Sirsa/Fatehabad, June 6
Only 7,600 of the 16,902 students from Sirsa who took the Class X examination of the Haryana Board of School Education this year, were declared successful. This comes to 44.96 per cent, which means almost 55 out of 100 candidates failed to clear it.

In Fatehabad, only 5,934 of the13,706 candidates cleared the Class X examination, meaning thereby that almost 57 per cent failed. The overall result of the board was a little over 50 per cent.

Sources said this was despite the fact that the HBSE awarded grace marks to students in the name of moderation.

This is in sharp contrast to the Class 10 results declared by the Central Board of School Education (CBSE) where over 98 per cent students cleared the exam.

“It is rather ironical that teachers in private schools affiliated with the CBSE get less than half the salary a teacher gets in government schools. Even then, while lowly paid teachers in private schools could prepare their students to achieve high marks, those teaching in government school were not able to make them get even pass marks,” said a former principal, who requested anonymity.

Ankur Chhabra, a lecturer in English at Government Senior Secondary Schoo, Bappa in Sirsa, blamed certain provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, implemented in Haryana from 2010.

“As per the Act, a child between the age of six and 14 has to be admitted to the class as per his or her age irrespective of the child’s intellectual level. Further, no child admitted to a school can be held back or expelled till the completion of elementary education,” said Chhabra.

“When we have to promote children up to Class 8 irrespective of their calibre, what else can be expected from them when they take Class 10 exam?” he asked.

Another teacher said an acute shortage of teachers and basic infrastructure was also responsible for the poor results in government schools.

Efforts to contact Fatehabad District Education Officer (DEO) Manju Gupta did not succeed. Sirsa DEO Kum Kum Grover responded to the call made on her mobile, heard the question and hung up, saying that: “I am busy in a meeting.”

Sirsa, June 6
The old-age pension of 41 residents of Suratia village in Sirsa district has been resumed following the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

The report 'Pension stopped, old people run from pillar to post' was published in these columns on August 22 on the basis of which a complaint had been filed.

RP Malhotra, state convener of the human rights cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party, had approached the Chairman of the NHRC after which the NHRC sent a notice to the authorities concerned demanding replies.

The NHRC had closed the case after receiving a report from the Director-General of Social Justice and Empowerment in this regard.

It was stated in the report that the Deputy Commissioner had got three surveys conducted after which the pension of 41 elderly persons had been resumed while seven were found ineligible and one had died.

Nasib Kaur, Baljit Kaur, Angrez Kaur and others said they had knocked every possible door as they were rendered dependent on their children and had requested the revival of pension, but no one had given them a satisfactory answer.

The Director-General of Social Justice and Empowerment had informed the NHRC that the pension was stopped following an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on a writ petition urging the government to stop the pension of fake beneficiaries.

Karnal, June 6
The Class X result of the board was 80 per cent in 2010, which dropped to 69 per cent and 68 per cent in 2011 and 2012, respectively, and to below 51 per cent in 2013, KK Nirman, a leader of the Haryana Adhyapak Sangh said .

Teaching in schools is suffering as 40,000 posts of teacher, including 16,000 posts of headmaster, had been lying vacant. Government schools were facing an acute shortage of science, maths and English teachers.

Teachers of government schools maintain that all sundry work like census, election duties and enumeration of voters is assigned to teachers. Books are not supplied on time as a result of which little time is left for effective teaching.

Ambala, June 6
In a suspected case of honour killing, the police recovered the bodies of a young couple from a burnt heap of dried cow dung cakes outside Alliaspur village in the district late last night.

According to the police, villagers saw flames rising on outskirts of the village around 1:45 am. They rushed to the spot and saw the bodies of the couple, believed to be in their early twenties, getting charred.

They immediately called up the police and informed the fire office about the incident. Fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the flames were doused.

The bodies of the couple, which could not be identified, were pulled out. The police said the bodied were charred beyond recognition.

District Commissioner of Police (Rural) Nazneen Bhasin and Barara Assistant Commissioner of Police reached the spot to take stock of the situation.

