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Dumping of bio-medical waste
Power-less: 5 units of 2 plants not working
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Claims on Khedar power plant questioned
State facing its worst power crisis: Gurjar
Sexual Harassment
May revive stir, warn varsity teachers
Service charges discriminatory, say LPG distributors
Bishnoi keeps defectors on toes
Inauguration stone damaged; INLD holds protest
Census officials call on CM
Protest against acquisition
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Dumping of bio-medical waste
Sirsa, April 19 The rickshaw-puller led the police and the irate residents to a private nursing home nearby and claimed that he was paid by the hospital owner to dump the garbage inside a bin at the dumping site. The residents forced the rickshaw-puller to collect the human placenta, used syringes and other bio-medical waste back from the dumping site and return it to the hospital owner. The hospital owner has, however, disowned the waste and alleged that it was the result of the ongoing spat between local doctors and the municipal contractor. The hospital owner claimed that no delivery had been performed in his hospital in the past three days. He said his hospital was registered with Synergy Waste Management and the bio-medical waste generated by his hospital was less than 25 kg a month, for which his hospital had an agreement with the company. He admitted that he had asked the rickshaw-puller to dump his hospital’s garbage at the specified place, but claimed that the human placenta and used syringes found there were not generated from his hospital. Mauji Ram, SHO of the city police station, said no action had been taken as nothing incriminating was found by the police. Private doctors of the town are at daggers drawn with the contractor appointed by the municipal authorities to collect garbage and also with Synergy Waste Management, a company appointed by the pollution control department to collect and manage bio-medical waste of the hospitals. In their spat with the contractor, the doctors allege that the contractor has arbitrarily hiked his service charges from Rs 300 per month to Rs 1,000 per month. However, the contractor maintains that the doctors are up in arms because he has refused to collect bio-medical waste with the normal garbage. In their confrontation with Synergy Waste Management, the doctors allege that the company’s representatives do not collect the bio-medical waste on a daily basis, which they are obliged to do under the agreement with them. Synergy Waste Management, on its part, denies the charge and claims that doctors tend to dump the bio-medical waste generated in their hospitals in garbage to
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Power-less: 5 units of 2 plants not working
Yamunanagar, April 19 In some of the rural areas, there is almost a power blackout. According to sources, the state has been facing a shortage of about 300 lakh units per day. The power availability from all sources is 600 lakh units; however, due to extreme hot days, the power consumption in the state has increased to 900 lakh units per day. As a result, unscheduled long power cuts are being imposed at many places. In some rural areas, the villagers have been getting power supply after two or three days for a few hours. Aggravating power woes have left many residents with sleepless nights. Besides, water scarcity in rural areas has made life miserable for residents. The irritated residents in some villages have threatened a stir if the government fails to restore normal power and water supply soon. The power situation has worsen as four units of the Super Thermal Plant, Panipat, have become non-functional. The two units of thermal plant have been shut down due to technical faults, while two other units are under annual maintenance. Besides, a unit of 600 MW of Khedar Thermal Plant, Hisar, has been shutdown. Also, two units of 300 MW each of Deen Bandhu Chottu Ram Thermal Power Plant, Yamunanagar, have been generating low power than the designated capacity. Perturbed with long power cuts, the Ghar Sangharsh Samiti, which represent many villages of rural areas, has threatened to launch an agitation if power and water supplies in rural areas are not restored. The members of the samiti rued that despite rued that rural areas were completely neglected by the government as villagers were facing power black out in rural areas. |
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Claims on Khedar power plant questioned
Hisar, April 19 Since its so-called commissioning, the plant has operated at a load factor of just 23.89 per cent. It has been shut since April 8. Between April 1 and April 17, the highest generation the first unit achieved was 518 MW and that too for a few hours only. As per the guidelines issued by the Union Power Ministry last year, a thermal power plant can be declared commissioned only “when the construction and commissioning of all plants and equipment required for operation of the unit at rated capacity
are complete and the unit achieves full rated load on the designated fuel.” Going by these guidelines, the first unit of the Khedar plant cannot be considered as “commissioned” as it never operated at its full capacity of 600 MW since the company declared it “commissioned” on April 1. These figures are available with the Load Despatch Centre of the Haryana Power Utilities. Padamjit Singh, chairman, All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF), says his organisation has sent several letters to the Prime Minister and the state government pointing out that the company entrusted with the task of raising the plant has made false claims. He says the same company had sourced similar equipment from China for the Yamunanagar thermal power plant. It was given the Gold Shield for early commissioning of two units but Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited was yet to take over these units two years after these began commercial production. Both units have been operating below their rated capacity of 300 MW, he says. Singh says the Planning Commission had earlier this month expressed concern over the poor quality of equipment imported from China for thermal power stations in India. Going by the experience of the Yamunanagar plant, there is a clear risk of repeating the same shortcomings in the Khedar plant erected by the same company with similar Chinese equipment, he maintains. Singh has sought the Prime Minister’s intervention in withdrawing the award given to the company for the Yamunanagar plant. |
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State facing its worst power crisis: Gurjar
Chandigarh, April 19 Despite
tall claims about putting up new power generation plants, he said, the fact was that several thermal plants were shut.
