Chandigarh, July 21
A sharp decline of 17.74 per cent in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) has been registered in Haryana as a result of various health care facilities being provided free of cost to pregnant women by the state government to promote institutional deliveries.

According to Haryana Health Minister Narender Singh, as per the data released by the Registrar General of India, the MMR in the state has come down from 186 in 2004-05 to 153 per one lakh live births in 2009-10 as compared to the national average of 212. The MMR in Haryana is far better as compared to neighbouring states of UP, Rajasthan and Punjab where it stood at 359, 318 and 172, respectively.

A target to reduce the MMR to 109 by 2015 has been set in the country. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala have already achieved this target and Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat are nearing the target.

The Minister said it was encouraging that taking cue from various maternal and infant care schemes being implemented by Haryana, the Central government had launched the Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram. It was launched by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi from Mewat in Haryana on June 1, 2011.

The institutional deliveries in the state had improved considerably. A total of 74 per cent institutional deliveries were recorded in the state in 2010 as compared to 49 per cent in 2006, 53.7 per cent in 2007, 59 per cent in 2008 and 67.03 per cent in 2009.

He said constant increase in institutional deliveries had been recorded at district hospitals, community health centres, primary health centres, sub-centres and delivery huts.

During 2010-11, 58,638 deliveries were reported at district hospitals and 38,412 deliveries at community health centres, indicating 7.4 per cent and 52.79 per cent growth over last year, respectively.

Similarly, 40,626 deliveries were conducted at primary health centres and 49,213 deliveries at sub-centres and delivery huts, showing an increase of 39.14 per cent and 21.08 per cent over the last year, respectively.

The district administration had notified an open space near Sector 6 for holding public meetings or dharnas by claiming that such an activity there would not disturb the functioning of the courts and other offices in the mini secretariat.

“The local authorities and the police had to face public wrath and criticism in view of the demonstrations held inside the town, causing traffic chaos and inconvenience to the local residents and on some occasions these protests had led to violation of the law and order situation in the city, admitted a senior official.

Meanwhile, the district unit of the BJP held a demonstration on the issue of the alleged corruption and irregularities in the work of the local municipal corporation.

The projects would be funded in the ratio of 75 and 25 by the NCRPB and the Haryana government, respectively.

The review meeting was informed that there was a budget provision of Rs 881.15 crore for the NCRPB-funded projects in the revised estimates for 2010-11, out of which Rs 500 crore was for the PWD (B&R), Rs 140 crore for the Public Health Engineering Department, Rs 60 crore for technical education, Rs 13.73 crore for irrigation and Rs 167.42 crore for the Medical Education and Research Department. 

Jind, July 21
To conserve water resources and to check further decrease in the underground water table, the Horticulture Department has launched a drive to bring at least 100 hectares under the sprinkler irrigation system in the district this year. It is claimed that this would help improve the overall per hectare productivity besides checking the wastage of water during the irrigation process.

A department official said the government had announced to provide a subsidy up to 90 per cent of the cost of the equipment required to adopt this technique. He claimed that the sprinkler technique had been found useful not only for horticulture but also for the cultivation of commercial crops like sugarcane and cotton.

The use of such a system had resulted in increase in per acre production of some crops in the recent past and in wake of its usefulness in saving the wastage of water, the department of agriculture and horticulture has proposed to take up this technique on a wider scale.

The target of bringing about 100 hectares under this system has been set up for this year and this could be increased in the next couple of years if the move proved a success in the cultivation of common crops. According to officials, the experiment has yielded good results with the reports of increase in the productivity by as much as 50 per cent.

The provision of heavy subsidy has been able to attract more farmers who want to install the system. It is stated that the mini-sprinkler system and the line drip system can provide the required level of humidity to the crops and help check the overdose of water in a certain area. The use of such a technique has led to increase in per acre productivity of sugarcane to around 400 quintal from just 250 to 300 quintal.

