Gurgaon, July 11
Even as monsoon continues to elude the northern parts of the country, it’s not just the farmers who are looking towards the sky. Badly hit by the global economic slump, the local industry is also pinning its hopes on a good spell of rain for its revival.

Local industry captains feel that at a crucial juncture when the economy was beginning to show some signs of improvement, monsoon failure may delay the process of recovery by several more months.

“It’s not merely agriculture which depends upon a good monsoon; in fact the entire economy of our country relies heavily on the mercy of the rain gods,” observes PK Jain, founder president of the Gurgaon Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).

His views are endorsed by Kuldeep Gangwani, former president of the GCCI, besides several other local industrial leaders.

Apart from good rains, the local industry also hopes that the central government would also announce some bailout package for it.

“In a situation when exports are falling and especially small and medium-scale industrial units are facing a tough time, it is high time that the Centre extends a helping hand to the industry,” asserts Col Raj Singla (retd), president of the Chamber of Industries of Udyog Vihar.

Small and medium-scale industrial units, particularly those engaged in garment and automobile parts manufacturing, besides the BPO, IT and IT-enabled service sectors were the worst-hit by the global fiscal meltdown.

This had led to a number of local industrial units being shut down and a large number of workers being laid off.

“Many of the export orders were cancelled, which was a big blow to many local garment manufacturers,” says Vasdev Loond of the Garment Exporters Association.

Loond as well as other garment manufacturers maintain that the current part of the year is even otherwise a lean period as far as export orders are concerned. They say that a clearer picture will emerge only by September or October, when the garment manufacturers get export orders from the USA, Canada and other western markets. However, that seems to apply to small and medium industries only; as the persons running big units deny having faced any rough patch.

“There is no dearth of orders and our units are running to meet the export demand,” says NS Grewal, operations head at Orient Craft.

As regards the real estate sector, it has witnessed a recession, though the big developers term it a “passing phase”.

Rohtak, July 11
The police today arrested the husband of a young woman who had committed “suicide” by consuming poison on the premises of the IG’s office on May 5. The deceased, Alka (24), a victim of “gang rape”, had consumed poison along with her husband, Sunil, in protest against the “denial of justice”. While Alka had died, her husband survived.

They had alleged that the police was not arresting the gang rape accused and they were been harassed since August 2006 when the incident took place in Panipat district.

While those accused of gang rape are yet to be arrested, the police today arrested Sunil on a charge of murder. He has been booked on a complaint lodged by the parents of Alka, who alleged that Sunil made Alka consume poison while he himself took a mild substance.

However, this development has shocked the kin of Sunil, who started a dharna outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner, alleging a conspiracy to malign them and to save the gang rape accused.

Alka is survived by her husband and two kids, aged four and six years.

“The police is silent over the progress made in the case, especially regarding the arrest of the gang rape accused and action against the cops who allegedly tried to shield the culprits,” said a source close to the family.

The victim was allegedly gangraped by five persons in August 2006 while she was going to meet her parents in Samalkha town of Panipat. 

Sirsa, July 11
While the United Nation Population Fund gave the theme “educate girls to reduce global population” on the 20th annual World Population Day today, some enlightened women observed the day here by educating women on the ill-effects of the rising population.

The women wing of the Youth Welfare Federation today organised corner meetings in Nehru Park, Kalyan Nagar, Nehar Colony and some slum areas of the town on the occasion of World Population Day.

Volunteers of the federation distributed pamphlets among women regarding the disadvantages of the increasing population and the need for controlling it by way of family planning.

Gurcharan Kaur Mann, chairperson of the federation, said population explosion was the biggest obstacle in the way of development of the country and women ought to take a pledge to overcome this in the national interests.

She said it was the duty of educated women to take upon themselves the responsibility of planning their own families and also educating poor and illiterate women on this issue.

Pushpa Buri, vice-chairperson of the federation, cited the penchant for a male child, marriage of girls at a young age, torrid atmosphere and illiteracy as the main reasons behind population explosion in India.

Saroj Bala, an executive member, said jobs opportunities were falling abysmally short in the face of the increasing population and in case this was not checked, the situation would go from bad to worse.

She said the national resources were also under tremendous pressure due to the population explosion and these would not last long if the trend was allowed to continue.

