College teachers wear black badges
YAMUNANAGAR, Sept 25 — All private college teachers wore black badges yesterday to protest against uncertain release of their salary, dismissal and suspension of two college teachers at Sonepat.

IAF recruitment rallies
AMBALA, Sept 25 — Three recruitment rallies will be organised in Jammu and Kashmir for the selection of airmen and non-technical trades. It was disclosed by Commanding Officer, Air Force Selection Centre here yesterday.

Farmers seek better paddy price
FATEHABAD, Sept 25 — The Haryana Kisan Sabha has said the farmers of the state have been facing problems for quite a long time. It said the farmers had pinned their hopes on Mr O.P. Chautala but the indifferent attitude of the Chautala government had belied their hopes.

Money orders fail to reach addressees
PANIPAT, Sept 25 — The Postal and Telegraph Department here has miserably failed to provide services to the masses Mr Ramu Parshad, a vendor at Panipat Railway Station had sent a money order for Rs 2000 on May 19 which had not reached its destination so far.

Two arrested for intimidating girls
ROHTAK, Sept 25 — The police has arrested two persons, including a doctor, for allegedly alluring and threatening three teenaged girls in the town.

Canal water does not reach tail end
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, Sept 25 — Theft of irrigation water from canals distributaries and minors in the state particularly in this region has assumed significant proportions and it seems to have become the main reason of water not reaching the tailends and resulting in hardship to the farmers who solely depend on canal water for irrigating fields.

Several villages in Rohtak and Jhajjar districts have been complaining of water not reaching their fields or frequency of water coming (supplied) from canals and distributaries having decreased have become a common. Residents of at least six villages of Rohtak district have complained that they had not been getting any water for the past six months and the Rohtak distributary which had its tailend at Singhpura village had been going dry for quite a long time. According to the villagers the problem had not only caused the standing crops to be damaged but they had been facing an acute shortage of drinking water as their villages get rain water for potable water supply from this distributary. It is reported that the people and their animals have to consume water from tubewells as other sources not considered safe for drinking purpose.

According to reports from some other villages in these districts the supply of water in the canals and minors passing from their areas had also been going dry for the most part of a month and the farmers who had sown paddy had been finding it difficult to save the crops. The irrigation authorities here when contacted admitted that there had been shortage of the irrigation water and it was mainly due to theft of water to improve desilting of the canals and minors in several parts. Commenting on the scarcity of water in Rohtak distributary, the Executive Engineer of the Irrigation Department, Mr S.S. Tarak, said that the part of the distributary falling in Gohana subdivision had not been properly desilted and moreover there were large number of theft incidents which had been hampering the flow of water to tailends. He said measures were being taken to solve the problem.

The earlier government headed by Mr Bansi Lal had claimed that irrigation water reached majority of the tail ends during its regime of three years and this work had been given top priority by his government. The problem of shortage of irrigation water had been among the main issues in nearly every election. The Haryana Pradesh Congress President, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has been alleging gross discrimination against this region in matter of distribution of the available irrigation water by all state governments so far. The problem became more intense this year because of less rain this year during the monsoon period. Some farm experts have been demanding that the government must take a serious view of the drought like conditions prevailing in the region this time.

Kerosene racket unearthed
From Our Correspondent

PANIPAT, Sept 25 — The district police has busted an inter-state gang which was allegedly involved in converting the blue-coloured kerosene available at control rate into white-coloured kerosene and selling it in the open market. In this case, the police has arrested two persons and seized 20,000 litres of kerosene after raiding the premises of Gupta Oil Company here on September 24.

Disclosing this to mediapersons here last evening, the district police chief, Mr Manoj Yadav, said after receiving information a police party led by the Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr Hanif Quraishi, raided the office and godown of the company in the local Ludhiana Shawl Market and Sonda village simultaneously and seized 20,000 litres of kerosene and an additional 2,000 litres which was being converted into white kerosene.

Mr Yadav said the two accused — Sita Ram and Suresh of local Goshala Mandi — used to bring illegally kerosene at control rate from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. By using chemicals and a particular type of soil, the blue kerosene was converted into white kerosene and sold in the market on higher rates.