It is claimed that the farmer who adopts this technique is required to shell out Rs 1,500 per acre while the rest 90 per cent of the cost will be given by the government. The misuse of water resources has resulted in a sharp depletion of underground water as a tubewell may require a boring to a depth up to 3,000 ft while it was less than 100 ft a few years ago, it is claimed. 

Gurgaon, July 21
The bhajan parties of the Department of Information, Public Relations and Cultural Affairs of the Haryana government will make the masses aware of the vital significance of water conservation.

“The bhajan parties will compose songs in regional dialects and spread awareness, especially among the rural masses, about the issue of global concern, apart from various welfare policies and programmes of the state government,” said Shiv Raman Gaur, additional principal secretary to the Chief Minister, who is also the director of the department.

He was addressing a gathering after inaugurating a three-day workshop for the bhajan parties (folk units) here recently. Nearly 30 parties from six districts falling in Gurgaon division attended the workshop.

Gaur observed that the bhajan parties, working at grass-roots level to publicise government’s policies and programmes in the rural areas, needed reorientation, for which such workshops were being organised at the division level.

A workshop had already been organised in Ambala division while more will be organised in Hisar and Rohtak divisions.

Reminding the bhajan parties of announcements made by the Chief Minister, Gaur maintained that they should compose new songs to publicise the latest welfare schemes.

He pointed out that as the government was observing 2011 as “Water Conservation Year”, so the bhajan parties should educate the masses, especially those living in the rural areas, about the importance of saving water.

“Besides, the bhajan parties should also spread awareness to uproot social evils like female foeticide and dowry, in addition to enthusing good moral values in the younger generation,” Gaur asserted.

He disclosed that the government was considering a proposal to provide new and modern musical equipment to the bhajan parties to enhance their efficiency.

Dr Kuldeep Saini, deputy director (field), told the participants about the aim and objective of the workshop.

District information and public relations officer RS Sangwan welcomed the guests and participants, while deputy director (NCR) SK Joshi proposed the vote of thanks.

Rewari, July 21
Encroachments by shopkeepers and roadside vendors at Rao Tula Ram Chowk, New Sabzi Mandi Road area, Moti Chowk Bazaar stretch, Dharuhera Chungi area and the Bus Stand here have assumed menacing proportions.

Besides persistently obstructing the smooth flow of traffic, these hefty encroachments are a constant hazard to the pedestrians and others.

Taking a serious note of the menace, deputy commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi, along with officials concerned, visited the above areas recently.

City magistrate Ranjit Kaur, DSP MS Rana, public health executive engineer Rakesh Kumar, market committee secretary Satya Prakash, municipal council secretary TR Sharma, ME Ajay Sikka and other officials constituted the DC’s entourage.

Recalling admonitory directions given by him to roadside vendors and others during his previous visit, the DC instructed the market committee secretary for speedy removal of all such encroachments.

He also warned that if the shopkeepers still continued with the encroachments, penal proceedings would be launched against them for disobedience of the order. He also directed the municipal council secretary to put cows and other animals roaming about freely at public places into the enclosure and also pay adequate attention to the cleanliness of the city.

Simultaneously, he instructed the public health xen to get cleaned choked sewers and ensure that the drainage system worked smoothly in this rainy season. The DC wrapped up his schedule with a visit to the bus stand premises where he directed the roadways officials to get the peripheral area cleared of handcarts and maintain proper sanitation.

Faridabad, July 21
The ruling Congress in Haryana is said to have adopted a “non-reactive” attitude to the moves of its opponents as a part of political strategy. Its opponents, including its arch rival, the INLD, are making efforts to corner it by their individual programmes with a single point agenda: to remove it from the pedestal of power.

While the INLD, led by former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, is understood to have advised its cadre to be focused on the party’s agitations and also to pursue a positive agenda to expand the party’s base, other political parties, too, have upped the ante against the government.

