Panipat, October 14
The district administration has imposed a ban on the burning of stubble to check the pollution caused by it.

Deputy Commissioner JS Ahlawat said the ban had been imposed under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code. He said anyone found violating the ban would face strict action.

He said the ban had been enforced with immediate effect as the paddy crop over a large area had already been harvested and there were reports that farmers were planning to set the stubble on fire to clear the fields for cultivation.

As per estimates, the burning of stubble, besides causing pollution, destroys organic matter worth over Rs 250 crore each year. Agricultural experts have already stated that burning of stubble affects soil fertility as it kills scores of helpful bacteria.

Meanwhile, the government of Punjab has embarked upon a project to introduce “happy seeder” machines that help in sowing wheat amid standing rice stubble, besides improving soil fertility.

Hisar, October 14
Commonwealth Games medallists, discus thrower Krishna Poonia and wrestler Nirmala Bura, have emerged as the new role models for young girls in the area. While Poonia won the gold medal for discus throw, Bura won the silver in wrestling.

Poonia hails from Agroha village, about 20 km from here. Bura was born in Ghirai village near here. Both come from farming families.

“It’s a long Diwali for us. I feel so elated that the celebratory mood could go well beyond the festival of lights”, said Poonia’s proud father, Maha Singh Sura. The village has been flooded with young girls from schools and colleges of Hisar and nearby villages wanting to emulate Poonia in sports or other fields of life.

Meenakshi, a final-year student of Krishna Poonia’s alma mater, Fateh Chand College for Girls here, said visiting Krishna’s home was a pilgrimage for her. “I am not into sports but still I sought her father’s blessings and with Krishna as my role model I hope to become a stronger woman”, she added.

Not only young girls, Krishna’s feat has even inspired women many years her senior. Congress leader and Poonia’s namesake, Krishna Poonia, came all the way from Fatehabad to congratulate the family. She brought a load of sweets to be distributed among residents of Agroha. She said Krishna’s achievements would help inspire hundreds of young women.

Likewise, in Ghirai, Nirmala Bura could not catch a wink of sleep after returning home with the medal. “There was a long queue of men, women, girls and boys outside my home the whole night. I went to sleep only at five in the morning”, Bura told visiting mediapersons.

“It’s a great feeling. Earlier, I believed only Bollywood stars had fans. I never realised that a medal could inspire so many aspiring young boys and girls”, she said. The villagers are now pinning their hopes on next month’s Asian Games and the 2012 Olympics where all CWG medallists will be competing. 

Jhajjar, October 14
Deepender Hooda, Rohtak MP, recently visited the site where Virender Sehwag Cricket Academy is being constructed jointly by the state government and cricketer Virender Sehwag on the Gurgaon road at Silani village here and took stock of the ongoing work.

Geeta Bhukkal, Haryana Education and Health Minister, and Naresh Sharma, Badli MLA, also accompanied him during the visit.

Speaking to mediapersons, he said modern sports facilities would be made available in the academy to facilitate budding players.

“The academy will go a long way in grooming promising sports talent as all those facilities will be available which are required to polish the talent of potential cricketers,” said Deepender.

Expressing happiness over the outstanding performance of players from the state in the Commonwealth Games, he said the government’s policy of giving incentives to sportspersons was paying off well. Besides, it was the result of hard work of coaches, he added.

After reviewing the progress of the academy, he expressed satisfaction that the construction work was going on steadily and it would be completed within the stipulated period.

“The government has taken a number of steps to groom sports talent. Rural stadiums have been constructed to provide an opportunity to the rural youth to exhibit their skill in sports,” said the MP, adding that as many as 5,000 children having outstanding sports talent in the age group of six to 14 and 14 to 19 were being selected annually to groom them properly by providing state-of-art training to them.

Vinod Sehwag, brother of cricketer Virender Sehwag, informed the MP about the construction work going on at the academy.

Rewari, October 14
On the basis of their excellent performance in the recently held Haryana State Throwball Championship, Nisha, Dulari and Gaurav Deshwal, all three of the Kosli subdivision of Rewari district, have been selected for participation in the Indian Throwball Federation Cup Championship to be held in Bangalore from October 25 to October 28.

Besides, four players of the Rewari District Throwball Association namely Sonu Baldhan, Nisha, Dulari and Gaurav Deshwal have also been nominated on the Referees’ Panel of the Haryana State Throwball Association.

Felicitating them on this achievement, District Association president Aruna Deshwal and chairman of the Association Jasvir Yadav stated that with their selection for the national championship as well as the state panel of umpires, they have brought laurels to the Kosli region as well as to the state.

