Sirsa, July 17
The swollen Ghaggar claimed another life last night when Sukhdev Singh (45), a farmer from Maujgarh village, fell in it while patrolling the river near his village. He snoozed and fell in the river. His body was fished out of the river today. The body of Satyanarain, who fell in the Ghaggar yesterday, has not been found yet.

Meanwhile, the authorities concerned have been able to plug two breaches in the Ghaggar on the downstream of Ottu, while work was on to cap the third one.

According to a source, the Ghaggar discharges 24,000 cusecs of water at Ottu Weir, while only 9,000 cusecs enters Rajasthan after traversing the 40-km stretch of the river downstream of Ottu.

Given the fact that 1,500 cusecs goes to some minors originating from Ottu, at least 13,000 cusecs of water has been spilling over through the breaches that is enough to flood villages, even after leaving the margin for seepage.

All these villages are located on the right side of the river, where situation continues to be critical with either villagers having evacuated or living surrounded by water.

The situation on the downstream of Ottu is also identical to that on its upstream, where farmers have allegedly invited floods because of their greed.

“The total breadth of the river downstream of Ghaggar for its flow during the monsoon is five acres, out of which four acres belong to private farmers, one acre being the river’s main creek. However, farmers, over the years, have narrowed down the creek to add more areas into their private possession,” revealed a farmer at Kirpal Patti village.

Fatehabad, July 17
Flood waters today reached the fields adjoining Ashok Nagar area on the Majra road forcing panic-stricken residents to construct bundhs to protect their living areas.

Millions of gallons of water was seen flowing from nearby villages - Majra and Barseen - towards the bypass road connection national highway number 10 and the Fatehabad-Chandigarh road near Sector 3 of the town.

Meanwhile, lack of maintenance of the Rangoi Kharif Channel (RKC) constructed at a cost of Rs 35 crore to protect Fatehabad areas from floods is being cited as the reason behind the current floods.

The 90-km-long RKC that originates from the nullah from Ghaswa in Fatehabad and merges in Hisar Ghaggar Multiple Channel near Randhawa village of Sirsa was inaugurated in October 2004 and has saved the town every year by ensuring channelised flow of flood waters from the Rangoi nullah.

However, no repair work has ever been done since then and now a large number of acacia trees and other vegetation have grown in the creek area of the channel, making it prone to floods.

Farmers of the nearby fields have been stealing soil from its embankments for use on their fields making it even more vulnerable to breaches that are being witnessed this year.

Satish Jinaawa, executive engineer of the Water Services Division, Fatehabad, admitted that no maintenance could be done as, he claimed, no funds had been received from the government during all these year.

Chandigarh: As many as 26 persons have so far lost their lives in flood-affected areas of Haryana and 28 head of cattles have also perished. While 11 persons died in Ambala district, 10 in Kurukshetra, four in Fatehabad and one in Sirsa, 15 heads of cattle have reportedly perished in Kurukshetra and 13 in Kaithal. In Ambala, fogging operation is in progress. Medical camps are being organised in colonies and villages. More than 4.45 lakh tablets of halogen have been distributed. — TNS

Chandigarh, July 17
Even as the Haryana Agriculture Department is exhorting flood-hit farmers in the state to sow basmati nursery now, farmers are finding it difficult to get land for the purpose.

Even those who raise nurseries for basmati have now doubled their charges, making it difficult for the flood-hit farmers to procure nurseries.

Earlier this week, the Agriculture Department had asked the farmers in the flood-hit districts of Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Karnal to switch over to sowing of basmati, after preparing a fresh nursery in the adjoining fields, which were not inundated, or by buying nurseries from other areas. As of now, large tracts of agriculture land, especially between Kaithal and Daand, are still submerged and it will take 15 to 20 days for the flood waters to recede.

Some farmers in these flood-hit areas have now gone to their relatives in other districts to prepare a nursery.

Once the water level in their fields recedes, these freshly raised nurseries can be transplanted back in their fields by August 10. But a majority of the farmers are looking at buying nurseries from other farmers.

However, as against a rate of Rs 1,000 per acre, the nursery is now being supplied at Rs 2,000 per acre, said Ishwar Dayal, a farmer in Karnal district.

On its part, the Agriculture Department has started preparing a list of farmers, with their contact details, who can spare their land for raising nurseries.

