Chandigarh, January 3
The state government has decided to implement four new schemes for labourers from January 1, besides hiking financial aid under various other schemes.

Haryana Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shiv Charan Lal Sharma said here today that these schemes included providing the facility of LTC to labourers, sewing machines to women labourers and financial help to children of industrial labourers winning sports and cultural competitions.

He said the government had decided to increase the financial aid being provided by the Labour Welfare Board. These included an increase in financial help being given to widows or dependent of labourers from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The kanyadan rashi being given at the time of marriage of girls would be raised from Rs 21,000 to Rs 51,000. The minimum and maximum scholarship being given to children would be enhanced from Rs 2,000 and Rs 12,000 to Rs 4,000 and Rs 15,000, respectively. The financial help being provided to girls studying in Classes I to V would be hiked from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000.A sum of Rs 2,000 would be given for school uniforms and stationary items. The financial assistance being given in the case of physical disability caused due to an accident would be increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000, with a maximum of Rs 30,000. A sum of Rs 5,000 would be given for tricycles.

Sharma said the financial help given for performing the last rites on the death of a labourer would be increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000. The aid for delivery would also be raised from Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000. The aid for providing spectacles and dental care to labourers would also be increased

He said for eligibility wage limit under the Chief Minister's Labour Award Scheme and other schemes had been increased to Rs 20,000.

Gurgaon, January
The Delhi gang rape has left corporate women employees scared for their safety. A majority of them voiced their concern during a special meeting organised by the Gurgaon police to instill confidence and be aware of problems faced by them.

A special team headed by DCP Maheshwar Dayal had an interaction with a number of employees in DLF, Phase II.

The women, a majority of whom are Metro commuters, claimed that following the incident they had got more insecure about their safety and avoided commuting alone and in evening. They claimed that despite travelling in groups in cabs, they did not feel at ease.

The same was case with the women having their own vehicles as they claimed that they had to face lewd remarks on red lights and male drivers on roads intentionally tried to harass them. Dayal, assuring complete support, urged them to speak up.

“Women will have to be strong and react according to the situation. Many times women ignore eve-teasers and abstain from reporting to police, fearing hassles and this gives these elements a boost. We urge all to come forward and complain. This would help us to nail the offenders,” he said.

Gurgaon, January 3
Rao Inderjit Singh, Congress MP from Gurgaon, has asked the officers concerned to send the utilization certificate of the amount spent on developmental projects done under the MP Local Development Scheme (MPLADS) and get the remaining work completed expeditiously.

The MP was reviewing the progress of the scheme during a meeting of the District-Level Vigilance and Monitoring Committee organised here today.

Rao Inderjit has approved 79 projects in the district under MPLADS during the current financial year. Of these, 48 have been completed and 13 are in progress. An amount of Rs 309.13 lakh has so far been received of which Rs 2.70 crore has been spent on various developmental works.

KM Pandurang, ADC, Gurgaon, said 90 schemes costing Rs 21.11 crore had been sanctioned under the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) in the district. Of these, work on 52 schemes costing Rs 15.98 crore had been completed while work was in progress on rest of the schemes.

The meeting was informed that a project costing about Rs 16.29 crore for the conservation of 12,373 hectares in Gurgaon district had been sent to the Union Government for sanction.

Gurgaon, January 3
In view of the foggy weather prevailing these days, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena has directed the officials concerned with construction and repair of roads to get lane-marking done on the main roads with thermo-lasting paint so that the drivers do not get directionless due to poor visibility.

Presiding over a meeting on road safety here, he maintained that in the case of roads less than 25-foot wide, the curves also needed to be highlighted by lane-marking and putting reflectors at appropriate points.

“Reflectors should also be installed on the nosing of dividers,” Meena said, adding that all commercial vehicles should be fitted with reflectors at the time of passing.

The District Child Welfare Council has been entrusted with the task of fitting reflectors on the commercial vehicles. The officials concerned were also directed to fit reflectors at the back of tractor-trailers free of cost as these trailers often caused accidents, especially on foggy days. The meeting decided to organise special camps at the block level for installation of reflectors on trailers. 

Sirsa, January 3
Despite efforts by the new Vice-Chancellor, Dr ML Ranga, the striking non-teaching staff and a group of teachers of the Chaudhary Devi Lal University have refused to end their dharna following yesterday’s incident of thrashing of an official and an associate professor by a teacher.

