Jhajjar :
Residents of Baghpur, Maangavaas, Vazirpur and Bhagalpuri villages on Monday blocked traffic on the Bhagalpur Chowk in Beri for around half an hour to protest change in power supply schedule.

The protesters said as per the old schedule, the corporation had to ensure supply to their villages 15 hours a day, but they had been facing long cuts since the schedule was changed.

On getting information about the blockade, power officials and police personnel reached the spot and assured the protesters of supplying electricity as per the old schedule. The protesters relented and cleared the road.

Highest-ever units supplied on Sunday 

Chandigarh : With increase in demand for power due to hot weather and paddy transplantation, power utilities supplied 2,043.61 lakh units of electricity on Sunday. Sources claimed new records in demand and supply. PK Das, Additional Chief Secretary, Power Department, said the DHBVN and the UHBVN supplied the highest-ever units of electricity on Sunday. He said the maximum demand for the day was 10,500 MW, which was the highest-ever demand in the state. He claimed there was no scheduled cut and the total cuts on Sunday were a negligible 19,000 units. Das said the cuts, if any, were at the local level due to breakdown and not shortage. He said 24-hour uninterrupted supply was being made in all urban areas.

Chandigarh :
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has approved installation of 10 lakh smart meters in  Panipat, Karnal, Panchkula, Faridabad and Gurugram districts. A memorandum of understanding between Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) and Haryana power distribution utilities in this regard will be signed soon.

An official spokesman said that the Chief Minister took the decision to improve the financial condition of power distribution companies, encourage energy conservation and overcome the problems with regard to payment of electricity bills. In the first phase, EESL would replace old meters with smart meters in the five districts.

Under the Uday Scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 10,000 old meters were replaced with smart meters  in Panipat district under a pilot project. Now, the scheme would be implemented in other districts as well. The smart meters are GPS equipped. Installation of the smart meters along with its associated GPS system would enable electricity distribution companies to collect real time data on usage.

He said that under the ‘Mhara Gaon Jagmag Gaon’ scheme initiated by the present government in 2015, 400 feeders in 2,310 villages in various districts, including in Panchkula, Ambala, Faridabad, Gurugram and Sirsa, are getting round the clock power supply. From July 1, rural domestic consumers in Fatehabad district would also get 24-hour power supply. Similarly, line losses have been reduced from 30 per cent to 20 per cent, which would further be reducd to 15 per cent by March 2019.

On the job 

• A private firm to replace old meters with smart meters in Panipat, Karnal, Panchkula, Faridabad and Gurugram districts
• Around 10,000 old meters have been replaced meters in Panipat district under a pilot project
• From July 1, rural domestic consumers in Fatehabad district would also get 24-hour power supply

Villagers’ repeated complaints about shortage of teachers fell on deaf ears

Kabrel (Hisar) :
It seems the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign is yet to reach Kabrel village of the Adampur segment in the district.

Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) has produced the worst result of the district this year in the matriculation examination as none of the students in the batch of 24 girls could pass the examination.

This is the only government school having zero result this year.

Villagers said they had anticipated poor result, as the school had a shortage of teachers in the previous session. The village panchayat kept on making many rounds of the offices of the district administration, demanding teachers.

Village sarpanch Dharm Singh said the village school had no teacher of science, mathematics, Hindi and Sanskrit, while the social science teacher of the village had been sent to another school on deputation.

“Students had complained about the absence of teaching staff. I visited the District Education Officer (DEO) several times, asking him to deploy teaching faculty. But the teachers were transferred to this school only four months before the examinations,” he said.

The head teacher of the school, Ramphal Singh, too, blamed shortage of staff as the cause behind the zero per cent result. “The newly deployed teachers tried hard to improve the academic situation. But we realised that the academic standards were below average,” he said, saying that the school had seven teachers of various subjects to teach 126 students from Class VI to X. 

Out of the 24 girls who failed in the matriculation examination, 14 have got re-admission in the school. 

DEO BS Saherawat refused to comment on the matter.

Chandigarh :
Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda described INLD, the 'B' team of the BJP, and alleged that both the parties were “infected” with “Hooda-phobia” (extreme fear of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda).

Addressing a public meeting at Ellenabad, the home constituency of Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala, the MP said that thousands of people were participating in Hooda’s ‘Rath Yatra’ showed that they wanted the Congress back to power.
Deepender said that the manner the present BJP government drove the state backwards in development, people remember 10 years of Hooda regime as the golden period in the state’s history.

Coming down on the Khattar government, Deepender said that it had failed on all fronts be it providing water and electricity to people, or maintaining law and order or ensuring development activities in the state.

Hooda junior said that during 10 years of Hooda regime, Haryana had come on top in per capita income, per capita investment, industrialisation, sports and giving incentives to sportspersons.

However, in the past four years, the state had been left behind many other states on all these counts while it had come on top in matter of crime against women.
He alleged that Haryana has witnessed incidents of rioting and violence four times in four years leaving people in fear.

Bharat Singh Beniwal, former MLA from Ellenabad, also addressed the meeting.

Karnal :
BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Chopra said the Congress must decide what is more important to them, winning elections or ‘thumkas’ (dance moves).

The remark came after Haryanvi dancer Sapna Chaudhary reportedly visited UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s office on Sunday.

Speaking to media here, the BJP MP from Karnal said, “The Congress already has people who dance, and that’s enough. The party needs to prioritise what they want to do, whether they want to dance or win an election. (Congress mein thumke lagane wale jo hain woh hi thumke lagayenge, yeh unko dekhna hai ki thumke lagane hain ya chunaav jeetna hai).”
Chaudhary reportedly paid a visit to Sonia’s office on June 24; however, she was unable to meet the UPA chairperson.

Interacting with media, Chaudhary expressed her keenness towards the Congress and Sonia Gandhi, which has raised speculations of her joining the party in the near future.
On a related note, the Haryanvi dancer had made headlines after her appearance and dance moves on the reality show ‘Bigg Boss-Season 11’.

She was last seen in a dance number in the film ‘Veerey Di Wedding’.

Her father’s death when she was just 12 years old had made her take up dancing to support her family. There was no looking back since.