Power Play: Son follows father

INLD legislator Krishan Kamboj’s son, Ranjit Kamboj, today continued his father’s campaign in Sadewala village and connected the houses of three consumers directly to the Nigam power lines. Ranjit Kamboj went from house to house in the village and urged the villagers not to pay their electricity bills.

NEW DELHI, December 26
The Union Cabinet today approved the setting up of a Rs 2,035-crore national cancer institute (NCI) at Jhajjar in Haryana. The NCI will be set up in the Jhajjar campus of the AIIMS, New Delhi, located in Badhsa village.

The project is estimated to be completed in 45 months.

Cancer is emerging as a major public health concern in India with 11 lakh new cases being diagnosed every year, with a mortality rate of 5.5 lakh.

Cancer treatment facilities lag in India, compared to WHO standards, which requires one radiotherapy machine per million population. India at present has 0.41 machines per million population.

Welcoming the decision, Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda thanked the Prime Minister and other members of the Union Cabinet.

The NCI will operate on the lines of NCI, USA and DKFZ, Germany, as a nodal center for indigenous research, promotive, preventive and curative aspects of care and human resource development.

This institute is aimed at planning, conducting and coordinating research on cancers that were more specific to India, like those related tobacco, uterine cervix, gall bladder and liver.

The proposed institute will broadly have clinical division, research divisions, and disease management groups (DMGs).

The NCI will have 710 beds for different facilities viz. surgical Oncology, radiation oncology, medical oncology, anesthesia and palliative care, nuclear medicine etc. It will have a tissue repository, the first of its kind in India.

Karnal, December 26
The state Mining Department today auctioned the sand mines spread over an area of 3,895 hectares in Karnal district and fetched Rs 238.31 crore, which was 11 times more than the reserve price of Rs 21.99 crore.

The district was divided in four units for the auction, said Deputy Commissioner Vikas Yadav. Against reserve price of Rs 21.99 crore, the total auction amount through bids was Rs 238.31 crore.

The reserve price of Rs 6.62 crore was fixed for Unit-I, but the auction fetched Rs Rs 60.05 crore, while for Unit-II, the auction price was Rs 52 crore against the reserved price of Rs 5.39 crore.

Similarly, for Unit-III, the auction price was a whooping Rs 70.10 crore against the reserve price of Rs 4.66 crore and Unit-IV fetched Rs 56.67 crore against the reserve price of Rs 5.32 crore.

The auction was held after eight years and 941 hectares of land of nine villages was auctioned in Unit-I, while 974.10 hectares of land of nine villages in Unit-II, 780.32 hectare of seven villages in Unit-III and 1,199 hectares of seven villages in Unit-IV.

Yamunanagar, December 26
Ravinder Dhankhar, District Forest Officer, has cautioned unemployed youths against falling into the trap of fake job providers. He said a racket was on to cheat unemployed youths as a youth had been offered a job in the Forest Department.

“A number of instances have come to light of duping youths on the pretext of providing jobs in the public and private sectors.

Youths should cross-check all aspects before falling for such job offers,” said DFO Ravinder Dhankar. — TNS

Jind, December 26
To avail benefit of a welfare scheme, a Below Poverty Line (BPL) family has been running from pillar to post for the past two years to get a physical disability certificate for its 8-year-old physically challenged son.

“We have been making repeated rounds of various hospitals and government departments to get physical disability certificate for my son Rahul. But there is no one who can help us,” said Mamta with folded hands and tears in her eyes during a meeting with Narwana SDM Bhal Singh Bisnoi.

Rahul’s labourer father Satish stays in a single room with his wife and two daughters at Bhagwanpura village. Despite severe poverty, Satish has been spending all his earnings on travel expenses to get the certificate for his son for the past two years.

“The winter has set in. But we have not purchased any new warm clothes. We know it very well that if we buy warm clothes then we will not be able to meet travel expenses for Rahul. Like me and my wife, my two daughters also want better medical treatment for Rahul,” said Satish.

