Hisar, December 6
Crime scene investigations in Haryana have vastly improved, thanks to the establishment of forensic science units in most of the districts.

The State Forensic Laboratory in Madhuban is in the final stages of preparing a database of diatom bloom in water bodies of Haryana. Once it is completed, the data bank will help solve cases of death due to drowning accurately.

Diatoms are a major group of algae, and are one of the most common types of phytoplankton. Most diatoms are unicellular, although they can exist as colonies in the shape of filaments or ribbons in all kinds of water bodies including ponds and canals.

Ravinder Pal, senior scientific officer of forensic unit at Bhiwani, says when a person drowns in a water body water is sucked in the body in organs like lungs and heart. However, if a dead body is thrown in a water body no water is sucked into the organs.

The water in the organs contains diatoms. Forensic experts match the diatoms found in the body with the diatoms found in water samples collected from the water body in which the body was found. If the diatoms match, it is a clear indication that the person died due to drowning in that particular water body.

He says that in the last one year, more than 24 cases have been solved, using this technology.

Recently, two lovers were killed by villagers in Kaluwas village of Bhiwani district. The bodies were cremated. However, when the murders came to light, forensic experts were able to pick up blood cells from the cremation site and from a room in which the couple were done to death before cremation. This greatly helped in investigations.

Likewise, the murder of another couple in Neemriwali village was established after forensic experts found sure signs of extreme torture on the bodies of the young lovers who were otherwise alleged to have committed suicide by hanging themselves. Experts concluded that the two victims were in no position to hang themselves and that they had been hanged after a severe beating which rendered them unconscious.

However, the district units are still understaffed. There are only seven scientific officers who cover more than two districts each. The number of supporting staff is also not adequate.

The working of these units is also hampered by the bulky vehicles provided to the officials. They find it difficult to take the vehicle which carries sophisticated equipment to the scene of the crime. The delay leads to destruction of evidence.

The State Forensic Laboratory at Madhuban is being equipped with DNA profiling facility. This will speed up crime investigations.

Chandigarh, December 6
On the persistent demand by consumers and feedback received from the field offices, the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) has decided to introduce a voluntary disclosure of load scheme (VDS) for domestic and non-domestic consumers. This scheme will be available for consumers of Panchkula, Ambala, Yamuna Nagar, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Karnal, Panipat, Sonepat, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Jind districts. The scheme will be available from December 15 to January 15, 2011.

UHBVN Managing Director Arun Kumar said here that the scheme would also be available for farmers of Panchkula, Ambala, Yamuna Nagar, Panipat, Sonepat, Jhajjar and Jind districts for disclosure of their agricultural tubewells load. The nigam would regularise the load without penalty. The scheme would not be available to the farmers of Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra and Rohtak district where the implementation of a high-voltage distribution system had either been completed or was in progress.

He said the consumers desirous of declaring their domestic or non-domestic loads would file an application & agreement form, giving details of the load to be extended. There would be no need to submit any terms and conditions forms or affidavits. However, the consumer would give an undertaking to abide by all terms and conditions of power supply. There will be no need to submit a test report up to an extension of 20 KW of load.

The domestic supply consumer will be required to deposit consumption security at the new rates. The non-domestic supply consumers would be required to pay fixed service charges also. The applicants would be required to complete official formalities to get their loads regularised. The extended load shall be considered as regularised with immediate effect after the aforesaid procedure is completed as per the existing terms and conditions.

The agricultural tubewell consumers may declare the loads of motors on their tubewell connections by submitting an application and agreement form. Such consumers would be required to submit a test report for the extended load along with advance consumption security. The extension of loads would be regularised within the existing system i.e. if lines and transformers etc. could take up the additional load. However, if the capacity is not available in the feeding sub-station, the consumer shall be asked to remove the unauthorized load.

This scheme would also be available to those consumers who had applied for extension of load and their cases were under process. The spokesman urged the consumers to avail the benefit of the scheme.

Karnal, December 6
Can a woman suffering from TB, premature ovarian failure with uterus one-third of the normal size and hepatitis B with her husband having low sperm count deliver a baby? Why not, the couple has given birth to twins weighing 2.8 kg and 2.9 kg, respectively.

