Sirsa, July 28
With the Ghaggar waters having marooned a large population in over 45 villages of the district earlier this month, malaria cases have begun to appear in flood-hit areas.

Patients suffering from high fever and some with symptoms of malaria are visiting government and private hospitals and their number is increasing by the day.

“I have been receiving an unusually large number of patients suffering from fever in the past five days. Most of them come with symptoms of malaria,” said a private doctor from Rania.

Over a dozen villages near Rania were flooded due to breaches in the Ghaggar earlier this month. Hundreds of families living in tents in the open and in camps set up in schools are exposed to mosquitoes.

“Mosquitoes abound in the camps where we have been putting up. We have not been provided any mosquito nets,” complained a flood victim in Nathor village.

Microbiologist Sheel Kaushik, officiating as Deputy Civil Surgeon (Malaria), maintained that the number of patients suffering from malaria was not too high.

“As is usual during this time of the year, two or three patients test positive for malaria everyday. As many as26 patients have tested positive for malaria in the district this month against 76 such cases from January to June this year,” she said.

Kaushik claimed that several measures had been taken to check the spread of malaria and other vector-borne diseases in the district.

“The gambusia fish in the floodwaters feasts on mosquito larvae, so the insects are not able to multiply. Fogging has been started in villages identified as sensitive,” she explained.

Besides malaria, the risk of water-borne diseases looms large in the affected villages. Patients suffering from diarrhoea are also visiting hospitals in substantial numbers.

An official spokesperson said 53 samples of drinking water had been taken from the flood-hit villages.

“Of the 17 reports received so far, potable water at seven places has been found fit for human consumption,” the spokesperson added. 

Chandigarh, July 28
Poor upkeep of huge foodstocks exposed to the vagaries of weather forced the Supreme Court to issue directions to the Food Corporation of India to come back with action taken report (ATR) within 15 days.

Like Punjab, Haryana has been stacking huge quantities of wheat and paddy on the plinths in the open. Little precaution was taken to protect the stocks from the fury of the rain or flash floods caused by the Ghaggar, the Yamuna and other rivers in the state.

If the Haryana Warehousing Corporation had acted in time, wheat worth Rs 9 crore in Sirsa’s Bani village could have been saved from damage. The lackadaisical attitude of the authorities hindered the shifting of 8,000 tonnes of wheat to safer places. Bani was inundated following a breach on the right bank of Ghaggar on July 14. The wheat stocks have been under 10 ft of water. “We had warned both the HWC as well as Confed. While the latter managed to shift its goods in time, the HWC failed to act,” said CG Rajini Kaanthan, DC. Krishan Kumar, Managing-Director of the HWC, who subsequently camped in Sirsa, refuted the allegations.

In Hisar, wheat and other foodgrain stored in FCI godowns have been unaffected by the rains. The FCI has storage facilities at Hisar, Barwala and Hansi. Besides, it also has a covered plinth at Barwala. Adequate additional steps were taken in anticipation of the rainy season. A constant vigil, sources said, was being maintained at all locations in the district. The FCI’s storage facility at five places is 51,450 tonnes.

In Ambala, as many as 500 bags of wheat were damaged in the FCI godown at Moonakpur. Wheat stocks lying in the open were badly damaged.

The District Food and Supplies Controller, G P Sikri, said the wheat stocks, including those in the open, had been insured. He said wheat storage in the godowns in Ambala was 1,53,349 tonnes.

The total arrivals this year was 2,04,825 tonnes out of which agencies had purchased 2,04,197 tonnes.

He said there was no major loss to foodgrains. The loss at the FCI godown in Manakpur, where 500 sacks had got wet, was minor. These sacks were insured.

In Yamunanagar, the FCI does not appear to have enough manpower to take care of its godowns. At its godown (10,000 MT capacity) near the Kali temple in Jagadhri, a large number of rice bags were seen lying outside the godown.

There was only one security guard, the reason that the rest of the employees of the HWC had gone to download rice bags from trucks in another FCI godown in Bhatli. There are five FCI godowns in the district, with a guard each. Besides, there is shortage of manpower to lift the stock in time.

(Inputs from Raman Mohan, Sushil Manav, Kiran Deep and Attar Singh)

Yamunanagar (Dadupur), July 28
The prestigious Dadupur Nalvi canal scheme which had been planned to benefit 225 villages in the three districts of Yamunanagar, Ambala and Kurukshetra by providing them with irrigation waters and also recharging the groundwater has proved destructive to these villages.

The bridge over the Dadupur-Nalvi canal constructed at a cost of Rs 30 lakh a year ago has collapsed while a large portion of the canal as also the road running parrellel to it have been washed away in overflowing waters near Bhagwanpur village.

Over a dozen villages have been submerged due to a breach in the Dadupur-Nalvi canal and 30 cut off with the bridge over the canal having collapsed.

The irrigation department blames the unexpected high flow of water into the canal triggered by breaches in the two seasonal rivulets of Som and Pathrala for the damage to the canal as well as the bridge.

Superintendent Engineer, Irrigation, Balbir Singh, told The Tribune that the canal with a capacity for 590 cusecs received 4,000 cusecs of water that caused the damage.

