Chandigarh, September 5
Haryana today failed to keep its date with Teacher’s Day even as the state-level function, held to honour teachers on the birth anniversary of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, was pushed to a later date this month.

Sources said the transparent new criteria have proved to be the “stumbling block” this year, with the department receiving fewer nominations for the awards.

Against 95 awards comprising a cash prize of Rs 21,000 and a two-year extension in service, besides a citation and a shawl, the department received 40-odd entries. Of these, some nominations are likely to be dropped during scrutiny by a committee comprising senior officials of the department .

Under the earlier criteria, teachers were selected from among names forwarded by district education officers based only on their results. However, to the surprise of officials, most of these state awardees of previous years failed to attempt a “test ” based on their subjects and classes they were teaching, forcing the department to review its policy.

Last year, during the Teacher’s Day function in which Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced a hike in the award money, the Education Minister said that a new transparent policy was being evolved to ensure that only deserving teachers got the awards.

Though the new criteria were finalised and announced in consultation with various teachers’ unions, these have“failed” to generate nominations for “strict marking”. Also, the department had directed all district offices to submit nominations of only those teachers who scored 70 per cent on the parameters listed under the policy.

Sources in the Education Department said according to the parameters of the new policy, most nominations have scored poorly on “innovation in teaching”, “marks for higher qualifications”. Most of them seem to have a “serious problem” about scoring on continued comprehensive evaluation which requires a teacher to maintain a dairy, progress cards of students, project-based teaching and a students’ diary. Most physical training teachers have scored very poorly on the number of students selected for the sports and physical aptitude test (SPAT).

The “high scoring” parameters, interestingly, include results, annual confidential reports and additional duties by way of participation in Census and election duty.

Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal said “complaints” had been received about the criteria which did not give any weightage to cultural activities or to social responsibilities or “discriminated” against cent percent performers by checking them on other parameters. “We have received fewer entries for the awards. I will review the criteria next week so that ‘left-out’ parameters can also be given their due. Based on this, the shortlisting of nominations for the awards will be done. However the awards will be given away only on merit unlike previous years. The function will be held later in the month after the Chief Minister is back from his Japan tour,” she said.

Karnal, September 5
In yet another incident which exposed the "callous and casual" attitude of doctors and hospital staff, a baby died immediately after birth while the mother died here today three days after delivery. Enraged relatives alleged that the woman’s life could have been saved had the doctors discharged their duty honestly.

The woman’s relatives created a ruckus in the hospital compound, raising slogans against the authorities. Sensing the gravity of the situation, Dr Shiv Kumar, CMO, said a committee of three doctors had been constituted to probe the cause of the death and fix responsibility so that the guilty could be punished. Noor Bano of Kunjpura was admitted to the local Civil Hospital three days ago and she gave birth to a baby, who died immediately after birth.

Mange Ram, Noor Bano’ husband, alleged that doctors did not take proper care of his wife.

The CMO, however, said as she was anaemic, two bottles of blood was administered to her but she died due to heart attack. He said the matter was being probed and anyone found guilty would face action.

Rohtak, September 5
Raj Kishan Nain, an eminent photojournalist who faces the risk of losing his eyesight due to severe damage to his eyes, has found a ray of hope with the offer of help extended by an Amritsar-based eye institute after the publication of a news report in these columns on Sunday.

Dr Rohit Om Prakash, Director of the Dr Om Prakash Eye Institute, Amritsar, has contacted Raj Kishan and has offered to help him.

In an e-mail to Raj Kishan, the doctor has stated that the institute was ready to provide surgical and other treatment free of cost to him.

“Dr Rohit Om Prakash was touched by the story published about the ace photojournalist and decided to help him by taking up his case on priority,” said Rashmi Talwar, media manager of the institute. “Raj Kishan should contact the hospital at his convenience, but at the earliest,” she said.

It may be recalled that the Tribune had carried a story titled “Ace journalist faces loss of vision” on September 4 in which it had been revealed how Raj Kishan, based in a village in the district here, had been fighting a long battle to get back his vision fully but was unable to do so as he was suffering from a rare kind of problem. Though he had been told by doctors to get his eyes operated for cataract if he wanted to avoid total blindness, but with a burnt retina, the hope of getting his sight back seemed bleak. Confirming the offer made to him, Raj Kishan said would contact Dr Rohit Om Prakash soon.

