|
|
|
|
Paddy procurement
Jind, October 6 They have been unable to market their produce due to reasons beyond their control. Rendered helpless, the farmers are forced to protest over the issue that calls for immediate attention of the state government and the local authorities. With no relief seemed to be in offing, the farmers have resorted to blocking the national highway between Jind and Rohtak to highlight their grievance in the past few days. The farmers are not able to instantly sell their produce of certain varieties that have more demand and fetch higher prices than the usual parmal variety, which is purchased by government agencies. The grain markets here have recorded the arrival of over 10,000 quintals of Sarbati and Mucchal varieties of paddy in the past about a week. The traders, however, have not been lifting the produce, citing dispute with local transporters over freight charges. This has led to jitters among the farmers who have to bear losses due to the delay. It may be recalled that the government agencies buy only the parmal variety that fetches lower rates in comparison to Sarbati, Muchhal or 1121 varieties. The 1121 variety fetches anywhere between Rs 1,800 and Rs 2,100 while the MSP of parmal variety is around Rs 800 per quintal. The district has achieved a kind of record last year with the total paddy purchase hovering over 5 lakh quintal. According to sources, the unavailability of rice shellers or mills in the city and its suburbs is a major problem and this affects the overall demand as the traders who purchase the produce rely on the demand from mills and shellers located in other districts or neighboring states. Most of the farmers grow the varieties that
The local transporters do not allow the traders to seek the services from other areas and this has been a major hurdle. Though the state government has put a ban on transport unions, the culture is still prevalent. The problem gets worse after a clash between the traders and the transporters over the rates of transportation. The dispute emerged early this year when the transporters sought a 25 per cent hike. This dispute has led to the delay in the purchase of produce from farmers, making the latter resort to protest, claims Shyam Sunder, secretary of the local market committee. He says efforts are on to settle the dispute. |
|
Financial aid for martyrs’ families
Rohtak, October 6 But for Bhoti Devi, an 80-year-old widow of Aasan village in the district, one of whose sons died while serving in the Army and the second one is unemployed, this amount is no less than a windfall. Bhoti Devi was among the hundreds of family members of martyrs who were honoured at Veer Naari Sammelan organised in Meham township of the district on Saturday. She got a financial assistance of Rs 5,000, apart from a sewing machine and a shawl on the occasion. Addressing the gathering, Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda, who was the man behind the programme, announced the launch of a special pension scheme for war widows and other family members of martyrs on behalf of his father and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. It may be pertinent to mention here that taking care of the families of martyrs is generally considered to be a responsibility of the Armed force which the defence personnel served. Through this move, the state government has pitched in to share its responsibility towards the famlies of martyrs. "The families of our martyrs have been a neglected lot... In a welcome initiative, the government has introduced a pension scheme for the soldiers' widows who were not getting any pension from the state. Besides, the existing pension amount has been hiked," said Deepender, who has been associated with an
The MP said apart from launching the pension scheme, the government had also decided to take up matters pertaining to naming roads and schools etc after martyrs on a priority. "Besides, it has been decided to provide an amount of Rs 21,000 at the time of marriage of martyr's daughters," he said, adding that the amount provided at the time of the marriage of widows of ex-servicemen had been increased from Rs 5,100 to Rs 11,000. Deepender thanked the Army Chief, General Deepak Kapoor, and his wife and Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA) chairperson Kirti Kapoor for extending help and support to the
programme.
|
|
Five GRP chowkis to be upgraded
Jhajjar, October 6 These are the chowkis that have been working under GRP police station of other districts. Although official notification in this regard is yet to be issued, a communication has been sent to the state police chief. According to sources, GRP chowkis at Bahadurgarh (Jhajjar), Gurgaon, Panipat, Yamunanagar and Chandigarh are the ones that have been selected. On getting the status of full-fledged police station, not only the ongoing problem of shortage of staff in the chowkis would be resolved, but also FIR could be lodged there without wasting any time. Moreover, more facilities would be provided to the employees posted here. Till now, all FIRs of incidents occurring under the jurisdiction of these chowkis are lodged with the police stations located in other districts. At present, FIRs relating to the Bahadurgarh areas are registered at Rohtak GRP station. Similarly, Gurgaon GRP Chowki falls under the jurisdiction of Rewari GRP police station, Yamuna Nagar under Ambala police station, Chandigarh chowki under Kalka and Panipat chowki comes under the jurisdiction of Karnal GRP police station. These chowkis are located at those railway stations from where scores of commuters travel to other places to earn their livelihood. Whenever any incident takes place under the jurisdiction of these chowkis, in charge of the chowki concerned have to approach the police station to get an FIR registered. This process not only consumes more time but also causes hardships to the chowki employees and the complainants. On being contacted, Bharti Arora, superintendent of the Railway Police, maintained now these chowkis, on getting status of police stations, would be more helpful for the public. "No doubt, law and order could be maintained more efficiently as the number of staff members would be enhanced," said
Bharti.
