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State to get power through ‘banking’ arrangement
24-hr helpline for power consumers
UHBVN ‘denies’ pension benefits to ex-employees
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India losing out to competitors in global market
Mega medical camp for rural population
State to open vet institutions in 252 gaushalas
Environmentalist calls for reduction in emission of greenhouse gases
Ex-MLA seeks President’s intervention
Reshuffle in Revenue and Disaster Management Departments
NDRI provides training to HP dairy farmers
US Embassy official visits Kurukshetra varsity
Hindu Girls College students bag 6 merit positions
CRPF holds Vanmahotsava at Khewra
Bankers told to promote govt schemes
Electricity circle office sought in Rewari
CSSRI scientist completes Fulbright Fellowship
Sonepat lad bags gold
Kaithal advocate is Central Govt counsel
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State to get power through ‘banking’ arrangement
In the previous years, the utilities had been purchasing additional power through the tender route or on the short-term basis at a cost of Rs 6 to Rs 7 per unit. This year, the utilities have made judicious banking arrangements, which would save the Haryana power utilities about Rs 565 crore. A spokesperson for the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam said for the first time, the utilities had tied up over 1,000 MW of power through banking and return banking arrangements. On an average, the state was receiving back about 500 MW power from other states, which was given to them during November - February. In addition, 500 MW to 600 MW power was being procured through the banking arrangements, which would be returned by Haryana from October onwards. He said the Haryana power distribution companies had arranged about 9,252 lakh units of electricity at an average rate of Rs 6.82 per unit in 2008-09 at a total cost of Rs 631.33 crore on the short-term basis. In 2009-10, the utilities procured about 29,565 lakh units of power at an average cost of Rs 6.44 per unit, for which Rs 1,905 crore was spent. During 2010-11, 12,775 lakh units were purchased at an average cost of Rs 5.53 at an expenditure of Rs 706 crore. The impact of the banking arrangements during the current paddy season would be felt in future when the consumers would not be burdened by fuel surcharge adjustments, a backdoor way of increasing power tariff, of course on temporary basis. The spokesperson said the utilities had succeeded in reducing the overall per unit power purchase cost to Rs 3.06 per unit during 2010-11 as compared to Rs 3.25 in 2009-10.
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24-hr helpline for power consumers
Hisar, July 4 He said on dialing the number, an executive would explain the reason for power cut or failure and the time at which the supply was likely to be restored. In case, the supply had failed due to a local fault, a complaint would be registered. The complaint staff would be asked to attend the complaint. After restoration of the supply, the executive would revert to the complainant to know if the problem had been
resolved. Shayin said the call centre would accept and register complaints through multiple channels. It would forward the registered complaints to the respective offices or the task teams for timely redressal and follow up until the problem was successfully resolved. The call centre’s inbound and outbound interaction with the consumers would be by voice, e-mail, web chat, fax and SMS modes. The centre would also provide for intelligent answering, call queuing, intelligent call routing, interactive voice response and self-service credibility. The call centre would also interact with the fault rectification team serving the consumer’s area for redressal of the complaint within a give time. It would also support the feature of automatic notification which makes use of automated out dialing and IVR to notify one or many consumers that require immediate attention. He said the call centre service would greatly speed up the complaint redressal process. Other services were also planned through the call centre so as to improve the efficiency further. The registration of complaints regarding power supply on Bijli Suvidha Kendras (BSKs) set up at all district head quarters would also continue.
