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RTI dose for docs
Jhajjar, September 14 Information gathered from the records of the centre under the Act reveals that several medical officers, who collected various kinds of fees from patients, did not deposit the same with the cashier and an amount running into thousands of rupees remained outstanding against them. Following the filing of an application seeking details of the pending fees against medical officers, especially medical legal report (MLR) fee, nearly 20 doctors who were either posted here or had served here during the past six years were “forced” to part with thousands of rupees, which they had allegedly pocketed after charging from patients. The senior medical officer (SMO), Dr N.K. Jain, has also recommended departmental action against certain medical officers. However, documents provided by the SMO, who also serves as PIO to the applicant, Naresh Joon, reveal that many medical officers rushed to clear their dues after Joon filed the petition. Admitting irregularities, the SMO said he had written to the chief medical officer at Jhajjar for appropriate action in this regard as the fees was still pending against some doctors. As per the documents, two medical officers deposited Rs 5,500 on December 12, 2006, which was charged from patients during their tenure from March, 2003, to November, 2006. On January 15, 2007, seven doctors deposited Rs 16,000 pending against them. Dr Anil Rathi deposited Rs 2,200 (fee of 22 MLRs) while he had issued 60 MLRs from January, 2004, to November, 2006. Moreover, the hospital authorities claimed that his record for the previous two years were missing. Similarly, on February 10,
Rs 28,000 was deposited by 10 doctors which had been pending against them since 1998. Dr Subh Jyoti Prakash deposited Rs 7,500, which he had charged from patients from 1998 to 2006. Five other doctors cleared an amount of Rs 11,000. Joon had applied for this information on December 5, 2006. After dithering for months, the PIO had asked him to cough up about Rs 5 lakh as fee. Joon, however, moved the SIC, which ordered the PIO to furnish all information within 15 days and also exempted him from paying any fee. Alleging that the irregularities were of a serious nature, Joon has demanded a probe into these. “Keeping government money with themselves for as long as five years amounts to embezzlement. If the health authorities fail to act in this case, I will move court,” he stated.
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Less rain good for crops!
Chandigarh, September 14 A deficient monsoon is actually good for the crops in the state where vast areas enjoy the facility of controlled irrigation, says B.S. Duggal of the state agriculture directorate. He says the process of photosynthesis by which a plant nourishes itself also faces hindrance on a cloudy day. On a bright day, photosynthesis takes place faster and leads to robust crops. According to metrology director Chhattar Singh, rainfall during monsoon this year is 33 per cent less then the average considered “normal” in the case of Haryana. Last time it rained heavily in the state was in 2003, when there was a surplus rainfall of 32 per cent. The Kharif food grain production that year was 39 lakh tonnes. The food grain production hovered around the same mark during the two deficient monsoon seasons of 2004 and 2005, and then soared to 44 lakh tonnes in 2006, even though there was a negative rainfall of 32 per cent that year! Duggal says excessive rain also creates favourable condition for pests. Dry weather is better that way, he says. Bad monsoon, he says, has negative effects in the form of depletion of underground water level. It also leads to increase in the cost of production of crops, as the peasants have to spend more money on diesel for their tubewells. Depletion of groundwater has already surfaced as a big problem in rain-deficient Mahendragarh and Rewari districts. Chhattar Singh says the deficient rainfall for four successive monsoons cannot be called a trend yet. “Figures of 30 years are studied for coming to any conclusion about a trend”, he said.
