here as part of the government's efforts to gear up its publicity apparatus.

Senior journalist PK. Modi said the first step towards imparting information for the media was professionally drafted press notes. So, to achieve the desired professional degree of drafting publicity material state public relations officials must improve their communication skills.

He said the basic rules of news writing must be applied while penning press notes. The publicity material must be written crisply and verbosity should be best avoided. Often, there was a lot of redundancy in government press notes which only diverted attention from the main points in the publicity material.

Modi said the tendency to write lengthy press notes in an attempt to grab more space in the media must be avoided. The notes should, therefore, be to the point. Any accompanying pictures of illustrations must be complimentary to the main press release. Captions should be written carefully.

Psychologist Taj Panniker said Public Information Service personnel were prone to pressures due to professional reasons like overwork and deadlines. However, she said, these pressures should not come in the way of their functioning. They must learn to maintain their cool to enable their professional faculties to produce the best in them.

She said PR professionals had to interact with all kinds of persons in the course of discharging their professional duties. Many of them could leave a positive impact while others a negative effect on them. To give their best at all times, PR professionals should develop immunity to such effects on their functioning.

Arun Johar, joint director, Directorate of Information and Public Relations, said PR personnel faced pressures from several quarters in their professional life. They had to strike a balance between demands by political personalities, the administration and the public.

He said the workshop was aimed at honing their professional skills as well as to give them a platform to voice their suggestions and problems. 

Bhiwani, February 8
The Haryana State Service Pensioners' Association has demanded additional pension at the rate of 5 and 10 per cent on achieving the age of 65 and 75 years, respectively.

In a communication sent to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh hooda, association president RC Barmun said most of the pensioners of this age were originally recruited by the Punjab government and were allocated to Haryana when it came into being in 1966.

Those employees who remained in Punjab or were allocated to the Union Territory of Chandigarh had already been granted the additional pension at these rates. However, Haryana had been consistently denying the benefit to its pensioners.

He said had these employees chosen to remain in Punjab or opted for allocation to the UT Government, they would have been drawing a higher pension by now. These pensioners, he said, were being punished for opting for Haryana.

Sirsa, February 8
Speaking at a seminar to mark the first death anniversary of Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda noted historian KC Yadav said the former was among those members of the Constituent Assembly of India who strived hard for the inclusion of Gandhian values of Gram Swaraj and service of Daridra Narayan in the Indian Constitution.

Interacting with the students and teachers of mass communication in a seminar organised by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Chaudhary Devi Lal University through video-conferencing, Yadav said Chaudhary Ranbir Singh always wanted villages to grow and develop into 'village-republics'.

Yadav claimed that the concept of minimum support price for crops was discussed in the Constituent Assembly by Chaudhary Ranbir Singh and he was the first person to demand this for the welfare of the farming community.

Yadav highlighted the role played by Chaudhary Ranbir Singh in the creation of Haryana and the construction of the Bhakhra dam. He also advocated the creation of Haryana including parts of western UP and the rural parts of Delhi.

Rohtak: A unique musical tribute was paid to a noted freedom fighter, member of the Constituent Assembly and former Member of Parliament, Ch Ranbir Singh, at Maharshi Dayanand University here recently.

Folk singer Ranbir Singh Badwasnia presented select “raagnis”, penned by folk artiste Pandit Jaggannath Sharma at a programme held at Tagore Auditorium of the university.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the chief guest at the function.

A booklet containing “raagnis” and “kissas”, written by Pandit Jaggannath, depicting the life, struggle and contribution of Ch Ranbir Singh and an audio CD of the “raagnis” were released on the occasion.

Both folk artistes were felicitated at the programme, organised jointly by the All-India Freedom Fighters Successors Organisation and the Ch Ranbir Singh Chair of the MDU. 

Gurgaon, February 8
The Dramatic Club of the Ansal Institute of Technology (AIT) staged a play titled “Khul Ja Sim-Sim” at Kamani Auditorium in New Delhi recently.

The play, written by Anees Azmi, is based on the famous story of “Alibaba and 40 Thieves” from The Arabian Nights collection.

It is a saga of greed where a person becomes an enemy of his brother. It comes straight from the land of Arabia where mystical powers and the concept of “tilism” have been carried on by generations of storytellers.

While some assert that it is a real story, others maintain that it is fiction. The playwright has left it to the viewers to make their own choice.

The play was directed by Ajay Manchanda, who has been associated with the National School of Drama (NSD) and the Urdu Academy for many years. He has directed more than 100 plays and conducted a number of theatre workshops for children.

