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| Friday, July 20, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION
CM sanctions
24.18 cr for Mewat
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Education Dept
refutes charges Sleepless nights order of the day 50,000 eye operations in seven years Pay-roll savings day celebrated No notice on removal,
says Nagra Lodge FIR, demand
protesting teachers Suspension of
SHO sought Farmer killed
by friend
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TRIBUNE
INVESTIGATION Chandigarh, July 19 The sample was taken by a resident of the Railway Colony at Kalka. The same water is supplied to the residents of the colony as well. The report, according to sources, revealed that the sample contained “escherichia coli” or thermotolerant bacteria, “coliform” bacteria and “faecal streptococci” . According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, the drinking water should not contain any “escherichia coli” bacteria, “coliform” bacteria and “faecal streptococci” bacteria in a 250 ml sample. But the sample tested at the private laboratory indicated that the “coliform bacteria” were too many to be counted while “faecal streptococci” were 23/100 ml, which again was on a much higher side. Between April and July every year there is always a big rush of tourists and visitors from all over the country. Most of them stay at the railway station for several hours before they get connecting trains in either direction. Besides the railway station, there are about 1,500 residents of the Kalka Railway Colony. Investigations reveal that there are two sources of water supply to Kalka railway station and the Railway Colony. The main and old source is the Kaushalya waterworks. The second source — two deep-bore tubewells at Majri — has been operational only for a couple of years now. Both sources are controlled and operated by the Railways. For the past several years, efforts have been made to improve the Kaushalya waterworks by investing substantially in the project. The endeavour of the authorities has been to improve both the quality and quantity of drinking water. Kalka is known to face an acute water shortage during summer months. The position remains comfortable only if the south west monsoon is normal in June and July. Though the Railway authorities have been promising before every summer that “next year the problem will be permanently solved”, it has been troubling people even now. Huge underground tanks — one by the side of the railway station and the other near the diesel shed — have been constructed. These are hardly used. They are also not cleaned regularly. Besides, there is an overhead water tank near the Railway Ground. Even the two deep-bore tubewells in the river bed in the Majri village area are not operated to capacity. These tubewells were sunk at a cost of several lakhs of rupees. Though the water from these is “fit for human consumption” and free from bacteria, their restricted use does not benefit the residents as well as commuters. The problem is mainly with the Kaushalya waterworks. Water gets contaminated with sewage. The other problem about which residents complain is that the water supplied for domestic use, including drinking purposes, is not properly treated. Chlorination or mixing of alum, they claim, is far from satisfactory. The residents also allege that there is either no system of taking daily samples of drinking water for testing or these are not taken for unknown reasons. |
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2 die as LPG tanker catches fire Panipat, July 19 According to information when a tanker carrying LPG from Mathura to Jalandhar reached near Babarpur on G.T. Road, its trailler got separated from the cabin and overturned. It resulted in the leakage of the LPG which caught fire. Due to heavy gas pressure and wind flow, the fire engulfed a roadside dhaba and a factory premises near the accident site. According to Surinder Singh, whose factory is located near the site of the accident, stated that the tanker was parked at a dhaba near a petrol station where some people were taking tea. They felt that gas was leaking from the tanker and cautioned the tanker driver. The driver tried to dump the gas tanker in the nearby Babarpur canal. However, while reversing the tanker, he could not detach the tanker from the cabin and the tanker overturned. While the driver was going to inform the police, some one of the dhaba lit a matchstick which resulted in the fire and the fire engulfed the entire area, including a cotton factory, dhaba, standing crop and trees. Eleven persons including four members of Dak Kanvar, driver and conductor of the ill-fated tanker and five others mostly factory workers who were taking tea at the dhaba got injured. The seriously injured were identified as Hussain, Amit, Viram Singh, Sonu, Shir Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Harbeer, Madan Lal, Kewal Singh and Jeet Singh both from Himachal (driver and conductor of the tanker) and Ashok. Three fire engines from Panipat and two from Panipat Oil Refinery were rushed to control the fire. It took about nine hours to extinguish the fire. The injured were brought to Civil Hospital at Panipat. But after the first aid they were shifted to the PGI at Rohtak. The Medical Superintendent of Civil Hospital Panipat, Dr H.S. Randhawa, said seven of the injured had received 100 per cent burns. When contacted the house surgeon of the Emergency Department said that two of the injured had died due to serious burns. The condition of other nine was reported to be critical. There was a traffic jam on both sides of G.T. Road after the incident which could be cleared around 3 p.m. However light vehicles were diverted by the police through the Barsat road. |
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CM sanctions
24.18 cr for Mewat Chandigarh, July 19 The Chief Minister, who was presiding over a meeting of the board here yesterday said henceforth the meeting should be convened on quarterly basis as it would help in proper monitoring of various developmental works. He asked the Chairman of the board, Mr S.A. Khan, to ensure that Rs 24 crore allocated for developmental works were spent judiciously and the achievements of past five years were surpassed in a single year. Mr Chautala said the basic aim of the government was to educate the people of this area. The government would continue its efforts to promote education. Mr Khan informed the Chief Minister that the United Nations’ Operations Supervision Mission had visited Mewat recently and appreciated various developmental programmes. The mission had recommended that women should be encouraged to participate in the developmental activities. Those present in the meeting included the Revenue Minister, Mr Dhirpal Singh, MLA Hathin, Mr Bhagwan Sahai Rawat, Chief Secretary, Mr L.M. Goyal, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Mr S.Y. Quraishi, Commissioner, Gurgaon Division-cum-Member Secretary, Mewat Development Board, Mr L.S.M. Salins, Deputy Commissioner, Faridabad, Mr A.K. Singh and other senior officers of the state government. |