The BSP has also decided to embark on a confrontational course with the Congress and wade into statewide agitations from July 15, starting from Ballabgarh in this district. National vice-president of the BSP Raja Ram disclosed that his party had placed all the districts in Haryana in four zones: Gurgaon, Hisar, Kurukshetra and Ambala. The party will commence its agitation against the state government in the form of mass dharna in Gurgaon zone on July 15. The same would be followed in the remaining three zones.

The BJP and the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL), finding themselves sandwiched between the Congress and the INLD, are said to be working hard to beef up their organisational strength. A section of the leaders in both the parties, however, expressed disappointment at their political outfits not making desired headway in the state.

The Haryana Janhit Congress recently faced a jolt with senior leader Rajinder Sharma, who had quit the BSP as it state general secretary during the last parliamentary election, rejoining the BSP. Sharma, who hails from this district, attributed his resignation from the HJC to “faulty” leadership of Kuldip Bishnoi.

According to analysts, the Congress, on the other side, appears to be presently sitting comfortable in the saddle in Haryana as the Opposition has not thrown a major challenge in an organised way before the Congress or its government. Wherever there had been signs of discontent, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was said to have timely intervened to sort out the issues.

Summing up the mood of the Congress camp, former organising secretary of the state Congress Rajan Ojha said his party had no concerns as it had a valuable asset in “clean and decent” image of the Chief Minister, which had acted like a bulwark against the opposition parties in the state.

Another Congress leader of the state said the government was pursuing policies in the interest of all sections of society and progress could be seen in all sectors. According to him, the party does not need to react to the “political gimmicks” of the Opposition, but to remain pro-active.

Rewari, July 21
Smt Santra Devi Health and Educational Trust organised a free eye check-up camp at Mohanpur village in the district recently. A team of eye specialists from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) examined nearly 300 patients during the camp. The patients were examined and given medicines free of cost.

Dr Balraj Singh Yadav, a leading pediatrician of Gurgaon, who heads the trust, said a team of experts, including Dr Ruchi, Dr Abhishek, Dr TD Pant from Dr RP Centre, AIIMS, New Delhi, examined the patients and identified 53 of them for free IOL surgery to be conducted at AIIMS.

“The patients identified for surgery would be transported free of cost from their native places to AIIMS on July 22,” said Dr Yadav.

While inaugurating the camp, Dr Ruchi lauded the efforts of the trust in organising such a camp in a remote village. She observed that most people, especially those residing in villages, do not take proper care of their eyes and avoid seeking medical opinion unless the situation becomes critical.

“It should be clearly understood that there are a number of diseases related to eyes and a given medicine may be suitable for a certain disease, but it may not cure other diseases,” she maintained.

Pointing out that the number of eye patients was increasing in the rural areas, Dr Ruchi advised that the people above 50 years of age should get their eyes checked regularly.

She also advised the people to watch television from a safe distance and warned them against going to quacks for treatment.

Dr Yadav thanked the team of doctors who had come all the way from AIIMS to the village.

Sarpanch Satpal Singh, panch Ram Kumar, Hari Chand, retired DSP Ram Dayal, Ram Chander and Banwari Lal Namberdar were also present.

Sonepat, July 21
BPS Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Khanpur Kalan, has established a Centre for Society-University Interface and Research (CSUIR) to bring about a difference not only in the lives of women, but also changing the lives of villagers and common man for better to develop strong linkages with society.

According to the university vice-chancellor, Dr Pankaj Mittal, the centre, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, aims at creating a liaison between the university and rural society and the underlying idea is twofold.

First, the university believes that education is a process that requires practical exposure for learners beyond their conventional syllabus and classroom teaching. Education is not comprehensive unless coupled with practical application.

As a result, the centre aims at exposing the students to lifestyle in society and in the process, learning from them various nuances of the rural life.

The students will also imbibe from villagers the ancient and traditional but extremely effective techniques that are a part of their lifestyle but not accessible to the students for want of documentation.

This learning is possible only when the students interact with the villagers.

