Sirsa/Fatehabad, November 22
Chikungunia and viral fever are fast spreading their tentacles in towns and villages of Sirsa and Fatehabad districts.

Wards of private hospitals and nursing homes of the district are overcrowded with patients suffering from chikungunia and viral fever.

Apathy of the health authorities is adding to the woes of people. Patients complain of high fever and severe pain in joints, when infected with chikungunia.

The fever troubles patients for a week or so and the sufferer starts convalescing after that. The joint pain, however, persists for long in some cases.

The problem is so severe that it has reached epidemic proportions in some area of these districts.

However, despite the sufferings of the people, the health authorities of both districts continue to be indifferent towards the problem.

“The problem is really severe this time. I have been receiving a number of patients suffering from chikungunia and viral fever every day. The condition is more or less the same in other hospitals of the town,” said Dr Gulab Singh, a leading of Sirsa.

Almost all hospitals of the town are overcrowded with patients of chikungunia and viral fever.

Reports from Rania, Ellenebad, Kalanwali and Dabwali also confirmed that fever had spread in the towns and interior areas with a vengeance.

Dr Sanjay Bansal, a physician from Fatehabad town, says every eight of the 10 patients he receives suffer from chikungunia.

“Earlier, chikungunia was foreign to this area, but this year it has attacked residents in almost epidemic proportions,” said Dr Bansal.

The civil surgeon of Fatehabad, Dr J. K. Bishnoi, says the department has started fogging operations in the district but only 30-35 panchayats of the 240-odd villages of the district have so far deposited money for the diesel required for the fogging.

“We do not have money for purchasing diesel for fogging and have asked the panchayats to contribute Rs 1,000 each for purchasing diesel. Only 30 to 35 panchayats have so far given that money and fogging is being done in those villages,” maintains Dr Bishnoi.

He maintained that it was a matter of a few days now and the mosquitoes would die their own death once winter approached. “This is all due to a delayed winter,” Dr Bishnoi said.

Dr S.K. Sharma, civil surgeon, Sirsa, while confirming the spread of fever, maintained that it was still not clear which type of fever it was.

He said that from the symptoms, it was more like dengue but the health authorities were still not sure about it.

“I am planning to send blood samples of some patients to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Delhi to find out whether it is really chikungunia,” said Dr Sharma.

Fatehabad, November 22
Mehul will be 10 in May next year. A student of class III in a convent school in Hisar, Mehul does not understand intricacies of courts and marital discord.

But what he knows well is the fact that it was a lok adalat held in the local district courts today which reunited him with his father, whom he had never met ever since he started understanding relations.

Thanks to the lok adalat held as part of Samadhan-2008, a Mega Lok Adalat announced by the Haryana State Legal Services Authority for December 20 and 21, Mehul has been able to see his parents together.

Mehul's parents, Sunil (35) and Renu (33), were married on February 1, 1998. Both are educated, but Sunil has been looking after the farms of the family while Renu, who was a housewife, has been teaching in a private school at Hisar.

After Mehul was born in May 1999, differences started cropping up in the relations between the couple over his upbringing.

While Sunil was more conservative in his approach towards the care of his son
at times of illness and other problems, Renu wanted the best treatment for Mehul
from specialists.

Differences snowballed and the couple started living separately from January
2001. Mehul did not even remember the face of his father, though he had seen
his photographs.

He felt bad when he saw the parents of other children come together to school during functions or at parent-teacher meetings.

Renu, who lived with her parents at Hisar all these years, had joined a private school as a teacher to eke out an independent living and also to overcome melancholy.

Both Renu and Sunil were longing for reunion as both had realised the ground realities of separation and litigation but had no one to work for the patch-up.

When their case was selected for lok adalat in the court of Judicial Magistrate Ist Class Narinder Kaur, both were persuaded to give second thought to their relations.

It took a little bit of persuasion by the counsel of both parties to bring them to the negotiating table. Both are united again and Mehul is a happier child today.

"As many as 525 cases were resolved at the lok adalat organised in the district courts today. The lok adalats will be held every Saturday till December 20, the day of Samadhan-2008," said R.S. Virk, District and Sessions Judge, Fatehabad.

"Among the magisterial courts, 194 cases were settled by Chief Judicial Magistrate Lal Chand, 137 cases by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Anita Dahiya and 121 cases by Judicial Magistrate Narinder Kaur. Most of these were cases under the Excise Act. Besides these, the district courts of N.P. Dewet, R.K. Yadav and my own court resolved cases of the Hindu Marriage Act," Virk said.

Sirsa, November 22
Sirsa is among the two minority concentration districts of Haryana for which the ministry of minority affairs has approved the multi-sectoral development plan.

