Yamunanagar, February 15
In a move to make the environment pollution free and safe, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) has granted permission to industries to store hazardous waste while the Haryana Environmental Management Society (HEMS) has been authorised for handling, storing and disposal of the waste.

The society has set up a storage and disposal plant in 31 acres at Pali in Faridabad district at a cost Rs 300 crore. This facility has been completed to a larger extent and the storage of hazardous waste has already started.

“Gurgaon and Faridabad are already taking the advantage of this facility. Now, the industries of Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra and Karnal were also enrolled with the HEMS for the disposal of their waste,” Samira Saluja, president of the Yamunanagar-Jagadhri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told The Tribune on the sideline of the function organised by the Chamber to spread awareness to make environment free from pollution.

The Society has given the task of building world-class storage and disposal facility to Gujarat Environmental Protection India Limited which is putting up this facility at a cost of about Rs 300 crore, she added.

“The industries generating hazardous waste have to store such wastes in the prescribed pits made in the industry premises. There was no means of transportation, ultimate storage and disposal of industrial waste in the state so far. This facility will help the industries to dispose the waste in a proper way,” said DB Batra, regional officer, HSPCB.

Lalit Saluja, member of the governing body of the HEMS, said specially designed vehicles would carry the waste from industries after the registration of the industry with the Society. The HEMS will charge some fees for carrying the waste, he added.

Karnal, February 15
The Compulsory Acquisition of Land Act of 1894, which has not undergone any major change during the past more than a century, has become a “bane” of landowners whose land is being acquired for “public purposes”.

The Act was passed to enable the government to acquire land for the development of basic infrastructure and creation of public utilities like roads, water supply, power transmission, Railways etc, but a lack of discretion, utilisation of land for non-bona fide purposes and non-transparent mechanism for calculating compensation for acquired land has defeated the basic purpose of the Act and people have been opposing and resisting acquisition of land even for bona fide purposes.

The compensation being paid is too meagre as compared to the market value and the prospective value of the land after development is not considered, but the end users who benefit from the facilities created on acquired land make huge money, feels a majority of the people whose land has been acquired.

The recent instances of acquisition of land for projects like SEZ, the failed Tata’s Nano project in Nandigram and the opposition to hydropower projects in Himachal Pradesh are a pointer to the misuse of the act and voices to scrap the Act have been becoming louder.

The urban development authorities constituted by the state governments are acting as “real estate developers” and the people whose land is being acquired under the Act are running from pillar to post for justice and adequate compensation.

It is no secret that the residential and commercial plots and flats being allotted by draw of lots by agencies like HUDA are being sold by allotees at a high premium to the people who possess unaccounted money but the person whose land had been acquired gets nothing.

A large number of people apply for plots and flats in the areas where premium is high simply to multiply the money and as such a plot or flat acquired through draw of lots becomes a gold mine.

Manocha, a Karnal resident, whose land was acquired for grain market rues that he was given a meagre compensation which was not even 10 per cent of the market value and the owners of adjoining land which was left out got 10 times more price by selling their land to private parties.

He has been fighting for enhanced compensation in the courts, but to no avail. He has even written a letter to the Chief Justice of Supreme Court, bringing specific instance to his notice. Without naming the persons, he says a Karnal resident who got a HUDA plot in Panchkula was offered a premium of Rs 1 crore while another beneficiary of a plot in Panipat earned a premium of Rs 35 lakh.

He points out that HUDA has recently offered 5,269 residential plots of various sizes from 4 marla to 2 kanal and thousands of people have availed bank loans for earnest money for trying their luck as allotment of plot would fetch them big money.

Monacha says the sad part of the story is that people who had been deprived of their lands would not get anything from subsequent sale of plot or flat but the allotee and the purchaser would make a quick buck.

Yogesh Kadiyan, another victim of the land acquisition Act, says in order to save the interests of landowners, it is imperative that instead of allotting plots through draw of lots, HUDA should offer the plots for open auction and the landowners should be paid compensation on the basis of the auctioned price.

