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Ambala, Panchkula to get Central aid for development
Ranjit Singh denied Cabinet status
Vishwas School reopens under administration vigil
Traders up in arms over market fee targets
Development plans for two towns approved
Editors guild for uniform accreditation policy
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Irate villagers lock power house
Hike in DA for Haryana employees
Haryana’s gays come together as a group
Girls opt for technical courses
Panels to keep vigil on schools
‘Death’ by DPT injection: viscera report awaited
Ambala DC warns against illegal mining
Teacher shot by nephew
Scouts asked to help maintain peace
Importance of cooperative societies emphasised
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Ambala, Panchkula to get Central aid for development
Fatehabad, September 22 Talking to mediapersons here today at the residence of a Congress leader, Mr Sant Lal Mehta, Ms Selja said that 63 big cities of the country had been selected for development activities under this scheme and Faridabad was one of those cities. She said that Chandigarh had also been selected in these 63 cities. While taking up development activities in Chandigarh, Panchkula would also be taken up along with it. She said the Centre would contribute 50 per cent of the amount spent on development activities under this scheme. The rest of 50 per cent would be shared by the state government, local bodies and other agencies. The minister said that her ministry had launched a scheme for taking up development activities in small towns too. She said two towns of the state, Ambala and Bhiwani, had been chosen for development activities under this scheme and added that 80 per cent of the money spent on these towns would be borne by the Central Government. Ms Selja also directed the Deputy Commissioner, Mr O. P. Sheoran, to send a scheme for the development of Fatehabad town to her ministry for approval under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Project (IHSDP) and Urban Infrastructure Development of Small and Medium Towns (UIDSMT). She told mediapersons that a major part of money spent under these schemes was borne by the Centre. Ms Selja said that there was no dearth of finances under these schemes launched by her ministry and the ministry had a budget of Rs 50,000 crore for this purpose. She added that these were demand-driven scheme and her ministry would take up all projects, which came before it for approval. Ms Selja was all praise for the Hooda government in Haryana and said that the government had been running smoothly and in accordance with the aspirations of the people of the state. She said that the state government had taken several steps for the welfare of people in the state and people were happy at the functioning of the government. Later Ms Selja also attended felicitation functions at the residences of Congress leaders Mr Sushil Bishnoi and Mr Gulshan Bajaj. |
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Ranjit Singh denied Cabinet status
Chandigarh, September 22 A state government notification issued on September 19 dashed his hope of getting the status of Cabinet Minister. He will now be the first Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Board without the status of Cabinet Minister. All his predecessors in the office, since the inception of Haryana, had enjoyed Cabinet rank. Tuesday’s notification laid down the terms and conditions governing Mr Ranjit Singh’s appointment. The crucial annual corpus of Rs 50 lakh as discretionary fund, admissible to a Cabinet Minister, was withheld from him. What is going to hurt the former Member of Parliament all the more is that Cabinet status was accorded to him at the time of his appointment in January. He was unceremoniously divested of the status later. The appointment order of Mr Ranjit Singh on January 29 said he “will be a wholetime Deputy Chairman and shall be entitled to the status, salary and all other privileges admissible to a Minister of Cabinet rank”. However, on June 22, the order was amended and it was notified that “he will be a wholetime Deputy Chairman and the terms and conditions of his appointment will be issued later”. The terms and conditions were spelt out in Tuesday’s notification. Whatever hope Mr Ranjit Singh had of wielding the powers of a Minister came to an end with it. The estranged brother of the INLD supremo and former Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, had recently returned to the Congress from the BJP. The BJP had welcomed him because of his connection with Devi Lal and the same factor made it easy for him to come back to the Congress. Devi Lal’s
birth anniversary falling on September 25 has been chosen by the elder brother, Mr Chautala, for a dramatic re-entry into the state’s political scene after his extended sojourn in the USA. Mr Ranjit Singh, on the other hand, will approach the birthday still smarting under the blow inflicted on him by the Congress government. The explanation given by the government for not according Mr Ranjit Singh Cabinet status was that it would encourage others also to demand similar privileges. The example cited is that of Mr Shadi Lal Batra, Chairman of the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board (HSAMB). Mr Batra, Rohtak MLA and staunch faithful of the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, is also allegedly pressing hard for getting Cabinet status. Mr Ranjit Singh, when contacted claimed that he had not yet seen the latest notification. |
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Vishwas School reopens under administration vigil
