Gurgaon, May 28
Around 50 farmers and women from Chand Nagar Ki Dhani village of Farrukhnagar block today held a protest at the Secretariat and threatened to return the cheques of 'meagre' amount given to them as compensation for the losses of crops damaged in recent hail-storms.

The farmers were shocked to find that the amount of compensation ranged between Rs 24 to Rs 1,000 per acre for their damaged crops. Rotash and Jagdish who possess an acre land each were given a cheque of Rs 62 each for the losses. However, deputy commissioner Rakesh Gupta said that some farmers of the village met him today and he had assured them the re-verification of damaged crops would be done within three days in their village. He added that proper action would be taken against erring officials if found any.

Parmanand Jhangra, chairman of Haryana State Scheduled Castes Organisation, an NGO, informed that there were around 840 acre of land in Chand Nagar Ki Dhani village where around 150 families live, most of them belong to scheduled castes. He claimed that the farmers of this village were compensated between Rs 24 to Rs 1,000 per acre for 80 per cent damages, whereas the farmers of four adjacent villages - Papli, Judlla, Fazilpur, Mohammedpur - were given the compensation ranging between Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per acre for the same ratio of damages.

Citing some cases from the Chand Nagar Ki Dhani village, he said a farmer Kewal Singh was given Rs 2,600 for 4 acre of land, Ram Kesh Rs 1,300 for 4.75 acre, Budh Ram Rs 729 against 17 acre, Murli Rs 2,250 for 12 acre and Sher Singh was given Rs 4,500 for 6.5 acre of land. These farmers had sowed wheat, gram and other season-related crops like their neighbouring villages' farmers.

Interestingly, this village is a part of Pataudi assembly constituency, a reserved constituency represented by ruling party Congress MLA Bhupinder Chaudhary.

Gurgaon, May 28
A fund of Rs 450 crore is required for modernising sewerage in 20 districts and 95 small and big towns of Haryana whereas the budgeted amount is only Rs 20 crore.

Mr D. S. Dhesi, Commissioner and Secretary, Environment, Government of Haryana, said this while speaking here at a seminar on "Legislations on Management of Hazardous Waste, Used Batteries and E-Waste". The seminar was jointly organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI), Gurgaon, the Gurgaon Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Various authorities still used the traditional method of collection of waste and put it into depressions, lamented Mr Dhesi, adding that the sites should be suitably identified and earmarked.

He conceded that all environment laws were not being properly implemented. The mismatch between law and implementation and required finance and allocated funds were the problem areas. Regional offices of the environment department were being set up in different districts of the state to tackle the problem, he revealed.

He further said the Haryana Environment Management Society, supported by industry and civic bodies, would serve the basic purpose of industrial waste management in Gurgaon.

Ms Lakshmi Raghupathy, Additional Director, Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, asked the industry, common people and NGOs to come together to address the important issue of hazardous waste management. She said the informal sector and import of second hand goods contributing to pollution should be properly regulated.

She emphasised the need for creating awareness about the various regulations on waste management.

For management of waste, there should be secured land space for dump sites.

The facilities could be provided by the private sector or the government or through joint ventures. Welcoming the guests and dignitaries, P. K. Jain, past president, PHDCCI, and founder president, GCCI, highlighted increasing urbanisation and rapid industrialisation were giving rise to rapid increase in the quantum of industrial waste and garbage.

The increasing waste needed proper management and the state and central governments should take the initiative for recycling waste.

Private investment must also be encouraged in this sector and a robust public-private partnership was urgently needed. 

New Delhi, May 28
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today said that the national Capital does not have natural resources. It depends on neighbouring states which are rich in coal and other minerals.

Speaking on chief ministers' conference on power in Vigyan Bhawan, she said, "We in Delhi have had the benefit of the changes made in the regulatory framework with the new Electricity Act 2003. We have taken many decisions to disband the old Delhi Vidyut Board and restructure the power sector completely by setting up three distributions companies in public-private partnership model. In addition, we have set up two generation companies and one transmission company in the state sector. The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission has been functioning since 1999."

