Hisar, September 16
Even though the government has successfully doused the fire that engulfed the district in the aftermath of the Mayyar incidents, the aftershocks of the violence will be felt in the state's polity for a long time to come.

Considering that it was the Jat community that changed the political fortunes of the Congress and Hooda in 2005, the wounds inflicted by the violence will not be easy to heal.

Many in the state's police and political hierarchy appear to be taking a simplistic view of the incidents. It was not just a case of an angry mob running berserk on the spur of the moment. Everybody had seen it coming after the recent developments in the Mirchpur case.

Unrest among the Jats in the area had been simmering since the Mirchpur violence in which a Dalit teenaged girl and her father were burnt alive when upper caste villagers torched 18 Dalit houses in April last.

Despite having been caught on the wrong foot in Mirchpur, the Jats felt let down after the police booked more than 100 upper caste villagers for the violence.

The police realised its folly belatedly and hesitated to arrest the accused fearing a political backlash. It was then that the Supreme Court stepped in and directed the police to arrest the remaining accused by September 10. The police did so and the anger amongst the Jats came to a boil.

When the Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti decided to hold a "Chetavani Sammelan at Mayyar on September 13, the administration misread the situation completely and reacted too drastically. Had the police not insisted on clearing the road blockade at Mayyar for a couple of hours, the bloodshed might have been avoided.

It will be too simplistic to dismiss this argument on the plea that roads cannot be allowed to be blockaded. Road blockades in Haryana on minor issues are an everyday happening. Nowhere has the administration acted so drastically.

The removal of SP Subhash Yadav and the murder charge slapped on him helped the government placate the Jats. But, it left the police force completely demoralised and shocked which was evident the following day when rampaging mobs went about torching public and private property at will.

The INLD leadership is seeing a godsend opportunity in the Mayyar violence to corner Hooda. So are Hooda's detractors in the Congress. The Chief Minister will need to use all his political acumen to successfully bear the aftershocks.

The Jats are known to be hardliners by nature. They do not adopt a leader easily and once they do so, they go out of their way to back him unless and until things come to a pass where the community feels its political dominance is at stake. In such a situation, the Jats do not hesitate to dump their leaders without much ado.

In the past, late Devi Lal and his political heir, Om Parkash Chautala, realised this at a considerable political cost.

Gurgaon, September 16
Apprehensive over doubts about the conduct of upcoming Commonwealth Games (CWG), hoteliers of Gurgaon and nearby areas in the National Capital Region (NCR) have urged the Haryana Government to save them from the imminent crash.

At an emergency meeting organised by the Gurgaon chapter of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Haryana (HRAH) here yesterday, the hoteliers maintained that they were apprehending heavy losses due to the fact that much less visitors were now expected to arrive for the games than estimated earlier.

The meeting resolved to meet the Haryana Chief Minister and demand a waiver of luxury tax (LT), reduction of VAT on liquor from 26.25 per cent to 13.13 per cent, reduction in the bar licence fee to a reasonable level and a freeze on the further registration of hotels in the Gurgaon area.

The participants decided to meet the local authorities and press their demand for stopping the operation of illegal guesthouses, which was proving detrimental to the licensed hotels.

The meeting lamented that the Haryana Government was not giving any worthwhile incentives to local hotels. It was also pointed out that many CWG bookings in Delhi hotels were being cancelled, which was a cause of concern.

Ranjit Goel, director of the Gurgaon chapter of the HRAH, pointed out that the existing hotels in Gurgaon directly employed nearly 15,000 persons and provided indirect employment to around 45,000 persons. The losses suffered by the hotel industry would percolate down to these people, he maintained.

Goel pointed out that the average hotel occupancy, which was about 60 per cent nearly two years ago, had reduced to 30 per cent, despite the fact that the average room rents had been scaled down to 50 per cent.

Faridabad, September 16
As part of its social responsibility, the Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, a well-known hospital here, has launched the “Grameen Swasthya Pariyojna”, a health scheme for rural population in the district.

The hospital’s initiative is seen by many as the deepening trend of private sector’s participation to the government’s efforts to raise the health standards of the public.

Launching the “Pariyojna” at a function attended by sarpanches of a number of villages, Dr NK Pandey, chairman and managing director of the hospital, said it was a scheme oriented towards the rural populace to ensure to it better health by taking the institute’s collective expertise close to it. It would also go a long way in ensuring that the rural population and the marginalised section of society availed modern medicines, advanced medical facilities, diagnoses and treatment.