Village sarpanch Sube Singh, who was accompanying the family, said: “The family needs immediate help as they do not have enough money even to meet travel expenses.”

The Narwana SDM said every Wednesday, the medical board sits in the civil hospital at Jind to prepare certificate. “I have directed the District Social Welfare Officer to personally monitor the case of Rahul for speedy issuance of the physical inability certificate to him,” he added.

Rohtak, December 26
A second green revolution is imperative in India, not only to meet the country's growing food requirements, but also to propel its economic progress by boosting agricultural growth.

This was stated by the Vice-President of India, Hamid Ansari, while delivering Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Memorial Centenary Lecture at Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), here today.

Emphasising the need of agricultural growth for rural development, Ansari underlined the importance of agriculture in inclusive growth of India. He asserted that accelerating agricultural growth was necessary to meet the socio-economic challenges before the nation.

“The need of the hour is to develop appropriate agricultural technology, effective soil and water conservation techniques and crop diversification measures for boosting agricultural growth in the country,” he added.

Ansari gave a clarion call to all universities to focus on specialised higher studies and research in agriculture sector, which would help in fulfilling the nation’s food needs.

He appealed to the scientists to focus their research on environmental aspects of agriculture. He also called for increased outlay on agricultural research in India.

Ansari also laid stress on the importance of education as an effective tool of empowerment in society. Education acted as a great democratic force in the society, he said.

Paying tributes to Chaudhary Ranbir Singh, he remarked that the late leader worked for the uplift of the poor and downtrodden during his lifetime. Ansari also released a book- ‘Rajyasabha Mein Chaudhary Ranbir Singh’.

Haryana Governer and MDU Chancellor Jagannath Pahadia said Chaudhary Ranbir Singh’s ideology was relevant even in the present times.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda threw light on the life and contributions of Chaudhary.

Earlier, H S Chahal, MDU Vice-Chancellor, welcomed the guests and highlighted the progress journey of the university. Prof Ravinder Vinayak, dean (academic affairs), proposed the vote of thanks, while Prof Shalini Singh conducted the stage.

Shadilal Batra, Rajya Sabha MP, MLAs Bharat Bhushan Batra, Anand Singh Dangi and Shakuntala Khatak and chairperson of Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Chair Gian Singh were also present on the occasion.

Hisar, December 26
The Haryana Roadways workers union has announced a two-hour strike across the state on January 15, claiming that the state government has failed to address their issues and instead has resorted to retaliatory action on employees.

The talmel committee of the Sarv Karamchari Sangh (SKS) and Karamchari Maha Sangh (KMS) today said the two-hour strike would serve as a wake up call for the state government before the workers go in for a complete three-day strike from January 21.

Dharambir Hooda, member of the talmel committee, said the roadways employees would observe strike at the depots and entry or exit to the depots would not be allowed.

“We have taken this decision after analysing the outcome of the discussion held with the government in five rounds, following the November 13-14 strike. During our talks with the higher authorities, we were assured cancellation of the process of issuing private permits and to take a decision on other issues within 15 days. But nothing has happened so far. In stead, the government has started harassing the employees and issuing chargesheets to spread panic among. All the issues have been put into cold storage,” he added.

Rewari, December 26
Residents of a colony here held a demonstration against the alleged police inaction in recovering a six-year-old girl.

The girl, daughter of a migrant labourer from Madhya Pradesh, was allegedly abducted from her slum dwelling in Sector 4 here yesterday on the pretext of feeding small girls on the occasion of a social function at a nearby house.

The protesters demanded immediate recovery of the girl as well as arrest of the abductors.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Shakir Hussain said a case of abduction had been registered and efforts were on to trace the girl.

Ambala, December 26
Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Kumari Selja here today said the issue of disparity in development work was unlikely to affect her electoral prospects in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Selja, who had repeatedly accused the state government of ignoring her constituency in development works, said she had a strong base among the people of her constituency who would be voting for her no matter what.

