Sirsa, December 7
The Haryana Rice Millers and Dealers Association today threatened to sit on a relay fast outside the residence of union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar in case the millers of Haryana were discriminated against in the matter of percentage of “damage of custom milled rice allowed to them”.

Azad Singh Rathi, president of the association, said here today that the Food Corporation of India had allowed damage of 3 per cent for the rice supplied by the millers to the FCI after custom milling.

However, the actual damage was much more due to the moist paddy purchased by government agencies, he said.

Rathi said the millers of Punjab and Haryana had given a memorandum to Pawar, demanding an increase in the damage percentage to 4 per cent.

“While the millers of Haryana continued supplying rice to the FCI on the assurance of the union minister and have so far supplied over 35 per cent of the custom milled rice, those from Punjab went on a strike and have refused to deliver a grain of rice until the government announced an increase in the percentage,” Rathi told The Tribune.

He said the Haryana millers had been given to understand that the union government had accepted the demand of Punjab millers leaving the Haryana millers in the lurch.

He said a deputation of the Haryana millers met Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the morning today and he has assured all help in the matter.

Rathi said the millers of Haryana were agitated over the union minister’s act of discrimination between millers from the two states though the conditions were identical in the two states.

Rathi warned that the Haryana millers would not tolerate any kind of discrimination on this issue and sit on a hunger strike in front of Pawar’s residence in case their demand was not met. 

Fatehabad, December 7
Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) president Kuldeep Bishnoi today said UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should resign from their posts to make way for some young and dynamic persons, who could bring about some drastic changes in the system and take proactive steps to combat terrorism.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Bishnoi said the whole country was united today on one issue - that the present leadership, whether of the ruling party or the opposition, had failed them time and again and now people had said “enough is enough”.

“The same old leadership is not going to lead the country anywhere and this does not have the audacity to take drastic steps that are needed in view of new global threats like terrorism,” Bishnoi maintained.

“The UPA leadership has so far taken the oft-repeated steps of finding scapegoats for anything going wrong and not taking the blame on itself,”he added.

“All old leaders should be shown the door and should be replaced with young and energetic leaders, who can live up to the expectations of the youths, who have the largest population in the country,” Bishnoi demanded.

The HJC leader demanded a reduction of at least Rs 15 per litre on petrol and Rs 10 per litre on diesel, besides decreasing the rates of LPG and kerosene.

“The recent price slashes announced by the government are too low and considering the unprecedented fall in the prices of the crude oil in the international market, the decrease of Rs 5 and Rs 2 per litre, respectively, on petrol and diesel is too little to satisfy people,” he said.

Coming to Haryana, Bishnoi said the INLD-BJP alliance had been rejected by the people and the results of Rajasthan would show this as “the INLD will not be able to open its account there”.

Earlier, addressing a convention organised by the Dhanak community (Dhanak sammelan) in the local grain market, Bishnoi said he did not believe in caste and creed and would work for the welfare of “chhatis biradaris” (all 36 communities of Haryana) if voted to power.

He called upon people to vote for HJC candidates in the coming parliamentary elections.

Nilokheri, December 7
Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Om Prakash Chautala today virtually launched the poll campaign of the INLD-BJP combine asking people to rise above caste, creed, region and language to throw the Congress-led UPA government out of power.

Addressing a conference of the Taprivas Scheduled Tribe here, he held the Congress responsible for all the ills faced by the country and said all sections of people must unite to rid the country of the UPA “misrule” and vote the NDA to power.

Dubbing the UPA government as anti-poor, Chautala said the poor had become poorer while the rich were becoming richer due to “wrong policies” of the government and the land of poor farmers was being grabbed by the government for developing special economic zones. The SEZ culture promoted by the UPA government had made farmers labourers in their own fields and deprived the poor and underprivileged sections of society of basic facilities, he alleged.

Castigating the UPA government for allegedly bribing MPs to win the trust vote in the Lok Sabha, the INLD leader said it had brought shame to democracy.

Referring to the demands of Taprivas leaders, Chautala said the INLD was committed to improving their lot.

