Rohtak, July 30
The main road to the PGIMS, one of the largest hospitals in the state, remains clogged most of the time due to reckless driving and haphazard parking of autorickshaws, leading to inconvenience to people, especially patients, visiting the hospital.

The administration is yet to chalk out a plan to decongest the area and widen the road to the PGIMS.

“The absence of traffic cops to monitor and control the movement of autorickshaws in the town is perhaps the main cause of the problem. There is also a substantial increase in the number of vehicles at all important spots like the PGIMS, bus stand and railway station,” said Yoginder Dahiya, a local advocate and a social activist.

He said anyone visiting the PGIMS campus or the hospital, which has been upgraded to a health university, had to deal with the chaos caused by the presence of a large number of autorickshaws on the main road, which is being used as an unauthorised stand by the autorickshaw drivers.

Though a few employees of the PGIMS have been posted there to prevent the vehicles to move further towards the hospital premises, there is hardly any impact on the blockade. This leads to harassment and inconvenience to those moving on the road.

The blockade also disrupts the vehicles carrying critical patients to the hospital. Dahiya said the government should immediately consider widening of the road, which had not been done ever since the medical college came into being decades ago.

“Now, since the nearby area has been handed over to the PGIMS, the authorities should make this road six-lane and construct a parking lot for private and commercial vehicles,” said a doctor of the institute.

He said the government should also restart the local bus service from the main bus stand and the railway station. This would automatically resolve the menace of autorickshaws, which are also largely responsible for pollution and accidents on city roads, he added.

It may be recalled that the bus service of the Haryana Roadways which was operational a few years back, has been stopped. This has led to an unprecedented rise in the number of auto-rickshaws in the past few years. According to an estimate, while the number of such vehicles could be around 10,000, nearly half of them have no registration number or proper documents.

Sirsa, July 30
At least two senior Congress leaders of the area are making efforts to launch their progeny in the coming Assembly elections in the state.

State industries minister Lachhman Dass Arora and former Sirsa MP Atma Singh Gill have made their intentions clear that they would seek the party ticket for their progeny this time.

While Arora wants his daughter, Sunita Setia, to get the ruling party ticket for the Sirsa Assembly seat, Gill is lobbying hard for his son, Gurdeep Singh, for whom he wants the ticket from Ratia in Fatehabad.

Lachhman Dass Arora has won the Sirsa seat on five occasions in the 1967, 1982, 1991, 1996 and 2005 Assembly elections and has not been keeping good health for sometime now.

The octogenarian leader maintained while talking to The Tribune recently that even Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had given his blessings to his daughter.Sunita was appointed chairperson of the Improvement Trust, Sirsa, last year by the state government and has been active in public life since then.

The minister, who has been rarely seen in the public after his election and subsequent induction into the ministry in 2004, has suddenly started visits to villages in the Sirsa Assembly constituency as the elections are drawing near.Arora, accompanied by his daughter, visited Shahpur Begu village recently and announced a plethora of schemes.“ A sum of Rs 53 lakh will be spent on the construction of roads and lanes in your village,” the minister told villagers.They also visited Nejia Khera, Ali Mohammad and Chandiwal villages and announced grants for the construction of lanes.

Atma Singh on the other hand was the only sitting Congress MP from the state, who failed to get the ticket in the last parliamentary elections.Earlier, he was elected to the state Assembly from Ratia (reserved) in the 1987 elections, but lost in 1991.His son, Gurdeep Singh, was given the party ticket from Ratia in the 2004 Assembly elections, too, but he lost to INLD’s Gian Chand Odh.

Gill had alleged after the election that his son lost due to opposition from former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. Although Gill is confident of getting the ticket for his son, the former MP is facing stiff challenge from other aspirants from Ratia, who have united to oppose his claim.

Former minister Ram Swaroop Rama, former MLA Jarnail Singh, zila parishad vice-chairperson Mandeep Kaur Gill and Jagdish Mistri, who are all aspirants for the Congress ticket, recently held a joint meeting and while talking to mediapersons exhibited their solidarity on the issue of opposition to Gurdeep Singh Gill’s candidature.

Ambala, July 30
An air-conditioned and soundproof hall has been constructed at Gurdwara Panjokhra Sahib situated on the Ambala-Naraingarh Road. The hall has been constructed after five years of “kar seva”. Akal Takth jathedar Gurbachan Singh performed the “ardas” on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Guru Harkrishan recently. A nagar kirtan was also taken out on the occasion.

