Gurgaon, September 3
The announcement of Assembly elections in the state has triggered feverish lobbying for the ticket amongst the aspiring candidates itching to flex their political muscles.

Though the ticket scramble prevails in all parties, it is particularly pronounced in the ruling Congress, which is witnessing a heavy rush of ticket seekers and their supporters.

Having fared pretty well in the recent Lok Sabha polls in the state, the state Congress leadership seems quite confident of repeating its good performance in the Assembly polls as well.

However, apart from handling the large numbers of wannabe MLAs, striking a balance between the old and loyal Congressmen and the immigrant opposition leaders, who have recently switched their loyalties to the party, is going to be a tough job for the party leadership.

The presence of several factions in the Congress is also set to make the job of selectors even more difficult. At the same time, the opposition parties are also leaving no stone unturned to exploit the situation to their advantage.

As of now, the ticket aspirants of the ruling Congress as well as the Opposition parties, including the INLD, the BJP, the HJC and the BSP, are making all-out efforts to get the ticket.

Apart from holding public meetings in their respective constituencies and parading their prominent supporters before their party bosses, these leaders are also using the media for their publicity to get an edge over their competitors.

In the given situation, there is every possibility of a considerable number of party members contesting the Assembly polls as independent candidates on being denied the party ticket, more so in the Congress. The hands of the state leadership are already full with several sections of government employees, particularly university and college teachers and other staff members, pressing hard for the fulfillment of their demands.

At this crucial juncture, the ruling party has to walk on a tight rope, as neither it can afford to offend the protesting employees nor announce any sops for them in view of the model code of conduct in force in the state.

According to political observers, how the present and former rulers of the state take on these pre-poll challenges would be interesting to note.

Kaithal, September 3
Automobile workshops in every nook and corner of the town have become a health hazard and a source of nuisance for residents.

Most of the owners of such workshops had been using a major portion of the PWD (B&R) and Municipal roads to carry on their business. Surprisingly, the authorities concerned have miserably failed to act against the encroachers who repair trucks, tractors, four-wheelers and two-wheelers on roadsides outside their shops and thus obstruct the smooth flow of traffic. Vehicles create a lot of noise and air pollution when they are tested after the repair work.

Besides, the burning of empty oil containers, waste oily clothes, polythenes and other articles outside the workshops is a common sight. The atmosphere is polluted and passers-by or all those working in the vicinity of the workshops have to inhale poisonous gases emanating from the burning materials.

All this had been happening for a long time, but no action has reportedly ever been taken against the erring persons.

The public is in dark about the existence of any government agency which can be contacted for initiating any action against the violators. The indifferent attitude of the district administration and the municipal council authorities to solve the problem has drawn widespread criticism from the public. But, public perception is that the authorities as usual prefer to look other way than to find a solution to the problem.

The residents demand that the workshops should immediately be shifted to the newly constructed Transport Nagar where an auto market had been carved out.

Meanwhile, they also demanded that the workshop owners be immediately stopped from using roadsides to carry on their business to ensure decongestion of the roads.

Rohtak, September 3
Also known as CM’s city, Rohtak has emerged as a favourite place for holding and staging protests on various issues. More than 12 demonstrations have been held in the city in the past few weeks.

A majority of the protests were concerning the revision of pay scales, especially of the state government employees and the teaching community. The city has also been in news for activities aimed to attract the attention of the government and the authorities.

Various associations of university and college teachers have carried out demonstration under the banner of the Haryana Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (HFUCTO) in the past week while proceeding on to strike on the issue of their dissatisfaction over a hike in the salaries. Associations of the private college teachers union and non- teaching staff have also staged a demonstration in support of their demands in the recent past.

The Haryana School Lecturers Association (HSLA), a body of the state government engineers association, a union of teachers of government schools, including guest teachers’ association, have also joined the list of those who have staged a protest in the past few weeks, claimed an official in the office of the deputy commissioner.

A majority of the unions that hold protests submit a memorandum through the district authorities to highlight their demands.

The Haryana Abhibhawak Ekta Manch, a body of the parents of school going students in the state, also held a big demonstration here on August 30, where its members demanded a strict action against the management of a private school in Faridabad where a class II student was “stripped” for not paying an enhanced fee.

