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Solid waste plants to come up in 7 towns
Gurgaon, January 25 The PWD Water Supply and Sanitation Department of the state government has signed an agreement with the Tetra Tech India (TTI) Ltd for the purpose. Gurgaon municipal commissioner Rajiv Sharma disclosed this at a meeting held recently. He said the plan envisaged setting-up of the solid waste management plants at Gurgaon, Faridabad, Karnal, Panipat, Sonepat, Yamunanagar and Jagadhari. "This will help improve sanitation in these cities," Sharma said, adding that the MC would conduct a workshop to educate the people about how to keep their city clean and green. The MC employees would educate the people of Gurgaon that instead of treating all types of garbage as waste material, they could reuse it in various ways. Garbage could be used for making fertilizers or even for generation of electricity from bio-waste, he added. He advised the people to throw garbage only in the dustbins and not on the roads. This is the only way to keep our surroundings clean, he maintained. Sharma also assured the TTI officials of all assistance in the execution of the project. Dr Mishra from the Tetra Tech informed the meeting that the company had implemented works under the first phase of the Yamuna Action Plan and now they would take up the second phase. "Under the second phase, efforts will be made to make the cities cleaner," he said, adding that the district administration had been making a comprehensive plan to collect garbage and then dispose it of after proper segregation.
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Panipat malls go polythene-free
Panipat, January 25 The district has become the first in the country where shopping malls have come forward to implement environment friendly measures. As per an estimate, the two mega malls in the city were using more than 2,000 polythene bags a day. Now, these malls are using either paper bags or cloth bags. The historical city of the Panipat that witnessed an unprecedented progress in industries also came face to face with the problem of pollution. Polythene bags are not only hazardous for the environment but also create problems like drain blockades leading to floods during rainy season. Being a non-biodegradable product, polythene continues to pollute the surrounding, making it infertile and unfit for other uses. It also restricts the seepage of water and prevents recharging of underground water leading to decline in the water table. Local residents had also been facing the problem of sewage blockade due to flushing of polythene bags into the drainage system. The administration had launched an anti-polythene drive about two months back imposing a complete ban on the use of plastic carry bags. It also started holding public meetings and seminars to generate awareness amongst the local populace. Besides, the administration also provided cloth carry bags to the public so that they give up the use of plastic bags. Some non-voluntary organisations also came forward to participate in the drive. Deputy commissioner Vijay Singh Dahiya said it was on the initiative taken by district officials that the mega malls gave up the use of polythene bags. Chief manager of Mittal mega mall SK Jatana said there were 65 shops in the mall and all shop owners were not only discarding the use of polythene bags but also requesting people to give up its use. Sanjay Saini, manager of Angle shopping mall, said cloth bags were being given to the shoppers that could be reused. He said the drive to shun the use of polythene bags had started showing results and soon the whole city would be made polythene-free.
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Disbursement of funds
Sirsa, January 25 The district authorities had earlier signed an MoU with the bank in the regard. The authorities had also selected the State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank for allotting them five villages each. These two banks are yet to sign MoUs. With this, Sirsa has become the first district of Haryana where the biometric system to provide monetary benefits to beneficiaries at the doorstep has been introduced as a pilot project in five villages. Deputy commissioner SK Goyal claimed that no other district in northern India had so far introduced the system, which brought about a transparency in the disbursement of funds under the government schemes. He said the system had been introduced jointly by the Haryana Rural Development Authority and Axis Bank in Nuhiyanwali, Bhangu, Anandgarh, Godikan and Sukhchain villages. Anshul Garg, sales manager, Axis Bank, said business correspondents (BC) had been appointed in each of the villages, who would have point of sale (POS) machines supplied by the bank. These machines were handy and of the size of a book and could even be carried to the houses of the beneficiaries. The machines were linked to the bank through mobile banking. “The beneficiary will have to insert his card into the machine and give his thumb impression. The machine will match the thumb impression with those stored in the system in the bank and release the payment lying in the account of the beneficiary,” Garg said. The machine would generate a duplicate receipt, while the business correspondent would make the payment. The bank would transfer money to the BC’s account as per requirement. Only the beneficiaries themselves would be able to withdraw money. The system ensured that the pensions of senior citizens were not appropriated by their kin. In the case of illness of the beneficiary or incapacity, the BC could take the machine to his house and deliver the money there by confirming his thumb impression, Garg added.
