Chandigarh, August 14
A quack got away by posing as an MBBS doctor at his clinic in Jandli village of Ambala district for 25 years. He examined patients and prescribed medicines to unsuspecting villagers who came looking for relief from ailments.

Law finally caught up with him following a complaint of “unsatisfactory treatment” made to the Food and Drug Administration Department, Haryana, prompting it to carry out a check.

At another clinic in the same district, a quack found a novel “distortion” to pose as a doctor. Outside his clinic, a board announced him as an “MBMS”. Operating for the past three years without any degree or qualification, he conveniently had a thriving practice. However, courtesy a week-long special drive by the Food and Drug Administration Department, Haryana, finally, the “careers” of 16 such quacks came to an abrupt end. They have been brought to book and cases have been registered against them.

These unregistered medical practitioners had been practising without any degree or were stocking and selling medicines without a licence to do so. They have been booked for cheating under Section 420 of the IPC and Section 18/27 of the Drug and Cosmetic Act, 1940.

GL Singhal, Deputy State Drugs Controller, said the department had undertaken a special drive to tighten the noose around quacks who usually operated in the districts where they were most likely to get away unnoticed.

“During the drive, our teams in various districts found that these quacks are operating from villages or colonies that are way off the main roads and they generally stay away from cities to avoid being caught during routine checks,” he explained.

During the drive, a two-member team of the department not only carried out inspections based on public complaints but also visited clinics on the basis of information gathered by them.

While three quacks each have been booked in Ambala and Hisar, four have been found in Karnal while cases have been registered against two quacks each in Panipat and Faridabad. The other cases have been registered in Gurgaon, Palwal and Kaithal.

Kaithal, Ausgust 14
Shamsher Singh Surjewala, a veteran Congress leader and President of the All-India Khet Kisan Mazdoor Congress, has urged the Congress high command to field him as a candidate in the forthcoming byelection to the Hisar Lok Sabha seat.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said that he had sent a letter in this regard to BK Hari Parshad, AICC general secretary in charge of the party affairs for Haryana. Surjewala said as he had represented certain areas of that constituency in the past, he had good contacts with voters of that belt. Surjewala announced his support to Karnail Singh Neemnavadi in the coming SGPC poll.

The veteran Congress leader advocated changes in the transfer policy for class III and class IV employees. He suggested that they should be posted in their home towns or nearby areas. This would reduce the financial burden on the employees as well as the government. 

Fatehabad, August 14
The Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha (ABKS), Haryana Committee, organised a rally against the proposed nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur village and demanded scraping of the notifications issued for the acquisition of land for the purpose.

A district-level convention of the ABKS was held at the local grain market to oppose the proposed nuclear energy project.

Dr D Raghunandan, president of the All-India Science Network, and secretary, Delhi Science Forum, said when advanced countries like Japan and Germany had decided to close their reactors post Fukushima and a country like the US had not set up any nuclear power plant after 1996, there was no wisdom in vouching for the project in Haryana.

Harpal Singh, former CPM MLA from Tohana, and Krishan Swaroop Gorakhpuria, district president of the ABKS, alleged that the manner in which the state government had rushed for the project, despite imminent dangers involved, smacked of a scandal.

Phool Singh Sheokand, state president, Pardeep Singh, joint secretary and Sampat Kaur, assistant secretary of the sabha, were among others who addressed the convention.

The speakers alleged that the nuclear power plant would spell a disaster for the residents of the area in future and warned the government against setting up the plant.

In a resolution passed in the convention, the ABKS alleged that the Gorakhpur Nuclear Power Project was against the rules formulated by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), which said there should be no population within the radius of 6 km from the power plant.

Sonepat, August 14
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said that the BPS Medical College for Women in Bhagat Phool Singh Women University, Khanpur Kalan, would start functioning from the next academic session with the enrolment of 100 students. The working of the first phase of its 500-bedded hospital would start on a trial basis from September 1, he added.

Earlier, while addressing a meeting on the university premises, organised to commemorate the 69th martyr day of Bhagat Phool Singh and the 97th birth anniversary of Bhagat Phool Singh’s daughter and Padma Shri Subhashni Devi, the Chief Minister announced to open an agriculture park in the university on the Indo-Israel model to boost the production of agriculture and horticulture in the state. The state government would provide financial assistance of Rs 2 crore for setting up this park, he added.

