Saturday, September 11, 1999
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N E W S Saturday, September 11, 1999 |
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NGOs
eligible for NHB aid CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — The National Horticulture Board has initiated the process of decentralisation by making non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other voluntary bodies working in different states eligible for grant under the Nutritional Garden Scheme run by the board. The scheme was formulated by the board in 1998 to benefit small farmers in rural areas by providing them 10 fruit plants free of cost through the state horticulture departments. All proposals regarding this were to be submitted by a state horticulture department to be cleared by the NHB head office in Gurgaon. But in a major shift in its existing policy, the board has decided that though the procedure for the state horticulture departments will remain the same, registered NGOs and cooperative societies will be eligible to approach the board regional centres in the state capitals directly to get Rs 2 lakh provided by it under its annual grant-in-aid scheme. "There is no change in the policy as far as grant to be attained by any state horticulture department is concerned. They will continue to get the money against fruit trees disbursed by them among farmers," said Mr Rajbir Singh Saroha, Assistant Director of the regional centre of the board here. According to him, all proposals sent by the NGOs and other such bodies would, however, be scrutinised by a five-member committee formed during a meeting of the board held here last week. Though five proposals have already been submitted by different Haryana-based NGOs for getting aid under the scheme, no such request has been made by any such body from any part of Punjab even under the old scheme, probably due to lack of awareness about the existence of the schemes, sources said. In addition to helping the NGOs, the change in the scheme will benefit state horticulture departments as earlier they had to approach the Head office of the NHB at Gurgaon to seek financial assistance. The board, however, has
not relaxed conditions for the Transfer of Technology
Scheme for educating farmers about new techniques adopted
by farmers of other states. The board, extends aid up to
Rs 50,000 to a group of 50 farmers and five staff members
of the state horticulture department to undertake an
educational tour of any state other than the parent state
as recommended by the horticulture department. The NGOs
have not been allowed to participate in this scheme so
far, said Mr Saroha. |
Suspended
magistrate denied bail CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr S.S. Lamba, who is also Special CBI Judge, today declined the application for bail moved by Mr M.S. Walia, Judicial Magistrate, Kharar (now under suspension). Mr Walia was arrested by the CBI in connection with a graft case registered against him under orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. After his two-day police remand, he was yesterday sent to judicial lock-up. Mr Lamba observed: “It is correct that bail is a rule and jail is an exception. However, the Public Prosecutor has referred to a High Court ruling in the Onkar Chand vs State of Punjab case. In that case the High Court had held that denial of bail to a poor man who in a fit of rage strikes a person and gets involved in a serious crime case is justifiable on the ground that he is likely to subvert justice by winning over witnesses.” He further held: “There is greater justification for denying bail to persons charged with high corruption as from such elements there is greater danger of elimination of evidence against them with the use of money power.” The investigation is still at the initial stage, the judge observed, and added: “I do not consider it a fit case to order the release of the accused on bail.” To begin with, the case against Mr Walia was registered by the Chandigarh police. Later, he had applied
for anticipatory bail. Declining his bail plea, Mr
Justice R.L. Anand of the High Court had directed that
the investigation into this case be entrusted to the CBI.
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Centre
decision on sanctioned works CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — The Central Government has decided that all works recommended by the Members of the 12th Lok Sabha and received by the District Collectors up to April 26 this year be sanctioned for execution , subject to fulfilling of other conditions under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Fund (MPLAD). This was stated by Mr GMC Balayogi, Lok Sabha Speaker , in a letter to Mr Satya Pal Jain, a Member of the 12th Lok Sabha from Chandigarh. In his letter, Mr Balayogi said that many MPs met him and drew his attention to the peculiar problem that arose as a result of the untimely dissolution of the 12th Lok Sabha in April this year due to which even though substantial project provisions existed, funds could not be released to the District Collectors in respect of the projects which were already recommended and were pending under the MPLAD. The letter said the issue was reviewed by the Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Programme Implementation. As a result , it was
decided that all works recommended by the MPs of the 12th
Lok Sabha and received by the district collectors up to
April 26—the day when the Lok Sabha was
dissolved—might be sanctioned up to 30 days from the
date of clarification or up to the date of announcement
of the election of the 13 Lok Sabha. |
HUDA men
