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Record cotton, paddy procurement in Jind
Family Planning
Swine flu alert in Ambala
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Karnal girl wins bronze, scripts history
Fair Trade Forum to focus on brand building
'Need to make people aware of dental health'
Lecture on role of writers held
Meet on child feeding
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Record cotton, paddy procurement in Jind
Jind, December 10 According to details available from the mandis here, there has been a major jump in the arrival and procurement of cotton in the district this season with an increase of about 14,071 quintals in comparison to the last year. The total arrival of cotton in the main market here is about 47,700 quintals till December 8, while it was around 33,629 quintals last year till this date. The arrival of paddy has also shown an increase with the total quantity reaching up to 6,38,481 quintals till December 8 against the arrival of 6,32,737 quintals last year, said official sources in the local grain market. The arrival and procurement of paddy in the neighbouring district of Rohtak has been just 19,489 tonne this season. Though the peak season of the arrival and procurement is over, it
is revealed that the procurement of these crops could continue for about two weeks more, as the farmers are now concentrating on the sowing of rabi and allied crops in the region. On other hand, it is claimed that had the government and the authorities paid more attention, the procurement of various crops would have been higher as a large number of the
farmers had to resort to a kind of distress sale during the peak period when they could not fetch the price they got
last year. Previously, maximum rates of paddy in the open market had been hovering between Rs 3,200 and 3,400 per quintal for the 1121 variety of which the buyers included the private mills and the export houses, while this year many farmers were forced to sell their produce (paddy) at a rate of around Rs 1,700 to Rs 2,100 per quintal, claimed Rattan Singh, who hails
from an agriculturalist family. The farmers had to resort to blocking of the main highway connecting Jind with Rohtak on a couple of occasions to highlight their problems and disinterest shown by government procurement agencies, he added. The main reason behind the bumper crop of cotton this year could be the
long dry spell and the interest shown by the farmers for going for this crop instead of just the traditional ones, said an official.
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Family Planning
Jind, December 10 However, the policy of distributing the motivational amount appears to be biased. A recent release of the health department states while an amount of Rs 1,130 will be given to a male resident opting for family planning, females who wish to take the benefit of sterilisation (tubectomy) will get Rs 250 per case. This will be raised up to Rs 600 in case of a woman hailing from the BPL or SC/ST category. The person who motivates others to avail such a facility will be given an amount up to Rs 150 per case. The health department has announced to hold a male sterilisation camp here from December 21 to 24 and has stated that any case of failure of sterilidation of males would be given a compensation of Rs 30,000 within 90 days of reporting and verification of the
complaint. While the officials have not provided the figure of failures of vasectomy or tubectomy in the district so far, it is reported that number of such cases is low. Sterilisation is a method of family planning where people decide not to have children or further children. It is considered a permanent method of contraception as reversal is a complicated operation which is not always successful. In case of female sterilisation, the effectiveness of this method depends partially on how tubes are blocked, but pregnancy rate is low. Only 0.5 pregnancies per 100 women (1 in 200) have been recorded in the
first year after the procedure, claims a doctor. He said though both methods had been highly effective, the number of persons opting for such methods was low and the government should raise the motivation amount to Rs 10,000 for both male and females.
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Swine flu alert in Ambala
Ambala, December 10 The government has directed the health authorities to make arrangements in civil hospitals, but in Ambala, more measures are required. Meanwhile, the Education Department has directed all schools and colleges to suspend morning assemblies, cultural functions and sports events. However, only a few schools and colleges are following the directions. According to information, around 800 cases of suspected swine flu have been reported in various civil hospitals of the district during the past three months. Out of these, the swab samples of 40 persons were sent to PGI Chandigarh. A resident of Ambala City, Geeta Rani (50), died of swine flu in PGI, Chandigarh, two days back. Recently, around six students of various public schools with symptoms of swine flu were admitted to various hospitals. A class II student of DAV Public School has tested positive for swine flu. Around 100 children with cough and fever problem have been approaching various private child specialist doctors and civil hospital every day. In some cases, private nursing homes have been referring patients to civil hospitals. The Health Department has set up isolation wards in civil hospitals at Ambala City, Ambala Cantt and Naraingarh. The department has also started selling masks in hospitals at a nominal price. A private doctor said they had been referring suspected swine flu cases to the civil hospital as no arrangement of testing swine flu was available in any private laboratory in the city. Moreover, the medicine prescribed for the disease was not available in the open market, he added.
