Manesar, October 16
The country’s elite commando force, the National Security Guard (NSG), will now prepare new-age commandos equipped with high-end weapons to undertake specialised counter-terrorism and anti-hijack operations on land, air and water.

Talking to newsmen on the sidelines of the 27th Raising Day celebrations of the Black Cats at the Manesar Garrison today, NSG Director-General RK Medhekar said they would train nearly 2,000 such commandos by 2015-16.

“They will be completely independent to operate in a hostile environment with the help of artificial intelligence gadgets being developed for them by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and other artificial-intelligence institutes,” he asserted.

Union Minister of State for Home M Ramachandran, who was the chief guest at the Raising Day function, said in the present-day security scenario, the responsibilities of the NSG had increased manifold and the force should be prepared to meet the country’s high expectations of it.

The NSG commandos amazed the gathering with their impressive presentation of a host of daredevil acts as part of the ceremony.

Medhekar further revealed that the ambitious five-year project envisaged that a commando should be independent when he operated. “His weapons, communication devices, computer aids, food and water should be with him on his body. Trials in this regard are already on and we hope to get the first batch of such new-age commandos by 2015-16,” he maintained. The NSG chief said the government had approved a host of sophisticated weapons and other logistical requirements.

He said the commandos would have fresh training exchanges with other special forces of the world, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the US department of Defense.

Sirsa/Fatehabad, October 16
Sirsa and Fatehabad are among 10 districts of Haryana where the state government has set up “Aarohi Model Schools”, claimed as a “benchmark of excellence” by the state Education Department, though ad hoc arrangements prevail at every level in these schools.

Bhattu Kalan, Bhuna, Fatehabad, Ratia and Tohana blocks in Fatehabad district and Baragudha, Dabwali, Ellenabad, Nathusari Chopta, Odhan and Rania blocks in Sirsa district are the administrative blocks selected by the government to set up “Aarohi Model Schools” in these two districts.

The Haryana Government is all set to provide quality education in the Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) of the state, said a spokesperson of the School Education Department, Haryana, adding that the “Aarohi Model Schools” were being set up in the EBBs of the state to achieve this objective.

He said that “Aarohi Model Schools” were progressive, secular, child-centric co-educational and committed to provide quality education. Operated by individual societies headed by the Deputy Commissioner of the district, these schools were being set up under a scheme of the Central Government aimed at creation of 6,000 model schools in educationally backward blocks of the country.

As many as 36 such schools have already been set up in the EBBs of Haryana, he said.

These model schools will have infrastructure and facilities of the same standard as in a Kendriya Vidyalaya.

The scheme of “Aarohi Model Schools”, though very good on paper, is marred by shortcomings on the ground.

The schools do not have their own buildings and these are being run on the premises of the existing senior secondary schools.

Sirsa, October 16
Students of Geography Department of Kurukshetra University, who were here in Umedpura village for a socio-economic survey, found the condition of Sirsa farmers better than that of their counterparts in other districts of Haryana.

The six-day survey concluded today with a blood donation camp, where 39 students, including 16 girls, out of the total of 57 students of the third semester of MSc (Geography), who attended the camp, donated blood.

Dr Rajeshwari and Dr Omvir Singh, the teachers accompanying the students, also donated blood at the camp, inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner, Yudhbir Singh Khyalia.

“The students conducted a survey on all the 400-odd households of the village for the demographic character of the village, its crop condition and production, land distribution, terms of tenancy, living condition of villagers, immunisation status of children, anti-natal care of expecting mothers, health and education of the villagers,” said Dr Rajeshwari, an associate in the department.

She said though the actual outcome of the survey would be known after the students submitted their reports (11 in total on different topics), the preliminary observations suggested that Sirsa village was cleaner and had streetlights run by solar energy.

She said she had visited several villages in different districts of Haryana with the students for their compulsory village surveys, and had found the general conditions in Sirsa better than what they were in other districts.

The villagers have bigger landholdings, which is not found in Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat and some other districts.

The villages here are cleaner with no open defecation by villagers and their general economic condition is also better in comparison with those from other districts.

Panipat, October 16
Despite assurances by the Union Ministry of Coal and unrelenting efforts being made by the state to procure adequate coal for running thermal power units of the state, the coal situation at all the four power plants refuses to improve.

Union Ministry for coal Sriprakash Jaiswal had, on last Tuesday, assured that the coal crisis would be over by October 14. However, the stocks at Panipat thermal plant have so far not been revived. Official report states that the plant has a coal stock which cannot last for more than a day. At Yamunanagar, the stock is barely sufficient for six days and at Khedar power plant, it would not last for more than five days. However, the Indira Gandhi thermal power plant at Jhajjar has a stock of 14 days.

Sources in the power utilities revealed that as of today, three units in the state were not generating power. The unit number 4 at Panipat thermal power plant, unit number 2 at Yamunanagar and unit number 2 at Khedar were shut down. The outages of the thermal units had forced the power utilities to draw 1,904 MW of power from the northern grid against sanctioned 1,270 MW to meet a demand of 4,234 MW of power. The state thermal units were generating 1,959 MW of power out of the total installed capacity of 3,230.5 MW.

Under the prevailing circumstances, the consumers are facing long power cuts ranging from six to 16 hours.

Karnal, October 16
The chairman of the All-India Anti-terrorist Front, Maninderjit Singh Bitta, today urged Anna Hazare to shun people like Swami Agnivesh and Prashant Bhushan, whose outbursts on sensitive emotional issues hurt the sentiments of nationalist elements.

