Hisar, January 17
The acute power shortage in Haryana threatens to undo all good work that the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government has done so far.

Sporadic incidents of manhandling of power utilities’ staff members and road blockades over long and unscheduled power cuts are an indication of public outcry on the issue.

Even though power shortage has been chronic as well as endemic in Haryana from seventies onwards, it is also a fact that this issue has led to the ouster of many governments over the decades as parties promise to end it and then fail to deliver.

Although to his credit, Hooda has been making all out efforts to streamline power supply to the extent possible from day one, the power supply situation has been worsening month after month. The situation has come to such a pass that it is difficult to even recharge power inverter batteries within the period for which power is supplied to consumers.

Last fortnight, there were cuts from midnight to early morning as various generating plants were non-functional due to a variety of reasons, including paucity of natural gas and low water levels in reservoirs. Industrial activity in the state has come to a halt as power supply is limited to hours in lower single digits. The situation in villages is even worse. No wonder villagers taking out their ire on hapless power utilities' staff.

Hooda has been publicly blaming all former chief ministers for the shortage, saying they did not establish enough generating capacity. Aware of the damage the issue could do to him in the 2010 assembly poll, he set about inviting big companies, including Reliance, Jindals and others, to set up thermal power units in Haryana.

He had hoped that these units would come up in 2009, as it took about three years for a unit to come into production. But procedural and logistics problems upset his time schedule. At best, he can hope of bringing on stream a couple of units at the under-construction Khedar and Jhadli and Yamunanagar plants months before the 2010 polls.

However, that would only be a drop in the ocean as by that time the gap in supply and demand would have further widened due to increased demand. While the commissioning of these new power plants even partially would certainly help Hooda to insist how hard he had been trying to solve the problem, but in practical terms these would not make any significant change in the power supply scenario.

In addition to shortage, the power utilities overstress on disciplining consumers, but failing to discipline their own staff is also ultimately going to the discredit of the Hooda government. The corruption and inefficiency in power utilities is a big irritant for consumers of all categories. This is one reason that makes consumers disinclined to forgive the government for inability to supply enough power.

So far, Hooda has been able to ward off anti-incumbency levels mainly because of public perception that he has hounded out criminals to a large extent and that unlike Chautala he is not an offensive leader.

However, if the power situation fails to improve by very significant levels by the yearend, he will find it hard to eliminate the anti-incumbency factor.

Hisar, January 14
Haryana Agricultural University has developed a high-yielding variety of mung bean, sattya, for kharif cultivation in northern India.

The variety has been released and notified by the Central Subcommittee on Crop Standards for cultivation in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh both in irrigated and rainfed areas.

An official press release issued here today said that the variety was developed by a team of plant breeders, including Dr Ram Kumar Yadav, Dr R.S.Waldia, Dr B.N. Dahiya and Dr Y.S. Tomar.

Sattya has straight pods and green shining seeds. The pods turn black on maturity.

It takes 67 to 72 days to mature and is resistant to powdery mildew, mung bean yellow mosaic virus and web blight.

It is tolerant to the cercospora leaf spot (CLS) and leaf crinkle diseases. The variety has marked and distinct characters like dark green canopy and prolific bearing.

The press release claimed the new variety was moderately to highly resistant to the Meloidogyne incognita species of root knot nematode.

Besides, there were no shattering losses on delayed harvesting. Its protein content was also higher than most of the popular varieties.

Ballabgarh (Faridabad), January 14
An all-female rally, ‘Mahila samman sammelan’, here today was marred after residents of Prithla village complained to Aasha Hooda, wife of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and vice-president of the Haryana State Council for Child Welfare, about the alleged failure of government agencies in solving the murder case of two sisters.

The rally was organised by the local Congress MLA and parliamentary secretary of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Sharda Rathore.

Villagers assembled near Aasha’s car, parked near the venue of the function, and displayed foul temper against police inaction while a speaker was addressing the rally.

Hooda, who was chief guest at the rally, was on the dais when the commotion took place.

When the local SDM intervened, the agitators demanded to meet the dignitary regarding the murder case, in which two sisters belonging to Prithla were murdered.

Hooda promptly assured to meet them after the rally.

The residents, majority of them females, alleged that the local police was playing a partisan role in solving the case. The dignitary assured them of justice.

The rally was organised on the occasion of ‘Makkar Sankaranti’. The event was presided over by Haryana’s minister for revenue Savitri Jindal.

All participants were given quilts by the organiser of the event.

Addressing the gathering, Hooda lamented on the skewed male-female ratio and expressed concern over the female foeticide. She said while the government was doing its best to fight the menace, the public should also to join the societal campaign.

She said an educated girl could uplift two families, parental and marital and urged females to take up women specific issues and assert their rights.

Lauding the Haryana government for implementing umpteen number of female-related welfare schemes, she asserted that no state in the country could match Haryana in its pro-activeness on the issue.

Jindal and Rathore also spoke in the same vein. While Jindal highlighted the contribution made by females in development of society, Rathore dwelt in detail on the policies and schemes implemented by the present government for welfare of females. 