Mewat is the other district identified by the government for the purpose. A sum of Rs 15 crore has been sanctioned for Sirsa district under the plan in a meeting held in Delhi yesterday.

Deputy commissioner S.K. Goyal today informed mediapersons that the Government of India had identified 90 minority concentration districts in the country, which had preponderance of minority population and were socio-economically backward.

A baseline survey was conducted by the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, on the instructions of the ministry of minority affairs in order to ascertain the status of key indicators so that multi-sectoral development plan might be formulated to improve all key indicators and bring the same at par with all-India level under the 11th Five Year Plan.

These indicators relate to literacy, female literacy, work participation, female
work participation, status of kutcha/pucca houses, drinking water supply and
electricity supply.

As per the baseline survey, Sirsa district lagged behind in many socio-economic and basic amenities indicators like literacy and female literacy, female work participation, immunisation and institutional deliveries among other things.

To address the problem of low productivity, unemployment and critical gaps in social and physical infrastructure as pointed out in the survey, a project proposal was submitted to the Government of India through the state committee for the implementation of Prime Minister’s new 15-point economic programme.

The deficit in socio-economic indicators was proposed to be made good by topping up the existing schemes of the state government and centrally sponsored schemes and dovetailing their resources with the proposals in the MSDP.

A meeting of the Empowered Committee to consider and approve the multi-sectoral development plan for minority concentration Sirsa district was held yesterday.

Karnal, November 22
Two schoolgirls were killed and six persons were injured when two school buses collided while saving a motorcyclist on the Kachwa-Karnal road, 10 km from here, this morning. One of the buses overturned in the accident.

While Puja (9) died on the spot, Rajwant Kaur (12), who had sustained serious head injuries, died during the CT scan.

Rohit (9) was admitted to Sachdeva Hospital with multiple facial injuries while Sandeep (10), who received injuries in neck and on face, was taken to Sachdeva Hospital and later shifted to Pathak Hospital.

All three persons riding on the motorcycle were injured in the accident. One of them identified as Sandeep was admitted to Sachdeva Hospital while Narinder and Ashok, residents of Ramana Ramani are being treated at the trauma centre in the Civil Hospital here. The bodies of the deceased were handed over to family members after a postmortem.

Eyewitnesses said the accident took place when the driver of the bus of Pratap Public School, Trawari, tried to save the motorcyclist, who was trying to overtake the bus. The bus in turn collided with the bus of Sukhvinder High School, which was carrying eight kids.

The bus of Pratap High School overturned after colliding with the other bus and the motorcyclist got trapped in the collision.

The police registered a case against the driver of the bus of Pratap Public School, Narinder, under Section 304 (A) of the IPC and arrested him.

The accident took place near a leather factory. Employees of the factory and passers-by took the injured to hospitals.

The cause of the accident was being investigated, police sources said. Parents of the victims accused the school authorities of employing untrained drivers on meagre wages, leading to frequent accidents.

Panipat, November 22
Vice-President Hamid Ansari inaugurated a two-day Hali mela being organised in memory of poet and social reformer Khawaja Altaf Hussain Hali Panipati here today.

Speaking on the occasion, he said Hali had shown a new way of life to people. He said through his innovative writings, Hali highlighted issues related to women empowerment and social justice.

The Vice-President asserted that Hali understood the circumstances prevailing in society and infused a feeling of patriotism among the masses through his creative poems, najams and ghazals.

He was the one of the reformists who spoke about girls’ education about 125 years ago, he said.

The Vice-President read out some of the renowned poems written by Hali and said the messages in his poems was as relevant today as these were a century ago.

He also recalled some of the incidents that had occurred during the lifetime of Hali that reflected the genius in him.

The Vice-President lauded the efforts put in by the Hali Panipati Trust in organising the mela to keep memories and teachings of the great poet alive.

Ansari released three books published by the Haryana Sahitya Akademi on Hali. He also released a Hali calendar of 2009 and launched website - www.halipanipati.com - prepared by the Hali Trust, Panipat.

Haryana Governor A.R. Kidwai, while addressing the gathering, said Hali was born in 1837 during the British rule and the impact of first war of independence in 1857 had left an indelible imprint on his mind.

Hali gave a message of patriotism and unity and integrity of the country. He expressed the hope that the people of Panipat would make maximum contribute to keep the memories of Hali alive.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said Hali was a great poet who
had infused the feelings of humanism. He said Hali’s contribution to society was
of great significance.

Hooda said the state government had also launched a number of welfare schemes for women in the state as advocated by Hali. He announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh from his discretionary fund for the Hali trust.

