Sirsa, July 15
Followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda have been playing Good Samaritans in the flooded villages near the Ghaggar river.

Volunteers of the Shah Satnam Green S Welfare Force, a social welfare organisation of the dera, have been working relentlessly in the flood-affected areas of the district.

Identified distinctly by their uniform, these dera followers have been providing their services in various kinds of activities like strengthening of embankments of the Ghaggar, evacuating people trapped in floods, providing logistic help to army jawans, proving food and drinking water to the flood victims and giving medical aid to the needy.

“As many as 1000 volunteers of the force are active in Sirsa district. Likewise, our volunteers have also been providing help to the victims in Fatehabad and other districts of Haryana,” said Pawan Insan, a spokesman of the dera.

The dera volunteers are busy providing help in Farwai, Nejadela, Firozabad and Jhopra villages for strengthening embankments of the Ghaggar river with the help of tractors, JCBs and other machinery.

Pawan Insan said “Farishta”, a mobile hospital of the dera, had also been working round the clock to provide succour to the flood victims.

Deputy commissioner CG Rajini Kaanthan said the dera volunteers had been extending a lot of cooperation in the relief work initiated by the authorities.

“The volunteers of the Dera force have been providing material as well as manpower services to the authorities,” the DC added.

Fatehabad/Sirsa, July 15
Waters spilling over from this furious looking river these days has inundated crops in several thousand acres in Fatehabad and Sirsa districts.

Ghaggar, the largest seasonal stream in Haryana, enters Fatehabad as deeply incised alluvial channel near Jakhal and makes an exit little to the west of Bira Badi, covering the distance of 70 km in a meandering course.

The river maintains a rough parallelism with most of the northern boundary of Fatehabad, deviating from it by a margin of 7 km and at times, delineating the northern limits of the district.

It is considered a misfit stream since the scant volume of discharge stands in sharp contrast to its large channel width. The river drains large volumes of floodwaters during the rainy season every year.

Ghaggar is both boon as well as bane for the semi-arid land in Fatehabad and and Sirsa districts of Haryana and Hanumangargh, Suratgarh and Anupgarh belt in Rajasthan.

This seasonal stream originates in the Shivalik hills of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana and traverses almost along Punjab-Haryana boarder.

After entering Fatehabad district, it deviates away from Punjab boarder and forms a narrow flood plain and further traverses across Sirsa district and enters Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan in the west.

Ghaggar is also known as “Nalli” (a narrow water channel) in the local parlance as being a seasonal stream it has very low discharge in the dry seasons.

“Despite the low surface flow it continuously recharges the groundwater aquifer. This endows the Nalli flood zone with fresh and abundant groundwater resources, which has played a crucial role in agricultural development of the region,” informs Dr Mahabir Jaglan, chairperson and an associate professor in the Geography Department of Kurukshetra University.

“The Ghaggar flood area in northwestern Haryana (Fatehabad and Sirsa districts) and Rajasthan (Hanumangargh and Sri Ganganagar districts) was known as “gram bowl” before the initiation of green revolution in the region.

The gram cultivation in this area was done in the Rabi season on the residual and conserved soil moisture of the flood plain of the Ghaggar. Currently, the Nalli area may be safely termed as “rice bowl” of western Haryana. Rice cultivation in the region is largely confined to the Ghaggar flood zone as tubewell irrigation in the region has developed over the fresh water aquifers,” Dr Jaglan adds.

Rainy season floods in the Ghaggar basin are quite frequent which are experienced up to the Suratgarh and Anupgarh areas of Rajasthan. Near Suratgarh town, Baropal Lake has been designed to store water of the Ghaggar and preventing floods in down stream.

The Ottu reservoir in Sirsa district has also been constructed for the same purpose.

The floods in the Ghaggar basin are frequent and furious because of very gentle slope and a lack of horizontal drainage. The river has braided channels such as Rangoi Nullah which flow in narrow channels and overflow the banks due to a lack of slope in the eventuality of increasing surface flow.

The floods in Haryana often become more destructive and have long lasting effects due to obliteration of surface drainage on account of constructions of roads, railway lines, canals and urban expansions. The contours of natural slope and surface drainage are rarely taken into account while preparing the layout of infrastructure development. The floodwater in such situations often submerges the depressions and low-lying areas for a long time.

Dr Jaglan opines that the government must explore the viability of constructing dams across the Ghaggar and its tributaries in the catchments in Shivaliks.

Ambala, July 15
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s announcement about the construction of a siphon on the SYL and Narwana branch canals during a visit to flood-affected villages in Naggal block recently has fulfilled the longstanding demand of people. The villagers had to suffer the loss of their crops and property in the floods of 1977, 1983, 1989 and 1994. Over 10 persons of this area were killed in the 2004 floods. This year too paddy crops in around 5000 acres has been submerged in flood waters, besides 10 persons losing their lives. A number of villagers have also lost their household goods in the floods.

