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Migration blues haunt parties
Chandigarh, October 23 Haryana, always known as the land of "aya Rams, gaya Rams", can never be left behind. Though the Lok Sabha elections are still about six months away, the process has already begun as fallout of the electoral alliance between the BJP and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). The initial jolts have been received by the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) of Kuldeep Bishnoi. A number of its leaders have quit the party to join the Congress. One such leader is Pratap Singh Chautala, an estranged brother of former Chief Minister and president of the INLD Om Prakash
Chautala. He is a politician about whose electoral winnability many might have doubts, but he has a big publicity value. When Pratap joined the HJC, his entry was hailed by party leaders as an indication of the acceptance of their party as a viable alternative to the ruling Congress in the state. Now, the HJC leaders must be in a dilemma, what to say after his exit. Pratap was not the first to quit the HJC. Before him a former MLA from Ratia, Jarnail Singh, accompanied by 13 other HJC leaders, crossed over to the Congress, followed by state HJC secretary Krishan Rohej and Fatehabad district women wing president Bimla Rohej, who also joined the Congress. It seems that the BJP-INLD alliance is acting as a catalyst for those middle-rung Congressmen who had joined the HJC after they fell out with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, for a homecoming. In fact, the alliance has hastened the process, which
may have started a little later. The BJP, too, is facing a revolt from its leader of the legislature party Ram Kumar Gautam, who has written an open letter to party's prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani, urging him to review the alliance with the INLD, which, he alleges, had betrayed the party in the past. Though he continues to be in the BJP and professes to have no intention to quit the
party if his demand is not accepted, there are indications that Gautam is trying to force the hands of the BJP leadership to expel him from the party so that his membership of the Vidhan Sabha is retained. To be fair to him, he had been opposed to the alliance from the very beginning and never minced his words in expressing his opposition to the INLD, its leader Chautala and the
HJC. He says if the BJP had contested this election alone, it would have led to the decimation of the regional parties. This
would have left the political arena of Haryana open for national parties alone. Jai Tirath, organising secretary of the Haryana Congress and a son of veteran state leader Rizak Ram, says
that further realignment of political forces in the state cannot be ruled out due to the emergence of Hooda as an important political leader of the state. He says it is due to the influence of Hooda that the INLD, which always claimed to be the bigger party than the BJP, had to accept the status of the minor partner in its alliance with the
BJP. He claims that this decision by the INLD leadership has certainly disappointed those who had been voting for the INLD in the past. |
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Garbage Trouble
Chandigarh, October 23 Earlier, the two cities had planned to set up separate ultramodern solid waste management plants. Since the two sites are just 7 km apart, the government asked them to explore the possibility of having a joint plant. According to commissioner of the Faridabad municipal corporation (FMC)
R.K. The FMC had already appointed NBCC as consultant for its plant. The design and technology, which was to be adopted in the Faridabad plant, would now be applied in the Bandhwari plant. The Gurgaon administration had obtained all necessary clearances from the ministry of environment and the pollution control board. Khullar says NBCC has informed him that
after treatment of the garbage, only 15 per cent inert material would be left for dumping, which would not emit any foul smell. If the consultants are believed, a plant on the same technology is functioning at Rajkot in Gujarat where people go for outings, as a green belt has been developed around it. The Bandhwari plant would have a capacity of treating 1,000 tons of garbage per day and it would be surrounded by a green belt. As per the consultants, the plant would come up within nine months from the time of taking possession of the land. The executing agency would start storing garbage about 4 months ahead before The storage would be done in a warehouse type structure. Khullar said the space near Bandhwari was enough to dump residue for many years. Thereafter, it could be dumped in landfill sites of village Moftabad, which is just At present, garbage in Gurgaon is dumped near village Chakarpur on the land given by village panchayat. This led to a huge protest by residents of DLF Phase-I recently. Meanwhile, an official spokesman said the DLF residents are not justified in blaming the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) for garbage dumping because all private developers, including DLF, were also throwing garbage there and no separate arrangements were made by them. |
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Debt Waiver Fallout
