Manesar/Gurgaon, August 29
Production at the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) today came to a standstill as workers refused to sign a bond mandated for their entry into the plant by the management.

The management enforced a good-conduct bond today for workers at the Manesar plant. The workers were asked to sign the bond before entering the plant. "There was no production today because the workers were not allowed to enter the facility as they have refused to sign the bond," a company spokesperson said.The plant that produces models such as Swift, DZiRE and SX4, has a total of about 2,500 workers, of which 950 are regular employees. According to the company’s official sources, the bond had been necessitated as workers at the Manesar plant were allegedly sabotaging production and deliberately causing quality problems in vehicles produced at the plant. The management also suspended 10 workers and dismissed five others, besides discontinuing the training of six technical trainees.

“The company is of the view that the situation has reached a stage where indisciplined workers are directly harming the interest and trust of customers. Therefore, the company management has decided to enforce good-conduct bonds for the workers,” said the sources.

The bond seeks an assurance from workers that they will not resort to go-slow, sabotage production or indulge in activities hampering normal production at the plant.

The recent strike at MSIL’s Manesar plant ended on June 16. But management-workers issues continue to rage even after the production was resumed. The workers alleged that they were being bullied by the management while the management maintained that workers were deliberately going slow to disrupt production.

The sources said till this point, it was being treated as an internal matter by the company. The company was responding with counselling, training and discussions with workers. In extreme cases of indiscipline, warning letters, advisories and suspensions were being issued.

“But in the recent days, a series of serious quality problems have been observed during quality checks at the company. For example, vehicle doors not being properly clamped, leading to doors falling during production, cutting wiring harnesses in produced vehicles, dents on the body and critical components damaged or not fitted onto vehicles. Such deliberate acts, if not detected during quality checks, would have led to serious harm to customers,” they asserted.

The sources said as per the production plan on August 23, 1,220 units were to be produced. However, only 731 units were actually produced on that day of which only 603 units passed quality tests.

On August 24, the production target was 1,230 units but just 437 units were produced; and merely 96 were found to be of the desired quality. Similarly, 1,250 units were supposed to be produced on August 25 while only 402 units were produced, with 270 units conforming to the quality norms.

As per the estimates, the company has suffered production loss of about 1,200 units, valued around Rs 60 crore.

Fatehabad, August 29
Anna Hazare’s victory in his campaign for the Jan Lokpal Bill has raised the hopes of Gorakhpur farmers agitating to save their land for acquisition for a nuclear plant.

The farmers have now decided to meet the social activist for the resolution of their problem.

Hans Raj Siwach, president of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, which has been spearheading the agitation by Gorakhpur farmers and sitting on a dharna outside the local mini-secretariat for the past 380 days, said the farmers would soon meet Hazare and request him to take up their cause.

He said Arvind Kejriwal, a member of Team Anna, who runs an NGO Parivartan, had earlier visited their dharna site on October 26 last year and assured them that their land would not be allowed to be acquired.

Kejriwal had also addressed a Mahapanchayat of the farmers on that day and said that this land was the only source of livelihood for the farmers, and the government should not snatch this land from them.

An agitating farmer confided that their colleagues had not taken Kejriwal, who offered his NGO’s support with some other organisations, very seriously at that time, but now after Hazare’s victory, the farmers were confident that the social activist would solve their problems.

The Haryana Government has issued notifications under section 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act for the acquisition of over 1,313 acres of village land for the proposed Gorakhpur Nuclear Power Project.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, which is setting up this power plant, has already invited tenders for conducting a topographical survey, geotechnical investigations and certain other field tests for the proposed nuclear power plant.

The farmers’ agitation, though more than a year old, has failed to move the government due to sharp division among their ranks.

The authorities claim that a large majority of farmers were willing to give their lands for the project.

Hisar, August 29
Eight members of a family, including five women, were killed when a truck and a pick-up van collided head-on on the Hisar-Chandigarh highway, about 10 km from here, last night. Four other members of the ill-fated family, including two children, were injured.

Pawan Kumar of Chehar Kalan village in Bhiwani district had gone to Daulatpur village, near here, yesterday following the birth of a son to his daughter. On their way back, a truck loaded with iron pipes collided with their van.

The impact was so severe that the van skidded under the truck, trapping all van’s passengers inside.

