Gurgaon, August 15
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced here dearness allowance for the freedom fighters of the state on the the central government’s pattern in accordance with the existing price index.

Making the announcement on the occasion of Independence Day celebrations at a function after unfurling the National Flag, he also announced that financial assistance for the marriage of the orphan daughters of martyrs, disabled and ex-servicemen has also been increased from Rs 6,000 to Rs 11,000. Similarly scholarship for the children of the ex-servicemen has also been doubled.

Paying tributes to the martyrs of the state, he said that Haryana had also made significant contributions in national freedom struggle. He made a special mention of Gurgaon, Rewari and Mahendergarh districts.

He said in the past one and a half years the state had made great development for uplifting social, economic and educational status of the people. Congratulating people of Gurgaon he said that the “global” city had become a show window not only for the country but also for the world and credit of this big change for this city goes to the founder of Haryana and former Prime Minister, late Indira Gandhi.

Gurgaon has become the first choice of multinational companies for investment in various industrial ventures. Today export worth Rs 15,000 crore was being made in various goods which had special importance in national development. The state government had already spent Rs 150 crore on development of this mega city and Rs 776 crore would be spent for providing improved infrastructure to this IT and software city in the next three years.

Mr Hooda mentioned schemes and decisions like pension to freedom fighters, Ladli scheme and Janani Suvidha Yojana, waiving of arrear bills of power amounting to Rs 1,600 crore, new industrial policy, setting up of special economic zones, agreement with Reliance Industries for setting up of Special Economic Zone, honorarium to office-bearers of the Panchayati Raj institutions, setting up of Mini Sports Stadia in villages, fixing up floor rates of farmers land, paying maximum price of sugar cane at Rs 135 per quintal, etc.

He also announced that facility of free travel for women and children upto 15 years of age of the state in roadways buses would be given every year on the occasion of Rasksha Bandhan. Also, the state would spend Rs 206 crore for providing drinking water to 503 villages of Mewat district under the Rajiv Gandhi Water Supply augmentation project.

Fatehabad, August 15
The Haryana Minister for Transport and Public Health, Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, today said that Haryana Roadways had set a target of becoming the largest and best managed fleet within five years. He said Haryana Roadways would add 3500 new buses to its fleet by the end of this five-year plan.

Talking to mediapersons at the residence of senior Congress leader Krishan Panwar today, Mr Surjewala said the state government procured 565 new buses in 2005-06 and had already purchased 350 new buses in the current year. He said Haryana Roadways would modernise all its bus stands. As a first step, the government had decided to change all cemented seats with perforated steal chairs. All toilets of the roadways bus stands are being renovated to make them at par with toilets of three star hotels and airports. He said Haryana Roadways spent Rs 10 crore on renovation of bus stands last year while a sum of Rs 15 crore had already been spent this year.

Mr Surjewala said the state government aimed at making bus stands and bus services passenger friendly. He said the government was in touch with various banks to instal ATMs at various bus stands in the state. The roadways would also set up locker rooms in bus stands. The roadways, he said, would also construct night shelters at prominent bus stands of the state. He said the government had identified some bus stands like Pinjore, Ambala Cantt and Sirsa for the setting up of night shelters in the first phase. The government, he said, was also going to provide STD PCO facility in 90 buses by the end of this month. He claimed that Haryana would become the first state in the country to provide STD facility in its buses. He also claimed that the ‘Haryana Gaurav’ buses developed by the state roadways were the best in the country and were of international standard. He said Haryana Roadways had also opted to make buses plying in the national capital region as environment friendly by introducing CNG.

The minister expressed his displeasure with a section of roadways employees, who, he said, adopted a non-cooperative attitude on Raksha bandhan when the government offered free bus travel facility to women and children.

Kaithal, August 15
Although the government has spent crores of rupees on the construction of roads during the past years, the bad condition of some important roads here continues to cause a lot of inconvenience to the residents. The attitude of officials of the departments concerned remain indifferent and the road users continue to suffer.

The road, which can be called lifeline of the town, from Pehowa Chowk to Siwan Gate passing thorough Nehru Park, Municipal Chowk and the Mata Gate area has been lying in a neglected state for the past more than three years. Big potholes have developed at a number of places, but the PWD (B&R) has turned a blind eye to the problem.

It has been promising to start work on widening and carpeting the road for the past three years. The governments have changed and Superintending Engineers and Executive Engineers have also changed, but the people have failed to understand as to why the repair work has not been undertaken so far.

The prevailing conditions of the Bapu Chhatrawas road, which was named after the Father of the Nation long back and where Congress Bhavan, which is frequently visited by senior party leaders, is situated, is a glaring example of the indifferent attitude of those at the helm of affairs in the Municipal Council and those who run the government.

The road divider constructed by the Municipal Council by spending lakhs of rupees has been broken at many places and deep potholes have developed in the road, but the authorities remain unconcerned about the plight of the people. Residents say they have been pleading with the local leaders, councillors and all those who matter for the past more than three years, but the things have remained unchanged.

The construction work of a concrete road from Chandana Gate to Siwan Gate is going on slowly and at present speed it may take more than a year to complete it. The construction work on the remaining portion of the new Karnal road from Hindu School to Amargarh Colony has been lying suspended for the past more than two years.

Cracks have developed in a number of concrete roads constructed at a cost of crores of rupees during the past six years in different parts of the town. When these roads were constructed, it was expected that they would last about 40 years. Residents allege that at some places poor construction material was used which has reduced the life of roads.

