H A R Y A N A

Patients given untested blood
HISAR, June 14 — About half of the patients requiring blood transfusion in Haryana are administered untested blood leading to a sharp increase in the incidence of AIDS and hepatitis-B infections, it is learnt.

Unsafe oxytocin ampoules found
ROHTAK, June 14 — Although the Haryana Government has banned the production of the oxytocin drug for use as a pituitary injection for the purpose of increasing the milk-yield in milch cattle, the supply and use of the drug in unsafe injections has been going on unchecked.

Notice to Haryana Advocate-General
CHANDIGARH, June 14 — Mr M.L. Sarin, Advocate-General, Haryana was issued notice today Mr H.S. Mattewal, Chairman of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana for his alleged professional misconduct on a complaint along with an affidavit filed by Mr Avinash Kumar Chadha, an advocate of Yamuna Nagar.

Decision on unmilled paddy a breather
CHANDIGARH, June 14 — Procurement agencies of the Haryana Government have heaved a sigh of relief following the decision taken by the Union Food Ministry to make the unmilled paddy remaining with the State agencies free from levy.

Protest against Army men’s action
AMBALA June 14 — A senior army officer along with his troops reportedly forced railway officials to change the platform of the military special train they were travelling in at the Ambala cantonment railway station.

MDU sops to J&K migrants
ROHTAK, June 14 — Maharshi Dayanand University has decided to grant certain concessions of wards of Kashmiri migrants relating to admissions in various educational institutions, including professional and technical colleges, affiliated to it.

Patients given untested blood
From Raman Mohan

HISAR, June 14 — About half of the patients requiring blood transfusion in Haryana are administered untested blood leading to a sharp increase in the incidence of AIDS and hepatitis-B infections, it is learnt.

According to knowledgeable sources, untested blood is administered mostly in private nursing homes in smaller towns all over the state which do not have blood banks. Normally, patients undergoing treatment in such towns are expected to get blood on prescription from licensed blood banks. However, doctors in these towns encourage relatives and friends of their patients to give blood and administer it without testing. This saves both time and money. Since most of these patients come from nearby villages, they are unaware of the dangers of administering untested blood.

Blood bank records of several districts perused by The Tribune show that almost all the tested blood is issued to patients from bigger towns. There are hardly any patients who come to these blood banks from sub-divisional and other smaller towns. Since there are no licensed blood banks there, it is evident that patients there are given untested blood.

The sources said on an average each of the government blood banks in the district towns issues 40 to 50 units of blood a day. Almost the same quantity was required for the smaller towns of the district put together. This requirement they said was met entirely with untested blood.

There are , at present, 24 blood banks in the state. As many as 17 of the 19 district towns have government blood banks. Jhajjar and Fatehabad do not have the facility. Among the licensed private blood banks Hisar has three, and Sirsa, Karnal, Panipat and Faridabad one each in addition to the government blood banks there.

The records also show that on an average 0.5 per cent of the blood units collected by licensed banks for transfusion is HIV-infected. The average for hepatitis-B is as high as 2.5 per cent. Experts say that these figures especially in the case of Hepatitis-B have been rising over the years. They attribute this to the administration of untested blood.

However, this is not to say that all is well with government blood banks. Contrary to clear instructions from the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), most of the blood in government blood banks is tested by the ‘rapid or strip’ method. NACO has made the computerised Elisa test compulsory. These machines are considered error free and give a printed report which is attached to the record. As against this, the strip method is manual and the chances of human error in labelling are higher.

Nevertheless, about half of the government blood banks in Haryana do not have Elisa machines. Moreover, even where this facility is available it is rarely used because it is time consuming. Experts say the strip test is conducted in minutes. The Elisa test, however, takes much longer. Therefore, most blood bank technologists prefer the strip test.

The Civil Surgeon, Hisar, recently wrote to the Haryana AIDS Control Society (letter No. RBTC/2000/29 dated March 8, 2000) to know about which test should be preferred. In its reply (letter No. HACS/BS/2628 dated May 23, 2000), the society stated that in accordance with instructions of NACO Elisa test was compulsory. It said in unavoidable circumstances alone samples could be tested by rapid or strip method and the percentage of such tests should not exceed 10. However, rapid test continues to be the commonly used method.

Even the working of the high profile NACO is contradictory. While it wants the Elisa test to be compulsory, it itself continues to supply the rapid method strips to government blood banks in bulk. The private blood banks, however, invariably use the Elisa method which is more comprehensive too.

