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More trouble: Villages shut door on couple
Who will represent Hisar in Cabinet?
Women In New House |
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8 seats gone, but Cong MP unperturbed
Burning Issue
Rice millers on the warpath with FCI
Ban on burning stubble goes up in smoke
Swine Flu
2009-10 to be Year of Gram Sabha
SDM visits anaj mandis
Denied job, man attempts suicide
1,500 skill development centres soon
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More trouble: Villages shut door on couple
Rohtak, November 1 The latest development came today when a meeting of the elders of two villages was held after the “expulsion” of the couple. The boy hails from Sundana while the girl belongs to the nearby Garhi Ballam village, about 2 km away in Kalanaur subdivision in the district. The panchayat of the two villages, attended by over 100 persons and held in Sundana village, announced its decision to impose the ban on the couple, who, it said, had violated the social norm of “avoiding matrimonial relationship in the neighbourhood”. The couple - Karamvir Dhaka and Rekha, alias Pooja - had left the village three days ago. There kin had claimed that the couple had left the village as the boy had got a job in a city. While no one from the girl’s side was present at today's meeting , Karamvir’s father, Ramphal, attended the panchayat and reportedly accepted the decision handed out by the panchayat. He assured the panchayat that he would not allow his son and daughter-in-law to enter his house in Sundana village in the future, it is stated.The panchayat, presided over by Chhotu Ram Ahlawat from Garhi Ballam village, asked residents of both villages as well as the couple’s relatives not to allow the couple to enter Sundana and Garhi Ballam villages.According to sources, no objection was raised by anyone at the meeting the panchayat. The couple had earlier been served a week’s ultimatum to either leave the village or sever matrimonial ties by a “social panchayat”, held about 10 days ago. The couple preferred to leave the village apparently bowing to the pressure of the panchayat’s verdict even though the district police claimed to have offered security to them.Three months ago, Karamvir had married Rekha, a resident of the adjoining Garhi Ballam village, in a Rohtak court after a four-year courtship. After staying in Sonepat for some time, they returned to Sundana village before Diwali but faced opposition from their families as well as villagers, who opposed their relationship on the plea that this marriage could not be justified since a marriage between residents of neighbouring villages was prohibited as per social
customs. |
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Who will represent Hisar in Cabinet?
Hisar, November 1 Since 2005, Hisar was represented by the late Om Parkash Jindal, who died within weeks of becoming a minister. Later, his widow Savitri Jindal won the byelection from Hisar and was inducted into the Cabinet. This time, however, the situation is extraordinary. Former Finance Minister Sampat Singh is now a Congress legislator from the Nalwa constituency in the district. He is one of the seniormost politicians of Haryana and also has been a minister every time the Indian National Lok Dal was in power since the days of Devi Lal. He has also been the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly for several years.Hooda will have to make a choice between Savitri Jindal and Sampat Singh as all other Congress legislators from Hisar are newcomers. However, there is another glitch. Should Kuldeep Bishnoi support the Congress in the assembly to lend the Hooda ministry a touch of stability, he too will have to be inducted into the Cabinet. In that case, the claims of both Sampat Singh and Savitri Jindal would have to be overlooked. Both Sampat Singh and Savitri Jindal are unlikely to accept other posts like chairmanship of a board or a corporation. Having remained ministers, they will also not be open to becoming parliamentary secretaries. Hooda’s hands are also tied because he will have to accommodate the Independents too. That will further cut down the number of Congress MLAs who can be inducted into the Cabinet. In the case of Bishnoi, in case he decides to back the Congress, he will try to grab as much importance and power as possible for the simple reason that his clan has been out of power for almost 14 years. His constituency, Adampur, badly needs to be pampered if Bishnoi is to win the next election. Though Adampur has been loyal to the Bhajan Lal clan for more than 40 years, the victory margin has been coming down steadily because of Adampur’s neglect. While Bhajan Lal won by a margin of over 70,000 votes in 2005, Bishnoi managed to scrape through this time by a little over 6,000 votes.The people of this district too have been looking for effective representation ever since Bhajan Lal quit the office of Chief Minister in 1996. During Bhajan Lal’s regime, this district was the cynosure of all eyes in so far as development was concerned. Before that during the Bansi Lal and Devi Lal regimes too Hisar had remained the focus of development as both Bhiwani and Sirsa districts were carved out of Hisar only. |
