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Literacy mission focuses on state villages
Midday Meal
Scheme
Hisar village students complain of worms in meals
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Capacity of kitchens, stores to be increased
Many Karnal schools sans kitchens
A dead lizard in food served to schoolchildren in a Kurukshetra school. A file photo
Short of ration, scheme halted in
Sirsa, Fatehabad
Children take midday meals at Government Middle School, Nejia Khera, in Sirsa. Tribune photo
Protest against arrest of Maruti workers
Members of various trade and employees unions participate in a rally against the arrest of Maruti employees in Kaithal on Saturday. Photo Satish Seth
Raise marriageable age for women to 21 yrs: Civil Surgeon
Missing Andhra woman reunited with family
Rs 2,000 crore to boost power distribution
Sirsa villagers
postpone stir against Bathinda refinery
MP wants RTH on Rajasthan pattern
No clue to rape, murder of Fatehabad girl
Seed producers flay charges of certification
Outsourced power staff tenure extended up to Sept 30
Forest Dept starts plantation drive
Computers worth lakhs biting dust in govt schools
Ex-sarpanch held in murder case
Encroachments removed from Sonepat roads
INLD to go it alone in Assembly poll
Tohana chemist robbed of Rs 35,000
Sant Gopal Dass urged to end hunger strike
BJP workers launch awareness campaign Karnal reports 715 maleria cases 27 schools for SC/ST girls 8-year-old raped in Jhajjar village
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Literacy mission focuses on state villages
Karnal, July 21 The focus will be on Haryana and three other states of Orissa, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, which fall in the “red zone”. Under the mission, states have been divided into zones to review their success in attaining the target. The red zone implies that progress in terms of literacy is not up to mark, yellow means moderate and green indicates good. The model of Munak village which has showed tremendous results in spreading literacy will be followed and stress will be on continuing education (post literacy), NLM chief adviser PS Sangwan said, adding that the success of the literacy mission varied from state to state and as such no uniform target date could be set for achieving the mission. The second phase of the mission would be planned on the basis of review of “success and failures” of the first phase and it will be a hi-tech mission with computers having Internet connection, furniture, library and other infrastructural facilities in place in model villages to enable the villagers to have direct interaction with mission officials. The state of adult education and literacy was a cause of concern in Haryana, Orissa, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir and these state fall in “red zone”, while Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chhatisgarh, Manipur, Rajasthan and Nagaland had done exceedingly well and were in the green zone and remaining states fall in the yellow zone, Sangwan said. However, state literacy mission authority assistant project manager Dinesh Sharma differed with Sangwan. He said the state did not fall in the red zone as more than 4,000 classes were being run in 2935 villages of 10 districts with the help of 5,444 volunteers.
The village is considered cent per cent literate if it meets other indicators like sanitation, education, employment and gender equality and in Karnal, the current literacy rate in 73% and two motivators each would be deployed in 2,900 gram panchayats of 10 districts of the state to achieve the target of total literacy
by 2017. In Karnal district, 1.75 lakh people are still illiterate. Most illiterate people are in India, E-9 and SAARC countries. Mission total literacy
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Unhygienic conditions, inferior food leave bad taste
Manish Sirhindi Tribune News Service The Midday Meal Scheme running across the country has come under the scanner after the death of 23 children in a school in Bihar. An investigation done by The Tribune reveals that the situation is no better in the state and a disaster is waiting to happen as few lessons seem to have been learnt. Yamunanagar/Ambala, July 21 Only a few schools have the facility for properly storing the foodgrain. There is no provision of reverse osmosis (RO) systems to purify drinking water in any government school in the district. Also, overhead cement tanks for water storage in several schools are seldom cleaned, exposing students to the danger of contracting vector-borne diseases. At the Government Senior Secondary School, Kaula, though the authorities have made arrangements to ensure that the foodgrain is stored properly in metal containers, the quality of meals served is sub-standard. Besides, an RO system is missing. The foodgrain supplied by the Food Corporation of India and Hafed for the scheme was found to be infested with pests at some government schools, especially in the villages where foodgrains are stored in wheat bags and left in rooms where moisture played havoc with them. Sources in the district education department said till date no proposal had been prepared to get RO systems installed in schools. The government guidelines stated that the overhead cement tanks should be cleaned at least once every month. At Government Senior Secondary School, Jandli, though the arrangement for the midday meal is adequate, potable water is being supplied through an old cement tank and it could not be ascertained as to when it was last cleaned. In several schools of Yamunanagar, meals are being cooked in unhygienic condition. When this reporter visited a primary school in the Raipur segment of the district, the food was being cooked in unhygienic condition on the premises. Students at a primary school in Jagadhri lamented that many times they were being served half-cooked food and the authorities were taking no corrective measures. They further said at times they collected their midday meals in polythene bags as the utensils were not properly cleaned.
