Fatehabad, October 10
Moved by the plight of Mohan, suffering from HIV/AIDS, which was highlighted by The Tribune yesterday, the authorities took him to the PGI, Rohtak, for hospitalisation.

A team of the hospital staff, accompanied by Nand Kishore, father of the victim, took Mohan to Rohtak in an ambulance and admitted him there last night.

The Tribune had yesterday published a story titled “AIDS victim’s ‘mercy death’ cries go unheard” highlighting the plight of an AIDS victim lying unattended in the open.

The victim had been admitted to the local General Hospital earlier, but was shown the door by the hospital authorities after they came to know of his HIV positive status.

The authorities, according to sources, were instructed by their superiors to provide help to the victim.

When the hospital authorities decided to shift Mohan to Rohtak, no health worker was willing to touch the victim with his hands.

Despite regular advertisements by the health authorities that AIDS does not spread by mere touching, none from the hospital was ready to take the “risk”.

Eventually, the victim’s aged father lifted his ailing son and put him in the ambulance.

The health authorities then took the victim to Rohtak.

Meanwhile, C. P. Batra, a local philanthropist and progressive farmer, has offered financial help to the victim.

Batra read the news item in The Tribune and was moved by the plight of the victim.

Hisar, October 10
The district administration is contemplating registering a criminal case against the father of five-year-old Ashwani who was rescued by the authorities from his home in Banda Heri village a few days ago. The boy had been refused food and was living off dung and mud for years.

Deputy commissioner Deepti Umashankar, on whose orders the boy was rescued and admitted to the General Hospital here for treatment, said the medical report was awaited and suitable criminal charges would be brought against his father as per law.

Deepti, who visited the boy today, said she ordered social welfare department officials to rescue the child after she was informed of the boy’s plight by a social activist of the village who was not allowed to enter the boy’s house. Later, officials brought the boy here with the help of the police.

It is learnt that the boy’s mother divorced his father several years ago. She refused to take responsibility of the child. After she left, his father shifted him to the shed where buffaloes were kept. He was given nothing to eat. The boy was living on mud and dung for the past several years despite being born in an affluent family.

Doctors said since the boy was kept in isolation, he had not learnt to speak. Besides, he was too weak to make any kind of sound.

Villagers alleged that the father wanted the boy to die as he would have demanded a share in his considerable property later on. The father’s landholding is reported to be worth about Rs 1 crore.

Ashwani is now being looked after by doctors in the presence of his grandfather. His mother, who now lives in Gorchhi village near here, has refused to come to see him.

Deepti said once the boy regained health, he would be shifted to the Child Care Home. Several local social service organisations have offered to look after the boy. 

Jind, October 10
Routine work at the grain market here came to a standstill today following a strike by the Foodgrain Dealers Welfare Association after a dispute with local truck operators and their union over the issue of transportation of commodities from the market.

The dealers and commission agents stopped work alleging a threat to the life of the president of the association from truck operators this morning. Demanding the registration of a case and the arrest of the accused persons, the association lodged a complaint at the local police station and announced to stop work till their demand was met and security provided to its members.

Around 16,000 quintals of foodgrains, including 8,000 quintals of paddy and 5,000 quintals of bajra, had been awaiting purchase in the mandi, it is learnt. Several farmers who had come with their produce to the new grain market staged a demonstration and blocked the highway connecting Jind to Rohtak for some time in protest against the strike.

According to reports the dispute between the dealers and the truck operators reached flashpoint last evening when a consignment of commodities was allowed to leave from here in a vehicle owned by a mill owner. While the local truck operators had been demanding that the commodities which were taken from here should be transported in the vehicles of the union and not in those of the purchaser, the dealers’ association was not in favour of such a practice. It claimed that the party which purchased the commodity was free to transport it in the manner it wanted and should not be forced to hire the trucks owned by the local operators. “This development led to a verbal duel last night and dealers’ association chief Jaibhagwan Mittal was allegedly threatened with dire consequences,” claimed a member of the association.

The strike, which has been described as indefinite, has already upset the farmers, who staged a protest against the development and demanded an immediate end to the strike. The foodgrain market has been a leading spot for buyers and sellers of various commodities and this is the first time that a strike has been declared by dealers in the past few years on the issue of transportation. “The operation of truck unions has already been banned in the state and it is the duty of the local administration, especially the police, to ensure that there is no interference or blackmailing by any type of union of the transporters,” claimed a commission agent. 

Kaithal, October 10
Agitated over checking of some rice mills by district administration officials last evening, rice millers here today abstained from the local Anaj Mandi and suspended the purchase of paddy.

The rice millers were also unhappy over the delay in the declaration of the purchase price of rice by the government hence they remained absent from the mandi and did not make any purchase till 4 pm today.

