Chandigarh, March 30
At a time when the Haryana Congress should have been preparing itself to contest the ensuing Lok Sabha elections unitedly, it has emerged as a badly divided house.

That the Congress in the state was faction-ridden was never a secret. But after former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and his son Kuldeep Bishnoi had walked out of the party, infighting in the Congress had by and large remained away from public eye. With Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda succeeding in keeping anti-incumbency against his government to the bare minimum level, the other factions had been maintaining a low profile.

The first time leaders opposed to him joined hands at the time of the last Rajya Sabha elections from the state. These leaders, union ministers Selja, Rao Inderjit Singh, and two Haryana ministers Birender Singh and Kiran Choudhry, were able to successfully oppose Hooda’s recommendations for the party ticket for the Rajya Sabha. They prevailed upon the high command to give ticket to former MLA Ishwar Singh, a known supporter of Selja. Of course, one ticket was given to a former working president of the Haryana Congress, Dr Ram Prakash, on the recommendation of the Chief Minister. The four leaders opposed to Hooda have again come together on one platform. After senior leaders in the AICC failed to resolve the deadlock, the ball has gone in the court of party’s supreme leader Sonia Gandhi.

The main dispute is about the Sonepat and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seats. Birender Singh, who feels that Hooda usurped his right to become the Chief Minister, wants to contest the elections from Sonepat. Instead of giving his application for the ticket to the state unit, he conveyed his desire to the high command directly. Hooda wants that his own man should contest this seat. He is believed to have told the high command that Birender Singh should contest from Hisar as his Assembly constituency falls in that Lok Sabha constituency.

Similarly, for the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat, Kiran wants the ticket for her daughter Shruti, who, she says, has inherited the political legacy of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal. The relations between Kiran and Hooda are far from cordial. No wonder Hooda wants the seat to go to a representative of the Ahirs, whose number in the constituency is second to the Jats.

He had recommended the name of parliamentary secretary Rao Dan Singh. Realising that the high command may not field two Ahirs, he wants Rao Inderjit to contest from Bhiwani.

However, the union minister wants to contest from Gurgaon. He has reportedly conveyed his wishes to the high command as well. The INLD has fielded a strong candidate in its secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala from Bhiwani.

The Hisar and Gurgaon seats have been held up because of Sonepat and Bhiwani. If the high command asks Birender Singh to contest from Hisar, sitting MP Jai Prakash Barwala will have to make way from him. Similarly, if Rao Inderjit agrees to contest from Bhiwani, the party will have to look for a new candidate from Gurgaon.

Rohtak, March 30
While the state government has spent or earmarked hundreds of crores on various development projects, the lack of planning at the time of initiating a project may defeat its very purpose.

The recently inaugurated railway overbridge over the Delhi-Bathinda railway line on the Hisar-Jind bypass road here is perfect example of shortsightedness on the part of the authorities.

The 1-km long flyover, built at a cost of Rs 18.37 crore, appears narrow considering the number of vehicles passing through it at a given time. The Chief Minister formally inaugurated it on January 4.

“It certainly gives a crunch feeling while passing over the newly constructed bridge which has just two lanes,” said Devender Kumar, a local resident. The flyover, built on the National Highway-10, connecting Hisar, Rohtak and Delhi, should have been wider given the flow and nature of vehicles passing through it, he added.

This might prove a bottleneck in the flow of traffic in near future given the rate of rise in the number of vehicles, he claimed.

“The traffic movement on the flyover comes to a halt in case of an accident or a heavy vehicle breaks down and this results in inconvenience to motorists on the highway,” said, Deepak, another resident. The authorities, which should have taken into consideration the future needs, had perhaps ignored the fact in order to cut down the cost of construction, he alleged.

TS Tomar, a retired teacher, said the government should conduct an enquiry into the failure of the authorities to provide the desired width to the flyover. Lauding the efforts of the government on the ongoing development works in the district, he said it was the duty of the government to ensure that there was no lapse since it resulted in the wastage of hard earned public money.

It may be mentioned that while one flyover has already been thrown open to the public, work on five other railway overbridges is in progress in the city and is likely to be completed by year-end. 

Ambala, March 30
Around 200 cardiologists from Haryana and nearby states took part in the two-day annual conference of the Haryana chapter of the Cardiological Society of India that concluded here yesterday.