Earlier, Taprivas leaders demanded the opening of government Class XII schools, houses in urban areas on the pattern of BPL families and issuance of ration cards. There are 27 castes in the Taprivas tribe and all castes are socially and economically backward with a low level of education and negligible share in government jobs.

Nilokheri, December 7
The Haryana Sate Polytechnic Lecturers Welfare Association yesterday urged the government to release the time scale and implement the guidelines issued by the Fifth Pay Commission in toto.

The association, at its meeting held here, passed a resolution urging the government to also cover all 10 polytechnic colleges run by registered societies in the state.

Talking to The Tribune, state president of the association Rajesh Kadiyanh said the government had raised the eligibility criteria for BTech teachers from 55 per cent to 60 per cent, but had not given the financial benefits to the teachers. The budget for technical education had been raised from Rs 9 crore to Rs 200 crore in the past three years, but there was no commensurate increase in the pay structure of the teachers.

Rajesh said double shifts were being run in six of the 11 government polytechnic colleges without proper infrastructure and the teachers who were promised double pay for double shifts were not being given the due remuneration. Moreover, one and two-year courses, which did not even grant a diploma to the students had been started without providing the regular faculty.

There were about 150 polytechnic colleges in the state, including 21 government, government aided and colleges run by societies, but the number of applicants had increased six times from 25,000 to 1,50,000 in the past three years.

Demands of the association included parity in pay of foreman instructor with lecturers by raising the basic pay from Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 per month with a time scale of Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 after six years of service.

The association demanded 1 per cent reservation in jobs for wards of Class III and VI employees working in polytechnic colleges and parity in remuneration paid to staff on examination duty on a par with outsiders. 

Fatehabad, December 7
As the whole nation is debating over the Mumbai terrorist attacks and trying to find out methods to avoid such incidents, the district authorities here still do not have the complete record of arms licences issued to people in the past few decades.

The authorities have now started an exercise to verify all arms licences and create a computerised database of all arms licence holders in the district.

A special software is being developed for the purpose by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) here and work on creating the database will begin as soon as the software is ready.

District information officer in the NIC has been assigned the job of creating the database while additional deputy commissioner C.G. Rajnikanthan will be supervising the work.

According to sources, the authorities in the district had very poor record of arms licences issued by various authorities here. Sources revealed that all arms licences were issued by Subdivisional Magistrates in Haryana before 1992-93 when the power was shifted to the deputy commissioners.

While the power to issue new licences was shifted to the DCs, the power to renew the old licences vested with the SDMs. Fatehabad was carved out as a new district in July 1997. People of the district have licences issued from three different kinds of authorities. Prior to 1992-93, the licences were issued by SDMs of Fatehabad and Tohana. Later, from 1993 till July 97, these were issued by the Hisar deputy commissioner and after that the power to issue licences was transferred to the deputy commissioner, Fatehabad.

Earlier, licences valid in the whole country were issued at the local level. Now, these are issued by the home secretary, Haryana.

Sources revealed that in many cases renewal of licences was taken casually in some of the subdivisions. In many cases, licences had been renewed without verifying the identity of the owner. Sources said licences issued by the deputy commissioner, Hisar, during 1993 to 1997 should have been registered in the district after Fatehabad was carved out as a new district, but this was never done. Sources said in several cases renewals had been issued on calls by politicians or other influential persons without verifying the owners.

To rule out the possibility of several fake licences in use, the authorities will now call each and every arms licence holder to the NIC and get his digital photograph clicked for the computerised database. To ensure that scanned copies of the photographs are not used, the authorities have decided to click the photographs of licence holders with the dealing clerks to make the officials accountable.

Karnal, December 7
Ex-servicemen today observed Armed Forces Day as “Resentment Day” in protest against government apathy towards their long pending demands. They also organised a protest rally under the banner of Armed Forces Veterans.

Ruing the attitude of both the UPA and NDA governments, they said families of soldiers, who sacrificed their lives in 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars, had been living under miserable conditions and facing acute financial problems because of non acceptance of their demand for one rank, one pension.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had assured that the demand was genuine and the government would consider it sympathetically. However, nothing had been done during the past three decades.