Chandigarh, October 23 Most of the public sector banks, regional rural banks and the cooperative banks in the state have failed to meet the targets set for advancing loans. Not only this, the credit flow in various schemes for farmers meant for the purchase of land, horticulture mission and debt-swap scheme has also been slow. The data available with The Tribune shows that though the agriculture advances increased by 18.38 per cent (from Rs 11,356 crore in June 2007 to Rs 13,444 crore in June 2008), it was much less as compared to a growth of 35.2 per cent achieved last year. Bank officials, while agreeing that the agriculture advances in the state had slowed down, said the main reason behind this was that they were busy in implementing the debt waiver scheme. "In
Haryana, banks have waived off Rs 1,496.37 crore for 4,10,147 small and marginal farmers. As many as 3,03,315 farmers having large land holdings have also been granted relief in the form of 25 per cent waiver, amounting to Rs 635.70 crore. As per the directions issued by the RBI, banks remained busy in implementing this scheme, so the agriculture advances remained low. Now, that the scheme has been completely implemented, the advances in this sector will see a jump in the second half of the fiscal," assured N.C. Jain, general manager, Punjab National Bank. The data made available through the state-level bankers
committee of Haryana shows that the only seven banks - Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank, Haryana Grameen Bank, HARCO Bank, HSARDB and Bank of Maharashtra - have sanctioned loans to farmers for the purchase of land for agriculture purposes. These banks have sanctioned Rs 10.64 crore to 207 farmers, which is very low. Bankers contend that the credit flow under the scheme is low because of the high value of land. The debt-swap scheme, introduced this year, wherein 3 per cent of the target for agriculture is to be earmarked for giving loans to swap with debt taken from informal sector, has failed to evoke a good response. Banks in Haryana have granted loans amounting to Rs 2.95 crore to 316 farmers till June 2008, as against the target of Rs 525 crore for this financial year. Banks have also been asked by the bankers committee to step up credit under the National Horticulture Mission, where just 67 cases have been processed during the first quarter of this fiscal. |
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Inspiring women to defend their rights
Chandigarh, October 23 Though the woman under their pen stands up for her rights today, the writers themselves are battling societal taboos to portray the real story as it is. Empowerment is only partial so far but they draw consolation from the fact that it has at least begun to happen. There, however, is one certainty: that the days of tongue-tied women being the peg for poetry, short stories and novels are passé. Lending credence to this is Namita Rakesh, a poetess and anchor, who says, “My woman has learnt to struggle with the times.
She is no longer helpless and ignorant. However, she is also not a woman who wants to trample upon men and forge ahead. She only seeks equality with her male counterparts.” In contrast to this portrayal, women writers themselves are fighting dissection of their works on their personal grounds. “We welcome critical acclaim but that is not the trend with women’s writings.
Whatever we write generates discussion not for the content but for the identification with our personal lives. There is a tendency to search for the written word of a story an incident, a character semblance in our personal lives and look at our writing in this light. This is unfair,” explains Anju Dua Gemini, a writer.
Others vouch for this and add that women writers are not expected to tackle bold issues. There is a certain taboo associated with projecting the whole truth which binds their hands, be it pressure from society, the tendency to scan personal lives of writers and associate it to their writings, the reflection on them and their families, all weigh on their mind when they sit down to write. In Panchkula, for a one-of-its-kind women writers’ meet, organised by the Haryana Sahitya Akademi, Indu Gupta avers, “We are getting such a platform for meeting, discussion and debate for the first time. It is very encouraging that the akademi chose to think of bringing us together. Each of us is aspiring for the goal of awakening the woman, showing her what she is worth and making her realise that she is no less than men. We are simulating her conscience with our writing and provoking her to break open her shell. We are succeeding to a certain extent.” Not so long ago, women writers of Faridabad got together to launch their own guild called
Pehchaan. With 75 members on board, it aims to facilitate interaction among women writers as also to stoke the reading habit in women. “If women begin to read, half the battle is won because reading will make them alive to their own rights and the unexplored strength within. We are making some headway since some housewives have recently joined our group and penned down small write-ups for our annual magazine,” explains Gemini, who heads
Pehchaan. However, while the awakening is important the writers don’t advocate the western concept of women’s liberation. A poetess in the group sums up their idea of woman and womanhood: “Koi darpan nahi jo bikhar jaungi, main to nagma hoon dil mein utar jaungi, aag mein tapp ke he sona kundan bana, mushkilein jitni hungi, sanwar
jaungi.”