Prof MP Singh of the AIT said the Dramatic Club was an earnest effort to tap and showcase the talent of their students. “It provides a much-needed platform for the students to express themselves creatively,” he observed.

Chandigarh, February 8
The Haryana Swatantrata Sainik Samman Samiti has been reconstituted with immediate effect and its headquarters will be in Chandigarh.

Eminent freedom fighter Hari Ram Arya, a resident of Karoli village in Rewari district, has been appointed chairman of the samiti.

The main aim of the samiti is to scrutinise and help in preparation of cases of freedom fighters to be sent to the union government for grant of pension and to the state government for financial assistance to those freedom fighters, who underwent imprisonment for the freedom of the country for two or more than two months but below six months.

Chandigarh, February 8
The Haryana government has imposed a complete ban on the use of polythene bags made of virgin or recycled plastic with a thickness of less than 40 microns and size less than 12” x 18” in the state.

Stating this here recently, Forests Minister Ajay Singh Yadav said no person would manufacture, stock, distribute, sell or use carry bags made of virgin or recycled plastic of thickness less than 40 microns and size less than 12” x 18” in the state. Besides, a complete ban had been imposed on use of all types of plastic articles such as carry bags (irrespective of thickness and size), plates, cups, tumblers, spoons, forks and straw within the municipal limits of Thanesar/Kurukshetra and Pehowa towns, precincts of Mansa Devi Temple, Panchkula; and Sheetla Mata Temple, Gurgaon; and public parks, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks of Haryana and gram panchayats, Morni, as these areas have special historical, religious and ecological significance.

Yadav said a penalty of Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 could be imposed on manufacturing unit for the first offence and if it continues to violate rules, its licence would be cancelled in addition to confiscating the machinery used. All manufacturers should print on each packet of carry bags as to whether these carry bags were made of “recycled material” and should bear clear printing regarding thickness of 40 microns.

Similarly, the retailer, vendor and other establishments found to be violating these directions would be fined from Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000 for use of polythene or plastic carry bags of banned categories for the first offence and if found violating subsequently their trade licence would be cancelled. Apart from this, an individual found to be littering public places with plastic bags could be fined ranging between Rs 250 and Rs 500 per offence.

Gurgaon, February 8
The fourth annual sports meet of Rao Mohar Singh College of Education was organised on the college campus here recently.

Events like 100m race (boys and girls), relay race (boys and girls), partner race (boys and girls), volleyball (boys and girls), javelin throw (boys and girls), discus throw (boys and girls), three-legged race (boys and girls), tug-of-war (boys and girls), badminton (boys and girls), cricket (staff vs students) and cricket (B.Ed vs D.Ed) were organised during the two-day event.

Rajesh Sharma, chairman, D4S Stadium, New Delhi, who was the chief guest on the occasion, distributed the prizes among the winning participants.

Rao Narbir Singh, chairman of the governing council of the college, exhorted the students to participate in sports activities and aim at representing their country in their respective events. Rajni Kotnala, principal of the college, welcomed the guests and presented college report.

Gurgaon, February 8“These Indian and Pakistani students are together designing the future of our civilisation - one with few limitations of geographical boundaries. I congratulate them on their joint achievement, wish them well in their travels to NASA, and look forward to hearing about their experiences in the US,” said US Ambassador in India Timothy J Roemer on meeting the Indian and Pakistani students who had won the Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition, organised at Brahmakumaris’ Om Shanti Retreat Centre at Gurgaon recently.

The competition, sponsored by NASA and Boeing, was organised by Atlantis Frontiers Edutainment. The winning team included 10th, 11th and 12th grade students from Amity International School, Delhi (Saket), Little Flowers, Hyderabad, and Lahore Grammar School, 55 Main in Lahore, Pakistan.

The students designed a space city that was supposed to be home to over 10,000 people. They also presented a 40-page report communicating their winning ideas and designs. Later this year, these students will join 12 other finalist teams from around the world to compete at the 16th Annual International Space Settlement Design Competition to be held at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. 

Sirsa, February 8
The implementation of schemes launched for the welfare of special children is at a tardy pace, mostly due to lack of awareness among families of the beneficiaries.

This became evident at a state-level review meeting of the coordination committee of the National Trust, an autonomous organisation of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, set up for the welfare of persons with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities under an Act of Parliament.

Dhanpat Singh, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Haryana, in the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, presided over the meeting, which was attended by Yudhvir Singh Khyalia, Deputy Commissioner, Ramesh Krishan, Director-cum-Joint Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment Department, and J Ganeshan, ADC.

Dr RS Sangwan, Surinder Bhatia, Chander Shekhar Mehta and Geeta Kathuria from Disha, the state nodal agency under the National Trust, and representatives from some other parts of the state working in this field also attended the meeting.