While activists of the Arya Samaj also held a demonstration here recently in protest against the violence by supporters of Sant Rampal, a spiritual leader based at Barwala in Hisar, political activists belonging to the INLD and the BJP had also held a demonstration on various issues.

Besides a protest march by terminated constables of the Haryana Industrial Security Force (formed under the Chautala government) seeking their reinstatement in service, teaching staff of government polytechnics also held a demonstration here recently.

Sirsa/Fatehabad, September 3
The surgery package programme (SPP), recently launched by the state government in its district hospitals, has been receiving fairly good response in Sirsa and Fatehabad.

Barring a few bottlenecks, including a shortage of doctors, the programme has shown encouraging response in the first two months of its launching.

A brainchild of the principal secretary and financial commissioner, Health Department, Anuradha Gupta, the programme was launched in all districts of the state simultaneously on July 1, 2009.

Under the programme, patients preferring government general hospitals of the state for surgeries have to pay nominal charges for the package as compared to those in private hospitals.

The charges include the cost of surgery as well as medicines and equipments required during the surgery.

All medical examinations, including ECG, MRI and other laboratory tests, are also carried out under the plan and the patient or his attendant does not have to pay for anything else.

Moreover, BPL families and inhabitants of the urban slums are entitled to free surgeries and no fees are charged from them for anything.

The BPL families only need to produce a copy of their BPL cards, while residents of the urban slums have to give a copy of their ration card as evidence of their residence.

“As many as 262 major and minor surgeries were performed under the programme in July 2009, while 254 surgeries had been performed till August 28, 2009,” said PS Dhawan, civil surgeon, Sirsa.

“These surgeries include 98 eye surgeries, 4 ENT surgeries, 139 gynaecological surgeries, 120 major general surgeries, 73 minor general surgeries, 70 major orthopaedic surgeries and 12 minor orthopaedic surgeries,” he said, adding, 160 BPL persons benefitted from these surgeries.

Scarcity of doctors is plaguing the programme at District Hospital, Fatehabad, where there is no gynaecologist, no ENT surgeon and no orthopaedic surgeon at present.

OP Arya, civil surgeon, Fatehabad, informed that 202 surgeries were performed in July, while 165 had been performed in August despite the shortage of doctors.

“We had two gynaecological surgeons out of which one has been transferred and the other has proceeded on maternity leave. The ENT surgeon has been transferred and two orthopaedic surgeons have also left following their transfers,” he said.

“We are soon going to start the programme in General Hospital, Tohana, after which the number of surgeries will be almost doubled,” added Dr Arya.

Adi Badri (Yamunanagar), September 3
The source of the mythical Vedic Saraswati river, popularly known as Saraswati Udgamsthal and located about 40 km from here in the picturesque Shivalik foothills, is now to be developed as a major tourist centre.

It will also be channelised for irrigation purposes under the national project of water management and harvesting, in addition to providing potable water to villagers in the area.

Officials of the union tourism ministry, which has already approved the plan, visited the site recently to assess the project cost. The district administration has submitted an estimated budget of over Rs 40 crore to Tourism Minister Kumari Selja for developing popular tourist spots in the district.

Every year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims throng Adi Badri, situated on the river’s banks with the scenic Shivalik Hills in the background. Other places of interest in the vicinity which the tourism ministry plans to develop include the Mantra Devi temple, the Kapal Mochan phase, Ved Vyas Sarovar and the Hathni Kund barrage.

“That the Saraswati river once existed has now been supported by satellite images. For the past 10 years, we have campaigned to use the river’s water flowing underground to feed farmers in Haryana and Rajasthan. I’m happy the government now plans to develop the site as a tourist spot as well as use the river water for irrigation” said Darshan Lal, president of the Saraswati Nadi Sodh Sansthan, who has been working on the Saraswati project since 1999.

Deputy commissioner Amit Kumar Agarwal said the project aimed at developing facilities for pilgrims and tourists at historical sites. Besides the renovation of Saraswati Udgamsthal, as the place is popularly known, there are plans to introduce water rafting and motor boats as well as set up a water games park at the Hathni Kund barrage. Camping sites would also be built at the Kalesar national park”.