In another case, Mr Yadav said the police had arrested four criminals allegedly involved in number of cases of robbery and murderous attacks and recovered a stolen scooter, a motor cycle and a pistol from their possession. They have been identified as Mustkil and Furkan of Kairana area in UP and Kuldeep, alias Nikki, and Bhura, both of Nimbari village in Panipat district.

Mr Yadav revealed that on interrogation the two had admitted to being involved in number of criminal cases, including stealing vehicles attacking Babu Ram of Wasin Kalan on August 10 and causing serious knife injuries to Man Chand on September 18.

Societal issues at stake in education
From Jatinder Sharma
Tribune News Service

ROHTAK, Sept 25 — Certain burning societal issues have cropped up in the educational sphere in the latest tussle for supremacy between Maharshi Dayanand University and its affiliated institutions.

With the liberalisation of economy, the government threw open education in professional and technical courses like engineering, management, medical sciences, pharmacy. computer courses etc to the private institutions.

Following these policies and setting up of Guru Jambheshwar (Technical) University, many private institutions claiming to impart education in these spheres have cropped up in large numbers in the areas surrounding the Union Capital. Most of these institutions had neither infrastructure like buildings or laboratories nor adequately qualified teaching faculty.

But despite these shortcomings the university grants provisional affiliation to such institutes by imposing certain conditions. It is strange to note that admissions were made under the provisional affiliation granted by the university and without no objections from the state government and provisional recognition of statutory bodies like the AICTE, the Dental Council of India, the Pharmacy Council of India etc.

As a result, the number of graduates with technical and professional degrees has shown a phenomenal increase in the recent past without any qualitative improvement in the technical stock of the country. These students, after graduation, do not find adequate placement commensurate with the time and money spent on these private institutions.

The legal battle between Maharshi Dayanand University and the professional institutions running under the aegis of the Baba Mastnath Sanskrit Shikshan Sansthan, Astha Bohar, has put a question mark on the fate of at least 1000 students studying in these colleges.

Briefly stated, the trust received provisional affiliation for starting B.E. course in Mechanical, Electronics and Computer Engineering with 60 seats each in 1997-98, MBA two-year course in 1995-96, B.Pharmacy in 1996-97, BDS in 1997-98 and BBA/BCA from 1998-99.

These provisional affiliations were granted by the university and the statutory organisations subject to fulfilment of conditions like appointment of staff as per norms, provisions of infrastructure like buildings, library, workshops, computers and other facilities and deposit of endowment money with the university.

These institutions enrolled students on the basis of the provisional affiliations granted by the statutory authorities when suddenly the university woke up and stopped admissions in these affiliated colleges on the ground that these institutions had failed to fulfil the conditions imposed by various inspection teams of the university.

The trust challenged the decision of the university in a local court which after taking a very technically legalistic view of the issue granted interim stay on the order of the university. The university appealed against this order and the interim stay was vacated by the appellant court.

The question now arises that if the facilities of these institutions are inadequate how can the students who are already studying be granted degrees at the end of their professional courses since the teachers manning these courses are "unqualified or underqualified" and other facilities are inadequate.

The moot point in the whole controversy is whether facilities like buildings, laboratories, books, computers, workshop and adequately qualified staff are provided to the students and to ensure the same once admissions are made to such institutions by the statutory organisations, the state government and the universities.

The statutory organisations, which grant provisional affiliation, later abdicate their responsibility of ensuring certain minimum conditions for quality education and allow admission of students without adequate facilities. After the admissions, the situation turns quite paradoxical for the students, their parents, the university and various statutory organisations. They are left with no choice but to continue granting provisional affiliation to these institutes in the "interest" of those very students.

The institute gets an alibi to fleece the students without caring to fulfil the conditions laid down at the time of initial grant of provisional affiliation.

The educationists here believe that remedial actions on the failures of institutes to provide adequate facilities have neither been addressed by the legislature nor the judiciary, falling which the students are failing prey to these sharks of education.

DC orders patrolling by villagers
Tribune News Service

GURGAON, Sept 25 — To ensure Public safety in the villages, the administration has invoked the Punjab Villages And Small Town Patrol Act 1918, ordering performance of "thikri pehra" at night in the entire district.

The "thikri pehra" enjoins on all able-bodied adult male inhabitants of all the villages of the district to stand vigil during night time against anti-social elements. The village panchayat concerned constituted under the Gram Panchayat Act, 1994, is responsible for ensuring performance of "thikri pehra" properly in the respective areas.

