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Docs quitting govt service
Doctor misses exam, courtesy postal delay
Surajkund mela from Feb 1
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Terminal market plan cheers farmers
Aero sports centre planned at Bachhod airstrip
CJI seeks more courts for speedy justice
Global lab expo concludes
INTACH to preserve historic sites of Ambala
Govt sanctions Rs 291-cr water projects for Sirsa
Order to complete development works by March 31
11 constituency-level AVS unit chiefs named
DYFI celebrates R-Day in unique way
Development Works
Villagers resent land acquisition
Employees’ body slams recruitment policy
Ellenabad
ENT surgeon gets Lifetime achievement award
Parikshat elected income tax staff federation chief
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Docs quitting govt service
Ambala, January 28 In Ambala, at least six doctors have resigned from government service and started private practice. Recently, a senior orthopaedic surgeon of the Ambala City Civil Hospital applied for voluntary retirement. Earlier, five doctors of the Ambala Cantt hospital, including Dr Shailender Dhaliwal, Dr Rishi Raj, Dr Amit Sharma and Dr Ajay Chawra, quit their job. Another doctor of this hospital, Dr Suparna, who had proceeded on maternity leave, did not turn up after the completion of the leave period. Some senior doctors running private nursing homes in Ambala City had also quit their jobs in civil hospitals a few years ago. A doctor working with the Ambala City Civil Hospital alleged that political leaders and senior officers of the district administration treated them like Class III employees. Besides, no proper accommodation was available for doctors in primary health centres and community health centres, mostly located in rural areas. A specialist doctor of another Civil Hospital said due to shortage of doctors, they had to work in the emergency ward and sometime even had to conduct postmortems. This was one of the major reasons why super-specialist doctors did not prefer to join government service due to which there was shortage of super specialist doctors like radiologists, psychiatrists, neurosurgeons and super-specialist doctors in the state, he added.
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Doctor misses exam, courtesy postal delay
Sonepat, January 28 Dr Himani Ahlawat, daughter of Dr Virender Ahlawat, Training and Placement Officer of the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal, had applied for the MDS entrance examination and the admit card was dispatched to Dr Himani by Speed Post, booked by the Army Hospital (R&R) on January 6. However, the card was received on January 18, whereas the examination was held on January 17. Dr Himani has lodged a complaint in this regard with the Superintendent of the General Post Office, Sonepat, with copies to the ministry concerned and other higher authorities in the department, demanding action against the erring officials. She has also highlighted two other such incidents.
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Surajkund mela from Feb 1
Chandigarh, January 28 This year the fair, to be inaugurated by Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari, is unique in the sense that it is for the first time that three countries, Tajikistan, Thailand and Egypt, will participate, while Rajasthan has been selected as the “Theme State”. Besides performances by their cultural teams, these countries will put up stalls for the sale of their respective cuisines in the food court. Their craftspersons will bring along the ambience of the lands they come from. The Surajkund Crafts Mela has come to dot the Indian tourism calendar for the past 24 years. One of the internationally acclaimed events of the country, it showcases fascinating display of exotic culture, ancient crafts, traditions and glimpses of a heritage that is legendary for its vitality. Weavers and craftspersons, along with folk dancers, theatre troupes, jugglers and roadside magicians, from all nooks and corners of the country descend on the mela grounds drawing thousands of visitors from India and abroad year after year. According to Haryana Tourism Secretary, the State Tourism Department spends more than Rs 10 lakh on the infrastructure required for making this experience worthwhile and unique. The annual event is organised by the Surajkund Mela Authority under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Tourism. The fair provides a platform to children to explore their potential in various competitions like kite flying, face painting, rangoli, drawing and painting and folk dance. This year over 5,000 children are expected to represent their schools and colleges and sweat it out for suitable rewards. The mela is described as “not just a mela but mini-India”. The Surajkund complex derives its name from an ancient amphitheatre, sun pool. It dates back to 10th century AD when tribal chieftains were gaining supremacy. One clan that struck out in the chronicles of the history was that of the Tomars. They were sun worshippers. Fascinated by the surroundings of this terrain, Raja Suraj Pal, one of the chieftains, chose to build his stronghold here. A sun temple and a sun pool were designed. But times changed and the clan vanished. The temple fell into disarray. But the amphitheatre sun pool withstood the vagaries of times. It is the sun pool that the complex was christened after and was named Surajkund.