Sirsa, February 15
The Shah Satnamji Educational and Research Committee, Sirsa, is doing a yeoman service for society by providing quality school, college and technical education to youths of this area.

The committee managed by the Dera Sacha Sauda is running as many as 11 educational institutions; eight of these are situated in Sirsa town. The institutions are separate schools for boys and girls, degree colleges for boys and girls, an institute of management and technology and a college of education by the name of Shah Satnamji, the second head of the Sauda.

The committee is also running a college each for boys and a girls and a school for girls in Sri Gurusarmodia in Rajasthan, the native village of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Saint MSG Glorious International School is another institute of the committee, which is providing quality education to children, while Saint MSG Academy is providing quality coaching for medical and non-medical students.

The two institutions have been named after the three chiefs of the Dera - Sham (Mastana), Shah (Satnam) and (Gurmeet) Ram Rahim Singh. “We, in these institutions, try to imbibe in our students the qualities of head and heart,” said Rooh-e-Meet Insan, chairman of the committee.

Rooh-e-Meet is son-in-law of the Dera Chief and is a former student of these institutions. “Students get quality education under the best of facilities and are also given lessons of spiritualism, so that they could succeed in life,” he said. On the academic front, students of these institutions have been getting merits in Kurukshetra University, to which these are affiliated.

Together, the institutions have over 160 students, who have performed at the national level in different sports, while 30 of these have performed at the international level. “Our students were part of the team that won The Yoga World Cup in Rome and the roller scatting team that won the Asia Cup in China,” said Rooh-e-Meet.

Kalka, February 15
Various major projects have been hanging fire for more than a decade due to the apathetic attitude of the state government and the district administration. In 1995, the then state government had taken initiative on the project of setting up of a polytechnic in Nanakpur village and the then Chief Minister Bhajan Lal had laid a foundation stone of the project. The village panchayat had also allotted adequate land for the purpose. In the same year, the then Congress government had also laid a foundation stone in Kajiana village in connection with the setting up of a tourist centre to encourage tourists activities in the area and the government had even acquired eight acres of land for the purpose, but the project is hanging fire till date.

Vijay Bansal, an advocate and senior politician, has recently submitted a memorandum to Kumari Selja, MP and Cabinet Minister, regarding the starting of the projects.

Similarly, the project of setting up of mini-secretariat at Kalka has been kept in lurch due to the apathetic attitude of the local administration, as the administration has not been able to finalise the site for the project for the past more than two years. The official sources reveal that the government had four years ago taken an initiative to set up mini-secretariat in Kalka and the then deputy commissioner, Panchkula, and other officials had visited the Kalka tehsil in this regard. But the project has not seen the light of day till date.

Notably, Kalka is in dire need of mini-secretariat as the Kalka sub-division came into existence in 1992 and since its inception, most of the offices are functioning in scattered buildings in commercial as well as residential areas in different localities. A majority of such buildings are in a deplorable condition and the offices functioning there require immediate shifting.

Setting up of Solid Waste Management Project in Kalka and Pinjore jointly is hanging fire for the past more than four years due to the lethargic attitude of the district administration despite the fact that the two towns are in dire need of the project. According to official sources, a proposal in connection with the setting up of solid waste management was sent to the office of the district town planner (DTP), Panchkula, three years ago for NOC. The Municipal Committee, Kalka, and the Municipal Committee, Pinjore, had jointly selected five acre of land for the purpose near Seyuri village opposite the NH-22 adjacent to the BDPO office, Kalka.

The project in Kalka was to be completed with the cost of Rs 2 crore, but the Department of Town and Country Planning, Panchkula, rejected it in 2006.