Bhiwani, January 14
Employees of the electricity department today staged a demonstration outside the office of the superintending engineer.

They were protesting against the alleged attack by a group of villagers on the raiding team that had gone to detect power theft in the village. They also staged a dharna.

Shouting slogans, they criticised the managing director for issuing targets for theft and suspension orders.

Union leader and junior engineer Narayan Prakash said a team led by junior engineer Rajdeep had gone to Nava Rajgarh village yesterday to detect power theft. Women of some houses surrounded the team and took out meters and records kept in the departmental jeep. Some of the men caught hold off the employees and snatched the camera.

Prakash alleged that the government had been issuing targets for theft detection to the staff whereas people were facing an acute shortage of electricity. He also alleged that the district administration was not providing any assistance and employees were becoming targets of anti-social elements.

Mahender Samota said employees would not bear the tyrannies of the management and state government. He said the power employees should be provided with police protection when they for raids.

The leaders also expressed concern over the disgraceful language being used by the managing director while talking to engineers.

Yamunanagar, January 14
Five students of Government Senior Secondary School, Allahar here carried out an eight-month long research on a herd of monkeys, which had started living on a tree of the school. The students collected a daily report on the activities of the monkeys and won a prize in the 95th Indian Science Congress’ Kishore Vaigyanik Samelan (children science Congress) organised by Andhra Pradesh University at Visakhapatnam from January 3-7.

The five young scientists, Nikki, Menu, Ruby, Asha and Gaurav (students of class X and XI), compiled their study under the title ‘a monkey in the school - study of life of monkeys’. Four monkeys, Khandu, Dhanni, Chhotu and Simru, constituted their subject. They tried to study why these monkeys left their natural home (forests) and chose a human habitat to settle down. They also tried to know why the monkeys were attacking human beings, especially children (there were several instance of children being attacked by monkeys in the area).

Science teacher of the school Darshan Lal said his students devised a schedule and started studying the activities of the monkeys turn by turn. A student used to sit in the vicinity of the tree to note down the activities of the monkeys.

The young scientists found that the monkeys were friendly to certain teachers, staff and students of the school while they tried to attack others. “My students concluded that the monkeys were friendly towards those who showed concern towards them,” said Lal.

The students concluded that monkeys were shifting towards human population because of deforestation and food scarcity. They also found that humans, too, were friendly towards the monkeys due to religious beliefs.

Kaithal, January 14
During a surprise inspection by ADC Ramesh Verma this morning, offices of anganwari centre, sub health centre and veterinary hospital in Munnerheri village of Pundri block of this district were found locked. Not even a single officer was present till 9.30 am.

The ADC directed the heads of the respective departments to call for an explanation of concerned officials and deduct their day’s salary. Verma said complaints were being received from the people that these offices were not functioning properly and public had to face lot of inconvenience due to delay in the opening of these offices. Furthermore, some of these offices were closed in the evening much before the stipulated office hours. Verma said similar reports about the functioning of some other government offices and schools had been received and soon raids would be conducted there as well. Any one found guilty would be strictly dealt with, he added. He said deputy commissoner S.K. Goyal had already instructed the offices to redress the public grievances at top priority and ensure that benefit of government schemes reached the deserving people.

The ADC further said that government continued to spend crores of rupees on providing basic civic amenities and to ensure good health facilities in the rural areas, but due to attitude of officers and employees, the desired results could not be achieved. 

Chandigarh, January 14
In an order likely to go a long way in resolving the controversy shrouding HCS selections in May 2002, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has allowed counsel for petitioner - MLA Karan Singh Dalal and two others - to inspect the record.

A Division Bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, also directed HPSC chairman to ensure the inspection of record within a week, or else be present on the next date of hearing.

The case will now come up on January 24.

The directions were issued by the Bench during the resumed hearing of the case, when Haryana’s former advocate-general-cum-counsel for petitioner Mohan Jain placed on record a list of candidates with marks obtained by them in written test and interview.

He claimed that those having marks less than 536 in the written were given 76 to 90 per cent in the interview, whereas candidates with more than 536 marks were given less marks in the interview. Apart from this, he also brought to the notice of the Bench the case of one Dilbag Singh, where the total marks of Hindi paper were allegedly increased from 94 to 117 after cuttings.

He also placed on record another list of candidates fairing well in the written examination, but pushed to overall low ranking due to low marks in the interviews.

Dalal, in the writ petition, had earlier alleged that the impugned selection was totally manipulated to favour relations of the then Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, the then HPSC chairman Dr K.C. Bangar and the then DGP M.S. Malik along with others. Jain, appearing along with advocate Dinesh Thakur, contended that the whole of selection was manipulated in utter violation of the rules, procedure and regulations prescribed for the purpose.

Apart from manipulations by way of giving more marks in the interview, alleged irregularities in paper marking were also brought to the court’s notice.

The HPSC had advertised on January 29,1999, to fill 67 vacancies in the HCS and allied services. The written examination was conducted from December 25,1999, to January 7, 2001, and the final result of selections was declared on May 4, 2002.