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Hisar village students complain of worms in meals
Dhani Premnagar (Hisar), July 21 Finally, the rotten grain was withdrawn and fresh wheat was procured from Dhani Adarshnagar Primary School recently. The children were served chapattis made of fresh flour with daal. School management committee member Baljit Singh said he had detected the weevil infested foodgrain when the school peon came to his grinder shop for flour five days ago. “I talked to the midday meal in-charge who expressed her helplessness and called up the block education officer, who visited the school and found the foodgrain inedible”, he said. Singh added that his son Harichand complained to him several times in the past month about the worms in the food served to them. “Even village sarpanch Amreek Singh too went to the school to complain about the food”, he said, adding that he noticed worms in the stock of rice that had been supplied to the school in November last year. School’s midday in-charge and head teacher Santosh Kumari admitted that the foodgrain was weevil infested and was not inedible. She said “the foodgrain was of good quality when it was supplied to the school, but got infested with weevil during the summer break”. Block Education Officer Devender Kundu said: “I have ensured that the children get good quality food in schools. I have asked the teacher to keep the rice in sunlight during the school time to make it free from worms. But if its quality deteriorates, then we would withdraw it,” he said.
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Capacity of kitchens, stores to be increased
Chandigarh, July 21 Stating this, Haryana Education and Women and Child Development Minister Geeta Bhukkal said the Midday Meal Scheme was being implemented efficiently in the schools of Haryana and children were being provided with a balanced diet for lunch in all government and government aided schools. She said she was monitoring the scheme by visiting the schools. As many as 16 dishes had been included in the menu of schools and Anganwari Centres now whereas initially it consisted of only two or three dishes, she added. Bhukkal said directions had been issued to officials of the Education Department, Women and Child Development Department to continuously keep a check on the food items being provided under the scheme and to receive the foodgrain from Hafed and the FCI after properly checking them. Also, school management committees would check the quality of the meals, she added. |
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Many Karnal schools sans kitchens
Karnal, July 21 The grant of Rs 1.25 lakh for kitchen sheds of 15 ft by 17 ft, including a store of 10 ft by 15 ft dimension and 7 ft by 15 ft open verandah, and Rs 2,500 for utensils seem inadequate for schools with more than 200 children. Not many schools have kitchens. In Government Girls School, Fatehpur, food is being cooked in open. Many schools with larger number of students find standard size of the kitchen inadequate, and utensils short to serve the meal properly. Cook Ramdevi at Government School, Nilokheri, complained of substandard ration which is infested with insects. “It is a tedious task to clear the grains of insects and worms. We are paid meager wages of Rs 1,000 per month, which need to be increased,” she said. The school principal said: “We can take the responsibility of storage of foodgrains, cooking and distributing food, but we have no control on the quality of ration supplied to us.” On July 14, 2012 - Forty-two students of two primary schools were taken ill in in Kurukshetra after the midday meal. Jeet Kaur, who was serving midday meals in Government Primary School at Thanesar spotted a lizard in the food (Khichdi) and immediately informed the education officer who issued instructions to all schools concerned not to serve the meals and a major tragedy was averted. |
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Short of ration, scheme halted in
Sirsa, Fatehabad
Sirsa/Fatehabad, July 21 The Midday Meal Scheme has been put on hold in Government Girls High School, Bhodia Khera, in Fatehabad, as the school has no fresh stock for the past many days. Sarita, in-charge of the scheme of the primary wing of the school said she had been providing food to children by borrowing wheat and rice from a shop. In the boys’ school too, the kitchen has been lying closed for the past three days. However, at nearby Dhingsara village, the school authorities received the ration for the mid-day meal after many days. In Pilimandori village, Ram Singh, Headmaster of Government Girls High School, said the schoolchildren got the mid-day meal hardly for two or three days in July. Similarly, in the senior secondary school of the village there has been no ration in the school for the past many days. Fatehabad District Education Officer Manju Gupta said the ration had already arrived