Chandigarh, October 15
In order to ensure uninterrupted power supply with better voltage to the consumers, the state government has approved an ambitious plan for the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) and the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) under which 1,900 lengthier and overloaded 11 KV feeders supplying power to urban and mixed urban areas will be bifurcated during the 11th Five

Year Plan.

In addition, the nigams will also segregate load of 1913 rural feeders and install 89,650 new distribution transformers at an estimated cost of Rs 2,500 crore.

Giving details of the plan approved for the distribution corporations, financial commissioner and principal secretary (Power), Ashok Lavasa said here today the UHBVN and the DHBVN had been directed to construct 291 new 33 KV substations and 2650 Km long associated lines during the plan period for which an amount of Rs 826.76 crore has been earmarked.

He said the High Voltage Distribution System and Aerial Bunched Cable Based System would be created in 4,990 villages of the state at a cost of Rs 864.15 crore. This technology will help improving distribution system and quality of supply and minimize aggregate technical and commercial losses as well as electrical accidents, he said.

Referring to the demand side management, he said a massive investment of over Rs 1,747 crore had been sanctioned.

This is one of the thrust areas and energy conservation is the need of the hour.
— PTI

Chandigarh, October 15
The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has accused the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission of having violated the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003.

In a letter to the chairman of the commission, senior INLD leader Sampat Singh said the decision of the commission to remand back the proposed tariff revision to the power distribution companies was “patently illegal and violated the Act.”

Releasing copies of his letter to the press here today, Sampat Singh said under the Act the commission could either accept the proposal with modifications or it could reject the application for reasons to be recorded in writing after giving a reasonable opportunity of being heard to the applicant.

The INLD leader said there was no provision in the Act for remanding back the application for tariff revision. He said the commission was divided on the issue and the decision to remand the application back to the distribution companies was a majority decision.

He said the commission had justified its decision by quoting the provisions of sub-section 3 of section 64 of the Act, which meant that the commission was of the opinion that a reasonable opportunity of being heard was not given to the distributing companies .

Sampat Singh said this contention of the commission was wrong because the companies had been given the maximum opportunity. The first opportunity was when they filed their Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) for 2008-2009 in December, 2007. They got the second opportunity while demanding the revised tariff on the advice of the commission.

He said in response to the commission’s public notice, over 900 consumers filed their objections. Copies of the objections were also sent to the distributing companies.

The companies never reverted to the commission on these objections up to the date of public hearing. Thus, they lost the third opportunity to file their reply.

Officers of the distribution companies were present at the eight-hour-long public hearing on August 18 last but they never sought time to present their case. Thus, the companies lost the fourth opportunity automatically. The silence of the officers meant that they agreed with the objections of the consumers. So there was no alternative with the commission but to accept the views of the consumers on power tariff revision.

Legally speaking, the commission should have rejected the power tariff revision proposal immediately after the public hearing.

The INLD leader urged the commission “not to yield to the pressure of the state government” and reject the proposal for the upward revision of the tariff.

Sirsa, October 15
The police today booked two local chemists under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in connection with the recovery of a huge cache of intoxicants from the godown of a chemist here yesterday.

"The accused are Raj Kumar, alleged owner of the godown, and Madan Lal Bajaj, president of the local unit of the Chemists Association, who allegedly conspired with the main accused by attacking the drug control officers while they were checking this godown on October 6," said Dheeraj Setia, DSP, Sirsa.

The two have been booked under sections 22-A and 22-B of the NDPS Act.

"The police had received a complaint from Rajnish Kumar, drug control officer, Sirsa, in this regard. The drug control authorities have handed over 34 cartons of medicines containing codeine, a narcotic substance, to the police through a local court," said Setia.

The drug control authorities had recovered a huge cache of intoxicants and narcotic drugs from a godown situated near the old bus stand, after they opened the seals of the first of the nine premises sealed by them on October 6.

The godown, according to the drug control officers, was not licensed to store medicines.

The drug control authorities said medicines containing narcotics recovered from the godown were not covered under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act in the absence of a valid drug licence, but under the NDPS Act.

Drug control officers today appeared before the court of chief judicial magistrate Gopal Krishan and sought custody of the seized drugs under sections 23 and 5b of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

The drug control officers also sought handing over of the custody of the narcotic and psychotropic medicines to the local police.

The court, according to senior drug control officer Rajinder Herna, passed orders for handing over the custody and directed the police to take samples of the psychotropic substances for analysis. 

Sirsa, October 15
The Indian Medical Association has resented the recent move of the Pollution Board in providing monopoly to service providers under the Biomedical Wastes (management and handling) Rules, 1998.

