Chandigarh, March 5
Plagued with overcrowding, prisoners going missing when out on parole, paucity of staff, poor maintenance of cashbooks and absence of internal audits, jails in the state are in a mess. These were some of the shortcomings pointed out in the state jails by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report for 2007-08.

To address the problems, the CAG has suggested that the department should maintain the liability register so that they could be factored in while framing budget estimates. The report added that the department should prescribe a suitable ratio of warders in place and the government should consider adoption of provisions of the model jail manual on a selective basis.

According to the report, of 148 prisoners released on parole and furlough from five jails, 93 were missing due to lack of coordination between the police and the Jail Department, remaining 54 prisoners were later re-arrested, surrendered or acquitted and one had died. Of the missing prisoners, 63 were charged with heinous crimes, some even sentenced to life imprisonment.

The audit report observed that in spite of the fact that the police informed the Jail Department, no action has been taken to find out their whereabouts.

Maintaining that there is a 26 per cent shortage of security staff in the jails of the state, the report stated that no system has been adopted to post employees in the various jails on the basis of the capacity of the prisoners or actual number of prisoners.

Referring to overall congestion in prisons, the CAG pointed out that despite the construction of additional jail buildings in Gurgaon, Karnal and Narnaul, no action had been taken to transfer prisoners from overcrowded jails to establish a balance.

It had been observed in the tested jails that occupancy in the district jail, Rohtak and central jail, Hisar had been in excess, by 21 and 41 per cent respectively, of the capacity while it was only six per cent in district jail in Sirsa and even less than the capacity by 28 per cent in district jail, Karnal during 2007.

A review of internal controls in selected areas of the Jail Department in the state showed non-compliance of budget and expenditure controls, rush of expenditure at the end of the financial year, non-reconciliation or withdrawal of funds and treasuries and non-compliance of provisions of jail manual. The CAG also found that the internal audit was non-functional despite staff being in position.

Rewari, March 5
There has been a spurt in the cases of fraud and forgery by the truck drivers and others in the Rewari region.

The latest victim of such a fraud is Harish Kumar, a truck owner of Rewari. Harish Kumar reportedly sent a truckload of utensils worth over Rs 4.5 lakh from a local metal merchant, Ghanshyam Bhatia, to a merchant of Moradabad on his truck.

Sources said driver Mohamamd Hussain delivered the consignment of utensils to the said metal merchant at Moradabad, who paid him Rs 4.5 lakh, which was the cost of the utensils. However, on his return to Rewari late on the night of February 27, Mohammad Hussain parked the truck at the residence of Harish Kumar’s brother at the housing board colony here and then made off with the embezzled sale proceeds of the goods.

Consequently, Harish Kumar filed a complaint, following which the Model town police registered a case of criminal breach of trust against the accused Mohammad Hussain, a resident of the Rampur area in Bihar. Meanwhile, a police party was dispatched to the said area of Bihar to trace and apprehend the accused.

Another case of criminal fraud targeted Vipin Kumar Agarwal, a grain dealer of Narnaul, who transported 226 quintal of bajra worth Rs 2,09,050 from the new grain market here to a grain merchant of Punjab on a truck hired from a transport company of Yamunanagar recently.

However, when the said consignment did not reach the above destination in Punjab even after a passage of over three weeks, Vipin Agarwal made enquiries that revealed that the truck driver had cheated him and apparently disposed of the goods somewhere else and took the truck with him.

Consequently, he lodged a complaint with the Model town police station here recently, following which the police registered a case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy in this regard. ASI Daya Nand, in charge of the economic cell of the police department here is now investigating the matter.

Sirsa, March 5
A roundabout situated on the Sirsa road of Ellenabad town has become a bone of contention between the Agarwal community and some other communities of the town.

Members of the Agarwal community have threatened to boycott the forthcoming parliamentary elections in case their demand of handing over the chowk to them was not met.

While the Agarwal community wants to install the statue of Maharaja Agarsen on the roundabout, some others maintain that this chowk was dedicated to perpetuate the memory of Kargil martyrs.