Under a scheme named “Niramaya”, the National Trust provides health insurance to persons with autism, mental retardation, cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities.

However, it was observed during the meeting that of the over 20,000 persons suffering from such disabilities in Haryana, only 2,710 cases have been registered under the “Niramaya” scheme and health cards have been issued in 2,610 cases only.

The speed of registration of legal guardians of special children under another scheme is even slow and so far, a little over 200 children have been covered under this scheme, it was observed.

NGOs working in this field cited several problems due to lack of sensitivity of the authorities concerned.

“Trained graduate teachers with a degree in special education are being paid Rs 4,200 per month, while those teaching in normal schools get more than Rs 25,000,” said Geeta Kathuria, director of Disha.

Surinder Bhatia cited the problem of shortage of specialist doctors to provide treatment to special children and also compute their mental age.

“The authorities treated the disability of special children on a par with those suffering from physical disability thereby denying them benefits of several concessions,” Bhatia added.

Dhanpat Singh assured to take up the issues with the authorities concerned.

He said with this increase, the federation would pay approximately Rs 1.60 crore per month additional milk price for the milk procured during the current season every month. This would be the highest milk procurement price in the northern region. The additional financial burden on account of increase in milk procurement price would be borne by the federation and its affiliated milk unions.

Yamunananagar, February 8
In a unique effort to eradicate female foeticide, the district administration has started the first-of-its-kind campaign in the state to save girl child by providing an insurance policy of Rs 50,000 to every girl child in the district, recently.

Besides it, the administration has also been organising functions at the house of every newborn girl child at its own expenses to motivate the parents to take care of their child with honour.

Giving details to The Tribune, Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar Agarwal said: “We have started a campaign to save girl child in the district by providing them an insurance policy free of cost last month. Under the policy, Janta Personal Accidental Insurance Policy, by United India Insurance Company Limited, the girl’s mother gets Rs 50,000 if the insured dies due to some accident”.

“Everyday, we have been approached by a number of parents of girl child about the scheme. So far, more than 600 mothers of girl child were given the policy papers and a certificate of appreciation. The scheme has been getting positive response from the people and also becoming much popular,” Agarwal said.

Stressing an urgent need to provide equal platform to girls in every corner of society, he said the District Red Cross Society has been working hard to reach door to door to spread maximum awareness to save girl child.

“For the success of the programme, we have involved a number of key persons of every village, especially women. Besides it, the District Red Cross Society has also formed self-help groups at the grass-roots level to save the girl child,” he added.

Rewari, February 8
The Haryana unit of the National Social Justice Forum (NSJF) has sent a communiqué to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking early enforcement of a policy decision for enumeration of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) in the 2011 Census of India on the pattern of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) for formulation of affirmative action policies and the rightful adoption of the reservation policy.

It’s copies have also been dispatched to President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice KG Balalkrishnan, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Union Law and Justice Minister M Veerappa Moily, all chief Ministers, chairman of the National Commission for OBCs, Registrar General of India (census operations) and other dignitaries.

Since all major decisions were taken at least a year before the commencement of the census operations, the Haryana unit of the Forum said the time was thus running out for taking the decision, in the absence of which the country was bound to miss an opportunity of anchoring its affirmative policies in accordance with an evidence-based approach.

Asserting that since enumeration of the SEBCs was a constitutional, legal and policy imperative after they were recognised as a statutory category by the apex court on April 8, 2008, the Forum indicated that if their enumeration was carried out on the same lines like of the SCs and STs in the census, it would not only be instrumental in settling disputes regarding the number of the SEBCs, but would also yield information about the socio-educational plight of these communities.

The procurement of their state wise, district wise and caste/ community wise data would facilitate fine-tuning of reservations and other welfare schemes.

While mentioning about partial attempts made by Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for acquiring information through special commissions and sample survey previously conducted by the Mandal Commission to garner statistical data at the national level, the Forum rued that in the absence of their incorporation in the census, crucial questions regarding the precise dimensions of the SEBCs , their relative backwardness and criteria for their inclusion/exclusion were still in a state of acute contention.

Prof Ranbir Singh Yadav, state general secretary of the Forum, said list of the SEBCs prepared by the National Commission for Backward Classes and the caste/community wise data by the Anthropological Survey of India could serve as baseline data for their comprehensive enumeration.

Prof Yadav told the Prime Minister that it was high time now for taking the decision, which alone would pave the way for this long-pending demand.

Karnal, February 8
The Haryana government has assured the State Polytechnic Staff Association to release the revised pay scales notified by All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on January 22, immediately after the copy of the notification was received.