Selja, who was skeptical of the state government for not letting the mega development projects getting completed in Ambala, said the projects brought in by her would go a long way in consolidating the party’s base amongst the voters. “However, I have been in constant touch with the people of my constituency, who have again and again reposed faith in my candidature,” said Selja.

Playing down the issue of Ashok Khemka and the land deal of Robert Vadra, Selja said it was ‘a small piece of land’ on which a whole issue had been created by the media.

In reply to a query, the Union Minister said the Congress should have fulfilled its poll promise of constituting a separate SGPC for the Sikhs of the state. “It was wrong to backtrack from the promise which affects a large number of Sikhs in the state,” she said.

The minister said she had been approached by residents of several villages, which had been brought under the jurisdiction of the Ambala Municipal Corporation, that they had now been asked to pay the property tax. She said it was unfair to collect the same tax from the rural areas, which had been provided with no facilities so far. Also, small shopkeepers in rural area had been placed at par with showroom owners in the urban areas. She said the authorities should work out a slab mechanism for implementing the property tax in the rural and urban areas.

Sonepat, December 26
The CRPF has launched a four-day operation against Maoists in various states, including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orrisa.

This was disclosed by CRPF Director-General Dilip Trivedi after inaugurating a newly constructed officers' mess at the CRPF Group Kendra near Khewra village in the district today.

This multi-state operation was to check the movement of Maoists from one state to another, Trivedi said 

Sirsa, December 26
Incidents of animal traders from Uttar Pradesh being drugged and looted on Haryana Roadways buses on their way to Sirsa are continuing with impunity. Three more animal traders were found unconscious in a Haryana Roadways night service bus that arrived in Sirsa from Delhi in the early hours today.

All the three have been admitted to the General Hospital, Sirsa, and had not regained their conscious till the filing of this report.

The police have identified the three as Zakir Hussain from Mandola and Ashu and Praveen from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

The bus driver, who found them lying in the bus, informed the police post at a bus stand, who shifted them to the General Hospital.

On their frisking, the doctors recovered Rs 75,000, Rs 94,000 and Rs 50,400 from Zakir Hussain, Praveen and Ashu, respectively, and handed the money over to the police.

It is believed that either the miscreants who drugged them failed to loot them due to presence of other passengers or money from other pockets of the victims may have been looted and the rest remained unnoticed.

The police said the exact position would be known only after the traders regained consciousness. 

Kurukshetra, December 26
The state BJP will start its “one vote one note” campaign on February 11, the death anniversary of Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, said state party president Ram Bilas Sharma, who was here to attend a state-level party meeting.

Besides collecting donations, the BJP was also targeting new voters registered in the past five years.

Apart from the “one vote one note” programme, the party will start its iron collection drive for the construction of Sardar Patel's statue in Gujarat on December 30 from Palli village in Mahendragarh district.

On the question of “Mahagathbandhan”, Sharma said “the alliance between BJP and HJC (BL) is sufficient and we will win all the 10 Lok Sabha seats”. However, he remained silent on the seat-sharing arrangement and said the coordination committee would decide everything. On AAP’s announcement of contesting election in Haryana, he said “Arvind Kejriwal’s test has just started and we welcome AAP in Haryana but they need to understand that there is a big difference in the politics of Delhi and Haryana”.

Taking a dig at Congress, he said “Congress is a sinking ship and it has done nothing over the last nine years, except discrimination”. 

Sirsa, December 26
Ellenabad MLA Abhey Singh Chautala today said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda would meet the same fate in the coming Assembly elections what was met by his counterparts in Delhi and Rajasthan.

Abhey along with state INLD president Ashok Arora was in the town today to address a meeting of booth-level workers of the party.

“Hooda has read the writing on the wall and this is the reason why he is trying to befool youth by promising 65,000 jobs to them,” he said.

He alleged that when the government could not provide jobs to the youth in the past nine years, what could be expected of it in the coming few months.

Giving a clarion call to the party workers to be prepared for the parliamentary and Assembly elections ahead, he said the time had come to reap harvest of the hard work done by them in all these years.