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Jhajjar to be developed as cultural hub
Jhajjar, October 23 A comprehensive plan is under consideration at the top level to work on its various features for keeping glorious past of the district alive. Chairperson of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Komal Anand stated this while observing historical monuments of the district recently. “Jhajjar is a prominent historical place and having various ancient monuments of 16th and 17th centuries, which need to be preserved for making people especially the young generation aware of it”. Komal added that developing Jhajjar as a cultural hub would be the best way to safeguard its relics and promote tourism. She also disclosed that the historical Bagh wali kothi of Dujana village in this district would also be established as an archaeological museum. Historical posters, photographs, costumes, ornaments, crafts, music instruments, utensils, armaments and rare archaeological materials would be exhibited in museum. The administration has recently handed over Bagh wali kothi to the state chapter of INTACH on lease for 50 years for its restoration and upkeep. The kothi was constructed by erstwhile Nawab of Dujana Iftidar Ali Khan in 1920 and was acquired by the government when Nawab went to Pakistan. This kothi is spread over two-hectare land.
Government aid for its upkeep and preservation would be provided to INTACH. Hailing the administration’s decision to hand over the building to INTACH, Komal maintained that a state office of the trust would be set up in this complex for efficient functioning. The office bearers of INTACH with the administrative officers also visited the Lal Masjid of Dujana and other historical monuments of
Jhajjar.
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Army tank to be placed in Jhajjar’s Shahidi Park
Jhajjar, October 23 This would be done on the pattern of Rohtak’s Mansarover Park and Shahid Samark of Maharshi Dayanand University
(MDU). The display of a tank would also beautify the park. The defence ministry on the request of Rajya Sainik Board has approved a proposal in this regard. This was disclosed at the quarterly meeting of the Zila Sainik Board held here recently under the chairmanship of its president and the deputy commissioner. As per information, Jhajjar is one of the districts of the state where more than 30,000 ex-servicemen and their nearly 1.5 lakh dependents have been registered. At least 212 brave soldiers have sacrificed their lives for the motherland and are proud to have 13 victory crosses (pre and post independence) and four Mahavir Chakra, nine Vir Chakra, two Kirti Chakra and 11 Shaurya Chakra that were won by the warriors of this district. Keeping in view their significant contribution in various wars, the zila sainik board drew a plan to place a Vijayant Tank at the park to recall the sacrifice of martyrs. The board had sent a proposal in this regard to the secretary of the rajya sainik board and demanded to arrange a Vijayant Tank pre-MK-IA free of cost from the Army as war trophy to be displayed at the Shahidi Park in the memory of martyrs of the district. “After display of vijayant tank, the park will not only look more beautiful and attractive but also make younger generation proud of the great martyrs of the district,” said secretary of the zila sainik board
D.G. Malik.
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700 take part in youth fest
Sirsa, October 23 As many as 700 students from 70 colleges participated. Cultural items like group dance, Haryanvi
ghazal, one-act play, mimicry, Haryanvi dance, classical vocal, Haryanavi orchestra and pop were performed during the youth festival. Dr
R.P. Bajpai, vice-chancellor of Kurukshetra University, inaugurated the festival He said such competitions not only inculcated a spirit of competition amongst students but also provided them an opportunity to exhibit their talent. Dr Anoop
Lathar, director of the cultural and youth affairs of the university, Parveen
Baghla, president of the Sirsa Education Society that manages the affairs of the host college, Arvind
Bansal, Dr R.S. Sangwan, Kulwant Rai Jindal and Jai Narain Tayal, all office-bearers of the society and principals of all participating colleges were present.
Earlier, Dr Vijaya Tomar, principal of the CMK National PG Girls College, welcomed all guests.