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Groundwater depletion
Jind, September 14 Jind is one of the most fertile agricultural areas of the state. It has witnessed the excessive use of tubewells and seen the effects in the past few years. Geologists believe that a strategy is required to look into the matter, as not only the underground water table has gone down drastically but also chances of an earthquake hitting the area become high. Jind is among those districts of the state where irrigation mainly depends on tubewells. While at present the number is in thousands, dozens of new tubewells come up each month. Recently, a new tubewell, installed at Mohammed Khera village in Safidon subdivision, has attracted the attention of officials and experts. This tubewell has been installed at a record depth of 810 ft. Owned by former sarpanch Lal Singh, the well is drawing water with boiling temperature (up to 45 degree Celsius). Though instances of hot water from tubewells is not new, the temperature of this one is the highest, claims D.R Sirohiwal, a district official. In a letter to the deputy commissioner, he wrote that the water drawn by the tubewell was very hot and there were at least 13 such pumps in the area that were drawing water at high temperature. It is reported that the depth of such pumps was more than 500 ft, way above the average depth in various parts of the state. One of the tube wells in Mahendergarh district had been installed at a depth of about 1600 ft, the deepest so far in the state. There are about 6.20 lakh pump sets functioning in the state. It is an ample proof that the water table has seriously depleted in the past while recharging has been negligible, says M.L. Verma, a farmer. He adds even the drinking water supplied to the residents in the city and nearby towns is mainly based on tubewells. A majority of the residents believe that a series of earthquakes that rocked the district in the past have been mainly due the damage caused to the underground rock structure (tectonic rocks) by the tubewells, but the authorities are yet to come out with any damage control exercise. As many as 300 tremors rocked the area in the past three years, which is an indication of a major danger lurking ahead, claims Sirohiwal, adding that the district administration has taken up the issue and is likely to institute a detailed probe into the matter soon. It is also reported that geologists have warned dangerous fallouts in the near future if there is no move to check the excessive use of groundwater.
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Unaware of 1033, motorists still
dial 100
Panipat, September 14 Due to the poor visibility of signboards, the entire exercise of putting them along the national highways proves to be futile as accident victims end up dialing 100 (police) or 102 (ambulance). Moreover, 1033 is widely missing from the NH-1, the busiest road of the region. Except certain populated pockets of Sonepat, Panipat and other towns located along the GT Road, these boards are missing. Surrounded with overgrown bushes, the boards erected at the medians fail to get attention of the NH users. At several places on the Panipat-Ambala road, the traffic aid messages are written in small letters and even painted in different colours and sizes that goes completely ignored. The highway police mans the national highways no. 1, 2, 8, 10 and 22 passing through the state, the roads highly vulnerable to accidents. Though officials at the Karnal-based headquarters claims of receiving about 15 calls per day, insiders put the figure at 5-6 calls. After receiving the call, the highway police alerts the nearest traffic aid centre and also claims to follow the case to ensure timely medical aid. The helpline number is toll free, accessible through all mobile service providers, including Hutch, BSNL, Tata and Airtel. While Idea charges for dialing 1033, subscribers of Reliance Mobile have no access to the number. Though the officials admit that mostly people dial 100 for any police or accidental help, the authorities have done little to improve the situation. AIG (Highway police) Rajpal Singh admits that the absence signboards is indeed a problem. The matter has been taken up with the NHAI to use a uniform pattern, he says, adding that number should be widely displayed.
