 |
|
|
Late blight hits crops
in Yamunanagar
Late blight, a fungal disease, has caused widespread damage to crops in Yamunanagar district.
— A Tribune photograph
New Year’s Eve
Benazir’s Haryana
Connection
Industrial portal to facilitate investors
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda addresses a gathering after laying the foundation stone of Punjabi Bhawan in Hisar.
— Tribune photo by P.L. Mundey
Flashback – 2007
Samjhauta blasts, dera chief hogged headlines
Rohtak will not lag behind in progress, assures MP
Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda lays the foundation stone of Sri Sant Kabir Shiksha Bhawan at Sanjay Nagar in Rohtak on Sunday. Rohtak MLA Shadi Lal Batra is also seen.
— Photo by Manoj Dhaka
Robbery case cracked with arrest of 4
Digital trunking system for Gurgaon police
Neelgai menace in villages
Police rescues ‘kidnapped’ man
Cloth merchant receives threat postcard
Three jail officials remanded
Farmers to gherao powerhouse
Worker dies in mishap
Bar Council member felicitated
|
|
Late blight hits crops
in Yamunanagar
Yamunanagar, December 30 Coloured spots have appeared on leaves of the crops and white fungus could be seen on the reverse side. During the previous winter season, the disease had caused widespread damage to potato crop. However, the damage this year seems to be even more. The disease is more prominent in the Ghar area, along the Shivalik foothills of the district. Prem Chand, a farmer from the Chhachhrouli area, said the disease had affected his peas crop. Due to the disease the quality of the peas got affected and it would fetch low price in the market. Bhasi Ram and Ishwar Chand, both farmers, said they had been regularly watering and spraying medicines on their crops but to no avail. Dr B.R Kamboj, a scientist at agriculture science centre, Damla, said proper spray could prevent the disease. He advised the farmers to spray “mancozeb” on the crops as a precaution. The farmers should mix 500 g of mancozeb in 200-250 liters of water to prepare the spray for one acre. If the crop bears symptoms of the disease (spot on upper side leaves and white fungus growth on the reverse) farmers should spray “ridomilenze”. The disease could cause 100 per cent damage to the crops as it damages leaves and hence photosynthesis process stops. A farmer not only looses his crop due to the disease but also loses seed for next plantation. |
|
Special drive to check drunken driving
Violators to face police action Vishal Joshi Tribune News Service
Panipat, December 30 NH-1, one of the busiest roads of the country that passes though Haryana, is also considered as the highway corridor connecting north India with the national capital. Due to heavy vehicular traffic, the stretch is among the most accident prone zone of the region. The police said during the year-end, the highways, particularly the GT Road, experienced an increase of 10 per cent in vehicular traffic, which included travellers from New Delhi moving mainly towards HP for Christmas and New Year celebrations. Scores of these commuters often indulge in drunken driving, sources said. Additional inspector general of police (NH) Rajpal Singh said a written communication had been faxed to all SPs to undertake a special drive on December 31 against drunken driving. Every year, a large number of people loose their lives due to irresponsible motoring and drunken driving was one of the major factors responsible for fatal accidents, he added. According to the official data, in 2007, as many as 525 persons lost their lives in 1,000 road accidents on the NH 1 alone. Last year, at least 575 fatal accidents were reported out of 1,025 road accidents on the busy stretch from Sonepat to Ambala. There are 22 traffic police stations in the state and each of them is equipped with meters to detect the presence of alcohol in one’s body. The NH police in April constituted the first permanent police post at toll plaza in Karnal to check the drunken driving. A team headed by a gazetted police force from Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Yamunanagar, Madhuban and the NH police are deputed at the toll plaza, Karnal, on rotation basis with two breath analysers. At least 1,446 vehicles were challaned and FIRs were registered against four persons. Accidents cases on this particular stretch had also decreased, he added. Impressed with the results from Karnal, the state NH police has now proposed to set up permanent check posts with breath analysers on the NH 8 (Delhi-Rohtak-Sirsa) and NH 22 (Panchkula-Shimla).