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in trouble
Jhajjar, July 4 The employees have been running from pillar to post to get their dues, but to no avail. Now, they have decided to move the court. According to sources, there are a significant numbers of superannuated employees who have not been provided their full pension benefits even after two years of their retirement from UHBVN. They are persistently making rounds of the nigam’s local and head offices, but instead of any firm response all they got is hollow assurance that their cases were in the process and benefits would be released soon. Azad Singh, who had retired from the post of foreman in June 2009, said he had received 75 per cent of the pension benefits after several months of his superannuation, but could not get the remaining pension despite meeting the top officials of the nigam. “Now, I have two options, either to go to the court or to wait for an unknown period of time when the monthly pension will be released,” he said. Likewise, Om Prakash (superannuated as junior engineer (JE) in September 2009), Chhote Lal (retired as lineman in June 2010), Pushpa Rani (superannuated as meter reader in June 2010) and Dharampal (retired as driver in June 2010) are some of the victims of “irresponsible” functioning of UHBVN. Sadly, Tej Singh (who retired in January 2009) died after several months of his retirement without getting his pension benefits. “I have already made several rounds of the nigam’s offices for getting my full monthly pension, but no one has yet paid heed to my request. Since I have no other source of income, I urgently require pension for livelihood, but the apathetic attitude of nigam officials has put me to immense trouble,” another former employee said. Several employees have already filed a petition in the court seeking release of their pension. Ramphal and Preet Singh are among those who succeeded in getting pension benefits with interest through the court. According to information, merely leave encashment is given to an employee at the time of retirement whereas 75 per cent of full pension is provided to the employee after several months of retirement. Before that, the pre-audit of service book of the superannuated employees is also mandatory. However, neither the process of pre-audit of service book is being concluded before the retirement nor fully pension benefits are being released within the stipulated time after superannuation. “On one hand, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda claims that all government employees are being provided full benefits soon after the retirement while on the other, UHBVN is denying fully benefits to the employees even after two years of the retirement,” said a former employee.
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Ban on export of non-basmati rice
“There is a huge demand for superior non-basmati rice, but the government has not lifted the ban despite record crop, putting other exporting countries like Pakistan, Thailand and China in an advantageous position,” Vijay Setia, president, All India Rice Exporters Association, says. There has been no effort by the government to popularise or publicise the Indian varieties and even after three years, the Union Government is not able to get the basmati tag for Pusa 1121, he rues. The rice exporters have decided to educate the people across the globe about the qualities of Indian varieties and install screens at airports and other vintage locations providing relevant information. A sum of Rs 2.10 crore is being spent from Basmati Development Fund (BDF) to materialise the plan. On the other hand, APEDA has launched promotional events for increasing consumer awareness about Indian basmati rice and invited offers from expert agencies for conceptualising and organising such events in 2011-12 to focus on global markets. Basmati rice is an important export product of India with exports ranging between 20 lakh tonne and 30 lakh tonne per year to over 100 countries and to promote the consumption of Indian basmati, a campaign is to be conducted during 2011-12 with an event in India followed by promotional programmes in EU, US and CIS countries. The Union Government allowed the export of some selected varieties of the south in February this year, but the total exports at minimum export price (MEP) of $850 a tonne, did not cross 1.5 lakh tonne. The three exempted varieties, Ponni Samba, Rosematta and Sona Masuri, are grown in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The rice exporters rue that despite total reserves of 27.8
million tonne on May 1, more than double the level five years ago, the export of superior non-basmati rice, which is expensive and has nothing to do with “food security” for the common man, is not allowed. There is an acute shortage of godowns and food grains are rotting or have been dampened due to rains at many places, but the government has not lifted the ban. Setia says the export position is good and the registration for export of rice with APEDA is 30,000 tonne more till May and total exports are expected to touch 3.5 million tonne. As per data released by the International Grain Council, the total rice exports were 2.1 million tonne, 2.5 million tonnes and 2.6 million tines in 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively, and the balance stock was 18.6 million, 18.4 million and 19.1 million tonne, respectively, after meeting the domestic and export demand, indicating that stock position was comfortable and would be strengthened further with the arrival of next crop from October.
