Chandigarh : 
Haryana would go paperless under the e-Office project by August 15, 2019. The Chief Minister has given directions to the officers concerned to make it a reality.
While informing this here, an official spokesman said that the Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rakesh Gupta, along with the team of e-governance is speedily working on this concept. The first meeting regarding the implementation of paperless offices has already been held.

He said during the meeting, the presentation on e-office was also presented. It was informed that on the pattern of Human Resource Management System, the data of employees engaged in dealing files would be prepared.

E-office will shift the focus from manual to digital movement of files thereby giving more emphasis on the use of information technology in the government working.

Faridabad :
A drive launched by the Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MC) authorities to unearth irregularities in collection of various charges and taxes from defaulters appear to have started yielding positive results. The corporation has received cheques of over Rs 1 crore in the past 24 hours from two units, which were issued notices recently.

It is claimed that many more defaulters were likely to clear their pending dues that had been outstanding for the past several years. “The total amount to be recovered is around Rs 35 crore, if the number of cases under scrutiny is to be believed,” said sources.
Irregularities got unearthed after a special audit was carried out by a team of Auditors accredited to the Institute of Public Auditors of India. It is alleged that gross violations of policies, guidelines and instructions of the government were carried out. ‘Malpractices’ in the collection of composition fee, CLU charges subdivision, external development charges (EDC) and conversion charges for granting permission resulted in the scam, that laid unexposed since 1980.

After partially sealing a five star hotel here for recovering the pending tax of Rs 9.32 crore recently, the civic body authorities on Tuesday issued a similar notice to an automobile company located on the Mathura road for not depositing EDC of Rs 7.80 crore since 2002. It has also issued a notice to a private builder for not paying CLU fee amounting to Rs 4.64 crore and raising a commercial construction illegally in Sector 49. The MCF has already issued notices to around 80 farmhouses developed illegally in the Surajkund area a couple of months back.

Revealing that the two defaulters included a ‘sealed’ hotel and an automobile dealer, who were found encroaching upon the government land in NIT, have come forward to deposit an amount of Rs 60 lakh and Rs 42 lakh, respectively, said Mohammed Shayin, Commissioner, MCF, adding that the two units had agreed to clear their dues.
Claiming that an FIR had been recommended against the officials concerned in eight cases of irregularities that were detected to the tune of Rs 18 crore, RL Rohilla, OSD, Panning Section, said probe was being conducted and the amount involved in the irregularities was likely to increase.

Chandigarh :
The Haryana Government has decided to honour individuals or institutions with state awards for outstanding services in the field of Prevention of Alcoholism and Substance (Drug) Abuse for 2018-19.

Under this, applications have been invited from persons or institutions engaged in providing outstanding services in this field for state awards scheme.

Stating this here on Thursday, a spokesman for the Social Justice and Empowerment Department said that these awards included best drug de-addiction centre providing services to alcoholics and drug users, best Panchayati Raj Institution working for prevention of alcoholism and substance abuse, best municipal body working for prevention of alcoholism and substance abuse, best school doing outstanding work in awareness generation and prevention of alcoholism and substance abuse, best college doing outstanding work in awareness generation and prevention of alcoholism and substance abuse, best curative campaign, best awareness campaign, outstanding individual achievement of a professional and outstanding individual achievement by a non-professional, he added.

Chandigarh :
Censuring the Haryana Police for its failure to apply brakes to the menace of helmet-less riding in the state, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today dubbed the situation as “very bad” before summoning two IGP-level officers.

The direction came after the Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa was told that false and misleading report was presented in the matter.

Referring to the affidavit, amicus curiae or the friend of the court Namit Kumar told the Bench that everyone was found wearing helmets in 11 districts of the state. Reading out the contents of the affidavit, he said number of challans issued to women for riding without wearing helmets was zero in these districts.

Kumar said they had CDs of Panchkula and Narnaul, which belied the claims. Taking a note of the assertion and the fact that the affidavit was filed by IGP Sanjay Kumar, the Bench directed him to be present in the court on the next date of hearing. The Bench also directed another officer Rakesh Kumar to be present after the Bench was told that he had replaced Sanjay Kumar following a reshuffle.

At the very onset, the Bench asserted that maximum people were not wearing helmets and there were no checks. “People are riding without helmets; and those with helmets prefer to carry the headgear around their arms,” the Bench asserted. “On an average, 45 out of 50 riders are not wearing helmets”.

Haryana’s attempts to justify the situation by claiming that they had their limitations and the state was “big” failed to find favour with the Bench. “Status reports are meaningless… You are filing false reports… We will go without telling anyone and get firsthand information,” the Bench added.

The developments took place during the hearing of a suo motu or “court on its own motion” case on traffic regulation and road safety. The State of Haryana has already filed two affidavits on traffic challans and installation of CCTV cameras.

The Bench was also asked the respondents to generate awareness after it was told about dissemination of information regarding traffic violations and challans through Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. The Bench asked the two states about such facility. The Bench added people were required to be made aware of the service.

Hisar :
Enraged over poor result in Haryana board Class X examinations, villagers locked Government High School in Bhiwani’s Pur village on Tuesday. They did not allow teachers to enter the school.

Villagers led by sarpanch Sher Singh alleged the despite adequate teaching staff, poor performance showed lack of interest by teachers.

Of 12 students in the school, only three passed. Five students flunked, while the remaining four got compartment. The school has 10 teachers.

Sher Singh said, “Members of the panchayat have been visiting the school and urging teachers to be serious towards studies of students. During our visits, we found teachers busy in mobile phones or smoking hookah. The performance of Government High School has been dismal for several years.”

The sarpanch said the panchayat had asked the district authorities to transfer “non-serious” teachers, but the authorities had failed to take note of the demand.

A school teacher, however, blamed students for the poor performance. “We (teachers) did our best, but students were not serious towards studies,” she said requesting anonymity.
Later, Block Education Officer Santosh Nagar visited the school and held a meeting of teachers and villagers. She assured villagers of visiting the school once every month. She asked villagers to form a committee to keep tabs on the functioning of the school.