A number of well-known cardiologists of the Apollo Hospital, Ganga Ram Hospital, National Heart Institute, AIIMS, Maharaja Aggersain Hospital (New Delhi), Fortis Heart Institute (Mohali) and Mukut Hospital (Chandigarh) discussed the latest techniques in the field of heart surgery.

Senior consultant cardiologist, the Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, Dr Subhash Manchanda expressed concern about the various risk factors behind increasing incidents of the heart diseases in India. “One should quit smoking and change lifestyle by modifying one’s eating habits to avoid heart diseases,” he added. Mustard oil in its native form is one of the best cooking media along with canola oil and olive oil.

During the scientific sessions, Dr VK Behl from AIIMS delivered a lecture on the management of the heart diseases in 2009. He emphasised the importance of time immediately after the heart attack, which could influence the treatment and prognosis of the patient crucially.

He told that every patient of heart attack must be subjected to the coronary angiography and angioplasty by the stunt implantation if indicated. He further told about the recent advances in the medical management of the heart patients.

One of the speakers of the conference said, "One should start practising yoga, which is not merely a few postures of exercises but a holistic intensive lifestyle modification, which involves diet control by having “satvik” diet, high fibre vegetarian diet, tobacco avoidance and doing physical exercises and stress control. Hence yoga could be considered a lifestyle polypill with no side effects."

The office bearers of the Haryana chapter Dr Manoj Aggarwal, Dr Kiran Singal, Dr Ravi Garg, Dr Ashok Babeja, Dr Sant Ram Arora, Dr Aditya Ranjan, Dr Kuldeep Kumar, Dr H Mazumdar, Dr Madhukar Aggarwal, Dr R Kumar, Dr VK Goel, Dr Navleen Jain, Dr Neeraj Kalra and president of local unit of IMA Dr Ashok Sarwal were also present in the conference. 

Ambala, March 30
A seminar on the security of India was held in the GMN College at Ambala Cantt yesterday. A large number of prominent citizens were present in the seminar.

Additional DGP (Haryana) VN Rai inaugurated the seminar and DIG (CID Haryana) Rajbir Deswal gave the keynote address. Former director, the Haryana Sahitya Academy, Chander Trikha and additional director of the Agriculture Department Pradeep Kasni were the guest of owner.

While addressing the seminar VN Rai said, “A cordial atmosphere should be maintained in the country so that we could fight against the sponsored terrorism with full strength. A few neighbouring countries want to weaken India. He said it was the time when we should think about the internal and external security of the country seriously. The Mumbai attacks should not be taken lightly. In fact, they are a direct threat to our security setup.”

Rajbir Deswal said the security of the country would be stronger only if the democratic values in the country were strengthened. “Pakistan had been encouraging the extremist outfits to disturb the peace of India and promoting the cross border terrorism.

We should be aware of the destructive plans of the neighbouring countries. There should be proper coordination between the various security agencies to deal with such sensitive issues,” he added. Pardeep Kasni said, “Communal harmony could play an important role to check terrorism in the country.” Principal of the college RR Malik also spoke on this occasion. 

Yamunanagar, March 30
Keeping in view the rise in road accidents due to the plying of a large number of tractor-trailers in the district, the police has decided to involve panchayats to make villagers aware of traffic rules and regulations.

The decision came after two youths died in an accident in Jagadari last week. The victims were riding a motorcycle when they were hit by a tractor-trailer on the National Highway-73.

The need for such a campaign is felt as all roads in the district have been witnessing plying of tractor-trailers due to the presence of fairly large number of industrial units. A number of tractor-trailers can be seen carrying sand, stone, plywood, metals and agricultural produce. Most of the tractors run without reflectors and become a cause of accidents. It has been observed that many times, the drives leave trailers parked on the roads, which has been a major cause of accidents in the past. Trailers without reflectors parked on the roads are not visible and cause accidents.

The department will also ask panchayats to provide reflectors from their own funds to vehicle owners.

SP Vikas Arora said not much amount was required to provide reflectors to the villagers. An amount of Rs 5,000 was enough to provide reflectors to 100 tractor-trailers. Besides, the traffic police would provide detailed information about the rules and regulations to the panchayat members so that they can make villagers aware.

The matter was also discussed with the district transport officials for their assistant to make the campaign successful. This was an attempt to reduce accidents and save people’s lives, he added.

Sirsa, March 30
“Gadhe Ki Barat”, a play staged by members of the Saptak Cultural Society from Rohtak during a function of the Multan Sabha here recently, was a good satire on the double standards of society. It showed that there was a wide chasm between the rich and the poor and efforts to bridge that gap had always met with failure. The play, which was directed by Vishva Deepak Trikha, revolved around the theme that if a poor person became rich, he mixed up with the elite instead of helping his poor brethren. This message was conveyed through an imaginary mythological story.

