Hisar, July 11
With the byelection to the Hisar Lok Sabha seat in the offing, the government has decided to speed up development projects in the area. All the projects announced by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda have been accorded official sanction and funds have been allotted to ensure that many of these are completed before the election takes place and work commences on the rest of them.

Deputy Commissioner Amit Aggarwal said the government had decided to upgrade Barwala tehsil to the subdivision level. Accordingly, a sub divisional magistrate (civil) would be appointed for the new subdivision soon so that it begin functioning in the next few weeks.

Hooda had sanctioned development projects for several places in the district. These included Nalwa - Rs 10 crore, Uklana - Rs 2 crore, Barwala - Rs 5 crore, Adampur - Rs 10 crore, Hansi - Rs 5 crore and Hisar city - Rs 2 crore. All these projects would be completed within a few months.

In addition for Hisar city, a southern bypass would be constructed at a cost of Rs 50 crore, which will help ease traffic congestion in the city.

The project estimated to cost Rs 50 crore will be completed in 18 months. The bypass will be 20 km long.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had approved the project while addressing a rally at Azad Nagar here some time ago. The demand had been raised at the rally by local leaders.

The city has a northern bypass which connects the city to Sirsa and Fatehabad districts, Punjab and Chandigarh. Traffic headed for these places now takes the northern bypass relieving congestion in the city.

There is no such bypass for the traffic coming from and going towards Rajasthan. The entire traffic from these directions has to enter the city leading to severe traffic jams.

The proposed bypass will start from Satrod village on the outskirts of the city. It will pass through Toshan Road and then connect to the Rajgarh Road. From here, the bypass will pass through Haryana Agricultural University land and merge with the Sirsa Road near Bagla village. Thus, traffic from Rajasthan will not enter the city.

The deputy commissioner said since there was no building along the route, it would speed up the completion of the project. A portion of the bypass along the canal has already been built. Thus, it will take just 18 months to complete the 60-ft-wide road.

The railway overbridge at Dabra Chowk would also be expanded to double its present width. The project had been approved and construction would begin soon. Presently, the overbridge is narrow and has just two lanes. It was a traffic bottleneck, he said.

Aggarwal said sulabh toilets would be constructed at five important places in the town. These included Parijat Chowk, Rajguru market, Mill Gate, bus stand and the Civil Hospital.

Ambala, July 11
It seems that the dairies of Ambala City would never be shifted outside the urban areas as the repeated and sincere efforts of the administration have failed to persuade dairy owners. Around 200 medium and small dairies are still present in urban areas. Most of them have been dumping cattle dung into the drains, creating problems for the administration and the locals.

Around a decade ago during the regime of the Chautala government, a scheme was launched to shift the dairies of the city outside the residential areas to some nearby village. The land was acquired for this purpose in Khatoli village. Later, plots were allotted to the dairy owners at subsidised rates. Most of the dairy owners had taken the plots, but they did not show any interest in shifting the dairies.

The administration constructed roads and made arrangements for water at the site. It also managed to grant loans to most of the dairy owners for constructing sheds. But, only a few dairy owners shifted there and that too partially.

Deputy commissioner Samir Pal Saro held a serial of meetings with the dairy owners, but the matter lingered on for one or the other reason.

Around three months ago, the Municipal Corporation directed the dairy owners to shift to the allotted site within two weeks, otherwise power and water connections of their dairies would be disconnected. Three months had already passed, but none of the dairies has been shifted outside the urban area so far.

The lack of political will has also been delaying this project. The government has spent crores on this project, but the residents have not been benefited.

Cattle could be seen moving freely on the streets. Several persons had been injured either by their attacks or in road mishaps occurring due to their presence.

The process of throwing cattle dung into the drains is still continuing and during the rainy seasons, the drains get choked.

A former municipal councillor said the government should strictly implement its decision otherwise this scheme would be dumped.