Municipal councilor Champa Lal Dhanuka, belonging to the Agarwal community, recently led a demonstration to the SDM office, where he gave his resignation from the post against the alleged indifference of the authorities towards the demand of the community. The resignation was submitted to naib tehsildar Balraj Dhanda in the absence of the SDM.

Carrying placards of “No Chowk, no votes”, the members of the Agarwal community said they would not exercise their right to franchise if the authorities failed to restore the Panchmukhi chowk, situated on the Sirsa road, to the community.

“Six chowks were sanctioned by the municipal committee during its term of four years and out of these one roundabout named Panchmukhi Chowk situated on the Sirsa road was given to us. We were working towards revamping this chowk and had decided to install a life-sized statue of Maharaja Agarsen there, but the authorities have tilted under pressure from another community,” Dhanuka alleged in his resignation letter addressed to the authorities.

“The community has conveyed its decision of boycotting the elections to the authorities and we have also called upon all political parties to clear their stand on this issue within 10 days,” said Murari Lal Pohadkawale and Mam Chand Mittal, members of the patron committee of the Agarwal Samaj.

Shaheed Radhey Sham Yaadgar Samiti, a committee set up to perpetuate the memory of the Kargil martyr Radhey Sham Bhakar on the other hand has challenged the claim of Dhanuka and others.

“The chowk was given to the committee in year 2000 to set up a memorial in the name of the martyr,” maintained Dharamveer Pareek and Chinder Pal Bhakar, members of the Shaheed Radhey Sham Yaadgar Samiti.

“We had given a representation to the President of India for constructing the roundabout in the memory of Kargil martyr out of public funds, but before we could proceed further, a new controversy was raised with regard to the roundabout in the municipal committee by Agarwals,” they alleged.

Sirsa, March 5
Youths today are not only serious about their studies and career but also well informed about the current affairs and burning issues of the country.

The fact came to light during a declamation contest on “Global Terrorism, a critique of emerging control regime” held recently in the local Lala Hans Raj Phutela College of law, run by the Sirsa education society.

Monika from the department of law, Chaudhary Devi Lal University was adjudged the best in the declamation contest. Amandeep of the same department was adjudged second, while Harpreet from the Mata Harki Devi College, Odhan got the third position. The team trophy was won by the department of Law, CDLU, Sirsa.

In all, 19 students from 10 different colleges of the district participated in the contest. Students expressed their views on the subject and came out with new and innovative ideas about tackling the problem of terrorism and effect of terrorism on the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan.

Local philanthropist and chief patron of the Sirsa education society RS Sangwan was the chief guest. President Parveen Baghla, Bhagirath Gupta, Kulwant Jindal and other members of the society were present. Reader, department of law, CDLU Sirsa, JS Jakhar and principal of the host college Anupam Ahluwalia were present. Lecturer and in charge of the women cell of the Government National College, Sirsa, Nisha Goyal and local advocate Sukhwinder Panwar acted as judges.

Sangwan said in his address that terrorism that has been a matter of grave concern for decades, for countries like India, has become a global issue and needed to be tackled with concerted efforts of all the countries.

Gurgaon, March 5
The Postal Department, Gurgaon, will hold a philatelic exhibition titled “GURPEX-2009” at Epicentre Apparel House, here on Saturday.

In addition to a sizeable collection of stamps that will be on display, there will also be a philately sale counter at the exhibition venue.

“The exhibition promises to be a visual treat for the visitors with a huge collection of stamps on display on a plethora of subjects like nature, wildlife, flora and fauna, cultural heritage, cinema, sports, foreign lands and international personalities,” said director postal services, Gurgaon, Amarpreet Duggal in a statement issued here recently.

“Apart from a wide variety of stamps, the interested persons can also buy presentation packs such as those on 2,550 years of Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha, different philately books published by the Postal Department on topics such as nature, 1857-first war of Independence and discover India,” he added.

Jhajjar, March 5
With the announcement of the general election and the coming into force of the model code of conduct, not only have parties kicked off their campaign by initiating work on various strategies to woo the voters but also the election offices have put themselves into top gear to ensure free and fair elections.

