Faridabad, June 10
The ruling Congress has decided to give further boost to its organisation and workers in its ongoing exercise to expand its base in the state.

The drive to strengthen the party was apparent when Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda vetoed the move of his faction-ridden party MLAs, ministers and the MP from Faridabad to score a point over each other in number game by including BJP, BSP and INLD councillors to install their cronies to the posts of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF).

A day before the election to the posts was held, the MLAs, ministers and the MP met the Chief Minister at his Delhi residence in an effort to find suitable and acceptable candidates. They were divided into two factions along with the newly elected councillors. In the 35-member house of the MCF, 27 are of the Congress, four BJP, three from the BSP and one is having INLD background.

A minister from Haryana, Shiv Charan Sharma, who represents NIT Assembly constituency in this district, MLA from Old Faridabad seat, Anand Kaushik, the Chief Parliamentary Secretary of Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Sharda Rathore who represents Ballabgarh assembly seat, and the Congress MP from Faridabad, Avtar Singh Bhadana were ranged against the minister, Mahender Pratap, who represents the Badkal Assembly seat on the choice of candidate for the post of Mayor.

They also demonstrated factionalism in the joint meeting with the Chief Minister. In order to prove the point that their faction had the majority of councillors, they even included the councillors having allegiance to non-Congress parties.

Sources say the Chief Minister vetoed the move of the leaders of both the factions. He categorically told them that the strength of the Congress lay in its workers and any permutation and combination for the choice of candidates has to be done from within them. He also used the occasion to tell the MLAs and ministers that posts of power were temporary and should be used only to uplift the standard of the people and strengthen the party in the process. He also told them that the Congress was strong enough and there was no need for it to import councillors.

He stressed that the Congress has legacy of its great leaders like former premiers late Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. He also urged them to take inspiration of sacrifice and devotion from the present central leadership of the party.

It was clear to the public in Faridabad that the Congress leaders, mainly MLAs and ministers, were planning to install even a non-Congress councillor to the top post. Some of them were enticing the non-Congress councillors on this very assurance. Rather a Congress MLA went on record to say that a senior MLA and his cronies were trying to entice councillors with money and muscle power.

According to many, there was substance in the allegations from various quarters about the dubious role of money being employed when about 10 councillors went to undisclosed destination in a group a few days before the election to the post of Mayor. The buzz was that they had gone for “Bharat darshan”. There is a loud whisper in wide-ranging quarters that some industrialists had also joined the bandwagon.

An MLA said he had finalised the name of Ashok Arora, a longstanding and honest Congress worker, for the top post. Also, the candidates for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor had Congress background, he added.

Chandigarh, June 10
Residents of the urban areas of the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha constituency are baffled over the absence of their MP, industrialist-turned-politician Naveen Jindal, who recently shot into limelight for his support to the demand of caste khaps for an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act to ban same gotra and same village marriages.

Jindal’s voters are unable to understand why he is not participating in the elections of presidents of the municipal committees or municipal councils in his parliamentary constituency. His own party, the Congress, and the main opposition party, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), are engaged in a tough battle to control the urban local bodies in a bid to demonstrate their hold in towns of the state.

Under the circumstances, Jindal’s party men and voters expect their representative to not only vote for Congress nominees, but also to participate actively in the election-related process.

As per the provisions of the Haryana Municipal Act, MPs and MLAs are ex-officio members of the urban civic bodies falling under their constituencies, with full voting rights.

Under the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha constituency, Thanesar (Kurukshetra) Municipal Council, Shahabad Municipal Committee, Peohwa Municipal Committee and Ladwa Municipal Committee fall. Presidents and other office-bearers of the Thanesar and Shahabad civic bodies have been elected. Though the Congress was able to defeat the INLD-supported nominees, Jindal was absent from both elections.

In Thanesar, Uma Sudha won the elections to the post of president. Perhaps, she has the record of sorts to her credit of being successively elected twice to this post, despite it being not reserved for women. In Shahabad, Sudershan Kakkar won the election. Congress MLA from there Anil Kumar Dhantori was supporting him.

The Peohwa civic body will elect its office-bearers tomorrow. Here the post of president is reserved for women. According to informed sources, the Congress is comfortably placed here. Speaker of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha HS Chatha is leading the Congress forces. Jindal is unlikely to participate in the election tomorrow. It is learnt that Jindal is out of the country and is likely to return by the middle of this month.

The date for the elections of the Ladwa civic body office-bearers is yet to be fixed. The INLD is believed to have an upper hand here, thanks to the efforts made by the local party MLA Sher Singh Badhshami.