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Terminal market plan cheers farmers
Sonepat, January 28 The farmers of the Rai region had expressed resentment over changing the land use of about 600 acres of their land which was acquired in early 90s of the last century for setting up a fruit and vegetable market; but later it was converted into an industrial zone. The terminal market will be set up by the Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board in an area of 500 acres at an estimated cost of Rs 350 crore on the pattern of the Rangis market in France. To be located at a distance of just 60 km from Delhi on the GT Road, this wholesale market of fruits, vegetables will have the facilities of cool chambers, ripening chambers, grading, sorting and packaging. To ensure connectivity of every farmer of the state, as many as 22 agriculture produce centres and 100 purchase centres in the state will be opened and linked with the market. The market will operate in such a way that every farmer and trader of the state is linked with it. Deputy commissioner Ajit Joshi said the land acquisition process was almost complete. The market would ensure remunerative prices to the farmers of their produce and would encourage to setting up of agro processing units. It would also promote export of fruits and vegetables and provide job opportunities. “The market will have arrangements for annual sale of 75 lakh tonnes of fruits and vegetables and storage capacity of 10 lakh tonnes of milk and dairy products,” he said.
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Aero sports centre planned at Bachhod airstrip
Chandigarh, January 28 In a statement issued here recently, Congress MP from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat Shruti Chaudhary said she was thankful to AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi and president of the Aero Club of India Capt Satish Sharma for the decision, which would provide additional employment avenues to the youth of the area. She said the centre would provide an opportunity to the youth of her constituency to register their presence in the aviation sector of the country. The Bachhod airstrip was constructed when Bansi Lal was the Chief Minister of the state, primarily so that senior officers could visit the area, which lacked road and rail connectivity at that time, to supervise its development. However, later it fell to disuse as the road connectivity in the area increased. The conversion of the airstrip into an aero sports centre would definitely lead to the development of the area, added Chaudhary.
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CJI seeks more courts for speedy justice
Rohtak, January 28 Speaking at a seminar on ‘speedy justice’ after inaugurating Dr BR Ambedkar Memorial Library in the judicial complex here recently, Dr Balakrishnan said he had discussed the matter with the Prime Minister, Union Law Minister and the Planning Commission to emphasise the need for more courts in the country in view of piling up of pending cases. He expressed concern that no state was looking keen in increasing the number of courts, including subordinate courts, sessions courts, fast track courts and special courts. He said there was delay in disposal of cases as the number of cases per court were more than the number handled by a court, he said, adding that the number of cases per court should not exceed 400. Pointing out that hundreds of courts remained without judges due to vacancies in 16,000 existing posts of judges in the country owing to delay in fresh appointments as the process for the recruitment of judges was initiated only after the vacancies arose, the CJI suggested that a pool of judicial officers should be created by making 10 per cent more appointments so that the vacancies could be filled immediately from this pool. Responding to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's observation in his speech on the occasion that a separate High Court of Haryana at Chandigarh was the legitimate right of the state, Justice Balakrishnan said Haryana was big enough to have its own high court in the state. Though Goa is attached with the Mumbai High Court and Pondicherry is attached with the Madras High Court, these are smaller states, the CJI pointed out and favoured a separate high court for Haryana saying that it was a big state. Chief Minister Hooda said the issue of speedy justice was important as the courts were getting piled up with pending cases. Hooda disclosed that the state government proposed to set up four evening courts in the state on a trial basis for speedy disposal of cases. He said the government had taken a number of steps, including organising lok adalats, setting up of fast track courts, consumer forums and a mobile court in the state, besides counselling and conciliation centres. He said videoconferencing facilities had also been provided in the courts. Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Mukul Moudgil said people were the worst sufferers due to delay in disposal of cases. He appealed to advocates to provide free legal aid to poor by taking up at least one case per month free of charge. Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda, Rajya Sabha MP Shadi Lal Batra, Haryana Advocate General HS Hooda, local MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra and District Bar Association president Lokendra Singh Phogat also spoke on the occasion.
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Global lab expo concludes
Ambala, January 28 Vikas Gupta, deputy director MSME-Development Institute, stated that Ambala is a hub of trade and manufacturing of scientific, educational, electrical, electronics, test and measuring instruments. The aim of the expo was to bring all manufacturers, traders and users organisations together on a common platform for the overall development of trade activities as well as to enhance their manufacturing competitiveness. Participation was seen from more than 40 industries involved in various aspects of the industry, including scientific instruments, packaging, machinery, etc. Members of ASIMA claimed that many were successful in receiving many orders too. “This is for the first time that such an event has been organised. Usually, industry members from Ambala go and participate in such events across the globe. The planning for such an event has been in the pipeline for over five years, but it has materialised only now,” informed a member.
