Sirsa/Fatehabad, May 26
The Haryana Education Department’s move to test, in their words, “ingenuity of its government school teachers” failed.

Out of the 30,000-odd primary teachers in Haryana, only 35 took the training needs assessment (TNA) test across the state today, sources in the Education Department said.

“Only one candidate appeared in Ambala district. As per reports, teachers boycotted the test completely in other districts,” said Jawahar Lal Goyal, president of the Haryana Rajkiye Adhyapak Sangh.

Today’s boycott has put in question the conduct of another such test meant for trained graduate teachers , scheduled for May 30.

Several primary teachers from villages arrived at their respective examination centres, but on finding their colleagues sitting on a dharna outside the centres, they, too, joined in. Postgraduate teachers and others, who were assigned the duty by the Haryana Board of School Education to conduct the test, refused to participate in the process. Eventually, the department called off the test for today.

Goyal said that the sangh would not allow the test to be held in future as well.

Explaining the grounds for the boycott, he said: “The teachers were selected after clearing the Haryana Teachers’ Eligibility Tests (HTET) and many of them have years of experience. So, teachers consider that the department is humiliating them by asking to appear in the TNA test.”

Meanwhile, the Director of the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT), Gurgaon, said in a release that more than 90 per cent of teachers reaching the centres bore testimony to their seriousness towards the department’s efforts to improve standard of education in government schools.

The release that was uploaded on the SCERT’s website stated the test aimed to prepare training programmes for teachers to make teaching a more interesting affair, but several teachers’ organisations opposed it due to their negative attitude.

“The negativity stems from an unknown apprehension when a person fears from the exposure of one’s mistakes,” it said. The release, however, said the department respected the spirit of the teachers who turned up for the test and hoped that they would continue improving quality in education.

state wrap-up

The Education Department claims that test will analyse the strengths and weaknesses of primary teachers. But one thing that needs to be highlighted is that these teachers have been teaching for years and have completed graduation or postgraduation
—JawaharGoyal president, teachers’ body

More than 90% of teachers reaching the centres bears testimony to their seriousness towards the department’s efforts to improve standard of education —scert’s press release

Fatehabad, May 26
There’s some respite for Hepatitis-C patients belonging to general category in Haryana, particularly Ratia (Fatehabad), where an unusually high incidence of the infection has been detected.

The Health Department today said it would soon start providing the injection Peginterferon for the treatment of Hepatitis-C to general category patients at cost price, as per government rate contract.

Peginterferon is to be administered to patients every week for 24 weeks at a stretch. It costs Rs 7,000 per unit in the open market, but is priced at Rs 4,050 a unit on government rate contract. The full course of treatment costs around Rs 1.7 lakh and is beyond the reach of many patients. A report in these columns on Sunday had highlighted the plight of patients.

Dr Kamla Singh, Additional Director General of Health Services (ADGHS), Haryana, said 375 scheduled caste and below poverty line patients from all over the state, including 110 from Ratia, were getting free Peginterferon shots at a nodal centre set up by the government at PGIMS, Rohtak.

She said Haryana was the only state in the country where free treatment for Hepatitis-C was available to scheduled caste and below poverty line patients.

The Tribune report said residents of Ratia area were feeling let down over the government’s failure to provide free treatment despite specific assurances from Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda during a bypoll there in 2011.

Survey teams of the PGIMS, Rohtak, that visited Ratia in March 2012 on the state government’s directions had collected 7,469 blood samples from suspected patients. As many as 1,848 tested positive for Hepatitis-C during tests. The positive samples were sent to the PGIMS for enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) test that found 1,584 patients were suffering from Hepatitis-C.

“We received Rs 4 crore for the treatment of patients after the survey. Of this, Rs 1.78 crore was spent on establishing a viral laboratory for diagnosis and management at PGIMS, Rohtak. Of the remaining Rs 2.22 crore, we have been giving injections free of cost to SC and BPL category patients,” said Dr Kamla Singh.

