Kurukshetra, May 14
The Haryana Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (HFUCTO) today announced to continue the boycott of evaluation work by teachers as its talks with the government and the HFUCTO reached a deadlock after making some progress during the past two days. The teachers have been boycotting the evaluation work since May 11.“Senior officers negotiating on behalf of the government have expressed their inability to accept some demands,”Pradeep Chauhan, president of the HFUCTO, said after the meeting.

The government negotiators said accepting these demands was not in their purview and only the higher authorities could take take a decision in this regard, he added.

He said while the stand of the government on not raising the retirement age to 65 years was clear from the very beginning, the other issues were deliberated upon for more than four hours on May 12, raising hopes that the demands would be settled. However, there was a change in the attitude of the negotiating officers and the situation was back to square one, he lamented.

Asserting that the HFUCTO was firm on its demand for the issuance of fresh “comprehensive notification” for the implementation of the revised UGC scales, he said the teachers would not resume the evaluation work till the demands were accepted.

Sirsa, May 14
In what is perhaps the biggest disciplinary action in the history of the state Irrigation Department, the Haryana Government has suspended 30 engineers of the department for irregularities.

The action has been taken for “procedural irregularities” allegedly committed by these engineers in the works assigned to them for increasing the capacity of Ottu Lake in Sirsa district.

Confirming the government action, Harmail Singh, Engineer-in-Chief of the Haryana Irrigation Department, told The Tribune that the engineers placed under suspension included a Superintending Engineer, five Executive Engineers, three subdivisional engineers, 19 junior engineers and two subdivisional engineers who were junior engineers at the time of the alleged irregularities.

He said the action had been taken by the government on the report of a special inquiry committee headed by RK Garg, a Superintending Engineer of the department, who had since been promoted to the post of Chief Engineer.

The Engineer-in-Chief said the inquiry revealed several procedural irregularities in the work of increasing the capacity of the Ottu Lake on the Ghaggar in Sirsa district.

Harmail Singh said the inquiry report had revealed procedural irregularities starting from 2007-08 till 2010.

Sources in the Irrigation Department here revealed that the work on increasing the capacity of Ottu Lake was to be taken up in three phases and a sum of Rs 70 crore was allocated for the purpose.

The first and the second phase were completed with an expenditure of Rs 15 crore and Rs 30 crore, respectively, and the tenders for the third phase were floated recently.

The work aimed at digging Ottu Lake further by 6 ft to increase its capacity. The irrigation authorities had claimed before the last monsoon that Ottu Lake had been dug further and its capacity more than doubled than its initial capacity of 20,000 cusecs.

However, floods from the Ghaggar had caused devastation in several villages of Sirsa during the monsoon last year and the claims of the authorities had come under the scanner.

Allegations were levelled that the capacity of Ottu Lake had not increased despite the expenditure of several crores and villagers maintained that the floods could have been prevented had the work of increasing the capacity of the lake been properly executed.

Hisar, May 14
Teachers of Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology continued their dharna for the third day today. They are demanding the suspension of the Secretary to the Vice-Chancellor for his alleged role in a clash between teachers and non-teaching staff.

In a statement, GJU Teachers Association president Sandeep Rana said the teachers had lost all faith in the Vice-Chancellor who, they said, had offered them to work out a compromise with the non-teaching employees. He said it was unfortunate that the VC was treating the whole issue as a political problem rather than a serious law and order issue.

The entire teaching community was feeling insecure as no action had been initiated against the SVC and his cronies who had allegedly assaulted teachers inside the office of the VC.

Karnal, May 14
An NGO, Sarthi, today spearheaded the protest against the failure of the police to arrest the accused in the rape and murder case of a minor Dalit girl.

Agitated over the failure of the investigating agencies to identify the culprits even after 10 days, the protesters led by Mehar Banerjee, president of the NGO, staged a demonstration at Committee Chowk and demanded handing over of the case to the CBI.

Family members of the victim, whose body was recovered near Rambha village here on May 5, had already lost confidence in state agencies and demanded a CBI probe.

The protesters said increasing crime against women would become a major hurdle in campaigns being launched against female foeticide as parents would be more concerned about the safety of the girl child.

Addressing the rally, Banerjee demanded setting up of fast track courts to provide prompt justice and deployment of women police at public places. Leading a candlelight procession, brother of the deceased, Kunal said: “We don’t want Sweety episode to be repeated with any other girl.

Rohtak, May 14
The total intake of students for the five-year MBBS course in Pt BDS Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) has been increased to 200 from the new academic session of 2011-12.

This has been done following a permission granted by the Medical Council of India (MCI) to increase the number of seats by 50.

According to the authorities concerned, the permission to raise the number of seats in the MBBS course was given in a communication received by the institute yesterday.

Officials of the Pt BDS health university, to which the PGIMS is affiliated, had taken up the matter with the department concerned that the institute had all the required infrastructure and faculty to teach and train additional 50 students in the course. The cost of pursuing the MBBS course in the PGIMS is lower than most of the other leading medical colleges, especially those in the private sector.

This decision would help another 50 meritorious students to pursue a course in the medical profession, claimed Dr SS Sangwan, Vice-Chancellor of the university.

Stating that while various medical facilities had been established here, the PGIMS was on its way to achieve new milestones following expansion and upgrade of the infrastructure and facilities for which it had already been given a grant of Rs 125 crore.

The institute is in the process of setting up a trauma centre here.

Sonepat, May 14
Hundreds of landowners of Garhi-Badhkhalsha village, under the banner of the Bhoomi Adhigrahan Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, today staged a protest at the PWD rest house, Rai, against the acquisition of their land for Rajiv Gandhi Education City.

The protesters assembled after an announcement was made last evening in the village that the compensation for the acquired land would be disbursed to villagers at the rest house today. However, on receiving information about the villagers’ protest against the disbursement of the compensation, none of the officers concerned reached the rest house.

During the protest, Power Minister Mahender Pratap Singh reached the rest house. He said the land acquisition was in the interests of the people of the area and if there was any “negligence” in the acquisition, he would raise their demand with the CM.

Sirsa, May 14
The police today arrested a pesticide and seed dealer here for selling spurious Bt cottonseed of a famous company and recovered packets of fake seed, empty pouches of seed and an unprinted bill book from his possession.

RC Punia, joint director (cotton), Agriculture Department, said Kamaljit, a farmer from Bappa village, purchased 22 packets of Bt cottonseed of 6488 BG II variety, purportedly manufactured by Shriram Bioseeeds Genetics India Limited, from a shop in Sirsa’s grain market.

The dealer identified as Swaran Singh, proprietor of Bharat Pesticide and Beej Bhandar, allegedly charged Rs 1,400 per packet against the control price of Rs 1,000 per packet. Later, the farmer managed to get four packets of the same variety from the outlet of Haryana Seed Development Corporation here. He noticed some differences between the pouches of the two lots of seeds and lodged a complaint. — TNS