Arora said despite the absence of former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and Dabwali MLA Ajay Singh Chautala due to their sentencing, INLD workers had done a remarkable job by keeping the party at the top.

He urged the workers for work harder for bringing the INLD to power.

Sirsa, December 26
Even as the family prepares to celebrate the 48th birthday of jailed former minister Gopal Kanda in a big way on December 29, banners seeking “Justice for Geetika Sharma” appeared in Sirsa town today.

Kanda’s family members, including his younger brother Gobind Kanda and children Sushila and Lakh Ram, have announced to hold a road show, a medical camp and a blood donation camp on the occasion.

Ajit Chandila, a cricketer who is an accused in the IPL spot-fixing case, will participate in the celebrations.

Kanda’s kin have been telling people that they plan to field candidates in all five Assembly constituencies of the district in the coming elections as independents.

When asked today, Gobind Kanda said their family would open their cards only at the time of elections.

He, however, conceded that he was planning to contest from Rania Assembly constituency in Sirsa.

Gobind Kanda said his family was confident that Gopal’s name would be cleared from the Geetika Sharma suicide case by the time Haryana goes to the polls.

“In case there is any problem, Gopal’s wife Saraswati Devi will contest from Sirsa Assembly constituency,” he added.

Meanwhile, the banners that appeared on main chowks of the town today question the pomp and show to mark the birthday of a person accused of suicide of a young girl and her mother.

Karnal, December 26
Intense political activity and agitations dominated Karnal during 2013. The town got its first elected Municipal Corporation (MC) with a woman mayor but the year ended with communal tension in village Kutel as a boy belonging to a majority community was allegedly killed by a family of the minority community and an angry mob turned violent, damaging a place of worship, some houses and torching a portion of a house of the latter.

The year, which dawned with the whispers of MC elections, kept the Congress, INLD and the BJP- HJC alliance on its toes. Congress failed to install its mayor, in spite of a majority in the house, while Renu Bala Gupta sprang a surprise and wrested the coveted post of mayor. The elected MC failed to function effectively due to lack of powers and the year ended with the Mayor and councillors protesting outside the office of the MC demanding powers.

Also, Karnal remained among the top districts in registration of rape cases and Haryana State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) launched a state-wide public awareness campaign to curb crime against women.

Ex-minister jailed

Former minister O P Jain and former CPS Zile Ram, charged with abetting the suicide of Karam Singh, former sarpanch of Kombopura, by CBI, surrendered after their bail plea was rejected by the High Court and Supreme Court. With Assandh MLA Zile Ram booked in the case, aspirants for Congress tickets from Assandh became active.

Up in arms against acquisition

The residents of Kalram, Araipur, Bharatpur, Lalupur and Amritpur villages, were on warpath, protesting against “grabbing” of their lands during consolidation exercise and tension prevailed in the villages as residents staged a dharna at the disputed site. More than 80 villagers, including women, were arrested for blocking a train in Karnal in support of their agitation.

Politics over medical college

Politics revolved around Rs 650 crore Kalpana Chawla Medical College as a faction of Congressmen demanded shifting of the medical college on the outskirts of the town where the panchayats of Kutel and Anjanthali villages had offered 100 acres of land. Although the construction of the first phase of the project finally started, the government announced a domestic airport for Karnal.

NDRI’s accomplishments

In the area of scientific research, National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) achieved a landmark as a cloned buffalo gave birth to a cloned female calf. The institute also produced a cloned calf from the highest milk yielding buffalo. The NDRI developed multiple micronutrient fortified milk and iron fortified biscuits with anti- anaemic properties and storage stability and prepared an “adulteration check” kit for common man’s use.

Jail superintendent wins President’s award

Sher Singh, Karnal Jail Superintendent, became the first recipient of President’s medal for correctional services (reforms) in jails of Haryana. The initiatives taken by him included extra income for inmates through jail factory set up on Public Private Partnership Model. Also, the Karnal jail became the first one in the state to start tele-booking for interviews of inmates with their relatives and a bakery.