Nilokheri (Karnal) July 11
Local democracy has remained an unfinished agenda of Panchayati Raj even after 17 years of enactment of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment (1992) to realise the cherished dream of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to strengthen the local democracy for inclusive growth.

The view has been expressed by distinguished experts in the recent book, “Local Democracy and Good Governance: Five Decades of Panchayati Raj", published by the Haryana Institute of Rural Development (HIRD), Nilokheri.

The writers have argued that “the three Fs, (functions, functionaries and funds) have not been genuinely devolved in most of the states. There has been a quantum jump in the representation of women as a result of one-third reservation for them, but the objective of women empowerment remains elusive in all the states except a few”.

Referring to decentralisation of planning, experts observed that the “objective remains unfulfilled even though district planning committees have been constituted in almost all the states as per the mandate of the 74th Constitutional Amendment (1992) and the role of planning in the districts continues to be performed by the bureaucracy and the technocracy”.

Even the enactment and implementation of the Right to Information Act (2005) has failed to ensure good governance through local democracy as “transparency and accountability are still a far cry in the decentralised rural governance”.

In her lead article, Haryana chief secretary Urvashi Gulati emphasised the need for achieving good governance through the Panchayati Raj Institutions by empowering the citizens through RTI and e-governance.

The book has been divided into six sections namely, Theme Papers, Special Papers, The Conceptual and Operational Dimensions, Experiences of Democratic Decentralisation in States and Democratic Decentralisation and Women Empowerment.

Besides Urvashi Gulathi, 36 distinguished scholars from various parts of India, including Dr Ramashray Roy, former director, Centre for the Study of Development Societies, New Delhi; Prof Aswini K. Ray, former dean, School of Social Sciences, JNU, New Delhi; Prof Partha Nath Mukherji, former director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; Dr George Mathew, director, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi: and Professor KB Saxena of Social Development Council, New Delhi; have contributed articles for the book, which has been edited by Surat Singh and Ranbir Singh of the HIRD.

Rewari, July 11
The Rajput Pratinidhi Sabha (RPS) of North India has made a written representation to the chairman of the National Minorities Commission (NMC), New Delhi, seeking minority status for the Rajput Samaj.

Stating that while minorities, possessing a distinct language, script and culture, have been endowed with certain privileges for the preservation of their separate identity under Articles 29 and 30 of the Indian Constitution, Naresh Chauhan, president of the RPS, pointed out that the Rajput Samaj, which possessed such attributes in abundance, fully deserved its inclusion into the official list of the minorities.

Mentioning about the Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and the Jain communities, which has been recognised as minority communities, Chauhan said barring the Muslim and Christian communities, which had their separate religious system, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains were all adherents of the Hindu religion before the establishment of their separate religious identities. Besides, like Rajputs, their ancestors, who hailed from martial races, also ruled over one or the other parts of the Indian continent at one time or the other during the remote past, he added.

Recalling the ancient times when Rajputs, who held an unquestioned sway over vast territories in India, were known for their heroism, fine governance, distinct lifestyle, art and culture, Chauhan asserted that their fine system of governance and living, which one adorned the princely states of Rajputana, now Rajasthan, were a matter of profound interest for foreign research scholars as well as countless visitors till date.

Stating that in the post-Independence India owing to the merger of the princely states into Indian Republic, eradication of feudalism vis-à-vis huge land holdings, curtailment of Rajput peasantry’s land holdings and their persistent neglect in the provision of government jobs, Chauhan bemoaned that all these factors adversely affected the Rajput community which now unfortunately stood at an indistinct pedestal of Indian society.

While again making a forceful plea seeking minority status for the Rajput Samaj for its amelioration, the RPS chief also sought an appointment with the NCM for its high-level delegation to enable them to hold detailed deliberations with the commission in this regard.

Rewari, July 11
Like the farmers of Uttar Pradesh, farmers of Ambala and Rewari regions in Haryana too are up in arms against the ongoing acquisition of their fertile land by the present Hooda regime.