Interestingly, despite the gravity of the situation, the state government has not initiated any steps to check administration of untested blood. At the same time professional bodies of doctors too have not taken any initiative in this direction.

The sources said untested blood and use of recycled disposable syringes and intravenous (IV) sets posed the greatest challenge to the health authorities in the state. The provision of hepatitis-B vaccines to government employees free of cost was no cure for the malaise.

Unsafe oxytocin ampoules found
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, June 14 — Although the Haryana Government has banned the production of the oxytocin drug for use as a pituitary injection for the purpose of increasing the milk-yield in milch cattle, the supply and use of the drug in unsafe injections has been going on unchecked. The drug authorities have detected a racket involved in the supply of such an injection violating all norms of required quality and safety.

Drug control officials recently seized a large quantity of oxytocin injections packed in plastic ampoules instead of the required glass ampoules. It is reported that the plastic ampoule is not heat-resistant and cannot be sterilised compared to the glass ampoule. The officials found that the manufacturers had also not mentioned the address of the company; only a pin code had been given. It is suspected that a manufacturer based in Delhi, UP or Bihar is involved in the large-scale illegal manufacturing and supply of these injections to Haryana.

The officials seized several samples of such injections from some chemists’ shops and grocery stores located at Jhajjar yesterday. The samples have been sent for testing in a laboratory. While 50 cases of the drug were seized from a shop at Beri town, 25 cases were seized from two other shops. It was also found that some grocery shops have been engaged in selling medicines illegally.

Notice to Haryana Advocate-General
By Our Legal Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, June 14 — Mr M.L. Sarin, Advocate-General, Haryana was issued notice today Mr H.S. Mattewal, Chairman of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana for his alleged professional misconduct on a complaint along with an affidavit filed by Mr Avinash Kumar Chadha, an advocate of Yamuna Nagar. If the charges of misconduct are proved right, his licence to practice as an advocate can be suspended or cancelled.

Along with Mr Sarin, 20 other lawyers of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh have also been issued similar notices.

“Torchbearers in the profession are the darkest clouds,” laments “the complainant and questions why the Bar council has by-passed startling revelations about Mr Sarin, whose conduct by now ought to have been judiciously probed.” Narrating the alleged misconduct, he stated that about 150 appeals of land-acquisition cases of Sukhradi and Salokhra villages in Gurgaon district, were filed through Mr M.L. Sarin, senior advocate and Mr Hemant Sarin, advocate (who is a close relative of the former). One of these appeals was dismissed by the first Division Bench on January 28, 2000 in a detailed judgement.

Another bunch of over 1000 of these appeals was thereafter listed for hearing before the third Division Bench. Mr M.L. Sarin, Advocate-General, Haryana notwithstanding the interest of the state, engaged Mr Ashok Aggarwal as the arguing counsel for the appeals and paid professional fee of Rs 50,000 through a bank cheque from his own account. This cheque has been duly cashed by Mr Aggarwal. Mr Sarin thus not only acted against the interest of the state of Haryana, but he was keen to protect the interest of his earlier clients. It is claimed that if these appeals were allowed, the state of Haryana would have to pay additional compensation of about Rs 300 crore.

When the matter came to the knowledge of the Third Division Bench, the appeals were again listed before it on April 28, 2000. On issuance of a show cause notice by the Third Division Bench Mr Ashok Aggarwal admitted before the court that he was not informed by Mr Sarin that another appeal against the same judgement of the learned single judge had already been dismissed by the First Division Bench.” Mr Aggarwal is stated to have informed the court that actually he was engaged by Mr M.L. Sarin, Advocate-General, Haryana, who had also paid him the professional fee through a bank cheque.

The Third Division Bench found it a case of proven professional misconduct, upon which Mr Sarin tendered an unqualified written apology. The court accepted the apology with a “hope that he would be more circumspect and candid in bringing correct facts to the notice of the court so that a situation like the present may not arise in future.”

Through the notice, the advocate concerned have been requested to send their replies to the Bar Council within a fortnight. After that the complaints will be placed before the general house of the Bar Council.

In view of the above complaint, the Haryana Government may be forced to remove Mr Sarin from the office of Advocate-General to save the reputation of the constitutional office.

Decision on unmilled paddy a breather
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 14 — Procurement agencies of the Haryana Government have heaved a sigh of relief following the decision taken by the Union Food Ministry to make the unmilled paddy remaining with the State agencies free from levy.