The Deputy Commissioner is conferred power under section 3 of the Punjab Villages And Small Towns Patrol Act to order for the "thikri pehra". The contravention of the order is punishable under sections 9 and 11 of the Act.

In the particular order, the Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon, Mr Krishan Kumar, said that there had been incidents of theft and injuries to some persons in some village of the district during the current month. Therefore, special measures were required to ensure the public safety in all the villages to curb the activities of anti-social elements, the order added. The order will be enforced till November 21.

College teachers wear black badges
From Our Correspondent

YAMUNANAGAR, Sept 25 — All private college teachers wore black badges yesterday to protest against uncertain release of their salary, dismissal and suspension of two college teachers at Sonepat.

Dr Balbir Singh, Zonal President, Haryana College Teachers Union, said here yesterday that all teachers of Haryana observed a protest day yesterday. He alleged that the two college teachers of CRA College, Sonepat were sacked leading to resentment against teachers. They demanded the immediate reinstatement of the teachers, otherwise they would be forced to intensify the agitation.

Dr Singh also alleged that the Director Higher Education Haryana had no time to hear the grievances of the teachers. He said that for the past three months salary had not been paid resulting more than 5000 private college teachers are on the threshold of starvation. Dr Balbir Singh demanded intervention of Chief Minister of Haryana Om Parkash Chautala to resolve the issue immediately and direct the Education Department to redress their grievances.

IAF recruitment rallies
From Our Correspondent

AMBALA, Sept 25 — Three recruitment rallies will be organised in Jammu and Kashmir for the selection of airmen and non-technical trades. It was disclosed by Commanding Officer, Air Force Selection Centre here yesterday.

The first rally will be held at Police Lines, Anantnag on September 29, second at Srinagar on October 1, and the third one at Baramula on October 3.

Farmers seek better paddy price
From Our Correspondent

FATEHABAD, Sept 25 — The Haryana Kisan Sabha has said the farmers of the state have been facing problems for quite a long time. It said the farmers had pinned their hopes on Mr O.P. Chautala but the indifferent attitude of the Chautala government had belied their hopes.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Mr Krishan Swaroop, General Secretary of the sabha, said Mr Chautala had promised free power and water to the farmers before he came to power but nothing had been done in this connection.

Mr Swaroop said the condition of the farmers in the state was not very good. Due to apprehensions of ballworm infection, the cotton crop was sown on a lesser area this time but the yield had been very good, he added. The price of cotton in the market was very low, he said.

Mr Swaroop alleged that though the state government had announced that the government would procure paddy from September 16, but not much of it had been procured by the government agencies. The farmers were being forced to sell their produce at lower rates.

He urged the state government to look into the matter and fulfil its promises.

Money orders fail to reach addressees
From Our Correspondent

PANIPAT, Sept 25 — The Postal and Telegraph Department here has miserably failed to provide services to the masses Mr Ramu Parshad, a vendor at Panipat Railway Station had sent a money order for Rs 2000 on May 19 which had not reached its destination so far.

In another case, Mr S.K. Singh had sent a money order for Rs 1000 to Sumitra Devi at his village, Araria, in Bihar on December 16, 1998, but it had not been received by the recipient so far.

More than 30 other persons were also in a quandary about the money orders sent by then but had not yet reached their destinations. The payees had gone to the Post Master, here to inquire about the fate of their money orders but alleged that the behaviour of the Post Master was rude and he did not give any satisfactory reply.

When this reporter contacted the Post Master Mr I.B. Meena, replied that he could do nothing in this matter. He said it would be better to contact the Senior Superintendent of Postal Services, Karnal.

Two arrested for intimidating girls
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, Sept 25 — The police has arrested two persons, including a doctor, for allegedly alluring and threatening three teenaged girls in the town.

A case under Sections 361, 504 506 and 120 of the IPC has been registered on a complaint lodged by the father of one of the girls. He alleged that the accused had "hypnotised" his daughter and her two friends to make "followers" of a woman preacher based in Delhi. He said the girls were being forced to attend discourses.

Meanwhile, the case has taken a new turn with one of the girls reported to be missing from her house. Her parents feared that the girl had been abducted.