The scheme, besides holding health check-up camps in villages and providing treatment free of cost, would also have thrust on the preventive aspect of medical care. A special thrust would also be on spreading awareness among the ruralites on the nuances of health and medical care.

Dr Pandey said the health camps would also help the doctors of the hospital in various disciplines to collect data on trends of diseases in the hinterland of the district. This would go a long way in the prevention aspect of medical science, better diagnosis and cure. Rural population suffers from a number of age-related maladies and ailments, especially relating eyes and cardiography, he added.

The scheme especially takes on board the sarpanches of villages, vital functionaries under the Panchayati Raj System. The sarpanches would be issued health cards, which would enable the people of the villages to avail medical care in the hospital at subsidised rates.

According to Dr Pandey, ever since its inception, the hospital had been holding free health check-up camps in the villages. It was on account of the experience of health check-up camps that a need was felt by the hospital to launch the scheme to relate the people of the rural areas with modern medicines easily and at subsidised rates, he added.

Panchkula, September 16
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda recently announced to confer the Bhim Award on two sportspersons in the physically challenged category every year. Earlier, it was given to one player only.

Hooda said efforts had been made for the uplift of the physically challenged.

He said 25 physically challenged players brought laurels to the state by winning medals at the international level and 100 players at the national level.

He said the largest contingent of 45 players of the state would participate in the Commonwealth Games, which included two physically challenged players also.

Hooda announced to give Rs 11 lakh to the Paralympic Committee of Haryana out of his discretionary fund. He said the Haryana Olympic Association and the Haryana Sports and Youth Affairs Department had also contributed Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh, respectively.

Faridabad, September 16
Auto-rickshaw and tempo drivers in Faridabad and its adjoining Gurgaon city have made life miserable for motorists and commuters by violating traffic rules right under the nose of the police and other authorities. Besides, they often misbehave with passengers and overcharge them.

From overloading to overcharging, they openly flout rules. It seems that they have been let loose by the authorities. The drivers unleash verbal abuses against anyone, irrespective of his age and sex, who dares to remind them of traffic rules or official fares. They stop anywhere in the middle of the road for as long as they want to take passengers on board even if the vehicle is full.

The rise in criminal tendencies among drivers of such vehicles has not only added to the crime problem, but also put the life and dignity of the passengers at risk.

In the past about seven days, there have been a number of reports in Faridabad about overcharging by auto-rickshaw drivers. The general impression is that the development is part of an organised act.

In Faridabad, auto-rickshaws and tempos starting from BK Chowk, Hardware Chowk, Ajronda Chowk and Neelam Chowk and take the route to inner roads in the city, have been collecting extra fares, sometimes forcibly.

Local residents who commute to Gurgaon allege that such tendencies are also prevalent among divers in that city as well. They point out that drivers plying their auto-rickshaws and tempos on the sector 31-32 road from Kanhi village going to Sector 15 via Jharsa and terminating at Saddar Market have been violating rules and misbehaving with passengers.

Ram Rattan, a resident of Dabua Colony here, who often goes to Gurgaon, alleges that recently, he and other passengers were manhandled by a group of drivers when they refused to pay more than the rate fixed by the authorities. The drivers forcibly charged Rs 8 instead of Rs 5 from them.

People feel that such acts cannot take place without the collusion of the law enforcement machinery of the government. They say either the authorities are not willing to take action or are ignorant of the scenario. In both cases, it is putting the government in a poor light.

Besides, a large number of auto-rickshaws and tempos have been plying illegally in the region. They either don’t have permits or the drivers sans a valid licence. However, despite all this, the authorities do not seem to bother either about the rules violation or the harassment of public.

Ambala, September 16
The Haryana Khadi Mission, a unit of the Bharatiya Khadi Gramodyog Sangh, Northern Zone, has threatened to launch a hunger strike from October 2 against the decision of the Khadi Commission to withdraw subsidy on manufacturing units.

A few days ago, few members of the Khadi Mission from all over the state observed a token strike and staged a dharna outside the office at Ambala Cantt in protest against the subsidy withdrawn and submitted a memorandum to the Central Office of the Khadi Commission.

