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Truckloads of wheat from UP flow in
Rohtak admn sleeps over irregularities in LPG supply
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Fatehabad NRI comes to villagers’ aid
PWD messes up projects
Women outnumber men in voters’ enrolment
Manch opposes inclusion of 5 ‘prosperous’ castes in OBC list
Implementation of Welfare Schemes
Gurgaon institute holds national conference
6 graduate courses get accreditation
Fatehabad fails to get allocated funds
Speed breakers to be rebuilt in Jind
Karnal to have six more entry, exit points
BJP to organise ‘kisan parliament’ in Delhi
Rise in kidney stone cases
Rs 2,359 cr for water supply, sewerage approved
ICU, NICU inaugurated at medical college
Counting of wildlife to begin next month
Four-day Gurgaon book fest held
State to create health awareness through films
Assembly to constitute consultative panels
HAU accused of surrendering autonomy to govt
Eye camp held
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Truckloads of wheat from UP flow in
Karnal, April 23 The state government has made it clear that only the wheat produced by local farmers would be purchased and no wheat from other states would be allowed in its mandis. However, there is a perennial flow of wheat from UP because of the better procurement infrastructure. Officials of the Food and Supplies Department have seized about 25 quintals of wheat in Karnal during the past two days and four trucks with 1,800 quintals of wheat were impounded yesterday. These trucks carried wheat from Barabanki in UP. As the arrangements made by the state government targeting procurement of 7 million tonnes were sufficient only for procurement from the farmers of the state, any additional burden could derail the procurement process, said an official. Further, the increase in MSP for wheat from Rs 1,120 per quintal to Rs 1,285 per quintal and a bumper wheat crop was prompting UP farmers to sell wheat in Haryana mandis, but the curb on the arrival of wheat from the neighbouring states would continue till the procurement was complete and checking would go unabated, he added. The officials of the Food and Civil Supply Department are making intensive checking at the borders and the procurement agencies have also been directed to check documents before purchasing wheat from farmers to ensure that they belong to the state. Nearly 40 lakh MT of wheat had been procured in the state mandis during this season till April 21 in spite of the slow arrivals in the beginning, a spokesman of the department said. Over 11 lakh MT of wheat was purchased by the Food and Supplies Department and over 12 lakh MT by HAFED while the Food Corporation of India, Haryana Agro Industries Corporation, and CONFED procured about 5.50 lakh MT, 3.65 lakh MT and 2 lakh MT of wheat, respectively.
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Rohtak admn sleeps over irregularities in LPG supply
Rohtak, April 23 “Expecting a refill cylinder within 10 days of booking is foolishness though the rules say that supply must be made within a few days from the date of booking,” claims Chander Pal, a resident of nearby Kheri Sadh village. He said the delivery of refills is deliberately delayed as the cylinders are diverted to the black market. “The rate of gas cylinder in black market had been somewhere between Rs 750 to Rs 900 per refill depending upon the customer and the urgency,” claims an employee of a gas agency on condition of anonymity. “Besides the delay, underweight cylinders is also a persisting problem, says Raj Singh Hooda, a local resident, who said a complaint in this regard normally goes unattended. Claiming that the problem had become acute, lawyer Yoginder
Dahiya says the supply and distribution of such an important commodity should be channelised in a transparent manner and responsibility fixed on the gas agency. There are over 2.36 lakh connections in the district, which includes 1.58 lakh single barrel connection. The supply and distribution is handled by 16 outlets of various oil companies. While 12 agencies are located in the city, only four operate in the nearby towns of Meham, Kalanaur, Sampla and Lakhanmajra. Offence in the supply and distribution of LPG cylinders as mentioned in the LPG (Regulation of Supply and Distribution) Order, is punishable in the form of financial penalities and termination of the gas agency in case the complaint is found true for the fourth time. The district authorities however claim that there is no short supply of domestic gas in the district and the distribution work had been smooth despite minor complaints that have been attended to by the officials concerned.