A number of houses badly hit by the floods would need immediate repairs. Dry fodder stored for cattle has been destroyed in the floods.

The chief minister also announced that a ‘girdawri’ of the damaged crops would be conducted to grant suitable compensation. A survey, Hooda said, would also be carried out in urban areas so that the shopkeepers who had suffered a great loss in the floods could be compensated.

A farmer of Naggal village rued: “The flood victims have not yet received the compensation of for the 2004 flood. The Chief Minister should direct the administrative machinery to complete the girdawari within one month lest the payment of relief is delayed”.

Ambala, July 15
Announcing an all-out war against the state government for its ineffectiveness in dealing with the flood situation, residents of Nishat Bagh showed their resentment against the administration to Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja.

She was here to meet people and assess the situation in the flood-affected areas. Residents of the locality lamented that no officer from the administration had ever visited them, adding that they had no faith in the local administration and the municipal corporation. No arrangements were made to drain out water from the area, they added.

“Drains are choked and water is flowing inside our colonies and other parts of the city,” the residents said.

They added that the administration had not taken any flood control measures prior to the monsoon. People also rued the lack of infrastructural development in the area.

“There are no internal metalled roads and sewerage facilities. There should be a proper drainage system and all internal roads should be metalled,” they demanded, adding that some low-lying areas were still flooded and had started stinking.

She urged the administration to provide all possible help to the people, adding that she would make efforts for the release of the Central package for the flood-hit people and also for farmers, whose crops were destroyed in the floods.

Later, she addressed the officials of the district administration and reviewed the flood situation and measures taken by the administration.

Faridabad, July 15
Residents of Ballabgarh continue to face hardships on account of a poor sewer system.

The Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) has undertaken a project to lay a network of pipelines starting with a master pipeline on about 1 km-long Malerna road in the city. In the past six months only a 400-metre pipeline has been laid and the work is going on at a very slow pace.

Saberjeet Singh Faujdar, a resident of Adarsh Nagar, alleges that the MCF has compounded the problem of the residents instead of minimising it. According to him, first the MCF dug up the road, but did not cover it up for laying the master pipeline. Also, the pipeline laid is narrow which is meant for streets of the colonies.

Apart from Jagdish colony, Punjabi Muhallah, Ahirwada, Bhimsen Colony and Chawla Colony, none of the colonies and habitation centres have a full-fledged sewer system.

The areas without a sewer system include large parts of Aadarsh Nagar, Subedar Colony, Vishnu Colony, Aazi Colony and Hari Vihar. 

Faridabad, July 15
The first monsoon showers a few days ago submerged a majority of the areas of this city,including the plush ones, exposing in the processthe claims of the authorities of having taken adequate measures for storm water discharge.

Residents allege that the nullahs, as was their experience during the earlier monsoon, apparently continue to remain choked. Bhagwati Raina of Sector 16 alleged that the authorities only make tall claims of having taken precautionary measures against storm water before every monsoon, but the claims prove hollow.

The residents seem to be a worried lot as just a day’s shower has caused them enough problems.They wonder what would happen if there was a downpour. Almost all roundabouts in the city, including Bata Chowk,BK.Chowk, Hardware Chowk, Neelam Chowk witnessed knee-deep strom water for hours together.

Even the national highway coursing through the city was dotted with pools of water at several places starting from Delhi-Faridabad border to Ballabgarh.

Although a majority of the areas got inundated, waterlogging was conspicuous in Old Faridabad and the trans-canal areas like Shastri Colony, Wazirpur, Bharat Colony, Khedi Kalan,Tigaon road and Indira Complex.The residential pockets of HUDA’s Sectors 18,19,28,31,29,17,16(A) also witnessed accumulation of water at various places.

Chandigarh, July 15
The Haryana government has formulated a policy for setting up warehouses in the agriculture zones. According to a spokesman of the Town and Country Planning Department, the warehousing activities include integrated inland container depots or Custom-bounded areas, warehouse for agro produce or grain godowns, gas godowns, and warehouse for other than agriculture produce. These activities will be allowed in the agriculture zone as well as in the industrial zones.

The minimum area for an integrated inland container depot or Custom-bounded area will be 50 acre in hyper-potential zone and high potential zone, 25 acres in medium potential zone and 10 acres in low potential zone. The minimum area for a warehouse other than agricultural produce will be five acre in hyper potential zone and high potential zone, and two acre each in medium potential zone and low potential zone. The minimum area for a warehouse for agro produce/grain godowns would be two acre each in all four zones. Similarly, the minimum area for a gas godown will be 0.18 acres in all four zones. For the integrated inland container depots or Custom-bounded area, the availability of railway siding is pre-requisite and the approach for warehouses or integrated inland container depots or Custom-bounded areas would be from revenue rasta or panchayati rasta. For gas godown, the approach from private rasta might be considered.