Yamunanagar, October 14
The district consumer court has allowed a truck operator’s plea for payment of insurance claim of Rs 10,98,500 along with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum after five months of the theft of truck till its realisation and also to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation for mental agony, harassment and Rs 5,000 as litigation expenses following the theft.

Ranjit Singh, driver of the truck, in his complaint, stated that he got his truck insured with Oriental Insurance Company,Yamunanagar for a period of one year w.e.f. October 5,2007 against payment of a premium of Rs 27,600 showing insured value of Rs 11 lakh.

The truck was parked near Janta Petrol Pump Radaur road, Yamunanagar and during the intervening night of February 4 and 5, 2008,when the complainant Ranjit Singh and his son Ravinder Singh were sleeping,an unknown assailant broke the glass of the truck’s window and thrashed the father-son duo near Bharat Kanda of Damla village before fleeing with the truck.

An FIR, under Section 395 of the IPC, was registered with the police station, Farakpur, on the statement of Ranjit Singh and an intimation to this effect was also given to the finance company as the truck was financed with Megma Shrachi Finance Ltd at Yamunanagar.

Despite the complainant having submitted all the necessary documents,the respondent did not release the claim. The complainant, in his plea,stated that the respondent be directed to release an amount of Rs 11 lakh being the insured value, along with interest.

Upon notice, the respondent appeared and stated that there was no deficiency in service. The claim being of a higher amount, was not within the financial powers of the Divisional Office, Yamunanagar, the same to the tune of Rs 10.98 lakh, had been recommended for approval.

To settle the claim a period of five to six months was sufficient for the respondent but it was not done. The respondent sought approval of the higher authority on August 26, 2009, and after a period of one year, when the case, finally came up fixed for hearing, the respondent gave an application along with a letter to the complainant to complete certain formalities before the claim could be released.

This was construed as a deliberate attempt to linger on the matter and had compelled the complainant to move the court.

The forum allowed the complaint and directed the respondent to pay a sum of Rs 10,98,500 along with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum after five months of the theft of the truck till its realisation and also to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation for mental agony, harassment and Rs 5,000 as litigation expenses.

The order said the amount of compensation of Rs 50,000 be recovered from the salary of the defaulting officials of the respondent company within 30 days.

Gurgaon, October 14
A function to mark the World Mental Health Day was organised at the local General Hospital recently. The function was attended by special children, mentally challenged persons and their caretakers, besides the hospital staffers and members from the general public.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Brahmdeep Sindhu, a psychiatrist at the General Hospital, said mental health was an integral part of health as per its WHO definition.

Dr Sindhu said this year’s theme of the World Mental Health Day was “Urbanisation and Mental health”.

He pointed out that sadness, disturbed sleep, decreased interest in work, not talking to others, suicidal ideas, negative thoughts and low confidence were symptoms of depression.

He also explained various aspects and symptoms of chronic mental diseases like psychosis, anxiety disorder and alcohol dependence etc.

Dr Ajit informed the gathering about the rights of mentally challenged persons. Davender, a psychiatric social worker, spoke on the social aspects of mental illness.

Advocate Krishna Shukla and Archana Chauhan from the District Legal Services Authority informed the gathering about the services being provided by the authority and explained the provisions of the Mental Health Act.

A quiz on mental illness was also conducted by Dr Sindhu.

Panipat, October 14
Alarmed by the increasing number of cases of dengue being reported in the adjoining areas, the district Health Department has decided inspect all government and private offices and buildings to make certain that proper measures to check mosquitoe breeding are in place.

Even as the district has so far remained immune to dengue with only a few cases having been reported so far, but the cases of malaria had already crossed over 200. The department maintains that early fogging operations carried out in various parts of the district had helped in curtailing the cases of mosquito-borne diseases.

Civil surgeon SS Punia said special teams had been constituted that would be visiting government and private buildings to inspect these and ensure that there were no breeding spaces for mosquitoes that might carry dengue virus. He said in case any such conditions were found, the department might even challan the building owner for not maintaining proper health standards. — TNS

Sonepat, October 14
Launching of the national voluntary blood donation fortnight celebrations by the Department of Social Works and the Global Fund Project of Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya in collaboration with the Haryana State AIDS Control Society was marked by a blood donation and a free medical check-up camp in Khanpur village.

Medical teams from Civil Surgeon’s Office, Sonepat, and Blood Bank, PGI, Rohtak, extended their services in the camp.

While inaugurating the camp, Dr Pankaj Mittal, vice-chancellor of the university, said efforts of the Global Fund in uplifting the lives of people were commendable. She added that in liaison with the Global Fund, the university had progressed with leaps and bounds towards the achievement of its goal of social contribution in addition to imparting education.