The sources revealed that in the first quarter of 2008, the Kalka MC again sent a proposal in this context for the approval to the DTP, Panchkula. The Municipal Committees of Kalka and Pinjore were jointly to construct the project which was likely to be started in May 2008 as the state government has already granted Rs 1.08 crore for it, Rs 78 lakh to the Pinjore MC and Rs 30 lakh to the Kalka MC. But the project has not seen the light of day till date.

Similarly, implementation of various projects like extension of lal dora in villages under the periphery area and the extension of municipal limits of the Kalka and Pinjore Municipal Committees are lying pending with the government.

Chandigarh, February 15
Whether he is in the opposition or in the ruling party, it does not deter seasoned Haryana politician Sampat Singh from speaking his mind, particularly when it comes to the interests of power consumers.

One of the two better known “professors” in Haryana politics, Sampat is unmindful of the embarrassment which may be caused to the government of the party, which he joined only last year.

The other “professor”, Virender, is these days the political adviser to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Both have good oratorical skills and got their training in politics under former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal.

Officials of the power companies have always found it hard to counter Sampat Singh’s criticism of their functioning even when he was in the opposition. For the past some time, he has been religiously filing objections before the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) whenever any request comes from the companies for putting additional financial burden on the consumers.

Sampat Singh, Congress MLA from Nalwa, has now again urged the HERC to reject the Annual Revenue Requirements (ARR) submitted by the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (DHBVNL) and the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (UHBVNL) for 2010-11. It is on the basis of these ARRs that the HERC allows the companies to fix the power tariff.

The INLD-turned-Congress leader said the ARRs filed by the distribution companies were against the Electricity Act, 2003. He said the ARR should be filed annually and approved by the HERC after a public hearing. However, the two companies have filed the ARRs for 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 together, which was illegal.

Therefore, the HERC should summarily reject the ARRs and ask the companies to file their revenue requirements again.

Sampat Singh said total projected accumulated losses of DHBVNL and UHBVNL for 2010-11 would be Rs 14,090.06 crore as against a projected share capital of Rs 3,039.81 crore. The entire equity support and loans had been eaten away by the accumulated losses. The total receivable amount as on March 31, 2009 was Rs 2,288.96 crore.

He said the total revenue gap of the two companies during 2010-11 alone would be Rs 5,596.65 crore. Besides, the nigams had also claimed Rs 7,434.6 crore for recovering the revenue gap left uncovered in 2008-09 and 2009-10. The total revenue requirement as proposed by the companies added to Rs 13,031.25 crore. This was not the end.

The companies had also claimed fuel surcharge adjustment (FSA) amounting to Rs 3,180 crore for 2008-09 and for the first half of 2009-10. Thus, the entire financial burden that the companies intended to pass on the consumers was Rs 16,211.25 crore, excluding agriculture subsidy.

The ruling party leader warned that if the HERC accepted the claims of the companies, the average tariff in Haryana would go up to Rs 9.84 per unit against the existing average tariff of Rs 4.25. At this electricity cost, he said, no industry or commercial activity could be sustained in Haryana.

The government would also have to provide a subsidy support of over Rs 10,000 crore to the agriculture sector.

Hisar, February 15
Noted Bollywood actor Yashpal Sharma has said the Shiv Sena is only jeopardising the interests of the Marathis by opposing the release of films like ‘My Name Is Khan’.

Sharma, who hails from Hisar, was here to attend a prayer meeting in memory of his father, Prem Chand Sharma, who died recently.

He said if the Sena continued with its disruptive activities, time would come when the film industry would be forced to shift from Mumbai. If such a situation arose, about 10 lakh Marathis employed by the industry would be rendered jobless.

Describing the Sena opposition to certain films and film personalities as a big crime, he said such actions were not only unconstitutional but also undemocratic. He said mindless and violent opposition by the Sena was tantamount to curbing the freedom of expression and individual liberty.