Mahesh Dutt, convener of the Haryana Khadi Mission, said to attract customers by bringing down khadi prices, a rebate scheme was started by the government and despite the fact khadi being a costlier product than machine-made products.

He said khadi and village industries institutions were providing employment to nearly 50,000 people, mostly women, in the state. The Central government has withdrawn the policy of rebate and instead introduced the market development assistance policy due to which it has become impossible for khadi institutions to provide rebate on the sale of khadi products as hitherto.

The withdrawal of 10 per cent rebate, which was given to the khadi industry around the year and 20 per cent that was given for 108 days a year to mark Gandhi Jayanti, has left the local khadi industry in lurch with many units facing an immediate closure. There are about 85 units in the state.

He further said due to the withdrawal of policy and because of an amount of Rs 450 crore of rebate, which has not been released despite repeated pleas to the Khadi and Village Industries Commission and the State Khadi and Village Industries Boards, the khadi institutions were now facing severe financial crisis. In addition to this factor, total stoppage of budgetary support to khadi and village institutions added to the problems.

In view of this fact, the apex body of khadi institutions submitted various memorandums to the Prime Minister and the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, but to no avail.

Blaming the government in the Centre responsible for neglecting small-scale units, Mahesh said multinational companies were being benefited by the government at the cost of small-scale industries.

Representatives of the Khadi Mission and other khadi institutions warned the government that if their demands were not met, the convener of the institutions would start a hunger strike from October 2, he added.

Chandigarh, September 16
Geeta Bhukkal, Haryana Minister for Health and Education, honoured 33 littérateurs for the year 2008, 2009 and 2010 under the Literature Award Scheme of the Haryana Sahitya Akademi on the occasion of Hindi Divas here recently.

She, on the behalf of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, announced the setting up of a grant akademi “Sahityik Chikitsa Kalyan Kosh” with an aid of Rs 10 lakh initially for medical help to the state awardee writers.

As the Minister came down to honour Shakuntla Brijmohan, 91-year-old veteran littérateur of eminence, the audience offered applause in reverence. Credited with over 12 books in Hindi, she had been a keen classical vocalist and sitar player. Similarly, bureaucrat poet Ramendra Jakhu and acclaimed author, columnist and senior police officer Rajbir Deswal won tremendous adulation.

An English book “Hoor Menaka”, an adaptation and poetic translation of legendary Haryanavi poet Lakhmi Chand’s swang by Rajbir Deswal, IG (CID), Haryana, was released by the Minister.

Popular poet Madhav Kaushik and ‘hasya kavi’ Jagbir Rathi stole the limelight.

Rajbir Deswal

Rajbir Deswal, IG (CID), Haryana, who has won the Lakhmi Chand Samman, is also known for his columns like Humour from Haryana, Sunta Jayiye, Tharhi Mahari Sab ki Baat, mainly middles, Meri England Yatra in Hindi and English newspapers.

His books - Latke Jhatke- is an insight into the profound depths of vibrant and boisterous Haryanvi humour while Taron ke Jungle is an anthology of poems. However, he is also an accomplished singer and an Urdu ghazal and lyricist

For the year 2008, Haryana Sahitya Ratan Samman was given to Dr Harish Chander Verma of Rohtak, Mahakavi Surdas Samman to Dr MP Bhardwaj of Panchkula, Babu Balmukund Samman (Hindi literature) to Puran Mudgal of Sirsa, Lala Deshbandhu Gupt Samman (sahityik patrakarita) to Urmi Krishna of Ambala and Dr Gurmeet Singh of Panchkula, Pt. Lakhmi Chand Samman to Madan Gopal Shastri of Hisar and Haryana Gaurav Samman to Dr Suresh Gautam of Delhi.

Similarly, for the year 2009, Haryana Sahitya Ratan Samman was conferred on Rajya Kavi Uday Bhanu Hans of Hisar, Mahakavi Surdas Samman was conferred on Kanwal Nayan Kapoor of Yamunanagar, Babu Balmukund Samman (Hindi literature) on Gyan Parkash Vivek of Bahadurgarh, Lala Deshbandhu Gupt Samman (sahityik patrakarita) on Narender Kumar Upmanyu of Panipat and Hemant Atri of Rohtak, Pt. Lakhmi Chand Samman was conferred on Rajbir Deswal of Panchkula, Haryana Gaurav Samman on Dr Kamal Kumar of Delhi and Vishesh Sahitya Seva Samman on Bharat Bhushan Sanghiwal of Rohtak, Satya Pal Gupt of Chandigarh, Tara Chand Premi of Ferozepur Jhirka and Pt. Jagannath Samchana of Rohtak.