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Army officer survives avalanche, fathers triplets through IVF
Gurgaon, December 10 Having remained under extreme cold for long, Kumar’s sperm count went so low that he was not able to attain fatherhood. At one point of time, the couple had lost all hope of having an offspring. Then, they decided to go in for the IVF procedure. After a brief period of medication followed by IVF (commonly known as test-tube baby procedure) through the testicular sperm aspiration (TESA) and intra-cytoplasm sperm inclusion (ICSI) techniques, Kumar’s wife delivered three babies here. “The IVF technique is a real boon in such cases,” observes Dr Bindu Garg, infertility specialist at Neelkanth Hospital, who supervised the entire case. Dr Garg, who did her post-graduation in reproductive sciences under Dr Allen Trousen (regarded as the father
of test-tube baby procedure worldwide), maintained that owing to medical reasons, the triplets (two boys and a girl), delivered through
a caesarian surgery, are fine. On being asked how the Army official was able to survive for about a month under snow, Dr Garg admitted that it was a miracle for medical science as well. “We have been told
that of the five soldiers buried under the avalanche, three had died. Hemant was
among the two survivors. In such cases, it is believed that the body’s metabolism becomes almost zero and one
goes into some sort of hibernation,” she said.
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Karnal girl wins bronze, scripts history
A student of class XII of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, where her father is posted as chief conservator of forests, Shreya was selected from her home state Haryana by the All India Karate Federation to represent India. She brought laurels to the country by winning a bronze medal in the female junior individual Kumite 16-17years category. The medal was awarded to her by the President, Kobe Osaka International. An all-rounder, 16-year-old Shreya is equally good in studies and co-curricular activities. She secured 86.6 per cent marks in the matriculation examination and got 1st position in class XI (2008-09). A budding tennis player, Shreya also bagged first position in North Zone Lawn Tennis Kendriya Vidyalaya in 2005-06. She developed interest in tennis when she was studying in class IX in Dehradun. Later, her father was transferred to Thiruvananthapuram where former world karate champion and international coach of NIS saw potential in Shreya and started coaching her. Within three and a half years, she was selected to represent India and won a bronze in her international debut. Talent is inherent in her family and her brother Sagar Sandhu is a budding cricketer. A student of Hindu College, Delhi, he represented Delhi in under-22 and was also a member of under-19 Haryana cricket team. Shreya’s proud father, Dr Mehar Singh, is very happy at outstanding achievement of his daughter, but at the same time he is sore that the government has not done enough to encourage her to continue her practice and hard work. He says the government must give her support and incentives as are being given to other sportspersons who have excelled in international championships.
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Fair Trade Forum to focus on brand building
Gurgaon, December 10 FTF-I, the national network for Fair Trade, extends market access opportunities to nearly 1 lakh marginalised producers through its 75-member organisations working in different parts of the country. It is a member of the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO), the global Fair Trade body comprising of nearly 400 Fair Trade organisations across the globe. The Fair Trade organisations, backed by consumers, aim at supporting grass-roots level producers, raising awareness and campaigning for changes in the rules
and practices of conventional international trade. “Building Fair Trade Brand in India through Collaborative Approaches” was the theme of the convention, which was attended by around 100 FTF-I members comprising of artisans, farmers, merchants and representatives of marketing organisations. The two-day event was organised on the campus of Management Development Institute (MDI) here. The Centre for Sustainable Development at MDI associated with FTF-I as a knowledge partner for the convention. The inaugural session started with an invocation penned by Dr Shyam S. Sharma, a former president of the FTF-I and an honorary member of the WFTO. Mattais Prayer Galletti, chief guest on the occasion, and representative of the International Foundation for Agricultural Development (IFAD), spoke on the lessons that could be learnt from the history of development of Fair Trade in Italy. In his keynote speech, Lucas Caldiera from the WFTO emphasised upon the country’s progress in terms of wider acceptance of Fair Trade practices. Dr BS Sahay, MDI director, Carol Wills from the WFTO, Laxmi Menon Bhatia of ETI-UK, and Maveen Periera of Traidcraft, also addressed the participants. The inaugural session concluded with a cultural programme comprising of folk music and dances. The pursuit towards brand identity and brand building through online Fair Trade marketplace was underlined by Prof Neelu Bhullar and Prof Kanwal Kapil of MDI in their respective addresses. Surendra Shahi from OpenEntry offered a cost-free web-based solution to those producers who do not have their own websites or an alternative to link their existing websites to the WFTO portal for greater market access.