While Kumari Selja, Union minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, as well as AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh have voiced their concern against the land acquisition policy, Haryana Youth Congress chief Chiranjeev Rao has gone one step further when he reportedly announced that he would soon observe a fast at Ambala against such acquisition.

If this classic antagonism by mandarins of the ruling Congress is of any indication, there is apparently something wrong either with the land acquisition policy of the state or its implementation.

However, Rahul Gandhi hailed state’s land acquisition policy while speaking for the cause of the peasantry in various parts of Uttar Pradesh recently, a step that is in sharp contrast to the dissension being ventilated by these Congress stalwarts.

Meanwhile, in the wake of intensification of their stir, the agitating farmers of Kalaka and four other surrounding villages began an indefinite dharna under the leadership of sarpanch Kirori Singh at the Kalaka bypass Chowk here yesterday to seek immediate cessation of the proceedings to acquire their 454 acre of fertile land by HUDA for the establishment of its residential sectors 20 and 21 here.

Expressing solidarity with the agitating farmers, INLD legislator Rao Bahadur Singh, district party chief Sunil Chaudhary, INLD state executive committee member Satish Yadav and other prominent party leaders joined the dharna.

Addressing a press conference here, the INLD leaders explained that the agitating farmers in Haryana too urgently needed Rahul Gandhi’s benign stewardship to ward off their deepening crisis.

They wanted Gandhi to come over here and see for himself the predicament that was being faced by the hapless farmers here notwithstanding the much-acclaimed acquisition policy of the Hooda government.

Besides, they also wanted Chiranjeev Rao to start his fast immediately in support of the agitating farmers here to save them from ‘forcible’ acquisition of their fertile land.

Hisar, July 11
Virender Singh Chauhan, head of the Journalism Department of Chaudhry Devi Lal University and director of its community radio station, Radio Sirsa, has said community radio stations had the potential to bring about big positive changes in education and society.

Addressing participants of a refresher course organised by the Academic Staff College of Guru Jambheshwar University, he said considering their potential, social service organisations and educational institutions should come forward to establish community radio stations in a big way.

Chauhan said the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had a target to establish 4,000 community radio stations in the country. However, only 115 such stations were currently working. Haryana had just five while six more were being set up in the state.

The ministry, he said, had recently invited proposals for setting up community radio stations from educational institutions and social organisations. This was a great opportunity to set up a radio station.

He said community radio had a big role to play in creating awareness among the people about national issues. Besides, the students could benefit from it in their studies as well as development of communication skills. Chauhan said the CDLU’s community radio service had proved an instant hit and had a record number of listeners.

Hisar, July 11
Former Finance Minister Sampat Singh has said the Haryana government’s decision to remit development funds in the bank accounts of panchayats would empower panchayats and speed up development projects in the rural areas.

In a letter to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, he said this would curtail the interference in panchayat’s jurisdiction by the Panchayti Raj Public Works department.

In the past because of a ceiling on the cost of the project, panchayats could not undertake its execution to the extent desired. The officials of the Panchayati Raj Department often clubbed several projects so that the total cost went beyond Rs 5 lakh so that the department allotted the tender itself.

This led to uncalled for delays. Now that the government would deposit the money in their accounts, the panchayats would be able to carry out development projects on their own. This, in turn, would empower the people who would decide what was the best for their village, he stated.

He said the decision would prove to be a milestone in furthering the truly democratic set up in the state.

Karnal, July 11
The Railways has decided to provide toilets in every coach of passenger trains, said KH Muniyappa, Minister of State for Railways.

The addition of toilets has already been started on a trial basis and the project would be included in next year’s budget, he told mediapersons during a brief halt at Karnal railway station recently.

He said the construction of an 11-km-long Amb-Indora-Charatu railway line in Himachal has been approved while the Bathinda-Delhi double-line, Delhi-Palwal four-line and Palwal-Mathura three-line projects would be taken up soon.