“Anna is now not a person but a movement against corruption and he should keep people like Swami Agnivesh, who made unwarranted and offensive remarks about the Amaranth yatra, and Prashant Bhushan, who advocated plebiscite in Kashmir, at bay,” he said while addressing mediapersons here.

“Kashmir is a very sensitive and emotive issue for the people of the country and a case of sedition should be registered against Prashant Bhushan for making such utterances,” he said. However, he condemned the attack on Bhushan by some agitated youth and said violence had no place in the democratic set up.

Expressing concern over the emerging China-Pakistan nexus against India, Bitta said increasing cooperation between the two neighbours was escalating tension in the region and India should sign a “Diplomatic Treaty” with China to safeguard its interests.

Bitta took strong exception to demand made in Jammu and Kashmir and Tamil Nadu assemblies for clemency to Rajiv killers and Afzal Guru and said a PIL should be filed against those who sought revocation of death sentence to the hard core terrorists convicted by the Supreme Court for killing top leaders of the country.

Stressing the need for strengthening the intelligence network, Bitta said the preliminary investigations into the seizure of RDX at Ambala suggested possible link between Babbar Khalsa and Lasker-e-Toiba.

He pleaded that the NCC be made compulsory during transition from school to college and all the young boys and girls be trained in combat exercises and self-defence.

Jhajjar, October 16
Residents of Aasuda village under Bahadurgarh subdivision today staged a dharna in protest against construction of the Aasudha-Kharkhoda road here. The villagers are demanding award for their acquired land before building the road. The protesters also threatened the government that their agitation would continue till their demand was met.

Earlier, a common panchayat of Aasuda, Jassaur Kheri, Nilauthi and Kheri Jassaur villages
was held at the village, wherein the issue was discussed deeply.

The panchayat also supported the demand of the protesters, saying that land acquisition award should be given before construction of the road.

During the panchayat, Deewan, Prakash, Satbir Singh, Satpa, Shri Bhagwan, Umed Singh, Chand Singh, Chand Singh, Randhir Singh, Sandeep,

Jai Karan, Tara Chand, Kuldeep, Vedpal and Laxman stated that there was no meaning of kicking off construction work of the road before releasing the award for the acquired land.

Notably, a panchayat was also convened at the village yesterday to contemplate over the issue.

Bahadurgarh MLA Rajender Singh Joon, in the panchayat, had appealed to the villagers not to object the construction work of the road.

He also advised the villagers to knock at the door of the court if they felt any foul play in the matter.

But setting aside the appeal of the MLA, the residents of Aasuda village started staging dharna at the village to mount pressure on the government for fulfilling their demand.

Meanwhile, the MLA claimed that most of the villagers were in favour of construction of the road, hence no hurdle would come in the way.

Manesar, October 16
At least someone is gaining from the strike at Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant. While the management may be counting the mounting losses and the workers are staring at possible pay cuts, a small snacks stall owner in front of the plant is smiling.

Nanag Ram Meena has no complaint about the ongoing strike at the car-maker as his 'thela' offering only 'samosa' has seen brisk business in the past 10 days.

Before the strike, Meena, a native of Alwar, used to sell 'thalis' and did business worth Rs 600-Rs 800 a day, but he changed his business plans to suit the market demand.

"The demand for 'samosa' is much higher than the 'thalis' comprising four 'rotis' along with 'sabzi' for Rs 25 per plate.

So, I have stopped selling the 'thalis'," he said.

Previously, Meena would almost run into a daily loss as the saving of about Rs 150-Rs 200 per day was not enough to pay for his four employees.

"I was left with almost nothing... but now with the striking workers frequenting my stall these days, my sales have gone up to Rs 1,500 a day, from where I am easily saving Rs 300-Rs 400 every day," Meena said with a grin.

A one-time clothes trader in his native place, Meena has gone through the pain of loss in business. He had taken a loan under the Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana, but went into red after diversifying into land business.

Yet, the way his little trade grew in the past 10 days, it has put a smile back on his face.

"In the past 12 months of selling 'thalis' here, I have not seen this kind of sales before," he said, adding it started improving when the first strike broke out in June.

Although workers were sitting inside the plant, visitors came almost daily and they used to have his 'thali' then in June.

"...but this time it is completely different. Now the people are striking outside, so sales are also more," he said.

Yet, Meena is oblivious to the nitty gritty of the agitation by the workers of Maruti Suzuki India.

"I only know that they (workers) are asking for forming a new union," he said, referring to the cause of the 13-day strike in June.

Since October 7, workers inside the plant have been on a strike, demanding the reinstatement of about 1,200 casual workers, who are sitting outside the plant. They are also demanding that 44 permanent workers, who have been suspended after the settlement on October 1 to end a 33-day-long standoff, must be taken back. —PTI 

Rohtak, October 16
The police has launched a drive to check the violation at the red-light points in the city. Around 100 challans have been issued in the past two days. This is perhaps the first time that the local police has started penalising those jumping the red light, though this is common and has been going on unnoticed despite the fact that a majority of the crossings and intersections have traffic lights.

Sanjay Deswal, PRO of the department, said in view of rising incidents of traffic rule violations and especially jumping of the red light by two- wheelers and other vehicles, the local police had stationed officials to issue challans to violators on the spot.

He said while the police had been posted at various intersections and traffic signals in the city, they had been instructed to immediately penalise the violators. Earlier, the traffic police had been a little liberal due to the traffic police having no challan authority and the local residents had been aware of the fact that the violation could be done easily. But now in view of the festive season, the police presence especially at congested spots had increased, he added.