go on strike PANCHKULA, Sept 10 — Over 150 employees of the Haryana Urban development Authority (HUDA), observed a pen-down strike today to protest against the "growing incidents of lawlessness" by members of the HUDA Joint Action Committee. Sources said that two members of the HUDA Joint action committee—Mr Krishan Kumar and Mr Pawan Kumar— yesterday walked in the office of the Ms Santosh Mehta, Deputy Superintendent, HUDA-electrical division, and threatened her with dire consequences for allegedly showing indifference towards their demands. Two men Mr Raj Kumar and Mr Bhardwaj were also allegedly threatened and manhandled in the office.The two members used unparliamentary language and misbehaved with other staff members of the office.In protest, the assistant employees and officers up to the SDO level boycotted the day's proceedings and virtually no work could take place in the office. officers and assistant employees of the Executive Engineer division no. I, 2, 10,11,12,horticulture, and other sub-divisions participated in the protest. A contingent of the office also met the Superintendent of Police, Mr Alok Mittal and a complaint in this regard has been lodged in Sector 7 police post. Mr Meva Singh, President
of the HUDA Joint action committee, however, refuted the
allegations.Sources indicate that an incident of a
similar nature took place on August 12, when a Sub
Divisional Officer(SDO) of HUDA , Mr B.K.Sharma , was
threatened to be thrown from the top floor in his office. |
‘Politics
is science of power’ CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — Politics today is not only defined as the science of state, but in broader terms it is about the science of power. This was stated by Prof Andre Beteille, from the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, who delivered a lecture today on 'Politics as a subject for sociology' at the ICSSR complex, Panjab University. Author of 'Caste, Class and Power', Prof Beteille said that political sociology was a branch that had contributed towards our view on politics in India. He also added that most political scientists, for long, had been studying only the more formal aspects of politics. But the sociologists, according to him, while examining the operations of the village system, like caste and distribution of land, got interested in the political system of the village, and so looked at the more simpler and basic forms of the political operations. While talking of politics at the grassroots level , Prof Beteille gave an interesting view of how not only advanced modern societies have political systems in place, but that these systems could also be studied in any society or institution. About his own interest in finding a sociological approach to the study of politics, he said that he had wanted to see how the Indian political process was changing the caste system, and came to the conclusion that a sociological approach to the study of politics would throw more light on the ways of defining politics in various set-ups. Calling sociology and
social anthropology as the two disciplines of comparative
sociology, Prof Beteille said that the human societies
could be divided into three systems— the industrial
system, which had been the only object of attention in
the past 200 years, the agrarian society, where politics
played at a totally different level and the tribal
system, a smaller and a homogenous society, but
nevertheless having its own political system in place. |
Demand for
more schools PANCHKULA, Sept 10 — Greater number of educational institutions in the city have been demanded by the President of the Citizens' Welfare Association, Mr S.K. Nayar. He has stated that the city has only two government schools affiliated to the Haryana School Education Board, whereas there is a growing demand for schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education. He has condemned the high fee being charged by the CBSE-affiliated private schools in the absence of model schools in the city. The association has stated that the Haryana Government should take immediate steps to open model schools in the city and discourage the monopoly of private schools run by different organisations. The association has
appealed to the government to consider opening about 6
model schools in different parts of the township, an
engineering and medical college along with technical and
medical institutions to fulfill the commitments made to
the public by the government. |
"Backward
theory in political science" CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 —Theory in political science and other social sciences remains very backward, said Prof Randhir Singh , an academician from Delhi University, in a talk at Panjab University here today. Prof Randhir Singh said there was plenty of writing on the subjects which had nothing to say in matters of content. He said his endeavour in the pursuit of political science was a "misadventure" and he found the discipline reasonably bogus. The subject, however, had other attractions for pursuers. One was surprised to see the quantity of writing even in cases where social scientists said "nothing". There was no one rich enough to have more than the necessary philosophical content nor any one so poor not to have any. This was apparent from the fact that contradictions were plenty in social sciences, he said. Researchers spent a lifetime in defending a viewpoint for or against the subject. However, the percentage of truth in each result varied. One or the other could be more true in case of the concerned problem. Quoting a slogan of the student unrest in France in 1968 which said "be a realist, attempt the impossible", Dr Randhir Singh said this was the thought what the country needed the most today. "Where do you speak from" was another pertinent question which meant each one had his or her own philosophy on various aspects of life. This pertained to personnel stand on questions which shaped the world. Prof Randhir Singh said awareness of ignorance was very positive in the direction of knowledge. He has been associated with the Communist outlook ever since the height of his career. He also did not participate in a single convocation during his service which is usually considered a very important academic function for participation of the faculty. He said the country still needed a revolution. "I am a propagandist but slightly educated", he said. It was difficult to explain divergent opinion on the same topic, he said. Disagreement on a subject was a fact which only made it natural to find reasons of philosophical political differences, Prof Randhir Singh said. Even the interpretation of which point of view was more true had a personal view. Disagreeing with a section of political scientists, Prof Randhir Singh said there was no point in publications in case they had no originality. A number of them were