The miracle has happened with a Karnal couple Saroj and Anil. They are blessed with twins, 26 years after their marriage. The couple ran from pillar to post and exhausted all channels and was disappointed by premier health care institutions like AIIMS, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, PGI and many more.

Finally, the couple landed in Guru Nanak Hospital three years ago and persistent efforts of doctors at the hospital yielded positive results and the couple was blessed with twins. The parents of the kids were overwhelmed and had no words to express gratitude to Dr Prabhjot Kaur, who treated them free of cost.

"We treated her for nearly three years and used in-vitro fertilisation technique to enable her to conceive from her own egg and took extreme care to provide an optimum environment for implantation and normal growth of embryo and there were no complications during pregnancy," said Dr Kaur.

"However, at the first attempt, we witnessed another problem as the sperm count of her husband became nil and after years of hard work we succeeded," she added.

It is worth mentioning that the mother, Saroj, was suffering from hepatitis B+ and in such cases, women rarely deliver child having weight more than 1.75 kg, but in this case both children were of about 3 kg each and disease free.

Jhajjar, December 6
For the past over six months, an RTI activist has been struggling to obtain information under the RTI Act regarding those IAS, IPS, IRS, HCS and HPS cadre officers who have been re-employed in various departments of the state government during the past 10 years, but he has not succeeded yet to get the details following the alleged unethical attitude of the office concerned towards furnishing the sought information.

Disillusioned by this sort of functioning of government departments, the applicant has now knocked the door of the State Information Commission, Haryana, for getting the information, besides apprising it of the lethargic working being followed by the state public information officers for disposing of RTI applications.

Subhash, state coordinator, Suchna Adhikar Manch, informed that on May 20, 2005, he had sought information by submitting an application with the office of the chief secretary, Haryana, that how many IAS, IPS, IRS, HCS and HPS cadre officers have retired in the state during the time span of January 2000 to March 2010. The additional queries also include how many among them have been reemployed, is there any norm prescribed for providing reemployment to administrative officers after their superannuation and how many new posts have been created to adjust the officers.

Taking action on the application, the chief secretary office directed the SPIO-cum-deputy secretary (DS), Personnel Department, Haryana, for making the sought information available to the applicant under Section 6 (3) of the RTI Act.

According to Subhash, the Personnel Department on June 22 had furnished him a list of 86 IAS and 41 HCS officers who got superannuation during the past 10 years, but did not provide any input about their re-employment saying that it had not further information in this regard except this.

“Thereafter, I made an appeal before the first appellate officer (FAO) and asked for getting the information from the department concerned, besides initiating appropriate official action against the SPIO-cum-deputy secretary of the Personnel Department. Then the FAO directed the finance commissioner-cum-principal secretary to the Finance Department, Haryana, for furnishing me the information,” said Subhash.

He maintained that the finance commissioner on August 19 wrote again to the SPIO of the Home and Personnel Department for making available the information to the applicant as the information was concerned with their departments, but to no avail.

“After having fed up with the inordinate delay by the FAO in sorting out my appeal, I have now moved an application before the State Information Commission for obtaining the information. I have also urged the commission to initiate official action against the FAO as well for not handling my case in a proper way,” said Subhash, adding that the FAO had not pronounced any decision on my application even after the lapse of three months whereas the FAO had to decide the appeal within 45 days as per the Act.

Yamunanagar, December 6
A national seminar on “Feminism in Indian Literature” was organised at Guru Nanak Girls College, Santpura, Yamunanagar, on December 4 in which Dr Jasbir Jain, Director,Institute for Research in Interdisciplinary Studies, Jaipur, was the chief guest.

Dr Jasbir Jain said in her valedictory address that “Feminism means giving the woman the right to act, to think and to decide. It is not merely portrayal of oppression and deprivation of women but asking for reconstruction of masculinity. It is creating a space for women both in her soul and mind”.

Feminism has now come to be accepted in India, setting aside the patriarchal predomination to certain extent.

Besides activists and crusaders of the political and social scenario, feminism is also accomplished through Indian literature.