The association said ever since the board had given monopoly to these service providers in their respective areas, they had hiked their charges in an unbridled manner leading to standoff between doctors and service providers at several places, including Sirsa and Fatehabad.

Dr D.S. Jaspal, former president of the state unit of the Indian Medical Association and vice-president elect of the national body of the IMA, today demanded that the authorities should rein in Synergy Waste Management (SWM), the agency responsible for collecting biomedical wastes from Sirsa and Fatehabad and also in other districts of the state. Dr Jaspal also took strong exception to a statement of Niranjan Sharma, plant manager of the SWM in Hisar, that certain doctors sold biomedical wastes through their staff leading to the dumping of unsold wastes at public places.

He said there was nothing in biomedical wastes that could be sold and alleged that the waste management company had been trying to conceal its own negligence by shifting the onus on doctors.

He said the type of biomedical wastes shown by The Tribune in its recent report as dumped at public places could lead to serious diseases like HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B.

He maintained that Haryana was the first state where on the initiative of the IMA, the management of biomedical wastes was started in June 2002 under a project, IMAGE-2002.

The step of the Haryana unit of the IMA, he said, was well in advance of the actual deadline of December 2002 fixed by the government and even IMA units from states like Rajasthan and Punjab evinced their interest in the efforts made by the Haryana unit.

Dr Jaspal alleged that, earlier, it was an open policy under which any service provider could enter into an agreement for the disposal of biomedical waste with any district unit of the IMA.

However, now the pollution control authorities had given monopolies to these agencies giving them a free hand to decide charges on their own will. He alleged that a price fixation committee was set up by the Pollution Control Board, of which he too was a member, but not a single meeting of the committee had been convened so far.

Karnal, October 15
World Rural Women's Day was celebrated by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) in Munak village, near here, with a call to women to play an active role in solving the problems related to climate change.

The theme of this year's event was" climate change--- rural women are part of the solution".The importance of the role of women in keeping the environment clean and pollution free was stressed at the gathering of 300 rural women.

Head of the krishi kendra Dalip K. Gosain emphasised that the use of indigenous and sustainable agricultural practices could adequately address the problems pertaining to climate change.

Citing various examples of soil degradation, effects of the intensive use of chemical fertilisers and the lowering of the water table that had led to environmental changes, he said that farm families should adopt the newer farming system(s) which were eco-friendly.

Urging rural women to take a lead in educating farmers not to burn paddy in the fields as it adversely affected both the soil and air and caused pollution, he asked the women to become a part of the decision-making process in selecting different crop combinations, based on conservation agriculture and sustainability issues.

Saroj Mehta, senior technical officer of the KVK, said they had been concentrating on organising programmes pertaining to safe food production and the use of vermi-compost since 2003.Rural women attending the training programmes had shown keen interest and adopted the latest farm practices.

The KVK organised training on different aspects of agriculture, dairying, bee-keeping, fisheries, home science and vermi-compost making and rural women should attend these programmes, she added.

Rajinder Singh of the Uthan Saksharta Samiti called upon women to actively participate in various rural development programmes to make the rural economy sustainable. 

Kurukshetra, October 15
The general body of the Kurukshetra University Teachers Association (KUTA) in its meeting held in the assembly hall of University College here today withdrew its nine-day-old agitation and unanimously decided to conduct the classes regularly from tomorrow onwards.

The decision was taken keeping in view the steps taken by the university administration regarding security arrangements on the campus after a meeting of the KUTA office-bearers with vice-chancellor R.P. Bajpai here on October 13.

Various problems being faced by university teachers were highlighted during the meeting. The former registrar of Kurukshetra University, Prof Hawa Singh, raised the issues of time consuming processes in approving travel grants while an executive council member of Kurukshetra University, Dr Anil Vashisht, reader in the mathematics department, revealed the complexities of the Sixth Pay Commission that might be faced by the teaching community in the near future. He called upon the teachers to be prepared for further struggle in obtaining their due rights.

Secretary, KUTA, Kusumlata congratulated all KUTA members for being united towards putting pressure on the university administration, eventually seeking concrete actions in the favour of teachers. Briefing the meeting about the actions taken by the university administration regarding the security arrangements on the campus, Kusumlata said it included hiring about 60 persons from a private security agency, manning the university gates for security purpose, checking of vehicles on the campus and frequent checking of ID cards.

The former general-secretary of the KUTA and university executive council member, Bhagwan Singh, demanded restoration of tutorials, removal of anomaly in giving two increments for promotion as readers under the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS), filling up of vacant posts of teachers and the uniform policy of one professor in each department as per UGC guidelines.

He also demanded the administration to take steps for creating congenial atmosphere for teaching and research in the university.