|
|
Bhattu Kalan elated at newfound fame
Sushil Manav
Fatehabad, December 30 Though they have been receiving a number of telephonic queries on this subject from their acquaintances after the revelation made by the media and are happy at the newfound importance attached to their town, they are still skeptical of the veracity of the reports. They are anyway feeling sad at the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Website wikepedia, a free encyclopedia on the Internet, describes that “before Independence, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s grandfather (Shah Nawaz’s father), Khuda Bux, lived in the small town of Bhattu Kalan in Sirsa tehsil of Hisar district (presently under Fatehabad district), India, and served the Indian Railways as mechanic. Shah Nawaz went to England for higher education and afterwards entered the services of the Nawab of Junagarh. In the service, Shah Nawaz used the name of his native town Bhatto as his last name. Shah Nawaz Bhatto in time became the Dewan (prime minister) of Junagarh state”. Interestingly, none of the residents of Bhattu Kalan could confirm having ever heard of Bhattu Kalan connection of the Bhutto family in the past. Even the elderly do not remember having ever heard of this in their lifetime from their fathers or grandfathers. Most of the residents to whom The Tribune talked found it hard to believe that Bhuttos once lived at this place. They said they had been listening this for the first time after Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. The residents said had the Bhuttos got any connection with Bhattu Kalan, they would have definitely come here whenever they visited India in their lifetime. Sampat Singh, a former Haryana minister, who hails from Bhattu Kalan and has been four time MLA from this place, said the news that a family of international repute, who has ruled the neighbouring country for several years, once belonged to his native place was a matter of pride. But it did not seem to be true, he added. He said after he started receiving calls from some TV channel reporters to confirm the Bhattu Kalan link of the assassinated Pakistani leader, he talked to several elderly people, but none confirmed the assertions made in the website. While the website described that Shah Nawaz’s father Khuda Bux worked as a mechanic in the Indian Railways at Bhattu Kalan, the railway staff at the Bhattu Kalan railway station maintained that no such post had ever existed at this railway station. The staff members said the posts of mechanic existed only at railway junctions and not at small railways stations like Bhattu Kalan. Even the website wikipedia that has made these assertions regarding Khuda Bux’s Bhattu Kalan links, writes these lines with a rider “citation needed”. The residents maintained that there must be some confusion in the mind of the author of these lines because had Shah Nawaz Bhutto or his father Khuda Bux ever existed in Bhattu Kalan, it could not be more than 100 years old. Had this been the case, the village elders, who include some octogenarians, must have heard about this from their fathers and grandfathers, they said. But the elders said they did not remember of any Muslim family having stayed here except for one, a teli family (those who extract oil from seeds). The Bhuttos ever lived at Bhattu Kalan or not, but the people of Bhattu Kalan are elated at the fact that their place has suddenly come in prominence after such revelation.
|
|
|
Industrial portal to facilitate investors
Chandigarh, December 30 A spokesman of department of electronics and information technology said new initiatives were being implemented to cope up with the changing scenario in this sector. He said the industrial portal would enable investors to upload documents. Also, it would have the facility to ensure that the documents could be processed electronically. He said a composite application form (CAF) had been also developed for processing industrial applications. He said the government was also planning to promote a better interface between its procurement agencies and suppliers through e-procurement. A software had been developed for this purpose and it was being implemented by supply and disposals department. Export of software from Haryana increased from Rs 890 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs 14,000 crore in 2006-07. Haryana improved its ranking in the country by six positions, from fifteenth to ninth position, in the last two years as per the latest e-readiness assessment report released by the Government of India. The SWAN project was being implemented for connecting all offices up to block level. He said out of 127 block network management centres (BNMC), 116 had been made operational under this network. The remaining BNMCs would be made operational shortly. On the issue of common service centres (CSCs), he said agencies had been appointed to set up 1,159 CSCs in rural areas and 104 CSCs in urban areas for delivery of citizen centric services. As many as 117 CSCs in Rohtak division, 130 CSCs in Gurgaon division, 4 CSCs in Ambala division and 41 CSCs in Hisar division had been set up. At present, services like computer training, e-ticketing, mobile recharges, job placement services, internet surfing and desk top printing (DTP) were being run through these centres. Services like bus passes, electricity bill payments, issuance of nakal of land record, issuance of certificates like Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes, income, domicile, birth and death certificates and issuing of new ration cards would also be carried out through these centres in near future. All proposed CSCs would come up by the scheduled date of April 17, he said. He said there was a plan to computerise all activities of district-level offices for which a pilot project for Rohtak and Jind was being finalised. |
|
Opposition leaders unable to digest progress: Hooda
