Chandigarh, December 7
A verbal war has erupted between the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal over an unlikely issue - the proposed nuclear plant in Fatehabad district.

Normally, the project should have been considered as prestigious for the state, which would go a long way in mitigating the perennial problem of power shortage, which plagues the state.

INLD president Om Prakash Chautala alleged yesterday that the Congress was bringing this project to the Fatehabad-Sirsa-Hisar area because it was harmful for its residents. Otherwise, he said, the project would have gone to Rohtak, the native district of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Reacting to the “ridiculous” allegation, Hooda termed it as “baseless”, adding that perhaps the INLD leader did not want to solve the problem of power shortage in the state. He said such nuclear plants were already functioning in many states in the country and entire France was powered by the nuclear energy.

He said the setting up of the nuclear power plant would be in the interests of the state, its people and the country.

His Parliamentary Affairs and Science and Technology Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala accused Chautala of launching a sinister campaign, which, he said, was reflective of the retrograde and anti-development mindset of his party. Surjewala said frustrated by his “continued political oblivion”, Chautala was resorting to patent falsehood. Accusing the INLD of having a “dishonest motive” behind its opposition to the plant, Surjewala said once again, Chautala had taken this anti-Haryana stand to help the cause of Punjab and its Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

He alleged that the entire Chautala clan had always placed interests of Punjab above the interests of the people of Haryana.

Surjewala said Chautala should stop acting as an agent of the Akalis. Allaying the fear of causing harm to the health of the residents, Surjewala said the plant would, in fact, boost the economy of the Fatehabad-Sirsa area immensely.

Chief Minister’s political adviser Virender said it was a habit with Chautala to distort facts to mislead the people. He said it was strange that Chautala, who remained the Chief Minister of the state, was acting ignorant. As a former Chief Minister, it must be in his knowledge that the site of the plant was first identified by a leader, who belonged to the area. It was identified in 1984 when Bhajan Lal was the Chief Minister.

Sirsa, December 7
The health authorities sealed the ultrasound machine of Garg Diagnostic Centre situated on the local Circular Road after SDM SK Setia submitted his inquiry report to Deputy Commissioner Yudhbir Singh Khyalia here today.

A team comprising Dr Viresh Bhushan, Deputy Civil Surgeon (National Rural Health Mission), Dr PL Verma, Deputy Civil Surgeon (Family Welfare), and Rajnish Dhaliwal, Drugs Control Officer, Sirsa, sealed the ultrasound machine installed at the centre today.

Earlier, Khyalia called a meeting in his camp office to discuss the action to be taken after the submission of report.

Setia, Civil Surgeon Dr PS Dhawan and District Attorney Raman Sardana attended the meeting.

The report held the diagnostic centre owned by Dr Jeewan Garg responsible not only for the case of a Mansa-based woman that led to the institution of inquiry, but of hundreds of cases in violation of the Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act.

The inquiry report says as many as 614 ultrasounds of expectant women were conducted during July and August 2008.

In all, the SDM had collected the record of two years from the diagnostic centre and said more than 50,000 ultrasound tests had been conducted during the period.

The diagnostic centre had not given any record of these cases to the health authorities and had not filled any Form-F, which is mandatory under the PNDT Act.

“The authorities will take all statutory actions that are warranted in the case,” said Khyalia.

Dhawan said the health authorities have also decided to file a case against the diagnostic centre in the court of law.

The name of Garg Diagnostic Centre came to light in a complaint on India’s first helpline started by the Punjab government this year.

The complaint led the Punjab authorities to a Mansa-resident, Navdeep Kaur, who while admitting female foeticide told the authorities that she paid Rs 15,000 to Garg Diagnostic Centre for sex determination and abortion.

Yamunanagar, December 7
With six schoolchildren, testing positive for swine flu today, it seems the health authorities have failed to make appropriate arrangements to prevent the spread of the virus among scholl-goers.