only bothered about the content. It almost was as if an
idea was expanded to a page and a page into a whole book. |
300 centres set up for polio
programme PANCHKULA, Sept 10 — A meeting of all district officials, chaired by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Vivek Joshi, was held here today at the district secretariat to discuss polio eradication measures. Giving details of the programme, Mr Joshi said the pulse polio drive would focus on administering polio drops to children up to 5 years irrespective of whether or not they have been administered the dose earlier. He said the idea was to wipe out polio from Haryana completely. About 300 centres have been established all over the district and 54,611 children below 5 years will be administered the dose.Thirty three centres have been established at Morni, 27 at Barwala, 26 at Raipur Rani, 47 at Kalka, 40 at Pinjore, 24 at Old Panchkula, 32 at Kot and 22 at Hangola. have been set up. Another 31 centres have been established in Panchkula. To ensure that the drive is successful, 94 medical officers, 244 health workers, 596 teachers, 222 'aanganwadi' workers, 250 non-government organisations, besides the SMO have been pressed into service. Mr Joshi informed that
the first round of dose administration is scheduled for
October 24, the second dose on November 21, the third
dose on December 19 while the final dose will be
administered on January 23 next year. The DC appealed to
the residents of the district to take their children
below five years to these booths for dosage on the
scheduled dates. |
SNIPPETS City students get NTSE scholarship CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — Eight students of the city have been awarded the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) scholarship for this year's academic session. The selected students are Himjeet Singh Bains (Shivalik Public School, Sector 41), Preetpal Singh (GMSSS, Sector 35), Rupak Suri and Alok Gupta ( both from St Kabir's School, Sector 26), Udit Kapoor (St Annes' Convent School, Sector 32), Puneet Gulati (St John's School, Sector 26), Neha Chakravarty (Sacred Heart School, Sector 26) and Abhishek (Shishu Niketan School). Folk dance prize for city school CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — The bhangra team of St Stephen's School, Sector 45, won the first prize in the folk dance competition at the Whistance Memorial All-India Inter-School Cultural Festival-99 held for ICSE schools at Bangalore in which 57 schools from all over India participated. These students today performed this dance item in front of the school students. Demand to repair roads MANAULI (SAS Nagar), Sept 10 — Residents of Manauli village have demanded immediate repair of internal roads dug out for laying of telephone cables. According to Mrs Surinder Kaur, local sarpanch, recent rains have deteriorated the condition of the village roads. The telephone department had reportedly removed bricks from the kutcha road, resulting in accumulation of muddy water on roads. Bansal awarded fellowship CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — Prof R.C. Bansal of the Department of Chemical engineering and Technology, Panjab University, has been awarded Emeritus Fellowship by the All-India Council for Technical Education. This fellowship is intended to utilise the services of highly qualified professors who are experts in their fields. Professor Bansal, author of four advance level books, seven chapters in advance level monographs with over 70 research papers has presented papers and presided over sessions of international conferences and delivered lectures at universities and centres of research on the science and technology of carbon materials. Professor Bansal will continue his research on the development of activated carbon absorption technology for environment clean-up. City girl to join Jain TV CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — Charul Malik, a local final year law student, has been selected as a newsreader on Jain Television, an upcoming satellite channel. Charul has been a popular news reader in the local satellite channel. She also had her stint in All India Radio. She has interviewed leading film stars, politicians and police personnel among others for her channel. She also anchored "film paheli" for 30 episodes. Encroachments removed on highway DERA BASSI, Sept 10 — Twenty rehris and other vendors, along the Chandigarh-Ambala National Highway-22, were removed by the Municipal Council here today. These encroachments within a distance of 15 feet from the main road on the government land by the vendors have been removed as per the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. It took more than two hours for the enforcement wing of the municipality to remove the encroachments. Mr J.K.Sharma,Executive Officer of the Dera Bassi Municipal Council, said more encroachments along National Highway-22 within the municipality limit would be removed soon. Experts to probe death PANCHKULA, Sept 10
— A team of forensic experts from Madhuban in Kalka
were called in to establish the cause of death of Surjit
Singh, a factory supervisor, who was found dead last
morning on a deserted road in Sector 19. The
Superintendent of Police, Mr Alok Mittal, said interim
report of the experts suggested that the death was due to
an accident and was not a murder as was being suspected.
However, a detailed report is likely to come in after a
week. |
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