Panipat, April 7
With investments worth over Rs 143 crore coming its way, as many as 271 new industrial units were established in the district during the past one year which have created job opportunities for more than 5,200 youth of the area.

The joint director of the District Industrial Centre, Bhagmal Thakshak, said during 2010-2011, a 20-point programme was implemented in the district under which a target had been set to make sources of income available to 750 families and, in fact, 760 families got benefited.

He said the new units set up in the district included those dealing in handicraft, carpet making, bed sheets, bathmats, blankets, cotton yarn, shoddy yarn, PVC pipes, rice mills, steel rolling, milk powder manufacturing, ghee and pickle.

The joint director said during the current year, the authorities had given the go-ahead for setting up 94 new industries in the district on.An estimated Rs 87 crore would be spent. on the same, he said.

These new units would generate employment and were exoected to provide jobs to more than 2,200 persons, he added.

Gurgaon, April 7
In order to meet the growing demand for electricity, the capacity of the power transmission system will be upgraded at a cost of Rs 4,609.77 crore under a comprehensive plan of the Haryana Government.

With this amount, 205 new power substations will be set up, besides upgrading the capacity of 129 existing substations and the plan will be executed in the next 24 to 36 months.

This was stated by the Haryana Minister for Power, Renewable Energy and Technical Education, Mahender Partap Singh, after inaugurating a 66-kV substation at Nimoth village in the district today.

Nearly 2,572 consumers of 32 villages surrounding Nimoth will be benefited by way of better voltage. Around 470 tube well owners and 88 industrial units will also be benefited by this substation, which has been set up at a cost of Rs 777 lakh on 3.5 acres.

Singh, who also presided over a monthly meeting of the District Grievances Redressal Committee, directed a factory owner to check air and water pollution being caused by his unit within three months, failing which legal action would be taken against him.

Residents of Harsaru village in the district complained that a factory named Amira Foods located near their village had been discharging untreated effluents. The villagers complained that the rice water coming out of the factory raised a stink and the ash emitted by the unit caused air pollution.

An officer from the regional office of the Haryana Pollution Control Board maintained that the said factory was inspected by a team of the board and the level of pollution was found to be higher than the desired limit.

“As a result, the factory management was issued a show-cause notice, in response to which it submitted a plan for curtailing pollution within six months. But as per the rules of the HPCB, a time period of three months can be given for installing the required equipment,” he stated. The matter of enrolling fake members in the Jalvayu Vihar Cooperative Society of Sector 30 was handed over to SDM (Gurgaon-North) Satender Duhan for inquiry.

The complaint of residents of the Patel Nagar locality was also taken up, in which they had requested to shift an 11-kV electricity line. The Executive Engineer of the power utilities maintained that the line could be shifted elsewhere if the residents deposited a sum of Rs 24.5 lakh. At this, the minister asked the MCG authorities to deposit the amount as the colony lies in the MCG area.

During the meeting, the matter of a property dealer, Gaurav Yadav, was taken up again. The complainant had alleged that Yadav defrauded him of nearly Rs 2 lakh, which he gave him for the purchase of a flat. District Revenue Officer PD Sharma informed the meeting that an FIR had been registered against Yadav and the complainant had given in writing that he had received the amount after the case was put up at the grievances committee meeting.

Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena, HUDA Administrator Nitin Yadav, Zila Parishad chairperson Kavita Yadav, DCP (South) Palaram and Badshahpur MLA Rao Dharampal also attended the meeting. 

Sirsa, April 7
Irate farmers blocked the Dabwali national highway against the unavailability of Bt cotton seed at the authorised outlets of a reputed seed manufacturing company.

The farmers alleged that an artificial shortage of the seed was being created to sell it on the black market. Ashok Kumar, a farmer from Darbi village, alleged that the Bt cotton seed, sold for Rs 700 to 800 per packet by the authorised dealers, was being sold for Rs 1,800 per packet in the open market.Later, the authorities assured the farmers that they would not face any problem in getting seed in the future.