The first phase of the Dadupur Nalvi canal scheme was inaugurated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on August 1. The canal, with a capacity of 590 cusecs, is meant to get water supply from the Dadupur headworks.

The surplus Yamuna water is planned to be diverted from these headworks into the canal during the kharif season for the benefit of farmers.

However, it seems that while planning the prestigious scheme, the irrigation department did not take into account the potential threat to villagers in case of a breach in any of the seasonal rivulets. Doubts are now also being expressed over the material used to build the bridge.

The nearby villagers of Dadupur, Bhagwanpur, Kishanpur Majra, Khadri and Fatehgarh had time and again complained about the possibility of their agricultural land being submerged in waters in the eventuality of a breach.

However the irrigation department disregarded their apprehension which finally resulted in a major disaster.

Meanwhile, nine villages of the Mustafabad block in Jagadhri subdivision were also submerged in the overflowing waters of the Chetang seasonal rivulet here today.

The rise in the water of the rivulet is attributed to heavy rainfall in the catchments areas of Himachal Pardesh. Link roads and crops in these villages are under water.

Chandigarh, July 28
The INLD today blamed the Congress government in Haryana for its failure to prevent floods in six districts of the state and accused it of “mismanagement” in relief operations.

Speaking to mediapersons after submitting a memorandum in this regard to Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia here today, party secretary-general and MLA Ajay Singh Chautala said the flood situation was the “doing” of the Congress government.

“Initially, they paid no heed to repeated flood warnings. After the floods wreaked havoc, the government failed miserably to providing relief to the common man. Announcements of relief and compensation have remained confined to issuing statements in newspapers. On ground, the common man is still awaiting relief material,” he claimed.

Demanding the convening of a special session of the Vidhan Sabha, Ajay Chautala said this would provide local MLAs to air the grievances of their respective districts. “At least the insensitive government will pay some attention to the sufferings of the common man,” he maintained.

The memorandum states that ill-maintained drains and siphons were responsible for the flood situation in the state. “The floods were not the consequence of heavy rain but of the lackadaisical attitude of the government towards maintenance. Moreover, the bundhs which were washed away by the floods are yet to be repaired,” party president of the state unit Ashok Arora said.

Stating that the floods had caused a damage of over Rs 4,500 crore, Ajay Chautala alleged that the government made a mockery of the visit of the central team which had come to assess the loss in the state. “Crops have been damaged and there has been loss to homes, businesses and of cattle. However, the Congress government failed to take the team to a flood-hit village, choosing to brief them in pockets where the damage could not be gauged,” he said.

The party demanded that compensation to the tune of Rs 25,000 per acre be given to farmers while the public which has suffered loss on account of floods should be duly compensated.

Chandigarh, July 28
The All-India Jat Mahasabha, the Kisan Sabha, Bajpur, and the Tarahi Region Jat Mahasabha have requested Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhrial ‘Nishank’ to name the Bajpur-Beria road in Udham Singh Nagar district of the state after late Chaudhary Ranbir Singh, who was the last surviving member of the Constituent Assembly of the county. Ranbir Singh had a farm on this road.

In a letter to the Chief Minister, president of the All-India Jat Mahasabha Virender Singh said Ranbir Singh was a freedom fighter and he remained a member of seven different legislative houses of the country - the Constituent Assembly, the Central Legislative Assembly, the Provisional Parliament, the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha and the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. 

Jind, July 28
The district witnessed traffic blockades at three places to highlight their grievances on various issues here today.

A large number of shopkeepers blocked traffic at Patiala Chowk by sitting on dharna on the main crossing for an hour to express resentment over the increasing number of thefts in the locality in the past few days.

Demanding safety, the residents asked the police to arrest the culprits immediately and ensure that there was no such incident in the area. The blockade was lifted after the intervention of the ASP, who assured them of a proper action.

Meanwhile, residents from Pouli village here blocked traffic on National Highway-71 linking Jind with Rohtak in protest against inadequate supply of drinking water in the village. The villagers claimed that there had been no water supply for the past three days.

The third such incident was reported from Braha Khurd village located on the Jind-Gohana road.

The villagers held protest after an elderly person was run over by a speeding vehicle this morning. Alleging delay and inaction on the part of the police to chase and arrest the accused driver, residents of the village blocked the traffic by laying down wooden logs and parking their vehicles across the road.— TNS

Karnal, July 28
The CIA, Karnal, today raided Bikaner Sweets Corner near Hospital Chowk and seized 50 kg of synthetic khoya.

CIA-I in charge Jaspal Singh said a team of policemen and doctors raided the shop following a tip-off that Maherban from UP had come with a huge quantity of khoya and was striking a deal at the shop. The team took samples from the shop.

During investigations, Maherban, reportedly confessed to having sold synthetic khoya to the Bikaner sweets shopowner in the past also.

The police arrested Maherban and Beej Nath, owner of the shop. A case under Sections 272, 273 and 420 of the IPC has been registered. The khoya was made artificially by mixing vegetable oils like Dalda and refined soyabeen and some chemicals and kept for some time to mature before using it for the preparation of sweets. — TNS