She said since treatment was expensive, it could not be provided free to all patients. “However, we have decided to find out ways to supply Peginterferon injections to Hepatitis-C patients from the general category on rate-contract costs,” she said.

Dr Kamla Singh said the state government cannot sell injections purchased from the supplier to the patients, but the department was trying to find out means through which these injections could be made available to patients at a lower cost.

Hisar, May 26
Taking a leaf out of the bold step taken by the Satrol khap in the Narnaund region of Hisar, the Sarv Bura Gotra khap has also decided to give social approval to the inter-caste marriages.

The Sarv Bura Gotra khap, which has over 70 villages spread over seven-eight districts of the state, held a meeting in Hansi town of the district last evening to announce their approval.

Besides, the khap also formed a 21-member committee, which would visit the khap villages in the next few days to launch an awareness drive on issues like environment, water conservation and women empowerment.

Balwant Bura, spokesperson of the khap, told The Tribune here today that even though inter-caste marriages were being encouraged by the government, such marriages lack social acceptance due to a regressive mindset prevailing in the rural areas.

Ranbir Bura, the khap pradhan, said they appreciated the step taken by the Satrol khap recently and other khaps should also follow it. He said their social organisation had decided that they would not issue any diktat against such couples.

The khap pradhan maintained that environment conservation and water wastage in villages was the main issue at the social level. He said the committee would visit all villages and urge people to plant a sapling on each celebratory occasion in the family. 

Palwal, May 26
The police have busted a racket involved betting on IPL matches. In all, nine persons have been arrested. The police have booked six their personnel for being involved in the racket.

Two of the accused have been identified as Dinesh and Krishan. They have been remanded in two-day police custody, while their accomplices - Ankush, Bhola, Madan Mohan, Vikash, Rakesh, Kanwar Singh and Pramod - have been sent to judicial custody, a police official said.

The police, who raided a house in Jawahar Nagar Camp on Sunday, recovered 30 cell phones, a LCD, a computer and Rs 12,480 in cash. The accused placed bets on IPL matches scheduled for Sunday. Two of the accused have been booked for assaulting police personnel (Section 307 of the IPC), among other charges, district police chief Rakesh Kumar said.

He said six cops were booked on the charge of not curbing betting in spite of having information about it (Section 120-B).

Kumar said the police had reports that some persons in the area were placing bets on cricket matches, but cops deputed in the area failed to take action against them. They have been as Ramesh, Iqbal, Abhay, Ravinder, Dinesh and Hanuman.

The police had arrested a few persons for the same crime a few weeks ago, Kumar said.

It was perhaps the first time that cops had been found to be involved indirectly in the betting racket, he said, adding that all accused, including the cops, would be tried under the law.

In another development, the Palwal police have launched a drive to verify the authencity of arms licences in the district. The SP has directed all SHOs to hold back all arms deposited during the Lok Sabha election. “The police have information that some persons acquired fake licences from the North-East. Some of the licensees applied for re-registration, while others sought additional weapons on such licences,” the SP claimed.

Gurgaon, May 26
Residents of Nathupur village, who held a mahapanchayat on Sunday morning against Gurgaon MC chief Praveen Kumar for carrying out a demolition drive, gheraoed nearby roads demanding registration of an FIR against him.

Accusing him of demolishing 20-year-old building at the behest of some local builders, villagers demanded compensation for the owner, whose building was bulldozed. The Indian National Lok Dal also came forward in support of the villagers and several leaders, including Gopi Chand Gehlot, attended the panchayat.

Gehlot said the MCG chief had gone too far with his demolition drive to satisfy a handful of private builders.

He assured villagers that in future the buildings in the area falling under the MCG would not be demolished. The panchayat constituted a 31-member committee on Sunday to represent its demands and had decided to meet on Tuesday.

