Sirsa, September 18
Residents of the district had to face a difficult time today as the Public Health Department stopped the supply of potable water to the entire district demanding arrest of persons, who manhandled an SDO of the department. Engineers of several departments observed a strike here today. The engineers along with officials of the Public Health Department sat on dharna in front of the office of the superintending engineer of the department.

“Engineers working in the Panchayati Raj Institutions, the Public Health Department, the Public Works Department (Building and Roads), the Marketing Board and the Haryana Urban Development Authority joined the strike against the police inaction in this case,” claimed RK Sharma, president of the Haryana Federation of Engineers.

Sharma said the supply of potable water to the entire district, including villages, had been cut by their members to pressurise the police to take action against the accused.

He said it was surprising that while the accused were clearly identifiable in the photographs published in newspapers, the police was trying to delay the arrests on the ground of investigations.

Sharma said the engineers were not happy to disrupt the water supply, but they had to take this step as the police, he alleged, was adopting a soft attitude towards the culprits.

The sewer system of the town was also affected at several places due to the strike.

Some residents of the local Agarsen Colony had thrown SDO of the Public Health Department Tarun Garg in filthy water that had stagnated in a residential plot on Wednesday.

The striking engineers alleged that those who humiliated the SDO were roaming free. Sharma alleged that members of their federation had to become a victim of public ire for no fault of their own.

“Not a single penny has come to Sirsa district from the state government in the name of maintenance in the past six months. We do not have funds to pay salaries to the contractual workers, what to speak of maintenance activities,” Sharma alleged.

Citing an example of Rania town, he said the sewer system of the town had been started, but no sewer men had been appointed.

Those appointed on contractual basis have left jobs as the department had not paid their salaries for the past six months, he alleged.

Meanwhile, the police tried to resolve the issue through negotiations after some residents of Agarsen Colony intervened for rapprochement, but the agitating engineers remained adamant on the arrests.

Chandigarh, September 18
In view of the plight of migrants, the School Education Department has asked the nodal bank of the state to relax norms for opening of bank accounts for payment of stipend to children of the Scheduled Castes, the Backward Classes and those belonging to below poverty line (BPL) families.

Taking cognisance of a report carried in these columns, the department has asked the nodal bank of the state, Punjab National Bank, to relax the “Know Your Customer (KYC)” norms for the migrant beneficiaries of the state-run stipend scheme. The bank has been asked to convey the same to other banks in the field to facilitate the disbursal of stipend provided to children under the scheme.

Speaking to TNS, Principal Secretary, School Education, Surina Rajan said the matter had been resolved and the migrants would not face any hardship in opening bank accounts at zero balance and with no operational costs.

“Though the KYC norms had been made stringent last year following directions from the Reserve Bank of India, the nodal bank has agreed to open accounts on the recommendation of the school in charge of that area without insisting on identity proofs. The recommendation of the Principal or the in charge will now be treated as an identity proof for beneficiaries of the stipend scheme,” she said.

The Tribune had highlighted that while the initiative of the Haryana government to check the dropout rate and attract out-of-school children through the stipend scheme had shown results with an increase in the number of students attending school, the field staff was facing a problem in getting accounts opened in the case of migrants.

A school in charge in Kurukshetra, who took half a dozen forms to the bank for opening accounts of BPL families and those belonging to the Backward Classes, was turned away on the grounds that it was mandatory for the families concerned to furnish two identity proofs.

These could be a ration card, a voter identity card or the like.

School heads said they submitted forms to banks with recommendations from the sarpanch or the municipal committee representative. While some banks used to accept this as an identity proof, others would reject the forms outright, causing problems in the disbursal of the stipend.

Sources in the Education Department said now that an agreement for opening of bank accounts had been arrived at, the school heads, too, would shortly be informed of this decision.

Jind, September 18
Residents of several villages in the district assembled at Randhana village this morning and blocked traffic on the Jind-Gohana road, demanding reservation for Jats in government jobs.

The road blockade continued for over an hour and was lifted following the intervention of senior police officials.

The police has already registered a case against at least 700 persons in connection with the violence and blocking of roads and national highways in the district during the past few days.

Meanwhile, the president of the Binain khap of Danoda village has announced to set up special squads (balidaan jathas) for spearheading the pro-quota movement.

Residents of various villages, including Randhana, Nidani, Singhvikhera, Barahkalan and Barahkhurd, reached the bus stand of Randhana village around 9 am today and blocked the road there by parking their tractor-trailers and using wooden logs.

They announced that the road blockade was part of the agitation launched to seek reservation in jobs for Jats and in protest against the police action in Hisar district in which a youth was killed in firing.

They condemning the registration of police cases against those who took part in the recent protests.

The protesters said they would stage a demonstration against the Queen’s baton for the Commonwealth Games in the district on September 27.

Nafe Singh, head of the Binain khap, which held a meeting at Danoda village this morning, said the khap would set up groups of people, known as “balidaan jathas” to carry on the stir.

He said the jathas would be set up by the end of this month and members of these groups would be ready to make any sacrifice to get their demands met.

Kaithal, September 18
Under the Indira Gandhi Pey Jal Yojna, as many as 44,417 SC families have been provided domestic water connections at a cost of Rs 24.53 crore in rural areas while 9,255 connections have been provided at a cost of Rs 2.69 crore in urban areas in the district.

This was stated by Public Health, Engineering and PWD Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala during a press conference here after inaugurating drinking water supply schemes in various villages in the district today. The schemes have cost the government Rs 4.93 crore.

He said of the 281 villages in Kaithal district, 55 were getting potable water supply from canal while the remaining villages were getting drinking water supply from tube wells.

Surjewala said Rs 1.05 crore had been spent on the water supply scheme at Ujhana village. In Deora village, a drinking water supply augmentaion scheme had cost Rs 1.12 crore.

A road connecting Deora village with the NH-65 would be constructed at a cost of Rs 50 lakh, he added.

He said a road in ward No. 28 in Kaithal town would be constructed, which would benefit residents of the Sargodha colony, the Aggarsain colony, the Balmiki basti and the Ashoka road.