in some schools and it will reach in others in the next two days. “I have ordered for the immediate supply of wheat and rice,” she added. In Government Girls High School at Nathusari Kalan in Sirsa, there were no stocks of wheat and rice. “I borrowed some rice from the neighbouring primary school, but it was infested with bugs,” said Saroj Devi, in charge of the mid-day meal in the school. Similarly, schools in Nejia Khera and Begu, too, faced shortage of fresh stock of ration for the scheme. Madhu Mittal, District Elementary Education Officer, Sirsa said the stocks of wheat and rice had been delayed due to some reasons for the past 15 days. She said the fresh stock would reach soon now. Teachers in most schools, it appeared, find the mid-day meal duties an onerous job and many of them said the government should outsource this work to some other agency. Though there are pucca kitchens in most schools, there is hardly any space for storage of three months of wheat and rice stock which they get quarterly. Sirsa Deputy Commissioner Dr J Ganesan said he had asked Additional Deputy Commissioner Shiv Prashad Sharma to monitor quality of food being supplied to children in mid-day meal. He said the heads of the schools have been told to check the food first before serving it to children. |
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Protest against arrest of Maruti workers
Kaithal, July 21 Acharya said the democratic rights of workers were being suppressed in Haryana and the state government had bowed before the Maruti management and had taken all steps to suppress the agitation of employees. He said his party would raise this issue in the coming session of Parliament. He also pointed out the detaining of protesters from the Mini Secretariat on May 18 night which was followed by a lathicharge on their procession when they wanted to submit a memorandum to Haryana Industries Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala at his Kaithal residence. Acharya said a local councillor Prem Chand and 12 others were arrested and were still in jail . Government should immediately withdraw their cases and release them. Comrade Inderjeet and Jagmati Sangwan also took to task the state government for its anti-workers policies. Later, the protesters marched in a procession to the Mini Secretariat and submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner NK Solanki. |
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Raise marriageable age for women to 21 yrs: Civil Surgeon
Karnal, July 21 The population has crossed 1.21 billion and in case the present trend continues, India would surpass China in population by 2030, she cautioned adding that besides following “single child norm”, raising marriageable age for women would go a long way in effectively curbing the increase in population. Stressing that women should be made literate and imparted education for empowerment, Dr Bhatia said at present the couple protection rate (temporary and permanent) in Haryana is 49.2 percent, which is below the ideal rate of 60 per cent, and the surveys indicate that economically independent and literate females are the best
contraceptive. The population has increased at the rate of 2.3 per cent per year in the past two years. In 2001 census, the population growth rate of Karnal was 23.06 per cent which declined to 18.2 per cent in the 2011 census and during past two years, the growth rate is 2.3 per cent. The literacy rate has also gone up in Karnal from 67.7 per cent in 2001 to 76.4 per cent in 2011. The health department has been organising “street plays” on population growth in the country. With constant efforts of the administration, the sex ratio in 0-6 age group has increased to 867 from 820 in 2011.
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Missing Andhra woman reunited with family
Fatehabad, July 21 Inquiries revealed that she had been separated from her family and strayed into Tohana in March this year . However, despite the language barrier, concerted efforts by the Bharat Vikas Parishad helped her reunite with her kin. Kush Bhargava, an office-bearer of the Bharat Vikas Parishad, said the woman was traumatised and could not tell anything when some railway commuters brought her to them. "We provided her shelter and food and tried to know as to how she had reached Tohana. But she could not understand what we said and vice versa owing to the language barrier. Finally, we asked her to write whatever she wanted to say on paper. One of our members was able to make out that she hailed from Andhra," said Kush Bhargava. "We scanned the paper and send it to an office-bearer of the Bharat Vikas Parishad, KSV Rao, through e-mail. Later, Rao spoke to her on the phone and we came to know her identity," he added. Her mother accompanied by K Sridhar, an Inspector of the Andhra Police and the woman's son reached Tohana from Satyavaram village in West Godavari village of Andhra.