The FAR allowed for warehouses is 75 per cent and 5 per cent of the total permissible area will be reserved for offices and essential watch and ward staff residences. A setback of 6 metre all-round in case of warehouses for agro produce or grain godowns, 9 m for warehouses other than agriculture produce and 15 m for integrated inland container depots or Custom-bounded areas should be provided. If a warehouse contained storage of agro produce and also products other than the agriculture produce, then the setbacks required for warehouse other than agriculture produce should be followed.

The conversion charges for a gas godown would be at par with that for the category warehouses other than agriculture produce and 15 per cent of the site area would be reserved for idle parking. To avoid nuisance to traffic, no idle parking would be made on the approach road. 

Rohtak, July 15
About one-third of the seats of panchayats in the district may have gone to women, courtesy reservation, but most of the women may not be able to exercise their power independently in view of the domination of their husbands and other male members of their family.

The role of the winning women candidates in the recently concluded elections has been diminutive in comparison to their husbands who were seen as the real winners instead of their wives for various posts, including sarpanch.

“Nobody is talking about the victory of Santosh Devi, who has been elected sarpanch of Kharkara Chhajan gram panchayat of Kharkara village, but everybody is recognising the feat of her husband in this election,” says Prakash, a resident of the village.

The voters have hardly seen the candidate in the election campaign while her husband and other male members worked round the clock to ensure her win, he adds. “The woman even if she had to join campaigning, she would have to remain veiled due to the prevalent customs and traditions as a young woman is not expected to show her face and talk to the elders, especially male members of the village,” he says, adding earlier also a woman sarpanch was represented by her husband on nearly all occasions and it was her husband who was known as the real sarpanch.

“The scenario is same in nearly all villages falling under the Meham block where women have won the elections due to reservation,” says Yoginder Dahiya, an advocate. He says husbands have always been in the forefront since the reservation came into being and the recently concluded elections were no different. Husbands of the candidates had not only carried out the campaign, but also posted their own photographs along with their wives (candidates) in the posters and other poll-related material.

“Even the victory processions carried by supporters had husbands instead of the winning candidates,” says a resident of Sundana village where the post of sarpanch has gone to a woman due to reservation.

Some of the villages where women have made it to the post of sarpanch include Ajaib, Girawar, Mokhra Roj, Bhaini Bharo, Farmana Bhadshapur, Muradpur Tekna, Kharawar, Hassangarh, Giji, Masudpur, Garnawathi, Sundana, Anwal, Jindran and Baniyani.

Panipat, July 15
Setting yet another example, a large number of villages have become a part of the Haryana community forestry project (HCFP) to restore the usefulness of the panchayat land by planting trees, which seems to pave way for an environmental revolution in the state.

The state has raised plantations on 32,812 hectares of the panchayat land under the said project, which has been funded by the European nations.

Forest conservator VS Tanwar, who has been closely associated with the project, said a significant portion of the community land in the entire state had got degraded due to population pressure, over cutting and due to over grazing of vegetation. He said to restore the degraded land, a World Bank-funded Social Forestry Project (SFP) was introduced in the state between 1982 and 1990.

With the experience gained from this project and given the potential of raising plantations on village common lands, a new project was proposed to the union government for international funding. He said in May 1995, the European Commission was appraised about the project which promptly offered to fund it with 23.3 million euros, while the state government chipped in 6.8 million euros for effective implementation of the project.

The overall objective of the project was to improve the natural environment of the state through sustainable management of the natural resources with active participation of villagers. To achieve this objective the villagers were encouraged to raise their own forest on the common land. The involvement of women gave the project a fillip and turned it into a success story in most of the villages, said Tanwar.

The project has so far reached out to 337 villages with a total population of around 7,00,000 (more than 1,10,000 households) participating in it. Under the HCFP, village resource management committees (VRMCs) were constituted and trained as sub-committees of the village panchayat with the responsibility to manage natural common property resources of the village. As a result, 8,338 hectares was brought under forests, farm forestry was introduced in over 10,525 hectares, 6,944 hectares was planted with poplar trees and the same project also helped the state in fixation of sand dunes spread over 5,028 hectares. Besides, tree groves were developed over 1,347 hectares and kitchen gardens were established on 617 hectares.

Courtesy this project, the tree cover on common land increased from 9 per cent in 1995 to 30 to 34 per cent in 2010.

The state also constructed as many as 19 earthen water harvesting dams which dramatically increased the potential for sustainable agriculture by providing year-round irrigation and allowing a shift to more profitable off-season crops in their vicinities. The project also helped in reviving 28 village ponds and generated employment for the locals.