The police had earlier booked nearly 100 villagers for rioting and now the villagers, with the help of political leaders, demanded an FIR to be lodged against the MCG commissioner.

Commissioner Praveen Kumar, however, said all rules were followed during the demolition drive in Nathupur on Thursday.

Praveen said: “All these allegations are baseless. It is an established fact that both buildings are illegal. When I asked the occupant to produce some proof of the building's legality, they failed to produce any. In fact, they admitted that the buildings were illegal and sought time to vacate on their own.” He said he had recorded all proceedings as a proof that nothing was done in a wrong way.

Karnal, May 26
With the success of the first phase of the Indo-Australian(ICAR-ACIAR) programme on the marker-assisted wheat breeding for enhancing rust-free wheat production in India and Australia, the collaboration has extended into the second phase of five years. Scientists from both countries today held a meeting at Sugarcane Breeding Institute here in this regard.

They claimed after the completion of the project, both countries would have yellow, brown and black-rust resistant varieties, which would enhance production. The countries would be able to produce wheat in waterlogged and dry areas.

The meeting was led by Dr Indu Sharma, Project Director, Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR), from the Indian side, while Dr Eric Hunter, research programme manager, ACIAR, Canberra, was the representative from Australia.

The experts discussed stratergies to make the second phase a success.

Dr Sharma said the Indo-Australian collaboration in the field of wheat improvement was started in July 2008 with a co-funding of more than ~5 crore.

Chandigarh, May 26
It may still take time for the common man to experience “achche din” as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but the Haryana bureaucracy has something to cheer for, as the state administration is set to get seven more Additional Chief Secretaries (ACS).

With the Departmental Promotional Committee (DPC), headed by Chief Secretary SC Choudhary, clearing the names of seven IAS officers of 1985 batch for promotion to the post of the ACS, the state will have 19 ACS now.

Those, whose names have been cleared for ACS, include Surina Rajan, Ram Niwas, P Raghvendra Rao, PK Mahapatra, KK Khandelwal, Dhanpat Singh and Vijai Vardhan.

Besides, 10 ACS-level officers from Haryana are on deputation to the Centre, while the state has nearly 30 financial commissioners-cum-principal secretaries (FCPS).

All seven officers would continue to work at their present postings though an administrative reshuffle is likely to be effected soon.

Now, while the officers up to the 1985 batch would be designated as the ACS, officers up to the level of 1989 batch have been designated as the FCPS.

Official sources informed The Tribune that the promotion had been done to end stagnation at the top level. 

Chandigarh May 26
The Haryana Government has issued the posting and transfer orders of five IAS and 17 HCS officers with immediate effect.

Subhash Chandra has been posted as Secretary to Government, Haryana, School Education Department against a vacant post. Yash Garg goes as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Jind vice Jaibir Singh Arya, Garima Mittal has been posted as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Mahendragarh at Narnaul in place of Prabhjot Singh, who will be ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA and Special Officer, APZ, Ambala.

Rajnarayan Kaushik has been posted as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA and Special Officer, APZ, Hisar, Ashok Garg is ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Fatehabad. Pradeep Godara goes as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA and Special Officer, APZ, Faridabad, Bhal Singh Bishnoi (awaiting order of posting) as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Kurukshetra, Jaibir Singh Arya as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Mewat at Nuh.

Virender Lather goes as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Sonepat and Aurbind Sharma goes as Additional Director (Admn), Health Services.

SP Arora has been posted as Special Secretary, Science and Technology Department and ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Panchkula and Secretary-cum-Registrar to Justice Iqbal Singh (retd.), Commission of Inquiry, Mirchpur and Mini Secretariat, Rewari.

Narhari Singh Banger has been posted as Subdivisional Officer (civil)-cum-Additional Collector, Kaithal and Estate Officer, HUDA, Kaithal. Pardeep Kumar-I has been posted as General Manager, Haryana Roadways, Delhi. Hawa Singh has been posted as Subdivisional Officer (civil), Rohtak, Pardeep Kumar-II as City Magistrate, Panipat, Dalbir Singh as Subdivisional Officer (C)-II, Gurgaon.

