Panipat, March 29
The power situation in the state has got grim with five units at three major thermal power plants across the state shut due to technical problems and coal shortage.

According to sources, two units at the Panipat thermal power plant, one at Yamunanagar and two at Khedar are out of order due to which the availability of power has gone down significantly.

Units 3 and 4 at the Panipat thermal power plant had to be shut after the boiler reported some leakage there. The sources said it would take at least 24 hours to repair the boiler.

The unit at Yamunanagar had also developed some technical fault while the two units at Khedar have not been generating any power for the past 18 days due to non-availability of coal. The supply of coal had been affected due to the Jat agitation.

As of today, the power demand in the state was 4,750 MW. The state was overdrawing 190 lakh units from the northern grid. Its own generation was 1,246 MW against an installed capacity of 3,230 MW.

According to the sources, the Khedar plant was likely to resume generation as soon as coal was received there. It would take about eight hours to restart generation at the two units after coal was crushed and put in mills, the sources said.

Meanwhile, some cities in the state are witnessing power cuts of over three hours.

Pehowa, March 29
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today expressed the hope that the recommendations of the Working Group on Agricultural Production would be given due consideration while deciding the minimum support price (MSP) of foodgrains. The recommendation provide for ensuring 50 per cent profit to farmers.

Addressing a public meeting here, he said remunerative prices for farmers were essential to boost the farm economy and increase food production. Referring to the recommendations of the Working Group of Chief Ministers, headed by him, Hooda said many recommendations of the group like reduction in the interest rate on crop loans to 4 per cent, making timely payments to farmers and direct subsidy to them had already been accepted by the Union Government and he was sure that the other recommendations to improve the economic status of farmers by ensuring 50 per cent profit to them would be accepted in due course of time.

Hooda hit out at the Opposition, especially the INLD, and asked it to spell out a single step taken during its regime for the betterment of the farming community.

Hooda announced to upgrade Ismailabad to the block level and sanctioned Rs 5 crore for the development of rural areas and Rs 2.5 crore for urban areas of the Pehowa Assembly segment during the current financial year.

He claimed that the state government had incurred an expenditure of Rs 1,364.26 crore on various developmental projects in Kurukshetra district during the past six years and added that Rs 157.73 crore were spent on various projects in Pehowa alone.

He said the state government was ensuring inclusive development of the state and the Annual Plan of the state had increased from Rs 2,200 crore in 2005 to Rs 20,356 crore for 2011-12.

Hooda accepted the demands made by local MLA and Cooperation Minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha which included school and hospital upgrade, setting up of an ITI and polytechnic and construction of streets and roads.

Jhajjar, March 29
The Haryana School Lectures Association (HSLA) has decided not to teach classes IX and X from April 1, the first day of the new academic session, to register their protest against the three-tier system to be introduced in government senior secondary schools from this academic session.

The HSLA has also warned the government that their agitation will carry on till the system is not withdrawn.

Narender Singh, district president of the HSLA, said the decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the association in Rohtak on Sunday. All office-bearers condemned the system and decided to continue their resistance in the interest of school lecturers.

Terming the three-tier system as “anti-student” and “illogical”, he maintained that the HSLA had been protesting against the system for the past two months, but the government was not paying any heed to their demands.

“The HSLA has also decided to boycott the evaluation of answer sheets of the board examinations of Class XII besides launching a dharna from March 29 outside the mini-secretariat in Rohtak to press for their demand,” said the president, adding that the teachers of two districts of the state would sit on dharna every day in Rohtak to make the agitation successful.

Narender Singh said as per the system, DEd teachers would teach Classes from I to III, master would teach the students of classes IV to VIII while school lecturers would teach classes from IX to XII.

“This sort of system is not feasible in Haryana because according to the rules, only those teachers can teach students of classes IX and X who have a BEd degree. Since the degree is not mandatory for school lecturers in the state, how can they teach classes IX and X,” said the president, adding that the school lecturers were, at present, teaching classes XI and XII.