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Fatehabad NRI comes to villagers’ aid
Having pursued her entire education in the West and in Australia, Dr Vedika is now well-settled at Providence, Rhode Island, US. However, her roots keep calling her back and she has been coming back every year to provide health services to the villagers. “I was four years old when my father, Narinder Nehra, moved to Canada for a fellowship. It was in 1996 that he moved to the US to finally settle there,” said Vedika. The urge to do something constructive for the village always prompted her and she decided to start an NGO, Nehra - Savent Foundation (NSF), named after the sub-castes of her paternal and maternal grandparents. Under the aegis of her NGO, Vedika organises medical camps in various villages to provide primary healthcare to the villagers. Besides this, she has also been immunizing the villagers against diseases. “Immunization is
one of the most cost-effective methods of preventing childhood deaths. However, each year at least 27 million children and 40 million pregnant women do not receive the basic WHO immunization package, which results in an estimated 3 million deaths per year. In India, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), only 44 per cent of 1 to 2-year-old children are fully immunized, and this rate drops to 2-20 per cent in the rural India,” Vedika told The Tribune. “Distanced from the urban medical professionals, rural communities need a decentralised mode of vaccination. While continuing to provide primary healthcare at our makeshift family clinic, NSF has initiated an innovative approach to immunize village children without any cost from this year,” she added.
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PWD messes up projects
Kaithal, April 23 This has happened despite the fact that Randeep Singh Surjewala, PWD minister and the local MLA, had managed to get funds for development projects in the area. The concrete nullah constructed on one side of the Kaithal-Ambala road in December has been lying unused due to faulty design and other technical faults. The department officials remain indecisive on whether to make this drain operational or to dismantle it. The debris lying on the construction site has made the life of commuters and shopkeepers miserable but department officials seem to have turned a blind eye towards inconvenience being caused to the people. Huge money went down the drain as the nullah failed to drain out rain water accumulated on the roads. The bottom of the nullah is much above the road level hence not a single drop of water flows down the nullah. If the road level is raised,
the shops and other business premises and residential localities on this road will get submerged in rain water. The technical fault in this nullah was brought to the notice of PWD minister and local MLA Randeep Singh Surjewala by some residents when construction work was on. Following his intervention, a Chief Engineer from Chandigarh visited the site and found fault in the designs of nullahs and directed local officials to review them before executing other such projects. Facing severe criticism, the department is yet to start construction of nullah on the other side of the road. The PWD department scraped the upper layer of one side of this road with machines about a fortnight ago leaving it unmotorable. Earlier too, the department allowed construction of Vishvakarma Chowk on Kaithal Patiala road bye pass and Chhotu Ram Chowk without caring for technical feasibility resulting in accidents and posing risk to the lives of road users. A triangular divider on Kaithal-Khurana road has become a source of nuisance for drivers. When contacted XEN KK Nain said that the decision about construction of nullah on the other side of this road had been kept in abeyance but the widening and reconstruction of this road which had been delayed due to shortage of construction material will begin shortly.
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Women outnumber men in voters’ enrolment
Chandigarh, April 23 During a special campaign conducted by the state’s Election Department between February 1 and February 29, women accounted for 25,454 new voters’ enrolment as against 19,515 male voters’ enrolments. “The remarkable women enrolment is the result of multi-pronged youth-centric strategy adopted by the Election Department, which focused on educational institutions,” Sumita Misra, Chief Electoral Officer and Commissioner and Secretary of the Election Department, Haryana Government, told The Tribune here recently. A heartening development was that an overwhelming majority of the first-time voters, over 80 per cent, were in the age group of 18 to 29 years. While 16,433 new voters (37 per cent) were in the age group of 18-19 years, 19,927 (44 per cent) new voters were in the age group of 20-29 years. In fact, concerted efforts by the Election Department to enroll more female first-time voters, particularly before their marriage, seem to have borne fruits. The voters’ gender ratio of total enrolment since last year is 846 per 1,000, which is more than the gender ratio of total voters (838). And the total enrolment since last has been one of the highest with 8,66,316 new voters being added to the electoral rolls. “Of the total of over 1.38 crore voters in Haryana, there are 75 lakh male voters and 63 lakh female voters. Buoyed by the response to the special campaign, the Election Department is planning to start a year-round voter enrolment drive under which a new voter can just walk into the election office for enrolment,” Misra added.