Dr Ranga, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar, who joined duty today after he was given additional charge of this university, addressed the striking teachers and non-teaching staff.

Later, he met various groups in his office and listened to their viewpoint on yesterday’s events.

The non-teaching staff members sitting on dharna are demanding action against teachers Shalender Singh Hooda, Raj Kumar Siwach and some others for manhandling their members in the VC's camp office.

The agitating group of teachers, on the other hand, has given a memorandum to the VC under the banner of the Chaudhary Devi Lal University Teachers Association (CDLUTA), seeking action against Hooda for thrashing an associate professor, DP Warne.

“We have also sought removal of the registrar, Manoj Siwach, as it was on his instigation that the teacher thrashed Warne and the non-teaching staff member,” alleged CDLUTA secretary Rajesh Malik.

On the other hand, Raj Kumar Siwach, an associate professor, who led another group of teachers to the Vice-Chancellor, alleged that some teachers were misusing the name of CDLUTA, though they did not represent a majority of the university teachers.

In its memorandum to Dr Ranga, the group has alleged that a group of teachers was angry with the registrar because he did not concede to their request of clearing some files, which he did not find as per rules.

Manoj Siwach said there was no question of instigation from his end as he acted promptly after the incident and persuaded Shalender Hooda to apologise in front of the non-teaching staff.

He said in case the striking officials and teachers wanted police action, he was ready to forward their complaint to the superintendent of police.

Dr ML Ranga said he had assured suitable action to the striking officials, if and when he received a file pertaining to the matter.

“When those who have to move the files are sitting on dharna, how can I take any action?” he asked.

Non-teaching staff members and a group of teachers have been sitting on dharna outside the administrative complex since yesterday after Hooda allegedly manhandled an official in the camp office and then allegedly roughed up Warne at the dharna site.

Meanwhile, the All-India Students Federation (AISF) has demanded an end to infighting on the university campus.

Roshan Suchan, state convener of the AISF, who led students to the VC, said the academic atmosphere in the university was being vitiated due to the internal strife of teachers.

Sirsa, January 3
The deferring of action by Chaudhary Devi Lal University on an inquiry report indicting two assistant professors of moral turpitude and sexual harassment of a girl student has baffled intelligentsia.

The issue was listed in the meeting of the executive council (EC) of the university held in Chandigarh by Vice-Chancellor KC Bhardwaj on December 31.

Principal Secretary to the government for Higher Education Shyam Sunder Prasad also attended the meeting.

“It is quite unfortunate and it seems the university is inviting more incidents of sexual harassment by shutting its eyes on the issue,” said RK Sharma, principal of the Government College for Women at Bhodia Khera in Fatehabad and member of the EC .

Shamim Sharma, principal of Mata Harki Devi College, Odhan, alleged that not taking up the issue was a part of a conspiracy to save the teachers found guilty of misconduct.

“The teachers who have been found guilty of moral turpitude and sexual harassment of a girl do not deserve to be allowed to stay in their jobs. The university should immediately terminate their services,” said Kartar Singh, a teacher and president of the Haryana Public Interest Society, Sirsa.

An inquiry conducted by a retired district and sessions judge, RP Bajaj, into the allegations of sexual harassment by a student of the mass communication department of Chaudhary Devi Lal University had found Sewa Singh Bajwa and Amit Sangwan, both assistant professors in the department, guilty of moral turpitude for their act of sexual harassment of the student.

Both Bajwa and Sangwan are already facing criminal trial under Sections 294 (obscene acts) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC in a Sirsa court in this case after the police booked them on the university’s recommendation.

The victim had alleged that Amit Sangwan, her guide for dissertation had been delaying the finalisation of the questionnaire for her research work.

When she went to him on April 6, 2010, Sewa Singh Bajwa, who was sitting with him, told her that she would have to “fulfill the desires of her guide”, if she wanted her work to be done.

Bajwa allegedly warned her that she would have to complete her studies next year, when she disapproved of his conduct. She alleged that Sangwan observed silence and had a meaningful smile on his face during this conversation in his tacit support to Bajwa.

Two separate inquiries had also indicted the two teachers of sexual harassment. 

Fatehabad, January 3
Indian National Lok Dal secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala today alleged that the state government was supporting its jailed former minister Gopal Kanda to help him come out scot-free in the Geetika Sharma’s suicide case.

