Efforts on to boost water supply
ROHTAK, April 25 — With the mercury hovering at 40°C or above, residents of dozens of localities in the town have been facing an acute shortage of potable water.

Pension scheme for private college staff finalised
ROHTAK, April 25 — The Haryana government has reportedly finalised the scheme of pension for the teaching and non-teaching staff of the private colleges in the state. At least 3500 teaching and 1500 non-teaching employees are likely to benefit from it.

MC among 9 held for clash

"Curb price rise"

Chautala reiterates support to BJP
Tribune News Service

HISAR, April 25 — Rejecting the idea of a third front-government led by Mr Jyoti Basu, the leader of the Indian National Lok Dal, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, today reiterated his party's support to the BJP-led coalition at the Centre.

Explaining his stand, Mr Chautala told a press conference here today that his primary aim was to see a government led by Mr H.D. Deve Gowda at the Centre. The INLD leader pointed out since there was no possibility of a third front-government, he preferred to support Mr Vajpayee.

Rejecting strongly the charges that money played a prominent role in the recent crisis, Mr Chautala made it clear that his support to the Vajpayee government was based on national interest.

He also rejected the claims that he supported the BJP-led coalition out of compulsion as two of the four MPs of his parties had already decided to support the confidence motion. Dr Sushil Indoora, the party MP from Sirsa, who was accompanying Mr Chautala substantiated his argument.

Mr Chautala observed there was no alternative to the Vajpayee government. He, however, did not comment whether the President should again invite Mr Vajpayee or not. But he pointed out that some viable alternative was to be found as the Congress had failed to form a government.

Mr Chautala criticised Chief Minister Bansi Lal and said efforts to oust him would continue. He claimed it was the misfortune of the state that this government was still continuing. He claimed that Mr Bansi Lal was keen to join the Congress but was not being given any weightage by the party.

Regarding the Sutlej Yamuna link canal issue, Mr Chautala blamed the Congress. He alleged the Congress never took Haryana's interest seriously. He said it was under Congress regimes that Haryana was subjected to grave injustice.

Efforts on to boost water supply
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, April 25 — With the mercury hovering at 40°C or above, residents of dozens of localities in the town have been facing an acute shortage of potable water.

According to official sources, the town, with a population of 2.5 lakh, requires 140 litres of piped water per person daily whereas the two water works located at Sonepat road and Jhajjar road have been providing only 90 litres of water per person everyday. Besides, 23,000 people in different sectors under the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and 6,000 at the medical college campus here are being supplied potable water by two separate water works located at HUDA and medical campus, respectively.

According to a survey, the worst-affected colonies are in the old town or on the outskirts. Garhi Mohalla, Dairy Mohalla, Chamanpura, Nand Colony, Krishna Colony, Mata Gate, Kaun Wala Mohalla, Para Mohalla, Roop Nagar, Sainiwas, Dev Colony, Shora Kothi and Kachi Garhi are some such localities which have been facing a severe scarcity of piped water.

The situation has become more grim in Khokra Koat, Renakpura, Indira Colony, Nehru Colony, Jai Prakash Colony, Sainik Colony, Shyamlal Colony, Saini Anandpura and Shastri Nagar as water pipelines are still to be laid in these localities.

When contacted, Mr Ravi Chandra, Executive Engineer, Public Health Department, admitted water scarcity in some parts of the town. However, he said the department had approved a boosting station scheme costing Rs 410 crore to solve the problem of water scarcity in the western area of the town. He said work on the scheme had already been started and was likely to be completed within a year. He claimed the target of 140 litres of water per person daily could be achieved after completion of the scheme.

Divulging details of this high-budget scheme, he said a boosting station would be constructed at Government Senior Secondary School and several pipelines laid for supplying water to adjacent localities. He said the worst-hit localities, including Garhi Mohalla, would get 14 lakh gallons of potable water per day once the boosting station started functioning.

He claimed the two water works had been providing 8.20 crore gallons of water per day to a population of 2.32 lakh.

Residents allege that the water is supplied to them at pre-dawn hours or late in the night.

Activists of the Manav Sewa Sangh have been supplying water free of charge to certain localities through tankers.

Hathnikund link channel coming up
From Ashwani Dutta

YAMUNANAGAR: The Hathnikund Barrage, which is under construction on the Yamuna, will replace the outlived Tajewala Headworks. Once completed the regulation of water to the Western Jamuna Canal (WJC) for Haryana and the Eastern Jamuna Canal (EJC) for Uttar Pradesh will be done from the Hathnikund barrage. To connect the new WJC head regulator at Hathnikund with the existing WJC (main line upper), a Western Jamuna Canal link channel of 3.89 km is under construction.