Yamunanagar, July 11
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Yamunanagar, has directed a car dealer to refund the price of car to the complainant, Gunjan G Khurana, along with compensation.

Khurana, resident of Lakkaraharan Street, Jagadhri, in her complaint stated that she purchased a new Santro XL car from M/s Khanna Car Plaza Pvt Ltd, Jagadhri, on August 31, 2006 for Rs 3,45,718. On June 28, 2007, she complained to the dealer about power steering noise and low pick up. Since she runs a clinic at Chandigarh, she brought the car from Chandigarh to Jagadhri to on July 21, 2007 as suggested by the dealer, but the defect could not be rectified.

Registered notices were sent to the dealer as well as Hyundai company, but with no result. Thereafter, final registered AD/legal notice was also sent on August 18, 2008 to both the parties. A reply was received on August 23, 2008 while regretting the inconvenience caused to Khurana advised to bring the car at Jagadhri for necessary check up. The complainant suffered financial losses, mental agonies, harassment and prayed for directing the dealer to replace the car and also pay compensation for mental agony.

Upon notice by the forum, the counsel for car dealer appeared and filed the written statement. It admitted that the complainant purchased Hyundai Santro Car after necessary check up and took the car after signing on repair order on July 24, 2007. It is also admitted that the complainant sent a false and frivolous notice to answering respondent despite the fact that she was told that she could come at any time if there was any problem in her car. The complainant came twice to the workshop and was satisfied after necessary check up of the car as per repair order. Hence, prayed for dismissal of complaint.

While filing the written statement by M/s K L G Hyundai, (Ashwani Automobiles Pvt Ltd) Chandigarh, stated that neither the selling dealer in the instant case nor the manufacturer of the vehicle in question held responsible in any manner, therefore, the present complaint is liable to be dismissed for want of maintainability. Moreover, the dealer duly attended the vehicle, when the same was brought to the workshop at Chandigarh either for routine service or for any running repair and every reported defect in the vehicle was duly rectified, to the entire satisfaction of the complainant.

Hyundai Motor India Limited denies all and stated that the present complaint is baseless, frivolous and has been formulated on wrong and misleading facts and is devoid of any merits whatsoever. It is further submitted that on May 11, 2007, the complete power steering gear assembly was replaced free of cost as per the warranty policy.

To decide the controversy between the parties, a local commissioner was appointed who submitted his report on March 1, 2011 after inspection of the car in question. According to said report, the car was having following faults on the date of inspection, including when turning the car in right side its steering was hard, clutch was not working properly and poor pick up.

Local Commissioner was cross examined by the respondent counsels. However, in the cross examination, nothing tangible came out in support of the version of respondent that the car in question was not having the said defects, rather it was claimed that the defects could be removed or rectified.

However, the respondents have failed to rectify the defect though the vehicle was taken to them repeatedly since the date of purchase.

As such District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum president Dina Nath Arora and members Urmil Beniwal and VK Sharma in its order to M/s Khanna Car Plaza Pvt Ltd, dealer of Hyundai Motors India Ltd, stated to refund a sum of Rs 3,45,718 to the complainant. On account of harassment and mental agony and towards the expenses for registration of the car, respondents are directed to pay a sum of Rs 50,000 as compensation and Rs 5,000 as cost of proceedings.

Sonepat, July 11
Maintaining their outstanding performance in the university examinations, Jyoti Paliwal and Veena of the local Geeta Vidya Mandir Girls College have topped Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, by securing 86 per cent and 81.55 per cent marks in the final-year examinations of B.Sc and B.Com, respectively.

Jyoti had topped the university in the first year and second-year examinations and Veena was also the topper in the second-year examination.

According to college principal Dr Jyoti Juneja, the first four positions in the university in B.Com final year were bagged by the college students. Besides Veena, Manisha with 79.55 per cent marks, Monika with 78.88 per cent and Shivani with 78.05 per cent marks got the second, third and fourth positions, respectively, in the merit list.