The assurance was given by P K Gupta, commissioner, technical education, to a delegation of the association which presented a memorandum to the government, Parminder Mann, president of the association, said here recently.

He recalled that polytechnic staff had gone on a 22-day strike last to press for implementation of revised AICTE scales and the strike was called on explicit assurance of the then Chief Secretary and Congress MP from Rohtak, Dipinder Hooda that the revised scales would be implemented as soon as the AICTE notified the scales.

He said the relevant notification was issued by the AICTE on January 22 and its copy had been made available to the government and now it is the turn of the government to act.

The revised scales are line with UGC grades awarded to university and polytechnic teachers and have been designated into four categories namely, lecturer, senior lecturer, heads of the department and workshop superintendent.

The pay scales of teachers and equivalent positions in polytechnics would be fixed in two pay bands of Rs 15,600-39,100 and Rs 37,400-67,000 according to their designations with appropriate “Academic Grade Pay” (AGP).

Persons with BTech qualification in appropriate discipline shall be designated as lecturer and shall be placed in the pay band of Rs 15,600-39,100 with the AGP of Rs 5,000 and move to AGP of Rs 6,000 on completion of masters degree.

Teachers with MTech qualification in appropriate discipline shall also be designated as lecturer and placed in the pay band of Rs 15,600-39,100 with the AGP of Rs 6,000 while a lecturer with four-year experience and possessing a PhD degree would get higher AGP of Rs 7,000.

The incumbent Lecturers (Selection Grade) who have completed 3 years in the pre-revised pay scale of Rs. 12,000-18,300 on January 1, 2006, shall be placed in pay band of Rs 37,400-67,000 with the AGP pay of Rs 9,000 while the heads of department would also be placed in the same pay band and get the same AGP.

The directly recruited HOD shall be placed in pay band of Rs 37,400-67,000 with the AGP of Rs 9,000 and move to AGP of Rs 10,000 on completing three years as HOD while the principals would get the same pay band with the AGP of Rs 10,000 and special allowance of Rs 2,000 per month.

The revised Pay and revised rates of Dearness Allowance under this Scheme shall be effective from March 1, 2006, while the revised rates of all other allowances such as House Rent Allowance, Transport Allowance, and Children Education Allowance etc. shall take effect from September 1, 2008.Annual increment shall be equivalent to 3 per cent of pay in relevant Pay Band and the AGP. 

Sirsa, February 8
The Dera Sacha Sauda has entered its name in the Guinness World Records with the plantation of highest number of saplings simultaneously on one single day.

The certificate issued by Guinness World Records Limited said 9,38,007 saplings were planted simultaneously by 1,69,920 participants led by Dera Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on August 15, 2009.

The event was organised by the Shah Satnamji Green S. Welfare Force, a social welfare wing of the Dera Sacha Sauda.

The earlier world record stood in the name of Woodland, an organisation from England, who planted 6,53,143 saplings in a single day.

Earlier, the Dera’s name found entry in the Guinness World Records when it collected 17,921 units of blood on a single day at a blood donation camp organised at Srigurusarmodia in Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan on October 10, 2004.

The Dera had then broken its own record of 15,432 units of blood in a camp organised on December 7, 2003.

“The Dera does not perform welfare activities for records. We do our service to the mankind. The records automatically come by when our disciples serve the humanity without any selfish gains,” said the Dera Chief.

Sonepat, February 8
The National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), which is being set up by the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries at Kundli, is all set to start its activities during the academic session 2010-2011.

The apex world-class institute was mooted by the ministry to provide core courses in the area of food science and food technology, which would cater to the needs of various stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, industry, exporters, policy makers, the government and existing institutions.

In a statement issued by the ministry, the institute would be fully supported by the Union government, but it would have reasonable autonomy in its functioning. A state-of-the-art campus is being created with most modern infrastructure, finest library and resources and comprehensive residential facilities.

The objective of the institute is to promote cooperation and networking amongst existing institutions, both within the country and international bodies and create a complete database on domestic resources and bring in international best practices for improving the food processing sector.

NIFTEM would also provide industry friendly short-term courses, including regular degree and management courses leading up to PhD programmes, for developing HRD resources for the sector. 

Fatehabad, February 8
The Institute of Mass Communication and Media Technology (IMC&MT), Kurukshetra University, has launched a wide range of courses in mass communication and media technology.

Dr Rajbir Singh, director of the institute, said keeping pace with the phenomenal changes taking place in the media industry and meeting the needs of trained and educated manpower, the institute has adopted a holistic approach to courses, encompassing almost every aspect of media education ranging from traditional journalism, advertising, public relations to the new emerging areas of graphics, animation packaging, media production and web journalism.