Hisar, September 22 The school was closed following violent protests by students and their parents against the alleged sexual exploitation of girl students by the school Director, Rishi Sagar Vishwas. He has been in police custody. The police has also brought the school Principal, Ms Maya Mishra, and the chairman of the Vishwas Education Board, Rishi Gautam Vishwas, under the purview of investigation. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Phateh Singh Dagar, has constituted a 15-member committee, headed by the City Magistrate, to keep a vigil on the academic and other activities in the school. The committee, which comprises educationists, social workers and women members, will also redress the grievances of the students. Mr Dagar has assured the parents of the students that the district administration had made adequate arrangements to ensure a smooth functioning of the school. He said while the police and the HUDA authorities would continue to perform their respective duties, the school would be run so that the students did not suffer. Dr I.S. Chauhan, a former faculty member of political science at Kurukshetra University, has been appointed acting Principal of the school by the district administration. In the morning, merely four teachers were present in the school. However, Dr Chauhan later approached other teachers of the school and convinced them to return to school and resume the teaching work. The officiating principal also addressed the students and assured that they would be compensated for the losses they had to suffer due to the school remaining closed for several days. |
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Traders up in arms over market fee targets
Chandigarh, September 22 A delegation of the All-Haryana Fruit and Vegetable Arhtiya Association, led by its president, Mr Raj Kakar, met the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a couple of days ago and urged him to intervene. The delegation told Mr Hooda that following the upward revision of the targets, the field staff of the board were harassing the arhtiyas in order to achieve “impossible targets”. Mr Kakar told TNS that in May last year, a delegation of the association had met Mr Hooda and a target of the market fee was agreed upon. The agreed target, he said, was almost achieved but still the board was harassing the traders. Mr Hooda assured the delegation that the traders would not be harassed. On the other hand, sources in the board say that a special survey was conducted in the fruit and vegetable markets of the state from August 5 to 21 to assess the accurate arrival of fruits and vegetables in the market. The district marketing development officers were stationed in various mandis during this period. It was observed that the recording of arrivals increased by 50 per cent, in some cases even more, during this period. This clearly shows, the sources say, that the field staff are either not sincere and honest in their work or the secretaries of the market committee did not have control over their subordinates. To check the leakage of revenue, it was decided to revise upward the targets of market fees from fruit and vegetable markets by 45 per cent for the period from September, 2006, to March, 2007. The sources say in the case of Faridabad the target has been revised from Rs 66.04 lakh to Rs 95.77 lakh, in Gurgaon from Rs 64.32 lakh to Rs 93.26 lakh, in Yamunanagar from Rs 43.08 lakh to Rs 62.47 lakh, in Panipat from Rs 31.93 lakh to Rs 46.30 lakh, in Ambala city from Rs 26.88 lakh to Rs 39 lakh and in Ambala cantonment from Rs 18.49 lakh to Rs 26.81 lakh. Similarly, the targets have been revised for 34 other mandis also. |
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Development plans for two towns approved
Chandigarh, September 22 The development plans for two other towns, Bawal and Alipur( Panchkula Extn. II), were also discussed, but would be again taken up after revising these to meet the requirements of the industrial sector. For Karnal, it was decided to add 500 hectares to residential sectors and make a marginal increase in the industrial zone to check unauthorised colonies along the national highway. The development plan was prepared with a projected population of 7.7 lakh. The draft development plan for Kaithal has been prepared with a projected population of three lakh. The plan has 1,488 hectares for the residential area, 233 hectares for the commercial area,158 hectares for public and semi-public uses, 171 hectares for public utilities and 345 hectares for transport and communication. About 10 per cent of the area will be for industries. A 32 acre pocket on the Kaithal-Khurana road has been designated as a solid waste disposal site. There will be another pocket for the disposal of sewage. |
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Editors guild for uniform accreditation policy
Karnal, September 22 In an appeal to the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the guild comprising editors of various small-scale newspapers and magazines of Haryana, has also demanded to recognise the veteran journalists as freelancers under the new press accreditation policy. Talking to The Tribune, Mr Chander Bhan Saini, general secretary of the guild, blamed the official machinery for playing in the hands of certain bureaucrats who had biased mindset toward the Haryana based media. He said the guild had submitted a memorandum to Mr Hooda to create a healthy atmosphere for the media to flourish in the state but the certain officials had created hurdles by creating “uncomfortable’’ policies of the accreditation for the mediapersons from the smalltime newspapers of the state. Mr Saini said there were over 400 small-scale media publications in the state and their interests were totally ignored. As per the new Haryana Press Accreditation Committee (HPAC) policy any fortnightly or monthly publications requires a minimum circulation of 2000 copies to the journalists’ eligible for accreditation. Similarly eveningers and weekly newspapers require a sale figure of 2500 copies of as per their respective periodicity. The Guild said previously there was no precedent of requiring certification from the Registrar of Newspapers of India (RNI). The HEG demanded that instead of asking the cumbersome