President of the Hali Panipati Trust and member of the Planning Commission Syeda Hameed and chairman of Prasar Bharti Arun Bhatnagar and vice-president of the trust Mahesh Dutt Sharma also spoke on the occasion.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has sent a message to the Hali Panipati Trust and complemented it on organising the Hali mela to keep alive the memories of Khawaja Altaf Hussain Hali and his contribution to Urdu literature.

He said Hali championed the cause of reforms within Islam and empowerment of women. He said Hali was a great humanist.

Chandigarh, November 22
Being regular with electricity bill payment now comes with a reward. Energy-efficient CFLs will now be available to consumers of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) on easy instalments at subsidised rates if they have paid their last three bills on time.

With energy conservation on its mind, the UHBVN has decided to promote the use of CFLs. This is not only to bring down the overall power consumption but also to benefit the consumer in terms of reduced bills.

“We will roll this scheme out from December 1. All a consumer needs to do is to show receipts of his last three bills to the SDO and avail himself of this scheme. He can take four bulbs and pay subsidised rates spread over five instalments which will be built into the bi-monthly billing of electricity based on the load and area of the house,” says managing director, UHBVN, Vijendra Kumar.

The nigam will procure CFLs of 11, 15 and 20 W at bulk rates and distribute these to the consumer at the cost of Rs 60 each against the market rate of Rs 80 each.

Though Chinese CFLs are available in the market for Rs 40 or less, those given by the nigam will come with a guarantee of 18 months.

“Our interest in marketing the CFLs is to reduce load on the system since one lakh CFLs result in load reduction of nearly 8 MW. One CFL saves 60 kg of carbon dioxide in a year, making it environment friendly as well,” the MD added.

Under this scheme, after a period of six months, each consumer will again be given an option to get four working or six fused bulbs replaced with one CFL. However, the condition of paying the last three bills on time will stand.

To ensure that bulbs are not “frittered away” at the subsidised cost, a consumer will be given 10 CFLs in a year.

If the nigam has planned the marketing of CFLs, it has also come up with a facility for responsible storage of CFLs.

A new facility to store CFLs in view of the presence of mercury is being created. All circles within the UHBVN will have mini- CFL storage facility having a capacity to store 15,000 CFLs.

Further, the nigam will provide a toll-free number which consumers can dial to have fused CFLs collected, their minimum number being four.

Chandigarh, November 22
Senior officers of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board would like to forget this Saturday (today) as a bad dream. But it may not be so.

They had to taste a severe tongue-lashing by minister of state for forests and environment Kiran Choudhry for, what she felt, were serious shortcomings in their working and, at times, partisan attitude.

Choudhry was presiding over a review meeting of the board at its headquarters in Panchkula. She told the board officers that if things did not improve before the next meeting, she would have to order the suspension of the defaulting officers.

The minister ordered chairman A.S. Chehal to immediately place a woman officer of the board under suspension.

The name of the officer had figured in a controversy recently when a Panchkula restaurant was sealed and de-sealed by the board the same day.

It is alleged that there was a dispute between the restaurant management and the officer over a bill for a reception hosted by the officer.

The reception was attended by, among others, the chairman and the secretary
of the board.

Describing the incident as " bribe by another name", Choudhry ordered the immediate suspension of the officer.

Sources in the board, however, defend its action on the plea that a polluting unit is allowed to work if it submits a bank guarantee along with a plan to instal pollution- control measures.

Choudhry was upset when the board informed her that a large number of lead-reprocessing units in the state, which were sealed by the board, were continuing to operate after illegally breaking the seal.

She was also perturbed when she found that certain lead-reprocessing units were given "consent to operate" by the board, while these units had not either obtained or declined the "consent to establish".

She said it was a matter of concern that the board had no consistent policy on the closure of those stone crushers which violated the pollution control norms.

While in certain cases, it charged security from the polluting units, in others it granted time to the polluting crushers to install anti-pollution equipment without charging any security.

Choudhry drew the attention of the board officers to the observations made by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in public interest litigation about the functioning of the Punjab Pollution Control Board.

Referring to non-action by the Punjab board against polluting industries, the court had reportedly said that "we will bring the elements in your department to book who are allowing this to happen."

She told the officers of the Haryana board that they, too, could be in the same boat in which their Punjab counterparts were if a PIL was filed against them.

She directed the officers to prosecute the violators-and there should be no pick-and- choose policy.

The vice-chancellor, after discussing the matter with the authorities concerned of the state government, has said that there is no basis in the news items pertaining to the withdrawal of distance education courses from Kurukshetra University.

With this, the private partner, CLP Power India Pvt Ltd, would begin construction work in a phased manner.