A senior faculty member from University College, Dr S.C. Sharma, reminded the president of KUTA about his promise to fight against discrimination of promotions of university college teachers with those of teaching departments.

Joint secretary of the KUTA Sanjeev Ahuja raised voice against the problems being faced by the teachers appointed under self-finance scheme. He alleged that these teachers were being deprived of permanent confirmation even after completion of their probation period. They were also not considered eligible for the CPF (contributed provident fund) and their grades were considered from 2005 instead of 2004 that was their year of joining, he added. President of the KUTA, Dr O.P. Gahlawat, said he was well aware of all problems raised by the teachers and he had been working on war footing to get them resolved.

He asked the teachers to unite in future also so that their issues could be addressed in a befitting manner. He also thanked the teachers for making the movement a success.

Prof Karamjit, Punjabi department, Dr Vivek Chawla, University College, and Dr M.S. Jaglan, department of geography, were among those who addressed the meeting, which was attended by at least 250 university teachers.

A university college lecturer, Vineet Kumar, was reportedly attacked by three unidentified persons in front of the college when he was parking his two-wheeler in the college parking on October 7. Teaching work in the university had been suspended since then.

Sonepat, October 15
The record arrival of bajra in the Gohana grain market has created problems in lifting of the stock from the market for the authorities of Market Committee, Gohana, and CONFED.

To add to their problems, the purchased stock is to be transported to distant places like Ambala, Radaur, Ladwa and Pundri and loading and unloading takes lot of time. As the arrival of paddy in the market has started gaining momentum, the authorities are getting under pressure to clear the place for the paddy arrivals.

According to the secretary of Market Committee, Gohana, Jeet Singh Dahiya, the total purchase during the season was of 4 lakh bags (each bag contains 50 kg) and out of it about 2 lakh bags are yet to be lifted from the market with daily average lifting of 10 to 15 thousand bags. “Though we have been facing some problems of unloading of the purchased stock at the storing points, we will be able to lift the stock as earliest as possible,” he said.

Four-lakh bags bajra has arrived in the market in this season in comparison to 2.50 lakh bags during last year season. Though there was lot of hue and cry over the reported arrival of bajra from other states, number of trucks and other vehicles were seized by the authorities and this unauthorised arrival increased market fee collection of the committee for more than three times.

Market fee collection during last season was Rs 6,44,512, whereas this season’s collection was recorded at Rs 19,76,633, informed Dahiya.

Interestingly, around 9,000 hectares of the area was brought under bajra cultivation during this season and according to the Agriculture Department estimates, total production of bajra in the district could be maximum up to 1.35 lakh quintals (2,70 lakh bags). Besides arrival of 4 lakh bags in Gohana mandi, more than 1 lakh bags of Bajra had also been purchased in Kharkhoda grain market also.

Rewari, October 15
The director of a private hospital on the Garhi Bolni road, Dr Virender Yadav, was allegedly beaten up with lathis and iron rods by attendants and supporters of a patient here yesterday.

The incident took place after attendants of the patient had an argument over prompt examination of the patient.

Simultaneously, when Dr Yadav’s brother Jitender Yadav reportedly made a bid to rescue him, he too was reportedly beaten up.

Dr Yadav received serious multiple injuries and has been hospitalised here.

The police has registered a case of rioting, causing grievous hurt, criminal trespass and criminal intimidation under sections 148, 149, 323, 324, 325, 452 and 506 of the IPC against the accused, Tanna Pradhan, Ashok, Tinku, Sandeep, Guddu and over 12 others, all residents of Balmiki Basti at Dharuhera Chowk here.

Sources said when the patient’s attendants insisted on urgent examination of the patient, who had a fractured arm and was in pain, the doctor expressed his inability to do so, as he was attending to an emergency patient.

Later, the attendants reportedly summoned their supporters and attacked the doctor injuring him grievously, sources added.

Jind, October 15
A 12-year-old girl of Dhamtan village of Narwana subdivision was allegedly stabbed to death by a resident of the same village last night. The accused allegedly made an attempt to rape the girl before killing her.

The police has registered a case, but no arrest has been made so far in this connection.

The incident took place when the victim, a student of class V, was on her way to a local shop to buy  some items.

Sources said the accused identified as Rajvir accosted her.

He took her to his house and allegedly made an attempt to rape her. However, the girl resisted and raised the alarm.

The accused then allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed  her to death.

Later, the accused fled the spot when neighbours rushed to help, sources added. The matter was reported to the police, which reached the spot after about an hour.

The body was handed over to the kin after a postmortem at the Civil Hospital here.

Meanwhile, the police has arrested a youth on a charge of assaulting a resident of Uchana village a few weeks ago.

