Chandigarh, July 5
The Haryana State Fee Committee has fixed the annual tuition fee, development fund, student fund (Annual), caution money (one time) for all self-financing B.Tech/B.Arch/Fashion & Apparel, MBA, MCA, B.Pharma, BHM&CT/diploma courses in the state.

According to an official spokesman, the fee will be payable semester-wise. Guidelines have also been issued for charging other funds, such as hostel and mess charges, charges for transport, insurance and uniform, etc.

He said Rs 45,000 per student could be charged for hostel & mess charges, which would include lodging, boarding, water & electricity, reading room, computer, work station, gym and sports/necessary furniture & furnishings. However, there could be a variation of 10 per cent depending upon local and specific demands. Laundry and canteen charges etc. would be on actual basis and optional. The cost of an AC room would be on an average Rs 9,000 to Rs 10,000 extra.

The transport charges could be actual, not beyond the government fare per km.+ up to 50 per cent. The university/board and examination fee, insurance fee could be actual. A sum of Rs 3,000 could be charged as a uniform fee, which shall include one blazer, two trousers, two shirts, one tie and two socks. Subsequent requirement would be optional and chargeable.

He said additional charges for items like generator, Internet (Wi-Fi), Book Bank (minimum 3 books) EDP etc. might be taken only if these facilities were provided. However, it should not be more than 5 per cent of the sum total of the tuition fee + development fund and proportionately less as decided by the state fee committee.

Every institute is required to fix all charges accordingly and reflect in their prospectuses & on their websites and must necessarily submit copies of prospectuses and placement brochures with the fee committee. Overcharging by any institute on any account may immediately be brought to the notice of the committee, the spokesman added.

Ambala, July 5
The state government has provided free-of-cost water connections to 8.73 lakh households belonging to the Scheduled Castes in the state at a cost of Rs 377 crore under a special scheme, namely Indira Gandhi Drinking Water Scheme, which was initially launched in November 2006.

According to information, out of total water connections provided so far to the Scheduled Castes households, 7.48 lakh are in rural areas and 1.25 lakh in urban areas.

During the current financial year, 98,000 water connections (72,000 in rural areas and 26,000 in urban areas) will be provided to the Scheduled Castes households at a cost of Rs 30 crore. Till date, 9,100 water connections have already been provided during the current financial year.

Under the scheme, besides water connection, a water tank of 200-litre capacity fitted with a tap and other accessories are provided free of cost to the households of the Scheduled Castes. The households of general category are also being motivated to take water connection in their household at their own expenses to avoid wasteful flow of drinking water in the villages.

The scheme has been highly appreciated as it is proving a boon for the rural people, especially those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and is improving their living standard.

Sonepat, July 5
At the age of just six, another little master of cricket is emerging from the dusty lanes of Sonepat town. He is Sagar Dahiya who at this young age was included in playing in the Haryana State Inter-Centre (under-19) Cricket Championship held at Bhiwani in January this year. Though he made only five runs against Rewari Centre, he became the star attraction of the audience present there.

“He is the only cricket player in the world to get the under-19 playing certificate at the age of six and efforts are being made to get his name registered in the Gunnies Book of World Records,” his father Surender Kumar claimed.

Born on September 19, 2003, in a poor family of Jharonthi village in the district, Sagar hold the bat for the first time at the age of two and joined the National Cricket Club, Sonepat, at the age of three. At five, he started playing in the top 3-4 cricket academies of Delhi.

While playing in local tournaments of the Nation Cricket Academy last year, Sagar, in his first match, secured a hat trick and hammered an unbeaten half-century in the second match.

His best performances in May this year included five wickets in three overs conceding only seven runs against Swaranprasth Public School; scored 13 runs and captured three wickets while playing against under-19 students of the local Satyam Public School and remained not out at 37 runs against the under-14 students of Holi Child Public School, Sonepat.

According to his father, Sagar practices for 4 to 5 hours daily. For three days in a week, Sagar goes to Delhi for practice with well-known cricket academies. His father, who was forced to leave the job of a teacher in a private school, always accompanies Sagar.

In the present circumstances, the family has been facing financial problems. Sagar is a student of class III in Government Primary School, Sonepat. The only source of income of the family is the job of Sagar’s mother in a private school. The family has been expecting financial help from the government as well as from other organisations sponsoring the talented ones to achieve their goal.

Sachin Tendulkar is the role model for Sagar who wants to become another Sachin. “I worship Sachin like god and try to learn batting tricks while watching him playing,” he uttered these words while practicing at a cricket ground in a school in the local Model Town area.