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Manch opposes inclusion of 5 ‘prosperous’ castes in OBC list
Karnal, April 23 In separate letters addressed to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, with copies to all concerned, ML Dhiman, general secretary of the manch, said the Jats and Bishnois were the “ruling casts” and their inclusion in the OBC list would further harm the other backward classes, who were yet to get full quota of 27 per cent even after a lapse of 20 years. The manch also urged the chairman of the Haryana Backward Classes Commission to examine the case for inclusion of the Jats, Jatt Sikhs, Tyagis, Rods and Bishnois in the OBC list as it would hit the poor and deprived among the OBCs. Alleging that all attempts were being made by the state government to obtain OBC status for these castes from the Haryana Backward Classes Commission, Dhiman said Census-2011 was “jeopardised” to avoid correct enumeration of the OBCs in spite of assurance given by the Prime minister in Lok Sabha in May, 2010. Referring to the efforts to subvert the OBC quota, Dhiman said class-III posts had been converted to class-II posts in “wholesale” to reduce reservation from 27 to 10 per cent. Maintaining that 4.5 per cent quota for minorities under the OBC quota was “unconstitutional”, he said the Supreme Court had already declared ‘as void, the quota within quota’ in SCs/STs case of Haryana and added that reservation on religion basis was also unconstitutional The manch also opposed the economic criterion for reservation and said it was neither “workable nor constitutional” and even Article 340 of the Constitution did not provide for it.
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Implementation of Welfare Schemes
Sirsa, April 23 The zila parishad, in its meeting held recently, adopted tough postures on the quality of certain development works and expressed dissatisfaction on the “poor implementation” of a few welfare schemes. Zila parishad chairman Sita Ram directed the Public Works Department (B&R) to get samples of roads constructed by the department in the recent years and submit a report to him. The INLD, which has 16 members in the 21-member house, dominates zila parishad, Sirsa, and its chairman Sita Ram is a former INLD MLA from Dabwali. Sita Ram issued these directions to the Executive Engineer of the PWD (B&R) Department, when some members, including zila parishad deputy chairperson Neelam Kamboj raised the question of poor quality of roads constructed in the recent times. “We have been receiving complaints of poor construction of roads from our members. Normally, a newly constructed road should have the life of three to five years depending on the traffic load. But the roads constructed in Sirsa have given way within months,” the zila parishad chairman said. The parishad also discussed the issue of delayed distribution of old-age pension and directed the officials of the Social Welfare Department to ensure early disbursement of pension for March. Raj Kumari, sarpanch of Bharokha village, said the Public Health Department had constructed tube well in Panihari village for supply of drinking water to the village. But the drinking water is not reaching her village, as the department is yet to
lay about 3,000-ft-long water pipe. The entire proceedings of the zila parishad meeting were video filmed. The activism shown by the parishad has perplexed officials of some government department. Though most of them preferred not to air their views, many of them said there was no precedent of the parishad issuing such orders. Sita Ram said being the elected representatives of the people, it was their duty to ensure that the development works were taken up with transparency. MS Sangwan, executive engineer of the PWD (B&R), said he would soon send a list of roads constructed in his division to the zila parishad. He said though the zila parishad had no authority to check the works executed by his department, he had no problem in sampling of his roads, as it would ensure transparency.
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Exhibition on public relations held
Kurukshetra, April 23 While addressing the students, chief guest Sirohiwal, said: “Public relations and journalism are the two sides of the same coin and the new media has revolutionised every sphere of society, including public relations.” Prof Rajbir Singh, director, said: “Public relations is a growing industry at the rate of 32 per cent per annum and it has many opportunities to offer, too.” Dr Dev Vrat Singh, Reader, IMCMT, said: “Public relations is one of the fast-growing fields today but at the same time the toughest as well.” Radhe Krishan, Assistant Professor, IMCMT, who coordinated the event, said: “The exhibition will not only create awareness about this growing industry but also demystify the concept and notion of PR among the students. The exhibition comprised of 14 posters, which described various facets of PR, history, code of ethics, pioneers, industry trends, awards and major organisations of public relations. The posters were prepared by Karampal, Vijay, Komal, Sarabjeet, Monika of MSc final year, and Aakanksha, Rubi and Mukta of MSc first year.” Students also actively participated in the interactive session during the exhibition, while Ashok Sharma, Assistant Professor, IMCMT, delivered the vote of thanks.