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Women In New House
Chandigarh, November 1 Contesting from Ateli was a tough call for Yadav who had to leave her constituency of Salhawas following its demolition in the delimitation exercise. A three-time MLA since 2000, Yadav began her career as member of the Zila Parishad and soon rose to become its vice-president. “I had come back home after finishing a course in pharmacy since my husband is a doctor. It was around the same time that we had the zila parishad elections and my husband prodded me to contest. “Since then, I have been the president of the district unit of the NSUI and have headed the women’s wing in the state,” she says. Yadav says the Chief Minister must sit up and take notice of the aspirations of the people who have voted her back for the third time. “This has been a crucial election where every seat counts. The people must be rewarded and my status must be elevated. “We can only request him to consider this, the rest is up to him,” she remarks. Rathore who won from her constituency by a 23,000 plus margin, also began her political career from the district level when she was appointed NSUI president. She went on to become member of the municipal corporation twice from where she was picked to be Congress candidate from Ballabhgarh.“I joined politics because I believe that we can be role models. When I became MLA for the first time in 2005, I realised that we have access to creating the India of the 21st century if each one of us performs our duty with dedication,” she says. During her tenure this time, Rathore hopes to address the needs of the growing migrant population in her area and create an effective drainage system. “I have decided that in this term, given our government focus on education and health, I will carry out surprise visits to schools and hospitals at regular intervals,” Rathore says. A lawyer by vocation, Bhukkal, elected for a second term from Jhajjar, comes from a family of staunch Congress men. “So, politics happened to me in the course of my social service. I don’t know when it became a profession. I won the Kalayat seat for the Congress after 37 years in the last election and carried out a lot of development works. “The allegation of Rohtak-centric development is unjustified because the Chief Minister was always supportive of MLAs wanting to work in their constituencies,” she says, adding that the INLD had not bothered to execute any works in the area when it was in power.Having contested from Jhajjar after her seat was de-reserved, Bhukkal explains that her priority would be optimum utilisation of funds given under state and central government schemes. “My main thrust will be to address the water problem in my new constituency as also to ensure that the infrastructure created is properly used,” she says. — Concluded |
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8 seats gone, but Cong MP unperturbed
Sirsa, November 1 Even the defeat of three of the four IYC leaders fielded by the party is not a cause of worry for him. Congress candidates lost in the Dabwali, Kalanwali, Rania, Ellenabad, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Ratia and Narwana assembly seats coming under the Sirsa parliamentary seat, while only Paramvir Singh did the face-saving act for the party at Tohana. Of the eight seats that the Congress lost, five went to the Indian National Lok Dal, one to its alliance partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal, and two to Independents. The Congress had won from Dabwali, Rania, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Ratia and Tohana, when Tanwar defeated Sita Ram of the INLD in the May parliamentary elections. The INLD had been able to manage only slander leads in Kalanwali and Ellenabad and had won Narwana by a handsome margin. “I am yet to talk to Congress candidates or party workers to analyse the reasons for our defeat, but superficially it appears that a wave of regionalism did us damage as Sirsa people, it seems, wanted a government from their own belt this time,” Tanwar said, when contacted. He said there were certain other local factors too, but those he would divulge after holding discussions with the party workers. On the defeat of three of the four IYC leaders fielded by the party this time, Tanwar said the party’s performance had been better than the past in those constituencies. “The Youth Congress leaders were given only those seats, where the party had been losing repeatedly in the past. But, this time, the party won one of these seats and its performance on the other three seats has been better than before,” maintained Tanwar. |
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Burning Issue