RNI certificate the government could ask the editors to submit an affidavit mentioning circulation of their publication. In the press policy formulated in 1990 there was a common slab of circulating 2,000 copies for weekly, fortnightly and monthly periodicals and evening newspapers were not included in it. On the contrary, the minimum circulation limit had been decreased to 15,000 copies from 20,000 for the medium and big newspapers in the state. Mr Saini said instead of providing a healthy atmosphere to encourage more newspapers and periodicals, the authorities had made complex the whole procedure for the small newspapers. Demanding a uniform pattern for accreditation for all journalists, he lamented the policy of demanding an experience certificate of three years from the journalists attached with the small-scale media publications whereas others applicants needed just one-year experience. |
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Irate villagers lock power house
Yamunanagar, September 22 At around 10 in the morning hundreds of residents of Sankhera, Chagnauli, Judda Jatana, Basatiyawala, Dharmkot, Marwan, Dariyapur, Bhawanipur, Macchrouli, Chandkheri, Kakdoni, Bheel Chappar and Kapuri villages reached the power house office, raised slogans against the UHBVN and cut off power supply before locking the office. Sensing problems, some of the employees escaped from the spot but the rest were made to stand in the open. The police tried to pacify the villagers but they did not heed. They were made to go homes only after electricity employees gave them assurance of better power supply. BKU leader Manoj Kumar said the area was getting poor power supply than the fixed schedule. He threatened that if the power supply was not corrected in the next two days, residents would block the Jagadhri-Bilaspur road. The power supply has also worsened in the twin townships of Jagadhri and Yamunanagar since Monday. The residents are being subjected to several hours of cuts. The humidity in weather has only added to the woes of the residents. |
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Hike in DA for Haryana employees
Chandigarh, September 22 He said the employees would now get DA at the rate of 29 per cent of their basic pay, an increase of 5 per cent. They would get the enhanced DA in cash with their salary for October (paid in November). The arrears from July to September, would be credited to their General Provident Fund accounts. With this increase in the DA the additional expenditure would be Rs 108 crore during the current financial year. The expenditure would Rs 162 crore during the next financial year, he added. |
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Haryana’s gays come together as a group
Chandigarh, September 22 Offering discussion space to the group, identified as one at a high risk of HIV/AIDS by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) was the Panchkula State AIDS Control Society (SACS) which facilitated mass mobilisation of the state’s MSMs today. The event was significant in two ways - one, it brought a marginalised group to centre stage. Two, it formalised the assembled MSMs as a group, lending them the power they need to demand their rights. By the end of the day, the Panchkula SACS had inspired the first community-based organisation (CBO) of MSMs in Haryana, which has over 50,000 persons belonging to the stigmatised community. The move comes close on the heels of NACO’s guidelines that stress the formation of CBOs among high risk groups comprising MSMs, commercial sex workers and intravenous drug users. The three groups are core groups that demand urgent policy attention as far as HIV/AIDS awareness, treatment and care go. The last of the three objectives is perhaps the hardest to manage as is clear from the history of discrimination which homosexuals have suffered in India. But the future might be different, feels Rahul Singh, an MSM, who has been part of the movement to decriminalise Section 377 of the IPC ever since it started. A member of the Delhi-based Naaz Foundation, which filed a PIL demanding Section 377 of the IPC to be read down to exclude consensual sexual activity among partners in a private space, Rahul Singh said, “We have been fighting her long to secure our sexual rights. Now, the movement has acquired the support of Amartya Sen and Vikram Seth. Once the law becomes sensitive, rights will follow.” The activist said the government needed to broad-base AIDS awareness campaigns by sufficiently addressing the risk factors which the MSMs faced. “When you look at AIDS awareness materials of the government, the impression they give you is that HIV/AIDS can only be contracted through a heterosexual contact. Nowhere is it said that a homosexual contact can also cause HIV/AIDS. The reason is stigma which is inherent in issues of sex and sexuality. We must initiate a debate around these issues and talk about sexuality more openly. Dialogue is the best form of awareness generation.” As Rahul spoke, MSMs from Panchkula, Pinjore and Kalka voiced their worst fears. Most of them stemmed from police indifference to the cause of MSMs. “This”, Rahul said, “is unacceptable. Our outreach workers in Delhi have often been harassed by the police. But we have devised ways around the problem.” The Foundation is famous for having trained police personnel in Delhi in MSM rights and risk factors. “We tied up with the human resource cell of the police and held seminars for constables. The attitudes have since changed for the better.” Something on similar lines can be initiated in cities where the police is unaware of MSM issues and rights. Equally important is the formation of support groups, like the one that was formed in Haryana with the support of Dr Chand Singh Madan, Assistant Director, Panchkula SACS, Director Health Services, Panchkula Avinash Sharma and resource person Dr Avnish Jolly. |
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Girls opt for technical courses