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Gurgaon institute holds national conference
Gurgaon, April 23 Leading experts from the academic and industry delivered talks and presented technical papers during the conference. As many as 50 speakers and delegates from all over the country participated in the event. The conference was inaugurated by Prof JL Gupta, former Vice-Chancellor, GGU (Central University), and former principal, Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University, Delhi, in the presence of Dr CS Nagpal, director, Sushant Group of Institutes and Dr MS Mamik, dean, School of Management, by lighting the traditional lamp followed by Saraswati Vandana. Dr MS Mamik presided over the inaugural session. Dr MS Mamik, dean, welcomed the guests and delegates. While delivering the inaugural address, Prof Gupta said innovation in true sense was about creating something new that could add to the resources and help everyone grow intellectually, financially and socially. The theme of the first track was “Innovation and Structural Changes for a Sustainable World”. The session was chaired by Harish Choudhary, an eminent educationist and specialist in marketing.
— TNS
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6 graduate courses get accreditation
Sonepat, April 23 These courses included B Architecture, BE in chemical engineering and computer science and engineering and BTech in electronics and communication, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. According to HS Chahal, Vice-Chancellor of the university, the accreditation means recognition and guarantee of minimum quality education with a potential for improvement in quality and growth. “If your institution and programmes are accredited by the NBA, you will be able to identify your programmes with excellence in technical education and rate them on a national platform to attract better student intake,” he said. The NBA was constituted by the All-India Council for Technical Education, an autonomous body under the AICTE Act, 1987, to periodically conduct evaluation of technical institutions or programmes on the basis of guidelines, norms and standards specified by it and to make recommendations regarding recognition or de-recognition of the institution or programme.
— OC
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Fatehabad fails to get allocated funds
Fatehabad, April 23 “We had submitted our bills and the list of the Panchayat in the treasury on March 28, but the money was not transferred to the accounts of panchayats. We had not received any communication from the government in this regard,” said an official dealing with planning at the district mini-secretariat. Fatehabad, incidentally, is not the only district to have lost its D Plan funds due to official delays. There are some other districts also in this list. Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik said he was following the issue at the government level and assured that the funds would not be allowed to lapse. Sirsa, on the contrary, could get its share of nearly Rs 11.85 crore, as the authorities in that district completed all the formalities on time. The District Planning Committee (DPC) of Sirsa, headed by Deputy Commissioner J Ganeshan, had released funds to the executing agencies in December 2011, while Fatehabad could organise the meeting of its DPC only in February this year. A statement of accounts submitted by the Finance Minister in response to a question raised by Sampat Singh, Congress MLA from Nalwa, in the last Assembly session revealed that the DPC in Fatehabad had been lackadaisical in its approach for many years now. The DPC released D Plan funds for the year 2010-11 to the executing agencies until as late as February 2012 - almost a year after the end of the fiscal. “It is due to the helplessness of the bureaucracy in front of autocracy of some politicians from the district. We had submitted the list of proposed development works duly approved by Panchayats on time. However, some political bosses of the district wanted their decision to prevail and in the process valuable time was lost in getting their proposals approved again,” said Angrez Singh Lali, INLD, who is a member of the DPC and chairman of the Zila Parishad, Fatehabad.
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Speed breakers to be rebuilt in Jind
Jind, April 23 According to the authorities concerned, the decision to rebuilt and redesign the speed breakers had been taken after surfacing of a large number of complaints and incidents of mishaps, along with the damage to vehicles due to the extraordinary height and sharpness of the breakers at several places. The authorities said the wrong shape and form of the speed breakers had been a cause of inconvenience to the commuters and had resulted in several accidents too. “All the speed breakers will be made sloppier and properly curved. The officials concerned should put retro light reflectors at such points so that the drivers get alert while approaching such points,” said a senior district official. He said the work of providing reflectors on the national highways had already been started, the lights would be put on every 100 metres on this stretch. “The traffic signals and safety signs will also be installed at all the important and sensitive points, including the schools in the district,” he said. “The exhaust pipe of my car got damaged recently at a speed breaker on the Jind- Safidon road, when I was coming to Jind town, said a local resident. He said, “There is no standard size or shape of the speed breakers, which actually prove vehicle breakers at some times.” “The condition of roads accompanied with ill-constructed speed breakers contribute to the harassment and victimisation of the drivers,” said Harish Kumar Garg, another local resident.