Villagers tried their best to rescue them but they were unable to pull the van from under the truck. The delay in arranging a crane led to the death of at least four persons. Ultimately, the van had to be cut open with the help of a gas cutter.

They were rushed to the General Hospital here where six of the injured were declared dead on arrival.

Two others succumbed to their injuries after some time.

While Pawan escaped with severe injuries, seven members of his family died. They were identified as Sheela, Hawa Singh, Manita, Sharmila, Pinky, Renu, Rameshwar and Surinder.

Karnal, August 29
The death toll in the devastating fire and explosions in a cracker factory at Moughal Majra village on August 22 night rose to nine with three more injured persons, referred to PGI, Rohtak, succumbing to grievous burn injuries.

Two of the injured persons, Dilip and Bittu, died on Friday night while Shanti Devi with 80 per cent burn injuries died yesterday, sources said.

There is great resentment among the victims who have not been given any relief or compensation even after one week of the tragedy and several labour leaders, including state president of Haryana Khet Majdoor Sangh Jagmal, have rued that inspite of assurances given by the minister and administration, no compensation had been paid.

He threatened that CITU, the CPI and the CPM would launch a “Jan Andolan” if the grievances of the victims were not redressed and steps were not taken for providing them speedy relief and rehabilitation.

The victims were angry that no action had so far been taken against the owners of the factory and felt that they were not getting justice as they were “migrants” from Bihar and UP and not considered a “vote bank” by political parties.

Maya, who lost her husband in the blast, said “politicians and administration” were indifferent towards them as they were not a part of the vote bank”.

So far, the police has arrested only one of the accused, Pankaj, named in the FIR while other three persons are yet to be arrested.

Hisar, August 29
The Subdivisional Judicial Magistrate of Hansi has directed the police to arrest and produce Swami Agnivesh in his court by September 19.

The court issued these orders today as the police had reported that when the police party went to arrest Swami Agnivesh he was not available at his residence. The court ordered the DSP, Hansi, to personally head the team and arrest Swami Agnivesh.

A case is pending in this court against Swami Agnivesh on charges of hurting sentiments of Hindus by his comments on the Amarnath temple following which a local activist, Parveen Tayal, filed a private complaint in the court against the Swami on July 23.

In the last hearing the court had ordered the arrest of Swami Agnivesh because of his failure to appear in the court.

Swami Agnivesh has been at the centre of a controversy after a video surfaced yesterday in which he was seen talking to a minister and making inappropriate comments about Anna Hazare and his team.

Chandigarh, August 29
Rapping Haryana Health Secretary on his knuckles, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that the officer was apparently groping in dark regarding the implementation of “Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995”.

Taking a serious view of the alleged lapse, the high court has directed that the matter be placed before the State Chief Secretary. He has also been asked to issue general directions to all the secretaries regarding the implementation of the Act.

The directions came on a petition filed by Sukhdev Gaur and another Kaithal resident. In their petition against the State of Haryana and two other respondents, the petitioners had sought directions for quashing an order dated June 9, 2005, vide which they were relieved from government duty as “multipurpose health workers”.

In his reply, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Government of Haryana, Health Department, Rajan Gupta, had asserted: “It needs to be examined whether the provisions are applicable on persons suffering from serious medical conditions….”

Taking a note of his contentions, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “Secretary, Health Department, has filed an affidavit, which makes a very disturbing reading. It appears that he has not properly applied himself to the provisions of Section 47 of the Act”.

Section 47 makes it clear that the rights of an employee, who acquires a disability during his service, are protected and safeguarded. “No establishment shall dispense with or reduce in rank an employee, who acquires a disability during his service”.

Justice Ranjit Singh added: “This Act was legislated in 1995. it is sad to notice that a person, who has to implement the provisions of the Act, is still groping in darkness as to how this provision is to be operated and how this Section is to be considered.

“Let this be brought to the notice of the Chief Secretary with a request to ensure that all persons responsible and who have to implement the provisions are apprised with Section 47 of the Act. This should be brought to the notice of all secretaries as they have to basically apply themselves.”

Fatehabad, August 29
Two youths lost their lives and two other persons were seriously injured when a Scorpio vehicle overturned near Dariyapur on the NH-10 here today. The injured persons were shifted here to the General Hospital.

