Jind, August 8
The state government has sanctioned five new bypasses for the district to ease traffic congestion.

The work on the project costing over Rs 19.99 crore has already begun and majority of these were likely to be over within two years. The condition of roads in the city, however, required more funds for a facelift.

According to senior district officials while four bypasses will be provided at the city, one such road will be constructed at Safidon, a sub- divisional town of the district. Jind has just one bypass at present, which connects Jind-Gohana road with Jind-Rohtak road and it is about 5 km long.

The new roads will connect Assandh road with Narwana road, Bhiwani road with Barwala road, Gohana road with Safidon road, northern bypass road with Jind-Gohana road. It is reported that the project of Assandh -Narwana byepass had been initially approved way back in 1998 at a cost of just Rs 108.62 lakhs, but could not be started. It was restarted on May 23, 2006 and was likely to be over by October 31 this year.

The second bypass having a total length of 6.30 km, however, was sanctioned in April last year against a total budget of Rs 501.40 lakh, but the ground work was yet to begin as land was yet to be acquired by the department. The third such road connecting Gohana road to Assandh road had been awaiting the final clearance from the state government, though objections had been taken up already and a rough estimate of about Rs 711.22 lakh had been submitted.

The fourth bypass was approved in February this year. However, it will have a manned railway crossing as it will cross the Jind-Panipat railway line.

The fifth bypass facility will be provided at Safidon town. The work stands allotted to the contractual agency for Rs 383.50 lakh and is likely to get completed by October this year. But the local residents feel that there was an urgent need to take up the repair work of some of the roads in the city itself.

Maandi (Panipat), August 8
Following the alleged diktat of a biradari panchayat of this village, 21 members of Baru Ram's family are forced to live a miserable life as they have to walk 4 km to get drinking water from a nearby village.

As part of the social boycott, the biradari members have allegedly removed water taps adjoining their house and also disconnected water lift motor that feeds their residence to ‘teach them a lesson’.

No villager is allowed to provide them shelter, food, water or anything.

Living in such a pitiable situation, children of the family cannot attend the village school. They are not even entertained by private doctors, chemists and other shopkeepers of the village.

Villagers avoid them as the biradari has further imposed a fine of Rs 1100 on anyone who talks to them and have reportedly penalised 40-50 villagers.

Neither the elected body of panchayat was involved nor the village sarpanch, Hari Kishan, a Harijan did anything to redress the grievance, alleges the family.

Talking to this reporter here today Baru Ram, a Tyagi Muslim, said that certain affluent Jats of the village were trying to settle a score over old differences over panchayat elections.

Meanwhile, he has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the alleged social boycott of his family.

Next date of hearing is fixed on August 24. Village elders threatened to continue the boycott till Baru's family feels sorry. When asked if any complaint was made to the village panchayat, Jile Singh, a community leader, replied in negative. The family claimed that a written complaint was made to the Israna police.

Kaithal, August 8
Dharampura village in Kaithal district is the first village in the state where 100 per cent of the households have been granted authorised domestic connections.

The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has recently completed the power supply through the ‘High Voltage Distribution System (HVDS)’ in the village.

Giving details, a spokesman said the nigam had installed nine new transformers of 25 KVA capacity by replacing the 100 KVA capacity transformer.

After completion of the HVDS, 150 new domestic connections have been released by the nigam in open durbars. Earlier, Shergarh village of the district had the distinction of becoming the first HVDS village of the state.

He said the nigam had completed the HVDS / LVDS work in Bhanpura and Deodkheri villages. As many as 130 and 90 applicants have applied for new domestic connections from Bhanpura and Deodkheri villages, respectively.

He further said 164 domestic connections in Guhna, 98 in Budhakhera, 41 in Dillonwali and 40 in Jagdishpura have been released after motivating the residents.

The spokesman said the demand of the HVDS and LVDS system had been increasing as it led to improvement in voltage. Stealing power was not possible by putting ‘kundis’ or draw electricity through other unauthorised means after this arrangement.

On the persistent demand of consumers, the nigam has targeted to complete the HVDS in 189 residential colonies in towns and villages in the first phase during the current year.

Rohtak, August 8
India is a free country today and we owe this freedom to the sacrifices made by the freedom fighters who laid down their lives for the country.

The youth of the nation must endeavour to maintain this freedom and the need of the hour is to wage a new freedom struggle against poverty and hunger.

This was stated by veteran freedom fighter Ranbir Singh Hooda at the national seminar on “Role of Haryana in India’s First Freedom Struggle, 1857” organised at the Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) yesterday.

Hooda was the chief guest on the occasion and he extolled the contribution made by the freedom fighters.

He said Indian democracy was looked upon with pride all over the world and highlighted the role of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and others involved in the freedom struggle and in uniting the country post-independence.

Delivering the keynote address, noted historian Prof K.C. Yadav asserted that people belonging to every class, caste, community and religion in the state took part in the 1857 struggle. The 1857 uprising had a popular backing in Haryana, he maintained, adding that the feeling of nationality pervaded the entire struggle. He said the spirit of 1857 needed to be revived in the masses at present.

MDU V-C, Prof R.S. Dhankar, said the extent of the revolt in Haryana was widespread. Noted scholar, Prof D.R. Chaudhary said peasantry also took an active part in the revolt. The seminar was organised jointly by the Centre for Haryana Studies, Department of History and DSW office of the MDU.

Chandigarh, August 8
Haryana agriculture minister, H.S. Chatha is strongly advocating for an immediate ban on the plantation of eucalyptus and popular trees in the state, if the depletion of soil water is to be checked.