Panipat, September 22 “There were no takers for these courses from girls in the first batch for which admissions were opened on August 14, but efforts of the staff of this one of the oldest ITIs in the state, which was established in 1962, bore fruits when 15 girls turned up for admission in three different vocations”, said Mr Danesh Mehta, Principal of the local ITI, while talking with The Tribune. Girls in the ITIs used to prefer courses like steno till now. Students were motivated through counselling to go for technical courses in view of a stiff competition in future in placement, said Mr Mehta, claiming that the ITI was successful in enrolling the biggest number of girl students in the technical courses. While eight girls were enrolled for the training of fitter, five opted for the electrician course. Two girls opted to be machinist, said Mr Mehta. The students would be trained in such a way that they would be able to get themselves absorbed in MNCs like Maruti Udyog and Honda after completing their two-year course, said the Principal. Rajni, a student, said she opted for the vocation of fitter as there were better opportunities in this field while Renu, another student, was optimistic about joining as teacher at one of the ITIs after completing her course. |
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Panels to keep vigil on schools
Bhiwani, September 22 Addressing district officials at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in the Mini-Secretariat today, he said while the SDM concerned would be the chairman of the respective committee, block education officers, journalists, members of social organisations, retired officers and prominent citizens would be inducted into the committees. Women would get maximum representation in these committees. He said the committees would keep a vigil on educational institutions, especially schools, under thier purview. A detailed monthly progress report about inspections and other work would be submitted to the Deputy Commissioner concerned and the Commissioner regularly. He said these committees would ensure that students were not maltreated. |
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‘Death’ by DPT injection: viscera report awaited
Yamunanagar, September 22 The health department has also withheld entire batch of DPT injections from which Rahel was given the injection. The DPT doses of the batch would be subjected to test. Family members of Rahel had yesterday alleged that the kid had died after being given a DPT injection and the police had registered a case against the multi-purpose health worker under Section 304-A of the IPC. Dr P.K Jain, Chief Medical Officer, said that cause of the death of Rahel could not be ascertained after the autopsy and now the viscera report was awaited. He also said that death after DPT injection was unheard of. About dozen other infants were also given DPT injections in the area on the same day and team has started monitoring their health. “Preliminary enquiry has revealed that Rahel had some problems in chest but had recuperated recently,” said Dr Jain. |
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Ambala DC warns against illegal mining
Ambala, September 22 He said it had come to the notice of the district administration that some people were engaged in mining of minerals from their fields which was illegal. He said the state government had constituted the district-level task force in order to check illegal mining in the district. Fifty-one minor mineral quarries had been given on contract to M/s Markanda Royality up to March 31, 2007, for Rs 1,85,35,000 per annum. Any activity, if undertaken in the areas, which were not on contract would be considered illegal, he said. The task force will put up barricades at different places in the district to check illegal mining and the culprits will be challaned and penalty imposed. The vehicles like tractor-trolleys will be impounded. |
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Teacher shot by nephew
Sonepat, September 22 On a complaint by Naresh’s family members, a case has been registered against Sajjan, his father Kartare, Ram Dhari and an unidentified car driver. The land dispute between two families is stated to be the cause of the criminal incident. |
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Scouts asked to help maintain peace
Chandigarh, September 22 He was presiding over the 32nd annual general meeting of the Haryana State Bharat Scouts and Guides Association at Raj Bhavan here. He awarded 187 functionaries of the association with shields for their outstanding performance during 2005-06. Mr K.K. Khandelwal, Chief Commissioner of the association, said the association had earned laurels at the national
level. Efforts were being made to achieve the target of enrolling over five lakh Scouts and Guides. Mr A.S. Ahlawat, ADC to the Governor, enrolled himself as a Scout.
— TNS |
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From Colleges Tribune News Service
Ambala, September 22 The College Principal, Dr Kiran Angra, presided over the function. She emphasised the importance of cooperative societies in rural upliftment. She said that the cooperative movement has played a vital role in empowerment of women and other marginalised sections of society. Sonia of MDSD Girls College was adjudged first, Vibha of SA Jain College came second while Sukhvarsha of SA Jain college was third. Sugandha of MDSD Girls College was fourth. Play staged: Women cell of SD College and Prerna, an NGO, staged a play ‘Badalte Bimb’ in SD College, Ambala Cantt, today.The play has been written and enacted by Ms Kamlesh Sharma and directed by Mr M.R. Dhiman. College Principal Dr Desh Bandhu was the chief guest. The play is a portrayal of the agony a woman has to undergo to fulfil her dreams as there is tremendous resistance from male-dominated society at every step.
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