A speaker said after the introduction of western education, life had begun to change. A feminist trend had now appeared in Indian literature with women now facing the double standards of social law through ages and the conventional moral code.

Among other eminent scholars at the seminar included Dr SK Sharma, former Chairman, Department of English, Kurukshertra University; senior journalist Gobind Thukral, Dr Ram Niwas, Associate Professor Kurukshetra University; Dr Tejinder Kaur, Director, Distance Education, Punjabi University, Patiala; and Prof Deepti Dharmani, Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa.

MS Sawhney, general secretary of the college, welcomed the chief guest and presented mementos to the scholars and the distinguished guests.

Gurgaon, December 6
The 14th national conference of the National HRD Network on the theme "Towards the Next Orbit" was organised here recently. The two-and-a-half-day conference, sponsored by the Sri Balaji Group of Institutions, Pune, and co-sponsored by Maruti Suzuki India Limited and the Power Grid Corporation, witnessed a congregation of business leaders, HR professionals and management students from different parts of the globe.

The conference was attended by over 1,300 national and 50 international delegates. Arun Maira, Member, Planning Commission, was the chief guest. Maira shared his perspective of the evolving economic and business opportunity with the delegates.

The opening remarks at the conference were delivered by SY Siddiqui, Regional President (North), NHRDN and MEO-Administration (HR, IT, Finance and COSL), Maruti Suzuki.

He was followed by NS Rajan, national president, NHRDN and organisation leader, Ernst & Young, sharing his perspectives. SK Chaturvedi, conference chairman and CMD, Power Grid Corporation, and Dr Pritam Singh, conference academic director and Professor of Eminence, MDI (Gurgaon), also shared their ideas.

The theme of the national conference "Towards the Next Orbit" was aimed at preparing management professionals for driving corporate India to the next leap. The conference was designed by Padma Shri Pritam Singh.

The second day of the event started with a plenary session on "Emerging Business Landscape" and saw industry stalwarts like RC Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India; Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO, ICICI Bank; Manoj Kohli, CEO and Joint MD (International Operations), Bharti Airtel; and Adam Werbach, Global Chief Sustainability Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi.

The day saw deliberations on topics like "Performance Excellence: From best to next", "Architecting Talent" and "Kaleidoscope of Leadership" and presided over by distinguished speakers belonging to diverse backgrounds.

The third day of the event witnessed distinguished speakers discussing topics like "Aligning HR at Strategic Business & Board Level" and CEOs' discussions on "Towards Value Adding Governance".

Speaking on the occasion, SY Siddiqui emphasised on the need for inclusive growth for sustainability and a higher level of corporate governance.

Various business leaders, management professionals, top government functionaries and eminent speakers from India and abroad deliberated on topics ranging from orchestrating change, business strategy and leadership to value-adding governance.

Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Industries Ltd, delivered the valedictory speech.

Kaithal, December 6
Physically and mentally disabled children need special care and protection from society. This was stated by district and sessions judge RS Baswana while paying a visit to Chetna, a centre run by Seva Sangh for physically and mentally disabled children, here, recently. Baswana, who was accompanied by CJM Rajesh Garg, also distributed fruits and food among the children.

The chief guest prayed to God to give enough strength to such children so that they could become self-dependent and carry on their daily chores without any difficulty and look after themselves without anybody’s help.

He said physical disability was not a curse, but such children, men and women understood the difference between right or wrong and they had same feelings like any normal person. They too could understand pleasures and sorrows.

Many physically challenged persons had been participating in sports competitions, especially organised for them by various organisations, in different parts of the country from time to time, he said.

Baswana also had a look on figures and sketches drawn by children in their copies. He said the administration and social organisations should make more efforts to ensure that such children were not only properly looked after, but also they should be provided all necessary facilities required by them.

The CJM said education, care and knowledge granted to such children would certainly have a positive effect on their lives and would enhance their capacity and efficiency.

The efforts of Krishna Bharti, in charge, Chetna care centre, were also appreciated by the guests. Bharti informed that at present 18 children were admitted to the centre, out of which 15 were deaf and dumb. She said if more facilities were given to the centre, deprived children from the rural areas could also be provided facilities.