The project of WJC "link channel" and its works is included in the Haryana water resources consolidation project and is being funded through the World Bank. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 35 crore, including cost of land and other allied works. The bid of Larsen and Toubro Ltd. Chennai, being the lowest, was accepted and the agreement to start construction was executed by the Haryana govt. in December, 1998. The project is to be completed in 15 months (by March, 2000).

On January 4 the Bhoomi Pujan was held at the link channel site. The programme was organised by Larsen and Toubro and all high officials of the Haryana Irrigation Department and L & T joined the inaugural and puja function.

Excavation work has got into full momentum. Initially there were some forest and obstructions within the project area. But L & T has engaged a number of machineries to cope up with the delays. And as on date, the earth work has been completed up to 65 per cent and the company is very much sure of completing the required work task of 3 structures and complete canal excavation by June-end.

Chief Minister Bansi Lal visited the site on April 4. He was pleased with the progress and quality of the work.

The channel is 3890 metres long with seven structures to be constructed on the channel. In the first 900 metres the channel is to be concrete-lined in bed as well as side slopes. Thereafter from 900 metres to 3890 metres/tail the sides of the channel are to be stone-pitched and bed to be kept "Katcha." The total discharge of the channel is 25,000 cusecs out of which 5000 cusecs is for silt ejector and balance 20,000 cusecs is for use of Irrigation in Haryana, Rajasthan and for supply of drinking water supply to Delhi territory. The channel is mainly in cutting and is passing in between river Yamuna and Jagadhri Paonta Road.

It is learnt that 2900 trees were felled in a stretch of 4 km link channel which was essential for the construction of the channel. For improvement of environment in the area a 50-metre strip along the 4 km long channel has been left on either side for planting saplings for which the Forest Department has already been given the required cost.

Larsen & Toubro has established a modern laboratory equipped with the latest equipment to maintain the quality of work. When this newsmen visited the site, work was in full swing. Apart from the work progress, L & T has taken all consideration in creating employment for nearby villages. Hundreds of workers of the area are working day and night for the successful completion of the project.

Illegal liquor trade still continues
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, April 25 — Although prohibition has been lifted in the state illegal liquor business is still on. This trend has not only been robbing the state government of excise duty but it has been proving harmful to the interest of the legal liquor business.

Cases of illegal smuggling of liquor from neighbouring state have been reported regularly. The police has seized illegal liquor worth Rs 10 lakh in the last one month in this region. Illegal trade in the liquor was doing brisk business ever since prohibition was introduced in the state, thanks to well-established liquor mafia.

Though the state government lifted prohibition on April 1 last year, the mafia is still active. This mafia, reportedly having links with influential persons, had developed a kind of system in which liquor was made available at the doorsteps of consumers. Some of the officials concerned admit that to do away with the network is not an easy job and it may take some more time to control the activities of such elements.

The police here had unearthed a large stock of illegal liquor worth about Rs 75 lakh from a house in nearby Karontha village. Some of the persons involved in this case had also reportedly assaulted a person living in the town who had given information to the police in this regard. In another major recovery, the police impounded a truck carrying about 100 gunny bags of liquor pouches on Thursday from this town. Each bag was having 200 pouches. The truck had reportedly come from a neighbouring state. The total value of this liquor is stated to be about Rs 2 lakh.

People engaged in the legal business fear that if the present trend of illegal trade continued and no steps were taken to check the activities of the liquor mafia then not only their business would be affected but it may also pose danger to the health of people due to the chances of sale of spurious liquor.

Pension scheme for private college staff finalised
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, April 25 — The Haryana government has reportedly finalised the scheme of pension for the teaching and non-teaching staff of the private colleges in the state. At least 3500 teaching and 1500 non-teaching employees are likely to benefit from it.

According to Education Department sources, the proposal of the pension scheme has been made an agenda item and it was likely to be approved by the state Cabinet at its next meeting. The demand for the implementation of pension for the staff of private colleges had been taken up a few years back and the state government had accepted it in principle about a year ago, but final decision about its implementation had been awaited. It is reported that a delegation of teachers representing the Haryana Federation of College and University Teachers Organisations and Haryana Private College Teachers Union had also been assured of speedy implementation of the pension scheme.

Meanwhile, the federation has decided to postpone its proposed dharna at Chandigarh on April 27 following an 'assurance' by the state government.