|
|
New sports policy soon: Minister
Sirsa, October 6 She had come here to inaugurate the sub-junior judo championship. Chaudhary said a draft of both policies was being prepared and it would be aimed at attracting youths towards sports. The minister said post Beijing Olympics, the state had come on the world sports map. She expressed confidence that sportspersons from the state would bring more laurels to the country during the forthcoming Commonwealth Games. Haryana, she said, would play a major role in hosting the games. As many as 9,000 rooms would be constructed in the state by the end of 2009, she added. Chaudhary said sites for the construction of 6,000 rooms had already been selected and the private sector was being roped in this regard. The minister said the government had taken several steps for giving a new impetus to tourism in the state. “Pinjore has been included in the list of UNESCO’s heritage centres of the world while Surajkund, too, received worldwide recognition”. The Kurukshetra and Pehowa areas were being developed as a part of the religious tourism, she added. She said the central government had sanctioned Rs 70 crore for the development of tourism in the state and the first installment of Rs 25 crore had already been received. Prahlad Singh Gillankhera, Suresh Mehta and other Congress leaders were also present on this occasion.
|
|
Panipat handloom industry
Panipat, October 6 This textile hub of the nation has witnessed huge growth in handlooms during the past two decades. The local handloom industry, which was restricted to the production of small items, has started producing acrylic blankets, bed sheets, bed covers, tapestry, upholstery, table mats and table covers in a big way, thanks to the new trends in home furnishing. There are more than 310 spinning units in Panipat with a total production capacity of 4 lakh kg per day and a turnover of more than Rs 600 crore. The city’s woolen carpet industry, too, has come of age. It is now almost 30 years old, with around 150 units. There are about 60 carpet spinning units here with an annual turnover of Rs 175 crore. These units produce a variety of handloom products such as durries, mats, table covers, bed sheets, curtains and carpets. Exports of these products make this industry a more profitable venture as these are being sent to countries like Canada, Japan, Germany and Australia. Benefiting from the booming market and the rise of new and young homemakers, the Panipat industry is heading towards big times, says Tara Chand, a local trader and industrialist. Many big companies working with soft furnishings products in the country have tied up with various local units and are now marketing the local produce across the nation. Some companies have launched exclusive stores to market handloom products. Besides, various small players in the market are also catering to every taste and pocket of the population. Because of huge demand, many fashion designers have also forayed into this segment. At present, the home furnishings segment is considered a flourishing sector in the textile industry. Experts say both domestic and export markets are on a high and it is the right time for the local handloom industry to grow further. Manoj Kumar, a local industrialist, says the industry is now working on building up more colour and design for home furnishings to target more and more consumers who are now conscious of making their homes more colourful and trendy. He says people have started spending on furniture and furnishings and this is a good news for the handloom industry.
|
|
New-found confidence of Nepalese
Karnal, October 6 The NJSS overtly claims to be the grievances redressal body fighting for the rights and cause of Nepalese mostly engaged in menial jobs like watchmen, labourers, domestic helps, porters and farm workers but the aggressive tones of their leaders raise doubts about their real intensions. Treasurer of the Karnal unit of NJSS, Narayan Sharma says Nepalese are being harassed and exploited and arrested in cases of theft and other crimes. There is a need of some representative body to raise the voice of aggrieved Nepalese and save them from atrocities and the NJSS is discharging this duty, he said. Demonstrations and protests to build pressure is the mode adopted by the samiti for seeking justice and its leaders do not conceal this fact. Whenever any Nepali is removed from the job, the samiti members go to the employer in a group and raise slogans. If he refuses to take back the employee more support is gathered for lodging the protest. “Saab hum to bas dharna de dete hain aur phir bhi baat na bane toh 100-200 logon ko lekar malik ke ghar ke bahar rally kar dete hain,” says Narayan with glee in his eyes. The local unit of the NJSS, established in September 2002, has been able to get justice to more than 350 people in the past three years. Generally, the complaints pertain to dismissal from job, implication in cases of theft and other crimes, denial of wages, in human treatment and non-payment of compensations in case of accidents. Quoting a case of Gharunda in which a Nepali sustained burn injuries during work, NJSS activists say he was not given any treatment and refused compensation by the employer. The samiti not only spend Rs 18,000 on his treatment but also fought the case and got a compensation of Rs 1 lakh. To rope in more and more Nepalese the samiti holds frequent sammalens and ask their countrymen to join the organisation and remain united in their fight against injustice. During the sammalens, the leaders eulogise the Maoist for putting an end to the 240-year-old monarchy in Nepal through sustain revolution and declare that Nepal was free today due to Maoist struggle and sacrifice. The references are obviously a subtle attempt to arouse the feelings of the community and send the message that “struggle is the path to justice”.
