Manesar / Gurgaon, September 1
The management and workers of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) seem to be heading for a showdown with both parties remaining firm on their respective stances on the ongoing stalemate at the Manesar plant of the company.

MSIL workers protesting in front of the Manesar plant today got a shot in the arm as workmen from other big and small industrial units as well as representatives of trade unions joined their agitation.

The protesters demanded unconditional reinstatement of the sacked and suspended employees and withdrawal of the good-conduct forms mandated by the company management for the workers to enter the factory premises. They warned of intensifying their stir in case their demands were not met.

On the other hand, senior functionaries at the company maintained that their focus was on resuming production at the plant and they would not succumb to the unjust activities and demands of workers.

“We have inducted nearly 300 new technical workmen, who, along with 290 supervisors and 47 workers who had signed the good-conduct bond, have started production at the plant, though not at the optimal level,” said a senior official.

Another top manager disclosed that an additional highly automated state-of-the-art plant was going to be commissioned within a few days, which would enhance the production considerably.

The company functionaries asserted that a majority of the workers were sincere and dedicated, but they were being misled/threatened by a handful of mischievous ones, who were, in turn, backed and incited by external forces.

A visit to the Manesar plant today revealed that production work was going on at the plant, though not at the optimum level. A heavy posse of policemen as well as private security guards deployed within as well as outside the plant underlined the preparedness of the company management for any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, the Haryana CPM has strongly criticized the alleged excesses and high-headedness of the MSIL management towards workers of the Manesar plant. 

Rohtak, September 1
The norms regarding the construction of multi-storeyed buildings for commercial purposes seem to have been overlooked if the recent development over the action taken by the authorities concerned to seal and de-seal newly constructed or buildings under construction in the city is any indication.

Around 60 such buildings sealed by the Municipal Corporation here have resumed operations after a ‘reprieve’ through an official order that allowed the builders to go ahead after an undertaking given by them to remove the “violations”.

While the civic authorities avoid giving any clarification or statement about the “failure” of the drive so far, the local MLA claimed that the relief had come from the higher authorities at Chandigarh after a representation was made for regularising such buildings and the government decided not to seal such buildings till a policy came into effect in this connection. While many of the buildings have got seven to eight floors in gross violation of the building bylaws in the city, some of these have already started functioning as hotels, banquet halls and shopping centres. These buildings have also been found with no proper parking facilities, inadequate fire-fighting equipment and violations of the norms set by the civic body.

This development has resulted in suspension of the drive launched by the corporation about a couple of months back when it served notices against violations and started sealing such buildings. The process, however, led to panic among the builders who approached the political bosses for a halt, claimed an official on condition of anonymity.

There had been a spate in the construction of such buildings in the town in the past few years but a majority of them had been in violation of the building laws, claimed Sewak Singh, a local resident, who added that the halt in the drive against such violations could be due to political intervention.

Sujan Singh, Joint Commissioner of the corporation, said he had no information on the issue. Executive Engineer, Ashok Rathi, said he was not authorised to speak on 
the matter. 

Yamunanagar, September 1
The Health Department has detected about 2,900 malaria cases at government and private hospitals of Yamunanagar district in the past one month.

There could be a large number of patients getting cholera treatment at private hospitals or with some private medical practitioners as well.

Vijay Mohan Atreja, Deputy Civil Surgeon and Malaria Officer, Yamunanagar, said here today that about 1,450 cases had been detected in the Khijrabad belt in Pipli Majra, Bahadurpur and Bambepur. About 300 cases had been detected in Naharpur, 300 cases in Sadhaura, 125 cases in Bilaspur and about 725 cases in other parts of the district, including Radaur and Mustafabad.

During a survey of about 51 places of the district, including government hospitals, government colonies and private hospitals, it was found that waterlogging in some parts of the district after floods was found to be a home for hundreds of mosquitoes.

Official sources said there was a problem of patients moving from these villages to the adjoining UP since these were located on the border of the two states. They said it was difficult to treat patients since many of them moved over to UP without completing the treatment.

The Deputy Civil Surgeon said that a survey had been launched in the district. Teams comprising Medical Officers, Lab Technicians, Health Inspectors, Health Workers and ANMs would go from village to village and prepare slides and get results on the spot. This could help identify the malaria cases, he said.

Meanwhile, the State Health Department has taken a serious note of the problem of malaria outbreak. The Health Department also issued notices to some private hospitals, private colonies and government hospitals to ensure their cleanliness, where larva of malaria was found. 