Though Raj Kishan is the only photo-artiste from the northern region whose work has been featured in three permanent art galleries set up in his name, the government is yet to make any offer of help or assistance to ensure the recovery of his sight.

Rohtak, September 5
The quality of work of the six-lane expressway under construction, a part of the National Highway No. 10, which connects this city with Delhi stands exposed in the very first rainy season. The newly constructed road has got damaged at several places putting a question mark over the quality of work of the project worth over Rs 300 crore.

The project was taken up a couple of years back as the earlier two-lane road, which was a section of one of the important highways passing through the state, had become too congested leading to accidents and causing inconvenience to the commuters. The widening of this highway was approved to facilitate easy movement of traffic that had gone by several times in the past few decades, officials concerned said.

While the Rohtak-Bahadurgarh section was being six-laned, the highway connecting the rest of the state would be four-laned, it is stated. “An interesting point about the project is that it will be a toll road between Rohtak and Delhi and is likely to be completed within a year, the failure of the newly built road to face the first rain test raises a question mark over the quality,” a commuter, Anoop Kumar, said.

The road had withered away at several spots on the Kheri Sadh village bypass near the entrance to the city.“Though the officials have filled up the potholes, the authorities ought to pull up the contractor and officials concerned for the alleged poor quality, which cannot be expected in an expressway that is going to serve thousands of vehicles daily,” he added.

Gurgaon, September 5
The standoff between the management and workmen of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) continued today with both parties accusing each other of working against the interests of the company.

Talks were on to defuse the crisis with active involvement of Labour Department officials though no breakthrough had been achieved till the filing of this report.

Workers at the Manesar plant maintain that they are not on strike but the management is not allowing them to join duty. They have been holding demonstrations against the alleged highhandedness of the company management and have also submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister to the Gurgaon DC .

On the other hand, the MSIL management, which suspended and dismissed several workmen recently, asserts that workers had been employing unethical tactics like deliberate go-slow and compromising quality to sabotage production. “In the given circumstances, no worker will be allowed to enter the factory premises until he signs a good-conduct bond, declaring that he would not resort to the aforesaid malpractices,” says the management.

This good-conduct bond has become the bone of contention between the company management and workmen.

Meanwhile, the company has commenced part-production of cars at its plant B in Manesar, the commissioning of which has been advanced in view of the prevailing situation. The company is also hiring new workmen in a bid to raise an alternative workforce.

“More engineers were deployed at the Manesar plants today, which took the strength of the production team to 840,” the management said, adding that 200 cars were produced at the plant today. It further claimed that 63 regular employees had signed the good-conduct bond and were working at the factory.

Chandigarh, September 5
In a significant development in the Tejas Gaba kidnapping case, the CBI has got production warrants for four of the six accused. Two of the accused are already in the custody of the CBI.

Among the four for whom the CBI has got the warrants, three are in the custody of the Panipat police and one is Ambala Jail.

CBI counsel DS Chawla filed an application before the CBI court in Panchkula, seeking the production warrants for Satinder Malik, Sandeep Thakur, Ram Kumar and Rajesh Kumar. The court granted it production warrants for Tuesday.

On September 2, the Panipat police had arrested Satinder Malik, Sandeep Thakur and Ram Kumar. All three with a criminal background had cases related to murders, robberies, kidnapping and even bomb blast registered against them. During initial investigation, the Panipat police and the CBI learnt about the involvement of Rajesh Kumar as well. Kumar is in Ambala Jail in connection with a robbery case.

Sources in the CBI said the investigation agency would produce all accused before the Panchkula CBI court on Tuesday and would seek their police remand.

In connection with the case, the CBI has already arrested Teja Singh and Karuneshwar from Chennai on July 9. Both had demanded Rs 1 crore as ransom from the Tejas’s family members.

On December 12, 2008, eight-year-old Tejas was kidnapped while he was waiting with his mother Neena Gaba for his school bus at Paruthi Chowk. He had demanded a packet of chips from his mother and when she was about to go to fetch one, a person stepped out from a Honda Accord car parked nearby and grabbed Tejas from his arm. When Neena reacted, the person took out a revolver and fired a shot at the ground near her feet. Before the shocked mother could do anything, the person got into the car with Tejas and sped away.