Ramendra Jakhu

For 2010, Haryana Sahitya Ratan Samman was conferred on Leeladhar Viyogi of Ambala, Mahakavi Surdas Samman was conferred on Madhav Kaushik of Chandigarh, Babu Balmukund Samman (Hindi literature) on Dr Subhash Rastogi of Chandigarh, Lala Deshbandhu Gupt Samman (sahityik patrakarita) on Desh Nirmohi of Panchkula and Kamlesh Bhartiya of Hisar, Pt. Lakhmi Chand Samman was conferred on Jagbir Rathee of Jind, Haryana Gaurav Samman on Dr Jai Narayan Kaushik of Delhi, Jan Kavi Mehar Singh Samman on Bhagwan Das Morwal of Delhi, Aditya Alhar Hasya Samman (Hindi/Haryanavi) on KP Saxena of Lucknow, Shreshtha Mahila Rachnakar Samman (Hindi/Haryanavi) on Shakuntala Brijmohan of Chandigarh, Vishesh Sahitya Seva Samman on Ramendra Jakhu of Chandigarh, Dr Chander Trikha of Chandigarh, Ram Sharam Yuyutsu of Jind and Shashi Bhushan Singhal of Delhi.

During his student days, Ramendra Jakhu Sahil, Financial commissioner, Haryana, was crowned as the best poet of GND University consecutively in 1976 and 1977 as also declared a winner of the university’s light classical vocal. He is credited with four poetry books, over 200 articles published in top literary magazines and an audio CD of ghazals that are sung by the elite ghazal maestros of the world.

Sirsa, September 16
Sirsa will soon become the first district in the country to implement the solar photovoltaic technology-based power project of about Rs 2 crore which will ensure the availability of round-the-clock power in seven block development and panchayat offices (BDPO) of the district.

The Central government has already sanctioned Rs 58.80 lakh as its contribution for the project, which will begin after the district authorities deposit their part of funding, which is Rs 137.2 lakh, said an official spokesperson.

“To overcome this problem and to create awareness about the SPV technology, HAREDA has prepared and got sanctioned a project from the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The project includes installation of a 10-KW SPV power plant in each block development and panchayat office of Dabwali, Rania, Ellenabad, Baragudha, Odhan, Sirsa and Nathisari Chopta in Sirsa district,” said CG Rajini Kaanthan, deputy commissioner, Sirsa.

Each plant would consist of 75 watt module (134), 60 low-maintenance cells of 2 V, 1200 Ah batteries, 15 KVA inverter and SPV charge controller.

The complete system, including battery would be warranted for five years, which would cover the supply of spares, parts and services during its tenure. The SPV modules would be warranted for 25 years.

Thereafter, these systems would be maintained by BDPO offices concerned.

This facility would enable the smooth running of 11 computers and five inkjet printers for three hours on an average, 22 fans (60 watt) for eight hours, 43 tubelights (28 watt) for eight hours and 28 streetlights (28 watt) for 10 hours in each BDPO office.

This would help them continuous power needed for uploading online data for schemes like NREGA.

The spokesperson said the cost of each plant was about 28 lakh out of which the union ministry was providing a subsidy of Rs 8.40 lakh.

Gurgaon, September 16
Rajat Sharma, chairman and editor-in-chief of India TV, remarked that bashing of electronic media had become a favourite pastime with people in general.

Interestingly, Sharma, who was delivering a lecture on “Electronic Media: Relevance and Responsibility” at Ansal Institute of Technology here recently, himself indulged in whacking the print media in a bid to defend TV channels.

He made many points to convince the audience that electronic media was more relevant and responsible than its print counterpart. He asserted that following the terrorist attack on Mumbai, the electronic media had imposed a self-regulatory regime on itself.

Sharma shared his experiences with the students, faculty and staff members of Ansal Institute of Technology, Sushant School of Art and Architecture and Sushant School of Design.

A recipient of several awards and honours for his popular TV show “Aap ki Adalat”, Sharma maintained that every news channel needed to be a successful business model in order to keep going. The lecture was followed by a question-answer session.