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Kurukshetra to have e-pension system
Kurukshetra, April 23 Brar further said that with the introduction of the e-salary system, the manual bill and record keeping botheration had ended and the uploading and downloading of any type of bill related to salary arrears had become easier. Local Treasury Officer Sat Narayan Sharma said the introduction of the new hi-tech system had proved time saving. He said computerisation in the Department of Treasury and Accounts in Haryana was started in 1992 and till 2009 the old system entirely depended on computer data feeding. During the same period manual work was also conducted and after 2010 a project of National Security Deposit Limited was introduced under which the National Pension Scheme was put on the computer, Sharma added. For the effective implementation of the e-salary system, a training workshop of drawing and disbursing officers and pay-bill assistants was organised. He said complications in the new e-salary system might be possible where drawing and disbursing officers and bill clerks were careless or irresponsible regarding the unique code of the payee. Sharma said the Accountant-General, Haryana, was considering making the system paperless in future.
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Karnal to have six more entry, exit points
Karnal, April 23 Initially, Soma Construction Company engaged in six-laning and construction of series of bypass
had provided only two points - entry and exit - at Sector-4 and Uchhana, but now six more points at Namaste Chowk, Devi Lal Chowk, Nirmal Kutiya, Atal Park, ITI Chowk and NBAGR would be
provided. In all, 16 flyovers are to be constructed in and around Karnal town and the residents were worried that they would be burdened with “wasteful expenditure” of driving 10-km distance and had taken up the cause with the
district administration with the help of social organisations. Deputy Commissioner Neelam Pradeep Kasni said as the problem was genuine, the matter was taken up with people concerned and six more flip entry and exit points had been
sanctioned. Foot overbridges would be build at Nizampur, Babarpur, Kohand, Kutel, Uncha Samana, Kambopura, Grain Market, Karnal, NBAGR, ITI Chowk, Uchana-Uchani, Dadupur, Rambha, Padhana and Nilokheri. Taking credit for getting six more flip entry and exit points, Karnal BJP
president Chander Prakash Kathuria said the BJP was first to take up the matter in the interest of the local residents.
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BJP to organise ‘kisan parliament’ in Delhi
Chandigarh, April 23 Om Prakash Dhankar, the morcha's national president, said a parliament had been necessitated because the government had turned a deaf ear to their demand of convening a special session for discussing the farmers' issues. He said at the “farmers' parliament”, former Chairman of the Farmers’ Commission MS Swaminathan, journalist P Sainath, BJP national president Nitin Gadkari, Lok Sabha Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj, Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Arun Jaitley, BJP-ruled states' Chief Ministers, among others, had been invited. "A farmer is a very demoralised man today with rising input costs and hardly any returns. At the parliament, we will take up his concerns as also the lack of infrastructural facilities, the 'poor' Minimum Support Price and Bills presented before the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, Land Acquisition Bill, Seed Bill, Pesticides Management Bill and Biotechnology Authority Bill will also be discussed," Dhankar said. Mentioning a letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, written by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Dhankar said it stated that the Central Government's policies were "anti-farmer and the present MSP calculating system is incapable of bailing out farmers from the serious economic crisis they are reeling under". "Pawar's letter echoes the issues the Morcha had been raising," he claimed, adding that Pawar had vehemently condemned the ban imposed on export of cotton and sugar in the country and termed the decision anti-farmer. "According to the letter, the prices of cotton have tumbled and sugar is not being exported despite a decision taken in March. It is worrisome as farmers are not getting Rs 8,000 crore pending towards sugarcane crushing mills," he added. He added that farming and the farmer's vision would also be discussed and held that the morcha would continue its agitation demanding Rs 500 as bonus on wheat and the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's report.