Addressing a series of village meetings in Fatehabad under the mass awareness programme of the party, he said the recent utterances of minister Shiv Charan Sharma and chief parliamentary secretary Prahlad Singh Gillankhera were a part of the state government’s strategy to help Kanda in the case.

The INLD leader alleged that what Sharma and Gillankhera said at Kanda’s birthday party in Sirsa was not only derogatory towards the honour of women, but also contemptuous of the judicial process.

Ajay Singh said it was ironical that on one hand the Congress-led Manmohan Singh government at the Centre was pledging to the restore dignity of women, on the other hand a minister in the Congress-ruled Haryana was terming Kanda’s “misdeeds” as “small case” and passing derogatory remarks like “servant” towards Geetika Sharma.

Gurgaon, January 3
Two foreign nationals - Victor (67) from Congo and Abdil Latif (49) from Afghanistan - have got bio-absorbable stents implanted to open their blocked arteries at Artemis Health Institute here.

The hospital management said these patients have become the first foreign nationals to have been implanted dissolvable stents in the country.

Victor underwent the angioplasty procedure with the help of Abbott’s Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS) at the institute. He has been suffering from a chronic kidney disease and was awaiting renal transplant. He was diagnosed with critical blockage in his coronary arteries during the procedure.

Abdil Latif got dissolvable stents implanted for his disabling angina.

Dr Manjinder Singh Sandhu, director (cardiology) at the institute, who headed the team of doctors conducting the procedure, said: “This is the beginning of a new era in interventional cardiology. Earlier, we had metal drug-eluting stents with their hazards of re-blockage (stent thrombosis and restenosis) necessitating prolonged use of blood-thinning medicines. The introduction of dissolvable stents will be beneficial for the young patients and for those having multiple blockages."

Doctors said the new stent gets completely dissolved in around 18 months, leading to normal functioning of the blood vessels.

The traditional metallic stents stay permanently in the blood vessel. The dissolving of the stent also does away with the need of taking regular blood-thinning medicines to avoid further clogging around the stent.

This stent is made of polylactide, a naturally dissolvable material that is commonly used in medical implants such as dissolvable sutures.

The scaffold, similar to a small mesh tube, is designed to open a blocked heart vessel and restore blood flow to the heart.

The scaffold provides support to the vessel until the artery can stay open on its own and then dissolves naturally over time.

Fatehabad, January 3
Yet another black buck has fallen prey to stray dogs at Badopal village in Fatehabad district.

The villagers brought the body of the black buck to the mini-secretariat and showed it to Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik. They apprehended that if preventive steps are not taken early, the area will become devoid of these beautiful animals.

More than 24 black bucks have fallen prey to attacks by stray dogs in the area in the past few months.

In view of thisproblem, ML Kaushik had recently announced a drive to sterilise stray dogs in the areas inhabited by black buck .

The plan was made after intervention of animal activists and MP Maneka Gandhi, who called up Kaushik after reading news about the killing of black buck.

The drive for sterilisation of stray dogs is to be carried out in coordination with Meneka Gandhi’s NGO People for Animals, who will be providing expertise for the purpose. 

Chandigarh, January 3
The Haryana Food and Supplies Department has cancelled the licences of 43 depot holders for committing various irregularities and security amounting to over Rs 1.52 lakh of 51 dealers has been forfeited up to September, 2012.

A spokesman of the Food and Supplies Department said here today that four persons were also arrested on various charges.

Essential commodities were being provided to people through 9,293 fair price shops located in urban and rural areas, near industrial units and hostels of students.

As many as 6602 fair price shops were located in rural areas and 2,691 in urban ones.

As many as 77 fair price shops are located near industrial units and 22 near schools or hostels, he added.

He said village-level committees of members of panchayats and others were functioning in the state to effectively check fair price shops and supervise the distribution of controlled commodities.

Sonepat, January 3
The police claimed to have arrested an alleged extortionist - Sudesh, alias Kamlesh, of Kabirpur after seven years of the incident. She has been sent to judicial custody by the court.

The police said Dr Chand Singh, owner of Pooja Nursing Home at Sonepat, had lodged a complaint with the police in September 2005 stating that he had received a call on his mobile phone for a ransom of Rs 2 lakh and was threatened with dire consequences if the amount was not paid.

On the basis of the call investigation, the police succeeded in arresting Anoop and Manoj of Pinana and they told about the involvement of Sudesh in the case. However, she had been evading arrest by frequently shifting her location.