Panipat, May 31
The much hyped multi-storey bus stand project here seems to have run into rough weather as the National Highway Authority of India (NHRI) has refused to make an opening in the Panipat elevated highway to join it with the proposed bus stand.

The Transport Department had planned to come up with the five-storey bus stand that could directly be connected with the elevated road so that traffic congestion on the service lanes along the elevated road could be eased out. The idea was to divert heavy vehicular traffic, especially buses, to the elevated road resulting in lesser vehicles on city roads.

As per the detailed plan, the five-storey building was to have parking in the basement, offices for roadways officials and a restaurant and shops that would be make it a world-class bus stand with ultramodern facilities. The top floors of the building were to be used as a full-fledged bus stand from where busses could have direct assess to the elevated road.

According to sources, the department is now planning to shift the local bus stand ahead of the toll plaza for which a team of senior officials of the department, including AK Singh, director-general of the Transport Department, and Vijay Singh Dahiya, deputy commissioner, recently inspected three sites on the NH1 for developing a new bus stand.

The department has been trying to the shift the bus stand from its present location, which is also a demand of locals, who feel that the despite the elevated road, traffic problems have not ended here as buses cause mess in the city. However, due to the non-availability of land along the NH1, it was proposed to get a multi-storey bus stand constructed here. Even State Transport Minister OP Jain had also said that raising the height of the bus stand building would ease the traffic congestion in the city.

But after the NHAI’s denial, the department has again started looking for a suitable place to develop a new bus stand. However, nothing has been finalised as yet, said the sources.

Sonepat, May 31
Haryana emerged stronger in hockey after winning in both sections (boys and girls) of hockey (under-19) tournament of the five-day 55th National School Games, which concluded recently at MNSS, Rai (Sonepat).

As many as 24 boys’ teams and 20 girls’ teams from different states and educational institutions participated in the tournament.

Haryana boys registered a convincing 5-2 win over Uttar Pradesh. Punjab remained at third position after a 2-1 win over Chandigarh. In one-sided matches, Haryana girls trounced Chandigarh by 6-0 and Punjab bagged the third position after out playing Maharashtra by 7-0.

Haryana players, Gurprit Singh in boys’ section and Rani in girls’ section, were adjudged the best players of the tournament. Other adjudged best players in boys’ section included Harpal Singh of Punjab 
as goalkeeper, Hansraj 
of Haryana as defender, Kanwaldeep Singh of Chandigarh as forward and Deepak of Uttar Pradesh as midfielder.

In girls’ section, Swati of Chandigarh was declared the best goalkeeper, Jaspreet Kaur of Haryana best defender, Sandeep Kaur of Haryana as best midfielder, Rama Kotnis of Maharashtra the best forward of the tournament.

Ranjiv Singh Dalal, DGP Haryana, gave away the prizes. Addressing participants, the DGP said on the directions of the Chief Minister, the state government had introduced a new sports policy where a number of sportspersons, including Mamta Kharab, Sandeep Singh and Sardara Singh, all hockey players, had been appointed as DSPs.

Sports facilities and infrastructure was being provided in the state on the pattern of European countries, he said and claimed that Haryana had emerged as one of the leading sports states in the country.

Ambala, May 31
To develop Ambala as a leading industrial hub in the state with the establishment of an industrial model town (IMT), land measuring 1,700 acres has been identified along the Ambala-Chandigarh and the Ambala-Naraingarh road. A blueprint regarding the proposed project has already been submitted to the state government for approval.

Sameer Pal Srow, Ambala deputy commissioner, said the government wanted to develop Ambala as a leading industrial hub.

After the approval is obtained, steps to acquire the land would commence. According to information, earlier, an SEZ project to boost industry in the town was approved by the government similar to the one set up in Gurgaon, but the proposal remained confined to papers for years and finally, the proposal was dropped.

According to local entrepreneurs, the proposed IMT would open doors for lakhs of unemployed youth of the area. Vinod Sharma, local MLA, said the associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India had projected employment to nearly 8.74 crore persons in the country in the next five years and the proposed IMT in Ambala was sure to contribute significantly in creating job opportunities.

Sharma said the IMT would include industry producing scientific goods, yarn, food products, beverages, machinery and the dying mixi industry. Sharma added that the government expected was also to earn handsome revenue from the project. He said efforts would be made to attract large industrial groups and multinational companies to set up their units here. Meanwhile, residents and farmers of Panjokhara village recently launched a protest against the possible acquisition of more than 1,700 acres with the support of Ambala MLA Anil Vij.

A meeting was also organised which was attended by hundreds farmers who decided to continue the protest. They warned the government against the proposed acquisition. 

Gurgaon, May 31
Times Research organised an award ceremony to felicitate leading private educational institutions here recently.