Later, the millers met deputy commissioner S.K. Goel and apprised him about their grievances. The deputy commissioner assured to look into their grievances following which the rice millers started purchasing paddy late this evening.

A team of officials led by additional deputy commissioner Romesh Verma inspected the records of some rice mills after getting reports of evasion of market fee and sales tax.

The team also took records of two rice mills in its possession for scrutiny.

President of local Rice Mills Association Amarjeet Chhabra said the rice millers were paying a very remunerative price to the farmers and they were maintaining complete records of all purchases hence there was no question of any manipulation by them.

He said if the government failed to announce the purchase price of the rice, the millers would suspend the private purchases.

Meanwhile, fast arrivals of paddy in the district mandis and its slow lifting by various government agencies and private traders have added to the woes of the farmers.

Due to huge arrivals, the farmers are forced to unload their paddy outside the mandi and as the purchase agencies cannot cop up with the rush, the farmers have to wait for a day or two in some cases.

Farmers from Haripura, Patti Khot and Babaladana villages, who had come to sell their crop, said they were very happy to get higher rates of paddy this year, however, the delay in purchasing had been causing a lot of inconvenience.

Yamunanagar, October 10
By fixing the wheat MSP at Rs 1,000 per quintal the Congress-led UPA government at the centre has made fun of the farmers. The MSP should be revised to Rs 1,500.

INLD chief and former Haryana Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala said this while addressing a series of meetings of party workers in Sadhaura block here today. "The Congress is anti-farmer and the MSP of Rs 1,000 is nothing but a joke", said Chautala. The government should purchase wheat at Rs 1,500, stock it and export it. "The wheat exported by the government at Rs 1,600 is substandard", alleged the former Chief Minister. He alleged the Hooda government had failed on all fronts and the law and order situation in the state was worsening. He also said power available for the state was being given to Delhi and other states to please Congress bosses. He alleged the Hooda government made blatant misuse of official machinery to bring crowds to the “bijli rally” addressed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. "Mid-term elections to the Lok Sabha are imminent and the Congress cannot stop this", said Chautala.

Chandigarh: Addressing a press conference here, Ajay Chautala, Rajya Sabha member, and Sampat Singh, former Haryana finance minister, said on Wednesday that various decisions related to agriculture taken by the cabinet committee on economic affairs on Tuesday were all aimed at benefitting traders and exporters so that they could make hefty contributions to the Congress party’s election fund.

Chandigarh, October 10
Even before political parties in Haryana made their decision to organise political rallies public, the Haryana Congress quietly set the pace for the next general elections by starting a massive recruitment drive. Posters and banners that appeared all over the state inviting people to be part of the Congress had to be removed from many places on eve of the Jhajjar “bijli rally” to let people know that their “beloved neta” Sonia Gandhi will be among them.

Recruitment, termed as a “routine” matter, was actually one of the first decisions taken by Phool Chand Mullana after taking over as the state president of the Congress. Though insiders refuse to give the exact numbers, they say that the move has been very successful. They suggest that the administrative reshuffle and the choice of officers moved therein during the past few weeks has been done with a view to strengthening the Congress and boost its popularity for electoral gains.

The recruitment drive is said to be part of the bigger strategy to gear up for the impending parliamentary elections and the next state assembly polls (the last one was held in February 2005). Besides a mere increase in numbers of its cadres, a think tank of the Congress is currently debating issues the party needs to highlight to touch at the emotional chords of its vote bank.

Among other issues, development of the state in terms of infrastructure, investments in the state, education for girls and the underprivileged, water and power form the focus of the highlights. Besides, the think tank is also advocating a comparison between Haryana and its parent state Punjab on various parameters like per capita income and gross state domestic product, which is higher in Haryana compared to Punjab. This has also led to a foreign direct investment to the tune of Rs 11,000 in Haryana. The Congress also proposes to tout introduction of a single-point time-bound clearance system for setting up new industry in the state.

The Congress has timed its recruitment drive in the state at a time when former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and his suspended MP son Kuldeep Bishnoi have given all indications of launching their own separate political party.

Since the Congress was apprehensive of the recruitment drive by the Bahujan Samaj Party the party also issued a whip to its existing members to get their membership renewed. 

Rohtak, October 10
Quite a few contenders, including several serving as well as former vice-chancellors and other high officials, are said to be in the fray for the post of the vice-chancellor of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here.

As of now, Prof R.S. Dhankar is serving as MDU vice-chancellor, though his term expired about a month ago. However, he has been asked by the chancellor to continue in the office till an alternative arrangement is made.

A selection committee has been constituted for appointment of a new vice-chancellor for MDU.