Pooja Chanwaria has been posted as Subdivisional Officer (C), Bilaspur, and Vivek Kalia goes as Secretary, RTA, Sonepat, and Secretary, RTA, Panipat.

Chandigarh, May 26
Haryana Chief Secretary SC Chaudhary approved Rs 52.11 crores action plan under the State Food Security Mission for 2014-15. The new initiative taken by the state government would help encourage and subsidise cultivation of wheat, pulses, coarse cereals and commercial crops such as sugarcane and cotton.

Chaudhary presided over a meeting of the State Food Security Mission Executive Committee (SFSMEC), here today. Speaking on the occasion, Additional Chief Secretary of Haryana Agriculture Department, Roshan Lal, said training would be given to farmers to encourage cultivation of these crops and new technologies would be demonstrated to them.

Under the mission, the target of production and area under wheat, pulses and coarse cereals would be completed in the districts while the proposal regarding commercial crops would be sent to the Union Government for approval.

Rs 34.33 crore have been approved for increasing production of wheat. Similarly, Rs 12.38 crores and Rs 5.40 crores have been approved for increasing the production of pulses and coarse grains, respectively, Roshan Lal added.

The meeting reviewed the progress report for 2013-14. Under the Mission, an increase of 23% of yield and 30% productivity have been noted in the districts namely Ambala, Yamunanagar, Bhiwani, Mahenderagarh, Gurgaon and Jhajjar, during 2013-14 as compared to 2007-08.

In other districts, an increase of 16.53% of yield and 18.27% productivity were noted against 2007-08. Similarly, an increase of 113% of yield and 83% productivity of grams have been recorded.

Kurukshetra, May 26
Students from the Indian National Students’ Organisation (INSO) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI), led by their group heads, held separate demonstrations at the Kurukshetra University, against the recent fee hike.

INSO leader Sandeep Nain, said, “The university has increased the fee of almost all courses by Rs 1,500-2,000 for the next session. The fee hike is unjustified and it will put extra burden on the students.” —TNS

Rewari, May 26
Women candidates have romped in nine out of 17 seats in the Municipal Committee polls held at Dhaaruhera town of this district yesterday.

Women have outplayed men for the first time in Dharuhera MC elections. As many as 71 candidates, including 30 women, were in the fray from 17 wards.

Suman Devi, one of the candidates from Ward Number 13, was elected unopposed in the polls, while 78.7 per cent electors exercised their franchise.

According to the information, Sumitra Devi from Ward Number 1, Prem Rao from Ward Number 5, Chanderkala from Ward Number 6, Nisha Yadav from Ward Number 8, Chetna Gupta from Ward Number 9, Sudesh Bohra from Ward Number 11, Suman Devi from Ward Number 13, Kiran Saini from Ward Number 15 and Manisha Saini from Ward Number 16 have been declared the winners from their respective wards.

Besides, Raj Kumar Saini from Ward Number 2, Krishan Dayma from Ward Number 3, Ganesh from Ward Number 4, Sunderlal Prajapati from Ward Number 7, Rajender Singh from Ward Number 10, Raj Kumar from Ward Number 12, Vikram Harinagar from Ward Number 14 and Dalip Saini from Ward Number 17 have emerged victorious in the polls.

The election observer said the polling passed peacefully as no untoward incident was reported. Tight security arrangements were made for the smooth conduct of elections, he added.

Jhajjar, May 26
The Government College at Badli would now be renamed after late former minister Dheerpal Singh, who represented this Assembly segment five times in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.

This was announced by Haryana Chief Minister (CM) Bhupinder Singh Hooda, while addressing a condolence meeting after paying floral tributes to the departed minister at his native village, Badli, here today.