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Mega medical camp for rural population
Chandigarh, July 4 According to Dr. MS Malik, IPS (retd.), president of the Chandigarh Jat Sabha and the Akhil Bharatiya Shaheed Samman Sangharsh Samiti, a special campaign to provide on-the-spot consultancy, super-specialty/free medical check-up, particularly to the have-nots, senior citizens, dependants of war heroes, ex-servicemen, women and children residing in the rural and semi-urban areas of the state was launched from Nidani village in Jind district on July 3. The registration of patients for the first-of-its-kind mega free medical camp, to be held on the premises of Bhai Surendar Singh Malik Memorial Girls Senior Secondary School, Nidani, commenced from June 25 with the help of the Jind Civil Hospital. Malik, who is a former Director-General of the Haryana police, says more than 24 doctors and 48 technical staff/volunteers have offered their services to provide free professional and technical services during this campaign. Many pharmaceutical
companies like Delco Pharmaceuticals, Delhi/Bahadurgarh; Crystal Pharmaceuticals, Ambala City; and Dallas Formulation Private Limited, Baddi; will provide free medicines at the camp. Over 3,000 patients are likely to be examined at the camp, which would be inaugurated by Dr. HK Bali, director, Department of Cardiology, Fortis Hospital, Mohali. Prof. (Dr) Virendar Singh, Head of the Department of Hepatology, PGIMER, Chandigarh; would preside over the inauguration function. Malik says dental check-up and lab testing will be carried out by SGT Medical College, New Delhi, under the guidance of Dr. Umesh Lamba, medical superintendent of the college. Children will be examined by Dr. Pratibha Singh, head of the Paediatrics Unit, PGIMER, Chandigarh. Dr. Kamla Singh and her team of doctors will take care of women patients. Eye patients will be taken care of by Dr. Baba Lal Giri Bharat of Mela Kamalmochan (Yamunanagar) and Dr Kishan Lal Jalan of Government Eye Hospital, Bhiwani. General OPD will be looked after by Dr. Raminder Singh, Dr. Veer Singh Malik from Gohana and Dr. (Col.) NK Bhatia from Chandigarh. As many as 25 nursing students from the Birendar Singh College of Nurses, Uchana, will assist the doctors at the camp. The technical laboratory will be established by BL Sharma, director, SP Clinical laboratory, Chandigarh, and Dr. Naresh Sharma, director, Laboratory & X-Ray Centre, Kaithal.
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State to open vet institutions in 252 gaushalas
Sonepat, July 4 This was stated by Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda while inaugurating a gaushala at Kasanda village recently. The villagers had donated about seven acres of land for this gaushala. He recalled that animal husbandry had been one of the main occupations of the people in the villages for not only meeting the milk requirement but also for supplementing the family income. The government had taken a number of initiatives to increase self-employment opportunities through mini dairies, Murrah buffalo breeding and animal husbandry, he added. After rigorous campaign against foot and mouth disease in animals, Haryana had become the first state in the country to get free from this disease, he said and added that the animal insurance scheme had already been introduced in 15 districts of the state. Sonepat MP Jitender Singh Malik and MLAs Jagbir Singh Malik and Sri Krishan Hooda also spoke on the occasion. Referring to the demands of the gaushala and gram panchayats of Kasanda and Kasandi villages, Hooda announced a grant of Rs 11 lakh for the gaushala and Rs 25 lakh each for development works in both the village. Similarly, MP Malik also announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh for the gaushala and Rs 8 lakh each for both the villages. Both the MLAs also donated Rs 21,000 each for the gaushala.
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Environmentalist calls for reduction in emission of greenhouse gases
Panipat, July 4 In her address, the environmentalist said protecting the Earth was protecting the future of the generations to come. She emphasised on the fact that future generations were at stake when it came to sustainability and warned against the consequences to be faced by mankind in times to come. Discussing about the Earth Democracy, Dr. Vandana stated that the Earth as a whole was in need of the ecological security which was also the fundamental identity of every individual. While promoting organic farming as a means to bring down chemicals in the food chain, Dr. Vandana told the audience to reduce the greenhouse gas emission. “Through ecological methods, the mankind can yield nutritious food and also can avoid natural calamities like drought,” she said. She urged the participants to start kitchen gardens in their homes and children to start garden in their schools for the better health. Agreeing with her views, Ashwani Sharma, ED (I/C), Panipat Complex, assured Dr. Vandana that organic farming initiatives would be taken up at the refinery township. Earlier, the programme started with an elaborate presentation on goals of the IOCL in sustainability and renewable energy by BR Pradhan, SM, Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development. Besides, ED (F) Madhu Nangia, ED PNC SK Ghosh, GMs, DGMs and employees of the refinery also participated actively in the session.