The gurdwara has historical significance and is dedicated to Guru Harkrishan, the eighth Sikh guru. He visited this place on his way to Delhi. It is said that the guru during his journey from Kiratpur to Panjokhra, travelled through Ropar, Banur, Raipura and Ambala. Along the way, he gave the universal message of Guru Nanak Dev to his disciples.

As he neared Panjokhra, a disciple asked him to stay here for a few days. The guru agreed. In the village lived a learned pandit, Lal Chand, who was proud of his caste as well as of his learning. He came to see the guru and asked, "It is said that you sit on the ‘gaddi’ of Guru Nanak Dev, but what do you know about the old religious books?"

Chhaju Ram, an illiterate village water carrier, happened to pass by at that moment. Guru Harkrishan asked a disciple to call him. As Chhaju Ram came, the guru enquired if he would explain to the pandit the gist of Bhagavad Gita. Saying so, the guru placed his stick over the head of the water carrier, who astonished every one by giving a convincing commentary on the sacred book.

Lal Chand's pride was overcome. And both he and Chhaju Ram became disciples of the guru and travelled with him up to Kurukshetra.

A small memorial raised in the honour of the guru was developed into a gurdwara during the Sikh dynasty, and today thousands of people visit the gurdwara every year.

The batch number of the bottle is DL3PH066. It was bottled on April 15 last at the bottle plant Aradhna Soft Drink Company located at Ali Asgharpur village in Panipat district.

Panipat, July 30
Under a special campaign launched to detect the cases of unauthorised electricity connections, the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has detected 60 cases in which tube well connections were found running without any official connection or record in Panipat district.

A spokesman said here recently that the Nigam had received complaints from various corners that there were unauthorised connections in the district creating problems like interruptions in power supply, damage to distribution transformers, etc.

It was decided to detect such cases for which five special teams headed by respective executive engineers, vigilance and maintenance and protection wings had been constituted. The teams had been directed to check whether these connections were running with the connivance of the staff.

Faridabad, July 30
With the possibility of the state Assembly elections being held in October, the Haryana Rajput Pratinidhi Sabha, headed by former IAS officer HS Rana has decided to convene a state-level sammelan of members of the community in Karnal on August 21 to discuss their political participation in the elections.

Rana said the decision to convene the sammelan was taken at a meeting of the executive committee of the sabha at its office headquarters here a couple of days ago.

He said the August 21 meeting would also adopt a resolution urging the political parties to give ticket to members from the Rajput community befitting their population in the state.

He claimed that there were about 10 lakh Rajput voters in Haryana.

The sabha expressed concern that in spite of such a big chunk of the state’s population, there were only four MLAs from the community (three of the Congress and one of the INLD) in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.

The sabha lamented that political parties ignored the interests of the community even though it formed a sizeable chunk ranging from 5,000-35,000 votes in about 30 of the 90 Assembly constituencies of the state.

Rana urged upon the ruling Congress to give at least six tickets to the Rajput community in the Assembly elections instead of four given in the last elections.

According to him, Mahendergarh, Ateli Mandi, Faridabad, Prithla were the places where the community would stake claim for the ticket from the Congress.

The sabha cautioned that the community would take a tough stance by putting up nominees as Independents in the Assembly elections, in case the parties deny them the ticket.

The sabha lamented that the community got a raw deal from the Congress, the INLD and the BJP in the last Lok Sabha elections.

Kurukshetra, July 30
An exhibition on the state’s cultural heritage, highlighting the archaeological properties and monumental architecture, was organised as part of the anniversary celebrations of Srikrishna Museum here recently.

The objective of the exhibition was to enlighten the visitors about the heritage of Haryana.

The exhibition showcased prehistoric period’s finely chiseled tools and antiques of the highly urbanised civilisation of the Indus-Saraswati culture.

A galaxy of items and photographs displayed during the exhibition enlightened the visitors about the highly cultured society of the ancient and medieval Haryana.

These heritage properties are located in various parts of the state. Each of this heritage sites depicts the state’s glorious history.

Haryana has a long and varied history which was showcased in this exhibition to highlight the state’s composite culture, including the Buddhist heritage, Sufi tradition as well as human endeavour and excellence in all its forms such as pottery, terracotta, sculpture, jewellery, fragments of household material, photographs of temples, mosque, churches, archaeological sites and above all beautiful painting from the murals of temples.