The CM said, “Dheerpal Singh worked tirelessly for the development of society and his area. He dreamed of development of this area, hence the state government will make all efforts to ensure the development of this region in every sphere.”

Dheerpal Singh died after a brief illness at a private hospital in Delhi on May 16. He was 68.

Former Chief Minister Hukam Singh, MP Deepender Hooda’s wife Shweta Hooda, Haryana Sports Minister Sukhbir Kataria, MLAs Raghubir Kadian, Naresh Sharma and Sampat Singh, former MP Jyoti Mirdha were prominent among those who attended the condolence meet.

Chandigarh May 26
The Haryana Government has revised the pay scales of employees in various categories of the Agriculture and Horticulture Department, Industrial Training and Vocational Education Department, Government Arts School, Rohtak, and Government Industrial Training Institute.

While giving this information here today, a spokesman of the Finance Department said in the Agriculture and Horticulture Department, the pay scale of Agriculture Development Officer (ADO) and Horticulture Development Officer (HDO) has been revised to PB-29,300-34,800, grade pay-4,200.

Similarly, the pay scale of Block Agriculture Officer (BAO), technical assistant (TA) and demonstrator has been revised from PB-29,300-34,800, grade pay 4,000 to PB 29,300-34,800, grade pay 4,200 and that of SDAO, Subject Matter Specialist, Assistant Plant Protection officer, Assistant Cane Development Officer, Assistant Soil Conservation Officer, Quality Control inspector, Assistant Cane Commissioner, Assistant Marketing Officer, Assistant Seed Production Officer Class-II, soil survey officer, floriculturist, vegetable specialist, District Horticulture Officer, Fruit Specialist and Superintendent, Horticulture from existing PB-29,300-34,800 grade pay 4,200 to PB 29,300-34,800 grade pay 4,600.

The spokesman said in the Industrial Training and Vocational Education Department, Government Arts School, Rohtak, the pay scale of principal, group c had been revised from existing PB 29,300-34,800 grade pay 3,600 to PB 29,300-34,800 grade pay 4,200. Similarly, the pay scale of art master, artists-cum-designer, history of art teacher and language teacher: English and Hindi, was revised to PB 29,300-34,800 grade pay 3,600.

He said in Government Industrial Training Institutes, the pay scale of principal (women) TTC, the pay scale had been revised to PB 29,300-34800, grade pay 4,200.

Similarly, the pay scale of junior apprentice and placement officer, senior technical assistant and apprenticeship supervisor (technical) has been revised from PB 29,300-34,800, grade pay 3,300 to PB 29,300-34,800, grade pay 4,000 and that of language teacher: English and Hindi, technical assistant and art masters in Government Industrial Training Institutes (Women) from PB 29,300-34,800, grade pay 3,200 to PB 29,300-34,800, grade pay 3,600.

Jhajjar, May 26
A 19-year-old youth was stabbed to death by a group of assailants in Kabir Basti near the General Hospital in Jhajjar's Bahadurgarh town on Sunday night.

Suraj of local Mahavir Park locality, was returning home from Linepaar locality after meeting his maternal uncle when he was waylaid near the hospital. The attackers tried to snatch his mobile phones and cash. When Suraj resisted, he was stabbed to death. The police sent the body for a post-mortem. A murder case was registered. —TNS

Yamunanagar, May 26
A student died after a car hit his motorcycle near Kail village on National Highway-73 last night.

The deceased who was a student of a private university in Ambala district was identified as Deepankar of Delhi.

Sadar police, Jagadhri, said Deepankar was going to meet his friend in Jagadhri on his motorcycle, when a car hit it near the village. He was rushed to Trauma Centre, Yamunanagar, where he was referred to PGI, Chandigarh. He succumbed to his injuries on the way. Passersby noted the car’s number. The police were making efforts to arrest the accused. The body was handed over to his family after postmortem. —OC