The police said efforts were on to identify the bodies, adding that the possibility of honour killing could not be ruled out so far.

The police said it appeared that the couple had been murdered at some other place after which the bodies were dumped amid the heap of cow dung cakes and set afire.

Yamunanagar, June 6
Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) authorities today placed under suspension an Executive Engineer (XEN) and a Subdivisional Officer (SDO) working at Deen Bandhu Chhotu Ram Thermal Power Project (DBCRTPP).

The reason was that the 300-MW unit 2, recently revived after a year and a half, had tripped again. According to HPGCL sources, the tripping was caused due to overheating of the turbine due to which problems were reported three days back.

The sources said it was believed that severe damage had been caused to the turbine on which the HPGCL had recently spent Rs 5 crore. The sources said HPGCL engineers would open the unit on Sunday after which a complete assessment of the damage could be made.

The unit suffered damage to the turbine rotor on September 25, 2011, and was revived this March. After the first breakdown, engineers had tried to revive the unit during which water entered the turbine, rendering it completely out of operation. The turbine rotor was later found bent.

Following the breakdown, an inquiry had been ordered, the report of which established major lapses in the design and construction of the two turbines which would continue to cause problems till rectified.

The report had pointed out that high pressure and low pressure drains of a turbine were connected to a common header which caused backflow of water, resulting in a sudden fall of temperature which caused technical problems.

The rotor of the unit 2 had to be sent for repairs to the Siemens workshop in Baroda, which cost the HPGCL Rs 5 crore. The All-India Power Engineers Federation had written to the Union Power Ministry, demanding a crisis management team comprising NTPC and BHEL engineers to examine the problems at the DBCRTPP.

This plant was awarded a gold shield for meritorious performance after early commissioning in 2008, but had developed technical problems within four years Chinese units 1 and 2 had broken down for a prolonged period. The 300-MW unit 1 suffered the damage and failure of turbine blades on March 31, 2012.

Gurgaon, June 6
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda met INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala at Medanta Hospital here today.

The two leaders spent about 10 minutes together. Hooda enquired about the the former Chief Minister's health and wished him speedy recovery.

Hooda also visited veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister VC Shukla. He met Shukla’s wife and other family members and enquired about Shukla’s condition. He assured the family of all possible help from the government.

Shukla was seriously injured in a recent Naxalite attack in Chhattisgarh. He is still in an intensive care unit.

Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment and senior Congress leader Kumari Selja and late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s son, Anil Shastri, also met Chautala.

Former Army chief Gen VKSingh also met the INLD chief yesterday .

Meanwhile,Chautala interacted with party leaders and workers at the INLD office in Jind through videoconferencing from Medanta Hospital here yesterday.

The INLD chief asked about the wellbeing of party workers and the situation prevailing in their areas. 

Chandigarh, June 6
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has refused to entertain a petition filed by Gurgaon residents alleging that chunks of land were released from acquisition on the recommendations of Punjab's former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and another political personality Moti Lal Vohra.

Alleging favoritism, Dalbir Singh Lochab and other petitioner had filed a review petition against Haryana and other respondents before a Bench headed by Justice Hemant Gupta. They were seeking a review of the High Court order passed on March 27, 2012, dismissing their petition.

The petitioners contended that on June 20, 2005, the state government published a notification to acquire 162.40 acres in Haiderpur village of Gurgaon district "for development and utilisation of land for residential, commercial, institutional and open space for Sector 52A and 53-54 at Gurgaon".

The writ petition challenging the acquisition was dismissed, resulting in the filing of the review petition. Counsel for the petitioners pointed out that the zonal layout plan for development of Sectors 52A and 53 was notified in December, 2006. However, a substantial portion of acquired land was released in November, 2006, February, 2011 and even after the decision of the writ petition on April 19, 2012.

"Such release of land has been ordered, inter alia, on the recommendations of Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, former Chief Minister of Punjab and Moti Lal Vohra, another political personality," they alleged.