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INLD rally to prove popularity Behrampur (Gurgaon), July 19 In order to make the rally a success at Bhiwani, Mr Ajay Singh, who is the son of Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, held a meeting of party workers from Gurgaon and Faridabad districts here today. Several ministers and MLAs of the party too attended the meeting. Similar meetings of workers from Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Karnal and Panipat districts have already been held to mobilise support for the rally. The INLD’s compulsion to hold a successful public meeting at this juncture of its rule in Haryana is understandable. Its opponents have levelled the charge of failure to fulfil its pre-poll promises and also that now its government was facing the challenge of anti-incumbency factor. The rally, christened as “Vikas rally”, to mark the completion of two years of the INLD government’s rule, is being organised by the INLD in Bhiwani with a strategic objective. Mr Ajay Singh is the MP from Bhiwani and it happens to be the home district of former Chief Minister, Bansi Lal, who is making efforts to come back to power. Significantly, Mr Ajay Singh is shouldering the major responsibility for organising the rally. Its success will naturally further establish him on the political firmament of the state. Mr Ajay Singh says the INLD will continue holding its spate of public meetings in western Uttar Pradesh. According to him, his party will hold its next meeting at Agra on August 9. Mr Om Prakash Chautala, who is also the president of the INLD, has convened a joint meeting of senior party leaders from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana in Delhi on July 25. Mr Ajay Singh said the meeting would take stock of the party’s position in western Uttar Pradesh and devise the future course of action. The INLD has launched an organised political campaign in western Uttar Pradesh for the past couple of months with two-fold objectives. First was to expand its base and the other was to forestall the move to rope in Mr Ajit Singh in the Union Council of Ministers. Mr Chautala has addressed successful meetings in Western Uttar Pradesh. He has publicly made known his aversion towards Mr Ajit Singh, who is considered to be having influence in western Uttar Pradesh. In response to a specific question, Mr Ajay Singh agreed to a newspaper report that his party leaders met leaders of People’s Front, including the CPM general secretary, Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet and members from the Samajwadi Party of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav. However, he tried to play down the significance of the meetings. |
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Education Dept
refutes charges Chandigarh, July 19 A spokesman for the department said here today that it was far from truth to say that 60 per cent of the admissions were only from Bhiwani, Sirsa and Narwana constituencies represented by the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, and his sons. He clarified that candidates from all over the state had been given equal opportunity. Out of a total of 1,57,464 candidates who took the state-level JBT entrance examination conducted by the SCERT, top 3,274 students had been placed on the state-level merit list prepared and there was no quota fixed for any district as alleged by Mr Dalal. Thus the total pass percentage was 2.07 per cent. The pass percentage for the candidates of Bhiwani district from which the largest number of 18,000 students had taken the examination was only 2.8 per cent. In fact, he pointed out, the highest number of candidates had been appearing from Bhiwani every year and had always been getting the top position in the merit list. The second highest number of candidates was 15,721 from Hisar of which 340 qualified, making the pass percentage 2.4 per cent. Similarly, 12,389 candidates had appeared from Jind and had a pass percentage of 2.8 per cent. He said there was no such district from where no candidate had been selected. |
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Sleepless nights order of the day Faridabad, July 19 Several residents of Sector 14 and nearby pockets had to go without power for at least 16 hours last night and today. Residents of houses having single phase connection had to spend the whole night waiting for the supply to resume. But the power supply which went off around 9.30 last night could be resumed this noon around 1.30 today. But the supply was again disrupted after about an hour. Employees of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) who came for repairing the fault said there was a fault in the transformer and it needed replacement. Senior officials, including the Superintending Engineer, the Xen and the SDO were not available. They were reported to be busy in connection with the visit of a senior power official from Chandigarh. According to a resident of Sector 14, the problem last night was brought to the notice of the authorities concerned and the complaint centre located in Sector 15, but no one attended to the complaint till noon today. As a result several residents, including small children, had to spend the night outside. A housewife said it was a nightmare for the residents who had single phase supply or had no inverter or generator. Another resident complained the employees of the complaint centre were hardly available on phone after 8 p.m., as they tend to put down the receiver of the phone as they don’t want to get disturbed. Hundreds of residents of Shiv Colony near Ballabgarh had gheraoed the Power Department’s office in protest against the poor supply. A resident of Fajjupur village also claimed that power supply in his village normally remained cut after 8 pm and was restored after 2 a.m. According to DHBVN sources, a large number of transformers installed had been needing repair or replacement. It is reported that the material used as infrastructure was normally substandard and of poor quality. The district has a daily requirement of about 60 lakh units of power but it is reported that supply was short by about 10 lakh units. However, the SE, Mr