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Police ‘brutality’ at Ramlila Grounds
Rewari, July 4 The padyatra, which commenced on June 15 from Sed Alipur, a village situated on the Haryana-Rajasthan border in Mahendragarh district and concluded on June 23 at Dundahera, a village situated on the Haryana-Delhi border in Gurgaon district, covered as many as 116 villages, towns and cities of Mahendragarh, Rewari and Gurgaon districts comprising the Ahirwal region. Stating that while the above mentioned police brutality had aroused the conscience of the entire nation, Yadav said the residents of the region too thronged every bivouac en route to express their solidarity with the padyatris. Further stating that people still reposed their faith in the Gandhian way of non-violent protest and fully approved of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain’s peaceful dissent, Raghu alleged that police force in Delhi had not only been used by the ruling brass to ruthlessly suppress the people’s movement against corruption and black money, but to keep their saddle safe as well. Simultaneously, he expressed hope that the President would act firmly to ensure that such repression and injustice was not allowed to recur again.
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Reshuffle in Revenue and Disaster Management Departments
Chandigarh, July 4 Dilbag Singh, tehsildar, has been posted at Taoru vice Hanuman Singh, who has been transferred to Ballabgarh against Naresh Kumar, who goes to Bawal. Jitender Kumar, Rakesh Sharma and Manbir Singh Sangwan, all tehsildars, have been posted at Rohtak, Palwal and Farukhnagar, respectively. Ishwar Chand, tehsildar has been posted as LAO Irrigation, Ambala. Ashwani Gambhir, Darbara Singh and Rajiv Sharma have been posted as tehsildars at Panipat, Gulha and Naraingarh, respectively. Jagdish Chander and Mahender Singh, both tehsildars, have been posted at Gohana and Chhachhrauli, respectively. Among other tehsildars, Chandi Ram has been posted at Israna and Swroop has been transferred to Rewari vice Tarsem Lal, who has been posted at Kharkhoda against BS Rana, who goes to Faridabad. Rajender Garg, Hari Om Atri and Pankaj Setia have been posted at Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh and Pataudi, respectively. Ramphal Kataria has been posted at State Vigilance Bureau, Panchkula, and Subhash Mehta would now look after the work of tehsildar, Gharaunda. Posting orders of Dharam Pal, Rajender Singh Gahlot and Raj Kumar Bhorai will be issued later on. Among naib tehsildars, Suresh Kumar has been posted at Panipat (M) and Nirmal Dahiya has been posted at Ambala Cannt. (M). Ram Bhaj has been transferred to Samalkha (M) vice Ravinder Singh Hooda, who goes to Panipat (Agrn.) against Devender Singh, who has been posted at Panipat (A/c). Naib tehsildars Virender Kumar, Daljit Singh, Om Parkash Ladu, Dharam Pal, Inder Singh, Sanjeev Kumar Nagar, Gurudev, Suresh Kumar, Poonam Solanki, Ram Kishan, Sant Ram Tanwar, Dharam Pal, Kulwant Singh and Ram Mehar have been posted at Balsmand (M), Dabwali (Agrn.I), Sirsa (Agrn.I), Ateli (M), Narwana (M), Palwal (L/M), Rajaund (M), Siwan (M), Sampla (M), Loharu (M), Mahendergarh, (A/C), Bhiwnai (L/M), Gurgaon (A/C) and Ballaha (M), respectively. Abdullah Khan has been posted at Hodel (M) vice Narender Chaprana, who goes to Ballabgarh (M) against Deepak Raj, who has been posted at Sonipat (M) vice Sushil Sharma, who will look after the work of naib tehsildar at Gannaru (M). Ishwar Singh has been transferred to Mustafabad (M), Rattan Lal to Nangal Chaudhary (M) and Ramesh Kumar Saini to Babain (M) vice Rupender Singh, who goes to Jagadhri (M). Umrao Singh, Balaur Singh, Lachhman Dass and Naresh Kumar Jowel have been posted at Bhattu Kalan (M), Jakhal (M), Nissing (M) and Nighdu (M), respectively. Narender Singh has been posted at Panchkula (M) and Raj Singh at Faridabad (M) and Ravinder Singh at Khanpur Kalan (M). Sankalp has been posted at Saha (M), while Anand and Anil Kumar have been transferred to Bapauli (M) and Farukh Nagar (M), resrpectively. Posting orders of Ram Mehar, Basti Ram, Om Parkash Ranga and Ishwar Singh, all naib tehsildars, will be issued later on.
