Chandigarh, January 2
The falling temperature and the Ellenabad bypoll are together giving Haryana Congressmen the shivers, both literally and figuratively. At a time when the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) can’t stop tom-tomming about the confidence with which it has gone into the byelection in its pocket borough, the Congress is still busy teaching its leaders the united-we-stand and divided-we-fall lesson.

If that’s not all, Independents and the now-Congressmen category of leaders will be in the core committee managing the campaign of the party in Sirsa. Sources in the Congress said 77 leaders of the party would be on duty in 72 villages that make up the Ellenabad seat.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, not wanting to leave anything to chance since the prestige of the ruling party is at stake, today separately met Sirsa leaders, including Ranjit Singh, KV Singh and Anil Khodd, who were in the race for the party ticket and urged them to put up a united front.

In a veiled attempt to check infighting, he conveyed that indiscipline of any kind would not be tolerated and each individual leader would be accountable for his action.

While working president of the state unit Kuldeep Sharma, Rajya Sabha MP Ram Prakash and Sampat Singh will spearhead the planning and strategy for the byelection, Independents - Prahladh Singh Gillankhera and Gopal Kanda and Congressmen Naveen Jindal and RS Surjewala will be in the forefront of campaigning.

At the general body meeting of the Congress, the Chief Minister cautioned the senior leaders to take their pick of areas in the Ellenabad constituency where they think they can exercise influence and leave no stone unturned to reach out to the public.

Cautioning leaders against being a burden on the Congress candidate, Hooda said all leaders on duty in Ellenabad would also be answerable for the party’s performance in their assigned pockets.

The Chief Minister said a daily report on the day’s developments and progress in campaigning would be prepared and sent to him till the election was over based on which the role of leaders would be assessed.

Though party in charge of Haryana affairs Prithvi Raj Chavan could not make it for today’s meeting, he is likely to address a meeting in Sirsa on January 6 while the Congress campaigning will begin full steam from the next day.

Sources said according to the party’s planning, INLD candidate Abhey Singh Chautala would be “exposed” for his misdeeds while it had prepared to pull out skeletons pertaining to the Ruchika case from the cupboard of the Chautalas.

Then, of course, the Congress plans to harp on its much-publicised “lack-of-development theory” in Sirsa despite Chief Ministers repeatedly coming from the area during the INLD’s term.

Besides, the Congress is preparing a caste-wise breakup of villages to ascertain the most suitable leader based on which a duty chart will be prepared.

Ellenabad, January 2
In an effort to score points over the Congress, the Indian National Lok Dal today announced that a family trust named after former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal will start a degree college in Ellenabad from the academic session starting in July this year.

Ajay Singh Chautala, secretary general of the INLD, made this announcement at a rally organised in the local grain market after party’s candidate Abhey Singh Chautala filed his nominations before returning officer Munish Nagpal.

Ellenabad doesn’t have a degree college and earlier, while responding to the demand of local Congress leaders, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had said in a rally organised by the Congress on November 29 that he would lay the foundation stone of the college after the victory of his candidate in the Ellenabad bypoll.

Hooda’s announcement with a rider had not gone down well with the masses and the INLD had taken strong exception to it.

Describing the byelection as the battle of Mahabharata, INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala described the Congress headed by Hooda as “Kauravas” and added that his “Pandavas” would emerge as winners.

“This is not a contest for the single Ellenabad seat, but a fight for the whole state. The government will not last long after the Congress loses the bypoll,” said Chautala while addressing a gathering on the foggy day.

Meanwhile, Ran Singh Beniwal, former MLA from Bhattu Kalan, today announced his decision to quit Kuldeep Bishnoi’s party and join the INLD. Beniwal had contested the recent assembly elections from Fatehabad as HJC nominee.

Ajay Singh Chautala also announced the names of certain local municipal and zila parishad-level leaders, who he claimed had quit the Congress or the HJC to join his party today.

Former Governor Sultan Singh, INLD’s state president Ashok Arora, Rajya Sabha member Tarlochan Singh, former Indri MLA Rakesh Kamboj, who recently quit the HJC, were among those who addressed the meeting.

Local INLD leaders of the party emphasised the need to elect Abhey Singh to ensure that the “government of Sirsa” comes to power again in Haryana.

Heavy fog failed to dampen the enthusiasm of INLD workers, who were present in large numbers in the SDM courts, where Abhey Singh filed his nominations in presence of his father Om Prakash Chautala and elder brother Ajay Singh.