The State agencies had been left with about 36,500 tonnes of unmilled paddy after the cut off date of April 30 last. While the State Government had been asking the Union Food Ministry to accept the responsibility of the unmilled paddy, the Food Corporation of India was insisting that after the cut-off date, the unmilled paddy was not its baby.

While before the cut-off date the FCI would have been responsible for any loss suffered by the State agencies on account of paddy procured by them on behalf of the former, no such responsibility vested with the corporation after the cut-off date.

Finding the FCI unrelenting the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, write a personal letter to the Union Food Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar, seeking his intervention to resolve the dispute.

According to informed sources, the Union Food Ministry has conveyed to the State Government that its agencies would not be bound to give 75 per cent of the rice milled out of the unmilled paddy lying with them. Now the State agencies would be able to either sell the paddy in the open market at a good price because the millers too would be free from levy or the agencies themselves could get the paddy milled.

Meanwhile, Haryana has achieved an all time high record in the arrival of wheat in its mandis, which received about 45.59 lakh tonnes till yesterday. This is about 6.60 lakh tonnes more than the last year’s total arrival of wheat.

The Commissioner and Secretary, Food and Supplies, Mr Dharamvir, said here today that about 44.19 lakh tonnes of wheat had been procured by the government agencies. The Food and Supplies Department procured over 9.96 lakh tonnes, Hafed over 18.83 lakh tonnes, the Food Corporation of India 4.08 lakh tonnes, the Haryana Agro Industries Corporation 3.87 lakh tonnes and Confed 3.60 lakh tonnes.

He said Sirsa district was leading in the State with the arrival of 7.12 lakh tonnes of wheat, followed by Kaithal with 5.61 lakh tonnes, Karnal 5.40 lakh tonnes, Jind 5.38 lakh tonnes and Kurukshetra 4.67 lakh tonnes. About 9,000 tonnes of wheat was arriving in the State mandis daily, he said.

Protest against Army men’s action
From Rahul Das
Tribune News Service

AMBALA June 14 — A senior army officer along with his troops reportedly forced railway officials to change the platform of the military special train they were travelling in at the Ambala cantonment railway station.

Senior railway officials have taken a serious note of the incident and they are writing a letter to the Chief of the Army Staff giving details about the “misbehaviour” on the part of the Armymen. The letter is going to strongly protest against the actions of the Army personnel.

While confirming the incident, the Divisional Railway Manager, Mr Vijay Kumar, told The Tribune that it was very serious matter. “The Army personnel threatened with dire consequences the Station Manager and forced him to shift the platform,” he said.

“While we understand the problems faced by the Army personnel, they too must understand that it is not possible for us to give them a passenger line which invariably gets blocked for three to four hours,” he said.

The incident took place on June 11 when a Colonel along with his men went to the Station Master’s room in the afternoon. They asked him to shift the military special train from a non-platform line to a platform line.

The Station Master expressed his inability to change the platform of the military special train due to technical reasons and this infuriated the Army men who gheraoed the station master, Mr D K Singh. The station master has informed his superiors that the armymen jostled and misbehaved with him and ordered him to change the military special train platform to Line No 2.

The military special train was going to New Jalpaiguri. The train was allotted a non-platform line as normally military special trains have ODC (Over Dimension Consignment) which might damage platform or other infrastructure.

The train was eventually brought on to Line No 2. Incidentally, at one point, objection was raised that it would not be possible to get the complete train on to the platform.

The Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Mr A K Kapoor, said that a senior Army officer had requested that the military special train be given a platform line since it was lunch time. “The army officer said that as it was lunch time, a platform line should be given. A platform makes it convenient to distribute lunch which is prepared in one wagon,” he said.

He said that the military special train was an ODC so it was put on a non-platform line. “We did not have prior intimation of the military special train. “We only received information about the military special from Patiala,” he said.

Strongly criticising the action of the army personnel, he said that it was perhaps for the first time that such an incident had happened in Ambala cantonment in the last couple of years.

Mr Kapoor pointed out that the Station Master was jostled by the military men and they spoke rudely with him despite his efforts to make them understand that Over Dimension Consignment can damage property.

“The shifting of the platform led to blockage of traffic for about an hour which could have been easily avoided,” he said.

MDU sops to J&K migrants
From Jatinder Sharma

ROHTAK, June 14 — Maharshi Dayanand University has decided to grant certain concessions of wards of Kashmiri migrants relating to admissions in various educational institutions, including professional and technical colleges, affiliated to it.