Sirsa, September 1
Demanding reduction in the market fee levied on the purchase of raw cotton, 140-odd cotton ginning mills of Haryana have shut their units from today.

The cotton ginners, who were to start their units from this season from today, have decided against doing any ginning operations.

Though the ginners have not made it clear as to when they planned to start their units, the Haryana Cotton Ginning Industries Association (HCGIA), representing the ginners, has maintained that their members would not open their units till the government reduced the market fees from the present 4 per cent to 1 per cent. A meeting of the ginners was held here today under Sushil Mittal, president of the HCGIA. Sirsa counts for over 35 per cent of the cotton produced in Haryana.

Meanwhile, the authorities here have begun registration of all cotton and paddy crops in the district.

The registration, the authorities said, would not only ensure remunerative prices to the farmers but also help the authorities stop evasion of the market fee.

“Registration of crops is completely free of cost and the produce, once registered, will be brought to the grain market on a given day, where the authorities will try to provide the best possible price to farmers through the National Spot Exchange,” said the Deputy Commissioner, Yudhbir Singh Khyalia.

The registration of crops has been launched throughout the state. He said that farmers would get coupons at the time of procurement of their crops, and the coupons would entitle them to cash prizes up to Rs 1 lakh.

Ambala, September 1
The Ambala police on Wednesday booked three persons on the charges of forcing a woman into prostitution in a high-profile flesh trade racket.

According to sources, Tejveer Kaur, alias Tejo, mother of Neha, Neha’s brother Pummy and uncle Bittu, all residents of Kailash Colony, were booked by Baldev Nagar police for allegedly pushing Neha, alias Babita, into flesh trade.

Rajnish Yadav, SHO, Baldev Nagar police station, said that Neha made a complaint to SP, Ambala, Shashank Anand, against three of her family members for compelling her to adopt prostitution.

Sources in the Crime Against Women (CAW) cell reported that the complainant was married to Sushil, a resident of Gohana, a few years ago and was having a matrimonial conflict with her husband and staying with her mother after separation from her husband. The report also revealed that the complainant was pushed into the flesh trade forcibly by the three, her mother, brother and uncle, for earning handsome returns and on her refusal she was tortured and her life was threatened. 

Panipat, September 1
The wait for the test reports of the bitumen samples that had been seized from the five fake bitumen-manufacturing units in Alipur Khalsa village in a joint operation conducted by the police of Panipat and Karnal, has slowed down the investigations.

The case which was believed to be a multi-crore scam had hit the headlines after the police had unearthed these units, recently. The police had confiscated trucks and drums filled with bitumen, which was suspected of being fake and sent their samples to the national testing lab at Ghaziabad. District police chief of Karnal Rakesh Arya said the police was waiting for the test reports of the bitumen samples and only after that further action could be initiated in the case. He said lab officials had told them that it would take yet another month to prepare the complete report.

Meanwhile, the owners of the five units had been granted anticipatory bail by a local court for one month. Sources privy to the investigations said the police had arrested a truck driver, from the premises of one of the units, but nothing much could be extracted from him during interrogation as he was only a small player in the big game.

These sources confided with The Tribune, the owners of the five units had not been co-operating with the police investigations, which had made the investigators suspicious of their involvement in the scam. But till the time more evidence was put on record, proceedings against them were not possible.

According to Bhagwan Das, SHO, Garunda, the police had earlier decided to sent the samples of the bitumen to IIT, Roorki, but later it was decided to sent these to the Ghaziabad lab.

Investigations carried out by The Tribune had revealed earlier that these units were flourishing on easy money for the past seven to eight years. Sources had said that the units used to remove about one tonne of bitumen from each truck that was brought here. This bitumen cost around Rs 38,000 to Rs 39,000 a tonne in the market and was replaced with chalk power which cost much less at these units.

On an average, about 30 to 35 trucks came to this village each day which means that the units were making Rs 10 to 12 lakh a day.

Meanwhile, the SP said that once the test reports were made available to the police, they would resume the investigations to arrive at the truth in the whole case and appropriate action against the owners of these units and other involved would be taken.

Sirsa, September 1
Doctors of the local General Hospital left their OPD work after a spat between a gynaecologist and a woman attendant of a patient, Neelam, in the female ward of the hospital today.