Sirsa, July 5
Throwing challenges to their rivals and accepting the challenge of opponents has been a hobby of Haryana politicians.

Occasions abound when senior political leaders of different political parties have challenged their opponent to contest against them, knowing well that their challenge would not be accepted.

In many cases, the opponents accept the challenge in their statements, although they know they are not serious.

The latest in the series is the verbal duet between the INLD Supremo Om Parkash Chautala and senior Congress leader and the newly elected Rajya Sabha member Birender Singh.

The rivalry between the two leaders is very old with both claiming the legacy of farmer leader Chaudhary Chhotu Ram.

Birender Singh is a kin of the late farmer leader and Chautala claims to be his true political successor.

The rivalry was revived in the recent Assembly elections when Chautala contested against Birender Singh in his citadel and defeated him by a narrow margin.

Birender Singh started the recent war of words between the two leaders.

While filing his nominations for the upper house of the parliament, he said he was happy at his nomination for the Rajya Sabha, but he nursed a strong craving of avenging his defeat at the hands of Chautala from Uchana in the last Assembly elections.

Chautala was prompt to throw a challenge to Birender Singh. The INLD supremo invited him to contest against him by resigning his Rajya Sabha seat. Chautala went to the extent of offering to quit his Uchana seat for that purpose.

However, soon he added a rider, that the upper house seat vacated by Birender Singh should go to the INLD.

Panipat, July 5
The UHBVN and the HVPN have jointly made a comprehensive Rs 550-crore plan to further strengthen the distribution and transmission network in the district.

A spokesman of the nigam said two 220-KV substations were being set up at Samalkha and Chhajpur and two 132-KV substations at Beholi Road and Kabri Road Panipat would be commissioned during the current financial year to cater to more than one lakh consumers. The HVPN had also approved the construction of a 220 KV substation at Bijawa village with an installed capacity of 2x100 MVA with a 220/132 KV transformer.

The construction work of 33 KV substations at Jalalpur and Babarpur would be completed this year. The Power Utilities have also planned to augment the existing capacity of eight 132KV and 33 KV substations by installing higher capacity transformers in addition to the existing ones.

In order to streamline the distribution system, it had also been planed to add 20 200-KVA, 300 100-KVA and 300 63-KVA distribution transformers in the system every year.

The UHBVN also planned to bifurcate 20 11-KV feeders having load of more than 200 amperes during this fiscal to ensure better voltage regulations and to minimise the interruptions.

To supply quality power and reduce technical losses about 60-km-long undersize worn-out conductor would be replaced. The UHBVN had also set a target to release 1500 new tubewell connections in the district.

About the release of new connections to the people living below poverty line under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojna in the district, he said about 7,000 connections had been released with a total investment of Rs. 12 crore.

Chandigarh, July 5
Poland has shown interest in setting up a state-of-the-art factory in Haryana by expanding the operations of its company, Con-Pack SA, currently located in Aurangabad.

The Polish offer came when Ambassador of Poland Piotr Klodkowski met Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda last week in Delhi. The diplomat sought cooperation of the state government in identifying land and getting other facilities. Hooda assured him that his government would have a positive attitude to any such initiative.

Prof Klodkowski appreciated the progress made by Haryana in various fields and expressed keen interest in having collaboration with the state. He enquired if Haryana would like to have a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with any of the provinces of Poland in any field like business, agriculture, food processing or academics.

Responding to the offer, Hooda said there was a big scope for developing food-processing industry in the state in collaboration with Poland. He told the Polish Ambassador that every second car and motorcycle made in India, was manufactured in Haryana.

Prof Klodkowski said he himself being an academician would be keen on promoting exchanges in the field of culture and academics. He was told that Haryana would certainly like to promote exchanges in the field of education, especially in technical education.

When Hooda complemented the diplomat on being well conversant with Hindi, Prof Klodkowski aid, “Yes, I love Sanskriti, ‘samaj’ and ‘itihaas’ of India?

Speaking about his love for India, Prof Klodkowski said he had come to India for the first time 25 years ago. He liked Indian movies and his favorite actors were Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachhan and Amir Khan.

Gurgaon, July 5
Four officials of Central Bank of India were honoured in Delhi recently by the bank's Chairman and Managing Director, S.Shreedhar, for foiling robbery bids on their branches.

Central Bank of India's assistant general manager (Rohtak region) Ishwar Singh said four armed youths entered the bank's branch at Rasoi village in Sonepat district on June 18 and tried to loot cash at pistol-point.