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Govt to initiate potable water project in Jhajjar city
Jhajjar, December 10 The Nandi Foundation, under which the project is being run, will set up four reverse osmosis (RO) filter plants on the Gurgaon road, Ambedkar Chowk, Tehsil road and Sitaram gate here and after the commissioning of these plants, people of the city will be able to get purified water by paying 10 paisa per liter. This fee will make it possible to sustain the water plant by paying for the programme management and maintenance costs. The cost of setting one such plant has been estimated to be Rs 11 lakh. Significantly, the foundation has also been mulling over home delivery of filtered water after the start of treatment plants in the city. The state government had signed an MoU with the Hyderabad-based Nandi Foundation in July 2008 to implement a pilot project on safe drinking water systems in selected villages in the state. In the first phase, as many as 100 villages were to be taken up in the districts of Jhajjar, Mewat, Mahendergarh, Kaithal and other areas where the ground-level water is either salty due to the excess of TDS or not drinkable and people have to remain dependent only on the water supply of public health or groundwater. As per the MoU, the foundation bears the cost of energy charges for operations and maintenance of water resources and water treatment plants. It also makes arrangements for the disposal of rejected water in consultation with the state government, besides meeting the requirements of the Haryana Pollution Control Board regarding the management of rejected water and complies with all standard legal provisions as well. “The foundation in collaboration with the Public Health Department is setting up water treatment plant in the villages which enables the people to get filtered water at a cost of 10 paisa per liter,” said Nitin Yadav, Jhajjar deputy commissioner, claiming that the drive to provide purified drinking water had turned out to be a boon for the people of the villages here. He maintained that the availability of filtered drinking water would also eliminate earlier health-related problems caused due to the unavailability of pure drinking water in this area. The people of the villages had shown a keen interest to set up such plants in the villages for the availability of RO filter water at a meager cost, the DC added. Aaditya Shukla, state manager of the foundation, said there would be tremendous social benefits, including equitable access to safe drinking water, for urban communities, especially the lower income group. “The implementation of this project in Jhajjar city will also benefit the urban poor in terms of reducing the incidence of water-borne diseases,” said Shukla.