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INTACH to preserve historic sites of Ambala
Ambala, January 28 It was also decided in the meeting that a heritage walk will be arranged to bring awareness among the general public about the heritage monuments existing here. A member of the chapter Jasmer Chand will submit a report about legal position of the monuments, so that department/government/district authorities concerned are approached to preserve the monuments. To promote art of folk dances and folk music instruments, a renowned classical dance exponent Shabnam Nath has been entrusted the project to hold a festival of folk music and dance with help of principal of the SD College, Ambala Cantt, Desh Bandhu. Unit chairman Brig GS Lamba told that the heritage clubs are being formed in the schools and a painting contest is also being held very shortly. He told that the main aim of the INTACH is to protect and preserve the heritage of India. He also released the INTACH Haryana newsletter published by the Haryana chapter. Prominent among those present were Gen Ranjit Singh, Major Chauhan and Rtn SK Aggarwal, artist Harjit Purewal. Literature and photographs about Ambala heritage monuments were also exhibited at the meeting.
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Govt sanctions Rs 291-cr water projects for Sirsa
Sirsa, January 28 He said the problem of potable water would be over by year 2040 with the setting up of waterworks and residents of the town would get completely TDS and germ-free water. The Minister said the waterworks and the treatment plant would be set up on an area of 115 acres. He said formalities to acquire 45 acres had already been completed and the process of acquiring remaining land for the purpose was on the last stage. He informed that a sum of Rs 23 crore would be incurred on acquiring land and the remaining amount would be spent on the construction of waterworks and treatment plant. Kanda said the Public Health Engineering Department had prepared this project keeping in view the increasing population by 2040. After setting up of the waterworks, the residents of the town would get 135 litres of potable water per day per person. He said eight tanks would be constructed in the initial phase that would be increased along with increasing population. As many as six boosting stations at various places would also be constructed to ensure water supply in the town, he added. Kanda said sewerage arrangements would be made in old and recently authorised 13 colonies. He said pipeline of 40-inch width would be laid for drainage of polluted water in Agarwal colony, Chawala colony and in all small and big size colonies adjoining Chatergarhpatti which would be connected with the Kelniyan Water Disposal Plant. He said two sewerage treatment plants, at Nataar village and Kelniyan, would be set up in the vicinity of the town at Rs 17 crore where dirty water would be cleaned and thereafter it would be provided to farmers for irrigation purpose.
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Order to complete development works by March 31
Rewari, January 28 Besides, the directors of rural development and panchayat departments and two superintending engineers of panchayati raj also attended the meeting. The meeting was presided over by P. Raghvender Rao, Financial Commissioner and Principal secretary, Panchayat and Development Department, Haryana. Asserting that there was no lack of funds for development works, Rahghvender Rao directed the DDPOs and the executive engineers to expeditiously apprise him of any financial crunch as well as the bottlenecks being faced in the implementation of any development work in their respective districts. The principal secretary also directed the officers to see to it that the developments projects in progress should be accomplished briskly while the development works, awaiting commencement, should be initiated and completed by March 31 positively. While exhorting the officers to see to it that the allocation of 100 sq yard residential plots to all such deserving BPL families in various villages be accomplished speedily, the commissioner also urged them to briskly carry out the pavement of streets and provision of drainage in various model villages in their respective districts. While the progress of Nirmal Basti Yojna, total sanitation scheme, the Chief Minister's sanitation award scheme, Indira Awas Yojna and other such projects was reviewed by the principal secretary, he also made it known that Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendras would be set up at all block headquarters in the above districts. Before the meeting, Raghvender Rao as well as the two directors and the two Ses also inspected the on-going development works at Dewlawas, Kasaula and several other villages of Rewari district.
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11 constituency-level AVS unit chiefs named
Rewari, January 28 AVS president Ashok Buwaniwala said 41 AVS functionaries and 11 newly elected presidents of constituency-level units would participate in the above workshop where they would be imparted practical training to hone their skills in leadership by noted subject specialists from Delhi. Mukesh Mittal, a spokesperson for the AVS, said tthe newly appointed presidents of 11 constituency-level units were Sandeep Garg (Pundri), Nirmal Jain (Guhla Cheekla), Hukam Chand Bansal (Kaithal), Vijay Lalawasia (Bhiwani) , Ved Prakash Jain (Gohana), Vishnu Gupta (Faridabad ), Sandeep B. Singhal (Panchkula), Jitender Jain (Kalanaur), Deepak Gupta (Rewari), Shiv Shanker Agarwal (Mahendergarh) and Jawahar Lal Goyal (Kurukshetra).