But the M.D. University Teachers Association has decided to go with its dharna on April 29 at Varsity campus here in protest against the autocratic style of functioning of the Vice-Chancellor.

81 NDRI students get degrees
Tribune News Service

KARNAL, April 25 — Dr R.S. Paroda, Director-General of the ICAR and Secretary, DARE, said yesterday that the biggest challenge before dairy scientists is the country was to make embryo transfer a commercially viable and cost-effective technique before the technology could be transferred to the fields.

Dr Paroda was giving his address to students of the National Dairy Research Institute on the occasion of its third convocation.
The Director-General stated that India had a fast expanding urban consumer market which was likely to grow to 400 million during the next five years. The country, therefore, required to train professionals in agriculture, animal management, dairy operation and dairy business management. He said the changing scenario called for upgradation of HRD programme as well as reorientation of research and educational programmes to meet the emergent needs of the millennium.

The Director-General said the dairy sector was generating an estimated revenue of Rs 68 thousand crore. It has been projected that the country would have to produce 80 million tonnes of milk by 2000 and 135 million tonnes by 2010 AD to meet the nutritional demands of the country. The three major challenges before the dairy industry were quality, product development and global marketing. He was of the view that to achieve this end India needed upgradation of its managerial skills.

The Director-General wanted that the focus should be on quality management. ASEAN markets were the fastest growing consumption of milk and milk products would grow rapidly in the ASEAN nations. At present these nations were deficient in milk by 3 million tonnes per year. Dr Paroda felt proud that India had emerged as the highest milk producing country in the world in its 50th year of Independence. The production has risen from 20 million tonnes in 1970 to around 78 million tonnes in 1998. He wanted that to sustain the growth in milk production care should be taken for the health of its bovine population.

Dr O.S. Tomer, Director, NDRI while reviewing the progress made by the institute disclosed that the institute had developed new strains of crossbred cattle. He disclosed that recently a Karan fries crossbred cow named Kamdhenu had produced a record milk yield of 44.2 kg per day during its peak lactation period. Dr Tomer said scientists of the institute had taken up crossbreeding programme in villages around Karnal. Efforts were going on to conserve and upgrade the Zebu breeds of cattle through selected breeding, he added.

Earlier Dr Tomer conferred degrees of B. Tech., M.Sc. and Ph.D on 81 students.

Dr Paroda also released a kit for detection of milk adulteration on this occasion.

MC among 9 held for clash
From Our Correspondent

AMBALA, April 25 — The cantonment police has booked Lalit Prasad, Municipal Councillor, Sanjay, Trilok Chand, Raj Kumar Satpal, Ramesh, Jai Pal, Bintu and Mota under Sections 148, 149, 323, 307 of IPC and 25, 54, 59 of the Arms Act in connection with the clash between two groups at Rangia Mandi last evening in which ten persons were injured.

Agitated residents of the area earlier took out a procession today to protest against Mr Anil Vij, MLA. The police dispersed the processionists and booked Mani Ram, Prithvi Raj, Rakesh, Ishwar Chand, Prithvi Lal Chand, Narender, Tilak Ram and Ratti under Section 101/151.

With today's arrests the police has detained most of the suspects involved in yesterday's clash.

DAV’s plan to spread network
Tribune News Service

HISAR, April 25 — The DAV Managing Committee is planning to spread the network of its institutions in eastern parts of the country.

According to Mr Narain Dass Grover, Regional Director, Eastern Zone, DAV Managing Committee, in the past decade about 15,00 DAV schools had been established in the eastern region which included states like, Bihar, Orissa, Sikkim, and West Bengal.

Mr Grover pointed out that DAV was the largest non-government organisation in the world with the maximum number of educational institutions.

There were a maximum number of 152 institutions in Punjab, followed by 118 in Haryana. He disclosed that the institutions had been receiving an overwhelming response from the eastern region.

SUCI for steps to curb price rise
From Our Correspondent

SONEPAT, April 25 — The Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) has decided to continue its fight against new industrial and economic policies of the central government and safeguard the interests of industrial workers, farmers, landless workers, students, youth and women in the state.

This was resolved at a one-day state-level convention of the party held here today.

Delegates from all districts of the state participated.

By a resolution, the convention expressed its concern about the rampant corruption, price rise, activities of anti-national and communal forces and urged the government to take effective steps to curb the rising trend of prices of essential commodities.

By another resolution, the convention opposed the privatisation of the power sector and road transport and demanded immediate withdrawal of the decision.

Earlier, a large number of workers affiliated to the SUCI held a procession in the city.