Other merit position holders in this stream were Meenu with 77.22 per cent marks at the seventh position, Jyoti with 76.61 per cent at the eighth position, Taruna with 76.33 per cent at the ninth position, Karishma with 76.22 per cent at the 10th position and Neetu with 75.88 per cent marks got the 11th position in the merit list.

Similarly, besides university topper Jyoti Paliwal, Poonam with 82.27 per cent, Ankita with 81.93 per cent and Pooja with 80.48 per cent marks got the seventh, eighth and 14th positions, respectively, in the science stream. The principal congratulated the students on their success.

Sonepat, July 11
A two-week faculty development programme on “Geo-informatics: Technology and Applications”, sponsored by the All-India Council of Technical Education and the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), concluded recently at the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology (DCRUST), Murthal. As many as 60 faculty members from Northern India participated in the programme.

Maj. Gen. Dr. R. Shiva Kumar, Divisional Head, National Resources Data Managements System (NROMS) of the Government of India as the chief guest at the valedictory ceremony, elaborated upon the perspectives of geospatial education and said there was a vast scope of employment in the field of geo-informatics.

“The field of remote sensing and GIS was relatively new and a national GIS body is being formed,” he said and added that data centres were being set up in various states, policies were being liberalised and geo-informatics data had been opened up to the people who needed this.

He said e-governance was now giving way to g-governance and applications of GIS were solving lots of problems. A large number of avenues are opening up and thousands of scientists will be required in the near future. Geospatial education would soon come at the centre stage. Managing land resources would become easier and better with research in remote sensing and GPRS which the Centre was supporting by all means.

RK Arora, registrar of the university, thanked the AICTE, MHRD and the guests and said the programme ended with the participants giving positive feed back.

Dr RS Hooda, chief scientist of the Haryana Space Application Centre, as the guest of honour, explained that GIS, GPRS, etc. were combined to form this new field of geo-informatics. He said the US and other countries of the world were using data provided by the Indian remote sensing satellite. He praised this capacity building programme and informed that a state GIS body was being formed to make data available to all.

During this training period, expert lectures were delivered by Dr BS Chaudhary (KUK), HAS Sandhu, Dr RK Garg, Praveen Garg and Nitin (DCRUST), Dr Gaurav (PU - Chandigarh), Dr Manoj Arora and Dr PK Garg (IIT - Roorkee), Dr. Pramod Kumar (MDU - Rohtak), Dr RK Garg (DCRUST), Dr Anup Ludra (GIS Cell - Indian Army), PP Singh (DTP, TCP -Haryana), Dr LN Sharma, (PEC - Chandigarh) and Dr Anil Gupta (NDMI - Delhi).

Rewari, July 11
Besides dignitaries from prominent research institutes, senior professors, deans, heads of departments and other officials of Guru Jambheshwar Science and Technology University, Hisar, participated in a national workshop on “Trends in Optical Coatings for Head Up Display and High Laser Damage Threshold” held under the auspices of the Department of Applied Physics in the university complex recently. The workshop was sponsored by the DRDO, New Delhi.

While SS Sundram, director of the Instruments Research and Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun, was the chief guest, Dr. ML Ranga, vice-chancellor of GJU, presided over its proceedings.

After inaugurating the newly established Optical Coating Centre at Raman laboratory in GJU, Sundram said while optical coating was making strides in research in the defence sector, there was ample scope for investigative experimentation in optical coating in the country.

Delivering his presidential address, Dr. Ranga called upon scientists and researchers to put in strenuous efforts to develop world-class technology if they wanted India’s ascendancy as well as prosperity. Simultaneously, he added that GJU laboratories would be equipped with the latest instruments and devices to facilitate quality research by the university scholars.

While Prof. RS Jaglan, registrar of GJU, said optical thin film coating was destined to play a significant role in the domains of medicine, defence, telecommunication and advance computing, Dr. AK Gupta, associate director of the IRDE, hoped that with their useful collaboration, GJU would be catapulted on a high pedestal among research universities of the country.