|
|
Officials continue to dilute RTI Act
Hisar, October 6 The worst offenders in this regard are various universities and the office of the commissioner, higher education, especially in cases where the information sought pertains to DAV colleges that continue to flout government and university rules with impunity. In one such instance, a local resident, Nisha, had asked the CHE to provide information pertaining to the functioning of 13 DAV colleges in Haryana. The eight posers included the supply of concurrent list of common governing body of all DAV colleges, including the names of government and university nominees. Nisha had also asked whether there was a common seniority list of teaching and non-teaching employees of these colleges prepared under rule 9(1) and 9(2) in prescribed proforma duly approved by the government and the university concerned. The CHE should normally have this information available in his office. However, he passed the buck on to the principals, directing them to supply the information to the applicant. Even this was done nearly three months after the application was made. Significantly, Nisha had sought this information from the CHE after the DAV College Managing Committee stated in the Punjab and Haryana High Court during the course of hearing on her petition that all DAV colleges in Haryana had a common governing body and there was a common seniority list of teaching and non-teaching staff. On their part, the principals have stated in their letter to Nisha that the common seniority list of teaching and non-teaching employees was under process at the management level and the same would be supplied as and when ready. This is clearly contrary to what the managing committee stated in the court. As regards the seniority list of principals, the colleges supplied to her a list of present incumbents stating their date of birth and date of joining their present post. Evidently, this is not the common seniority list as prescribed under the rules. Likewise, the principals sent names of four office-bearers, which are common to the governing bodies of these colleges. It has not been stated whether they are elected or nominated. No other names of members have been mentioned. Under the rules, a managing body has to have a minimum of 11 and maximum of 21 members. The abdication of his responsibility by the CHE has clearly facilitated the principals of DAV colleges to pass on incomplete and incorrect facts to the applicant.
|
|
Biker on a mission
Kurukshetra, October 6 A member of Fox Adventure Club, Satinder Saini, started a 10-day expedition on his motorbike from Kurukshetra last week. “It is beyond our means to control the melting of ice, but awareness can be created among the people by explaining the disastrous effects of this phenomenon. We can seek cooperation from them to keep the higher reaches of Himalayas pollution free,” says founder of the club Jaibir Singh Virk. “This youngster is making a great effort towards this noble cause by asking the people en route to plant suitable species of plants for carbon sequestration,” he adds. “I am making a modest attempt to attract the attention of common people towards the issue and hope that it would gain momentum. As with the passage of time more and more people would join the awareness campaign in their own humble way,” said the youngster before leaving for the expedition. He would cover Yamunanagar-Saharanpur, Roorkee, Rishikesh and Joshimath and reach Dunagiri on the occasion of Dussehra on October 9. Dunagiri, perched at 7,066-m (23,182 ft) height, a high peak in the Himalayan range of the Garhwal division, is one of the important glaciers of Dhauli Ganga. More than 500 glaciers of different sizes and shapes lie in the deep and narrow valleys. A stream originating from the glacier merges into Dhauli Ganga near the Juma village and the trek to the glacier is through verdant green forests and lush green meadows. The flora grows more arid with the rise in altitude, nights are spent in tents under the starry mountain skies and slogans like “global temperatures are rising”, “glaciers are melting” catch our attention faster. A decline of annual recession by 63 per cent for Dunagiri glacier has been observed by scientists and this excess melting of glaciers can have serious consequences like submergence of vast areas and shutting down of the hydroelectric projects in the Himalayas due to flooding.