Under an ongoing process, the district election office has issued the voter list for the Rohtak parliamentary election scheduled to be held on May 7.

According to official information, the constituency presently has 12,73,337 voters, including 6,94,452 male and 5,78,885 female, in all nine assembly segments- Rohtak, Maham, Kalanaur and Gari Sampla of Rohtak district and Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Badli, Beri and Kosli of Jhajjar district.

Interestingly, following the recommendation of the Delimitation Commission, the first- time formed Kosli segment and added in the Rohtak parliamentary constituency has got the maximum numbers of voters as compared to other eight segments.

The names of 1,72,231 voters, including 90,178 male and 82,053 female, figure in the electoral rolls for the Kosli segment followed by the Garhi Sampla segment with 1,66,774 voters, including 86,955 male and 69,819 female.

Earlier, Kosli was part of the Jaatusana assembly segment of Rewari district under the Mahendergarh parliamentary consituency but this time it has been included in the Rohtak parliamentary constituency being an assembly segment with the amalgamation of two assembly constituencies, namely Salhawaas of Jhajjar district and Jatusana of Rewari district.

Likewise, the Garhi Sampla segment has been created with the merger of the Kiloi and Hassangarh assembly constituencies of Rohtak district. Kiloi is represented by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the state legislative assembly while Bharatiya Janata Party leader Naresh Malik is the MLA from Hassangarh.

As per official information, there are 1,43,291 voters in Meham, 1,26,219 in Rohtak, 1,39,673 in Kalanaur (reserve), 1,28,384 in Bahadurgarh, 1,30,414 in Badli, 1,27,297 in Jhajjar (reserve) and 1,29,444 voters in the Beri segment.

Besides, as many as 1,411 proposed polling stations, including 199 in Kosli, 180 in Meham, 175 in Garhi-Sampla, 126 in Rohtak, 157 in Kalanaur, 125 in Bahadurgarh, 152 in Badli, 150 in Jhajjar and 147 in Beri, would be set up in the Rohtak parliamentary constituency for a smooth conduct of the election.

Sohna (Gurgaon), March 5
A natural hot water source situated here is widely believed to be a panacea for various skin diseases. In fact, Sohna has become famous in this part of the region for the medicinal water source, called kund by local residents.

A number of people suffering from different skin ailments from various parts of Haryana and other states throng a temple on which the water source is located, to take bath in the naturally hot water containing sulphur and get rid of their skin diseases.

“I came here about two months ago and have found the naturally available hot water here really effective,” says Narad Muni Rai, an elderly man from Lahuar village in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh, on being approached by The Tribune on the temple premises.

Rai, who had been suffering from a chronic skin disease, had come to the place on hearing about the effectiveness of the water in curing skin disorders. As of now, he says he has been cured 70 per cent.

“A large number of people suffering from skin diseases throng the kund and are cured,” says Dharampal, a functionary at the temple. The Shri Shiv Kund Raksha Samiti, a body of people’s representatives, looks after the maintenance and upkeep of the kund.

However, the visit to the kund revealed that the temple premises as well as its surroundings required better cleanliness and management.

Gurgaon, March 5
The post of the lecturer does not seem to be captivating the interest of teachers in the state any more. They feel that the salaries of teachers in the lecturer and masters grade are similar as per the sixth pay commission.

According to the new pay scales, the junior teachers are receiving more salary then their seniors and keeping this in view the teachers feel that it is better to remain at same post rather than becoming the head of a particular institution.

The scenario remains the same for the JBT teachers. Newly appointed JBT teachers have been getting more salary then their seniors. Not only this there is just a difference of Rs 50 in the income of junior and senior grade. It is to be mentioned that central government has been following the same procedure and the state government has applied the same for its teachers.

The Haryana school lecturers association feels that there have been lots of arrears in the sixth commission and is angry with the same. They had also held an agitation regarding this at Chandigarh a few days ago.

