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Water top priority: Cong MP
Declining Water Table |
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Steps to breathe new life into small units
Schools get over Rs 5 cr to buy PT & drill items
Varsity dons threaten stir over wages
More hotel rooms needed for foreign tourists: Sahay
Land Grab
Admn gets tough with illegal miners
Educationist all praise for Swami Agnivesh
Hooda leaves for Israel
Measures to plug loopholes in PDS
Rural Lok Adalat decides 60 cases
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Water top priority: Cong MP
Nangal Chaudhary, April 10 Addressing a “Jal Rally” here today, the MP pointed out that the matter had been pending for nearly seven years. The President had referred the contentious issue to the Supreme Court after the Punjab Assembly passed the Punjab Termination of (Water) Agreements Act in 2004, annulling the tripartite agreement signed by the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan in the presence of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1981. Rao Inderjeet Singh said in Haryana the management and uniform distribution of water and not the Lokpal Bill was the top priority. “We have been living with corruption and the country has seen a sound economicgrowth...Hence, the Lokpal Bill can wait,” he maintained. Criticising the media for making a big deal of Anna Hazare sitting on fast against corruption, he said: “If 500 people gather in New Delhi, the issue assumes significance while even if 50,000 people assemble here, it is played down.” Congress MP Shruti Choudhry and party spokesperson Ved Prakash Vidrohi also addressed the gathering. Union Water Resources Minister Salman Khursheed, who was to be the chief guest, did not turn up. Explaining his absence, Rao Inderjeet said he (Khursheed) was in Tamil Nadu for campaigning. Congress MP, AICC secretary and co-incharge of Haryana affairs, Tara Chand Bhagora, the party’s observer for today’s rally, said he would convey the people’s concerns to the party high command. |
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Declining Water Table
Chandigarh, April 10 The exercise would be replicated on a larger scale for sustainable development of ground water in sweet water
zones. This would also reduce the problem of floods with water collected in depressions being drained out through such shafts. Yadav said the department had implemented several other schemes for replenishing the water table. These schemes were at various stages of completion. To utilise the surplus Yamuna waters during the monsoon for recharge of the ground water, the Dadupur Shahabad Nalvi Irrigation Scheme for Rs 267 crore had been started. Its first phase had been completed and the second phase was scheduled to be completed by June 2011. A scheme costing Rs 1.28 crore has been approved for construction of an escape reservoir for utilising surplus waters of the Loharu canal. The minister said that the Ottu Lake would be further deepened by 4 ft to provide additional storage capacity, for which work would be started after the lake bed dried up. The department proposed to repair, restore and renovate the Bibipur Lake in Kurukshetra at a cost of Rs 117 crore for providing irrigation facilities during the monsoon season.
— PTI |
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Steps to breathe new life into small units
What ails
manufacturers Faced with growing competition from low-cost Chinese products, labour uncertainties and lack of aggressive marketing, most manufacturers have chosen to don the role of traders instead
Chandigarh, April 10 With contribution from manufacturing units, spread as clusters over the state, gradually ebbing, this trend has adversely hit employment opportunities while reducing the funds coming to the government Treasury by way of taxes. Ambala, once considered the hub of microscope and laboratory equipment production, has been reduced to a stamping and forwarding cluster over time. China-made microscopes and casting and optical lenses have established dominance primarily because running establishments is no more a paying proposition. Similarly, Yamunanagar with its untensils cluster, Panipat known for its fabric and upholstery cluster, Kaithal’s rice mill cluster, Gurgaon’s cluster of low-cost clothing manufacturers, Rohtak’s precision tools cluster and many more are gradually falling out. Resultantly, business, product standards and employment, too, have fallen considerably over the past few years. In such a scenario, the Haryana Industries Department has come to the rescue of these 40-odd clusters, unable to sustain themselves in the face of growing competition, with the help of a Government of India programme. “We realise that our strength lies in promoting this cluster culture. With a little ‘hand-holding’ from us, the maufacturing units can be back on their feet and do good business. We have prepared a proposal for appointing consultants who can thoroughly study the clusters’ needs, garner information of their assets and identify areas where common efforts can be made. Our assessment is that most of these units are faltering because of lack of improvisation, failure to adopt the latest technology and inability to aggressively market products. That is where we intend to step in,” explains Industries Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala. He is hopeful the clearance for the same will come through shortly. Based on this feedback, the Haryana Government will avail itself of a