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Monday,
May 27, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Clear power dues by May 31: CM Bad week for Haryana cops Park that conserves medicinal plants Chautala opens
food park |
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Truck falls on rail tracks; trains terminated
Fire at shoe factory Sukriti camp concludes 
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Clear power dues by May 31: CM Yamunanagar, May 26 Mr Chautala congratulated the authorities concerned for having constructed the bridge in a record time of nine months. The bridge, constructed at a cost of Rs 1.97 crore, would connect Haryana with Himachal, Uttar Pardesh and Uttaranchal. He also announced that a new bridge would soon be constructed at Dhanaura village. Mr Chautala said his government was determined to take Haryana to new horizons of developmental activities. He said the government had collected Rs 901.56 crore as arrears of electricity bills from consumers by April 30 and Rs 54 crore from May 1 to 15. He said on the demand of the people, the date for clearing the arrears of electricity bills under the new scheme had been extended up to May 31. Mr Chautala warned anti-social elements to desist from unlawful activities and playing into the hands of Opposition parties. He said law would be maintained in the state at all costs. Mr Chautala highlighted several developmental activities carried out in the state under the “sarkar aap ke dwar” programme. He said so far 27,000 developmental works had been completed of the 33,659 announced by him after taking over as Chief Minister. Presiding over a function to mark the birth anniversary of Maharaja Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, organised by the All-India Ramgarhia Federation on the campus of the local Santpura Gurdwara, Mr Chautala announced that all facilities would be provided to the organisation for carrying out the mission of their leader. He said the federation must bring forward a proposal for establishing and educational institution in the name of the Maharaja so that they could be provided land for the purpose. He also assured that his government would provide all help to the organisation in establishing a memorial to the great warrior, Banda Bahadur, at Lohagarh in the Shivalik foothills near
Sadhaura. |
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Bad week for Haryana cops Chandigarh, May 26 The single incident which dented the tough image of the Haryana police was the gruesome abduction of the four-year-old daughter of the Superintendent of Police of Fatehabad by a family of criminals in Mumbai film style. The area is known for gangs dealing mainly in the smuggling of opium and poppy husk. It is also no secret that these gangs enjoy political patronage, irrespective of the fact which political party is in power. Many politicians in the area draw their strength from these gangs. However, it is for the first time that criminals, instead of taking shelter behind their political patrons, took “direct action” and were emboldened enough to take on the seniormost police officer of the area. In the previous regime, family members of a minister were caught smuggling opium or poppy husk a number of times. Of course, the politician disowned his relatives. Unfortunately, the SP’s daughter was abducted when the force had yet to come out of the shock administered to it by BKU activists, who took hostage several policemen, including two
DSPs, first at Kiloi and then at Kandela in Jind district. Reports of “deals” with those dared to take on the Haryana police for the release of the child and the hostages have further eroded the authority of the force. Perhaps, the political compulsion of its political bosses did not allow the Haryana police to deal with the BKU activists in the way it would have liked to do. Another incident, which did not draw the public attention as much as it should have as it was overtaken by the Kandela and Fatehabad incidents, should be disturbing for the top brass of the police. A property dealer-turned-politician, Mr Amarjit Singh, was murdered in Faridabad during the week. The daylight murder of Mr Amarjit Singh, once a close associate of the former Congress MLA from Kalka, the late Mr Pursh Bhan, was made more shocking by the daredevil attitude of the three assassins, “who came, shot and walked away”. But the most shocking aspect of the incident was the murder weapon, which is alleged to be an AK-47 assault rifle. It is again for the first time that an AK-47 riffle has been used in a crime not related with terrorists. The use of such sophisticated weapons by common criminals is a matter of concern for all, the police, the politicians and the citizens. |
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Park that conserves medicinal plants Yamunanagar, May 26 The Chuharpur reserve forest has an area of 184 acres, with medium tree density of khair, simbal, teak, shisham etc along with 50 species of herbs having medicinal properties. This portion of Yamunanagar district is situated in the foothills of the Shivalik range where more than 375 medicinal plants grow naturally in the forest. A repeated mention of ‘Kalika Kshetra’ (now Kalka) is seen in Ayurveda and many other Sanskrit texts for its valuable medicinal plants wealth and flourishing trade of medicinal plants. The growing demand for herbal products in the recent past has led to a quantum jump in the volume of medicinal plants traded within the country. Estimates of trade are to the order of Rs 5.5 billion per annum, while the world trade is over $ 60 billion and is growing rapidly. Thus, India has 0.5 per cent share in the global export market of medicinal plants. This indicates the potential this sector of forestry holds at present and in future. However, this rising global interest poses a threat to Ayurvedic System of medicine more than ever before, because of the fact that the natural healing plants are being over-extracted to meet the market demands. This has already led to extinction of a few of these magical species and a large number of them are facing threat to their existence. Therefore, it is high time the issue of resource assessment, sustained supply, utilisation, cultivation, conservation and policies related to medicinal plant management are addressed and appropriate measures taken to safeguard the rich biological diversity of the country and socioeconomic development of the rural communities. In pursuance of this aim, the Forest Department has till now planted 6,600 plants of trees and 61,000 plants of herbs of 200 different species and having high medicinal value, at this park. The Medicinal Plants Board, a national level body constituted by the Government of India to ensure availability of medicinal plants and coordinate all matters relating to their development and sustainable use, has proposed a scheme for