A list of those farmers who have a spare nursery, too, is being prepared in each district so that it can be advertised in the local media for the benefit of the flood-hit farmers. This exercise is being carried out in Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Sonepat, Yamunanagar and Jind districts.

“In case the farmers do not get a nursery on time, we will ask the farmers to go in for direct seeding of basmati paddy. The state government has announced that it will provide the basmati paddy seed at a 75 per cent subsidy. Besides, the state government will also provide seeds of alternative crops like bajra and toria free of cost,” said a senior official in the department.

Rohtak, July 17
The Pt Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, seems to be under scanner over the use of vacutainers, sterile containers for keeping blood samples for examination, following complaints that outdated vacutainers are being used by the department concerned.

The PGIMS caters to the medical needs of lakhs of patients from different parts of the state as well as those from the neighboring states of Punjab and Rajasthan.

Denying the charges levelled against them, the authorities have claimed that no such case had been reported recently though a complaint had surfaced earlier and an action had been taken against the guilty.

Doctors in many cases recommend various types of laboratory examinations. Blood samples of patients for laboratory examinations are taken in these containers commonly known as vacutainers. According to the PGIMS sources, vacutainers were introduced in the PGIMS about two years ago keeping in view several advantages they have over glass test tubes, which were earlier used for this purpose.

However, vacutainers being used for the past over two months at the PGIMS to collect blood samples of patients to assess their complete haemogram in room number 8 of the D2 block of the institute are reported to be not up to the mark as these vacutainers were best for use till April 2010. It is alleged that such vacutainers are still in use even after the deadline.

When asked whether use of such vacutainers for collection of blood samples would interfere with the accuracy of the laboratory examination results, an expert associated with diagnostics, while requesting anonymity, replied in affirmative.

As many as 200 blood samples are collected in such vacutainers daily in the PGIMS. The use of such vacutainers could prove harmful to patients as doctors while prescribing treatment to patients also take into consideration the results of the laboratory examination of the blood samples, opined the expert.

Sources pointed out that the use of such vacutainers had been brought to the notice of the higher authorities and the use was stopped for a few days. However, vacutainers with April 2010 as deadline for best use resurfaced after a gap for reasons best known to the authorities.

Dr SS Sangwan, Vice-Chancellor of Pt BD Sharma University of Health Sciences, however, claimed that vacutainers beyond the expiry date were not being used for collection of blood samples at present.

“We had taken action against a senior doctor earlier following a complaint two months ago, he added, stating that stringent action would be taken against anyone who violated the rules in this regard.

The PGIMS has recently got a grant of Rs 125 crore under the Prime Minister Health Scheme from the Centre and an additional grant of Rs 25 crore from the state government to upgrade the institute.

Chandigarh, July 17
Protection of runaway couples is fast becoming a burden on the Haryana police. As many as 38 policemen have been deployed to protect such couples from the terror of the khap panchayats or their relatives.

In response to a petition filed in public interest by an advocate for directions to the State of Haryana to recover the expenses from khap panchayats or those threatening the young couples, the state has asserted: “Now, there are 29 couples to whom protection has been provided.”

The affidavit filed through Special Secretary (Home) SK Goyal says security has been provided to 17 couples in compliance with the HC orders - five couples in compliance with the district and sessions judges’ order, and another “five couples by the police itself on account of threat faced by them from their families.”

Referring to the issue of recovering expenses, the affidavit states: “There is no provision in the relevant Act and the Rules for recovery of expenses on account of providing protection to the persons in case of threat to their lives from the persons who are behind such dictates/ threats.”

“Further, the state government has also not framed any policy or guidelines for recovery of expenses spent on providing security to the victims of dictates/ threat from the persons comprising of khap panchayat. In the absence of any specific policy, it is not possible for the respondent to effect recovery of expenses spent on providing protection to the victims.” The PIL will now come up for further hearing on July 28. 

Hisar, July 17
Slain Additional Advocate-General Sanjiv Sura’s sister Tina has come the rescue of his two children. Tina has decided to look after the children - 12-year-old Manu and his younger sister Milky.

The aunt had come here after hearing of the death of her brother and his wife Sunita. She discussed the future of the two orphans with her mother Ginno Devi who was not in a position to look after them. The duo decided that while Tina would take Milky along with her to Delhi, Sanjiv’s son would continue to study at his Mussoorie school till the current session ended. Next year, he too would move to Delhi.

Family sources said Tina had already left for Delhi with Milky and Manu had been sent back to Mussoorie.