Dismissing the petition, the Bench asserted: "The notifications under challenge in the present writ petition were also under challenge in another writ petition filed by Om Parkash Yadav. It was dismissed on September 10, 2007. The landowners have filed a special leave petition, which was dismissed on October 1, 2010?. Since the release of land of other landowners, as now pleaded in the review, was not a ground in the writ petition, we do not find that in this review petition, we can examine the question".

Gurgaon , June 6
The Gurgaon police yesterday arrested 22 persons from a pub in Omaxe Mall for gambling along with girls on the charge of prostitution.

The police has also booked have booked pub owner Pritam and manager Rakesh Bhandari, who managed to flee. The police also recovered the gambling amount of Rs 60,000 from them.

Sonepat, June 6
The police today arrested Anil of Khewra and Naresh of Nandnaur and seized 1 quintal and 22 kg of poppy husk leaves. Deputy Superintendent of Police Ajit Singh said the contraband was recovered from a truck.

He said the police seized the truck and the estimated value of the contraband was around Rs 15 lakh.

He said the accused confessed that they had brought the contraband from Odisha and it was to be supplied in New Delhi.

He said Superintendent of Police Arun Singh had announced that the team comprising assistant sub-inspectors Sukhbir Singh and Sandeep, havildars Anil and Sikander and sepoys Sumit, Devender and Jagprit would be rewarded. — OC

Sirsa, June 6
The police has arrested a youth for raping a minor and uploading the video after filming it with his mobile phone at Sawantkhera village.

Accused Surjeet Singh was produced at a court in Dabwali which remanded him to 14-day judicial custody, said Vikram Nehra, station house officer of the Dabwali Sadar police station. The victim was produced before a magistrate where she recorded her statement. The police seized the mobile phone and the SIM card used by the accused.

The photographs would be retrieved after the mobile phone was sent to the forensic science laboratory for testing even though the accused had deleted those.

He had allegedly circulated the MMS on the rape among several youths of the village. Villagers were directed to delete such MMSes and warned of stern action against those found in possession of the video. The 14-year-old victim, a resident of Bathinda, who lived with her maternal uncle here, had accused Surjeet of raping her and preparing the video. 

Rewari, June 6
The Mahendergarh police has registered a case of gang rape, criminal intimidation, abduction and wrongful confinement against two brothers residing in Dharan village of Bawal tehsil in Rewari district.

On the basis of a complaint filed on June 4 by a 19-year-old-girl doing a junior basic teacher course at a private college at Mahendergarh, the police booked her cousin's husband Pritam and his younger brother Bittoo.

She is a resident of Janjadiawas village, near Mahendergarh, about 60 km from Rewari. The girl's medical examination was conducted at the Civil Hospital in Mahendergarh.

In her complaint, she stated that she went to Dharan recently to meet her cousin and was administered some sedative in a cold drink.

She added in her complaint that Pritam and Bittoo sexually assaulted her and prepared a compact disc of the pornographic act as well.

She further said Pritam forced her to wed Bittoo at an Arya Samaj mandir in Narnaul on February 28 after which they continued to exploit her sexually while threatening to show the pornographic compact disc.

Gurgaon, June 6
The police has arrested a 19-year-old youth on the charge of abducting and raping his friend’s 17-year-old sister. A court sent accused Chhote Lal to judicial custody today.

He had been staying as a tenant at Sarhaul village. The victim had been staying with her brother and mother at Dundahera village. Her mother had lodged the complaint.

“He came to our house on May 4 and took my daughter making an excuse. He took her to his rented accommodation and raped her,” reported the complainant.

“When she objected, he threatened to kill her. He warned her against telling anybody,” she added. The Udyog Vihar police arrested and booked him.

Rewari, June 6
Grocery items and other merchandise were burnt in a fire in a huge general store at Dharuhera Chowk here late last night. The roof of the store collapsed after an explosion.

The adjoining residential quarters of the proprietor's family, however, escaped undamaged.

While the loss is estimated at over Rs 1 crore, its proprietor said he could not say as to how the fire was caused.

Fire tenders were engaged in extinguishing the fire till the filing of this report. — OC