Sharma said instead of resorting to violent opposition, the Sena should rather strive for bringing back the silent film era, which would leave no scope for anyone to oppose anything. “It is far better to produce Charlie Chaplin like silent films, than risk violent opposition by outfits like the Sena”, he added.

He said the film world too was not united in fighting against disruptive forces. “If such towering film personalities as Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan together stand up against such protests, there is no reason why the menace cannot be ended”, he said.

Sharma was of the view that the Sena was targeting celebrities like Sachin Tendulkar and Shah Rukh Khan only because of its recent defeat in the assembly poll. But, this political approach in the name of protecting the interests of Marathis would only result in harming the interests of those very Marathis. He said he was deeply hurt by the recent developments and only hoped that better sense would prevail and the film world would be allowed to continue doing its creative work.

Kalka, February 15
The construction work on Kaushalya Dam initiated by the Haryana Irrigation Department in March 2008 is in full swing these days. A visit to the under-construction dam by The Tribune revealed that the dam is being constructed across the Kaushalya river near Amaravati Enclave, opposite the HMT complex, Pinjore, 8 km from Panchkula.

The project was proposed for the past five decades, the construction work on which has been started in the first quarter of 2008. Besides this, to conserve the floodwater, the state government had proposed to construct four dams in the area on the Ghaggar and its tributaries i.e. Kaushalya Dam, Diwanwala Dam, Dangrana Dam and Chhamla Dam. The official sources of the department said the estimated cost of Koshalya Dam would be around Rs 180 crore after its completion, which is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2010.

The proposal for the construction of three other dams, Dakhrana (estimated cost of Rs 83.69 crore), Diwanwala Dam (Rs 132.70 crore) and Chhamla Dam (Rs 20.41 crore), had been sent for approval to the Central Water Commission, Government of India, in the first quarter of 2008.

Vijay Bansal, local advocate and senior politician of the area, alleged that the government had not given any approval for the construction of the above said dams till date. He said a delegation of the area would soon meet Pawan Bansal, Central Minister of Water Resources, in the context with the immediate approval for the construction of the dams. Letters in this regard have already been sent to Bansal and Kumari Selja.

The sources further said Kaushalaya Dam was a zoned earthen dam with the catchments area of 77.0 sq km. The length of the dam at the top would be 1,125 m. The maximum height of the dam above the deepest bed level would be 34 m and the top width of the dam would be 12 m.

Besides supplying drinking water, the dam would recharge the downstream groundwater table, which would be utilised by the tube wells already installed for making water supply of Panchkula and other areas and cost consumption of electric bills would come down with the water table rising in the area.

The dam would also provide employment to the local people with increased construction activities. Consequent upon the construction of the dam, a reservoir of the area of about 1.06 sq km is being formed and it would provide employment in the form of fishing. By the creation of a large lake near the Pinjore Garden, the area would be developed as a major attraction. A 24-lane road would be constructed on the top of the dam which would be used by the people of the area for access to the area falling on the other side of the Kaushalya river. The flood in the river would be moderated and the damages downstream of the dam would be reduced, the sources added.

Sonepat, February 15
Buoyed by the success of improvement in the sex ratio in the district during the past three years, Ajit Joshi, deputy commissioner, has chalked out a programme for the district health authorities to give further momentum to the ongoing efforts to reach the target of equal sex ratio.

Under the new initiative, besides preparing a list of those villages having less sex ratio, information will be gathered about suspected institutions involved in foeticide and record of all ultrasound machines will be made online.

The administration of oath to women not to give her assent for foeticide, to keep a record of the persons being examined with ultrasound machine and involving of the social and other voluntary organisations are some other steps to be taken.

The local health authorities convened a meeting of representatives of various welfare and voluntary organisations to seek their help in the implementation of new initiatives and they all assured to extend every help to the administration.

According to the DC, the district which had a sex-ratio of 783 in 2006, improved it to 810 in 2007, to 839 in 2008 and up to 869 during 2009.