In all, 15 candidates filed their nominations today, making the total number of candidates in the fray to 20.

Yamunanagar, January 2
The Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram Thermal Power Project (DCRTPP) of 600 MW has become the first Chinese technology-based thermal plant in the country to get two ISO and OHSAS certification for its performance in power generation and maintaining health, safety and environment standards.

This is the second significant achievement for the district as the district administration was also awarded an ISO certification for its performance recently.

“The power project has been certified by the ISO-9001, ISO-14001 and OHSAS 18001 for its power generation performance and for environment and safety norms. The ISO-9001 has been awarded to the thermal plant for quality management that facilitates close monitoring of the key processes, effective records and continual improvement process,” chief engineer of the project said Sushil Bansal.

The first unit of 300 MW of thermal plant became operational on April 14, 2008, and the second unit of 300 MW on June 24, 2008. The second ISO 14001 had been awarded to the thermal plant for environment management system that enables an organisation to manage the environment impacts arising out of its activities and ensure compliance of regulations, he added.

He said besides, they were committed to ensure safety and good health of their employees and accordingly had also got OHSAS 18001 certification.

The international standard established occupational health and safety management system in an organisation to eliminate risk to employees, he further said.

“After obtaining the ISO certification, the work culture in the HPGCL generating station and offices has undergone a sea change. Each and every system and procedure being followed at the generating stations has been documented and displayed at relevant locations.

“The employees have become much more aware about their safety and now have increased usage of personal protection equipments like helmet, industrial shoes and earplugs,” he further said. 

Sonepat, January 2
Representatives of various social, religious and trading organisations of the town have unanimously resolved to launch an agitation in a phased manner to pressurise the authorities concerned for the construction of a railway overbridge at the level crossing located in the centre of the town.

In a meeting held here recently, they also formed an 11-member coordination committee and nominated Rajiv Jain, state media in charge of the BJP, as convener of the committee.

Other members of the committee included Rishi Prakash Sharma, Manohar Lal Chawla, Ved Pal Arya, Pawan Goyal, Mohan Singh Manocha, Jitender Gupta, Vimal Kishor, Raj Kumar Panchal, Mahesh Luthra, Manohar Lal Taneja and Chetan Swaroop Kuchhal.

According to Jain, in the first phase, a memorandum of the demand, addressed to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, would be handed over to the DC on January 7 and then after 15 days, a rally would be taken out in support of their demand.

He said a bandh would be observed in the third phase, and if required, they would resort to road blockade and railway track jam in the fourth phase.

He alleged that Sonepat was getting a step-motherly treatment in the matter as eight railway overbridges were being constructed in Rohtak.

The organisations included the Beopar Mandal, Rotary Club Uptown, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Mahadev Seva Samiti, Aggarwal Sammelan, Shiv Seva Samiti, Gaushala Samiti, Bharat Vikas Parishad, Geeta Bhawan Market Association, Kendriya Arya Yuva Parishad, Gurdwara Road Market Association, Rohtak Road Market Association, Subzi Mandi Adhatai Association and the Manav Seva Samiti. 

Karnal, January 2
The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has started implementation of the “Apna Transformer Yojna” (High Voltage Distribution System - HVDS) in the district under which new lines are being erected and poles installed.

The project will be completed at an estimated cost of Rs 565.40 crore.

The nigam had conducted a survey before starting the scheme. Nearly 56,331 tubewell consumers had been identified. The installation of transformers will start in January.

The UHBVN has already awarded contracts for conversion of existing tubewell connections into the HVDS by installing individual distribution transformer at each existing agriculture pump set under the scheme in four districts, including Kurukshetra, Karnal, Kaithal and Rohtak. These districts have 50 per cent of the total tubewell connections under the UHBVN.

According to a spokesman for the nigam, under the scheme, the existing low-tension lines were being converted into 11 kV lines and every AP consumer would be provided with a separate distribution transformer. The distribution transformer also has the provision of the energy meter besides other features such as capacitor bank and self-protection features.

The scheme would result in multiple benefits not only to the licensee but also to the AP consumers. The licensee would be benefited by way of reduced technical losses and better system reliability. The consumer would be benefited in the shape of reliability of power supply, better voltage, better power factor and a dedicated transformer for his exclusive use.

The dedicated transformer would also eliminate any possibility of overloading of the transformer and would prevent subsequent damage. The scheme would be extended to other districts in due course of time.