Chatha feels the biggest challenge before the Haryana Government was to find ways to reduce the area under paddy cultivation by at least 25 per cent and persuade farmers to grow gram and pulses instead.

Talking to The Tribune, the minister said despite poor rainfall, the agriculture department expected a higher paddy crop production which was more as compared to last year.

He blamed farm scientists in the region of letting down farmers by not bringing out any new variety of paddy that would result in lesser water depletion.

He said the state was one of the first states in the country where remote sensing technology was being used to assess crop production estimates with the help of the Department of Science and Technology (DST). Various parameters like rainfall, moisture content in soil and plant properties would be assessed, he added.

He said a successful pilot project was carried out in Haryana on crops like mustard, wheat; cotton and paddy and the state now sought weekly reports from the DST regarding moisture in the soil, extent of rainfall, sowing and green cover in every village.

“Can you imagine, each eucalyptus tree consumes 300 litres of water, how can you allow such a waste of water. If this falling water table is not checked with the help of various measures, there will be a crisis in terms of drinking water 20-years later. What we can do immediately is to reduce the area under cultivation of paddy by 25 per cent, by assuring farmers an assured buyback on other crops like gram, soybean, etc”, Chatha said.

He said in a bid to tackle the crisis of soil water depletion, the state has worked out a detailed programme to recharge ground water by reviving lakes and other water bodies in the state.

“Ponds and nullahs have been covered by people, but to begin with, we have identified areas that will receive priority. Lakes like the ones at Bibipur (Kurukshetra), Faridabad, Gurgaon, Ambala, Bilaspur (Yamunanagar), etc will be de-silted and revived”, he said.

The government has earmarked a sum of Rs 518 crore to strengthen the irrigation system during the current financial year, besides providing a sum of additional Rs 100 crore to execute various projects of the Irrigation Department.

Bhiwani, August 8
Haryana chief parliamentary secretary Dharmbir Singh said the state government was aimed to bridge the village-town gap.

He said the process to make villages as “model villages” had already been started and basic amenities like education, electricity, drinking water, health, roads etc would be provided to the villagers.

He said in the first phase, as many as 71 villages were being developed as “model villages”, and 18 villages included in it, belonged to Bhiwani district.

Singh was addressing a district-level panchayati here today. Sarpanches, panches, members of panchayat samities and Zila parishad and officials from different departments pariticipated in the sammelan.

Addressing the panchayati raj institutions representatives, Singh said the state government was well acquainted with the difficulties of the villagers and these schemes were being implemented in phases.

He said the government had decided to give a sum of Rs 10 lakh to each village for the construction of cemented streets.

He said amount had been issued for the construction of streets in 161 villages in Bhiwani district, adding to strengthen sanitation in villages, sweepers would be appointed.

Deputy commissioner Mohinder Kumar presented the progress report on the ongoing developmental projects in the district and disclosed that computer courses had been started for rural youth in the e-Disha centres set up in the district.

Though much has been promised by the state machinery, yet it remains to be seen to what extent are the promises kept and peoples’ expectations met.

The family was away to Chandigarh as one of the family members was to undergo an operation. The police has started its investigations.

Surinder Dogra, general secretary of the district unit of CITU, said other demands included social security like pension and medical facilities, ration and voter cards and action against contractors who violate labour laws. The district unit also sent a memorandum of demands to the Prime Minister. 

Yamunanagar, August 8
Naveen Jindal, MP, gifted a recreational park in the name of his father, O.P. Jindal, to the residents of the district yesterday.

The park spread over 27 acres and constructed at a cost of Rs 4 crore with boating, meditation and sports facilities was dedicated to the public by Union minister of law Hans Raj Bhardwaj at a function attended by thousands of people.

The park has a separate childrens’ play field, basketball and volleyball court and canteen facility.

A large number of politicians, including Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in charge of Haryana Congress Janardhan Dwivedi, several MPs and MLAs and state ministers participated in the function.

The park has been dedicated to former Haryana minister and chairman of Jindal steel, O.P. Jindal, who was killed in a chopper accident.

Naveen promised the gathering that he would keep working for the development of Yamunanagar. Hooda praised the contribution made by the Jindal family and announced that a Model Industrial Town (IMT) would be built in the district to boost industrial activities.

Haryana minister of state urban development and chairperson, Jindal organisation, Savitri Jindal, said her husband O.P. Jindal was always interested in welfare activities and that it was a great moment for her as the park was officially thrown open to the public.

Ambala, August 8
A large number kanwarias coming from Haridwar laid blockade at the Ambala-Delhi highway near Ambala City in the evening today to protest against the misbehaviour of an employee of a petrol pump located by the highway.

The traffic flow was restored after half an hour, when the police intervened.

According sources, a kanwaria camp is being organised at the Model Town crossing by Sangmeshwar Sewa Dal .One of the office-bearers of the dal had gone to the petrol pump and asked the employee of the pump to fill the vehicle with petrol worth Rs 300. The employee filled petrol worth Rs 325 in the vehicle and demanded the amount from him. This led to an altercation between the two.

The office-bearer of the dal alleged that the employee of the petrol pump misbehaved with him. The kanwarias, who were staying in the camp rushed to the petrol pump as soon as they got the information. After the lifting of the blockade, both the parties reached a compromise.

Ambala, August 8
A function was held at Kendriya Vidyalaya No.1, Ambala Cantt, today in which meritorious students were honoured.

Brig K.Majumdar presided over the function while Col Om Prakash and Col Negi were present.

School principal Sham Chawla said that the students who had secured more than 80 per cent marks in the Class X exams and were continuing their studies in the school were given cash prizes. Brig Majumdar stressed upon understanding the needs of the adolescents.