However, the bank's head cashier Subhash Wadhwa and assistant manager Resham Lal foiled their bid and created a situation forcing the robbers to flee.

On being demanded cash, Wadhwa quickly got down and sounded the security alarm. Resham Lal, who was talking to somebody on the phone, pretended as if some police official was on the line and cops were just about to enter the bank.

Sensing trouble, the robbers fled without causing any harm to life or property. The CMD also honoured bank officials Ramesh Chander Bansal and Reeta Kainth for showing bravery on similar occasions.

Lauding the bravery of the staff members, Shreedhar observed that their alertness had not only saved cash but also set an example for other bank officials.

Karnal, July 5
People of Karnal, named after the legendary “Danveer Karan” of the Mahabharata, are carrying forward his legacy by “donating” their eyes. So far 100 people have donated their eyes and another 2,000 have signed forms to donate their eyes.

Apart from government agencies, social and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have come forward to strengthen the eye donation movement in a big way.

The president of the Madhav Netra Bank Sanstha, Dr Chander Mohan, said so far 100 persons had donated their eyes while 2,000 persons had registered themselves for eye donation. Besides, 100 persons had registered themselves at the Civil Hospital, where an eye bank has been opened recently.

A number of other social organisations like the Janseva Dal, the Nar Narayan Seva Samiti, the Sampooran Sanstha, the Ma Jhande Vali Seva Samiti and the Jat Sikh Association, are working in close coordination with the Madhav Netra Bank Sanstha and the movement is picking up.

Rohit Sadan, an eye specialist at the local Mahavir Dal Hospital, said eyes could be donated by relatives of the deceased within six hours after the death but the eyes of people infected with cancer and AIDS were not accepted.

A resident, Praveen, who has pledged to donate his eyes, said nothing could bring greater satisfaction than the feeling that someone would be able to see the world with your eyes when you are no more.

The eye donation programme in charge at the Civil Hospital, Dr VK Choudhry, said posters had been put up by the Health Department at prominent places like bus stands, cinema halls, railway stations and health centres to create awareness about eye donation and to motivate people.

Kaithal, July 5
Women should undertake regular physical exercise and adhere to physical labour despite growing age to keep good muscular strength and functional mobility.

This was stated by Dr Maninder Kaur of Kurukshetra University’s Home Science Department. She said an age related decline in manual functioning of rural and urban Jat females might be attributed to poor nutrition and behavioural factors, including, reduced physical activity and sedentary life style. Dr Kaur was recently invited as a guest speaker to attend the first International Community Health Care and Health Care Management Summit held at Shanghai in China, where she delivered a lecture on the “Age-related changes in handgrip strength among rural and urban Haryanvi Jat females”.

Kurukshetra, July 5
While government departments have failed to play a proactive role in implementing the Right to Education Act to provide free access to elementary education to all, two mass communication students of the Institute of Mass Communication and Media Studies of Kurukshetra University have taken the initiative to provide education to children of labourers working on the campus.

Postgraduate mass communication students, Arpana and Vishwajyot, were moved by the plight of children of labourers working on the campus and decided to bring them into the education mainstream by getting them enrolled in a school.

They contacted the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan office in Kurukshetra and got 13 such children enrolled in the government school on the campus. However, these children dropped out of the school due to family circumstances. Arpana and Vishwajyot, committed to the cause of poor children, decided to impart them education “outside” the school.

They constituted a group of 12 student volunteers from the university to teach 22 poor students on their own and raised donations to provide books and school bags to these kids.

These children are getting free-of-cost education through informal mode and continuing their education along with helping their parents to supplement the income.

The Kurukshetra University Vice-Chancellor, Lt-Gen DDS Sandhu (retd), has lauded the initiative taken by the students and said if every educated person worked with the same spirit, the goal of education to all would be achieved. The means were always secondary if there was a strong will and commitment to serve the poor and deprived sections of society, he added.

Sonepat, July 5
The launching of weekend technical graduation programmes at the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal, on July 3 has fulfilled the long-standing demand of diploma holders aspiring to become technical graduates. This was stated by university’s vice-chancellor HS Chahal while addressing a seminar organised to mark the beginning of the classes of the new programme.

With the start of this programme, the university had become 365 days working, he said and announced that soon it would also become a round-the-clock working university.

He said under the programme, the degree courses had been commenced in computer science and engineering, electronics and communication engineering, electronic engineering, mechanical engineering and civil engineering, adding that the total allocation of seats for these courses was 330. He said student of the weekend courses would be provided the same facilities, which were being provided to the regular students.