Yamunanagar, January 14
Sixteen teachers of schools being run under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) by the district unit of the Nehru Yuva Kendra (NYK) have been sent their honorarium for the months of July, August and September but the NYK is now asking them to share it with nine more teachers.

The 16 teachers held a protest at the NYK centre and demanded the honorarium.

The NYK used to run 25 centres in the district but nine of them were closed after inspection. Hemant Kumar, Vinod Kumar, Jai Kumar, Rajesh Kumar and the 12 remaining teachers said that when they asked for the honorarium the authorities concerned asked them to share it with those teachers whose schools had been closed. The teachers said they should be given the entire honorarium.

A teacher gets Rs 2,500 as honorarium per month. They also said their honorarium for three months from October was still pending.

Coordinator of the district NYK J.S. Ahluwalia when contacted admitted honorarium of only 16 teachers (Rs 1.20 lakh) had been sanctioned.

“It was my suggestion that the nine teachers whose schools have been closed too should get some money and that was why the teachers were asked to share their honorarium”, Ahluwalia said.

When asked about the honorarium of the remaining three months he said that contract of the NYK to run the schools expired in September last.

“The teachers were told that they could continue teaching purely on volunteer basis”, Ahluwalia said.

He further added, “If money arrives for the three months the teachers would get the same”.

Fatehabad, January 14
Sunita, a Dalit student living in a ‘dhani’ near Agroha village is a happier girl now.

Student of B.A. final year in the local Government College for Girls, she had to walk down 3 km daily from her ‘dhani’ to Agroha village to catch a bus for Fatehabad to attend her college. So was the plight of Prem Kumari, another Dalit girl who lives near her ‘dhani’.

There were a number of girls like Raj Bala and Vinod Kumari from village Mehuwala in this district and Pinki and Saroj from village Bhodia Khera, who had to cover a distance to 3-4 km on foot to reach their college or catch a bus for that purpose.

Under a newly introduced policy of the state government, 92 Dalit girls have been provided bicycles by the authorities.

The deputy commissioner O.P. Sheoran recently distributed bicycles to these girls in a simple function organised in the college. Besides bicycles, Sheoran distributed stipend of Rs 2,200 each to five Dalit students for purchase of books and stationary.

Speaking on this occasion, he encouraged girls to launch awareness against social ills like female foeticide, gender discrimination and dowry.

He also urged them to educate themselves and other girls in their acquaintance that education is as important for women as for men. 

Gurgaon, January 14
Two incidents of fire engulfed slum clusters in Old Delhi Road and Chakarpur village at Gurgaon late on Sunday night in which a 13-year-old boy of Old Delhi Road colony was charred to death. The reason of the fire in both the incidents is still not known.

The fire broke out in an illegal colony developed on the land of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) on Delhi road near Prem Nagar on Sunday at 12.05 am. The fire reportedly started from the back of the slum area and spread rapidly to the other jhuggis.

Around 250 clusters were completely gutted. It was believed that wind and combustible material used to erect jhuggis increased the intensity of the fire.

The fire was followed by a stampede, as panic gripped the inhabitants of the area.

The chief fire officer with his team reached the spot to control the fire, but till then around 100 clusters were already gutted. The fire could be doused only after a two-hour exercise with a fleet of around twenty fire tenders.

The Gurgaon Police commissioner Mohinder Lal, along with DCP east and DCP west Satinder Kumar Gupta and Rakesh Arya, respectively, reached the site of incident to monitor the fire control.

The residents of the colony blamed Uma Shanker, a resident of Prem Nagar, for involving in the fire in the area.

After the fire had been controlled by the fire department, the people of the colony threw stones at the residence of Shanker.

In another incident, fire broke out at 12.40 am at Chakarpur village behind Sahara mall in Ambedkar colony, in which around 100 clusters were gutted.

The police is still investigating the reasons of the fire.

Fire officials said as the fire tenders reached the place of incident to control the fire, illegal cylinders placed in the houses of the colony started exploding, which spread the fire in the colony speedily. Because of this incident, it took firemen more than three hours to control the fire and most of the colony was reduced to ground.

The Gurgaon deputy commissioner Rakesh Gupta said except one death, no major injury was reported in both the incidents.

He said the cause of fire has not been known so far as investigation of the police is still going on.

Fatehabad, January 14
Chief Judicial Magistrate Lal Chand today sentenced a Delhi High Court lawyer to three years’ imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 for marrying again without taking divorce from his first wife.

According to information, the lawyer, Surender Singh, a resident of Dabri village in Bhadra tehsil of Rajasthan, got married to Krishana of Pilimandori village of the district on March 4, 1982, according to Hindu marriage rituals.

Krishana’s father, Ram Parshad, in his complaint had alleged that in spite of giving sufficient dowry to Surender, he allegedly started harassing Krishana for more dowry and threw her out of the house in 1986 after beating her mercilessly.

He also alleged that Surender married Jaishree, a resident of Saraswati Vihar, Delhi, without divorcing his daughter. The police had booked the lawyer under Sections 406, 498-A, 494, 414 and 109 of the IPC.