States to jointly tackle pre-natal sex testing
Ultrasound centres and nursing homes in Uttar Pradesh have been conducting illegal gender determination tests, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has said.
The state administration must adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards such illegal activities that have set alarm bells ringing in Haryana, Khattar said in a letter to UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
CM Khattar wrote a two-page letter in Hindi to Adityanath on February 9, saying UP officers appointed under the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act, 1994, do not showing “special interest” in this matter, according to government sources.
Haryana has conducted 109 successful raids in 14 UP districts since January 2015.
Haryana has registered over 100 cases against the suspects in UP, after busting sex determination rackets involving touts targeting pregnant women in Haryana.
“Official teams in Haryana have conducted over 100 interstate raids in Uttar Pradesh, and registered many cases... On the contrary, Uttar Pradesh did not conduct a single raid, either in Haryana or in any other neighbouring state. This is a matter of worry for Haryana,” Khattar said in letter, accessed by HT.
“Both the states must make joint efforts, especially in the bordering districts, to stop this heinous crime of female foeticide. Such steps will benefit both the states, with far reaching positive results,” reads the Haryana CM’S letter.
Over 40 of the 100 raids were inter-state, out of which 22 were conducted in UP, including 11 in Ghaziabad.
GHAZIABAD: A HUB FOR SEX SELECTION
As per the data, Haryana shared with UP, 26 raids were conducted and as many FIRS lodged in Ghaziabad. Khattar has called the district an emerging “hub for sex determination and illegal abortions” in the NCR. A Haryana team conducted a raid in Ghaziabad on Monday and arrested two persons, after recovering three foetuses and a portable ultrasound machine from a nursing home.
Saharanpur is another hotspot where Haryana conducted 26 raids, followed by Meerut (14), Shamli (9), Noida (6), Bagpat (5), Aligarh, Bulandshahr and Bijnor (4 each), Mathura (3), Muzaffarnagar, Amroha and Agra (2 each) and Sambhal (1).
“I request you to issue directions to deputy commissioners and health department officials to extend active support to Haryana teams during the inter-state raids in UP,” Khattar urged Adityanath.
Meanwhile, district magistrate (Ghaziabad) Ajay Shankar Pandey said, “We are already working with the Haryana health department and have deputed chief development officer as nodal officer to coordinate with the Haryana department and look into the issue.”
Despite repeated attempts, senior government officials in Lucknow could not be contacted.
We have deputed chief development officer as nodal officer to coordinate with the Haryana health department and look into the issue. AJAY SHANKAR PANDEY, DM, Ghaziabad
A stray-friendly tea stall midway between Hauz Khas village and Aurobindo Market
The night is cold. Vasudev has rustled out a small fire from wooden twigs he } picked up from the pavement. Dressed in cap and woollen overcoat, he is fortifying himself with a glass of steaming ginger chai. He is alone in his tea stall, which lies on the roadside, midway between Hauz Khas village and Aurobindo Market in south Delhi.
The establishment is very modest but very comfortable. A plank of cement laid across two chunks of concrete serves as a seat for customers. The boundary wall on the back is crowded with idols of many gods, giving the stall a homely feel, as if this open space were part of a cosy god-loving household. And even in the dark, you can sense the shadows of the many dogs milling about—they all are strays, but they feel loved here.
Pointing each of the shadows one by one, Vasudev says, “That’s Cheeku, Tiger, Meena—she is a lady, and Sheru.” Vasudev looks after their wellbeing. “Each day I buy one litre of milk, four packets of bread and a few packets of ‘biskuts’ for them,” he says in a flat tone, implying that these expenses are facts of life and thus non-negotiable.
A long-time resident of Hauz Khas village, Vasudev, 62 and a native of Madhubani in Bihar, founded his stall 35 years ago. This is like a fraction
PRIVATE
of a second compared to the centuries-old monuments scattered across this area. But compared to the highly unstable nightlife scene of the village, Vasudev’s stall is an ancestor to most of cafes and restaurants.
He lives with his two sons, whom he raised as a single parent. “My wife, Seema Devi, died of a heart attack 25 years ago,” he says, drinking down the last dregs of chai from his glass.
Now Vasudev gets up, quietly fills up a large bowl with milk and bread, and walks towards one of the dogs sitting under a tree. “It’s his dinner time.” After serving the other strays their dinner, Vasudev will close the stall and walk home. His sons, back from work, will be waiting for him with freshly cooked dal chawal. His stall is open daily from 6am to 10pm.
MANISH SISODIA
NEW DELHI: Deputy chief minister and education minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said the higher education institutions in the country should work on stopping the “brain drain”.
In his valedictory address at the north zone vice-chancellors’ meet, organised by the Association of Indian Universities on Tuesday, Sisodia said, “Universities play a big role in the development of a country. They identify talent and nurture it. As a nation, all of us have failed if our students are studying in universities abroad and thereafter contributing to the economy of others. Therefore, universities need to reflect on how to stop the brain drain.”
Stressing upon the difference between education and human resources development, he said, “Human resources development is a mere tool of education; it is not the foundation of education. It is the role and responsibility of education to ensure that our children are not considered as mere tools or instruments by the world but as thriving human beings.”
Sisodia said universities and educators will face certain challenges in India in the postcovid and post-national Education Policy (NEP) 2020 scenario. “The first challenge pertained to the challenge of quantity. We introduced several missions and laws such as the Right to Education. We ensured that all children attended school. We created a bumper crop of school graduates. But then the child asks: Where should I go? What should I do now? And we don’t have answers,” he said.
Sisodia urged universities to think out of the box to find solutions for the large quantities and lack of enough space
DELHI’S DEPUTY CM
We cannot decide the maximum success a child can reach, but we can decide the minimum limits for
education.
for the students in higher education.
“The bottom line is that we can say that students who graduate from our universities and colleges stands at some level of achievement. We cannot decide the maximum success a child can reach, but we can decide the minimum limits for quality education. We should guarantee minimum levels of education.
“Talk about research. Talk about entrepreneurship in your convocation, that after graduating, our students created jobs for 2000 people. We have to celebrate our job providers,” he said.