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LS polls
Gurgaon, January 25 The roads of the city are in bad shape, but recently, with elections in mind, the government has appointed HUDA chief administrator TC Gupta to monitor the development progress in the city. Though the condition of roads has started coming to satisfactory level, not much progress has been done in other issues and it seems that people of the city are in no mood to believe in the present leadership. After delimitation, Gurgaon has become a new Parliamentary constituency with a voter population of around 12.5 lakh. Previously, it used to be part of the Mahindragarh constituency. People of the city now hope that they would get better representation. Gurgaon’s population comprises various castes and communities. Highest among these are Meo Muslims with a population of above four lakh followed by the Scheduled Caste community with 2.75 lakh population. Yadavs, who were traditionally in majority in the Mahindragarh constituency, have been divided among three Parliamentary constituencies i.e. Gurgaon, Mahindragarh-Bhiwani and Rohtak. There is resentment among Yadavs against their leaders for this mess. Rao Inderjeet Singh, who is an MP and State Minister of Defence, is the prime target of the anger. People of the Yadav community are disappointed with their leaders. They say all governments have ditched them. Yadavs account for around two lakh votes. Punjabis, who are in majority in the city, account for 1.25 lakh of votes, Jats, who hold sizeable population in the state, are lesser in this seat accounting for around 90,000 votes, rest of the voters are Gujjars, Rajputs, Brahmins and Baniyas. Rao Inderjeet is likely to be the Congress candidate from here. He faces heavy anti-incumbency wave. Though his community is not in a majority here, he hopes that other communities would vote for him. Senior Congress leader and cabinet minister Capt Ajay Yadav is also a strong contender. He has been winning the Assembly elections from Rewari consecutively for the past five terms. Chaudhary of Mewat and former MLA Zakir Hussain had early last year quit the Congress and is now BSP’s candidate from Gurgaon. He is son of late Tayyab Hussain, the only person in the country till date to be a minister from three different states i.e. Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Hussain is expected to get huge votes from Mewat, based on his family stature and strong sympathy wave. Rao Narbir Singh, candidate of the Haryana Janhit Congress, is also campaigning for a long time. He has been continuously changing parties and losing elections. Last time, he won in 1996 and had unsuccessfully tried to become Chief Minister by pulling down the Bansi Lal government. He is likely to make a dent into Yadav and non-Jat votes. Situation is interestingly poised for Gurgaon seat after an alliance between the INLD and the BJP. Last time, when the INLD-BJP combine won the Assembly elections in 2000, it was the INLD which ruled on its own and BJP workers were ignored. There are sharp differences between grass-roots level workers of both parties. Both parties are demanding Gurgaon seat. Strong claimers from the BJP include Sudha Yadav, former MP, who won on strong Kargil wave; and Sudesh Yadav, wife of former minister Hukam Narayan Yadav. As far as the INLD is concerned, it is eyeing Yadav votes in Bhiwani-Mohindragarh seat where Ajay Chautala is likely to be party’s candidate. In that context, Rao Ajit Singh, brother of Rao Inderjeet Singh, is likely to be a contender. Another Meo candidate, Mohd Illyas is also asking for the INLD ticket and he contested last time on the INLD ticket but lost by more than 1.5 lakh votes. Later, in the Assembly elections in 2005, he was poor third. It is unlikely that seat will go beyond a Yadav candidate as the INLD chief has already announced that his son would contest from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat and to win that he needs sizeable number of Yadav votes. Meanwhile, millennium city is looking for an active, educated and hard working MP who can solve its basic problems. Residents of the city hope that this time they would get better representation and all their problems would get resolved.