cultivation of the 16 herbs under contract farming arrangement between the farmers and traders. Out of these 16 medicinal plants seven can be cultivated in Haryana, namely: ashwagandha, bhumi amlaki, brahmi, makoya, safed musali, sarpgandha and satavari. In pursuance of this objective, the board plans to facilitate cultivation and buy-back arrangement to ensure off-take of the produce at reasonable prices. This will remove the problem of marketing of medicinal plant crop. Along with these seven species of medicinal plants nursery techniques for the propagation of buch, chirata, antmool, kaunch, leman grass, aloe vera, pippli, gudmar and giloy are also being developed at the park. The main objectives of the Herbal Nature Park are to conserve the medicinal plants of Haryana for study and research, develop a gene-pool of indigenous and exotic plant species for conservation and propagation purposes, popularise cultivation and use of medicinal plants by local people, establish a sustainable medicinal plants resource base and develop a centre for tourist attraction in Haryana to help popularise the Indian Ayurvedic System. The park is proposed to be developed into a main centre for the standardisation of nursery techniques for propagation of medicinal plants. The farmers will not only be detailed about the cultivation techniques but high quality planting material will also be made available to them. Yamunanagar is a pioneer district in the field of agro-forestry, thus special attention will be paid for the development of agro-forestry models for cultivating medicinal plants along with timber species. Mr Rajeev Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, expressed the hope that development of this park will facilitate the supply of planting material to the farmers interested in cultivation of medicinal plants. At present this planting material is procured from the neighbouring state and distributed through the horticulture department in various districts of Haryana. He also said that an amount of Rs 50 lakh funded by the Shivalik Development Agency, Ambala, has been spent in the development of the park till now. Due to the efforts of the District Administration and Forest Department the work of landscaping, construction of walkways, poly house, green house and bamboo hut/information centre, development of demonstrative herbal garden, commissioning of irrigation system has been completed in less than six months. Since the park is spread over an area of 50 acres and for a tourist it will not be possible to see all the herbal beds, a demonstrative herbal garden near the entrance is being made which will display more than 200 varieties of different medicinal plants on aesthetically-designed herbal soil beds along with sitting and walking places for tourists. Description of each plant and its use will be displayed through nameplates. Besides this, a colossal entrance gate has been built and 2.5 km long and 7 feet high chain-link fencing is being done to protect the plants from wild animals. A fernery, cactus house, herbarium building and a tourist rest house is proposed to be built. During the recent visit of the Chief Minister on October 3 last at Chhachhrauli, local MLAs requested Mr Chautala to develop a deer safari/park and an aviary at Herbal Nature Park, Chuharpur. The Chief Minister agreed to this proposal. A separate plan to develop a deer safari/park and an open aviary will be prepared by the Wildlife Preservation Department, Haryana. |
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Chautala
opens food park Ambala, May 26 Mr Chautala while addressing villagers and entrepreneurs said the centre would make co-ordination between farmers and food processing industries. He said the facility of marketing and latest technique would also be available for the producers at the centre. Besides this, the centre would have research facility, cold storage, community hall and quality centre. He said the industrialists who would set up their unit in the park would be provided various
concessions. Mr Chautala said previous governments were ignoring Ambala district but his government had decided to provide maximum development schemes to the backward districts, including
Ambala. While criticising the ‘self-styled’ farmers’ leaders, he said no body would be allowed in the state to take the law in his hands. He said some of the opposition leaders had been misguiding the farmers for their political interest.
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Truck falls on rail tracks; trains terminated Ambala, May 26 The driver of the huge-sized container said that the container was hit by another vehicle from the rear side. Initially, the container fell on an overhead electric wire, going down further onto the railway tracks after breaking the grills of the bridge. The overhead electric wires were badly damaged. Howeve, the driver and the cleaner of the truck escaped unhurt. According to railway sources, the five trains which were cancelled included 2SU Ambala-Sharanpur Passenger, 306 Amritsar-Saharanpur Passenger, ISUN Saharanpur Ambala-Naggaldam Passenger, 4888A Jodhpur-Haridwar Express and 4742 Shri Ganganagar Haridwar Express. Some Delhi-bound trains were diverted through Karnal. According to a railway, official the damaged electric wires and rail tracks could not be repaired till noon and the rail traffic remained suspended on this track. The railway authorities said that the traffic would be completely restored by 4 p.m.
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Fire at shoe factory Ambala, May 26 Around half a dozen fire-engines of Ambala city and Ambala cantonment were rushed to the spot and took three hours to control the fire. The watchman of the factory first of all witnessed the incident and informed the fire brigade and partners of the factory. Since the factory contained a large quantities of adhesives and inflammable solution the intensity of the fire increased rapidly.
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Sukriti
camp concludes Surajpur (Pinjore), May 26 Pt Guru Dutt, president of Sahitya Vikas Parishad emphasised the importance of “breathing” in life. He elaborated by demonstrating various ‘aasans’ and ‘pranayas’ like dhwani pranayam and sheetly
pranayam. An eminent educationist Dr Virendra Alankar said: “All subjects of life are confined to phase and time, but character building is something that is not limited to a particular period and it deserves precedence over career making”. Mr
P.L. Chopra, Principal, said besides a free eye check-up camp, workshops on sports, karate, health and nutrition, and public speaking were also organised on the occasion.
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Bhajan Lal convenes meeting Chandigarh, May 26 |
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2 youths drowned Yamunanagar, May 26 |
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