The organising secretary of the celebrations was Wakar, assistant professor, Department of Social Works. He was optimistic about the utility of such activities in spreading awareness among the rural people regarding health.

Two plays were organised in the university campus on the occasion. The plays, performed by a group Jan Natya Manch, highlighted various health issues prevalent in society and the methods to prevent them. A poster-making competition and a debate were also organised in the university auditorium.

The registrar of the university, deans and heads of various faculties, faculty members and students from various departments of the university were also present on the occasion.

Kurukshetra, October 14
Gita Niketan Awasiya Vidyalaya, Kurukshetra, successfully organised one-day Science Fair at its premises here recently. Raj Mehrotra, chief coordinator, Kurukshetra Science Panorama, was the chief guest.

While inaugurating the fair, Shyam Bihari Garg, president of the Hindu Shiksha Samiti, Haryana, and Rishi Goel, principal of the Vidyalaya, accompanied the chief guest to light a lamp in front of Goddess Saraswati.

About 1,100 students participated in various activities such as science quiz, science model exhibition, paper reading, fun with science, best out of waste and other competitions based on Vedic maths. A one-act play named “Faisla Aap Ke Haath Mein” was the main attraction of the occasion. 

Jind, October 14
Two books on Haryana history, culture and development written by Dev Raj Sirohiwal of the Public Relations Department will hit the stands soon.

‘Raagmaye Haryana’ and ‘Jharokha’ will focus on some of the unknown facets of the history and culture of the state.

While ‘Raagmaye Haryana’ will speak about the background of the naming of a large number of villages in the state, especially in Jind and adjoining districts, which had been named after musical ragas, Jharokha’, to be published in December, will have its focus on overall development and related activities in the state.

It will contain several radio features, including ‘Lal Akhbaar’ about the 1857 freedom movement in the Hansi region . This book will also tell about development policies and the well-known herbal garden located in Yamunanagar district.

Mr Sirohiwal has penned down about 30 radio features broadcast by different AIR stations, inlcuding Rohtak, Hisar and Kurukshetra, during the past few years. Being an approved voice of Doordarshan and Akashwani for drama and serials, Sirohiwal had anchored the programme in 2008 in which President Partibha Devi Singh Patil gave away national awards to Nirmal Grams of India at Hisar.

Sirohiwal started his carrier in Chanderawal as an assistant in production. He acted in Sanjhi with Om Puri, Sada Shiv Amrapurkar and Goga Kapoor. He played the role of ‘Dharma Kaka’, a charactor in ‘Mahri Dharti Mahri Maa’. He acted in another Haryanvi Film ‘Bateu’ as Dhannu.

He donated 200 historical weapons of antique value to Kurukshetra University for research and display in Haryana Museum ‘Dharohar’ in 2007. A gallery has been named after Sirohiwal at Dharohar Museum of Kurukshetra University.

Yamunanagar, October 14
The work done by the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) has led to greater recognition of Asian cinema all over the world, NETPAC executive director Latika Padgaonkar said.

Addressing a session on Asian cinema at the 3rd Haryana International Film Festival, she said Asian and Indian cinema had emerged as a vibrant creative force for creating cultural affinity and identity and NETPAC was set up to take this mission forward, even outside the Asian countries.

For this purpose, she said, the NETPAC Award had been instituted and was now being given to Asian entries at around 30 festivals the world over. NETPAC has just completed 20 years of existence.

The idea for the organisation came out of a conference in New Delhi organised by Cinemaya, the film quarterly edited by renowned film critic Aruna Vasudev, in collaboration with UNESCO to do more to promote cinema in a world where cinema from Hollywood appeared to be dominating for its sheer technical quality despite the freshness and novelty of Asian films.

NETPAC, in collaboration with Cinemaya, set up Asian film centres in some Asian countries, but it was felt that this was not enough to promote Asian cinema that Cinemaya was always writing about. This was where the idea of an Asian Film Festival christened and CINEFAN was born and the first festival was held in 1999. NETPAC has established itself as the leading platform for the discovery and promotion of Asian cinema.

Padgaonkar referred to ‘About Elly’, the film from Iran shown as the opening film of the section, and said one could see the richness of films made in that country and also realise how close the culture was to our own.

Raman Chawla of NETPAC also spoke on the occasion. Vijay Jadhav of the National Film Archives of India said the aim was to preserve films that have often been ignored even by the people who made them. He said this was because most film-makers moved on to other films and failed to realise the need for preserving films for heritage.