Chandigarh, August 15
Wholesale fruit and vegetable sellers of Ambala are up in arms against an officer of the Haryana Agriculture Marketing Board, who, they allege, has been harassing them.

In a complaint lodged with the Padao Police Station, Ambala cantonment, members of the Lala Bhagwan Dass Sehgal Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Mandi Association said that around 1-30 p.m. today a few persons came to the fruit and vegetable market in a jeep. They entered Shop no. 9 and snatched the account books without introducing themselves. They even forcibly took out account books kept in a safe.

The shopkeeper immediately called office-bearers of the association. It was only after the president of the association asked him the leader of the team introduced himself as an officer of the board.

The association said its office-bearers told the officer that according to official instructions he could not snatch the account books. If he had to inspect the books, he should have followed the proper procedure. The association alleged that the officer then misbehaved with the shopkeepers and threatened them that their shops would be locked.

In its complaint the association alleged that the officer had been promoted only recently. He had been allegedly threatening shopkeepers in other mandis also and making money. They demanded that a vigilance inquiry should be conducted against him to find out how and with what intention he was visiting the mandis on a gazetted holiday.

The association has also informed the Deputy Commissioner, Ambala; and the Chairman and the Chief Administrator of the board.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the officer has also lodged a complaint with the police that the shopkeepers prevented him from discharging his official duties. 

Yamunanagar, August 15
The results of the new Industrial Policy have started showing positive signs, as investment of Rs 10,000 crore have been made and proposals for another investment of Rs 40,000 crore have been received in the last 16 months in the state.

This was stated by Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan while addressing a gathering after unfurling the National Flag on the occasion of the 60th Independence Day at Tejli Sports Complex here today. The Deputy Chief Minister also took salute of contingents of police personnel, Armed police, scouts and guides and the NCC and inspected the parade.

Paying tributes to the martyrs and freedom fighters who had laid down their lives and made supreme sacrifice to get India free from the clutches of the British empire, he said the patriots had to face a number of ordeals and untold miseries. The contributions of Subhash Chander Bose, Sukhdev, Ram Parshad Bismil, Bhagat Singh, Udham Singh and many others would be remembered forever.

Mr Chander Mohan said the state government was striving hard to complete Deenbandhu Chottu Ram Thermal Power Plant that would generate 144 lakh units of electricity for the state. Referring to the construction of Dadupur Shahbad Nalvi Canal at the cost of Rs 267.27 crore, he said work had been started and a new canal would also be constructed from Hathnikund to Naraingarh. A new Industrial Complex is being developed on 700 acres of land in the district.

This year is being celebrated as Girl Child Year in the state. Thirtythree per cent seats have been reserved for women in the recruitment of teachers in the state. A new scheme known as “Ladli” has been launched. Twentyfive per cent seats have been reserved for girls in the vocational and professional courses and 33 per cent houses have been reserved for women in Housing Board constructed houses.

On the occasion, Deputy Commissioner, Mr J.P. Kaushik, District and Sessions Judge Mr Virender Singh, SP, Mr K.V. Ramna, Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mr KC Sharma, ADC, Mr O.P. Lohan, SDM, Mr Narender Singh, CTM, Mr Arbind Sharma, MLA Jagadhri, Mr Subash Chaudhari, District Urban Congress President, Mr Rakesh Sharma Kaka, former MLA, Mr Lahri Singh, National President of Anti-Terrorist Front, Mr Viresh Shandilaya, Mr Darshan Lal Khera, Ms Kavita Arora, Mr Naresh Sharma, Congress Leaders, Mr Ravi Chaudhari, Mr Satpal Kaushik, Mr Satpal Mehta, Mr Pawan Chaupra, Mr Satish Dhawan Suriyawanshi, Manu Bhatt, Mr Arun Singla, Media Secretary, Mr Ravinder Rawal and number of dignitaries were also present.

Ambala, August 15
Power Minister Venod Sharma has said that the state government has been making every effort to ensure sufficient electricity supply in urban and rural areas.

He said the power supply situation in the state was better this year as compared to last year. Talking to mediapersons he said the state was not getting due supply from the Nathpa-Jhakhri project. Moreover, the problem in the Northern Grid was one of the main reasons for scarcity of power.

He said the government had been purchasing power from some other states at high rates as it was committed to supply sufficient power to farmers so that the paddy crop was not affected.

He said Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir were also facing power shortage. He said setting up of several new power projects had been initiated during the regime of the present government, which would solve the power problem in the coming years.

Criticising the previous government, he said no step was taken earlier to enhance power generation.

Earlier, he inaugurated the PKR College of Education at Ambala City. He said private institutions could play an important role in improving the quality of education.

He said the state government was taking many steps to improve education system.

Chief guest of the function Darshan Lal Jain said Jain institutions were making remarkable contribution in the education field. Several Congress leaders were also present on the occasion.

Sonepat, August 15
The Power and PWD Minister, Mr Vinod Sharma, today honoured five school students of Bali Kutubpur village, Ajit and Shrawan of Class VIII, Sanjay and Deepak of Class X and Kushum of Class VIII, agricultural labourers from Bihar, Bhola and Shiva Nand, and Dr Joginder Dhankar of Gannaur private nursing home with a cash awards of Rs 2,100 each for saving the lives of children involved in the school bus incident on August 1 when the bus fell into the West Yamuna Canal near Ahulana village.

On Independence Day celebrated in Police Lines here, he also honoured seven freedom fighters, Hargyan Singh, Suraj Mal, Shanta Jain, Diwan Singh, Pushpa Devi, Shanti Sharma, Maya Devi, and 43 others, including students, sportspersons and social workers.