Madhuban (Karnal), December 6
Tri Nath Mishra, former Director General of the National Police Academy, Hyderabad, has made a plea for adopting uniform syllabi for training from the rank of constable to sub-inspector (SI) throughout the country for police training.

Mishra, who chaired the two-day meeting of the project launched under the aegis of the National Police Academy, Hyderabad, for formulating standard operating producers (SOP) at the Haryana Police Academy, Madhuban, being performed mainly by SIs and constables across the country, organised by the HPA, Madhuban, said uniformity in syllabi was essential for bringing qualitative improvement in training and upgrading of skills of police force from constables to SIs.

The meeting, which was attended by IPS officers of northern states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, discussed various aspects of procedures being followed by the police in different states and how a uniform pattern of training could be adopted.

The academy had already initiated various programmes for betterment in police training and this meeting was also outcome of our efforts in this direction. The decision taken in the meeting would certainly bring uniformity in the police training apart from the quality training throughout the country, hoped Mishra.

Sonepat, December 6
Students of mechanical engineering of Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal, have designed an all-terrain vehicle, which will have the capability to run on any kind of road and under any condition. They will display it at a national-level event “BAJA SAEINDIA 2011” to be held in Indore (MP) from January 28 to 30, 2011.

They are working on this project under the guidance of Dr Rajinder Kumar Soni, Dr Avdhesh Kumar Sharma and HK Aggarwal. Mahesh Kumar and Sudhir Yadav are captain and vice-captain of the team, respectively. The vehicle is designed by a final year student Naveen Kumar. Other members of the team are Sandeep Aggarwal, Gaurav Sharma, Mandeep Nehra, Robin Kapoor, Itika Sharma, Kavita Memoria, Rimpi Devi, Ruchi, Shailja, Jitesh Kumar, Nishant Jham, Sombir, Rajat Sethi and Arun Mor.

After seeing the dedication of the students, HS Chahal, vice-chancellor, and RK Arora, registrar, had announced to give every kind of assistance to the student and an amount of Rs 3 lakh has been allocated to them for the completion of the project.

Mahesh Kumar said the students were working as team and they would complete the project before time.

Virender Ahlawat, training and placement officer, said the vehicle would be unique in its own, successful in all terrains and places and seasons.

Rewari, December 6
Annual Sports Day of the local Hari Singh Public School was held in the school complex here recently. While district education officer Dr Manoj Kaushik was the chief guest, the event commenced with the unfurling of the flag by principal Anil Makhija.

Amidst lighting of the sports torch, contestants were administered the pledge to take part in competitions like true sportspersons. Sports competitions were held for boys and girls of senior classes (VI to XII) as well as junior classes (I to V) separately.

In the senior group, the first position was bagged by Shivaji House (boys), Ashoka House (girls) in basketball, Ashoka House (boys) in volleyball, Manish of class VIII, Mini of class VIII, Rohit of XI and Neeru of XI in shotput, Deepanshu of X and Neeru of XI in long jump, Rohit of VIII in sack race, Aditya and Mohit of VI, Varsha and Kavita of class VII in three-legged race, Gaurava of X and Kritika of IX in 100m race, and Yogesh of IX and Neeru of class XI in 200m race.

Similarly in the junior group, the first position went to Vinay of class I, Somani of I, Nitish of II and Kiran of II in jalebi race, Vinay of class I, Aman Sharma of II and Avani of II in 50m race, Garima of IV in spoon race, Sushma of V in pot race, Vishal and Yash of class V, Vanshika and Prerna of V in three-legged race and Harsh of V and Sushma of class V in get ready and go.

The chief guest gave away prizes to the winners. Asserting that a healthy physique was a sine qua non for a healthy mind, she exhorted all children to participate in sports imperatively.

Kalka, December 6
The poor condition of the National Highway-22, which passes through Kalka and Pinjore, and that of the NH-21 Pinjore-Nalagarh stretch has been leading to frequent traffic jams in Kalka and Pinjore, besides posing threat to motorists.

Particularly, the roads from Kalka Gandhi chowk to Kalka-Parwanoo barrier, in main bazaar of Kalka, from old bus stand to railway over-bridge and in the main bazaar of Pinjore are in the worst of condition. A stretch on the railway over-bridge is more of an apology in the name of road.