Government of India-funded Cluster Development Programme of the Ministry of Small and Medium Scale Industries to breathe new life into these clusters. The Centre will bear 75 per cent of its cost. The idea is to provide support for research and development, marketing, help add value to products and establish low-cost common facility centres for providing an insight into the new processes and technology to keep these units abreast of the changes. The president of the Ambala Scientific Instruments Manufacturers Association, Puneet Gupta, says, “Manufacturing is fast fading in our cluster. Today, Ambala does not have the wherewithal to accept an order of a lakh microscopes because most units are merely importing these instruments and dispatching them. Some others are making sub-standard products on traditional machines when technology has made rapid strides. With manufacturing out, there has been a substantial cut in the manpower. Government intervention, essential for the survival of the cluster culture at this point, especially in research, will not only lift business but also bring back quality in the products.” |
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Schools get over Rs 5 cr to buy PT & drill items
Chandigarh, April 10 Stating this here yesterday, Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal said each SMC had been given a grant of Rs 10,000 for providing these articles to students studying in Classes I to VIII. She said the committees had been constituted in all elementary-level schools in the state to ensure community participation in school functioning. The minister said 393 model cluster schools in 31 educationally backward blocks in 10 districts have been established to give better education to girls. These schools have been set up where the female literacy rate is low as compared to the national female literacy rate. Hobby or vocational and life skill development camps were organised for girls in these blocks and girl students were sent on excursion tours to different places of historical, educational and cultural importance. Besides, 786 early childcare centres, two in each model cluster school, have been set up. Bhukkal said in-service training was being imparted to update teachers with new teaching techniques under which as many as 40,525 teachers were trained during 2010-11. Similarly, 1,755 newly recruited PTIs had been imparted induction training. She said book fairs were organised in all districts of the state, which was visited by the school head along with students to buy books. She said construction of 6,151 additional classrooms, 23 headmaster rooms, 1,748 separate girl toilets and electrification of 520 schools had
been taken up during 2010-11 to ensure better infrastructure in government schools. |
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Varsity dons threaten stir over wages
Sirsa, April 10 At a meeting of FEDHUTA held at Chaudhary Devi Lal University here today, it was resolved that the teachers would not accept any deviation or dilution in the University Grants Commission /Ministry of Human Resource Development notification. FEDHUTA also warned that if the notification was further delayed or notified with any deviation from the UGC/MHRD notification, the university teachers would boycott the examination duty and would not take part in the admission process in the coming months. Somveer Rathee, president of FEDHUTA, said the state government had already delayed the notification without any valid reason. He warned that if the state government delayed it any further, the university teachers would launch an agitation. The meeting condemned the incident of beating up of an Assistant Professor of the CDLU and demanded action against the culprits. Rathee maintained that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had assured a FEDHUTA delegation on March 3 that a comprehensive notification would be issued in March itself as per the recommendations of the MHRD/UGC, but it was yet to be released. He said the Haryana Government had implemented the revised pay scales for the university and college teachers in the state but these were in bits and pieces and many of the issues were left untouched. These issues included advance increments for higher qualifications like MPhil, MTech, MPharma, LLM and PhD. The issues that had remained unaddressed also included the entry-level pay of directly recruited teachers and equivalent cadres recruited on or after January 1, 2006. Moreover, the promotions of teachers were kept in abeyance after January 1, 2009, meaning thereby that all promotions of teachers were pending for more than two years. The dilly-dallying tactics of the state government was hampering the congenial atmosphere in higher education institutions in the state, Rathee said. Dilbag Singh and Ravinder Paul Ahlawat, who represented the host university at the meeting, said all neighbouring states such as Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pardesh, Uttar Pardesh and even Jharkhand had implemented the UGC/MHRD notification without making any changes whereas Haryana had failed to take any meaningful steps in this direction since 2008. Tek Chand, president, and Rakesh Mehra, vice-president, respectively, of the Haryana Agricultural University Association, Sandeep Rana, president, and Rakesh Lohchab, former president, respectively, of the Guru Jambeshwar University Teachers Assocation, Pawan Saroha, president of the BPS Women University Association, Khanpur, Ravinder Pal and Dilbag Singh, EC members, CDLU, Sirsa, Deepti Dharmani, convener, CDLU, Sirsa, Raj Kumar, president, Navneet, vice-president, and Surender Dahiya, secretary, respectively, of the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University Teachers Association, Manjeet Singh, president of the YMCA, Faridabad, Manish Vashisth and some other teacher leaders were present at the meeting. |