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“Vishwas rally” on February 8
Sirsa, January 25 Hooda will be the chief speaker while among those who will be addressing the rally include Chautala's bete noire Randeep Singh Surjewala, who has a long political adversity of the former chief minister; Anand Singh Dangi, who contested two elections against Chautala from Meham; Karan Singh Dalal, who has been spearheading a diatribe against the INLD leader in and outside the state Assembly; Jai Parkash, a one-time confident, who later fell apart with Chautala; and Chhatarpal Singh, who once defeated former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal in the Ghirai Assembly constituency of Hisar district. Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president Phool Chand Mulana and working president Kuldeep Sharma will also be addressing the rally. KV Singh, who has already expressed his keenness to contest the coming Assembly elections from Dabwali wants to bring all anti-Chautala forces on one stage because the INLD supremo is also expected to contest from Dabwali - a political stronghold of his party for long. The constituency is presently represented by Dr Sita Ram of the INLD and has been de-reserved during the recent delimitation exercise. KV Singh's kin had spearheaded the Congress campaign during the last month's municipal elections in Dabwali and a slander 10-9 victory of the Congress over the INLD has enthused KV Singh to organise a rally here. KV Singh addressed a meeting of Congress workers recently in preparations for the February 8 rally and allocated duties to them. Later, addressing mediapersons, he said Hooda had never discriminated against Sirsa or any of the 21 districts in the matter of development. He claimed that the Chief Minister had ensured all round development of the state and Haryana was now number one state of the country in many respects. Hoshiari Lal Sharma, president of the District Congress Committee, Shilpa Verma, president, District Mahila Congress, Bhupesh Mehta, president of the Block Congress and several other leaders were present on this occasion.
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Public transport movement eased in NCR
Chandigarh, January 25 A spokesman for the Transport Department said here that the agreement would facilitate the movement of taxis and autorickshaws within the NCR. People would be able to hire taxis and autorickshaws from the airport, railway stations and interstate bus stops in Delhi and reach their destinations in the NCR such as Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Bahadurgarh etc. The vehicles would have to conform to Euro-III norms and operate on CNG. He said there would be a common colour code and a logo for all contract carriage vehicles in the NCR for easy recognition. The same along with its specifications for width of colour strip and size of logo for each type of vehicle might be obtained from RTAs of the constituent states. It was also available on the website of the NCR Planning Board - www.ncrpb.nic.in. The agreement would ensure that autorickshaws and taxis would not be required to pay any additional passenger tax or additional passenger road tax or any additional permit charges while moving in the NCR if they were using specific colour code and logo. However, contract buses were required to pay passenger tax at the prevailing rates till a uniform tax structure was established by all constituent states of the NCR. The spokesman said the agreement would be valid for the next 10 years or till such time a new agreement was signed among the constituent states, whichever was earlier. The agreement could be reviewed after five years.
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Top cop inspires youth with patriotic songs
Bhondsi, January 25 The audio album of these songs was released by President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil earlier this week. An IPS officer of the 1985 batch, Madhur has dedicated the album to victims of Mumbai terrorist attacks. The music has been given by Mumbai-based music director Gunwant Sen, while lyrics have been written by Roop Kumar and Sheel Madhur got inspiration for preparing the album of patriotic songs from his wife, Seema Sheel, and the present prevailing situation in the country also motivated him to write something, as he says, “The present situation can generate a feeling of patriotism among the youth. I had been working on the album for the past three-four years”. Madhur said he had taken a number of initiatives at the Bhondsi centre which were supported by DGP, Haryana, Ranjiv Dalal. He gave the credit for the album to Dalal. Madhur belongs to Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh. Prior to his posting here, he served in the vigilance commission with the government of India. Earlier, he was DIG at the Police Training Centre, Madhuban, Karnal. Madhur also served as SP in Gurgaon, Yamunanagar, Rohtak, Sonepat, Faridabad and Mahendragarh, besides serving as SP, Railways, and SP, Traffic.
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Failure to implement pay panel recommendations
Kurukshetra, January 25 Stating this in a signed statement to mediapersons here, HPWS state president Kuldeep Sharma urged Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh to honour their announcements made in the past for granting benefits of the pay commission to the pensioners. Sharma alleged that the central government had implemented the pay commission’s recommendations to its employees as well as pensioners while the Haryana government had announced and implemented the recommendations for its employees but left the pensioners. In case the Haryana government failed to announce the recommendations by January 26, the HPWS would convene a meeting of various pensioners’ organisations to form a joint front and announce the agitation programme, Sharma warned. Meanwhile, Haryana Rajkiya Adhyapak Sangh general secretary Nawal Kishore Nawal also asked the Haryana government to bring their 5 and 10 per cent basic pension at the age of 65 and 70, respectively, on a par with their counterparts in Punjab.