She added, "Despite the best intentions that the new Electricity Act would energise the power sector, expectations of change have not been fully met. The sector is very diverse and complex and needs large capital infusion.

Speaking on power issues, Dikshit said, "There are interstate issues which needed to be resolved since mineral resources are located in the Eastern India and power demand is more in Northern India. But with a constructive approach which you have always encouraged, many inter-state issues can be resolved and we can move forward," she said.

Delhi has higher AT and C losses than are acceptable as compared to cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Surat, and Noida. But the important thing is that ever since the distribution system was put on public-private partnership model, the AT&C losses have been reducing consistently at the rate of 4 per cent per year.

Six special courts have been set up to try cases of power theft. Three companies of Central Industrial Security Force have been deployed to check power theft. A public grievance cell headed by a retired High Court judge and a technical member has been set up to monitor cases of consumer grievances on a daily basis. 

Faridabad, May 28
Women and the concept of beauty culture seem to be the dominating aspect of the majority of the training programmes that have been on in the district as far as the issue of self-employment was concerned.

While there could be a large number of individuals who seek such training from the private institutes, the government has been facilitating such services through the agencies.

The District Urban Development Agency (DUDA) is one of them. It provided training to as many as 959 persons and financial help to another 376 beneficiaries last year.

Though the figure of beneficiaries may be low, it has been perhaps due to the fact that it was a lesser-known agency and the majority of the people seeking help or training may not meet the conditions attached to the eligibility condition mainly based on the financial status of the applicant.

One should be included in the BPL category to be eligible for taking the benefit of subsidized loans available for self-employment from the DUDA or the DRDA (District Rural Development Agency), claimed an official.

A majority of the applicants for both the loan and training have been women.

According to details, all 959 persons who took training under the aegis of the DUDA in the past one year have been women. There has been not a single man who has taken the benefit of such a facility, which is free of charge.

"There has been a proposal to expand the arena of the training for the poor and unemployed youths of the urban areas," claimed D.P. Yadav, district planning officer, who is in charge of the DUDA activities.

He said the department provides training programme of five to six months to the selected candidates in various fields, including beauty culture and computer course and it is absolutely free.

An amount of Rs 25.29 lakh was spent on infrastructure and training in 2006.

It is found that the training course in beauty culture and dress designing has been the most popular choice here and in the private institutes of the city.

"There have been dozens of private centres, but the fee in many has been exorbitant," claimed director of one such institute in the NIT here.

On the other hand, the DUDA which spent about Rs 95 lakh on various activities, including the subsidized loans does not have many takers due to conditions attached, as only a person whose monthly income is less than Rs 500 per month and the one who belonged to the BPL list could avail himself of such facility. While Rs 16.38 lakh was spent on community infrastructure by the DUDA in the city, it released loans worth Rs 26.90 lakh to 376 self-help groups, besides helping another 14 thrift and credit societies in the past financial year.

"Going by the volume of poor urban population, the government should raise the volume of help and ease the conditions attached," said Rishi Kant of the 'Shakti Vahini', an NGO here. 

New Delhi, May 28
Treatment of backache caused particularly by herniated discs, may become a lot easier on the pocket soon. A new technique called Ozone Therapy promises cheaper, safer and more accurate treatment of such cases, with minimal complications as well.

According to Dr Vijay Sheel Kumar, president of the World Federation of Ozone Therapy, approximately one in every three adults suffers from backache--the second most common pain after headache. Software professionals, call centre executives, technocrats and journalists suffer most from back and neck pains.

Most of the cases of low back pain are caused by mechanical processes that develop with years of poor posture and age-related degenerative changes, says Dr Kumar, director of Kumar Pain Management and Speciality Centre (KPMSC) and one of the founder members of the department of neurosurgery at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.

KPMSC is the first centre in India to perform Intradiscal Ozone Discectomy (Ozonucleolysis) as a safe and effective alternative to open surgical procedure.

"Whoever does repetitive work for long hours is prone to back pain. In fact, human beings are inherently prone because of the evolutionary changes from a four-legged animal to a two-legged erect man. Surprisingly, the prevalence of back pain even in children is as high as 45-60 per cent," states Dr Kumar who has recently established Kumar Medical Park, an ultramodern specialised pain management clinic in Gurgaon.