Sweep the city clean

While the health department and the local administration grappled with dengue fever spread due to poor sanitation, a sea of kar sewaks (volunteers) of Dera Sachha Sauda emerged at Karnal and swept the town clean in 2 hours and 30 minutes. Female sex ratio improved from 846 to 876 in Karnal district as the administration and NGOs organised several programmers exhorting people to save the girl child.

Kautilya goes to KBC

Wonder boy Kautilya Pandit of Kutel village, known as “mini encyclopedia”, hogged the limelight and his creative genius was appreciated by all, including film star Amitabh Bachhan.

Chandigarh, December 26
The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran NIgam(UHBVN) has not proposed any hike in power tariff for the next financial year 2014-15 even as it has projected a revenue gap of Rs 2,246 crore.

The UHBVN undertakes power distribution and retail supply business in 11 districts of Haryana, including Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Karnal, Panipat, Sonepat, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Jind.

,The UHBVN has submitted a multi-year tariff petition for the period 2014-15 till 2016-17 for the first time with the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission, giving projections of power purchase cost and other significant expenditures.

In the aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) submitted with the regulatory commission, the UHBVN has not proposed any hike in power tariff, saying that it expected to fund its gap through funding available under the financial restructuring plan (FRP).

"Though there is a projected deficit in the fiscal 2014-15 projections, the UHBVN expects to fund its gap through available funding under the FRP and continuation of certain FSA (fuel surcharge adjustment) as proposed under the FRP Plan and as such does not propose any tariff increase in 2014-15 financial year. Moreover, banks have committed to funding 50 per cent of the deficit, ," the UHBVN said in its ARR.

Under the FRP scheme, banks will fund the operational deficit of the discoms to the extent of 100 per cent in 2012-13, 75 per cent in 2013-14 and 50 per cent in 2014-15.

However, the UHBVN has sought an "appropriate tariff increase" for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years " to meet its cash requirement" due to the repayment of the restructure and fresh loans under the FRP.

The Haryana government this year has decided to take over debt liabilities of its power utilities to the tune of Rs 8,162.09 crore as part the Centre's bail-out package for discoms.

In the ARR, the UHBVN has projected revenue requirement and revenue generation from power sales at Rs 9,104 crore and Rs 6,858 crore, respectively, leading to a revenue gap of Rs 2,246 crore for 2014-15.

Chandigarh, December 26
Haryana Health Minister Narender Singh said a special campaign had been launched to fill 282 posts of medical officer under the reserved categories. Besides, retired specialists would be re-employed on a contract basis to meet the shortage of doctors.

The Health Minister said of the 407 posts of medical officer lying vacant, 282 belonged to the reserved categories--168 for SCs, 67 for ex-servicemen and 47 for persons with disabilities. The posts of reserved categories could not be filled due to the non-availability of suitable candidates.

A special campaign was being run to fill the backlog of posts of medical officer belonging to the Scheduled Castes. Under this campaign, applications had already been invited to fill 168 posts of medical officer and the selection would be completed month-end. A new recruitment process would also be launched in January, 2014, to fill posts of all categories, the minister added.

The minister said the department was also making efforts to fill posts of other reserved categories. Due to the non-availability of candidates for posts reserved for ex-servicemen, 50 per cent of these posts would be filled from amongst the general category. The same procedure was under consideration to fill the vacant posts of medical officers under the category of persons with disabilities.

Narender said as the number of specialists available in the cadre was very less, a preference in recruitment was being given to doctors having postgraduate qualifications. Retired specialists would be re-employed wherever there was a shortage.

Ambala, December 26
Over 7,000 residents of a number of villagers in the Naraingarh segment of the district have become victims of an insurance fraud in which they continued to pay the premium for three years, only to realise recently that the premium never reached the concerned company.