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NDRI provides training to HP dairy farmers
Karnal, July 4 The farmers were provided firsthand information and knowledge on scientific dairy farming. Dr Dalip K. Gosain, programme coordinator of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) and Dairy Training Centre (DTC), said scientific dairy farming had immense potential in the hill state that could increase milk production which would provide additional income and employment to the farmers in different districts of Himachal Pradesh. Dr Gosain, while addressing a group of 40 beneficiaries, including 24 farm women from five panchayats of Una district, encouraged the farmer families to adopt the recommended dairy production practices in their dairy farms in a holistic fashion to get the maximum benefit for the time and resources spent in dairying. He observed that a majority of the farmers and farm women in these five batches preferred rearing buffaloes with an average milk production of around five litres per day per animal. He said they should have more crossbred cattle and improved the breeds of buffaloes through artificial insemination and fed them on the basis of their requirements based on milk production potentials. Vandana Lakhanpal, working as watershed development coordinator, who accompanied the fifth group, said the information provided by the experts was of great use and newer for the participants that would certainly help them improve their herd production upon adoption of the shared technologies. Dr Satyapal, another technical officer of the KVK, provided firsthand information and knowledge on dairy production and the groups were shown the elite herd of cattle and buffaloes at the institute’s cattle yard as well in the village situations. Ashwani Kumar, group coordinator, Updesh, Soma Devi, Roop vati, Mayas Devi, Neelam , Hem raj and Sunil Kumar said that they would share the experiences with the framers of their villages.
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BJYM activists to gherao Parliament on Aug 9
Rewari, July 4 While Anurag Thakur, national president of the BJYM, will spearhead the protest, the morcha, on the pattern of the Quit India Movement of 1942, will give a call “bhrashtachariyon, satta chhodo” (Corrupts, Quit the throne). Addressing a press conference here recently, Rajesh Yadav, a member of the national executive committee of the BJYM and in charge of its affairs in Haryana, said in the wake of the numerous scams and scandals in the recent times, it could be rightly asserted that the Centre had forfeited its moral right to govern the country. He said the UPA’s lacklustre performance had belied the expectations of millions of the countrymen. Yadav asserted that thousands of youths had already been mobilised by the morcha for the protest. He said about 20,000 activists from various districts of Haryana would reach Delhi on August 9 to join the protest.
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US Embassy official visits Kurukshetra varsity
Kurukshetra, July 4 Wadhawan also extended invitation to the KU administration and students to interact with the US Trade Mission consisting of US officials and representatives of 25 US universities that will be visiting India from October 10 to 15 this year. A number of vice-chancellors, education administrators, faculty members, students and research scholars from universities and other educational institutes from India would be meeting the US Trade Mission in Delhi, Chennai and Bombay in October, she added. Dr Surinder Deswal, registrar, KU, Prof DD Arora, Dean of Colleges, Prof NK Matta, former dean, Academic Affairs, Prof Smita Choudhary, Director, Institute of Environment Studies, Prof Brajesh Sawhney, director, Public Relations, and Dr Tripathi from the UIET were present during the meeting with Wadhawan.
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MDU RESULTS
Sonepat, July 4 According to the college principal, Nirmal Jabbal, Kalpana with 83.4 per cent marks got the fourth position, Pratibha with 81.66 per cent secured the ninth position and Roli with 81.22 marks stood at the 10th position. Mandeep and Seema jointly shared the 13th position with 80.6 per cent marks; whereas Meenakshi was placed at the 15th position in the results, which were declared recently. The principal congratulated the students on their performance.
