Big plan to improve academic standards: Chautala
Our Correspondent

Sonepat, April 1
The Haryana Government has taken a series of steps to improve the standard of education in primary, middle, high and senior secondary schools run by it under the new educational policy.

Giving this information, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, Chief Minister, told mediapersons here today that his government had already started computer education in 400 schools of the state from Class VI and introduced English language as a subject from Class I. The government had also taken steps to encourage technical institutions in the state and it had increased the quota of admission in multipurpose technical institutions as well as engineering institutions from 9,000 to 22,000, he added.

He said that the government planned to launch various schemes for the all-round development of the students and to improve the academic standards. He hoped that the educational institutions would implement the new educational policy in toto. He said that the CBSE system was proving useful for Haryana students as it trained the students for competing at the national and international levels for various technical and job-oriented courses.

Referring to the power crisis in the state, Mr Chautala said that the central government would set up a thermal power station at Yamunanagar and its foundation stone would be laid by the Union Energy Minister next month. He said that 1,000 mw additional power would be generated in the state during the next financial year.

During the last two-and-a-half years, the state had generated 748 mw of power from its sources. Moreover, steps were being taken to re-commission the second unit of the thermal plant at Panipat where 114 mw of power would be generated. He also disclosed that the government had also prepared a scheme to set up power generating units in all the sugar mills of the state. Under this scheme, more than 100 mw power would be generated and the sugar mills would become self-reliant in power. He said that power would also be generated from the garbage collected from the cities in the state.

The Chief Minister claimed that the state government had earned a revenue of Rs 845 crore from power consumers by launching various concession schemes like voluntary disclosure scheme and surcharge waiving scheme.

Regarding the shortage of canal water, Mr Chautala said that the government had already paid Rs 12 crore to the Punjab Government for the desiltation and cleaning operations of the Bhakra Canal for getting more water for irrigation purposes. He said that Haryana was receiving 10,500 cusecs of water from the Bhakra canal system against 9,000 cusecs of water to meet the requirements of the farmers in the state.

He announced that the government would undertake the work on the brick-lining of watercourses at its own expenses and this would check the seepage. He disclosed that sugar worth Rs 4.50 crore was still lying with the mills in the state and efforts were being made to sell the buffer stocks at the earliest so that the funds recovered from it could be utilised for development purposes.

Referring to wheat procurement in the coming season, Mr Chautala said that adequate arrangements had been made to buy all the wheat marketed by the farmers.

Haryana, he said, had given 64 lakh tonnes of wheat to the central pool during the last rabi season. He hoped that it would go up provided the minimum support price of wheat was enhanced by the central government. Mr Chautala advised the farmers to take to other crops such as flowers, fruits and vegetables if they wanted to increase their income.

He said that a Veterinary Development Board had been set up in the state and awards ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 6,000 would be given to quality milch cattle.

Truant lecturers to be brought to book
Our Correspondent

Sonepat, April 1
Emboldened by the success to check absenteeism among the lecturers in government colleges, the Haryana Government has tightened its noose around the lecturers working in the non-government colleges of the state also.

According to official sources, the Director of Higher Education has set up a special cell in the office to monitor the working of these colleges.

The deputy directors of the education department have been made incharge of different non-government colleges. They have been asked to visit the colleges and check absenteeism among the lecturers.

In pursuance of this policy, a deputy director had raided two private colleges in the city last week and found some lecturers absent. In one case, a principal of a private college in the city found some lecturers absenting themselves from duty.

In another case, a principal of a private girls’ college was not present in the college. She reached the college as soon as the staff informed her about the raid.

On being questioned by the deputy director as to why none of the lecturers was present, the principal offered a lame excuse that on account of preparatory holidays, the lecturers would come late.

In the other college, at least five lecturers were found absent. This has created a panic among the lecturers as they never expected that the government would tighten its control on the non-government colleges also.

Several lecturers who had not reported for practical examination duty, were issued show-cause notices by the managements on the directive of the state government asking them to explain their conduct and threatened them with disciplinary action in this regard.

Meanwhile, a strange situation has arisen as the lecturers of the private colleges report for duty just for two hours during the days of examination while in the government colleges, the lecturers are required to remain present for five hours.

Judge lists steps to speed up disposal of cases
Our Correspondent

Gurgaon, April 1
A judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mr Justice V. K. Bali, has directed the judges here to adopt measures for the speedy disposal of cases.

Mr Bali, who reached here on Sunday evening for the annual inspection of the Gurgaon courts and jail complex, suggested that the judges should cut short the adjournments in the cases. They should avoid giving regular dates in the cases.

Rather, they should fix the number of cases in which they could listen to the arguments of both the parties in a day and decide the cases on merits, advised Mr Bali.

The inspecting judge of Gurgaon courts today inspected the functioning and the files of the courts of Additional District and Sessions Judge and the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) Justice J. R. Duggal.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court judge will remain in the district till April 6.

Besides checking other routine files, he will inspect the overall working of the district courts.

Mr Bali will also inspect the district jail where the undertrials can file complaints before him so that their grievances could be redressed. Incidentally, the jail, which has a sanctioned capacity of 120 prisoners, is forced to adjust more than five times the sanctioned number.

Mr Bali was received by district judges, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner, Mr Apoorva Kumar Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr Kuldeep Singh Siag, members of the District Bar Association and legal luminaries on Sunday evening.