“We have set the target to improve the sex ratio up to 900 female per 1000 male in the first six months this year,” he said and added that the next target would be set after reviewing the progress of the first phase.

He claimed that a small beginning was made under “Beti Bachao” programme a few years ago and now it had become a movement in the district. Sustained efforts of the administration as well as various women welfare schemes like “Ladli” of the state government and social circumstances had helped in changing the mindset of people, particularly in villages, he added.

It is also worth mentioning that Sonepat district got the first position in improving the sex ratio during 2009 and the DC was honoured by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda with cash prize of Rs 4 lakh for the district.

Kaithal, February 15
Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Mukul Mudgal inaugurated the newly constructed judicial complex at Guhla sub-divisional headquarters town of this district recently.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, MP Naveen Jindal, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, Justice AN Jindal, Sessions Judge, vigilance, VS Malik, District and Sessions Judge, Kaithal, RS Baswana, Bar Council Punjab and Haryana Chairman Partap Singh, judicial officials and other district officials were present on the occasion. The complex had been constructed at a cost of Rs 2 crore and comprises two courtrooms, litigants’ hall and other amenities.

Chief Justice Mudgal exhorted all those related to judiciary to play an effective role in providing quick justice to the people so that the credibility of the judiciary could be maintained. He said each person expected quick justice from courts and as such the judicial process needed to be simplified. To achieve this objective, modern judicial complexes were prerequisite. The judicial complexes being constructed in the state were much better than those of other states. The judicial process and administration were closely intimated to each other, he added.

Speaking on the demand for construction of lawyers’ chambers by the Guhla Bar, the Chief Justice said as and when the proposal for construction was received by the High Court, it will be cleared at the earliest. He also assured to consider on merits the demand for appointment of ADJ in Guhla courts.

Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court, who is also chairman of the House Building Committee, said it was a matter of satisfaction that the Haryana government had taken initiative to construct judicial complexes at the sub-divisional level.

While speaking on the occasion AN Jindal, administrative judge of the session division, Kaithal, said as many as 2,700 cases were pending in this court which was set up in 1991. Better environment was a prerequisite for delivering speedy justice to the people. Keeping this fact in view, new judicial complexes were being constructed to provide better facilities to the judicial officers, advocates and litigants.

Chandigarh, February 15
A large battery of advocates will represent the Haryana Government in cases before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court, district courts of Delhi, Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the National Commissions and other courts located at Delhi.

The state government recently notified the names of its advocates and divided them in three categories, Special Category-I (Panel-A), Special Category-II (Panel-B) and other advocates.

Panel-A will include Attorney-General of India, Solicitor-General of India, Additional Solicitor-Generals of India F.S. Nariman, P.P. Rao, Harish N. Salve, Soli Sorabjee, R.F. Nariman, K.K. Venugopal, Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Ashok Desai, U.U. Lalit, L. Nageshwar Rao, Mukul Rohtagi, Ashwini Kumar, C.S. Vidhyanathan, K.T.S. Tulsi, Raju Ramchandran, P.N. Mishra, P.S. Patwalia, Rajiv Dutta, Vikas Singh, Ravindra Shrivastava, Amarendra Sharan and Manish Tiwari.

In panel-B are Atamjit Nehra, V.K. Jhanji, P.H. Parikh, Arun Bhardwaj, Govind Goel, Balwant Singh Malik, Anoop G. Chaudhary and Vikas Sharma. Besides these, the government has also made the following appointments: Senior Additional Advocate-General — Gopal Krishan Bansal and Dr. Adish C. Aggarwal. Additional Advocate-General — Manjeet Dalal, Devinder Partap Singh, Rajiv Gaur, Ranjit Rao, Mohmmad Parcha, Mrs. Pragati Neekhra Singh, Puneet Mittal, Vipul Maheshwari, Ranji Thomas and Balbir Singh Mor.