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Solution lies in multiple farming options
This is a vicious cycle that is taking a heavy toll. In many states farmers have been forced to commit suicides when they are unable to repay the loans. The most affected are the ones who have less than 5 acres of land. To find a solution to these problems and to reorient the farming systems to improve soil productivity and conserve water, the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal, has set up a farm on 5 acres under the multi-enterprise agriculture project. The main purpose of this project is to develop farming options, which small farmers can adopt to earn livelihood. Under this project a farmer can adopt dairying, horticulture, bee keeping, vegetables and fruits growing, fisheries, gobar gas plant and solar heater etc on his farm so that he can earn income throughout the year. Dr Gurbachan Singh, director, CSSRI, is facilitator while Dr Ashok Batra, principal scientist (agronomy), is the project leader. Though the final results will emerge after five years, the preliminary results are encouraging. Vegetable-based crop rotation has given the maximum results. Bottle gourd (ghia) and cauliflower rotation gave net return of Rs 80,000 per hectare. The vegetables offer profit of Rs 1.90 on Re 1 spent. Forage-based crops rotations like maize-berseem and sorghum-berseem/oat provided net profit of Rs 59,000 and Rs 40,000, respectively. Since the cost of cultivation of fodder crop is less, these gave profit of Rs 2.98 and 2.91 for every rupee spent. The profits from vegetables can be further be enhanced if fruit trees are grown with them. Baby corn is another promising cash crop, the popularity of which is steadily rising. Baby corn is used in soups, salad and as a vegetable. The crop gets ready in 60 days and the rest of the plant can be used as fodder. Four buffaloes make up the dairy farm component of the project. The sale of milk gives a daily income to the farmer and also generates employment. In three months, total revenue of about Rs 35,000 has been generated through the sale of milk to the residents of CSSRI complex. The dung of the animals is used as feed for fish and as manure. Beekeeping has also proved to be a success. Total revenue generated from honey production was Rs 40,000. The fish farm that occupies 0.2 hectares of the project land has generated income of Rs 15,000. The dykes of fishpond have been planted with fruit trees like banana, guava, amla and karonda. The space between the trees were utilised for vegetable growing. Vegetables worth Rs 200-300 are sold every week. The dung from the animals is sufficient to produce gobar gas that can be used for cooking for a family of 7-8 persons. The initial results from this project clearly show that regular and sustainable income can be generated and the risk of failure of one crop is covered by other components of the project. This project has tremendous potential to increase productivity, profitability and livelihood security of small and marginal farmers.
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Sowing seeds of good health at herbal park
While most of these parks are in their initial phase of development, the Chaudhary Devi Lal Herbal Nature Park at Chuharpur in Yamunanagar district is already attracting national and international attention. Spread across an area of 184 acres in Chuharpur Kalan Reserve Forest, the park has about 40 medicinal plants grown naturally, while another 350 odd species are cultivated for medicinal purpose. “This place has become a sort of a teaching school for farmers, who are encouraged to learn about plants with medicinal properties and diversify into alternative farming. Thus, they not only diversify and help conserve natural resources like water, but also help preserve endangered species,” says district forest officer M.S Malik. Modern day living has thrown up several new requirements that need supplements, which can be produced with chemicals or can be derived from natural substances. For example, the rapid onset of diseases like diabetes requires sugar supplements that can very easily be derived from plants like stevia. Sugar-free and other similar sweeteners are produced from this plant, which fetches about Rs 80,000 per acre, much higher compared to the price of conventional produce. “For example, an acre of land can produce 4,000 plants of asparagus in 12-18 months, giving a farmer close to about Rs 90,000 per acre of asparagus crop,” says block forest officer Suresh Kumar. Initially started by the Shiwalik Development Board, the park is now closely monitored by the National Medicinal Plant Board along with the state board. Almost everyone who visits the park finds something of interest. Among the several varieties available here include shankhpushpi, an excellent nervous rejuvenator, akarkara that helps cure depression, kaalmegh, a cure for malaria and dengue, tinosporia known as panacea (cure for all ills), and bacopa moneri, a memory miracle plant. Two plants of ginkgo biloba were brought to India by Lord Dalhousie. The plant flourishes at this park even today. According to Suresh Kumar, the mountainous belt of the Shiwaliks has a rich diversity of medicinal plants. Due to the increasing demand for these plants, the farmers can benefit from the programme. The National and State Medicinal Plant Board has identified 32 important herbs of economic importance nationally for propagation, out of these 22 can be grown in Haryana. This particular park brought former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam here in April 2003, who said the park was helping conserve medicinal plants for study and research. Over a period of five years the park has developed a facility to train farmers in growing medicinal plants, and standardisation of storage conditions, thus making the state a frontrunner in the field of herbal preservation.