Chandigarh, September 3
Better healthcare at affordable rates — the evening Out Patient Department (OPD) of the General Hospital, Sector 6, introduced recently, is doing just that and the number of patients queuing up for treatment is slowly going up.

While the regular morning shift of the OPD continues, the Haryana Health Department, after assessing the workload of the existing staff, decided to introduce the evening shift in the hospital to cater to employees and other such people who cannot afford to skip work to line up for treatment at the government hospital due to a paucity of time.

“We got the workload examined and decided to provide three times the number of existing specialists so that the doctors are not overburdened. This became possible only because we recruited a number of specialists recently. The evening OPD has been introduced on an experimental basis and we will see the response of public to this facility before extending it to other districts,” Anuradha Gupta, principal secretary, Health, said.

While specialists in the departments of gynaecology, skin, ENT, eye, radiology, radiotherapy, anaesthesia have been increased, general physicians, surgeons, orthopedicians have also been added to the hospital to facilitate equitable sharing of the burden. In addition, the operation theatres will also be functional, along with the pathology lab and the blood bank.

Functional from 3 pm to 9 pm, the evening OPD begins an hour after the morning OPD is closed for cleaning and sanitising the hospital to be ready for more patients. Earlier, the doctors were having problems with the new schedule, but now they are becoming used to it.

This done, the Health Department has also decided to add the AYUSH Department to the hospital where doctors are prescribing homoeopathic and ayurvedic medicines and holding a yoga camp.

For optimum utilisation, the urban dispensaries will also have evening OPDs for the benefit of public. “We have only managed the existing resources to get the maximum return in the interest of the public. After the hospital got over in the afternoon, expensive equipment and machines used to lie idle while patients were forced to run to private testing centres. This was not palatable to us, especially since we were getting the best and the latest machines. With the evening OPD functional, at least these machines are functional and giving relief to the common man,” Gupta said.

Sirsa, September 3
Under an Indo-Israel project, a horticultural nursery is being set up in the district at Mangeana village near Dabwali. It is one of the two such nurseries being set up in the country at a cost of Rs 9.70 crore. The other one is at Dharaunda in Haryana, where a nursery for vegetables is being set up.

Ashok Tanwar, Member of Parliament from Sirsa, laid the foundation stone of the project at a function here recently. Dr KV Singh, former OSD to the Chief Minister, presided at the function.

Speaking on the occasion, Tanwar said the government had taken revolutionary steps in the direction of horticulture during the past four-and-a-half year.

“A nursery will be set up on 50 acres here for citrus fruits, olive, mangoes and pomegranate. Once ready, it will help in augmenting the income of farmers of this area,” he said.

He said out of 37 lakh hectare under cultivation of various crops, 5.1 per cent land had come under horticulture.

Dr Singh said better varieties of fruits would be developed in the district by taking cooperation from scientists from Israel.

Fatehabad, September 3
In its bid to improve the standard of the storage of foodgrains in the state, the Haryana Warehousing Corporation (HWC), a pioneer in the state for the storage of foodgrains, is constructing a new 2000 MT godown for the Food & Supplies Department with state-of-the-art galvalume sheets in Fatehabad.

These sheets have a distinct advantage over the age-old asbestos sheets as the godowns constructed with galvalume sheets are totally leak proof as this new technology eliminates the use of nuts and bolts which are required in the fixing of asbestos sheets. As there is no leakage so there is no damage to the stocks.

The godowns with galvalume sheets have turbo ventilators and skylights on the top due to which ambient temperature is maintained inside them. Further due to the coating composition of aluminium and zinc on these sheets, they are highly heat resistant.

“The godowns are constructed without trusses and purlins due to which birds do not get any place to sit. As such the birds cannot throw their body waste on the crops stored and hence the grains do not get spoiled,” said Rajan Malik, regional manager, Proflex Systems, Ahmedabad.

The non-use of trusses and purlins also increases the space inside for the storage of foodgrains and the coloured sheets further enhance the appearance of the building.

The galvalume sheets have got more lifespan than the asbestos sheets. Further, asbestos contains cancerous fibre, which, if inhaled, can cause damage to lungs.