The second idea behind the centre is that the life of villagers is hard and there is a lot that the university students can do to make their life easier, cleaner and more hygienic by developing small technologies for their day-to-day use.

The centre runs three courses for the students of the university namely Integrated Energy Resource Management, Micro Finance, and Folk Medicine.

The villagers, on the other hand, will be acquainted by the students about some more treatment methods that are simple, effective and locally feasible.

Rewari, July 21
Power, Forest and Environment Minister Capt. Ajay Singh Yadav inaugurated a swimming pool in the Gymkhana Club complex here recently.

The swimming pool, constructed over an area of 2.57 acre at a cost of Rs 1.14 crore, occupies a capacity of 2.20 lakh gallons of water.

Urging children to have coaching in swimming here, Capt. Yadav hoped that lido would be instrumental in turning out expert swimmers in the district as well. As regards amenities in the Gymkhana Club here, he said it was presently equipped with an air-conditioned gymnasium, a family restaurant, fine restaurant-cum-bar, a lawn tennis court, a table tennis court, a health club, a conference hall, etc.

Besides, it would soon have an air-conditioned banquet hall as well which would be constructed at a cost of Rs 5.94 crore.

Simultaneously, while a HUDA Bhawan would be constructed here at a cost of Rs 2.42 crore, an additional sum of Rs 1.70 crore would be spent on the establishment of a dispensary in Sector 4 here, the Minister added.

Sirsa, July 21
Working towards making their endeavours successful to make Sirsa a greener district, the authorities have set a target to plant over 31 lakh saplings of trees in July and August.

The Forest Department here has prepared as many as 16 nurseries at Bhawdeen, Ramnagria, Ding, Nahrana, Dabwali, Khuian, Rania, Jiwannagar, Ellenabad, Damdama, Peepta, Keharwala, Bahia, Damedpura, Kalanwali, Kharekan and Daulatpur.

The department has grown 31,71,430 plants of different varieties in these nurseries.

The plants include neem, sheesham, poplar, gulmohar, cassia, keekar, jamun, jand, amla, anar and chandni, etc.

The authorities have planned to celebrate “Van Mahotsava” at Ellenabad on July 22.

The authorities have invited a large number of schoolchildren, government officials, prominent persons of the district and non-governmental organisations for this function.

Ashok Tanwar, MP from Sirsa, will be the chief guest.

Yudhbir Singh Khyalia, Deputy Commissioner, Sirsa, said the authorities had set a target of distributing 9.5 lakh plants free of cost in schools, government offices and NGOs for plantation on their premises.

The District Forest Officer, Naresh Ranga, said that according to the National Forest Policy, the forest area for environmental balance should cover 33 per cent of the total area.

However, in Haryana, only 3.8 per cent of the land was covered by forests, according to the geographic area of the state. The area came to 8.6 per cent, if one included the tree cover area and the agriculture land in it. 

Sirsa, July 21
In a meeting organised by the authorities, almost all Sirsa doctors seemed avowedly against conducting tests for determining the sex of unborn children and yet there are 148 girls “missing” against every 1,000 boys in the district.

Sirsa has a sex ratio of 852 in the age group of 0 to 6 years as per the 2011 census.

In the meeting of doctors that also included owners of the ultrasound centres, the participants were unanimous that female foeticide should be eliminated. The doctors were also of the view that stringent punishment should be given to the doctors indulging in sex determination and female foeticide as this was in the best interest of society.

Dr Ved Beniwal, patron of the Haryana chapter of the Indian Medical Association, assured that the doctors would cooperate with the authorities in their endeavours to check the menace. Dr Charanjit Kaur and Dr Usha Kataria said all ultrasound clinics should refrain from temptation and should not perform tests to determine the sex of the foetus.

Dr Ruby Singla was of the view that most of the illegal abortions were performed by nurses and midwives and not by qualified gynecologists. Dr Meenakshi complained that the law only followed qualified doctors while quacks got scot-free after performing the illegal acts.