Faridabad, June 10
Industries in the district have lost the luxury of surplus labour in the unskilled and semi-skilled categories, largely due to the thinning of influx of migrant labourers for the past two years. This shrinkage in the inflow of migrant labourers, especially from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, was attributed to the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and the progressive works being done by the Bihar government.

According to JP Malhotra, former president of the Faridabad Chambers of Commerce and Industry, less availability of unskilled and semi-skilled labour has started showing negative impact on industries, especially in small and medium scale categories, which are in a majority in the district.

The units, especially those manufacturing auto parts, which formed the bulk of industrial units in the district, were said to be feeling the pinch the most, he said, adding that presently there was a shortage of about 20 to 30 per cent industrial labourers in the district.

A functionary of the Faridabad Chambers of Commerce and Industry and owner of an industry said migrant labourers leave for their native places mostly towards the end of every year. They, however, return to their work place just after Holi. But this year, most of them so far had not returned. The same phenomenon was witnessed last year also, but to a lesser degree, he added.

However, interview with a cross section of industrialists revealed that the minimum wages, as laid down by the Haryana government, was Rs 4,214 in the unskilled, Rs 4,344 in the semi-skilled and Rs 4,604 in the skilled category. While in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, a labourer was ensured 100 days work in a year and a sum of Rs 130 for each day's work.

According to them, under the MGNREGA, a labourer had an assured income of at least Rs 65,000 per annum, the monthly breakup of that would come around Rs 5,500. In this way he gets jobs close to his native place and can save as well.

An industrialist said natives from Haryana do not opt for unskilled or semi-skilled jobs on account of ego problem. In addition, they were economically better off than their other state counterparts. However industrialists alleged that many locals took up jobs in these categories, but refused to do menial jobs.

Malhotra said the association had also discussed the issue of shortage of labours in its several forums and had also taken it to the National Small Industries Corporation.

The association felt that though not much could be done with regard to the shortage of labourers in the unskilled category, efforts could be made towards the semi-skilled front by providing crash-training programmes, he added.

Sirsa, June 10
Thirteen students of the local Shah Satnamji Educational Institutions have won 12 silver medals and a bronze in the Asian Sambo championship held in Uzbekistan from June 1 to June 5.

"As many as 13 players, eight boys and five girls, from Shah Satnamji Educational Institutions were part of the 22-member national team that participated in the championship," said Pawan Insan, spokesperson of the Dera Sacha Sauda.

"Balwinder, Ram Mehar, Sandeep, Dharmender, Naresh, Ajay and Anup of the Shah Satnamji Boys School won silver medals in their respective weight category while Ravinder of the same school won bronze. Among the girls, all from the Shah Satnamji Girls College, Rekha, Rimple, Pooja, Ritu and Sukhwinder Paul won silver medals in their respective categories," he added.

All players, being followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda, use Insan as suffix with their names.

Sambo, an acronym for SAMozashchita Bez Oruzhiya ("self-defence without weapons) in Russia, is a martial art and combat sport.

It is considered relatively modern since its development began in 1923 by the Soviet Red Army to improve the hand-to-hand combat system.

Sambo is a merger of the most effective techniques of other arts and has its roots in the judo, karate, and tradition styles of wrestling.

Ranbir Nain, coach of the boys' team, said that beating Russian players in their own sports and in their own home conditions was a very satisfying experience.

The players were accorded hearty welcome in their respective schools on arrival from Uzbekistan.

Fatehabad, June 10
A National Service Scheme (NSS) camp of students in the local Government Senior Secondary Girls School concluded recently. Addressing the students, school principal Ajit Singh Chugh said service to humanity was the greatest service. He exhorted the students to work hard and be honest in their endeavours.

Advocate Nand Kishore Sethi apprised the students about legal rights available to the common man and also about the functions of the legal service authority.

Advocate Suman Lata Siwach informed the students about women laws prevalent in the country and means to get justice in case of violation of one’s rights. She also delved upon issues like foeticide, dowry system and child marriage and called upon girls to fight these social evils.

Jyoti Machra, convener of the camp, said the school conducts such camps for students every year during summer vacations. Students indulged in activities like sanitation, tree plantation and experts gave lectures on various aspects of social life.

Earlier, district education officer HS Chhokar inaugurated the camp. Prof RK Kaushik, Veena Bhayana and several other keynote speakers addressed the girls during the camp. — TNS

Kaithal, June 10
"Shaheedon ki chitaon per lagen ge har baras mele, watan pe marne walon ka yahi baki nishan hoga", this couplet was written to pay homage to martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country, but it seems to have no meaning for the insensitive administration and the local municipal council authorities.

A memorial built on the Ba-bapu Chatrawas road here in memory of Squadron Leader Mahesh Gulati who died in an air crash in 1986 remains surrounded by fruits and vegetable sellers and the MC authorities have never cared to keep the memorial in good shape and free from encroachers.