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DYFI celebrates R-Day in unique way
Fatehabad, January 28 In coordination with the Azad Yuva Club of Jodhkan village and the Shiv Shakti Blood Bank of Sirsa town, DYFI members collected 22 units of blood on this occasion. "Biting cold and dense fog led to a relatively lower number of donors," said Dinesh Siwach, state secretary of the DYFI. Tony Sagu, district president, Jai Ram, vice president and Rustam Saini, joint secretary of the DYFI, said their organisation had been celebrating the Republic Day in such a manner to do some constructive work in the service of the people. Siwach claimed that DYFI members had so far collected more than 3,000 units of blood in Sirsa and Hisar districts in the recent past.
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Development Works
Hisar, January 28 "Village panchayats have become a tool in the hands of the panchayat secretary, junior engineer and other government functionaries. The villagers themselves have no say in the utilisation of resources are for their betterment after the elections. There is need to involve the entire village community through the system of swaraj", Kejriwal said while participating in a panel discussion on "Swaraj - the citizen-centered governance" here. The discussion was organised by two city-based civil society groups, 'Vaanprastha' and the 'Vaastaviktaa'. Over 300 persons, including panches, sarpanches, students and teachers from local colleges and universities, attended the discussion. Kejriwal said case studies of the gram sabha development model as seen in Hivre Bazar village of Maharashtra and about 1500 other villages throughout the country revealed that a real breakthrough could be made in rural development by following this model. Sarpanch Popat Rao Pawar had changed the development profile of Hivre Bazar radically by simply leaving all decisions to the village community. The village had restricted the use of tubewell water to drinking purposes only because of the falling underground water table. It had also banned the sale of agricultural land to outsiders. Village schoolteachers and nurses in the local dispensary no more played truant as they had to report to the gram sabha which could even punish them, he added. "Swaraj was the way of life in ancient India. The people of Vaishali had decided to allot the palace of their King to the 'Nagarvadhu' and the king had to obey the decision. India had the gram sabha system till around 1860 when the British appointed district collectors and they usurped the powers of the gram sabha. This is when the decline of the Indian economy began. We became independent in 1947 but the system remained unchanged and the DCs still decide what is good for people. It should be the other way round. People's rule has to be brought back", he said. He released a 100-page document detailing the concept of swaraj, the citizen-centered governance. D R Choudhary, a member of the Haryana Administrative Reforms Commission, said that violent movements in some parts of the country were rising because our democracy was hollow and people were frustrated with corruption, unemployment, continuing poverty, and total isolation of the common man in managing his resources. "The government spends crores of rupees for furnishing ministers' offices and residences after every election. Rest houses are run like five-star hotels. If people were asked to approve such expenditure, they would prefer spending on school and hospital buildings", he said. Kejriwal addressed four other groups of citizens urging them to constitute ward and village committees and decide what was good for them. He also asked them to hold the administration accountable through group action or resorting to the RTI Act.
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Villagers resent land acquisition
Sonepat, January 28 A delegation of the residents met Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at Rohtak on Tuesday and urged him to redress their grievances. Reportedly, the Chief Minister assured them to relook into the matter. Om Prakash, Som Nath, Prem, Satish, Subhash and others, in a letter to the Hooda, stated 33 acres of their fertile land was acquired at the rate of Rs 16 lakh per acre for construction of water works directly under Section 4 and 17 of the Land Acquisition Act without giving any time to them for submitting objections. Stating that their acquired land was just four acres away from the Gohana-Kharkhoda road, three acres away from the newly constructed mini-secretariat and at a distance of about 15 acres from the boundary of Gudha village, they pointed out that value of the land acquired for mini-secretariat and of the village had been fixed at Rs 25 lakh per acre in comparison to Rs 16 lakh per acre of their land. They had demanded reassessment of the value of their acquired land which was at the prime locations around the municipal limits of Gohana town.
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Employees’ body slams recruitment policy
Rohtak, January 28 The association has demanded to scrap the high-powered committee, set up under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, to regularise such employees recruited by the state government in various departments in the past few years. In a statement released here recently, a spokesperson for the association has described the present policy of the state government to regularise the staff on recruited on temporary basis as illegal and anti-Constitutional. The association further alleged that various departments in the state, including boards, corporations and universities, had been appointing many employees purely on daily wages, ad-hoc, contractual, part time or guest basis without following the proper procedure of recruitment for the past few years. This time appointments were made only to fulfill the immediate requirements of the concerned department without giving equal chance to all unemployed educated youths from all sections of society.