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HAU management board
Hisar, September 14 The non-official members are nominated by the government as per the provisions of the Haryana and Punjab Agricultural Universities Act, 1970. The last two non-official members, Rao Babru Bhan from Jhajjar district and Kailash Singh, a rice mill owner from Kaithal, completed their term on December 31, 2005. After their exit, the government has failed to nominate any non-official member. Currently, the board includes the vice-chancellor, the chief secretary, Haryana, and the secretaries of agriculture, finance and community development departments of the state government. All of them are ex-officio members. As per the Act, the government has to nominate one person who is in the opinion of the government an eminent agricultural scientist with a background of agricultural research or education. Besides, the government has to appoint two progressive farmers or livestock breeders having experience or interest in scientific farming and livestock improvement. The Act also provides for the appointment of a distinguished industrialist, businessman, manufacturer, livestock breeder associated with agricultural development. The government is also supposed to appoint a woman who has done outstanding social work. Such a nominee should preferably have a background of rural advancement. Though the Act lays great stress on the merit of non-official members, it provides that despite being nominated for a three-year term, two of them shall retire every year by draw of lots. Under this provision, many a time the junior most members had to retire while the older ones survived. Records show that for a few years after its inception, most of the non-official members were deserved persons who helped nurture the university in its infancy. However, with the passage of time, persons close to chief ministers managed to get themselves nominated and indulged in petty politics and catering to the personal interests of teachers and employees. There were occasions when the nominated members did not even come from the backgrounds specified in the Act. Such members only proved a burden on the university administration making undue use of university facilities. Senior university dons say legally speaking the board at present is incomplete and its decisions could well be lacking the necessary legal backing. But, nevertheless, the board continues to take all important decisions in their absence.
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Govt reverts to old rules for sainik board posts
Chandigarh, September 14 The change, which doubled the minimum stipulated age for the post from 25 years to 50 years, had resulted in a large number of retired defence officers being ineligible even though they met all other requirements. The central government had taken the Haryana government to task for changing the eligibility criteria and a number of ex-servicemen had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In a letter to the chief secretary earlier this year, authorities at the Defence Ministry’s Kendriya Sainik Board had termed the move as “illogical and not in consonance with policy of the central government on the subject, which provides for recruitment of officers with 5-15 years of service to the post”. Meanwhile, the court, too, had restrained the state government from carrying out appointments to the said posts. The letter stated that such a decision had led to the deprivation of opportunity to retired officers who seek the post as a second career. It further pointed out that as per central government’s policy issued in April 1998, permanent commissioned officers with 15 years of service or short service officers with 5-10 years of service were eligible for the said posts. The raising of the minimum age of recruitment to 50 years would result in all such officers being rendered underage. Since the Defence Ministry bears 50 per cent of the expenditure of the Haryana Sainik Board, the state government is obliged to follow guidelines laid by the
centre.
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Getting info to be easier with Sirsa IT centre
Sirsa, September 14 The construction work of the centre, which is the first of its kind in the state, is in its final stage. Deputy commissioner V. Umashankar says the IT centre, which will provide a gamut of services to the people of the district, is coming up at a cost of Rs 1 crore at the mini secretariat. Getting a copy of an FIR is considered to be a difficult task for the common man, but the centre will make this job easy, he says, adding that the record of all FIRs registered in the district will be maintained at the centre.
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Inside Babudom
Chandigarh, September 14 Ahmed, before his current assignment, was the vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and still remained interested in the affairs of the institution. During an earlier visit one saw a number of volumes of Urdu books on his table. He said these were writings by Sir Syed Ahmed, founder of AMU and a pioneer in the field of spreading English education among Indian Muslims. Naseem Ahmed during his stint as the VC took initiative for printing some works of Sir Syed, which were out of print. The university has now sent him copies of the new books. The 1972 batch IAS officer, who will retire from the service at the end of this month, has carved a place in the state government as one having a good understanding of agriculture-related subjects. Ahmed hails from Ajamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, home to many distinguished Muslim families of India. One such family is that of Urdu poet Kaifi Ajmi. The “Ajmi” in the late poet’s name stands as a remainder of the poet’s connection with the dusty UP town. It is, thus, no surprise that Ahmed loves Urdu and will be an embodiment of the famed Muslim culture that once flourished in Lucknow and other UP towns. Ahmed’s return to Haryana from Aligarh was unanticipated. It also led to speculation among his peers about the reason for his return rather than “landing something good in Delhi”. His being a Muslim was an advantage in this respect, they reckoned. Ahmed simply wants to enjoy a retired life and is not interested in salaried assignments any more. His pension, he says, would be Rs 27,000 per month. “I have a house in Gurgaon. I should be able to have a nice time after retirement”, he says.