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Building for casualty wing awaited
Kalka, January 25 The project regarding the construction of casualty building is hanging fire due to the apathy of the health department. Official sources disclosed that in the past the hospital administration had sent a number of proposals to the higher authorities. In 2002, the then SMO had sent a proposal to the state finance department seeking a separate casualty department that was to be completed by the beginning of 2003. The proposal also sought deploying of four doctors at the casualty department. Subsequently, the health department had approved the proposal, but nothing concrete happened. The sources said another proposal was sent by the hospital administration in 2006 to the director, health services, but it was rejected. Recently, the hospital through the PWD department again sent a proposal to the higher authorities. Dr Surindra Nain, SMO, said the health department had already sanctioned the casualty department in the hospital. Four doctors, one nursing sister, four staff nurses, four class IV employees and four sweepers have already been deputed in the hospital, but the construction of the separate building had not been started yet, he added.
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Panchkula MC plans new green belts
Panchkula, January 25 Giving details about the project, municipal council president Ravinder Rawal said space lying behind the houses situated alongside the intersecting roads would be developed as green belts where 3-ft wide footpath for pedestrians would be provided. It would help in keeping the area clean as the residents use the open space on their back lanes for throwing garbage, he added. Similarly, garbage collection centres would be constructed on the pattern of “sahaj safai kendras” in Chandigarh, where sweepers after collecting garbage from houses dump it and segregate before it is transported to garbage dumping ground or solid waste treatment plant. The sites for these centres were being earmarked by HUDA, informed the MC president. In addition, the work of installing new lighting system would start shortly in slums and villages falling under the municipal limits of the town, Rawal added. “An amount of Rs 1.5 crore granted by the state government for the development of Scheduled Caste wards would be spent on streets and roads in the slum areas of Rajiv Colony, Indira Colony and Kharak Mangoli,” he said.
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Vikas manch rues ‘neglect’ of Ahirwal region
Rewari, January 25 South Haryana, popularly known as the Ahirwal region, comprises 11 Assembly segments i.e. Rewari, Bawal, Kosli (all three in Rewari district), Narnaul, Mahendragarh, Ateli, Nangal Chaudhary (all four in Mahendragarh district), Pataudi, Sohna, Gurgaon and Badshahpur (all four in Gurgaon district). Mentioning about the sorry state of affairs, Hazari Lal Yadav, a retired principal and patron of the manch, Jagjit Singh Yadav, chairman, and Prof Ranbir Singh Yadav, general secretary of the manch, said it was unfortunate that the southern part of the state continued to suffer from regional disparities and imbalances in the matter of higher education. They said it was agonising that Rewari, where the first degree college of the state was established in 1945, had now been lagging. They said while Kurukshetra University in Kurukshetra, Maharshi Dayanand University in Rohtak, Haryana Agricultural University in Hisar, Guru Jambheshwar University in Hisar, Chaudhary Devi lal University in Sirsa and now state’s first women university in Khanpur Kalan had been running impressively, it was the hapless Rewari region where only a postgraduate regional centre of the MDU had been functioning scantily in a rented accommodation for the past over two decades. They added that as many as 20 university-level national institutes had been running successfully in other parts of the state it was again the Rewari region which miserably lacked such prestigious institutions. Similarly, while medical colleges in Rohtak and Agroha as well as engineering colleges in Kurukshetra, Rohtak, Hisar and Sirsa had been functioning, Rewari, Narnaul and Gurgaon stood bereft of such institutions, they added. Emphasising upon the urgency of a concerted struggle to seek radical transformation of the prevailing situation, the office-bearers of the manch called upon the people and youth in particular to launch a united movement to put pressure on the government as well as local legislators for the expeditious establishment of universities, medical and engineering colleges and other such prestigious institutions in this part of the state.
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Tiny tots steal show at school function
Fatehabad, January 25 Dev Raj Batra, a local philanthropist and chairman of the Manohar Memorial College Management Society, the SDM, J. K. Abhir, the city magistrate, Satish Jain, Swatantar Bala Chaudhary, a former MLA, and H.S. Chhokar, district education officer, were present. Children presented a myriad of cultural items, including choreography, dance, skits, songs and bhangra. Rozy Mehtani, principal, said Bal Vatika School had been serving the community for over a decade. The Deputy Commissioner lauded the facilities being provided in the school for little children.