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Ellenabad
Ellenabad, January 28 Ellenabad has always been a stronghold of the INLD and either a member of Devi Lal clan or a person supported by them has been winning this seat from the very beginning, barring two exceptions, when Lal Chand Khod of the Vishal Haryana Party and Mani Ram Keharwala of the Congress won the seat in 1968 and 1991 respectively. The newly carved out Ellenabad seat was made after including parts of the erstwhile Darba Kalan and Ellenabad seats and, incidentally both were considered INLD’s strong bastions before that. The INLD Supremo Om Parkash Chautala had won this seat by a margin of 16,423 votes in the elections held in October and the party had come in campaign mode ever since he was declared winner from both Ellenabad and Uchana Kalan. Initially, senior Chautala toured the entire length and breadth of the constituency in October itself, even before resigning the seat and tried to get promise from the electorates that they would return his nominee by a margin better than what he managed. The party spent November, December and the 20 days of January campaigning intensively with practically all members of Chautala clan, including school going sons of Abhey Singh Chautala, were in campaign mode. And yet the party could add only 246 votes to the votes earlier polled by the senior Chautala - Abhey Singh got 64,813 votes against 64,567 votes polled by his father in October. The party poll managers had been claiming that Abhey Singh’s victory would be much higher than that of the senior Chautala, but the relatively slander victory has dampened party’s jubilations. On other hand the Congress, too, has to do some introspective over the election results. Infighting among the party’s ranks is largely responsible for party’s defeat in Ellenabad, where senior Congress leaders were seen coming to blows in presence of the HPCC President Phool Chand Mulana and again fighting over the assignment of important duties to a senior party leader, who recently joined the party after quitting the INLD.
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ENT surgeon gets Lifetime achievement award
Sirsa, January 28 He has remained president of the Sirsa Chapter of the Indian Medical Association and is also the past president of the Lions Club and Association that honoured him with the award. Dr Agarwal’s wife, Kiran Agarwal, is also into social service and is a member of the Permanent and Continuous Lok Adalat set up by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Dr RS Sangwan and Dr Karan Singh, the two senior members of the association, honoured Dr Agarwal by presenting him with mementos and a citation. A meeting of the association was held in the Club City, Sirsa, where all members
were present. Dr KK Goyal and Dr Dinesh Gijwani were elected president of the association for 2010.
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Parikshat elected income tax staff federation chief
Chandigarh, January 28 Delegates from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh took part in the elections held at Shimla. While Dharam Singh Narwal was elected general secretary, RS Walia was elected assistant general secretary. —TNS
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Letter
The trouncing of the ruling Congress candidate at the hands of Chautala junior in Ellenabad though would not impact the survival of the Hooda government, the loss sends out worrying signals to the Congress which was able to secure the seat of power just three months back, courtesy the seven Independents and, thereafter, consolidating its position by the 'merger' of five members from the Haryana Janhit Congress into the party. The stability of the ruling elite is under no immediate threat as long as the Independents are giving it outside support or the so-called merger is not set aside but whenever a regime is sustaining on outside support, its position is always shaky.
On the contrary, the opposition INLD has retained its tally of 31 it managed to get at the hustings in October last year. It is pertinent to mention that any byelection just three months after a dispensation is installed, the victory of an opposition party does convey a feeling of anti-incumbency for the ruling party. The result ought not be taken lightly by the Chief Minister as well as the party high command. The government must now get back to business seriously as the past couple of months have witnessed a standstill in the administration owing to this byelection. The Congress needs to thoroughly introspect the rout and implement its manifesto honestly so as to live up to the expectations of the people. The emergence of a strong opposition is undoubtedly is in the larger public interest in a parliamentary democracy like ours, but it must play a constructive role by keeping a strict check at arbitrary and anti-people policies of the government. It should not merely indulge in finding ways to overthrow the government. Anyway, the present political arithmetic does not rule out a mid-term poll in the state. Hemant Kumar Readers are invited to write to us. Send your mail, in not more than 200 words, at
haryana@tribuneindia.com or write in at: Letters, Haryana Plus, The Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh-160030.
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Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice KG Balakrishnan has said the problem of delay in dispensation of justice can be tackled only by setting up more courts in the country.Speaking at a seminar on ‘speedy justice’ after inaugurating Dr BR Ambedkar Memorial Library in the judicial complex here recently, Dr Balakrishnan said he had discussed the matter with the Prime Minister, Union Law Minister and the Planning Commission to emphasise the need for more courts in the country in view of piling up of pending cases. 
Fatehabad, January 28
RTI activist and Magsaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal and his supporters will urge people to vote in the forthcoming panchayat poll only for those candidates who pledge to get prior approval of the entire village community for all development works they initiate and submit accounts to the panchayats concerned on a weekly basis.
Sirsa, January 28