According to deputy director of the museum Rajesh Purohit, an inscription dated back to 1328 AD, known as Palam-Baoli inscription bearing the legend, “Deshosti Haryankhya, Prithivya Swarg Sannibha” (there is a region called Haryana which is like a heaven on earth), is a testimony to the fact that the state was extremely beautiful and prosperous and had achieved distinction in the field of art, culture and religion as is evident from its antiquities unearthed from excavation.

Since its inception, the museum has accomplished some extraordinary landmarks such as the establishment of two blocks of museum building having six different galleries and a third phase of digital multimedia Mahabharata gallery, he said.

Hisar, July 30
Political ideology in Haryana -the land of Aya Rams and Gaya Rams - remains as elusive now as it was four decades earlier when this infamous idiomatic phrase entered the political lexicon of the country.

The latest evidence of this comes from the entry of former Finance Minister Sampat Singh into the Congress. The switch from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) where he spent 32 years, has once again brought to fore the bitter truth that ideology has no place in Haryana’s politics.

During the more than three decades that Sampat Singh was in the INLD and its earlier avatars, he had deliberately and assiduously built an aura of intellectualism around himself. He projected himself as a man of strong and definite anti-Congress views. In this, he was helped by his primary profession- that of a lecturer in political science at two colleges here between 1972 and 1977.

Sampat Singh’s initial political ideology was simply towing his mentor Devi Lal’s political line. This was natural because he was baptised as a politician by the late Deputy Prime Minister.

Devi Lal became the Chief Minister in 1977 in the wake of a strong anti-Congress wave in the post-Emergency era. He had contested and won from the Bhattu Kalan assembly segment. Sampat Singh, then a youth hailing from this very constituency, had campaigned for him.

After Devi Lal was sworn in as Chief Minister, he inducted Sampat Singh in his personal staff mainly to take care of the constituency. However, Devi Lal quit the assembly in 1980, about a year after Bhajan Lal ousted him from the coveted office.In the 1980 byelection from Bhattu Kalan, Devi Lal put him up as his party nominee. Though Sampat Singh lost the election, he never looked back and in time became a senior leader of the INLD.

A self-professed pupil of Devi Lal, Sampat Singh hung on to his mentor’s strong anti-Congress views till a few weeks ago. He always prided himself in not having changed his party or political philosophy during his career. So much so that even after negotiating his entry into the Congress and exiting the INLD, he proclaimed he would remain a follower and practitioner of Devi Lal’s policies all his life.That raised the hackles of Congress men and he was politely told to declare that he would follow the policies of the party he would join.

The first daunting task for Sampat Singh in the Congress will be to shed the legacy of Devi Lal and learn to sing paeans to the Gandhi dynasty. This may not pose any problems for the likes of Sushil Indora and M. L. Ranga, but Sampat Singh’s image as a strong proponent of Devi Lal’s rustic political theory and practice will hinder his acceptability among Congress cadres at least initially. Besides, on the personal level, Sampat Singh will definitely face an identity crisis because of this reason.

With assembly elections round the corner, he has just weeks to shed his past and shape his future armed with a new party and,of course, a rather unfamiliar ideology. To be fair to him, Sampat Singh was literally forced out of the INLD. After Devi Lal quit politics after handing over reins to Om Parkash Chautala, Sampat Singh was never comfortable in the party as the Chautalas never let go an opportunity to humiliate him and show him his place in the party. Nevertheless, he did his best to stay in the good books of Chautala. He hung on to the INLD till he realised there was no future for him there even if he were to make many more compromises. 

Kaithal, July 30
Civil Surgeon RP Dahiya said here recently that the committee constituted to check prenatal detection test under the overall supervision of deputy commissioner Amneet P. Kumar has helped in curbing the illegal practice by ultrasound centres in the district.

He said due to the strict vigil by the monitoring committee, the practice of female foeticide had been checked effectively, but still reports of some illegal activity by some centres had been pouring in. He said action would be initiated against such centres after concrete evidence was collected.

He further said some reports of female foeticide were being received from the area of the Rajound block bordering Karnal district and Guhla.