Kuldeep Kaur Sidhu, a member of the national committee of the federation, said if the increasing population was not checked, 66 per cent of our population would not get clean drinking water by 2030. 

Chandigarh, July 11
Roshni Devi, sarpanch of Kothal Khurd village in Narnaul, was felicitated today by President Pratibha Devisingh Patil at a function at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.

Felicitating Roshni Devi and her co-workers, Usha Devi and Tripati Devi, for their successful drive against drinking in public places in the village, the President said their campaign had shown that the most difficult of challenges could be overcome with courage, dedication and confidence. A number of social evils and superstitious practices like dowry, child marriage, female foeticide and alcoholism had to be completely eradicated from society, the President emphasised.

The President said there was need for carrying out a study on the “economic cost” of evil social practices in society.

Roshni Devi, on being elected the sarpanch, had called a meeting of the gram sabha in which a resolution was passed not to allow consumption of liquor in public places in the village and illegal sale of liquor. The efforts of these women changed the mindset of villagers to such an extent that even licence holders of liquor sub-vends had to shut shop due to public resistance. 

Hisar, July 11
A large number of government employees staged a protest here today on a call given by the Sarva Karamchari Sangh, Haryana, to press for their long-standing demands.

Carrying black flags, they marched in a procession from Katla Ramlila to Parijat Chowk seeking public support for their cause.

They were led by chief of the sangh Azad Singh Malik. Later, they submitted a memorandum listing their demands to all legislators residing here urging them to use their influence in the government for getting their issues resolved.

The memoranda said despite several representations to the Chief Minister, the employees had not been given justice.

As a result they were being forced to agitate to press for their demands.

Their demands included regularisation of the services of guest teachers, aanganwadi workers, daily wagers and others engaged on contract basis and hiking their salaries to Rs 10,000 a month till regularisation, implementation of sixth pay panel scales in all departments, filling up of all vacant posts, increase in rate of interest on provident fund and small savings, scrapping of contract system and checking inflation.

A spokesperson for the sangh said they would hold similar protests at tehsil levels on August 6 and would meet Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his Rohtak residence on August 16.

Fatehabad, July 11
Villagers blocked traffic on the Fatehabad-Chandigarh road near Barsin village yesterday in protest against the erratic supply of power and water. Long queues of vehicles were seen and people took the Dhangar-Mohammedpur Rohi route to reach their destinations.

Villagers, including women, assembled on the national highway around 9 am and blocked the road by parking their tractor trailers on it.

“The power situation is at its worst these days. Our crops are withering without water and power has started playing truant almost after every 15 minutes,” alleged Milakh Ram, an agitator.

Gurjeet Kaur alleged that the plight of children and elderly members of their families was bad in the absence of electricity and several requests to the authorities in this regard had failed to move them. Kapil Sihag, in charge of the traffic police, reached there with Tehsildar Naurang Dass and tried to persuade the villagers to end the protest but they were adamant on the restoration of the power supply first. 

Yamunanagar, July 11
The police today arrested three youths, who had allegedly murdered the manager of the Shivalik hotel at Tajewala here yesterday.

Narbahadur, Mukesh and Sunil were arrested by the joint team of the CIA staff and the Khijrabad police.

The arrested youths told the police that flesh trade racket was allegedly flourishing in the hotel that led to rivalry between the manager and Narbahadur, following which Narbahadur along with his friends murdered the manager with sharp-edged weapons yesterday.

Narbahadur and Mukesh belonged to the district while Sunil hailed from Uttarakhand, said SP Vikas Arora.

The police has also recovered the sharp-edged weapons that were used to murder the manager from the accused. The police had been raiding different places to arrest the other accused involved in the murder. The details of the case would be revealed after the interrogation of the three accused, he added.

Ballabgarh (Faridabad), July 11
A joint team of the Health Department and the police today raided two shops allegedly selling adulterated ghee in the main market of the town and seized about 17 quintals of the product.

The shops - Gokul Dairy and Lakshmi Dairy - have been sealed and criminal cases registered against the owners of the two shops.

The police had received a tip-off that the two shops were selling ghee at Rs 130 per kg. This alarmed the police as the price at which the product was being sold was very low in comparison to the general rate of Rs 300-350 per kg.

Ballabgarh DSP Badan Singh Rana said the culprits manufactured the product using Dalda, refined oil and chemicals.