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Rise in kidney stone cases
Panipat, April 23 Dr Pawan Gupta, a renowned urologist and organising secretary of the workshop, said the RIRS was the best technology in removing kidney stones through natural passage in human body. “This technology is gradually replacing the keyhole surgery and it has become a daycare treatment,” he said. Dr S. Lamhe from Germany said doctors should follow the latest techniques from security and convenience point of view. The inaugural ceremony was addressed by Dr SK Singh and Dr Madhu Sudan Aggarwal. They said this method of treatment was going to stay for long and required further development and progress in this procedure.
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Rs 2,359 cr for water supply, sewerage approved
Chandigarh, April 23 The board decided to augment the supply of drinking water in 950 villages during the current financial year. Hooda directed the officers to expedite the works being undertaken by the Public Health Department and ensure optimum utilisation of funds. He asked the officers to work out the feasibility of a Renny Well Project for water supply in Panipat and directed for early completion of five-year-old schemes of the department. While reviewing the issue of electricity connections for the supply of water, it was decided that power distribution companies would arrange meters in the rural areas to avoid delay in the release of electricity connections. The charges for meters would be paid by the Public Health Department. The Power Department assured that all pending connections would be released by the end of this June. Public Health Minister Kiran Choudhry said under the Indira Gandhi Drinking Water Scheme, so far free water connections had been released to 9.95 lakh Scheduled Castes households against the target to benefit 10.36 lakh such households. The remaining connections would be released during the current financial year, for which Rs 40 crore had been earmarked. The board was informed that Rs 75 crore for had been provided for the improvement of water supply in the Shivalik region and Southern Haryana under the 13th Finance Commission and Rs 25 crore had been proposed for Mewat. A sum of Rs 780 crore would be spent under the Public Health State Plan, out of which Rs 200 crore was to be spent in the National Capital Region for the improvement of infrastructure of drinking water and sewerage. Besides, Rs 330 crore would be spent under the Central assistance for rural water supply and Rs 225 crore under the economic stimulus package plan.
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Felicitation ceremony held
Gurgaon, April 23 The theme of the FLL was Food Factor challenge where the students showcased their concern over food safety. Under the guidance of iCarnegie teacher Jyoti Siwach and Sanjay Bansal, Head, Manav Rachna Innovation and Incubation Centre, the students prepared for this competition. Talking about the competition, Dhriti Malhotra, Principal, Manav Rachna International School, Gurgaon, said: “Robotics offer an exciting way to learn. The whole enterprise proved to be an amazing learning experience for the students and there was nothing more rewarding than watching your students receiving the award.” The students had also prepared a presentation on one food item and studied its contamination as well as provided an innovative solution.
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ICU, NICU inaugurated at medical college
Sonepat, April 23 He stated this while inaugurating ICU and NICU at the medical college hospital on Friday. The inaugural ceremony was presided over by Dr RC Siwach, director of the hospital and college. Dr Sangwan said the MCI team had already inspected the existing facilities in the hospital. The commitment of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to establish a rural medi-city and also tireless efforts of Dr Siwach had resulted in setting up of the hospital within a short period, he said. The ICU for common people and NICU for the children would be provided without any cost, he said. While talking about the progress of the hospital after its inauguration on trial basis on September 1, Dr Siwach said the OPD had increased from 176 to 1277 on April 20. During his visit, Dr Sangwan inspected OPD, indoor wards, operation theatres, central library and lecturer theatre. He also interacted with the patients and inquired about the services provided by the medical and para-medical staff.
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Counting of wildlife to begin next month
Sirsa, April 23 Shakti Singh, Divisional Wildlife Officer, said after the completion of the counting, more effective measures would be taken to conserve the wildlife. He said a complete layout plan for their counting had been prepared and sent to the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, which was the nodal agency for wildlife counting by the Central Government. He said before starting the counting, training would be imparted to all the workers and officials concerned. He said Haryana had a large number of blackbucks and special steps were being taken to protect them. He said in Sirsa, cases against more than two dozen people had been registered under the Wildlife Conservation Act - 1972, for poaching the animals or attacking them for various reasons. There were about 1000 deer and chinkaras in Sirsa district, he said.