The committee comprises a former vice-chancellor of Kurukshetra University (KU), Prof Bhim Singh Dahiya, and the serving vice-chancellor of Guru Jambheshwar University (GJU), Dr R.P. Bajpai, as MDU executive council nominees and state financial commissioner-cum-education secretary Rajan Gupta as the chancellor’s nominee.

Sources said the first meeting of the selection committee constituted for the appointment of a new vice-chancellor would be held in Chandigarh on October 19.

The names of Prof L.N. Dahiya, a former pro-vice-chancellor of MDU, Prof R.P. Hooda, the serving vice-chancellor of KU, and Dr R.K. Chauhan, serving UGC official and former vice-chancellor of GJU are being heard as the frontrunners in this context. Then, MDU professor and head of the Economics Department, Dr S.B. Dahiya, and the dean academic affairs, Prof Ishwar Singh, are also being considered as other options before the selectors.

Though a final decision in this regard will be taken only on the return of the chief minister from his foreign tour, many contenders for the coveted post have started making rounds of the persons in power.

Whether the state authorities pick an obvious candidate or spring a surprise remains to be seen, but an interesting aspect of the keen contest is that most aspirants belong to a particular community, mainly to two ‘gotras’.

New York, October 10
US-based Spectrum International LLC, a company owned by an NRI, has announced to invest Rs 2,000 crore in Haryana in food preservation and processing industries.

This announcement was made at a reception organised in the honour of visiting Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at Royal Albert Palace, New Jersey, by the people of Haryana and prominent local associations.

The meeting was attended by more than 200 NRI’s predominately of the Haryana origin. They lauded the efforts of the Chief Minister for making Haryana the number one state in the country and making its people prosperous.

While speaking on the occasion, Hooda announced that a nodal officer to deal and coordinate with the NRI’s would be appointed by the state government. In the mean time for any requirement, principal-secretary to the CM M.L. Tayal could be contacted.

He said all out efforts would be made by the state to facilitate their investment in the state. He invited them to the state to compare and evaluate the infrastructure available. The Chief Minister said to augment power supply; projects for 5,000 MW were being implemented.

Hooda, who is leading a high-powered delegation of the Haryana government and CII, reached New York yesterday to project Haryana as the “most preferred investment destination”.

Earlier, the delegation was welcomed and warmly received by the representatives of Indian mission at New York and the prominent people of Haryana settled in the US. — UNI

Fatehabad, October 10
Following complaints of irregularities, deputy commissioner O.P. Sheoran today ordered an inquiry into the functioning of the Divya Jyoti Institute and Vocational Centre for Special Children being run from a government building near the local Jat Dharamshala.

Addressing mediapersons here, the deputy commissioner asked city magistrate Satish Jain to look into complaints of misappropriation of public funds and illegal occupation of government property by the organisation.

The Tribune had published a story on October 8 after Vijay Khyal, a local resident, was allegedly supplied misleading information regarding the organisation by the authorities under the RTI Act.

Khayal had asked how a private organisation had been occupying a government building without even paying rent.

When the DC asked the city magistrate, who is also the information officer, regarding the factual position, Jain admitted that the institute was occupying the building illegally.

Meanwhile, several persons have complained of misappropriation of public funds by the institute.

Functionaries of the institute, according to the complaints, collected huge amounts, running into several lakhs, from prominent persons of the district for providing life membership to those persons.

But, the institute functionaries allegedly neither submitted any accounts of the collections to the public nor did they accommodate the donors as life members of the organisation.

Usha Dahiya, president of the governing body of the institute, said project director of the organisation Lakshwinder Singh had not been calling a meeting of the governing body despite her specific directions.

She alleged that she was not being provided statements of accounts and nor were these being given to the CA appointed by her.

Lakshwinder Singh refused to comment.

Gurgaon, October 10
Deputy commissioner Rakesh Gupta today pulled up officers of the PWD (B&R) for shabby condition of roads in the city and directed them to complete the repair and patchwork within the scheduled time.

Gupta, who was in the city for about five hours to stock the real situation in the areas from where he had been receiving complaints, toured Patel Nagar, Mahrauli road, main bus stand, Subhas Nagar, Prem Nagar, Pratap Nagar, Sohna road, Madanpuri road, Khandsa road, Old railway road, Gandhi Nagar, Sector 37, Kamla Nehru Park and Bajghera road and gave a patient hearing to the problems of the residents.

He directed the officers concerned accompanying him to resolve the problems as soon as possible. The deputy commissioner instructed the removal of encroachments on the main bus stand road and said the repair work would be taken up immediately.

He directed the officers of the Public Works Department to assess the repair work of the Madanpuri road so that the Municipal Council could invite tenders for constructing the remaining portion of the road.

Regarding the sewer water overflow problem in Shivaji Park, Sheetla Mata road and Gandhi Nagar, the officers assured that it would be automatically solved after the repairing of pumping station on the Mata Road.

