Sirsa, November 2
Gurmeet Kaur is semi-literate. A home-maker, she had no contribution to her family income till she joined a training programme organised by the Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development Department.

Now, with 20 milch cattle purchased with the help of bank loan, she runs a hi-tech dairy in the village, supplementing the income of her agriculturist husband Gurmej Singh. Gurmeet Kaur is among 60 persons who have been able to establish their hi-tech dairy units in different villages of Sirsa with government assistance.

“Loan up to Rs 8.50 lakh is provided by banks through the Animal Husbandry Department for setting up a high-tech dairy unit with 20 head of cattle. The government provides 15 per cent of the amount as subsidy on the loan,” says Deputy Commissioner CG Rajini Kaanthan.

Besides this, a mini dairy scheme is also being run in the villages under which smaller dairies with 10, five or three head of cattle are set up by unemployed youths with bank loan provided through the department. The candidates selected for this purpose are given a 11-day training in dairy farming.

The DC said 48 such small dairies had been set up in the district so far and a sum of Rs 11 lakh distributed as subsidy to these units.

“The scheme is good but bankers continue to harass applicants,” allege Subhash Nagpal of Ramnagaria village. He and his son Amar Chand have both availed of loans under the scheme.

“The scheme provides that no collateral security is to be demanded by the banks for giving loans to the unemployed. However, the bankers have hypothecated my shop worth Rs 60 lakh for a loan of Rs 3 lakh,” he says. Parkash Chander from Bhamboor village says his son Rajinder Kumar applied for a loan of Rs 3 lakh for 10 buffaloes and offered his 12 kanal land worth Rs 20 lakh for mortgage, but the bankers sanctioned him a loan of Rs 1.50 lakh for five buffaloes only.

He says a loan of Rs 30,000 per buffalo is too meagre an amount as quality Murrah buffalo is available for Rs 60,000 or more.

Chandigarh, November 2
The state of Haryana has been caught napping. Its action of challenging a labour court award after inordinate delay has not escaped the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s notice.

In fact, the High Court has virtually passed strictures on the state for waking up a bit too late on a petition filed by the state against Rajinder Kumar and another respondent. The strictures came after Justice Ranjit Singh of the High Court observed that the state had even failed to offer an explanation for the unwarranted delay.

Justice Ranjit Singh even refused to go into the reasons behind the delay at a belated stage. The state had this year thrown a challenge to the award passed by the labour court some eight years ago in the employees’ case.

Taking up the state’s petition against the two respondents, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “Apart from anything else, no interference in this case would be called for as the state has now woken up from slumber to challenge the award dated August 29, 2002, passed by the labour court.“There is no explanation offered to explain this inordinate delay in making the present approach.”.

Dismissing the petition, Justice Ranjit Singh added: “I am not inclined to accept this submission as this was required to be considered at the time of filing the writ petition. In any event, there possibly cannot be any plausible explanation to explain this delay only to challenge the award, which was passed in 2002”. This is not the first time stern observations have been made by the High Court against the state. Only recently, “babus” in the Haryana government received a rap on their knuckles for “moving at a leisurely speed” and adopting an “unfair approach” while dealing with the medical bill reimbursement case of an octogenarian, MR Garg.

In that case, Justice Ranjit Singh had observed that Garg was “not only suffering due to his advanced age, but also because of his chronic diseases.

Kurukshetra, November 2
Virtually snubbed by the Haryana government on the issue of a separate gurdwara committee, the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (ad hoc) today softened its stand and decided to hold talks with the SGPC for a negotiated settlement.

The 11-member committee of the HSGPC, which met here today to chalk out the future course of action, did not announce any action plan and instead decided to hold talks with SGPC leaders on November 16.

HSGPC president Jagdish Singh Jhinda told The Tribune that any “radical action” had been deferred for the time being and the plan to burn effigies of SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar had also been abandoned as a goodwill gesture.

Asked about the demand for a separate SGPC for Haryana, he said “the demand stands, but talks can open 100 doors for a negotiated settlement”.

He blamed the Haryana government and the Congress for letting them down and said had the government been sincere in its intentions, the matter would have been resolved long ago.

SGPC chief Makkar, when asked to comment, said, “Our doors are always open for talks and we have been trying to prevail on Haryana Sikhs to see reason why the Congress misled them and hatched a conspiracy to divide the Sikhs by including the separate SGPC issue in its election manifesto,” he added.

“The Haryana Sikhs are our brothers and they have realised that the Congress is playing politics and instigating them, but now the cat is out of the bag,” he said.

He said the SGPC was doing a lot for the Haryana Sikhs and besides opening six schools and launching other projects, a sub-office of the SGPC had been opened in Kurukshetra.

Karnal, November 2
A day after the state government awarded the medal winners from the state in Sonepat, Harpreet Singh, who clinched two gold medals in shooting in the Commonwealth Games, was honoured with Karnal Ratna Award by the National Integrated Forum of Artistes and Activists (NIFAA), SBS Public School and Nav Chetna Manch for his rare accomplishment.