So far, of the 48 H1N1 cases in the district, 38 have been schoolchildren. Despite this, only two schools have been closed as a precautionary measure. Students with flu symptoms continue to travel in school buses, interacting with other children. As a result, infection among schoolchildren was spreading fast, said sources.

When contacted, Medical Superintendent of the Civil Hospital, Dr Vinod Gupta, said people need not panic, Swine flu was curable, but it was important that the infected persons stayed at home and get proper treatment.

“Schoolchildren are most vulnerable to the virus and must be quarantined at home till they test negative after proper medication,” he said.

Karnal: With 11 more samples testing positive for swine flu, the total number of persons infected with the virus in Karnal has gone up to 26.

With so many testing positive in one day, the health authorities seem worried.The authorities had claimed that an awareness campaign had been launched and the official machinery was fully geared to tackle the situation. But the claims seem hollow with more falling sick.

Hisar, December 7
Dr Apoorav Anand, member of the Task Force on the National Curriculum Framework approved by the National Council for Educational Research and Training, has suggested that reforms in the education sector should focus on making education an enjoyable activity for students.

Addressing a seminar on “Broad Areas of School Education” organised jointly by Thakurdass Bhargava Senior Secondary Model School and Acharyakula, a local organisation here yesterday, he said this was necessary to create a knowledgeable society.

He said, education should enlighten a student’s mind and a teacher’s role should be to arouse passion for knowledge in a student’s mind.

The present education was a burden on students. The need of the hour was to introduce learning without burden. Poining out that only one out of 100 girls enrolled in the school reached matriculation, he said the dropouts mostly belonged to SCs, STs and minorities, mainly Muslims. They were often first generation schoolgoers.

The CBSE pattern was effectively curbing diversity in education. Those on the fringes would be further alienated. “Let schools be free to have their own syllabi and books. Bring back the romance of learning in school education. We must generate eagerness for knowledge among students,” he added.

At least 150 teachers from different schools participated in the seminar and shared their views on the problems of education at the school level.

Chandigarh, December 7
Seventyfour years after he was enrolled in the Army, Parbhu Singh is still waging a war - this time for what he believes is his right.

The 80-something Charkhi Dadri resident has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the Union of India for denying “Swatantrata Sainik Samman” pension to him. In his appeal placed before the Bench of Justice TPS Mann, he has also assailed the judgments of the courts below, rejecting his suit for “declaration and mandatory injunction” to the effect he was entitled to the pension.Going into the background of the matter, Parbhu Singh has contended he was enrolled on June 28, 1935, and discharged on August 10, 1945, for revolting against the Army. Elaborating, Parbhu Singh contended in a court martial on August 10, 1945, he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment with effect from the next day; and was released on January 5, 1946.

Claiming to have been honoured by the state of Haryana for participation in the freedom struggle of the country, Parbhu Singh said he was awarded freedom fighters’ pension; and was even honoured with a “tamra patra”. Parbhu Singh said his case was even forwarded by the Haryana government for the “samman” pension in 1994, but was turned down on technical grounds. Describing the action as “highly unjustified”, he added it was also “unconstitutional and a disgrace to the honour and the dignity of a freedom fighter”. During the pendency of his suit before the courts below, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, on the other hand, had contended Parbhu Singh had not supplied the documents required under the “samman” pension scheme; and moreover his case was not covered under the scheme. The ministry had asserted that the officer commanding, II Royal Lancers, Kohat, had sentenced Parbhu Singh to imprisonment due to insubordination.

Kaithal, December 7
The statement of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on the issue of setting up a separate high court for Haryana in Chandigarh seems to have been motivated by the thoughts of former INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala, who has been allegedly trying to create obstacles in the development of the state.

This was alleged by Minister for PWD and Public Health Randeep Singh Surjewala while addressing a press conference in the Kaithal judicial complex after inaugurating the newly built lawyers’ chamber here today.