Chandigarh, December 30 The Chief Minister was speaking at an abhinandan samaroh organised by the Punjabi Welfare Society in his honour at Hisar where he also laid the foundation stone of Punjabi Bhawan. Hooda said during the last 33 months, the pace of development has got a new direction in the state so as to realise the dream of making Haryana ‘number one’ state in all spheres of development. The government was giving priority to development of both urban and rural areas. He reiterated that efforts were being made to resolve the problems of unemployment and shortage of electricity. While pointing out the shortage of electricity was an inherited problem, he regretted that even after 40 years of Haryana’s existence, the state’s generation capacity was merely 1,587 MW. The state was getting about 2,000 MW of electricity from other projects as against the demand of 6,000 MW. This demand would further increase to 8,500 MW by the year 2010. He said new power generation projects were being set up to add 5,000 MW of power generation capacity and for the next three years one power project would start generation every year. While referring to the problem of unemployment, he said industrialisation was the key to this problem. He pointed out that government jobs were limited and the size of land holdings was also shrinking. Therefore, the government was now giving incentives for setting up of industries in backward areas of the state. The government was trying to provide employment to every family in the state. He said the national rural employment guarantee scheme would be implemented in the entire state during the next financial year. He also announced to give Rs 31,000 to Sahil Solanki for his outstanding performance at ‘Saa Re Gaa Maa’ programme of Zee TV. Hooda described Haryana’s world-famous Murrah buffalo as the ‘black gold’ and said the state might not have natural resources like petroleum and coal, but was proud of its Murrah buffalo. While giving away cash incentive of Rs 1.65 crore to 4,424 owners of top-quality Murrah buffaloes, he said Murrah buffaloes were in great demand in other states of the country and abroad. Therefore, the state government had been implementing a number of schemes for the development of this breed of buffaloes. Cautioning the farmers about the size of landholdings which were reducing, Hooda urged them to take up cattle raring to increase their income. Among those who received incentive money included 756 Murrah breeders from Rohtak district, 666 breeders from Hisar, 870 breeders from Bhiwani, 772 breeders from Jhajjar, 521 breeders from Jind, 168 breeders from Sonepat and other districts. — Agencies
|
|
Flashback – 2007
Chandigarh, December 30 A press note issued here today said new initiatives taken by the women and child development department included constitution of village-level committees of women and their convergence with panchayati raj institutions (PRIs), formation of ‘sakshar mahila samooh’ (SMS), facility of micro-credit for SMS from Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK), construction of mahila shakti sadans and awards for improvement in sex ratio. The government had set up 6,157 village level sub-committees of women to facilitate implementation of programmes pertaining to development of women and children. Such committees were declared as sub-committees of the gram panchayats under Section 22 of the Gram Panchayat Act, 1994 and were thus made a part of the PRI system. These committees were given functions, funds and functionaries to carry out their activities. A sum of Rs 6.66 crore was released to the committees in 2007 for awareness generation activities and to meet other expenditure. It was also decided to dispense with centralised system of procuring the ready to eat food items for the beneficiaries of the ICDS and entrust the responsibility of preparation of food items to women self-help groups or mother’s groups under the supervision of the gram panchayats. The scheme aimed at generating employment for about 75,000 rural women. The government enhanced the financial norms from Rs 2 to Rs 3 per day per child and Rs 5 for severely malnourished children per day and from Rs 2.50 to Rs 5 per day per mother and adolescent girl with effect from January 1 so that protein and calories’ requirements as per norms of the ICDS scheme could be ensured to all beneficiaries. These rates are highest in the country. The SMS, consisting of a group of educated women in a village, was slated to lend the necessary resource support to the gram panchayat and its sub-committee for effective discharge of the functions assigned to them. The SMS generated awareness on key issues of sex ratio, literacy, universal elementary education, health, nutrition, opportunities for economic empowerment for women, hygiene sanitation and environment and schemes run by the government for women, children and village community. A total of about 6,000 SMSs had been formed. The Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) agreed to recognise SMS as an eligible NGO for the purpose of promoting micro-credit and undertaken the responsibility of training of members of SMS for this purpose. Haryana Women Development Corporation (WDC) was the nodal agency in this regard. An agreement to this effect was signed between the RMK and the Women Development Corporation (WDC) on January 3. SMSs would access micro-credit from RMK directly. The RMK would advance credit to the selected SMSs at a rate of 8 per cent per annum. These SMSs in turn could lend at any suitable rates of interest from 8 to 18 per cent on reducing balance to other SHGs in their villages. It was on the occasion of International Women’s Day falling on March 8 that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced that mahila chaupals would be constructed in all villages of in phased manner. He approved the proposal with the amendment that chaupals would be known as mahila shakti sadans and equipped with library, furniture, computer and stationery. The government decided to construct buildings for anganwadi centres without contribution of panchayats or village community during 2007-08 in villages with 50 per cent or more Scheduled Caste population. It was also decided that the districts showing improvement in sex ratio and securing first three positions in the state would be given awards at district level every year to the tune of Rs 5 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh, respectively. To reduce the number of malnourished children in Haryana, nutrition awards were instituted at district level. During the year 2007, the award of Rs 2 lakh, Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 were given to Faridabad, Hisar and Rohtak districts, respectively, for obtaining first three positions. In order to encourage rural girls for pursuing higher education, the scheme of awards to rural adolescent girls was started and 384 girls were given awards for which Rs 5.76 lakh was spent. To encourage women for proper rearing of their children, especially girl children, the scheme of best mother award was started. Under the scheme, three mothers having at least one girl child were selected for 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes. As many as 2,346 mothers were given awards during the year 2007.