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Fellow Mobilisation Award for Dr Gosain
Karnal, January 25 The award was presented to him by Dr MJ Modayil, member, Agricultural Scientist Recruitment Board, during a seminar on rural India developmental alternatives, organised by the society and the Central Institute For Research on Goats (CIRG) in Makhdoom, Mathura (UP). Dr RM Acharya, former deputy director-general (animal sciences), Dr CS Prasad, assistant director-general (ANP), ICAR, Dr MC Sharma, director, CIRG, Makhdoom, and Dr JP Sharma, president, mobilisation, along with 250 delegates from different states of the country were present on the occasion. Dr Gosain has served the farming communities across the country and mobilised them for sustainable mixed farming comprising crop and dairy husbandry. Having 28 years of research, extension and teaching experiences, he has worked in different research projects at the NDRI, published research papers in national and international journals, book chapters and also co-authored a book. He has organised more than 100 training programmes in dairy farming and sustainable agriculture. Dr Gosain, who has done advanced training from the Hannah Dairy Research Institute, Scotland, and Wageningen Agricultural University, Netherlands, also chaired an international conference held in Pakistan. National child award for Karnal student The award, which carries a cash prize of Rs 10,000, a silver medal, a certificate and a citation, would be conferred by Union Minister of State for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury at a function to be held on February 4 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. Yudhvir, son of Narender Mann, has won 18 gold medals, two silver medals and 5 champion trophies at national championships. These included two gold medals won by him at the national level in 2007-2008. In all, 14-year-old Yudhvir has so far won 82 gold, 10 silver and seven bronze medals and 29 champion trophies at national, state and district championships. He was the captain of Haryana roll-ball team in fourth and fifth sub-junior boys in the national roll-ball federation of Indian championships, which bagged gold medals both times and also emerged as the top scorer in the championships. The state sports department had also given him a cash prize of Rs 1.12 lakh and another cash award of Rs 95,000 was given to him last year.
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College girls excel in sports, honoured
Gurgaon, January 25 College principal Dr Ranjana Lall said Poonam, a student of BA part I, bagged the coveted title of the best athlete of the college. Manju Yadav of BA part II emerged as the winner in the 100 metre race, Poonam of BA part I in 200 metre race, Teena of BA part I in 400 metre, Poonam of BA part I in long jump and high jump, Divya Yadav of BBA part II in discus throw, Sushma Lohia of BA part III in javelin throw, Seema Yadav of BA part II in shot put, Poonam of BSc part III in back race and Neha Sharma and Preeti Dahiya of BBA part II in three-legged race. Besides, college students Renu, Poonam (BA part I), Jaya, Suman, Poonam (BSc part III), Banti, Tinku, Laxmi, Sulekha, Pooja, Meenakshi, Manju Yadav and Teena were honoured for bringing laurels to the college in various inter-university and national level sports events. Addressing the students and teachers at the closing ceremony, Haryana DGP Ranjiv Dalal underlined the importance of sports in shaping one's personality and appreciated the college authorities for inculcating the spirit of sportsmanship among the students.
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New drug policy opposed
Ambala, January 25 Secretary-general of the SPIC Jagdeep Singh said the policy it seemed was aimed at eliminating small-scale industries from the government procurement process. “We wish to recall that schedule M (GMP) was amended in 2005 for the sake of quality improvement. It is more stringent than even the WHO-GMP e.g. stipulations of space are not mandated even in WHO-GMP. The SSI was mandated to pump in huge investment and comply the stipulations of space, plant and machinery and testing. Many factories that could not comply were closed down owing to this change. Others are in the process of compliance,” he said. Then MRP excise was levied in 2005, which had serious anomalies owing to which industries outside the excise-free zones faced a disadvantage of over 30 per cent. Even the PM was unable to get the anomalies removed despite his intervention, such was the power of vested interests, he alleged. Now, the Drugs Act Amendment Bill, 2008, had received the Presidential assent. Owners of units, who produced spurious drugs, could face a life term instead of 3 years mandated earlier apart from a fine of Rs 10 lakh, he said. “The Pharma SSI fails to understand that why are they subjected to expensive upgrade under Schedule M in the first place if they were to be made unviable by MRP excise. Their quality is being put under a cloud without any data to substantiate it and they are being eliminated from participating in government purchase,” he said. Selling “propaganda” drugs was no sin as made out in Haryana, he said. Method of sale does not define the quality of a drug. The government needed to rethink its policy, he added.