The most common diagnosis for back pain is herniated disc, also called disc prolapse, which is a protrusion or sticking out of disc between the vertebrae. The conventional treatment methods comprise microsurgery, endoscopic discectomy, etc which are all invasive in nature. The main goal of these surgical interventions is to remove or contain the protruding disc. But these methods have occasionally shown a discrete incidence of failure and recurrence. Ozone therapy, on the other hand, is a revolutionary non-surgical alternative for treating disc herniation, says Dr Kumar who has performed hundreds of ozone non-invasive procedures.

Under this therapy, the ozone molecule (03) is injected in the intervertebral disc in trouble. Ozone is a light-blue coloured gas that normally exists in the atmosphere. 

Sohna (Gurgaon), May 28
People in large number today attended the funeral of Subedar Kanwar Pal Singh, who was killed while on duty in a land mine blast triggered by terrorists in Kupwara area of Jammu and Kashmir last Sunday.

The mortal remains of Kanwar Pal Singh were consigned to flames in a state funeral with guns of jawans of Haryana police booming in salute to the martyr.

Kanwar Pal Singh is survived by wife Dharamwati, a son and two daughters.

The Thakurwara Basti in Sohna from where he hailed wore a gloomy look.

Subedar Kanwar Pal Singh (48), was deputed at Karma Post to stand vigil of 38 Medium Regiment, was to retire this year. He was with 38 Medium Regiment.

According to Subedar Rajinder Singh, who is from the same regiment and who accompanied the body from Srinagar, said that Kanwarpal Singh died on the spot.

Leaders of all the political parties of the districts laid wreath on the mortal remains of the martyr.

The SDM, Gurgaon, J.S. Sangwan represented the district administration in laying the wreath. However, the highest official from the Haryana government present on the occasion was the Additional Commissioner, who was also given the charge of Haryana Bhawan.

Jangbahadur Singh, a resident of the area, said that the Subedar was full of patriotism and was a kind of role model for youth.

New Delhi, May 28
Overage children were languishing in juvenile homes as they were not being released by the authorities concerned. Their cases were pending with the juvenile justice board. The board dealt with crime cases committed by minor children, sources said.

The sources said 14,000 cases against children lodged in juvenile homes were pending with the juvenile justice board. The board consisted of two private members and one metropolitan magistrate. The board postponed cases for reasons better known to it.

There are three categories of juvenile homes. One is for the age group of 12 years, second is for from 13 to 16 years, known as observation home for boys. The third is for 16 to 18 years, known as place for safety. In the third category home children in the age group of 23 to 24 years can be seen. They have been languishing in homes as their cases are not being settled.

They had been caught involved in sodomy cases at home premises. They committed this crime with children of lesser age, sources said.

These homes were overcrowded. The Delhi High Court directed the social welfare department to constitute more juvenile justice boards to settle their cases speedily but so far nothing had been done.

Sources further said a private agency had been given the job of safety and security of children and juvenile homes but it was reported often that the children had run away. Thirty to 40 guards were deployed at each juvenile home. Each guard's monthly salary was Rs 4500 and a supervisor was given Rs 4800.

Two children had run away on April 25 and three on March 3 from observation home for boys.

The sources said the maximum custody period for the children was three years but they had been languishing for the past seven years in these homes.

According to the Juvenile Justice Act, the children should be imparted vocation training so that they could do some job after they were released from there.

Yoga training was also prescribed for them. But the department concerned did not have the requisite infrastructure for this.

Ghaziabad, May 28
A young woman who had a secret marriage about a year and a half ago and had a son from the relationship foiled the marriage attempt of her husband.

On Saturday, Ghaziabad Raespur village resident Satpal's son Manjit's marriage party had gone to Meerut to the bride's place. Even as the celebrations were on, SHO Harsharan Sharma along with Manjit's wife Reena came there and started shouting, saying that the bridegroom had married the latter they had a son too.