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More hotel rooms needed for foreign tourists: Sahay
Gurgaon, April 10 This was stated by Union Minister for Tourism Subodh Kant Sahay while interacting with mediapersons at the launch of a four-star hotel in Sector 44 here on Friday. The Union Minister maintained that India was a fabulous global tourist destination, though many parts of the country were still unexplored or under-explored. He asserted that they needed more hotel rooms with good facilities for the tourists coming from abroad. Admitting that a hotel needs a minimum of 80 clearances from various government ministries and departments, Sahay said in order to streamline the process, the Tourism Ministry had formed a committee headed by the Tourism Secretary to provide single-window service to enable the hoteliers for getting all required clearances at one place. The minister pointed out that the states should also have a similar single-window service system for the hoteliers as hotels contribute to the economic growth, bring foreign exchange and create employment avenues. Sahay disclosed that a team of ASSOCHEM, CII and FICCI would approach the state authorities and give presentations about the expectations from the states to promote tourism. “After this, a meeting of tourism ministers from the states will be called at Dehradun, possibly in May. The outcome of the deliberations of this meeting will then be discussed with the Prime Minister. The aim is to promote tourism in an integrated manner under the 12th Five Year Plan,” he said, adding that in most states, the main problem was of providing land for hotels. |
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Nothing right with Kaithal fire station
Kaithal, April 10 There are not enough fire tenders to provide efficient services to the people. The fire-fighting staff, including 12 drivers and 16 firemen, have been engaged on ad hoc basis through a contractor. Besides, the staff and the drivers are not paid their salaries regularly. The staff members appointed on contract basis, who did not get their salary since January, went on strike here recently, following which they were assured the payment of salary for January only. The authorities have failed to realise the gravity of the situation as the wheat-harvesting season has set in, in which fire incidents occur frequently. Though on papers, five fire tenders are available in the fire station here, which have to meet the needs of Kaithal, Kalayat, Pundri and Rajound areas, two of them are in bad shape. The staff said only one out of the two hydrant points (water filling point) was functional at the local fire station. It had not been repaired by the Public Health Department, despite repeated requests by the department concerned. The building housing the fire station on Pehowa Chowk is in a dilapidated condition. Heaps of scrap have accumulated, but no one seems to bother to dispose off the waste material. Interestingly, a new building constructed for the fire station near Siwan Gate at a cost of Rs 30 lakh and inaugurated by Haryana minister Randeep Singh Surjewala two years ago remains unoccupied due to its unsuitable location at a congested place. The money spent here could have been used to renovate the existing fire station. Thanks to the prevailing red-tapism, there seems to be no move to get the two fire tenders repaired. Residents feel that there was an urgent need to review the upkeep of the fire-fighting equipment and make provision for more hydrant points in Kaithal and at other places in the district so that services are not affected. |
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Land Grab
Hisar, April 10 She told mediapersons here today that her husband had purchased land in Dahima village of the district sometime ago. However, a dispute arose and a legal case followed which was decided in favour of Col Sardana. She said her husband had court verdict in his favour, but despite that a “small-time” Congress leader went to the fields along with some policemen and a few of his cronies on April 4. Col Sardana was at that time getting the crop reaped. She alleged that the policemen took her husband away to the police station where he was kept in illegal confinement and in his absence the land grabbers took away the reaped crop. She said she met the SP and wanted a case registered against the Congress man and his cronies. However, no case was registered. She also met the IG, Hisar range, but to no avail. She has sent copies of her complaint to the Governor and Chief Minister among others. |
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Admn gets tough with illegal miners
Karnal, April 10 Deputy Commissioner Neelam Kasni convened a meeting of top police, mining and civil officials in which she issued directions in this regard. The move came following a raid conducted by the authorities on Wednesday during which an illegal miner was arrested while a few others had managed to escape. Despite a ban on mining in the area, the mining mafia is active in the region. Frequent raids to check the practice by the authorities have failed to act as a deterrent for the illegal miners. According to the fresh directions issued to police and mining officials, the Deputy Commissioner has asked them to increase the frequency of the raids. The Deputy Commissioner also directed the officials to submit a weekly report to her office regarding the raids. Besides, the officials have been asked to keep a round-the-clock vigil