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CDLU to have media centre
Sirsa, October 23 The department is also working in tandem with the Broadcast Engineering Corporation India Ltd (BECIL) for timely installation of the state’s first community radio station (CRS) on the CDLU campus. This venture would be established at the media centre where studios for production and broadcasting are in the process of being fabricated. The ministry of information and broadcasting had issued a letter of intent for this CRS in February this year and the union ministry of communication has allocated frequency for this station. The CRS is likely to go on air latest by the end of November. According to Virender Singh Chauhan, chairperson of the department, the media centre would prove to be of immense help to budding journalists. The centre would have a state-of-the-art television studio and a well-furnished modern newsroom for web and print journalism apart from community radio station. Chauhan said the media centre project was a result of the vision that vice-chancellor K.C. Bhardwaj had for the all-round development of the university. He said Bhardwaj recently visited the media centre and directed the construction branch to get the work completed at the earliest. Chauhan said Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda had laid the foundation stone of the centre during his visit to the CDLU in January this year and it was likely to be ready for opening well within the stipulated time. Chauhan said while the centrally air conditioned building would be ready at a cost of about Rs 1.5 crore, the TV studio and the community radio station would cost another
Rs 1.5 crore. Elaborating the idea of having this facility, Chauhan said during the past one year, the department had tried to shift its focus from imparting theoretical knowledge and emphasising on providing practical training of the working of media. The efforts were on to make various courses of the department more and more jobs oriented, he asserted. He said the fully functional media centre would provide the students of the department an atmosphere comparable to the actual media workplace thereby making them more and more accustomed to the real life situations. Chauhan said once the CRS of the department become functional, the department would introduce courses related to radio journalism. He said there were lots of job opportunities in radio journalism as hundreds of private FM stations and community ratio stations were coming up all over the country and these ventures would need the services of trained media
professionals.
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Lecture on benefits of nanotechnology
Sirsa, October 23 He said biological molecules could be used in any field of engineering with the In medical science, nanotechnology helps to know the reasons behind
the India has been successful in this field and in the research and progress work on
nanotechnology, he said. A separate research centre for this work had been established in Kurukshetra University, he informed. Director general of Jan Nayak Ch. Devi Lal Vidyapeeth Kuldip Singh
Dhindsa, said Bajpai had contributed a lot in the field of applied science. As a vice chancellor of Guru Jambeshwar University
Hisar, Bajpai had paid attention to research and he has many patents to his credit in the field of electronics.
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Hansi-Butana Link Canal
Rewari, October 23 The rally would cover 200 km that would start from Gaud Balah village on the Haryana-Rajasthan border in Mahendergarh and converge at Delhi on November 14. Highlighting the details and objective of the yatra, Yadav said it was now common knowledge that their concerted struggle to seek equitable distribution of available canal water as well as the availability of its rightful share to south Haryana, comprising the districts of Mahendergarh, Rewari, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Jhajjar, had been going on for the past two decades. Accusing the successive governments of step-motherly treatment meted out to south Haryana in the matter of distribution of canal water, Yadav said the then Devi Lal government in 1977-78 had struck a severe blow to this part of the state when the water of the Beas was diverted to Sirsa, Hisar, Narwana and Kaithal, as a result of which farmers of those areas had been suffering the devastating pangs of waterlogging whereas fields in south Haryana had been lying parched and dry. He said it was for the first time in the past three decades that a Chief Minister had taken up the cudgels to remove such disparity and started the construction of Rs 300-crore Hansi Butana link canal. However, when the work was almost complete and it was going to be functional, a petition filed by the Punjab government in the apex court hindered its progress. Yadav said while it made the going pretty tough for Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, it had hit the expectations of south Haryana’s peasantry who were eagerly awaiting an expeditious flow of canal water into their parched fields through
HBLC. Yadav said under such circumstances he resolved to undertake a rally to mobilise people of south Haryana and ask for the intervention of President Pratibha
Patil.