Randeep said the Haryana assembly had passed a resolution supporting a separate high court for state which was sent to the Union Law Minister.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda pursued the matter with Law Minister Virappa Moiley, who suggested setting up a separate high court for Haryana and invited suggestions from the Punjab government.

However, it was unfortunate that Badal gave a new dimension to the issue by connecting it with various other issues.

He said if the Haryana and Punjab secretariat could function in the same building then why separate high courts could not function from the same building. All this showed that statements of Badal found force from Chautala’s ideas.

He said hardly any advocate from Haryana had been elevated to the Supreme Court and after a separate high court, advocates from Haryana would get an opportunity to get elevated to the apex court.

Replying to a question on progress of investigation in three robbery cases in the district in the recent past, the minister said criminals involved in two cases had been identified and they would soon be behind the bars.

Surjewala said obstacles in the construction of a girls’ school at Jakholi Adda for which the Chief Minister had laid the foundation stone had been cleared and the construction would start within next two months.

Addressing advocates, Randeep Singh highlighted various development works completed during the past five years and those in the advanced stage of completion.

These works included the modern bus stand, near completed super speciality hospital, railway overbridge, sports stadium, construction of Bidhikyar Lake, Children Park, traffic park, power substations, widening of roads, construction of Rs 12 crore Jind-Khanauri road new bypass, sewer treatment plant and laying of 85-km-long sewer lines in Kaithal.

He also announced a grant of Rs 3 lakh for the construction of a corridor adjoining litigants’ shed.

Hisar, December 7
In an effort to cut aggregate transmission and commercial losses (AT&C), the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has decided to launch a campaign to disconnect supply to consumers who have not paid their bills.

A spokesman for the nigam said here today that field officers had been directed to raise special teams for the campaign. These would visit the defaulting consumers and ask them to deposit bill arrears or face disconnection. After disconnection, raids would be conducted at random to check theft of power and heavy penalty imposed on the erring consumers.

Consumers whose supply had already been disconnected on account of non-payment of bills would be special target of the teams for theft detection.

The officials had been asked to recover the defaulting amount from the disconnected consumers. A campaign against power theft would also be launched simultaneously. Two special teams in each operation sub-division would be raised for the purpose. The teams of operation and enforcement wings already on the job would intensify raids to detect thefts.

Under the campaign, some distribution feeders would be checked thoroughly twice, penalty levied and an FIR lodged with police personnel accompanying the teams on the spot. He said the nigam would give 20 per cent of the penalty amount to raiding teams as incentive and the employees responsible for realisation of the penalty.

On detection of unauthorised use or theft of electricity, an amount of Rs 200 would be given to each member of the raiding team. Twenty per cent amount of the penalty would be distributed among the entitled officials on realisation of penalty and final settlement of the case.

Chandigarh, December 7
Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia administered the oath of office and secrecy to former HCS officer Jai Singh Sangwan as a member of the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) in Haryana Raj Bhawan here today.

Sangwan, who hails from Fatehgarh village in Bhiwani, started as a naib tehsildar before he was promoted as tehsildar and thereafter the district revenue officer. Finally, he was nominated in the Haryana Civil Service and retired as Gurgaon SDM. He was to be made the member of the HPSC a few months ago but because of the elections, his appointment was delayed. — TNS

Chandigarh, December 7
Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda donated towards the Flag Day Fund on the occasion of the National Armed Forces Flag Day here today. This day is celebrated on December 7 every year all over the country to help and remember martyrs, war widows, wounded soldiers and their dependents.

Brig KS Budhwar, secretary, Haryana Sainik Board, after pinning a Flag Day sticker to the Governor, informed him that the day was also celebrated all over the state and persons belonging to different sections of society donated generously on the occasion as a token of help and regards to the martyrs and dependents of the Armed Forces personnel. The day gave them an opportunity to reaffirm their solidarity with the Armed Forces and recognised their services, he added.