Senior Deputy Advocate-General--Satish Hooda and Dr. Suruchi Chaudhary. Deputy Advocate-General—Samir Ali Khan and Vasundhra Dalal. Assistant Advocate-General— Neha Sardana and Charu Sangwan.

Standing Counsel for Delhi High Court/National Consumer Commission — Asheesh Jain and Sharan Dev Singh Thakur.

The government has appointed lawyers as standing counsel and additional standing counsel for other courts, besides advocates on record.

Sonepat, February 15
The Rajkiya Adhyapak Sangh has demanded the replacement of the prevailing system of collection of question papers and depositing of answer sheets during the forthcoming school examinations with the system being followed in conducting the State Teachers Eligibility Test (STET).

The Sangh has threatened that teachers might boycott their duties in the middle, matric and senior secondary classes examinations scheduled to commence from March 8 as well as of examining of answer sheets if their demands were not accepted by the government.

Talking to mediapersons at Gohana recently, SS Nirman, state secretary of the Sangh, informed that under the prevailing system being followed by the State Education Board during school classes examinations, examination centre superintendents were required to collect question papers from the collection centre at the concerned sub-divisional headquarters and answer sheets had also to be deposited at the same collection centre.

Whereas, while conducting the STET, the handing over of question papers and collection of answer sheets was being done at the examination centre itself by the Board, he said, and added that this system had relieved the centre superintendents from the tension of collection of question papers and deposition of the answer sheets.

Nirman further said the Sangh would also oppose the practice of putting a supervisor on duty at the examination centre outside his block area and a superintendent outside his sub-divisional area.

He also criticised the government for not appointing a regular chairman of the Board and English teachers in primary schools. The last chairman of the Board was Brig OP Chaudhary who worked when Om Prakash Chautala was the Chief Minister in the state.

Gurgaon, February 15
DLF Brands, the retail management subsidiary of real estate firm DLF, has chosen Uniworld Logistics as its partner in North India for managing logistics of a portfolio of premium lifestyle brands, including DKNY, Mother Care and Early Learning Centre.

Speaking on the launch of “Fashion and Aviation Logistics”, an integrated logistics facility by Uniworld, here recently, Dipak Aggrawal, CFO, DLF Brands, and in charge of logistics, said the Indian fashion and lifestyle retail market was expected to be $50 billion by 2015.

“On an average, fashion and lifestyle retailers spend 3 to 6 per cent of their top line on logistics and supply chain,” he said, adding that efficient logistics plays a key role in saving costs.

“Fashion Logistics is a composite operating system created out of our years of business experience and knowledge of the fashion industry and market,”said M. Prem Kumar, managing director and CEO, Uniworld Logistics.

The fashion logistics market is expected to be in the region of $3-4 billion by 2015. As a concept, Fashion Logistics focuses on time to market and how fast one can replenish a store while minimising the percentage of error.

Rewari, February 15
Noted Indian wrestler Sangram Singh, whose performance in TV reality show “De Dana Dan” won him accolades visited the town yesterday.

The 27-year old wrestler, who is a havildar in the Delhi police, is a native of Rohtak district.

He was honoured with the “Crown Award” for his achievements in wrestling by Amit Swami, national president of the Young Men’s Association of India and international bodybuilding promoter, and others.

Recalling that Sangram Singh had earlier won a gold medal in the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship for which he was awarded the President’s Medal by the then President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in 2006, Swami said it was again a matter of pride that with his excellent performance in the reality show held in South Africa, he brought laurels again to the state.

Praising Amit Swami’s contribution to bodybuilding, Sangram said world wrestling star Dalip Singh Rana, alias Khali, was his idol and he would always be following his footsteps to bring laurels to the country.

Mentioning about the notable participation of Haryanavi wrestlers at the national and international level, he asserted that there was no dearth of wrestling talent in the state.

Simultaneously, he wants the state government to provide more facilities for the promotion of wrestling.