Dr MM Talwar and Dr HR Godara opined that the doctors should not only say no to sex determination but also informed the authorities so that the culprits could be tracked. Dr Sanjiv Kaushal, Dr Jeewan Garg, Dr Yogesh Sangwan, Dr MR Bansal, Dr GK Agarwal, Dr Satpal Narula, Dr Amandeep Dhariwal and others advocated stringent laws to punish erring doctors. Civil surgeon Dayanand, who is nodal officer for the District Task Force Committee, also attended the meeting and sought cooperation from the doctors. The doctors later took an oath that they would not indulge in the practice of sex determination and female foeticide.

Sirsa, incidentally, does not enjoy a clean record in the matter of performing sex determination tests and female foeticide, and in some cases, pregnant women from even the neighbouring areas of Punjab and Rajasthan have found this district safe haven for this purpose.

It is not without reason that some doctors from this district have been facing criminal proceedings under the PNDT Act.

DC Yudhbir Singh Khyalia, who presided over the meeting, said the government was very serious on this issue and the authorities would take all possible steps to stop the menace.

“A software has been prepared to track all pregnant mothers in the district. Soon, this software would be installed in all general hospitals and community health centres. This will not only help in checking female foeticide cases but also aid the health authorities in keeping track of the general health of the expectant mothers and their foetus,” Khyalia said.

The DC said the sex ratio in the district had improved from 882 in 2001 to 896 as per the 2011 census figures.

Similarly, the sex ratio in the age group of 0 to 6 years had also improved from 817 in 2001 to 852 in 2011, due to the persistent efforts of the authorities, he added.

Chandigarh, July 21
The Haryana Government has nominated non-official members of the District Public Relations and Grievances Committees (DPRGC) of Panchkula, Panipat, Mahendergarh, Sonepat, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Kaithal, Sirsa and Fatehabad.

Tasvir Singh Ahlawat of Panchkula and Dharamvir Chhokar of Patti Kalayana have been nominated to the DPRGC of Panchkula and Panipat, respectively. Babu Lal Gupta and CS Jabbal have been nominated to the Mahendergarh and Sonepat panels, respectively.

Rao Nihal Singh and Ved Parkash Yadav have been nominated as members of the DPRGCs of Faridabad and Gurgaon, respectively.

Dilbag Mor, Kavi Raj Sharma, Bahadur Saini, Ranbir Singh, Pawan Threja, Jaswinder (Jassa), Harbans Billa, Fateh Singh Rathi, Kamal Mittal, Jai Bhagwan, Sankuntla Dalai, Arjun Kalyana, Dharamvir Saini, Sanjay, Dharampal Mittal Lalita Malhotra, Ram Kumar Mann, Ram Kumar, Rao Raghvinder Singh, Prithvi Singh Malik, Surjeet Singh Beniwal, Ashwani Shorewala, Surender Ranjha, Subhash Jawahara, Roshan Lal Padla, Mange Ram, Dev Varat Sharma, Ranbir Singh, Ram Niwas, Vinod Middha, Krishan Kumar, Didar Singh Master, Krishan Kumar, Gurdip Singh, Phool Singh, Kehar Singh Rana, Darshan Singh, Jitender Chugh, Vinod Kumar, Sukhwinder Singh Punia, Daler Singh Fauji, Shish Pal, Rameshwar Dass, Suresh Kumar, Dhoop Singh, Ashok Kumar, Yash Pal, Ajmer Singh, Kanwar Pal Singh Rana, Vishnu Dutt Sharma, Raj Kumar, Mohinder, Nayab Singh Balmiki and Rajpal Kadian have been nominated as non-official members of the Kaithal DPRGC.