Rewari, September 16
The police, with the proactive assistance of five youths of Dehlawas-Gulabpura village, apprehended a fleeing armed miscreant identified as Satbir Yadav of Jhajjar district from a railway crossing of Chowki No. 11, 15 km from here, recently.

The police seized a stolen private bus as well as a rifle along with six live cartridges from him. The miscreant had stolen the bus from Najafgarh town.

Following a tipoff by the Najafgarh police, a police official of the Rewari Sadar police started following the miscreant. However, in view of the inadequate police force, he sought assistance from the above youths, who readily boarded the police Gypsy.

Subsequently, when the miscreant had to stop the bus at the above railway crossing, which was lying closed, the police along with the youths nabbed him. A case of theft and retention of a stolen bus has been registered against the accused.

Sonepat, September 16
Sonepat emerged as the overall champion of the four-day 44th Haryana State Junior Badminton Championship concluded here in Little Angel Senior Secondary School recently. About 300 boys and girls from different districts of the state participated in the championship.

Sonepat girls not only bagged the under-13 and under-16 categories singles and double titles, but also remained runners-up in these categories.

Sonepat boys finished runners-up in the singles and doubles titles of the under-16 and doubles of the under-13 category.

Boys’ under-16 single and double titles went to Bhiwani, whereas Panchkula boys grabbed both titles of the under-13 category. The under-10 single titles of girls and boys section were won by Panchkula and Sirsa, respectively.

Rajiv Sharma, commissioner, Rohtak Division, gave away prizes to the winners. Lauding the achievements of the state sportspersons at the national and international level, Sharma said new sports policy of the state government had encouraged youths, particularly from the rural areas, towards sports.

Final results:

Girls Single Under (GSU)-10: Maneshwari (Panchkula) beat Chavi (Panchkula) — 21-14, 22-20

Boys Single Under (BSU)-10: Tarun (Sirsa) beat Yovan (Gurgaon) — 21-10,21-9

GSU-13: Nisha (Sonepat) beat Manisha (Sonepat) — 21-14,21-19

GDU-13: Nisha and Tina (Sonepat) beat Manisha and Ritika (Sonepat) — 21-9, 21-16

BSU-13: Kartik (Panchkula) beat Hardik (Panchkula) — 21-16, 21-18

BDU-13: Kartik and Hardit (Panchkula) beat Vipin and Rohan (Sonepat) — 21-10,21-13

GSU-16: Komal (Sonepat) beat Seema (Sonepat) — 21-12,21-11

GDU-16: Komal and Lalita (Sonepat) beat Seema and Deepika (Sonepat) — 21-15.21-14

BSU-16: Sumit (Bhiwani) beat Ashish (Sonepat) — 21-15, 21-17

BDU-16: Sumit and Ravi (Bhiwani) beat Himanshu and Sandeep (Sonepat)— 21-19, 22-24, 21-12

Hisar, September 16
The agro-met department of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University has bagged Best Centre Award for 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Stating this recently, a spokesman for the university said the agro-met centre of the university was declared the best centre out of a total of 25 such centres in the country in a workshop on the All-India Integrated Agriculture Weather Project organised at Central Rain-fed Research Institute, Hyderabad.

Chandigarh, September 16
A Haryanavi music album, “Lakhmi Chand ka Gazab Sangeet,” was released at a function at Haryana Niwas here recently.

While speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said, “The visionary folklore legend Lakhmi Chand had translated the soul of Haryanavi culture into his folk musical dramas and raaginis. He had immortalised the fiction and characters of his epics with such an adroit mastery that they are accepted as real and historical. Lakhmi Chand had the literary and theatrical potential of William Shakespeare and we Haryanavis salute his aesthetic genius”.

He complimented and lauded the efforts of a folklore scholar KC Sharma, a retired IAS officer and chairman of the Lakhmi Chand Folk Foundation and the Haryana Kala Parishad.

Sharma disclosed that the 80-minute rare album contains folk songs by acclaimed singers of Haryana, including Prem Singh Dehati, Ajit Jyoti, Inder Lamba, Gulab, Sheonath Tyagi, Kanu Priya and composer Arjun. The lyrics of all 14 raginis bring alive the spiritual, Sufi and romantic fervour with rustic folk melody, he added.

Ajit Jyoti presented a song “Nau lakh takke ka hey ma mera beejna” on the occasion. Senior state officials and artists graced the function.