|
|
Award for Sirsa panel for disabled
Sirsa, October 6 Deputy commissioner V. Umashankar, committee chairman and its members Surinder Bhatia and Raj Kumar, received the prize. Chairperson of the National Trust Poonam Natrajan and 500 delegates from across the country were present on the occasion. The national trust was set under an Act of the Parliament in 1999, for the welfare of people with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities. The Act was passed with objectives to empower the disabled to live independently, to strengthen facilities to them to live with their families, to extend support to registered organisations to provide need-based services during period of crisis and similar other functions for their welfare. The LLCs have been set up in every district of Haryana with district magistrate as its chairman and disabled people as its members. The major functions of the LLC are to screen, appoint, remove and monitor legal guardians of the disabled and to promote such activities as awareness generation, convergence and mainstreaming of people with disabilities. The Act empowers the LLC to appoint legal guardians. It also provides mechanisms for monitoring and protecting their interests and properties. Deputy commissioner V. Umashankar informs that the LLC organises special camps in the district for appointing legal guardians, making bus passes, conducting blood tests and providing health insurance policies to such people. The children whose parents have an annual income less than Rs 15,000 would get health insurance for free, he adds.
|
|
Rewari doctor gets national award
Rewari, October 6 The award, carrying a citation, a memento and Rs 10,000, was presented to her at a function held to mark the national Hindi divas on September 14 in New Delhi. Seema’s book was earlier selected for an award by the expert committee of the union ministry of human resource development. She says during her 15-year long career as a professional gynaecologist and obstetrician, she has realised that the creation of awareness among pregnant women is essential to ensure safe and healthy motherhood as well as hassle-free birth of a healthy child. Her 110-page work titled “Sukhad Matritva” is a treatise that comprehensively deals with normal and abnormal states of pregnancy as well as diet and physical exercise needed by a pregnant woman to ensure problem-free delivery. The lucidity of expression, use of familiar Hindi phrases and comprehensive suggestions regarding preventive and curative processes, enhances the readability as well as the utility of the book for newly wed couples, pregnant women and health workers of allied departments. Asserting that a married woman’s glorification lay in her motherhood, Seema says she will be amply rewarded if her book succeeds in creating the much-needed awareness among pregnant women and thereby lead to the provision of priceless gift of healthy mothers and healthy children to the society.
|
|
Karnal village leads in vermiculture
Karnal, October 6 The project has been started in 40 villages in the district but Hemda has taken the lead by roping in all households with these twin objectives. Sarpanch Dhako Devi, guided by an NGO and functionaries of rural development and agriculture department, explained the benefits of organic manure and the genetic way by which it produces fertilisers to the villagers. The brainchild of subdivisional magistrate Rajiv Mehta, the project is supplementing rural cleanliness project launched by deputy commissioner B.S.Malik. A lot of groundwork was done to convince the villagers and the project was launched when almost all villagers consented to join the efforts of the administration, Mehta said. Villagers were explained how the use of chemical fertilisers reduces the fertility of land. And vermicompost is capable to retrieve that in 2-3 years. Mehta said the crop produced with vermicomposting was organic with high yield and would fetch better price. Besides cow dung, all types of solid wastes except plastic and acidic substances can be utilised for converting it into compost. A total of 37 beds were laid for vermicomposting and the deputy commissioner kick-started the project by putting earthworms in the heaps of cow dungs. Vermicompost is the excreta of earthworm rich in humus. Earthworms eat cow dung or farmyard manure along with other farm wastes and pass it through their body and in the process convert it into vermicompost. It not only works as a fertiliser but also helps in keeping the environment healthy.
|
|
Scholarships for Fatehabad students
Fatehabad, October 6 Son-in-law of Hooda Kunal Bhadoo, who manages the affairs of the NGO, told mediapersons recently that Navyug Nirman would give cash scholarships to top 10 students of the district appearing in annual examinations from class I to XII. Bhadoo informed that the student who comes first in each of the 12 classes would be paid Rs 1,100 in cash, the one coming second Rs 750, the third Rs 500 and all those getting fourth to 10th position would get Rs 250 each. Bhadoo said besides the students, the teachers whose results were found 100 per cent in board classes would also be honoured with cash prize of Rs 1,100 each. Navyug Nirman has been active in Fatehabad for the last one year and has been striving for making the district free from incandescent yellow electric bulb by replacing these with CFL lamps. The NGO has also organised several programmes on environment, sanitation, female foeticide, tree-plantation, soil conservation, medical camps and blood donation camps in
Fatehabad.