on the movement of tractor-trailers that are used for mining. Meanwhile, mining officials said since last October they had impounded as many as 171 trailers from which an amount of
Rs 21.34 lakh was recovered as “royalty and mineral price”. During the meeting, district police chief Rajinder More suggested that sarpanches of all villages located along the Yamuna in the district should be roped in to check
this menace. The Deputy Commissioner said farmers along the Yamuna had been exhorted to cooperate with the authorities to check the practice. |
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Educationist all praise for Swami Agnivesh
Yamunanagar, April 10 Swami Agnivesh has raised the image of the Arya Samaj for his contribution to the social reforms along with Anna Hazare for making the central government agreed for presenting the Lokpal Bill in the coming Monsoon session of
Parliament. Sibal also deserved an appreciation for quick decision regarding the Lokpal Bill for strengthening the democracy in the country. He described the coming together of the civil society and the government on the Lokpal Bill issue as a step that augured well for democracy, saying it signifies the mutual resolve to combat corruption. He thanked various civil society organisations and individuals for their support to the campaign against corruption. He further said mere passing of the Bill would not fully serve the purpose, as people had not attained good virtues from the school level. “Our present system of education has given a commercial outlook to people. Ancient India was far more civilised than modern India with its satellite in space,” he added. He said value-based education at the school level was the need of the hour to make students a good citizen. “The quality of education of children today will determine the quality of life in India tomorrow. A good school can build the nation that can eliminate corruption fully. Therefore, the central government should give due importance to school education by giving liberal grant to schools also like colleges for building the nation. |
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Hooda leaves for Israel
Chandigarh, April 10 Hooda will discuss certain issues concerning agriculture with representatives of the Israeli Government, including import of planting material from Israel, visit of Israeli experts for technological upgrade of various crops, manufacturing unit for plastic films or material used in poly houses and net houses, and mechanisation of post-harvest management and processing. He would also discuss the issue of collaboration for establishment of an organic centre and bee centre for breeding, new intervention in the field of dairying and fisheries, technology for use of brackish underground water for agricultural and horticultural crops and technology for treatment of city’s wastewater to be used for horticultural crops on the pattern of Israel. The delegation will also visit the Arava International Centre for Trainees, Gilad Export Company, Sheizaf Water Reservoir, an organic farm and the Yair Research Station. The members of the delegation include Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma. |
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Measures to plug loopholes in PDS
Jind, April 10 There are about 11 gas supply outlets in the district catering to 1,54640 consumers-76,435 with a single cylinder connection and 78,215 with a double cylinder connection. While there are 962 commercial connections in the district, more than one-fourth of domestic cylinders are being supplied to commercial users illegally. The overcharged consumers face further harassment by the gas agencies which force them to buy a gas stove. However, the district authorities claim that regular checks and raids are being conducted to ensure that the consumers are not fleeced and action has been initiated against several depot holders in the past one year. An official spokesperson said the security deposit of as many 64 depot owners had been confiscated on charges of irregularities, supply to 61 depots suspended and licences of 24 others cancelled during this period. The authorities had also recovered over 2,000 litres of kerosene siphoned off to the open market. |
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Rural Lok Adalat decides 60 cases
Sirsa, April 10 Addressing villagers, the Judge said the lok adalats played a vital role in providing simple, cheaper and prompt justice to litigants and these saved litigants from the hassles of frequenting courts. She said since the litigations settled in the lok adalats were resolved through mutual compromise between the warring parties, there was no appeal against the decisions announced here. She said the lok adalats had helped easing out pressure from the courts by disposing of civil cases and matters of petty crimes on the spot. Naresh Kumar Singhal, Chief Judicial Magistrate and secretary of the DLSA, said 349 lok adalats had been organised in the district so far. He said 83,663 cases had come up before these lok adalats, out of which 45,650 had been settled through mutual compromise. |
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