Laying stress on the education of women for all-round development and progress of society, Hooda said as a result of the efforts of the state government, the sex ratio in the higher education institutes of the state was 57 per cent in the favour of the women. He hoped that this trend would pave the way for gender equality as well as create an awakening against female foeticide.

The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr Pankaj Mittal, listed the achievements of the university.

The occasion was marked by the inauguration by the Chief Minister of the Centre for Indic Studies, the first one in India to study and research India’s knowledge and culture.

The Chief Minister also laid the foundation of an administrative block and sports complex on the university premises. 

Fatehabad/Sirsa, August 14
Minister for Power, Forests and Environment Captain Ajay Singh Yadav said his differences with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda were not personal but based on certain issues. He claimed that the Centre had since vindicated his stand on certain issues.

Talking to mediapersons at Fatehabad today, Yadav said he was always of the view that fertile agriculture land should never be acquired for any projects and that acquisition should be made with the consent of farmers.

He said he also wrote to Union Minister Jairam Ramesh in this regard and now, he claimed the same had been incorporated in the Central Land Acquisition Bill, 2011, thereby vindicating his stand.

Yadav said his views on discrimination against South Haryana in the matter of development were also based on the issues as there was not a single university in that part of the state. He said the regional centre of the university in his area was much older than that of Sirsa, but while he was still waiting for its elevation to a university, Sirsa got one much earlier only because former Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala hailed from here.

He said now he and Rao Inderjit Singh would work together for the development of South Haryana.

Later, inaugurating the 132-KV power substation at Kharekan, Karungawali and Dhudianwali in Sirsa district, Yadav said the state government had an ambitious plan of Rs 4,058.55 crore to strengthen the power transmission and distribution system in the state to meet the increasing demand of electricity.

Yadav said with the increase in demand and generation of electricity, load on the transmission system had also increased sharply.

He said to strengthen the power transmission and distribution system in Sirsa, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam had an ambitious plan of Rs 335 crore under which the power utilities would construct additional 17 substations and augment capacity of 18 substations of different levels.

Dabwali (Sirsa), August 14
It may sound shocking but it is true. In this part of Haryana, known for its people’s loathing of female children, there are several cases of two or more brothers sharing a common wife.

In some other cases, the woman came as a bride for one brother, but has now been living with another.

Dr Atul Mariya, Subdivisional Judicial Magistrate, Dabwali, stated these appalling facts while addressing a seminar on female foeticide in the Bar Room of the local courts today.

The seminar was organised by the Sub-Division Legal Services Committee, Dabwali, and among those who addressed it were the District and Sessions Judge, Subhash Goyal, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Naresh Singhal, and the SDM, Dr Munish Nagpal.

Mariya revealed that at least 10 cases of such nature were at present pending before him in his courts and if the present trend of choice for a male child continued, the day was not far when the number might increase manifold.

“When I joined here as Judge, I noticed that there were cases of marital discord, where the women had filed suit for maintenance under section 125 of the CrPC with proof of her marriage, but the husband denied her claims and said she lived with his other brothers now,” Mariya said about the new social trends.

The husbands also came with proofs like ration cards and the photo identity card substantiating their claims that the woman lived with his brother.

In some cases, the woman lived with two or more real brothers at the same time or at different times during her lifetime.

“Shadi ta isse naal hoi si, jinne theek rakhiya ohde naal rah gayi (I was married to this person only, but then started living with whoever maintained me decently),” the women would explain their position in most of the cases.

The trend reflects how the skewed sex ratio has been affecting the social milieu in Haryana.

Sirsa has a sex ratio of 852 girls against 1,000 boys in the age group of 0 to 6 years.

Though programmes like ‘kuan pooja’ for celebrating the birth of female children have been organised in the past with the efforts of the authorities, cases of sex determination and female foeticide have been coming to the fore in Sirsa at regular intervals in the past.

Ambala, August 14
The INLD and the SAD(B) at a meeting here yesterday decided that the former would extensively campaign and support SAD(B) nominees in the SGPC elections.

The decision was taken at a meeting of leaders of the two parties in the office of SAD nominee from Ambala Gurdip Singh Bhanokheri. The INLD directed its party rank and file to campaign for Bhanokheri. Bhanokheri said certain vested interest were trying to divide the Sikhs and tried to weaken the SGPC.