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'Need to make people aware of dental health'
Sirsa, December 10 In India, the cost of both dental education and setting up of dental clinics is very high. This makes young graduates opt for setting up their clinics in bigger towns or metropolitan cities to recover their investment. This disproportionate distribution of dentists results in overcrowding of dental clinics in big towns and cities leaving a majority of the villages dentist free. The situation is further aggravated by impending unhealthy competition among practitioners and blatant commercialisation of dental health care. Inaugurating a symposium on "Continuing Dental Education" in the JCD College of Dental Sciences, Dr Kuldeep Singh Dhindsa, an eminent scientist and director-general of JCD Vidyapeeth, said: "Mouth is the mirror of the body and despite dental health being an integral part of the general health, there is little awareness about this". The symposium was organised to mark the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations of the Dental Council of India. "Dental health cannot be separated from general health since oral diseases may be a manifestation of or an aggravating factor in some more widespread systemic disorders. Consequently, action taken to improve or maintain dental health may prove an important determinant in safeguarding general health," said Dhindsa. Dr KN Dubey, principal of the college and a member of the Dental Council of India (DCI), said: "The council regularly monitors changes and reforms in the field of dental education and has recently taken a survey on the availability of dental health manpower, besides standardising dental equipments". Dr Jatinder Singh and Gunjeeta Diwakar emphasised the need for taking dental health care to the rural areas and said dental interns could play a vital role in this. Dr Garish Goyal and Dr Arvinder Sarkar said the syllabus for dental sciences needed to be constantly revised. Dr Pooja Khana and Dr Vikas Gupta in their papers said orthodontics for poor did not exist at all as it was too costly for them to afford. They stressed the need of NGOs and social organisations to step in to provide orthodontics services for poor. Dr Rakesh Singla said saving teeth was always a better and economical option than to sacrificing and replacing. Dhindsa also released an annual magazine of the college "Exordium". Dr SP Sharma, editor of the magazine, said: "The word 'Exordium' has been taken from latin, which means a beginning".
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Lecture on role of writers held
Kalka, December 10 The resource person was welcomed by SK Manocha, principal of the college, who invited him to equip the students with the nuances of a writer's rightful place and contribution in literature. Prof Ram Singh dwelt upon the purpose which the writers have in view while producing literary works, the purpose largely being to bring transformation in society for the betterment and welfare of the humanity. He also illumined the features of a good writer which comprises the ability to strike a balance between imagination and logic, to be able to create suspense, to arouse readers' curiosity to know what will come next and to transport them into a different world and lastly, to make them think about relevant issues so as to covert them into harbingers of a positive social change. Discriminating between a writer and an ordinary man, Prof Ram Singh said, “A writer is more sensitive, farsighted, possesses a far greater sensibility and understanding of life in all its shades and forms as compared to an ordinary man. He is sensitive, feels pained to see the sufferings around and therefore experiences a compulsion to write”. The talk and discussion was followed by an interactive session between the resource person, teachers and students. The extension lecture was well received by all present. In the end, the students were given certain recommended titles of books for reading by the resource person.
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Hisar footballer to play for East Bengal
Hisar, December 10 A student of the local Saint Sophia Senior Secondary School, Manandeep is the first footballer from Haryana to play for the East Bengal Club in the company of the likes of Bhaichung Bhutia. Manandeep says his selection fulfils his lifelong dream of playing with his role model Bhaichung Bhutia. "Any young player would feel highly honoured to play for an elite club like East Bengal. I am lucky, I have that honour now", he says. Earlier this year, he was selected for the India Under 19 football squad, which participated in the qualifying matches for the Asia Football Cup at Arbil in Iraq. He was the only football player from Haryana to be selected for the team. He is also the first boy from Hisar to get this honour. Before that, he was selected as a member of the India Under 14 team, which went to Iran. In 2007 he went to Saudi Arabia as member of the India Under 17 team. This team became the first India Under 17 team to qualify for the Asia Cup that year. Manandeep says the highlight of his career so far is the goal he scored in 2006 through a header that ensured his team's victory in the India-Iran match. He credits his parents, school and coach Madan Singh Rathore for his achievements. Varsha Rana, Principal, Saint Sophia Senior Secondary School, said Manandeep was among the four footballers produced by her school who had played at the international and national levels.
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All India Inter-University Hockey C’ship
Sonepat, December 10 According to Dr Monika Verma, principal of the college, these girls participated as members of the university in the recently concluded Inter-University North Zone Hockey Championship concluded at Amritsar recently and the university team, along with three other university teams from the North Zone, qualified for participation in the All India Inter University Hockey Championship. The girls as well as coach Krishan Saini and team in charge Suman Mann were accorded warm welcome by the college staff and the management committee for their outstanding performance in the championship at Amritsar with the hope that they would repeat their performance at the national level also. Dr Verma attributed the achievement to the special training the girls received under the guidance of renowned international woman hockey player and former Indian captain Pritam Siwach.
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Karnal, December 10