V.K. Aggarwal, did not agree and claimed the supply position was okay. He admitted that there could be problems in some areas due to local faults. |
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50,000 eye operations in seven years Faridabad, July 19 About 50,000 operations have been conducted in over 200 camps in the past seven years and a majority of the beneficiaries are poor people who cannot afford costly operations. According to the district eye surgeon’s office, the camps are a regular feature and are organised by the health authorities with the cooperation of voluntary organisations. It is learnt that 9,500 persons were operated upon from April, 2000, to March 2001, of which a majority were from villages and slum areas of the town. An important aspect of these camps is that doctors use the latest technique of sutureless surgery in these operations. The result is that patients recover quickly and do not have any post-operation hassles like irritation, watering, redness and pain. According to Dr Ravinder Mathur, District Ophthalmic Surgeon, the sutureless technique has proved a boon for poor patients who cannot afford operations costing between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. However, he said the cost of one such operation in these camps was hardly Rs 600, which was also normally borne by the voluntary organisations. He claimed that the success of the eye camps had adversely affected the work of private clinics, which reportedly charged between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 per operation. The district has a team of six doctors, led by Dr Mathur, which conducts about 30 camps in a year. |
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Pay-roll savings day celebrated Chandigarh, July 19 Mr Kapoor said Haryana was having a total of 2650 pay-roll groups with 3,27,000 accounts. These groups mobilised deposits of Rs 1.6 crore per month. Among the pay-roll groups, which have shown outstanding performances in the state, are - the Railway Workshop, Jagadhri, which tops with savings of Rs 7.30 lakh per month, followed by the Police Line, Panchkula, with Rs 2 lakh per month, and the Railway Workshop, Kalka, with Rs 1.86 lakh per month. |
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No notice on removal,
says Nagra Yamunanagar, July 19 Talking to newsmen here yesterday, Mr Nagra said he had also not received any show cause notice from the high command. He added that he came to know about it after reading in this regard in the newspapers. He said he was touring the entire state to have the views of people to draw the future strategy. He informed that a few of his admirers had resigned from the primary membership of the BSP. It may be added that Mr Nagra had been sacked by the party for six years. Mr Randhir Singh, former president of the kisan cell of the BSP, Haryana, has also resigned from the primary membership of the party. He said it was because of the efforts of Mr Nagra that the BSP had its name in Haryana. He said in Parliament and the Assembly, the BSP had its representation. He stated that Mr Nagra worked hard and gave the due status to the BSP in the state. He declared that 80 per cent workers of the BSP were with Mr Nagra even now. |
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Lodge FIR, demand
protesting teachers Rohtak, July 19 The university teachers held an impressive procession on the campus today and raised slogans against the university administration and the district authorities. A general body meeting of the MDUTA, through a resolution, regretted that it was an “irony that the administration appears to be helping the culprit go scot free and the teachers have to organise protests to get a proper case registered. Under these conditions it may not be possible for the teachers to discharge their examination duties in future.” The MDUTA further said: “It is clear that mindless commercialisation of education is resulting in further degradation of the process of teaching, learning and evaluation as well as an emergence of a new wave of anarchy and criminalisation”. Mr Rajesh Parmar was criminally assaulted by a student who was caught by the lecturer while using unfair means during the PGDCA examination of the Directorate of Distance Education of the university. The MDUTA said it was shocking and reprehensible that even after eight days of the incident, an FIR under appropriate Sections had not been lodged by the university administration. The MDUTA has demanded that the administration makes sure that exemplary punishment is given to the culprit. The Association has urged the Chancellor-Governor and the Chief Minister to intervene in the matter. MDUTA has decided to stage a dharna in front of the office of the Vice-Chancellor on July 25 to press for the acceptance of their demands. It has demanded that the lecturer be treated on duty for the period of rest advised by the doctors. The association has also demanded that all legal expenses incurred by Mr Parmar in this case be borne by the university. |
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Suspension of
SHO sought Kalka, July 18 According to Mr Kamal Sharma, a member of the state BJP (Youth), a complaint was lodged at the local police station by the former president of the union against some members of the union alleging that they were collecting money from union members without any account. Mr Sharma
added that he along with some members of the union had gone to the
police station to sort out the matter but the SHO misbehaved with him.
When union members went to the police station to lodge the portest, Mr
Rajesh Duggal, Deputy Superintendent of Police, pacified them. |
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Farmer killed
by friend Faridabad, July 19 Ashok, a resident of NH-II, NIT, committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling of his house. He was reported to be under depression due to a debt. Uday Prakash, a farmer of Aligarh who was coming towards Delhi on his tractor, was killed when he was hit on the head by a friend accompanying him. The accused has been arrested. In another incident, Sher Singh of Prithla village and an unidentified person were run over by a train near Ballabgarh station this morning. |
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Girl dies of
snake bite Ambala, July 19 Later, when her
condition began to deteriorate she was brought back and she died. |
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Sangh members hold stir Faridabad, July 19 According to a sangh spokesperson, hundreds of government employees staged a demonstration . |
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