Ravi Punia, Joint Director (Cotton), Agriculture Department, Haryana, said there was no shortage of Bt cotton seed in Haryana. He said though the estimates of the area under cultivation of cotton in the coming year were not yet available, it could go up to a maximum of six lakh hectares in the state.

For that, he said, nearly 30 lakh packets of seed would be required.

Punia said as many as 28 seed manufacturing companies were there in the field this time, of which six major companies had assured the supply of over 26 lakh packets.

He said the total availability of cotton seed in Haryana would be about 34 lakh packets this year and hence there was no possibility of scarcity.

Punia claimed that the scarcity, if any, was due to the habit of the farmers to run after one particular brand of cotton seed.

Sirsa, April 7
Support for veteran activist and Gandhian Anna Hazare’s fast unto death against corruption has been multiplying by the day in Sirsa and Fatehabad. Several organisations and individuals have come forward to pledge their support for the veteran leader’s campaign.

Members from various social organisations observe a one-day fast in support of Anna Hazare’s cause opposite the mini-secretariat in Karnal on Thursday. Tribune photo: Ravi Kumar

The Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sansthan has started a dharna and relay fast in support of Anna Hazare’s tirade against corruption from today.

Puran Mudgil and Narender Talwar, patron and president of the sansthan, respectively, Seema Vats, Principal, Vikas High School, Dhan Raj Bishnoi, president, Shri Yuvak Samiti Library, Ramji Darbi, a social activist, and Anita Gupta, a housewife, observed a fast from 9 am to 5 pm today to express their solidarity with the Gandhian activist.

Hundreds of people, including students, teachers of Chaudhary Devi Lal University and Jan Nayak Chaudhary Devi Lal Vidyapeeth, lawyers and people from different walks of life visited the tents of the activists of the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sansthan outside the Police Lines on Barnala Road and expressed their support for the agitation.

Among those who visited the dharna site included Sanjeev Shad, a theatre artiste, Raj Kumar Siwach, Associate Professor in the Public Administration Department of the CDLU, Surjeet Renu of the Tarksheel Lekhak Sangh, Laj Pushp, RK Bhardwaj, Lekh Raj Dhot and councillor Ramesh Mehta.

Meanwhile, the Sirsa Citizen Welfare Forum today submitted a memorandum, addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to the local Deputy Commissioner.

Advocate RSD Bansal, president of the forum, said the forum had demanded the enactment of Jan Lokpal Bill and inclusion of people’s representatives in the committee to draft the Bill.

“Corruption has taken deep roots in the country and needs to be eliminated. Necessary steps taken in time will save the common man from the clutches of corruption,” the memorandum said.

Elsewhere in the district, youths led by Ram Lal Bagri submitted a memorandum to SDM Munish Nagpal at Dabwali town and several youths at Odhan town pledged to go to Delhi to support Anna Hazare’s mission to root out corruption from the country.

FATEHABAD: Activists of the Sampooran Kranti Manch on Thursday organised a meeting in Arorwansh Dharamshala.

Shammi Ratti, state secretary of the manch, presided over the meeting.

The members pledged their support to Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption and they announced that they would provide all kind of support for the agitation.

Rajesh Bharat, Som Parkash Thukral, Preekshit Bishnoi, Ramesh Gilhotra and Chnder Bhan were among those present. 

Chandigarh, April 7
Religion has a major role to play in Mewat’s high sex ratio, so it seems. The district has the highest sex ratio of 906 and the highest child sex ratio (0 to 6 years) of 903. Explains 50-year-old Ismail Khan: “We are all god-fearing people and our religion does not permit sex-determination or abortion. We deal sternly with those who dare to violate the tenets of of our religion. Anybody who indulges in any malpractice is ostracised.”

Ismail Khan has seven children, four of them girls, another reason for the high sex ratio in the district. While the family size is shrinking elsewhere in the state, Mewat is yet to take to family planning. Unlike the rest of Haryana where most families follow the one-child norm or have two children at the most, most families in Mewat have six members.

“The Meos do not indulge in malpractices like sex-determination and abortions for religious reasons and do not take to family planning measures for the same reason.

They believe that children are God’s gift and any medical intervention to contain the family size is not right,” explains Dr KS Rao, Mewat’s Civil Surgeon.