Resentment prevails among commuters on the Pinjore-Nalagarh route as well. They allege that due to the apathetic attitude of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) authorities, the condition of highway has been worsening day after day. Motorists have been facing a lot of hardships while driving through the stretch. Even as the stretch witnesses long and frequent traffic jams, the authorities have turned a blind eye towards the problem, which is getting chronic with each passing day.

Huge potholes force traffic to move at a snail’s pace, adding to the misery of commuters. A number of accidents have taken place on this road, claiming many lives in the recent months. The condition of the NH-22 in the main bazaar of Pinjore is also pitiable.

Residents of both towns have alleged that the NHAI has not taken note of repeated requests regarding the maintenance and recarpeting of the roads.

Karnal, December 6
Use of modern technologies for efficient and sustainable management of poor quality water in agriculture is the main focus of the two-week-long international training programme on “Use of Poor Quality Water in Agriculture” being organised at the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI) for AARDO (Afro-Asian Rural Development Organisation) member countries.

AARDO is an autonomous mutual inter-governmental organisation comprising 30 countries for cooperation in the field of agriculture and rural development and seven delegates from Malaysia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Oman, Mauritius, Sierra Leone and Bangladesh are participating in the programme.

Practical aspects like extent and quality of groundwater, impact of long-term usage of poor-quality water comprising saline, sodic and wastewater on crop yield and soil health and best management practices for mitigating the deleterious effects would be discussed in the programme.

The knowledge gained during the programme would enhance the capacity of the AARDO member countries for safe and sustainable use of poor quality water, which would ultimately help in higher crop productivity in the member states.

A team of scientists comprising Dr SK Gupta, RK Yadav, K. Lal, HS Jat, RK Singh and RL Meena was organising the training programme and also demonstrating the practical results of researches undertaken by the CSSRI in the field.

Inaugurating the programme, Dr DK Sharma, director, CSSRI, focused on scarcity of fresh water and underlined the importance and need of use of poor-quality water and wastewater for irrigation. This would help improve the productivity of crops and cropping system in different agro-ecological regions and enable poor farmers to take advantage of it in sustaining their livelihood, he added.

Yamunanagar, December 6
It may raise a question mark and ripples of doubt in millions of minds that Buddhism once flourished in the state. According to The Buddhist Forum, a body formed to act as watchdog and to collect data regarding the condition of all ancient Buddhist sites in India, Haryana is a treasure trove ancient Buddhist monuments and antiquities.

According to sources, Buddhism was propagated in Haryana by Buddha himself. Buddhism held an important place in society in parallel to other religions in Haryana, which was an important region of the Kuru kingdom, along with the main centre of Buddhism, founded by Buddha himself around 2500 years ago.

Buddha and Ananda travelled through Haryana several times via the ancient trade route of Mathura-Taxila and up to Gandhar. Buddha delivered several dharma discourses in Haryana like Maha Sati Patthan Sutt, Magandkiya Sutt, Ananjsapay Sutt and Mahanidan Sutt.

Talking to The Tribune, Siddhartha, president of the forum, Yamunanagar, said, “There is a holy place called Adi Badri, about 40 km from Yamunanagar in the foothills of the Shivalik. Excavations there have revealed remains of many stupas and Buddhist monasteries spread over an area of one kilometre. The stupas found on the banks of the Saraswati here are about 1500 to 1800 years old while the monasteries are around 800 to 1000 years old”.

He said the monastery found there was rectangular in shape. “At the entrance, there are stairs which lead to a big hall. On a wall of this hall, a niche contains a beautiful idol of Buddha. It seems this must had been the main worship hall. There are some small rooms also where only one person can sit. They must be the meditation cells”.

Another stupa discovered at Chaneti village, near here, was built during the Mauryan period. This stupa is around 8 m high with a diameter of 20 ms. Around the stupa, a circular parikrama path has been discovered and the lower portion of this stupa is cylindrical while the upper portion is slightly dome-like, containing a huge niche which were used to place idols of Buddha, the sources added.