Accusing the government of being in “deep slumber”, the BJP leader said it was oblivious of the hardships of the common people. Three units of the Panipat thermal plant and one unit each of the Hisar and Yamunanagar thermal plants had been lying closed for the past some time. He claimed that people in both rural and urban areas were reeling under power cuts ranging between 11 and 20 hours daily. The demand for power was surging, but the government had failed to meet the situation. It was buying costly power on a daily basis, which was further adding to the losses of the power utilities, which were already plagued by corruption and inefficiency. Gurjar said though Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had reportedly pulled up officers of the utilities recently, there was no improvement in the situation. He said : “shashan ki prashashan par pakad nahi hai.” Referring to the proposed BJP rally in Delhi on April 21 on the issue of price rise, Gurjar said 50,000 persons from Haryana would participate in it. The party had arranged about 3,000 vehicles to take these persons to Delhi. Senior BJP leader Ram Bilas Sharma said the government failed to control the law and order situation. |
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Sexual Harassment
Sirsa, April 19 In another complaint given to department chairperson Virender Singh Chauhan, copies of which have been released to the media, the victim alleged that while the committee of two teachers constituted to look into her complaint was yet to start its work, she was being pressured to hush up the matter. “I am under immense mental pressure and my mental agony is increasing by the day due to the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities in this matter,” she maintained in her latest complaint and sought speedy action against the “erring teachers”. RK Sehgal, Registrar, meanwhile, has summoned the report of the case from the department chairperson. Citing the report published in The Tribune today in this regard, Sehgal has asked Chauhan to send his comments along with the report. “We will get the girl’s complaint examined from the university’s law officer and will take suitable action under the law,” Sehgal said. The victim, in her complaint given on April 6 had alleged that the teacher she had chosen as guide for her dissertation had been postponing the finalisation of the questionnaire for her research work without any legitimate excuse. She had alleged that when she went to his office on April 6, another teacher sitting with him told her that she would have to “fulfil the desires of her guide” for the completion of her dissertation. She alleged that the other teacher went to the extent of warning her that she would have to complete her studies next year, when she expressed her disapproval at his conduct. She alleged that her guide observed silence during this conversation indicating his implicit support to the words said by the other teacher. Both teachers, however, had denied the allegations. |
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Leopard on prowl shot by cops
Karnal, April 19 Six persons, including a child, had been injured by the time the police and a team of wildlife experts arrived on the scene. There was utter panic as the leopard barged into a house with children inside. However, Sandeep, living in the neighborhood, gathered courage and attacked the beast. He shoved a spear (bhala) into his mouth, but lost grip. The leopard hit back with vengeance and injured Sandeep. When a neighbour, Subhash, came to his rescue, he was also attacked and seriously injured. The full-grown leopard was 7 ft long and three-and-a-half feet in height, Sandeep said. District police chief Rakesh Arya, reached the spot with his team. They had been wrongly informed that a lion cub had entered the colony. By this time, the leopard had gone wild, attacking one and all injuring six persons, including a child. The leopard ate the arm of an aged chowkidar and tried to devour him. This prompted SI Gajraj Singh to open fire from his revolver. SI Som Prakash also fired a flurry of bullets from his SLR, said SSP Rakesh Arya. As soon as the leopard fell, the mob attacked him with lathis and stones, leading to his death. The wildlife department team was ill-equipped to handle the situation. It did not have a dart carrying a tranquiliser to overpower the animal. The leopard could have been captured. He need not have been killed. A local resident, Narinder Sangwan, blamed the widllife team for the turn of events. The injured persons were admitted to the local civil hospital. |
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School spats trigger protest
Rohtak, April 19 Local residents, angry over complaints of infighting among the staff, reached the school this morning. They asked the staff and students to come out of the school building. (The school has a pupil strength of 325). The main gate of the school was then locked and a dharna organised on the spot in protest against the “failure” of the education department to resolve the tangle and ensure an amicable atmosphere in the school. The protest came to an end after a few hours when education department officials reached the school and persuaded the villagers to lift the sit-in. They said the matter would soon be resolved and a report sent to the higher authorities in Chandigarh. “Locking the school gate was the last option left with us as there has been constant complaints by students that the staff, including teachers and the principal, are often involved in a spat over personal issues,” claimed Rajesh, a local resident. He said the villagers, including the sarpanch, had tried to intervene in the matter but in vain. |
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May revive stir, warn varsity teachers
Hisar, April 18 Representatives of teachers of Guru Jambheshwar University, Kurukshetra University, Maharshi Dayanand University, BPS Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, CCS Haryana Agricultural University and the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, who met here yesterday, expressed unhappiness over the failure of the government to implement the new scales in totality as promised by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda six months ago when the teachers were on strike on this issue. Other demands raised at this meeting included: advance increments for higher qualifications like MPhil, MTech, PhD and LLM; re-designation of readers and lecturers in the selection grade as Associate Professor after the completion of three years of service; placement of directly recruited Professors at a scale not below Rs 43,000 and higher AGP of Rs 12, 000 to senior Professors. Teachers’ leaders also demanded that only academics be appointed as Vice-Chancellors.