The surgeon said the public should inform the civil administration or the health department authority about any such illegal activity being carried on by any centre and the name of such informer would be kept secret. He said he could be contacted at office phone 01746-230262 and 9215156179 and another functionary at 9812788232.

Meanwhile, Dr Dahiya said the health department during raids at various places in Kaithal town recently had taken 12 samples of various articles of daily use. These were sent to Panchkula laboratory for tests. He said during current month, as many as 32 samples had been taken.

Kaithal, July 30
Many sweetmeat makers and traders carrying on the business of sale of diary products have been allegedly selling spurious items, thus jeopardising the health of people who purchase such products in good faith. It is being alleged that all these illegal activities are going on under the nose of the administration and the health department authorities.

Local residents say the trade cannot thrive without the connivance of health officials who, they allege, always adopt a soft approach towards such persons.

Surprisingly, milk tankers visiting a number of diaries in the town daily for the past few years, which had mysteriously disappeared after a raid conducted recently by the state crime branch and health department officials at a local diary, have resurfaced.

The residents suspect that such tankers are either supplying adulterated items to these dairies or were procuring spurious milk and other products prepared at such diaries for supplying to neighbouring districts and other states.

The residents also allege that a number of sweetmeat sellers have been charging exorbitant prices from the consumers by claiming the use of pure ghee, but except a few shopkeepers all are using substandard ghee. Even a layman can judge by tasting the product that the claims made by the shopkeepers about the use of quality ghee are incorrect.

Similar is the case with other items like cheese, cream, and milk being sold in these shops. The residents apprehend that they are being supplied poor quality eatables by some greedy shopkeepers and no effective steps are being taken to save them from the exploitation.

The residents have expressed resentment against the district health authorities for their failure to keep a check on the activities of these unscrupulous elements. They allege that the authorities take periodical samples to prove before their higher-ups that they are doing their job.

However, according to reports, members of teams taking samples at times give an option to the shopkeepers to offer items of their choice for samples. Some big shopkeepers are exempted and they continue to indulge in selling spurious and poor quality dairy products and sweets.

Civil surgeon RP Dahiya claimed that samples were taken regularly from the shops and in the past, many adulterators had been convicted by the courts. He added that with reports pouring in continuously regarding the sale of spurious khoya, milk, ghee and other items, the department would launch a special drive to nail the culprits.

Gurgaon: John Keells Foods, a Sri Lanka-based firm dealing in processed frozen meats, organised a sausage festival, “Keells & Krest Sausage Festival” here recently. 

Chef Vivek Saggar showcased his culinary skills.The fair was organised to create awareness about processed frozen meats as well as announcing the firm’s entry into the country with different meat varieties.

The chef demonstrated different recipes using various sausages and shared some interesting tips and recipes with the audience.A recipe contest was also organised for women from across the city through a radio channel in which participants had to showcase their culinary skills with different recipes using sausages. — TNS

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Recently, the Chief Minister announced the introduction of police commissionerate in Faridabad from August 2009. It would be the second city after Gurgaon to have a post of police commissioner.

Although it is a welcome step, the question is why the state government even after enacting the Haryana Police Act 2007, is not enforcing the same. A close perusal of this legislation reveals that it lacks necessary and requisite directives of the apex court on police reforms in letter and spirit.

The proposed constitution and functions of the State Police Board are not in line with any of the models as proposed by the NHRC, Riberio Committee or the Sorabjee Committee.

The power of appointing the DGP has also been retained fully in the hands of the powers that be contrary to the SC directive of involving the UPSC in the matter. Also, rather than the minimum tenure of two years for DGP, IG, DIG, SP and SHO, the Act provides for a fixed term only in respect of DGP, IG and SP and that too only for a period of one year rather than two years as directed.

It is difficult to understand why SHOs have not been considered for a fixed tenure. Lastly, in respect with providing mechanism for police accountability, the Haryana statute provides for the establishment of only state-level police complaint authority and regarding the district-level authority, it merely provides for notifying the same, as and when required.

This one-man state-level authority can even be headed by a retired civil servant or a criminal lawyer rather than retired members of judiciary as was directed. In the recent past, the state has witnessed a spurt in the incidents of police atrocities on innocent citizens. Much worse, there is no state human rights commission in Haryana. I request the Chief Minister to intervene and endeavour to amend and enforce its police legislations accordingly so that reforms can be implemented in letter and spirit.

Hemant Kumar, Ambala City

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