|
|
Mullana institute wins paper presentation contest
Ambala, October 6 The Tribune was the media sponsor of the conference. As many as 26 teams of the students from various management institutes of the region participated. Another team of the same institute comprising Shefali Gupta, Geetika Trivedi and Vishnu Goel won the second prize of Rs 3,000. There was a tie for the third prize of Rs 2,000 among Anmol Poddar of Bharati Vidyapeeth, New Delhi, and Parth Chaddha and Parminder Singh of the MMIM. According to Dr Sanjiv Marwah, director, MMIM, the conference received an overwhelming response as 106 papers were received. It was attended by 68 delegates from all over the country. Among the topics discussed included sectoral loyalty and loyalty through relationships. The chief guest Renu Sharma, customer relationship expert, highlighted the importance of customer loyalty in the present competitive era. She stressed that customer delight was a key differentiator and had increasingly become a key element of business strategy. It was very important to understand individual customer’s needs, desires and wants to make him a loyal customer of your organization, she added. Others who attended the conference included Tarsem Garg, chancellor, M. M. University; Dr L.C. Gupta and Dr N.P. Mehta, MD and pro-vice-chancellor of the university, respectively; Dr D.D. Arora, chairman and professor, department of Management, Kurukshetra University; and Dr Pankaj Madaan, reader, Gurukul Kangri Vishvavidhyalya, Hardwar.
|
|
Root out female foeticide, says DC
Jhajjar, October 6 Expressing his views, deputy commissioner Nitin Yadav said female foeticide harmed the society as it not only put the nation to shame but also caused decline in female birth ratio. “Women should fight for their rights and in case they are ill-treated for dowry or molested, they should not hesitate to report to the police,” maintained Yadav. He said had to be aware against their rights to avert disastrous results. Giving a note of caution to the people, he said if the unhealthy trend of female foeticide continued like this, it would change the demographic composition of the society leading to many problems. The DC further called upon the people to come forward against the evil that had assumed alarming proportions and had serious repercussions on the social fibre if not tackled in time. Cultural programme conveying message to root out social evils like female foeticide, AIDS, dowry etc were presented by schoolchildren on this occasion. The deputy commissioner inaugurated a blood donation camp during the programme that was organised under the aegis of the district Red Cross Society.
|
|
‘Need to promote Gandhi’s principles’
Kurukshetra, October 6 On behalf of Antarjyoti, an all-India organisation, Goel invoked satyagraha as a means to empower the downtrodden. Goel expressed gratitude to the members of the United Nation for declaring the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi as the international day of non-violence. It is unfortunate that in India, a large section of people reject Mahatma due to the anti-Gandhi propaganda of the supporters of Nathuram and Amartya Sen. The “character assassination” of Gandhi by Amartya Sen in his book The Argumentative Indian in 2005, where he smeared Mahatma with terms like “not entirely with propriety or elegance”, the words more piercing than Godse’s bullets is most unfortunate, said Goel. Although most of the intellectuals like Rabindranath Tagore, Shri Aurobindo and others did not appreciate the symbol of charkha and khadi at the beginning, because they were not comfortable with the common people of India. Aurobindo ridiculed it as a saving of a few annas and Rabindranath rejected it by saying the charka did not require anyone to think. “One simply turns the wheel of the antiquated invention endlessly, using the minimum of judgment and stamina,” as quoted by Amartya Sen in his book in 2005. Sen continues his argument, “Tagore was probably right. Except for the rather small-specialised market for high-quality spun cloth, it is hard to make economic sense from hand spinning, even with wheels less primitive than Gandhi’s charkha.” “Hand-spinning as a wide-spread activity could survive only with the help of heavy government subsidies.” Sen’s less primitive machinery is what had been applying everyday now. But, we need to promote the Gandhian principle that science would be our tool not our master. Thanks to proliferation of computer chips and information exchange, more advanced machineries are being invented every hour, for scientific excellence to some extent, but mostly for fulfilling the economic sense of less labour and more production, causing increased unemployment and unsold inventory. Blind growth of machineries and automation to make economic sense brings misery to human beings, as depicted by Charlie Chaplin in his movie “The Modern Times”, quoted Professor
Goel.
|
|
Dussehra festival in Kurukshetra
Kurukshetra, October 6 Committee’s spokesperson Karan Soni said besides preparing large-sized effigies of Ravan, Meghnad and Kumbhkaran, a procession would be taken out in which band parties from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh would participate. Artistes from Hardwar would prepare tableau while artistes from Saharanpur would display fireworks. A sub-committee has been constituted for the execution of the programme, Soni
added.
|
||
|
|
||
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