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Rs 2,000 crore to boost power distribution
Chandigarh, July 21 It was stated by UHBVN Chairman and Managing Director Devender Singh at a meeting of officers to discuss vision, objectives and priorities of the discoms here today. He said the priorities of the discoms were to reduce revenue losses and ensure consumer satisfaction for which number of steps had been initiated in the past nine months. The complaint attending system was made functional in villages and the discoms had supplied electricity for more than the scheduled time to all consumers in the past three months. The CMD said a toll free number 18001801615 had been made functional to register all complaints of the consumers. The complaint of power supply can be lodged on another number 155333 in the state. Besides, the consumers can also register their complaints online at www.uhbvn.com and www.dhbvn.com He also said the state had witnessed about 10 to 14 per cent load growth in recent year. It has become essential to upgrade the distribution system to supply reliable and adequate power to consumers. In view of this, the system will be strengthened in urban as well as rural areas.
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Sirsa villagers
postpone stir against Bathinda refinery
Sirsa, July 21 Narinder Singh, sarpanch of Hassu village in Sirsa, who is leading villagers from Asir, Norang, Desu, Tigri, Hassu and other villages against air pollution emanating from the refinery, said a Tehsildar from Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda told them that the Bathinda Deputy Commissioner had called them for talks on July 24. “We will meet the Deputy Commissioner on July 24 and if no solution was found, we will be left with no other option but to intensify our stir,” said Narinder Singh. Residents of about 12 villages from Sirsa located near Kanakwal village of Punjab have been complaining about air pollution caused by the refinery set up by the Punjab government there. Villagers allege that they have been suffering from lung diseases, high blood pressure, soaring and watering eyes and other multiple kind of health problems ever since the inception of the refinery.
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MP wants RTH on Rajasthan pattern
Fatehabad, July
21 He said he would soon meet Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in this regard. Social activist Nikhil
Dey, who has worked immensely for the implementation of Right to Information and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MNREGA) and is now working for RTH Act 2012 (better known in Rajasthan as Sunwai Act 2012) was here today with his team to demonstrate how the Act was being implemented there. "Under the Act, villagers can give their grievances in writing at a single window in the panchayat building in their village. They get a pink slip as receipt and are given the date of hearing in the block office within a week. Once the officers concerned have heard them, they either do their job or have to assign reasons in writing
for not doing it within a specified time," Dey said about the Act. He said his NGO Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangthan has been making villagers aware of their rights under the RTH Act, 2012. |
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No clue to rape, murder of Fatehabad girl
Fatehabad, July 21 Confirm the death the child, Fatehabad Deputy Superintendent of Police Naripjit Singh said: “Police has rounded up more than 50 persons from the locality of rag pickers where the victims’ mother had come to meet her parents when the two children went missing. However, their interrogation has not led police to any conclusion, as no one has provided any clue to the case.” Even the search of secluded tubewell rooms and other places where the unknown accused could have brutalised the girl has not yielded any result. The postmortem of the girl had revealed that she was not only raped but was also brutally assaulted before she and her brother were thrown into a canal. The DSP said the police had added Section 376 (rape) in the FIR lodged for murder and causing disappearance of evidences registered earlier, after the receipt of copy of the FIR.
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Seed producers flay charges of certification
Kurukshetra July 21 HSPA President Pal Singh Dhaliwal said resentment prevailed among HSPA members over about fivefold increase in accidental charges and the Agriculture Department’s decision for not allowing the sale of certified seeds to other states for the last three years. Fearing losses, some of them are thinking to close down their units, Dhaliwal added. Pal Singh Dhaliwal reiterated that the association had unanimously decided not to supply the processed certified seed to the farmers this year, which will affect the wheat production in the state, he said. The association has also decided to meet the officers concerned, the agriculture minister and the chief minister to solve the issues, he added. Also, HSPA also elected new office bearers unanimously.