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Jind wants its high-ups to pay back
Jind, September 14 At the same time, this development has thrown a kind of challenge before the ministers from the district to pay back equally, as Jind continue to remain one of the most backward and ignored districts even after 41 years of the formation of the state. Newly inducted cabinet minister Mange Ram Gupta, who has been given the charge of education and transport departments, assured the residents that he would leave no stone unturned in ensuring fast development in his new tenure. It is a common view here that both urban and rural parts in the district have failed to get due attention so far, despite the fact that several political heavyweights, including former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, hailed from the district Chautala represented Narwana constituency from many years. Narwana is presently represented by Randeep Singh Surjewala, cabinet member holding the portfolios of power, public health and parliamentary affairs. State finance minister Birender Singh, who is considered number two after the Chief Minister in terms of political clout, represents Uchana constituency, also falling in this district. “Since Gupta has been given the education department, it could prove a boon for the district, says Karan Singh Kundu, an ex-serviceman. He says if the district still fails to show improvement on the education front, there is no advantage of having such a large number of ministers or political heavyweights from the district. Kundu says the residents have been facing a lot of hardships in the absence of railway overbridges in the city. “The girls college has not been provided with a separate building and the classes are still being held in the open,” says Dharamvir Malik, another resident. He says while the civil hospital lacks superspeciality medical facilities, the proposal of upgrading it has been pending for long. There is no medical college in the district. Describing the local municipal council as a nearly defunct body, he says the city streets sink in the darkness after the sunset. The main road passing through the city has no streetlight, what to speak of residential colonies,
he adds. According to Sandeep, another resident, drinking water supply his an important issue as there has been no scheme so far to provide canal-based water supply despite the fact that a canal passes through the city.
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Varsity for south districts sought
Rewari, September 14 One such university will be established in Haryana, according to a recent announcement made by Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh. Union minister of state for defence production Rao Inderjit Singh has asserted that south Haryana, comprising Rewari, Mahendergarh, Gurgaon, Mewat, Faridabad, Jhajjar and Bhiwani districts, deserves a central university. He said it was unfortunate that while universities had been running in Kurukshetra, Rohtak, Hisar and Sirsa to the multiple advantages of the youth, it was the southern part of the state that had remained neglected. Rao said this glaring instance of regional imbalance should be removed. Advocating a fair deal for south Haryana, he asked the Chief Minister to set up the proposed central university at an appropriate place in the southern part.
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Tele-medicine unit for Gohana
Sonepat, September 14 The unit has been set up in the community health centre and caters to the needs of people in the remote areas. It became functional with its inauguration by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on August 26 . The unit has come up at a cost of Rs 57 lakh in public- private partnership.The union ministry of health and family welfare has provided medical equipment for the unit; satellite uplinking is free of cost by the Indian Space Research Organisation; funds by the union ministry of science and technology; medical services by Sir Ganga Ram Hospital; and accommodation by the Haryana government. Dr D.S. Rana, secretary of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital management committee, who supervised the establishing of the unit, told The Tribune that the unit was part of a pilot project called the Village Resource Centre (VRC). It aimed at providing specialised health services in the rural areas."Through this technology early diagnosis, treatment and tertiary consultation from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital can be done as the hospital is connected to medical kiosks established in the unit," he said, adding that Gohana was identified on the basis of a survey. The person in charge of the Gohana unit, Dr P.D.Chaudhary, said facilities such as ECG, haematology, blood and urine culture, lipid profile were being provided in the unit. He said the number of patients coming to the OPD daily was 30 to 35 and would increase with the passage of time. However, the "purchi" fee in the CHC was Rs 5 whereas in the unit it was Rs 15.