A team of four employees of the Chandigarh office of LIC Corporation of India approached the anganwari and ASHA workers in the villages in 2008 and asked them to rope in the villagers living below the poverty line to pay the premium of Rs 100, Rs 200 or Rs 500 and get an insurance cover under the company’s micro insurance scheme. The anganwari and ASHA workers were promised a five per cent share of the total policies that were sold through them.

Moved by the attractive offer, a large number of villagers bought the policy for which they started paying a monthly premium, which was collected by the workers in their respective villages on behalf of the LIC agents. The agents would then collect the premium and even issued receipts of the same amount.

The practice continued for more than four years, without the villagers or the insurance company realising that in actual the money collected was being pocketed by the agents who visited the villages each month.

The matter came to light when the villagers received letters from the insurance company, asking them to pay their premiums for the last three years to revive their policy, which had been suspended by the company for non-payment of premiums. The villagers then approached the Naraingarh office of the LIC, from where it was confirmed that one Sandeep, a resident of Nabha, had been collecting the premium from the villagers on behalf of the company.

N S Kanwal, local manager of the LIC, said he was not aware of the details of the matter as he had joined recently. He said the matter had been brought to his notice by the villagers, who had now been asked to take up the matter with the concerned authorities as it was a separate department which would look into the micro insurance schemes.

Meanwhile, the villagers alleged that the monthly collections were in lakhs and the fraud could well be to the tune of crores of rupees. The villagers said they would be meeting the officials at the Chandigarh office to demand a refund of the cash that had been collected from them. No senior officials could be contacted for comments.

Yamunanagar, December 26
Villagers held a demonstration against the death of a woman at the Trauma Centre here today. The protesters alleged that the woman died due to negligence of doctors.

Gareeb Chand, a resident of Kakroni village, said his daughter-in-law Maya Devi had sustained serious injuries in a road accident five days ago.

She was taken to the civil hospital but after some time, she was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh. After her condition improved at the PGI, she was sent to the Trauma Centre. He alleged that doctors at the Trauma Centre did not give proper treatment to her and she died due to their negligence today.

Refuting the allegations, Dr Puneet Kalra, Trauma Centre, said, “When Maya was brought here, her condition was critical and she was unconscious. Her documents prepared at the time of discharging her from the PGI show that she was in a critical condition. She was given proper treatment here and no negligence was committed on part of the doctors.”

Rewari, December 26
Kavita Yadav (22) hanged herself at her parental house at Dahina village, about 25 km from here, last night. The Dahina police have registered a case of dowry death against her husband Vinkesh Yadav and mother-in-law Suresh Devi, both residents of Bapas village in Gurgaon district, on a complaint filed by the victim’s father, Mahesh Yadav.

He alleged that his daughter, who got married to Vinkesh on February 15 was persistently harassed for dowry by her in-laws following which she recently returned to Dahina. — OC

Ambala, December 26
A youth and his mother were electrocuted near near Jansui village on the Ambala-Hisar highway today. The deceased were identified as Ashok Kumar (33) and Jogindro (60), residents of Kurukshetra.

Ashok was coming to Kaleraan village on his motorbike along with his mother and wife to visit a temple. When he was near Jansui village, his motorbike got trapped in a hanging high-tension wire. While Ashok and his mother were electrocuted, his wife Babli escaped unhurt. — TNS

SONEPAT, DECEMBER 25
Three persons were killed and one was injured seriously in two road accidents late last night. Ranbir of Nangal village and Ravinder of Singhola in Delhi were returning from Delhi late last night when their Verna car hit the wall of a culvert on the GT road near Bhigan Chowk. Ranbir died on the spot while Ravinder succumbed to his injuries on the way to the PGIMS, Rohtak.

In another acccident, Bijender and Ved Pal of Harsana village were returning to their village on a motorcycle when the bike collided with a sugarcane loaded tractor-trailer near Baiyanpur village on the Sonepat-Kharkhoda road late last night.

While Bijender died on the spot, Ravinder was referred to the PGIMS, Rohtak. The tractor driver fled the spot leaving behind his vehicle.