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Sirsa’s mustard crops attract bee-keepers
Sirsa, January 25 Scores of families from Himachal Pradesh and Punjab have been camping in this district along the national highway no. 10 in Sahuwala, Panniwala Mota, Odhan, Dabwali villages and the surrounding areas with their boxes of bees lying near the mustard fields. “Though bees collect nectar from all types of flowers, the one from the mustard flowers is considered the best and the honey prepared from it is of the best quality,” said Ronaki Ram, a bee-keeper from Nahan district of Himachal Pradesh. "We come here only during the season of mustard crop and in a season spanning 30-40 days, we earn handsome profits by collecting hundreds of kilograms of quality honey from here,” added Swaran Singh, a bee-keeper from Talwandi Sabo of Punjab, who has been camping near Odhan. Swaran Singh said he came here with 100 boxes used for bee-keeping and would go back to his town with at least 200 boxes as the number of queen bees would increase by then. Each box meant for bee-keeping has one queen bee and hundreds of worker bees. While the queen bee does the job of reproduction, the worker bees collect nectar for the preparation of honey. A queen bee lays around 3,000 eggs in a day. The boxes have partitions in them where the bees prepare their nests. The bee-keepers collect honey from the nests without damaging them or the eggs by centrifugal force by rotating them on an instrument. Interestingly, local farmers vie with each other to attract the bee-keepers near their fields as bees help in the growth of their crops through pollination. After going from here, the farmers keep their boxes in their area, where the bees survive by collecting nectar from whatever flowers they find. While scores of migrated bee-keepers have been making fortune by producing honey in the district, the number of local bee-keepers can be counted on fingers. Sources say hardly six local farmers have got into bee-keeping after seeing the outsiders coming here every year. Experts claim that they train farmers for bee-keeping but still very few have been attracted to this profession.
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First onion warehouse to come up in state
Beri (Jhajjar), January 25 The state government has decided to set up the state’s first onion warehouse with a view to providing storage and processing facilities to the farmers, apart from increasing and saving the onion production. A sum of Rs 3.39 crore would be spent on the construction of the warehouse with modern facilities. Besides, construction work of vegetable and foodgrain markets is also in full swing. The foodgrain market’s proposed construction cost has been estimated at Rs 4.91 crore whereas Rs 2.39 crore would be spent on the construction of a vegetable and fruit market. As per information, a sufficient number of cover sheds would be constructed apart from concrete platforms and urinals in both markets. Moreover, new pipelines would be laid not only to make proper supply of water, but also to maintain proper sewerage system. On completion of the markets, farmers coming from distant places will not have to depend upon dharamshalas and hotels for staying. The state government has also planned to construct a rest house with at an estimated cost of Rs 8 lakh in order to provide staying facility in the mandi premises for the farmers as well as other persons coming from outside the district. All necessary facilities would be made available in the rest house. Member of Parliament Deepender Singh Hooda said the construction work of the markets would be completed in the next six months. “Both will be among the most modern mandis in the state where all facilities will be made available in order to facilitate farmers and other persons in disposing of their works regarding procurement and selling of their crops easily,” said Deepender, adding that the first onion warehouse would also prove helpful in encouraging the farmers to bring more area under onion cultivation and storage of the crop as well.
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Varsity celebrates birth anniversary of
Sirsa, January 25 Virender Singh Chauhan, chairperson of the department, said life of both Swami Vivekanand and Subhash Chandra Bose had inspired millions of youths across the country. He said Subhash Chander Bose did the job of hitting the last nail in the coffin of English regime in India. Lecturer Padmani Jain said it was due to the efforts of martyrs like Subhash Chandra Bose that we were breathing in the fresh air of independence today. Shreyashi, a student of journalism, recited a poem of Subhash Chandra Bose, while students Vikas, Mukesh, Deepika, Sumit, Roshan, Ravi and Chetan also expressed their views. Lecturers Sewa Singh Bajwa and Ravinder Dhillon were also present.