|
|
|
Samjhauta blasts, dera chief hogged headlines
Chandigarh, December 30 As many as 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, were killed when two blasts ripped through two coaches of the Samjhauta Express near Diwana railway station in Panipat district on January 18. However, even after more than 10 months, investigators could not make much headway in their probe into the Samjhauta blasts. The launching of a new political party, Haryana Janhit Congress (BL), by disgruntled Congress leader Bhajan Lal and his younger son Kuldeep Bishnoi on December 2 in a rally in Rohtak, capped long rebellious activities by the two leaders in the state. The move did not come as a surprise as Bhajan Lal and Kuldeep had been openly indulging in dissident activities after Bhupinder Singh Hooda was handpicked by Congress president Sonia Gandhi for the post of the Chief Minister of the state over two-and-a-half years ago. Kuldeep claimed that the people of Haryana had voted for the Congress because of his father and the party sidelined him in favour of Hooda. However, Bhajan Lal’s other son, deputy chief minister Chander Mohan, did not participate in the rally. Hooda was able to quell the rebellion and he even inducted Bhajan Lal’s old loyalist Mange Ram Gupta in his Cabinet and appointed the disgruntled leader’s nephew Dura Ram as parliamentary secretary. Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda and its chief Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh became a centre of controversy this year. Certain sections of Sikhs, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) accused him of blasphemy for imitating Guru Gobind Singh at a religious ceremony in Bathinda district. The Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, issued an edict calling for the boycott of Ram Raheem and closure of all deras of the sect in Punjab. A criminal case for blasphemy was filed against the dera chief by the Bathinda police, which later interrogated him in connection with the case. While the controversy was still fresh, the CBI filed charge sheets against the dera chief in two cases of murder and a rape case. The Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the dera chief to appear in a special court in Ambala. The dera chief appeared in the court amid tight security and got a bail. The hearing in the case is pending in the Ambala court. Among the other major developments in the state during 2007 was appointment of Phool Chand Mullana as the Haryana Congress president. Kuldeep Sharma was appointed as the working president. Also, former Haryana Congress working president Ram Prakash was elected as the Rajya Sabha member in the by-election to the Upper House of Parliament. It was during this year that Haryana ranked as a state with highest per capita investment of Rs 78,500 in the country. Haryana was also among the best performing states in terms of financial health, according to ASSOCHAM Eco Plus. According to this study, Haryana has the minimum fiscal deficit of 0.6 per cent in the financial year 2007. Another decision was the waiving off house and chulha taxes, thus bringing to an end a tax which was introduced by the British.
UNI |
|
|
Rohtak will not lag behind in progress, assures MP
Rohtak, December 30 This was stated by Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda while addressing a gathering at a felicitation ceremony organised by Dr Parmanand Lal Charitable Society here today. Hooda, however, asserted that now Rohtak would not lag behind in progress and several ambitious projects had been initiated to ensure all-round development of the town. “The progress is already visible and the people will soon see a new Rohtak which will be at par with any advanced city of the country,” he maintained. The MP inspected the cremation ground located on the Gohana road and promised all possible financial assistance for the construction of cremation ground hall and other developmental works. He announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh for the society from the MP fund. Rohtak MLA Shadi Lal Batra, who was also present on the occasion, assured the residents of the town that they would be adequately compensated for the discrimination they had suffered during the rule of earlier regimes in the state. Meanwhile, the MP also laid the foundation stone of Sri Sant Kabir Shiksha Bhawan at Sanjay Nagar locality of the town. A computer lab and a stitching training centre for women would be set up by the Sant Kabir Society at the Shiksha Bhawan. Hooda announced a grant of Rs 2 lakh for the project. Addressing a public meeting at Ambedkar Colony, he claimed that there would be no dearth of employment opportunities for the youth in the near future. Exhorting the residents to provide good education to their children, Hooda observed that education was must in today’s era. “The state government has launched a scheme under which Dalit students would get cash incentives ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 400 from the coming session,” he added. |
|
|
Robbery case cracked with arrest of 4
Rewari, December 30 On a complaint filed by Ravinder Kumar, the GRP had then registered a case of robbery and causing hurt under sections 392 and 394 of the IPC in this regard. ASI Ram Kumar, investigating officer of the case, told this correspondent today that soon after obtaining details from the company concerned of the usage of the stolen cellphone by the gangsters, the GRP apprehended the accused Praveen and also seized the looted cellphone from him recently. Consequently, his other accomplices - Manish, Ravi and Dharamender - were also nabbed in succession. They were produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Rachna Gupta, who remanded them in judicial custody. |
