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By: Express News Service | Chandigarh |
December 9, 2020 9:36:49 am
Villagers in Karnal had also burnt Khattar’s effigy Monday night as a mark of their protest against the state government. (Express File)Amid the Bharat Bandh call given by various farmer unions, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar had to cancel his scheduled programme in Padha village of Karnal district as a group of villagers vandalised the helipad area, uprooted tents pitched at the venue and also threw away the chairs and other furniture on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.
According to district administration officials, Khattar was scheduled to inaugurate various projects for the area at about 3.30 pm, Tuesday. After the venue was vandailsed, the CM’s visit to the village was subsequently cancelled.
However, Khattar reached Karnal in the evening and inaugurated “Smart Shiksha Pariyojna” at Government Girls Senior Secondary School on railway road in Karnal city under the Smart City project. The CM was scheduled to stay at Karnal city rest house for the night.
Talking about the project, a government spokesperson said: “Under this project, 53 classrooms have been built in nine schools in the city and all the smart class facilities have been made online from today. Along with smart classes in the schools, under the BaLA (Building as Learning Aid) concept, models of subjects like science and mathematics have been made on the classroom walls so that students can learn in a unique way. An amount of Rs 3.67 crore has been spent on this ‘Smart Shiksha Pariyojna’ project.”
Speaking on the occasion, Khattar said, “By incorporating modern education system, education standards have been raised in government schools of the state. Along with opening play schools in the state, Sanskriti model schools are also being built.
In these, students will be taught in both Hindi and English medium. With these measures, the quality of education will improve. The school has been upgraded with the facility of smart class in this school. It will now be made a Sanskriti model schools and the process of the same will soon be started”.
Protest by various organisations in Chandigarh during the Bharat bandh on Tuesday. (Express photo by Kamleshwar Singh)
“The smart classes will have smart features with interactive displays, for which a large screen of 55 inches has been installed. Two cameras and one computer each have also been provided in each such room. Along with this, eight STEM labs and similar robotic labs have also been built.
Students in the STEM Lab will do practicals with modern education tools while in the Robotic Lab, they will be able to make models of anything. At the entry of each smart classroom, an attendance machine will be installed for the students, having a three-way provision of marking their attendance either through biometric, face detection or card reader. In addition to these, there will be a system of monitoring of every classroom in the principal room, so that the principal will be able to monitor every activity of the class on the screen sitting,” the spokesperson added.
Earlier in the day, Khattar, instead went to New Delhi and met Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar at his residence. Various representatives of Farmers Producer Organisation representatives had too met Tomar and expressed their acceptance of the three contentious farm legislations, in an attempt to corroborate Khattar’s claims that the ongoing farmer agitation was driven by Punjab farmers and Haryana’s farmers were not part of it.
Miscreants identified: Police
Karnal’s SP Ganga Ram Punia told The Indian Express that “Five persons who were main instigators/miscreants have been identified on the basis of photographs/ videos available with the police. Appropriate legal action shall be taken as per law”.
Local BJP leaders, however, called it a politically motivated disruption. Khattar was also scheduled to review the progress of various developmental works of an under-construction women college and Panchtirthi Tirath besides addressing a gathering.
FPO products now at HAFED outlets
On Tuesday, the Haryana government also announced that it has decided to make products of the Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) available to the consumers through HAFED Sales Outlets.
For this, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed Tuesday between the Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation Ltd (HAFED) and Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) at HAFED Corporate Office, Panchkula in the presence of Haryana Cooperation Minister, Dr Banwari Lal.
Dr Lal said, “HAFED platform is being provided to the FPOs so as to double the income of farmers as envisioned by Prime Minister. As HAFED is a popular brand in the market, I urge all FPOs to maintain the quality of their products.
The State government is also providing loans to the farmers at an economical rate of interest for the infrastructure development of FPOs. With a view to make different products of HAFED available to its consumers, the Haryana government has also decided to provide assistance to the FPOs for the marketing of HAFED products.”
The products duly processed and packed by FPOs in their processing units in their own brand name would be made available for sale to the consumers through existing 29 HAFED sale outlets and proposed “HAFED Bazar” Outlets (near 50) which would be opened in all district headquarters of the state by end of January 2021”.