Ambala, November 1 Following the Jaipur incident, residents of various colonies located close to the IOC depot in Ambala Cantonment are in a state of panic. They demand shifting of the IOC and Hindustan Petroleum depots outside the locality. A number of houses stand in areas adjoining these depots. Shastri Colony faces the biggest threat from this depot. Incumbent legislator Anil Vij had taken up the matter with the state government a number of times. He had also raised the issue in the assembly. The Ambala Cantonment Fire Brigade has four fire tenders. Three of these are of the 1980, 1987 and 2000 models whereas the foam crash tender used for fighting petroleum fire is of the 1984 model. The Standing Fire Advisory Council clearly says a fire tender should be condemned after 10 years in use. But in Haryana in most of the fire stations “condemned” fire tenders are in used for fire-fighting. Besides one small fire engine of the 2004 model, the Ambala City fire station has two fire tenders which are of 1984 and 1992 make. The IOC depot at Ambala Cantonment has a huge storage capacity for petroleum liquid, including petrol and diesel. A few years back the fire department had asked the IOC authority to install automatic foam hopper on all tanks containing petroleum liquid in large quantity. It is not known if this precautionary step has been taken or not. It was also recommended that a high pressure pump should be fitted along the boundary of the IOC depot so thaat in case of any fire incident, the temperature of the tanks could be brought down by throwing water on them with pressure. The Ambala Fire Brigade does not have the facility of a hydraulic platform. It is an important fire-fighting equipment for controlling fire in multi-storey buildings. Vij, talking to mediapersons said here yesterday, that he had asked the IOC and HP authorities to begin the process of shifting their depots outside the urban locality immediately or else the residents would launch an agitation next week. He said the Jaipur fire had left Ambala residents terrorised.
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Kapal Mochan fair losing sheen
Kapal Mochan (Yamunanagar), November 1 The fair for the first time was held nearly one month before the routine scheduled time. The fair is usually held between November 21 and 24 every year. This time, farmers are busy in their fields cutting paddy crops or in anaj mandis for paddy sale. As a result, so far only 4.5 lakh devotees have visited the small village of Kapal Mochan till this evening. However, on an average 9 lakh pilgrims visit the village to take a holy dip in the three sarovars - Kapal Mochan, Rin Mochan and Suraj Kund. Besides, there is complete lack of political will to promote the fair. Despite a state-level fair, neither an MLA nor a cabinet minister visited the fair. There is a general belief among politicians that they will lose their political power if they visit the place during the fair. While lakhs of pilgrims visit the place for prosperity, the politicians remained aloof from the fair. Moreover, the Tourism Department too hardly made any efforts to promote the fair. The situation was much worse than previous years. There was lack of proper arrangements and space. The pilgrims faced a lot of problems as the administration had shifted the venue of exhibitions that impart relevant information. Cultural programmes highlighting religious values and social reforms here by the administration also got a poor response. However, the three sarovars, where thousands of people have been taking bath for the past few days, were found in much neglected state. Besides, presence of algae, wild growth of grass and snakes has caused panic among the devotees. Officials were now seen making announcements guiding people to take bath with caution due to presence of snakes. The pilgrims also complained about the paucity of drinking water facilities and less number of makeshift toilets. “We have been coming to this place for the past 10 years. However, we were perturbed at the presence of snakes and unhygienic conditions at these sarovars,” said Harmesh Singh of Jodhpur village of Barnala and Rajesh Kumar of
Longowal. |
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Rice millers on the warpath with FCI
Chandigarh, November 1 Recently, the FCI had found that about 10,000 tonnes of rice delivered to it by the Haryana millers last year was substandard. The corporation has asked the millers concerned to replace the stocks. President of the millers’ association Azad Singh Rathi told The Tribune on the phone that the corporation had a well-established quality-control mechanism. Its officials checked the stocks before accepting their delivery. If any consignment was found substandard, it was rejected. Therefore, once FCI officials had accepted any consignment, the corporation should take action against its officials instead of penalising the millers later on. Rathi said it was no secret that the quality-control authorities of the corporation demanded money from the millers for accepting their consignments. If the money was not paid, the millers were harassed and their consignments