The vendors keep standing around the memorial everyday and by the evening, the place begins to stink due to accumulation of garbage and leftover rotten fruits and vegetables by rehriwalas.

After the Partition, Gulati's family migrated from Pakistan and settled in Kaithal. Mahesh completed his school education in Kaithal and got a gold medal in M.Sc physics. He joined the Indian Air Force and within few years, he became Squadron Leader. On March 22, 1986, Gulati and his other colleagues made a sortie in their plane in Ladakh region to drop soldiers and officers. However, due to bad weather the plane lost control and hit a glacier, but the debris of the plane and the bodies were found in August 1986.

Sqn Ldr Gulati was cremated in Pathankot with full military honours. His brother Dharam Pal Gulati with the help of local municipal council built a memorial here in his honour.

On August 15 every year, Dharam Pal and his family members and relatives pay tributes at the memorial, which is looked after by the soldier's brother. But the authorities have surely forgotten the martyr.

Jakhal (Fatehabad), June 10
A decision of the state government, which was hailed by local residents four years ago, has proved retrogressive for them. The decision was to abolish the municipal committee in Jakhal Mandi town of this district and make it a gram panchayat.

Since then the condition of civic amenities has been deteriorating. Recently, angry residents blocked vehicular traffic on the Chandigarh road for over six hours to protest the worrying scenario. Administrative officers from Tohana who went to the town to calm down the protestors had to face the wrath of people, who forced them to walk down the streets of the town and see their plight.

The residents relented only after Ashwani Maingi, SDM, Tohana, assured them that their grievances would be redressed soon.

“People had welcomed government’s decision to bring down the status of Jakhal Mandi and convert it into a village instead of a municipal town four years ago. The move saved the residents from paying taxes like house tax, brought down minimum rent for BSNL landlines and also resulted in several other benefits. However, the move also resulted in the deterioration of sanitary conditions as some facilities like sewerage and drainage were available in municipal towns only,” said Brij Bhushan, a local resident.

“Things have come to such a pass that work on the construction of streets is lying unattended for long, filthy sewage and waste waster is overflowing on to the streets and it has become difficult to breath due to ever prevalent stink,” alleged another resident Parmod.

Residents allege that several reminders to the authorities have failed to move them.

“We are not ready to forgo benefits associated with village panchayats and want that the government again provided the status of municipal committee to Jakhal Mandi, so that the civic conditions of the town are improved,” claim a majority of residents. In fact, the outgoing block samiti, they maintain, had already passed a resolution for providing the past status of municipality to Jakhal Mandi.

Rohtak, June 10
About 24 farmers from seven districts of the state will be visiting the neighbouring state of Punjab for attending a special training camp. The camp will be held in Amritsar from June 16 to 18. It will be guided mainly by Subhash Palekar of Maharashtra, who is well known for his concept of “zero budget farming”.

This camp will be organised by Pingalwada, a social organisation, which had stopped using agro-chemicals four years ago and had adopted natural and zero-cost farming on its own farm. Convinced by its experience, it is now organising this camp to teach this technique to other farmers, said Prof Rajinder Chaudhary of the Economics Department of Maharshi Dayanand University who has been appointed as the local coordinator of this programme.

According to Chaudhary, the districts which are likely to be represented in this camp included Rohtak, Jhajjar, Rewari, Hisar, Panchkula, Sonepat and Jind. He said expenses would be borne mainly by participants. The delegation from Rohtak would be largest as it would be having about 11 farmers from about four villages.

Claiming that the concept of farming, especially among the educated farmers and youths, had been catching on, he said a voluntary organisation identified as Chetnalaya of Rohtak had decided to set up a model farm here to carry on the initiative and provide necessary guidance to all those who were interested in this campaign.

Chandigarh, June 10
The Haryana government has decided to train teachers to enable them to handle skillfully the task assigned to them in the institution.

Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal said here today that to achieve this objective, the Education Department had formulated a systematic Human Resource Development Plan, which had already been approved by the Union government. Recently recruited 1,983 Physical Training Instructors (PTIs) would be the first beneficiaries of this scheme.

She said sufficient budget provision for 2010-11 had been made by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for giving induction training to all newly recruited teachers.

Elaborating the scheme, director-general of school education Mohammed Shayin said a joint training team had been formed by taking persons from the Education Department, Sports Department and the Bharat Scouts and Guides, Haryana. In all, 30 days’ training would be imparted in three phases. Tara Devi in Himachal Pradesh had been selected as the training venue keeping in view its suitable terrain and climate which were conducive for physical training, including trekking, hiking, drill, yoga, rock climbing, etc.