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Citizens’ Grievances
I dismissed as prank about my kids getting electric shock from the newly commissioned Tata Sky digicomp (subscriber ID: 1006133951) until line tester proved them right. The company technicians tried to bluff it out with excuses like humidity and house wiring being faulty.
The manufacturer did not feel the necessity of earthing by providing three-pin plug but the field staff stuck a loose wire for the same, again in vain. Finally, the matter is forwarded to company head office in Bangalore. Meanwhile, I am following company's advice of “untouchability” towards digicomp (no wet hands and naked feet). Satish Arora,
229/233, Govind Vihar, GT Road, Ambala City Long wait
for RC I got my new Honda Shine motorcycle registered with the registration authority, Panchkula, vide receipt no. 54443, registration no. HR03H 5163. It is over four months now and I am yet to receive the registration card (RC). I have made several rounds of the office concerned, but to no avail. Will the department concerned look into it because in the absence of the RC I have to face a lot of troubles when flagged down during routine police check. Raj Mohinder Singh Atwal,
849, Sector 21, Panchkula Unfair trade practice I am a subscriber of post-paid connection of Airtel (98761-67918). I subscribed ‘Ultra Lite Plan’ on 20.07.2007 by giving Rs 999 with Rs 25 rent per month. I subscribed to no other facility. But I was surprised to see the bill dated 03.08.2007 wherein Airtal had charged for various facilities like F&F, hello tunes for which I never subscribed, used and got activated. I asked for call details, but the company failed to provide it. This unfair trade practice on the part of Airtel is condemnable, which must be stopped. Lalit K Gupta,
595, Sector 16, Panchkula II I am a subscriber of Airtel pre-paid connection (9872859677). Airtel had assured me that there would be no hidden charges and no service would be activated without my permission. Recently, I got recharge of Rs 24.20 against a payment of Rs 30, but my outgoing calls remained barred. I was shocked to know that my account was running in minus on account of using chat services, which I never used and opted for. This is an unfair trade practice, which must be curbed. Mansa Ram
Ahuja, 114, Sector 9, Panchkula
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CITIZEN FIRST
Voices are being raised about the academic efficacy of the semester system of examination in Haryana schools. It is too early to conclude about this infant experiment. This pattern of examination should run at least for three years. It should then be assessed scientifically and objectively with all different parameters like pedagogy, cognition and, assimilation in view. It should be a long-run study to be undertaken by some expert and independent agency. This assessment should also be comparable with the pre-semester system. The whole gamut of prevailing examination system should, therefore, be allowed to run till 2008. Wait and watch should be the key words.