IG, Rohtak range, V Kamraj presented a cheque of Rs 1 lakh, a memento, a shawl and a certificate of excellence to Harpreet Singh at a function held here today.

Harpreet clinched gold in individual men’s 25m-centrefire pistol shooting event and in the team event pairing with Vijay Kumar.

Chandigarh, November 2
Haryana has proceeded against 702 school bus drivers for violation of traffic rules till August 31 this year. This information was provided to the Punjab and Haryana High Court by Karnal DSP (Traffic and Highways) Ashok Kumar. The details were placed before the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ajay Tewari.

Referring to the apex court directions, he said special campaigns to impart training on relevant provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act had been launched by the Traffic and Highways Department. Under this, 579 lectures had been delivered in 23 educational institutions to 2.27 lakh students and school staff till September 30.

Refresher courses for drivers or conductors of schools were also organised at the Haryana Police Academy, Madhuban, in December last year and January this year in which 170 drivers and conductors participated. Traffic awareness committees had also been constituted in schools and directions had been issued to educational institutes to provide a first aid box in school buses.

Filing a reply on behalf of the Chandigarh administration, Mahavir Kaushik, Secretary, State Transport Authority, said directions had been issued that buses carrying schoolchildren should not be more than 15 years’ old and should be roadworthy at all times. Installation of speed governors had been made mandatory in school buses so as to ensure that no vehicle carrying schoolchildren could exceed a speed of 50 km per hour, he added.

Jind, November 2
Manish (23) eloped with his sister-in-law Veena (27), a mother of two, from their village last night. Their bodies were found near the Uchana railway station this morning.

The two had been having an affair for the past three years. Veena was married to Manish’s cousin Rajesh. None from the family had any suspicion about their relationship, claimed Pradeep, another cousin of Manish. The lovers eloped when Veena’s husband left home to irrigate his fields late in the evening. On his return, he found Veena missing. The unsuspecting family tried to search for Veena the whole night.

The family was informed by the police this morning that the bodies of Manish and Veena were lying on the tracks between the Uchana Kalan and Ghaso railway stations. The two had probably jumped before a train, said police sources.

Jind, November 2
The police has arrested a resident of Malwi village here for allegedly setting afire his daughter-in-law with the help of his family members. The police is yet to arrest the other three accused in the case.

The arrest was made after the victim identified as Sunita, who has been undergoing treatment in the PGIMS in Rohtak, gave a statement to the investigating official that she was set ablaze by her in-laws, including her husband Sanjay, father-in-law Prakash, mother-in-law and a brother-in-law following an altercation over selling the paternal land.

She said as she had opposed the move, all four accused in a fit of rage allegedly set her afire after pouring kerosene on her at her in-laws’ place here recently.

She sustained serious burn injuries and was shifted to the PGIMS. The police had registered a case against the victim’s husband, mother-in-law, father-in-law and brother-in-law.

Meanwhile, in another incident, a young woman was allegedly gangraped by three persons by threatening to kill her with a sharp-edged weapon at her house in Amarheri village here last night. Her father, who tied to come to her rescue, was allegedly thrashed by the accused.

The victim aged about 19 years was alone at her house when the three youths forced their entry into the house and raped her. The police has registered a case of gangrape after a medical examination of the victim.

Chandigarh, November 2
As many as 12 artistes were honoured for their significant contribution at a special cultural function held at Haryana Rajbhawan on Haryana Day yesterday. Governor Jagannath Pahadia and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda presented the awards.

Fatehabad, November 2
Cracker dealers in Fatehabad district will not be able to sell crackers to children below the age of 18.

Deputy Commissioner Vijay Singh Dahiya today issued instructions for the safe storage, display and sale of crackers during Divali.

As per the orders, only licensed dealers will be authorised to sell crackers, that too in specified places.

The SDMs of Fatehabad, Ratia and Tohana have been empowered to issue licences to cracker dealers in their respective areas.

The district authorities have also earmarked places, where the dealers can put up their stalls for the sale of crackers.

The mela ground in front of the local mini-secretariat, the stadium in front of the bus stand at Bhuna, the open ground behind the Bhattu Kalan bus stand and the playground of Government Senior Secondary School on Damkaura Road at Tohana have been chosen for this purpose, according to an official spokesperson.

Dahiya said only certified and reliable crackers would be allowed for sale during Divali.

He said the step had been taken to avoid any mishap. Each Divali, a number of burn cases are reported in various hospitals.

Chandigarh, November 2
The state government has enhanced the rate of dearness allowance payable to its employees on unrevised scales from existing 87 per cent to 103 per cent with effect from July 1, 2010.

A notification to this effect was issued by the Finance Department here on Tuesday. Additional installment of the dearness allowance from November 2010 would be paid in cash to the employees.

The payment of arrears of enhanced DA from July 2010 to October 2010 would be given in December 2010, the notification added.