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Political scions try to drum up support
Hisar, January 25 While MP Ajay Chautala, elder son of former Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala, is on a month-long “janakrosh yatra” to rejuvenate the party in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal's heir apparent Kuldeep Bishnoi is currently on a “Kuldeep chale chaupal” campaign for the same purpose. The third “yuvaraj”, Deepender Hooda, MP from Rohtak and son of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has also been extensively touring his constituency. Ajay Chautala’s “padyatra” has been a high-profile affair right from the beginning. It was flagged off in the presence of senior BJP leaders Shah Nawaz Hussein and Prakash Javedkar. The campaign is backed by a high-profile publicity campaign with advertisements in newspapers. The junior Chautala's march has twin purposes. The primary purpose is to activate party cadres, publicise party programmes and highlight Hooda government's “failures”, the secondary aim is to make his presence felt in the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh area, should he decide to contest this Lok Sabha seat. He earlier represented the Bhiwani seat which after the fresh delimitation has been re-christened. He has been mainly harping on the promises the Congress government failed to fulfil. The evergreen issue of the SYL Canal is in the forefront. Chautala says in the four years that the Hooda government has been in power, nothing has been done to get the project completed, although the Congress is in power at the centre as well as Haryana. Unemployment is another equally emotional issue which can be drummed up anytime. Chautala reminds the Congress that the problem remains more acute than ever before. Besides, he says the Congress had promised to find job avenues for educated youth abroad. However, not a single youth had been able to find a job anywhere, he says. Rural infrastructure is of Chautala's favourite topics. He is accusing the government of neglecting development in the rural areas despite promises to the contrary before the 2005 Assembly polls. On behalf of his party, he is promising that if voted to power, the INLD will not only fulfil the promises that the Congress has failed to realise but go beyond all this for the benefit of the entire state. Kuldeep Bishnoi has been interacting with villagers through his campaign, which he launched within days of Ajay Chautala hitting the streets. He will complete the first round which started from Hisar shortly after covering more than half the state. Bishnoi's agenda is not much different from that of Chautala although it is packaged differently. He has promised special pension for one woman per family in addition to the normal old-age pension, which, too, he would enhance if voted to power. He is targeting the Congress mainly though he finds the INLD, BJP and the BSP no different. He says he will tie up with no other party as his outfit Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) had already forged an alliance with the voters. Deepender Hooda is for the time being concentrating mainly on his Rohtak constituency with a few tours of neighbouring Sonepat constituency thrown in. His is a positive approach. He is, and rightfully so, seeking the voters' backing on the basis of his performance as a first-term MP. He has brought in a slew of centrally funded projects in the area through sheer hard work and political ingenuity. These include the six-laning of the Delhi-Rohtak highway, an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) for Rohtak, several railway overbridges, rail links and many other educational projects financed by the centre. Besides, he is talking about power generation projects which are coming up in Hisar and Jhajjar districts and gives the credit to his father for making unsparing efforts to make Haryana free from power cuts in a few years. With Lok Sabha elections approaching fast, the political scions are likely to provide momentum to their campaigns in the coming months.
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Amartex store in Kurukshetra
Chandigarh, January 25 Panchkula-based Amartex Industries has been opening its retail stores in various towns of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand. It opened its 78th store in the heritage city of Kurukshetra yesterday. Inaugurating the store, MD of the company Arun Grover said the company firmly believed that the customer was the king of the commercial activities in the present times. The company, which started with garments, has now moved on to grocery, footwear and life-style goods. Grover said the company had was targeting Rs 1000-crore turnover in the next two years by opening 250 stores in different parts of the country.
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Letter
Trees play an important role in keeping the environment clean. In most of the old and congested cities of the state, it is a rare to find trees, particularly in the residential areas, although in the rural areas we find some greenery. There are, however, areas that are developed by HUDA where there is a provision for green belt, but in old residential colonies, most of which fall under MC’s jurisdiction, there is no such arrangement or any plan for the plantation of trees, even if there is enough space. It is high time that people should come forward and plant trees in front of their houses and elsewhere in their localities. Besides, the municipal authorities and the forest department should also jointly initiate a move to plant trees. Everyone should contribute in preserving the environment.
Hardesh Goswami
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Yudhvir
Mann, a class X student of Dyal Singh Public School in Karnal, has been selected for the silver medal by national child award for exceptional achievement in the fields of sports (roller skating and roll ball) for the year.