According to the sixth pay commission, the teacher gets Rs 7,450 as their basic pay and the senior lecturer Rs 7,500, which is just Rs 50 more that of the junior grade. Earlier, the difference was around Rs 1,000 as the lecturers used to get Rs 6,500 and teachers Rs 5,500.

Similarly, JBT teachers grade was increased from Rs 4,500 to Rs 6,500. The newly appointed JBT teacher gets Rs 16,920 in comparison to the old and experienced teachers, who get just Rs 13,500. This has made the teachers association angry.

District president of the Haryana school lecturers association Kishan Yadav said, “According to the sixth pay commission, the difference between the salary of the teachers and head of the institute is just Rs 50.

A lecturer’s pay in the fifth commission was more or equivalent to the principal (head master), as both are the cadres of the lecturer grade. This was the reason that the state schools had almost similar scale of the head of high school and a teacher.” Head of the lecturer association Baal Kishan told The Tribune, “We will carry on the agitation against the government till they do any justice to us.”

Yadav said the education of the PGT teachers in the state schools is more than the qualification of the high school teachers in Delhi schools. “The education of about 12,000 PGT from Delhi are not up to mark in comparison to the teachers from Haryana, as the state does not allow a third division candidate to file their nomination.”

He said even after the orders passed by the ejuset officer, district level teachers pay is not yet applied. Teachers are getting average salary, which are being distributed to them at the block level. Block education officer (BEO) Ram Kumar Phalaswal said the teachers do have a problem with the new pay scale commission and they will soon solve the problem.

Panipat, March 5
The industrial hub of Panipat is all set to have state-of-the-art trauma care centre on the premises of the civil hospital which would be built at an estimated cost of over 
Rs 65 lakh.

The government has already asked the chief architect to draw a detailed plan for the centre. The work on the centre is expected to start as soon as the basic draft of the project is made available. The centre would attend to accidental victims or those who have suffered serious injuries.

As per an estimate, every year more than 20 lakh people are admitted to hospitals across the country with serious accidental injuries and out of these around 2 lakh die due to inadequate healthcare.

Deputy commissioner Vijay Singh Dahiya, who has been monitoring the progress of the centre, said it would increase the chances of survival of accident victims.

Besides road accidents, a large number of persons also receive serious head injuries due to fall from heights and assaults. The Deputy Commissioner said that medical science had evolved new techniques in the management of patients with serious head injuries that increased the chances of survival. The centre would be equipped with instruments that would be helpful in treating trauma patients even if the patients had to be treated by surgical interventions.

Besides, the district health and family welfare society has initiated measures to procure an ultrasound machine, equipments for the operation theatres and other testing equipments for the civil hospital. The state government had already filled the posts of various specialist doctors in the district that had been lying vacant since long. Eight new primary health care centres have also been set up in the district to ensure proper healthcare facilities. Efforts were also being made to provide round- the- clock healthcare facilities at these centres.

He said the government had sanctioned Rs 11.25 lakh for the upgradation of the community healthcare centre at Samalkha along with Rs 54 lakh that had been sanctioned for the Panipat civil hospital.

Jhajjar, March 5
Attitude spells attainment and inculcating positive attitude helps oneself to achieve success in career and life. This has been stated by the soft skills expert and principal, INC (ICFAI National College), Rohtak, Kitty Mukherjee, while addressing students during the inauguration ceremony of the newly established soft skills laboratory in Dubaldhan Government College here recently.

Not only she focused on various positive traits but also explained the basics of soft skills to the students. “Developing soft skills will pave the way for all-round personality development of the students,” said Mukherjee, adding that students must develop these useful communication skills to achieve their career goals.

Soft skills in charge Kiran Sharma said students would benefit immensely from this facility.

She acknowledged the pioneering role of former lecturer Sunit Mukherjee in establishing the laboratory. Principal of the college OP Ahlawat underlined the importance of communication skills.

Ambala, March 5
Just before the announcement of elections, local MP Kumari Selja laid the foundation stone for Phase 1 of an MLD treatment plant, much to the relief of Ambala Cantonment residents.