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Poor BSNL service irks bankers
Kalka, October 23 Official sources reveal it has become a routine affair that the internet service gets suspended, which causes hurdle in the daily transactions of financial institutions. Due to this disruption, ATM service becomes out of order causing a lot of inconvenience to customers. A bank manager at Kalka says as the transactions are carried out manually during Amit Khera, owner of a cyber café here, resents that due to the failure of the internet services, they have to face heavy financial loss. He alleged that last week, the services remained suspended for more than seven hours, which deprived thousands of BSNL subscribers of internet, mobiles and landline phones from availing the services. On the other hand, the unscheduled long power cuts in the area has also affected the daily life of the people of Kalka and
Pinjore. Residents allege that they have been facing power cuts of more that 12 hours these days. The power cuts also disrupt water supply in several parts of Kalka and
Pinjore.
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Faridabad beefs up security
Faridabad, October 23 The local police recently seized a letter addressed to deputy commissioner Brijender Singh threatening of seven blasts at seven places. The letter challenged the administration to stop the blasts. The letter was allegedly written by some militant organisation named Indian Mujahideen. District police chief Srikant Jadhav said the police would keep a strict vigil to check the activities of anti-social elements. The administration has also decided to issue licences to sell firecrackers to individuals only after police verification. Also, eight places have been identified for selling firecrackers. Dates and timings of the sale have also been fixed. Jadav further said with regard to the general preparedness of the police, resident welfare associations, shopkeepers and those doing businesses in malls have also been directed to themselves undertake basic security measures. The effort from the public has been elicted in order to strengthen the policing. The police has already divided the district into about 140 zones and has also identified sensitive areas. Patrolling in the city has been increased and checking at barriers and check posts are being carried out.
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Locals sleepless as marriage season returns
Kaithal, October 23 They allege the failure of the administration in regulating the timings for playing of orchestras, DJs and loudspeakers in spite of Supreme Court’s ruling. The closure of roads by erecting shamianas for organising religious functions and jagrans also causes inconvenience. But due to indifferent attitude of officials of the civil administration and the police department, this practice continues. The playing of orchestras and DJs till late hours at night not only disturbs the peace and tranquility but also creates law and order problems resulting in scuffles and clashes at times. Patients and students are the worst sufferers. During the past many years, residents have met several officials in this regard, but in vain. On some occasion, the authorities issued instructions to marriage palace owners to keep volume of music low. However, the marriage palace owners maintain that they have no control over the activities of DJs as they were engaged by the function organisers. Hence, only effective intervention by the authorities could solve this problem.
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Movie This Week
Producers: Bharat Shah, Vikas Kapoor, Director: Samir Karnik; Cast: Salman Khan, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Vatsal Seth, Preity Zinta, Sohail Khan, Dino Morea The biggest attraction of the ‘Heroes’ is its ensemble cast. The movie opens today at Lakshmi-Yamunanagar, Everest-Rewari, K.R-Karnal, Paras-Kurukshetra, Minerva Cineplex-Ambala Cantt, New Capitol-Ambala Cantt, Payal, DT City Centre, DT Mega Mall, PVR MGF, PVR Sahara, PVR Ambi, Adlabs (All Gurgaon), SRS, SRS Pristine, Cinemax, INOX, PVR, Movie Time City Mall, Movie Time Manthan Mall, PVR Crown Plaza (All Faridabad), Fun Cinema-Panipat, Cinemax-Panipat, Fun Cinema-Ambala City, CHM CINE Garden-Sirsa, Anand-Sonepat, KC Panchkula, Sun City-Hisar. Special attraction: Unique subject with dose of patriotism, starcast, direction and melodious score. Roadside Romeo
Producer: Aditya Chopra; Director: Jugat Hansraj Music: Salim-Sulaiman; Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Javed Jaafri This 90 minute animated typical Hindi masala movie also opens today at Sun City-Hisar, Fun-Ambala City, Fun-Panipat, Cinemax-Panipat, DT City Centre, PVR Sahara, DT Mega Mall, SRS, PVR MGF, PVR Ambi Mall (All Gurgaon), SRS Sector 12, SRS Sector 31, INOX, Cinemax, PVR Crown Plaza, Movie Time Sector 12 (All Faridabad), Minerva Cineplex-Ambala Cantt. Special attraction: Special effects, story of boy and a girl falling in love and a villain as well, music and direction.
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