Dr S. Kumar,
578, Sector 10, Panchkula Land policy flawed The national highway road policy of the state government is flawed. The government has put restriction on the use of land that falls within 100 m of the GT Road. The land whose prices have already skyrocketed has been barred from any commercial use. Widening of the roads in future (which may be 40 years from now) is stated to be the reason behind this government order, which has put the owners of such lands in a fix. Ideally, the government should give permission to the owners in the form of NOC (no objection certificate) to use the land for any purpose. The NOC should contain a rider that the government reserves the right to acquire the land when required at the rates prevailing in the market. This would rightly serve the purpose and the landowners would be able to utilise the land which otherwise would remain idle. Vikas Rohal,
Jhattipur, Panipat
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Rewari barley finds instant market
Rewari, September 14 The Persian saying, which has remained in vogue here since the days of Moghul emperor Akbar, bears testimony to it. “Chahar chheez ast tohfa-e-Rewari; ahir, fransh, jau, aab khari” (Rewari possesses four gifts - ahir, fransh (a shady tree), barley and brackish water). Barley (jau) has been rightly called Rewari’s gift to the country. The brackish water of this region, which is unsuitable for wheat cultivation, is good for barley. Barley is cultivated mainly in Rewari, northern Narnaul, central Mahendergarh, Gurgaon, Nuh and Firozepur Jhirka, where the area under barley has remained 5 per cent to 10 per cent of the total agriculture area. This is mainly due to the loamy soil of the region. Other factors for the popularity of barley here are its lower water requirement, quick maturity and need for less manure. The Rewari barley is reputed for its excellent malting and brewing qualities, mainly because of its well-developed mealy grain and plump kernel. It is noteworthy that about 75 years ago, samples of the Haryana varieties were supplied to the Research Institute of Brewing, London, for valuation. The valuation committee of the institute passed eulogistic remarks on the barley varieties of Haryana, particularly the Rewari variety. The report said, “The Rewari barley would always find a market at prices above average. It is well worth growing on commercial basis”. Barley is rich in starch and sugar. It is consumed in various forms. Barley flour mixed with wheat and gram is used to make chapattis, popularly known as “missi roti”. Parched and powdered, it is taken as “sattu”. It is also widely consumed in the preparation of “raabri”, which is a favourite morning dish of rural people. It is also used to feed farm animals. But now it is principally grown for conversion into malts, which are used in the manufacture of liquor like beer, whisky, gin, vodka, and alcohol and malt vinegar. Barley is grown in Ahirwal from October to March and then it floods the markets of Rewari, Bawal, Narnaul, Mahendergarh, Ateli, Kanina, Nangal Chowdhary, Hailey Mandi, Taoru, Sohna, Gurgaon and Jhajjar from mid-March to June. The breweries of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Karnataka and the FCI as well as Nafed make bulk purchases of barley from these markets. The Army is also a hefty purchaser. In fact, barley has virtually ushered in an era of prosperity in Ahirland during the past few decades. However, with more and more farmers taking to sarson cultivation, which is comparatively a more lucrative crop, the barley culture has started losing its sheen. Consequently, its cultivation in the region has declined rapidly in the past few years with the result its arrival in the markets, too, has become insignificant as compared to the past.
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Sugar mill to be set up
Karnal, September 14 He said Karnal and Kurukshetra districts had been selected by the state government under a central government programme to eliminate Japanese encephalitis. “Karnal district has achieved 90 per cent success in the vaccination of children,” he added. Malik said Karan Taal would be spruced up at a cost of Rs 41
lakh.
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Faridabad MC workers fear loss of jobs
Faridabad, September 14 General secretary of the Nagar Palika Karamchari Sangh Rattan Lal Rohilla said a delegation of the union had met all legislators from the district and would continue to put political pressure on the government to not to tamper with the services of the workers, many of them being safai kararmcharis. The union has postponed its agitation programme for a few days to gaze the sincerity of the government, he added. A section of the union leaders alleged that some quarters in the MCF wanted to dispense with the services of the workers, as they wanted to outsource the works of the civic body to private parties. The 570 workers are the ones who escaped from being axed vide court’s intervention in 1996. The then government had wanted to retrench them, but they got relief from the court. In 2001, another bunch of 1,519 daily workers were axed. Out of them, 417 got relief from the court and were back on the jobs. The MCF authorities and some quarters in the government are adamant that those who were retrenched in 2001 must not be taken back. But on the grounds of equality it would be unjust if a senior worker stays out. The workers allege that 417 of the 1519 are already in on account of court's intervention. Hence, the government must take administrative decision to absorb the remaining workers. According to MCF commissioner R.K. Khullar, the civic body will act humanely as far as possible within the given context. The workers argue that the sanitation and water supply works are being presently outsourced, which cost Rs 71 lakh per month whereas the total amount of salaries of the remaining 1,519 workers would be Rs 38 lakh per month.
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Karnal, September 14
Yamunanagar, September 14