At present, they are dependent on tubewell water with a supply rate of 90 litres per capita per day, which is below the rate of 135 litres per capita per day (LPCD),not sufficient for proper functioning of the sewerage system.

Hence, the government decided to first augment the water supply system and now surface water is being tapped and a supply scheme under implementation shall increase the water supply to 135 LPCD.

At present, the sewerage system exists only in about 50 per cent of the area of Ambala Sadar, but for this area also there is no treatment plant and untreated sewage is being disposed of in nearby drains which ultimately falls in the Tangri and thus pollutes the river.

A scheme was developed for providing sewer lines in all the 50 per cent remaining areas of Ambala Sadar, including a sewage treatment plant of 20 MLD capacity costing about Rs 93 crores in two phases.

In the first phase,a sewage treatment plant of 10 MLD capacity will be built to cover the present areas covered by sewerage network, including the main pumping station and outfall sewer lines for a total cost of Rs 21 crore. This scheme has been approved by the ministry of urban development and shall be implemented under the UIDSSMT component of JnNURM.

In the second phase,the augmentation of the capacity sewage treatment plant from 10 MLD to 20 MLD capacity and providing the sewerage system in all the balance areas of Ambala Sadar for a total cost of Rs 72 crore will be undertaken. The scheme has also been prepared and is under checking by the Government of India for technical aspects.It shall be taken up in the next financial year as soon as the water supply system is augmented to ensure the required flow.

The plant being set up here is based on sequential batch reactor SBR Technology first developed in Austria. Plants using this technology have been successfully built in Goa and Mumbai. A 45 MLD plant under construction at Fraidabad is the first such plant in the entire Northern India. Ambala shall be the second such plant in Haryana.

The entire plant is fully automatic. The Centre will fund 80 per cent of the cost.The work shall start by July, 2009, and has a two-year time period to be completed.

Sirsa, March 5
Star Wire (India) Biomass Company will set up a biomass power plant in Sahuwala Pratham village in Sirsa district at a cost of over Rs 44.27 crore to generate 8 MW which will be given to the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam for further supply.

Representatives of the company organised a programme in Sahuwala to register the claims and objections of the people of four villages - Sahuwala Pratham, Chhatarian, Bhangu and Raghuana.

Talking to mediapersons, Deputy Commissioner SK Goyal said a committee comprising people of the four villages would be constituted which would be sent to Andhra Pradesh to see similar units already set up in that state.

After deliberating on the environmental and other aspects of the project by the committee, the gram panchayats of these villages would give approval for the setting up of this plant.

He said agriculture residue and food processing waste would be used to generate power for captive industrial and grid supply. About 61,200 tonnes of biomass would be needed for this project, which would be arranged from the nearby villages.

He said the water discharged from the plant would be treated for recycling and the waste water would also be used for horticulture and processing based on its quality.

The waste of the plant would be properly disposed of. This project would help generate power and provide jobs to youth in the area. The project would also help maintain the ecological balance in the area.

Producer: Big Pictures
Writer & Director: Vikram K. Kumar
Lyrics: Neelesh Mishra
Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Cast: R. Madhvan, Neetu Chandra, Poonam Dhillon, Murali Sharma, Sachin Khedekar, Sanjaih Bokaria, Deepak Dobriyal, Amitha, Dhritiman Chatterjee

The supernatural thriller “13B”, directed by National Award winning director Vikram K. Kumar will be released at CHM Cine Garden, Sirsa, Sheila-Rohtak, Cinemax-Panipat, Fun-Panipat, Fun-Karnal, Movie Times- Karnal, Fun-Ambala City, Fame Shalimar-Panchkula, Sun City-Hisar, Adlab, DT City Centre, DT Mega Mall, PVR MGF, PVR Sahara, PVR Ambience, SRS (All Gurgaon), INOX, SRS, Sector 12, SRS Sector 31, Movie Time City Mall, Movie Times Man Pattan Mall, SRS Shubham, PVR Crown Plaza, India Bulls (All Faridabad), Suraj-Panchkula.