The institute offers four media courses at the undergraduate level. These are: B.A. mass communication, B.Sc. multimedia, B.Sc. graphics, animation and gaming and B.Tech. printing, graphics and packaging.

Multimedia and animation, introduced by the institute from the last academic session, are two innovative courses which integrate undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The students have the option to go to the profession after a three-year graduation course and may return for the two-year postgraduate course at any point of time. These two courses make a five-year integrated course, which offers B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in multimedia and graphics, animation and gaming.

B.Tech. in printing, graphics and packaging caters to the need of the printing and packaging industry and it has the art and technology of graphics in it. The one-year diploma in graphics and animation has already produced professionals with expertise in computer graphics and animation.

Three postgraduate courses, MA mass communication, M.Sc. mass communication and M.Sc. electronic media, have been introduced to prepare students for reporting, editing, presentation and management jobs in newspaper, television, radio and the Internet. M.Sc. music, media and electronics course introduced from the last academic session aims at preparing human resource for the fast expanding infotainment industry.

The institute also offers M.Phil and Ph.D. courses in journalism and mass communication to enable a research scholar to widen his horizon of knowledge and contribute significantly to the field of both basic and applied research in communication.

Kaithal, February 8
It seems that the state government is in no mood to act on its announcement of honouring journalists as part of its media policy.

The government had announced several welfare steps for journalists while announcing its new media policy and had announced awards for them at the state and the district level every year.

However, the scheme proved a non-starter as the government is yet to distribute awards for 2008-09.

Hundreds of journalists working for various newspapers and electronic media had sent their entries when the state information and PR department sought entries before the National Press Day in 2008.

However, the issue could not catch government’s attention due to one reason or the other although efforts were made to organise a function to give away the awards.

It was first delayed as Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was occupied due to demise of his father and later due to parliamentary elections.

The government wanted to organise the function before the Assembly elections, but it kept on postponing it.

According to sources, a function was planned on December 22, but it too was postponed due to unknown reasons.

A few days later, schedule for the Ellenabad byelection was announced, and the government got busy in it.

Now, when those elections are over, the journalists are hoping that the government would pay attention towards its long pending announcement and distribute awards.

Sonepat, February 8
The police has claimed to have nabbed two alleged accused - Manish and Ajmer of Sarfabad village in Jind district - in the murder case of Pramod Bansal of Gohana that took place on January 25.

It has also arrested two others -Shushil Jain of Gohana Mandi and Suresh of Jagsi village - for allegedly giving “supari” of Rs 5 lakh for the murder.

SP Mahender Singh Sheoran said during the investigation, it was found that Bansal had allegedly eve teased Jain’s daughter and Jain wanted to take revenge from Bansal. Jain contacted Suresh of Jagsi to eliminate Pramod.

Suresh along with Munish and Krishan Murari of Sarfabad shot dead Bansal when he was standing in front of his shop.

Amidst issuance of notice to five erstwhile members of HJC by Speaker of Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Harmohinder Singh Chatha, for their so-termed "merger" into the Congress Legislature Party last November, it is pertinent to mention that as far as the legality of such a merger is concerned, there has not been any clear-cut judicial pronouncement over similar cases till date. Although there have been cases when state legislative groups of national parties though claimed a split in their parent party and afterwards attempted to merge their new groups with the ruling party, but such a move was eventually deprecated by courts as the no split/merger was witnessed or proved in/of the national party concerned as a whole.

The Supreme Court too in Ravi Naik Case(1994) while dealing with concept of "split" held that for it there must be a split in the original political party. Thus, it is clear that even if there is a cent per cent merger of the legislature party without a split in the original political party, there can be no valid split. Applying the same principle and analogy for the "merger" under the anti-defection law, there ought to be merger of the original political party even if the entire legislature party agrees to the merger. In the case of the HJC, that is not the case as the HJC continues to exist today as a distinct entity in the state. Ideally, the merger of the original political party cant' take place by a mere two-third members of its legislative group although it can be merger of the legislative party. Moreover, if the HJC so-termed merger is finally upheld, HJC supreme Kuldeep Bishnoi, who now is a sole member of his party in the House, can no longer remain so as the HJC legislative party leader as it has been merged by his five ex-MLAs into the Congress. He can, of course, function as a separate group but under another name. Though the HJC was granted the status of a "recognised state party" by the Election Commission of India after the May,2009, general election on the basis of its vote percentage, it had to lose its original name with the act of alleged merger by its two-thirds legislative group.

HEMANT KUMAR, Ambala City

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