Kailash Chand, Anil Kumar, Balbir Singh, Niranjan Singh Premi, Kuldeep Singh, Suresh Mehta, Karnail Singh, Kanwar Bhupinder Rathore, Vinod Kumar Uppadaya, Swaraj Singh, Om Prakash Goswami, Modeen Singh, Sohan Lal, Surender Godara, Krishan Kumar Nambardar, Sahi Ram Saharan, Lelu Singh, Krishan Singh, Daljit Singh, Ram Singh, Ram Ji Lal, Raj Kumar Mehta, Gurnam Singh Jhabbar, Rajender Sharrna and Amarjeet Pehwal have been nominated to the Sirsa committee.

Gulbhar Singh, Om Parkash Bagri, Sudesh Papla, Ramesh Kaswan, Vijay Chaudhary, Atam Parkash Mehta, Dalip Godara, Suresh Kamboj, Jaivir Bilambhu, Jarnail Singh, Ramanand, Gur Darshan Kaur, Santosh Arora, Ajit Sethi, Mohinder Dhanak, Sunil Garg, Jarigjit Singh, Usha Dahiya, Mukhtiar Singh Sadar, Om Prakash Gill, Dharam Pal Lega, Narender Maggar, Mandeep Kaur Gill, Raj Kumar Bdniwal, Jalajdeep (Tannu), Hari Singh, Balkar Singh Nambardar, Hans Raj, Nand Lal Sharma, Om Prakash Gandhi, Des Raj, Sher Jaglali, Vishaw Pal Singh, Vijay Kumar, Mohan Lal, Ranjit Singh, Om Parkash Jakhar, Bhagat Singh and Surinder Kumar have been nominated to the DPRGC of Fatehabad.

Hisar, July 21
Rashtriya Swayamseveak Sangh supreme Mohan Bhagwat has contested the claims of the government regarding the development of the country.

Speaking at a function at Kabrel village after laying the foundation stone of Shri Krishna Gaushala and Research centre, he said India was progressing only in government indices. Had India really been developing and progressing why farmers should be committing suicides, he asked.

He said India had been bogged down because successive governments had substituted the ancient India development model by a western style model which was totally unsuitable.

Bhagwat said farming in India had a 10,000-year-old history and the western civilisations were wondering how “we had been able to maintain the quality of our soils. This was so because we had always relied on organic farming. The substitution by chemical fertilisers has created more problems for us than any other farming practice”.

He appealed to the farmers to revert to organic farming as the technique had been tested over thousands of years. “There is no need to tinker with our ancient farming practices,” he added.

The RSS leader cited the example of Brazil which had imported Gir breed cows from India and set an example for the world farmers to follow. This he said was proof that the desi cow breeds were the best in the world.

He said even African countries were using Indian organic farming technique and achieving prosperity from it.

Bhagwat said the Indian way of life was a composite lifestyle unsurpassed in the world. While the rest of world was adopting it, we were ignoring it, he added.

The 40-acre plot on which the gaushala and the research centre will be set up has been donated by a widow Harbans Kaur whose husband Fateh Chand Mehta was a philanthropist. The land is worth several crores. She said by donating the land for this purpose, she was fulfilling the wishes of her late husband.

Sirsa, July 21
The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs has decided that the applications for merit-cum-means scholarships would be accepted only through online from the current academic session.

Shiv Kumar Sharma, principal, Government Polytechnic for Women, Sirsa, has been appointed the nodal officer for the disbursement of these scholarships for the minority students studying in various polytechnics of Haryana.

The government has advised all eligible students to apply on the website www.minorityaffairs.gov.in latest by July 31.

A spokesperson for the Technical Education Department, Haryana, said the heads of the institutes had been asked to guide the students to take printouts of the duly filled application forms applied online and submit the same along with supporting documents in their respective institutes.

The institutes would forward the same along with details in the prescribed proforma to the principal, Government Polytechnic for Women, Sirsa, in a single lot for further necessary action, informed Sharma.

He said list of all technical institutions under the preview of the department along with their email ID and mobile or telephone numbers had already been conveyed to the Social Justice and Empowerment Department. Accordingly, the user ID and passwords, which are required by the institutions, had been created and mailed to the concerned institution by the department.