Roofing with galvalume sheets can be done within a short span of 2-3 days whereas the fabrication of trusses and fixing of asbestos sheets is a time-consuming job and delays the completion of godowns as it takes around two months.

The corporation is the first state agency to adopt these sheets in all its godowns under construction. At present, the corporation is constructing 65,040 MT godowns at 14 locations to augment its own storage capacity and 42,100 MT corporation godowns at 13 locations for the department.

In 2009-10, there is a proposal to construct 42,800 MT godowns at Barwala, Hansi, Bani (Sirsa), Israna, Rattipur (Palwal), Nissing, Nuh and Gohana.

Yamunanagar, September 3
Sustained efforts by four technical personnel of the Red Cross Society’s district rehabilitation centre to come up with a lighter artificial foot have given new hope to the physical challenged, especially those who are poor.

After two years of hard work, the team, which includes an engineer, developed the artificial foot that weighs much less and is also cheaper compared to others available in the market. It will be provided free of cost to those who require an artificial limb.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has also appreciated the accomplishment by the Red Cross Society.

Giving details about the project, deputy commissioner and Red Cross Society chairman Amit Kumar Agarwal said the artificial foot, which has been named ‘Jagadhri foot’, was made after evaluating all technical variants and also aesthetic looks. “Without compromising on quality we have managed to make an artificial foot whose weight is almost half that of comparable products. It has also been priced much lower that others in the market”, he added.

“Earlier the Red Cross Society had been purchasing artificial feet, each costing Rs 15,000, from Rajasthan. However, now we can make an artificial foot priced in the Rs 1,500-Rs 4,000 range. Moreover the ‘Jagadhri foot’ weighs only 400 gms whereas other such products available in the market weigh at least one kilogram”, Agarwal stated.

“Besides providing these artificial feet to the poor who are disabled we’ll also supply them to other states. The chief minister, who had inaugurated this project on August 1, has already distributed over 150 artificial feet made by the Red Cross Society free of cost to the needy”, he added.

Krishan Pal Tyagi, an engineer at the district rehabilitation centre, observed: “Besides being much cheaper as well as lighter, the artificial foot made by us is more durability than similar other products. This project will help hundreds of people not only in Haryana but also in neighbouring states.”

Chandigarh, September 3
HUDA has formulated a policy regarding renumbering of plots in case of deleted and omitted plots. As per the policy, first of all any unallotted plot available in a block shall be deleted, keeping corner plots with preferential (P) or special preferential (SP) status intact in a row while renumbering deleted/omitted plots in case of shortage of land found on ground due to any reason.

If no such plot is available in the block, middle plots will be provided or demarcated in an ascending order of their numbers and the last two numbers of middle plots in the row shall get deleted. In case, one side corner plots in two back-to-back rows are not with 'P' or 'SP' status, corner plot in a row would get deleted.

Karnal, September 3
While the H1N1 flu (swine flu) is spreading fast and threatening to become a global pandemic, homoeopathic doctors in Mexico have been able to clearly identify the disease and have prescribed seven medicines for different set of symptoms.

Although the treatment in homoeopathy is symptom-based and individual, the doctors have observed that in the face of an epidemic, groups of drugs characterised by the peculiarities of the symptoms of the sick can be obtained.

Noted homoeopath and member,Central Council of Homoeopathy, Dr Vimal Dhawan, says symptoms have been clearly listed for a homoeopathic doctor to find out whether the patient is suffering from H1N1 flu or not and he can prescribe the medicine keeping the pattern and individuality of the symptoms of each patient in mind.

Main symptoms which included high fever, headache, clear nasal discharge, sneezing, cough, severe aches and pains, fatigue for several weeks, sometimes sore throat, extreme exhaustion, fever and pain in the body generally last from three to five days, but cough and fatigue can last for two weeks or more.

The Mexican fever (swine flu) may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and acute breathing trouble, but the confirmation of influenza A H1NI should be supplemented by diagnostic laboratory tests, Dr Dhawan adds.

Referring to diagnostic tests, he says these included PCR’RT real time (polymerase chain reaction/reverse transcription), viral culture to know the type of influenza A H1NI and also to rule out the infection. Dr Dhawan says medicines for H1N1 cure have been listed with symptoms to facilitate the doctors to choose the correct medicine in individual cases.