The play, written by Marathi playwright Hari Bhai Vadgaonkar, gave the message that only two classes of the rich and the poor existed in society.

Trikha said it was the 202nd staging of their play, which was started in 1990, and had been staged in various parts of the country since then.

Hisar, March 30
The Haryana BJP is having a tough time convincing its grassroots workers to campaign for its own as well as its alliance partner, Indian National Lok Dal’s candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Unhappy with the alliance, the BJP workers had shown little inclination to work for the success of the INLD candidates although they were more than happy to campaign in the constituencies where their own party has put up its candidates.

The situation is no better in the INLD camp where its workers in Sonepat are reluctant to campaign for the BJP nominee K. S. Sangwan, a bete noire of Om Parkash Chautala. Chautala had sought the Sonepat seat for his party in lieu of Rohtak, but the BJP leadership turned down his plea. Since then the INLD workers are reluctant to work for Sangwan’s success.

Under the circumstances, a panicky BJP leadership had to give subtle hints to its grassroots workers to take a short term view of the alliance and concentrate at the moment only on the Lok Sabha polls. They were told not to project the elections as any test of strength between Chautala and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda or their respective parties.

In one such instance, Harjit Grewal, who looks after the party’s affairs in Haryana addressed a meeting here recently and asked party supporters to limit themselves to the national issues alone and project L. K. Advani as the most suitable candidate for the office of the Prime Minister.

He clearly stated that they should take care that the campaign did not degenerate into a Chautala-Hooda spat. Although, the BJP leaders justify these directions to party workers saying there was no place for state level issues in a parliamentary poll, in private the party workers interpret this as an explicit hint that they should garner votes now at whatever cost but they were free to decide about the 2010 assembly polls.

Publicly, the second rung leaders of both parties can be seen working alongside each other, but the fact remains that the grassroots workers are happy restricting themselves to supporting only the candidates of their respective parties.

This has raised serious doubts about that success of the alliance in the Lok Sabha. In case, the Congress outperforms the BJP-INLD alliance, there will be little likelihood of the two parties contesting the next assembly poll in unison.

Sirsa, March 30
Guransh is 13 now and has the fading memories of the past when the motherless girl had to pass through a harrowing time in her early childhood. With father a mentally challenged person, her grandmother was too old to eke a living for herself and provide a two squares meal or quality education to Guransh.

Getting education in an English medium CBSE affiliated school and a shooter, having played the national level, she wants to contribute her bit to eradicate corruption from the society after achieving her goal of becoming an IAS officer.

Roohjeet (12) is in seventh class and has already been dreaming to become a pilot after completing her studies. Dilpreet (10) has already brought laurels for her school in Yoga championships at the national level.

Guransh, Roohjeet and Dilpreet are among 18 parentless girls living in the Shahi Betiyan Basera, a home for destitute girls who are discarded by their families, being run by the Dera Sacha Sauda here for the last four years. Well-educated caretakers Vipasana, Shobha and Poonam look after these girls.

Stuti (12), Shradha (11), Suchetna (13) and Gurbahar (8) are some other girls, who have almost forgotten their previous lives after getting in to the basera. Shahi Betiyan Basera has an air-conditioned dormitory bedroom for the 18 girls between the age group of 2 to 15 years and all have been enjoying each others company.

These girls are getting their education in the CBSE affiliated English Medium Shah Satnamji Girls School in Sirsa. “Shahi Betiyan Basera was opened four years back to look after small parentless girls discarded by their relatives and their number has been increasing with the time. Two-year-old Sweety is the latest entrant,” Vipasana said.

“Here these girls are getting the atmosphere where they can freely pursue their goals and become independent and responsible individuals,” she added.

Gurgaon, March 30
Gheesa Ram, resident of Surat Nagar here, has alleged that his neighbours had attacked him a few days back, but no case had been registered against them till now. The police did not even help in getting a medical examination done, he alleged.

Ram allegedly suffered injuries on his forehead after his neighbours beat him up on March 15. He claimed that when he visited the Rajinder Park police station, his complaint was not registered. “It has been two weeks now and still no action has been taken,” Ram alleged.