Dignitaries like Dr. KN Rao, Dr. C. Mukherjee, Dr. PK Bandopadhaya, Dr. Jameel Akhtar, Dr. PK Rao, Dr. P. Narsimhrao, Dr. R. Bhattacharya, Dr. Sudhakar Thakur, Dr. HK Dwivedi and Dr. RK Garg made a graphic presentation of their treatises in various technical sessions of the workshop, which were presided over by luminaries like Dr. AK Gupta, Dr. Chander Prakash and Dr. BB Tiwari.

Rewari, July 11
The Rewari Thathera Samaj (RTS) organised a national convention of the samaj here recently for solemnisation of mass marriages as well as for a concerted campaign against social evils.

Nearly 10,000 members of the samaj, including numerous women, from various parts of Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand , Bihar and several other states participated in the three-day conference which concluded here recently, according to Virender Kumar Bhalia, president of RTS.

As many as 26 young couples tied the nuptial knot at the sammelan. While the resplendent brides were accorded make-up free of charge by the local RK Beauty Parlour, the couples were given blessings for a happy married life by local minister Ajay Singh Yadav and Shadi Lal Batra, a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Yadav presented a cash gift of Rs 1,100 to all the couples and announced a financial assistance of Rs 1.25 lakh out of his discretionary fund for the RTS, whereas Batra announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh for the construction of a Thathetra Samaj Bhawan here out of his MPLAD Fund.

Showering accolades on the Thathera Samaj for organising a mass marriage convention, Yadav asserted that such conventions were a befitting means to successfully tackle the menace of dowry.

Kurukshetra, July 11
A two-week workshop on basic electronics, which was conducted by the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Kurukshetra in association with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, concluded here recently.

According to NIT spokesperson, it was organised under the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology project sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resources Development and was handled by the IIT Bombay.

While addressing the participants of this workshop, Anand Mohan, director, NIT, Kurukshetra, emphasised the need of organising many such workshops for the benefit of young faculty and the student community so that research activities in universities and colleges grow in the right direction.

He also stressed that NIT Kurukshetra should take an initiative to collaborate with neighbouring NITs to develop such training centres where the expertise of senior faculty can be utilised for developing the learning material and applications in core and thrust areas of engineering useful to the society and environment.

In this workshop, about 35 faculty members of different engineering colleges of Haryana and neighbouring states were taught fundamentals of modern electronics through online lectures from IIT Bombay and laboratory sessions with the help of latest equipments and multimedia tools.

Gurgaon, July 11
Special mutation camps organised by the district administration at Sohna and Farukhnagar on Sunday evoked an overwhelming response and a large number of residents turned up to get their mutations registered.

As many as 215 mutations were registered at the Farukhnagar camp while 127 mutations were entered at the Sohna camp. All applicants were given the copies of registered mutations on the spot. The camps started at 9 am and by then, a number of people had come with the photocopies of sale deeds of their immoveable property.

This was the first initiative of the district administration in the Farukhnagar and Sohna tehsil areas, wherein all revenue officials were available to the people at one place without any hindrance.

The camps covered 110 villages falling in Farukhnagar and Sohna kanungo circles and were supervised by the SDMs of the respective areas. Gurgaon deputy commissioner PC Meena said at the time of computerisation of land records, it came to light that a number of mutations were pending and complaints of harassment of people at the hands of revenue officials were also received.

“So, we decided to organise special mutation camps in various tehsil areas so as to enable the people to get their mutations registered,” he maintained.

The officials concerned of the Revenue Department have been directed to clearly explain the reasons behind the non-registration of mutations to the applicants. Such camps will now be organised regularly, Meena said and added that these would be held on Sundays so that the people could come there freely. “If the land is in the name of a person who has died, his legal heirs can come to the camp for getting the mutation registered with a death certificate and identity verified of the heir by the nambardar of the village,” he added.