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has urged the university to grant certain concessions for admissions to the undergraduate and postgraduate courses for the wards of Kashmiris displaced from their homes in the wake of terrorism in the valley.

The ministry has suggested that the date of admission to various courses should be extended by 30 days and relaxation upto 10 per cent should be given in cut-off percentage subject to minimum eligibility requirements. It has also advised the university to increase its intake capacity by 10 per cent so as to accommodate the wards of the migrants from the valley.

The Secretary, HRD ministry Mr Maharaj Krishen Kaw, has also requested the state government to consider the provision of reservation for at least one seat in the merit quota in the technical and professional institutions for wards of Kashmiri migrants. Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, he said, had already taken a lead in this direction.

Besides this, he said, the waiving of domicile requirement and facilitation of migration in the second and subsequent years in higher education courses would also go a long way in providing some relief to the community.

The high-power committee constituted by the Vice-Chancellor under the chairmanship of the pro-Vice-Chancellor, Mr Jai Kishen Sharma, to examine these proposals met here today and decided to accept the recommendations in toto. The other members on the committee are Dr M.G. Gandhi, Dean, Education, and Prof C.M. Sharma, Dean Faculty of Humanities.

The committee said since the process of admissions to the technical and professional institutions affiliated to the university had been transferred to Guru Jambheshwer University, the matter should be referred to that university. It, however, recommended that admissions to such students to the postgraduate courses run by the university should be made according to the suggestions of the ministry.

While the university was competent to increase the intake of students in its departments and also in the affiliated colleges, it would have to seek permission of the Medical Council of India and other statutory bodies for any increase in the number of seats in the medical college and other professional courses like B.Ed Pharmacy, Law etc.

Therefore, the committee resolved to refer the matter to these statutory bodies and after their approval as well as of the academic council to include these recommendations in the ordinance from the next session.

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Mr Sharma, has advised the wards of Kashmiri migrants to contact his office in case they face any difficulty in seeking admission to the postgraduate courses. The affiliated colleges, too, he said, should refer the issue of admission of these students to him.

Krishak samaj meeting on June 16
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 14 — The Haryana Krishak Samaj President, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, has convened an urgent meeting of the executive-committee of the organisation in Delhi on June 16.

Stating this here today a spokesman for the Samaj, Mr Satpal Kaushik, said the meeting would discuss measures how to put pressure on the Chautala Government for not harassing the farming community over the issue of recovery of electricity bill arrears.

The meeting, he said, would also discuss the issues of higher interest charged from the farmers by the cooperative banks, arrest warrants issued against the farmers by cooperative banks, non-payment of arrears by the sugar mills to the growers, deteriorating law and order situation in the state and non-completion of the SYL canal.

Seizure of fake coins: 3 held
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, June 14 — The police have arrested three persons so far in connection with the case of manufacture of fake coins of the denomination of Rs 5, which was exposed recently.

The arrested persons include Hari Ram, the main accused, who was residing at a rented house here and running the coin unit at Najafgarh in Delhi. The other two are Surender Pal and Om Prakash, alias ‘Pappu’ both residents of Vishnu Garden for allegedly supplying the dye unit and other infrastructure for the factory. About 1050 fake coins of Rs 5 had been seized from the main suspect after a raid by police, a few days ago.

Committee to pass building plans
From Our Correspondent

NARNAUL, June 14 — The Deputy Commissioner, Mr V. Raja Sekhar, has constituted a sub-committee consisting of six members.

The committee will look into the passing of building plans received by the Municipal Council, Narnaul.

The committee will ascertain the legal ownership of the site and encroachment, if any, on municipal, government or any other common land before passing the building plan by the council.

The Deputy Commissioner said the committee would also ensure that all building plans presented were disposed off during the statutory period of 60 days, and if this was not done within the said period the same would be deemed to have been passed. The committee would meet twice a month, he added.

Family of 4 wiped out in mishap
Tribune News Service

FARIDABAD, June 14 — An entire family of four, including two kids, were killed in a road accident last night near Banchari village on the Delhi-Mathura national highway.

The killed have been identified as Surinder, his wife Arti, daughter Payal and son Sanchit. While Arti and Payal died on the spot. Surinder and Sanchit succumbed to their injuries in Palwal and Faridabad hospitals, respectively.

The family was on a motor cycle when it collided with an unidentified vehicle.