As per a study conducted by the sociology department of Panjab University, the village resource management committees had contributed towards the overall development of the village and even promoted community participation in general.

Ambala, July 15
A team of 15 MBA students from Lovely Professional University visited North Carolina, Charlotte, under LPU's visionary international programme. Earlier, the students had visited Singapore for industry visits under the same programme. Under these programmes students have to visit the USA and Europe for four weeks and Singapore and Malaysia for one week. These programmes have been designed to make students have valuable understanding of international work culture.

LPU, which has tieups with more that 20 international universities, has been regularly arranging such initiatives for the students to provide them global exposure and practical knowledge. Last year the university sent around 61 students to the USA and 68 students to Singapore and various other countries under a similar programme.

Ashok Mittal, Chancellor of Lovely Professional University, said: The students were also taken for industrial visits to Bank of America, BMW's assembly plant, Frito Lays etc. The students felt that practical exposure gave them a better insight into a subject. 

Gurgaon, July 15
The VLCC Institute of Beauty and Nutrition organised its sixth convocation, coinciding with the VLCC group's founder's day celebrations, here recently.

The passing-out students also put up a style show to mark the occasion. Sanjay Mehta, an independent member of the board of directors, VLCC Health Care, and Vandana Luthra, founder and mentor, VLCC, were the chief guests.

Vandana Luthra said: "Vocational education is the need of the day. It makes individuals self-reliant and empowered. In the last three years, the beauty industry has entered a high growth phase and is all set to achieve new heights in the foreseeable future. Trained professionals will naturally be in demand..." She advised the students to keep their quest for knowledge alive and "never stop learning in life".

Narinder Kumar, head - education business and group CFO, maintained: "The wellness market is estimated to be around Rs 11,000 crore and is growing at the rate of 35 per cent, which means that there is no dearth of opportunities for well-trained professionals."

This year's convocation also witnessed the passing out of its first batch of the postgraduate diploma in cosmetology (PGDC) students.

The outfits for the fashion show held on the occasion were provided by "Study By Janak". There was also a beautiful dance performance by children of Khushii, an NGO. The VLCC group awarded scholarships to five outstanding students of the institute. 

Hisar, July 15
Thespian Tom Alter says the era of issue-based films is over. Thanks to corporate sponsors taking over filmmaking.

Tom, who was bestowed Padma Shri for his contribution to films, television and theatre was in town recently to stage a solo play on Maulana Azad.

He said in the past directors were the architects of the films and there was no interference from any quarter. However, with the advent of the corporate filmmaking, suggestions come from several quarters and the directors’ role had got diluted to an extent. This certainly had an effect on the filmmaking.

He said directors were always prepared to take up an issue and then tried to make a saleable film around that issue. But the corporates hardly took any risk. They guard their investment zealously and thus try to make safe saleable films.

Son of American missionaries, Tom Alter was born in Uttrakhand at Landour near Mussoorie. He studied Hindi and Urdu in school. Later, he also taught at a school in Jagadhari. He studied at the Film and Television Institute of India. His 1972 batchmate included well-known actors Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani.

He is the sole character in the play Maulana Azad, which he staged here.

He has staged this play during the past eight years in London, Middle East and the USA. He said though he does not smoke, he had to take up smoking for this play as the character he plays was a smoker.

“It’s not much of a problem during rehearsals as I need only one or two cigarettes. But onstage it is a different matter altogether. The 150-minute performance requires several cigarettes. But, I could not have done justice to the role without smoking onstage,” he said.

He said the films that really made a difference and an impact in the recent years were all made by individuals. He cites the success of Lagaan, Rang De Basanti and Lage Raho Munnabhai. That is the difference between individually crafted films and those made by the corporates.

He said he enjoyed all his roles. “The medium does not matter, the role does. So, I enjoy my work,” he added.

Kaithal, July 15
The court of Additional Sessions Judge AK Shori here has sentenced the then Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan’s DEO-cum-district project coordinator Ram Kumar Beniwal and a clerk suresh Kumar to two-and-half-years imprisonment after holding them guilty in a 2007 corruption case.

The court has also fined Rs 10,000 each, failing which they will have to undergo an imprisonment up to six months.

However, the accused had received Rs 10 lakh as commission for the purchases made under the SSA, which were deposited in the Red cross Society account as “secret donation” when the matter came to light. The amount of commission was deposited in the Society’s accounts at the intervention of the then DC Rajinder Kataria.

According to reports, the amount was received by the accused as commission on the purchase of science kits for laboratories in schools. After the reports about bungling and irregularities in the purchase of the kits became public, the then ADC Sanjeev Verma ordered an inquiry into the matter. The accused had confessed about the receipt of the commission and later at the city police station, he gave in writing about the receipt of the cash, which he promised to deposit in the Red Cross funds by the next day as directed by the then DC.