rejected. Under the FCI rules, he said, it was provided that senior officers of the FCI could check the stocks lying in its stores within a stipulated time frame. He said if the stocks were rejected after that time frame, the millers should not be asked to replace the substandard stock. The millers have also decided that till the FCI lowers the specifications of the rice to be accepted from the millers in Haryana like it had done in Punjab, no rice will be delivered to it. In Punjab, the FCI has allowed the millers to deliver rice with 4 per cent damage and 4 per cent discolouration of the grains. In Haryana these concessions are limited to 3 per cent each. Last year also, the FCI had allowed these concessions to Punjab millers while in Haryana it was relaxed to 3.5 per cent. Rathi said there was no justification behind this discrimination because the geographical and topographical conditions of the two states were common. The association has formed an anti-corruption cell under the chairmanship of its general secretary Jewel Singla, with 20 members. Singla said the cell would fight corruption in various departments with the help of the Vigilance Department and the CBI. The millers have also demanded that no official of the State Agriculture Marketing Board should check the premises of any miller unless he was accompanied by a representative of the association. They alleged that these officials, on the pretext of checking the stocks, collected money from the millers. They said those millers should not be forced to pay more to the growers who had purchased paddy at a price higher than Rs 1,030 per quintal. |
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Ban on burning stubble goes up in smoke
Fatehabad, November 1 Blackened fields can be witnessed on both sides of the national highway going towards Sirsa and thick smoke can be found emanating from the flames on the fields here and there. District Magistrate CG Rajinikanthan had recently promulgated prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, banning burning of all kinds of stubble on the fields. The orders said farmers violating the ban orders would be prosecuted under the law. Although ban orders are issued every time when paddy or wheat crop is harvested, these hardly prove any deterrent for the farmers, who burn their stubble with impunity. “We burn stubble on the field as it is convenient for us. If we cut the residue of wheat or paddy crops after their harvesting by combines, the labour cost will be so high that it will prove prohibitive. Also it will take us much longer to prepare the fields for the next crop,” said a farmer requesting anonymity at Aherwan, who has burnt stubble on his fields despite the ban. The practice of burning crop residue on fields has increased ever since harvesting combines have taken place of normal harvesters. Earlier, crops harvested manually were fed into harvesters and hence no stubble was left on the fields. Cutting the residue manually is too costly, while there are still few reapers in the area. Burning of stubble not only causes a great amount of suffocation and air pollution for the residents of nearby places, it also affects the productivity of the soil adversely. Stubble burning kills the much needed micro nutrients and friendly pests in the soil thereby affecting the soil quality adversely, said an agriculture expert. “The reason why farmers burn their stubble despite a ban is that no action has ever been taken against any farmer for violation of these orders,” said Raghubir Singh, a farmer, who said he had never indulged in this practice as he knew the ill effects it had on the soil and people’s health. |
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State of trauma centre shocking
Karnal, November 1 The track record of the centre in treating serious patients is dismal and in most cases the patients are either referred to the PGI, Chandigarh, or the PGI, Rohtak. The ill-equipped centre does not even have the CT scan or the MRI facilities and also faces a shortage of specialist doctors. Patients are told to get the CT scan test conducted in private clinics where they have to pay through their nose. There is no neuro centre and neuro specialist in the trauma centre and patients with head injuries or other neuro problems are invariably referred to the PGI. As per the norms, a trauma centre must be fully equipped and function as an independent unit with separate staff but this centre is dependent on staff and facilities of the Civil
Hospital. The centre was sans specialists like orthopaedic surgeon and anaesthetist, a must for any trauma centre, admitted the Deputy Civil Surgeon, Dr Chaudhary. Patients allege that the centre often faces a shortage of paramedical staff and at times even the services of Class IV employees are sought to assist doctors in stitching wounds. An employee said on condition of anonymity that these Class IV employees were unskilled workers with no training but the hospital authorities had limited option and were not in a position to act in spite of knowing that this practice was going on. As per officials of the Health Department, only doctors or pharmacists or training staff under the supervision of doctors are allowed to stitch wounds but these norms are being flouted in the trauma centre. PR Pruthi of the Civil Hospital said it had been brought to his notice that sometimes in emergency cases, when there were a lot of casualties, Class IV employees performed the task of stitching wounds. “We will conduct a probe into the matter and in case the reports are found to be true,” he added. |