The archive had already started digitisation of the films for better preservation and had in fact acquired new premises so that more films could be preserved.

Rohtak, October 14
A district-based NGO, the Haryana Soochna Adhikar Manch, has sought amendment to the RTI Act.

In a memorandum submitted to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, they also sought lowering of the application fee and scrapping of Form-A.

The RTI Act was implemented five years ago on October 12. The NGO has claimed that certain provisions come as a hurdle for several persons who want to use the Act. Claiming that the fee of Rs 50 was more in comparison to the fee charged in some other states, it said the fee should be reduced to Rs 10 per application.

Demanding scrapping of Form-A, it said the government should ensure that the applicant gets the information in the same language in which he or she had submitted the application.

The hearing by the State Information Commission should also be held through video conferencing as done at the Centre level.

The NGO demanded that the government should avoid appointing political persons and retired government officials as information commissioners. It should prefer social activists, educationist and intellectuals, as they would be able to discharge their duties impartially.

The state government should set up a high-power committee headed by the Speaker of the state assembly to make appointment of the officials of the Information Commission.

It is claimed that there has been an acute shortage of officials and employees in the RTI cells of various departments of the state government and its offices.

The manch stated that the demand had already been raised through the offices of the Deputy Commissioners in the state, but to no avail.

It added that since the RTI Act had become an important tool of information for the masses, the government should remove some of the anomalies to simplify it and make it more accessible to the common man.

Kurukshetra October 14
Four NSS volunteers and programme officer Rajesh Kumar belonging to Indira Gandhi National College, Ladwa, attended a 12-day NSS Mega Camp organized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in Delhi from September 19 to 30.

More than 400 volunteers and programme officers from different states attended the camp.

Although only 15 volunteers and one programme officer were selected from Haryana to join this camp, four volunteers, Sukhbir Singh, Manmeet Kaur, Vikas and Shashi Bala, and programme officer Rajesh Kumar belonged to this rural college. Moreover, Rajesh Kumar was selected to represent both Haryana and Delhi as the contingent leader.

The NSS volunteers were exposed to a series of animating, stimulating and inspiring discourses at the camp.

In the second phase of the camp the volunteers were trained in rock climbing, river crossing, rappelling and mountaineering etc. at the Regional Mountaineering Institute, McLeodGunj (Dharmsala) in Himachal Pardesh. 

Chandigarh, October 14
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has called for action against girls seeking to push behind bars the man they had initially loved and even tied the knot with.

The call for initiating action for furnishing false evidence came after the High Court took cognisance of a large number of petitions filed by lovers-turned-foes. Dubbing it as an “abuse” of the court process, Justice Jaswant Singh also expressed the hope that the authorities concerned shall initiate appropriate action in such matters.

Taking up a petition filed by one such victim, Justice Jaswant Singh observed that directions had been sought for quashing an FIR for rape, criminal intimidation and other offences registered at a Hisar police station in October 2009 under Sections 376, 342, 506 and 120-B of the IPC on the basis of a compromise.

Justice Jaswant Singh observed the allegations against the petitioner were that he along with his co-accused took the complainant to a place in Delhi and raped her. The complainant was stated to have been kept at different places for nearly three weeks.

The petitioner’s stand was that he and the complainant were in love and solemnised marriage in Delhi, where his brother and mother were present. The couple also approached the High Court for protection, as they were apprehending threat to their life and liberty at the hands of the girl’s family, Justice Jaswant Singh observed.

Before parting with the order, Justice Jaswant Singh asserted: “In view of the fact that the petitioners have been acquitted, nothing survives in the matter. But, it is extremely unfortunate that an educated girl has irresponsibly levelled serious allegations against the petitioner and his family, resulting in petitioner suffering more than seven months in custody.”

Disposing of the petition as in fructuous, the Judge added: “In my opinion, such attempts amount to abuse of process of court. Experience informs us that the courts are flooded with such litigations. It is hoped that appropriate action under Section 193 of the IPC (punishment for false evidence) shall be initiated by the authorities concerned.

Director: Priyadarshan

Priyadarshan is known for making blockbuster film “Hera Pheri”. He made a mark in making comedy films like “Bhool Bhulaiya”, “Halchal”, “Garam Masala” and “Hungama”.

Now, he is all set to take action to a new level with his latest venture “Aakrosh”. The movie is based on honour killings. It has been in the news since the time of its inception. It is a special film because it has a message but it has been dealt within the mainstream format.

“Aakrosh” has a raunchy song “Tere Ishq Se Meetha…” which has Sameera Ready blowing kisses to Paresh Rawal. This song is lighting up the promos of the otherwise serious film “Aakrosh”.