Rewari, February 15
The All-India Ex-Paramilitary Personnel Welfare Association (AIEPPWA) has set up a Central Ex-Paramilitary Personnel Canteen here for the benefit of families of the serving as well as the retired personnel of the paramilitary forces in the district.

The canteen was inaugurated by Finance and Irrigation Minister Capt Ajay Singh Yadav here recently.

Lauding the crucial role of the paramilitary forces in defending the borders of the country in the highly uncongenial terrains of Rajasthan and Leh-Laddakh as well as the tackling of insurgency in various parts of the country, Capt Yadav enumerated various facilities which had been provided by the state government to the ex-paramilitary personnel in the state.

Stating that the state government had recently withdrawn VAT on goods sold by the ex-paramilitary canteens, the minister also announced a financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh from his discretionary fund for the Rewari canteen.

Responding to a major demand of the association, he assured that government accommodation would be made available for the canteen.

Stating that the association had been struggling for the opening of the canteen here for about a decade, its national president Commandant RK Yadav (retd) said it was only in November/ December, 2009 that the Centre accorded sanction for its inception in Rewari as well as a few other districts of the state.

He added that there were nearly 15,000 serving as well as retired personnel of the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF, SSB and the Assam Rifles in Rewari district, who all would now be benefited from the canteen facility.

Kalka, February 15
Vijay Bansal, a local advocate and politician of the area, has sought release of the remaining 75 per cent amount of Haryana Rural Development Fund (HRDF) for various development projects of various panchayats of Kalka subdivision.

He said many villages of the subdivision, including Shahpur, Tipra, Surajpur, Rampur Seuri, Khera Sita Ram, Vasdev pura and Rajjipur, had been granted Rs 95 lakh for various development projects last year.

Though 25 per cent of the grant had been released, the remaining had been lying pending, he said, adding that subsequently, most of the development projects could not been started.

He urged the state government to direct the authorities for the release of the funds. He alleged that the government had adopted partial attitude towards the Kalka constituency as it under the special development scheme had granted Rs 300 crore to all districts last year while villages of Panchkula district were allocated a nominal amount under the scheme.

The government had also declared 97 villages throughout the state as modern villages but not even a single village of Kalka subdivision was selected, Bansal alleged.

Sonepat, February 15
A state-level event on style of Indian writing in English was organised by the postgraduate department of English of Hindu College here recently. The programme was sponsored by the Directorate of Higher Education, Haryana.

Teachers and scholars from different colleges and universities of the state as also from other parts of the country gathered to deliberate on the topic of the seminar. In all, 125 participants took part and 46 papers were presented.

The seminar was inaugurated by Prof Bhim S. Dahiya, former vice-chancellor of Kurukshetra University. Among those who addressed the gathering were Prof RW Desai, Dr RK Dhawan and Dr Suman Bala of Delhi University; Prof Harsharan Singh of Guru Nanak Dev University; Prof Pushpinder Syal of The Central Institute of Indian and Foreign Languages, Lucknow; Dr Rekha Beniwal of Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University; and Dr Umed Singh of CDLU, Sirsa. Dr SS Goyal, principal of Hindu College welcomed the guests.

In his keynote address, Prof Dahiya outlined the vast panorama of stylistics and articulated his views on the applicability of different parameters. He also released a book titled “Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake - A critical study,” written by Dr Jagdish Batra, head of the department of English of Hindu College. The book is a critique meant for postgraduate and research scholars.

The discussions in different working sessions centered on various style approaches to the English literature produced by Indians in the country or abroad. These also included poetic and fictional works published by the second generation of Indian diaspora settled in other countries.

The theme of the first working session was traditional style analysis and the focus was on imagery, metaphor, plot, characterisation and literary works of authors like RK Narayan Kamla Markandeya, Arundhati Roy, Nissim Ezekiel and Anita Desai were discussed by scholars, including Prof Harsharan Singh, Dr Vipasha Agarwal and Dr Kiran Sharma.

