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Vigilance submits report on funds for ex-PM of Fiji
Using theatre to create awareness about conservation
Arhtiyas unhappy over mustard procurement
Power scheme for women has no takers
Doctor challenges inspection
Each dist to have ayurveda hospital
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Teaching of law in doldrums: seminar
Chautala regime catch-phrase rules Vita milk packet wrappers
Function
at Kidzee El Nino
Thefts in shrines worry people
Chaman Vatika inks pact with Mastermind
Ban on sale of fertiliser
Lawyers suspend court work
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Vigilance submits report on funds for ex-PM of Fiji
Chandigarh, March 13 It is learnt that the bureau has primarily focussed on the status of the funds amassed in Mr Chaudhary's name and also on how these were collected from various Haryana districts. The bureau, however, has refrained from framing charges against the persons directly or indirectly involved in the collection of the funds. Mr Om Prakash Chautala, when he was the Chief Minister of Haryana, had announced at a public meeting in Rohtak in August, 2000, that money would be collected from the people of Haryana to help the deposed Prime Minister of Fiji. Mr Chaudhary, whose family had migrated to Fiji from Haryana, was present at the meeting. Later, Mr Chaudhary said in a newspaper interview that he had not received the money promised by the Chief Minister. This triggered off a furore from Opposition parties in Haryana. Mr Chautala said the money could not be handed over to Mr Chaudhary because the Foreign Ministry would not allow the giving of funds to a political movement in another country. The money had been kept in a bank in Chandigarh, Mr Chautala said. Following Mr Chautala's announcement at the meeting in Rohtak, a society by the name of Indo-Fiji Friendship Society was registered to collect funds for helping the deposed Fiji Premier. The Vigilance Bureau questioned Mr Sher Singh Badshami, general secretary of the society, who was at that time also the Political Adviser to the INLD Chief Minister. The bureau also questioned other office-bearers of the society. It was found that more than Rs 1 crore collected for helping the Fijian leader had been kept in the Oriental Bank of Commerce in Chandigarh. The administrations of various districts were asked to collect the funds for Mr Chaudhary. The funds collected in Bahadurgarh, Jhajjar and another district were still lying with the respective district administrations, it was found. The report of the bureau is being examined by the government. It is being considered whether this case, too, can be referred to the CBI for further inquiry. Sources said the CBI could be asked to find out whether all money collected for the cause was truthfully deposited in the account. It is also not clear what Mr Chautala intended to do with the funds when he realised that it was not possible for him to transfer these to Mr Chaudhary. Mr Chautala talked about the problem only after Mr Chaudhary revealed that the funds never reached him. The Chaudhary fund issue figures in the Congress charge sheet against Mr Chautala which has been already referred to the CBI by the state government. However, the case can be also separately referred to the CBI by the government. |
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Using theatre to create awareness about conservation
Panchkula, March 13 The Forest Department has tied up with National School of Drama (NSD) to prepare plays on various topics related to conservation, which are now being staged at "theatre festivals" all over the state. These plays have been written during an earlier workshop on play writing conducted in December, 2005, and talk about what would happen in case there is no water, its consequent effect on agriculture and food production; and also about the impact of trees on human life and how these are representative of a culture. Says the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Haryana, Mr J P L Srivastava, "The whole world is talking of making plantation a people's movement, but the awareness on the issue has failed to reach the grassroots level. Art and folk media is the best method to involve people, and thus we decided to use theatre as a medium to create awareness, especially when the tree cover is 8 per cent of the total land in Haryana". He said though they found a number of plays written on social evils, there was none available on the issue of conservation. It was then that the NSD faculty organised a play-writing workshop, where four plays on environment conservation were written by the participants, with aid from leading environmentalists like Sunder Lal Bahuguna, Rajendra Singh, Sandeep Pandey and Ram Sharan Joshi. Once the plays had been finalised, we decided to involve the village forest committees from various sub-divisions of Haryana, for enacting the plays, informed Mr Rajiv Ranjan, Coordinator from NSD. "We then tied-up with the village forest committee of Kadipur from Mahendragarh district, and four women — Virmati, Lali, Kanta and Indrawati, have now joined the local artistes to form a theatre group, which is performing all over Haryana," he added. These plays were staged at Pinjore and Ambala last week, and will now be staged at all divisional headquarters in Haryana, during April. "Our target is the rural population and school children in small towns and cities, who will be the new ambassadors for conservation," said Mr Srivastava. |
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Arhtiyas unhappy over mustard procurement
Chandigarh, March 13 Nafed procures mustard directly through Hafed, a state government agency, bypassing the arhatias, who are thus denied their commission. The minimum support price of mustard is Rs 1715 per quintal, while the market price is hovering around Rs 1500 per quintal. Last week, certain mandis of Bhiwani district had remained closed for a day to protest against the procurement of mustard through Hafed, which gets commission from Nafed. The President of the Haryana Syunk Beopar Mandal, Mr Gopal Sharan Garg, said here today that like wheat and paddy, mustard should also be procured by the government agencies through arhatiyas. Moreover, he pointed out that under the agriculture marketing laws, it was mandatory that all agriculture produce should come to the mandis for sale. The direct procurement of mustard was depriving the arhatiyas of southern Haryana, where it was the major crop, of their livelihood. A delegation of the arhatiyas met the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, here today to demand the procurement of mustard through them. Mr Hooda assured them that the state government would take up their demand with Nafed. Mr Hooda said that Nafed, being the nodal agency of the Union Government to procure mustard under the MSP scheme, had been procuring mustard through Hafed under the government policy. Nafed paid commission to the State Cooperative Federation in all the states, through which it purchased mustard. Therefore, as per the policy of Nafed, mustard could not be procured through the arhatias. However, after the repeated request by the delegation, Mr. Hooda assured it that he would take up the matter with Nafed and convey their feelings and problems to the Union Government. Mr Bajrang Das Garg, President of the Haryana Beopar Mandal, who had led the delegation, said the traders from Haryana would also call on the Managing Director of Nafed shortly.