A village panchayat was held at night. Bridegroom Manjit admitted before the panchayat that he had married Reena and he had a son from her.

He also said his family members were not aware of his marriage with Reena. He was keeping Reena and his son in a rented room after the marriage.

The bride's father, Surinder Singh, refused to marry his daughter to him after this admission. He sent his relatives home and held the bridegroom and his father with 20 of their relatives captive.

The villagers told the bridegroom's father to incur the expenses made by the bride's father and also return the money and gifts he had received so far.

On Sunday, the bridegroom's father arranged Rs 2.5 lakh and gave it to the bride's father. On receiving the money, the bridegroom and his relatives were let off. 

Ghaziabad, May 28
While the police claim prima facie a youth died in an accident, his parents claim it was murder. The police is awaiting the post-mortem report for further action in the case.

A youth's body was recovered from the drain side in Shastri Nagar under the Kavi Nagar police area. He was identified as Atul Sharma son of Satya Dev Sharma. Atul ran a cyber café in the neighbourhood. He had returned home earlier due to rain last night.

Later, his friends Vishal and Prabhat came home. He went with them on his motorcycle. Later, these youths called the family members, saying that Atul had died in an accident.

When his father reached the site, he found there was a deep wound in his head and the motorcycle lying a few yards away.

The police has sent the body for a post-mortem examination.—OC

New Delhi, May 28
Underworld don Abu Salem, who was brought here from Mumbai in connection with an extortion case, was today remanded to four days' police custody by a city court to facilitate his interrogation in another similar case.

Allowing the special cell's request, chief metropolitan magistrate Seema Maini granted custodial interrogation of Salem to carry out probe in an eight-year-old extortion case, in which Romesh Sharma is a co-accused.

"The investigation has to go through a proper channel and sustained interrogation is required. I grant four days police custody for Salem till June 1," the magistrate said. In the instant case, Salem, in criminal conspiracy with Romesh Sharma, had in November, 1998, demanded Rs 50 lakh from a South Delhi-based businessman Vinay Singh. A case was registered with Hauz Khas police station here.

Salem, who was an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case, was brought to the Capital last week in pursuance of the production warrant issued by the Delhi court against him on April 17.

There are three criminal cases registered against him here, two related to attempted extortion and one under the MCOCA for organised crime.

Meanwhile, the court also sent Salem to 14 days' judicial custody in another case of extortion, in which he had allegedly demanded Rs one crore from Nagrath, owner of Allied Communications in South Delhi, six  years ago. 

Noida, May 28
Hearing about a medical certificate issued by a dead doctor may have puzzled you. Such a case was detected by the Dadri police. A case has been registered against the dead doctor's son who had issued the medical certificate in the name of his father after months of his death.

Dadri Palla village resident Ram Chander had a property dispute with Gajraj Singh of the same village. In 2005, there was a fight between the two groups. Gajraj lodged an FIR against Raj Kumar and others. The accused were arrested by the police. The accused took a medical certificate from the doctor in 2005 for getting bail. In the certificate, the doctor had stated when the fight ensued the accused Ram Chander was under his treatment. On this basis, the court had granted him bail.

Further investigation revealed the doctor had died months ago. It was the doctor's son who had issued a fake certificate in his dead father's name. On court orders, a case has been registered against the doctor's son.

New Delhi, May 28
To mark the occasion of World Tobacco Prohibition Day, World Cancer Care Foundation, an NGO, organised an awareness camp at its New Friends Colony campus here today. The camp was inaugurated by a noted oncologist Dr Tarang Krishna.

He said a rare disease emphysema could be caused due to smoking. "People suffering from the disease have complications like repeated bronchitis, which leads to lung and heart failure. Smokers had always higher death rate from heart disease and from various kinds of cancer," he said.

"Lung cancer is a common disease caused by smoking. Out of 10 cases of cancer due to smoking, nine are of lung cancer. Alone in our country, 1.14 lakh new cases of lung cancer surface every year and 93 per cent succumb to the disease even during treatment," he informed.

"Homeopathic medicines have long been used for bad effects and side effects of consuming tobacco. It also helps in reducing the craving for tobacco," he added.