— OC |
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Outsourced power staff tenure extended up to Sept 30
Chandigarh, July 21 Expressing concern over electrical accidents Devender Singh it had been decided to arrange training in all operation circles in which subject experts, officers, employees, doctors and first-aid trainers would participate. Referring to aggregated technical and commercial losses in the command area of the UHBVN, Devender Singh said the losses were over 33 per cent. The target was to bring down these losses to 27
per cent in the current financial year. He said all officials would get score cards based on their performance in revenue realisation, recovery of defaulting amount, detection of power theft, quick disposal of consumer complaints, release of new connections,
redress the of billing complaints and bringing down damage rate of distribution transformers. |
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Forest Dept starts plantation drive
Chandigarh, July 21 Ramender Jakhu, Additional Chief Secretary, Forest Department, said the saplings were being planted either on government, panchayat or any other vacant land. He added that the department would help panchayats, other departments and organisations carry out the plantation. He said the Forest Department had identified many places in the state where the forest area and the number of trees would be increased by way of plantation. He said the area under forest had also been reduced due to the fast pace development, widening of roads, doubling of rail routes and urbanisation. To increase the green cover, the department has prepared an action plan under which ‘Van Chetna Yatra’ will be flagged off from Chandigarh on July 22. The yatra will sensitise people about the significance of forests and cover every district of the state. It would sensitise people by way of street plays and other mediums of publicity, he added.
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Computers worth lakhs biting dust in govt schools
Jhajjar, July 20 The Education Department has given some IT societies contract to recruit computer teachers for schools across the state. The societies have already conducted the interviews but the results have not yet been declared. “The government should direct the societies to recruit computer teachers without delay for students who wish to learn computer skills ,” said the principal of a government senior secondary school here. A teacher maintained that computers had been lying unused in the labs in the absence of teachers. Sadhu Ram Rohilla,District Education Officer (DEO), Jhajjar, said new IT teachers were being recruited as the term of contractual IT teachers had expired. |
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Ex-sarpanch held in murder case
Faridabad, July 21 The accused, along with a dozen men, allegedly opened fire on the victim at Keshar Nursing Home in Ballabgarh when he had gone to meet his ailing son admitted there. Bijender was killed on the spot. The police said the accused had been shifting places to evade arrest. Nine other men named in the FIR had been already arrested. However, six other accused, including Ram Singh’s sons, are still on the run. The main accused and the victim were political foes in village politics. The former lost to the victim in the last panchayat elections for the post of sarpanch. The accused had allegedly attempted twice to murder him in the past.
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Encroachments removed from Sonepat roads
Sonepat, July 21 The SDM warned the shopkeepers not to encroach upon the road and to remain within the limits of their shops. The administration would not only demolish the unauthorised construction or extensions, but also impose penalty on the defaulters, he said. — OC |
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INLD to go it alone in Assembly poll
Gharaunda (Karnal), July 21 Addressing workers conference here, he read out a message from party president Om Prakash Chautala which stated that he was framed by the ruling party to weaken the INLD but the move boomeranged on it. He congratulated the workers for demonstrating complete unity and standing by the leadership even in his
absence. Abhay claimed that the recruitment case had made party workers more resolute to bring it back to power. He called upon the workers to root out the Congress in the coming assembly elections. |
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Tohana chemist robbed of Rs 35,000
Tohana (Fatehabad), July 21 They shot at shopowner Kush Malik and fled after snatching Rs 35,000 from him. In another incident, two miscreants snatched at gunpoint a car from a trader, Bant Singh Panni, when he had gone to Bhakra canal for a morning walk. "We have barricaded the town to trace the culprits," said Jagdish
Chander, DSP, Tohana. He said the miscreants had left their motorcycle near the railway crossing on Narwana road and the police was trying to ascertain its owner.
— TNS |
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Sant Gopal Dass urged to end hunger strike
Sonepat, July 21 He was talking to mediapersons after laying the foundation stone of a gaushala at village Murthal. He said the panchayat authorities had also been asked by the government not to lease out such land for any purpose. The movement launched by Sant Gopal Dass had created awakening among the people for opening new gaushalas, he added.
— OC |
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Several students of Dhani Premnagar village had been complaining to their parents almost daily about the worms-infested food they were being served in the school.
Karnal, July 21
A majority of government schools in Sirsa and Fatehabad are yet to receive their mid-day meal stocks for the quarter that began from July 1.
In the absence of stocks of wheat or rice, children are not getting the meal in several schools, in some, the scheme is being run with the leftover stock or by borrowing
foodgrain. The Midday Meal Scheme has been put on hold in Government Girls High
School, Bhodia Khera, in Fatehabad, as the school has no fresh stock for the
past many days.
Kaithal, July 21