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Service charges discriminatory, say LPG distributors
Chandigarh, April 19 The new system, the distributors feel, is discriminatory. While it ensures higher returns to distributors in metros and big cities, the new system is not conducive to the financial health of the distributors in rural areas and small towns. They point out that the companies have already compensated the distributors in the metros and big cities by increasing the limit of sale of refills in a month. A distributor in a metro can sell over 15,000 refills a month, the distributors in smaller towns like those in Haryana can sell only 8,000 refills per month. Therefore, the rates of charges for various services should be uniform for all areas. According to Manoj B Nangia, joint secretary of the North-Western Region chapter of the All-India LPG Distributors Federation, the distributors are also apprehensive over the proposed appointment of “gramin vitraks” of LPG. They fear that if the “gramin vitraks” are appointed indiscriminately, the interests of unviable and small distributors as well as those in the rural areas would be severely harmed. Moreover, Nangia says, in addition to the “gramin vitraks”, a large number of regular new distributors are also being appointed, while many distributors in Haryana are still selling less than the refill ceiling of 8,000 refills. The distributors say it is surprising that while several new distributors have been appointed in Haryana during the past 10 years, hardly any new appointment has been made in Delhi even when the population of the Capital has increased by at least 20 lakhs during this period. Nangia says to improve consumer service, every distributor will display the names of district conveners, who are also LPG distributors, along with their contact numbers so that in case of any difficulty faced by a consumer, it can be removed within 24 hours. |
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Bishnoi keeps defectors on toes
Chandigarh, April 19 “We have been granted time for tomorrow. Initially, the drama of MLAs not accepting notices went on and they were served notices with ‘great difficulty’ just a couple of days before the Budget session. Then, they were given four weeks to file their replies. When the time period given to them was about to lapse, they were given more time. We want to examine the proceedings one last time before deciding if the time to move court has come,” Bishnoi said. Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha said the five MLAs had personally appeared before him and sought an extension in the time given to file their replies. “The MLAs in question appeared before me with their lawyer and sought a 12-week extension to file their replies. That seemed too long a period which is why I finally gave them only eight more weeks. Hopefully, they will give their replies within the stipulated period,” Chatha said. Five MLAs of the
HJC, Vinod Bhayana from Hansi, Dharma Singh Chokker from Samalkha, Zile Ram Sharma from
Assandh, Rao Narinder Singh from Narnaul and Satpal Sangwan from Dadri, had “shifted loyalties” from the HJC to the Congress within a few days of the formation of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s Cabinet. While four MLAs had joined together, Chokker joined the party later. However, the joining too was embroiled in controversy with Bishnoi alleging that the norm of two-third members effecting defection had not been followed since Sangwan had been expelled a day prior to the “defection”. |
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Inauguration stone damaged; INLD holds protest
Sirsa, April 19 The Haryana Urban Development Authority that developed the park on a dried-up pond
and Chautala’s name was inscribed on the stone providing information regarding its
inauguration. Padam Jain, district president of the INLD led activists of the party to the Deputy Commissioner’s office and expressed resentment over the incident. “It is not for the first time that the inauguration stone installed on this park has been
damaged. “Some miscreants smashed this twice in the past during the tenure of the present government, but the authorities have failed to arrest any person so far,” alleged Jain and maintained that it was the part of a conspiracy. |
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Census officials call on CM
Chandigarh, April 19 The Director, Census, Haryana, Neerja was also present. Hooda expressed happiness on being part of the massive exercise aimed to create a comprehensive database, including identity database in the
country. He called upon the people to cooperate with the census officials. The census operations start from May 1 in the state. The Chief minister was told that as many as 56,000 enumerators and supervisors would participate in the 45-day exercise in the state. |
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Protest against acquisition
Faridabad, April 19 The farmers agitating under the banner of “Kisan Sangharsh Samiti” submitted a memorandum to the office of the deputy commissioner, Faridabad, urging for sympathetic approach by the government with regard to their houses.
— TNS |
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