While the attendant of the patient alleged that the gynaecologist slapped Neelam, when she asked the doctor about what to eat and what not to eat, the gynaecologist had in turn accused Neelam’s mother, Dulari Devi, of thrashing her badly after she “tapped Neelam gently” on her chest.

The doctors met Civil Surgeon Dr Daya Nand after striking work, who later took them to Deputy Commissioner Yudhbir Singh Khyalia demanding security for the doctors and registration of an FIR against Neelam’s mother.

Neelam had undergone a delivery through caesarian section in the hospital on August 26 and the gynaecologist had visited her bed to check the condition of her stitches, when the incident occurred. “I had just asked the doctor about the daily food chart prescribed to me. She did not give any answer at the first instance and when I repeated my question, she lost her cool and slapped me hard on my chest,” alleged Neelam.

While the gynaecologist could not be contacted, Dr Daya Nand said the gynaecologist had told him that she had gently tapped the woman when she was asking the same question repeatedly, but Dulari Devi, who was attending on her, got agitated and slapped the doctor.

Dr Daya Nand maintained that the doctors had not gone on strike, but they had demanded security, restricted entry of the attendants and action against Neelam’s mother.

The DC said he had assured the doctors to provide a lady constable for the female ward as a temporary measure and provide private security as a long-term measure for restricting entry to the hospital wards.

Chandigarh, September 1
Ever since the Haryana Government has constituted the Backward Classes Commission, a race has begun among various communities living in the state to get their name included in the list of Backward Classes.

Even those communities, which have been traditionally considered as forward, are representing to the commission to stake their claim to the status of a Backward Class. In the past few days, the Bishnois and the Brahmins are some of the communities, which have submitted memorandums to the commission.

Today the Aggarwals, generally considered as a trading community, and the Punjabis, known as a hard-working community, approached the commission to seek reservation in the category of Backward Classes.

In a representation submitted by Kulbhushan Goyal, president of the Haryana unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Aggarwal Sammelan, the Aggarwals opposed any reservation based on caste. The community said the reservation should be based on economic criteria.

The memorandum said that under Article 15 and Article 16 of the Constitution, special provision could be made for advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for reservation in jobs, if in the opinion of the state, that class was not adequately represented in the services under the state.

It further suggested that only persons or families engaged in business having a turnover of less than Rs 20 lakh per annum; farmers having less than 2 acre of agricultural land; non-income tax payees; widows, except those who were income tax payees; and physically challenged persons should be considered economically backward.

Urging the commission to include economically weaker sections of the Aggarwal community among the Backward Classes, the sammelan said the reservation in jobs should be confined to one member in a family and should not be extended to the same family or its blood relations again and again.

It further added that if the percentage of various castes getting jobs in Haryana was compared to that in adjoining states like Delhi and UP, a strong bias would be revealed in favour of one particular caste in Haryana.

In a separate memorandum submitted by the Haryana Punjabi Mahasabha through its president and general secretary, Ashok Mehta and Surinder Juneja, respectively, it said the Punjabi community was uprooted from Pakistan in 1947. By the dint of its hard work, the community, which constituted about 35 per cent of the state’s population, was able to re-establish itself in new environs in which it found itself. Still many sections of the community remained economically backward and, hence, should be given reservation in jobs and educational institutions. 

Kaithal, September 1
Naveen Jindal, MP, has exhorted people to hoist the Tricolour and plant trees to keep the environment free from pollution. This call was given by the MP while addressing public meetings in some villages

of the district yesterday. He said while the Tricolour gave us the feeling of love for our country and integrated the people, tree plantation was necessary to maintain ecological balance and check environmental pollution.

Jindal said that indiscriminate felling of trees had not only affected the environment adversely but it had also resulted in soil erosion and reducing soil fertility.

He said though the government had launched a campaign to increase the green cover, without the active cooperation of people, this target could not be achieved.

During his visit to eight villages, Jindal announced grants worth Rs 23 lakh for various development works. He also donated Rs 5,100 each from his personal funds to 35 religious places falling in these villages. — OC

Jhajjar, September 1
A youth was killed and another got injured when their motorcycle collided with a vehicle on the Badli-Bahadurgarh road near Jagratpur village here last night.

The deceased has been identified as Dalbir, of Sauldha village, while the injured identified as Amit who has been admitted to a private hospital where his condition is stated to be critical. The incident took place when the duo was going towards Badli from their village. A case has been registered in this regard.