Farmers working on the fields and those travelling in vehicles behind the ill-fated Scorpio said that the rear tyre of the vehicle burst with a loud sound, when the vehicle was going towards Sirsa in the morning.

After the tyre burst, the Scorpio overturned, took several somersaults on the highway and then hit against a safeda tree on the roadside.

Sunil (29), a resident of Talu village near Tosham, and Balwinder (24), a resident of Pokharwas (Bhiwani), died on the spot.

Sunil’s father, Jogi Ram (60), and the driver, Ajit (45), were seriously injured and shifted to General Hospital in Fatehabad.

The vehicle was badly mangled due to the accident that the police and the passers-by had to struggle hard to extricate the bodies and the injured persons out of the vehicle. Jogi Ram was going to Sirsa with his son Sunil, nephew Balwinder and the driver, Ajit, to see a piece of land, when the victims met with the accident.

Karnal, August 29
The work on the much-awaited Kalpana Chawla Medical College project in Karnal will be expedited soon and the existing police line, adjacent to civil hospital, will be relocated to provide land for the Rs 250-crore project.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting of officials of all departments concerned under the chairmanship of Dr Samir Mathur, Secretary (Home), Haryana, here.

The meeting reviewed the progress of work and took several decisions to clear the decks for starting the construction work and all the departments concerned were asked to work in coordination.

Briefing mediapersons about the meeting, Dr Mathur said the major problem of transferring the land for the college had been resolved and the police lines would be shifted to the Assandh road where 48 acre had been identified for the new police lines complex.

Efforts were on to start the academic session at the earliest by meeting the requirements of the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the government had already released the first instalment of Rs 50 crore for starting the college on 25 acre, he said.

Dr Mathur said a new police range would be created with its headquarters at Karnal, adding that Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar and Karnal would also be brought under the new range. The notification to this effect was likely to be issued the next week, he added.

Harpal Singh, Director General of Health, said as per the norms, the minimum land requirement for the medical college was 25 acre, which was being met, and the civil hospital to be attached to the college would be upgraded from a 200-bedded to 300-bedded hospital.

HUDA would also develop a commercial complex on the campus of the medical college and the income from the complex would be utilised on the construction of the police lines.

Dr Mathur also directed the Public Works Department to start the construction works in a planned and speedy manner so that the college becomes fully operational.

The meeting was attended by the Director (Health), HS Malik; RC Mishra, IG, (Modernisation and Welfare); Director-cum-Principal Kalpana Chawala Medical College Dr Surinder Kashyap; Chief Town planner BB Kaushik; Neelam Pradeep Kasani, DC, Karnal, and SP Rakesh Arya.

Faridabad, August 29
Six teams of Haryana State Pollution Control Board collected effluent samples discharged by 55 industrial units here during its two-day surprise checks, which concluded today.

The development has sent ripples in industrial circles on account of the scale of checks and number of units being put under the scanner.

The units whose samples were collected are from all categories ranging from small scale to large scale. They also include Malls and hospitals.

According to an officer of the board here, the samples have been sent to the Panchkula laboratory of the board and the inspection results will be out shortly.

The team members included personnel from various departments stationed outside Faridabad like Panipat, Sonepat, Bahadurgarh, Gurgaon, etc. The SDM, Faridabad, was the Duty Magistrate for the operation. The teams were constituted by the Chairman of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board, AS Chahal, on last Saturday during his visit here. Personnel from various departments were roped in to maintain the secrecy of the checks and transparency about the inspections, per se, according to official sources.

The exercise was part of the ongoing inspections of units in the state by the board.

Sirsa, August 29
Chaudhary Devi Lal University is among 25 offices, organisations and individuals of Sirsa town served notices by the Health Department for allowing mosquito larvae responsible for dreaded diseases like malaria and dengue to breed by their lackadaisical attitude.

With the mosquito population rising in the district due to the rainy season, the health authorities conducted a survey of various premises, buildings and offices and served notices under the Haryana municipal (control of vector-Borne diseases) bylaws for allowing mosquito larvae to breed.

While 10 such notices were served last month, 15 were served today.

Among the government institutions served notices are Chaudhary Devi Lal University, where mosquito larvae were spotted breeding in fountains and water stored at a construction site, and the Nehru Yuva Kendra, where larvae have been found breeding in a swimming pool and certain other objects carelessly placed.