Gupta also directed that the water supply boosting station in Gurgaon village be made functional within a fortnight which had not been working for the last about 2.5 years because of lack of coordination between the HUDA and Public Health Departments.

The HUDA department got the boosting station constructed but machines were not installed and the Public Health Department insisted that the HUDA should make it functional before they take charge of the boosting station.

Municipal Council chairman Ravinder Kataria brought the matter before the DC. Gurgaon village and Rajeev Nagar will get drinking water from this boosting station.

The DC also came heavily on HSIIDC officers for aggravating the sewerage overflow problem in the SC Colony of Khandsa village. He directed them to construct a metalled road after laying sewer lines on three main paths leading to the village from the NH-8.

Meanwhile, the Gurgaon Industrial Association had an interaction with the DC on the problems of basic infrastructure in the industrial area. The association submitted a ten-point memorandum to the DC regarding bad conditions of roads, sewerage, sanitation, and electricity problems.

The DC assured to look into their problems and directed the officers of the concerned departments to prepare a status report of the ongoing work within a fortnight.

Yamunanagar, October 10
Power generation from four hydel power generation units located on a link channel taking off from the Western Yamuna Canal (WYC) has been reduced to less than half due to damage to an outlet gate of the channel.

The water flow in the channel is being controlled during the evening to save the channel and power houses from any possible damage.

According to sources in Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL), the power generation has been reduced to about 24 MW. The four houses could together produce 64.4 MW if the flow in the canal was 5,400 cusecs.

The sources said efforts were on the repair the outlet gate. The sources said the water flow in the channel was controlled at 3,500 cusecs during evenings to protect the channel from any breach or damage to powerhouses.

O.P. Manchanda, chief engineer, HPGCL (Yamunanagar), admitted that the water flow was being reduced during the evenings. He claimed the gate would be repaired soon.

Faridabad, October 10
Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Faridabad, Dr Pankaj Watts said the number of dengue cases in the district had risen to eight.

So far 14 patients were suspected to be afflicted with the disease.

Although, the health department maintained that there was no cause for panic as this year the number of cases of the disease had declined in comparison to last year.

From March to mid October, the number of suspected cases last year was about 80. The disease had spread to all parts of the district last year.

According to the department, besides routine fogging of the city areas with anti-larva medicines, special preventive measures have been devised for both the urban and rural areas.

For rural areas, focal spray with malathion powder is more effective, whereas in urban pockets fogging is done in a routine manner.

A senior health department official said the view that Faridabad was susceptible to dengue and other waterborne diseases in comparison to other National Capital Region cities was a myth.

Gurgaon had overtaken in the figure of suspected dengue cases this year. Delhi headed the list, he added.

Kurukshetra, October 10
Former general-secretary of the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) Jitender Singh Khurdband, alias Kaka, is set to join the party of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and MP Kuldeep Bishnoi.

Bishnoi will be visiting the district to address a ‘Workers’ sammelan’ scheduled to be held at the premises of Saini Samaj Bhawan here on October 12.

This was confirmed by Khurdband at a press conference, which was convened by former district Congress committee president Pawan Garg here today. Khurdband said he would formally join the new party day after tomorrow at the scheduled meeting.

Justifying his joining, Khurdband said after the sad demise of former Haryana Chief Minister and HVP supremo Bansi Lal and his son Surender Singh, former general-secretary, HVP, none had bothered about HVP supporters after the merging of the HVP with the Congress.

“After consulting my colleagues in two separate meetings held recently, I decided to join Bhajan Lal and Bishnoi’s party because both of them are fighting for Haryana’s interests and moreover, the common man’s interests, including the HVP workers.

Addressing the conference, Garg claimed that over three lakh persons had enrolled themselves with the to-be-announced party.

Garg said the Congress high command was not initiating any action against Bhajan Lal and Bishnoi for their oust from the Congress because the Congress thought that the moment action was taken, it would lose its base in Haryana on the pattern of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Garg also appealed the people to participate in maximum in the scheduled rally.

Chandigarh, October 10
Taking up a petition filed by the then executive editor of the Hindustan Times and two others, Justice L.N. Mittal has ordered the quashing of a complaint filed by an INLD worker. 

Pronouncing the orders in an open court, the Judge also directed the quashing of summoning orders against the “petitioners only”, “along with all consequential proceedings arising thereof”. Similar orders were passed by the Bench on a petition seeking the quashing of another complaint by an INLD worker. 

In his complaint in the Hindustan Times matter filed before Dabwali Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate under Section 500 of the IPC, Radhey Sham had averred that a news-item dated April 17, 2000, was defamatory and had defamed the party as well as leader Om Prakash Chautala.