Tejas’s father, Rajesh Gaba, had announced a reward of Rs 15 lakh for anyone coming up with information that could help them find their son.

Sirsa, September 5
Irked at an inordinate delay in the distribution of their social security pension, villagers blocked the Delhi-Fazilka National Highway No. 10, near Panjuana village, in this district today.

The angry pensioners from Bhangu village, including a large number of women, laid a squatter on the highway and did not allow any vehicle to pass.

Long queues of vehicles were seen, as the agitated pensioners refused to relent despite persuasion. “I had to walk some distance and then seek a lift from a vehicle for reaching Sirsa in time,” said Dr Shamim Sharma, Director General, JCD Vidyapeeth, Sirsa, who was strucked in the jam. A large number of commuters remained stranded on the highway for long hours.

Jasbir Kaur, a villager, alleged that the pensioners had been facing problems ever since the government had handed over the task of distribution of the pensions to a private company. “Pension is the only source of my income from which I get my ‘roti-dal’. But I have not received my pension for the last six months,” a widow, Biba Bai, said.

Pensioner Karnail Singh, Baldev Singh and Nasib Kaur say they have brought their plight to the notice of the authorities several times, but they seem to have a deaf ear to their problems. They said they expected the authorities to be a bit receptive to the woes of elderly persons.

Later, officials of the Social Welfare Department and the police persuaded the villagers to lift the blockade and assured them that their problem would be resolved soon.

Rewari, September 5
Following 15-year-old Deepika’s, refusal to return to her parental house at Rampura village here today, the court has directed the Rampura police to send the girl to Nari Niketan at Karnal.

Police sources said when Deepika eloped with a village youth, Sarjit, her father filed a complaint against him.

Chandigarh, September 5
Having tasted success at its Centre of Excellence for Vegetables at Gharaunda, which was set up in collaboration with Israeli experts, the Haryana Government has decided to replicate the experiment in all districts of the state in two phases.

Twelve Front Line Demonstration Centres (FLDCs) are to be set up under the National Horticulture Mission on the same pattern of the Gharaunda centre to explain and demonstrate modern vegetable cultivation techniques to farmers at the grassroots.

Each centre will be set up at a cost of Rs 25 lakh and 75 per cent of the cost will be met by the National Horticulture Mission (NHM).

On the state's part, Rs 3 crore has been earmarked for the project under the state's Annual Action Plan 2011-12, a spokesman of the state Horticulture Department said here today.

He said the vegetable production systems and techniques adopted at Gharaunda would be taken to 12 districts in the first phase.

The centres will be set up in the districts of Sirsa, Fatehabad, Hisar, Bhiwani, Jind, Jhajjar, Panchkula, Rohtak, Sonipat, Gurgaon, Narnaul and Mewat in the first phase.

“The other districts will be covered in the second phase. Following the Gharaunda model and practices, each centre will help set up an intensive crop cultivation farm by demonstrating the latest know-how; help produce high-quality vegetables all the year round; achieve potential productivity per unit area; and enable the farmers to march in step with the latest know-how,” the spokesman said.

These centres would help farmers adopt the latest technologies for poly-house cultivation and micro-irrigation, as well as grow off-season vegetables and make quality vegetables available to people the year round.

“The creation of such a facility is vital in Haryana, where approximately 84 per cent of the total area is under horticultural crops,” he added. — PTI

Sonepat, September 5
The police has arrested Ajit of Mehandipur village, who along with Jitender of Bhainswal Kalan, who was allegedly involved in the murder of his younger brother, Krishan, on Saturday night.

He was produced in a court, which remanded him in police custody for recovery of the arms used in committing the crime. Jitender, who was overpowered by villagers on the day of crime and handed over to the police, has already been sent in judicial custody.

According to the police, Ajit was allegedly beaten up by Krishan and his wife following an altercation about six months ago. He recently came out of jail.

The police has also arrested Suraj of Khera Khurd village in Delhi in connection with the murder of Vijay of Kundli on August 28.