The spokesman said the scheme would ensure 100 per cent metering and proper energy audit would become feasible.

Under the scheme, all flat rate AP consumers might be asked to exercise their option whether they were ready to shift to the metered connection after installation of the dedicated transformer at their tubewells.

The consumption and billing of their pump sets would be recorded from the energy meter installed at the distribution transformer.

The spokesman said due precautions would be taken in order to ensure that there was no power theft from the transformers. Besides, provisions were being made to enable farmers increase their power loads in case they needed to install new pump sets in view of declining water level even after transformers were already installed. 

Chandigarh, January 2
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said an FIR under the abetment to suicide complaint filed by Ruchika’s brother would be registered once investigations were completed.

Talking to the meadiapersons at the Congress office after a general body meeting of the party, Hooda said the FIR could be registered today. He was replying to a question on whether an FIR on Ashu’s complaint under Section 306 of the IPC (abetment to suicide) against former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore and others would be registered.

Assuring justice in the matter, Hooda said the report of the Home Secretary was awaited.

“We are awaiting SIT report. If the SIT report says the CBI should take up the case, we will look into it,” he said. — TNS

Ambala, January 2
Rail traffic was severely affected in the region as the northern grid tripped here today causing a power blackout in many parts of the state.

Power-driven trains in Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh came to a standstill at 3 am. Delhi, Ambala and the Ferozepur division were the worst affected.

In Ambala division, 15 trains got delayed by one hour to three hours 30 minutes. In total, over 50 trains were affected in Ambala, Ferozepur and Delhi divisions. The train movement was restored by about 8 am.

Passengers had to face the biting cold as due to the grid failure, internal heating stopped in many trains. A few signals also failed on the tracks, while a few railway stations, which did not have a generator back up, had to face a power cut.

Many trains, including Golden Temple Express, Kalka-Delhi Shatabdi Express, Amritsar-Dehradun Express, Sampark Kranti Express from Udhampur, Syalda Express, Jehlm Express, Shalimar Express, Jammu Tawi-Gohati Express, Mori Express, Howrah-Kalka Express, Himachal Express, Howrah-Amritsar Express, including three summer special trains, were delayed.

A large number of passengers faced inconvenience. However, diesel-driven trains functioned normally.

Chandigarh: Due to smog 400 KV lines of the Power Grid Corporation tripped at some places causing interruptions in power supply in Haryana as 220 KV lines of the state are connected with the grid system.

A spokesman said here today the power generating units at thermal Panipat, Yamunanagar and Faridabad tripped due to load unbalance between 1.55 am to 3.57 am. Haryana Power Utilities made strenuous efforts to restore power supply to essential services like railway, hospitals and water supply on priority basis in the morning.

He said the transmission lines were made functional by deputing special teams. The power supply position in the state was normal and power utilities had overdrawn about 600 MW power till afternoon to meet the requirement of electricity consumers.

The spokesman further stated that the Faridabad Thermal Power Station started power generation at 7 am. Generation from the power generating units at Panipat Thermal Power Station had also been restored, he added. 

Sonepat, January 2
Praveen, 16-year-old boxer of Lakhu Buwana village in Panipat district, was mowed down by a train near Sandal Kalan railway station here yesterday.

The victim along with other members of the team was returning in Sachkhand Express after participating in the National Boxing Championship concluded at Orangabad in Maharashtra recently.

The incident took place when Praveen was trying to get down from the train when its speed was slow near Sandal Kalan railway station. His bag got stuck outside the compartment and the train picked up speed, following which he lost balance and his neck got trapped in the wheels. 

Kaithal, January 2
A local resident wanted by the police, who had allegedly duped a Punjab resident of Rs 20 lakh by promising to get him appointed chairman of Punjab Zone of All-India Task Force on Food, was arrested today.

The police has also impounded his car with beacon. The police produced the accused in a local court and got his six-day remand to recover cash from him.

SP Simardeep Singh said Amar Jit Singh, a resident of Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, had lodged a complaint with the police in July alleging that Virender Dhull hailing from Sherdha village in Kaithal district presently residing in Model Town here had offered to get him appointed chairman of All-India Task Force on Food Punjab Zone-1. The accused took him to his residence on September 30, 2008 and allegedly took Rs 20 lakh from him.

However, when accused, despite repeated requests, failed to get him appointed to the desired post the victim demanded his money back. But accused refused to return his money and rather threatened him with dire consequences. The police had registered a case and arrested him.