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Power scheme for women has no takers
Rohtak, March 13 The scheme which figured in government advertisements released on Women’s Day a few days back has been in vogue for quite sometime now. However, most women consumers are either not aware of it or the eligibility conditions are keeping them out of its ambit. Enquiries from the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) revealed it had received only one application so far and that too was filed after the advertisement on Women’s Day. The other power utility — Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam — too has no beneficiary on its records. The only applicant so far is Ms Krishna Singh of Hisar. She is the wife of former Haryana Power Minister Sampat Singh. In this case, the former minister was the one who approached the DHBVN authorities seeking details of the scheme after he noticed the scheme in the advertisement. A major hurdle in the scheme’s popularity is the condition which specifies that the property for which a woman consumer applies for the connection must be registered in her name. This effectively keeps almost all rural women out of the scheme since most houses in the villages are within the “lal dora” area where legally there is no need for registering a property in anyone’s name. Even in the case of those families residing outside the “lal dora” there are very few properties in the name of female members of the family. Thus over 70 per cent of female population is deprived of the benefits under the scheme. Villagers say the benefit from the scheme is too meagre to prompt them to transfer ownership of their houses to women in the family. They say even the interest on the fee for such a transaction would not be covered by the waiver on bill. For instance, if a family consumed 400 units a month the waiver would only come to Rs 40. The lack of awareness about the scheme is also a constraint. It was found that what to talk of women consumers, even senior officials in power utilities were not aware of the scheme. Mr Sampat Singh says he had to contact an officer of the rank of a Chief Engineer to know the details. Power utilities are, however, hopeful that more women would come forward to avail of the benefit now that there was an increasing trend to register properties in the name of female members of the family due to the substantially lower fees prescribed by the Hooda government for the registration of properties in the names of women. Mr Sampat Singh said more women would come forward only if the concession was raised to at least Re 1 a unit. Otherwise, it would remain a cosmetic exercise, he added. |
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Doctor challenges inspection
Ambala, March 13 Apparently, a doctor and another person went to inspect his nursing home in Ambala City under the PNDT Act. They were asked to show the authorisation letter from the District Appropriate Authority for inspection, but they failed to produce any letter. After the completion of the inspection, the inspection report was not prepared at the nursing home. It was pointed out that under the PNDT Act, it was mandatory to prepare the inspection report and got it signed by the inspection team as well as the owner of the ultrasound centre and a copy to be given to the ultrasound owner. The doctor has sent a letter to the Director-General, Health Services, Haryana, pointing out the shortcomings in carrying out the inspection under the PNDT Act. However, Civil Surgeon, Ambala, Dr D.P. Lochan said it was a routine inspection and there was no malafide intention. Dr D.S. Jaspal, state patron, Indian Medical Association, Haryana, observed that it was really unfortunate that the PNDT Act was now being misused. "I must make it clear that we fully support the PNDT Act and the purpose behind it. I, however, request that the inspections should be made as per rules and should not violate the dignity of the medical profession," he said. "The inspecting team, particularly the non-medicos accompanying the team, should not behave like a policeman, subjecting the doctors to interrogation and threats of action," he added. Dr Lochan said it was a routine inspection and it had been authorised by him.