AFV leaders cautioned that the simmering discontent, which had turned into resentment and anger, could further aggravate and become a people’s movement.

Seeking 100 per cent direct appointments to discharged ex-servicemen, the AFV alleged that the Haryana Ex-Servicemen League, which had been given the contract for electricity meter reading and collection of cash, had been exploiting the 10,000 odd ex-servicemen engaged by it by giving them half the pay.

State president of the AFV Tek Chand Gautam said other demands of the AFV included parity in special military pay of army officers and other ranks as all of them make equal sacrifice at the time of need and death did not see rank.

He said it was unfortunate that while the officers were getting Rs 6,000 as military service pay, soldiers of other ranks were getting only Rs 2,000.

Gurgaon, December 7
People from all walks of life participated in “Avon walk around the world for breast cancer crusade”, a worldwide series of creative and varied events that take place each year to mobilise people to help end breast cancer, here today.

Holding banners and slogans, they had to cover a distance of around 3.5 km. Fashion designer Leena Singh and managing director, Avon India, Sebastian Bako flagged off the walk from the lawns of Crowne Plaza.

A large number of breast cancer survivors also came together to create awareness about the disease. Bako said: “The walk for breast cancer has given Avon India the opportunity to join the family of 50 other countries and lend its relentless support for a cause which affects lives of millions of people worldwide.”

“Avon is the largest corporate supporter of breast cancer cause worldwide and this has been made possible with the continuous support that we had received,” he added.

Leena Singh said, “I am happy to be a part of such a common cause and will always provide my service for the organisation.”

Executive director, marketing and product, Reebok India Company, Sajid Shamim said, “We have created Pink Ribbon products to help generate awareness for our events, thereby enabling women to demonstrate their support against cancer.”

Director, Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA), Delhi Chapter, Kiran Hukku said: “There has been a great progress in awareness, detection and treatment of breast cancer, but the disease continues to be the leading cause of death among women accounting for 1.6 per cent of all female deaths in the world.”

A woman suffering from breast cancer, Puspa Goel, said: “It is essential to lend one’s support and participation to such a cause. I have been suffering with cancer for the past six years. I am well because I came to know about the disease in the early stage. I suggest that everyone should go for a routine check-up.

Chandigarh, December 7
Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) and Indraprastha Power Generation Corporation Limited (IPGCL) of Delhi have signed an agreement for the formation of a joint venture company (JVC) for developing a coal block in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh.

The agreement was signed by MD, HPGCL, Sanjeev Kaushal and MD, IPGCL R.K. Gaur in the presence of financial commissioner and principal secretary (power), Haryana, Ashok Lavasa here recently.

Lavasa said the development of the coal block would go a long way in meeting the power generation requirements of Haryana and Delhi. He said Haryana had made an ambitious plan to increase the existing power capacity by another 6,000 MW by the end of the current Five-Year Plan. The upcoming Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project at Jhajjar would achieve a major milestone in the next week as the boiler drum for the 500-MW Unit I would be lifted. The HPGCL had completed over 50 per cent of the construction work at the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Station, Khedar. The state would also procure 2,113 MW through competitive routes for which PPAs/MoUs had already been signed.

Lavasa urged the JVC to complete the work as per the schedule. He said the state government would extend its support to the companies in achieving the target.

The union ministry of coal had allocated a coal block to the HPGCL and Delhi under the government company dispensation scheme. The block is situated in Singrauli district, Madhya Pradesh. The total area of the block is about 53 sq km. The block has an estimated reserve of 950 million tonne of coal, which would be enough to generate about 5,000 MW for 25 years, if fully exploited.

Hisar, December 7
A 70-year-old woman of Aleva village in Jind district, Rajjo Devi, has become the world’s oldest woman to give birth to a baby girl through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) at a local fertility centre.

According to Dr Anurag Bishnoi, who runs the fertility center, Rajjo Devi, who got married to Bala Ram 50 years ago, had no child. The couple came to the centre in April and were suggested IVF. The embryo was planted on April 19 and the baby was born on November 28 through caesarean section.