Dr Kiran Bedi, a former IPS officer, gave away the awards to the winners at a glittery awards function anchored by Vimmy Choudhry, a former AIR-DD compere.

The awardees included Galgotia College of Engineering and Technology (Uttar Pradesh), ABES Engineering College, (Delhi-NCR), Haryana College of Technology and Management (Haryana), SUS College of Engineering and Technology (Punjab) and HR Institute of Technology (Ghaziabad).

Special awards were given to Inderprastha Engineering College (industrial interface) and International College of Engineering (best infrastructure).

In the category of management institutes, Noida-based Accurate Institute of Management and Technology won the special award for best placements and academic excellence, while NIILM was adjudged the best MBA college in 
north India.

The Jaipuria Institute of Management was adjudged best management institute in Ghaziabad and the Noida-based Global Institute of Management and Technology was declared the fastest-growing management institute in Noida.

Among the best private universities were names like Thapar University (Punjab), Sharda University (Uttar Pradesh) and International Institute of Information Technology, Pune (Maharashtra).

"Our company conducted this research study over a period of eight months with more than 100 field executives collecting data from different states,” said Sanjay Kumar, vice-president (marketing), Times Research Pvt Ltd.

Hisar, May 31
Emulating the nationally acclaimed sanitation drive in Sirsa district, Hisar district is next in line for a similar effort.Deputy Commissioner Yudhbir Singh Khyalia, who was the main force behind making Sirsa the award-winning district in sanitation, has announced that a total sanitation drive will be launched in the district soon.

Khyalia organised a workshop on sanitation, literacy and health issues here to prepare the ground for a district-wide campaign. He said a sanitation committee would be set up soon to recruit and train volunteers for the proposed sanitation drive.

The workshop elicited a massive response from government employees, teachers, Aanganwadi workers and development officials.

Khyalia said a functional and strong structure was the first requirement to carry this task but for a total sanitation campaign, no separate vertical government structure was provided.

He said the challenge was to create a delivery structure to carry out the programme through Zila Saksharta Samiti workers, other existing staff such as BDOs, anganwadi workers, school principals and staff, sarpanches, gram sachivs (secretaries), community or multi-purpose health workers, Asha workers, self-help groups and other volunteers.

The deputy commissioner said more than 10, 000 women from villages were motivated in Sirsa and as a result, around 780 self-help groups were created. Out of these more than 600 self-help groups were mainly of women.

He said bankers were involved in the project through meetings from time to time for hassle-free linkages of self-help groups with banks at the time of opening of account or evaluation for disbursement of loans to these groups. This helped make Sirsa district the first district in the country with no open defecation.

Khyalia said lack of proper sanitation in the villages was the main cause of health problems. Lack of sanitation polluted water leading to water-borne diseases among the villagers. 

Rewari, May 31
As many as 21 teachers from various universities and colleges of the state participated in a 21-day refresher course on pharmaceutical, chemical and health Sciences at Guru Jambheshwar Science and Technology University, Hisar, recently.

While Dr Davender Kumar and Dr Neeru Vasudeva acted as coordinators, Dr VK Garg, Dr Neeraj Dilbaghi, Dr RK Gupta, Prof SC Bhatia, Dr Ranjana Agarwal, Dr. Navneet Saxena, Prof M.S. Hundal and others delivered lectures on specific subjects in various technical sessions during the refresher course.

Dr ML Ranga, Vice-Chancellor of GJU, Hisar, said if India was to become a fully developed country, it would have to strengthen its health infrastructure. He said notable achievements accomplished by Indian doctors during the past two decades had facilitated the treatment of even serious and complicated diseases.

Mentioning about the increasing exodus of doctors and engineers to foreign countries, Dr Ranga said that it was a grave problem which ought to be effectually resolved by providing all requisite facilities to doctors and engineers here.

Expressing concern at the growing indulgence in unscrupulous practices by some people to nourish their selfish interests, Prof SS Sangwan, Vice-Chancellor of Pt BDS University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, who was the chief guest at the function, pleaded for rigidly following ethics to be of gainful assistance to society. He exhorted the teachers to impart quality education to their pupils.

Proceedings of the refresher course were also released in the form of a book titled “Endeavour” for the benefit of the teachers concerned.

Karnal, May 31
Scientists of the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal, have achieved a major breakthrough in developing 14 salt-tolerant varieties of crops to combat salinity posing a formidable challenge to agriculture.

After nearly four decades of dedicated research, the crop improvement division of the CSSRI has developed six varieties of rice, four varieties of wheat, three of mustard and one variety of gram that have been released for cultivation by the Central Variety Release Committee (CVRC)

With major support from the ICAR coupled with a number of successful collaborations with leading institutions and universities at the national and international levels, the CSSRI developed the salt-tolerant varieties) that contributed largely in increasing productivity of salt-affected soils and environmental improvement, said Dr SK Sharma, head, division of crop improvement at the CSSRI.