|
Digital trunking system for Gurgaon police
Chandigarh, December 30 This system would replace the existing simplex wireless systems of police with the digital trunking system so as to improve the quality of voice and introduce dynamic grouping of calls or multi-group calls and selective calling options capability, a spokesman of the Haryana department of electronics and information technology. He said with a view to keep track of location of its vehicles and to press them in action instantly, an automatic vehicle location system would also be integrated with the system. It was intended to provide a seamless integration with other public telephone systems and wireless system in the National Capital Region (NCR). This would not only allow the public to report an incident of crime or unrest immediately upon its occurrence, but also ease the process seeking police related public information, such as status of passport or driving licence issued. The said project would be implemented within six months after the release of the purchase order by HARTRON. He said for better management of law and order situation in the state, the state government had already established police wide area network connecting all range headquarters, district headquarters, police stations and State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB), Madhuban. — UNI
|
|
Neelgai menace in villages
Rewari, December 30 A spokesman for the affected villagers said the wildlife sanctuary on the Kosli-Kanina road was the abode of a large number of neelgais. While these neelgais remained confined to the sanctuary in the daytime, they moved out in clusters at night and devoured their standing mustard and wheat crops at will. The spokesman deplored that in the absence of any protection or relief provided either by the district administration or the staff of the sanctuary, the poor farmers had to keep night-long vigil to save their crops from being destroyed by clusters of these aggressive neelgais. |
|
|
Police rescues ‘kidnapped’ man
Bhiwani, December 30 According to information, Bhoop Singh of Zewali village had come to Badhra for some personal work where he entered into an altercation with
Jaibir, sarpanch of Panchganwa village, and other person. Bhoop Singh said the duo beat him up and kidnapped him when he was going to lodge a report with the police. After getting the information, the police rushed to the spot with a team led by police station in charge Maha Singh Ranga and rescued the man from the alleged abductors. The police has registered a case against the sarpanch, Om Pal, Golu,
Jaibeer, Kalu, Billu, Rinku, Rajbir, Kalia and Devender on the complaint of Bhoop Singh.
|
|
|
Cloth merchant receives threat postcard
Yamunanagar, December 30 The merchant, Madan Lal Jain, who lives in Ashoka Colony here, received the postcard yesterday and informed the police about it. The police has registered a case against anonymous persons. The police has started its investigations. A senior official said it could be a prank, but the police was taking it seriously. The sender has claimed that he has “connections” in the police. Jain runs his business from a rented shop in the Geeta Bhawan market here. |
|
Three jail officials remanded
Sonepat, December 30 They were arrested by the police after a team of senior jail department officers from Chandigarh, led by IG (Prisons) M.S. Maan conducted a raid on the district jail premises on Friday night and found 10 convicted persons missing from their barracks. |
|
Farmers to gherao powerhouse
Bhiwani, December 30 BKU district president Dharmpal Badhra said the farmers and residents of the area were facing the worst time during the present government. There was great scarcity of electricity and water in the area, he said, adding that farmers were facing an acute shortage of electricity and students were unable to study after the sun sets. He alleged that the electricity department made new schedules everyday which had proved futile due to shortage of power. |
|
Worker dies in mishap
Faridabad, December 30 The firm, Stirwire India Ltd, deals in steel production and is located along the Delhi-Mathura national highway falling in the Ballabgarh area in this district. The police has registered a case in this regard. |
|
Bar Council member felicitated
Rewari, December 30 Describing it as something creditable, Yadav said for the first time a young advocate from Ahirwal region, who secured 14th rank in the Bar Council with tally of 965 votes, has made it to the Bar Council of the High Court. |
|
|
Interest waiver
Chandigarh, December 30 For getting more information in this regard, the interested persons could contact the district offices of the corporation or its headquarters at Chandigarh. |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
The prevailing low temperature and high humidity in the region has caused extensive damage to peas, tomato and potato crops in the district. Late blight, a fungal disease, has spread in crops over more than 3,700 hectares.
Rohtak is located at a same distance from Delhi as Gurgaon and Faridabad, but it is much behind these cities as far as development is concerned. This was largely due to the discriminative attitude of the previous sate governments towards the town.
