Chandigarh, October 10
The Centre has asked Haryana for 10,000 hotel rooms for the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi in 2010.

Stating this here today the Minister of State Tourism, Mrs Kiran Chaudhary, said that the state had decided to ask its various agencies like the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and private colonisers and promoters of SEZs to earmark sites for construction of hotels to be ready by 2009.

She said the Centre had desired that rooms should be arranged in Faridabad and Gurgaon districts, adjoining the national capital, which can also be used after the Games. It will not be possible at this stage to tell whether the entire demand can be fulfilled or not, she said, adding that the Centre had not included Sonepat district even though it was also close to the national capital.

Mrs Chaudhary said a tourism zone would also be developed along the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Express Highway being constructed in Haryana around the national capital. The details of the zone were yet to be worked out, she said, adding that a foreign consultancy firm had been engaged for preparing the blueprint.

She said Haryana Tourism would take steps for promoting the tourism profile of the state at the international level so as to make it a preferred destination.

Mrs Chaudhary’s press conference today revealed that all was not well in her department which organised a very successful five-day Pinjore heritage festival. The festival concluded only last night. She told newsmen that the Managing Director of the Haryana Tourism Corporation, Mr Vijai Vardhan, could not come to the press conference because he was not well.

However, when contacted, Mr Vardhan was in his office and said that he was not invited to the press conference.

Chandigarh, October 10
The functioning of Haryana Government offices at the state headquarters has virtually come to a standstill with many bureaucrats, other officers and Cabinet ministers preferring to stay away from their offices for the second consecutive day today. Apparently, taking advantage of the Chief Minister’s absence due to his two-week, five-nation tour, the situation can be best described by the saying while the cat’s away the mice will play.

Many visitors from far-flung areas who had come to Chandigarh in connection with their pending work had to return home for Karva Chauth without much success. The most disappointed were people who came here yesterday and had decided to stay back for another day in the hope of meeting the officials concerned today. The situation was so dismal that at 11 a.m. there were only two cars in the officers’ parking lot of the Haryana Civil Secretariat.

A large number of officials who attended office during the earlier part of the day, preferred to stay away during the second half. Absence from office was marked on Monday, too, which was the first working day after the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, left on his foreign tour. But the situation became worse today owing to Karva Chauth, coupled with the fact that a large number of heads of departments are either accompanying the Chief Minister or have decided to be “on tour”.

“A large number of people were on leave and even those who did come to office were not in the mood to work and left early”, a senior bureaucrat said. Most of the Cabinet ministers, too, did not attend office today as they preferred to be in their constituencies. Senior officers, on condition of anonymity said the situation was unlikely to improve till after Divali. “The overall attendance in offices will remain low and in the absence of the Chief Minister and senior officers from the city, file work is bound to be held up”, the official said.

Owing to the renovation of the Chief Minister’s office, the Chief Minister’s Secretariat currently is functioning from the Haryana Nivas. Currently, four senior officers in the Chief Minister’s office and the Chief Secretary have their offices located in the Sector 3 Haryana Nivas. Today, some of the officers who were in town were also believed to have been held up at meetings with the Chief Secretary.

Interestingly, the Haryana Public Relations Department that generally churns out over half a dozen press releases every day has practically no work. A senior Haryana officer said that though it was difficult to ascertain the exact percentage of staff that attended office today as many were on furlough, it could be safely said that the attendance was below 10 per cent.

“Frequent absence from offices is generally the trend in neighbouring Punjab, but Haryana, too, is fast catching up”, said a civil servant who anticipated that the trend was likely to continue till the return of the Chief Minister from abroad on the eve of Divali.

Chandigarh, October 10
Taking cognizance of the news item that appeared in The Tribune yesterday, the Haryana Health Minister, Ms Kartari Devi, today ordered that full protection be provided to Krishna. She also asked the Deputy Commissioner, Karnal, to ensure that Krishna was not harassed by her family members.