It is reported that the accused identified as Ashok had allegedly attacked Amit with a knife while he was on his way to the village last month.Old enmity was allegedly the reason for the attack.

Panipat, October 15
The art of living organisation has decided to plant more than 100 crore plants across the globe up till 2015.

Satish Guglani, a noted social activist and coordinator of the organisation, here today said the tree plantation campaign would be launched across 189 countries that form the United Nations. He said the organisation had tied-up the officials of the UN in these countries to make the campaign successful.

The organisation had launched a “stand-up and take action” campaign last year that had registered a huge success. He said politicians and volunteers in more than 1,267 countries had reached 43.7 crore people who had pledged to work for the complete eradication of poverty.

Dr Veena Garg, another coordinator of the organisation, said it had been decided to plant 100-crore tree plantation in order to combat global warming that was threatening the live on this planet. She said the plan would be executed in a phased manner. Over 10 crore sapling would be planted by the end of next year, she said.

She claimed that in the city, 20,000 saplings had already been planted and by the next year around 80,000 saplings would be planted. She said under this campaign it had also been decided to rope in some local NGOs and educational institutions.

Karnal, October 15
The newly appointed district president of the Scheduled Castes Cell of the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), Ranbir Bhunbak, today vowed to fight against atrocities being perpetrated on the Scheduled Castes and made a strong plea for setting up a Human Rights Commission in the state.

Bhunbak, who was felicitated by party workers on his elevation to the new post, alleged that atrocities were committed against the SCs during the Congress and the INLD regime, but the HJC would fight for their cause and ensure that justice is meted out to them.

“There is spurt in incidents of atrocities on the Dalits and the victims can’t go to the National Human Rights Commission which is a costly affair and as such there is dire need for the State Human Rights Commission” he told  The Tribune.

Calling upon the Dalits to unite under the banner of the HJC, he said Valmiki Jagriti Sammelan (Valmiki Awareness Conference) would be organised at Karnal on November 9 to discuss the problems faced by the Dalits and chalk out the strategy to mitigate their sufferings. About 5,000 Dalits are expected to participate in the sammelan to be addressed by HJC supreme Kuldeep Bishnoi, he added.

Alleging irregularities in preparation of the list of BPL (Below Poverty Line) families, Bhunbak said the names of a large number of eligible persons had been omitted. Urging the government to immediately conduct a fresh survey of the BPL families to ensure that no eligible person is denied benefits, he threatened to go to the court if the government failed to order a fresh survey. The identification of the BPL families should be done by conducting door-to-door survey and it should  not be a clerical exercise, he added.

Sirsa, October 15
Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president Phool Chand Mullana today termed the INLD-BJP alliance as a coalition of rootless political parties which had been discarded by the people.

Mullana was talking to mediapersons at the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters here, where he had come for the closing ceremony of a cricket tournament.

Mullana said the INLD-BJP tie-up was a pact of opportunism. It was not based on ideology.

He said till recently Chautala had been openly declaring that he would not like to even touch the BJP from a distance.

The BJP, he alleged, had always believed in the politics of lies while the politics of the INLD had been based on loot.He described the poll pact as an alliance between “jhoot” (lies) and loot.

Mullana said the people of Haryana understood the motive behind this unholy alliance and would not vote for these parties.

He said the Congress, on the other hand, had always believed in development and would go before the electorate on the basis of development work done by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government during the past four years.

Sirsa, October 15
Prof Ganeshi Lal, former state minister and senior leader of the BJP, today said his party workers had forgotten the past and had decided to work wholeheartedly with party’s new partner, the INLD, for defeating the Congress from the state as well as the country.

Talking to the mediapersons at his residence, the former minister said the BJP had always been loyal to its partners although it had not always been the other way round.

“We don’t have to look into the old small trifle affairs.

We have witnessed the experiences of Karnataka and Mayawati even and we are now accustomed to these,” he said.

“We have learnt to be nice to our partners. After all Atalji had a full term in the office with 24 constituents,” he added.

Ganeshi Lal summed up the relationship with the INLD with an Urdu couplet “shikva shikayat ho to milne ka maza aur bhi ata hai”. He said the dissent on the party platform was ok, but no BJP worker had expressed his disagreement in the open and all had welcomed INLD’s entry in to the NDA.

The BJP leader, who is also in charge of the party affairs in Jharkhand, said the INLD supremo Om Parkash Chautala deserved millions salutations for the initiative taken by him in the national interest to route the Congress from the state.

Chautala, he said, had described Lal Krishan Advani equivalent to Jayparkash Narayan and Chaudhary Devi Lal and the most popular would be Prime Minister.

He said the BJP was already in power on its own or through the constituents of the NDA in 15 states and it was well on the way to dethroning the UPA from the centre.