Chandigarh, March 29
The Haryana Government has released Rs 51.66 crore to school management committees (SMCs) constituted in all districts in the state for providing school uniforms to students up to the elementary level for the academic year 2011.

Stating this here today, Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal said the SMCs had been constituted in all elementary-level schools in the state. She said the committee would decide the pattern and the colour combination of the school uniform. It would make an assessment of the total quantity of each article of the uniform required for the students of the school. Also, it would decide whether it would buy ready-to-wear uniform or buy cloth and get the uniform stitched. She said Rs 400 per student had been released for providing school uniforms to students studying from Class I to Class VIII.

Bhukkal said Rs 2.34 crore had been released for Ambala district whereas Rs 3.52 crore had been given to the SMCs in Bhiwani district. Similarly, Rs 2.25 crore had been allocated to Faridabad district, Rs 1.90 crore for Fatehabad, Rs 2.44 crore for Gurgaon, Rs 3.14 crore for Hisar, Rs 1.80 crore for Jhajjar, Rs 2.96 crore for Jind, Rs 2.27 crore for Kaithal, Rs 2.74 crore for Karnal, Rs 1.77 crore for Kurukshetra and Rs 1.95 crore for Mahendragarh. — TNS

Sirsa, March 29
Medical stores running without a qualified pharmacist in the district will invite penal action in future.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary Prahlad Singh Gillankhera has issued instructions to the authorities that stringent penal action must be initiated against owners of the chemist shops, who are found selling drugs without the supervision of qualified pharmacists.

Gillankhera issued these directions following a complaint by Subhash Chander, a resident of Kehwarwala village, while presiding over the meeting of the District Grievances and Public Relations Committee here today.

Under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, it is mandatory that the sale of drugs must be made under the supervision of a qualified medical practitioner.

However, the rules are being flouted in Sirsa, particularly in rural areas of the district. Though the authorities do not give any licence to stock and sell drugs in retail without a qualified pharmacist on the rolls of the shop, the conditions usually remain on paper.

Several chemists have hired pharmacists for their shops to complete the paper formality only and actually unqualified persons sell drugs on stores. In all, 14 complaints came up for hearing before the committee today.

Acting upon another complaint filed against a trader dealing in seeds and grocery items, Gillankhera directed the agriculture authorities to step up their campaign to check the sale of fake and adulterated seeds. The CPS also appealed to the farmers to use seeds certified by Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar, or the state Agriculture Department and demand bills of the seeds sold to them.

Raja Ram, sarpanch of Bijjuwali village, complained that the Excise Department had allowed the setting up of liquor vend in the thickly inhabited area of the village. Deputy Commissioner Yudhbir Singh Khyalia observed that some complainants did not turn up to follow their case after giving a complaint to the authorities.

He said action would be initiated against such frivolous complaints in future. City Magistrate Harish Bhatia, Advocate Suresh Mehta, District Congress President Malkiat Singh Khosa and HPCC executive member Hoshiari Lal Sharma were also present.

Fatehabad, March 29
A runaway couple was provided security by the police after they complained that they had been receiving threats from the girl’s family.

Harpreet Singh, a resident of the local MC Colony, had married Harmanpreet Kaur, a resident of Jehangirpuri, Delhi, in a temple in Hisar.

The boy, who worked as a driver in a tourist bus in Delhi, came in contact with the girl six years ago.

Harmanpreet, a college student, decided to marry Harpreet and they ran away from Delhi.

The couple today met SP Vivek Sharma and complained that the girl’s family had been threatening them.

The couple said they wanted to live in Fatehabad now.

The SP directed the City police station to provide security to the couple.

Bhiwani, March 29
Public Health Engineering and Excise and Taxation Minister Kiran Choudhry has directed the officers concerned to ensure adequate drinking water supply to the people.

Choudhry, who was addressing a meeting of officers of the Public Health and Engineering Department at her residence here recently, said urban and rural areas, facing shortage of drinking water, should be accorded top priority. She directed the officers to ensure that people and cattle in any area of the district should not face the shortage of drinking water.