Consequently, against an average fertility rate of 2.7, Mewat has a fertility rate of 4.6, meaning that, on an average, every woman between the age group of 15 - 45 years has 4.6 children. The National Rural Health Mission has asked the state governments to bring down the total fertility rate, fixing the target at 2.1 Also, the Meos tend to marry early.

Sources maintain that ordinarily a family will find a match for a girl by the time she turns 15. It is rare to find unmarried girls above the age of 15. However, things are gradually beginning to change with education.

Says 20-year-old Jamshed Khan, a farmer: “The girl is not seen as a burden because there is little exchange of gifts in the name of dowry during marriages. So, nobody feels the pinch.”

With only 11 ultrasound machines in the district and no inclination among the people for sonography tests, the Health Department also finds it easy to keep a tab on such centres.

“Though things are beginning to change with the advent of education, I think, by the time it can show ‘results’ in the form of a fall in the sex ratio, we would already have evolved systems to curb the menace,” Dr Rao says.

Jind, April 7
A woman was allegedly raped and held captive at gunpoint for 15 days. The police has registered a case against seven persons in this connection.

The victim met the SP here yesterday morning and lodged a complaint. A resident of Ashram Basti, she told the police that she had gone to the local Civil Hospital for treatment of her minor daughter who had suffered a fracture when she was approached by Bittoo (who was known to her).

He allegedly offered to get her daughter treated at a hospital in Panipat at a much lesser cost.

Bittoo, who hails from Rajpura Bhain village, took the two to Panipat on Janaury 18, where she fell unconscious after she was given a drink laced with sedatives. She found herself in a house in Dhanturi village after she regained consciousness.

There, Bittoo and some other youths raped her at gunpoint.

They threatened to kill her daughter if she put up resistance. The ordeal continued till January 30 when the victim managed to contact her family on a mobile phone left behind by one of the accused.

She was then rescued by her family and panchayat members. The police has registered a case against seven persons, including Bittoo, Sanju and Rajesh, and launched a manhunt to nab the accused. 

Hisar, April 7
The police today arrested two persons dressed up as sadhus on charges of looting Rs 16,000 and a gold ring from a villager. The Narnaund police station in this district was informed that two persons riding a motorcycle and dressed as sadhus were fleeing on a motorcycle towards Jind after looting Dharampal, a resident of Petwad village. The police started chasing them in a Gypsy. 

When the fake sadhus discovered they were being chased, they speeded up but their motorcycle collided with a tractor-trailer near Julana. The police overpowered them and recovered the looted cash and the gold ring.

They were identified as Nawab and Mangli of Tityana village near Samalkha. They belong to a tribe of snake charmers.

The police said they had confessed that they waylaid unsuspecting villagers on the pretext of asking for a matchbox to light a “beedi”. 

Karnal, April 7
Coming down heavily on colonisers carving out illegal colonies, the district administration recently demolished a colony on the Bajida road. The Town and Country Planning Department bulldozed the colony being developed on four acres on the directions of Deputy Commissioner Neelam Pradeep Kasni.

District Town Planner Satish Punia said an illegal colony was under construction on the Bajida road — TNS

Sonepat, April 7
In protest against the move to shift the office of the Executive Engineer (XEN), Public Health, Division No. 2, from Sonepat to Gohana, representatives of 18 villages, led by the state vice-president of the All-India Kisan Sabha, Shradha Nand Solanki, today handed over a memorandum, addressed to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, to the Deputy Commissioner, Sonepat, demanding the cancellation of the proposal in public interests.

It has been pointed out in the memorandum that Gohana MLA Jagbir Singh Malik was interested in getting the office shifted. The memorandum added that residents of these 18 villages would be forced to travel a distance of 70 km and spend around Rs 100 on fare to visit the office at Gohana.

Copies of the memorandum have also been sent to the Public Health Minister, Member of Parliament Jitender Singh Malik, MLA Jagbir Singh Malik, the Engineer-in-Chief, Panchkula, and the Suprintendent Engineer, Sonepat, of the Public Health Department.