Since 2000, the CSSRI had supplied 31.7 tonnes of breeder seed of the six salt-tolerant varieties of rice to various seed-multiplication agencies, besides 182.45 tonnes of labelled/certified seed to farmers and different seed production organizations.

CSR 30, the first-ever salt-tolerant basmati rice variety, popularly named “Yamini”, was released in 2001 for cultivation in the salt-affected areas of UP, Haryana and Punjab.

Many basmati-growing areas in Haryana also had moderate to reclaimed sodic soils with poor quality ground water and, as a consequence, the farmers in these areas were not able to realise optimum yields of basmati rice which was relatively more sensitive to sodicity and salinity stresses.

Basmati rice is primarily grown in Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and UP with Haryana topping with 43 per cent of its total rice area under basmati rice and a survey revealed that CSR 30 occupied 1.1 lakh ha premium area.

Two salt-tolerant wheat varieties, KRL 1-4 and KRL 19, were released in 1990 and 2000 while two other varieties, KRL 210 and KRL 213, have recently been released. The CSSRI produced around 15.1 tonnes of breeder seed of the two salt-tolerant varieties of wheat (KRL 1-4 and KRL 19) during the past 10 years for supply to the seed agencies for multiplication.

In addition, 108 tonnes of certified seed was sold directly to farmers for cultivation in saline and sodic areas. Three salt-tolerant varieties of mustard: CS 52, CS 54 and CS 56 (triveni) were released in 1997, 2005 and 2008, respectively. Further, 2.42 tonnes of breeder seed of the three salt-tolerant varieties of mustard was produced and these varieties were being widely cultivated in Rajasthan and Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and UP.

The use of salt-tolerant varieties of rice, wheat and mustard has resulted in increased production, besides rendering unproductive barren or very low productive land into one with increasing production potential. 

Ambala, May 31
Police DAV Public School, Ambala City, celebrated “grandparents day” to honour elderly people. KK Sindhu, IGP, Ambala Range, was the chief guest on this occasion. A number of grandparents of schoolchildren were present.

Sindhu said grandparents were special people in the life of a child. He said they were the one who pampered the child most and at the same time, instilled moral values into him.

They always protected the child from the anger of parents while making sure that he did not take the wrong path ever, he added.

Shashank Anand, SSP, Ambala, remarked that grandparents were extraordinary people. He said they had stories to tell that expand our origin and views about life. Grandparents were a great resource for a child, he added.

Rajinder Nath, vice-chairman of the school, said blind aping of the west and influence of western culture had made the children of today moved away from traditional values. Observance of days like “grandparents day” helped revive deep-rooted culture and moral values and moreover it helped in bringing the younger and senior generation together on a common platform. JS Nain, school manager, also addressed the students.

Schoolchildren showered their affection and love for their parents and grandparents by presenting colourful dances and skits which were choreographed by schoolteachers.

Chandigarh, May 31
Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) has decided to set up a Kendriya Vidalaya to provide the best educational facilities to children of its employees posted at the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Project, (RGTPP), Khedar, Hisar.

Stating this here today, HPGCL managing director Sanjeev Kaushal said the decision was taken by the board of directors of the corporation recently. The school would be set up under the ‘project school model’ of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Delhi. Moreover, the HPGCL employees’ children, children of the CISF staff posted at Khedar and children of surrounding villages would also be benefited by the school.

He said the setting up of the Kendriya Vidyalaya at RGTPP, Khedar, was in line with the corporate social responsibility policy of the HPGCL, under which the corporation had decided to contribute 5 per cent of its profits of the previous year towards social responsibility activities and development of areas surrounding its projects. The thrust areas under this policy were education, sanitation, health and above all making people capable of earning their livelihood, he added.

Kaushal said presently there were about 350 HPGCL employees deputed at the RGTPP, Khedar, and the school could be started in two residential quarters in the RGTPP colony from pre-primary to 5th standard till a suitable building was constructed.

He said one class would be added every year to raise the school up to 12th standard. The tentative fee (Vidyalaya Vikas Nidhi) charged by the school per month would be Rs 240, adding that all recurring and non-recurring expenditures of the proposed school would be borne by the HPGCL. 

Rewari, May 31
Elders of 31 surrounding villages participated in a mahapanchayat held under the chairmanship of Master Dalip Singh, a former chairman of the Kanina municipal committee, at Lisan village, 30 km from here, yesterday.

Flaying the Rewari district police administration for its lackadaisical approach in apprehending the alleged killers of a five-year-old Happy, son of Rakesh Yadav, the elders deplored that the police was clueless to Happy’s killers even after two months.