Talking to The Tribune, Ms Kartari Devi informed that she had also asked for a Civil Surgeon to do a complete medical check-up and ensure that Krishna’s child was born healthy and safe. “ We will provide whatever aid we can to her. I have spoken to the Deputy Commissioner and have asked that she should have a complete medical check-up done. Such cases will be given full protection.”

She further informed that they hoped Krishna’s family members would realise their mistake and take her back in. No police action had yet been initiated. “We will wait for a day or two before taking any action against her husband and family members. We would like her to be settled in her family and for them to realise their mistake.”

It may be mentioned here that 28-year-old Krishna, a resident of Balpabana village of Karnal district, who is five months pregnant and has two daughters Kamal and Naina, was given electric shocks by her husband. Her husband works as a mason and his family members. She, however, escaped only to be later harassed by the local administration at Karnal. Her fault was that she refused to get an abortion done.

Hansi (Hisar), October 10
After more than five decades of freedom, we need to introspect and see to what extent have we been able to realise the dreams of our founding fathers and the martyrs of freedom movement.

This was stated by the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, while addressing a ceremony to mark the 150th anniversary of the first freedom struggle of 1857 and martyr Bhagat Singh’s birth centenary organised by the Sadbhavna Samiti, Haryana, here today.

Lamenting that our people still confront various forms of inequities, deprivation and poverty, Mr Chatterjee said the freedom fighters' dream of a resurgent India and an egalitarian society free from class exploitation and oppression still remain unfulfilled.

The Speaker asserted that our political democracy could be translated into real and meaningful socio-economic democracy only when all forms of inequalities and deprivation were removed. He expressed hope that courage, conviction and sacrifice of Bhagat Singh and other martyrs would continue to inspire the generations to come.

Addressing the gathering, the Congress MP from Rohtak, Mr Deepender Hooda, said our quest for all-around development should be based on the strong foundation laid by the heroes of the freedom struggle. He exhorted the youths to emulate the spirit of idealism and revolution of the great martyrs.

Family members of freedom fighters and panchayat members of Rohnat and Putthi Mangal Khan villages were felicitated.

Noted historians Prof Surajbhan and Dr M.M.Juneja, veteran journalist Prabhash Joshi, Sirsa MP Atma Singh Gill and Sadbhavna Samiti president K.C. Babbar also expressed their views.

Earlier, the Speaker and other dignitaries paid tributes and laid wreaths at the martyr’s memorial on Lal Sadak in Hansi and before the statue of 1857 martyr Lala Hukam Chand Jain.

Fatehabad, October 10
With a view to creating awareness about HIV/AIDS and methods of prevention of these diseases, the district authorities today decided to set up ‘Red Ribbon’ clubs of youths in all colleges and senior secondary schools of the district. Each such clubs will have 15 to 25 members in the age group of 15 to 29 years.

The decision to set up these clubs was taken at a meeting of officers and heads of educational institutions which was held at the DC office here.

The Deputy Commissioner, Mr O.P. Sheoran, presided over the meeting. The Civil Surgeon, Dr A.S. Hooda, the acting Principal of MM College, Mr J.L. Thakkar, Principal of Government College for Girls, Ms Popil Sehgal, the SDMs of Fatehabad, Rattia and Tohana were present at the meeting.

The DC said the clubs would do the work of educating people on the signs and symptoms of the disease. The clubs would organise seminars and declamation contests to spread awareness.

Chandigarh, October 10
The Haryana Government will grant an interest-free festival advance of Rs 1,500 to all Class IV government employees.

The Haryana Finance Minister, Mr Birender Singh, said here today that the advance would be admissible to permanent and temporary Class IV employees.

It would also be given to those ad hoc employees who had been in service for the past one year and were likely to continue for another four months, on furnishing surety of a permanent government employee.

He said the advance would be recovered in four equal monthly instalments.