Bishnoi said the baby girl weighed 1.5 kg at birth and there were no genetic defects. He said till now a Romanian woman, Adriana Ilisecu, was the oldest woman to deliver a baby at the age of 67.

Jhajjar, December 7
Now, students of distance education courses run by Maharshi Dayanand University need not wait for the study material to make preparation for examinations. The directorate of distance education (DDE) of the university has decided to provide study material at its website in order to redress the grievances regarding the availability of study material in time.

The DDE had recently invited quotations for getting study material composed and printed from private agencies.

Sources said the DDE would allot a code number to all students enrolled to provide them the study material on the website during semesters. The students could download the study material of their respective subjects after filling in their code number on the Internet.

The DDE has established more than 600 study centres all over the country. Representatives of these study centres are required to visit the university to get the study material of various courses. Study material of most of the courses is published in the university press. Thus, the study centres have to depend upon the functioning of the university press.

Sources said the university press always get late in printing the study material due to a large number of students. Thereafter, the representatives of the study centres visit the university press to lift the study materials to take it to their study centres.

A significant time is lapsed in the process, which creates tension among students residing in distant states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Gujrat, Jharkhand and Assam, as they have no other option but to wait.

The director of the DDE, Prof Narender Garg, said if the study material was available on the website, students could prepare for the examination without wasting time.

“Initially, courses on information technology (IT) and management will be covered under the decision as a large number of students have got themselves enrolled in these courses as compared to other courses,” Garg said, adding that the decision would be executed from July.

Rohtak, December 7
The court of the Juvenile Justice Board, Rohtak, has asked the district administration to ensure the provision of free-of-cost educational facilities, including computer skills, to juveniles lodged in observation homes.

It has also directed the police department to appoint a team of trained and sensitive officials to deal with criminal cases related to juveniles. The Juvenile Justice Board deals with cases related to accused up to 18 years of age. This is perhaps the first time that such a direction has been given by a district-level board.

The directions came from the court of Dr R.S. Bamal, Judicial Magistrate (first class), recently, while hearing a bail application of a case involving a 17-year-old boy, Sonu (name changed), a resident of Mokhra village in the district. The accused had been booked for allegedly abducting and raping a minor girl.

Rejecting the bail, the court ordered the authorities concerned to arrange educational facilities for the accused while in judicial custody. It is stated that availability of additional facility like a computer course will be of great importance as an accused or an inmate can get a chance to change himself or herself so that he can earn a living after the release.

The court observed that in this particular case releasing the guilty on bail could prove dangerous to his own personal safety, while the observation home could help him in returning to the mainstream along with education side by side.

The court in its order stated that as per the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, the superintendent of the observation home was to provide special education, including computer education, for such inmates in order to prevent them from taking the path of crime later.

Besides a letter to the SSP to constitute a team of police officials with sympathetic attitude towards juvenile delinquents in all police stations of the district, the district administration has been asked to supervise the activity.

The local branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has welcomed the decision of the Juvenile Justice Board. Bamal is also the chairman of the Legal Committee of the IMA, Rohtak.

Karnal, December 7
Ridiculing the claim of HSGPC (ad hoc) leaders to recruit Nihang Sikhs in the security force to guard and manage gurdwaras in the state, the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) has asked them to exercise restraint.

Vice-president of the SGPC Raghujeet Singh Virk said Haryana Sikh leaders should know what Sikhism means and not show ignorance by dragging Nihang Sikhs, who were the “most loved disciples of Guru Gobind Singh”.

Refuting the claims of HSGPC leaders that they were getting a wide support at block level, he said a majority of Haryana Sikhs was with the SGPC. He also dismissed the charge of HSGPC president Jagdeesh Jinda that “sewadars” in Haryana gurdwaras had been replaced by armed task force of the SGPC. He added that changing “sewadars” from time to time was a routine practice.

Virk said a national-level seminar would be organised in NDRI on Guru Granth Sahib on December 12 in which intellectuals, religious leaders and scholars would throw light on various aspects of Guru Granth Sahib and its relevance in modern times.

However, Virk did not say a word about the demand for a separate SGPC for the state.