The decomposed body of Happy, who was done to death soon after his abduction from the village on April 3, was recovered by the police from the forest area of Lisan village on April 5.

The doctors, who conducted the post-mortem examination at the PGIMS, Rohtak, had concluded that Happy’s death was 
caused either by suffocation or strangulation.

After the police failed to trace and apprehend Happy’s killers, the irate villagers held a demonstration here following which the case was handed over to the CIA police of Rewari.

Expressing dissatisfaction at the “ dismal” functioning of the CIA police, the mahapanchayat also deplored that the memoranda recently dispatched by aggrieved family members of the deceased child, to President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and other dignitaries, had apparently gone unheeded.

An action committee comprising 36 members, one representative from each of the 31 villages and five from Lisan village, was constituted to pursue the matter and seek speedy apprehension of Happy’s killers.

Sirsa, May 31
About 25 per cent of the total deaths reported in India are attributed to infectious diseases, according to the Health Information Statistics of India.Over half of the polio cases in the world are reported in India whereas this crippling disease has been wiped out of the developed countries.

A study “Sanitation situation and disease pattern in Haryana - A spatial analysis” by Dr Rajeshwari, associate professor in the Department of Geography, Kurukshetra University, reveals that India alone accounts for one-fourth of about 25 lakh deaths every year in the world due to diarrhoea.

Jaundice, viral hepatitis, gastroenteritis and cholera outbreak are an annua

l feature in many villages. The high level of malnutrition in India (national average being 41 per cent) is also attributable to poor sanitation, says the study.

Water-borne diseases and intestinal worms lead to loss of nutrition as these parasites consume nutrition, aggravate under-nutrition from the already insufficient diets of the rural people, consequently resulting in deficiency diseases like night blindness, poor growth, vitamin deficiency, low immunity and retard growth in children.

Besides, certain maternal health conditions are also manifestations of the cycle of infectious diseases.

Further, various kinds of skin diseases are also attributable to the lack of water, sanitation and hygiene. WHO studies show that sanitation alone can reduce the incidents of infectious disease by up to 80 per cent by inhibiting disease generation and interrupting disease transmission.

Access to sanitation is also critical to social and economic progress. Over a billion people do not have access to safe water and over 2 billion lack adequate sanitation. Out of this, 636 millions reside in India alone.

In Haryana, 80.70 per cent people had toilet facilities at their homes as per the 2001 census, but there was a huge rural-urban gap on this account, which was 52 per cent.

There has been some improvement after that and 858 villages of Haryana have been given Nirmal Gram Puraskar by the President of India in 2007 and 2008 for passing all parameters of the Total Sanitation Campaign that include toilet facilities at households.

However, the number is barely 12.33 per cent of the total number of villages in Haryana.

Districts like Sirsa have shown excellent result by making all villages free from open defecation, but many other districts like Mewat, Sonipat, Rohtak and several others lag behind in this matter. Fatehabad and Kurukshetra are some other district showing positive results in this regard.

One may also note that in terms of total literacy and women literacy, Sirsa stands way below the state average. The reasons for better sanitation in the district may be attributed to purely administrative will and to some extent cultural factors.

Again, the adjoining district Fatehabad is a good performing district in the availability of toilet facility in its rural households as well as open defecation-free villages in the state.

Surprisingly, this is also one of the least urbanised districts with highest proportion of SC population and with low levels of female literacy.

The study concludes by suggesting that the sanitation problem is both the provision of facilities as well as behaviour changes. Hence, until the need for the benefits of sanitation are realised and internalised, mere provision of the facilities will not provide the expected results.

Rewari, May 31
While residents of Dhani Thether Badh village, 27 km from here, are opposing the reopening of a liquor vend in the village, the state Excise Department, in alleged connivance with the liquor mafia, seems to be keen on its opening.

Residents of the neighbouring Nimoth and Zenabad villages have also come out in support of a drive against the liquor vend.

Determined to save the village from the menace of drinking, the panchayat of Dhani Thether Badh village, adopted a resolution on September 3, 2009, seeking cessation of the liquor vend after March 31,2010.

As per mandatory departmental prerequisite, a copy of the above resolution was dispatched to the state excise and taxation commissioner following which sarpanch Arjun Singh was summoned for personal hearing at Panchkula on February 16, 2010. Arjun Singh went to Panchkula and reiterated the panchayat’s demand.

However, the above resolution was reportedly rejected on “flimsy” grounds by the excise and taxation commissioner about which no formal information was conveyed to the panchayat, according to Rajender Singh, a representative of the villagers and district secretary of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI). However, things flared up recently when a liquor contractor made a bid to restart the liquor vend in the village. The residents met deputy commissioner A. Sriniwas here and told him when they were against the reopening of the liquor vend.