To begin with, it would be a 10-day residential training camp. The training programme would cover all PTIs in 12 batches.

The main emphasis in this phase of training would be on giving firsthand knowledge of physical activities like trekking, hiking, drill, yoga and rock climbing to the trainees, said Shayin, adding that it would help the newly inducted teachers to assess the quantum and quality of co-curricular and extracurricular activities to be introduced for children in schools, which were essential part of the holistic personality development of the students.

He said the next phase of the training would focus on preparing the students for sports competitions. The PTIs would be equipped with the knowledge of rules and systems of various games and competitions at the district, state and national levels. They would also be fully trained on how to identify the talent in young children and groom them how to access facilities of special coaching provision of the State Government Sports Department.

Sirsa, June 10
For fitness conscious women, there is news to cheer about from students Jan Nayak Chaudhary Devi Lal Polytechnic here who have developed a washing machine that helps women stay fit while washing cloths.

Besides, the newly developed washing machine saves energy as it is, in their own words, a zero energy consumption machine.

Eight students of mechanical engineering branch of the polytechnic teamed together to develop the machine under the guidance of their teacher Suraj Pal.

The students are Vikram Aneja, Jayant, Ankush, Rahul Goldy, Krishan Sorot, Amandeep Kaur and Rohit Yadav

The machine named “pedaling-washing machine” has been fabricated from old components taken from the market.

It works on the principle of washing clothes by rotating the drum of the machine with the help of sprocket wheel of an exercising bicycle. By pedaling the cycle, the drum rotates which results in washing action.

“The machine not only washes clothes, it dries them too,” says Vikram Aneja.

“The machine cost us Rs 2,500, but if such a machine is produced at the commercial level, it will cost between Rs 1,700 and Rs 1,800,” he adds.

Principal RS Brar is happy at the invention. JCD Vidyapeeth director general Kuldip Singh Dhindsa stated that the machine could prove a boon for those who wanted to save energy and stay fit.

Sonepat, June 10
Despite the drives undertaken by the Municipal Council in the recent past, shopkeepers, vendors, workshop owners and users of personal vehicles continue to encroach on roads and footpaths in Sonepat town and create all sorts of problems of traffic congestion.

Shopkeepers encroach on footpaths and portions of roads to display their extra stocks. Then comes the encroachment at most of the places by rehriwallas. At many places, workshop mechanics carry out the repair work of vehicles and machinery on roads.

As the use of personal vehicles by the people has increased for visiting markets and offices, they also had no other option but to park their vehicles on the roads for the want of proper parking space in the town.

The situation is no better in residential colonies. House owners had constructed ramps outside their houses, which occupy a part of the street. At many places, there is no space for vehicles to cross. Even the developed sectors of HUDA are not free from this problem.

Shopkeepers of the busiest Kache Quarter Market have not learnt any lesson from the tragic incident of a devastating fire which broke out due to a short circuit on the eve of Diwali in 1999 which claimed the lives of 49 persons and several other received serious burn injuries.

Encroachments on the market roads did not left much space for the people to escape from this congested market. A senior official of the Municipal Council said it was a permanent problem in every city of the state and has been existing for the past several decades. “The increase in number of personal vehicles, autorickshaws, vendors, rehriwallas, rickshaw pullers has compounded the problem,” he said and remarked that it was difficult to overcome this problem as it has become the habit of people to encroach on government land.

Kalka, June 10
President of Shivalik Vikas Manch and former Kalka Market Committee chairman Vijay Bansal condemned the state government for adopting a partial attitude in the construction of marketing board's link roads at Kalka subdivision.

He said over the past five years, the state had constructed only 300 m of road in the Kalka subdivision and only five roads had been constructed in Panchkula so far. However, between 1992 and 1996, the marketing board had constructed 30 roads.

He said despite the fact that the marketing board had deposited funds in the Panchayat Development Department, no development had been carried out so far.

Bansal said the state government had recently declared 53 villages as modern villages in the state, but not even a single village from Panchkula was declared modern.

He said a number of development works were carried throughout the state under the Special Development Scheme, with a budget of Rs 300 crore, but Panchkula, Kalka, Pinjore and its vicinity were deprived of this development scheme.

He further said link roads of various villages of Kalka subdivision, which was constructed by the Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board were in a state of neglect, as the marketing board had not taken any initiative to repair these roads for the past 14 years, adding that the repair work of link roads, sanctioned during 2005-2006, were yet to be carried out. The marketing board at other subdivision and blocks of the state were carrying out the construction and repair work of the roads.

In Pinjore block, only one road had been constructed in the past five years, he added.

Earlier, in a meeting between officials and chief administration of the marketing board held in August 2008, it was decided that the pending work of the link roads would be completed before November 2008, but nothing had been done so far.