His son, Raj Kumar alleged that their neighbours usually keep using abusive language after getting drunk. He said when the three of them were littering around their house, his father tried to stop them as all household women were sitting in the verandah. But all three started abusing him and attacked him with sticks. Raj alleged, “When we went to lodge a complaint, the police did not respond well and even asked us to get the medical examination done on our own. We got it done but could not get the copy of the report as the hospital authorities said the copy would be handed over to the police.”

SHO Raj Pal Singh said the complaint had not been registered as it was just of a small tiff. He said since no report of injury had been provided by the hospital, action could not be taken.

Gurgaon, March 30
With a view to infuse fresh ideas into the ongoing brainstorming sessions on devising ways and means to combat the economic meltdown, the JK Business School organised a panel discussion on “Financial improvement, a better option for India” here recently.

“The underlying idea behind the move was to make the students come out with innovative strategies on an issue of global concern and to convey the same to the policy makers,” asserted director-general of the institute Rina Ramchandran.

It was with this motive that the MBA students at the institute were brought face to face with the economic experts and the senior government functionaries.

Director-general(Investigations) in the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs Ranvijay Singh and former professor at the IIM, Ahemdabad, Anand P. Gupta, addressed the students.

Earlier, in their audio-visual presentations made before the experts, the students of the institute apprised them of various out-of-the-box perspectives regarding the issue.

Appreciating the well-researched presentations made by the students, the experts observed that even while the economic meltdown and recession had hit the economies of the strongest countries, India has managed to face the adverse circumstances in a better way due to their efficient human resource management and saving habits.

"The Indian banking system has also done admirable work in lowering the effect of recession. Despite this, Indian government has to take steps in improving the financial system to strengthen the economic situation," they maintained.

Former chief commissioner of the Tax Research Unit TR Rustagi pointed out that the growth rate of most of the countries had come down to 2 per cent or even less and in the coming quarters situation was likely to remain as such.

KS Ramchandran of the host institute pointed out that many business schools across the world have opined that the people's tendency of spending less and saving more was a major cause of economic recession while many others felt it was the other way round. "Many organisations have held the lavish spending nature of the Americans as the major cause of recession," he added.

Most speakers felt that recession was due to poor management of the US economy that was clearly visible in 2003 but became an irrecoverable crisis due to the lack of proper attention and timely action.

“It was during the period when the boom in the IT companies was on the verge of ending and during this period, the USA pumped in a lot of money into the economy to gear it up. Banks indiscriminately lent huge loans to purchase houses without bothering about its recovery. Many other economists and experts specialising in their respective fields presented their views on the occasion.

Chandigarh, March 30
To impart latest information to the farmers in the fields of agriculture and animal husbandry, the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar, will organise several training programmes in the state next month.

To educate the farmers about the appropriate preservation, sale and storage of the Rabi crops, training will be imparted in Faridabad on April 2, 8, 13 and 16 in Yamunanagar on April 3, in Bhiwani on April 8, in Sonepat on April 8, 23, 27 and 29 and in Kaithal on April 22.

In addition to it, for giving practical knowledge to the farmers regarding seed production and processing at the domestic level, training programmes would be organised in Mahendergarh from April 2 to 4 and on April 24 and 25 in Faridabad. A rat control campaign will be initiated in Kaithal on April 2.

The farmers will be taught the cotton production techniques in Mahendergarh in the first week of April, in Bhiwani on April 9 and in Jind on April 10 and April 25.

The technical knowledge related to the cattle care in the summer season, management, production, balanced diet and milk production will be provided to the farmers in Fatehabad on April 4, 12 and 27, in Sonepat on April 6, in Bhiwani on April 10, in Jind on April 20 and in Mahendergarh on April 26.

The university will organise training programmes in Mahendergarh on April 5, in Fatehabad on April 9, 10 and 16, in Rohtak on April 23, in Sonepat on April 27 and in Kaithal on April 29 to educate the farmers about horticulture and care of old and new plants, under agriculture forestry, their management and processing.

To guide the farmers about vegetable production in the summer season, preservation, sowing and management, training will be given in Panipat on April 6, in Sonepat on April 8, 10 and 18, in Fatehabad on April 11 and for insect management programmes training will be organised in Yamunanagar on April 6 and in Rohtak on April 21.

The farmers will be educated about the preparation of green manure in Yamunanagar and about organic crop cultivation in Panipat on April 9.

Training will be conducted in Rohtak on April 29 to make the farmers aware of the proper use of thrashing machines. The latest information will be given to the farmers about the summer season Moong crop in Sonepat on April 29.