Students forced to evacuate school as stubble burning chokes Rohtak village IT, ED officials to scrutinise assets of 3 BSNL officials nabbed by CBI
ROHTAK: Students of Model School in Rohtak’s Meham village were on Thursday forced to evacuate the school premises due to burning of wheat stubble in adjacent agricultural fields.
School principal Rajesh Nandal said the smoke from the fire in the adjacent fields reached the school and choked students sitting in the classrooms.
“Our students and teachers started feeling choked, finding it hard to breathe. I called sub-divisional magistrate but he said he is out of station and can’t help. I then called DSP but he too said he was out of station. Then, I called up fire brigade office and they reached the spot and doused the flames. But many of our students started showing signs of illness and we ended school at 12 am and sent them homes. Fortunately, all our students are safe, but things could have gone wrong had we not evacuated them immediately,” she said.
However, the authorities have taken no action in the case.
As per a letter by Haryana State Pollution Control Board written to the deputy director of agriculture department in Rohtak, there have been 123 instances of fire in Meham, Sampla, Lakhan Majra, Rohtak and Kalanaur blocks of the districts between April 16 and 30.
The Pollution Control Board has attached the satellite images of the spots besides recommending the agri department to take tours of the spots and act against guilty farmers. However, till now, the agri department has not taken action against anyone.
Meham SDM Dalbir Phogat said they don’t have any solid proof to show the cause of the fire and thus have not taken any action.
Local pollution board SDO Ajay Malik said he has passed on the information to agriculture department and they are authorised to take action.
Deputy director of agri department in Rohtak, Rohtash Singh, claimed there have been no cases of fire due to stubble burning reported to them.
Notably, the stubble burning in Haryana has been linked to deteriorating air quality in the entire region, including in national capital Delhi.
For the past couple of years, stubble burning in the months of October and November has been leading to a thick sheet of smog in north India. The experts said present stubble burning has not caused smog due to high wind speed in the season. CHANDIGARH: Officials of the income tax (I-T) department and Enforcement Directorate will scrutinise the property details and bank accounts of three senior officials of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Faridabad, arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently while taking bribe.
On March 20, the CBI had arrested BSNL principal general manager AK Gupta, assistant general manager Kamal Mewani and JTO Shiv Shankar in Faridabad under bribery charges.
An official, on condition of anonymity, said properties of the three accused at Jaipur, Noida, Ghaziabad, Delhi, Gurgaon and Gwalior would be scrutinised.
The CBI had laid a trap to nab the accused following a complaint from a broadband maintenance contractor, Ajay Choudhary, who alleged that he was being asked for a bribe of Rs 10 lakh by the accused for continuing his contract.
MEHAM SCHOOL PRINCIPAL RAJESH NANDAL SAID SMOKE FROM FIRE IN THE ADJACENT FIELDS REACHED SCHOOL AND CHOKED STUDENTS