In the second session devoted to “Linguistic Stylistics: Theory and Application”, Dr Jagdish Batra focused on the limitations of linguistic stylistics. According to him, the approach can be useful in a literary text in which language deviates significantly from the norm. The application part was dealt with by Meenakshi Hooda, Jyoti Dehiya, Shuchi Makan, Dr Jyoti Sheoran and Anju Malik and the authors taken up were Arvind Adiga, Rohinton Mistry, Kiran Desai, Kamla Das, Mulk Raj Anand and RK Narayan.

The third working session was marked “Structural Criticism”. Leading fiction writers like Amitav Ghosh, Quarratulain Hyder, Ruth P. Jhabvala apart from Mistry, Deshpande, and Narayan were discussed by Dr Umed Singh, Dr NK Saini, Dr BK Singh, Satish Kumar, Dr Joginder Singh, Dr Sumita Ashri and Dr Geeta Goyal.

The theme of the fourth session was “Post-structural Criticism”, but mostly the traditional approaches were applied to the works of Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Khushwant Singh et al. by Dr Shilpi Ahuja, Jyoti Sharma, Dr Susheela Rana, Rajesh Kumar, Sonu Lohat et al. The session came to an end with the valedicatory session on January 30. Earlier, Prof RW Desai, a well-known Shakespeare scholar, underlined the importance of language in poetry and gave valuable tips to aspiring poets.

In his valedictory address, Prof SL Paul, former chairperson of the Department of English of Kuruskhetra University, took up the study of RK Narayan’s novel “The Guide for Discourse Analysis”. An important intervention was from Dr RS Malik who spoke briefly on discourse analysis. Also present on the occasion was Dr RC Goyal, principal, Government College, Panchkula, and the nodal officer of the programme.

Sonepat, February 15
It was a great day for all ex-students who shared their memories with each other going down the memory lane in the annual general meeting held on the second Alumni Meet at the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal, recently. As many as 39 alumni, along with their families, were present on the occasion.

The programme began with the lighting of lamp by vice-chancellor HS Chahal while Rajesh Verma, Dimensional Management Lead, Hawker Beechcraft, US, was the guest of honour. Incidentally, Rajesh was from the first batch of 1987.

Ashok Mago from Dallas in the US, who was one of the other distinguished guests present, offered to do whatever was necessary to form collaboration with universities in the US with regard to Management Studies. Mago was awarded the Pravasi Bhartiya Award by the President of India at the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas held in New Delhi last month.

The general body meeting, which was chaired by Madhukar Sharma, president of the Alumni Association, resolved that Alumni Meet would be held every year on the third Sunday of November and appealed to all members to contribute to the association. It was also resolved that the association would honour distinguished alumni with the Alumnus of the Year Award annually.

In his address, the VC assured the alumni that the university would give all support to help them in meeting and guiding their juniors. They assured the vice-chancellor that they were keen to contribute in many ways as possible to the development of the university.

The occasion was marked by a cultural programme presented by the university students. Surender Dahiya and Anand Chauhan organised the meet with the help of Amandeep, Swati, Puneet Chawla, Rakesh and Tarun.

Panipat, February 15
In this modern era when family values and relations are losing their worth, Grandparents Day, with a motive to acknowledge the importance of family ties, was celebrated in the premises of DAV Public School, Thermal Colony.

The oldest grandparents were chosen to preside over the function. Rula Ramji, 107, was honoured as the chief guest and Guljari, 104, was chosen to preside over the function. Surjo Devi, 101, was also amongst the honoured guests.

After the lamp ceremony, grandparents, along with their grandchildren, were felicitated on the stage. A dance drama based on the life of great social reformer Swami Dayanand was also staged.

To recreate the grandparents, many one-minute games like tug of war, antakshri, sugarcane eating and couple dance were organised and the couples who participated in maximum events were declared as the Best Dada Dadi and Nana Nani.