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CRPF holds Vanmahotsava at Khewra
Sonepat, July 4 The DIG said the unit had set the target to plant as many as 5,000 saplings in three phases. In the first phase, the boundary area of the unit would be covered by the shady trees and after approval of the layout plan of the unit, the flower plants would decorate the campus roads and other premises in the second phase, he said and added that the gardens and parks with fruit and ornamental trees would be third phase exercise. He also stressed that the plantation was the easiest and the best way to protect the environment and pointed that lots of trees were getting destroyed for want of proper care. “So, it becomes the duty of every one to take care of their plantations,” he exhorted.
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Bankers told to promote govt schemes
Karnal, July 4 While presiding over a meeting of representatives of the leading banks of the district, deputy commissioner Neelam Kasni said the banks could play an important role in providing finical assistance to those who had the potential to get self-employed and consolidate their monetary standing. The deputy commissioner, while monitoring the progress made by the banks in terms of meeting loan targets, said bankers should also keep close tabs on the background of those seeking loans so that there was no increase in banks NPAs. She said the state government had come with a number of schemes through which people could engage in self-employment.
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Electricity circle office sought in Rewari
Rewari, July 4 The DHVLM pointed out that out of the four districts of Rewari, Yamunanagar, Panipat and Kaithal, which were carved out in November, 1989 by the Haryana Government, the Rewari district alone had been endlessly waiting even for a circle office of the electricity department. Ranbir Singh Yadav, general secretary of DHVLM, said even Jhajjar district, which came into existence in 1997, was endowed with a circle office two years ago at the behest of the Chief Minister. He said, “ Electricity consumers here have to go to Narnaul for minor things. Is it not the responsibility of the power brass to see to it that a circle office was opened in Rewari, where three full-fledged divisions of the DHBVN had already been functioning at Rewari, Dharuhera and
Kosli?” — OC
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CSSRI scientist completes Fulbright Fellowship
Karnal, July 4 The four-month fellowship was awarded to Dr. Singh for 2010-2011 by the United States India Educational Foundation, New Delhi-US, under the Environmental Leadership Programme for working on “community based natural resources conservation” at the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US. During the fellowship, (February to May, 2011), Dr. Singh has worked on approaches and methods of community involvement in sustainable agricultural natural resources conservation and climate change adaptation. The work experience gained at the SNRE under the fellowship would enable Dr. Singh to further execute research on location-specific community participation in sustaining natural resources in climate change scenario. The Fulbright Fellowship is given to a fellow for excellence in a respective subject area. This fellowship also helps in developing better trust and cultural relationships between the citizens of India and the US.
— TNS
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Sub-Junior National Swimming C’ship
Sonepat, July 4 The school principal, Shikha Banerjee, and Yash Deep’s coach Ramesh Dabbas termed it a rare achievement from a Haryana lad saying that it took 10 years to win a gold medal for the state. They hoped that he would bring laurels for the state and the country in future also. Congratulating the lad for this outstanding performance, general secretary of the Haryana Swimming Federation Anil Khatri said Yash became the first swimmer of Haryana to win a gold medal in the Sub-Junior National Swimming Championship so far. The federation would honour Yash for this achievement, he added.
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Kaithal advocate is Central Govt counsel
Joint secretary and legal advisor to the Ministry of Law and Justice in a communiqué sent recently had informed about this engagement. Additional Solicitor General of India in Delhi Mohan Jain, Anmol Rattan Sidhu, Assistant Solicitor General, Chandigarh, and Registrar, Punjab and Haryana, had been informed about this appointment, the communiqué said. Arvind Seth is already on the panel of the Haryana Government for conducting cases of the HUDA, Municipal Council, Faridabad, Haryana Tourism Corporation and HVPN in Punjab and Haryana High Court.
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Chandigarh, July 4
Karnal, July 4
Kaithal, July 4