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Four-day Gurgaon book fest held
Gurgaon, April 23 On the occasion, Dr Ashok V. Chordiya, zonal director, Fortis Healthcare, said: “We are pleased to host the book festival organised by the National Book Trust. It’s part of our core philosophy to sponsor events meant to enhance physical, mental and spiritual health of the community.” The literary festival culminated on World Book Day which falls on April 23. It featured reading sessions, panel discussions and workshops for children with special needs. Vatsala Kaul Banerjee, publishing director of Hachette; Paro Anand, author of books for children and young adults; Advaita Kala, novelist and film writer; and MA Sikandar, director of National Book Trust, participated. A discussion on “Reading Books in the Digital Age” focused on identifying the changing trends related to reading habits in the increasingly digitised environment. A workshop on creative writing with Sachin Garg, the author of the novel “I’m Not Twenty-four”, was the major attraction on the concluding day of the event.
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State to create health awareness through films
Chandigarh, April 23 This was stated by Navraj Sandhu, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Haryana Heath Department, while presiding over the meeting of the State Level Malaria Working Committee held, here recently. She said the main reason for the spread of malaria, dengue, chikungunya and Japanese encephalitis was water stagnation in which larva originates and spreads infection. She directed officers of the Urban Local Bodies Department to frame rules for proper water management. Community awareness would be created through Deputy Commissioners and representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institutions. The people would definitely take step to prevent water stagnation provided they were made aware that this could lead to various diseases. She said short films would be made more entertaining with the use of local languages, jokes and songs so that information regarding the reasons of spread of malaria, dengue, chikungunya and Japanese encephalitis would be disseminated in an interesting way to the people. Sandhu directed to release “Gambusia” fish in fresh water and “Guppy” fish in polluted water. She also directed for assessing the impact of the “Gambusia” fish earlier released in the water. Dr Satbir Singh, Director, Malaria, gave a detailed presentation at the meeting. He informed Sandhu that department was making efforts to encourage people for cleaning of water cooler once in a week. He said that last year each city was divided in six zones and every zone had been given a particular day for cleaning of coolers which had generated a good response from the people.
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Assembly to constitute consultative panels
Chandigarh, April 23 He said the Consultative Committees would be constituted for different departments of the government and the ministers concerned would be their chairpersons. The senior members of the Vidhan Sabha would be vice-chairperson of the committees. The committee members would be selected from different political parties on the basis of their contribution in the Assembly. Sharma said the committees were being considered to increase the participation of legislators in the formulation of legislations and policies for the government. He said the Haryana Assembly had already formed a working group, which was studying the module and scope of the proposed committees. “We are almost ready to constitute the committees and these will be formed within one or two months,” he said. Sharma said it had been noticed that there was inadequate discussion on the Bills presented during the Vidhan Sabha Sessions. When the Parliament was not in the session, the Standing Committees deliberate on the Bills and fine-tune them. “We will introduce a similar concept in the Vidhan Sabha so that we can get perspective of members on a Bill before taking it to the House,” he said. Sharma added law was a futuristic concept and the move was a part of good governance exercise.
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HAU accused of surrendering autonomy to govt
Hisar, April 23 Citing an example he said the pensioners had been denied the benefit of ITC even though the university had funds available under this head for the past six months because the authorities were waiting for the government to give its approval. Likewise, he said, the arrears accruing to pensioners on account of the revision of pension had not been paid pending approval of the state government. In this case,too, the university had the funds available. Kaushik said the university had decided to grant advance increments to teachers who had acquired higher qualifications while in service as suggested by the University Grants Commission. The government also made a provision for this expense in the varsity’s budget. However, when the approval of the government was sought, it turned down the proposal and the funds lapsed. He said the erosion of autonomy was not just limited to financial issues. The erosion of autonomy also meant that the universities were unable to take their own decisions in every sphere including academic issues. Blaming “weak” administrators for the sorry state of affairs Kaushik said academic standards were bound to suffer if the universities did not exercise their autonomy.
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Eye camp held
Rewari, April 23 As many as 160 patients from various villages of the region were examined for eye ailments by a team of doctors led by ophthalmologist Deep Singh. While 15 of them were selected for cataract operations, the rest were given medicines free of cost on behalf of the Temple Trust.
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Fatehabad, April 23