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Swine Flu
Karnal, November 1 Eight students, including Kamal, Kuldeep, Satpal, Rekha, Abhishek, Sonali and Tare, suspected to be infected by H1N1 virus, were administered Tamiflu tablets as a precautionary measure. Dr Charanjit Singh, nodal officer for swine flu, said the school authorities had been advised to close the school for a week. Further, the kids had been advised to wash their hands regularly and other schools in the town had been directed to send back unwell children,he added. Shrishti used to live in the ashram on the school premises. The relatives of Shrishti have been sent for tests to ascertain whether they were infected with H1N1 virus. Shrishti reportedly fell sick on October 20 and came into contact with many people.Principal of the school Rani Chawala confirmed that Shristhi had been staying in the ashram and not keeping well for some time. |
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2009-10 to be Year of Gram Sabha
Chandigarh, November 1 He said necessary instructions had been issued to all Deputy Commissioners in the state to get gram sabha meetings organised in all villages on October 30, December 30 and February 26. Issues such as education, health, drinking water supply, sanitation, nutrition, the public distribution system, social security, social problems, natural resources, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, annual plan of gram panchayats and annual accounts of gram panchayats could be discussed by the gram sabha during its special meetings. The spokesman said the Deputy Commissioners had been asked to ensure that a notice about a gram sabha meeting must reach the people at least seven days in advance, which would help them in preparing for participation in the gram sabha in a serious manner. If any of the panchayat representatives or officials did not participate in the meeting of the gram sabha despite invitations, the reasons thereof should be ascertained by the gram sabha after the meeting was over. If some persons or communities did not attend three consecutive gram sabha meetings, the matter should be discussed in the gram panchayat and they should be motivated to attend the same. |
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SDM visits anaj mandis
Yamunanagar, November 1 The action came in wake of Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar Agarwal’s orders in this regard. The Tribune had highlighted the issue in a story titled “Tardy procurement has farmers in a fix” on October 29. Jain said officials have been issued instructions for smooth procurement of paddy and marketing committee have been asked to provide proper facilities to all farmers camping in anaj mandis. “I also held a meeting with farmers and commission agents and heard out their grievances,” he informed. |
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Denied job, man attempts suicide
Panipat, November 1 Nirmal Singh, son of Anup Singh of New Bohali village here, today reached the camp office and tried to consume phenyl after creating a scene before the administration by raising slogans. A team of the police took the person to the Civil Hospital here, where his condition was reported to be out of danger. He was later booked under Section 309 of the IPC. Deputy Commissioner Vijay Singh Dahiya said the person was a class XII pass out and it was an attempt to blackmail the authorities of the Panipat refinery and the district administration. Nirmal Singh claimed that his land was acquired by the government in 1987 for the refinery and thus he was eligible to get a job there. He had even moved an application before the refinery authorities through the district administration seeking a job. The DC said his file had been sent to the refinery officials. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the refinery said an application from the person had been received but he did not qualify for any of the posts in the refinery. |
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1,500 skill development centres soon
Chandigarh, November 1 These announcements were made by Hooda in his message to greet the people of the state on the 44th Haryana Day today. He said the government had decided to launch a State Cooperative Bank's Loan and Interest Waiver Scheme for landless labourers, rural artisans and petty shopkeepers and to implement a new youth and sports policy according to the needs of the youth. |
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