Siddhartha said after an exhaustive survey of the entire Buddhist sites in the district, the forum was working for promoting and raising voice against the neglected condition of Buddhist monuments. The forum has submitted a collection of 21,000 signatures to the President of India to take steps for saving the Buddhist sites.

The forum further said most of the sites were isolated and if not given due attention “we might lose these”. Siddhartha stated that Haryana had huge Buddhist culture potential and if these sites were promoted at the international level, they could be a boon for the tourism industry.

Kurukshetra, December 6
The prize distribution function of the annual athletic meet was held at DAV Centenary Public School, Pehowa, 25 km from here, yesterday.

Mr Justice Rajesh Bindal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, who was the chief guest, gave away prizes to the winners.

The chief guest highlighted the importance of sports and urged the students to lead a disciplined life.

The girls’ trophy was won by Hans Raj House and the one for boys was won by Vivekanand House. The overall trophy was won by Hansraj House.

School principal NC Bindal said as many as 890 student participated in various events and more than 100 children were given prizes. A beautiful cultural programme was presented on the occasion.

Kaithal, December 6
Various programmes were held in the district on December 1 to mark the World Aids Day to create awakening among people about the disease.

A programme was held at the local police civil lines on the Karnal road here.

Dr Sushma Saini, civil surgeon, was the chief guest while Ravinder Tomar, Kaithal DSP, was the special guest. Nripjit Singh, DSP, and Dr SP Gupta were among those present on this occasion.

Dr saini said such programmes were being organised to highlight effects of the disease and to educate people on how to get the disease diagnosed and get treatment. She said many people lost their lives after contacting the disease due to lack of proper guidance and cure.

She said HIV positive people used to conceal the fact due to social stigma attached to it. Such person should immediately get in touch with the nearest health clinic or hospital where they could be given proper advise by expert doctors, she added.

Dr Gupta said youth could play an important role in controlling the disease by creating awareness about precautions to be taken.

Tomar said the public and members of the police force should realise their duty to educate the masses about the ill-effects of the disease which had been spreading like a wildfire.

Progrmmes were also held at Indira Gandhi Mahila Maha Vidyalaya, Government High School, Sher Garh village, under the aegis of the District Legal Services Authority, RKSD College etc.

Rohtak, December 6
“Transparency in the administrative system is need of the hour and to ensure good governance, corruption is required to be eradicated. Mass awareness and involvement of people in carrying out a campaign is the only way out to combat the growing menace of corruption”.

This was stated by Prof P Rameshan, director, IIM, while delivering the keynote address at an international conference on “Issues of Governance and Corruption”, held at Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) recently. The conference was organised under the UGC Special Assistance Programme (SAP) of the Department of Economics.

Prof Rameshan said to ensure good governance, devotion to organisation, society and country was of prime importance and this fact should be focused at all platforms. He opined that good governance would ensure India’s growth as a world power. Prof Rameshan termed casteism and corruption as two barriers in the nation’s growth.

Dr RK Chauhan, a former Secretary of the UGC, and chief guest on the inaugural session, said good governance in educational institutions was absolutely necessary. Advocating the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for better administrative functioning, he said efforts should continue.

Prof SS Sangwan, vice-chancellor, Pt BDS University of Health Sciences, termed corruption as a silent epidemic.

Eariler, Dr Neelam Choudhary delivered the welcome address.

Sonepat, December 6
With the arrest of three youths, including two school students, the Sonepat police has claimed to have busted a gang of motorcycle thieves and recovered 13 stolen motorcycles from their possession.

According to the police, the students were arrested during a routine checking of vehicles near a dhaba on the Bahagarh road. The youths identified as Mukesh of local Sudama Nagar and Lovely of Jajal village, both students of senior secondary class, were caught with a stolen motorcycle.

During interrogation, they confessed to have lifted 13 motorcycles, including four from the HUDA park in Sector 3, two from Darya Ram hospital, three from HUDA park in Sector 14, two from the Murthal area and two others from different areas. They also said Kailash of Pubnera had also been involved in looting motorcycles and they used to hand over the stolen motorcycles to Kailash. Kailash has also been arrested.