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Each dist to have ayurveda hospital
Fatehabad, March 13 Dr Atri said the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and the Health Minister, Ms Kartar Devi, were of the view that ayurveda, which was the ancient Indian system of medicine, should be accorded the place it deserved. He said so far the expenditure on ayurveda in the state was only 3 per cent of the total Budget outlay for health services. He said the government planned to provide the best quality ayurvedic medicines in the state-owned hospitals and dispensaries. He said the board had requested the government to provide office accommodation to the district ayurvedic medical officers in the mini secretariats of various districts. He said so far the offices had been running in rented buildings and people related to the field found it hard to locate the offices. Answering a question on the ongoing controversy regarding the
ayurvedic medicines manufactured by Baba Ramdev, he said the controversy had been raised for political reasons only. He said as far as he knew, 200 to 250 qualified ayurvedic doctors worked in the Divya Yog Pharmacy run by Baba Ramdev. |
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Teaching of law in doldrums: seminar
Kurukshetra, March 13 Prof Ranvir Singh observed there were 500 law colleges in the country, yet not even five colleges could be named where legal education was being imparted in the true sense of the word. He was forthright in saying if the things were really bad, the faculty members cannot escape responsibility for this mess. He pleaded the teachers who were neither good communicators, nor good researchers nor good human beings should not find a place in the field of education. He made a strong plea for ascertaining views of the students on the performance of the teachers before appointing them. An operation was required to get rid of the malaise that had been plaguing the educational institutions, he added. He observed law education opened up vast possibilities of employment to the law graduates. He referred to the appointment of law officers in the corporate sector in banks and Institutes which he termed as a wave of employment for the students of law.
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Chautala regime catch-phrase rules Vita milk packet wrappers
Panipat, March 13 Enquiries revealed that milk packets sold by the state-run milk cooperative finds display of the slogan coined by the Chautala regime. The catchword is printed on all Vita milk packets. A senior official of the state cooperative admitted it as mistake. He said that a complaint was made to them last year and it was brought to the notice of the authorities concerned. He added perhaps it was not followed up accordingly. Former Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala had started “Sarkaar aapke dwar” programme with much fanfare. But the Congress had criticised it as anti-panchayat and an attempt to weaken the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). During the Chautala regime, the state government had raised hoardings, welcome gates at villages, towns, markets and other public places. On coming to power in the state, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda discarded the concept and no function was held under the programme and all hoardings and publicity material were removed in the
state. Mr Devender Singh, MD of the Dairy Development Cooperation Federation was not available for comments. |
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Function
at Kidzee El Nino Ambala, March 13 School director Varesh Khanna said Ambala Cantt MLA D.K. Bansal was
the chief guest. The programme began with Saraswati Vandana followed by
a number of items, including ketchup dance, rapture dance, boogie woogie
and song skits by the tiny tots. The school students wore different
costumes.
A number of persons from different educational institutions were
present. Best in adademic went to Naavri Kathuria, Vasu Sachdeva and
Siddharth Issar. Harshit Aneja was most regular student while Ritukar
Awathi was awarded to all round achievement for the academic year
2005-06.
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Thefts in shrines worry people
Yamunanagar, March 13 A delegation comprising Mr Shiv Pratap Bajaj of the Kendriya Sanatan Dharma Sabha, Mr Subhash Goel of the Go Raksha Samiti, Krishna Nand Maharaj of Darwa, Mahant Bal Mukund Dass of the Panch Mukhi Hanuman Mandir, Mr Jai Kishan Shastri of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Mr Amar Nath Bansal of the Shri Krishan Sewa Samiti, Mr Iqbal Sagar of the Shri Katkakh Raj Tirth Vikas Board and Mr Vashudev Ratan Sharma of the Brahmin Sabha submitted the
memorandum. |
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Chaman Vatika inks pact with Mastermind
Ambala, March 13 Mr Rajinder Nath, chairman of Chaman Vatika, said so far there was no such centre in Ambala. "Students had to travel to Chandigarh everyday and they have to live as paying guests. Now, they do not have to go far since appropriate coaching is available in Ambala," he said.
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Ban on sale of fertiliser
Chandigarh, March 13 While stating this here today, an official spokesman said the decision to withdraw permission for the sale of SSP had been taken by the Director, Agriculture, Mr R.K. Khullar, following an intimation received from the Government of Rajasthan that authorisation to the firm of Chittorgarh district to sell fertiliser had been cancelled following the violation of Clause 19 of the Fertiliser (Control) Order, 1985. |
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Lawyers suspend court work
Fatehabad, March 13 |
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Decision on pensionary
benefits
Chandigarh, March 13 This was decided at a meeting presided over by the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, here today. The Education Department has been directed to submit a proposal in this regard at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers. |
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2 peacocks killed on KU campus
Kurukshetra, March 13 Their carcasses only with one leg, neck and some pieces of flesh were found in the dustbins this morning. There were no feathers on them, eyewitnesses said.
— UNI |
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Wheat procurement
Chandigarh, March 13 The necessary arrangements are being made at all 352 mandis set up for this purpose in the state this season, the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Chander Mohan, said here today. |
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