Sheel Kaushik, Deputy Civil Surgeon (vector-borne disease), who has issued these notices, said if the health authorities found the same conditions in a second survey, the organisations or individuals concerned would be liable to pay a fine and face legal action.

The Haryana municipal (control of vector-borne diseases) bylaws, issued on May 24, 2010, empowers the health authorities to take action against the owners and occupiers of households, who allow water to stagnate thereby providing conditions favourable to the breeding of mosquitoes.

Meanwhile, Satish Vij, Executive Engineer at Devi Lal University, said the university authorities have already taken remedial steps after the receipt of the Health Department’s notice.

Sonepat, August 29
Strongly condemning the imposition of VAT on the maximum retail price (MRP) rates on diesel and petroleum products as well as fuel surcharge on electricity charges by the state government and demanding immediate roll back of these hikes, the state media in charge of BJP, Rajiv Jain, warned that the party would be forced to launch an agitation if the government did not accept the demand.

In a press note issued here, Jain alleged that the government had put an additional burden of Rs 1,150 crore on the power consumers in the name of fuel surcharge. He reminded that earlier also an additional burden of Rs 400 crore was put on the consumers by the government.

Similarly, with the imposition of VAT on the MRP rates, the prices of diesel and petrol had been increased by 10 paisa and 35 paisa per litre, respectively, he said, adding that there has been an increase in the prices of petroleum products on eight occasions during the second term of the UPA government.

He pointed out that though there had been a decline in the oil prices in the international market, the government had not bothered to decrease the prices.

Chandigarh, August 29
The Haryana Tourism has decided to organise various activities across the state to mark its 37th anniversary on September 1, 2011. Ten per cent discount on food in all the restaurants will be given to the visitors on this day.

Stating this here today, Chief Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism Ram Kishan Fouji said a blood donation camp would be organised at the Institute of Hotel Management, Faridabad, and rangoli and poster-making competitions would be organised at Neelkanthi, Kurukshetra. Quiz and paper-presentation competitions would be organised at the Institute of Hotel Management, Kurukshetra, drawing and rangoli competitions for students at Flamingo, Hisar, Oasis, Karnal, Lake View, Surajkund, and Skylark, Panipat.

A Rajasthani cultural evening would be organised at Badkhal, Faridabad, and a quiz competition at Red Bishop, Panchkula, on this day. Quiz competitions would also be organised at the Institute of Hotel Management at Faridabad and Panipat on September 2, he added.

Giving details of the future projects of Haryana Tourism, Fouji said besides developing places of pilgrimage in Kurukshetra, Ambala would also be developed as a tourist destination.

Karnal, August 29
The irate family members of Krishan (25), of Salvan village, who was allegedly attacked by some persons with sharp-edged weapons yesterday while he was travelling to Panipat in a private bus and succumbed to his injuries at the local Civil Hospital, blocked the Assandh-Panipat highway at Salvan for more than six hours today.

The villagers demanding arrest of all six accused named by Pala Ram, father of the deceased, did not allow doctors to conduct the postmortem. The road was blocked till filing of this report and a large number of vehicles were stranded on either side of the blockade.

Meanwhile, the family members of the deceased also met Harminder Singh Chattha, Finance Minister, who assured them that all accused would be arrested. The family members allowed the postmortem to be conducted only after his assurance.

The police has registered a case under Sections 323, 341, 148, 149 and 302 of the IPC against Babli, Saba, Jasbeer, Moni, Pawan (bus conductor) and Manbir, all residents of Salvan village and arrested five of the accused named by Pala Ram.

Though DSP Madanlal tried convincing the villagers but they were adamant on the arrest of the sixth accused and refused to lift the blockade.

Sonepat, August 29
Ramesh, an assistant lineman (ALM), serving under Murthal subdivision, of the Bijli Vitran Nigam, was caught by a vigilance team while accepting a bribe of Rs 4,000 from Ramesh, of Hasanpur village, to settle a power theft case in his favour.

After receiving a complaint from Ramesh that the amount would be handed over to the ALM outside the Shubham Park on Murthal Road, the vigilance team conducted a raid and recovered the amount from the ALM’s possession.

According to a Vigilance Inspector, Ramesh would be produced in a court tomorrow.